My grandfather and my grandmother were in direct contrast to each other. He was a large man, 6-foot, 2-inches tall and weighed about 200 pounds. My grandmother was 5 feet tall and weighed about 98 pounds. But he small size didn’t detract any from her opinions. She was a fiery little Irish woman that you had to contend with if you crossed her up, as the United States Marshals found out when they went to remove my grandfather and grandmother from the headquarters building. When they were removed, she was the postmistress and she wouldn’t leave. She wouldn’t go out of the building. It took two United States Marshals to carry her out, which they did (7).
What was your grandfather’s involvement in the Modoc War? Were your father and uncles in the militia?
As far as I know, my grandfather was not directly involved in the Modoc War. We have pictures of him, my father, and one of my father’s brothers in their militia uniforms. We have my father ‘s discharge papers from the National Guard, or what it was known as at the time, the Militia. He was discharged when he was 19 years old (8).
Was the Arant family acquainted with the Applegates?
I think that my grandfather, father, and their family knew many of the old timers in the Klamath country, the Loosleys and the Applegates and so forth. As I remember it from some of the stories that my father told when I was a wee lad, they didn’t think too much of some of the Applegate people. Just why, I haven’t the slightest idea. Politics probably entered into that considerable because I believe that the Applegate people were Democrats and my grandfather was a rock-ribbed Republican. That, I think, tells the story right there.
The last time we visited, you talked about your grandfather and his ideas about conservation. Did you grandfather ever articulate any of his ideas on conservation to anybody in the family?
He was basically a cattle man. Living that kind of life, he would just have to be an environmentalist. His ideas were to conserve the country and the area as nearly as it was when we found it without leaving too many tracks on it.
