Ann Darlene (Bengoa) Jones

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NAME: Dolores “Dee” Mentaberry Jones, Ann Darlene Bengoa Jones, Mernie Mentaberry Warn, Jean Raker Mentaberry, Ruby Yructa Lowery, Larae Mentaberry Warden

DATE OF INTERVIEW: November 9, 2016

LOCATION: Winnemucca, Nevada

INTERVIEWER: Patty A. Miller

LANGUAGE: English

INDEXED BY: Scott D. Jones

 

 

RECORDING

MINUTE                                                          SUMMARY OF CONTENTS                           

 

0-5:00               Patty starts off the interview by asking how everyone is related to John Mentaberry, Sr. and Damiena Goitiandia Mentaberry. Ruby Yrueta Lowery’s mother was Mary Mentaberry who was the daughter of John Senior and Damiena, making Ruby their granddaughter. Darlene Bengoa Jones’ mother was Annie Mentaberry, making Darlene a granddaughter. Dolores “Dee” Mentaberry Jones is the daughter of John Mentaberry, Sr. and Damiena. LaRae Mentaberry Warden is a granddaughter and her father is John Mentaberry, Jr. Mernie Mentaberry Warn is their granddaughter and her father is also John Mentaberry, Jr. Jean Raker Mentaberry is John Sr.’s daughter-in-law. She is married to Eddie who is the youngest child of John and Damiena. John Sr. is from Baigorri, Benafarroa in France and Damiena Goitiandia Mentaberry was from Mendexa, Bizkaia in Spain. John Sr. was known for being a very hard worker and did what he could for his nine kids. John Sr. worked in the sheep herding industry until moving into the cattle industry in 1940. Damiena was also a hard worker and at times helped her husband with herding sheep. She had a very large garden. Basque was the main language spoken in the home even though they spoke with different dialects.

5-10:00             Dee says there were six boys and three girls in the family of John and Damiena Mentaberry and lists them oldest to youngest. First was John Jr., then Mary, Fausto, Henry, Dolores, George, Annie, David, and Eddie. It is unsure how much English they knew before starting school but by the time the oldest children started going to school they knew some English. All the children went to Winnemucca for school. The Washburn Ranch was 11 miles outside of Winnemucca and that is where John Sr. had his business. The ranch had no power or water in the house but there was a coal stove. They didn’t have any coal so they burned sagebrush. For light they would use oil lamps. For baths they would use a large tub and fill it with water that was heated up on the stove in five gallon buckets. When the boys were not at school they would help their father with sheep herding. At the age of ten Dolores “Dee” began making breakfast for her father and the four men who would help at the ranch during the summer months. Jean recalls the nicknames of four of the employees –  Ginkini, Kutxigari, Baigorri, and Giputxa  The four men would work and live with the family during the summer time, primarily helping John Sr. with the sheepherding. The rest of the year the men would find other work. Uncle Steve Goitiandia (Damiena’s brother) had worked in sheep herding years before he joined the ranch. In the ranch’s prime there were three bands of sheep with each band consisting of 2000 sheep.

10-15:00           After sheep herding for a while he sold all the sheep and went into the cattle industry. Native Americans would come from McDermitt to sheer the sheep. They would have three sheep go into each of 10-12 corals, throw the gathered wool to someone with large sacks to store it, then after a week of doing this they’d load the sacks onto the Jaca’s truck to be hauled off. Much of the wool would go to Salt Lake to be made into blankets. Dee would help her mother make the beds and empty the “pee pots.” John Sr. and Damiena did not have much contact with family in the Basque Country. John Sr. had a brother named Juan who was in Winnemucca and married there. Juan had a son named Baptiste. During the holidays all of the family from Winnemucca would go to the ranch to celebrate. Dee at one time had about seven nieces and one boy who had come for Christmas.  Usually there was a good gathering, either in Winnemucca or at the ranch.  The other Mentaberry daughters would help with the cooking.

15-20:00           There was a lot of food such as clams, rice, chorizo, blood sausage, and salt cod that was cooked by Damiena. The topic changes to John Sr.’s history in the Basque Country. John Sr. came from St. Etienne de Baigorri.  He was born and raised in a house called Caserio Gasterria/Gastegar that was built in 1832. Ruby describes the Basque Country as beautiful with green rolling hills and stone pile fences. In the house John Sr. was raised in there is a grandfather clock that has been in the house for over a century. They still have relatives in the house. Damiena was born in a house called Aillua near Mendexa on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. No one lives in the house anymore because the roof has collapsed, but the family still owns it. At age 18, John Sr. left the Basque Country by request of his mother over concerns of being drafted into the military. He arrived in America in 1903 and worked at the Spanish Ranch in Elko, Nevada.  Ruby has looked for John Mentaberry’s name carved in a tree, but has been unable to find one.  She did, however, find a tree up near Disaster Peak where Hank Mentaberry carved his name in 1937.  He would have been about 14 years old at the time.

20-25:00           The topic changes to talking about Damiena Goitiandia, who, after arriving in the US, worked as a waitress in the Commercial Hotel in Reno, Nevada. John and Damiena met at the hotel and were married on December 31, 1914. After that they lived in San Francisco briefly and Damiena worked in a restaurant there before John Sr. bought the Washburn Creek Ranch. At the ranch they would make wine with grapes from California with a press. Mr. Etchart, Mr. Goyax, and John Mentaberry would order grapes. A load would be dropped off in Winnemucca for the other two men and the rest would be brought out to the ranch. They would crush the grapes and then store the wine in large barrels. They would make barrels of wine in the Fall and then store them in a wine cellar that was about a half a block from the house and a small cellar near the house. There were no other Basque families nearby.  There were some in McDermitt which was ten miles away and then the Cordero Mine was close-by there. Not many Basque people would come by to visit. There weren’t too many Basque families in McDermitt itself.  Ann Darlene talks about how her father, Frank Bengoa, and his two brothers owned the Commercial Hotel in McDermitt, It had a bar, restaurant, rooms and the restaurant was also a dance hall on dance nights. Although the three Bengoa brothers owned it, Ann Darlene’s dad, Frank, actually managed it.

25-30:00           Darlene was born in 1938 and spent the first four years of her life living in the hotel. She describes the hotel.  It had two stories along with a basement.  Behind the bar, there were stairs that went down into the basement.  There was also an outdoor setup where you could go down into the basement.  Ann Darlene lived on the second floor right above a fancy stairway.  Ann Darlene and her parents, Frank Bengoa and Annie Mentaberry Bengoa, lived there from 1938 to 1941. Frank Bengoa managed the hotel until he and his brothers leased it out when they bought the Kings River Ranch for cattle raising. In 1941 Darlene’s family moved to the Kings River Ranch. Growing up Ann Darlene interacted with many of the Basque people in the town, and she recalled getting a hair cut from one of them. Her father’s brothers, their wives, and their children all lived on the Kings River Ranch with them. There were seven children and six adults living in the house. Her grandmother, Margarita Achabal Bengoa, also lived with them. There were three bedrooms downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs.  Ann Darlene’s bedroom was just a little nook that was later converted into a bedroom. Ann Darlene would stay in Winnemucca with her aunt, Dee, during the week days for school and return via her father driving her back to the ranch on the weekends. Her mother really didn’t drive.  She recalled when they lived in Winnemucca, that she’d drive and park about 3 blocks from the store and then they’d have to walk to the store.  It’s about eighty miles from the Washburn Creek Ranch to Winnemucca.  At that time, forty of those miles were gravel road.

30-35:00           The topic changes to talking about the McDermitt mine. Jean Raker Mentaberry worked as a cost accountant at the McCermitt Mine. She was in charge of sending payments to some of the claim holders…the Alcorta bunch and the Jaca bunch. Jean talks about one of the oldest mines in the area, the Opalite Mine. It was a lower-grade mercury mine located about 25 miles east of McDermitt near Disaster Peak. The Cordero and McDermitt Mine were both high-grade mercury mines. The process of holding the mercury was to first put it into 76 pound flask for shipping, but when a Canadian entity took over McDermitt Mine, they would store the mercury in metric tons (a little over 2000 lbs.)  The Cordero Mine was said to have been discovered by Tomas Alcorta while working for John Mentaberry Sr. as a sheep herder. Tomas knew he had something of value, but wasn’t’ sure exactly what it was, so he came to talk to Mr. Mentaberry and asked him to grub-stake him in building this mine. In Euskara, Tomas told him he’d found “zilarra” (silver) and Mr. Mentaberry responded, “Zilarra ez, Urrea bai.  (Quick Silver, no..Gold, yes!). So the Mentaberry’s didn’t receive any benefits from the Cordero Mine. There was a Brets Mine a little closer to McDermitt.  It was a low grade mercury mine that wasn’t as successful as the Opalite Mine. The National Mine was located 8-10 miles south of McDermitt.  It was a high-grade mercury mine. Travelers helped sustain the economy as Highway 95 is the main road from Nevada to Boise and elsewhere, but Jean believes that those mines made the community of McDermitt grow. Jean lived in McDermitt from 1960 for 50 years and loved being there during the tail end of its heyday. The Basque businesses in McDermitt that Jean recalled were the Quinn River Mercantile owned by Dora Lasa, the Orevada Hotel owned by Concha (Albisu) Olavarria, the Highway Bar owned by Cleto Muguira that later became the Say When owned by Shadow Elordi, the Ideal Market owned by Kenny Elordi, and the Rancho Bar owned by Satur Alcorta.  Jean recalls that it didn’t take much to have a party in McDermitt. At the drop of a hat, people would get together and have a good time.

35-40:00           Jean recalls that one of the biggest events during the year was a fundraiser called “The March of Dimes Dance” held during the month of March as a benefit for the March of Dimes.  Skits would be put on with men having women’s roles. She recalls the dances at the Orevada Hotel.  You didn’t need to have a babysitter, you took your children with you and when they got tired you made room on the benches for them to sleep and covered them with coats and kept on dancing.  Mernie Mentaberry Warn was born in 1944 in Winnemucca, but then they moved to McDermitt to the Washburn Ranch from when she was a day old ‘til when she began high school.  She lived at the Washburn Creek Ranch for five years and then the next ten years her family lived at the Cordero Mine. She remembered going to the dances in McDermitt at the dance hall beside the Orevada Hotel when she was about ten years old.  Sap Albisu would be tending bar at the Orevada and would come out for a break and the young girls would grab him and make him come in and twirl them around the dance floor and they’d hold on to his suspenders. Many of the older gentlemen at the dances would teach the young girls how to dance. They had live music with musicians coming through town to play. She remembers her mother’s brother, John Gabica, went on stage one night and was singing, Mernie’s mother was mortified as he was probably under the influence and grabbed him and took him outside. Frank Bengoa, Dora Lasa, Raymond Smith, and Tuffy Murra would dance with her and other younger girls. They didn’t remember any Basque music being played at the dances. There was a Basque musician by the name of Annie Naveran. She was a wonderful pianist who played without music and would play from 9 p.m. and would play ‘til 2 or 3 in the morning.  She cared for her children during the day, but would play at night for the dances.  She always dressed very formally. LaRae Mentaberry Warn was raised at the Cordero Mine from 1951-1961. There was a school that was built at the Cordero Mine in 1948 that had ten students attending when she was there.

40-45:00           The Quonset-hut type school included half of the building for the school room and the other half was the home of a family. LaRae’s mother would drive her to school two miles from the ranch. She was one of the first students to attend the school and then graduated from the eighth grade in 1953. They went to the school in the Quonset hut for about two years and then the mine built a beautiful one-room school house with a place for the teacher to stay in the back.  The school continued on for four or five years and after that.the Cordero Mine built a two-room school house when the mine was in full swing.. The first teacher who started the school in the Quonset hut was Mrs. Hauss. Her husband was the superintendent of the mine. She had all ten students including 5 or 6 grades. After that a teacher came from Arock, Oregon who stayed there for three years. Her name was Triva Bruce. Then, a male teacher came for just three months, and created quite a stir with all the parents of the children. His contract ended up being cut short and a new teacher came from Baker, Nevada by the name of Marcela Jordan who was held in high regard. She was a wonderful teacher.  There were just a few Basque families who worked at the mine such as the Ansoteguis, the Mentaberrys, and others that are unknown. The Ansotegui family lived up there in the mines in a house provided by the mining company. They may have had Mass there every couple of months. Catechism was taught by the sisters from Winnemucca in McDermitt. At the end of the year they’d go into Winnemucca to have a Mass with all of the other kids from the ranches and towns. They didn’t come into town to go to Mass on a Sunday as they only went to town two or three times a year.

45-50:00           They do not remember if any traveling priests went to visit them on the Rock Creek Ranch in Orovada, Nevada, however there were a few sisters who would come to visit. John Mentaberry, Jr. married Angela Gabica of the Rock Creek Ranch.  The interviewer asks Merne to tell the story of the Gabica family. The Gabica story was similar to that of the Mentaberry’s, with two brothers going into partnership and starting the Rock Creek Ranch and two brothers married two sisters. Gabicas married Bengocheas.  They had sheep.  They had one house where two families lived together and each family had five children.  Each family had a son killed at a young age.  Joe Gabica, son of Dan and Constantina, died in Belgium in WWII.  Frank Gavica was in WWI, he had a son who died of a horse accident on the ranch. Damiena had several relatives who lived in the USA such as her brothers, Esteban “Steve” Goitiandia and Pedro Goitiandia, and her sisters, Juana Goitiandia Bengochea and Benita Goitiandia Chabagno. Some of them were close to the Ranch, but others would be two hours away in Grass Valley. Two of the Chabagno sons (Johnny and Manuel) went into the service during WWII, at least one returned.

50-55:00           Patty asks the group would they identify as Basque or American. Jean begins talking about being a non-Basque person marrying into a Basque family. When her mother-in-law had to move in with a relative due to old age, Jean took care of her grandmother-in-law’s garden. Her grandmother was not impressed with how she planted her garden. Jean did straight rows and then put a little loop on the end to collect extra water for melons, etc.  When her mother-in-law came back to see it…she said, “I don’t know…this is pretty bull-shit garden.” She didn’t think much of Jean’s straight rows. Jean also would butt heads with her father-in-law about letting his chickens get into the garden to be fed. The next story is about how in the morning grandma would make chorizos and pancakes for breakfast on the stove. In the kitchen there was a water pump with a spoon to scoop water out of. After she was done taking a drink from it she would throw the remaining water over her shoulder and this would help keep the dust down. They also told the story of John, Sr. checking in a pot in the kitchen to see what was cooking and his wife would throw water over her shoulder and get him all wet. The Mentaberry family today now consists of around 90 people.

55-60:00           The interviewees believe their family’s greatest legacy is the fact that John Sr. and Damiena raised nine children and all of them went into different occupations. Many in the family are teachers. They note that, even though John Sr. and Damiena did not have much of an education, all of their descendants graduated from high school and went on to either college or trade school. Damiena could only write her name and would constantly practice writing it. They were very knowledgeable on many subjects after surviving the Great Depression. They had to raise their own food to survive back then. The topic changes to talking about a rock that John Jr. carved his name and the year 1935 into and then left it where he found it. Twenty years before the interview Eddie found the stone in the mountains while up building fence.  He needed a rock and happened to pick up the rock that his brother, John, had previously carved his name into.  He gave it to John Jr. Ruby is known for studying arborglyphs. At one point while hunting for them Ruby found one at Disaster Peak that said “Hank Mentaberry 1937.” He would have been about fourteen years at the time.  She also found one in the Jackson Mountains above Winnemucca from her dad’s brother, Pedro Yrueta, that said “Pedro Yrueta 1923.” Both tress are still alive and Ruby is still looking for her Dad’s arborglyph up at Hinkies Summit.  At peak size the Washburn Ranch was 3000 acres. They would take sheep from the low land and into the mountains during the spring and summer. They primarily kept the sheep on their own property..

60-65:00           Ruby tells the story what must have taken place during the Depression.  They would bring the sheep to the train to be sent to either Wyoming or Colorado. The prices were so low that year, they didn’t get paid for the sheep, but had to pay for the shipping. It was a total loss during very hard times. John Sr. and Daminea never went back to the Basque Country. Ruby and a few other ladies and their kids have gone back to the Basque Country. Jean told the story about one of Damiena’s friends named Nieves Dufurrena who said that Damiena told her that if she had to go by plane they would have to “cauliflower” her, but she meant to say “chloroform” her because she’d be so scared to fly. The interviewer asks about a great uncle who was in WWI.  Angela Gabica’s father, Frank Gabica, fought in World War I.  Mernie said that he at one time was stationed near the border between Spain and France and went over the mountain to see his parents in the middle of the night.  He could only stay for an hour and a half and he had to leave quickly to get back before it got light.  That was the only time he ever got back.  His nickname was “Segurra.”  He lived out on a ranch in Orevada but moved into Winnemucca when his wife became ill.  He was quite an icon in Winnemucca and was known to go to all of the movies that came to town along with his friend, Florentino Larraneta. They always sat in the same place in the theatre.

65-70:00           Ruby’s father, John Yrueta, was from Berriatua, Bizkaia, Spain. His house was called “Andonegi.” John was a first generation immigrant to the USA, arriving in 1919. He first settled in Paradise Valley, Nevada and herded sheep for Pascuali but left after two years of not getting paid for his sheepherding. He stayed in many unnamed places until his brother, Pete, bought the Martin Hotel with the help of John and they both ran the hotel. During the Prohibition area they would have dances on the second floor of the hotel. They had an attic and would hide the booze up there. All of their grandparents became naturalized citizens. John Mentaberry Sr. became a citizen as did John Yrueta and Dan and Constantina Gabica. A bottle of whiskey is brought out during the interview that has a huge pear in it. They tell a story about how Pete and John were making whiskey during prohibition and they placed the bottle on a pear tree and a seed got into the bottle and grew into a full pear. It has been in that bottle for 50 to 60 years at the time of the interview. This transitioned to stories about prohibition. The Mentaberrys made wine in the basement for themselves and their sheep herders. They could only make 500 gallons a year and had to renew a permit to allow them to do that every year. There was a still on the ranch but it was unassociated with the Mentaberrys.

 

                                                NAMES AND PLACES                                                          

 

NAMES:

Albisu, Sap
Bengoa, Frank

Bengochea, Juana Goitiandia
Chabagno, Benita Goitiandia

Elordi, Kenny
Elordi, Shadow
Gabica, Constantina

Gabica, Dan
Gabica, Frank

Gabica, Joe

Gabica, John
Goitiandia, Esteban “Steve”
Goitiandia, Pedro

Jones, Ann Darlene Bengoa

Lareneta, Floretno

Lasa, Dora

Lowery, Ruby Yrueta

Mentaberry, Annie

Mentaberry, Damiena Goitiandia

Mentaberry, David

Mentaberry, Delores

Mentaberry, Eddie

Mentaberry, Fausto

Mentaberry, George

Mentaberry, Hank

Mentabery, Henry

Mentaberry,Jr., John

Mentaberry Sr., John
Mentaberry, Mary

Mentaberry, Jean Raker

Murra, Tuffy

Naveran, Annie
Olavarria, Concha Albisu

Warn, Mernie Mentaberry

Warden, LaRae Mentaberry

Yrueta, John

Yrueta, Pedro “Pete”

 

PLACES:

Baigorri, Benafarroa, France

Cordero Mine

Elko, Nevada

Ideal Market, McDermitt, NV

McDermitt, Nevada

Mendexa, Viscaya, Spain

McDermitt Mine
Opalite Mine
Orevada Hotel, McDermitt, NV

Orovada, Nevada

Paradise Valley, Nevada

Reno, Nevada
Say When, McDermitt, NV

Winnemucca, Nevada

 

THEMES:

Business

Children

Citizenship

Cooking

Dances

Discrimination

Education

Family

Family relations

Farming

Food

Fund raisers

Great Depressions

Immigration

Marriage

Military

Mining

Native Americans

Prohibition

Religion

Schools

Sheep

Sheep herding

Teaching

Work

World War I

World War II