James Lowell Wilks b. 23 Oct 1909 Bachelor, Callaway, Missouri, USA d. 10 Mar 2000 Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, USA: Albemarle to Callaway, a Herring Family Journey

1909 - 2000

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Birth 23 Oct 1909 Bachelor, Callaway, Missouri, USA

Gender Male

Died 10 Mar 2000 Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, USA

Person ID I375 Herring Family of Callaway County, Missouri

Last Modified 13 Sep 2009

Father James Rufus Wilks, b. 30 May 1871, Taylor's Store, Franklin, Virginia, USA , d. 23 Oct 1951, Grinnell, Poweshiek, Iowa, USA

Mother Oddie Elizabeth Day, b. 19 Mar 1876, Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA , d. 17 Sep 1952, Grinnell, Poweshiek, Iowa, USA

Married 2 Jan 1894 Auxvasse, Callaway, Missouri, USA

Marriage 50th Wedding Anniversary

Family ID F116 Group Sheet

Family Emily Jane Fitts, b. 24 Apr 1912, , , Nebraska, USA , d. 19 Jul 2002, Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, USA

Married 2 Jun 1934 Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, USA

Children

>	1. Living
>	2. Living
>	3. Living

Last Modified 13 Sep 2009

Family ID F1141 Group Sheet

Photos
Wilks, Lowell and Emily
James Lowell Wilks was my grandUncle. Picture taken about 1937. He was a son of James Rufus Wilks and Oddie Day. Wife Emily and daughter Jean Ann.

Notes	Pat McAllister Notes Lowell was the last child born in the log house Lowell went to Scottsbluff in 1929 Lowell was general manager & foreman & superintendent of lamb feeding operations - 45,000 lambs. After retirement he carried mail - substitute carrier. Lowell was too old for WWII - went for a physical and they sent him home (probably already had a hearing problem) He said he didn't think they would have taken him if he had passed the physical - he was feeding 60, 000 lambs there in the valley (Nebraska) The following is the text of the article in the paper that goes with the picture of Lowell and the lambs - Scottsbluff [Nebraska] Daily Star-Herald - Dec.20, 1969 LOWELL WILKS RECALLS DAYS OF LAMB FEEDING BOOM Forty years in the lamb feeding business has given Lowell Wilks a first-hand glimpse at its rise and fall in the North Platte Valley, and his own operation points out how much change has taken place in the enterprise in the past few decades. This year Wilks is feeing about 1,900 lambs, which he terms "a drop in the bucket to what it used to be." At one time, he recalls, he helped feed 70,000 lambs, more than the total number of young woolies that are no being fattened in the Valley. Wilks remembers that in 1929 when he came to the area from Missouri, the lamb feeding industry was booming. The mushroom continued to grow into its hey-days of the 1930s and profit -making era of the 1940s and early 1950s before gradually wilting to its present levels of today. "Since the early '50s we've done well to break even." Wilks remarks. "We've had a few good years since then but we've taken some awfully big losses, too." The lanky Scottsbluff man lists three things which have hurt the lamb feeding business during the past 15 years. They are synthetic fabrics, importing of frozen lamb and competition for lamb and poultry products. However, lack of adequate labor has probably done more than any of these things to curtail his own feeding program. Two years ago he was still feeding between 25,000 and 30,000 lambs in 15 yards in the Valley, but because it became increasingly hard to hire responsible workers, he has limited his activities to about 2,000 head in his own singke lot east of Minatare the past two winters. But Wilks prefers to talk about the glorious days of the lamb feeding business of yesteryear over its troubles of today. And despite a few problems and a sliver-thin profit margin, if that, the past few years, he still enjoys feeding lambs. Wilks recalls that he was working 18 hours a day and receiving $35 a month in his native Missouri when he decided to seek his fortune in Western Nebraska .When Wilks arrived in Scottsbluff in the fall of 1929, the first person he contacted for employment was T. C. Halley, a big lamb feeder in the Valley whose brother lived near Wilks' hometown in Missouri. Although Halley said he had no work for Wilks at that time, he told the 19-year-old Missourian he would later that winter. "So I got a job sewing potato sacks for a while," Wilks remembers. "They put two bushels in the sacks at that time, so they weighed 120 pounds. I only weighed 125 and when I grabbed ahold of them I didn't know which one of us was coming up." The first winter Wilks worked for Halley he drove a truck and the second winter he lived in a sheep wagon and fed lambs Northeast of Minatare. However, by the fourth winter, Wilks had an interest in the business and when Halley died in 1952, he owned two-thirds of it. "I went home the summer of '32 and planned to go to the University of Missouri. I'd saved a little money and put in a corn crop and bought some hogs. But hogs were selling for three cents a pound and corn for two bits a bushel, so I knew I'd never be able to go to school. I wrote the boss [Halley] and asked if I still had a job. He said I did and I came back. Wilks recollects that the first year he had a share in the Halley Sheep Co. he got the profit, 25 cents per head, from 500 head. The next year he got $4 per head from 750 head. "Three thousand dollars was a lot of money in those days," he recalls. The veteran lamb feeder has no trouble remembering the best year in the business/ It was the spring of 1951 when the profits amounted to $10 per head from $50,000 head. He notes that lambs sold for 40 cents a pound and wool was over $1 per pound that year. Currently lambs are selling from 26 to 27 cents a pound and wool has slipped to about 30 cents a pound." "Two out of three years before 1951 fat lambs would outsell fat cattle, but since then we haven't come close to cattle prices." Wilks says he never saw a finer person than Halley, and believes the pioneer lamb feeder knew the business better than anyone else he ever met. "I never knew a man who knew sheep from every angle like he did; feeding, breeding and everything. He could walk into a feed lot and tell you from what part of the country the lambs came," Wilks relates. During the 1930s when the depression was going full-scale, Halley started custom feeding lambs. Wilks has continued this practice and even this year does not own a single lamb. "There was lots of feed in the Valley and lots of lambs ready for feeding during the depression," Wilks said, "but the people with feed didn't want to take a chance and buy lambs. Halley encouraged the ranchers to bring their lambs to the Valley, buy the feed and let us feed them. We got a per cent of the profit and took none of the less. There were quite a few years that we worked for nothing." During the 1930s, the Halley Sheep Co. fed as high as 70,000 lambs and often had over 50,000 into the 1940s. They were fattened in up tp 36 lots from the Wyoming line east of Bayard. Under the arrangement, the owner of the lambs would buy the farmer's feed and pay all expenses including labor, the farmer would bed the lots and furnish the water and receive the manure and Halley would manage the activities. "We always thought it was better to take the lambs where the feed was than to haul the feed to one big lot," Wilks states. Wilks notes that he and Halley fed lambs belonging to three generations of one New Mexico family spanning from 1915 to 1960, and handled lambs for several others for over 20 years. Most of the lambs Wilks is currently feeding are off the Navajo Reservations in Arizona. He said he prefers them because they are generally ready for marketing later in the spring when the price is often at its highest point. They go on feed in October weighing about 60 pounds and are fed to around 110 pounds. The lambs are fed beet pulp in the morning, beet tops at night and corn twice a day. Some cottonseed cake and pulp pellts are also fed at times and alfalfa hay is provided for those that won't eat tops. --------------------------------------------- James ?Lowell? Wilks SCOTTSBLUFF ? James "Lowell" Wilks, 90, of Scottsbluff, died Friday, March 10, 2000 at his home in the Residency in Scottsbluff. Cremation has taken place. A memorial service will be 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 14, 2000, at the Residency, 2100 Circle Drive, in Scottsbluff, with Pastor Bret Rickard officiating. In lieu of flowers, contributions to the Scottsbluff YMCA or the First Baptist Church of Scottsbluff would be appreciated. Mary Jo Herring Hubbard notes: Uncle Lowell was probably my favorite Uncle. He always had time to talk to me, tell a joke or a story, and he had the most peculiar accent (must have been the Nebraska influence). I loved to listen to him talk. He always remembered who I was (I didn't get to see the Aunts and Uncles but once a year or less while growing up). He taught me to like lamb and navy beans.

Event Map

Event

	Birth - 23 Oct 1909 - Bachelor, Callaway, Missouri, USA
	Married - 2 Jun 1934 - Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, USA
	Died - 10 Mar 2000 - Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, USA

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