​Robert Woody Ranch

In the mid 1800's, Dr. Sparrell Woody, and his brother Tazwell, moved out West from Virginia with the lure of gold. Dr. Woody eventually settled in the basin of Kern County, but was eventually flooded out one too many times. Because of the unpredictable flooding from the Kern River, he moved to higher ground in 1862, to the mountains northeast of Bakersfield at the foot of Blue Mountain, above what would eventually be called the town of Woody.

 

There, he and his wife, the former Sarah Bohna, dry farmed and raised cattle, and also raised five children: two boys, Stonewall and Elmer, and three girls, Eugenia, Nettie and Victoria.

When the ranch passed to Elmer and Stonewall, they had different dreams for their lives. Stonewall became the Kern County auditor and lived in Bakersfield, and Elmer remained on the ranch to marry Francis Weringer and raise two boys, Ward and Robert.

 

He and Stonewall bought land when it became available and increased the size of the ranch considerably. The cattle raised on the ranch probably looked like the cattle of the day: big, rangy, a cross of Hereford and Durham. Steers were not sold until they were 2 or 3 years old, bulls were run year-round and calves were branded when you found them.

 

Elmer passed away when Robert was only 9 years old. Francis did what she had to do to keep the ranch. She taught school in Woody and for a time at Panama School in Bakersfield.  As the stories were told, there were men who were ready to help a widow with two young boys and there were men who were ready to take a ranch away from a widow with two young boys. Being of strong stock as Francis was, and with the help of her two boys and her neighbors, she was able to keep the ranch and continue moving forward.

 

Ward and Robert continued the ranch as their father had done before them. For a time, they raised registered horned Herefords, dry farmed oat hay in the meadows and the lower part of the ranch, and eventually settled with commercial Hereford cattle.

 

Ward married Muriel Hinds and had two boys, Ronnie and Jerry. Robert married Evelyn Sandrini and had one daughter, Gloria.

They worked hard, enjoyed their lives tremendously, and taught all of us the same love and respect for the land and this way of life.

 

Today, the original ranch exists in two parts -- one belonging to Ward's family, and the other, the Robert Woody Ranch.  The Robert Woody Ranch is now run by Robert and Evelyn's daughter and son-in-law, Gloria and Rusty Graham.  They continue to raise Hereford cattle but have kept up with the changing trends in the cattle industry.  Even though UTV's have replaced some of the hours spent in the saddle in the past, the history of the family remains in adobe fire stacks and hand-dug wells.

 

The future is seen in the fifth and sixth generation of the Woody family, with Rusty and Gloria's two children, their spouses and 5 grand children. All of them help with ranch work, branding and processing cattle and learning all that the past generations have learned.

 

With a tremendous appreciation for what the men and women of the family have taken such care of to ensure this way of life, the Robert Woody Ranch family continues to move ahead, preserving the lifestyle, culture and values set in motion over 160 years ago.