James Lynch Biography Part 4

In Part 4, James lynch builds a house, farms and talks about the Indians who lived in the area.


     On weekends, James walked to Burlingame and back to get supplies (fifteen miles one way).  He bought lumber in Burlingame to build a one-room house east of where the present house is and later added another room.  These he moved to where Inez and Frank Lynch later lived  (Hazel's brother and wife).   These are the south rooms.  He added a large room on the north in later years, which became the kitchen.

James Lynch in later years in front of the house he built

(The picture at left is of the house much later.  James Lynch is sitting in front of the house he built, along with the chickens. I remember visiting Uncle Frank and Aunt Inez and their son, Melvin as a child).
     The Condell's lived in the middle of the field south and east of James' land.  The house is gone now.  In later years, it was reached by a lane that came in from the east.  Condell expanded his land to enclose what later was the Miller Ranch.  (The Miller Ranch is now the Porter Ranch, owned by Richard Porter).  He planted trees (hedge, I think) all around the perimeter.  Mr. Condell and Mr. Cunningham were kind  to James and took care of him when he was ill with ague.  It was a form of malaria, with chills and fever.  It came on regularly each afternoon, so he could only work in the mornings.  (Roselyn--I am wondering if James contracted malaria when he went through Panama on the way to California to pan for gold.)
     There was only one house between his place and Emporia, the county seat of Lyon County.  That house was the Phillips rock house.  It was a stage stop and inn between Emporia and Burlingame, a distance of thirty miles.
     There were many Indians near his land, but they gave no trouble.  They camped in the timber south of his house and came begging.  He would dig a hole in the ground to hide his meat and other foods they wanted, so they couldn't find it.  In 1868, the government rounded up the Indians in that timber and sent them to a reservation in Oklahoma.  Some wandered back and stayed around.