FRANK LEON “JUMPER” JONES 1885-1958

 

Frank Leon “Jumper” Jones was born February 26, 1885 to Ben and Ida Gray Jones at Jamieson, Willow Creek, Oregon.

“Jumper” was a true Vaquero, working for cattle ranches throughout his life like Miller and Lux (PLS Co) from Harper to Burns, Oregon.  He went on trail drives for “The PLS” to Winnemucca, Nevada and from the “Island Ranch” out of Burns to Brogan, Oregon where they shipped at El Dorado to the Miller and Lux Ranches in California.  He first worked for the “PLS” at Harper, Oregon under Frank Newman.

Benny Jordan of Vale, Oregon and “Jumper” also worked for the “Eastern Oregon Land and Livestock Co.” at Ironside after “Miller and Lux shut down in the 1920’s.  They worked together there “breaking out” horses.

Benny said “Jumper” taught him a great deal about horses, especially how to get on and off horses.  These were big strong horses that could really buck if given the chance.  “Jumper” showed him how to put his knee in their shoulder and “ease up” real slow.  This probably saved him from many wrecks.

Lena McKinney McHargue said her “Uncle Frank” was working a Cow Valley, Oregon in the 20’ and 30’s.  He would bring a string of bucking horses into the Vale rodeo.  Benny Jordan said that on the way back to Cow Valley they would ride the bucking string.

Val Gene Dice remembers seeing “Jumper” in the late 1930’s working for his Uncle ‘Pink” Becker at Westfall.

In his later years (1940) “Jumper” went to Nevada and started working for Paul Sweeney at the Squaw Valley Ranch owned by Ellison’s Ranching Company. (The Pitchfork).

Pete Pedroli called Paul on the phone and told him he had a Buckaroo there that Paul should hire.  Petroli had worked with “Jumper” when they were with Miller and Lux, Paul said he could tell right away when he saw him and talked to him awhile, that he was a real “Old Time Buckaroo”.  So he hired him right there and took him out to the ranch.  “Jumper” was happy there, as he told his niece Lena, and he stayed there about 15 years.

Paul let him pick his own string of horses (all sorrels) and he was breaking his own colts when he was in his sixties.

Paul said he was a wonderful bridle man who had a way with colts. (Meaning that “Jumper could handle a horse in type of bridle with ease). They never seemed to want to buck.  Their mouths were so light the way “Jumper” started them.  All he had to do was barely touch the reins and he could lift their heads up.

He would start the day at sun-up with the other Buckaroo’s and ride all day sitting “straight up” on his horse in the Old Spanish Vaquero style and come in late still sitting the same way, never complaining about the very hard work in the everyday life of a Buckaroo.

He was a small man who wore a narrow brimmed hat, Levi’s and Levi jumper jacket.  This is how he got his nickname.  He had a small foot and wore custom-made “Hyer” boots.  When he got a new pair he gave his old ones to the Sweeney ‘s kids.

Gene Gabica remembers “Jumper” being very quiet and calm when working with cattle horses and children.

One day, gene and another little girl spooked some cows “Jumper’ was moving through a gate.  These cows were kind of wild and they scattered.  The little girls ran thinking they were really in trouble.  They hid and watched, but “Jumper” never overreacted, he just sat on his horse for awhile until the cows quieted down, then he moved them on through the gate.  He never said a word about.  Gene thinks her parents didn’t know about this until recently.

Whenever he was working cows, he and his horse were always quiet.  He never separated a cow/calf pair, whether out of a rodear or in a corral.  He had great timing and it was uncanny the way he could read a cow and anticipate its moves.  He could make a very dangerous situation look easy.  His horses were never “chargie”.

Others thought “Jumper” only rode gently horses, but this was because they handled so well in the bridle for him.

One day, while he was “repping” at the “25 Ranch”, a Buckaroo and his Boss needed a couple of horses to ride back to the Spanish Ranch.  Two of “Jumper’s” horses were there so they decided to ride them...both horses bucked them off!

Paul said “Jumper” was one of the few Buckaroos’ he never saw get bucked off.  If a horse ever did buck with him, he just sat straight up in the middle of his horse with a loose rein.  He has such a natural feel for a horse and such a good head set that he didn’t have to pull him.

One day Paul asked him when he was about 70 years old why he didn’t retire and take it a little easier. “Jumper” said “no, he was going to ride until he fell off his horse”.

Finally.... One day, after many in the saddle, “Jumper” did fall off his horse when he suffered a stroke.

He told Maxine Sweeney and her daughter, Lynn, when they came to visit him in the hospital in Winnemucca that he was getting better and wanted to back to work.  He was in the hospital for quite awhile and they would come regularly to see him and bring him ice cream to eat.

But, sad to say, he didn’t get better.  He was taken to the nursing home Ontario, Oregon and then to the Ontario hospital.  He passed away there in 1958 and is buried in the Ontario cemetery.

 

“Jumper” A true “Old-Time Vaquero, gone to rest after many years riding “straight up” in the saddle.

 

Frank Leon “Jumper” Jones was inducted into the Buckaroo Hall of Fame in September 1998.