Horses with a History,

from the Ranch to the Rodeo

The Gill family have been in the cow-calf business for over 200 years, with the beginning stretching back to Circleville, in Pickaway County, Ohio, where Samuel Gill was a cattle dealer in 1830’s and Levi and his brother, John were born. in 1864 Levi and his wife moved to Iowa, when Iowa was in it’s pioneer days. Levi Gill moved his wife and then 10 children, Will Gill, Sr being one of the ten, from Iowa to California in pursuit of the opportunities that they had heard of “in this new country”. They originally settled in Yokohl Valley farming the land and running hogs, taking them down to Visalia for shipping to market. Levi later purchased a ranch in the Frazier Valley and started raising sheep, ranging them through the foothills and the Mountain Home area. It was after this that the Gill men started buying cattle and eventually exclusively ranched cattle. They would graze in the foothills and in the Milo and Dillonwood areas and on up into the Mountain Home range.

All of Levi’s sons became cattlemen. He and Eliza had 16 children in all. They were a large family, especially by today’s standards and, by the early 1900’s, had acquired many thousands of acres in the foothills of Tulare County. Will, Sr along with is twin brother Fred and brother Louis, would break horses. When they were just starting out in business, they used to get lots of horses to use for a year just for breaking them either to farm with or to ride. Sometimes they got some pretty mean ones. Some of those horses would put up quite a fight and Louise was heard to say that it was just about as safe riding the horses as it was leading them! “Will and Fred were the best riders”, and their brother Louis would lead the horse for them until the twins could handle the horse on their own.Fred and Will were partners in the cattle business until their boys were grown. At that time they divided the property into two ranches.

By the early 1920’s, the Will Gill ranch, what is known as Will Gill & Sons, expanded to Madera County, buying several ranches, including part of the old Henry Miller ranch. They built a feedlot and established the office where it is today.

A New Era

In 1945, Will Gill, Jr acquired “Easy Keeper,” P12044, a bay colt from the Peakes for Will Gill & Sons. A son of the great foundation horse “Driftwood.” He was out of “Smokey McCue,” a gray mare with identical papers to “Sage Hen,” the mother of Dale Smith’s “Poker Chip,” also by “Driftwood.”

Floyd Boss was the trainer who broke Easy Keeper. Besides a great disposition, Easy Keeper also had a natural cow sense, quickness, and athletic ability. So impressed with Easy Keeper, Will, Jr decided to buy a few mares and follow in his daddy’s boots and get in the horse business. It started with a truckload of AQHA foundation mares from W. M. Howard, picking up a few others at auctions, and in 1949 Will Gill & Sons registered their first colts.

To that end, they were recently honored for 70 continuous years of breeding and registering quarter horses with the AQHA.