This is the chapel where Lincoln attended church as a kid. This is where his parents and grandparents and great grandparents went to church. I am sure many of us here today can say the same thing.
After I’d heard Link talk at a funeral years ago I made him promise that he would talk at mine. He didn’t extract any promise from me, but here I am.
Lincoln Robin Sherwood was born on January 9th 1947. Kim has already told you about their parents death and being raised by their grandparents.
Link grew up here in St. Johns where he attended Grade School & High School.
While he was in High School, he worked for Clair Platt who he really respected and developed his great love for cattle and ranching. He worked for Everett Hinkson, too
He went to college in Yuma and worked on Melvin Crosby’s farm.
When he turned 19 - like most Mormon boys do - he went on a mission to Ireland for 2 years.
I wasn’t here when Lincoln dated my little sister, Linda, in High School, so I didn’t really know him until he came home after his mission and started seriously courting her. My younger brother Steve and I took it on ourselves to tease and torment him. But as soon as Link was safely married to Linda we learned that when it came to teasing we had been messing with THE master.
Just ask Lynn Hancock about when he started dating our little sister, Kathy. Then it was all Link’s own kids and all the nieces and nephews when they would bring someone home they were mercilessly teased. If the intended could pass the Lincoln test, then they were keepers.
If you knew Lincoln at all, you know that he loved to tease. He was just fun to be around. He was always joking and teasing. It seems one of his favorite things to do was to torment his Mother-in-Law and get her all stirred up. And he really liked to get her going. She’d just get so mad...
One of his favorite things to do with his little grandkids was to lick his finger and poke them in the ear. Give them wet willies. They loved to sneak up behind him and do it to him. They loved teasing him as much as he loved teasing them. He liked to have a box of candy for the kids. He’d offer them a piece of candy. And say which one do you want. When they pointed to one, he would pick it up and say “is this the one you want”? If they said “yes” then he’d lick it and hand it to them - just to hear them squeal.
His quick smile, sparkling blue eyes, and great sense of humor won him friends wherever he went.
After Link and Linda were married they moved to Phoenix and Link worked for Glendon Lamereaux a livestock trader who bought and sold at the auctions. Link was a quick learner and used Glendon’s skills for the rest of his life.
One day Link needed to haul some pigs to the auction. He had a big boar that he was afraid would kill the two other little pigs before he could get them there. He talked Linda into sitting in the manger of the trailer and hitting the boar with a big stick to save the little ones. Since it was only a short distance, Linda agreed to do it. Now this trailer had no top or cover and was all open. I can just see Link driving down the highway stopping at street lights as cars pulled up to the side of them and wondered what that crazy lady was doing sitting in the front of the trailer hitting and yelling at who knows what. It didn’t take her long to figure out that Link was taking a ‘detour’ all around town, and on the freeway - a real joy ride. With the little pigs squealing, the big boar grunting and Linda hollering and pounding on the old boar and then cussing Lincoln who was sitting in the pickup with a big grin on his face and pretending that he couldn’t hear a thing.
When Dad died in 1970, Lincoln moved back to St. Johns to work with me on the family ranch.
This was when their first two children, Mark and Melissa came into our lives. Linda fought for them fiercer than any mother bear had ever fought for her cubs, and finally was able to adopt them. I think we all thought we were their parents.
Vern was born a few years after that, followed by Matt, then Brooke, and last of all Chase. These 6 children were the love of Link and Linda’s life. They now have 24 grandkids, and 2 great-grandchildren. They are a close family. Link loved his kids and grandkids and they loved him.
All the grandkids called him Poad. He called his first grandson Devin-Toad. Devin came right back with Papa Toad. When Riley came along she couldn’t get the Toad in there right so she called him Papa Poad. And it stuck. All the grandchildren called him Poad.
His kids were his ranch hands, the boys and the girls. He made it fun for them. He mounted them on good horses. Taught them how to work and play. They’ve all turned out well. Prospering and raising their own eternal families
When his former employer Clair Platt passed away he went to work for Clair’s family for the next 18 years.
We continued to work together as we helped each other when we needed to.
Link always had other enterprises going on no matter where he was working. He contracted and built a lot of fence for the 2 power plants and others around. He cut and sold semi-loads of fire wood. He was tireless.
During this time he bought a small ranch in New Mexico and another one west of town in the Big Hollow.
One day Lincoln and his kids were gathering cows at Big Hollow in the rain and just as they were about to push the cattle through the gate of the corral; Link suddenly stopped and ordered everyone off their horses and into the vehicles. This surprised the kids since they were within yards of getting the cattle corralled. All the kids obediently hopped off and before they got the doors shut on the pickups - lightening struck and killed two head right there where they would have been.
When Clair Platt’s family sold the cattle and subdivided the ranch Link moved his family to Kirkland NM. Many of you may have lost track of Link then, so I’ll fill in some details.
In Kirtland NM he began buying and trading livestock on the Navajo Reservation. He really enjoyed doing this. No matter what he was doing, he enjoyed it. He liked the Navajo people and they liked him. He learned Navajo well enough to trade in Navajo. He picked up languages very easily. He had also learned to speak Spanish by working with his ‘foreign exchange’ students.
After Kirtland he ran a ranch in Kanosh UT for Jay Platt. He felt the need to be close to family, so he moved to Snowflake where his oldest daughter, Melissa, lived and Linda’s sister, Kathy.
There he went to work at the pig farm. It wasn’t what Link wanted to be doing, but he made the best of it and true to form - enjoyed it. That was just his personality. He immersed himself into whatever he was doing and never lost his sense of humor.
About this time he got a sub-contract to build the Beeline highway fence that Kim talked about.
He won the admiration and respect of the main contractor and soon Link was sub-contracting fence from lots of big highway contractors.
It was one of these jobs - installing barrier cable between the lanes of traffic on the freeways in the Phoenix area that he really got his feet on the ground. He had the ability to figure a better and faster way to do things. Instead of pounding the I beams that the cable ran through with a big slow piling driver he went to John Deere and explained what he wanted and between them they designed and built a hydraulic driver on a skid-steer that was many times faster.
Doing the job fast enough with less expense made it possible for him to buy a ranch in Brush Colorado.
Meanwhile he still worked and developed his fencing contracts all over the South West.
Several years later he found his ‘dream’ ranch in the North Eastern corner of the panhandle of TX where he spent the rest of his life.
Link had a tremendously strong work ethic and very high integrity. Whatever he started he gave it his all and did his very best.
Lincoln was an entrepreneur. Always planning and scheming. He was never afraid to try something new or do it a better way.
He was not afraid to tackle anything - no matter how difficult it was. He could always think a problem through and come up with a better way to do things. He could always get through the ‘brick wall’
He took a contract with the Navajo nation to gather wild cows for them. Which no one else was willing to take.
In a few weeks, we roped over 200 head of cattle, tied each one of them down, and then used our horses to pull each one into the trailer and hauled them to the corral one at a time. He never saw a job that he thought he couldn’t figure out a way to do it. And he did.
Whatever he was doing, he was excited about it and enjoyed it.
Lincoln was a good cowboy, good Stockman, good horseman
He was early to rise, and early to bed. He was the hardest worker I’ve ever known. One time he told his long-winded home teachers it was his bed time and to turn out the lights when they left.
The other night when the kids were together reminiscing about their Dad they wrote up this list of the things he told them all the time. Work hard. Find humor in the things you do. To do our best in everything we did. Never say “I can’t.” Always find a way. Never give up
A few years ago Linda and Lincoln went back to Ireland where he had been on his mission. On a Sunday they went to one of the churches Link had been involved with in Dublin. After the meeting the Ireland mission President introduced himself to Linda and Link. When he heard the name “Lincoln Sherwood” he said “I know that name. You’re famous here. You baptized more people here in Ireland than anybody has since WWII.”
The Kids said that he loved to tease, loved race horses, loved the Gospel, loved his Family, and loved his dog, Porfie. He always had a dog. One of them that I remember would open and drink his cans of diet cherry coke.
Lincoln went down to the All American horse sale and races in RUIdoso over the Labor Day weekend last month. Lynn & Kathy and Steve & Mary Lou and I were there, too, to see Lincoln because it was closer than Texas. The morning after he sold his colt we went down with him to check his horses that he had there in the stalls. After he had talked to his trainer and he was starting to get tired and he wanted to go inside the big barn where all the people were and sit down. He found himself a seat right in the middle where he could sit down. I got to watching him and horseman after horseman came and sat down with him. Talk to him for a few minutes and congratulate him on the amount of money his colt sold for. They all knew the condition he was in and they all came up and spoke to him and shook his hand and left. Just one after another after another came and did that and essentially told him goodbye. He had the respect of the best quarter-horse people in the world.
I’ve cowboyed with him, from the Navajo Reservation on the North to the Apache Reservation on the south, from the Zuni reservation on the east to the petrified forest on the west.
We called each other cuñado. Which means Brother-in-law in Spanish. My kids ended up calling him Uncle Coon.
We worked and laughed, sweated, built fence, trailed cattle to the mountain, fed cattle, broke horses, chopped ice, fixed windmills, and all the rest.
We went out to see Link and Linda about 6 weeks ago and Kim and Debbie and Kathy were there and had been for a while helping Linda and Link. Kathy told me this story. She said that not long after their parents had died - when Lincoln was 5 - he told Kathy, “Let’s run away to Texas.” Kathy said what about Kim? Lincoln said we’ll come back and get him when he gets out of diapers. I just can’t imagine how hard it must have been on Link and Kathy and Kim to have their parents suddenly taken out of their lives at a very young age. What a reunion it must have been to see his Mom and Dad and Grandparents again.
Link had a dream. He lived his dream. And he worked and accomplished his dream. When he moved to Texas - he built up his dream ranch. He had his wife, Linda, his children and grandchildren. He had what he considered to be the best ranch anywhere. A good big herd of some of the best cows as I’ve ever seen. And some of the best horses that ever turned a cow. Or ran down a racetrack. He loved a good horse and had a bunch of them. Cow horses, rope horses, race horses.
I think that Lincoln would feel like I do. And think Heaven can’t be heaven without fat cows and horses. Perpetual green grass and lots of water. I would hope that someday we could ride together to go out and check the cattle. Whenever I’d go out there to Texas he would say at least 10 times a day “I love Texas!” Link found his Heaven in Texas.
About 3 years ago they learned than Lincoln had cancer. It was a long hard-fought battle of chemotherapy and hospital stays. He never once complained or felt sorry for himself about having cancer. Linda was always upbeat. She tended him for 24 hours a day.
Linda went through this before when her Dad died of cancer. She stood by Link’s side as he gradually went down hill. Neither one ever gave up. Never said one discouraging word to anybody. Never said “why me.” Instead their attitude was - Why not me? why everyone else and not me. I’ll admire them both for as long as I live. Admire and love them both.
Towards the end he was still upbeat. The only thing he was upset about was that he couldn’t work hard. He would get up get in his pickup and make a circle to check then go get what he called his cowboy breakfast - a diet cherry coke and a donut. Then back home to lay down.
At the end the kids were gathering around. Lincoln was unconscious when Vern and his family got there to Texas. They started talking to him and his eyes fluttered a little bit and he started trying to lift his head. Linda asked him if he wanted to sit up and he nodded because he couldn’t talk, so they sat him up in bed. He pointed at Baylor, Vern’s littlest boy, and then patted his lap with his hand. Linda said do you want him to sit on your lap and he nodded yes. They put Baylor up on his lap. With a big grin on his face, he very wobbily stuck his finger in Baylor’s ear. Then Baylor turned around licked his finger and stuck it in Lincoln’s ear. A big smile came on Link’s face and his eyes twinkled for the last time. Then he laid back down and that was the last time that he was conscious.
Link would not want us to mourn his passing. He would want us to celebrate his life.
The greatest achievement of Lincoln’s life was that “Linda LOVED Lincoln” without reservation ALL of her life. - - - Even though she probably thought she was playing second fiddle to a bunch of cows and horses.
He was such a good friend. It won’t be the same without him. But I know and his family knows, we will all be together again.
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