DIGBY BRAND
Patagonian
Pioneer
Story and images
Put together by Patrick O'Connor
His roots and
early life in England (Chapter 1)
Digby Hamilton Brand was born on the 19th of July 1874, in the pretty mid-Sussex village of Framfield. His father Hamilton's ancestry included men who had served with distinction as officers in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and later. Hamilton was ordained as a Church of England priest a few years after Digby's birth, and the family (now including three boys and one girl) eventually settled at the splendid vicarage of Farthingstone in rural Northamptonshire. Digby attended boarding school, grew up, and joined the local hunt (the Grafton). He made the decision to seek his fortune in Patagonia, and left in about 1900.
The Brand family crest Lt. Charles Brand, RN
The Rectory, Farthingstone, in 1908
Patagonia and the
Welsh settlement (Chapters 2, 3)
Patagonia has no boundaries other than
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans on the west and east, all the way down to Cape
Horn. The Rio Negro in Argentina is usually considered to represent the
northern extremity. Patagonia is not just Argentina: it stretches over the
Andes to include the southern part of Chile. It extends two thousand miles
further into the southern ocean than any other large land mass. It has been
aptly called “the uttermost part of the earth”.
Patagonia is an extreme land. The
towering peaks and ridges of the Andes mountain range (the Cordillera) stretch
southwards, the only obstacle to the powerful, unrelenting circumpolar wind
that sweeps over the open oceans from the west around the “roaring forties” and
the “furious fifties”. As the wind pushes upwards it releases its moisture as
rain and snow on the rugged, forested islands that line the Chilean coast and
the mountain slopes of the mainland. The climate here is extremely moist: it
rains or snows on about eighty percent of days, fog blows in from the sea, and
even in the middle of the Austral summer sudden blizzards sweep up into the
higher valleys. Dense pine forests grow on the lower slopes and fast streams
tumble through them, carrying rainwater and the melt from glaciers and
snowfields far above down to the tortuous fiords.In the high Argentine lands to
the lee of the mountains, glacier-fed streams and the outflow of great mountain
lakes converge into a few large rivers that wind across the plains, two to
three hundred miles to the eastern coast. A few smaller ones terminate at
shallow lakes. The major rivers flow fast and clear. They have cut their
channels through the rock strata, and the land on either side receives no
irrigation from them; their courses are not altered or polluted by man. Even
today there is hardly a human settlement along their lengths and no boats ply
them.
The climate on the Patagonian plains is
severe. Winters in these extreme latitudes are long, dark and bitter. Spring
provides a brief spell of gentler weather, the thorn bushes show splashes of green
and flowers appear. The summers are short, warm in the long daytimes but cold
under the clear night skies, the earth is parched and fine dust blows in the
dry wind. They merge through the autumn into the next winter with little change
of scene, just shortening of days and colder winds.
In 1865 a group of Welsh pioneers
landed at what is now Puerto Madryn, in Chubut province, and founded a colony
within the Argentine territory. After years of hardship and struggle, they
eventually prospered, establishing towns inland up the Chubut river valley and
in the Andean foothills. Other settlers had arrived from other parts of Europe,
and they set up sheep and cattle ranches (estancias) on the pampas. The
gauchos, descended from the Indian tribes that once roamed the plains, were the
cowboys of the pampas.
Digby arrived in Patagonia, worked on
estancias and travelled widely. He met some of the Welsh families. He fell in
love with Charlotte (“Lottie”) Tyndale and they became engaged.
Digby Brand, about 1900 Lottie
Chubut Province and western part of
Chile, as it would have been in the early 1900’s
Welsh farm in lower Chubut valley
Estancia Rio
Cisnes (Chapters 5, 9)
In 1905, just after Digby and Lottie became engaged, he was employed by one of the big land companies that had been awarded concessions to develop the wilderness areas of Chile. His job was to establish a new estancia in the valley of the Rio Cisnes, on the high plateau just over the border from Argentina. He left Lottie, crossed the pampas and built and stocked the new estancia. He worked there for two years before he could see her again. His letters to her vividly describe the hard and lonely life. Eventually they were reunited, they married in Trelew, and travelled west together to live at Rio Cisnes and raise a large family in the wilderness. The photos below are copied from Digby's album.
Satellite image of Upper Rio Cisnes
valley (© Google Maps) (Estancia Rio
Cisnes)
(Argentine border shown dotted)
The estancia house under construction, about
1905, and in about 1920
Chilenos sawing logs Sheep dip
The team at Estancia Rio Cisnes. Digby
Digby and Lottie 4th. and 3rd.
from left of flagpole
Mule train loading up with wool bales,
and setting off
Asado. Note the peon on
right doing the work. Jim
Burchett
Babs
Jeff, Babs, Eileen
(probably taken on visit to Trelew)
Buick fording
Charles Tyndale’s grave, on the hill to the north of the house (he died of influenza in 1921)
Return to the
Valley (Chapter 10)
In about 1924 Digby had to relinquish
the job at Rio Cisnes. The family returned to the lower Chubut valley, where
they lived in reduced circumstances for about 12 years.
Babs, Marjorie, Eileen,
friend at Bethesda chapel, Dolavon Jimmy
Babs, Eileen
La Blanche
In 1935 Digby obtained a new job as
manager of the estancia La Blanche, near Tecka in western Chubut province.
Marjorie, Jimmy, Vivien, Lottie, Mollie
Jeff Jimmy
Epilogue (Chapter 12)
Digby retired in 1952. He and Lottie went to live with Jimmy and Susy in Bahia Blanca. When Lottie died in 1956 Digby went with Thora to live with her family in Trinidad. He died there in 1961.
Digby’s guns and banjo (now in Jimmy and
Ssy Brand's home in Esquel)
Estancia Rio Cisnes
Estancia Rio Cisnes went through a turbulent history after the 1920’s. A military coup led by General Luis Altamirano in 1924 set off a period of great political instability in Chile that lasted until 1932. There followed a long period of prosperity and reform, until the Marxist Allende regime (1970 –1973), when the estancias were handed over to the resident peons. A number of families took over the house at Rio Cisnes. They made some internal changes, but respected the building. Then the Pinochet government restored capitalist ownership, but the country suffered under the tyrannical regime. Democracy was restored in 1988.
But by now the genteel days of family residence at the estancias had passed, and the new managers did not use the old house. It was turned into a school for the children of the estancia workers. It continued in this role until recently, when a new schoolhouse was competed. Since then it has stood empty.
Today the estancia is a thriving business. It is one of the largest and most productive in Chile. but the original house is unfortunately dilapidated, though structurally sound. Lupins and roses grow in wild profusion, and the poplars stand gnarled and ancient. The house and its grounds are officially owned by the Chilean government, and there is a tentative plan to restore it and to create a small museum.The country around is unchanged.
To read my account of my visit there in March 2006, click here.
For a fascinating account of life in the
Rio Cisnes area today, read Nick Reding’s The Last Cowboys at the End
of the World, and visit www.thelastcowboys.com.
Galpon Old
sawmill
The house that Digby built (north side) South side
Kitchen Attic
Grave site The
manager’s house (50m to the west of the old house, across the stream)
The road from Chile (La Tapera)
and from Argentina