Grant-Kohrs Ranch Historic Resource Study/Historic Structures Report/Cultural Resources Statement

B. 1871-1876

January of 1871 closed with a party at the Kohrs residence, and one attendee wrote of the "very social and happy company of ladies and gentlemen" there. The writer, a newspaper reporter, continued with the earliest description of the interior of the ranch house on the home ranch: "The residence of Mr. Kohrs is one of the largest in Montana, having seven finely furnished rooms on the first floor, besides a magnificently furnished parlor and a spacious dining room, the second floor contains a large hall." [49]

Two weeks later, John Bielenberg "left for the States." He planned to travel first to Iowa to visit his family and then to California or Texas to buy "1000 cattle which he will drive to Montana next year." [50] The influx of Texas cattle had slowly been growing steadily larger, though it would not reach its eventual massive proportions until the early 1880s. The 1,000 Texas cattle John Bielenberg planned to buy and those of Dan Floweree on the Sun River ranges, for example, were relatively small herds in relation to the hundreds of thousands of Texas cattle that would graze on the central and eastern Montana plains until the bad winter of 1886-87.

Con and some of his ranch hands drove a flock of sheep from the home ranch towards Helena in early March. The snow became too deep at one point to allow them to continue, so presumably they returned to the valley to await the spring melt. [51]

Con's work during April involved keeping the home ranch beef herd up to required numbers. Early in the month he purchased a few cattle from Flint Creek; [52] he then went up to the Sun River grazing areas after two or three hundred head ("a little bunch") that had wintered well in this valley [53] and that were needed in the Deer Lodge Valley for sale to the butcher shops he supplied.

From April to June Con, as an administrator of an estate, disputed payments to the county from the estate. The case went to court, resulting in a ruling in favor of the county. It must have been an interesting proceeding because Kohrs still served as a county commissioner — his term expired in 1872 — and thus he found himself on both sides of the case. The parties shared court costs, indicating that the whole business was probably more friendly than most such proceedings. [54]

Con drove a small herd to Sun River in mid-June [55] and again in the fall, after deciding which cattle he did not want to carry in the valley over the coming winter. He also purchased "several fine mares," paying as high as $150 per head, at the same time he purchased cattle that fall. [56]

During the late summer and into the fall Con picked up land both in and outside of town. [57] His most significant purchases came in early October, when he acquired about half a quarter section north of the home ranch house and about the same amount upstream on the Deer Lodge River, about four miles south of town, on the "upper ranch." [58] These were the initial purchases of land for the home ranch, which would eventually result in holdings of over 25,000 acres.

Just before he bought the land, Con took a quick trip to the Sun River range to look over the herd. [59] Presumably he wanted to check his hooved assets prior to the trip to Europe the family planned for late the next month. They laid no plans for exhibiting at the Territorial Fair that year, probably because of the pending trip. But the local newspaper also noted another reason: "Last year Con Kohrs was the territorial fair's largest exhibitor of cattle and collected over $300 in premiums but his expenses were double that. He did not exhibit this year." [60]

In mid-October Con, Augusta, Anna, and Catherine left by stage coach on their trip. [61] The journey took them by way of Denver, where Con formalized the arrangements probably begun earlier by John Bielenberg to bring in Texas cattle in the spring of 1872. John had returned to Deer Lodge from his visit of Davenport that spring to run the home ranch during the family's German trip. As the family visited in Davenport, en route to New York, John fought early winter storms driving a herd to the Sun River range. [62] Just before leaving for the range, John filed the full power of attorney at the county courthouse that Con and Augusta left him. He would manage the ranch and the various Kohrs and Bielenberg mining and business interests until the family returned to Deer Lodge late in the spring of 1872. [63]

Con, Augusta, and the girls sailed on 29 November on the Harmonia, bound for Hamburg, a fact duly noted in the "Local Brevities" column of The New Northwest. [64] Another item appearing not long thereafter testified both to the level of affluence to which Kohrs had risen and to the charming and open quality of journalism on the northwest frontier. Under a heading of "TAXES" Con's hometown newspaper reported:

Every once in a while the poor man gets his play in on the rich. One occasion is when it come to paying taxes. As an instance of the per centage we Poverty Flat (broke) rustlers hold in that awful time of reckoning, we give below the amounts paid by a few persons in this county:

	Property Value	Taxes
Con Kohrs	$40,218	$885
Rock Creek Ditch	$60,000	$1,320

For instance, the entire individual tax paid by Con Kohrs is over $1,400. [65]

The Kohrs' winter trip to Germany was pleasant, Con later recalled, save for an incident on the way over. Their ship was a "German steamer," which, although fitted for passengers, would book none for the voyage.

Finally a few of the ship's officers gave up their cabins to me and four other passengers. . . . The main salon and cabins were not used during the voyage, and we were so glad to secure passage that we never inquired why. Our meals were served in the smoking room and one morning the head steward was missing. I asked where he was and one of the waiters spoke up and said, "He has the small-pox." I never before experienced such a shock and I must admit I was dreadfully frightened, for at that time small-pox was far more malignant and fatal than at the present day. Fortunately there was a doctor on board and after breakfast we were all vaccinated. None of us contracted the disease. [66]

The return to Deer Lodge the following spring was by way of the Bielenberg home (of Con's mother and stepfather) at Davenport, Iowa. In Davenport, Con selected a herd of Short Horn cattle from "Paddleford, a man living on the Illinois side of the river." The herd was shipped to Deer Lodge by way of Corinne, Utah, the farthest the railroads could carry them, and then driven overland by Tom Hooban. [67]

Con, Augusta, and the girls arrived home on 5 May, travelling the last leg of their trip by coach. [68] The cattle and a "ten horse power Davenport threshing machine" arrived soon afterward. [69] As well as improving his stock, Kohrs was acquiring the equipment necessary for running an efficient ranching business. He demonstrated his interest in building up the home ranch a few weeks after his return from Europe. In a transaction that probably had understandings not appearing on the document of sale, Kohrs purchased from John Bielenberg about a quarter section of land — but in a long axis, not a corner of a section — just north of the ranch house. The transaction included

Nine Hundred head of Cattle and four head of horses, now on Sun River in Lewis and Clarke County: With all the spring calves, belonging to said herd, also about Eighty-six head of horses in said Deer Lodge County . . . and about one hundred head of cattle in said Deer Lodge County . . . the object, interest & Meaning of this conveyance is to convey to said Kohrs all my right, title, interest and claim in and to all the real and personal property of Con Kohrs and Bro. wherever situated in Montana Territory, whether particularly described herein or not. [70]

Probably John had purchased the land using the power of attorney during Con and Augusta's German trip, and was putting the land into Kohrs's hands upon his return. The deed at least outlines the Kohrs and Bielenberg ranch as of l June 1872 and describes the minimum size of the Sun River herd that spring.

After Hooban delivered the registered Short Horns to the home ranch, he rode south, back to Corinne, to pick up equipment (mowing machines, racks, and wagons) and a few animals for "fitting up the ranch he had located on the west side of Snake River, below the mouth of Portnip [Portneuf] River, and some distance above American Falls." [71]

The ranch in Hooban Bottom, named after Tom Hooban, would receive the herd of Texas cattle that had been arranged for the previous fall. The herd of about 2,500 arrived late, and, because of its generally poor condition, was split. About 1,200 cattle, "a lot of strong horses, and 100 mules on the North Platte" remained in central Wyoming, near today's town of Rawlins. The remainder of the herd was taken overland to the ranch Hooban had prepared along the Snake River, arriving quite late in the fall. Con was less than happy with Wesley Roberts, his partner in bringing in the Texas cattle, and dissolved the partnership once the herds were safely in pasture. [72]

There were other cattle-moving and selling activities that year. Kohrs recalled 1872: "That season we sold the beef we had at fair prices and it was about the last to bring us a profit on our cattle for some years to come, and from this time on dates my hard work."

The part of the Sun River herd that Kohrs and Bielenberg wanted to market and a load of steers picked up in the Bitterroot Valley were driven down to the Idaho ranch Hooban was managing. Cold and wet weather marked the drive, which came late in the fall and featured a stampede one day away from the pasture. [73]

The summer had not been totally devoted to the cattle business, however. The local Republican Party County Convention had seen Con Kohrs's active participation and subsequent election to the Territorial Convention. [74]

Late in the summer a notice appeared in the local newspaper, drawing attention to some of the dangers faced by the cattlemen who had ventured into the Sun River Valley while the area was still actively used by the Indians: "A few stand of arms were shipped to Con Kohrs for use at Sun River. These arms are government issue and [are] to be used for protection in raids by the Indians." [75]

Con Kohrs closed the year on an upbeat, of sorts. Possibly through his buying and selling of property to and from John Bielenberg, or by some other technique, such as selling off the butcher shops in Helena and Blackfoot, and possibly because cattle prices were not that good, his personal property assessment dropped to $12,674 with a resulting county tax of $443.58 — half of the previous year's bill. [76]

The year 1873 opened with the purchase of the property about four miles south of Deer Lodge on which the houses of the '"upper ranch" now stand. [77] At the rate of $1,000 for 160 acres of bench land overlooking the Deer Lodge River and including parts of both riverbanks, he cannot be said to have spent his money unwisely.

Early in the year Con discussed the cattle business with a newspaper reporter, and upheld his herds' quality in relation to any herd in the United States. He stated that he had compared his cattle with those in California and the East and remained convinced that the Kohrs and Bielenberg herds were as good as any he had seen, if not better. He found, however, that his imported registered bulls did not produce as good a "grade animal" as his best native ones. [78]

But herds had not fared that well over the winter, and when he received an enquiry about buying 1,000 head at Corinne Utah, Con demurred, not yet ready to set a price and put in a bid. [79] By early March Con and his partner with the herd on the Snake River, Joseph Bell, knew that they would suffer significant winter losses in the Idaho herd. Deer Lodge Valley cattle, however, had held up well. [80] Yet for these latter animals to fare better over a winter than those in other parts of the region was not unusual. Possibly the mountains lining each side of the valley mitigated the harshness of the weather, but Deer Lodge Valley winters often were milder than those in neighboring areas, and usually always easier on the cattle than those on the eastern prairies.

Late that month the figures began to arrive in letters from the various herders watching over Kohrs and Bielenberg herds. From the Sun River Valley came a report of no losses, but at least twenty-five were known dead in the Texas herd along the Snake River, and the expectation was that the loss would easily go to one hundred. The North Platte herd (wintered near Rawlins, Wyoming) had lost ten head to the cold and snow. The animals in the Deer Lodge Valley survived well, with no deaths at all. On considering his winter losses, Kohrs planned for the next winter's feed for the home ranch herd, determining to sow excelsior oats that spring, "100 pounds to the acre."

Kohrs purchased a small outfit late that March, the Prowse Brothers Ranch on Dempsey Creek. The ranch, farming implements, 100 tons of hay, and 200 bushels of grain went to Con for $11,000 — a bargain. Con then immediately sold his new acquisition to Nick Bielenberg. [81]

Con spent much of the spring of 1873 at the territorial legislature, watching over the struggles to move the State capital to Helena (done) and to grant the Utah and Northern Railroad a subsidy to build into western Montana (not done). [82] In May both Kohrs and Granville Stuart were nominated by the territorial governor as prison commissioners, their nominations soon confirmed. Kohrs, planning a busy summer, and possibly already pondering a visit to his sister in California that fall, declined. [83] He and Bielenberg (in partnership with Joseph Bell on some of them) now owned over 4,500 [84] head of cattle. Some grazed in the Sun River Valley, others in the North Platte range, and a number on the ranch along the Snake River cared for by Tom Hooban. A sizeable herd at the home ranch formed the fourth increment. In early June Con and Joseph Bell left for a two-month trip to inspect the herds and evaluate any cattle they might want to buy as they worked their way to central Wyoming and into southern Idaho and northern Utah. That part of the herd from Texas wintering along the North Platte was sold, but the herd along the Snake River in Idaho remained intact. [85]

John Bielenberg ran things at the home ranch that summer, as usual. John had a fondness for horses and was a racing devotee, and must have taken some pride in his trotting horse "Ben" winning the Fourth of July trotting races at the fairgrounds. [86]

Con left town again, not more than six weeks after his summer trip with Bell, to visit his sister in California, whom he had not seen since 1862. The visit was a pleasant one for Con, apparently not accompanied by Augusta, and his reminiscences of it in his autobiography are infused with delight. After his return from California, he took time to inspect hydraulic mining near Butte. All told, Kohrs had travelled more in 1873 than he had been home. The year had been initiated with a lengthy stay at Virginia City with the territorial legislature, followed by a trip up to the Bitterroot Valley, then the two-month trip to Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah, and finally the trip to California, from which he returned late in November. [87] In addition, Con must have made a few local trips to buy cattle. Augusta, on the other hand, had confined her trips to short ones that year, such as the mid-November jaunt she and her sister (visiting from the East) and another lady made to Helena.[88]

Kohrs and Bielenberg bought another ranch and its cattle that fall. This place, between the home ranch and the town of Deer Lodge, had been owned by Pemberton and Kelly, who had stocked it with "a fine herd they had brought from Missouri." [89]

Winter struck hard that year, and Con Kohrs graphically described its effects:

It was a had winter with periods of intense cold. I remember one spell of three days. My brother John Bielenberg and I were out one day. We were well clad, wore mocassins and buffalo overshoes, had a blanket from our saddle that we wrapped around our legs and thighs. We experienced no trouble except with our mouth and eyes. The breath froze on our lips and we had trouble keeping our eyes open. All the quicksilver thermometers in Deer Lodge were frozen and the way we found out how cold it was by Chris Wibeau's thermometer at Silver Bow, which registered sixty below. [90]

The year 1874 proved to be as active a one for cattle buying, selling, and driving as the Kohrs and Bielenberg operation had experienced to date. The partners sold the ranch along the Snake River, probably late in the summer. [91] But a great number of cattle remained to care for. Con and John Bielenberg were busy at the home ranch, and Con, Mitch Oxarart, and Tom Hooban assembled herds and moved cattle to market.

The cow business took second place, however, the last evening in February, to a party at the ranch house. Honoring Augusta's visiting sister, about fifty persons danced and played cards in the house where, the newspaper noted, there was "ample room in the largest dwelling in Montana." [92] Con and L. R. Maillett, an old acquaintance dating from Kohrs's early Montana days, did not attend the festivities, having left two days previously for Missoula on the coach. Their trip was planned to check the cattle situation in the Bitterroot Valley and surrounding areas. The return, two weeks later, was reported in the local press, and Con's evaluation of the stock situation was not too rosy:

Con Kohrs, Esq., returned from Bitter Root this week. He was unable to make any purchases of cattle, stock men holding them at higher figures there than they command here. Mr. K had propositions from dealers east to take a large number of cattle from him at certain figures, the cattle to be delivered at Corrine, but the price offered does not leave a sufficient margin to warrant investment. [93]

Con's inability to buy cattle at prices low enough to make a profit did not appreciably slow the operation, since the cattle contracted for in the Bitterroot and Deer Lodge valleys the previous fall were delivered, and, together with the stock on hand, made up at least two herds for Kohrs and his partner. [94]

Kohrs did not neglect his other business interests, and with the price of cattle high, decided to purchase a meat market in the nearby town of Pioneer. The deal, consummated late in the month, included the building, utensils, "a stable on the west side of Main Street," and "a slaughter house below town." [95] Kohrs continued to invest in both the production and marketing ends of the stock-raising business, at least on the regional level. He also entered the business of selling high quality stock to other ranchers as cattle-growers in western Montana began to upgrade the quality of their herds. In late April of 1874 Kohrs and Bielenberg sold two fine thoroughbred animals, both on record in the American (Short Horn) Herd Book, one to Joel Moss and one to N. Bielenberg. The local press claimed this as evidence of the interest by stock growers in the upper valley's ability to improve their herds: "Con Kohrs is the owner of the biggest and best herds in Montana and has expended many thousands of dollars in the importation and raising of thoroughbred cattle. He claims to have the best herd of its size in America." In the same issue of The New Northwest Kohrs and Bielenberg offered other thoroughbreds for sale and stud service. They also advertised bulls for breeding service — "Hannibal" and "Comet" — both among the initial imports Con had brought in from the Davenport, Iowa, area a couple of years before. [96]

Kohrs's interest in upgrading the quality of his own and his neighbor's herds is one of the many reasons he is numbered among Montana's cattle pioneers. It is significant that his registered Short Horns were offered for sale and for breeding purposes just two years after he began their importation into the territory. It seems to demonstrate a judgement that the betterment of all the herds, his as well as others in the valley, would eventually work to the benefit of all: producing better stock bringing better prices. It was another manifestation of his belief in "building up" the community, the territory, and commerce associated with them. What he had been doing for his own business interests, and for local and then territorial government, he now did for the cattle herds of the area. As before, this was classic pioneering — improving personal assets, and those of the community, and doing so consciously.

That May the Chicago market for cattle became the object of interest in Deer Lodge. Con considered taking a herd of 3-year old steers to be composed of Sun River, Snake River, and Deer Lodge Valley cattle to Corinne, Utah, for sale. If the animals did not bring good prices there, he would ship them to Chicago to "test the market." [97]

Possibly Kohrs did not need to pursue the test, since a buyer from the Chicago market appeared in Deer Lodge later that month, the local news paper reporting that

A Mr. Allen, a noted stockbuyer from Kansas City is in the area with the purpose of buying not less than 1,000 cattle to drive and ship to the Chicago market. He is paying $18 to $20 for three year old steers, $22.50 for four year olds. He bought a considerable number from Kohrs. [98]

Continuing to serve the local market as well, Kohrs and Bielenberg sold 425 head of 3- to 7-year old cattle to the Diamond R. Company late in May at an average of $20 per head. [99] Presumably this took place as he was consolidating his herds for the drive to the railhead near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Hooban and Oxarart each took a herd. Initially Tom gathered the herd, about 2,500 head, which had wintered in the Bitterroot Valley, and drove them across the Bitterroot Range to the Big Hole Valley, south of Deer Lodge, then down along the Snake River in Idaho and across southern Wyoming to Cheyenne. Mitch Oxarart picked up a small bunch of CK cattle on the Sun River Range, added another that had been awaiting him at the home ranch, and drove the combined group of 2,000 over virtually the same route. Kohrs recalled "the steers from this herd were the first I shipped to Chicago, and were sold by Rosenbaum Brothers."

Con accompanied the cattle to Chicago that first trip. There he began the association with Rosenbaum Brothers, cattle brokers at the stockyards, that would last into the 20th century. [100]

That part of the herd not shipped to Chicago from the eastern Wyoming railhead was sold off in small lots, some in western Montana [101] and some at Laramie City, Wyoming. [102] Kohrs cattle would continue to be sold in Montana despite the opening of business with the Chicago market.

During the gathering and trailing of the herds that summer, Con took time to file notice of intent to homestead portions of section 28 and 33 (township 8 north of range 9 west) — land encompassing the house and outbuildings of the home ranch. The homestead (approved on 10 January 1876) regularized the purchase of the Grant Ranch as to metes and bounds, and gave Con and Augusta Kohrs legal and registered ownership of the land upon which the home ranch sat. [103] His ownership and possession probably never stood in danger of being disputed. Yet until he filed for the homestead, and laid out the property involved, Conrad Kohrs cannot be said to have had full and legal possession of the land. He and Grant probably had a clear understanding of the boundaries involved, and the matter did not weigh particularly heavily on Kohrs's mind as he went about buying up other lots of land, butcher shops, and portions of the upper ranch and home ranch not directly connected with that portion upon which the house sat.

As the ranch hands gathered in the cattle and shipped them to Chicago, Kohrs and Bielenberg bought others, building herds for the coming year. In early September 600 head were purchased, [104] and in mid-October another 117. [105]

In October 1874 Con again traveled to California to visit his sister. He returned before too long, recalling later "that winter I was home a few months but as soon as spring came commenced buying cattle for the drive of 1876." [106]

Cattle purchases, drives, and the sales and purchase of mining properties continued in 1875. Late in March good news arrived from the Snake River area; the herd wintering there, about 1,800 head, had suffered only about one percent loss. [107] This augured well for a good year of stock raising on the Montana ranges.

In May John Bielenberg and Fred Loeber returned from a visit to the herd on the Sun River to report "an unconfirmed rumor on Sun River that Mr. Fred Kanouse, who was on trial here a couple of years ago, killed a man near Whoop-up recently and was captured and hung the next day." [108] Such were the vagaries of cattle-raising along Montana's Sun River in 1875.

With Mitch Oxarart injured and unable to ride for a while, the spring and early summer gathering of the cattle purchased over the winter and early in the spring took a bit longer than usual. That year, as before, the cattle would be fattened and driven in the fall to Cheyenne for rail transport to Chicago, a route and system by now well established.

During the summer, Kohrs continued cattle sales in the Deer Lodge Valley, advertising "Cattle for sale! I have now at my ranch 100 head of prime beef cattle from my Sun River Herd, which I offer for sale at reasonable figures." [109]

As in 1874, Kohrs' and Bielenberg's cattle, and Kohrs' and Peel's cattle — a combination that had been active for at least two years by then — "were again driven in two herds, one from Sun River and Deer Lodge and the other from Bitter Root." [110] The drive came in the fall. [111] They sold off some of Oxarart's herd near the railhead in eastern Wyoming, while the remainder of the steers went by rail to Chicago. Part of Hooban's herd went to Iowa feeders, with the remainder, "a thousand and four head," going to pasture along the North Platte (presumably near today's Rawlins) to winter because Kohrs could find no buyer. [112]

During that fall of 1875 two items appeared in the local press testifying to Con Kohrs's continuing financial growth (and by inference, to John Bielenberg's). The October 15 issue of The New Northwest reported the financial condition of the First National Bank in Deer Lodge, whose total resources and liabilities each amounted to $289,079.08. Conrad Kohrs served as a director, and while his salary is not mentioned nor the amount of his bank stock noted, his directorship showed his important place in the local economy and infers that his wealth was considerable. A month later the local press reported under its "Heaviest Taxpayers" column that Kohrs's personal property evaluation had remained about the same for tax purposes as the preceding year — $17,896, requiring a tax of $394.69. [113]

Con returned from the Cheyenne trip the week before Christmas, 1875. He had sold 1,600 head at Cheyenne, and had taken about 500 to Chicago, where they sold at low prices. He bought a ranch near the railroad, probably near Cheyenne, and reported plans to winter a herd there and sell them in 1876. [114]

The Centennial Year of 1876 saw Con travelling in January to the Bitterroot Valley to buy cattle, utilizing an area that had been a source of at least part of his herds for the past few years. [115] Later in the spring Con and John added 400 head of stock cattle to the herd at the home ranch. These small bunches, and two others, combined to form a herd of about 1,500, which he planned to drive to Cheyenne around 1 June. [116] The herd formed earlier than planned, and was slightly smaller: 1,200. In late May Con left with them [117] Almost three months later, in mid-August, Kohrs arrived near Cheyenne. [118] Not long afterward, John Bielenberg, with Augusta and the girls, met Con, Tom Hooban, and Mitch Oxarart at Laramie, and the group "started on our trip to the Centennial at Philadelphia."

The group left the girls with Con's mother in Davenport, Iowa. Then the adults travelled to the Philadelphia Exposition by way of Chicago and Niagara Falls. The trip continued following the closing of the Exposition in November. The group first went to Washington and then to Cincinnati. From here they journeyed to Chicago, where they split up. Con, Augusta, and John continued on to Davenport to pick up the children, Hooban went to Wisconsin to visit family, and Mitch returned to Montana. [119]

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