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Grant-Kohrs Ranch
Historic Resource Study/Historic Structures Report/Cultural Resources Statement |
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FOOTNOTES
Chapter 1
1. Conrad Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience in the Western Cattle Trade," Breeder's Gazette (Dec. 18, 1912), p. 1329.
2. "Diary of James Harkness, of the Firm of LaBarge, Harkness, and Company: St. Louis to Fort Benton by the Missouri River and to the Deer Lodge Valley and Return in 1862," Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, 10 vols. (reprinted., Boston, Mass.: J. S. Canner & Co., Inc., 1966), 2:353.
3. Robert H. Fletcher, Free Grass to Fences: The Montana Range Cattle Story (New York: University Publishers, Inc., for the Montana Historical Society, 1960), pp. 6-7.
5. Granville Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier As Seen in the Journals and Reminiscences of Granville Stuart: Gold-Miner, Trader, Merchant, Rancher, and Politician, ed. Paul C. Phillips, 2 vols. in 1 (1925; reprinted., Glendale, Cal.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1967), p. 97.
6. Johnnie Grant, "Extract from Memoirs of Johnnie Grant," MS Library, Montana Historical Society, Helena, p. 1.
8. Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:97.
9. Charles Wayland Towne and Edward Norris Wentworth, Cattle and Men (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955), pp. 235-37. Some of the longhorn characteristics showed in cattle that were brought into the Montana ranges in the early 1860s and known locally as "Spanish Cattle."
10. James L. Thane, "Montana Territory: The Formative Years 1862-1870 (Ph.D. diss., University of Iowa, 1972), p. 32.
11. Grant, "Extract from Memoirs," pp. 1-2.
13. Ibid., p. 3. The construction of this house is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 2 of this report.
14. Fletcher, Free Grass, p. 20.
15. Conrad Kohrs, "Autobiography of Conrad Kohrs," MS, ca. 1913, copy at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS, Deer Lodge, Montana, p. 37.
17. Receipts, 26 Feb. 1863 and 26 June 1863, Conrad Warren Papers, on microfilm at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS.
18. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 44.
22. Kohrs' life during this period is covered in Larry Gill, "From Butcher Boy to Beef King: The Gold Camp Days of Conrad Kohrs," Montana: The Magazine of Western History 8, no. 2 (April 1958):40-55. In somewhat embellished yet useful form.
Conrad Kohrs's lifelong interest in mining was partially summarized in a 1940 article:
In 1866 Mr. Kohrs, with . . . [at least five other investors and] . . . John Bielenberg, organized the Rock Creek Ditch and Mining Company for the purpose of digging the Rock Creek Ditch so that there might be sufficient water available for the [placer] mines. By 1871 they had expended $168,000 on the ditch and collected from the miners for its use about $144,000 in the years 1870-71. Later Mr. Kohrs purchased the interest of all his partners but Mr. Bielenberg, and also became interested in Pioneer Gulch where he carried on mining operations from 1873 to 1919, working over a dozen claims. But perhaps his most lucrative mining venture was at Gable, where he is said to have made about $100,000, a fortune that enabled him to expand greatly his stock raising activities.
J. J. McDonald, "Conrad Kohrs, Montana Pioneer," Americana Illustrated 34, no. 3 (July 1940):482-93.
23. Interview, Conrad Kohrs Warren with John Albright, 14 May 1975, at Deer Lodge, Montana, p. 2. A copy of his interview is on file at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS.
24. Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:98.
25. Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1329.
26. Conrad Kohrs, "Autobiography," MS. pencil and pen, "dictated at Helena 1885," Conrad Kohrs Collection, Montana Historical Society, hereafter cited as "1885 Autobiography."
27. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 70.
29. Grant, "Extract from Memoirs," p. 4.
30. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 73. The transaction is recorded in Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 1, Courthouse, Deer Lodge, Montana, p. 161. The purchase of the house included a few pieces of furniture that Grant had picked up, some of which remain today.
31. "Letter From Blackfoot," Montana Post, Virginia City, Montana, 16 Dec. 1865, p. 1. The article is reproduced as Appendix 1.
32. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 1, pp. 120-21.
Chapter 2
1. John Clay, "The Passing of Conrad Kohrs," Breeder's Gazette, 2 Dec. 1920, p. 1163.
2. Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1329. The "C" on the left shoulder and "K" on the left hip are illustrated in the Brand Book of the Montana Stock Growers' Association for 1903 (Helena: Independent Publishing Co., 1903), p. 163. Presumably the 1867 brand was similarly placed.
3. Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1329.
4. See Kohrs's "Autobiography," pp. 76-80, for his discussion of the project.
8. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 83.
9. Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1328.
10. J. H. Gehrmann to Montana Historical Society, 19 Nov. 1974, p. 2.
11. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 83.
15. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 86.
19. McDonald, "Conrad Kohrs, Montana Pioneer," p. 493.
20. Deer Lodge County Deed Book A, Courthouse, Anaconda, Montana, p. 424. Since there are no metes and bounds given, the exact location of the ranch is not known, and it is not shown on the map outlining the growth of the home ranch. In all probability, however, its location on Tin Cup Joe Creek puts it in the southern portion of the home ranch.
21. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 87.
22. The New Northwest (Deer Lodge, Mont.), 8 Oct. 1869.
23. Ibid., 31 Dec. 1869. The very real possibility that this ad represented a landmark in the development of American humor should be considered.
24. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 88-89.
25. The New Northwest, 31 Dec. 1869.
26. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 89.
28. Kohrs' character and place in the community is examined more thoroughly in Chapter VIII.
29. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 89. The birth was announced in the Friday, 11 Mar. 1870 issue of The New Northwest: "Born. To the wife of Conrad Kohrs, on the 2nd, a daughter."
30. The New Northwest, l Apr. 1870.
32. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 1, pp. 619-21.
36. Conrad K. Warren to Mons L. Tiegen, Secretary, Montana Stockgrowers Association, Helena, 8 Feb. 1973, on file at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS.
37. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 1, pp. 632-33.
38. The New Northwest, 9 Sept. 1870.
41. The Gazette (Helena, Mont.), 3 Oct. 1870.
42. The New Northwest, 7 Oct. 1870.
48. Kohrs the community-builder, cattleman, county commissioner, and entrepreneur remained always Kohrs the miner. Mining was important to him for the duration of his life in Montana, and had, indeed, brought him to the Deer Lodge Valley in the first place. The chatty columns of The New Northwest in 1870 -- especially the "Local Brevities Section" -- give some indication of the level of his activities in the fall and winter of 1870, and help bring the overall breadth of Conrad Kohrs's mining activities into proper relationship with his other interests: 27 May -- "New and Kohrs leased the Oro Fino mines and ditch -- near Silver Bow -- to John Hays of Cable; the terms were private"; 9 Sept. -- "Catching, Kohrs and Company made $4,059 on Sept. 8 from their Pike's Peak operations"; 11 Nov. -- "Water was shut off from the Rock Creek Ditch which supplied the Pilgrim Bar gold diggings. . . . Catching, Kohrs and Company water bill for the season: $15,000. Seasons intake, upper ground, $45,000, lower grounds $185,000"; 23 Dec. -- "Kohrs, Bratterton and Hays are building a 500-inch-capacity ditch from the North Fork of Warm Springs Creek to the quartz flats. Estimated cost, $10,000." Kohrs himself summed up the year as follows: "During this year I pursued my regular business, buying and selling cattle and mining on Cable." "Autobiography," p. 89.
49. The New Northwest, 27 Jan. 1871. The party-goer could have served the cause of history a hundred or so years later had he taken the time to describe the outbuildings in more detail, but in the manner of such things he provided only a tantalizing comment on the good quality of the outbuildings at the ranch without enumerating or describing them. The "magnificently furnished" home no doubt reflected Augusta's two years of residence there.
5O. Ibid., 10 Feb. 1871. The newspaper inferred that Bielenberg would drive the cattle himself, which he probably did not do. He had to run the home ranch.
51. Ibid., 17 Mar. 1871. Kohrs does not mention sheep in the post-1865 portions of his autobiography. They could not have been a vitally important part of the ranch scene, but they did have a place in the Kohrs and Bielenberg stock raising operations.
54. Ibid., 21 Apr. 1871 and 10 June 1871.
57. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 1, p. 461, and pp. 282-83, both dated 24 Aug. 1871.
58. Ibid., p. 492, and pp. 486-87, both dated 10 Oct. 1871. These transactions, and all those concerning the creation of the home ranch, appear on Map 9, "Kohrs and Bielenberg -- Home Ranch: Building the Ranch, Land Acquisition, 1866-1908." Because the map shows the areas concerned, an exact transcription of the metes and bounds in each deed does not appear in the text. A listing of land transactions filed under the names of Conrad and Augusta Kohrs and John Bielenberg appears as Appendix 5.
59. The New Northwest, 16 Sept. 1871.
62. Kohrs, "'Autobiography," p. 92.
63. Attorney, Powell County Transcribed Release of Mortgages, and Power of Book 1, p. 321.
66. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 93. Kohrs wrote his autobiography in 1913.
67. Ibid., p. 95. Notice of the arrival of the herd to Deer Lodge appeared in The New Northwest on 11 May: "C. Kohrs & Pemberton & Kelly, are bringing fine blooded stock to Montana."
68. The New Northwest, 11 May 1872.
70. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 2, pp. 286-88. The next entry in the deed book, covering pages 288-89, transfers all Kohrs's interest in the Rock Creek Ditch Company to Bielenberg for the exact sum ($9,000) that Bielenberg was paid for the land he just sold Kohrs. Yet Kohrs did not cut his ties with the ditch company after that transaction any more than Bielenberg cut his with the ranch after selling all of the property to Kohrs. The reason for the transfers is not known, but it did not signify any basic change in the relationship between the two, and might have resulted from Kohrs's desire to ease his tax burden.
71. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 95.
72. Ibid., pp. 95-97. The quotation is from p. 95. The number of the herd of Texas cattle -- 3,200 -- also appears in The New Northwest, 26 Oct. 1872.
73. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 96-98. The quotation is from p. 96. Kohrs's comment about hard work is interesting. From the day he entered Montana until he was quite aged, Con Kohrs worked hard. Why he chose this time to comment on the difficulties of the cattle business is unclear.
74. The New Northwest, 6 July 1872.
77. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 2, p. 329.
78. The New Northwest, 15 Feb. 1873. His reference to "grade animal" apparently refers to the cross of the registered bulls with the range cows, "grade" usually referring to an animal with one parent registered and the other of inferior breeding.
82. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 99.
83. The New Northwest, 17 May 1873. An announcement of Con's appointment was in the 10 May 1873 issue of the paper.
85. Ibid., 2 Aug. 1873. Kohrs does not mention cattle in his autobiography for the summer of 1873.
87. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 99-101.
88. The New Northwest, 15 Nov. 1873.
89. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 100. The land between the home ranch and town is included in a 5 Apr. 1884 transaction, Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 4, pp. 502-3, suggesting that the purchase from Pemberton and Kelly was not recorded with the county, or if it was, has not yet been located. In his autobiography, Kohrs refers to the ranch as the "Jim Stuart Place" (p. 100). It is probable that this is the same complex known later as the Tom Stuart Place, site of the present visitor contact station and restrooms building.
90. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 101.
92. The New Northwest, 28 Feb. 1874. In 1874 this publication remained one of Montana Territory's major newspapers. Presumably then, their description of the magnitude of the house in relation to all other Montana homes can be considered accurate.
94. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 102.
95. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 2, p. 452.
96. 2 May 1874. The American Herd Book and the Canadian Herd Book for Short Horns are discussed in Chapter VIII. Appendix 9 is a condensation of the Kohrs and Bielenberg Short Horn Breeding Book.
97. The New Northwest, 9 May 1874.
100. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 102. The relationship between cattlemen and their brokers is discussed in Gene Gressley, Bankers and Cattlemen (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971).
101. The New Northwest, 20 June 1874, reported 180 head of "choice beef cattle" sold to a Mr. Forbis of Omaha, who had them driven to the railroad and shipped to Omaha. Apparently Forbis was a feeder, and would, after fattening them, ship the cattle to Chicago. Granville Stuart puts the number of cattle at 300 in his Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:98. Whatever the exact figure, 1874 marks the first sale of Kohrs beef to Chicago.
102. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 103.
103. The New Northwest, 20 June 1874. A copy of the document is on file at the Montana Historical Society, and at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS.
106. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 104-5. Kohrs might mean the drive of 1875, since he did drive two herds to the railhead that year.
107. The New Northwest, 2 Apr. 1875.
110. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 104-5.
111. The New Northwest, 8 Oct. 1875. Con departed Deer Lodge on October 7 to join the herds already under way to Cheyenne.
112. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 105. The autobiography loses some of its sequential clarity following 1874 and appears to jump to 1876. The narrative here, therefore, is based primarily on reports of cattle sales, purchases, and drives in The New Northwest, which reported events as they happened, as opposed to the autobiography, which, while generally quite accurate chronologically, was, after all, composed by Kohrs in 1913, many years after the events he was describing.
113. The New Northwest, 26 Nov. 1875.
114. Ibid., 24 Dec. 1875. The article closed with the announcement that Con had travelled to California as well, to "observe mining" there. Whether this is the trip that Kohrs places in his autobiography for 1874, or is indeed a trip he took in 1875 and did not mention in his autobiography, is not clear.
119. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 105-7. The quotation is from p. 105. The chronological sequence is not clear in this section of the autobiography, as was noted in fn. [108]. This much is clear. The New Northwest accounts prove that there were drives to the southeastern Wyoming railhead in both 1875 and 1876. (See the immediately previous footnotes.) The "Centennial at Philadelphia" was undoubtedly the Centennial Exposition held at Philadelphia from May Until November 1876, noted in Luman H. Long, ed., 1968 Centennial Edition: The World Almanac and Book of Facts (New York: Newspaper Enterprise Association), p. 174. It is possible that the drive described on pp. 104 and 105 of the autobiography is the 1876 one, leaving the 1875 drive unrecorded.
An equally perplexing question concerns who ran the ranch during the absence of Con Kohrs, John Bielenberg, Mitch Oxarart, and Tom Hooban. The answer is not evident in the autobiography.
120. The New Northwest, 26 Jan. 1877.
121. Kohrs calls the area "South Park." Just south of the range near Rawlins, where the cattle had wintered, is the park today called North Park. From Rawlins, the trip to North Park would have been a relatively short one, while the trip to today's South Park would have required the cattle to be driven across North Park, over a mountain range into Middle Park, and then over another range into South Park. It does not make sense for Kohrs to have driven his herd through two rich grasslands to get to a third -- the farthest away from the starting point as well. In addition the autobiography does not mention crossing any mountains, which it probably would have had both high ranges been crossed. The evidence indicates that what Kohrs called South Park is today called North Park, and can be located on current maps by the town of Walden in its center.
122. Kohrs, "Autobiography" pp. 107-8. The first quotation is from p. 107, the second from p. 108.
123. Ibid., p. 108. The ambulance at the park today is the one mentioned in this account, and is probably the vehicle that brought Con and Augusta home from Fort Benton in 1868, and the one used for a variety of other purposes by the family over the active years of the home ranch.
124. Ibid., pp. 111-12. Regent and Strideway are shown in Illustration 3, taken from M. A. Leeson, History of Montana, 1885, p. 556. The thoroughbred cattle were Short Horns (also called Durhams).
125. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 3, pp. 359-60.
126. Ibid., pp. 398-99. The date of initial purchase by Con and Augusta is not known. Most of Kohrs's land transactions -- mining, agricultural, and commercial (such as city lots) -- were in both his and Augusta's name. Frequently he and Bielenberg jointly owned land as well.
127. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 113-14. The "Indian scare" was probably a carryover from the Bannock-Paiute War the preceding year, when Con had noted the Indians "were restive" in southern Wyoming.
The eastern and western routes are shown on Map 2, copied from Conrad Kohrs's Papers, with the routes he and C. K. Warren marked on it emphasized. Towne and Wentworth, Cattle and Men, p. 244, notes the use of the Powder River Basin as a grazing area for Texas cattle in the late 1870s and early 1880s.
128. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 113-14. John Clay, My Life on the Range (New York: Antiquarian Press, Ltd., 1961), p. 8, mentions the visit:
"In the summer of 1879 Conrad Kohrs, then of Deer Lodge, Mont. (of whom more hereafter) spent a few days at Bow Park and bought some stock. Hope [the owner of the stock Con purchased] was immensely struck with his strong personality, and often referred to it. There was a glamour about his talk as he opened up the vein of his past experience." Clay's book, partly memoir, partly history, and partly the report of a participant, is an excellent source for the study of the economics of the cattle business and the approaches to it taken by its various leaders.
129. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 3, pp. 647-48.
130. Kohrs, "Autobiography," Pp. 114-15. Fletcher, Free Grass, p. 45, also notes the figure and remarks that it was just such phenomenal growth figures for open range herds in Montana that helped spark the cattle boom of the early 1880s.
131. Black Leg is an infectious disease of young cattle and, less often, of sheep and swine, involving high fever and swelling under the skin. It is usually fatal.
132. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 114-15. In his letter to Teigen, 8 February, Con Warren discusses the 1880 drive and wintering the herd on Goose Creek. He notes that "they summered on the Tongue and shipped for the first time on the Northern Pacific from Miles City in 1881." Therein probably lies the explanation for Kohrs's retention of the herd in north eastern Wyoming. He undoubtedly was awaiting the arrival of a railhead convenient to eastern Montana, and was in a secure enough financial position that he did not have to sell the herd gathered at the Sun River Range in 1880 and could await the imminent arrival of the Northern Pacific.
133. John T. Schlebecker, Cattle Raising on the Plains, 1900-1961 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963), pp. 18-19. Schlebecker's first chapter is a summation of developments in the industry from the post-Civil War period until 1900, and discusses the historical background of the changes in the industry, the economics of it, and the subsequent changes in marketing of western-grown beef.
134. Mark H. Brown and W. R. Felton, Before Barbed Wire: L. A. Huffman, Photographer on Horseback (New York: Bramhall House, 1956), p. 98. This book illustrates the range cattle days -- especially the latter years -- in eastern Montana with a veracity only a man like Huffman, who travelled with the range cattlemen and their herds and photographed them, could do. Other works that are of significant value in presenting in a broad perspective the overall Montana cattle story, and the 1880 period in particular, are Ernest Staples Osgood, The Day of the Cattleman (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1929), and William C. Everhart, Ray H. Mattison, and Robert M. Utley, The Cattlemen's Empire, The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings, Theme XV, Westward Expansion and the Extension of the National Boundaries to the Pacific, 1830-1898 (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Dept. of the Interior [NPS], 1959) The chapter on the cattle frontier in Ray Allen Billington, Westward Expansion, 4th ed. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1974) also merits consideration.
135. John W. Hakola, "Samuel T. Hauser and the Economic Development of Montana: A Case Study in Nineteenth Century Frontier Capitalism" (PhD diss., Indiana University, 1961), p. 226. Hakola's dissertation includes a chapter on the formation and development of the DHS. It is on file at the Montana Historical Society.
136. K. Ross Toole, Montana: An Uncommon Land (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959) p. 91. In Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1329, Con remarks that the coming of the railroad "materially expedited" the entry of Texas herds onto the eastern and central Montana plains.
137. Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1329.
138. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 116. The actual mechanics of the case appear to have involved the railroad suing Kohrs, and Kohrs con testing the amount involved. The case is on file with the Clerk of the Court, Deer Lodge County courthouse, and was not transcribed for the Powell County Records when the two counties were created from Deer Lodge County. See Cases 1840 and 1841, District Court, Second Judicial District, Deer Lodge County, Montana Territory, Utah and Northern Railroad Plaint Against Conrad Kohrs, et al., Defendant. Photographic copies are on file at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS. The case began on 21 June 1882 and was not settled until 19 Mar. 1884. The right-of-way was granted, and recorded on 14 Mar. 1884 in Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 4, pp. 495-98 for both the home ranch and upper ranch.
139. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 116.
140. Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:165.
141. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 117.
142. Clay, My Life on the Range, p. 26. Clay was referring to the whole cattle-raising west, not just Montana. "Stags" refers to incompletely castrated bulls, not functional as bulls, but not gaining weight as steers either.
143. Range Cattle Book, Pioneer Cattle Company, Conrad Warren Papers, p. 12. Custer Station was a rail loading point on the Northern Pacific near Billings.
144. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 117-18. All quotations but the final one are from p. 117.
145. Ibid., p. 118. A fire at the home that October caused little damage and is discussed in the Historic Structure Report.
146. Ibid., p. 119. Fletcher, Free Grass, p. 48, discusses the transaction but places it in 1882. Kohrs's autobiography is somewhat misleading as to chronology at this point, but a careful examination of the text appears to date the transaction in 1883, probably in the early spring, as soon as the cattle could be moved to a point where the new Owners could assume charge of them.
147. Kohrs, "Autobiography,'" p. 119. The deal is also described in Warren to Teigan, Feb. 73, p. 5.
148. Winfield Scott Downs, ed., Encyclopedia of Northwest Biography (New York: The American Historical Research Company, Inc., 1941), p. 22. The story of the DHS and Conrad Kohrs's part in its operations over the years following 1883 is a major part of the Kohrs and Bielenberg history As such, in this narrative it forms part of the story of range cattle activities following 1883.
The 1883 Manager's Report (Folder 24, Box 62, Collection 37, 1883 Annual Manager's Report, Pioneer Cattle Company, Montana Historical Society) for the DHS indicated that Kohrs and Bielenberg had bought into a rapidly developing stock-raising operation: 13,013 "cattle on range," valued at $35.00 each, totaled $455,455.00; the 78 "horses at ranch" $7,385.57; and the "5 wagons and harnesses, 3 ranches, 320 Tons of Hay," and "cash on hand," lesser amounts. The "Approximate Gain" for 1883 stood at $71,067.95, although it is not clear if this was net profit for the year The report serves to bring the full magnitude of the DHS operation to a "facts and figures" level, and when the DHS business is combined with the Kohrs and Bielenberg activity, the result represents a major portion of the Montana cattle business for 1883.
149. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 4, pp. 563-65. The land was purchased for $400 from the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and probably involved "lieu lands," those areas granted the railroads out of the public domain that did not lie along the right-of-way but were granted in lieu of such land.
150. The New Northwest, 10 Aug. 1883.
152. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 120-23. Kohrs's description of the park as he saw it in 1883 is most interesting reading and provides a seldom seen view of the very early years of Yellowstone.
153. The New Northwest, 2 Oct. 1883. Once again The New Northwest serves as a source of data on the Kohrs and Bielenberg activities, while simultaneously reminding the reader of an earlier and more literary era of journalism in America.
154. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 122-23. The New Northwest, 19 Oct. 1883, numbered the herd at 1,100. Custer Station was in east central Montana, on the Northern Pacific route.
155. Kohrs, "'Autobiography," p. 124.
156. The New Northwest, 19 Oct. 1883.
159. Brown and Felton, Before Barbed Wire, p. 102, quoting Granville Stuart, whose estimates of cattle do not always agree with Kohrs's autobiography. In this case a few thousand makes little difference.
160. The New Northwest, 28 Mar. 1884. The work Con Kohrs did in helping create the group that eventually became the Montana Stockgrowers Association is covered in Fletcher, Free Grass. Fletcher's study described the development of the association. Kohrs, while a leader in the organization and an important figure in its early formation, did not work alone, but in the mainstream of the movement to organize.
161. The New Northwest, 28 Mar. 1884. Kohrs and Bielenberg might, indeed, have been the first to introduce Herefords. But the research effort involved in proving this one way or the other would necessitate time that is not yet available, and the issue has less than a first priority rating among the many research needs of Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS. It remains an open question, and a potentially interesting one to pursue.
163. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 128.
164. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 4, pp. 502-3. The transaction was also mentioned in The New Northwest, 11 Apr. 1884, which noted that "the ranch adjoins that of Kohrs and has some excellent meadow land."
171. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 125.
172. The New Northwest, 10 and 31 Oct. 1884.
173. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 129.
174. Clay, "The Passing of Conrad Kohrs," p. 1162. In his combination history and reminiscence My Life on the Range, p. 119, Clay recalled the same evening but added a significant detail showing the heights to which some rose that night: "Con Kohrs, as l remember, gave a supper at Fausts's one evening. One of our Wyoming bunch became very hilarious and a kind hearted policeman had to eject him and show him the way to his hotel." The 1884 convention, an important part of the range cattle story, is discussed in Clay, My Life on the Range, and in Osgood, Day of the Cattleman, Chapter VI, "The Cattleman and the Public Domain," pp. 176-215. The chronological sequence of the Kohrs autobiography is somewhat unclear at this point, pages 125-29, where Kohrs discusses the 1884 convention. Since many other sources noted placed Kohrs there in 1884, and the autobiography does not, Kohrs's recollections have yielded in this case to the numerous other sources.
175. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 125. Kohrs's plans to remain at home until early 1885 are noted in The New Northwest, 26 Nov. 1884.
176. The New Northwest, 23 May and 20 June 1884.
178. Range Cattle Book, Pioneer Cattle Company, Conrad Warren Papers, p 14. One item, "Estimated Killed by thieves . . . 100," indicates some of the problem of rustling and slaughter of range cattle by people other than the owners.
179. The New Northwest, 16 Jan. 1885.
180. Brown and Felton, Before Barbed Wire, p. 120.
181. Kohrs, ""Autobiography," p. 125.
182. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 4, p. 585.
183. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 125.
184. The New Northwest, 13, 20, and 27 Feb. 1885.
186. Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:214.
187. Hakola, "Samuel T. Hauser," p. 244, citing the Helena Weekly Independent, 8 Jan. 1885. A later "List of Stockholders, Pioneer Cattle Co." showed "Con Kohrs, J. Bielenberg 3333; A. J. Davis 3333, A. J. Seligman 1743; H. P. Kenneth 363; E. G. Bailey 432; H. J. Davis 433; G. Stuart I." Folder 29. Box 62, Collection 37, Montana Historical Society.
188. Range Cattle Inventory Records, Pioneer Cattle Company, Conrad Warren Papers, p. 16.
189. The New Northwest, 20 Feb. 1885.
190. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 125-28.
Chapter 3
2. Billington, Westward Expansion, p. 686.
3. Brown and Felton, Before Barbed Wire, p. 102.
4. The New Northwest, 18 Aug. 1884.
5. Kohrs, "1885 Autobiography," p. 20. (This is the manuscript autobiography on file at the Montana Historical Society and not the eventual 1913 product that has been extensively referred to in the preceding chapters. See fn. 26, Chapt. 1, for the initial citation of this source.)
6. Hakola, "Samuel T. Hauser," p. 247.
7. The New Northwest, 19 Feb. 1886. The "Race Track" might he that at the north edge of town, but it probably refers to Race Track Creek, about five miles south of Deer Lodge.
9. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 129-30.
10. 1886 Annual Manager's Report, 16 Jan. 1886, Pioneer Cattle Company, Folder 29, Box 62, Collection 37, Montana Historical Society.
11. H. P. Kennett to Samuel Hauser, 31 May 1886, in Hakola, "Samuel T. Hauser," citing Collection 37, Montana Historical Society, p. 249.
12. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 130-31. Appendix 7 is a newspaper article dated 10 Sept. 1886 in which Kohrs discusses the leases at some length and infers that leasing Canadian lands had been under consideration for some time.
14. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 131. The New Northwest, 29 Oct. 1886, carried an item stating that "We regret to learn that our esteemed citizen, Conrad Kohrs, Esq. is not recovering as rapidly as he had hoped and has started on a journey to New York for medical treatment." Possibly the news paper was reporting Kohrs's Davenport trip. The late October date would coincide with fall roundup and loading and shipping followed by Kohrs's travelling to Davenport for medical aid.
15. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 131. Publicly, however, Kohrs remained quite optimistic. See Appendix 7, "Cattle Talk: Points Picked Up in a Casual Conversation With A Well-Informed Grower," The New Northwest, 10 Sept. 1886.
16. Range Cattle Inventory Records, Pioneer Cattle Company, Conrad Warren Papers, p. 18.
17. Kohrs "Autobiography," p. 131.
21. One of the best general descriptions of that winter and its effect on the range cattle industry can be found in Billington, Westward Expansion, pp. 686-87. See also Robert S. Fletcher, "That Hard Winter in Montana, 1886-87," Agricultural History 4 (1930):123-30. See also Appendix 8 for newspaper accounts of the winter and of the cattle situation, as taken from the pages of The New Northwest.
22. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 133.
23. Billington, Westward Expansion, p. 676.
25. Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:237-38.
26. Clay, My Life on the Range, pp. 179-80.
27. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 133. This does not tally with the figures given in the manager's report of about 4,500 calves branded. The manager's report might not have represented the entire DHS herd, however. Or possibly the 8,000 figure might have been the total of Kohrs's and Bielenberg's CK herds added to the calf crop of the DHS herds of 1886. While the exact figures are not clear, one thing most certainly is -- the losses suffered by the Pioneer Cattle Company, the Kohrs and Bielenberg partnership, and by most other Montana cattle-growers that winter were horrendous. Brown and Felton, in Before Barbed Wire, p. 109, comment: "The Pioneer Cattle Company lost 66 per cent of its cattle; and Stuart left the battle of getting the outfit back onto its feet to Kohrs and others."
28. Range Cattle Inventory Records, Pioneer Cattle Company, Conrad Warren Papers, p. 20. This loss was far above the hopeful and, for conditions, naively optimistic prediction that appeared in The New Northwest early in the spring before the total losses were known: "Mr. N. J. Bielenberg estimates the average loss of cattle in Montana at 25 per cent -- mostly of immigrant cattle -- and of sheep a little heavier. His loss of sheep is about eight or nine per cent." 22 Apr 1887. It was Nick Bielenberg who made the estimate to the newspaper, not John, who was apparently a bit more taciturn in his relations with the fourth estate.
29. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 133-34. Fletcher, Free Grass, p. 14, mentions the Davis offer as well.
30. Fletcher, Free Grass, pp. 86-87, contains a discussion of the less severe nature of the 1886-87 winter in the southwest Montana valleys.
32. Towne and Wentworth, Cattle and Men, pp. 268-69.
33. 24 June 1887. Stuart, in Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:237-38, agreed on the quality of the spring grass: "The spring was very wet, one heavy rain followed another in rapid succession and the grass come on luxuriantly."
34. Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:237-38. See also Warren to Teigen, 8 Feb. 1973, where Warren notes "Stuart was out as owner-manager," p. 5.
36. Stuart, Forty Years on the Frontier, 2:238.
38. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 134-35.
Chapter 4
1. The New Northwest, 5 May 1887.
3. Fletcher, Free Grass, p. 111. Billington, Westward Expansion, pp. 685-87, also discusses the changes in the range cattle industry as a whole, though not in Montana specifically Brown and Felton, Before Barbed Wire, pp. 151-56, touches on the changes as well. The bulk of the photographs in the work, and the accompanying narrative describe post-1887 open-range cattle operations, chronicling what was slowly ending as it was ending. A contemporary evaluation of the changes then beginning, and the clear statement that the open range was not doomed instantly after 1887, can be found in Fletcher, Free Grass, pp. 113-17.
4. Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1329.
5. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 137. Payette, Idaho, and Ontario, Oregon, are northwest of Boise and sit on either side of the Idaho-Oregon line.
6. Ibid. Big Sandy is just northeast of Fort Benton, near the bend of the Missouri River. Bowdoin was near the DHS ranges to the southeast.
7. Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1329.
8. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 137.
9. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 9, pp. 408-9. The transaction took place on 18 July 1888. Other business transactions transpired at about this same time. Kohrs devotes a few pages of his autobiography at this juncture, between the end of 1888 and beginning of 1889, to a resume of his mining activities in the period 1884-88. It shows that the mines provided him problems, losses, and then, around 1888, moderate profits. That he could be purchasing stock in mining operations, mining, and selling water from ditches partially or fully owned by him at the same time he was rebuilding the CK and DHS cattle herds is strong enough testimony to the validity of his theory of horizontal business diversification. It might also provide a clue to Kohrs the businessman, who proceeded with vigor in diverse business operations such as mining and cattle raising, not necessarily slowing one down when experiencing hard times in another facet of his enterprises.
10. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 140-42. The quotation above is from page 142.
12. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 7, p. 163.
13. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 144.
14. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 6, p. 66.
15. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 7, p. 182.
16. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 5, p. 73.
17. Ibid., p. 74. Map 3 shows the growth of the home ranch graphically.
18. 1 May 1891. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 144, indicates that the wedding had originally been scheduled for the last of December. The "smilax" referred to in this case was probably the florist's "smilax," a green twining plant used for decorations but no relation to the evergreen of the genus Smilax. The two "smilax" plants are described in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed.
19. Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 144-45.
21. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 5, p. 431. (A section is a mile square.)
22. Ibid., p. 432. The cattle business probably did not furnish all the capital for these land purchases. Throughout the 1890s, Kohrs and Bielenberg continued operating in the mining and real estate businesses.
23. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 145. Again the profit margin was probably provided as much by buying low as by selling high.
24. Item BB K827K #42772, Ledger, 1892-1901, Conrad K. Kohrs, Montana Historical Society, p. 75.
25. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 7, p. 355. The transaction was entered on 11 July 1892.
26. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 145.
27. Kohrs Ledger, 1892-1901, Montana Historical Society, p. 75. While there is no doubt that the taxes represent property of some kind, its exact nature is not known. It could be that the taxes represented assessments of cattle themselves, and if such is the case, it indicates that the size of the herds in Deer Lodge County -- presumably on the home ranch -- far exceeded anything yet imagined. Probably they represent realty taxes, and as such indicate the size of real property holdings in the counties involved, and provide, roughly a gauge to the extent of the cattle business in each of the counties in any given year. Yet this is speculation, and to use the tax data in a concrete and definitive manner, a careful examination would have to be made of the as yet inaccessible assessment records and tax bills in the counties involved. The tax bills, while indicative of business activity level, provide only a rough idea of that level, and that they are cited in the text in this study is not a reflection of any serious or probing investigation. Whether or not these taxes represent Kohrs's and Bielenberg's mining activities as well as their cattle-raising business is also unknown.
28. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 146.
29. Ibid., pp. 148-49. John Boardman's increasingly major role in the range cattle management is also noted in McDonald, "Conrad Kohrs, Montana Pioneer," pp 482-83. Kohrs's injury that spring was not serious enough to cancel a planned party. Kohrs wrote that "invitations had been issued for a large party at our house, to be given on the 25th of May. My wife and daughters wished to recall the invitations but I insisted that they go on just the same. It was a happy party. There were eighty present. The sitting room was large enough to accommodate four sets and dancing continued until half past five in the morning, the birds were singing and the sun high above the horizon." Kohrs's injury occurred as he crossed a ditch on an inspection trip of some of his mining properties. "Autobiography", p. 148.
30. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 149.
33. Kohrs Ledger, 1892-1901, Montana Historical Society, p. 75.
34. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 12, p. 12.
36. Ibid., p. 359. Through an as yet unexplained quirk of the purchase, by some other confusing mechanism, this land, carefully described in the metes and bounds of the deed transfer, was already owned by Kohrs and Bielenberg. Possibly this is a late entry, or a repurchase of land once owned and then sold.
40. Warren to Tiegen, 8 Feb. 1973, pp. 6-7.
41. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 150.
42. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 12, pp. 625-26.
43. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 7, p. 578.
44. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 10, pp. 501-2.
Chapter 5
1. Warren to Tiegen, 8 Feb. 1973, p. 7.
2. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 5, pp. 524-25.
3. Powell County Transcribed Deed Book 10, p. 591.
4. In the Kohrs and Bielenberg Day Book, Montana Historical Society, p. 25, is the notation dated 8-23-99, "Ranch Land a/c: Larabie Bros. & Co. Paid Register of State Lands: Lease #1102 -- $30.00: Lease #l47l -- $80.00." This book is numbered as Item K827, Acc. #42771 in the collections of the Montana Historical Society. Larabie Bros. & Co. were the Kohrs and Bielenberg bankers in Deer Lodge, so presumably the fact that they paid this from tile "ranch land account" meant that the land in question was that of tile home ranch. These leases, however, have not been checked.
6. Ibid. The "five-up-and-five-down" and "wineglass" brands, along with many others, such as "CD," represent Kohrs and Bielenberg partnerships with other investors, sometimes for only a limited period or for only a specific herd. The CD was a herd brand for a partnership of Con Kohrs and Marcus Daly, the brand combining the names Con and Daly The "five-up-and-five-down" and "wineglass" might stand for Kohrs-Bielenberg-Boardman cattle. Sam McKennon was also a frequent partner.
7. Ibid., n. p. It is easy to interpret too much data from the somewhat spartan ledgers and accounts noted above. The phrase 'Labor Account" might have had a special meaning to Kohrs that is not immediately apparent today, and the additional costs might reflect overtime or some other unusual pay.
8. Ibid., May 1900. Antoine Menard was, for about thirty years, the handyman at the ranch and lived for part of that time in the old Tom Stuart place, which sat in the field where the visitor contact station is now located.
9. Ibid., December 1900. The additional hand listed this winter was "Ham Sam, Chinaman," as he usually appears on the various ledgers and in the check stubs that remain among the papers at Grant-Kohrs Ranch. He was frequently only paid every other month. Assuming that he remained at the home ranch in December 1900 and performed his regular cooking duties for the bunkhouse crew, but did not appear on the ledger, the total work force at the ranch stood at seven, not including John Bielenberg, plus J. M. Boardman, whose name appears from time to time in the account books. Presumably Boardman, as a manager of the range herd, frequently came to the ranch to confer with John Bielenberg or to pick up horses for the range cowboys and ranches, since by 1900 he would have done any conferring with Con Kohrs at the Helena house.
The small crew retained at the home ranch, as opposed to the large one providing manpower for the roundup, is also mentioned in a letter to the Montana Historical Society by a nephew of Conrad Kohrs, J. H. Gehrmann of Davenport, Iowa, dated 19 Nov. 1974. Mr. Gehrmann visited the ranch in 1904 when he was twelve and again a few years later. (His recollections in the 19 Nov. 1974 letter and in an interview with Historical Architect Peter Snell of the Denver Service Center will be used later in this chapter as well.) Mr. Gehrmann recalled that "A skeleton crew of cowboys was employed during the winter." The 19 Nov. 1974 letter also contains a delightful account of the two cooks, Wilhemenia in the ranch house, and Ham Sam, the Chinaman, in the bunkhouse:
Augusta had brought back from Germany a distant relative, Wilhemenia, who was an excellent cook, but brooked no interference in her kitchen. Especially the presence of small boys. So my brother and I when we were hungry went to the ranch hands kitchen which was under the control of a Cantonese Chinaman who had been named Sam, because his own name was unpronounceable. Sam always had a pie for us. If the ranch hands were around we knew the pie was in the flour barrel in the store room, because a loose pie was always disappearing when the ranch hands were around. Sam's favorite pie was "Fly Pie" (Raisin Pie) . Sam had a very good friend who had a vegetable garden in Deer Lodge. Once a week the vegetable man walked from Deer Lodge to the ranch with a yoke over his shoulders and two baskets of vegetables suspended on the ends of the yoke. He had one other ranch between Deer Lodge and the Kohrs Ranch, but he adored Ohma Kohrs and the walk was nothing. She had learned a little Chinese and could count up to one hundred in Chinese. After he had delivered her vegetables, he and Sam convened in Sam's kitchen to shave each other heads down to the pigtails.
10. Beginning in 1901 the Powell County Deed Books are no longer transcribed from the original Deer Lodge County Deed Books. All the following Powell County citations, therefore, are not Transcribed Powell County Deed Books, but simply Powell County Deed Books The three purchases involved are recorded in Powell County Deed Book 1, pp. 135, 136, and 137.
11. H. P. White, "The Building of a Cattle Empire," Western Livestock and the Westerner (August 1949), p. 55.
12. White, ibid., writes: "They say we live for our children after we're forty and Con Kohrs' years were much beyond that in 1901. Bill's death seemed to sweep from Montana's Mr. Cattleman much of the purpose of life." Unfortunately White provides no citation to his statement, and it would have been strange for as strong and resolute a character as Conrad Kohrs to give up his purpose in life regardless of the loss he and Augusta and John had suffered. The task of assessing the impact of William's death remains to be accomplished, and probably should not even be attempted by anyone except a biographer immersed in the Kohrs autobiography and available supporting historical data. A key point is that nothing unusual happened until 1906 when corporations began to he formed to manage the Kohrs and Bielenberg interests.
13. Powell County Deed Book 1, p. 385.
16. Powell County Deed Book 2, p. 63.
17. Powell County Deed Book 5, pp. 161-62.
18. Fletcher, Free Grass, p. 95. Fletcher's Chapter 10, "The
Rawhide Era," pp. 94-100, describes the roundup in Montana in Fletcher's
exclusive style, blending the facts with the phrases and attitudes
peculiar to the Montana range cattle business. Fletcher's account does
not mention that one out fit took responsibility for the pool, hired the
hands necessary for the overall effort, and fed those who worked a
certain area. That organization was then reimbursed by the other outfits
and payments from other ranchers frequently appear in the Kohrs and
Bielenberg account books. One of the most common is the "Malta Pool."
Another excellent description of the 1904 general roundup, this one
involving CK cattle and richly illustrated, is the account in Brown and
Felton, Before Barbed Wire, pp. 202-9. William H. Forbis, The
Cowboys (New York:
Time-Life Books, Inc., 1973) describes the
roundup in his Chapter 4, "Roundup Time." This work, as good as some
others in the Time-Life series "The Old West" have been bad,
describes in narrative detail and in drawings the machinations of the
roundup crew and how they went about their work.
19. This is a somewhat speculative statement. But based on the description that J.H. Gehrmann provides in his 19 Nov. 1974 letter and on the narrative in Brown and Felton Before Barbed Wire, pp. 202-9, it would seem that the same roundup is being described, and that it occurred near the old N-N ranch acquired by Kohrs and Bielenberg in 1899.
20. J. H. Gehrmann to Montana Historical Society, 19 Nov. 1974. The Gehrmann boys were the sons of the daughter of Henry Kohrs, Con's older brother; thus Con Kohrs was the boy's granduncle, Augusta a grandaunt, and John Bielenberg, being Con's half brother, was their grand half uncle, not their half grand-uncle.
21. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 153.
22. Powell County Miscellaneous Records Book 1, p. 421.
23. Ibid., p. 469. The transcripts are dated 2 Feb. 1907.
24. Ibid., pp. 597-99. The relationship of the Rock Creek Ditch and Mining Company to the Pioneer Mining Company is not clear since they both involved mining properties.
25. Powell County Deed Book 9, pp. 457-76. There were probably other lands involved in Forest Service leases, although they do not appear in the Powell County Records. Since the figure of 26,787 acres is a conservative one, the addition of only 3,000 acres would put the home ranch up to 30,000 acres, which the family and Deer Lodge tradition hold as being its greatest size. The final purchases of land for the home ranch prior to its consolidation under the Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company in 1908 had come the year be fore, when 120 acres of land along Mullan Creek, west and north of the ranch house, were bought. Ibid. , p. 48. Among the final purchases by the Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company was the southeast quarter of the south east quarter of Section 24, Township 8 North, Range 9 West, comprising 40 acres, recorded in Powell County Deed Book 13, p. 191.
26. The destruction of some of the structures, the partial destruction of at least one other, and the removal, intact, of at least one building posed difficult choices concerning nomenclature. One solution, and the one adopted by the authors of this study, designates those structures that no longer exist as "Non-Extant" and all others as "Historic Structures," per National Park Service practice. This brought its own difficulties concerning two structures, however. Both Historic Structures 17 and 12 are on sites where they were relocated in 1907. They were removed to make way for the Milwaukee Road right-of- way about that time. When referring to them in their original site, they carry a "Non-Extant" title, followed, in parenthesis, by their "Historic Structure" number. The other seven "Non-Extant" structures were destroyed and thus carry only "Non-Extant" labels.
27. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 153.
28. The data is, no doubt, available in various locations, and might well be assembled later. The microfilming of the Kohrs-Bielenberg-Warren Papers. completed in the fall of 1975, has provided one collection that could be surveyed. The Powell, Dawson, McCone, Phillips, Valley, and Roosevelt County land records might also be surveyed to determine the exact sequence of the dissolution of the land and cattle empire. Such an extensive survey was not possible with the time and funds available for this study. Additional research needs are mentioned in the Recommendations and Suggestions for Additional Research section of this report. It is generally accepted that all the DHS and N-N remnants were gone by the mid-1920s.
29. Gehrmann, in a letter dated 19 Nov. 1974, p. 3, notes: "During the war food was scarce and a wheat combine purchased all but the home ranch." Howard Mayo, in a conversation with John Albright at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, 3 Mar. 1975, mentioned that there was wheat on the upper ranch. As a young man. Mayo had worked summers there.
30. Powell County Deed Book 22, p. 209. This act was executed on 29 Dec. 1915 hut was not entered in the Deed Book until 18 Oct. 1923, after Con and John had both died.
31. Powell County Deed Book 18, p. 556. See also Powell County Deed Book 17, p. 101.
32. The 2 June 1919 offers to sell to Williams and Pauly, including a description of the lands involved, are in Powell County Miscellaneous Records Book 4, pp. 141-48.
33. The survivors, Augusta and her daughters, Mrs. Katherine Warren and Mrs. Anna Boardman, sold two pieces of land, one of 720 acres, another of 400, to Williams and Pauly, Powell County Deed Book 21, pp. 428-29.
34. Powell County Miscellaneous Records Book 5, pp. 268-75. The three major land transactions, two on 2 July 1919 and one on 18 Sept. 1924, were the most important ones executed in the dissolution of the ranch. Other small additions and deletions took place from 1916 to 1927. They are reflected in the following Powell County Deed Books: 21, pp. 367-68; 19. pp. 579-80; 20, p. 83; 19, p. 578; 19, pp. 580-81; 21, pp. 357-58; 21, pp. 355- 56; 19, 577-78; 24, p. 214; 24, pp. 141-47; 23, pp. 542-43; 24, p. 255.
35. Warren Interview, May 1975, pp. 19-20. The "Helena Herd" was registered but carried no papers, because the herdsman in charge of them prior to their acquisition by Kohrs and Bielenberg had burned their papers in a dispute with the owner.
37. Powell County Deed Book 25, p. 439. Other pertinent entries regarding the transfer in the same Deed Book are on pp. 423-27.
Chapter 6
1. Charles Morrow Wilson, "6000 Acres and a Microscope," Scribner's Magazine (September 1937), p. 47. Wilson's effervescent prose and numerous illustrations describe a visit he made to the ranch in 1937. and the resulting article proved to be invaluable to this study. The comparison of the old techniques in ranching, as adhered to by Con Kohrs and John Bielenberg, with those of Con Warren in the years following 1930 was greatly facilitated by Wilson's article. It is featured in Chapter VII in the section dealing with older versus more modern techniques of ranching at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. Herb Jilson, "My Ranch Situated on Cottonwood Creek," Western Livestock Reporter, Ranch Feature Issue (6 Oct. 1948), pp. 52-53 also contains a great deal of material on Con Warren s management of the ranch from 1932 to 1948. Warren's increased irrigation projects at the ranch and the creation of the registered Hereford herd are featured in the article.
2. The upper ranch, close to 6,100 acres in 1932, had been sold, but within a few years would be repossessed by the Conrad Kohrs Company. In 1930 the company still owned all of the upper ranch, but sold it not long afterward (see Powell County Deed Book 25, pp. 523-24). The ranch that Con Warren took over in 1932 was the old home ranch around the ranch house and buildings complex. Only later in the mid-1930s did he pick up control of the upper ranch, after the CK Company had repossessed it.
3. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, pp. 26-27.
6. Wilson, "6000 Acres," p. 45.
7. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, pp. 29-30.
8. Wilson "6000 Acres," p. 45.
9. Edwin C. Bearss, "Resource Description and Evaluation," Grant-Kohrs Ranch, dated 11 Feb. 1971, p. 16. Bearss's study is based, in part, on his conversations with Conrad K. Warren as he gathered the resource data. His work for the Warren period supplements the 12 May 1975 interview with Mr. Warren con ducted by John Albright.
10. This data was taken down during a May 1975 conversation involving Mr. Warren and numerous others at GRKO offices in Deer Lodge, and was put onto the draft historical base map nearby. It is otherwise undated. Using the map. Mr. Warren placed the buildings at their former locations and gave the approximate date that he removed them. The structures involved are Non-Extant Structures H, I, J, and K.
11. Bearss, "Resource Description," pp. 15-18.
12. Jilson, "My Ranch Situated on Cottonwood Creek," p. 7.
13. Unless otherwise stated, the material under this subheading is taken from Wilson, "6,000 Acres," pp. 42-47, 69.
18. Interview, C. K. Warren with John Albright, 21 Feb. 1975, in which the Guernseys were noted. A later interview, 12 May 1975, mentioned the Durhams.
19. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, p. 36
20. Wilson, "6,000 Acres," p. 46.
21. Ibid., p. 47. The "narrow board-built cell" is a squeeze chute, such as Historic Structures 47 and 53. The CK brand, of course, still belonged to the Conrad Kohrs Company, amid since the ranch was still owned by them, it was entirely appropriate that the CK brand remain.
23. Ibid. , p. 47. See also Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, pp. 27, 49-50.
24. Interview, C. K. Warren with John Albright, 2 Oct. 1976, at Grant Kohrs Ranch NHS.
25. Powell County Deed Book 27, p. 385.
26. Warren Interview, 2 Oct. 1976, at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS.
27. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, p 35. Warren had split profits from the horses with the Conrad Kohrs Company.
28. Jilson, "My Ranch Situated on Cottonwood Creek," p. 7.
29. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, pp. 36-37.
31. A sale in which various breeders would consign two or more specific bulls, help pay for publishing a catalog, and then deliver the bulls to the event.
32. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, p. 46.
Chapter 7
1. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, p. 20.
2. Interview, J. H. Gehrmann with Peter Snell, at Davenport, Iowa, 7 July 1975, p. 2.
3. The myriad publications on the cattle industry in America might be consulted for definitive proof -- if it exists -- of who first introduced purebred cattle to Montana Territory and when. In the interests of time available for the conduct and completion of this study, the issue has not been examined to any great lengths. It is quite correct to state that Conrad Kohrs was among the early cattlemen to introduce purebred stock to Montana. It is not yet known if he was the very first.
4. H. P. Kenneth to S. H. Hauser, 29 Jan. 1887. See Appendix 11.
5. The advertisement is quoted in full at the beginning of Chapter IV.
6. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, pp. 9-10. "Leeds-Lion" was a Shire at the ranch shortly after the turn of the century.
8. The process of change from the open range days to the current methods of raising cattle is described in numerous references. One of the best current works on the subject is Schlebecker, Cattle Raising on the Plains, cited in full earlier. Brown and Felton, Before Barbed Wire, discusses Montana's transition from the old to the new in detail. Fletcher, Free Grass, p. 129, explains that transition also. He wrote that the new breed of
granger-cowmen were using controlled water on their land, too. The current belief [about 1900] among practical students of the livestock industry was the open-range practice was well on its way to extinction. It would have been a deaf cowman of the old school who had not heard the repeated predictions and warning. They didn't have to be told that the small rancher was in the ascendancy. He had more than a foot in the stirrup -- he was firmly in the saddle. His irrigated forage crops of redtop, timothy, clover and bluegrass replaced native grass.
In the western valleys, ranchers had diverted mountain streams to flood hay meadows before extensive irrigation was practiced east of the mountains. Montana's first alfalfa field was planted in the Madison Valley about 1880.
9. Wilson, "6,000 Acres," p. 47.
11. Kohrs, "A Veteran's Experience," p. 1401.
12. The letter is shown in full as Appendix 10. Kohrs's grammar and spelling improved markedly in future years. But in the letter from which this quotation is taken, he reveals a quality of style and colorful phrasing that appears later in his article in the Breeder's Gazette and in his autobiography.
13. Discussed in more detail in Chapter I.
14. J. H. Gehrmann letter, 19 Nov. 1974, p. 1.
15. The New Northwest, 22 July 1887.
16. J. H. Gehrmann letter, 19 Nov. 1974, p. 3.
17. The New Northwest, 6 Mar. 1885.
18. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 150.
19. The New Northwest, 24 Aug. 1883.
21. Warren Interview, 14 May 1975, p. 8.
22. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, P. 8.
23. "Otey Yancey Warren, M.D.," in A History of Montana, vol. 3, Family and Personal History (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1957), p. 379.
24. Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages of America: A Collection of Genealogical Studies Completely Documented And Appropriately Illustrated, Bearing Upon Notable Early American Lines and Their Collateral Connections (New York: The American Historical Company, 1957), p. 135. See also Fletcher, Free Grass, p. 235.
25. The New Northwest, 22 Sept. 1885.
26. See Appendix 1, and Kohrs, "Autobiography," pp. 80-81, describing an 1867 party, and p. 90, describing one in 1871.
27. Conversation Peter Smell and Con Warren, 11 Sept. 1975, p. 3, copy on file at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS.
28. Interview, Howard Mayo with John Albright, 3 Mar. 1975, notes on file at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS.
29. Warren conversation, 11 Sept. 1975, p. 4.
30. Gehrmann Interview, 7 July 1975, p. 2.
31. Warren conversation, 11 Sept. 1975, p. 6. The dates for this fall within the 1912-20 period, since Warren was born in 1907. However, it is likely that the morning and afternoon coffee at that time carried over from the days before the Kohrs moved to Helena.
32. Gehrmann Interview, 7 July 1975, p. 2.
33. Interview, Mrs. Charles Poe with Peter Spell, 9 Sept. 1975, p. 2.
34. Gehrmann Interview, 7 July 1975, p. 2.
35. Interview, T. G. Mooney with Ralph W. Cummings, WPA Montana Writers File, Montana State College, 11 June 1940, p. 1.
37. Clay, "The Passing of Conrad Kohrs," p. 1163. All of Clays words noted in the two paragraphs above came from this page.
39. Brown and Felton, Before Barbed Wire, pp. 103-4.
40. Some of the works already cited can be utilized to place Kohrs's introduction of blooded stock into Montana into perspective with cattle dealings in the rest of the country. Of these, Towne and Wentworth, Cattle and Men, should be among the first consulted. Other good sources include Allan Brogue, "The Progress of the Cattle Industry in Ontario During the Eighteen Eighties," Agricultural History 21, No. 3 (July 1947):163-69; Donald R. Ornduff, The Hereford In America: A History of the Breed's Progress (Kansas City, Mo.: Hereford History Press, 1957); J. Orin Oliphant, "The Cattle Herds and Ranches of the Oregon Country, 1860-1890," Agricultural History 21, No. 4 (October 1947) :217-38; George F. Lemmer, "The Spread of Improved Cattle Through the Eastern United States to 1850," Agricultural History 21, No. 2 (April 1947): 179-92; C. S. Kingston, "Introduction of Cattle Into tine Pacific Northwest," Washington Historical Quarterly 14 (1923) : 163-85; and John Clay, My Life on the Range.
41. Both Conrad Kohrs and Granville Stuart share a rather unusual distinction -- they are two cattlemen whose names were given to ships. The Liberty Ship S.S. Conrad Kohrs was completed on 30 June 1943 at Richmond, California, and was leased by its owners, the United States Maritime Commission, to the South Atlantic Lines. Following wartime service, it was returned to the government on 30 Apr. 1946. For the next eight months it was moored with the Hudson River Reserve Fleet; it was then sold to the Italian government on 7 Jan. 1947 and renamed the Aequipas. Leased by the Italian government not long afterward. to S. A. Industria, it received the name Acquis II. It served for many years under that name before being broken up for scrap in 1964. Details on the ship named for Stuart are not known.
42. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, p. 1.
43. Warren conversation, l Sept. 1975, p. 9.
44. Interview, Conrad K. Warren with John Albright, 6 May 1975, copy on file at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS. It is wise to remember that Bielenberg predated John Wayne by a considerable number of years.
45. The letter is dated 4 May 1881. See Appendix 10.
46. Interview, Conrad K. Warren with Peter Smell, 9 June 1975, p. 4.
47. Conversation with Conrad K. Warren, 6 May 1975. Copy on file at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS.
48. Warren Interview, 12 May 1975, p. 8.
49. Patricia W. Tarnawsky to Mrs. Paul Brazier, Helena, Montana, 25 Mar. 1969, Montana Historical Society.
50. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 85. See Illustrations 9, 10, and 11 for the photographs discussed.
51. The New Northwest notes her community activities, for example, in January 1870, and on 20 Dec. 1873, and 14 Nov. 1874.
52. Clay, "The Passing of Conrad Kohrs," p. 1163. Mrs. Kohrs's tastes in decorating and what the style she chose represented is discussed in greater detail in Appendix 17. Was Clay, the sophisticated Englishman, damning with faint praise? Instead of "stylish," "refined," and "elegant," he chose "solid," "substantial," and "in good taste." The chances are that Clay, while not offended by Augusta's decorative scheme, was not exactly enchanted with it.
53. Kohrs, "Autobiography," p. 131. The brother in this case was Charles Bielenberg.
55. Interview, Mrs. J. Maurice Dietrich with John Albright and Paul Gordon, 6 May 1975, p. 1.
56. Interview, Conrad K. Warren with John Albright and Grant-Kohrs Ranch Park Staff, 5 May 1975, p. 2.
57. "Ohma's" name is much a part of family tradition. One source is the Tarnawsky letter, 25 Mar. 1969, which notes: "Anyway, Ohma was really Augusta Kohrs, wife of Conrad Kohrs. . . . My father [Con Warren] always called 'Ohma' that because it is German for grandmother. . . . "So we kids called her 'Ohma' too."
58. Dietrich Interview, 6 May 1975, p. 3.
60. Warren Interview, 6 May 1975, pp. 4-5.
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