The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-03-19
EARLY CATTLE DAYS I'M THE milk RIVER
VALLEY AFTER HARD WINTER OF 1869

The year 1919, just passed int
history, will be remembered by live
stock men of Montana as being thu
most disastrous year in the annals
, of the cattle business, with the ex
ception of the winter of 1869
which was made famous by the
sketch drawn by Charles M. Russell
called "The Last of Five Thousand
In the winter of 1886, with it's sue
cession of terrible billiards., which
lasted from Christmas eve till spring
the range was practically depleted OF
cows and steers. Practically every
stockman in Montana went broke.
The past year has not been so dis
lastrous to the owners of stock, al
though many have lost great deal
of money, but on account of general
conditions throughout the western
range country, the depletion of the
Montana ranges of cattle in 1919 is
a serious matter for the state and it
will take several years to recover
from the effects of it. Nearly 700,-
600 cattle were shipped out of Mon
tana last year, as against an average
number of 100000 shipped annually
for the past 10 or / 5 years.
Texas and other large cattle pro-
ducing states in the southwest lost
many hundreds of thousands of cat
tie in 1916, 1917 and 1913, and Mon
tana cannot look to them for sup
| ply of breeding stock and young
steers, as could have been done any
time in the past 40 years.
The Situation in 1886
Old time stockmen, in comparing
conditions in 1886 and 1919, tell
some interesting history about the
early cattle business in Montana. In
the spring of 1886 the valleys of the
Yellowstone, Musselshell and Judith
were heavily stocked with cattle that
had been brought north from Texas.
The summer of 1886 was an extreme
ly dry one, and many of the cattle
men were forced to go north and
drive their herds across the Missouri
river into the Milk river valley ranges
and thus there began a new chapter
in the story of Montana range days.
A. j. Noyes, who made an inyesti-
cation of early cattle days on the
Milk river before his death a couple
of years ago, found that the first cat
tie raised on the Milk river ranges
were owned by Thomas O'Hanlon and
a few others from around the Fort |
Belknap Indian agency. This was
about 1878, AL Shultz became fore
man of the outfit.
Fort Assinniboine had not then |
been built and there were few SOL
diers in the country, so the danger
of stealing from the reds was great |
and the stock had to be close-herded. |
In 1882 Simon Pepin moved from
mis- western range into the Milk river
valley, and Pepin & Broadwater ran
cattle there for years after. 1t was
probably their stock that was first |
run under what might be called range
conditions in that section.
Drive Across Missouri
The next cattle that came north of
The Missouri were those of Granville
Stuart, the famous pioneer of the
gold camps; Conrad Kohrs, John Bic
enberg and others who had been
running their herds south of the Mis-
souri,.
These came in the fall of 1886.
rhe season had been extremely dry,
ind Granville Stuart, then one of the
eading cattle men in the state, got
permission from the government to
ross the Missouri and take his stock |
o the reservation near the Little
Rockies. The water holes were so
Try that when the cattle reached the
near Rocky Point, they were
n misery. AZ soon as the steers
cented the water they started for it
N a run, and before the cowpunch-
rs could turn the herd away from !
big bar of quicksand, hundreds s
we're begged down hopelessly. Every
fort to get them out was futile.
wen steamboat on the river tried,
y means of line thrown around
steer, tried to pull one animal loose /
nd succeeded only in pulling the
DOR brute in two. The cowboys had l
D take their six-shooters and kill a
he whole bunch that got into the t
and to put them out of their misery.
The winter that followed that dry
1mmer of 1886 was probably the I
'orst within the memory of white t
len in Montana, and hundreds of cat t
e men who were wealthy that year {
merged In the spring of 1887 with I
ut a cent-some of them hopelessly [
debt. c
!
wing Montana pioneers today. and G
ohn Bielenberg, who were among G
lie biggest stockmen in the state, u
st all they had - some $4D0,UDD u
orth of cattle, but fortunately were d
lie to pay their debts. F
Davis Stakes Kohrs f
One morning in the spring Kohrs G
ct A. j. Davis, the Butte banker, G
ho said: "Con, / hear that you have G
ct with some heavy losses this past G
inter. How is it?" H
1--WE have" replied Kohrs, "but we j
ID enough to pay up everybody" Il
"Well," said Davis, 81 thought / L.
ould let you know that there is M
10000 to your credit in the bank, M
you can start business again as M
on as you want to-" M
Kohrs was very much surprised at M
is remarkable extension of credit M
a man who had just gone complete Ps
broke and after thanking Davis, Pl
began turning over in his mind Pt
lat he would do with the money. e
, concluded to go to Oregon andfPt
TX over the situation, and after do Pr
: so was so enthusiastic about the Re