The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-12-14
and brought them up to Fort Benton,
for $500 per head freight

SAAS III oAAo oSAAAA6 IA 2 You'll ySdI
to local buyers. In the spring OF 1882
the range was getting to be overstocked
and I got good reports from the Flat
willow country. I left Chestnut valley
the 10th of March on my way down to
Fqatwillow. Went from Chestnut to
Shonkin and stayed all night with a
man by the name of Joe Cobell. Got
what information I could in regard to
the Flatwillow country, and the next
night I went to a place they called the
big Sag" and visited a nan by the
name of Joe Lepley. The third night
I went to Governor Brooks ranch (the
T. c. Power ranch) and stayed all night
with him and got what information I
could get in regard to the country. The
fourth day I went to Fort McGinnis.
Granville Stuart was located there at
that time. He was the manager of the
Pioneer Cattle company and I got my
directions from him to go to Flat
willow. There was a man by the name
of Len Mcfarland, who was manager
of the Montana Sheep company, To-
Gated over there. I stayed four or five
days with Mr.. Mcfarland and then I
went from there down to Flatwillow
and picked out my location and started
back home. The second night out I
landed at McGinnis on my return trip.
the third I got back to Governor
Brooks, and then I left to make Blank
enbaker's Sheep ranch On Box Elder,
but I found the distance too great and
had to camp out and hold my horse all
night. It was dark and cold and stormy
and it took me until 200 o'clock the
next day to get to Blankenbaker's. AZ
ter resting there for two days I came
back to Chestnut valley and sold my
ranch to Henry Austin.
I'm the spring I made arrangements
for the roundup and Bob Coburn and I
went back with team, moving ma
chimes, and two men, and located our
ranch. We left them in there to put
up hay and we came back and made
arrangements, gathered the cattle and
drove them down to Flatwillow. Got
there with the cattle in the latter part
of August. I stayed there with the cat
tie until winter set in and then went
East. Spent the winter there and in
the spring of 1883 I came out, attended
the roundup, gathered the beef in the
fall OF the year and shipped them, and
spent part Of the next winter East.
Stayed there until December, when I
came back and then joined John Lep-
ly in Helena and went to California in
January. We went by way of Ogden,
Utah, and took the Union Pacific train
to San Francisco and stayed there for
about a month, then went to Los An
geles until spring. In the spring, we
came back and attended our regular
roundup.
II stayed in the Flatwillow country
until 1889 when with Con Kohrs, Bob
Coburn, the Pioneer Cattle company
and others of the Flatwillow roundup,
u cattle were moved to the Little
Rockies. The winter of 1886 and 1887
had been disastrous. After the spring
roundup of 1888, the best estimates in
dicated we had lost about rs per cent of
our cattle. When we crossed the Mis-
souri, river at Rocky Point with about
5000 head, we lost quite 8 lot of them
in quicksand. It was after the win
ter Of 1886 and 1887 that Charlie Rus
sell, Montana's famous cowboy artist,
replying to an inquiry from Stadler &
Kaufman as to the condition of their
herd, painted his famous answer, The
Last of Five Thousand showing a
starving animal with the wolves at his
heels, waiting for the end.
MY outfit was moved to Sweetgrass
county for three years and in 1893 I
went to Culbertson and formed a par
nership with my nephew, F. G. Arnett.
We bought 300 head of Polled Angus
cattle from a mar named Hendrix and
also brought in 2,100 head of one and
tw~o-year-olds from Oregon. We paid
$18 a head for these and they netted
us $66.5O. We cut plenty of hay here
to winter our stock, for one experience
like F1atwillow was enough. -Four years
after locating at Culbertson, Jim Hill
brought in a bunch of Mennonite COL
onists, and the cattle business soon be-
came improbable, so I sold out and
moved to Helena and bought the Mart
Mitchell ranch on Prickly Pear creek,
forming a partnership with Thomas A.
Grimes. MI. Grimes had been run
ming cattle in the Judith Basin round
up. I later bought out Charles W. Can
non and his brother Henry Cannon who
owned the Cannon Sheep company at
Abel in Cascade county. George Null
lery was their foreman for many years,
The partnership continued until Mr..
Grimes death in 1921, after which I
took over his interests, and the Sieben
and Abel ranches have given me plenty
to do ever since"
In a reminiscent mood, Mr.. Sieben
told the writer of an incident during
President Cleveland's administration.
Some stockmen were running their cat
tie on the Grow Indian reservation. One
morning the Indian agent woke up with
a headache or some kind of a peeve
and ordered the stock off the reserva-
ton. The cattlemen had a meeting,
and as Theodore Roosevelt was then
running cattle in eastern Montana, he
attended the meeting. A committee ap-
pointed to present resolutions to the
president, brought in a report con-
demning the agent and practically de-
flying the president. Teddy rose to his