SOME CATTLEMEN OF PIONEER DAYS
FLOWEREE AND KOHRS DROVE THEIR CATTLE IN FROM PLAINS OF TEXAS
By Jack Collins
Dan Floweree and Jimmy Cox, in eastern Montana, and Kohrs & Bielenberg, in the western part of the state, brought their stock in 1871. They bought their cattle near San Antonio, Texas, in the early part of 1870 and it took two years to drive the herd to Montana. These first cattle were “rangy” in more ways than one. Texas bulls standing eight feet high would not weigh to exceed 900 pounds, and a good bit of the weight was in the pair of horns that measured six feet tip to tip. About the time of the introduction of cattle into Montana began the famous northern drives which have made the “Ogallala” and the “Chisholm” trails immortal among the cattle fraternity. .In those long ago days America cultivated its taste for loin steaks in a cattle market that ranged around $5 a head for good cattle. If a Texas citizen was enterprising he could “collect” a herd at no expense, except the wages of a few cowpunchers.
Ownerless Cattle
There were thousands of cattle in the Texas woodlands, cattle whose owners had died, cattle which, because of their wild nature and their timbered surroundings, had never felt a branding iron. These “stuck to the scrub timber” in the day time and came out to feed at night. Many a cattle owner made a decent by moonlight on the feeding woodland herds, shooting down those who fought their way back to the timber and frightening the rest out into the open plain. Those timber bred steers could outrun a horse. There was only one thing to do and the cattlemen did it. He roped the wild stock and then performed a surgical operation on the beast’s front knees. The result was that the beast could afterward walk and trot a bit but when he extended himself for a gallop the front limbs crumbled and down he went.
Not all “collectors” confined themselves to the wild cattle and dead brands. Some there were who relied on their reputation as “killers” to assist them in becoming Texas stockmen. Such men would round up a herd and start a drive north. Every Texas county had a stock inspector, whose duty it was to watch the placing of the road brand to protect the interest of other stockmen. The cattle to be branded were run through a chute. As they passed along the inspector might call out; “”That’s an ‘L'" brand on that steer. “ “That’s a ‘D’ would answer the gunman cattle rustler. The “L” brand belonged to Texas. The ownership of the “D” brand would be unknown. It was always an unknown brand that the gunman called out. “It’s an ‘L’.” would persist the inspector. “I say it’s a ‘D,’” remarks the gunman threateningly.
The salary of an inspector wasn’t large enough for him to engage in a gun fight to hold it, unless he was a strong character, he meekly responded; “All right. It’s a ‘D’”. When the gunman went back from the north with the money from his drive he paid for all the brands which the inspector had reported had as belonging to neighboring stockmen. The “unknown” brands need not be paid for. An old cowman asserts that in many such drives well-know brands were deliberately misidentified by inspectors, under duress, and reported so as to be classified as “unknown”.
From Dodge City
For Montana herds, Miles City was the great shipping point. In the south it was Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas. The latter place grew to the largest cattle-shipping point in the United States. Kohrs & Bielenberg were the first to take steps to improve range stock in Montana, bringing in the shorthorn bull. Following on the shorthorn experiment came the Polled Angus type. Beaverhead county is probably the greatest cattle country in Montana today, although Custer, Big Horn, Powder River and Chouteau counties have many cattle. The day of the open range and cheap beef has passed for Montana as it has for every other state, leaving the man who is wedded to the free open life of the range no alternative “but to follow the example of Tex Rickard and go in business in South America” as one old cattleman put it. Beaverhead county is probably the greatest cattle country in Montana today, although Custer, Big Horn, Powder River and Chouteau counties have many cattle. The day of the open range and cheap beef has passed for Montana as it has for every other state, leaving the man who is wedded to the free open life of the range no alternative “but to follow the example of Tex Rickard and go in business in South America” as one old cattleman put it.
Madison County Monitor, August 11, 1922
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