Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame Nominee: Nicholas J. Bielenberg

NICHOLAS JOHN BIELENBERG

Born: 8 June 1847, Holstein, Germany- Died: 06 July 1927 Deer Lodge, Montana

Nicholas John Bielenberg was born in Wevelsfleth – a fishing village in the province of Holstein – at that time a possession of Denmark, - now Germany, on June 8, 1847. In July 1854, the Bielenberg family immigrated to the United States and settled in Davenport, Iowa. Nicholas Bielenberg was given the usual public school privileges, but his lively interest in all practical affairs led him to shorten his period of study and join in the vocational activities in which his father and brother were engaged, that of a butcher (1). In 1863, at the age of sixteen, Nicholas traveled to Chicago Illinois to serve an apprenticeship in the butchering business, remaining there through the winter of 1864 (2).

In the spring of 1865, at the age of seventeen, he traveled by way of steamboat up the Missouri River, departing from St. Louis Missouri and arriving at Fort Benton June 18, 1865. Upon reaching the territory, Nick’s half-brother, Conrad Kohrs and brother Johnny Bielenberg “staked” him in the purchase of a butcher shop in the mining town of Blackfoot City. In Blackfoot he settled until 1870, when Nick left this gold mining camp to pursue the butcher business at Helena, remaining there for two years until 1872. 1n March of 1873, Nick sold his "Blackfoot City" butcher shop to Simpson and Company and purchased the Prowse Ranch on Dempsey Creek, becoming the “Figure Five" Ranch (3). In 1877, Nick pursued the meat packing business in Butte, handling beef in wholesale quantities with the construction of a cold-storage warehouse. This large butchering business eventually was named the Butte Butchering Company, which became one of the leading industries of its kind in the northwest. In February 19, 1879, Nick Bielenberg became one of the first members of the Montana Stockgrowers Association (3).

In 1883 Nick Bielenberg, with his half brother Conrad Kohrs and brothers, John N. W. and Charles P. H. Bielenberg, became involved in an extensive cattle operation - including the famous "DHS Ranch (3). Also in 1883, Nick became associated with J. K. Mallory and D. D. Walker in a livestock and butchering operation forming “Bielenberg and Company" in Anaconda (3). Nick Bielenberg is credited as the first stockman to feed or winter beef in the Big Hole Valley. In 1884 he went into the sheep business, at first alone, then in partnership with Joseph Toomey. This business grew to enormous proportions, handling in one year over 130,000 head of sheep. Their flocks were to be found in all parts of the State, and in addition to their own they bought and shipped a great many herds throughout the Northwest, operating from Washington Territory to North Dakota (2). It can be safely said that Nick Bielenberg and associates were the fathers of the sheep industry in Northern Montana with the first of any importance within the State (2).

An active Republican, Nick Bielenberg was a delegate in 1892 to the national convention at Minneapolis. Nick, a friend and confidant of Theodore Roosevelt, was a delegate to the National Progressive Convention, held in Chicago in August of 1912 that nominated Roosevelt for president on the "Bull Moose Party" (3). Nick was an active participant in the development of the City of Deer Lodge. He contributed funds for the completion of the Deer Lodge Chapter House of the Deer Lodge Womens' Club as a memorial to his daughter, Augusta Kohrs Bielenberg, who passed away in 1901 (3).

Nick Bielenberg was a member of the Masonic fraternity, in all of its bodies; also of the Elks. In the Masonic Order he was a member of Deer Lodge, lodge No. 14, Valley Chapter, No. 4, R. A. M., Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 16, Knights Templar and Algeria Temple of Mystic Shrine. He was the first treasurer of the Ivanhoe Commandery, when chartered in 1916. He was also a member of the Society of Montana Pioneers. Nicholas J. Bielenberg and Annie Bogk Bielenberg of Deer Lodge, Montana had five children Alma, Howard, Augusta, Anna and Claude (4).

Nick Bielenberg was a member of the Masonic fraternity, in all of its bodies; also of the Elks. In the Masonic Order he was a member of Deer Lodge, lodge No. 14, Valley Chapter, No. 4, R. A. M., Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 16, Knights Templar and Algeria Temple of Mystic Shrine. He was the first treasurer of the Ivanhoe Commandery, when chartered in 1916. He was also a member of the Society of Montana Pioneers. Nicholas J. Bielenberg and Annie Bogk Bielenberg of Deer Lodge, Montana had five children Alma, Howard, Augusta, Anna and Claude (4).

References

1. An Illustrated History of the State of Montana. Miller, Joaquin. Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis pub. Co., 1894.

2. Dreams Across the Divide: Stories of the Montana Pioneers

3. Silver State Post, Deer Lodge, MT. December 6^th, 1979.

4. A History of Montana. Volume 2. Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913

MAMMOTH SLAUGHTER HOUSE FOR BUTTE

MAMMOTH SLAUGHTER HOUSE FOR BUTTE

BIG COMPANY IS ORGANIZED WITH CAPITAL OF MILLION

TO DO THE WORK

Herald Special Service

Butte, Mont. Feb. 5 – A mammoth slaughter and packing establishment is to be built here by a company organizing with a million capital. Montana’s ranges furnish thousands of cattle for eastern packing centers and the dressed beef is shipped back to the state. They propose in the future to do this at home. In addition to several wealth stock raisers the company will consist of Joe Toomey, Deer Lodge, John Gerdts, Garrison, Senator Conrad Kohrs, Charles, Nick, John Bielenberg, Frank Conley, Tom McTague, of Deer Lodge. Final plans will be completed at a meeting.

Paper: Grand Forks Herald, published as Grand Forks Daily Herald; Date: 02-06-1906; Volume: 25; Issue: 86; Page: 2; Location: Grand Forks, North Dakota

The "S 6" Ranch is Sold Deed Filed Conveying Property to D. D. Walker from Bielenberg &Walker.

Headline: The "S6" Ranch is Sold Deed Filed Conveying Property to D. D. Walker from Bielenberg &Walker. The Anaconda Standard; Date: 11-11-1903; Volume: 15; Issue: 62; Page: 7; Location: Anaconda, Montana.

The "S 6" Ranch is Sold

Deed Filed Conveying Property to D. D. Walker

From Bielenberg &Walker

It Brings Eighty-Two Thousand Dollars

Special Correspondence of the Standard. Dillon, Nov. 10. By a deed filed in the office of the clerk and recorder yesterday title to one of the biggest ranches in Montana passes from Bielenberg & Walker Company to D. D, Walker. The amount of transaction aggregated $82, 000. The ranch consists of 12, 000 acres of meadows and grazing land, and is considered one of the finest properties in the entire state. It is situated between the towns of Fox and Wisdom, and it is of such proportions that it annually cuts about 20, 000 tons of wild hay.

Bielenberg & Walker were early to recognize the possibilities of the basin as a feeding ground, and it is stated that these gentlemen were the first to feed cattle in that section during the winter months. That was nearly twenty years ago, and the gentlemen have kept up the industry ever since and helped develop it to the extensive scale it has reached to-day. Last year, it is asserted about 1, 700 head of cattle fattened on the ranch, and the current report is that about the same number will be fed this year. The statement is made that Mr. Walker will continue in the same lines as the company did, and use the basin as a maturing ground for the large number of cattle he owns. The “S6” ranch, as it is called, is well watered, well fenced, controls thousands of acres of the finest summer pasturage, and as a stock ranch is unexcelled in the entire state.

TITLE:BIG HOLE VALLEY, BEAVERHEAD COUNTY, MONTANA. STACKING HAY

Call number:lc-usw3- 008028-d [p&p] Reproduction number:lc-usw3-008028-d (b&w film neg.)

Medium:1 negative : safety ; 3 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches or smaller. Created/published:1942 aug.?

Creator: Lee, Russell, 1903- photographer. Part of:farm security administration - office of war information photograph collection (library of congress) Repository:library of congress prints and photographs division washington, d.c. 20540 Digital id:(digital file from intermediary roll film) fsa 8d08235 Other number:g 537 Card #:owi2001010611/p

NEW PACKING HOUSE

NEW PACKING HOUSE

DAVENPORT MEN TO ESTABLISH ONE HERE

Henry Kohr’s Sons in the City Looking for a Location to Start a New Plant

Among the other new industries planned for this city in the near future is a packing house. Two gentlemen from Davenport, sons of Henry Kohrs, the well know packer of that city have been in Clinton for several days looking for an opening to start up a packing house at this point. The Messrs. Kohrs are the two oldest sons of Henry Kohrs [Conrad Caston and Henry Jr.] and have received excellent training in the business.

They expressed themselves as pleased with the outlook in Clinton and will return here in a few days to further consider a location. They expect to start up a plant costing in the neighbor hood of $3, 000 to $4, 000. They will kill at first about 100 head of cattle a week. Besides this they will conduct a slaughter house to which local butchers can take their cattle and hogs and prepare them themselves, the owners of the establishment buying the offalls.

A site was looked at down near the old packing house but no definite place has yet been decided upon. The new industry is one which the butchers in this city will be pleased to see materialize. The name of the firm is sufficient to warrant a good business and one that will be a good help to Clinton. Messrs. Kohrs have been in consultation with a number of the local butchers who have promised them their support. It is to be hoped that they will decide to locate in Clinton.

Clinton Weekly, July 19, 1901 Clinton, Iowa

Montana Will Can Her Own Beef

Montana Will Can Her Own Beef

According to press dispatches Montana is likely to enter into competition with Chicago in the dressed beef products and butcher here the splendid products of its ranges. From the press dispatches we are assured that this is to happen within a year and the men behind the proposition are financially able to carry it to a successful conclusion

Joe Toomey of Deer Lodge, John Gerdts, of Garrison, Senator Conrad Kohrs, Charles, Nick, John Bielenberg, Frank Conley, Tom McTague of Deer Lodge and Henry Maher of Race Track, are interested in this formation of the company, which is to be a million dollar concern. These gentlemen met in Butte within the past few days and perfected plans for the formation of the company. In addition to the men named many of the state’s wealthiest stockgrowers will be interested in the concern. Conley and McTague have offered a large piece of land and Henry Maher, of Race Track, has offered a full section as a site for the establishment. Gerdts is after the plant for Race Track as the Bielenbergs for Deer Lodge.

The new concern will be equipped in a manner which will allow nothing to go to waste. Hides will be handled and turned into leather, tallow will be manufactured into butterine and oleo; horns into comb and hoofs into glue. Beef extracts and possibly canned products will also be manufactured.

Source: The Havre Plaindealer – Volume 5 No.2, Havre, Montana, Feb 10, 1906

SOME CATTLEMEN OF PIONEER DAYS

SOME CATTLEMEN OF PIONEER DAYS

FLOWEREE AND KOHRS DROVE THEIR CATTLE IN FROM PLAINS OF TEXAS

Required Two Years’ Time to Make the Long Drive to Montana over the Texas Trail; Wild Cattle 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