Grant-Kohrs Ranch Historic Resource Study/Historic Structures Report/Cultural Resources Statement

D. 1880-1883

The 1870s had served as foundation years for the boom of the early 1880s in Montana. Cattle growers like Kohrs and Bielenberg, John T. Murphy, Henry Sieben, Dan Floweree, Granville Stuart, and many others had built on the early herds in western and southwestern Montana's sheltered valleys, and had added thoroughbred stock to improve the overall quality. They had moved onto the western edge of the eastern Montana plains, and, most important of all, had opened trade — on a scale large enough to promise great expansion — with the Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City markets. As the western supply of beef grew — and Montana cattle formed only a part of that supply — the eating habits of the nation changed and Americans began to include more and more beef in their diet. The meat-packing industry moved operations west toward the supply, and refrigerator railroad cars were developed as well. [133] As the herds multiplied, and the demand of eastern and midwestern cities grew larger in the late 1870s, other factors influenced the cattle industry in Montana. Texas cattle, surplus in their homeland, proved to be most profitable on northern ranges, where they added weight and produced more saleable beef than if they had remained in the south. They furnished a large reservoir of animals to fill the eastern Montana plains.

But until the late 1870s and early 1880s buffalo grazed on the plains of Montana Territory, and provided food and shelter — and subsequent mobility — to an aggressive Indian population dependent on them. But by 1880 the supply of buffalo had dwindled greatly, and the Indians were more easily controlled. In 1879 the Sioux, the Northern Cheyenne, and the Crow nations settled on reservations. By 1880 what remained of the northern buffalo herd no longer competed seriously with grazing cattle. [134]

In 1879 four investors had created a cattle-raising operation and put in a ranch headquarters on Box Elder Creek about four miles south of Fort Maginnis. Construction of the fort and of the ranch had begun within weeks of each other. This ranch, east and slightly south of the Sun River Range, in the drainage of the Judith River, was organized by Samuel T. Hauser, a territorial entrepreneur and politician; Granville Stuart, who had been among the earliest settlers and cattlemen and an old friend of Con Kohrs; and two Davis brothers, Butte banker A. J., and his brother Ervin who lived in New York City. Called the "DHS" (Davis, Hauser, and Stuart), it too brought cattle onto the central and western portions of the Montana plains east of the continental divide. [135]

With the Indians no longer threatening the herds that now began to spill onto the Montana plains out of the southwestern valleys and up from Texas, and with the buffalo no longer competing with them for grass in any appreciable numbers, only one factor was still necessary to start the cattle boom. That element was transportation, and it arrived by 1881 in the east and by 1883 in the west. The economic uncertainties of the 1870s had slowed the frenetic pace of railroad construction across the United States. Western Dakota (the Northern Pacific) and central Idaho (the Utah and Northern) had been the points where the westbound and north-south lines, respectively, had stopped. But by 1881 the Northern Pacific had reached Miles City in eastern Montana. By 1883 the Utah and Northern and the Northern Pacific joined at Garrison Junction, just north of Deer Lodge, within sight of John Grant's original settlement. [136]

The winter of 1880-81 had been hard, and the Kohrs and Bielenberg herds along the Sun River sustained some losses from it. Thus in one respect this winter bore a great deal of similarity to that of 1886-87, but, as Kohrs noted "that of 1881 was responsible for heavy losses in a local rather than general sense, as it was what is called a 'spotted winter.' " Some of the losses came during the cold weather, but others resulted from water rising behind ice dams on the Sun River late in the winter and drowning cattle on islands. Kohrs's and Bielenberg's aggregate losses stood at about fifteen percent [137] when the count was made at spring roundup. Kohrs had problems elsewhere that year. One of them involved the railroad long awaited by the western portions of Montana Territory.

The railroad coming north along the Deer Lodge River to join the Northern Pacific at Garrison — the Utah and Northern — laid its tracks on the low benchland immediately adjacent to the Deer Lodge River on the east. This meant that just south of Deer Lodge, perhaps three and one-half miles, and again just on the north edge of town, lands of the home ranch were crossed. As usual in such cases, a three-man group of commissioners formed to assess the damage to property owners whose lands would be utilized for the railroad right-of-way and who felt that the railroad's offer was too low. The landowner involved chose one man, the railroad the second, and those two commissioners chose the third. Their decision was then affirmed in a district court and the damages paid to the landowner. The case of Kohrs and Bielenberg was like this, and when Con returned in March of 1881 to Montana the decision had been made on his lands. Con objected vociferously, and his description of his reaction shows the intensity of his feeling:

They appraised the right-of-way in front of my house and through my land at a very low figure, only $5.00 per acre. I blamed Sam Word for the low appraisal, abused him for everything that was out and had it not been for Alex Mayhew, in whose office our quarrel occurred, there would have been a shooting scrape.

Kohrs describes no other episode in his autobiography with this level of emotion, and it is not surprising that he brought suit to right the wrong. [138] Kohrs settled eventually for $1,500, a miniscule sum in comparison to those he handled frequently in his business operations. His dogged fight was probably a reaction to the railroad tracks being laid almost at his doorstep.

That summer Con tried to induce John Bielenberg to marry, explaining, "that season I bought the Olin property Had been trying to induce my brother to marry and intended to turn the property over to him . . ." Bielenberg did not marry during that or any other summer.

The herds on Goose Creek remained there, and Con bought additional cattle, one of the earliest purchases coming from the DHS operation. These and an additional herd were shipped to Chicago; Kohrs accompanied them, then moving on to New York and boarding a steamer for Germany to rejoin his family for a second winter abroad. [139]

Kohrs and Bielenberg, like other cattle-raisers that summer of 1881, expanded their range areas. They brought about three thousand cattle to Flat Willow Creek — the major water source south of the DHS-located southeast of Lewistown in central Montana. [140] Adding that area to their total, Kohrs and Bielenberg now had sizeable herds along the Sun River (in the western part of Montana east of the continental divide) along Goose Creek in northeast Wyoming, and at the home ranch in Deer Lodge Valley. Their animals took part in the great expansion of the cattle herds of Montana beginning in the early 1880s.

The winter in Germany, 1881-82, must have been a most pleasant one for Kohrs. He later recalled that it was "even more enjoyable and delightful than the previous one. I began to get fleshy, weighing almost 250 pounds, and was fleshier than I had ever been before."

In April 1882 he returned to Montana, and upon reaching Miles City hired a livery horse, intending to visit Tom Hooban with the herd at Goose Creek and Tongue River. The ride of 150 miles down and back proved difficult for the "fleshy and soft" rider and not too easy on the horse bearing the load. An additional mount provided by Tom Hooban eased the situation on the return trip to Miles City. The rest of the journey was by stagecoach. [141] The year 1882 proved to be active for Kohrs and Bielenberg and the cattle industry as a whole. By this time European investors, especially Scottish and British speculators, had plunged millions into the business. One veteran described the situation:

The year 1882 was prolific in cattle companies. As I have said the Scotch and English investors were early in the game. New York, Boston, and other cities contributed capital to this western mushroom. It was marvellous how quickly news spread. The business which had such pillars to support it in the west as Swan, Carey, Sturgis, Kohrs, Murphy, Granville Stuart and hosts of others had grown up since 1870. [142]

The DHS cattle, as well as Kohrs's and Bielenberg's, numbered in the thousands that year, as natural increase and importations of Oregon and Texas cattle helped fill the spaces left open by the demise of the buffalo and removal of the Indian. The range cattle book for the DHS showed

Kohrs spent much of his time on the range that summer. In June he purchased a herd of 4-year-old steers and added another of about 1,200 picked up from settlers "across the river," presumably the area just south of the Missouri River near Fort Benton. The first herd — that of Downs and Allen — was rebranded and left on the range. The mixed herd from the settlers stampeded during the drive to Billings near Bull Creek, and "often after that we had a stampede at the watering places." These cattle were the first that Kohrs and Bielenberg had shipped from Billings to Chicago, and, no doubt in part because of their skittishness on the way to the railhead, were in "bad condition and even with the good prices in Chicago made but little money."

With the Downs and Allen herd still on the range and the other one sold in Chicago, Con turned his attention to the bunch Tom Hooban had been overseeing on the Tongue River. The herd of 1100 were driven to Miles City and loaded: 700 3-year-olds and 400 4-year-olds for the Chicago market. Kohrs's description of them testifies to the condition that range-fed cattle could be in if they had access to good grass not overgrazed:

They had been on a new range, had gotten very fat and brought big prices in Chicago.

The four year olds weighed 1583 pounds [average] and brought $5.85 per hundred, the three year olds weighed 1365 [average] and sold at the same price. The family and young stock was sold to P. B. Wears and Howard Conrad the latter at that time having a store at Fort McKinney. [144]

With the last of the herds to be shipped safely on their way, Con journeyed to New York to meet the family returning from their twenty month stay in Germany. In New York they shopped for household goods and purchased a set of Rogers silverware — "the first we had." In Chicago they added furniture and carpets to the goods destined for the home ranch house. [145] Kohrs and Bielenberg had seen their cattle enterprise and their numerous other business and mining interests grow along with the territory, and in keeping with this prosperity Con and Augusta would furnish their house in much more than Spartan style.

By 1883 the cattle boom on the plains of Montana showed no signs of slowing, and Con's and John's herds grew along with others. So too did the market area for the beef. The Canadians, now filling their open spaces in the West with settlers and (more importantly for cattle growers) crossing the Canadian West with a railroad, became new customers. Construction crews, a large contingent of Northwest Mounted Police, and numerous reservation Indians in the Canadian provinces on Montana's border all required large amounts of beef, and Montana ranchers helped meet the demand. Kohrs recalled that

Our Sun River herd had been improved until it was one of the finest in the state and [the] summer was a busy one. The Sun River herd, including the Downs & Allen steers, were sold to Charley Conrad and to I. G. Baker & Company, who had a large contract to furnish beef to the Canadian Pacific while they were building to the coast. I sold them over 1500 head at $62.50 per head, the total sale amounting to nearly $94,000.00. I was busy so Johnny gathered and delivered these cattle. [146]

Conrad Kohrs had plenty of reason to be busy early in 1883. He spent a great deal of money in one major transaction that year, and being the alert and serious entrepreneur that he was, no doubt also spent a great deal of time in investigation prior to consummation of the deal.

Kohrs's laconic report of the transaction begins: "In the mean time I bought out A. J. and Irvin Davis in the firm of Davis, Hauser & Stuart at the rate of $400,000.00 for the cattle, horses, ranches, and everything belonging to the firm." [147] Another account puts the matter into clearer perspective to the times:

In July, 1883, Conrad Kohrs, for Kohrs and Bielenberg, and Granville Stuart, for Stuart and Anderson, bought of A. J. Davis, of Davis, Hauser & Company twelve thousand head of cattle at $400,000. Since Stuart and Anderson were former owners of the herd the sale represented in fact a purchase of the two-thirds interest of Judge Davis by Mr. Kohrs for $266,667. Of the sale it was written at the time: "this is the heaviest transaction in cattle that has ever taken place in the territory. . . ." By this transaction Conrad Kohrs placed himself at the head of the Montana cattle business. It was a distinction he was to enjoy for many years, while his interests steadily grew. [148]

Kohrs and Bielenberg now owned herds on the Sun River, in the Deer Lodge Valley, and a major interest in the central Montana DHS open range ranch. Their cattle now showed the "DHS" brand as well as the "CK," an identification that became well known in Montana cattle history.

While the Con Kohrs-DHS deal was the signal event of the year, other things happened in 1883. It proved to be a most active year for the principals of Kohrs and Bielenberg. The year had opened, literally almost, since the date of the transaction was 2 January, with a small land purchase that added eighty acres to the upper ranch. [149] Improvements, too, took place, though the typically tantalizing yet incomplete announcement in the local press noted only that "Kohrs and Bielenberg are building two large stock barns and stables." [150] Whether these were on the home ranch (which is probable) or on the upper ranch (at least possible) is not stated. Somewhere on the Kohrs and Bielenberg property at Deer Lodge, in Montana Territory, however, stables and barns went up in late 1883.

The travels of Conrad Kohrs, of the whole Kohrs family, and of John Bielenberg during the second half of 1883 demonstrate graphically the demands a widespread cattle business made on its participants, and the ardor with which Con and John addressed both their vocation and recreation. In early August Con, R. S. Kelley, and Lew Coleman [Kohrs's partners in some of his mining ventures] journeyed to Boulder, a day or so away to the east, "to look after their many interests there." [151] Shortly afterward Con, Augusta, and the children, probably accompanied by John Bielenberg, went up to Garrison Junction, about thirteen miles north of the home ranch, to witness the Golden Spike ceremony as the Northern Pacific and Montana Union railroads joined, linking Montana rail service on an east-west axis to that coming north out of Utah and Idaho. (The Montana Union was a Utah Northern subsidiary, with some ownership by the Northern Pacific as well.) Then, on August 20, the family embarked for a leisurely trip to Yellowstone Park, equipped for at least a modicum of comfort. Con Kohrs drove the ambulance and

Kenyon the four-horse provision wagon. We had a hostler along and in addition to our teams we had a riding horse for every member of the party, besides one or two extra horses, eighteen in all. We were well equipped with tents, beddings and provisions and camped from the time we started until we reached home in early October. [152]

John Bielenberg, meanwhile, had been out for five weeks of range riding. The local press noted that "John Bielenberg returned last Friday after a five weeks inspection for Kohrs and Bielenberg on Sun River. 'The cattle on a Thousand Hills and in one valley' are all right." [152]

During John's trip on the range, Tom Hooban "and another man" each took a large herd to the Fort Maginnis range because the Sun River range now experienced serious overcrowding with cattle herds and even larger numbers of sheep. The Fort Maginnis range, the center of the DHS grazing area, while crowded, remained less so in 1883.

After the family's return from Yellowstone, and with John back and running things at the home ranch, Con left in mid-October for the Judith Basin (central Montana, near the DHS herds) and shipped 1,200 to 1,300 head to Chicago after driving them to Custer Station for loading. [154]

The drive must have been a hard one for Con Kohrs, since it was made without the help of his old friend and cattle foreman, Tom Hooban. Tom's health had been growing worse, and the drain of life on the range proved too hard on him. Tom stayed briefly with the Kohrs family in Deer Lodge, and Con then persuaded him to travel to California "where the climate was mild."[155] The local press took note of Tom's departure, misspelling his name in the process:

Tom Hogan [Hooban], a cattle foreman, who has been in the employee of Kohrs and Bielenberg for many years, left Tuesday for California, his health requiring a milder climate. His employers say he was the most faithful employee they ever had, and are sorry to part with him. [156]

After Con delivered the cattle shipped at Custer Station he returned by way of Davenport, Iowa, bringing his stepfather, Claus Bielenberg, with him. By this time it was early November 1883. The "Personals" column of The New Northwest picked up the story of Kohrs's travels upon his return: "Conrad Kohrs, Esq. returned Saturday last and on Monday went east to ship cattle from Custer and market them in St. Paul. He will probably be absent until nearly the holidays." [157]

The momentous year, filled with travel for everyone at the home ranch, closed with the usual public recitation of taxes paid in "The Heaviest Taxpayers in Deer Lodge County For The Year 1883" column of the local paper. It noted that "Kohrs and Bielenberg paid 866.20 in taxes, Several ranchers paid more." [158] The year that had seen the largest investment in Montana cattle history to date, with the Kohrs and Bielenberg purchase of a share of the DHS, had not seen concomitant additions to the home ranch, which remained smaller than many in the Deer Lodge Valley.

By the end of 1883 the open range lands of eastern and central Montana were filled to near capacity. Twelve herds grazed in the range where Granville Stuart had located the DHS headquarters. Texas cattle by the hundreds of thousands now shared the grass only recently relinquished by the vanished buffalo with an equal number of sheep and a few thousand horses. "By the first of October there were six hundred thousand head of range cattle in the territory and these together with the horses and sheep was as much stock as the ranges could safely carry." [159] The last of the open lands of the West suitable for large-scale cattle raising now stood at maximum capacity or near it.

By early 1884, as greater and greater numbers of Texas cattle came into the State, the problem of diseases they carried became of immediate concern. In March Con called a meeting of cattlemen to discuss the issue. From the meeting a committee of five — Kohrs, John H. Ming, R. S. Hamilton, John T. Murphy, and 0. R. Allen — was appointed to watch the progress of disease in imported cattle. If necessary, they were to call a convention of all Montana cattlemen to discuss the problem. This appears to be Kohrs' first active and open effort to organize the cattle men of the territory to deal with mutual needs and problems. [160]

At the same time, Kohrs and Bielenberg's purebred cattle continued to aid in the upgrading of Montana stock. Late that March they shipped three young registered bulls to a Madison County ranch. Two of the bulls, "Duke of Knox" and "Meadow Lark Duke," were Short Horns, and the third, "Harry Allen," was a Hereford. This is the first specific mention of Herefords at the home ranch. This breed had been growing in popularity in the late 1870s in Kansas, but had not yet arrived in any real numbers in Montana. In bringing in registered Herefords, Con and John moved somewhat ahead of most of their contemporaries, and although they might not have been the very first ranchers in Montana to raise these cattle, they certainly numbered among the first. [161]

Con continued to show his interest in Montana cattle-raisers and their needs the next month, when he attended the Wyoming Stock Growers Convention in Cheyenne. He discussed the trip with the local newspaper's reporter, for the notice of his trip mentioned

Mr. Kohrs realizes the necessity of some further legislation in relation to cattle interests in Montana and visits to Cheyenne to learn the working laws of Wyoming and neighboring Territories and States, with a view to ascertaining their merits and having brought up in the Montana legislature next winter a bill that will be equitable and adequate to the stock interests in this territory. [162]

Shortly after Kohrs returned from the Cheyenne trip, news of Tom Hooban's death arrived. The loss was a major one to the family, and Conrad Kohrs's recollection of it was touched with a quality of devotion and real sense of loss:

The reports from him were not favorable. The damp climate [at his initial location in California] seemed to aggravate his disease. From Los Angeles he moved to Riverside and as he showed no improvement, his physician advised him to go to a dry altitude in New Mexico. He died at the Sisters" Hospital in Santa Fe in April. I received the telegram notifying me of his death and telegraphed back to place his remains in a metallic casket and send them to his home in Wisconsin and send expense bills to me.

Tom had left some money with me on which I paid interest and which I afterwards paid over to his sister. My wife and I went to Wisconsin and followed him to his last resting place. [163]

With Hooban gone and Mitch Oxarart in Texas, the two employees (foremen, really) who rated specific mention in the Kohrs autobiography pass from the picture. Both had been with Kohrs and Bielenberg for many years and had been of major assistance as their cattle business grew from supplying mining camp butcher shops in western Montana to herds that filled dozens of cattle cars en route to Chicago and other eastern markets. The personal element of "Mitch's herd" and "Tom Hooban's herd on the Tongue" had yielded to far larger herds but far greater impersonality. The size of the 1884 herds, grazing in widely separated ranges throughout Montana, Con Kohrs's present tendency to view the larger picture of the western cattlemen's needs, and Hooban's death all seemed to mark — with complete finality — the transition that had been taking place for the preceding three or four years. Kohrs and Bielenberg had grown far too big to foster the personal element in the business.

April of 1884 brought a small acquisition to the home ranch. The addition was the Tom Stuart place, between Deer Lodge and the ranch house. [164] Possibly the addition of the meadowland with the creek running through it provided additional grazing for the growing herd of registered stock at the home ranch.

The year continued its full-forward pace, with Bielenberg and Kohrs busy with the scattered large herds, gathering and driving them to rail loading points for shipment east. In early May a report from the Sun River range reached Deer Lodge

stating that three cowboys had eaten some wild parsnips about noon one day recently, and then before 2:30 p.m. two of them were dead. The third was saved by the most active exertions of physicians. One of those who died was Tim Leary (or Tim Fenton as he was sometimes called) whose mother lives in Phillipsburg. He was employed for several years here by the Bielenberg boys, and they speak highly of him. He was about twenty-five years old. [165]

Later that year, in August, a Kohrs and Bielenberg cowboy, "Austin L. Clapper, alias Frank Austin," was killed by lightning while driving a Kohrs and Bielenberg herd near Square Butte, close to the Sun River. [166]

Con took a trip back to Iowa that June, [167] returning by way of the central and eastern Montana ranges. Upon his return in the middle of August, Kohrs reported that the calf crop on the ranges had not been as good as expected. The crop in the herds north of the Yellowstone was light, that south of the Yellowstone better. His solution, apparently reflecting what he and other stock growers had discussed, was to have a larger proportion of bulls in the herds. [168]

Statewide organizations took some of Con's attention that August as well. The revitalized Montana Stockgrowers' Association named Con Kohrs as Deer Lodge and Meagher County representative, and to the executive committee. At the same time a call went out for citizens in the territory to join a new Pioneer Association. [169] Kohrs remained active in both these groups for many years.

Early fall brought the territorial fair, and in 1884 Kohrs and Bielenberg entered Short Horn and crossbred heifers, Short Horn bulls, one Polled Angus bull, and an Ayrshire cow. The results attested to Kohrs's and Bielenberg's stock quality, because their animals took a total of ten prizes, or as they were then termed, "Territorial Fair Premiums."

Roundup time followed the fair: the third week in September saw them gathering horses for the drive to the Sun River country; then came the fall roundup of cattle to be sold in the east. The drive would be from Sun River to Billings and Custer for shipment to Chicago. [170]

Con had travelled to the ranges more than once that summer, making "several trips to Fort MacGinnis" (the DHS headquarters were just four miles south of the fort) to check the part-Kohrs-owned DHS herds as well as his own CK cattle. [171] The train that ran through Deer Lodge, connecting with the Northern Pacific, which in turn traversed much of the range country, considerably eased and facilitated travel to and from the ranges. In early November Con left Deer Lodge for the DHS to ship cattle to Chicago and, after seeing the process underway, returned just three weeks later in order to take Augusta and "Willie" back to Miles City, bound for Chicago, St. Louis, and then New Orleans. [172]

Con made the trip to St. Louis to attend the stockgrower's convention there. It proved to be a stormy session, with conflicting sides — the northern and southern cattle growers — dividing on the issue of a National Cattle Trail. Con recalled later that "it was a large convention, attended by most of the prominent men of Montana as well as other states and St. Louis entertained these members royally." [173]

Kohrs managed to keep goodwill among all factions. John Clay, both participant in and historian of the open range cattle business, recalled Conrad Kohrs's part in the proceedings with a great deal of fondness:

He took no part in the discussions. He did not join in the fray. We went for the fellowship more than anything . . . However, we had a pleasant time and one night the grand old man from Montana entertained a lot of us to supper at Tony Fausts's where sausages and sardines were washed down with a special brew. [174]

The Kohrs family returned by late November. Kohrs had been elected to the legislature that fall and remained at home over the Christmas holidays and up until the time the legislature met in early 1885. [175]

In review the year had been a rather good one for Kohrs and Bielenberg, whose stock had won so many prizes at the territorial fair, and whose cattle herds had grown to be — with the CK and the DHS combined — probably the largest in the territory. Con had sat among the leaders at the cattlemen's meetings, and his opinions formed a considerable part of group policy. Ranchers throughout Montana still sought Kohrs and Bielenberg registered stock, and in May and June some of the Kohrs and Bielenberg Short Horn bulls were sold to Montana ranchers. [176] In numbers of stock, too, it had been a significant year. The DHS shipments of cattle from Miles City (possibly CK and DHS combined) had utilized sixty-nine stock cars. [177] The recapitulation for 1884 for the DHS herds showed a good increase despite over 1100 cattle being shipped from Custer Station. The herds had stood at 13,113 at the beginning of the year and had grown to 16,927 with the spring calf crop and some small additions. The total sold was 1,322, and with a few calves branded on neighboring ranges, the total at the end of the year for the DHS was 15,686. [178] The increase in Con Kohrs's wealth, in Deer Lodge County at least, was reflected in his tax bill of $917.80, up a little over $50.00 from the preceding year. [179]

The year 1884 also saw a decision by a secret group of cattlemen to deal with the menace of cattle rustling along the Missouri River in Montana and in western North Dakota. Apparently led by Granville Stuart, and possibly involving such luminaries of the cattle industry in Montana as Kohrs, Fergus, Ford, Adams, Bryan, and others, the group planned their moves in a meeting at the DHS ranch after spring roundup, in June of 1884, and not long thereafter swooped down on various rustlers and hanged, shot, or burned them out. The vigilantes planned their moves with great secrecy and struck fast. While some complaints have been heard since that in the process of cleaning out the rustlers, not a few small farmers and ranchers were also taken care of, the overall effect was to "put such fear into the hearts of the rustlers that those alive soon quit the country and wholesale stealing became a thing of the past." [180]

Con Kohrs mentions the activities of the vigilantes in his autobiography, and names Granville Stuart, one of his partners in the DHS and the manager at the ranch headquarters, as the leader. He does not cite his own participation, but neither does he display any remorse at the fate of what he calls "the outlaws." [181] Whether Con Kohrs or John Bielenberg, or both, played an active part in the operations of the "stranglers," as they were once called, is a moot question, but one that should at least be considered. There is no evidence yet uncovered to indicate that either did. so their participation in this unique chapter of Montana cattle history is unproven.

The second day of 1885 witnessed another addition to the home ranch, Con purchasing, "for $1.00 and other considerations," a quarter of a quarter section, totalling 160 acres for the home ranch, from one of his half-brothers Charles Bielenberg and his wife Mary. It was to be the last addition to the home ranch for five years, because Con's and John's attention, as far as land was concerned, lay with the open range grazing lands on which the CK and DHS herd ran.

Con spent much of the late winter and early spring in Helena, as a member of the legislature known in Montana history as the "Cowboy Legislature," and recalled by Kohrs as "a great legislature that had great times." This body reflected the strong influence that the cattle men wielded by 1885, and it passed many laws regulating and protecting the cattle industry. As Kohrs noted, "many of them are used to-day [1913] though several, on account of their being considered class legislation, were repealed in l909." [183] Typically, Con worked a demanding schedule. He had expected to spend most of the session at Helena, but managed to come home three weekends in February, some for just a Sunday with the family, sometimes longer. [184] The explanation for the frequency of his visits was not long in forthcoming. The local press explained that

Representative Kohrs was home last Sunday. When he went to the Legislature he proposed to only come home once during the session, but it has so fallen out that all the wedding and birthday anniversaries in the family for several generations come on the Sunday or Monday of January and February — and of course he has to be home on these occasions. If there is any place our worthy representative would rather be than with his family, we don't think he has found it yet — and don't think he ever will. [185]

The major event of the year came in the first month, when many of the principals of the DHS organization came to Helena to attend the legislative session. Granville Stuart recalled that "The name was changed from Stuart, Kohrs and Co. to the Pioneer Cattle Company." [186] It was as the Pioneer Cattle Company's symbol that the DHS mark would become one of Montana's most widely recognized cattle brands. The owners decided on 10,000 shares of $100 each, bringing the total capitalization to one million dollars. The stock was divided as the shares had been; Con Kohrs became president, and Samuel T. Hauser vice president. A. J. Seligman was named secretary and Granville Stuart retained his role as superintendent. [187]

Despite overcrowding on the range that year, the DHS herds did well. Their books showed

So 1885 proved to be a signal year for the State of Montana, with the "Cowboy Legislature" passing its code for the cattle growers, and the DHS formally becoming the Pioneer Cattle Company. The home ranch in 1885 underwent no startling or unique changes The fame of the Kohrs and Bielenberg Short Horn herd was trumpeted in the local press, which carried a story from England noting that "Mr. Morton Frewen says, in the London (England) Telegraph: Mr. Kohrs, of Deer Lodge, in Montana, has the largest herd of Bates Shorthorns in the world." [189]

Con travelled into the Pacific Northwest in the later part of the spring, but found no Oregon or Washington cattle at prices he liked. He ran into a severe rainstorm in the Musselshell country not long after his return from the northwest, but after that things settled into the routine of "shipping and going east" with the cattle.

The nineteen years between Conrad Kohrs's purchase of the John Grant Ranch and the close of the year 1885 had seen many changes besides Con's marriage and the growth of his family. He and John Bielenberg had increased their regional cattle and butcher business to a range cattle operation ranking among the very largest in the new state of Montana. From hundreds of cattle, raised for sale in a local market, they had expanded their herds to thousands, destined for both local and far distant sale. They had improved the already good quality stock on which the Montana herds had been based, and had been in the forefront of the movement to bring in registered cattle to the territory. Con had been a major figure in the stockgrowers' associations and a respected member of the local community and State legislature. It had been a period of great growth for Kohrs's and Bielenberg's enterprises, and they would prosper more in the years ahead. But in the immediate future lay transformation of the cattle industry in Montana, and the response to it at the home ranch.

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