Livestock have been an important part of the area now known as Granite County
history. The Shoshone Indians brought horses into the area in the late 1700’s.
Documents show that Father Peter DeSmet at St. Mary’s Mission in the Bitterroot
valley was probably the first person to bring cattle into the area in 1841.
Major John Owen bought the Mission and herd turning it into Fort Owen in 1850.
Then former fur trappers and people that came to the area with Lieutenant’s
Isaac Stevens and John Mullen remained and used the Big Hole, Bitterroot, Deer
Lodge and Flint Creek Valley to fatten the worn out cattle from the Emigrant
Trails: Fred Burr 1857 in the Bitterroot; Tom Adams 1858 in the Flint Creek
Valley and Johnny Grant in the Big Hole in the 1850’s and the Deer Lodge Valley
in 1859, becoming the Conrad Kohrs’ Ranch in 1866,
By 1870 the western
inter-mountain valleys were filled with European domesticated cattle herds and
brands became a necessity to identify the massive herds grazing freely on the
open range. Documents state that at one time Kohrs’ had cattle with over 500
different brands. The selection of a brand and the reason behind it frequently
is a story that cannot be verified. One story is Colonel George Morse’s brand
was 71 because that is the year he arrived in the Flint Creek Valley. But the
brand registered to Colonel Morse is 17. The brand 71 is registered to John
Edwards. Another story documented in the 1984 “Brands Across Montana” cites
Torrey B. Johnson of Busby. Montana saying his “forbears had cattle in Montana
as early as 1849…they were named Spears and ranched at New Chicago.” New Chicago
did not happen until after the Mullen Road was completed (1858-1863), not does
the 1862 list of persons living in the area contain the name of Spears.
I have
tried numerous times to write an article about the cattle and horse brands of
our early pioneer's and the information has always ended up in a file folder
labeled Brands. The biggest problem is because brands have a language of their
own and if you are not familiar with the lingo nothing in writing makes sense.
The best way to describe a brand is to draw it and because the keyboard does not
contain these symbols that becomes impossible except with pictures.
Brands were
first registered in the 1860’s through county brand offices. The first brand
book was published in 1872 which was a 44 page version with 251 brands. Prior to
this publication you had to go to the county brand office, starting in 1864 at
the clerk and recorder's office. Then in 1872 the legislature made the recording
of brands the duty of the Clerk of the Supreme Court. In 1887 the Board of Stock
Growers Association under the leadership of Granville Stuart was given the
responsibility. Currently all brands are registered with the Department of
Livestock and since 2011, brands must be re-registered every ten years. Because
of a donation by Montana author Ivan Doig and his wife Carol in 2002, all the
Montana recorded brands have been put on microfilm and are housed at the MHS
Research Library and are also available online through the ‘Montana Memory
Project”
One of the first pioneers to register a brand in this area was
Henrietta Schnepel (1872) and it was for the horse brand HS on the shoulder. The
“Triangle” on the right side cattle brand was not found registered until 1900.
This brand has been passed down by inheritance to the John “Pat” and Easter
McDonald family. Another pioneer brand is the AJ. Gillis “AG” brand passed down
to the Joe Gillies descendants on Upper Rock Creek. Obviously slow to follow the
law, in 1900 there were only 41 brands registered in Granite County.
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