Archives West Finding Aid

John Henry Sheffels was born on January 15, 1903, in Wilbur, Washington, and was raised near there on the wheat farm owned by his father, Robert. In 1918 Robert Sheffels moved from Wilbur and started a ranch north of Great Falls, Montana, on land purchased from the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. John Henry Sheffels moved to the Montana ranch in 1925, and eventually formed Sheffels Farms, Inc. which was described by the Great Falls Tribune in 1963 as "one of the most modern and extensive ranches in the state." Sheffels Farms was involved principally in the production of wheat and maintained a private grain elevator in Dutton as a storage facility. Sheffels was also president of Central Machinery Company, a firm he started in 1947, which served as the Caterpillar Tractor agency for seventeen counties in central Montana. Sheffels was active in numerous agricultural organizations on the local, state, and regional levels. In 1933 he helped to organize and served as first president of the Cascade County Wheat Production Control Association. He was also involved with the Cascade County Farm Labor Committee, the Cascade Tenant Purchase Committee (Farm Security Administration), and the Cascade County Agricultural Planning Board. He was appointed to the Montana Grain Board in 1935, elected to serve as chairman of the state Agricultural Adjustment Administration committee from 1936 to 1938, elected chairman of the state Agricultural Conservation Committee in 1937, and served as vice president of the Montana Grain Producers Association in 1940. In 1941 Sheffels was appointed as a member of the Farm Credit Board of Spokane; he was the youngest person ever to serve as a Farm Credit Association director. Sheffels was also active in fraternal and community activities. In cooperation with Charles Bovey and Joseph Kinsey Howard he helped organize the Historic Landmark Society of Montana in 1944. John Henry Sheffels died in Great Falls of a heart attack on July 14, 1963.