Archives West Finding Aid

Carston Conrad Kohrs was born in Wewelsfelth, Holstein, Germany, on August 5, 1835, the son of Carston and Gesche Krause Kohrs. His father, a distiller and brewer, died when Conrad was only seven weeks old. His mother married Claus Bielenberg in 1844. In 1853 Kohrs settled in the United States and learned the meat packing trade. He joined the California gold rush in 1857, and worked a claim near Eureka, before continuing his search for gold on the Frazer River in Canada. He returned to the East, but in 1862 he crossed the plains to Salt Lake, and from there ranged north to the Big Hole and Deer Lodge valleys of what is now Montana. Although he had intended to prospect for gold Kohrs was hired as a butcher and it was in this trade that he found success. He soon began supplying miners and other butchers with meat.

On August 23, 1865, Kohrs bought John Grant's ranch and cattle in the Deer Lodge valley. Kohrs and his half-brother John N. W. Bielenberg are credited with initiating the practice of open-range grazing in central Montana when they moved their herd from Deer Lodge to the Sun River in 1870. By the late 1880s Conrad Kohrs' Pioneer Cattle Company, incorporated in January, 1885, was one of the largest cattle raising operations in the Northwest. In the mid-1910s the Pioneer Cattle Company sold its livestock and retained only the ranches which were run by Bielenberg through the Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company until his death.

Kohrs was also interested in mining. In the spring of 1867 he joined with some partners to form what was to become the Rock Creek Ditch and Mining Company. After locating water rights on Rock Creek, the company constructed a ditch and dam in 1870, and sold water to nearby miners. Kohrs bought another ditch opened by the Atlantic Cable Mining Company in 1868, and began the Pioneer Placer Mining Company near Pioneer in 1870. Ownership of the latter company was transferred to the Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company in 1923.

Kohrs operated the Deer Lodge ranch and many of his business concerns, including his real estate holdings, in partnership with John Bielenberg. The Kohrs and Bielenberg Realty Company was formed in 1906, with Conrad Kohrs, John Bielenberg, and Kohrs' son-in-law O.Y. Warren as directors. A major holding of the Kohrs and Bielenberg Realty Company included the Higgins Block in Missoula. Another Kohrs-owned business was the Conrad Kohrs Company whose assets included the Treacy, Beveridge, Kohrs, Brazier, and Denver blocks in Helena, as well as the Pioneer, Holland, and Robecker ranches and other properties.

By 1908 most of the Kohrs and Bielenberg ranch, mining, and real estate interests were incorporated as the Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company. This holding company was organized in June 1908 with four directors and stockholders: Conrad Kohrs, John Bielenberg, Edward Scharnikow of Deer Lodge, and Conrad's wife Augusta. The Conrad Kohrs Company was a primary stockholder. Samuel McKennan, Kohrs' friend and president of Helena's Union Bank and Trust Company, replaced Kohrs as director of the Conrad Kohrs Company after his death; Anna Boardman, Kohrs' daughter succeeded John Bielenberg. Kohrs and Bielenberg Realty was sold to the Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company in 1909 and was dissolved in 1919. The Pioneer Placer Mining Company was sold to the holding company in 1923. In 1930 the Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company charter of incorporation expired, and its holdings were transferred to the Conrad Kohrs Company.

On February 23, 1868, Kohrs married Augusta Kruse (1849-1943), a German immigrant who had come to the United States in 1866. They had three children: Anna Catherine (1868-1924), Katharine Christine (1870-1958), and William Kruse Conrad (1879-1901). Conrad Kohrs died on July 23, 1920. John Bielenberg died on June 16, 1922. In 1972 Kohrs' grandson, Conrad Kohrs Warren (b. August 16, 1907) sold the home ranch and outbuildings and 216 acres to the National Park Service, which created the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.

John N.W. Bielenberg was born in the Duchy of Holstein on May 1, 1846, to Claus and Gesche Krause Kohrs Bielenberg. He immigrated to Davenport, Iowa, with his parents in 1854. In 1864 he moved to the Deer Lodge valley of Montana Territory where he became associated with Conrad Kohrs in ranching. In 1909 he was elected to the Senate of the Montana Legislative Assembly from Powell County. He was director of the Union Bank and Trust Company of Montana in Helena and one of the original directors of the Deer Lodge Bank & Trust Company of Deer Lodge.