The original materials of this collection are located at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Deer Lodge, Montana.
Ranches, of Deer Lodge Valley, Montana. Conrad Kohrs bought the John Grant ranch, nestled in the Deer Lodge Valley, in 1866. Conrad Kohrs, along with his wife Augusta, and his half-brother John Bielenberg, operated one of the largest cattle ranches in the nation at the turn of the twentieth century, grazing their cattle on ten million acres in four states and two Candian provinces. Their ranching business had several names through time, including the Pioneer Cattle Company and the Conrad Kohrs Company. Kohrs and Bielenberg opearated the ranch and many of their other joint investments as a partnership until 1908, when they incorporated as the Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company. They were also involved in mining and real estate.
The collection consists of ranching records, financial records, correspondence, pedigrees, published and unpublished manuscripts, butcher shop records, investment records, legal records, and maps.
The collection is arranged in two subgroups and twenty-seven series:
Subgroup 1: Conrad Kohrs, 1861-1945
Series I: Correspondence, 1863-1919
Series II: Financial Records, 1861-1936
Series III: Legal Documents, 1866-1945
Series IV: Cattle Breeding Records, undated
Series V: Horse Breeding Records, undated
Series VI: Certificates and Invitations, 1870-1905
Series VII: Maps, undated
Series VIII: Clippings, undated
Series IX: Publications, undated
Series X: Miscellaneous and Photographs, 1866-1904
Subgroup 2: Related Businesses, 1852-1952
Series XI: Meat Markets, 1852-1882
Series XII: Illinois Mine, 1895-1896
Series XIII: Volcano Mining Company, 1893
Series XIV: Pioneer Placer Mine, 1887-1895
Series XV: Pioneer Gulch Mining Company, 1890-1914
Series XVI: Con and Peel, 1863-1869
Series XVII: Rock Creek Ditch Company, 1891-1919
Series XVIII: Pioneer Cattle Company, 1879-1920
Series XIX: Kohrs and Bielenberg Land and Livestock Company, 1908-1929
Series XX: Kohrs and Bielenberg Realty Company, 1906-1919
Series XXI: Conrad Kohrs Company, 1915-1952
Series XXII: Conrad Warren, undated
Series XXIII: Tom Hooban, 1867-1879
Series XXIV: Strang and Richardson Hardware, 1866-1868
Series XXV: Conrad Kohrs Estate, 1920-1925
Series XXVI: Augusta Kohrs Estate, 1948-1949
Series XXVII: John Bielenberg Estate, 1922-1924
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of Archives and Special Collections, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana-Missoula.
Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. and any other applicable statutes. Copyright not transferred to The University of Montana.
[Name of document or photograph number], Kohrs Family Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula.
Conrad K. and Nellie Warren gave the original records to the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in 1970-1988.
Microfilmed by the Mansfield Library's Instructional Materials Service, 1975.
The processor arranged the materials for microfilming in 1975. He noted that all unidentifiable records were filmed with the Conrad Kohrs segment of the collection. In researching the various activities of Kohrs, one may be able to determine that some of these records belong in one of the later series. In 2004, the finding aid was encoded with few changes.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
This series contains miscellaneous items and photographs. Miscellaneous items include threshing reports, an autograph book from Montana's 1889 constitutional convention, and a stock pool talley book. Photographs include images on mining, ranching, the Kohrs home, and Deer Lodge, Montana. A number of the images are by L.A. Huffman of Miles City, Montana.