The Dilworth Cattle Company was established in what is now Carbon County, Mont., in 1882, by James Ronaldson Dilworth of Leavenworth, Kan. The company was one of the largest horse and cattle ranching operations in the area, consisting of approximately sixteen hundred acres and employing up to fifteen men. The ranch supported herds of over five thousand head of cattle and five hundred head of horses, grazing them on land in both Montana and Wyoming. In 1896, due to the death of James Dilworth five years earlier, the Dilworth Cattle Company disbanded. Although George Dilworth, a son of James Dilworth, continued to operate a small portion of the ranch after his father's death, the major interest in the ranch was sold to John N. Tolman, former ranch foreman and manager. Tolman operated the ranch, which was renamed the Bearcreek Stock Ranch, until his death in Oct. 1936. His son, Bronson, provided the filmed transcripts of this collection.
This collection consists of positive photocopies of typed transcripts of outgoing correspondence and accounts from an original letterpress book. There are differences between the transcripts available on paper from the ones available on the microfilm reel. Also included on the microfilm reel are several historical items on Belfry, Montana.
This collection is open for research.
Transcripts prepared by Harry B. Dilworth in 1989 from originals in the possession of Donald Tolman. The collection also includes a microfilm reel different transcripts of the same records done in 1964 by personnel at the University of Wyoming and subsequently loaned to Montana State University for filming by Bronson Tolman of Clark, Wyoming in 1964.
This collection was processed 2018 May 29