Taylor Ranch makes the ballot
by Ryan Taylor Posted on 3/10/2010
Trustees to elect one for 2010 N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame ranch induction
The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame announced on Feb. 27 that the Taylor Ranch of Towner was one of two finalists put forward in the hall's ranch division for possible induction. Trustees will vote to induct one nominee on June 27 in Medora.
The Taylor Ranch nomination highlights a 107 year history of ranching in the sandhills of McHenry County, south of the "cattle capital" of Towner. It represents two characteristics important to the history of North Dakota ranching-humble homestead origins and the great strength of ranch women in keeping the ranch intact through tragic times.
Ranches get bought and sold all the time, but for one family to consistently own a ranch for 107 years is remarkable. Especially considering that early in the ranch's history, Mary Taylor lost her husband and her two ranching sons, her only two children, to a tragic string of events in just over a year's time in the early 1920's. A heartbroken widow and mother, she was left with her widowed and pregnant daughter-in-law and her two infant grandsons. But these two women refused to sell the ranch and its livestock, keeping it through those sad times and through the Great Depression for the ranching generations yet to come.
The Taylor Ranch began when four brothers came to North Dakota from Montgomery County, Indiana, around 1900. The first homestead claim on the present day Taylor Ranch was made by Alfred Taylor in 1903. His brother, Harvey Taylor, filed his claim to a quarter adjoining Alfred on the east in 1905. Other brothers from Thomas and Matilda Taylor's Indiana family of 13 siblings who came west were Alexander Taylor who homesteaded four miles east of Towner in 1900, and Thomas Hunter "T.H." Taylor who homesteaded and pre-empted land east of Towner with his son and in-laws.
Along with raising cattle and horses in early day McHenry County, the enterprising brothers started up and ran a brick plant on the land east of Towner, and owned a livery stable in the bustling little town of Towner. The 32 foot by 60 foot barn that served as the livery was reduced to four big, flat walls, a disassembled roof and hay mow floor, and was pulled by 8 horses in several trips the 16 miles to the ranch in 1927. The old livery barn still stands on the Taylor Ranch today.
The early day Taylors grazed horses and cattle on their homestead land and other lands that weren't fenced or claimed at the time. T.H.'s son, Gordon, also took on the job of grazing 600 horses shipped by rail from Horse Heaven, Washington, for Rugby banker and investor Andy Jones on lands around Girard Lake in Pierce County. One of the best horses to make his home on the ranch, a thoroughbred type gelding named Featherweight, came from that Washington state herd. A picture of Harvey's son, Marshall Ney, on Featherweight was taken on main street Towner about 1910.
As was common in pioneer days, there was occasional tension between livestock grazing "Yankees" like the Taylors (their roots are traced back in America to 1634 in Lancaster County, Virginia), and their immigrant farming neighbors who were trying to break the soil and raise crops. The Towner News-Tribune of Feb. 21, 1917 details a court appearance by Harvey Taylor and his son, Clyde, for a skirmish with a farming neighbor who helped himself to some Taylor horses he caught grazing in his oats field. The Taylors went to retrieve their property and were charged with "assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm." As conflicting testimony ensued, the judge dismissed the case and the father and son plead guilty to misdemeanor on the manner in which they took back their own horses. Harvey wasn't always on that side of the jury rail, his picture is still in the McHenry County Courthouse for serving on the first jury to stand in the new courthouse that was built in 1907.
T.H.'s son Gordon took to the cowboy life especially well. Andrew Johnston, in "50 Years in the Saddle," writes of Gordon's position as manager of the Ford Horse Ranch in the last years of the 1890's. Ford found Gordon as a boy when he ran his horses in the area of the Dog Den Hills. Gordon moved with the horses to Charlson, N.D., and eventually Culbertson, Mont. Gordon must have liked the country around Culbertson, Mont., as he eventually homesteaded and lived near Culbertson until his death in 1961. Gordon was always a cowboy and an astute horseman.
Life went well for the Taylors on their ranch south of Towner for the first 15 or 20 years. Registration records dating back to 1915 show purebred Hereford cattle on the ranch, building an above average genetic base for those times. The cattle were branded with a large "T" on their side. A seven inch forged branding iron is one of the ranch artifacts that have been kept, it's assumed that seven inch iron was only slapped on full grown cattle!
Photos from the time show affection for horses, dogs and guns by family members. Harvey's wife, Mary, may have had the hardest time adjusting from life in lush Indiana to the more arid and desolate North Dakota prairie. She went from a two story house with porches, shutters and ornate trim in Indiana, to a clapboard homestead shanty in North Dakota. Family lore says she cried for a month straight. Looking at photos of the two contrasting homes, it's probably true.
World War I took its toll on the Taylor family as it did for many. T.H.'s son John served in the 11th Veterinary Hospital Unit of the Cavalry and died from complications of the war in 1919. Alexander's son Fay saw heavy combat that included the Meuse-Argonne offensive, was wounded and gassed on Sept. 27, 1918, and died from the effects of the poison gas and the raging flu epidemic in 1919. Alexander's other son, Smith, served with the North Dakota National Guard in its call-up to help chase the Mexican rebel Pancho Villa. That service in Mexico and officer training kept him from the European front of WWI until it was nearly over and he lived to die an old man.
Although the other Taylor brothers were in the area in associated businesses, the ranch was primarily the business of Harvey Taylor and his two sons, Clyde and Marshall. Severe tragedy struck the Taylor Ranch when all three of the men on the outfit, Harvey, Clyde and Marshall, died in a mere span of 16 months. Marshall Taylor, just 20 years old, died Nov. 17, 1921, from internal injuries caused by being struck by a grown steer. Marshall, along with being a rancher had taught school and learned music. He's said to have played piano and sang with his family the night after his accident, unaware of how severe the damage was inside of him.
Five months later, Harvey, the patriarch of the ranch died from blood poisoning caused by a carbuncle on his neck. He left behind a widow, his wife Mary. Shortly after that, his son, Clyde, the last man on the ranch, died from small pox. He had stopped to visit a neighbor whose wife had just had twins. They had smallpox at the home and he was unvaccinated. Clyde left behind a pregnant wife, Pearl, and two sons, 3-year-old Harvey Allen and 1-year-old Marshall Edwin "Bud." His daughter, Mary Elizabeth "Betty" was born just over three months later.
Pearl, her three small children, and her mother-in-law Mary could have easily sold the ranch at that time but did not. They did auction off most of their personal property and moved to town. But they kept the ranch and some cows, rented the rangeland out and put the cows on shares with Art Bruesch, a young man in the neighborhood who'd helped them out from time to time.
In Towner, Harvey A. and Bud grew up fast to become the men in the family. Clyde's cousin, Gordon, become the father figure for the family, particularly for young Bud. Bud spent several summers with Gordon on his new homestead in the Missouri River breaks near Culbertson, Mont. Gordon was a cowboy's cowboy, grazing several hundred horses in eastern Montana. He was also respected by the local Native Americans who called him "Medicine Bear" and he taught Bud a lot about ranching and riding and bought him his first saddle, cowboy hat and boots.
In 1935, Gordon and young Bud, just 14 years old, embarked on one of the last long distance horse drives in the area going from the Taylor Ranch to Jamestown, N.D. Gordon had shipped 40 horses to Towner by rail, and had them grazing south of Towner. Bud and Gordon chased the band of horses from Towner to Minnewaukan and on down to Jamestown, a trip of about 160 miles. One of the two rode horse while the other drove a 1927 Buick coupe with their bedrolls and provisions. Bud remembers Gordon buying a pail of eggs at one farm and when Bud asked him how he was going to keep them from spoiling, he simply boiled all of them in the pail on the campfire. Bud dislikes hard boiled eggs to this day! In Jamestown, they sold the horses to local farmers at the Elder Brothers Horse Auction who were in need of some pre-tractor horsepower.
In 1939, at the age of eighteen, Bud moved back out to the ranch to reclaim the family ranching legacy. It was a pretty lonely existence for the young bachelor with a small herd of cattle and a few horses 16 miles from town. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Bud was drafted into the army and sent to the South Pacific to the Philippines and New Guinea. He earned a small bronze battle star for the Battle of New Guinea and was aboard a landing craft for the planned land invasion of mainland Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped and they were rerouted to Tokyo Bay to witness the signing of the truce.
Harvey and Pearl took care of the ranch while Bud was serving in WWII, and on his return the three cared for the ranch together. They established some of the first registered Quarter Horses in the area when Bud went to Wyoming in 1956 and purchased a grandson of San Siemon from the daughter of old time Texas steer roper, King Merrit. "Squab," as the Black Hawk son was called, stood stud to the mares on the Taylor Ranch. Harvey was a founding member of the North Dakota Quarter Horse association and in 1958 they sold the high selling Quarter Horse mare at the North Dakota Winter Show.
Bud and Harvey were part of the first rodeo organizing group in Towner and helped build the arena that hosted its first RCA rodeo in 1951. The very large arena was patterned after arenas in Dickinson and Sanish and Stateline, and covers a lot of real estate compared to more recent, smaller arenas built in the state.
In 1959, Bud married Elizabeth Dokken. They had three children Justin, Tara and Ryan. In 1962, Harvey married Ardis Ringdahl. They moved to the Ringdahl Farm near Lisbon, N.D., had one son, Miles, and stayed active in horse shows and Quarter Horse affairs in the state.
Pearl maintained an interest in the ranch throughout her life and stayed loyal to her Herefords. She was always an active partner and owner in the ranch. She bought some Hereford cows with her pay from teaching country school near the ranch, and was the registered owner on those Hereford papers in the early 1920's, interesting in that she was a listed owner of cattle at about the same time women were given the right to vote in the U.S.! On one trip to the ranch in her later years, she pointed to a black animal in the sea of red white faces and asked what it was doing there. She was satisfied with the report of a wandering neighbor bull, but it's probably best that she didn't see the ranch's transition to a predominantly black herd of Angus cross cows today!
The Taylor Ranch inspired the art of Bud's wife, Liz, an accomplished painter with an emphasis on North Dakota ranching scenes. Her depictions of the Taylor Ranch have hung in the governor's residence during the term of Governor Bill Guy and in homes and businesses across the state and country. She also wrote about life and thoughts from the ranch in a regular column called "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch" in the Mouse River Journal.
The Taylor Ranch has been equally inspiring to another writer in the family, Ryan Taylor. Ryan has written a syndicated column, published two books and entertained audiences as a speaker with stories from the ranch across the western U.S. and Canada. Ryan is the fourth generation Taylor to operate the ranch, along with his wife Nikki, and their three children, hopefully the family's fifth generation of ranchers.
After 107 years, the Taylor Ranch is still a family ranch and one that continues to uphold the tradition of a grass and hay outfit run by cowboys and worked from horseback. The Taylor Ranch has no farmland, its 3,200 mostly contiguous acres are about half sandhill rangeland and half native hay meadows. Ninety percent of the ranch has never been laid under the plow and the virgin sod continues to grow the same native grasses it did in 1903 when the family first laid their claim to it.
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