Grant-Kohrs Ranch Foundation

Researched, authored and posted March 24, 2016 by author Patricia Nell Warren 

AUGUSTA KOHRS

As a wrap-up on Women's History Month, here's a look at Augusta Kohrs, the woman who dominated 77 years of Grant-Kohrs Ranch history -- from 1868, when she married Conrad Kohrs, till her passing in 1945. This 1882 portrait of her, taken during one of the Kohrses' visits with her mother and sister in Altona, gives us the unmistakable image of a European transplant to the American West. It was a time when the ranch was struggling to expand from its chain of Montana gold-camp meat marts, looking to become a major player in the developing national market for beef.

For sure, Augusta was never one of those rugged ranch women who donned a split skirt or (gasp) trousers, and boarded a cow pony to get the job done. Indeed, I doubt that my great-grandmother ever straddled a horse in her life. On the surface, she remained a Victorian lady who primly referred to bulls as "gentlemen cows."

However, her legacy is not expressed solely in the cultured and comfortable ranch house that is now the central jewel of a national historic site. Looking behind this elegant veneer, we find her name on corporate documents -- revealing her involvement as partner and shareholder in various corporations that operated the ranch through the years. This at a time when American and European women still did not generally have equal access to that kind of economic leverage. The business sense that piloted the ranch safely through some economic storms, through the ranch's downsizing during the World War I era, was influenced in part by her input.

By the late 1920s, when all her rugged male family members had passed on -- husband and brother-in-law John Bielenberg and son-in-law John Boardman -- she took on their task of managing the trust into which the downsized home ranch and its remaining lands and livestock had been placed. This included the decision to bring in her grandson Con Warren as manager in 1932. The 1901 death of her son Will, who had been in training to run the ranch, was still felt by her -- but she had noted her grandson's early passion for the ranch, and waited till Con could grow into the actual task. It also included her continuing to spend summers at the ranch, well into her 90s, together with her two widowed daughters.

Augusta's "caretaker" period lasted from the late 1920s till 1940, when Con Warren purchased the ranch from the estate.

No one ever interviewed Augusta to learn what her sense of "history" might have been. But Con Warren, my dad, who knew her better than anyone else with whom I talked about her, always pointed out her importance in the administrative side of ranch history. Dad credited her vigorous personality, and the long-time success of her marriage, rooted in deep mutual affection and respect, for her powerful emergence in this area. "Grandfather wouldn't have dared to leave her out of the decision-making," he always said.

In short -- part of the reason why the American people have the Grant-Kohrs Ranch today, with its treasury of original buildings and artifacts, and its power to tell a real-life story of Western family ranching, is because Augusta helped to hold it together for all those years.

(Photo by J. P. Ehlers & Maler in Altona, from Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS archives)

Researched, authored and posted December 11, 2013 by author Patricia Nell Warren

WOMEN’S TRIALS. As 1869 ended, Augusta Kohrs doubtless had her own reasons to count blessings. She and her first baby (daughter Anna) had been lucky to survive childbirth in December 1868. Her husband later wrote: “There was no woman help in the country, no nurse. The doctor knew nothing, neglected my wife and she suffered for months.”

Having children was still a risky business. By the mid-1800s, observant doctors had realized that lack of hygiene around childbirth was the big killer of women. But this lifesaving information was slow to spread -– especially on the American frontier, where a doctor might be better at treating gunshot wounds than birthing babies. Maternal death rates went as high as 40 percent. Child mortality was also high -- many families didn't name a child till it had survived for one year. With a tweak of circumstance, Con Kohrs could have been one of those pioneer men who went through several wives -- remarrying every time one died so his surviving children would have adequate care.

For the next baby (daughter Katherine) in March 1870, Conrad was better prepared. He wrote, “There being no reliable doctor in Deer Lodge, Mitch Oxarart was sent to Helena for Dr Glick. The doctor remained about a week and received a thousand dollars for his services.” This was a colossal sum of money, but achieved the desired result.

The third time was the charm. Son Will arrived in November 1879 while Kohrs was off on a business trip. When he got home, he found that “ all was well.”

By 1895, the Kohrses had seemingly beat the Victorian average on mother and child mortality. Medicine was turning a corner on hygiene, vaccinations, diet, etc. The family could plan holidays and gifts around three children, all of whom had survived and were thriving. They couldn't know that pneumonia would take Will in 1901, age 21, while away at college.

Augusta was not as robust as her husband, but she made up in will what she lacked in strength. She outlived him by 25 years, and her only son by 44 years. In her widowed years, it was no accident that her biggest philanthropy was building a wing on St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena.

Reference: "Conrad Kohrs: An Autobiography," ed. by Conrad Kohrs Warren (Platen Press, 1977).

(Photo from GRKO archives)

Researched, authored and posted April 3, 2015 by author Patricia Nell Warren