Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on June 29, 2016.
FIRST KOHRS BRAND
When Conrad Kohrs first purchased the Grant ranch and some of its livestock, he also purchased the brand that John Grant had been using. This worn old iron, dating from around 1860, is still in the ranch collection. It may have been hammered out for Grant in the shop of one of Deer Lodge's early blacksmiths, like Giles Olin. In today's branding lingo, it would be described as a "G Hanging J." By 1873, however, when Montana Territory first began to register brands, Kohrs and Bielenberg had switched to using the CK as their cattle brand, and the Dutch K as their horse brand.
Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on November 18, 2013.
MYSTERY STORY OF A BRAND. Many livestock brands have their colorful histories. Some brands showcased the owners’ initials, like the CK in block letters on Kohrs & Bielenberg cattle. The Kohrs family adored monograms, and put them on everything, from Conrad's favorite saddle to their table linen, silver and bedsheets. But little is known about the Dutch K, an curvy script K that marked the outfit’s horses.
“Dutch” was John Bielenberg’s mispronunciation of Deutsch, meaning German. There are some funny family stories about Uncle Johnny and his mangled use of the word “Dutch.”
When I lived in Spain in the 1960s, and looked at history of the Spanish cattle industry, I was intrigued to learn that this exact same brand – an elegant script K – was used for centuries by the noble Gutierrez family of northern Spain. Interestingly enough, the surname Gutierrez is an old Germanic name, going back to the Visigoths who occupied much of Spain during pre-medieval times.
During the Conquista period, some of the Gutierrez family emigrated to the New World. They also exported Spanish cattle -– and their brand -- to Mexico. From there, that K brand could have wended its way into north America. By the early 1800s, branches of los Gutierrez were ranching in Texas, which was still part of Spain. In 1810, Eugenio Gutierrez was given a Texas land grant called Los Ojuelos by the king of Spain.
The Gutierrez name also took root in California. There, in 1836, when California was still part of Mexico, Nicolas Gutierrez was governor.
In their early days, Kohrs & Bielenberg traded in Spanish cattle as well as anglo breeds like Shorthorns. Greatgrandfather always called them “Spanish cattle,” never “Longhorns.” They did some heavy buying of Texas and California herds. I always wondered if the script K was a brand acquired by Kohrs & Bielenberg in the course of buying Gutierrez cattle in either of those states. Buying brands was how the ranch got ownership of several historic Montana brands, like the 79 and Five Up Five Down.
Or maybe Kohrs & Bielenberg simply liked the way this Spanish brand looked on a critter’s hide. So they adopted it as another monogram -- their horse brand. Customarily a different brand was used on horses. Legally, they could register that Gutierrez brand in another state without actually buying it.
Maybe the ranch started out referring to that brand as the Spanish K. And one day John Bielenberg harrumphed and said, “It’s the Dutch K now.”
This is all conjecture, of course. But today, a lot of historical research is being done by proud old Hispanic ranching families in the U.S. I can’t help wondering if there is a yellowing invoice in a family archive somewhere in Texas or California, documenting a cattle sale to an anglo rancher named Conrad Kohrs.
Back in the 1980s, I wrote an article about brands for Montana Magazine, and mentioned my Gutierrez theory. Maybe someday I will solve this old mystery of the Dutch K brand. Input is invited from our Facebook Friends on this subject.
Meanwhile the Dutch K intrigues other family members as well. My cousin Claudia Thorsrud and her family call their Big Fork horse operation the Dutch K.
-- Patricia Nell Warren
(National Park Service photo from GKRO
Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on June 29, 2016.
DUTCH K BRAND
During the ranch's Kohrs-Bielenberg era, the Dutch K brand was used mainly on the horses that emerged from the ranch's program of breeding part-Thoroughbred saddle horses for range use. The term "Dutch" was a cowboy mispronunciation of "Deutsch," meaning German. The ironwork design of this flowing script K may have been inspired by German handwriting styles and Gothic print fonts of the time, to distinguish it from the block K used in the CK cattle brand. The brand was placed on the horse's left hip.
"Dutch K horses" were a warmblood type of cross that the ranch produced as a specialty, by mating native-bred mares to registered Thoroughbred stallions owned by the ranch. An individual Dutch K horse might be as much as 7/8 Thoroughbred. Thoroughbreds of the time brought valued speed and staying power to 19th-century cow horses, which often had to cover as much as 20 miles a day at a lope in order to gather cattle from extensive ranges. In short, the brand "Dutch K" also served to denote a distinctive strain of horse, in much the same way that the Prussian moose-antler brand identified a Trakehner horse in Europe.
While the Grant-Kohrs Ranch always kept their own working string of Dutch K horses at full capacity, they sold a number of young made horses of this breeding every year to other outfits. (A sales horse already branded Dutch K would also carry a special mark above the K, called the "vent," to indicate the change of ownership.) In its day, the Dutch K horse was a valued commodity in Montana cow country. It was also sometimes called the "big circle horse," from its ability to lope around a large area in a day to gather cattle.
(Photo by National Park Service)
Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on June 10, 2015.
TIMELINE OF BRANDS. During its long history, the Grant-Kohrs Ranch has used a number of brands -- not only those primary brands of the owners, but also brands that they acquired through purchase of other operations. First came the G Hanging J used by John Grant, who sold it to Conrad Kohrs in 1866 with the ranch. Grant's was probably one of the first brands used in Montana Territory. Next came the CK, Kohrs & Bielenberg's cattle brand, and the Dutch K that they used on horses. The DHS, 75, Five Up Five Down and Wineglass, as shown on this page from the Montana Stockgrowers brand book in the late 1800s, came to the ranch through various partnerships and purchases.
In the 1950s, when my brother and I belonged to 4-H, we were given ownership of the 75 and 5 Up 5 Down to use on our own little herds of purebred Herefords that we were building. Most of these historic brands were dispersed after Con Warren passed on -- except for the CK and Dutch K, which are now owned by the GRKO -- though the park uses its own brand on its cattle.