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Cattle Barons and Land Owners

Andrew Voigt: A North Dakota Cattleman of the Open-Range Generation

A rancher whose public record is brief, set against the cattle country he worked.

Who Was Andrew Voigt?

Andrew Voigt (1867-1939) is listed as a North Dakota cattleman and rancher. A profile of him appears on the North Dakota Cowboy site, and he is counted among the cattlemen recognized from the northern plains in the Hall of Great Westerners roll. The Wikipedia entry for the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame gives the background on that state honor.

This profile is deliberately short on personal detail. We could not open a full biography of Voigt for this entry, and the rules of this site bar guessing about ranch names, herd sizes or family. Instead, the sections below describe what the documented record of his region and generation looks like, using pages that cover neighbors and contemporaries.

The Cattle Country Voigt Lived In

Voigt was born in 1867, which means he reached adulthood just as the open-range cattle industry took hold in western Dakota. The National Park Service account of Theodore Roosevelt's ranching years shows how quickly that world peaked. Outside investors arrived in the early 1880s, stockmen formed the Little Missouri Stockmen's Association in 1885, and the winter of 1886-87 killed roughly 80 percent of the Badlands cattle.

A man of Voigt's age was a teenager or young man at the time. What happened to individual ranchers afterward varied, and the profiles of other North Dakota cattlemen in this series show several paths.

What Other North Dakota Cattlemen Did

The profile of James William Follis shows one path: a Texas-born cowboy hired by the Three Sevens in 1883 who became foreman within a year and later served as a county sheriff. Other cattlemen of the same hall, such as Matt Crowley and Frank Keogh, built herds, led stockmen's groups and served in public office.

Those careers followed a common pattern in North Dakota's cattle counties: ranch work, then leadership in the stockmen's associations, then roles in local government. Whether Voigt followed that pattern in detail is something this entry cannot say.

Other profiles in the series show how varied the paths were. Matt Crowley built a ranch of about 7,000 acres in Mercer County from a sod shanty after 1910. Frank Keogh managed a Fort Berthold outfit of up to 10,000 cattle before running his own place on about 20,000 acres. John W. Goodall began as a foreman for the Marquis de Mores and later became a sheriff. Each of these men is counted in the same hall, and the contrast between them is a reminder that a single cattleman's label covers very different lives.

Why It Mattered

A short entry still has a purpose. Halls of fame recognize more than the famous ranch owners, and the cattlemen who worked the northern plains between the 1880s and the 1930s shaped how the region grew. Voigt's life, 1867 to 1939, spans the open range, the homestead boom and the decades that followed.

The limits of the record are part of the story. Many ranchers left few papers, and what survives often sits in a county history, an obituary or a state hall of fame page.

  • His dates, 1867 to 1939, place him across the open-range and homestead eras.
  • He is recognized as a cattleman and rancher in North Dakota.
  • A state-level profile exists on the North Dakota Cowboy site.
  • Contemporaries in the same hall built herds, led stockmen's groups and held public office.
  • More documentation would be needed to describe his ranch, brand or herd.

How to Learn More

Researchers can start with the North Dakota Cowboy site profile and with county histories and newspapers from western North Dakota. For general ranching history, see farm.FM's ranching section and a farm.FM story about North Dakota cattlemen.

Timeline

  1. 1867Born
  2. 1883Three Sevens hires James William Follis at Wibaux, a sign of the cattle boom in the region
  3. 1885Little Missouri Stockmen's Association chaired by Theodore Roosevelt
  4. 1886-87Winter kills roughly 80 percent of Badlands cattle
  5. 1939Dies

Frequently asked questions

Who was Andrew Voigt?

Andrew Voigt (1867-1939) was a North Dakota cattleman and rancher, profiled on the North Dakota Cowboy site and listed among the cattlemen recognized in the Hall of Great Westerners.

Where did Andrew Voigt ranch?

He is associated with North Dakota. We could not open a source naming his ranch location, brand or herd, so this entry does not guess.

What is the Hall of Great Westerners?

It is a hall of fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City that honors figures of the American West, including many cattlemen and ranchers.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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