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Ed Lemmon: The Boss Cowman Who Ran Roundups, Leased Standing Rock and Founded a Town

George Edward Lemmon bossed some of the biggest roundups on the northern plains, helped bring a railroad across South Dakota and had a town named for him.

Who was Ed Lemmon, the boss cowman?

George Edward Lemmon, known as Ed, was born in 1857 in Bountiful, Utah, and began working as a cowhand at age 12 or 13, according to the Wikipedia biography of G. E. Lemmon. He worked as a cowhand and foreman on ranches across the Great Plains before moving into management and ownership, and he ended his career as a banker, a county commissioner and the founder of a town that still carries his name.

A 2015 biography, Controlled Recklessness: Ed Lemmon and the Open Range by Nathan Sanderson, describes him as both an organized cattleman and a reckless, fun-loving cowboy. That tension, between careful management and physical risk, runs through the record.

How Lemmon learned the trade on the trail

South Dakota Magazine reports that at 13 he went to work for the Bear Creek Ranch near Cheyenne, Wyoming, and that he spent about 20 years driving longhorns from Texas up the trails. He wintered cattle on the Rush Creek Ranch near Sidney, Nebraska. In 1877, while working for Major Seth Mabry, he led a detail that delivered beef to Army forces on the Cheyenne River, when he was a little over 20.

At 23 he became foreman of the Flying V Ranch, owned by the Sheidley brothers, on French Creek near its meeting with the Cheyenne River. The magazine's profile, Boss Cowman's Own Words, draws on his recollections, so its details come from Lemmon's own telling.

How big was Lemmon's operation?

In 1891 Lemmon became general manager of the Sheidley Cattle Company and gained an ownership stake. In 1893 he sold his shares and partnered with Richard Lake and Thomas Tomb as Lake, Tomb & Lemmon. At its peak around 1900, according to South Dakota Magazine, that company employed 300 men and ran up to 53,000 head along the Moreau and Belle Fourche rivers.

At the 1897 spring roundup at Peno Flat he oversaw about 45,000 cattle, 24 wagons, 500 men and 5,000 saddle horses, and personally cut 900 animals in one day, the same source says. These are reported figures from the cowman's own era and recollections, and they should be read as reported rather than audited.

The Standing Rock lease and the railroad

In 1902, after a White House meeting with Theodore Roosevelt, Lemmon obtained a lease of 865,529 acres on the Standing Rock Reservation and fenced it with 270 miles of fence, according to South Dakota Magazine. The land was part of a Native reservation. The sources reviewed do not describe how the Standing Rock community viewed the lease.

Through his Chicago cattle-selling contacts he met R. M. Calkins, a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, who asked him to help route the line across South Dakota. Wikipedia says he chose a path from Mobridge through the reservation and founded a town on its western side. The railroad named it Lemmon. He moved the town to the state line, because North Dakota had prohibition and he hoped a border location would help it boom.

The Key to Lemmon's Success

Lemmon's record shows a rancher who combined hands-on cattle skill with an unusual feel for organization and connections. The reported numbers are large, and they came with large costs.

The Sanderson excerpt says that despite a considerable fortune he died nearly bankrupt, and that his risk-taking contributed to his injuries and to the downfall of his business empire.

  • Work up from the saddle. He started as a cowhand at 12 or 13 and became a foreman at 23.
  • Take management stakes. In 1891 he became general manager of the Sheidley Cattle Company with an ownership interest, then formed Lake, Tomb & Lemmon in 1893.
  • Know the market end. He sold cattle in Chicago every year, and those contacts led him to the railroad.
  • Organize the trade. He helped found the Western South Dakota Stock Growers Association in Rapid City in 1892 and served on its executive committee for 23 years.
  • Hold land on a huge scale. The 1902 Standing Rock lease covered 865,529 acres, fenced with 270 miles of wire.
  • Diversify when the range closed. In 1908 he sold his share of the cattle company and founded banks in Lemmon, Davison and Meadow.

Injuries, public office and later years

Lemmon's body paid for the work. A horse fell on him at 17 and crushed his right leg, which stayed permanently deformed. Later accidents broke his collarbones and other bones, and in 1890 he and his horse fell about forty feet near Smithwick Station in Fall River County, according to the excerpt from Controlled Recklessness. He was also known for his Model T driving, and a car accident broke his left shoulder blade.

In 1909 he became one of the first commissioners of Perkins County, South Dakota, and he also served as a commissioner in Adams County, North Dakota. Starting in 1932 he wrote weekly stories for the Belle Fourche Bee, which Phyllis Schmidt compiled as The West As I Lived It, and Nellie Snyder Yost edited his recollections as Boss Cowman.

Honors and legacy

Life magazine featured Lemmon in a 1941 South Dakota photo essay, and the town of Lemmon started its Boss Cowman Rodeo in 1971. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum inducted him into the Hall of Great Westerners in 1958, according to Wikipedia's Hall of Great Westerners list. Sources give his death as 1945 or 1946; Wikipedia and South Dakota Magazine say 1945, and the Hall's listing says 1946.

For more on the ranching life he wrote about, farm.FM keeps a ranching section, and a farm.FM story about South Dakota open range ranching covers related ground.

Timeline

  1. 1857Born in Bountiful, Utah
  2. 1877Leads a beef delivery detail to Army forces on the Cheyenne River
  3. 1891Becomes general manager of the Sheidley Cattle Company
  4. 1892Helps found the Western South Dakota Stock Growers Association in Rapid City
  5. 1893Forms Lake, Tomb & Lemmon
  6. 1902Obtains an 865,529-acre lease on the Standing Rock Reservation
  7. 1908Sells his share of Lake, Tomb & Lemmon and turns to banking
  8. 1945Dies August 25 in Lemmon (some sources say 1946)

Frequently asked questions

Who was Ed Lemmon?

George Edward Lemmon (1857 to 1945) was a cowboy, ranch manager and roundup boss on the northern plains who later became a banker and the founder of Lemmon, South Dakota, which was named for him.

How big was Ed Lemmon's Standing Rock lease?

South Dakota Magazine reports a 1902 lease of 865,529 acres on the Standing Rock Reservation, fenced with 270 miles of fence.

Why is Lemmon, South Dakota named after him?

He helped route the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad across South Dakota and founded a town on the Standing Rock Reservation's west side. The railroad's director named it Lemmon in his honor.

What books are about Ed Lemmon?

Boss Cowman, edited by Nellie Snyder Yost, collects his recollections, and The West As I Lived It compiles his newspaper columns. Controlled Recklessness, by Nathan Sanderson, is a 2015 biography.

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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