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Granville Stuart: Gold Prospector, DHS Ranch Manager and Montana Historian

A prospector, merchant and diplomat who became the public face of Montana's open-range cattle era.

Who Was Granville Stuart?

Granville Stuart worked as a miner, storekeeper, rancher, historian and diplomat, and few people touched as many chapters of early Montana. He was born on August 27, 1834, in what is now West Virginia, and his family moved to Muscatine County, Iowa, in 1838. Biographers know him as "Mr. Montana," and cattle historians know him as the general manager of the DHS Ranch and the first president of the Montana Stock Growers Association.

Sources differ on small early details. One popular biography places his birth near Clarksburg and his trip to the California gold fields in 1851, while the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame summary says he was born in Virginia and went to California in 1852. The broad outline is the same in both.

From Gold Creek to the Montana Merchant Trade

In 1857 Stuart was heading home to Iowa when the dispute between Utah's Mormon leadership and federal troops pushed him north into what became Montana. In 1858 he and his brother James are credited with the first major gold strike at Gold Creek in the Deer Lodge Valley. They left soon afterward for lack of supplies and fear of attack, then came back around 1862 as a mining camp grew at the creek.

Mining money had to be spent somewhere, and Stuart turned to commerce. He ran a mercantile business in Virginia City in 1863, sold it in 1865, and opened a store and later a lumberyard back in Deer Lodge. He sat on the Territorial Council in 1871 and was a founding member of the Montana Historical Society in 1865. When mining failed to pay in the 1870s, he took a bookkeeping job at Samuel T. Hauser's First National Bank in Helena in 1876. That job put him next to the capital that would fund his ranch.

How the DHS Ranch Got Started

In 1879 Stuart joined Samuel T. Hauser and the mining millionaires Andrew J. and Erwin Davis to form the Hauser, Davis, Stuart Cattle Company, known by its brand as the DHS. The Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame dates the partnership to 1880 and places the range east of Lewistown. Stuart served as general manager until the spring of 1887.

The outfit grew quickly. By 1885 the company was reportedly worth more than $1 million, a reported figure best treated as an estimate. Then came hard winters. The same severe winter of 1886 and 1887 that hammered other northern ranges contributed to the end of the DHS, and the operation was gone by the late 1880s. Parts of its former range later fed into the Grant-Kohrs cattle empire.

Stuart's Stranglers and the 1884 Raids

In 1884 Stuart reportedly organized a vigilante group, later called Stuart's Stranglers, to go after horse thieves and cattle rustlers in the Missouri River Breaks. Accounts say dozens of alleged outlaws were hanged or shot. Accounts do not agree on exact numbers, and the killings happened outside the courts.

Stuart had earlier taken part in the 1864 vigilante effort against Henry Plummer's gang, according to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. Whether he was in the original vigilance committees is less certain in other accounts, which note that those committees likely shaped his own 1884 effort. Any honest profile of Stuart has to carry both his standing as an organizer and this extralegal violence.

The Key to Stuart's Success

The record points to a pattern of pairing frontier experience with other people's capital and then turning that experience into institutions.

His limits are just as documented: the DHS did not survive the winters, and the vigilante raids remain the most disputed part of his record.

  • He partnered with money. The DHS combined his local knowledge with funds from Hauser and the Davis brothers.
  • He learned business first. Years as a merchant and a bank bookkeeper preceded his ranching.
  • He organized the industry. In 1884 he became the first president of the Montana Stock Growers Association.
  • He kept public ties. He stayed president of the Board of Stock Commissioners until 1891, after leaving ranching in 1887.
  • He wrote things down. His notes became the basis of a major frontier history.
  • He paid costs too: the DHS wound down after severe winters, and the 1884 raids killed people without trial.

Land Agent, Historian and Diplomat

After leaving the cattle business Stuart held a string of public posts. He served as president of the Society of Montana Pioneers in 1886 and 1887 and as president of the Montana Historical Society from 1890. In 1891 he became state land agent and selected about 600,000 acres granted to Montana by the federal government to fund schools.

In 1894 he was appointed U.S. minister to Uruguay and Paraguay, a post he held for about five years. Back in Montana he worked as librarian of the Butte Public Library. In 1916 the state commissioned him to write a history of the territory, a project he did not finish.

Legacy, Honors and Where to Learn More

Stuart died on October 2, 1918, in Missoula and was buried in Deer Lodge. In 1925 historian Paul Phillips edited his papers into Forty Years on the Frontier, still a standard source on early Montana. His honors include the Hall of Great Westerners (1966, per the National Cowboy Museum inductee page) and the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame (2008).

For the broader story of the northern range, browse the ranching section at farm.FM, or read a farm.FM story about Montana cattle country.

Timeline

  1. 1834Born August 27 in what is now West Virginia
  2. 1838Family moves to Muscatine County, Iowa
  3. 1858Credited with the first major gold strike at Gold Creek
  4. 1864Takes part in vigilante action against the Plummer gang, per the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame
  5. 1879Forms the Hauser, Davis, Stuart Cattle Company (the Hall of Fame says 1880)
  6. 1884Organizes Stuart's Stranglers and becomes first president of the Montana Stock Growers Association
  7. 1891Appointed state land agent, selecting about 600,000 school acres
  8. 1894Appointed minister to Uruguay and Paraguay
  9. 1918Dies October 2 in Missoula; Forty Years on the Frontier follows in 1925

Frequently asked questions

Who was Granville Stuart?

Granville Stuart was a Montana pioneer who found gold at Gold Creek in 1858, managed the DHS cattle ranch, led the Montana Stock Growers Association, served as a diplomat and wrote frontier history.

What was the DHS Ranch?

The DHS was the Hauser, Davis, Stuart Cattle Company, formed around 1879 by Stuart, Samuel T. Hauser and Andrew and Erwin Davis. It ran cattle east of Lewistown until severe winters ended it in the late 1880s.

What were Stuart's Stranglers?

Stuart's Stranglers were a vigilante group Stuart reportedly organized in 1884 against rustlers and horse thieves in the Missouri River Breaks. Dozens of alleged outlaws were reportedly hanged or shot without trial.

What did Granville Stuart write?

Stuart's journals and notes were edited by Paul Phillips and published in 1925 as Forty Years on the Frontier, after his death in 1918. It remains a key firsthand source on early Montana.

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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