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Matthew Henry Cochrane: From Boots and Shorthorns to the Cochrane Ranche

A Quebec shoe manufacturer who bred some of North America's costliest Shorthorns helped write Canada's grazing-lease policy and then tried to ranch under it.

Who Was Matthew Henry Cochrane?

Matthew Henry Cochrane was born on 11 November 1823 in Compton, Lower Canada, the eldest son of an Irish Anglican immigrant who was a merchant and farmer. He worked in the Boston area from 1841 to 1854, saved capital and learned manufacturing, then went into business in Montreal with Samuel G. Smith. They started a boot and shoe firm in 1854 with $9,000. Five years later the business was valued at $80,000, and the factory employed 300 people, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

He was an industrialist first and a cattleman second, which shaped everything he later did on the Alberta prairie.

Building a Shorthorn Herd at Hillhurst

In 1864 Cochrane bought a large farm near his father's land in Compton County and named it Hillhurst. In 1870 he bought 63 Shorthorns from British lines for about $60,000, the largest purebred herd brought into Canada by a single buyer up to that time. The farm grew from 750 acres to 1,100, making him the county's largest landowner.

The Parks Canada history of the ranch records further purchases: a major Shorthorn buy with stockman Simon Beattie in 1867, the cow Duchess 97th at 1,000 guineas in 1868, and in the early 1880s about $30,000 for the 10th Duchess of Airdrie and several daughters. Within six years, the account says, he sold about $200,000 worth of their descendants. A record-setting auction at Bowness on Windermere in England on 4 September 1877 for Bates and Booth stock is also noted there. In 1876 he sold five purebred Shorthorns at a record 203 pounds 14 shillings each.

The Senate and Canada's Grazing Policy

Cochrane was appointed to the Senate for the Wellington division on 17 October 1872. He later admitted, in 1896, that he had spoken in the chamber only once or twice in nearly 25 years. His influence came through business circles instead: he held positions in firms such as the Canadian Meat and Produce Company, the Waterloo and Magog Railway and the Eastern Townships Bank.

In 1880 and 1881 he advised Sir John A. Macdonald's cabinet on grazing policy for southern Alberta. In December 1881 a ministerial order allowed ranchers to lease up to 100,000 acres each for 20 years at $10 per thousand acres a year, and cattle imported from the American prairies were exempted from duty. The Canadian Encyclopedia credits him as largely responsible for the policy on which the western cattle trade was built.

The Cochrane Ranche Company

The Cochrane Ranche Company Limited was founded in 1881 with Cochrane as president and $500,000 in capital. It held 204,500 leased acres and 10,433 head, second in scale only to the Walrond Ranche Company, and operated four ranches. The Parks Canada account names Dr. Duncan McEachran as a major investor and John Milne Browning as business manager, and says the first local manager, James Walker, a former North-West Mounted Police superintendent, took the post in 1881. After about two years of stock losses, which Walker partly blamed on directives from the eastern directors, he left.

Cochrane also presided over the British North American Ranche Company, which raised sheep in the Bow River valley west of Calgary, even though he opposed sheep on the cattle range and successfully lobbied to have them banned.

The Key to Cochrane's Success

Cochrane's achievements came from money, breeding knowledge and political access rather than from daily work on the range. The ranch itself is a lesson in limits as well as strengths.

The record is mixed. In the winter of 1882-83 the ranch lost at least 3,000 head, while the nearby Bar U, using an earlier move onto the winter range, lost far fewer, as the biography of Frederick Stimson notes.

  • He built capital in manufacturing first, with a Montreal shoe firm that employed 300 people.
  • He bought top Shorthorn bloodlines at record prices and resold their descendants for large sums.
  • He used his Ottawa connections to help shape a lease system of up to 100,000 acres for 20 years.
  • He assembled a corporate structure with eastern investors, a business manager and local managers.
  • He and the Bar U pioneered shipping range cattle to Britain in 1887.
  • The distance between eastern directors and the range was a weak point, and the first manager blamed directives for his losses.

Setbacks, the Embargo and the Sale

The ranch later moved to a southern range and became known for fine stock. A British embargo on Canadian livestock in 1892, imposed over disease concerns, cut exports and hurt western breeders. Cochrane died on 12 August 1903, and his livestock companies were dissolved. The ranch was sold in 1905, its cattle were dispersed and its range was turned over to cultivation, the Parks Canada history reports.

The biography says more than 60,000 acres of his western property were sold to Mormon buyers at $6 an acre. His heir, James Arthur Cochrane, sold the Compton County estate.

Legacy of the Cochrane Name

The Cochrane name stays tied to the start of the cattle-company era in the Canadian West. His family life is a quiet footnote to his record: he married Cynthia Maria Whitney of Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1849, and they had nine children.

For more on the era he helped start, see the ranching section of farm.FM, or a farm.FM story on Alberta ranching history.

Timeline

  1. 1823Born 11 November in Compton, Lower Canada
  2. 1854Founds a boot and shoe business in Montreal
  3. 1864Buys the Hillhurst property in Compton County
  4. 1870Buys 63 Shorthorns for about $60,000
  5. 1872Appointed to the Senate on 17 October
  6. 1881Founds the Cochrane Ranche Company; the grazing-lease order follows in December
  7. 1882Winter losses begin to hit the Alberta herd
  8. 1892British embargo on Canadian livestock hurts exports
  9. 1903Dies 12 August in Compton
  10. 1905Ranch sold and cattle dispersed

Frequently asked questions

Who was Matthew Henry Cochrane?

Matthew Henry Cochrane (1823-1903) was a Quebec boot manufacturer, Shorthorn breeder and senator who founded the Cochrane Ranche Company in Alberta in 1881 and advised on Canada's grazing-lease policy.

How big was the Cochrane Ranche?

In its early years the company held 204,500 leased acres and 10,433 head of livestock, ranking second in scale behind the Walrond Ranche Company, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

What happened to the Cochrane Ranche?

After heavy early losses and a 1892 British embargo, the company wound down. Cochrane died in 1903, and the Parks Canada history says the ranch was sold in 1905 and its range given to cultivation.

What were the Canadian grazing leases of 1881?

A December 1881 order let ranchers lease up to 100,000 acres for 20 years at $10 per thousand acres a year, with duty-free imports of American range cattle.

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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