Myron D. Jeffers: The Freighter Who Drove Texas Cattle to Montana's Madison Valley

Who Was Myron D. Jeffers?

Myron D. Jeffers was one of the early cattlemen of Montana's Madison Valley, and his own trail diary survives as a record of how Texas cattle reached the northern mining camps. Born in Hadley, New York, in 1833, he grew up on his father's farm and trained as a civil engineer. According to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame biography, he worked on survey crews in his twenties and did some mining in Iowa, Colorado and Nebraska before heading to Montana.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum lists him among its 1963 Hall of Great Westerners inductees for Montana, in a class that also included Charles Boettcher of Colorado and William Connolly of North Dakota, as shown on the museum's honoree page.

Freighting at Alder Gulch, 1864 to 1869

Jeffers arrived at Alder Gulch in 1864, during the gold rush that fed Virginia City, and spent about five years as a freighter. Hauling supplies to mining camps was a common first step for Montana stockmen of the period, and it gave him cash, wagons and teams, plus a working knowledge of where hungry customers lived.

That knowledge shaped his next move. Miners needed beef, and the nearest large supply of cattle was in Texas.

Driving Texas Cattle to Montana Miners

In 1869 Jeffers bought cattle in Texas and drove them north to the mining camp at Bannock, selling the beef to miners there. He is credited with being the first to take a herd over that route in a single season, and he repeated the trip the following year.

In 1871 he returned to Texas once more, but this time he kept the herd. His diary records about 1,894 cattle and 37 horses, handled by a crew of 14 riders plus a cook and a helper over roughly seven months. The Hall of Fame summary says that drive established him as a stockman.

The Yellow Barn Ranch on Jack Creek

In 1872 Jeffers and his brother Burt formed a partnership on Jordan Creek, which the two dissolved in 1880. In 1876 Jeffers established his own home place, the Yellow Barn Ranch, on Jack Creek. There he raised hay and kept sheep he had bought in Oregon, a mixed operation typical of the valley's early ranches.

He married in 1877 and had five sons. The outline of his home life is all that sources give, and this profile leaves it at that.

The Cattle Pool and the Hard Winter

In 1881 Jeffers joined his brother Burt, E. A. Maynard and other Madison Valley stockmen in a pool that leased land on the Yellowstone River. Pools let small and mid-sized owners share range, labor and risk. They did not protect anyone from weather. Severe losses on eastern Montana's range in the winter of 1886 and 1887 hit the operation, and the pool was dissolved in the early 1890s.

Legacy and Honors

Jeffers died in May 1900. He is remembered in two halls: the Hall of Great Westerners (1963) and the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 2008 under its 1860 to 1920 Legacy Award, as the museum's inductee listing and the state hall both record.

To see how Texas drives, mining camps and open range fit together, browse the ranching pages on farm.FM, or read a farm.FM story about early Montana cattle country.