George Grant and the Kansas Colony That Brought Angus to America

Who Was George Grant of Victoria, Kansas?

George Grant was a Scottish businessman who tried to plant a British ranching colony on the Kansas plains in the 1870s, and in doing so brought the first Aberdeen Angus cattle into the United States. Breeders know his name through the American Angus Association, which lists him among its heritage honorees. Kansans know it through the town of Victoria in Ellis County, which he founded and where the church he built still stands.

The sources consulted for this profile say little about his birth or early career. The Wikipedia article on Victoria describes him as a Scottish entrepreneur whose clients included British nobility, which fits the way he later recruited young gentlemen to follow him west. The documented story therefore runs from 1873, when he arrived on the Kansas Pacific line, to April 1878, when he died after losing most of his fortune.

How Four Angus Bulls Reached Kansas in 1873

The American Angus Association's heritage page records that in 1873 Grant shipped four Angus bulls from England to Victoria, Kansas. He bred them to Texas Longhorn cows, a cross the association says made its mark on the livestock industry. The same page says he showed the first Angus breeding cattle in the United States at the Kansas City Livestock Exposition in 1873.

The Victoria article adds that the colony brought a herd of thoroughbred Aberdeen Angus, some reportedly from Queen Victoria's own stock, and that the four bulls are credited with establishing the American Angus breed. Treat the royal origin as reported rather than proven. What the sources agree on is the timing and the place: Angus bulls reached the Kansas range in 1873, and Grant both exhibited them and put them to work on Longhorn cows.

Building the Victoria Colony on the Kansas Pacific

Legends of Kansas says Grant wanted a prosperous colony along the Kansas Pacific Railroad. He bought more than 69,000 acres south of the tracks to apply British farming methods and to stock the land with imported sheep and cattle. The town was surveyed and platted in 1873 and named for Queen Victoria, and a post office opened that June. Wikipedia puts the first party's arrival at Victoria station on May 18, 1873, and counts about 30 young English and Scottish adults, while Legends of Kansas counts 38 settlers. Sources differ on the exact number.

Grant hired the British architect Robert William Edis to design his manor house and lay out the town, and the Kansas Pacific built a stone station-hotel, the Victoria Manor, that served as colony headquarters. Over the next few years more Britons came, more than 200 by Wikipedia's count and several hundred by Legends of Kansas. The town grew to include a stone depot, a grain elevator, a general store and about 25 homes. Grant also had St. George Episcopal Chapel built, completed in 1877 and described as the first church in Ellis County.

Why the British Colony Faded

The colony's trouble was labor and money, not livestock. Grant recruited many young men of good family who, according to Legends of Kansas, spent much of their money on a hunt club, cricket and horse racing instead of farming. Wikipedia notes that hired overseers managed some of the estates. When families back in Britain cut the allowances of these remittance men, many colonists went home. Others found the land unsuitable for farming and left as well.

In 1876 Grant moved into an English manor-style house he had acquired through foreclosure, a house that is still a private residence. He died on April 28, 1878, having lost most of his fortune. Wikipedia notes that one passage gives 1878 while a cited 1883 source gives 1879, so the year is not entirely settled. He was buried in front of St. George Chapel, which was never consecrated, and the grave can still be seen.

After Grant: Herzog and the Town That Stayed

Grant's British community did not last, but the town did. Legends of Kansas says German-Russian settlers founded Herzog in 1876, about half a mile north of the railroad, and that it became the largest German colony in Ellis County. Wikipedia dates the arrival of the Volga Germans from near Saratov to 1875. The two places were officially merged as Victoria in 1913. Wikipedia also credits Grant's niece, Margaret Grant Dunan, with leading the remaining colonists when the Victoria townsite was platted in 1880.

Honors and Where to Learn More

The American Angus Association lists Grant among its heritage honorees, with a 1983 induction into the Angus Heritage Foundation. In Victoria, the grave in front of St. George Chapel and the manor house, still private, are the physical traces of his venture. For more cattle history, farm.FM carries ranching coverage and a story on Angus cattle.