J.M. Buckley, the North Dakota Cowboy and Foreman Honored in 1964

Who was J.M. Buckley?

J.M. Buckley lived from 1878 to 1962, long enough to see North Dakota go from open-range cattle country to a state of fenced pastures, homesteads and tractors. The clearest public record of his life is his place in the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, which lists him as a cowboy, a horseman and a ranch foreman from North Dakota. The published list of Hall of Great Westerners inductees gives his years as 1878 to 1962 and his induction year as 1964.

That is a short entry for a long life, and this profile says so plainly. We could not find a documented biography with his birthplace, his employers or the brands he rode for. Rather than guess, the sections below stick to what is verified about Buckley himself and then explain the world a North Dakota cowboy and foreman worked in during his lifetime.

What the Hall of Great Westerners says about him

The Hall of Great Westerners honors people who actually lived through the frontier era, as opposed to fictional or legendary figures. It sits with the museum's other halls of fame, and the museum itself was established in 1955. Buckley went in during 1964, nine years after the museum opened and two years after his death.

His listing uses three working titles: cowboy, horseman and ranch foreman. Together they describe a career path that was common on the northern ranges. A hand learned cattle and horses in the saddle, proved himself through the roundups, and might eventually be trusted to run a crew. The honor recognizes that kind of skill and responsibility rather than land ownership or political office.

What a ranch foreman did on the Northern Plains

On the big open-range outfits of western North Dakota, cowboys reported to a foreman, sometimes called the range boss. The state's own history lessons note that many foremen on Pierre Wibaux's W-Bar ranch later became prominent local residents, which shows how much standing the job carried. A large outfit like the W-Bar kept about 25 men from spring to fall roundup and about 10 through the winter, and the foreman ran them.

The work centered on the roundup. Spring roundups branded calves, because a brand was the only way to prove ownership of cattle that had mixed on open range. Fall roundups sorted cattle for shipment by rail to Omaha and Chicago. The chuck wagon was the crew's base, where the cook fed the men and where cowboys met the foreman. Cowhands at the time earned about $35 to $40 a month plus room and board, according to North Dakota Studies.

North Dakota ranching in Buckley's lifetime

Large-scale open-range ranching in North Dakota developed around 1883, when the first cattle shipment left Dickinson on September 14. Companies ran 10,000 to 25,000 head each, and the Northern Pacific Railroad carried yearlings and two-year-olds in by the hundred thousand. Buckley was a child then, but this was the industry he grew up beside.

The winter of 1886 and 1887 broke the boom. Overstocked range, a dry summer and an early blizzard left western Dakota herds with losses that some accounts put at 60 to 75 percent, and others near 80 percent. Many large operators quit. Ranchers who stayed began cutting hay for winter feed. Open-range ranching still prospered until about 1903, and then federal land agents pushed ranchers off federal land they had used without title so homesteaders could claim it, as the State Historical Society's open range study and North Dakota Studies both describe.

A man born in 1878 would have reached adulthood just as that change arrived. The industry he worked in moved toward fenced pastures, smaller family operations and owned or leased land, and roundups became less necessary.

Horses and the horseman's trade

Buckley is called a horseman, and horses were never a sideline on the northern ranges. Some ranchers switched to horses after the 1886 and 1887 disaster, since work horses were in high demand for farm power and transportation. Huidekoper's HT outfit later focused on draft horses sold to eastern freight companies.

The same was true of the cow work itself. Roundups, trail work and winter feeding all ran on saddle horses, and a hand who could be trusted with them was worth keeping. In a state that still talks about its homestead and farm history, the North Dakota Studies agriculture overview also points to the large wheat farms in the east developing at the same time as ranching in the west.

Learn more and read further

If you want to follow the story of ranch work in this region, start with the Historical Society's open range study and North Dakota Studies, then browse the full inductee list for the Hall of Great Westerners. For a lighter read on the same subject, try the ranching section of farm.FM and a farm.FM story about North Dakota ranch life.