The Last Of The Boer War Horses

By Shane Dunning

http://www.redshalereflections.com

A year ago, my cousin showed me an old, sepia-colored family photograph of several cowboys in a corral. The picture's owner (my cousin) challenged me to see what I could find of the image's backstory. Included in the picture was my great-great-grandfather, Grant Dunning. An additional photo, obviously taken the same day, had a few bits of information written on the back.

"Picture of Grant Dunning Cowboys. Guys in back are contractors William and Malcolm Moncreiffe. Bought horses and sold them to British. British sold them to the Boer War. Picture taken at Grand Junction Stockyard, 1900-1905."

The Boer War (technically, the Second Boer War) was fought from October 1899 to May 1902. It was a conflict in Southern Africa between the British Empire and two Boer Republics (Afrikaners). As part of the war effort, the British government contracted with the Moncreiffe Brothers of Big Horn, Wyoming, to supply horses to the military. The Moncreiffes were the younger sons of Scottish nobility and had contacts with the British government.

Grant Dunning and his younger brother Luther were well-known stockmen and pioneers in southeastern Montana. In 1897, English nobleman (and notorious playboy) Sydney Paget deeded his ranch on Otter Creek to the Dunning brothers when he left Montana. Their brother Bill Dunning was a well-known stock inspector in Sheridan.

With the two pictures came an oral history hinting at a remarkable achievement: Grant and his cowboys had trailed several hundred horses from Sheridan to Grand Junction. My research began with this framework.

I could not proceed further without verifying, at least in some respects, the information on the back of the second picture. Was Grant Dunning ever in Grand Junction, Colorado, with a group of cowboys, and when did this occur? I searched in vain for newspaper accounts of some grand horse herd traversing the Wyoming plain. Fortunately, cowboys on trail rides are known not only for their exploits on the prairie but also for rabble-rousing. In the March 22, 1902, edition of Grand Junction's Daily Sentinel, I found the following article under the headline "A Vile Attack":

An assault was committed upon H.G. Bedwell at the Bovino stock yards yesterday afternoon about 3 o'clock which, from all accounts that can be obtained, was entirely unwarranted and unprovoked, so far as Mr. Bedwell was concerned.

The attack was made by two of the cowboys who are engaged at the stockyards and in the one-sided fight Mr. Bedwell was knocked down several times and was struck twice in the head with a quirt. Both of the cowmen were very large fellows and everyone who knows Mr. Bedwell will see at once that, even had he been given a fair show, he could not have gained anything from the fight...

The beginning of the trouble occurred about a week ago, when Grant Dunning, one of the cowmen, was arrested in this city for creating a disturbance on the "row" on Colorado avenue. Some parties had informed the men that Mr. Bedwell was responsible for Dunning's arrest. His companions decided to punish Mr. Bedwell for his interference. They, however, in yesterday's affair did not allow that gentleman time to explain that he was not the man who complained against Dunning.

This story confirmed many items written on the photograph. Grant was indeed in Grand Junction with some cowboys and had a relationship with the stockyards there. Most importantly, it fixed the date to March 1902. This date was a critical marker in determining more precisely why my great-great-grandfather was in western Colorado and what he was doing (when he wasn't getting arrested, that is).

While the story of the Moncreiffe's Boer War effort is well known, there are surprisingly few primary sources for details. The best source is Floyd Bard's book Horse Wrangler: Sixty Years in the Saddle in Wyoming and Montana. In that book, Bard describes how the Moncreiffe's horse operation flooded Sheridan with money, and Grant and Luther Dunning led their efforts.

Late in the fall of 1901, the company moved their inspection outfit to Grand Junction, Colorado. During that winter the company held regular inspections the same as they held at the Moncreiffe ranch. By the following spring, 1902, the horse business was over. The company shipped their outfit back to Sheridan, then on to their Big Horn ranch.

Grand Junction had been one location for several inspection stations for the Moncreiffe's horse operations. Railroads shipped the horses to New Orleans, where they were eventually placed on ships and sent to South Africa. Many of the horses did not survive the trip. Those that did were not expected to survive more than four months in the grueling South African sun.

By the time of the photographs, the conflict was winding down. A war characterized early on by glorious offensives, and hard-fought sieges had, by 1900, turned into a guerilla war. The British countered the Boer tactics with scorched earth policies and concentration camps. By 1901, peace negotiations were underway, and time was running out for the Boer insurgents. The war effort's need for American horses wound down along with the Boer military's prospects.

The consolidation of operations from distant posts (like Sheridan) to the more centrally located Grand Junction brought these Montana and Wyoming cowboys to the western slopes of Colorado in the late winter. The Wyoming Industrial Journal reported in its February 1, 1902 edition:

The Moncrieffe Brothers of Big Horn, Wyoming are holding a band of 500 unbroken Oregon horses at Bovino, near Grand Junction. The band is being broken by some cowboys and after the obsequies are over the stuff will be sent east to fill an army contract with the British government.

The presence of the Moncreiffe Brothers (William and Malcolm) in the picture demonstrates that they were personally overseeing the winddown of operations. Grant and Luther Dunning's close relationship with the Scottish noblemen probably demanded their presence in Grand Junction as well. I speculate that Grant and Luther, with a group of trusted broncobusters, did indeed drive a last herd of horses from Sheridan to Grand Junction. They had, likely, paid $40 each for them, and the only way they could get paid was to get them to the inspectors. Thankfully, one can trail horses much faster than cattle. While it is possible the horses were sent by train from Sheridan to Grand Junction, such an effort would have been expensive and just as dangerous for the health of the horses, who needed to pass a health inspection to be purchased.

I was initially skeptical that such a trail drive was advisable or financially feasible. Grant's presence in Colorado in February/March 1902 meant they would have had to drive this horse herd south in the dead of winter past the Big Horn mountains, crossing the Continental Divide through South Pass, and down into Colorado. I have since learned that this challenging feat may not have been as formidable as I first imagined. Indeed, the mountain valleys in northern Colorado's Moffat County were well-established winter grazing sites. Heading south from the pass and into Colorado via Savery Creek (near Baggs, Wyoming) would have brought them down into the Western slopes of the Colorado Rockies.

While he was not present for either picture, it is clear that Luther Dunning was also in Colorado at this time. Newspaper accounts show him in nearby Craig, Colorado, on March 1, buying Boer War horses for Moncreiffe's. For those curious, Luther's descendants are the Dunnings who presently live along Otter Creek.

While the Boer War horse enterprise ended in 1902, it would not be long before Grant and Luther were once again engaged in the great enterprise of supplying military horses. The outbreak of World War One started it up again for both the British and American forces. Finally, the remount program of the US Army was the third and last profitable effort to provide Montana and Wyoming horsepower to the military up to the pre-World War Two period.

These two pictures represent the end of a significant era in the American West. The last of the Boer War Horses. I am grateful to be able to give these great pictures their due on these pages.