From the Butte County SD A History, published 1989
Frank "Boomer" Glover was the first white child born in the Belle Fourche River Valley near Vale. He was born Sept. 6, 1880 to Bethel and Mary Glover. Boomer spent his early years as a cowboy and his declining years as something of a one-man tourist attraction. He wore a battered brown cowboy hat, had a white goatee and mustache and he loved to sit on the street corners (of Belle Fourche) talking and whittling. His whittling gained Glover recognition in all parts of the country. He carved willow canes, decorated with cattle brands of the region in his cowboy days. Those willow canes made their way to all parts of the country, including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame at Oklahoma City. He also loved to whittle tiny pendant style cowboy boots for tourists while he chatted. Glover grew up in the Vale area and in 1906 was married to Mary Wood of Vale. One son, Oliver was born to the couple. In 1909 he married Eva Cundy of Spearfish, who died at the time of the birth of their daughter, Bertha. In 1913 Glover was married to Caroline Wilson, who died in 1924. Two daughters were born to the couple - Lela Francis and Georgia. Glover attended rural schools in the Vale area and worked on the Glover home place until 1900. It was this period that Glover loved to talk about. He went first to Miles City and in the spring of 1901 to Missouri and Iowa. He returned to South Dakota and was employed by the OHO ranch on the While and Bad Rivers. He was in on the last big roundup on the Cheyenne River. In 1903 and 1904 Glover worked for Ed Lemmon on a fence gang and broke horses. He went to work for the L7 wagon going to Dickinson for a trail herd shipped from Oregon by Oliver Rose. He often talked about the time the group dipped 28,000 head of cattle twice, along with 4000 horses. Lemmon leased the Standing Rock reservation in the spring of 1902 and Glover was part of the crew that fenced the vast area. Glover returned to Vale in the fall of 1904 and filed on a homestead. He later went into the horse business, running 300 head in the Moreau River country. Glover died February 23, 1979.
His personal account from "Cowboys and Sodbusters Book"
"My parents, Bethel and Mary Ellen Glover, had moved to the mouth of Whitewood Creek, two and a half miles northwest of Vale, and I was born there September 6, 1880. I've been around here ever since.
I went to the schools from 1886 to 1896, off and on. Some years I'd get two months of schooling in the spring, sometimes in the fall. I went to school with 140 kids in the Vale community, and now I can count only eight or ten left out of the 140. Until the spring of 1898 I worked on the home ranch north of Vale.
Then I broke eleven head of three and four year old horses to ride. Dad rode them on a horse roundup. There were twenty -four cowboys on this roundup. We started from the mouth of Owl Creek, worked up the creek and across the divide to the forks of the Indian Creek.
We had gathered over five hundred wild horses when a bad rain and snowstorm hit us. We had to leave the roundup wagons and turn all the horses loose. The water came down the creek, and we had to hit for higher ground. We got into a twelve foot square shack with a corral around the place for a sheepherder's horse. Seven of the horses died, and we were in this shack for three days with food and no beds.
There were twenty -four of us on this roundup, and there are only two of us left out of the twenty -four, Harry Holman, Camp Crook, South Dakota, and me. Holman is ninety -one and I'm eighty- eight.
I worked at home the summer of 1899, and in 1900, I saddled a good saddle horse, packed my bed on a pack horse, and hit for Montana, looking for work. I got as far as Miles City. On my way back, I traded horses with an old guy on Pumpkin Creek, then rode to the Mizpah River where Ed Whitbeck lived, traded horses with him, and from there I came to the H S Horse Ranch on Boxelder Creek where I traded horses with Bill LeFors. I got a big red sorrel H S pint horse from him, came home, and went to Unionville, Missouri, that winter. Then I went to Bedford and Delphos, Iowa, where I stayed until spring.
It was spring on 1901 when I started punching cows. Charles Miller and I left Vale and took a string of twenty –one head of saddle horses to Bridger, South Dakota. There were five big broncos that had never been ridden.
There were four of us at the Shannon Ranch. Two of the boys came down with smallpox. Two of us were immune, so we took care of Shannon and Miller.
I broke out the five horses to ride. Alex Shoemaker quarantined us for fifteen days. When the quarantine was lifted, Miller, Shannon, and I took three strings of horses to Ft. Pierre. We caught up with the Limekiln Pool wagon and worked the While and Bad Rivers. I worked for Shannon, rode a string of horses branded 5, and worked for
Orlen Holbomb, branded OHO.
In the spring of 1903, I worked for the (*). Ed Lemmon broke a string of broncos to ride and drive. Then to the fence gang, two wagons. We put in forty- two miles of fence on the south side of the Grand River. Lemmon leased the Standing Rock Reservation in 1902 and fenced it in 1902 and 1903.
I went to Dickinson, North Dakota, after a trail herd while working for the (*). Over Rose had gone to Oregon and bought a train load of Oregon steers. He was two week late, so we camped on the Heart River near Dickinson for two weeks. We trailed them to the JR pasture, then Lemmon built a dipping vat, sixty- six feet lone and we dipped 27,000 head twice and 4,000 once.
When the fall roundup came on, we trailed the beef to Evarts, a shipping point on the Missouri River, for shipment. We crossed them on a pontoon bridge, so that was the tail end of my punching cows.
Then I filed a ranch on the south Moreau River Fork in 1902 and moved a bunch of horses out there in 1906 on my homestead.
I married Mary Wood, the summer of 1906 in Sturgis, and moved to Moreau that summer. We parted the fall of 1906.
That fall I went to Ekalaka, Montana, and wintered there. In the spring of 1907, I went to work for Booth and McLain on a ranch. McLain and I plowed ninety -one acres with two 14 inch walking plows, two horses on each plow. We put it into a grain crop, fenced a school section, and looked after 130 head of black Galloway cattle.
I came home and lived on the homestead for a time. I married Eva Cundy, December 25, 1909, we lived on the homestead until December 1910, when we moved to Vale on the old home place. My wife died December 25, 1910, from childbirth. The baby girl, Bertha Ruby, was eight days old when her mother passed away.
The next year I came back to my Moreau homestead and looked after a string of horses which I had growing up out of the sixty head I had turned loose between the south and north forks of the Moreau. We had 300 head. I rounded them up, cut out sixteen of the best geldings, drove them to Vale, and Halte broke them. Then I drove them to
Fort Keogh, on the Yellowstone River, close to Miles City, Montana. I sold them to Captain Howard, the remount receiver. He told me that was the best string of Calvary and artillery horses that ever came into Fort Keogh.
That fall, 1911, we sold 100 head of horses to a man named Baley, from Canada. He gave Dad $3,100.00 in gold, greenbacks, and silver. We had 200 head left, so we sold 100 head to a man named Love. He shipped them to Chicago in 1912. The balance was divided up in 1913.
In 1912, I married again, to Caroline Wilson. We lived on the homestead, and in 1915 I was appoint deputy sheriff of Butte County. We had a girl, Lelah, born in 1915. We lived on the old home place for a time. Then in 1918, I filed on a quarter of land thirteen mile east of Vale.
In 1919, I had another daughter, Georgia. We lived on the homestead until 1921, and Dad died in 1922. I stayed on the home place and looked after Mother until my wife passed away in 1924, leaving me with two girls and Mother to care for. I got both my girls into I00F Home in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, for school.
Then in 1927, I took charge of the old home, farmed and raised a few sheep. I looked after Mother until her passing away in 1935.
In 1936, I went to British Columbia to look over the country. I drove 4,400 miles. I left Sturgis around the first of June, drove to Bellingham, Washington, then north to the middle of British Columbia, Canada. I went a little way west of Prince George to Fances and Burns Lakes.
When I got home from my trip, I went to Gettysburg, South Dakota, and got my daughter and three children, two girls and a boy. I rented a house and sent the kids to school in Vale.
In 1937, I took a contract to furnish a string of saddle horses for Miss Bridge, then Dean of Women at Spearfish Normal. She had eleven youngsters out of Chicago, Detroit, and Sioux City of the Ed Mathews Ranch outside of Spearfish. They were well-to-do people who sent their kids to the Hills for the summer.
I went to the Cheyenne Reservation in 1940 and raced horses up until 1948 when I moved to Belle Fourche. For five years or more, I broke horses and raced over South and North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska.
My girls, Fran (Lelah Frances), Mrs. Grigg, lives in Pasco, Washington. Babe (Ruby), Mrs. Weimer, is in Searchlight, Nevada, Georgia passed away in 1940. Oliver lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.
So that's a light write- up of my eight -four years of wild life in western South Dakota. I was eighty- eight years old September 6, 1968 and still read the papers and letters without glasses."
(The brand I couldn't duplicate L reversed and T with the left top missing.)
Source: Julie Glover Nielsen
Frank "Boomer" Glover was the first white child born in the Belle Fourche River Valley near Vale. He was born Sept. 6, 1880 to Bethel and Mary Glover. Boomer spent his early years as a cowboy and his declining years as something of a one-man tourist attraction. He wore a battered brown cowboy hat, had a white goatee and mustache and he loved to sit on the street corners (of Belle Fourche) talking and whittling. His whittling gained Glover recognition in all parts of the country. He carved willow canes, decorated with cattle brands of the region in his cowboy days. Those willow canes made their way to all parts of the country, including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame at Oklahoma City. He also loved to whittle tiny pendant style cowboy boots for tourists while he chatted. Glover grew up in the Vale area and in 1906 was married to Mary Wood of Vale. One son, Oliver was born to the couple. In 1909 he married Eva Cundy of Spearfish, who died at the time of the birth of their daughter, Bertha. In 1913 Glover was married to Caroline Wilson, who died in 1924. Two daughters were born to the couple - Lela Francis and Georgia. Glover attended rural schools in the Vale area and worked on the Glover home place until 1900. It was this period that Glover loved to talk about. He went first to Miles City and in the spring of 1901 to Missouri and Iowa. He returned to South Dakota and was employed by the OHO ranch on the While and Bad Rivers. He was in on the last big roundup on the Cheyenne River. In 1903 and 1904 Glover worked for Ed Lemmon on a fence gang and broke horses. He went to work for the L7 wagon going to Dickinson for a trail herd shipped from Oregon by Oliver Rose. He often talked about the time the group dipped 28,000 head of cattle twice, along with 4000 horses. Lemmon leased the Standing Rock reservation in the spring of 1902 and Glover was part of the crew that fenced the vast area. Glover returned to Vale in the fall of 1904 and filed on a homestead. He later went into the horse business, running 300 head in the Moreau River country. Glover died February 23, 1979.
His personal account from "Cowboys and Sodbusters Book"
"My parents, Bethel and Mary Ellen Glover, had moved to the mouth of Whitewood Creek, two and a half miles northwest of Vale, and I was born there September 6, 1880. I've been around here ever since.
I went to the schools from 1886 to 1896, off and on. Some years I'd get two months of schooling in the spring, sometimes in the fall. I went to school with 140 kids in the Vale community, and now I can count only eight or ten left out of the 140. Until the spring of 1898 I worked on the home ranch north of Vale.
Then I broke eleven head of three and four year old horses to ride. Dad rode them on a horse roundup. There were twenty -four cowboys on this roundup. We started from the mouth of Owl Creek, worked up the creek and across the divide to the forks of the Indian Creek.
We had gathered over five hundred wild horses when a bad rain and snowstorm hit us. We had to leave the roundup wagons and turn all the horses loose. The water came down the creek, and we had to hit for higher ground. We got into a twelve foot square shack with a corral around the place for a sheepherder's horse. Seven of the horses died, and we were in this shack for three days with food and no beds.
There were twenty -four of us on this roundup, and there are only two of us left out of the twenty -four, Harry Holman, Camp Crook, South Dakota, and me. Holman is ninety -one and I'm eighty- eight.
I worked at home the summer of 1899, and in 1900, I saddled a good saddle horse, packed my bed on a pack horse, and hit for Montana, looking for work. I got as far as Miles City. On my way back, I traded horses with an old guy on Pumpkin Creek, then rode to the Mizpah River where Ed Whitbeck lived, traded horses with him, and from there I came to the H S Horse Ranch on Boxelder Creek where I traded horses with Bill LeFors. I got a big red sorrel H S pint horse from him, came home, and went to Unionville, Missouri, that winter. Then I went to Bedford and Delphos, Iowa, where I stayed until spring.
It was spring on 1901 when I started punching cows. Charles Miller and I left Vale and took a string of twenty –one head of saddle horses to Bridger, South Dakota. There were five big broncos that had never been ridden.
There were four of us at the Shannon Ranch. Two of the boys came down with smallpox. Two of us were immune, so we took care of Shannon and Miller.
I broke out the five horses to ride. Alex Shoemaker quarantined us for fifteen days. When the quarantine was lifted, Miller, Shannon, and I took three strings of horses to Ft. Pierre. We caught up with the Limekiln Pool wagon and worked the While and Bad Rivers. I worked for Shannon, rode a string of horses branded 5, and worked for
Orlen Holbomb, branded OHO.
In the spring of 1903, I worked for the (*). Ed Lemmon broke a string of broncos to ride and drive. Then to the fence gang, two wagons. We put in forty- two miles of fence on the south side of the Grand River. Lemmon leased the Standing Rock Reservation in 1902 and fenced it in 1902 and 1903.
I went to Dickinson, North Dakota, after a trail herd while working for the (*). Over Rose had gone to Oregon and bought a train load of Oregon steers. He was two week late, so we camped on the Heart River near Dickinson for two weeks. We trailed them to the JR pasture, then Lemmon built a dipping vat, sixty- six feet lone and we dipped 27,000 head twice and 4,000 once.
When the fall roundup came on, we trailed the beef to Evarts, a shipping point on the Missouri River, for shipment. We crossed them on a pontoon bridge, so that was the tail end of my punching cows.
Then I filed a ranch on the south Moreau River Fork in 1902 and moved a bunch of horses out there in 1906 on my homestead.
I married Mary Wood, the summer of 1906 in Sturgis, and moved to Moreau that summer. We parted the fall of 1906.
That fall I went to Ekalaka, Montana, and wintered there. In the spring of 1907, I went to work for Booth and McLain on a ranch. McLain and I plowed ninety -one acres with two 14 inch walking plows, two horses on each plow. We put it into a grain crop, fenced a school section, and looked after 130 head of black Galloway cattle.
I came home and lived on the homestead for a time. I married Eva Cundy, December 25, 1909, we lived on the homestead until December 1910, when we moved to Vale on the old home place. My wife died December 25, 1910, from childbirth. The baby girl, Bertha Ruby, was eight days old when her mother passed away.
The next year I came back to my Moreau homestead and looked after a string of horses which I had growing up out of the sixty head I had turned loose between the south and north forks of the Moreau. We had 300 head. I rounded them up, cut out sixteen of the best geldings, drove them to Vale, and Halte broke them. Then I drove them to
Fort Keogh, on the Yellowstone River, close to Miles City, Montana. I sold them to Captain Howard, the remount receiver. He told me that was the best string of Calvary and artillery horses that ever came into Fort Keogh.
That fall, 1911, we sold 100 head of horses to a man named Baley, from Canada. He gave Dad $3,100.00 in gold, greenbacks, and silver. We had 200 head left, so we sold 100 head to a man named Love. He shipped them to Chicago in 1912. The balance was divided up in 1913.
In 1912, I married again, to Caroline Wilson. We lived on the homestead, and in 1915 I was appoint deputy sheriff of Butte County. We had a girl, Lelah, born in 1915. We lived on the old home place for a time. Then in 1918, I filed on a quarter of land thirteen mile east of Vale.
In 1919, I had another daughter, Georgia. We lived on the homestead until 1921, and Dad died in 1922. I stayed on the home place and looked after Mother until my wife passed away in 1924, leaving me with two girls and Mother to care for. I got both my girls into I00F Home in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, for school.
Then in 1927, I took charge of the old home, farmed and raised a few sheep. I looked after Mother until her passing away in 1935.
In 1936, I went to British Columbia to look over the country. I drove 4,400 miles. I left Sturgis around the first of June, drove to Bellingham, Washington, then north to the middle of British Columbia, Canada. I went a little way west of Prince George to Fances and Burns Lakes.
When I got home from my trip, I went to Gettysburg, South Dakota, and got my daughter and three children, two girls and a boy. I rented a house and sent the kids to school in Vale.
In 1937, I took a contract to furnish a string of saddle horses for Miss Bridge, then Dean of Women at Spearfish Normal. She had eleven youngsters out of Chicago, Detroit, and Sioux City of the Ed Mathews Ranch outside of Spearfish. They were well-to-do people who sent their kids to the Hills for the summer.
I went to the Cheyenne Reservation in 1940 and raced horses up until 1948 when I moved to Belle Fourche. For five years or more, I broke horses and raced over South and North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska.
My girls, Fran (Lelah Frances), Mrs. Grigg, lives in Pasco, Washington. Babe (Ruby), Mrs. Weimer, is in Searchlight, Nevada, Georgia passed away in 1940. Oliver lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.
So that's a light write- up of my eight -four years of wild life in western South Dakota. I was eighty- eight years old September 6, 1968 and still read the papers and letters without glasses."
(The brand I couldn't duplicate L reversed and T with the left top missing.)
Source: Julie Glover Nielsen
From the Butte County SD A History, published 1989
Frank "Boomer" Glover was the first white child born in the Belle Fourche River Valley near Vale. He was born Sept. 6, 1880 to Bethel and Mary Glover. Boomer spent his early years as a cowboy and his declining years as something of a one-man tourist attraction. He wore a battered brown cowboy hat, had a white goatee and mustache and he loved to sit on the street corners (of Belle Fourche) talking and whittling. His whittling gained Glover recognition in all parts of the country. He carved willow canes, decorated with cattle brands of the region in his cowboy days. Those willow canes made their way to all parts of the country, including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame at Oklahoma City. He also loved to whittle tiny pendant style cowboy boots for tourists while he chatted. Glover grew up in the Vale area and in 1906 was married to Mary Wood of Vale. One son, Oliver was born to the couple. In 1909 he married Eva Cundy of Spearfish, who died at the time of the birth of their daughter, Bertha. In 1913 Glover was married to Caroline Wilson, who died in 1924. Two daughters were born to the couple - Lela Francis and Georgia. Glover attended rural schools in the Vale area and worked on the Glover home place until 1900. It was this period that Glover loved to talk about. He went first to Miles City and in the spring of 1901 to Missouri and Iowa. He returned to South Dakota and was employed by the OHO ranch on the While and Bad Rivers. He was in on the last big roundup on the Cheyenne River. In 1903 and 1904 Glover worked for Ed Lemmon on a fence gang and broke horses. He went to work for the L7 wagon going to Dickinson for a trail herd shipped from Oregon by Oliver Rose. He often talked about the time the group dipped 28,000 head of cattle twice, along with 4000 horses. Lemmon leased the Standing Rock reservation in the spring of 1902 and Glover was part of the crew that fenced the vast area. Glover returned to Vale in the fall of 1904 and filed on a homestead. He later went into the horse business, running 300 head in the Moreau River country. Glover died February 23, 1979.
His personal account from "Cowboys and Sodbusters Book"
"My parents, Bethel and Mary Ellen Glover, had moved to the mouth of Whitewood Creek, two and a half miles northwest of Vale, and I was born there September 6, 1880. I've been around here ever since.
I went to the schools from 1886 to 1896, off and on. Some years I'd get two months of schooling in the spring, sometimes in the fall. I went to school with 140 kids in the Vale community, and now I can count only eight or ten left out of the 140. Until the spring of 1898 I worked on the home ranch north of Vale.
Then I broke eleven head of three and four year old horses to ride. Dad rode them on a horse roundup. There were twenty -four cowboys on this roundup. We started from the mouth of Owl Creek, worked up the creek and across the divide to the forks of the Indian Creek.
We had gathered over five hundred wild horses when a bad rain and snowstorm hit us. We had to leave the roundup wagons and turn all the horses loose. The water came down the creek, and we had to hit for higher ground. We got into a twelve foot square shack with a corral around the place for a sheepherder's horse. Seven of the horses died, and we were in this shack for three days with food and no beds.
There were twenty -four of us on this roundup, and there are only two of us left out of the twenty -four, Harry Holman, Camp Crook, South Dakota, and me. Holman is ninety -one and I'm eighty- eight.
I worked at home the summer of 1899, and in 1900, I saddled a good saddle horse, packed my bed on a pack horse, and hit for Montana, looking for work. I got as far as Miles City. On my way back, I traded horses with an old guy on Pumpkin Creek, then rode to the Mizpah River where Ed Whitbeck lived, traded horses with him, and from there I came to the H S Horse Ranch on Boxelder Creek where I traded horses with Bill LeFors. I got a big red sorrel H S pint horse from him, came home, and went to Unionville, Missouri, that winter. Then I went to Bedford and Delphos, Iowa, where I stayed until spring.
It was spring on 1901 when I started punching cows. Charles Miller and I left Vale and took a string of twenty –one head of saddle horses to Bridger, South Dakota. There were five big broncos that had never been ridden.
There were four of us at the Shannon Ranch. Two of the boys came down with smallpox. Two of us were immune, so we took care of Shannon and Miller.
I broke out the five horses to ride. Alex Shoemaker quarantined us for fifteen days. When the quarantine was lifted, Miller, Shannon, and I took three strings of horses to Ft. Pierre. We caught up with the Limekiln Pool wagon and worked the While and Bad Rivers. I worked for Shannon, rode a string of horses branded 5, and worked for
Orlen Holbomb, branded OHO.
In the spring of 1903, I worked for the (*). Ed Lemmon broke a string of broncos to ride and drive. Then to the fence gang, two wagons. We put in forty- two miles of fence on the south side of the Grand River. Lemmon leased the Standing Rock Reservation in 1902 and fenced it in 1902 and 1903.
I went to Dickinson, North Dakota, after a trail herd while working for the (*). Over Rose had gone to Oregon and bought a train load of Oregon steers. He was two week late, so we camped on the Heart River near Dickinson for two weeks. We trailed them to the JR pasture, then Lemmon built a dipping vat, sixty- six feet lone and we dipped 27,000 head twice and 4,000 once.
When the fall roundup came on, we trailed the beef to Evarts, a shipping point on the Missouri River, for shipment. We crossed them on a pontoon bridge, so that was the tail end of my punching cows.
Then I filed a ranch on the south Moreau River Fork in 1902 and moved a bunch of horses out there in 1906 on my homestead.
I married Mary Wood, the summer of 1906 in Sturgis, and moved to Moreau that summer. We parted the fall of 1906.
That fall I went to Ekalaka, Montana, and wintered there. In the spring of 1907, I went to work for Booth and McLain on a ranch. McLain and I plowed ninety -one acres with two 14 inch walking plows, two horses on each plow. We put it into a grain crop, fenced a school section, and looked after 130 head of black Galloway cattle.
I came home and lived on the homestead for a time. I married Eva Cundy, December 25, 1909, we lived on the homestead until December 1910, when we moved to Vale on the old home place. My wife died December 25, 1910, from childbirth. The baby girl, Bertha Ruby, was eight days old when her mother passed away.
The next year I came back to my Moreau homestead and looked after a string of horses which I had growing up out of the sixty head I had turned loose between the south and north forks of the Moreau. We had 300 head. I rounded them up, cut out sixteen of the best geldings, drove them to Vale, and Halte broke them. Then I drove them to
Fort Keogh, on the Yellowstone River, close to Miles City, Montana. I sold them to Captain Howard, the remount receiver. He told me that was the best string of Calvary and artillery horses that ever came into Fort Keogh.
That fall, 1911, we sold 100 head of horses to a man named Baley, from Canada. He gave Dad $3,100.00 in gold, greenbacks, and silver. We had 200 head left, so we sold 100 head to a man named Love. He shipped them to Chicago in 1912. The balance was divided up in 1913.
In 1912, I married again, to Caroline Wilson. We lived on the homestead, and in 1915 I was appoint deputy sheriff of Butte County. We had a girl, Lelah, born in 1915. We lived on the old home place for a time. Then in 1918, I filed on a quarter of land thirteen mile east of Vale.
In 1919, I had another daughter, Georgia. We lived on the homestead until 1921, and Dad died in 1922. I stayed on the home place and looked after Mother until my wife passed away in 1924, leaving me with two girls and Mother to care for. I got both my girls into I00F Home in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, for school.
Then in 1927, I took charge of the old home, farmed and raised a few sheep. I looked after Mother until her passing away in 1935.
In 1936, I went to British Columbia to look over the country. I drove 4,400 miles. I left Sturgis around the first of June, drove to Bellingham, Washington, then north to the middle of British Columbia, Canada. I went a little way west of Prince George to Fances and Burns Lakes.
When I got home from my trip, I went to Gettysburg, South Dakota, and got my daughter and three children, two girls and a boy. I rented a house and sent the kids to school in Vale.
In 1937, I took a contract to furnish a string of saddle horses for Miss Bridge, then Dean of Women at Spearfish Normal. She had eleven youngsters out of Chicago, Detroit, and Sioux City of the Ed Mathews Ranch outside of Spearfish. They were well-to-do people who sent their kids to the Hills for the summer.
I went to the Cheyenne Reservation in 1940 and raced horses up until 1948 when I moved to Belle Fourche. For five years or more, I broke horses and raced over South and North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska.
My girls, Fran (Lelah Frances), Mrs. Grigg, lives in Pasco, Washington. Babe (Ruby), Mrs. Weimer, is in Searchlight, Nevada, Georgia passed away in 1940. Oliver lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.
So that's a light write- up of my eight -four years of wild life in western South Dakota. I was eighty- eight years old September 6, 1968 and still read the papers and letters without glasses."
(The brand I couldn't duplicate L reversed and T with the left top missing.)
Source: Julie Glover Nielsen
Frank "Boomer" Glover was the first white child born in the Belle Fourche River Valley near Vale. He was born Sept. 6, 1880 to Bethel and Mary Glover. Boomer spent his early years as a cowboy and his declining years as something of a one-man tourist attraction. He wore a battered brown cowboy hat, had a white goatee and mustache and he loved to sit on the street corners (of Belle Fourche) talking and whittling. His whittling gained Glover recognition in all parts of the country. He carved willow canes, decorated with cattle brands of the region in his cowboy days. Those willow canes made their way to all parts of the country, including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame at Oklahoma City. He also loved to whittle tiny pendant style cowboy boots for tourists while he chatted. Glover grew up in the Vale area and in 1906 was married to Mary Wood of Vale. One son, Oliver was born to the couple. In 1909 he married Eva Cundy of Spearfish, who died at the time of the birth of their daughter, Bertha. In 1913 Glover was married to Caroline Wilson, who died in 1924. Two daughters were born to the couple - Lela Francis and Georgia. Glover attended rural schools in the Vale area and worked on the Glover home place until 1900. It was this period that Glover loved to talk about. He went first to Miles City and in the spring of 1901 to Missouri and Iowa. He returned to South Dakota and was employed by the OHO ranch on the While and Bad Rivers. He was in on the last big roundup on the Cheyenne River. In 1903 and 1904 Glover worked for Ed Lemmon on a fence gang and broke horses. He went to work for the L7 wagon going to Dickinson for a trail herd shipped from Oregon by Oliver Rose. He often talked about the time the group dipped 28,000 head of cattle twice, along with 4000 horses. Lemmon leased the Standing Rock reservation in the spring of 1902 and Glover was part of the crew that fenced the vast area. Glover returned to Vale in the fall of 1904 and filed on a homestead. He later went into the horse business, running 300 head in the Moreau River country. Glover died February 23, 1979.
His personal account from "Cowboys and Sodbusters Book"
"My parents, Bethel and Mary Ellen Glover, had moved to the mouth of Whitewood Creek, two and a half miles northwest of Vale, and I was born there September 6, 1880. I've been around here ever since.
I went to the schools from 1886 to 1896, off and on. Some years I'd get two months of schooling in the spring, sometimes in the fall. I went to school with 140 kids in the Vale community, and now I can count only eight or ten left out of the 140. Until the spring of 1898 I worked on the home ranch north of Vale.
Then I broke eleven head of three and four year old horses to ride. Dad rode them on a horse roundup. There were twenty -four cowboys on this roundup. We started from the mouth of Owl Creek, worked up the creek and across the divide to the forks of the Indian Creek.
We had gathered over five hundred wild horses when a bad rain and snowstorm hit us. We had to leave the roundup wagons and turn all the horses loose. The water came down the creek, and we had to hit for higher ground. We got into a twelve foot square shack with a corral around the place for a sheepherder's horse. Seven of the horses died, and we were in this shack for three days with food and no beds.
There were twenty -four of us on this roundup, and there are only two of us left out of the twenty -four, Harry Holman, Camp Crook, South Dakota, and me. Holman is ninety -one and I'm eighty- eight.
I worked at home the summer of 1899, and in 1900, I saddled a good saddle horse, packed my bed on a pack horse, and hit for Montana, looking for work. I got as far as Miles City. On my way back, I traded horses with an old guy on Pumpkin Creek, then rode to the Mizpah River where Ed Whitbeck lived, traded horses with him, and from there I came to the H S Horse Ranch on Boxelder Creek where I traded horses with Bill LeFors. I got a big red sorrel H S pint horse from him, came home, and went to Unionville, Missouri, that winter. Then I went to Bedford and Delphos, Iowa, where I stayed until spring.
It was spring on 1901 when I started punching cows. Charles Miller and I left Vale and took a string of twenty –one head of saddle horses to Bridger, South Dakota. There were five big broncos that had never been ridden.
There were four of us at the Shannon Ranch. Two of the boys came down with smallpox. Two of us were immune, so we took care of Shannon and Miller.
I broke out the five horses to ride. Alex Shoemaker quarantined us for fifteen days. When the quarantine was lifted, Miller, Shannon, and I took three strings of horses to Ft. Pierre. We caught up with the Limekiln Pool wagon and worked the While and Bad Rivers. I worked for Shannon, rode a string of horses branded 5, and worked for
Orlen Holbomb, branded OHO.
In the spring of 1903, I worked for the (*). Ed Lemmon broke a string of broncos to ride and drive. Then to the fence gang, two wagons. We put in forty- two miles of fence on the south side of the Grand River. Lemmon leased the Standing Rock Reservation in 1902 and fenced it in 1902 and 1903.
I went to Dickinson, North Dakota, after a trail herd while working for the (*). Over Rose had gone to Oregon and bought a train load of Oregon steers. He was two week late, so we camped on the Heart River near Dickinson for two weeks. We trailed them to the JR pasture, then Lemmon built a dipping vat, sixty- six feet lone and we dipped 27,000 head twice and 4,000 once.
When the fall roundup came on, we trailed the beef to Evarts, a shipping point on the Missouri River, for shipment. We crossed them on a pontoon bridge, so that was the tail end of my punching cows.
Then I filed a ranch on the south Moreau River Fork in 1902 and moved a bunch of horses out there in 1906 on my homestead.
I married Mary Wood, the summer of 1906 in Sturgis, and moved to Moreau that summer. We parted the fall of 1906.
That fall I went to Ekalaka, Montana, and wintered there. In the spring of 1907, I went to work for Booth and McLain on a ranch. McLain and I plowed ninety -one acres with two 14 inch walking plows, two horses on each plow. We put it into a grain crop, fenced a school section, and looked after 130 head of black Galloway cattle.
I came home and lived on the homestead for a time. I married Eva Cundy, December 25, 1909, we lived on the homestead until December 1910, when we moved to Vale on the old home place. My wife died December 25, 1910, from childbirth. The baby girl, Bertha Ruby, was eight days old when her mother passed away.
The next year I came back to my Moreau homestead and looked after a string of horses which I had growing up out of the sixty head I had turned loose between the south and north forks of the Moreau. We had 300 head. I rounded them up, cut out sixteen of the best geldings, drove them to Vale, and Halte broke them. Then I drove them to
Fort Keogh, on the Yellowstone River, close to Miles City, Montana. I sold them to Captain Howard, the remount receiver. He told me that was the best string of Calvary and artillery horses that ever came into Fort Keogh.
That fall, 1911, we sold 100 head of horses to a man named Baley, from Canada. He gave Dad $3,100.00 in gold, greenbacks, and silver. We had 200 head left, so we sold 100 head to a man named Love. He shipped them to Chicago in 1912. The balance was divided up in 1913.
In 1912, I married again, to Caroline Wilson. We lived on the homestead, and in 1915 I was appoint deputy sheriff of Butte County. We had a girl, Lelah, born in 1915. We lived on the old home place for a time. Then in 1918, I filed on a quarter of land thirteen mile east of Vale.
In 1919, I had another daughter, Georgia. We lived on the homestead until 1921, and Dad died in 1922. I stayed on the home place and looked after Mother until my wife passed away in 1924, leaving me with two girls and Mother to care for. I got both my girls into I00F Home in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, for school.
Then in 1927, I took charge of the old home, farmed and raised a few sheep. I looked after Mother until her passing away in 1935.
In 1936, I went to British Columbia to look over the country. I drove 4,400 miles. I left Sturgis around the first of June, drove to Bellingham, Washington, then north to the middle of British Columbia, Canada. I went a little way west of Prince George to Fances and Burns Lakes.
When I got home from my trip, I went to Gettysburg, South Dakota, and got my daughter and three children, two girls and a boy. I rented a house and sent the kids to school in Vale.
In 1937, I took a contract to furnish a string of saddle horses for Miss Bridge, then Dean of Women at Spearfish Normal. She had eleven youngsters out of Chicago, Detroit, and Sioux City of the Ed Mathews Ranch outside of Spearfish. They were well-to-do people who sent their kids to the Hills for the summer.
I went to the Cheyenne Reservation in 1940 and raced horses up until 1948 when I moved to Belle Fourche. For five years or more, I broke horses and raced over South and North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska.
My girls, Fran (Lelah Frances), Mrs. Grigg, lives in Pasco, Washington. Babe (Ruby), Mrs. Weimer, is in Searchlight, Nevada, Georgia passed away in 1940. Oliver lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.
So that's a light write- up of my eight -four years of wild life in western South Dakota. I was eighty- eight years old September 6, 1968 and still read the papers and letters without glasses."
(The brand I couldn't duplicate L reversed and T with the left top missing.)
Source: Julie Glover Nielsen
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