MonDak
History Makers
James Patrick Brennan
3 April 2006
by Curt Heimbuck
Failed Farmer | Recruiter | Good Mixer | New Families | POWs | Laborers | Sources
We think of most settlement of the West happening in the 18th century with cowboys and prospectors and railroad men, and, in later years, homesteading farmers. The Lower Yellowstone Valley, however, is a different place. Far enough North and West to be one of the last places in the lower 48 touched by white settlement, it wasn't opened to homesteaders until 1908, although squatters had been coming in well before. Because the stories of the homesteaders have the gloss of history, they are enshrined in our books and museums. Therefore, we often think that most of the settling was done by World War I, especially after the bottom dropped out of wheat prices and a large fraction of dryland farmers went bust.
Failed farmer sees promising future
The story of James Patrick Brennan proves that such is not the case. The plush Lower Yellowstone was an oasis for farmers for many years. Even after the first World War, the irrigation project proved so successful that Holly Sugar decided to put a factory in Sidney. With the factory in place in 1925, Holly only needed the beets to process. They needed farmers, preferably experienced beet farmers, not the green, inexperienced homesteaders who came to the area in the 1910's. They wanted sugar beet farmers, and to find them, the Holly Sugar Company sent James Patrick Brennan to the river valleys of Colorado.
James Brennan began his life in the Midwest. Like many men his age, he decided to try his luck farther West. He moved with his family to Antler, North Dakota in 1901. Like many men his age, he proved a failure as a farmer and went bust in the early 20's. Brennan's first obligation was as a banker in Antler, North Dakota, and that he had only a little time to devote to his farm was one reason for his failure. The inadequacy of 320 acres in arid Western North Dakota was another. And actually, Brennan only bought 80 acres, and he acquired it by means other than the Homestead Act. Regardless, farming was not what Brennan wanted with his life. While such disappointment may have sent most men back to the Midwest or farther West to California, Brennan saw something in this area. He saw that he could make money here, not as a farmer--he'd tried that and failed--but as a seller. James Brennan knew that there were dreams sowed in the fields of Richland County and he knew that he was the man to sell them.
Prospecting for beet farmers
Brennan moved his family to Savage in 1923 and ran the Farmers and Merchants State Bank. He was President of the bank throughout the depression years. It was one of only three banks in Richland County during that time. Brennan was not satisfied with just this responsibility, however, and soon found himself working with townspeople in promoting the agricultural and commercial interests of the area. His most active part in this endeavor was when he worked for the Lower Yellowstone Valley Development Association beginning in 1928. Following the construction of the Holly Sugar plant in Sidney, the company realized they needed more sugar beet farmers in the Lower Yellowstone Valley to ensure a steady crop of sugar beets each year. Rather than depending on the green, homesteaders such as Brennan, who had proven failures as farmers in the late teens, Holly Sugar wanted experienced sugar beet farmers. The task of recruiting these farmers fell on J.P. Brennan.
A "good mixer"
Brennan's resume is evidence of his untiring nature. He was busted farmer, banker, politician, civic minded organizer, father, husband, and booster, all in one. Andrew Pederson, who was one of the people who came to Richland County through Brennan's recruiting trips, described Brennan with this line: "He was a good mixer and could remember the names of everyone he ever met." Through his constant trips from Eastern Montana down to Colorado, Brennan also learned the route and the best stops along it, says Pederson, "He [Brennan] knew every place along the way where liquid refreshments could be had so he kept everyone happy."
Pederson's autobiography "Cattails from Beef Slough" is full of gems about his family's trip from Brush to Savage, Montana in August of 1929. According to Pederson, when the caravan of farming families was coming into Intake, Montana, "Mr. Babcock, the store keeper, hollered to his wife to hide all the jewels and cash as the Gypsies were coming." Another source attributes a variation of the story to Howard Corey. The story sounds apocryphal, and it's more useful as a way of portraying the dire conditions of the emigrating farmers as a prelude to the prosperity that awaited them in the rich fields of Eastern Montana and Western North Dakota. And prosperity many of these farmers found. As Brennan himself said, "They [the sugar beet farmers] all got rich, but I didn't." Whether the farmers really did get rich is debatable. I doubt there are many sugar beet farmers in the area who would describe themselves as rich. However, they were immune from the booms and busts that plagued the dry land farmer, and they did have access to the most precious commodity in all of the West--water.
50,000 miles; 100 new families
According to his own accounts, Brennan traveled over 50,000 miles in each year (1928-32) he went to Colorado looking for beet farmers. Brennan traveled mostly in the fertile valleys of the South Platte and Arkansas rivers in eastern Colorado. In all, Brennan brought over 100 beet farming families to the area. In photograph two, you'll see some of these families who packed up their lives in Brush, Colorado and moved them hundreds of miles to the north. Many of them are still here, later generations still doing the job that Brennan brought their families here to do. They are finding the success that Brennan never could find for himself, but success that Brennan knew was possible in the fertile valley of the Lower Yellowstone.
For the Colorado beet farmers, the prospect of cheap irrigated land was tempting, especially as they were increasingly crowded out of the Colorado river valleys by an abundance of farmers and a shortage of land. Where irrigated land went for as much $300 an acre in Colorado, land could be had for $50 to $100 per acre in the MonDak region. But the most alluring aspect of the Yellowstone Valley was the seemingly unlimited amount of water that flowed through the untamed river. The South Platte did not have as much volume as the Yellowstone. The same is true today. The current stream flow of the Yellowstone at the Sidney station is 5650 cubic feet per second, and the median stream flow is over 8000 cubic feet per second. At Fort Morgan, the South Platte River only flows at a median rate of 400 cubic feet per second. For the Colorado transplants, who knew how essential water was for their crop, the flowing Yellowstone River was a glimpse of paradise.
POWS help with harvest
In later years, Mr. Brennan was elected to the state legislature, a relationship that would endure throughout much of his life, as Brennan was sergeant at arms in 1957. The Brennans left Richland County in 1941 to live in Helena, where James worked for the Railroad Commission and for the Unemployment Compensation Commission. From there, the Brennan's moved to Great Falls, where Brennan's energy never flagged and he sold real estate into his 80's. Brennan never strayed too far from the sugar beet industry, as he was farm placement supervisor during World War II, and, according to his daughter Patricia Taylor, he was "instrumental in convincing Governor Sam C. Ford to sign the necessary papers to permit the War Relocation Authority to release the Japanese to Montana for the 1942 season." Some of those interred Japanese came to the sugar beet fields in Richland County, so did German POWs. Apparently, Brennan never tired of bringing new recruits to Richland County's fertile sugar beet fields. However, in these fields the Japanese did not see the same opportunity that the Colorado farmers saw a decade earlier. In fact, few of the stoop-laborers saw much opportunity in these fields at all.
Laborers stay to farm themselves
There are exceptions, however. Some Mexicans who came to the Yellowstone Valley did buy farms. The Carranza family came to Crane, Montana in 1925, by way of Pueblo, Colorado, where they migrated from Mexico in 1916. Anastacio and his wife Bridgia worked in the sugar beet fields in the summer and found other jobs in the winter. By staying in the MonDak area year round, the Carranzas were able to establish themselves and bought their own sugar beet farm in 1935, only 10 years after they came to the area. According to the Carranza entry in Courage Enough, which was taken out of a sugar beet company publication, the Carranza farm was run entirely by women, the only such sugar beet farm in the United States. While we may point to this instance, where not only Mexicans, but Mexican women, were successfully running a farm, and say it's proof of the opportunities that are open to all migrant workers, we could also point to it as an anomaly. Few Mexican laborers became sugar beet farmers, and now, with increasing technology and labor regulations, the number of migrant farmers in the area fields are decreasing substantially. However, the impact of the migrant workers has substantially added to the prosperity of the sugar beet industry. These migrants influenced the area in other ways as well. In an interview with Santos Carranza, one of Anastacio and Bridgia's children, Mr. Carranza claimed that he single-handedly introduced baseball to the children of Crane, who had previously never even heard of the game. This story has the whiff of legend because Sidney, Newlon, and Savage all had baseball teams well before the Carranzas got here in 1925, but I could find no evidence of a baseball team in Crane in those years. Maybe it is true.
Why sugar beets? Obviously, the irrigation project was essential in the decision to grow sugar beets. With the irrigation project, the sugar beet proved to be a dependable crop, immune to the booms and busts that wreaked havoc on the dry land homesteaders. Again, this is due to the irrigation project and the bounty of the Yellowstone River Valley. But it's also due to the sugar beet's versatility. It can grow in a variety of climates, growing seasons, and elevations. The fact that sugar beets are labor intensive makes them an interesting crop and introduces a host of other factors into understanding their importance to an area. They require labor and most often, white men and women are not willing to do that labor. The list of peoples that Holly Sugar brought in to do sugar beet labor, especially during the war years, is immense, including Chippewas, Filipinos, Japanese, German POWs, and, of course, Mexicans. Of course, sugar beet cultivation also required experienced farmers. James Patrick had a hand in bringing many of these people to the Lower Yellowstone Valley.
Sources:
- Brennan, James Patrick. Speech given in Savage, MT on June 24, 1949.
- Carranza, Santos. Personal interview with Baldwin, Margaret. 29 March 1995. Sidney, MT.
- Harstad, Mary Brennan. "James Patrick and Margaret Brennan." Courage Enough. 1975. pp 722-23.
- Mercer, Mary. "Coloradans Impact on Richland County." Sidney Herald. "A Page from the History of Eastern Montana's Colorful Past." The Northwest. Nov/Dec, 1960. pp. 3-6.
- Pederson, Albert. Cattails From Beef Slough. unpublished. From the MonDak Historical and Art Society's Vertical Files.
- Taylor, Patricia. "Letter to the Editor." Montana Magazine. 1988.