Dr. Latham came to Laramie with the railroad as the Chief Surgeon for that organization and soon became a booster for the undeveloped resources of the vast Laramie Plains. The Laramie Daily Sentinel for Aug. 9, 1870, mentions that Dr. Latham and his Company (H. Latham, H. W. Gray and Charles A. Lambert) have the finest drove of cattle of all the thousands which had been located in the valley. They are the finest because they are worth the most money. Out of about 3,000 head there are nearly 1,000 calves which were not reckoned in the purchase and may be said to have cost nothing. The balance are nearly all cows, yearling and two year old cattle. On May 8, 1871 the same paper mentioned that a party of eastern gentlemen in partnership with Dr. Latham have located near Wyoming Station. The G.L.O. Map of 1871 shows the ranch of Dr. Latham on SE¼ Section 20, Township 18, Range 77W, on Cooper Creek at the Overland stage road crossing. This would be close to the present Hansell place, now occupied by the Yankowski family. The Latham Bottoms between Wyoming Station and Bosler, on the west side of the Railroad are named after Dr. Latham. Nancy Fillmore Brown giving her girlhood recollections of Laramie in 1870–71 1 speaks as follows:
“Dr. Latham, a most interesting character. A tall erect person and was Union Pacific Surgeon in charge of the hospital here. He was full of anecdotes and a charming talker, a man of culture and education. Years after he left here I met him in California, where he was managing Mrs. Hurst’s large estate. Previous to that, after leaving here, he held some important educational commission in Japan.”
Dr. Latham made numerous trips to the east and the Laramie Daily Sentinel of Feb. 10, 1871, states that Dr. H. Latham returned to our city last evening after a lengthy and extended visit in New England, New York and Washington.
“We are glad to welcome the Doctor back though it is safe to bet that he put in his time for the benefit of Wyoming while he was circulating around in the East.”
The same paper on March 13, 1871 welcomes the arrival of a daughter in the Latham family, and in April Dr. Latham was the Secretary of the Committee which drew up a constitution and by-laws for the Stock Grazing Association, grandpappy of the Wyoming Stock Growers and Wool Growers Associations. The Laramie Daily Sentinel of May 10, 1871, mentions Dr. Latham’s letters to the Omaha Herald which were published in pamphlet form and today that pamphlet is a very rare and prized publication. The writer has seen the only copy in this area, at the Denver Public Library and Dr. Latham makes quite a survey, albeit a most enthusiastic one, concerning the possibilities of Stock Grazing in the Trans-Missouri area. The introduction reads
“The pasture lands of North America: Winter Grazing: The sources of the future beef and wool supply of the United States. A description of the vast region lying between the Arkansas on the south, the British Possessions on the north, the 100th Meridian on the east, and the summit of the Rocky Mountains on the west, where the grasses are self-curing, and where sheep and cattle live and thrive the year around without other food or shelter than that afforded by nature.”
Let us look at some further excerpts from the pamphlet.
Letter to H. Latham from Alex Majors of Soda Springs (Majors was the founder of the original express company who also had extensive livestock holdings and other businesses), Utah, dated May 1, 1869—Has grazed cattle on plains and mountains for twenty years. During that time I have never had less than 500 head of work cattle and for two winters in 1857 and 1858 I wintered 15,000 head of work oxen on the plains. My experience extends from El Paso to an area 100 miles north of Fort Benton, Montana. These oxen in fall become fat by spring with no feed except grass, and as high as 33½ percent have been sold as beef in the spring.”
Letter to H. Latham from Edward Creighton, President First National Bank of Omaha dated April 15, 1870 at Omaha, Nebr. (Creighton was the financial partner of Hutton and Alsop, who started ranching on the Laramie Plains in 1869)—“My first grazing in the country west of the Missouri River was during the winter of 1859. Since then I have grazed stock, including horses, sheep and cattle, for eleven winters in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana. The first seven winters I grazed work oxen mostly. Large work oxen winter exceedingly well on grasses and come out in good condition for summer work on May 1. The last four winters I have been raising stock and have had large herds of cows and calves. During the present winter (1869–70) I have wintered about 8,000 head. They have done exceptionally well, no shelter but bluffs and hills and no feed but wild grasses.—we have had 3,000 sheep the past winter and they are in the best of order and many were sold for mutton. The west has a great future in livestock raising and a hundred years hence our increased population, even as dense as is Europe, can be supplied with wool, mutton, beef and horses from this area at half the present prices of eastern-produced stock.”
Extract from message of Governor J. A. Campbell of Wyoming—“There is an old Spanish proverb that ‘wherever the foot of the sheep touches, the land turns to gold’. The dry gravelly soil of our plains is peculiarly adapted to sheep raising for it produces the richest of grasses and preserves their feet from diseases fatal to flocks in moister climates. For years the United States has been importing an average of 50 million pounds of wool per year and this insures a ready market. Not only sheep but other wool bearing animals like cashmere and alpaca goats could be raised and their importation should be encouraged.”
Article IV in Latham pamphlet—North Platte Valley, North Park, Big and Little Laramies—Fifteen million acres of unsurpassed winter and summer grazing in the region of pine forests and cool fields—Source to mouth of North Platte is a distance of 800 miles or more. All the region at east base of Black Hills has been favorite wintering grounds for past twenty years from Cache la Poudre on south to Fort Fetterman on the north. Climate at Fort Laramie for twenty-year period is 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Mean temperature for spring months 47 degrees, for summer months 72 degrees, and for autumn 50 degrees; for winter 31 degrees. Annual rainfall about 18 inches, distributed as follows: Spring 8.69 inches, summer 5.7 inches, and autumn 3.96 inches, snowfall is 18 inches. Extent and resources of North Platte Basin estimated at eight million acres of pasture. Ohio has six million sheep, yielding eighteen million pounds of wool, with an income to farmers of four and a half million dollars. This eight million acres in the North Platte basin would feed at least eight million sheep yielding twenty-four million pounds of wool at Ohio prices worth six million dollars.”
It is interesting to compare this prophecy with the way the sheep industry did grow in Wyoming. Wyoming Agricultural Statistics (Bul. 16) for 1951 gives the following figures:
| YEAR | 1870 | 1900 | 1935 | 1950 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. Farms and Ranches | 175 | 6,095 | 17,487 | 12,612 |
| Av. No. Sheep and Lambs | 6,409 | 3,327,185 | 3,475,723 | 1,783,711 |
| No. Sheep and Lambs per Farm & Ranch | 37 | 546 | 199 (peak year) | 141 |
Dr. Latham was an optimist but nevertheless the Wyoming ranges can support three and a half million sheep nicely.
Dr. Latham’s pamphlet has this to say of the Laramie Plains.—The great Laramie plains are 90 miles north and south and 60 miles east and west. It is on the extreme northern portion of these plains in the valley of Deer Creek that General Reynolds wintered during the winter of 1860 and of which he remarks: “The fact that 70 exhausted animals turned out to winter on the plains the first of November, came out in the spring in the best condition and with the loss of but one of the number is the most forcible commentary I can make of the quality of the grass and the character of the winter.” Since 1869 many herds of work oxen belonging to emigrants, freighters and ranchers have grazed here each winter. It is on these plains in the Laramie Valley that Messrs. Creighton and Hutton have their sheep, horses and cattle, and which Mr. Edward Creighton says (undated letter, probably 1870)—“The last four winters I have been raising stock and have had large herds of cows and calves in the valley of the Laramie. The present winter (1869–70??) I have wintered 8,000 head. They have done exceedingly well. We have had 3,000 head of sheep the past winter and they are in the best of shape and are being sold daily for mutton.” Dr. Latham speaks of visiting the herds and flocks of the Plains, the cattle, horses, and sheep of Creighton, Hutton and Alsop on the Big Laramie. Herd of 4,000 cows, 3,600 calves, 1,000 two-year-olds, and 500 yearlings. Range takes in an area fifteen by twenty miles. Beef herd of 3,500 Texas cattle averaging 1,300 pounds liveweight. Blooded stock cattle on And Creek number 400 head, mostly cows. Durham bulls from Ohio are used. There are 10,000 sheep plus 3,000 lambs, some from New Mexico; but many fine Merinos from Iowa which average fully 5 pounds of wool per head. They have an investment of $300,000; with five miles of fence enclosing hay grounds and pasture for riding stock.
Dr. H. Latham registered the first brand in Albany County, which has the following entry in Book 1, Marks and Brands of Albany County—
Laramie, W. T., October 2, 1871
“I hereby send you for record the brand adopted by Latham & Co. viz: An arrow on left side or left shoulder. The arrow on some cattle is very much like a bar brand.
Signed: H. Latham
The Laramie Daily Sentinel of Dec. 9 and 22, 1873 gives the account of a petition for adjudication of bankruptcy for Latham & Co., and evidently the business did not prosper and Dr. Latham in September 1873 wrote from Japan, where he had gone suddenly, to accept a lucrative position as Superintendent for a Railroad, and later wrote from Japan on Sept. 11, 1874 that he was Superintendent of the Imperial College there, and gives a lively description of the low costs there and the fine countryside and mentions incidentally that he is in good health and weighs 205 pounds and is still growing. He states that he has classes in geometry, algebra, natural philosophy, political economy and other branches. The Laramie Daily Sentinel of Sept. 20, 1876 gives an account of proceedings in the District Court and states—Of the civil business there have been two old Albany County suits, which have taken up considerable time. One of them is in regard to the closing out of the stock interests of Dr. Latham by his creditors.
This is the last mention of Dr. Latham who wrote glowingly of the grass resources of the Laramie Plains, but seemingly was one of those who did not have the business acumen to make a success of the business. However, his glowing accounts had much to do with others trying the stock growing business and these did make a success of it.
Source
Burns, Robert Homer, Wyoming’s Pioneer Ranches, Laramie, Wyoming : Top-of-the-World Press, 1955.
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