HISTORY

Pre Montana

The Hildreth's came to America in 1635.

Jonathan Hildreth(1834 - 1874) , father of Henry Daulton Hildreth (1872-1925), and his brothers who had an established cattle herd in Missouri were the first people to bring a large cattle herd and bands of sheep from the east in to California, after a prior trip to California in 1850. While in California the first time, they noticed a need for horses, cattle and sheep. They left Missouri in May 1853 and arrived in California in Nov 1853. Their first cow camp was what is now the city of Pasadena in Los Angles County CA. The Hildreth Brothers moved there cattle herd and sheep band north to settle in most of a valley what is now Fresno in Madera County CA. The brothers increased there herds and bands to become barons in the San Joaquin Valley until they sold out in the 1870's. 

Unfortunately Jonathan Hildreth became ill and died in 1874 in Hawaii. His wife Laura Hall Hildreth was in a bad horse accident in California and after a couple of years of ill health she died in 1877. This left Henry Daulton Hildreth to go to the brother of Laura. Consequently Mr. Hall put Henry Daulton Hildreth into an orphanage and took all Henry's inheritance, from his father Jonathan, to become one of the richest cattle barons there. Henry Daulton was taken in by his uncle Henry Clay Daulton and aunt Mary Hildreth Daulton who's family were barons well into the 1940's. 

To this day there is an old barn on the Daulton Brothers Ranch that has the initials of "HDH" (Henry Daulton Hildreth) in the wood. Also one of the Banks in Madera County has the old Hildreth brand " HH" on the wall. 

Additional information from the "Madera County Historical Society" 1969, Fresno Bee 1925, "First Cattle Barons" - Fresno Bee 1939 and Hildreth genealogy. 

Montana ranch 1890 - early 1950's

When Henry Daulton Hildreth (1st generation in MT) decided to move on from California he worked for the railroad in order to reach Montana in 1890. He returned to California to marry his childhood sweetheart and had their first child in California, who died a few days after birth. At this time they moved together to Montana. 

While herding the sheep for Selway's he summered the band in the isolated Beaverhead mountains - which is now the Medicine Lodge Valley.  Henry liked it so much he filed a homestead claim. At the same time he still kept his job with the Selway's until the cabin was built (required for a loan). From this loan he bought 750 Hampshire ewes. Then later he was up to 3,000 sheep. Henry had the brand "H". 

Soon the government took over what was not filed upon and gave it the names Forest Service and Taylor Grazing (a.k.a. Bureau of Land Management). When the Great Depression hit Henry lost most of the grazing land (Montana and Idaho sides of the Continental Divide) due to having to sell off the stock to survive. 

Henry and his wife Hattie had 7 children. The second oldest Emphery "Bob"(1896-1991)  bought the ranch. He wanted his own identity and dropped the Hildreth Livestock Co. name. He then called it the Z-R Hildreth Ranch with the like brand. 

 In addition to the Hildreth's being one of the oldest in the county, Emphrey's wife's father started ranching in Beaverhead County in 1883. 

When the oldest son of Bob and Bessie was born they named him Henry Dalton Hildreth(1925 - 2005).  He was born two days after his grandfather Henry Daulton had died. As a little boy he was nicknamed "Pat" by one of the hired men. The man said he looked just like his little brother. And all of his life most people knew him by Pat and not Henry. Even when he ran for County Commissioner the ads had the name Pat included on it. 

Henry spent all his time on the ranch including most of his schooling.  Henry then moved to Armstead (now under Clark Canyon Reservoir) for schooling the last two years  A couple of years after grade school Henry studied on airplanes and airplane mechanics. In his twenties he studied applied Horsemanship and Accounting. Work on the ranch was the main priority though. At age 12 Henry was the sheep herder with his brother Bill of 700 sheep. When Henry was 16 he started to break horses and at 17 he began logging.

In early 1945 Henry was drafted in to the Army. Boot camp was in Texas and then he went to Oregon. While in Oregon Henry began to learn how to fly, but not for the service. He was shipped to the Philippines. When the ship was close to the Philippine Islands news came that the atomic bomb was dropped in Japan. Henry was on the Island for 6 months before coming home again.
When Henry returned home from the Philippines he finished the flying courses from David McCouley and received his license and bought the first Piper Super Cub in Montana.   It was also used as the transportation to and from the ranch to Armstead (30 miles).

When Pat bought the ranch from his father in the 1950's, he brought back the original name "Hildreth Livestock Co.".  And also the brand "H" for the sheep. When Hildreth Livestock Co. became a corporation a different brand was put into place - V hanging 5. At this time he changed from sheep to cattle due to predators, and rustlers.  The V5 (V on the of top left corner the 5) brand came from his mothers father (Henry Olsen who married Ida Hirshey). 

Ranching 1950's to Present

Trudy decided to come to visit and stay with her sister Gisela Hildreth (whom is married to Henry's brother Robert (Bill) Hildreth) in April 1956.  During her visit with her sister she meet and worked for the Hildreth family. One day in May Henry asked Trudy if she wanted to go to town with him. They stopped at the jewelry store and went in and in front of Trudy was a row of rings. She then knew that Henry was proposing. On June 28, 1956 the day they were married Henry was sheering sheep two hours before the service was to begin.  The couple had four children Henry , Dalton , Van  and Donna . Dalton passed away in an unfortunate accident.

Henry started road construction young on the ranch with a team and two way plow. And later on began Hildreth Construction doing contract road construction and about 160 miles of the B.L.M roads in Beaverhead County. There were 60 miles of interstate highway fence from Dell to Beaverhead Livestock Auction. Plus many other construction building job. 

The first two years of Henry JR's schooling was done at the ranch. When the Armstead School District was eliminated, because the building of the Clark Canyon Dam, school was then taught in Grant MT. The winters were sometimes harsh especially when the children needed to be taken 30 miles to school in Grant everyday. There were times when the trip would be unsuccessful thus Trudy decided to rent an apartment in Grant (population about 25) for a time during the winter. 

Pat would sometimes go to see them in the airplane. His landing strip was the highway.  He would then taxi the plane to the town, which was just off the highway.  Pat would sometimes go check the cattle in the early morning with the airplane and when it was time for breakfast he would land on a hill adjacent to the house and come in to eat. After breakfast he'd take off again.  And a few times Pat would take one of the kids back to Dillon in the plane for school after being at the ranch for the weekend. Since Pat did not have phone at the ranch he could not let Trudy know when he was coming to Dillon. But she knew he was in town when we heard the Super Cub circling above the house. She then went out to the airport and picked him up. Another funny story about Pats flying days was the oldest son went to a school in a very small town called Grant. 

When Henry Jr. would enter high school Henry Sr. and Trudy bought a house and moved the kids to Dillon for the entire school year while Henry Sr. stayed at the ranch. Henry and Trudy wanted their children to have good education's, so they helped them through college all they could. After all the children were done with high school Trudy moved back to the ranch permanently.

Henry Jr. graduated from Montana State in Farm Ranch Management/Agri-Business. But two years after he came back to the ranch, in the early 1980's, the market fell out of the cattle and agriculture industry. It was decided that he should look for another career besides the ranch . Henry Jr.  built houses and swimming pools until he graduated again from MSU in Mechanical Engineering. He is now a senior engineer for a  computer manufacturing company.

 In 1988 Pat sold his last Piper Super Cub.  Their son Van a few years later received his pilots license. Working  for a highway construction company as a job bidder he was able then to fly the companies plane to locations where jobs were up for bid. 

Donna operates the ranch full time after going to college for Equine Science and Training and also Agri-business.

All of the children of Pat have taken on his skills above and beyond the "normal" ranch work.  And incorporated those skill in to there careers. 

On June 19th, 2005 Medicine Lodge lost one of the last true pioneering spirits.  Pat had fought a brave battle with an unclassified cancer.   He will be missed by all who knew him.  Click here for his tribute .  

Pat's last ride, the day of his services. Donna rides behind the coach leading a riderless horse.