Mack Barbour's Rodeo Days: Champion and Cowboy Entrepreneur
McKinley "Mack" Barbour, Weston County, Wyoming in 1919
“Mack Barbour, nationally known rodeo man…needs no introduction.” Goldendale Sentinel (Goldendale, Washington)
“Veteran show director and one-time bucking horse champion,” The Bulletin (Bend, Oregon)
“Mack Barbour has produced great rodeo shows throughout the United States and in Europe. His cowboys and stock are tops!” Medford Mail Tribune (Medford, Oregon)
“[Mack Barbour has] the top rodeo stock in the nation…numbering more than 300 head of bucking horses, Brahma bulls and wriggling roping calves.” The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California)
“Mack H. Barbour, the man who provides tough and sometimes wild rodeo stock for all the nation’s top rodeos,” Record Searchlight (Redding, California)
A lot of Mack Barbour’s life can be told through the headlines of newspapers in Kansas, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Nevada.
There were the Wyoming days when he was young, herding cattle for miles, riding bucking broncos, racing and roping, winning contests and prize money. There was the development of a “cowboy business,” contracting with rodeos to provide the horses and fierce bulls needed, along with the management of rodeo arenas. There was the brush with fame, the connection to the "Singing Cowboy" and Hollywood star Gene Autry.
Mack Barbour lived life the way he wanted to, working with the horses he loved all his life. His name was known up and down the west coast in rodeo circles.
It wasn’t an easy way to make a living. He broke his neck, he broke multiple ribs on different occasions; he broke his arm. He was bruised and hospitalized more than once when a horse he was riding on fell and rolled over on him.
Mack was born and raised on a Kansas farm in Montgomery County, with the little crossroads of Dearing as their nearest center. Coffeyville was five bumpy, unpaved miles away. His father, Lucius T. Barbour was 54 when Mack was born in 1896; his mother Alice Hatfield Barbour was 41. He was the family baby by a long way. Lucius’ oldest child, Nettie, was 28, and Alice’s oldest, Charlie, was 21 when Mack came along. His father was a Civil War veteran, ardent Republican and enthusiastic McKinley supporter. He was named McKinley Hobart Barbour, with ‘Hobart’ after the presidential candidate’s choice for vice president.
Alice and Lucius, both Hoosiers, each divorced their first spouse. They had Edna out of wedlock in Indiana and moved to Kansas for a fresh start, where they married. Lucius’ father bought them a farm to live and work on, but he retained ownership. Harry and Jesse were born before Mack. Their childhood was typical of so many Americans of their generation - the endless chores of a farm, small-town life, a one-room school, no anonymity. There were sing-alongs around the piano, and parlor games for family entertainment. Mack sang solos at school and home. The few weeks a year when fresh strawberries were available were eagerly anticipated. Fishing in the Verdigris River, picnics and autumn nutting parties were popular pastimes.
It was marred by Lucius’ alcoholism and his death when Mack was only seven. Then there was the upheaval when the executor of his grandfather’s estate insisted on selling the farm, essentially leaving Alice and her youngest children homeless. She fought a losing legal battle with the executor. She moved into Dearing where she ran a boarding house and Mack had to share the home with boarders, oil drillers in the then-booming Kansas oil business.
Then came another turn of events. His brother Charlie worked for the U.S. Geological Survey in Wyoming and became fascinated with this very different land. When his contract with the Survey was up, Charlie moved to Newcastle and in spite of a tuberculosis struggle, started a restaurant. Newcastle was a small town of only 975 people in 1910, the seat of Weston County and a gateway to the Black Hills of Wyoming.
Alice had lost the farm and had the thankless, arduous task of living with and cooking for strangers at the boarding house. Then a fire burned her house to the ground. It was only partially insured. Wyoming offered land practically free for homesteaders. Mack and his brother Jesse, who was two years older, could work the land and help her prove up a claim.
It was time for a fresh start for Alice and her children again.
Snapshots of a New Life in Wyoming
July 11, 1910 - Mack leaves for New Castle, Wyoming with his mother Alice, sister Edna, and brothers Jesse and Harry.
May 9, 1912 - “8th Grade Class play to be held at the opera house on Thursday evening, May 23rd. “All Tangled Up” Cast. Lester McVey, attorney - Mack Barbour.”
November 4, 1913 - “Mrs. Robert Allan Smith and her Sunday school class entertained a number of young people at the home of Mrs. Smith. The class is composed of [names listed]….Mack Barbour….”
August 13, 1914 - “MACK H. BARBOUR. Horses branded, as in cut, on any part of the animal. Cattle branded, as in cut, on left ribs.” [This was the description of Mack’s brand.]
The Barbour family always valued education, perhaps a legacy of their New England roots. Mack’s father Lucius attended advanced studies in the Preparatory Department, the equivalent of high school, at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. His grandfather Myron F. Barbour dreamed of college for himself and was a pioneer schoolteacher in Michigan and Indiana. Alice hadn’t been able to keep a younger Mack in school in Dearing in her boarding house days, but now he completed the eighth grade at age 17. Very few Americans had any further education at that time, and an eighth-grade graduation was a big deal. He was nearly 19 when he was attending school for a last time.
Prairie Dog Days
Six men including Mack were asleep in a tent beside Big Beaver Creek about fifteen miles outside of Newcastle. A severe storm crackled overhead. They awoke at 3:45 a.m. on Tuesday, July 13, 1915 when they felt water running over their beds. They barely had enough time to rise and partially dress, and two of the men made it out of the tent, when a wall of water hit. Mack and three of his co-workers were swept away.
They were a crew from the Bureau of Biological Survey, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Their project was the complete extermination of prairie dogs, which were the bane of cattle ranchers and horse breeders. This was seasonal work and a valuable source of extra income. The men traveled in wagons and camped out under the open skies during their weeks of engagement.
Big Beaver was normally a peaceful creek, but that July night it turned into an avalanche of water, what the newspaper described as “a raging river half a mile wide and thirty feet deep.” The camp equipment such as wagons, tent, bedding, cooking equipment and 300 ounces of strychnine were washed downstream. Mack fought for his life in the swift water, grabbing onto a spindly cottonwood tree. Two of his crew were swept 500 to 600 feet downstream before they too were able to grab at the top of some trees, pulling themselves to safety. Their foreman, Ralph Diessell, was not as fortunate. He was wearing heavy boots and never learned to swim. He was carried away to his death.
The tree that saved Mack wasn’t strong enough to support him. Holding onto the branches he was forced to stay in the cold, rushing water until the flood subsided enough to reveal stronger limbs. Upstream from the prairie dog crew, another group of men had their wagon wash into the flood, but they weren’t tipped into the water and went for help. Once they spread the alarm about a dozen cars filled with volunteers, ropes and food quickly assembled. But they found the water “too turbulent for swimming either man or beast,” and a car was sent back to Newcastle for a boat. It was 1:00 p.m. before the three men were pulled from the trees - after nine hours. It was regarded as a miracle that Mack and his coworkers survived.
Although Mack wasn’t even 20, he was selected as foreman to replace the unfortunate Ralph. Their territory was Weston and Niobrara Counties. The Newcastle News Letter Journal praised the work of his crew in September. October 20th their work was suspended for the winter and their superintendent headed for Washington D.C. The headline the paper used was “Dog Gangs Hibernate.”
A Young Entrepreneur
November 18th, weeks after turning twenty, Mack had an exciting announcement in the newspaper. He had a new enterprise: proprietor of a roller skating rink. It opened November 30th and operated Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights. “Skates have all been equipped with new rollers and are in first class condition. Your patronage is solicited,” Mack wrote.
He had a little fun in December, winning a pocket knife for best costume, a Spanish cavalier, at a masquerade dance at the Armory.
In January the hours at the rink were cut to Saturdays only, with the explanation that he had much other business to attend to. The rink opened at 7:00 with races at 9:00. It’s not hard to imagine Mack taking part.
March found him back heading a prairie dog crew, but he quit in June to look after his ranching interests. “He will continue to supply the horses used by the members of the crew,” the newspaper reported. This was the beginning of Mack renting out horses.
His father Lucius raised race horses on the farm in Kansas and Mack was around them, and evidently loved them, from the tiniest age. He would work with them for the rest of his life.
Ranch Days
Somehow, in spite of his youth, in 1917 Mack had a new house, barn and garage built at the Black Thunder ranch. The newspapers variously reported Alice living in town and living at the home at Black Thunder. Even before his ranch house was completed he hosted a big party on his land, a day with feasting, a baseball game and a nighttime dance with fiddler George Lee. He was frequently mentioned in the newspapers, visiting with friends, coming into town to shop; and herding, buying and selling cattle. He continued his roller rink business, at least for a while, renting the armory on Saturday nights.
1918 started inauspiciously when Mack was wrangling a group of horses out of the Cheyenne River just after New Year’s. The horse he was riding, his favorite, slipped on a rock and fell, breaking its leg. The leg was splinted and bandaged, with every effort made to save the animal.
Mack’s Service
Private Mack Barbour
And then there was war. In May Mack and his mother made a trip to Kansas to visit relatives. The newspaper said he might have to cut his visit short, as he expected to be called into service any day. It turned out they were able to make the trip undisturbed. The relatives they visited were almost certainly Alice’s two children who were still back in the Kansas-Oklahoma area. Alice had buried her two oldest sons, Myron in 1902, and Charlie in 1911, but her daughter Clara still lived in Montgomery County, and she had Alice’s only grandchildren. Son Harry lived in Oklahoma where he was the assistant postmaster.
November 4, 1918 - “Mack Barbour departed Monday evening for Camp Lee, Virginia. A large number of friends were in to wish him Godspeed on his journey.”
January 9, 1919 - “Mrs. Alice Barbour Saturday received a letter from her son Mack, who has landed safely in France. This is Mrs. Barbour’s first letter from him. Mack was stationed at Camp Lee and was sent to France about six weeks ago.”
Camp Lee was in Prince George’s County east of Petersburg. It was built in 1917 with a capacity of a little over 60,000 men. It had 1,500 barracks with 200 men in each. Its mission was training infantry for combat in France.
Mack was assigned to the 155th Depot Brigade, which formed in May 1918. An item in a May Newcastle paper said he expected to be leaving for service any day. An item in October said as soon as a quarantine was lifted at Camp Lee he would be going. There was a Spanish flu outbreak at the camp as the pandemic swept the nation – and world.
Finally he left on November 4th. But the Armistice was signed November 11, 1918, just days after Mack arrived. The role of depot brigades was receiving and organizing troops, handing out uniforms, equipment and initial training, then receiving returning soldiers coming back from France. They completed their outprocessing and discharges. Depot brigades were inactivated as the need vanished. Therefore, Mack’s service was brief.
February 20, 1919 - “A telegram was received by Mrs. Alice Barbour that her son, Mack Barbour, would arrive in Newcastle tomorrow morning. Mack since his return from France has been stationed at Camp Lee, Va.”
Feb 27, 1919, p. 5 - “Mack Barbour, who arrived from Camp Lee, Va., last week, on Tuesday went out to his ranch on Black Thunder to look after his cattle interests.”
November 27, 1919 - “Mack Barbour will ship two carloads of cattle to Omaha.”
Winning
With the war over, Mack pursued his ranching interests. There was a twist though. He entered rodeo competitions and more often than not, he won. The prize money was certainly an incentive, but so was love of the sport.
The Newcastle News Letter was the kind of small-town paper that is a treasure to family historians. It was like a Facebook wall recording the most mundane comings and goings, and Mack was mentioned often. He came in from the Black Thunder ranch to buy supplies. He visited friends. Friends visited him. He shipped cattle. He accompanied shipments of cattle to Omaha and Chicago. Once he bought cattle and two friends helped him herd them from the train station in town out to the ranch. He was a witness on various friend’s homestead claims when the government paperwork was filed. He and a friend, with some girls, “motored” to the oil fields. He attended the county fair in Sheridan. And – he entered and won rodeo competitions, winning some serious money.
July 8, 1920 - At Newcastle’s Fourth of July celebration Mack won First Place in the quarter-mile race - $40; First Place in the Bucking Contest - $100 and First Place in the 1 ½ mile relay race - $100. Equivalent to about $3,748 today. Mack and two other men formed the committee that organized these events. The races were all on horseback.
June 29, 1922 - Mack took his horses to Custer, South Dakota to enter them in competitions during the Gold Discovery Days festival.
July 20, 1922 - At the Newcastle Frontier Days Mack won third place in the cow pony race, first place in the relay and first place in the bucking contest on “Goldie.”
July 5, 1923 - Took first place in the Tri-State Roundup at Belle Fourche bucking contest and took first place over three days for his times in the relay race. He won $500 in these contests. That was equivalent to about $9,000 in 2024 value.
August 2, 1923 - Won four prizes in “one of the stiffest competition bronco busting contests ever held in that vicinity” - First place in bucking, first place in the relay race, second place in a half-mile free-for-all, and third place in a three-eighths mile event.
August 9, 1923 - Won first place in the Casper Rodeo relay race.
September 6, 1923 - Took first place in the bucking contest at the Edgemont Fair.
July 31, 1924 - Won first prize in the relay race at the Custer, South Dakota rodeo.
There were inevitable injuries. February 1923 he was knocked off his horse by another horse kicking him in the leg while working in the stockyards. In a September competition he was winning the relay race when his horse hit a railing on the track, fell, and dragged Mack behind him.
There was a shift after 1923 when he seemed to stop raising cattle. He sold horses, rode horses, pastured his horses with others for the winter and worked at the post office.
October 5, 1922 - Mack began working as a temporary clerk at the post office.
December 8, 1922 - Alice suffered a mild stroke and went to Los Angeles for the winter. Mack accompanied her as far as Denver on the train.
September 13, 1923 - Mack took his “string of bucking and racing horses” to the rodeo at the three-day Fall Festival at Osage.
Jan 10, 1924 - “Mack Barbour of the post office force returned home last evening after riding several days for his range horses in the Elk Mountain country.”
April 17, 1924 - Mack was out of post office for a few days caring for his mother who had “lagrippe,” as the flu was called.
Sept 11, 1924 - Alice’s house in Newcastle burned to the ground. The chicken house also burned. Mack was in the hospital at Edgemont at the time recovering from a fall and Alice was visiting Jess in Denver. This time her house was heavily insured.
January 8, 1925 - “One of the efficient clerks at the post office” was taking a vacation in L.A. to visit his mother and Jess, “who live out there now.” He planned to attend horse races in Tijuana. (He was gone a month.)
June 25, 1925 - He was unable to participate in the Edgemont Fair races after another injury when a horse he was riding fell into a hole and rolled over on him. He broke several ribs.
July 2, 1925 - Mack broke his arm and bruised his face working with bucking broncos and got thrown against a fence.
Sept 3, 1925 - He won first prize in the Edgemont Fair relay races.
Sept 24, 1925 - He won Best Saddle Horse at the county fair.
October 8, 1925 - He won a $500 match on the horse “Fashion.” It was the equivalent to about $9,000 in 2024 value.
Jan 21, 1926 - Mack conducted civil service exams for those interested in postal jobs.
By 1926 Mack was the only member of his family still in Wyoming. Jesse and his wife Dorothy moved from Denver to Los Angeles in 1924, where Jesse took a job as a live-in hotel manager. Alice joined them. Their brother Harry died in 1919, and sister Clara died in 1923. Edna at first lived in Seattle but moved to L.A. around the same time as Jesse and her mother.
Of Alice’s seven children, only Edna, Jesse and Mack remained and none of them had children. The Newcastle newspapers went silent about Mack and his actions. The only mentions of him after July 26th, 1926 were listings as a witness on homestead claims of his friends.
A Move To Oregon
Mack resurfaced in the newspaper in 1934 when he sold a lot in Redlands, California.
He moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon. From 1936 to the 1950s, Mack was back in the newspapers on a frequent basis, nearly all connected with rodeos. By 1936 he was 40 and his own competition days were over. But he had a specialty business – supplying the broncos and bulls for rodeo shows sponsored by communities, sheriff’s departments and festival committees. Whomever wanted to sponsor a rodeo – Mack Barbour was the man to call. On July 3, 1936, for example, he was in charge of all stock and riders at the Klamath Falls July 4th Rodeo. Mack and his horses led an opening parade. His herd supplied the broncos for the bronco busting competition.
June 2, 1937 - Klamath Falls Buckaroo Days: Mack was contracted to supply the bucking broncos. He reported buying a carload each of Brahma steers and Mexican steers in Hermosillo. While in Mexico he engaged three trick riders.
Mack in an Evening Herald photo at the Klamath Falls Buckaroo Days in 1937
Aug 19, 1937 - Goldendale: “The Mack Barbour stock, contracted for by the Legion…proved every statement – and more – made for it prior to the show. His string of bucking broncos steadfastly refused to let the cowboys stay astride for long….The Brahma bulls were almost “unrideable.” The brutes twisted, heaved, sighed and rolled in midair, much to the discomfort of the cowboys who chose to try their luck.”
This particular article had a subheading that read,“Barbour Likeable.” The article went on: “Mack Barbour, Klamath Falls, arena director and owner of the stock, proved himself an affable and cooperative individual. He worked with the committees and made every effort to work in a “please the patrons” manner, the committee announced.”
July 24, 1939 - The Bulletin (Bend, Oregon) - “Mack Barbour’s outfit, an outstanding, big-time aggregation, was signed to appear at the Deschutes county fair …at a meeting of the fair board…
“The Barbour Rodeo, part of whose string appeared in last year’s fair, this year will bring its whole string of 35 bucking broncos, clowns, steers and nine fighting Brahmin bulls to Redmond.”
He had also signed to appear at Pendleton, Lakeview, and the Klamath Falls Rodeo in Oregon. That year, too, he signed with Goldendale, Colfax and Walla Walla in Washington; in Lewiston, Idaho; in Redbluff, California; and in Tucson and Phoenix.
July 31, 1941 - Modoc County Record - Steers were furnished by Mack. Bulldogging competitions and calf roping.
July 31, 1941 - Tehama County Daily News (Red Bluff, California) - His stock was appearing at the annual Alturas Round Up.
Sept 25 1941 - Record Searchlight (Redding, California) - Redding Rodeo: “Mack Barbour’s famous stock will perform.” He had 50 bucking horses, 25 Brahma bulls, 25 Mexican steers and 25 cows and calves for roping.
In another story the Record Searchlight named some of his “outstanding” bucking horses: Battleground, Reservation, Strip, Red Bluff, Warner Valley, Golden Rule, Tip Top, Red, Gaucho, Nogales, and Pancho Villa.
A Brief Brush With Fame
In 1941 at the height of his popularity, Gene Autry, “cowboy singer” and Hollywood star, decided to take on a new endeavor. He formed his own rodeo show and hit the road entertaining people with trick horseback riders, bull riders and so on.
There was a headline in the Goldendale Sentinel on February 12, 1942: MACK BARBOUR SELLS ENTIRE RODEO STRING TO HOLLYWOOD COWBOY. This was his entire stock - bucking horses, bulls and cattle. The article said he was also contracted to manage Autry’s show.
If Mack managed the show in 1942, he didn’t stay with it for long. In August he was in Medford, Oregon back to his own string of bucking broncos and Brahmins, managing a rodeo for the Jackson County, Oregon Sheriff’s Posse. Most rodeos were called off “for the duration of the war,” which couldn’t have been good for his business.
A small newspaper item hinted at what he probably had to do to make money. He’d returned to raising cattle. Nine days after the Medford rodeo, Mack again broke several of his ribs while herding cattle near Gerber Dam in Klamath County. Once again, his horse fell with him. Yet he was contracted to put on a Labor Day rodeo in Dorris, and he did so.
The year was challenging in other ways, too. Jesse had fallen on hard times. His second wife, Dorothy divorced him. He was convicted of second degree burglary in 1938 and sent to San Quentin Prison. Not long after he got out, Jesse died in 1942. Alice died ten years earlier; now the family was down to just Mack and Edna.
Nationally Known
Advertisement for a 1944 Medford, Oregon rodeo
After the war and until 1957, Mack was described as nationally known in rodeo circles. He staged 25 rodeos a year up and down the west coast, Nevada and Idaho. A newspaper said he had taken his rodeo show to England in 1924; another said he performed in Europe. In 1924, the Newcastle newspapers reported seemingly every time Mack came into town to shop or visit his mother. There was absolutely no reporting on a trip to England. His whereabouts that were detailed in the paper didn’t give him time to venture to England. Claiming that an act performed in Europe was a fairly common “show biz” bit used to make acts sound especially successful. What is true is that he was well-known in the rodeo circuit of the west coast.
A Surprise
In 1948, Mack was 52. He had eluded marriage all his life. He did not seem to be the “settling down kind.” But at last, he had a baby with a 23-year old named Hazel. Hazel had married very young, when she was 15 to an 18-year old husband. The marriage ended four years later. Two years after that, she and Mack had a daughter. Their relationship must have been an on-and-off one. They married in August 1955 and in January 1956 a divorce was granted. Hazel was the plaintiff and Mack did not contest the divorce proceedings.
Of the four children Lucius and Alice Barbour had together; Edna, Harry, Jesse and McKinley, only Mack had a child. Her name is being withheld here as she is still alive. She grew up to be a beautiful young woman who had a long-lasting, stable marriage two previous generations lacked.
Endings
In the mid-1950s newspapers said the Mack Barbour Rodeo was sanctioned by the Rodeo Cowboy Association. Americans had long formalized and professionalized what had once been organized by local amateurs. After 1957, his rodeo days were behind him. In 1958 the only item appearing about him in Oregon was an ad he ran for the sale or trade of 40 registered Hereford bulls from Colorado.
Mack died after a brief illness in April 1967. He was buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery with a military headstone from his World War I service. His obituary described him as a cattle raiser, leaving out his fascinating career as a rodeo champion, producer and entrepreneur.
Family Note: McKinley was the first cousin of my great-grandfather Clyde Barbour. I wrote about Mack’s sister Edna in “The Indomitable Edna Barbour,” and his father in “Lucius Barbour and the Keeley Treatment,” “Lucius Barbour Gets a Pension,” and “Going to Coffeyville: The Barbour Brothers’ Second Chance.” I wrote about Clyde Barbour in “When My Great-Grandfather Was An Outlaw.”
Note: I wonder how many babies were named McKinley in the 1890s. A quick search found many, including William McKinley Prosperity Jones. (The others used McKinley as the first name.) McKinley was called “the advance agent of prosperity” and ran on a slogan of “Prosperity At Home, Prestige Abroad.” Much was made over a Kansas baby named McKinley Bryan, since William McKinley ran against William Jennings Bryan.
More than one boy was named Hobart McKinley, using vice president Garret Hobart’s name, as Mack Barbour’s parents did when they named him McKinley Hobart. A bank teller from Dubois, Pennsylvania named his twins – born the day after the 1896 election – Mark McKinley and Hanna Hobart. Mark Hanna was an influential political operative who helped get McKinley nominated and elected. He became a senator representing Ohio.
Interestingly, in my very unscientific quick search on Newspapers.com, most of the baby McKinleys I found were born in Kansas. My grandmother had two second cousins born in Kansas named McKinley; McKinley Barbour and McKinley Harkins.
Additional Source:
Finlayson, Dr. Kenneth. “The Three Lives of Fort Lee, Virginia: World War I,” U.S> Army, 29 June 2017, https://www.army.mil/article/189328/the_three_lives_of_fort_lee_virginia_world_war_i
Copyright by Andrea Auclair © 2024
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