Helgen, Friedrich B. (Cowboy King Bio)

HELGEN

Posted By: Linda Ziemann (email)
Date: 4/2/2012 at 15:20:02

LeMars Globe-Post
April 30, 1931

A ‘COWBOY KING’ OF PLYMOUTH CO.
Friedrich B. Helgen Recalls He Rode Range 50 Years Ago [1881]

Friedrich B. Helgen, who was at one time “Cowboy King” of Plymouth County,
was induced to reminisce a little when he recalled this week that he started
his brief business career which for about five years made the western part
of Plymouth county a real “Wild West” with grass ranges, cowboys and
bellowing herds of cattle.

Mr. Helgen came here from the Low German settlement in Jones county, the
starting point of may other Plymouth county citizens. His first job was
picking a 20-acre field of corn which had been left over from the year
before, so that the wheat could be put in.

Mr. Helgen noticed that there were thousands of acres in western Plymouth
county, with a splendid stand of grass, that were seemingly good only for
the annual sweep of prairie fire. The first farmers to settle here wanted
none of the hill land. They thought it was no good.

Range $1 a Head.
So Mr. Helgen called on the farmers and offered to take their cattle and to
herd them on the free range for $1 a head for the summer. He collected a
herd of 360 head that first year, and this increased greatly the following
years, so that he was soon known as “The Cow-Boy King.” The deal was a good
one for the farmers. They could turn their surplus cattle over to “The
King” from April to October, and at the end of that time, for a dollar, have
them returned, fat and sleek and in excellent condition.

“The King” said that he had no trouble with the steers, but about sixty milk
cows gave him plenty to do. As his herds increased, he hired other cowboys.

Plows Conquered.
But in Plymouth county was enacted the first act of the drama that was to be
re-enacted again and again as the west was settled. The free rangers, like
the antelope and buffalo, had to retreat before the plow. Settlers very soon
found out that the despised hill land was about as good as any other, and in
a few years fences began to cut across the range, and corn and wheat
sprouted in the virgin prairie instead of grass and wild flowers. Mr.
Helgen adapted himself to the changing times and became a farmer himself.
Still, he likes occasionally to hark back to the times when the song of the
lark and the mellow toll of the cowbell were the principal sounds heard
above the low hiss of the free winds through the hilltop grasses.