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Stout-hearted Saubles solidify 150 years of Kansas ranching years ago

By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

In the early days of Kansas, stout-hearted young men came to this area and established ranches on open range.

Most of those ranch lands later were divided up and/or sold to others.

That is not the case with the Sauble Ranch. Located three miles south of Cedar Point along a winding, country road, it has been in the Sauble family since 1856.

The ranch is east of Florence and straddles the Marion/Chase county line.

On May 28, the Sauble family celebrated the 150th anniversary of the ranch by throwing a party for at least 500 guests.

Ranchers from all around the Flint Hills area attended, as well as many friends. Pat Sauble, the 84-year-old patriarch of the family, greeted each with a hearty handshake as they arrived.

His wife, Mary, daughter Susan, and granddaughter Ann helped guests register.

Pat manages the ranch and is assisted by son-in-law Dennis Hague, who also has a full-time job with Land 'O Lakes.

"I do the heavy work, and Pat does the lighter work," Dennis said.

Dennis's wife, Susan, is a fourth-generation Sauble.

Pat introduced his family to Sunday's crowd, which gathered under a huge tent canopy.

Ice cold beer and water were dispensed free to guests. A ranch museum telling the history of the place was available in the basement of the original stone barn.

Entertainment was provided by Jeff and Ray Davidson of Marion, Jim Hoy of Emporia, and Annie Wilson and the Tallgrass Express.

After a satisfying barbecue beef supper, guests enjoyed a barn dance. The Prairie Goose Stompers performed.

Many people from the Marion-Florence area are familiar with the Sauble Ranch.

Teresa (Clothier) Hill of rural Marion grew up on the other side of the creek from the Sauble Ranch. As a young girl, she rode her horse through Sauble pastures.

Bonnie (Wealand) Vinduska of Marion and her first husband were neighbors to the Saubles. Their children and grandchildren went to school together.

According to Shirley Jo Hett, her family and others from the area participated in float trips sponsored by the Saubles on Cedar Creek.

Going west

It required somewhat of a free and daring spirit for a man to come to Kansas and establish himself here in the days when it was a mere territory.

In 1856, at age 19, David Sauble left his hometown in Maryland on a whim and headed west with a friend. They didn't stop until they got to Kansas, where there were no roads, no fences, and no laws to impede fulfillment of one's dreams.

Kansas had been declared a territory two years earlier, and buffalo and Indians still were abundant in the area.

While herding cattle from Medicine Lodge to the Flint Hills for a cattle baron, the two young men discovered a log shanty in a broad valley just south of the Cottonwood River on the present Marion /Chase county line.

Ringed by bluffs, the valley contained shoulder-high grass, and a creek ran through it, now known as Cedar Creek.

David Sauble decided to settle there, three miles south of present-day Cedar Point, and build a herd. In time, he accumulated 400 stock cows bearing the DS brand.

The Homestead Act had not yet been passed, so the land was available for the taking. David got patents on 80-acre parcels from U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, Eventually, the ranch encompassed 3,000 acres.

While the Civil War raged out east and even reached to Kansas Territory in the debate over admittance as a slave or free state, David escaped unscathed and continued to develop his place.

He married and had six children.

A stone house was built in 1871 and a stone barn in 1876. David also hired a crew of 30 men to construct two miles of stone fence four feet high.

Tragedy strikes

In September 1894, at age 56, David was struck and killed by lightning.

By then, the ranch supported hundreds of cattle and dozens of Morgan horses which were raised for buyers in Tennessee.

His wife felt she had no choice but to pack up and leave the ranch. She planned to move to Manhattan so her children could get an education.

Son John (J.C.), 18, volunteered to stay behind and run the ranch. Later, his brothers joined him.

They established another ranch in New Mexico. The calves produced on that ranch were brought to the Flint Hills ranch every year for fattening on the rich, bluestem grass.

After J.C. married, he had a son who was named after him, but one day J.C. jokingly called him Patrick Henry Sauble. The name has remained with him ever since.

Pat spent hours on a horse as a youngster because his father felt it was the safest place for him to be while out on the ranch. He loved it and still does.

When Pat was growing up, his father bought the neighboring Miller pasture, in Marion County, which contained a large spring.

It was a favorite place for holding picnics under the shady trees and cooling watermelons in the ice cold water.

Pat said he learned a lot about cattle from his father. He went to Kansas State University for one year and met Mary Palmer. They were married in 1942.

He enlisted in the Air Force and flew B-17 bombers on training missions for air crew gunners.

He came home in 1945, only to discover that his father had retired. J.C. gave Pat half the ranch, and his sister Rebecca the other half. Pat would manage all of it.

Soon after that, his son, David was born, named after the original Sauble who settled there. David lived on the ranch for 50 years, and now lives in Taos, N. M.

Pat and Mary also had two daughters: Susan and Ann.

Several additions were made to the original stone house through the years, and Pat and Mary continue to reside in the impressive dwelling.

Dennis and Susan live in a modern house at the ranch headquarters.

Other buildings include a barn, machine shed, garage, and bunk house.

The ranch is stocked with a cow herd. Pat raises his own replacement heifers and runs yearlings on grass before selling them as feeder calves.

The ranch always has been an important part of family life.

Once a year, the whole family gets together at the ranch to mend fences, paint buildings, and make other repairs.

When asked why they do it, grandson-in-law Galen Carpenter said, "It's a sense of place. A place to come from and a place to come home to."

The ranch has been placed in a trust, so it will be in the family forever. But one question remains: "Who will live there?"

Pat and Mary have five granddaughters, nine great-granddaughters, two great-grandsons, and one great-great granddaughter.

The grandchildren wonder what will happen to the ranch in the future. They regularly bring their children to the ranch in hopes that one of them might someday have the desire to make it their home.

Granddaughter Amanda and husband Ben Hayes live not far from the ranch. They have an eight-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son. Maybe the future of the Sauble Ranch lies with one of them. Maybe they will take up the mantle and carry it on.

Time will tell.

(Some of the information in this article came from a four-part series on the Sauble family and ranch, written by Roy Wenzel and published in The Wichita Eagle, June 2004.)

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