Lifetime Leaders of Rodeo & Ranching Rodeo Ranching Great Westerner Western Entertaiment & Arts Rodeo Producers & Livestock Special Achievement Cowboy Long Rider Legacy Award

Ranching

Frank P. Keogh
1999 Hall of Fame Ranching Inductee

 Frank Keogh was born in 1877, one of Patrick and Catherine (Keliher) Keogh’s seven children. Patrick was a section foreman for the Northern Pacific and brought his family to Hebron in 1882.

 In 1899, Frank and his brother, Jack, began a ranching partnership near Keene in McKenzie County. Frank soon left to work as a foreman for the “75 Outfit,” a 225,000-acre open range operation on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. As foreman, he was responsible for up to 20 cowboys, 10,000 steers and 1,000 horses.

 When the “75” lease ran out in 1910, Frank bought the horses and equipment, returned to his home ranch and bought out his brother. He remained on the ranch the rest of his life, running a herd of about 800 cattle and 100 horses.

 Frank married school teacher Elizabeth Carney from White Earth in 1912. The couple raised two children--Brooks, who stayed on the ranch until his death, and Betty, who married Ed Grantier of Minot.

 He held his ranch together during the depression and rebuilt it after his bottomlands were flooded for the Garrison Dam. When he died, he left his children a ranch exceeding 20,000 acres.

 Frank was proud of his association with the Three Affiliated Tribes, helping write grazing regulations and organizing the McKenzie County Grazing Association, of which he was a founding member. He served as President of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association and held numerous offices with the American National Livestock Association. Frank was a patriotic man, who often rode more than 100 miles to exercise his right to vote.

 He died in 1955 at age 77. Attorney Bruce Van Sickle, who later became a Federal Judge, wrote, “The life of Frank Keogh is an apt illustration of what a man can accomplish who will face hardship with fortitude and bend unwilling fortune to his own purposes.”