When John Sliker Bilby moved to his 44 Ranch on the west side of the Nodaway River near Quitman in 1868, he and his sons would drive cattle 100 miles from the train station at Council Bluffs to his property. This was before trains served his area. He would expand his half section (320 acres) to 26,000 acres in Nodaway, Atchison, and Holt Counties and herd cattle throughout his empire. He would use his Missouri property as a jumping-off point for buying a reported 1,000,000 acres in 15 states and Mexico, and he initially managed it all out of Quitman before moving to his Oklahoma ranch in 1902.
Bilby died when he was loading cattle in Catoosa, Oklahoma, northeast of Tulsa, and was hit by a train in November 1919. He is buried at Quitman. Since he assembled his empire using farms as collateral, his empire soon fell apart, but his home remained in the family. He is on the Nodaway Stairway of Stars. The 5,000-acre Bilby Ranch Conservation Area is just a fraction of his Missouri property.
This obituary in the December 4, 1919 issue of the Skidmore News gives an excellent local history:
John Sliker Bilby. The people of Northwest Missouri were surprised and saddened by the news over the wire that John S. Bilby, an extensive landowner and stock raiser, formerly of Quitman, Mo., had been struck by a train and instantly killed at Catoosa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, November 26, 1919. The following history of Mr. Bilby was taken from the Nodaway County, Missouri, history published in 1910: At this point, the biographer is glad to give a conspicuous setting to the life record of John Sliker Bilby, a man who, however, needs no formal introduction to the readers of this work. Being one of the notable men of his day and generation, his name being state wide and even national in its scope in view of the fact that he ranks with the great land owners of the world, therefore any attempt at laudation here would appear somewhat inconsistent if not incongruous; but side from the positions which he occupies as a leading and highly esteemed citizen, there is added interest attached to the resume of his career from the fact that during his many years’ residence here he has seen and taken a leading part in the wonderful development of Nodaway county from the primitive conditions existing when the prairies were, many of them, lying in wild sod, to the opulent present, he having long been one of the advance guard of progress and material advancement, and while he has benefited himself in a very material way, he has never lost sight of his obligation to his fellow men, being public-spirited and loyal in his support of movements having as their ultimate aim the bettering of the locality, honored by his citizenship and community service. Later, he worked an entire year for $115. In his youth, he learned the carpenter’s trade and always knew the meaning of hard work. These early experiences gave him great fortitude, self-reliance, and persistence, which resulted in his enormous success in later years. He is preeminently a self-educated and self-made man, and therefore richly deserves the benign smiles which fortune has bestowed upon him and the high esteem of his fellow citizens. He married Margaret Applegit, a native of Drakestown, New Jersey. This union resulted in the birth of four children, namely: Frances Ellen, who became the wife of Dr. Rufus H. Smith, John Edmund, Russell Irving, and Nicholas V. The mother of these children died on October 2, 1887, at what was then the family home in the west part of Green township, Nodaway County. His dedication to family and personal resilience reflect qualities that resonate with the community’s values. “After his marriage to Margaret Applegit in Illinois, Mr. Bilby went to live on his farm in Fulton County, near Canton. He then made several trades in farm property, and three or four years after his marriage, he moved near Bushnell, McDonough County, Illinois. He and Messrs. Day and Crider organized one of the first livestock commission firms in Chicago under the name Crider, Day, and Bilby. Mr. Bilby remained in McDonough County and bought and shipped stock to Chicago. Whenever an opportunity to purchase land in McDonough County presented itself, he availed himself of it and became the owner of nearly a thousand acres there. About 1868, he came to Nodaway County, Missouri, and bought a half-section of land on the south side of Green Township, west of the Nodaway River. Here, he rapidly increased his holdings and soon possessed a considerable amount of land. Having his own lumber yard, he built a store, and a post office was established there, called Fairview. He also built houses and large barns. He bought large numbers of cattle from neighboring farmers and adjoining counties, fattened them, and sold them. From time to time, his holdings spread into Atchison and Holt counties. He followed farming and stock feeding on a large scale, larger, in fact, than had ever been seen in Mis: By 1878, he was going beyond the nearby counties and brought cattle from as far as Kansas City to be fattened here. For several years, cattle were bought in Oregon and Washington, then driven to the railroad, 100 miles east of Cheyenne, Wyo. Shipping them to Council Bluffs, Iowa, from which place his sons and their assistants would drive them to their hand in this locality. Mr. Bilby built the first tile factory in this part of Missouri, located in Quitman, and for many years, his sons have been putting in carloads of it on their land every year. John S. Bilby was also the first to grow bluegrass in this section of Missouri, and he now raises enormous quantities of it, selling carloads of the seed. His innovations and pioneering efforts have left a lasting mark on the region’s industry and agriculture. Bilby was also the first to grow bluegrass in this section of Missouri, and he now raises enormous quantities of it, selling carloads of the seed. The Bilby ranches in this state now cover twenty-six thousand acres in Nodaway, Atchison, and Holt counties, all very valuable land. To manage this vast acreage, an organization and a well-organized system are required, with management divided among John S. Bilby and his sons, Russell and Edward, ensuring the continued success and influence of his agricultural enterprise. Ed Bilby is a partner under the firm name of the Quitman Live Stock Company; John S. and Russell I are partners under the name of The Nodaway Valley Cattle Company. The Missouri ranches are divided between the two managements. Edward having the north and west part and Russell that south and near Quitman; both use the brand “Ranch “Formerly the Bilbys drove cattle in from neighboring townships and counties, but they now haul them in by train loads, most of them coming from Texas and Old Mexico and they are widely known as the cattle kings of Northwestern Missouri, known throughout the middle west, especially at all the general markets, and in the great Southwest and Mexico their names are household words. But such prestige does not tend to give them stilted manners or affected superiority of attitude toward their fellow men; on the contrary, they are plain, unassuming, straightforward, honorable, and genteel, neighborly, kind, generous, and treat all classes in the spirit of man to man. “In the early eighties the Bilbys began buying land in Nebraska and they now own seven square miles there or over four thousand acres; they also purchased large tracts in Arkansas, partly timber land, and at the time much of it apparently almost worthless, but it is now as fine rice growing district as can be found, and their ranches in Kansas contain forty-three thousand acres. About ten years later, they began buying Texas land and now own about 200,000 acres in that state. In Old Mexico, the Bilbys own about 400,000 acres of land. In the fall of 1902, John S. Bilby began operations in Oklahoma and now has large ranches there, where he is engaged in farming, stock raising, and feeding. He has a rare genius for land buying, seldom makes mistakes, and is a man of keen discernment in forecasting the outcome of a present transaction. Such achievements are truly marvelous when one considers that Mr. Bilby was compelled to start in life empty-handed, making his own living even when a mere child. He has continued to work diligently, early and late, always persistently and along a well-defined line. He has exercised excellent judgment and rare foresight, and it is said he would get up in the night to buy land. It is believed that he is now the most significant individual landowner in America. “John S. Bilby was married on October 2, 1909, to Eva Smith of Good Hope, Illinois, a lady of intelligence and refinement, the representative of an excellent and influential family there. Mr. Bilby still considers Northwestern Missouri his home, but he and his wife spend nearly all their time in Oklahoma, where he gives his personal attention to his large ranches. With duties that would crush the ordinary man, he has his labors so systematised that he experiences little or no inconvenience in doing them. He is essentially cosmopolitan in his ideas, a man of the people in all that the term implies, and in the best sense of the word, a representative type of that strong American manhood which commands and retains respect by reason of inherent merit, sound sense, and correct conduct. Measured by the accepted standards of excellence, his career, through strenuous, has been eminently honorable and helpful, and his life has been fraught with great good to his fellow men and to the world. From the union of Mr. Bilby’s first marriage, four children were born, all living and present at their father’s funeral. They are: Mrs. Frances Nellie Smith, Seattle, Washington; Edward J. Bilby, Scott City, Kansas*; Russell I. Bilby, Quitman. Missouri; Nick V. Bilby, Holdenville, Oklahoma. He is also survived by his wife, one sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Gallinger, Quitman, Mo., and one brother, Chas. M. Bilby, Westville, Oklahoma. Also, nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Before leaving New Jersey, Mr. Bilby united with the Methodist Episcopal church and was well posted in the scripture. He possessed a perfect memory and business insight. He was a man of much quaint humor and as interesting in his conversation as Mark Twain. He was a great admirer of W. J. Bryan, and it WAS through his influence that the “great. Commoner was induced at one time to make a speech at Quiman. The funeral services were held at the home of his son, R. I. Bi by, Sunday, November 30, at 10 a.m. In charge of Elder S. D. Harlan, a warm friend of the family. The body was laid to rest in the I. 0. 0. F. cemetery, Quitman, Mo.
Aug. 10, 2024, Historian Mike Steiner gave a presentation on John S. Bilby to the Nodaway Historical Society. The KQTV video report is below.