nodaway.org

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.

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