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

Ranching

Margaret Barr Roberts
2003 Hall of Fame Ranching Inductee

 Margaret Barr Roberts was born Sept. 15, 1853, In Ireland, a daughter of James and Margaret (McCormick) Barr. She immigrated to Manchester, Iowa, with her family around 1864. In Apr. 1871, Margaret married John Lloyd Roberts from Wales, becoming a pioneer wife to a cattle dealer and butcher. The couple arrived in Bismarck in March 1877 and by 1882-1883 Lloyd was foreman of Eaton’s Custer Trail Ranch at Little Miss-ouri (near Medora). Margaret cooked for a large ranch crew, earning room and board for the family. In 1883, the family built Sloping Bottom Ranch about 10 miles south of Medora, raising sheep, cattle and horses. In late 1886, Lloyd disappeared while on a cattle buying trip and, despite Indian scares, the difficult ‘86 winter and wolves killing 20 sheep in one night, Margaret bravely carried on. She sold meat, butter, eggs, wild fruit and garden produce to support the family, as well as doing laundry, sewing and knitting for area cowboys. In 1899, Margaret filed on a homestead south of Medora. Along with two young granddaughters in her care, she would gather community children in a corner of the Rough Riders Hotel dining room on Saturday afternoons and read Bible stories. Margaret was once described as a jovial woman with hair that curled attractively and had a shimmer of gold in it and was called "First Lady of the Badlands." On Sundays, she often joined the Maltese Cross boys for horseback rides, treating them to a "bread and milk" supper on their way home. She fed every stranger who stopped and was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt. In 1906, Margaret retired to Dickinson, where she took in roomers and lent money with interest to cowboys. She died there on Apr. 9, 1938.