John Wesley Prowers was born January 29, 1838, near Westport, Missouri. His father died when John was two, leaving his mother, 22-year-old Susan, alone in the wilderness. She soon remarried but he did not get along with his stepfather and left home at the age of 18.
John found employment as a clerk with Robert Miller, agent for the Upper Arkansas Indian Agency, which included the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes. He and Miller carried a wagon train of supplies to William Bent’s New Fort on the Arkansas River, where they distributed them to the tribes. He was fascinated by the rich tapestry of life at the edge of the frontier and stayed with Bent for seven years as a teamster, continuing to bring wagon trains across the prairie. In all, he made 22 trips from the trading posts on the Missouri to those of the West.
In 1861, Prowers married Amache Ochinee, or Walking Woman, daughter of an influential Cheyenne sub-chief. Two years later, Prowers and Amache purchased the Caddoa Indian Buildings upstream from Bent’s New Fort where John and his wife operated a stagecoach station. In winter they boarded mule and livestock for the military and in summer they grew vegetables for the fort. He started the first cattle operation in the area and would become one of the West’s early cattle barons. Prowers experimented to find hearty cattle for the harsh prairie conditions and is credited with introducing Hereford cattle to southeastern Colorado.
On the morning of November 28, 1864, soldiers from Colonel John Chivington’s troops arrived at the Prowers ranch. Without explanation, they held the Prowers family and ranch hands hostage for two and a half days. It was only later they learned Amache’s father and other villagers had been massacred at the Sand Creek encampment.
After the massacre Prowers moved his family from Cadoa to Boggsville and expanded their ranch. Amache, her mother and two daughters contributed land given to them by the U.S. Government as reparation for their losses at Sand Creek. Prowers purchased other Cheyenne lands and his small 1860s herd eventually grew to over 10,000 head of cattle in the 1880s.
In Boggsville, he secured a contract for a stagecoach station and built a store. He also built a two-story adobe housewith walls 18 inches thick. The family lived on the second story and the store and a school operated on the first floor. In 1870, when Bent County was formed, Prowers was elected the first county commissioner, and county offices also operated from the first floor of the building.
In 1873 the railroads came and West Las Animas became the center of business so Prowers re-located again. He built a new house and opened a large general store. And he and legendary cattleman, Charles Goodnight, opened a meat packing plant. Prowers helped found the Bent County Bank and established the commission house of Prowers and Hough to take delivery of goods for merchants in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
In 1880, Prowers attempted to introduce new wildlife in the area. He shipped in white-tail deer and released three does and two bucks near his ranch. The deer’s descendants are still here. His attempt to introduce prairie chickens did not work but some of his friends successfully introduced bobwhite quail.
Prowers served in the territorial legislature in 1873 and in the state legislature in 1880. He ran for lieutenant governor in 1883 but was defeated. Prowers County, in southern Colorado, is named for him.
In late 1883 or early 1884, Prowers became seriously ill with throat cancer. He went to Kansas City for medical treatment and died at the home of his sister on February 14, 1884. He is buried in the family plot in Bent County Las Animas Cemetery.