Background
Murdo MacKenzie was born on April 24, 1850б near Tain, Ross County, Scotland. He was the second of eleven children of David and Jessie (Mackenzie) Mackenzie.
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Murdo MacKenzie was born on April 24, 1850б near Tain, Ross County, Scotland. He was the second of eleven children of David and Jessie (Mackenzie) Mackenzie.
Mackenzie attended the parish school at Balnagown and graduated from the Royal Academy at Tain in 1869.
Following a year's apprenticeship in a law office, Mackenzie took a job in a Tain bank and after this was employed as an assistant factor on the Balnagown estate of Sir Charles Ross. About 1876 he returned to the Tain bank as insurance agent. His work in this position attracted the attention of an Edinburgh syndicate, whose governing board offered him the managership of the Prairie Cattle Company, Ltd. , the "mother of British cattle companies" in the United States, with extensive range holdings in southeastern Colorado, northeastern New Mexico, and the Panhandle of Texas.
Leaving Scotland in 1885, Mackenzie went to Trinidad, Colorado, his home for the next twenty-five years. As the Prairie Cattle Company's American manager, it was Mackenzie's duty to supervise the operation of the three range divisions, oversee the shipping and marketing of cattle, and care for the company's business in the United States.
In 1891, he accepted a similar position with the Matador Land and Cattle Company, Ltd. , of Dundee, whose range rights covered a half million acres along the headwaters of the Pease River in northwestern Texas.
As manager of this Scottish company's interests from 1891 to 1911 and from 1922 to 1937, Mackenzie followed a policy of reducing the numerical strength of the herd, improving the quality of stock through the purchase of purebred Hereford bulls, and feeding mature steers on northern ranges, a program which made the Matador name synonymous with the best in beef cattle.
It reflected, too, the new era that had come to the cattle industry with the end of the open range. So long as cattle grazed freely on public lands, as they did till the late years of the nineteenth century, a cattleman had little reason to import blooded stock since he had so little control over breeding.
The enclosed range, with its use of barbed wire, made possible not only the improvement of a herd's quality but also the conserving of grass, both policies that Mackenzie favored. While president of the American National Live Stock Association, 1904-11, Mackenzie demonstrated his leadership in a forceful yet tactful manner in the fight to secure for western shippers a fair schedule of railroad rates.
In 1912, there began what Mackenzie later called the most interesting and gratifying experience of his life. Persuaded by Percival Farquhar to assume the managership of the Brazil Land, Cattle and Packing Company, a fabulous enterprise backed by French money, he moved to Saint Paulo and undertook the task of acquiring for his employers some 10, 000, 000 acres of pasture land and stocking the new ranges with tens of thousands of cattle.
The first World War halted the company's expansion program but provided wholesome profits on the venture. Mackenzie returned to the United States in 1918, was elected to the board of directors of the Matador company, and in 1922 was again appointed its manager.
In 1923, he was named a director of the Denver Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank and served in that capacity until 1935. Death came to him on May 30, 1939, in his ninetieth year at Denver, and he was buried there.
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Like other large cattlemen, Mackenzie favored Roosevelt's policy of regulating the use of the public domain; in 1908 Roosevelt appointed him to the National Conservation Commission.
A large man, over six feet in height, with a square face, blue eyes, and an imposing appearance, Mackenzie never carried a gun despite the rough frontier society in which he spent his early days in America.
Deeply loyal to his employers and their business welfare, he permitted no drinking or gambling by the company's employees, nor would he tolerate disobedience on the part of any of his subordinates. Mackenzie was difficult to interview, reserved to the point of aloofness, and unconcerned with personal publicity, but he was not lacking in humor and hospitality.
In Trinidad and Saint Paulo, his home was the center of social life, and the host frequently indulged his love of the violin by playing for dancing. Scorning many of the diversions and recreational activities of his contemporaries, he was nonetheless an ardent lover of fine horses and found time to become a master fisherman.
In 1876, Mackenzie had married Isabella Stronach MacBain, by whom he had five children: Alexander M. , David G. , Isabella, Edith, and John.