John Griffith Edwards – Sheep King
While surveying the uncatalogued Rare Oversize Collection, we found a large pencil sketch among the pages of one of the books: a self-portrait of a mustachioed Teddy Roosevelt-looking man with the note “Quick sketch of myself after been reduced from Captain to Lieutenant Red Cross Service. Paris Jany 22/18” and a signature.
We had a few guesses at the signature but put the sketch aside and finished our survey of the oversized books. There were some searches for collections of World War I Red Cross service records that we thought might give us a name, but we didn’t have any luck. Returning to the search after some time allowed us to look at the signature without getting bogged down with our previous incorrect guesses. We searched “J G Edwards,” and found our first breadcrumb.
John Griffith Edwards began to come up in searches; his Red Cross service was mentioned
and the fact that he was also an artist. But what Edwards was really known for is
sheep. John G. Edwards (1855-1945) was a native of Wales. Emigrating to Wyoming in
1871, he started in the cattle business. After the Ute Indian war of 1879, he switched
to sheep and became a revered or reviled figure in the “cattle wars.” After moving
to Oregon, he traveled the world looking for the best breeds of sheep and began his
breeding program at the Hay Creek Ranch. After selling the ranch in 1910 he traveled
to Russia on the eve of the revolution, promoting his knowledge of sheep. He then
did his service in the Red Cross. In 1925, he built a new mansion in Oregon where
he spent his retirement indulging in painting and sculpture.
Did we solve the mystery? We contacted several organizations in Oregon, including the Historical Society, to see if they had any images of Edwards. Unfortunately, there was only a photograph of him in the last years of his life. However, they did send us an article with a grainy reproduction of a portrait of Edwards by Sydney Bell that looks very similar to our sketch.
It remains a bit of a mystery how this sketch ended up with us, but we are happy to share the story of The Sheep King, John Griffith Edwards.
