Margaret Barr was born in Ireland on September 15, 1853, and immigrated to Iowa with her family about 1864. In April 1871, she married John Lloyd Roberts from Wales, and soon became a pioneer wife to a cattle dealer and butcher.The couple arrived at Bismarck in 1877 and by 1882 Lloyd was foreman of the Eaton Brothers' Custer Trail Ranch south of Medora. In 1883 the family built Sloping Bottom Ranch about 10 miles south of Medora, raising sheep, cattle and horses.In 1886, her husband John traveled to Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, with about $2,000 to buy cattle. He was never heard from again and Margaret believed he was killed for his money. As a widow with five young daughters, she continued to operate the ranch, eventually filing a homestead claim in 1899.Margaret exemplified the pioneer rectitude and persistence that her neighbor Theodore Roosevelt so admired. He described her as "the most wonderful little woman in the Bad Lands."Margaret eventually moved to Dickinson, North Dakota. She died on April 9, 1938 at the age of 84. (Marker Number 14.)
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