Harshbarger honored

KateLynn Slaamot
NLJ Reporter
 
To the cowboys and ranchers, it’s just a way of life — the hard work, early mornings and long cattle drives. But many of these people deserve to be honored for the authentic lives they’ve led. Jean Harshbarger, longtime cowgirl, is one such person. She was recently inducted into the 2020 Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame, after being nominated by Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns, and honored at the Wyoming State Fair Parade in Douglas this year. 
Harshbarger was born on Aug. 5, 1933, in Sterling, Colorado, the only child born to Gus and Charlotte Sherwin. The family owned three ranches, two in Colorado and one in Wyoming, southwest of Newcastle. They didn’t live on the ranch in Wyoming, which was purchased by Gus’ father, Leonard, in 1920. However, in the mid-1930’s, Gus and Charlotte moved their family of three to the ranch 55 miles from Newcastle. 
When starting their new life on the ranch, Jean said, they often had a couple of hired men. Early on, two of their hired hands were young men they knew from Colorado, who left in 1942 to serve in World War II. By then, Jean said, she was old enough to help with chores. Gus also had a pilot’s license and a plane, and every morning he rose early to check the water and cattle from the plane.
Jean recalls always having a horse that was hers, but she was never allowed to ride with a saddle unless she was helping with cattle because bareback was safer. 
“I got to be a pretty darn good rider,” Jean said. “Just like all the cowboys, I was not very generous with my horse. You’d have to be a friend of mine before I let you ride my horse.” 
Jean told the News Letter Journal about one horse in particular that either didn’t like men or didn’t like large people because it would buck them off. Sometimes Air Force servicemen from Cheyenne flew to the ranch to spend the day. Jean said that she was amused during one such visit because a colonel who had past experience with horses in the cavalry insisted on riding the horse but got bucked off. 
Jean spent a lot of time at the ranch during her childhood because she never attended school in town. Living 55 miles outside of Newcastle made regular trips into town difficult, so she was home-schooled intermittently. She also attended school with a hired hand’s two kids because only three children were needed to start a school, and at that time teachers only needed a high school education. Jean rode her horse 5 miles to school every morning, opening gates along the way, she said. 
“Riding over there (school) one frosty morning was the first time I had ever seen a bobcat,” Jean said. 
Although she never had siblings, Jean said she enjoyed playing with the children of hired hands, as well as her cousin, Mary Ellen, who also lived on the ranch. Jean also had an “imaginary play friend” named Susie. 
In high school, Jean attended Ivinson Hall, a girls boarding school in Laramie operated by the Episcopal Church. The girls attended classes at University High, also receiving education at the hall, and were often taught by student teachers from the University of Wyoming. 
Jean laughed.
“Most of them (student teachers) weren’t as smart as the kids in the class, so we gave them trouble,” she said. 
During the summers, Jean continued to work hard on the family ranch. One summer, she brought home a friend from Ivinson Hall and the two of them, along with neighbor Earl Lynch’s son, Byrd, trailed cattle from their ranch all the way to Dewey, South Dakota, to put on the train bound for Omaha, Nebraska. The three teens completed this feat by themselves, with Charlotte following them with a pickup and trailer for them to sleep in at night. 
After completing school at Ivinson Hall, Jean married her husband, Bill Sears, in December of 1951. She also went on to the University of Wyoming to pursue a degree in agriculture, and she was the first woman to graduate with a degree in range management from UW. 
Bill’s job as a petroleum engineer moved them to Adak, Alaska, for a stint when he was an engineer for the Navy there. However, in 1964, Gus passed away, so Jean and Bill came back to the ranch. Charlotte died in 1970. 
After Bill died in 1981, Jean lived alone on the ranch for a few years because her children were grown. She met her second husband, Bob Harshbarger, in 1987, when he came to the ranch with the Air Force. The couple was married in 1989. 
“I went and found him a nice horse and named him the Captain,” Jean said, noting that Bob needed someone to boss around. 
Jean and Bob continued working the ranch for many years, but now the baton has been passed to Chad Sears, Jean’s grandson. Chad is the child of Jean’s son, Tony, who died in 1980. Jean also has
two daughters — Nicky, who lives on her ranch east of Jean’s, and Elana, who is a lawyer. Although Jean and Bob still live on the ranch, most of the day-to-day operations lie in Chad’s hands, along with his wife, Gillian, and daughter, Lainey.
“It’s very important to us to have a family ranching legacy,” Chad said. He added that once the ranch is handed down to Lainey, that will be the sixth generation for the Wyoming ranch. 
While Jean said she doesn’t know what she did to deserve the honor of being recognized in the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame, the many genuine experiences over her lifetime say otherwise. Chad noted that Jean has always been very involved in agricultural associations too, such as the Wyoming Farm Bureau and the local grazing association. 
“It’s certainly a pleasure,” Jean said, adding that riding in a side-by-side during this year’s Wyoming State Fair Parade, driven by her grandson, was quite the enjoyable experience. 
“It’s just kind of amazing,” Jean said.