Frank Sherman owned a photography and souvenir shop in Colorado Springs. He had three brothers, Francis and the twins Stanford and Seeley, who lived with their family on Rush Creek near Chivington, Colorado. Stanford was the roundup foreman for the Holt Cattle Company when he was only twenty one years old. The Holt Cattle Company was a large ranch about twenty miles southwest of Hugo, Colorado. It covered 100 square miles and ran about 8,000 head of cattle. 

     It was May of 1903 and time for the spring roundup. Frank set out with his three cowboy brothers to record this rare and extensive collection of cowboy photographs. There are over 300 glass plates in this collection. These photographs give a wonderful and rare glimpse of an eastern Colorado cowboy. 

     In 1906 his doctor advised Frank to move to a lower altitude for his health. Frank moved to Lebanon, Oregon, nearly 1500 miles away, taking the priceless boxes of negatives with him. In 1922 Frank tragically died, when his shot gun misfired, hitting him in the chest and killing him instantly. His widow and the children moved away, later selling the house. 

     Forty Four years later in 1966, the occupant of the house discovered these negatives while cleaning out the attic. She was ready to dispose of them in the city dump, but first called John Eggen, a local photographer to see if they had any value to him.  In a very short time, Mr. Eggen was there to take the glass negatives off her hands. In the early nineties, Mr. Eggen published two books, " The West That Was" and "Cowboys" publishing many of these photographs. 

     In July of 1997, Chuck and Sheri Bowen traveled to Lebanon Oregon to purchase the 300 5x7 glass negatives from John Eggen. Sheri's grandfather, Kent France, was a neighbor of the Shermans near Chivington, also a cowboy for the Holt Cattle Company. His photograph appears throughout the collection. 

     Over ninety years later these negatives returned. It was a long trail home. Now you can enjoy this wonderful and rare collection in your home, restaurant, bank or business. These photographs are made from the original glass negatives, not just a copy of an old picture. The copyright is now held by Chuck and Sheri Bowen.  Large wall decor prints, as well as murals can be made from these 5x7 glass negatives. 
If interested, please email or write for price quotes.

     If the writing on some of the pictures looks a little odd its because the photographer had to write on the emulsion side of the glass negative, and therefore had to write backwards. However, on a few of the negatives he made the mistake of writing forward. Also, there were words misspelled which was easy to do when one wrote backwards.