Local rancher's dream becomes life-long career
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff reporter
The year was 1942. An 18-year-old student was sitting in study hall at Marion High School and dreaming of having his own herd of Hereford cattle.
He had learned about registered Herefords in 4-H and had acquired a registered heifer, so he thought he needed a brand of his own.
His father used the symbol of a cross as the brand for his commercial herd of cows, but the new State of Kansas brand law required that a registered brand must have two symbols.
After some doodling, the student came up with a combination of a diamond and an X with one-half of the X forming two sides of the diamond.
On the way home from school that day he stopped at Kline's blacksmith shop and asked him to make the branding iron.
He picked it up a few days later and showed it to his father, who thought it was a good brand. The ingenious father decided to make his brand the X Diamond, with the diamond symbol attached to the other side of the X. That way, both of them could use the same iron.
Thus it was that Diamond X Herefords was born. The student was Rex Siebert. Now 79 years old, he continues to produce purebred horned Hereford bulls for private sale to customers throughout a wide area.
After graduation from high school, Rex went into partnership with Dr. Ralph Melton of Marion. M&S Herefords existed for several years.
In 1947, Rex showed some registered Herefords for Harold "Dutch" Hauser's Broken Wine Cup Ranch of Marion at the Denver Stock Show. Since then, he has never missed a Denver show.
That first experience at the world-renowned show led to his employment by the well-known CK Ranch near Salina as herdsman for their show and sale cattle.
After five "very" successful years at CK, he returned to the home place three miles west of Marion.
He married Vernolis Dillingham in 1955. That same year, they took up residence at the home place from his parents, Floyd and Millie Siebert.
The two have been working together on the ranch ever since.
They got their start for a registered herd when Andy and Doyle Schoen of Lenora agreed to buy some cows and loan them to Rex for a share of the calf crop.
"They soon sent me all I needed," Rex said.
One time, the couple took 24 head of their cattle to the Kansas State Fair and another year took 10 head to the Denver Stock Show.
Rex also did custom fitting and showing for breeders that had a few head of cattle that needed the special attention they couldn't provide. He took a carload of senior bull calves to the stock show for Gene Sundgren's "Sun Ranch."
Rex established a reputation as a hoof trimmer and spent many days in Kansas and other states working for ranchers.
Vernolis said she felt like a "widow" for many years because of all the time Rex spent away.
For example, in 1970 he was home only 100 days. The other days were spent on the road trimming hooves on 5,600 head of cattle.
During that year, they built a new house on the ranch.
Rex developed the Spring-O-Matic hoof trimming table that proved popular, and later added a Spring-O-Matic stock table which was sold in almost every state and shipped to other countries. His son John now runs the business, which operates out of a shop building on the ranch.
When he had hip replacement surgery in 2000, Rex decided to retire from going out on the road. His hoof trimming business now is confined to cattle brought in.
The registered cow herd has been reduced in size from 100 head to about 50 to 60 head, with mostly fall calving.
Choice bulls from the herd are sold mostly as yearlings and two year olds.
Vernolis used to have a horse named Sonny, which she used on the ranch until he had to be sold because of old age.
"I cried and Sonny cried," she said. "I decided I never would have another horse."
The horse has been replaced with a four-wheel all terrain vehicle.
"I love to ride my four-wheeler," the 82-year-old woman said.
Rex acknowledged that he could not get along without her help.
"With Vernolis on the four-wheeler and me on Old Yeller (that's his horse), we can handle the good old 'honest' Hereford cows very nicely," he said.
Life has dealt the couple some hard knocks. Their marriage was the second for both. They had a combined family of five children. Vernolis' two children, Ron and Francis, both were killed in car accidents — Ron in 1961, and Francis in 1969.
Rex's son John is a rancher who lives three miles north of Florence with his wife, Marianne. Daughter Linda Campbell and husband Bob live in Salina, and son Ladd, married to Mary Jo Stika, is a veterinarian at Eureka, S. D.
Rex and Vernolis have been married for 47 years. They have 15 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Ranching is in Rex's blood, and he plans to continue indefinitely.
"Some retirees like to fish," he said. "I like to get on Old Yeller or get in the red pickup and go to the pasture and look at the old cows with their white-faced calves at their side. That's my recreation," he said.
The Sieberts recently installed a new sign along 190th at their ranch. The Hereford head on the sign was painted by their granddaughter, Rexana Siebert of Florence.
A history
Rex's great-grandfather, Christian Siebert, originally purchased the 160 acres where the buildings are located. He gave it to Rex's grandfather, J.J. Siebert, in 1896. A year or so later, J.J. added the 160 acres to the west.
This 320 acres was operated as a gathering place for cattle that J.J. purchased from farmers west of Marion. He fed and sorted them for shipment by train to Kansas City stockyards in carload lots.
J.J. and Dan Mehl were good friends. Mehl lived east of Marion and bought cattle from the surrounding area. The two men usually timed their shipments to go at the same time. They accompanied the cattle, riding along in the caboose.
In 1928, J.J. moved to Marion, and son Floyd took over the home place as a winter home for a commercial Hereford cow herd. Summer grass was leased three miles east of Florence. Rex was five years old at the time.
Floyd semi-retired in 1955, and Rex and Vernolis took over the farm. Floyd had purchased 320 acres of grass north of Florence, and more were added to make a total of about 800 acres. That became the summer home for the Diamond X registered herd of cattle.
The first time the Diamond X Ranch hosted a tour group was in August 1959. Three of the Sieberts' children, sitting astride a pipe corral fence, were pictured on the front page of The Kansas Stockman, which advertised the tour.
Rex and Vernolis have hosted other tours, and their ranch again will be the first stop on this year's tour, from 7:45 to 8:30 a.m. August 9 at headquarters, then from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the pasture three and one-half miles north of Florence on Yarrow.
