They say only a half-percent of businesses last 100 years or more. Veach Saddlery has been operating in Trenton, Missouri, for 107 years. Peggy and Robert Robinson have owned the business since 1988 and worked there much longer than that. The original owner was Peggy’s dad, Monroe Veach who started the business in 1919. Any business in these days that has a longevity record like that is certainly doing something right. They primarily make custom saddles and do sell some other western things which tells why they are still in business and doing well. They treat their customers right!
Here is their story: Clarence Monroe Veach was born in Grundy County, Missouri, May 8, 1896, to a family that farmed. When Monroe (he never went by his first name) was eight years old his dad took him to Saint Joseph, Missouri, to see the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show. He was absolutely enthralled with it all – the big hats, high heeled cowboy boots, the trick roping! He went home with a dream – to be a cowboy!
It didn’t happen overnight. He worked on the family farm; he taught a horse some tricks and had taught himself to do some trick roping which the horse tolerated. Twelve years later, 1916, when he was twenty years old he rode his horse to town, bought a ticket for the train. Monroe took his saddle and bridle off the horse, headed him home, and got on the train heading West. He had gotten a job as a cowboy in Eads, Colorado, and he was going to live his dream. Unfortunately, a year later World War I was happening and he went in the Army. Because of his experience he was put in the Cavalry section and went to Fort Riley, Kansas. His assignment was to repair the harness and saddles. By the next year he’d become quite good at his assignment although he never had a lesson, he just taught himself. Trial and error, until he got it right. But guess what? He liked it and was good at it. When he mustered out in 1919, he went home to the Veach farm, near Trenton, and started making or repairing harness and whatever else made of leather, needed fixing. He married his sweetheart, Alta, and they moved to the farm.
One day the mailman stopped to chat, and asked Monroe if he could make him a saddle. Monroe never had a lesson in making a saddle, but his curiosity had forced him to investigate the saddles in the Army, and he knew them from one end to the other by the time he got the mailman’s request. That was Monroe’s first saddle made. That saddle today sits in the Veach Saddlery, after a long-life delivering mail.
Monroe and his wife, Alta, had six children over a span of twenty years (1920 to 1940). Billy was the oldest, then Imogene. Mary and Letty were the next two. Ben was born later and Peggy was the last born. Imogene told me, “When my mother was pregnant with the last one, I was grown, and I was so embarrassed that my mother was still having a baby!” Little did she know when Peggy was born Imogene and husband, Charley Beals, would have a daughter, Donna, close to the same age, and those little girls spent much time of their ‘growing up’ time at the Beals.
By 1938, Monroe had to move his business to Trenton as he just had too much happening in the space he had to work on the farm. Since moving to town Veach Saddlery has had several addresses. He was an imagineer that often ‘thought outside the box.’ Although he could order basic parts for saddles and such, he learned to make a lot of his own parts. When World War II began, he found it difficult to get saddle trees. He decided he would learn to make his own saddle trees. It wasn’t easy but he mastered it. He used wood from the Linn tree, which was lightweight but sturdy. One item he needed was the saddle horn, which was metal. He went to a foundry and asked if they would make the Veach saddle horn. They were not that interested because they were shifting their production to the war effort. Monroe decided to explain to them he was furnishing saddles to the people that raise the cattle that was the beef to feed the soldiers. They changed their minds and the foundry made the saddle horns for him.
Monroe taught all his children the leather business. They started learning when they weren’t very old. Peggy remembered coming home from school when she was ten and working on halters. Imogene told me about a variety of things she learned from her dad when just a kid and even as an adult. She even did some hand tooling. It wasn’t just his children, but his grandchildren and great-grandchildren also learned and liked doing it.
Robert Robinson, Peggy Veach’s husband, said when he first went to work at the saddle shop in 1964, Monroe showed him how to build a saddle tree. Robert turned around to ask Monroe a question and discovered he was no longer there. The family all laugh about Monroe not training anyone. He would only show a person one time how something was done. If you didn’t get it then, which most didn’t, you had to figure it out on your own. And most did take the time to learn. Robert certainly did figure it out, in fact, he even developed a machine to duplicate one major part of the saddle tree process.
As time went by, Monroe’s children had their own saddle shops. Charley Beals married Imogene and they had their saddle shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by 1945. Starting out in a couple of stalls at the Tulsa Fairgrounds, their success allowed them to get their own building and continued having a great deal of success in their Veach Saddlery for forty years. Charley also had a small shop on the ranch they had near Colcord, OK. Charley and Imogene’s daughter, Donna, married Duke Clark, who worked in the saddle shop for a time. In 2007 their son, and Monroe’s great-grandson, Drew Clark, re-opened the shop and is making saddles and other leather products.
Daughter, Mary Cunningham and husband had a saddle shop in Branson, MO., for some time. Letty and husband, George McAlister, worked in the Trenton saddle shop for many years.
The saddle tree shop was sold by Veach in the 1970s so they could concentrate on building more saddles. They had been putting out a Veach catalog including all the different things they could provide, but by 1983, when many of the independent western stores were closing, they stopped publishing their catalog. The custom saddle was then in demand.
Monroe never gave up his dream to be a cowboy, and although his Eads, Colorado, job as a cowboy was cut short by the war, he continued to practice trick roping. He got so good he was invited to perform at the Trenton movie house, when they were still showing silent films. It took a few minutes to change reels in those days, and Monroe was on the stage trick roping. He also mastered some trick riding. In fact, he and son, Billy, put on rodeos starting in 1945. Monroe performed trick roping and trick riding but also timed and did the secretarial work. He began making trophy saddles at the shop and Fred Lowry, a champion roper, won Monroe’s saddle at the Nowata rodeo. Lowry came to Monroe and asked him to make a similar saddle for him with some minor changes. This saddle became a best seller at Veach Saddlery in those days and was called the Fred Lowry Roping Saddle. Billy handled most of the responsibilities of the Veach Rodeo Company day to day so Monroe could be at the shop.
Others in the family also took part in the Veach rodeos. Letty and Peggy did some trick riding, as well as Monroe. George McAlister, Letty’s husband, was the announcer. One weekend at a rodeo there was a terrible rainstorm on Saturday and that performance was postponed until Sunday afternoon. George was asked by Monroe, to head back to Trenton on Sunday to be there to open the saddle shop on Monday morning. As for an announcer for the rodeo George recommended Clem McSpadden. He had a good voice, knew rodeo and did a bang-up job. Clem’s first job as a rodeo announcer was the Veach rodeo, 1947 in Story City, Iowa.
Tragedy struck the Veach family when Monroe’s son, Billy was killed in a truck accident in 1957. He was hauling stock when it happened. Veach Rodeo Company finished having the rodeos they had committed to have but never put on another rodeo. Their love of the sport never changed though. Their participation, competition, and support never left the family.
Monroe’s ability to trick ride was the catalyst to Veach Saddlery being known for making trick riding saddles. They are still making trick saddles today, in spite of the fact that trick riding opportunities have slackened in rodeo. There are still rodeos who hire trick riders and other places where trick riding is in demand. Peggy said they have all the records of the custom saddles they have made since her dad started the business. They are always interested in knowing who Veach saddles were made for and where they went after that person quit performing. Keeping those records are one reason the business has continued for so many years.
In 1976, the Bicentennial Celebration for the Unites States was being held in Washington, DC, and Monroe was invited by the Smithsonian Institute to come to DC and have a saddle making demonstration. He brought all the equipment and parts and every day he worked on the saddle, including hand-sewing it. This was done on a cherrywood stitching horse Monroe’s dad had made in the 1920s. At the end of the Celebration Monroe also gave a finished Bicentennial saddle to the Smithsonian.
Also at the Washington, DC, celebration Bryan Dew, a filmmaker, from New Zealand, was fascinated by Monroe and his saddle making exhibition. Dew was there because of the music played by the western bands in America. It was his plan – to do a film of the music about the Western culture. But when he spent some time talking with Monroe, he realized how much Monroe loved the spirit of the cowboy and the American West. Bryan took ten years to complete his film, not about music, but about Monroe Veach. He gave much attention to detail and getting it ‘just right.’ But in 1986 Monroe was now 90 years old. When Bryan Dew learned Monroe was not in good health he flew to Trenton, MO and showed the first showing of the film. He named it “A Ten Dollar Horse and a Forty Dollar Saddle.” The Trenton movie house with most of Trenton’s population was in the audience, including Monroe. It was quite an honor to be able to see a film about his life, with his hometown friends and neighbors who were also thrilled with the movie. Monroe died a few months later on Christmas Day, 1986. Drew won the 1987 Wrangler Award for Film – Western Documentary, at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his film on Monroe.
Peggy and Robert married in 1959, and both worked in the saddle shop. In 1988, they purchased the shop from the other Monroe heirs, and had introduced their son, Craig, to it when he was ten. The same age Peggy remembers coming to the shop after school and working on halters. Craig says he swept the floor at first, which wasn’t real exciting, but something about it must have gotten in his blood because at the age of 66 he’s still there. Actually, Craig is the major custom saddle maker today. He makes the Doug Clark Roper saddle (Doug is another of Monroe’s great-grandchildren). Craig is fortunate enough to remember his grandfather, although he has admitted Monroe’s teaching was limited, but he gave everyone in the family an opportunity to learn how Monroe did it. That in itself was an important lesson.
For the Veach Saddlery’s 100th Anniversary in 2019, Craig made a beautiful Centennial Saddle which is on display in the shop with many other important remembrances of the legendary shop and what it means to so many people. There are others in the family who also have saddle or leather shops like Kenny and Cary Veach, Billy’s two sons. Kenny Veach Made shop is in Mount Vernon, Missouri, and Cary’s Veach’s Custom Leather shop is in Ames, Iowa. Cary’s shop, Veach Saddlery, is also a major sponsor for several top bronc riders who later became world champion saddle bronc and bareback riders in the PRCA, Wade Sundell, Tim O’Connell and Jesse Pope.
Companies like Veach Saddlery in Trenton don’t last over a century without doing things right. When later generations take the ‘reins of the business’ and keep it going after that many years you can be guaranteed that they are at the top of the list, treat their customers well, and take pride in their products.
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I have been friends with the Veach, Robinson, Clark, McAlister families since I started my quest to write rodeo history, and I can truthfully say that I do not know any family, that is as dedicated to rodeo any more than these folks. Staying in business for so long is amazing. I will also say that these people are also so devoted to rodeo. Charley Beals was the first person that mentored me when I began researching and gathering rodeo information, and his wife, Imogene, and I traveled together for fifteen years or more to all kinds of rodeo activities and talked for hours about rodeo. She always had Rodeo Historical Society membership forms in her purse regardless of where we were – Florida, Hawaii, New York, etc. Peggy Robinson helped me gather information with a voice recorder and as an interviewer for videos for the Oral History Project, sponsored by Rodeo Historical Society for many years. She knew so many old-time rodeo people, through her father, Monroe, and her family, they deserved to have their lives in the rodeo archives. I attended the 80thAnniversary of the Trenton Veach Saddle Shop and heard so many stories about their history and Monroe. I also heard so many stories about the Veach Saddle Shop in Tulsa, run by Charley and Imogene. There were so many cowboys that knew they could spend the night in the Tulsa Shop on their way to the next rodeo. Charley also made many a saddle or bareback rigging for so many roughstock riders and ropers. These people have taught me so much, I feel like I am one of the family and I’m sure there are many who are reading this that can say the same thing. They are why rodeo is such a ‘big family group.’ God bless them all!!
Here is their story: Clarence Monroe Veach was born in Grundy County, Missouri, May 8, 1896, to a family that farmed. When Monroe (he never went by his first name) was eight years old his dad took him to Saint Joseph, Missouri, to see the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show. He was absolutely enthralled with it all – the big hats, high heeled cowboy boots, the trick roping! He went home with a dream – to be a cowboy!
It didn’t happen overnight. He worked on the family farm; he taught a horse some tricks and had taught himself to do some trick roping which the horse tolerated. Twelve years later, 1916, when he was twenty years old he rode his horse to town, bought a ticket for the train. Monroe took his saddle and bridle off the horse, headed him home, and got on the train heading West. He had gotten a job as a cowboy in Eads, Colorado, and he was going to live his dream. Unfortunately, a year later World War I was happening and he went in the Army. Because of his experience he was put in the Cavalry section and went to Fort Riley, Kansas. His assignment was to repair the harness and saddles. By the next year he’d become quite good at his assignment although he never had a lesson, he just taught himself. Trial and error, until he got it right. But guess what? He liked it and was good at it. When he mustered out in 1919, he went home to the Veach farm, near Trenton, and started making or repairing harness and whatever else made of leather, needed fixing. He married his sweetheart, Alta, and they moved to the farm.
One day the mailman stopped to chat, and asked Monroe if he could make him a saddle. Monroe never had a lesson in making a saddle, but his curiosity had forced him to investigate the saddles in the Army, and he knew them from one end to the other by the time he got the mailman’s request. That was Monroe’s first saddle made. That saddle today sits in the Veach Saddlery, after a long-life delivering mail.
Monroe and his wife, Alta, had six children over a span of twenty years (1920 to 1940). Billy was the oldest, then Imogene. Mary and Letty were the next two. Ben was born later and Peggy was the last born. Imogene told me, “When my mother was pregnant with the last one, I was grown, and I was so embarrassed that my mother was still having a baby!” Little did she know when Peggy was born Imogene and husband, Charley Beals, would have a daughter, Donna, close to the same age, and those little girls spent much time of their ‘growing up’ time at the Beals.
By 1938, Monroe had to move his business to Trenton as he just had too much happening in the space he had to work on the farm. Since moving to town Veach Saddlery has had several addresses. He was an imagineer that often ‘thought outside the box.’ Although he could order basic parts for saddles and such, he learned to make a lot of his own parts. When World War II began, he found it difficult to get saddle trees. He decided he would learn to make his own saddle trees. It wasn’t easy but he mastered it. He used wood from the Linn tree, which was lightweight but sturdy. One item he needed was the saddle horn, which was metal. He went to a foundry and asked if they would make the Veach saddle horn. They were not that interested because they were shifting their production to the war effort. Monroe decided to explain to them he was furnishing saddles to the people that raise the cattle that was the beef to feed the soldiers. They changed their minds and the foundry made the saddle horns for him.
Monroe taught all his children the leather business. They started learning when they weren’t very old. Peggy remembered coming home from school when she was ten and working on halters. Imogene told me about a variety of things she learned from her dad when just a kid and even as an adult. She even did some hand tooling. It wasn’t just his children, but his grandchildren and great-grandchildren also learned and liked doing it.
Robert Robinson, Peggy Veach’s husband, said when he first went to work at the saddle shop in 1964, Monroe showed him how to build a saddle tree. Robert turned around to ask Monroe a question and discovered he was no longer there. The family all laugh about Monroe not training anyone. He would only show a person one time how something was done. If you didn’t get it then, which most didn’t, you had to figure it out on your own. And most did take the time to learn. Robert certainly did figure it out, in fact, he even developed a machine to duplicate one major part of the saddle tree process.
As time went by, Monroe’s children had their own saddle shops. Charley Beals married Imogene and they had their saddle shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by 1945. Starting out in a couple of stalls at the Tulsa Fairgrounds, their success allowed them to get their own building and continued having a great deal of success in their Veach Saddlery for forty years. Charley also had a small shop on the ranch they had near Colcord, OK. Charley and Imogene’s daughter, Donna, married Duke Clark, who worked in the saddle shop for a time. In 2007 their son, and Monroe’s great-grandson, Drew Clark, re-opened the shop and is making saddles and other leather products.
Daughter, Mary Cunningham and husband had a saddle shop in Branson, MO., for some time. Letty and husband, George McAlister, worked in the Trenton saddle shop for many years.
The saddle tree shop was sold by Veach in the 1970s so they could concentrate on building more saddles. They had been putting out a Veach catalog including all the different things they could provide, but by 1983, when many of the independent western stores were closing, they stopped publishing their catalog. The custom saddle was then in demand.
Monroe never gave up his dream to be a cowboy, and although his Eads, Colorado, job as a cowboy was cut short by the war, he continued to practice trick roping. He got so good he was invited to perform at the Trenton movie house, when they were still showing silent films. It took a few minutes to change reels in those days, and Monroe was on the stage trick roping. He also mastered some trick riding. In fact, he and son, Billy, put on rodeos starting in 1945. Monroe performed trick roping and trick riding but also timed and did the secretarial work. He began making trophy saddles at the shop and Fred Lowry, a champion roper, won Monroe’s saddle at the Nowata rodeo. Lowry came to Monroe and asked him to make a similar saddle for him with some minor changes. This saddle became a best seller at Veach Saddlery in those days and was called the Fred Lowry Roping Saddle. Billy handled most of the responsibilities of the Veach Rodeo Company day to day so Monroe could be at the shop.
Others in the family also took part in the Veach rodeos. Letty and Peggy did some trick riding, as well as Monroe. George McAlister, Letty’s husband, was the announcer. One weekend at a rodeo there was a terrible rainstorm on Saturday and that performance was postponed until Sunday afternoon. George was asked by Monroe, to head back to Trenton on Sunday to be there to open the saddle shop on Monday morning. As for an announcer for the rodeo George recommended Clem McSpadden. He had a good voice, knew rodeo and did a bang-up job. Clem’s first job as a rodeo announcer was the Veach rodeo, 1947 in Story City, Iowa.
Tragedy struck the Veach family when Monroe’s son, Billy was killed in a truck accident in 1957. He was hauling stock when it happened. Veach Rodeo Company finished having the rodeos they had committed to have but never put on another rodeo. Their love of the sport never changed though. Their participation, competition, and support never left the family.
Monroe’s ability to trick ride was the catalyst to Veach Saddlery being known for making trick riding saddles. They are still making trick saddles today, in spite of the fact that trick riding opportunities have slackened in rodeo. There are still rodeos who hire trick riders and other places where trick riding is in demand. Peggy said they have all the records of the custom saddles they have made since her dad started the business. They are always interested in knowing who Veach saddles were made for and where they went after that person quit performing. Keeping those records are one reason the business has continued for so many years.
In 1976, the Bicentennial Celebration for the Unites States was being held in Washington, DC, and Monroe was invited by the Smithsonian Institute to come to DC and have a saddle making demonstration. He brought all the equipment and parts and every day he worked on the saddle, including hand-sewing it. This was done on a cherrywood stitching horse Monroe’s dad had made in the 1920s. At the end of the Celebration Monroe also gave a finished Bicentennial saddle to the Smithsonian.
Also at the Washington, DC, celebration Bryan Dew, a filmmaker, from New Zealand, was fascinated by Monroe and his saddle making exhibition. Dew was there because of the music played by the western bands in America. It was his plan – to do a film of the music about the Western culture. But when he spent some time talking with Monroe, he realized how much Monroe loved the spirit of the cowboy and the American West. Bryan took ten years to complete his film, not about music, but about Monroe Veach. He gave much attention to detail and getting it ‘just right.’ But in 1986 Monroe was now 90 years old. When Bryan Dew learned Monroe was not in good health he flew to Trenton, MO and showed the first showing of the film. He named it “A Ten Dollar Horse and a Forty Dollar Saddle.” The Trenton movie house with most of Trenton’s population was in the audience, including Monroe. It was quite an honor to be able to see a film about his life, with his hometown friends and neighbors who were also thrilled with the movie. Monroe died a few months later on Christmas Day, 1986. Drew won the 1987 Wrangler Award for Film – Western Documentary, at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his film on Monroe.
Peggy and Robert married in 1959, and both worked in the saddle shop. In 1988, they purchased the shop from the other Monroe heirs, and had introduced their son, Craig, to it when he was ten. The same age Peggy remembers coming to the shop after school and working on halters. Craig says he swept the floor at first, which wasn’t real exciting, but something about it must have gotten in his blood because at the age of 66 he’s still there. Actually, Craig is the major custom saddle maker today. He makes the Doug Clark Roper saddle (Doug is another of Monroe’s great-grandchildren). Craig is fortunate enough to remember his grandfather, although he has admitted Monroe’s teaching was limited, but he gave everyone in the family an opportunity to learn how Monroe did it. That in itself was an important lesson.
For the Veach Saddlery’s 100th Anniversary in 2019, Craig made a beautiful Centennial Saddle which is on display in the shop with many other important remembrances of the legendary shop and what it means to so many people. There are others in the family who also have saddle or leather shops like Kenny and Cary Veach, Billy’s two sons. Kenny Veach Made shop is in Mount Vernon, Missouri, and Cary’s Veach’s Custom Leather shop is in Ames, Iowa. Cary’s shop, Veach Saddlery, is also a major sponsor for several top bronc riders who later became world champion saddle bronc and bareback riders in the PRCA, Wade Sundell, Tim O’Connell and Jesse Pope.
Companies like Veach Saddlery in Trenton don’t last over a century without doing things right. When later generations take the ‘reins of the business’ and keep it going after that many years you can be guaranteed that they are at the top of the list, treat their customers well, and take pride in their products.
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I have been friends with the Veach, Robinson, Clark, McAlister families since I started my quest to write rodeo history, and I can truthfully say that I do not know any family, that is as dedicated to rodeo any more than these folks. Staying in business for so long is amazing. I will also say that these people are also so devoted to rodeo. Charley Beals was the first person that mentored me when I began researching and gathering rodeo information, and his wife, Imogene, and I traveled together for fifteen years or more to all kinds of rodeo activities and talked for hours about rodeo. She always had Rodeo Historical Society membership forms in her purse regardless of where we were – Florida, Hawaii, New York, etc. Peggy Robinson helped me gather information with a voice recorder and as an interviewer for videos for the Oral History Project, sponsored by Rodeo Historical Society for many years. She knew so many old-time rodeo people, through her father, Monroe, and her family, they deserved to have their lives in the rodeo archives. I attended the 80thAnniversary of the Trenton Veach Saddle Shop and heard so many stories about their history and Monroe. I also heard so many stories about the Veach Saddle Shop in Tulsa, run by Charley and Imogene. There were so many cowboys that knew they could spend the night in the Tulsa Shop on their way to the next rodeo. Charley also made many a saddle or bareback rigging for so many roughstock riders and ropers. These people have taught me so much, I feel like I am one of the family and I’m sure there are many who are reading this that can say the same thing. They are why rodeo is such a ‘big family group.’ God bless them all!!
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