“John Vanier was a self-made businessman, who ran his business right from under his hat.”
–A description of John J. “J.J.” Vanier
John J. Vanier, former owner of the CK Ranch located near Brookville, Kansas, is the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Famexs Rancher/Cattleman Inductee for 2005.
John was born in 1897, on a farm settled by his grandfather in Pawnee County, Nebraska. His parents, Jacob C. and Julia A. Vanier, soon moved their family to Kansas City, Missouri. Vanier attended school for a time, before he left and sought employment with the E.D. Fisher Commission Company in the Board of Trade Building. While there, he learned the ins and outs of grain trade and the milling industry. Later, John became a salesman for the Abilene Flour Mill in Abilene, Kansas.
Following his service in the Marine Corps during World War I, John returned home to work in the Flour Mill in Abilene. On May 13, 1922, Vanier, deciding to create his own family, married Lesta. The couple would go on to have three children, sons Jack and Jerry and daughter Joyce.
In 1925, John secured controlling interest in the Western Star Milling Company, located in Salina, Kansas. Vanier took the Western Star Milling Company from flounder status at the time of purchase to an efficient, profitable firm; which allowed John to assume guidance over other grain and milling firms in Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. His success also allowed him to found the Central Kansas Hereford Ranch, later shortened to the CK Ranch, near Brookville, Kansas. This purchase was only the beginning.
Vanier continued to expand his holdings, adding farm and ranch property in Hunter, Dorrance, Herrington, Manhattan and Salina. He established commercial cattle ranches in Wyoming, Colorado and Oklahoma; while expanding his business empire to include: milling plants, elevators, soybean plants, food processing plants, livestock feed mixing plants, dehydrating plants and pelleting plants. In 1935, John Vanier began the CK Ranchxs register Hereford Herd. By the 1950s, the CK Ranchxs registered cattle reached 2,000 head with annual registrations totaling over 1,500 a year.
Starting in 1946, Vanier served on the Board of Directors for the American Hereford Association, elected the organizations President in 1952. John also belonged to the Kansas Livestock Association and the National Millersx Federation. In 1978, John Vanier was one of the first thirty-eight members inducted into the Honor Gallery of the Hereford Heritage Hall. In 2005, the Kansas Business Hall of Fame, in Emporia, inducted John as the Historical Heritage Award Recipient. Described as a self-made, generous businessman, he actively supported various schools and colleges, including the Kansas State University Animal Husbandry Department, with money, land, cattle and opportunities for extra activities often held on the CK Ranch. In 1970, Vanier sold a major portion of his vast food manufacturing and marketing facilities; however the sale did not include any of the farming or ranching operations.
John Vanier passed away on February 20, 1980 at the age of eighty-three. His two sons, daughter, thirteen grandchildren and several great-grandchildren still carry on the ranching legacy started by John J. Vanier.
