Amid falling wool prices and a growing Kansas cattle industry, Fent sold all his sheep by 1904. By 1936 he still owned 80 acres including the land with the house and outbuildings, some pasture, and cropland south of the highway. When he died in 1937, his estate provided for his family. His wife, Jennie, and daughter, Hilda, continued to live on the ranch, while Elsie married and moved to Manhattan in eastern Kansas. Jennie died in 1959, Elsie in 1975, and Hilda in 1980.