Chapter 7: The War--The Invasion

 

 

During territorial period, the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association gained substantial power.  In fact, the territorial legislative sessions were dominated by the Union Pacific Railroad on the one hand and the Stockgrowers Association on the other.  When it came to matters involving livestock, the legislature essentially handed over all responsibility and power to the association. For instance, the first legislature established the Board of Live Stock Commissioners with members appointed by the governor. The commissioners were to organize official roundups, hire brand inspectors, give inspectors lists of “rustler brands,” and oversee livestock sales throughout the territory.

From the beginning, the commission was dominated by men who owned large open-range cattle operations. Eventually, the commission turned over some of its powers to the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association. For instance, the WSGA was allowed to decide which were “rustler brands.”  The effect was that small cattlemen were prevented from using regular markets and many felt pressed without legal recourse. Essentially, by giving the authority to the commission, the legislature was handing away power over all livestock issues to a private association, the WSGA. 

  The membership of the WSGA determined who could become members and if any member opposed a candidate, the individual could not gain membership. Rules for membership became more rigid during the 1880s and as the open ranges became more crowded, old members were reluctant to allow others into the lucrative opportunities offered to members-only.  Small ranchers and former cowboys were almost universally turned down for membership by the middle of the 1880s.

The association gained greater power in the 1880s when the territorial legislature passed the so-called “Maverick law” that gave the association power over disposal of unbranded cattle. Previously, whenever an unbranded calf was found without a logical “mother” nearby, the calf became the property of the finder. The new law gave the unbranded calf to the association and it could then auction the animal off at the end of the roundup. The WSGA rules, however, provided that only association members could bid on “mavericks.” This effectively limited non-association members from an important source of potential livestock—and the non-members could lose mavericks actually belonging to them through the process.

            The legislature also authorized the WSGA to operate “official roundups.” The association had the power to determine the dates of the roundup and power to decide who could participate in the roundup. Any earlier efforts to gather cattle on the open range, prior to the roundup date, could be construed as rustling and the individuals responsible could be charged with that offense.

The association “black-balled” certain cowboys from working on the roundups. A number of these men had once worked for association member ranches and had gone out on their own, homesteading land and raising small herds of cattle. Many depended on the cash earned from the twice-yearly roundups to augment their meager earnings and being black-balled caused substantial hardship for many of them.

The association also had substantial influence over livestock brands generally. If the association did not “recognize” a brand, it could decide that the animal, improperly branded, belonged to the association.  Abuses of such rules were particularly worrisome to small operators.

            The association hired its own stock “inspectors” with the authority to “apprehend” or otherwise curtail rustlers. Again, many non-members saw the possibilities for abuse.

Meanwhile, the cattle business in Wyoming—once a booming source of double-digit returns on investment—was suffering hard times. Following the drought of 1886, the decline in cattle prices, and the disastrous winter of 1886-87, many of the open-range cattle companies were bankrupt or very close. They were victims of what John Clay later called, “Ill luck, mismanagement, greed.”

After 1887, financially strapped by poor prices and bad weather, the big companies laid off full-time cowboys. But even though it was tough economic times, most companies had need for labor during round-ups. Twice yearly wages for only a few days was hardly sufficient for most yet many of the former cowboys-turned-homesteaders could count on a few dollars by working the two annual roundups during the year, often for their former employers. Those who found no work in the “cowboy trade” could either “ride the grub line” (pick up occasional daily jobs in exchange for food at various ranches or simply “show up” in time for dinner at such places) or go into ranching on their own. Many did turn to homesteading, often on the very land that had been open range over which they had once grazed former employers’ cattle.

The big ranch companies suspected many of their former cowboys of rustling in order to gain breeding stock for their new homestead ranches.  The association’s blacklist expanded barring former cowboys from all aspects of association-determined round-ups. No longer could the small operator depend on twice-yearly money in exchange for working the roundups.

As cattle prices dropped and range conditions worsened with more and more cattle grazing on diminishing grass, cattle theft gained greater attention. Many of the big operators, particularly those in the Powder River Basin, complained that rustling had increased over the years and, now, juries “won’t convict a rustler in Johnson County.”  Similar complaints came from big operators elsewhere in Wyoming.

In the late 1880s, near the Sweetwater River in present Natrona County, several “newcomers” started homesteads in the middle of what had been some of the best pastures on the open range. Albert Bothwell and several of his neighbors, all of them established owners of large ranches who had relied heavily on the open range, resented the homesteaders.

One of the homesteaders was a former soldier who had served at Fort Fred Steele near Rawlins. His name was James Averell and he spoke out against the tactics of big operators who tried to discourage the small homesteaders from staying. He wrote letters to the Casper newspapers that were highly critical of several ranchers, including Bothwell. Meanwhile, rumors continued to circulate about one of Averell’s neighbors, Ella Watson. The young woman, homesteading on her own, was rumored to be adding to her livestock by trading “favors”  with passing cowboys in exchange for rustled cattle..

In mid-July 1889, delegates were preparing to go to Cheyenne for the soon-to-be convened constitutional convention. Among them were three two stockmen, W. C. Irvine, and Hubert Teschemacher, and attorney Charles Burritt. All three were sympathetic to the big cattle interests in the territory. 

Back on the Sweetwater, rancher Bothwell and several friends paid a visit to Watson and Averell. They “invited” both onto a wagon, drove the vehicle to the banks of the Sweetwater River, and ordered the two out of the wagon. There, they tied the hands of the two and put nooses around their necks, tied the other ends to a scrub pine on the cliff bank and kicked them off the cliff.

            An eyewitness, Frank Buchanan, a local cowboy, witnessed the lynching from a distance. He rode to Casper to report to officers who had the ranchers arrested by sheriff’s officers from Rawlins.  

When the lynching was made public, Cheyenne newspapers were sympathetic to Bothwell and friends. One paper started referring to Watson as “Cattle Kate,” asserting that women of her loose morals essentially deserved her fate.  The ranchers responsible were indicted, but not one of them was convicted for what they had done. It was rumored that Buchanan had been “invited” to leave the territory so that he would not testify in the trial.

Small cattle operators throughout the state deeply resented the continued power in the hands of the owners of the large cattle ranches and the WSGA and complained bitterly about the miscarriages of justice that condoned vigilante acts against small ranchers.  Consequently, many tried to counter the association’s huge influence over their economic livelihoods.

A group of small ranchers organized in Johnson County. The association, the “Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Growers Association,” announced an independent roundup for May 1, 1891 - one month before the official WSGA state roundup. This was in clear defiance of the association’s power to set the date of the roundup. The association had declared that any earlier action was tantamount to “rustling.”

Nate Champion was a former foreman for a large open-range cattle company during the “boom years.” He was highly respected by many of the big operators—or, at least, WAS highly respected, until he helped organize the association of small ranchers in Johnson County. This group clearly intended to compete against the big operators.  Champion was not unlike other open-range cowboys in the 1880s. He had become a small rancher when he was laid off by the big company when the company’s economic fortunes took a turn downward. Soon after he left the employ of the big companies, Champion survived a brush with killers, apparently sent to shoot him.  Big operators started referring to Champion’s group in Johnson County as the “red sash gang,” implying that they were a gang of rustlers and not a legitimate association of small ranchers.

Owners of the big cattle operations and association members were unhappy about the new association forming in a county where many of their own members still maintained large open-range operations. They were outraged over the independent roundup, believing it was a direct challenge to their power. This is the event that triggered the invasion of Johnson County by representatives of the association and the big cattle companies in April 1892.

The WSGA held its 20th annual meeting in Cheyenne on April 4, 1892. The meeting had record-breaking attendance after many years of decline due to price drops in cattle and poor range conditions. During the business meetings, the association again passed a resolution commending the State Livestock Commissioners—in essence, a state front agency for the association itself—for withholding proceeds from the sale of “stolen cattle” until ownership of the cattle could be proven. This adversely affected small operators who were not association members and who had brands that the association refused to recognize. 

There is no record of the executive committee meeting.  What happened in that session was a closely-held secret. Apparently, there were discussions about invading Johnson County to counter what was perceived as direct threats to their power and a decision was made to take action immediately.  Of course, Wyoming had been a state for almost two years and in the state’s Constitution, adopted in November 1889, was a provision making it illegal to bring “private armies” into the state. Three association officers must have known about the provision, given they had been delegates to the constitutional convention who had drafted the document.

Prior to the 1892 meetings, the association had hired a number of stock detectives to enforce the regulations. (Records of pay statements for these detectives are held in the collections of the American Heritage Center).  One such employee was the former Johnson County sheriff Frank Canton. 

Canton likely was an escapee from a Texas prison prior to coming to Johnson County in the middle 1880s. A prisoner named “Joe Horner” escaped and no word was ever heard as to what had happened to him. At the same time, “Frank Canton,” a man who knew a good deal about law enforcement and who had been reared in Texas, appeared three weeks later in Johnson County. (There is no evidence that such a person named Frank Canton existed anywhere prior to that date). Given Canton’s understanding of law enforcement, he was a logical candidate for sheriff of Johnson County. He was elected and served two terms as sheriff.

Toward the end of his second term, Canton, who had made known his contempt for “rustlers” and small homesteaders generally, was hired by the WSGA as their chief of detectives. Soon, Canton went to work against people he believed were rustlers. He was suspected but not charged in the ambush deaths of John Tisdale and “Ranger” Jones, both small ranchers near Buffalo. While he avoided prosecution in both cases, Canton assured employers he was trying to “eliminate” the “rustler problem” in Johnson County. He provided few details, but in April 1892, he and an association member with military experience, “Major” Frank Walcott, were to lead the “invasion” force to Johnson County.

            Such an “invasion” was secretly planned during the fall and winter of 1891. During those months, 22 gunmen were hired to come to Wyoming—21 from the vicinity of Paris, Texas, and one from Idaho. All had been told they were to serve as “deputies” to clear up the rustler problem in Johnson County. They were to be paid $5 per day and a bonus of $50 for every rustler they would shoot.

The “invaders” intended to march to Johnson County, keeping county residents from knowing about their coming. They planned to shoot suspected rustlers and “arrest” officials sympathetic to them. Some writers believe the group prepared a “dead list” that included the names of from 17 to 70 Johnson County residents that they wished to eliminate.

Soon after the association’s meeting in April, 1892, a party of 52 met in Cheyenne who would be accompanying the “invasion force” north. They included 19 cattlemen, 22 hired gunmen (all but one from Texas), five stock detectives, including Frank Canton, and six “non-combatants,” including Sam Clover, a news reporter from Chicago; Ed Toews, a reporter from Cheyenne; and medical doctor Charles Penrose.

            The planners tried to keep the entire expedition secret. They quietly loaded railway cars with supplies and horses while trying to keep word of the secret army from reaching Buffalo/Johnson County residents. An employee of Sen. Joseph M. Carey’s cattle company cut telegraph and telephone lines to Buffalo so that residents there would have no idea of the forthcoming invasion. The train departed Cheyenne on Colorado & Southern tracks bound for Casper where the invasion force unloaded the freight cars and quietly moved toward Johnson County with horses and wagons.