November 19

Today is recognized as World Men's Day in many nations.

1868  The Bear River City Riot occurred in which  parties supporting a lynched murder suspect and those supporting the lynching rioted.  The town Marshall bravely stood his ground against both sides, but there was serious destruction in the town and sixteen people died. Cavalry was dispatched from Ft. Bridger to restore order.

1909  George Sabin sentenced for Second Degree Murder for his part in the Spring Creek Raid.  He escaped on December 25,1913, while on a work gang in  Basin, and was never recaptured.

The sentencing is remarkable and significance as it effectively meant an end to private warfare over sheep in Wyoming, and it also meant that conventional justice had come to the Big Horn Basin, where previously juries would not convict in these circumstances.  This reflected in part the horror of the  Spring Creek assault, but also the fact that the Basin was now closer to the rest of the state, having been connected some time prior by rail.

1917   The Laramie Boomerang, November 19, 1917. Manufacture of Pleasure Cars To Be Stopped
 

Oh oh, resource demands were cutting into automobile production. Better get down to the car lot now!
The Spiker (soldier newspaper). November 19, 1917.

 

1918  November 19, 1918. The President's Proclamation on Thanksgiving, Wilson to go to Europe, Bolsheviks and Peace

1919  November 19, 1919. Robbing No. 19 and Rejecting the Versailles Treaty

Robbing a train as soon as you escape the pen for robbing trains does seem like a pretty bad idea.  At least one paper wondered if it was actually him.

You have to wonder what Carlisle was thinking.  How did he plan on getting away with this?

By this time, it was also clear that the proposed Versailles Peace Treaty was in real trouble in the U.S. Senate.

Indeed, it was in so much trouble that on this day in 1919, the Senate voted to reject the Treaty, with Republican opposition to the League of Nations being a major cause of that vote.

There would be a couple of more attempts, but the United States never did ratify the treaty, passing instead a peace treaty with Germany later that adopted much of it, but not all of it. The US would not join the League of Nations.

1980  Heaven's Gate, a widely panned at the time, highly expensive, cinematic interpretation of the Johnson  County War premiered.  The film has since gained some respect (I've never seen it) but it was not the success hoped for by its makers.

 Almost every popular work based upon the Johnson County War is a serious failure in some regards, with almost all of them being simplistic in some fashion and failing nearly completely to understand the complexities of what they try to depict.  While I have not seen this film, and have no real interest in doing so, I would be very surprised if it was much different.

1986  Zane Dean Beadles of the Denver Broncos born in Casper.
 
2009   The Coe East wing at Wyoming University was officially dedicated.

October 26

1865  Companies A, C, F, and G of the 6th West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry arrived at Platte Bridge Station, Wyoming.  They were certainly very far from home.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1880  The Cheyenne Club incorporated.

The Cheyenne Club was a legendary early Cheyenne institution, with many significant Wyoming figures visiting the club, depicted here in as the second building from the right in the row of significant Cheyenne buildings.  It was ornately furnished and courtly conduct was expected within it.  By some accounts, plans for the Johnson County War were developed there, although that is not necessarily undisputed.

1889  Governor F. E. Warren addressed citizens in Lander on the topics of the constitution and citizenship.   Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1942  The Torrington Post Office robbed. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1956  USS Crook County decommissioned.

1976   Yellowstone National Park was designated an International Biosphere Reserve.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1909  Frederic Remington died in Connecticut at age 48.

2010  It was reported that Wyoming mystery writer C. J. Box donated his papers to the University of Wyoming.

Charles James Box is fairly unusual for a widely popular "Wyoming" writer, in that he is actually from Wyoming, which most nationally read "Wyoming" authors have not been in recent years.  Box was born in 1967 and lives outside of Cheyenne.  He's the author over a dozen novels, most of which are in a series featuring a fictional Wyoming Game Warden, Joe Pickett, as the protagonist.  While I haven't read any of the novels, the choice of a Game Warden as the protagonist is an insight that would perhaps be unique to a Wyoming author.  Box worked a variety of jobs, including that of cowboy, correspondent, and columnist, before his novels allowed him to be a full time writer.

In contrast, the very widely popular "Wyoming" author Craig Johnson, who is also typically mentioned in that fashion, "Wyoming author", was actually born in Huntington, West Virginia and lived in a wide variety of places.  He's lived, however, in Ucross for the past 25 years, so he's been located in Wyoming for at least half of his life, however, and worked some iconic Western jobs in his youth, I believe.  Ironically, Johnson's series of novels based on the experiences of a fictional sheriff in a county loosely based on Johnson and Sheridan Counties, are more widely popular than Box's novels, which are written by an actual native Wyomingite.  Johnson's novels have recently been made into a television series which is popular with Wyomingites and one can even now observe election bumper stickers for the fictional sheriff of the fictional town.  According to some who have read them (which I have not) at least a few place names in the books are real.  One such place is the Busy  Bee cafe in Buffalo.

For a period of time Annie Proulx was cited as being a "Wyoming author", which is far from correct for the Norwich Connecticut born author of "The Shipping News", amongst other novels.  She has had a residence in Wyoming since 1994, however.  At one time she was indicating that she was going to relocate to New Mexico, although I do not know if she did, and she lives part of the year in Newfoundland.  Proulx made some comments noting that residents of Wyoming near her residence in Wyoming lacked in some degree of friendliness, and her novel "Brokeback Mountain" was not well received in Wyoming.  Proulx is perhaps unique in that early in her career she was frequently cited as being a "New England author" and then later as a "Wyoming author".

Another "Wyoming author", Alexandra Fuller, is actually a Zimbabwean ex-patriot, which her most significant work, "Don't Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight", would make plain, if her thick English like accent did not.  Fuller is the author of a book attempting to reflect the true story of a young man who died in the oilfield due to a tragic accident, but at least in my view, interviews of her tend to very much reflect an outisders view of her adopted state.  Fuller doesn't claim to be a Wyoming native by any means, but at least in the one book attempts to present insights on her adopted state. Here too, I haven't read the book.

Independent writer and author of a book generally critical of Wyoming's politics and economy ("Pushed Off The Mountain, Sold Down The River), Sam Western, likewise lives in Wyoming, but is not, I believe, from here.  Western is frequently quoted within Wyoming, but the author built his career as a magazine writer for a variety of magazines, including Sports Illustrated and The London Economist.  His book on Wyoming's economy brought him to the attention of Wyomingites, where he's remained, and is still frequently debated.  At least one insightful criticism of the book noted that the main point of the book seemed to be that Wyoming wasn't like every other US state in terms of its economy, which would be true, but which would raise more questions than it would answer.  I also haven't read this book.

This even extends to newspaper columnists, to a degree, although its easier to find Wyoming authors in the newspapers.  An example of the ex-patriot columnist, however, would be provided by the Casper Star Tribune's Mary Billiter, who is a relocated Californian.  Her columns (which I find to be repetitious and maudlin) have brought her enough attention that she was put on a board of some type by Governor Mead recently, although I don't recall the details.  She is also the author of a novel, although I know none of the details about it.  In spite of my criticism of her I'd note that she does not claim to be a Wyoming author.

Coming closer to home, author Linda Hasselstrom is sometimes noted as being a resident of the state, which she is, but she doesn't claim to be a Wyoming author. She's a South Dakotan who writes on ranch topics from a woman's prospective, which reflects her background.  I probably ought not to note her in this list, but her status is kind of interesting in that her youth and early adult years associated with ranching would be quite familiar to Wyomingites, and she has had long residence here, but she's mostly noted as being in another genre, which is "women ranching authors".

Even such legendary (at least at one time) figures such as Peggy Simpson Curry, who occupied the position of Wyoming's Poet Laureate, are not actually Wyomingites by birth.   Curry was born in Scotland, but she grew up in North Park Colorado, where her father worked for a ranch.  She did live, however, in Casper for many years, and on Casper Mountain as well.  As a slight aside, I recall Curry reciting poetry at Garfield Elementary School in Casper when I was a child, where she was introduced as the state Poet Laureate. She scared me to death, as she had a sort of odd high pitched matronly voice and recited her poetry very loudly.  From a child's prospective, that didn't work well.  Curry was also celebrated in Walden Colorado, where she grew up, and is noted as a Western author, which reflects her overall life.

A more recent Poet Laureate, Charles Levendosky was born in the Bronx and moved to the state to work for the Casper Star Tribune when he was in his 30s.  Governor Sullivan, also from Casper, made the appointment and Levendosky was well known in Wyoming academic circles at the time.  He was a pretty powerful columnist for the Star Tribune at a time in which they had some very respected columnists, a status which, in my view, they no longer occupy as strongly.  In the same era the Tribune had a well respected local physician, Dr. Joseph Murphy, who doubled as a columnist. Dr. Murphy was indeed not only from Wyoming, but from Casper.

The point of all of this, if there is one, is not to suggest that only Wyomingites can write about Wyoming.  But, rather, to point out an odd phenomenon regarding written works and the American West in general, and more particularly Wyoming.  It's been long the case that many widely read authors on Western topics are either arrivals to the region, or emigrants from it who no longer reside there.  Mari Sandoz, for example, was a Nebraska native, but left the state and then wrote about it.  Wila Cather is likewise associated with Nebraska, but spent her adult years outside of the state.   Aldo Leopold grew famous with "A Sand Country Almanac", which remains a classic, but Leopold was from the Midwest, not New Mexico. Wyoming has produced one notable fiction writer in recent years, C. J. Box, but oddly he's the least widely read of authors sometimes cites as being "Wyoming authors", with most of the other individuals who are referred to in that fashion having ties to other regions.

What does this mean, if anything?  Well, it might not mean anything at all.  American society is highly mobile, far higher than most others.  We'd expect a German author, for example, to have been born and raised in Germany, or an Irish author to have been born and raised in Ireland.  But Americans are nomadic.  For that reason, perhaps, we shouldn't really be surprised by this phenomenon.  

It might also mean something a bit deeper.  Perhaps those who come from the outside are particularly attuned to the nuances of anyone culture.  That is, perhaps, things that are really unique to many people are not to people living an experience.  It's often been noted, for example, that one of the best (supposedly) anti-war books is The Red Badge of Courage, even though the author had not experienced war at the time he wrote.  Maybe a really experienced person can no longer note what's unique about his experience, although plenty of books in that same arena, such as Leckie's "A Helmet For My Pillow" or even Maldin's "Up Front" would suggest otherwise.  Having said that, I think I've come to that conclusion with historical novels, one of which I've been trying to write.  After really studying it, I'm fairly certain that many of the routine things a person would experience in any one era of history are novel to people in later eras.  It's hard for the writers to note those, however, because unless they've experienced them in a non routine fashion, they won't even know about them.  That's what caused me to create my Lex Anteinternet blog, in an effort to learn and explore those details.

However, if there's an element of truth in that, it certainly isn't universal.  Texas has produced a large number of writers over the decades that had a deep understanding of that state, or the West in general.  J. Frank Dobie, for example, was a Texan and his work "The Voice of the Coyote" remains an absolute classic.  Larry McMurtry, perhaps best known for his novel "Lonseome Dove", wrote what may bet he most insightful and accurate novel of modern ranch life ever written, "Horseman, Pass By" (the basis for the movie "Hud").  University of Nebraska professor and Nebraskan author Roger Welsch has written a series of brillian entertaining books on Nebraska themes.  So clearly a local observant writer can indeed write insightful works of great merit.

I guess, in the end, that's the point of this long entry.  Not to criticize outside authors, resident or note, who have written on the state, but rather to point out there are not doubt some great authors from here, many probably slaving away, who, hopefully, will have their works see the light of day, or at least the black of print.

Sidebar: The British in Wyoming

Some time ago I did an entry here on the Irish in Wyoming, which has turned out to be one of the most popular threads on the blog.  People must research the topic and hit it.  Shortly thereafter I did one on Hispanics in Wyoming.  I've been meaning to follow up with a couple of other ethnicity based threads, but haven't had a chance.

Now, however, everyone in the United States is being bombarded 24 hours around the clock by the news of England's Prince William and Princess Kate having a baby. Why this deserves this level of attention, I have not a clue, but none the less, it's a Big Deal, at least to the press, and apparently some Americans. Given that, perhaps this is a good time to examine the topic of the British in Wyoming.

 Abbotsbury England, ca 1905.

When I used the term "British" here, I use it advisedly. That is, I'm not using the word British as Americans sometimes do to mean English.  I mean, rather, people from Great Britain, but not Ireland, which has already been addressed.  This may be, quite frankly, somewhat unfair, but I don't think it is entirely, and this topic has to be handled this way for reasons I'll detail immediately below.  In order to get to that, however, I have to run very briefly through a very partial and incomplete synopsis of the history of the British, in an extremely brief and unfair fashion, as that story ultimately impacts the history of Wyoming. For those who have an interest of the history of the British themselves, I'd recommend the still good, but dated history by Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples or, for those who read blogs (and of course you are) or why enjoy podcasts, there's Jamie Jeffers entertaining, monumental and ongoing effort The British History Podcast which has its own blog and forum.

 Portland England.

The fact that I have to start which such a disclaimer, let alone address part of the history of the United Kingdom, probably demonstrates that this story is a bit more difficult to address, and subtle, than the story of the Irish in Wyoming (who were, at one time, one of the peoples of the United Kingdom). That is, it's obviously a different story, as I've had to start off with the disclaimer that I'm not dealing with a single culture, like the Irish, but more than one and that I have to cover their history a bit to get there. That's because the influence of the British in general and the English in particular has been overarching in American history; indeed to such an extent that it's difficult to overstate it, even if we don't commonly even notice it all that much.

 Aberystwith, Wales.

It may be best to just start off noting the obvious that the United States had its origin as thirteen states that had been thirteen English colonies.  But that might just be too simplistic. Those thirteen English colonies came about in as part of a colonization policy that was one of the successful examples of three European efforts, the other two being the French effort and the Spanish effort.  Each left their own marks in their own regions.  But even that would be a bit too simplistic, as the efforts sponsored by the English Crown and the British industry resulted in early colonization by two peoples, the English and the Scots, and that itself is part of the story.

The United Kingdom, which colonized the Atlantic seaboard, was the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Wales at that time.  That was the union of that brought about a single British political entity on a formal basis with presumed finality..  The Act of Union in 1707 ratified what had been the actual fact for some time, which was that England and Scotland were really subject to a singular authority, and in fact their monarchies had been united since 1603.  Union with Ireland didn't come about, as a formal matter (as opposed to the reality of it) until 1801, after the United States had come into being.

 Loch Goil, Scotland/

The peoples subject to that union, while they may have had one singular monarch, were not, and are not, one singular people, which is important to our story here.  The Welsh, Scottish and the English are separate peoples, in terms of their ancient history and culture. The Welsh, it seems well established, were and are descendants of the original British inhabitants of Britain. The Scots, on the other hand, at least partially descend from the Irish, who started to colonize northern Great Britain in their pre Christian era.  The English no doubt descend from the Celts who first inhabited the land, but culturally and at least partially genetically they also descend from the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, Germanic peoples who started immigrating and invading the island in the 5th Century.  And we have some Viking ancestry mixed in, particularly in England, as well, as the Norwegians and Danes in particular were aggressive colonizers themselves in their own era, which was put to an end in 1066 when the descendants of other Scandinavian invaders crossed the English Channel and established themselves as the Norman rulers of England

The English, it seems, have always been the dominant force on Great Britain, since they've been there, and we need not explore how that came to be for our story here. Suffice it to say, the English outnumbered the Scots and the Welsh, and dominated the politics of the island, and even the neighboring island of Ireland, for centuries.   And such was also the case for the culture and ethnicity of the early United States.

The early US, ethnically and culturally, was British.  It wasn't uniformly English, although it certainly was in certain areas, but it was British.  In many regions English immigrants or the descendants of English residents were by far the most numerous colonial inhabitants.  In others, Scots or "Scots-Irish", the descendants of Scottish emigrants settled by the United Kingdom in Ulster between the English and the native Irish, were the majority, as in the Appalachians.  Anyway you look at it, however, in most locations the American populations, save for the native population, was overwhelmingly British.  This meant that, culturally, they looked back to a collective custom of English law and culture and they were overwhelmingly Protestant; being either members of the Episcopal Church or Protestant dissenters from the Church of England in the case of the English, or Calvinist in the case of the Scots or Scots-Irish.

This remained the case well into the early 19th Century and it reflects the makeup of the country at the time the US acquired most of what became Wyoming with the Louisiana Purchase.  It reflected the makeup of the Corps of Discovery, but it also reflected part of the purpose of the Corps of Discovery, as the United States was not only seeking to discover what laid within the new land, but to make a claim to it in an area where the British were already known to be.

In conventional wisdom, the Corps of Discovery was the first time "white", meaning European Americans, stepped foot in the region that would become Wyoming. This, however, was simply not true.  The British had already seen a British explorer cross British North America to the Pacific, and it was feared that British interests were making entries into what had been an unexplored French and Spanish land claim, thereby making it note much of a claim. And the fear was well placed.  The Hudson's Bay Company was already everywhere.

The Hudson's Bay Company was founded on May 2, 1670 and can make a legitimate claim to being the oldest corporation in the world.  Formed as a means of exploiting a vast land grant in British North America, the company's prime interest was in dealing with furs, which it acquired through the use of of French Canadian trappers and Indians who traded with the company.  Occupying an enormous tract of land, in which it built numerous trading posts and forts, it did not content itself with remaining within it, but sent explorers out into neigbhoring lands.  Its exploration efforts took its agents as far south as Texas, and its trappers almost certainly routinely entered Wyoming.

 

Hudson's Bay Company trading post.

Those trappers were French Canadians, where they were not Indians or later Metis, but they were part of a vast English industry which had shareholders extending up to the British monarchy.  It can be legitimately said, therefore, that the first example of British influence in Wyoming came through the Hudson's Bay Company, which sent its trappers into the state.

When the Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific Ocean, it found that a Hudson's Bay Company post was located where its intended camping spot for that winter was, and it had to locate itself in a new location.  But the Hudson's Bay Company's days on American territory were numbered with the arrival of the U.S. Army in the form of Lewis and Clark's expedition.  The first, but not insignificant, era of British presence, in the form of economic interests, was over, but in some ways it would set the pattern, in terms of economics.

Fur trapping remained the primary European American enterprise in Wyoming up until Western migration really commenced in the 1840s.  By that time, the United States itself had begun to change.  The result of the War of 1812 had been that the US was not to be a solely maritime Atlantic seaboard nation, which was confirmed by the great leap westward caused by the Louisiana Purchase.   The great Irish famine and the European revolutions of the 1840s started a process of German and Irish immigration that would forever change the makeup of the nation, and which was already causing significant domestic turmoil in the nation.  Much of that would come to a head, but not be worked out, during the Mexican War and Civil War.  By the time the Union Pacific came into the state in the 1860s, the United States was a much different nation than it had been sixty years prior.  By that time, the country itself was much less English, although the distinctions between various European cultures was much more significant than it is today.

The next major example of British influence in Wyoming came with the European ranching boom in the 1870s.  And a major influence, with permanent impact, it was.  

Ranching got its start in Wyoming partially due to the efforts of pioneers to provide beef to the Union Pacific and U.S. Army.  But the real expansion of ranching, and ranching as we know it, came with the introduction of Texas herds in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Almost coincident with this, however, British owned companies began to invest in Wyoming ranches, and create Wyoming ranches, creating very British ranching companies on the range.  One of the earliest of this was the Frewan ranch which was one of the very first to enter the Big Horn Basin, entering that area in 1876 and claiming the brand "76" as a result.  Others soon followed.

The first waive of British ranches suffered terribly in the killer winter of 1886-1887.  That winter wiped out many of the early big ranches of all types.  But as severe as that experience was, it did not keep British companies from investing in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota ranches.  Fueled by investors in Great Britain, these ranches could become major ranching operations, such as the VR (Victoria Regina) in central Wyoming.  In northern Wyoming and southern Montana English and Scottish concerns also became significant in horse raising, with one such ranch even today being known as the Polo Ranch, both for the raising of horses and for the fact that it was associated with the game of polo.

At least one British owned operation was associated with the "big cattleman" side of the Johnson County War, but its association with that side of the conflict did not seem to hurt it in its overall operations.  By the early 20th Century many of these operations were well established, and certain communities in Wyoming and Montana had significant English and Scottish ranching populations.  Sheridan County Wyoming was notable in these regards, being a center of horse raising in Wyoming and, not coincidentally, the location of an Army Remount station as late as World War Two.  The British influence lives on today in the form of the still existing Polo Ranch and the Big Horn Polo Club, as well as in the architecture of the very English looking Episcopal Church in that town.  It can't helped be noted that, ironically, Sheridan and Sheridan County are named after the Phillip Sheridan, whose parents were Irish.

St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Sheridan.

Southern Wyoming saw its own share of British influence, of a similar if less pronounced nature, at the same time. Albany County saw the Ivinsons come in, which left the town being the seat, at that time, of the Episcopal Church in Wyoming. 

St. Matthews Episcopal Cathedral in Laramie.

Cheyenne, likewise, saw some similar English and British influence, leaving the town with impressive Episcopal and Presbyterian churches.

 

 Cheyenne's St. Mark's Episcopal Church, from 1888.

The Wind River Reservation was the cite of a significant missionary endeavor, sharing that distinction with the Catholic Church.  The Reverend John Roberts is well remembered for his service in that capacity in Fremont County.

Not all of the British influence of this period came from well funded British corporations.  Some came directly from much less well to do British immigrants as well. Scottish immigrants were present, perhaps not unsurprisingly, in the sheep industry but also in the cattle industry..  Casper apparently had a significant enough Scottish population in the early 20th Century that a Presbyterian minister who had hoped to form a church in Douglas Wyoming was sent, by another Protestant clergyman, to Casper on the basis that Casper was a "Scottish town."   Rock Springs Wyoming, which had an economy based on mining at the time, saw a significant immigration by Welsh and English coal miners, although not in the same numbers as Slavic immigrants to the same area. 

Ties with the United Kingdom were still so strong in some quarters that one ranching family that remained operating in Wyoming in the 1970s sent a member to fight with the Royal Flying Corps in World War One. That young pilot, who had been schooled in Canada, and whose family also gave its name it Irvine California, did not make it back.

 

World War One would be the end notable British enterprises in Wyoming.  The war brought about a boom in horse production, but the end of the war resulted in a crash.  The close ties to the UK seemingly went away, where they had existed.

Even if the influence in the ranching industry and through English immigrants largely ceased following 1918, the impacts have not totally gone away and linger here and there in the form of architecture and individual families.  It also exists, of course, as in every US state save for one in the form of the law.  Indeed, Wyoming formally adopted English Common Law early in its history, where it provided:

8-1-101. Adoption of common law.

The common law of England as modified by judicial decisions, so far as the same is of a general nature and not inapplicable, and all declaratory or remedial acts or statutes made in aid of, or to supply the defects of the common law prior to the fourth year of James the First (excepting the second section of the sixth chapter of forty-third Elizabeth, the eighth chapter of thirteenth Elizabeth and ninth chapter of thirty-seventh Henry Eighth) and which are of a general nature and not local to England, are the rule of decision in this state when not inconsistent with the laws thereof, and are considered as of full force until repealed by legislative authority.

July 20

1862  Ft. Halleck, near Elk Mountain, established.   It patrolled a section of the overland trails.  Attribution  On This Day.

1866  A wagon train was attacked on Crazy Woman Creek by the Sioux and Cheyenne..  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1881 Sitting Bull surrendered at Ft. Buford, North Dakota.

1885 Trial of Louis Riel for treason begins at Regina, the capital of the North-West Territories; Riel wishes to plead not guilty, but his lawyers enter an insanity plea over his objections.

1886  Lusk town lots went on sale.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1889 Ellen Watson and Jim Averell hung by area ranchers in the region of the Sweetwater River.  This event has been one of the most enduring controversial in Wyoming's history, with many different variants of it having been written.  There are now so many variants, that sorting out the true reasons that Ellen "Cattle Kate" Watson and Jim Averell is now nearly impossible.  It can't even be fully determined if Watson and Averell were married, which they might have been (they did take out a marriage license) or if Watson was a prostitute who took payment in cattle, which she might have been.

The murder is often placed in the context of the Johnson County War, where it doesn't properly belong.

It should be noted that this event is probably subject to more interpretation, evolution, and revision than any other single event in  Wyoming's history, much of it quite recent.  For much of the 20th Century Ellen Watson and Jim Averell were regarded as victims of an unwarranted extrajudicial lynching, but not as totally innocent characters.  The generally accepted view, for many decades (and I believe the one that is recounted in the the excellent "War On Powder River", is that Watson was a prostitute (which does not preclude her being married to Averell) and that she took payment in cattle, if no other currency was available.  This got her into trouble with area ranchers, this thesis maintains, as the cattle were often stolen by the cowhands who paid for her services. Averell, according to this view, lost his life essentially for living with her and benefiting from her activities.

More recently, however, there have been serious, and not always entirely grounded, efforts to revive her reputation and there have even been those who have viewed her as an early feminist businesswoman, with a wholly legitimate business activity, who was murdered simply for being a self assertive woman.  Frankly, that doesn't wash, and independent Frontier women were not really novel.  A more serious revisionist view holds that Averell and Watson were small time homesteaders who were trespassing on the lands that were controlled by rancher Albert Bothwell.  It may be that there is some truth to this view, which might also explain why the marriage, or lack thereof, of Averell was either not completed (a serious crime at that time) or kept secret, as it would have allowed both Averll and Watson to file separate homesteads.

Of course, it may be that both the earlier accepted version of events or the standard revisionist views are correct.  Watson and Averell were homestead entrants and that may have seriously irritated Bothwell and his companions, and Watson might also have been a prostitute.  The vast expanse of time that has gone by since this 1889 event effectively means that the truth will never be really known now.  What is undoubted is that Watson was the only woman ever lynched in Wyoming, and none of the perpetrators of the act made any effort to keep the deed secret.  One even rode into Casper shortly after the news broke on the story, admitted his role, and was basically left alone.

Ellen Watson.

1903  The Ford Motor Company shipped its first car.

1917 The U.S. World War I draft lottery began.

As can be seen, the papers published the name of the men selected right on the front page.

In some counties, however, the draft proved unnecessary as the counties had already filled their quotas, which were apparently on a county by county basis, through volunteers.

1948 President Harry S. Truman institutes a military draft with a proclamation calling for nearly 10 million men to register for military service within the next two months. My father is one of those to register under the 1948 law.

1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.

July 14

1860  Owen Wister, the author of The Virginian born in Philadelphia.  It is sometimes claimed that The Virginian was the first Western novel, which it is not, but it was probably the first serious one.Wister's novel is completely set in Wyoming and is loosely based on the events that gave rise to The Johnson County War, although it takes the large cattleman's side, which most works of fiction have not. The novel itself has been used as the inspiration for numerous other works, including quite a few movies, but usually works based on it also reverse the protagonists. Wister's novel followed a visit to Wyoming, and the locations mentioned on it describe places he'd actually visited.

Wister would become a lawyer by education, but his practice period was brief as he had no real affinity for the occupation.  He is principally remembered today for his novel, but he wrote on other topics as well, including on philosophy and politics.  A close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, he can be identified politically with the Progressive movement.

1920  A horse and rider were struck and killed near Powder River.

June 29

1804  Privates John Collins and Hugh Hall of the Corps of Discovery found guilty by court-martial for getting drunk on duty. Pvt. Collins received 100 lashes on his back.  Pvt Hall received 50.  They were less than one month out on their journey across the western portion of the continent at the time.

1857  Nate Champion, a central figure in the Johnson County War, and one of the first victims of the invasion, was born in Texas.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1916   The threat of war recedes. June 29, 1916
 

By June 29, the imminent threat of war was passing.

Note the action by an Austrian submarine. We don't often think of Austria in this context during the Great War.

The easing of the crisis hadn't caught up with the Douglas Budget yet, but it did note that Theodore Roosevelt had declared his political career over, and in sort of a sad way.

I have to say that I find A. R. Merrit's advertisements creepy.  Today, you'll note that they were also inaccurate.  We hadn't declared war on Mexico.  Merritt was jumping the gun.

1919  Sunday, June 29, 1919. Reminding the readers that the war had ended. . . and alcohol was about to exit. Going to the movies, and the Tour de France.

Folks stopping in here yesterday saw, of course, that the banner headlines on the Germans signing the Versailles Treaty and the Great War ending.  As one of the papers below notes, it would actually require the ratification by the various signing countries to do that, but for most it would come fairly soon.  The U.S. never did ratify it, but instead ratified a treaty that picked out the clauses the Administration of the time liked, that coming after President Wilson had left office.

The US version omitted, famously, the League of Nations.

Anyhow, the big news remained on the front pages of the few newspapers in Wyoming that had Sunday editions.  Most did not.

Both local and national prohibition were also in the news.  The national news was that President Wilson had decided he had no authority to lift wartime prohibition and therefore wasn't going to, for the time being.  It was big, if odd, news in that general Federal prohibition was inevitable at this point, given the recently passed Constitutional amendment.

Locally Monday June 30 was the upcoming last day for alcohol in Wyoming, which made such headlines doubly confusing, as while the national story mattered, it only mattered somewhat and it only mattered if you lived in a place where booze was going to remain legal until the Federal ban hit.  In Wyoming, as with Colorado, that day came earlier.

The Sheridan newspaper ran that as its cover, with an odd racist cartoon that depicted booze in a mistral show fashion.  Not only is it odd to see the topic of the legality of alcohol being discussed, and its disappearance frankly celebrated, but it's really odd to see the press lean on racist stereotypes.

On stereotypes, Sunday was a big day for movie releases and the there were a number of interesting options, including Girls.

The romantic comedy Girls was released on this day in 1919.  Like most silent films, the plot is somewhat complicated.  The interesting thing, perhaps, is that this pre production code film shares a title with the latter skanky trash released under the same name more recently by HBO.  While no more restricted by the law than the latter production, the earlier one didn't plumb the same icky depths.

If you preferred Westerns, The Outcasts of Poker Flat was released, which is a well known silent film.

And the dram Sahara was out as well.  Romantic depiction of the Middle East were a big deal with early movies for some reason.

The title Sahara has been used for movies at least five times, including fairly recently.

If you lived in France, where the relief of the end of the war was particularly felt, this Sunday saw the start of the 1919 Tour de France.  The Tour is of course one of the greatest annual sporting events.  This was the 13th time the race had been run, and the first race since 1914, given the interruption of the war.

1923 The Klu Klux Klan marched in Glenrock. This seems like an extremely surprising item today, but the early 1920s were the high water mark of the KKK, which had been revived following the success of D. W. Griffith's film, Birth of a Nation, which took a very Confederate view of the Civil War and reconstruction, and which would be regarded as racist today.  The KKK, and other racist and nativist organizations, were surprisingly present in some Western states at this time.  The KKK and similar groups were never strong in Wyoming.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1945  President Truman approves plans for the invasion of Japan.

1969 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience played their last concert on the last day of the Denver Pop Festival.  After this, Hendrix would play with The Band of Gypsies, whom he felt more kinship with, being composed of personal musical fellows with a similar blues background. Attribution:  On This Day.

2007  Apple Inc. releases their first phone, the iPhone.

June 6

1886  Douglas Budget founded.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1892  Information filed in State of Wyoming v. Alexander Adamson, et al. Murder in the First Degree, chargng Alexander Adamson, William E. Guthrie, William Armstrong and J. A. Garrett with the murder of Rueben "Nick" Ray during the Johnson County War.  This was a criminal charge filed in Johnson County, as opposed to Laramie County where the charges stemming from the Johnson County War.

1894  In the reverse of the usual story, Colorado's Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support tminers engaged in a strike at Cripple Creek.  Mine owners had already formed private army.

1908  A man from Cody Wyoming was the co-winner of the Evanston Wyoming to Denver horse race, one of the long distance horse races that were common in Wyoming at the time.

1912  President Taft signs the Homestead Act of 1912, which reduces the period to "prove up" from five years to three.  This was unknowingly on the eve of a major boom in homesteading, as World War One would create a huge demand for wheat for export, followed by the largest number of homestead filings in American history as would be wheat farmers attempted to gain land for the endeavor.  Attribution:  On This Day. 

Wheat farmer, Billings Montana.

1915  British commissioners began to purchase remounts in Wyoming.  The purchase of horses for British service in World War One created a boom in horse ranching which would continue, fueled both by British and American service purchases, throughout the war, but which would be followed by a horse ranching crash after the war.

 U.S. Army Remounts, Camp Kearney California, 1917.

1918  Sad news arrived in Sheridan County on this day, according to the Sheridan Media history column, when relatives of Roy H. Easton, 25, homesteader from Verona, received news that he had been killed in action in France.  He was the first Sheridan County resident to die in World War One.

1918  Getting the news of the American victory on the Marne and having a giant overreaction in Sheridan. June 6, 1918.

On June 6 the American victory at Château-Thierry was beginning to become a little more clear, although the newspapers anticipated more action.  That action was ongoing in the Belleau Wood, which was just next door and which really is part of the same battle.

In Sheridan the town in engaged in an absurd overreaction and the schools burned German books.  Learning German certainly didn't make a person some sort of German sympathizer and indeed, learning the language of your enemy is a good idea.

A Natrona County resident measuring 6'7", very tall for any age, enlisted in the Army.  I'm somewhat surprised that his height didn't disqualify him for service.  You can be too tall to join.

1944 Allied forces land in Normandy, in an event remembered as "D-Day", although that term actually refers to the day on which any major operation commences.  This is not, of course, a Wyoming event, but at least in my youth I knew more than one Wyoming native who had participated in it.  Later, I had a junior high teacher whose first husband had died in it.  A law school colleague of mine had a father who was a paratrooper in it.  And at least one well known Wyoming political figure, Teno Roncolio, participated in it.  From the prospective of the Western Allies, it might be the single most significant single day of the campaign in Europe.

All the photos above are courtesy of the United States Army.

1948  President  Truman delivered a speech from the Governor's Mansion's porch in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.  He stated:

Governor Hunt, and citizens of Wyoming:

It certainly is a very great privilege and a pleasure for me to be here today. I received an invitation from Governor Hunt to call on him this afternoon, and I was most happy to accept it. I have known him a long time, and I like him, and I think he is a good Governor.

I have always been very much interested in this great city. I was here while the war was going on in my official capacity as chairman of an investigating committee to look after some construction that was going on here. And I found nothing wrong.

I hope sometime I can come back and be able to discuss the issues before the country with you. I always make it a rule never to make speeches of any kind on Sunday. I don't think it's the proper day for speeches that are not of a religious character, and since I am not a Doctor of Divinity, I can't preach you a sermon.

But I do appreciate most highly the cordiality of your welcome. It is a pleasure for me to get to see you, and it is a privilege for me to stop in Cheyenne long enough to call on your Governor.

Again, I hope that when I come here I can talk to you straight from the shoulder on certain things that confront this country.

[At this point the President was presented with an invitation and a hat. He then resumed speaking.]

Thank you very much. The invitation says, "Mr. President, your many friends in Cheyenne, Wyoming, will be greatly honored if you can attend the Cheyenne Frontier Day, July 27-31st, 1948." I have always wanted to do that, and I hope some day I will be able to do it.

Now I am going to see just how this hat works. [Putting it on.] That's all right.

Text of Speech courtesy of Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office.

2017  Steven Biegler installed as the new Catholic Bishop of Cheyenne.

2018  For the second time in a single week, a tornado touched down in Wyoming.  In this case, the tornado touched down about eight miles north of town.

Laramie has some impressive summer weather.

May 25

1865  Indian raid on stage station on Green River drives off stock.

1872  Frank Wolcott, who would later be strongly associated with the Cattleman's invasion of Johnson County, appointed U.S. Marshall.

1898  President McKinley issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 more volunteers for the  Spanish American War.

1903  In a terrible accident, an animal keeper was crushed to death by an elephant in a freight car near Medicine Bow.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1909   The Reclamation Service sold lots in Powell, founding the town.

1911  BB-32 USS Wyoming launched.

1918   Mexico back in the headlines, May 25, 1918
 

Cuba and Mexico, it seems, were not getting along.

And former President Theodore Roosevelt wasn't getting along with the Postmaster General.

Poncho Villa was making the front page again.

And the nation might need old soldiers who hadn't faded away.

Costa Rica had entered the fray.

And snow was predicted.

May 25, 1918.

1971   Major Wiliam E. Adams, U. S. Army, performed the actions that resulted in his being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, but he lost his life in the process.  We was a member of the A/227th Assault Helicopter Company, 52d Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade. He entered the service from Kansas City, Missouri but had been born in Casper on16 June 1939.  Citation: Maj. Adams distinguished himself on 25 May 1971 while serving as a helicopter pilot in Kontum Province in the Republic of Vietnam. On that date, Maj. Adams volunteered to fly a lightly armed helicopter in an attempt to evacuate 3 seriously wounded soldiers from a small fire base which was under attack by a large enemy force. He made the decision with full knowledge that numerous antiaircraft weapons were positioned around the base and that the clear weather would afford the enemy gunners unobstructed view of all routes into the base. As he approached the base, the enemy gunners opened fire with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. Undaunted by the fusillade, he continued his approach determined to accomplish the mission. Displaying tremendous courage under fire, he calmly directed the attacks of supporting gunships while maintaining absolute control of the helicopter he was flying. He landed the aircraft at the fire base despite the ever-increasing enemy fire and calmly waited until the wounded soldiers were placed on board. As his aircraft departed from the fire base, it was struck and seriously damaged by enemy anti-aircraft fire and began descending. Flying with exceptional skill, he immediately regained control of the crippled aircraft and attempted a controlled landing. Despite his valiant efforts, the helicopter exploded, overturned, and plummeted to earth amid the hail of enemy fire. Maj. Adams' conspicuous gallantry, intrepidity, and humanitarian regard for his fellow man were in keeping with the most cherished traditions of the military service and reflected utmost credit on him and the U S. Army.

1975  Midwest incorporated.

May 19

1848   Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo acknowledging the acquisition of Texas and New Mexico by the United States, which included a small portion of Wyoming, via Texas.

1846  resident Polk approved an act that provided for a line of military posts along the Oregon Trail.  In some ways, this has to be regarded as a major development in the history of the United States and the U.S. Army, as the expansion of the Army on to the Western Frontier dominated much of its character for the next century, even continuing to have an influence into its nature well after the Frontier had closed.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1866  Colonel Carrington left Fort Kearny for Fort Laramie where he received instructions from General Pope to name two new outpost along Bozeman Road Fort Philip Kearny and Fort C.F. Smith.  The widely spaced forts were to form more northerly bastions to guard the Bozeman Trail, the southernmost post, Ft. Reno, having already been established during the Civil War by Patrick Connor.  Carrington was one of a group of officers who remained in the Army following the Civil War when Congress established the policy of making room for some wartime officers who had not come from pre war military service or West Point.  Alfred Terry was another, with both men having been lawyers prior to the Civil War.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1869  Territorial government was formally in effect.  Territorial Supreme Court took the oath of office.

1871  Robert H. Milroy takes office as U.S. Marshall.

1887  Sheridan Post established.

1902  The first Carnegie Library in the United States, the Laramie County Library, opened.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1915  Dr. Amos Barber, Wyoming's second governor after statehood, whose governorship was marred by the Johnson County War and his general ineffective reaction to it, died.  Barber had a successful career as an Army surgeon before entering private practice, and he followed up on that with service again during the Spanish American War, but his having participated through acts of omission in the large cattleman's invasion of central Wyoming is principally what he is remembered for.

1919  May 19, 1919. Laramie to get a refinery, Daniels comes home, Ataturk in Samsun

Big news in Wyoming, and most particularly in Laramie, was that the Midwest Oil Company, which was very active in Natrona County, had determined to build a refinery in Laramie.

People in Laramie today may be surprised to know that this was even considered, let alone that it was actually built, which it was later that year, although the remnants of the refinery remain there.  Indeed, oddly enough, discussion has been going on for several years on how to clean the remnants of the refinery up, a project that has been ongoing, and on May 5 of this present year a legal notice regarding the final work on it was published.

The refinery operated from 1919 to 1932, making it a plant that closed during the height of the Great Depression.  The same location was later operated for a few years as a Yttrium plant, although most of the refining equipment had been removed in the 1930s.  Clean up of the site is nearly complete.

1938  Niobrara County Wyoming becomes the first county in the United States to have all of its mail for a day delivered via airmail.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1941  Fire destroyed three Union Pacific shop buildings in Cheyenne.  Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1987  The U.S. Post Office in Basin Wyoming, the U.S. Post Office in Buffalo the U.S. Post Office in Evanston, the U.S. Post Office and Federal Courthouse in Lander, the U.S. Post Office in Yellowstone National Park, the U.S. Post Office in Newcastle, the U.S. Post Office in Kemmerer, the U.S. Post Office in Thermopolis, the U.S. Post Office in Torrington, added to the National Register of Historic Places.

1996  A  4.2 magnitude earthquake, which your correspondent experienced, occurred 22 miles from Casper.