Johnson County War
Encyclopedia
The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River, was a range war
which took place in April 1892 in Johnson County, Natrona County and Converse County in the U.S. state
of Wyoming
. It was a battle between small settling ranchers and larger established ranchers in the Powder River Country
that culminated in a lengthy shootout between local ranchers, a band of hired killers, and a sheriff's posse
, eventually requiring the intervention of the U.S. Cavalry on the orders of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison
.
The events have since become a highly mythologized and symbolic story of the Wild West, and over the years variations of the storyline have come to include some of the west's most famous historical figures and gunslingers. The storyline and its variations have served as the basis for numerous popular novels, films, and television shows.
Richard Maxwell Brown has called the "Western Civil War of Incorporation" and of which the Johnson County War was part.
In the early days in Wyoming
most of the land was in the public domain, open to stock raising as open range
and to homesteading
. Large numbers of cattle
were turned loose on the open range by large ranches.
Ranchers would hold a spring roundup where the cows and the calves belonging to each ranch were separated and the calves branded. Before the roundup, calves (especially orphan or stray calves) were sometimes surreptitiously branded. The large ranches defended against cattle rustling often by forbidding their employees from owning cattle and by lynching
(or threatening to lynch) suspected rustlers. Property and use rights were usually respected among big and small ranches based on who was first to settle the land (the doctrine is known as Prior Appropriation) and the size of the herd. Nonetheless large ranching outfits would sometimes band together and use their power to monopolize large swaths of range land, preventing newcomers from settling the area.
Many of the large ranching outfits in Wyoming were organized as the Wyoming Stock Growers Association
(the WSGA) and gathered socially as the Cheyenne Club in Cheyenne, Wyoming
. Comprising some of the state's wealthiest and most popular residents, the organization held a great deal of political sway in the state and region. The WSGA organized the cattle industry by scheduling roundups and cattle shipments. The WSGA also employed an agency of detectives to investigate cattle rustling against its members.
The often uneasy relationship between larger, wealthier ranches and smaller ranch settlers became steadily worse after the poor winter of 1886-1887
when a series of blizzards and temperatures of 40-50 degrees below 0 °F (-45 °C) had followed an extremely hot and dry summer. Thousands of cattle were lost and large companies began to appropriate land and control the flow and supply of water in the area. Some of the harsher tactics included forcing settlers off their land and setting fire to settler buildings as well as trying to exclude the smaller ranchers from participation in the annual roundup. They justified these excesses on what was public land by using the catch-all allegation of rustling.
Rustling in the local area was likely increasing due to the harsh grazing conditions and the illegal exploits of an organized group of regional rustling outfits was becoming well publicized in the late 1880s. Well armed bands of horse and cattle rustlers were said to roam across various portions of Wyoming and Montana
, with Montana cattle interests declaring "War on the Rustlers" in 1889 and Wyoming interests doing so a year later. In Johnson County, with emotions running high, agents of the larger ranches killed several alleged rustlers from smaller ranches. Many were killed on dubious evidence or were simply found dead while the killers remained anonymous. Frank M. Canton
, Sheriff of Johnson County in the early 1880s and better known as a detective for the WSGA, was rumored to be behind many of the deaths. The double lynching of Ella Watson
and storekeeper Jim Averell took place in 1889, an event that enraged local residents. A number of additional dubious lynching
s of alleged rustlers took place in 1891.
A group of smaller Johnson County ranchers led by a local settler named Nate Champion began to form the Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Growers' Association (NWFSGA) to compete with the WSGA. The WSGA "blacklisted" the NWFSGA and told them to stop all operations but the NWFSGA refused the WSGA's order to disband and instead made public their plans to hold their own roundup in the spring of 1892.
The WSGA, led by Frank Wolcott
(WSGA Member and large North Platte rancher), hired gunmen with the intention of eliminating alleged rustlers in Johnson County and break up the NWFSGA. Twenty-three gunmen from Paris, Texas
and four cattle detectives from the WSGA were hired with Idaho frontiersman George Dunning who later turned against the group. Some WSGA and Wyoming dignitaries also joined the expedition including State Senator Bob Tisdale, state water commissioner W.J. Clarke, W.C. Irvine and Hubert Teshemacher, both instrumental in organizing Wyoming's statehood four years earlier. They were accompanied by surgeon Dr. Charles Penrose as well as Ed Towse, a reporter for the Cheyenne Sun, and a newspaper
reporter for the Chicago Herald, Sam T. Clover, whose lurid first-hand accounts later appeared in eastern newspapers. A total expedition of 50 men was organized.
To lead the expedition the WSGA hired Canton, a former Johnson County Sheriff-turned-gunman and WSGA detective. Canton's gripsack was later found to contain a list of dozens of rustlers to be either shot or hanged and a contract to pay the Texans $5 a day plus a bonus of $50 for every rustler killed. The group became known as "The Invaders", or alternately, "Wolcott's Regulators".
John Clay, a prominent Wyoming businessman was suspected of playing a major role in planning the Johnson County invasion. Clay denied this, saying that in 1891 he advised Wolcott against the scheme and was out of the country when it was undertaken. He did help the “invaders” to avoid punishment after their surrender.
The group organized in Cheyenne and proceeded by a specially hired train to Casper, Wyoming
and then toward Johnson County on horseback, cutting the telegraph
lines north of Douglas, Wyoming
in order to prevent an alarm. While on horseback Canton and the gunmen traveled ahead while the party of WSGA officials led by Wolcott followed a safe distance behind.
at the KC Ranch (of which today's town of Kaycee
is a namesake), a small rancher who was active in the efforts of small ranchers to organize a competing roundup. The group traveled to the ranch late in the night of Friday April 8, 1892, quietly surrounded the buildings and waited for daybreak. Three men besides Champion were at the KC. Two men who were evidently spending the night on their way through were captured as they emerged from the cabin early that morning to collect water at the nearby Powder River, while the third Nick Ray, was shot while standing inside the doorway of the cabin and died a few hours later. Champion was besieged inside the log cabin.
During the siege, Champion kept a poignant journal which contained a number of notes he wrote to friends while taking cover inside the cabin. "Boys, I feel pretty lonesome just now. I wish there was someone here with me so we could watch all sides at once." The last journal entry read: "Well, they have just got through shelling the house like hail. I heard them splitting wood. I guess they are going to fire the house tonight. I think I will make a break when night comes, if alive. Shooting again. It's not night yet. The house is all fired. Goodbye, boys, if I never see you again."
With the house on fire, Nate Champion signed his journal entry and put it in his pocket before running from the back door with a six shooter in one hand and a knife in the other. As he emerged he was shot by four men and the invaders later pinned a note on Champion's bullet-riddled chest that read "Cattle Thieves Beware".
Two passers-by noticed the ruckus that Saturday afternoon and local rancher Jack Flagg rode to Buffalo
(the county seat
of Johnson County) where the sheriff
raised a posse
of 200 men over the next 24 hours and the party set out for the KC on Sunday night, April 10.
The WSGA group then headed north on Sunday toward Buffalo to continue its show of force. The posse led by the sheriff caught up with the WSGA "Invaders" by early Monday morning of the 11th and besieged them at the TA Ranch
on Crazy Woman Creek
. The gunmen took refuge inside a log barn on the ranch. Ten of the gunmen then tried to escape the barn behind a fusillade but the posse beat them back and killed three. One of the WSGA group escaped and was able to contact the acting Governor of Wyoming
the next day. Frantic efforts to save the WSGA group ensued and two days into the siege Governor Barber was able to telegraph President
Benjamin Harrison
a plea for help late on the night of April 12, 1892.
The telegram read:
Harrison immediately ordered the United States Secretary of War
Stephen B. Elkins to address the situation under Article IV
, Section 4, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which allows for the use of U.S. forces under the President's orders for "protection from invasion and domestic violence". The Sixth Cavalry from Fort McKinney near Buffalo was ordered to proceed to the TA ranch at once and take custody of the WSGA expedition. The 6th Cavalry left Fort McKinney a few hours later at 2 am on April 13 and reached the TA ranch at 6:45 am. The expedition surrendered to the Sixth soon after and was saved just as the posse had finished building a series of breastwork
s to shoot gunpowder on the invader's log barn shelter so that it could be set on fire from a distance. The Sixth Cavalry took possession of Wolcott and 45 other men with 45 rifles, 41 revolvers and some 5,000 rounds of ammunition.
The text of Barber's telegram to the President was printed on the front page of The New York Times
on April 14, and a first-hand account of the siege at the T.A. appeared in The Times and the Chicago Heraldand other papers.
The WSGA group was taken to Cheyenne to be held at the barracks of Fort D.A. Russell as the Laramie County jail was unable to hold that many prisoners. They received preferential treatment and were allowed to roam the base by day as long as they agreed to return to the jail to sleep at night. Johnson County officials were upset that the group was not kept locally at Ft. McKinney. The General in charge of the 6th Cavalry felt that tensions were too high for the prisoners to remain in the area. Hundreds of armed locals sympathetic to both sides of the conflict were said to have gone to Ft. McKinney over the next few days under the mistaken impression the invaders were being held there.
The Johnson County attorney began to gather evidence for the case and the details of the WSGA's plan emerged. Canton's gripsack was found to contain a list of seventy alleged rustlers who were to be shot or hanged, a list of ranch houses the invaders had burned, and a contract to pay each Texan five dollars a day plus a bonus of $50 for each person killed. The invaders' plans reportedly included eventually murdering people as far away as Casper and Douglas. The Times reported on April 23, that “The evidence is said to implicate more than twenty prominent stockmen of Cheyenne whose names have not been mentioned heretofore, also several wealthy stockmen of Omaha, as well as to compromise men high in authority in the State of Wyoming. They will all be charged with aiding and abetting the invasion, and warrants will be issued for the arrest of all of them.”
Charges against the men "high in authority" in Wyoming were never filed. Eventually the invaders were released on bail and were told to return to Wyoming for the trial. Many fled to Texas and were never seen again. In the end the WSGA group went free after the charges were dropped on the excuse that Johnson County refused to pay for the costs of prosecution. The costs of housing the men at Fort D.A. Russell were said to exceed $18,000 and the sparsely populated Johnson County was unable to pay.
Tensions in Johnson County remained high and the 6th Cavalry was said to be swaying under the local political and social pressures and were unable to keep the peace. The 9th Cavalry of "Buffalo Soldiers" was ordered to Fort McKinney to replace the 6th. In a fortnight the Buffalo Soldiers moved from Nebraska to the rail town of Suggs, Wyoming where they created "Camp Bettens" to quell pressure from the local population. One Buffalo Soldier was killed and two wounded in gun battles with locals. The 9th Cavalry remained in Wyoming until November.
A number of tall tales were spun by both sides afterwards in an attempt to make their actions appear morally justified. Parties sympathetic to the invaders painted Nate Champion as the leader of a vast cattle rustling empire and that he was a leading member of the fabled "Red Sash Gang" of outlaws that supposedly included the likes of everyone from Jesse James
to the Hole in the Wall Gang
. These rumors have since been discredited. While some accounts do note that Champion wore a red sash at the time of his death, such sashes were common. While the Hole in the Wall Gang was known to hide out in Johnson County there is no evidence that Champion had any relationship to them. Parties sympathetic to the smaller ranchers spun tales that included some of the west's most notorious gunslingers under the employ of the Invaders, including such legends as Tom Horn
and Big Nose George Parrot. Horn did briefly work as a detective for the WSGA in the 1890s but there is no evidence he was involved in the war.
with overtones of class war
. As a result of the scandal the Democratic Party became popular in Wyoming for a time, winning the governorship in 1895
and taking control of both houses of the state legislature during the two elections after the events. Wyoming voted for the Democrat William Jennings Bryan
in the 1896 U.S. Presidential Election
.
and intervention of the President of the United States to save the lives of a gang of hired killers and set them free, does not fit well with the American myth of the west
.
The Virginian
, a seminal 1902 western novel by Owen Wister
, solved the problem by taking the side of the wealthy ranchers, creating a myth dealing with the themes of the Johnson County war but bearing little resemblance to the events. The novel was popular and provided the pulp for six renditions on the silver screen (in 1914, 1923, 1929, 1946, 1962, and 2000).
Though not explicitly connected with Johnson County, The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
is a novel that dramatizes and condemns a lynching of the sort that Wister's novel appears to defend.
Jack Schaefer
's popular 1949 novel Shane
contained themes associated with the Johnson County War but took the side of the settlers. The novel spawned a film Shane (1953) and a 17-episode TV Series
(1966).
The 1953 film The Redhead from Wyoming
starring Maureen O'Hara dealt with very similar themes and in one scene Maureen O'Hara's character is told "It won't be long before they're calling you Cattle Kate."
In the 1968 novel True Grit
by Charles Portis, the narrator tells of Rooster Cogburn's involvement in the Johnson County War. In the early 1890s Rooster had gone north to Wyoming where he was "hired by stock owners to terrorize thieves and people called nesters and grangers .... I fear that Rooster did himself no credit in what they called the Johnson County War."
The 1980 film Heaven's Gate and a TV movie called The Johnson County War (2002) also painted the wealthy ranchers as the "bad guys." Heaven's Gate was a dramatic romance somewhat based on events while The Johnson County War was based on the 1957 novel Riders of Judgment
.
The story of the Johnson County War from the point of view of the small ranchers was chronicled by Kaycee
resident Chris LeDoux
in his song Johnson County War on the 1989 album Powder River. The song included references to the burning of the KC Ranch, the capture of the WSGA men, the intervention of the U.S. Cavalry and the release of the cattlemen and hired guns.
published an indignant account of the war, titled The Banditti of the Plains
. The book was suppressed for many years as the WSGA tracked down and destroyed all but a few of the first edition
copies from 1894 printing and was rumored to have hijacked and destroyed the second printing as it was being shipped from a printer north of Denver, Colorado
. The book was later reprinted several times in the 20th Century.
Range war
A range war is a type of conflict that occurs in agrarian or stockrearing societies. Typically fought over water rights or grazing rights to unfenced/unowned land, it could pit competing farmers or ranchers against each other...
which took place in April 1892 in Johnson County, Natrona County and Converse County in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. It was a battle between small settling ranchers and larger established ranchers in the Powder River Country
Powder River Country
The Powder River Country refers to an area of the Great Plains in northeastern Wyoming in the United States. The area is loosely defined between the Bighorn Mountains and the Black Hills, in the upper drainage areas of the Powder, Tongue, and Little Bighorn rivers.During the late 1860s, the area...
that culminated in a lengthy shootout between local ranchers, a band of hired killers, and a sheriff's posse
Posse comitatus (common law)
Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...
, eventually requiring the intervention of the U.S. Cavalry on the orders of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States . Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana at age 21, eventually becoming a prominent politician there...
.
The events have since become a highly mythologized and symbolic story of the Wild West, and over the years variations of the storyline have come to include some of the west's most famous historical figures and gunslingers. The storyline and its variations have served as the basis for numerous popular novels, films, and television shows.
Background
Conflict over land was a somewhat common occurrence in the development of the American West but was particularly prevalent during the late 19th century and early 20th century when large portions of the west were being settled by Americans for the first time. It is a period which historianHistorian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Richard Maxwell Brown has called the "Western Civil War of Incorporation" and of which the Johnson County War was part.
In the early days in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
most of the land was in the public domain, open to stock raising as open range
Open range
Open range may refer to: vast areas of grassy land that is owned by the federal government.*Rangeland, vast natural landscapes*Open Range, the 2003 Western movie co-starring, co-produced, and directed by Kevin Costner...
and to homesteading
Homestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....
. Large numbers of cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
were turned loose on the open range by large ranches.
Ranchers would hold a spring roundup where the cows and the calves belonging to each ranch were separated and the calves branded. Before the roundup, calves (especially orphan or stray calves) were sometimes surreptitiously branded. The large ranches defended against cattle rustling often by forbidding their employees from owning cattle and by lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
(or threatening to lynch) suspected rustlers. Property and use rights were usually respected among big and small ranches based on who was first to settle the land (the doctrine is known as Prior Appropriation) and the size of the herd. Nonetheless large ranching outfits would sometimes band together and use their power to monopolize large swaths of range land, preventing newcomers from settling the area.
The WSGA
Wyoming Stock Growers Association
The Wyoming Stock Growers Association is a historic American cattle organization created in 1873. The Association was started among Wyoming cattle ranchers to standardize and organize the cattle industry, but quickly grew into a political force that has been called "the de facto territorial...
(the WSGA) and gathered socially as the Cheyenne Club in Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
. Comprising some of the state's wealthiest and most popular residents, the organization held a great deal of political sway in the state and region. The WSGA organized the cattle industry by scheduling roundups and cattle shipments. The WSGA also employed an agency of detectives to investigate cattle rustling against its members.
The often uneasy relationship between larger, wealthier ranches and smaller ranch settlers became steadily worse after the poor winter of 1886-1887
Winter of 1886-1887
The Winter of 1886–1887 was extremely harsh. Although it affected other regions in the United States, it is most known for its effects on the Western United States and its cattle industry. This winter marked the end of the Open Range era and led to the entire reorganization of ranching.The winter...
when a series of blizzards and temperatures of 40-50 degrees below 0 °F (-45 °C) had followed an extremely hot and dry summer. Thousands of cattle were lost and large companies began to appropriate land and control the flow and supply of water in the area. Some of the harsher tactics included forcing settlers off their land and setting fire to settler buildings as well as trying to exclude the smaller ranchers from participation in the annual roundup. They justified these excesses on what was public land by using the catch-all allegation of rustling.
Rustling in the local area was likely increasing due to the harsh grazing conditions and the illegal exploits of an organized group of regional rustling outfits was becoming well publicized in the late 1880s. Well armed bands of horse and cattle rustlers were said to roam across various portions of Wyoming and Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, with Montana cattle interests declaring "War on the Rustlers" in 1889 and Wyoming interests doing so a year later. In Johnson County, with emotions running high, agents of the larger ranches killed several alleged rustlers from smaller ranches. Many were killed on dubious evidence or were simply found dead while the killers remained anonymous. Frank M. Canton
Frank M. Canton
Josiah Horner , better known as Frank M. Canton, was a famous American Old West lawman, gunslinger, cowboy and at one point in his life, an outlaw.-Early life:...
, Sheriff of Johnson County in the early 1880s and better known as a detective for the WSGA, was rumored to be behind many of the deaths. The double lynching of Ella Watson
Cattle Kate
Ellen Liddy Watson was a female pioneer of Wyoming who became better known as Cattle Kate, a post-claimed outlaw of the Old West. The "outlaw" characterization is a dubious one, as she was not violent and was never charged with any crime during her life...
and storekeeper Jim Averell took place in 1889, an event that enraged local residents. A number of additional dubious lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
s of alleged rustlers took place in 1891.
A group of smaller Johnson County ranchers led by a local settler named Nate Champion began to form the Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Growers' Association (NWFSGA) to compete with the WSGA. The WSGA "blacklisted" the NWFSGA and told them to stop all operations but the NWFSGA refused the WSGA's order to disband and instead made public their plans to hold their own roundup in the spring of 1892.
The war
Frank Wolcott
Frank Wolcott was an officer in the Union Army, a law man and also an outlaw-Early life:Frank Wolcott was born in 1840 in Canandaigua, NY. He served in the Union Army in the Civil War, and was promoted to the rank of Major before being discharged in 1866 after the end of the war. He attempted to...
(WSGA Member and large North Platte rancher), hired gunmen with the intention of eliminating alleged rustlers in Johnson County and break up the NWFSGA. Twenty-three gunmen from Paris, Texas
Paris, Texas
Paris, Texas is a city located northeast of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex in Lamar County, Texas, in the United States. It is situated in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods. Physiographically, these regions are part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. In 1900, 9,358 people lived...
and four cattle detectives from the WSGA were hired with Idaho frontiersman George Dunning who later turned against the group. Some WSGA and Wyoming dignitaries also joined the expedition including State Senator Bob Tisdale, state water commissioner W.J. Clarke, W.C. Irvine and Hubert Teshemacher, both instrumental in organizing Wyoming's statehood four years earlier. They were accompanied by surgeon Dr. Charles Penrose as well as Ed Towse, a reporter for the Cheyenne Sun, and a newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
reporter for the Chicago Herald, Sam T. Clover, whose lurid first-hand accounts later appeared in eastern newspapers. A total expedition of 50 men was organized.
To lead the expedition the WSGA hired Canton, a former Johnson County Sheriff-turned-gunman and WSGA detective. Canton's gripsack was later found to contain a list of dozens of rustlers to be either shot or hanged and a contract to pay the Texans $5 a day plus a bonus of $50 for every rustler killed. The group became known as "The Invaders", or alternately, "Wolcott's Regulators".
John Clay, a prominent Wyoming businessman was suspected of playing a major role in planning the Johnson County invasion. Clay denied this, saying that in 1891 he advised Wolcott against the scheme and was out of the country when it was undertaken. He did help the “invaders” to avoid punishment after their surrender.
The group organized in Cheyenne and proceeded by a specially hired train to Casper, Wyoming
Casper, Wyoming
Casper is the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States.. Casper is the second-largest city in Wyoming , according to the 2010 census, with a population of 55,316...
and then toward Johnson County on horseback, cutting the telegraph
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
lines north of Douglas, Wyoming
Douglas, Wyoming
Douglas is a city in Converse County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 5,288 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Converse County...
in order to prevent an alarm. While on horseback Canton and the gunmen traveled ahead while the party of WSGA officials led by Wolcott followed a safe distance behind.
Nate Champion and the KC Ranch
The first target of the WSGA was Nate ChampionNate Champion
Nathan "Nate" D. Champion was a key figure in the Johnson County War. Labeled falsely by the wealthy cattlemens association in Wyoming as a rustler, Champion was the first person murdered by a band of hit men hired by the cattlemen...
at the KC Ranch (of which today's town of Kaycee
Kaycee, Wyoming
Kaycee is a town in Johnson County, Wyoming in the USA. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. It is home to a museum that preserves the cattle ranching heritage of the area, especially the history of the Johnson County War....
is a namesake), a small rancher who was active in the efforts of small ranchers to organize a competing roundup. The group traveled to the ranch late in the night of Friday April 8, 1892, quietly surrounded the buildings and waited for daybreak. Three men besides Champion were at the KC. Two men who were evidently spending the night on their way through were captured as they emerged from the cabin early that morning to collect water at the nearby Powder River, while the third Nick Ray, was shot while standing inside the doorway of the cabin and died a few hours later. Champion was besieged inside the log cabin.
During the siege, Champion kept a poignant journal which contained a number of notes he wrote to friends while taking cover inside the cabin. "Boys, I feel pretty lonesome just now. I wish there was someone here with me so we could watch all sides at once." The last journal entry read: "Well, they have just got through shelling the house like hail. I heard them splitting wood. I guess they are going to fire the house tonight. I think I will make a break when night comes, if alive. Shooting again. It's not night yet. The house is all fired. Goodbye, boys, if I never see you again."
With the house on fire, Nate Champion signed his journal entry and put it in his pocket before running from the back door with a six shooter in one hand and a knife in the other. As he emerged he was shot by four men and the invaders later pinned a note on Champion's bullet-riddled chest that read "Cattle Thieves Beware".
Two passers-by noticed the ruckus that Saturday afternoon and local rancher Jack Flagg rode to Buffalo
Buffalo, Wyoming
Buffalo is a city in Johnson County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 3,900 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Johnson County...
(the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Johnson County) where the sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
raised a posse
Posse comitatus (common law)
Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...
of 200 men over the next 24 hours and the party set out for the KC on Sunday night, April 10.
Standoff at the TA Ranch
TA Ranch Historic District
The TA Ranch was the site of the principal events of the Johnson County Range War in 1892. The TA was established in 1882 as one of the first ranches in Johnson County, Wyoming. The TA is the only intact site associated with the range war, with trenches used by both sides still visible and scars on...
on Crazy Woman Creek
Crazy Woman Creek
Crazy Woman Creek is a creek in the United States, in Johnson County, Wyoming.There are several legends about the name. It was the site of a trading post and the site of battles in the American Indian Wars. It was also a locale of the Johnson County War....
. The gunmen took refuge inside a log barn on the ranch. Ten of the gunmen then tried to escape the barn behind a fusillade but the posse beat them back and killed three. One of the WSGA group escaped and was able to contact the acting Governor of Wyoming
Amos W. Barber
Dr. Amos Walker Barber was an American surgeon and politician. He was the second Governor of Wyoming after that state joined the Union in 1890....
the next day. Frantic efforts to save the WSGA group ensued and two days into the siege Governor Barber was able to telegraph President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States . Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana at age 21, eventually becoming a prominent politician there...
a plea for help late on the night of April 12, 1892.
The telegram read:
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
Stephen B. Elkins to address the situation under Article IV
Article Four of the United States Constitution
Article Four of the United States Constitution relates to the states. The article outlines the duties states have to each other, as well as those the federal government has to the states...
, Section 4, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which allows for the use of U.S. forces under the President's orders for "protection from invasion and domestic violence". The Sixth Cavalry from Fort McKinney near Buffalo was ordered to proceed to the TA ranch at once and take custody of the WSGA expedition. The 6th Cavalry left Fort McKinney a few hours later at 2 am on April 13 and reached the TA ranch at 6:45 am. The expedition surrendered to the Sixth soon after and was saved just as the posse had finished building a series of breastwork
Breastwork
Breastwork may mean:#A form of temporary fortification#Surgical alteration of the breast...
s to shoot gunpowder on the invader's log barn shelter so that it could be set on fire from a distance. The Sixth Cavalry took possession of Wolcott and 45 other men with 45 rifles, 41 revolvers and some 5,000 rounds of ammunition.
The text of Barber's telegram to the President was printed on the front page of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on April 14, and a first-hand account of the siege at the T.A. appeared in The Times and the Chicago Heraldand other papers.
Arrest and legal action
The Johnson County attorney began to gather evidence for the case and the details of the WSGA's plan emerged. Canton's gripsack was found to contain a list of seventy alleged rustlers who were to be shot or hanged, a list of ranch houses the invaders had burned, and a contract to pay each Texan five dollars a day plus a bonus of $50 for each person killed. The invaders' plans reportedly included eventually murdering people as far away as Casper and Douglas. The Times reported on April 23, that “The evidence is said to implicate more than twenty prominent stockmen of Cheyenne whose names have not been mentioned heretofore, also several wealthy stockmen of Omaha, as well as to compromise men high in authority in the State of Wyoming. They will all be charged with aiding and abetting the invasion, and warrants will be issued for the arrest of all of them.”
Charges against the men "high in authority" in Wyoming were never filed. Eventually the invaders were released on bail and were told to return to Wyoming for the trial. Many fled to Texas and were never seen again. In the end the WSGA group went free after the charges were dropped on the excuse that Johnson County refused to pay for the costs of prosecution. The costs of housing the men at Fort D.A. Russell were said to exceed $18,000 and the sparsely populated Johnson County was unable to pay.
Tensions in Johnson County remained high and the 6th Cavalry was said to be swaying under the local political and social pressures and were unable to keep the peace. The 9th Cavalry of "Buffalo Soldiers" was ordered to Fort McKinney to replace the 6th. In a fortnight the Buffalo Soldiers moved from Nebraska to the rail town of Suggs, Wyoming where they created "Camp Bettens" to quell pressure from the local population. One Buffalo Soldier was killed and two wounded in gun battles with locals. The 9th Cavalry remained in Wyoming until November.
Aftermath
Emotions ran high for many years following the 'Johnson County Cattle War' as some viewed the large and wealthy ranchers as heroes who took justice into their own hands in order to defend their rights, while others saw the WSGA as heavy-handed vigilantes running roughshod over the law of the land.A number of tall tales were spun by both sides afterwards in an attempt to make their actions appear morally justified. Parties sympathetic to the invaders painted Nate Champion as the leader of a vast cattle rustling empire and that he was a leading member of the fabled "Red Sash Gang" of outlaws that supposedly included the likes of everyone from Jesse James
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. He also faked his own death and was known as J.M James. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary...
to the Hole in the Wall Gang
Hole in the Wall Gang
The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang was a gang in the American Wild West, which took its name from the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass in Johnson County, Wyoming, where several outlaw gangs had their hideouts. The Gang was not simply one large organized gang of outlaws, but rather was made up of several separate...
. These rumors have since been discredited. While some accounts do note that Champion wore a red sash at the time of his death, such sashes were common. While the Hole in the Wall Gang was known to hide out in Johnson County there is no evidence that Champion had any relationship to them. Parties sympathetic to the smaller ranchers spun tales that included some of the west's most notorious gunslingers under the employ of the Invaders, including such legends as Tom Horn
Tom Horn
Thomas "Tom" Horn, Jr. was an American Old West lawman, scout, soldier, hired gunman, detective, outlaw and assassin. On the day before his 43rd birthday, he was hanged in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the murder of Willie Nickell.-Early life:Born to Thomas S. Horn, Sr...
and Big Nose George Parrot. Horn did briefly work as a detective for the WSGA in the 1890s but there is no evidence he was involved in the war.
Political effects
Although many of the leaders of the WSGA's hired force such as W. C. Irvine were Democrats, the ranchers who had hired the group were tied to the Republican party and their opponents were mostly Democrats. Many viewed the rescue of the WSGA group at the order of President Harrison (a Republican) and the failure of the courts to prosecute them a serious political scandalScandal
A scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages the reputation of an institution, individual or creed...
with overtones of class war
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
. As a result of the scandal the Democratic Party became popular in Wyoming for a time, winning the governorship in 1895
John Eugene Osborne
John Eugene Osborne was an American physician, farmer, banker and Democratic politician. He was the third Governor of Wyoming after the Wyoming Territory attained statehood in 1890....
and taking control of both houses of the state legislature during the two elections after the events. Wyoming voted for the Democrat William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
in the 1896 U.S. Presidential Election
United States presidential election, 1896
The United States presidential election held on November 3, 1896, saw Republican William McKinley defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan in a campaign considered by political scientists to be one of the most dramatic and complex in American history....
.
The War in popular culture
The Johnson County War, with its overtones of class warfareClass conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
and intervention of the President of the United States to save the lives of a gang of hired killers and set them free, does not fit well with the American myth of the west
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
.
The Virginian
The Virginian (novel)
This page is about the novel, for other uses see The Virginian .The Virginian is a pioneering 1902 novel set in the Wild West by the American author Owen Wister...
, a seminal 1902 western novel by Owen Wister
Owen Wister
Owen Wister was an American writer and "father" of western fiction.-Early life:Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a well-known neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of...
, solved the problem by taking the side of the wealthy ranchers, creating a myth dealing with the themes of the Johnson County war but bearing little resemblance to the events. The novel was popular and provided the pulp for six renditions on the silver screen (in 1914, 1923, 1929, 1946, 1962, and 2000).
Though not explicitly connected with Johnson County, The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Walter Van Tilburg Clark was an American novelist, short story writer, and educator. He ranks as one of Nevada's most distinguished literary figures of the 20th century and is known primarily for his novels, his one volume of stories, as well as his uncollected short stories...
is a novel that dramatizes and condemns a lynching of the sort that Wister's novel appears to defend.
Jack Schaefer
Jack Schaefer
Jack Warner Schaefer was a twentieth century American author known for his Westerns. His most famous work is Shane, which was made into a critically acclaimed movie, and the short story "Stubby Pringle's Christmas" .-Biography:Schaefer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of an attorney...
's popular 1949 novel Shane
Shane (novel)
Shane is a 1949 western book by Jack Schaefer. It is often considered his greatest novel.-Plot:Note: This description is a combination of the movie and the book, and is not representative of the novel itself....
contained themes associated with the Johnson County War but took the side of the settlers. The novel spawned a film Shane (1953) and a 17-episode TV Series
Shane (TV series)
Shane is an American Western television series based on the 1949 book of the same name by Jack Schaefer . The series was created by Herschel Daugherty and Gary Nelson, and starred David Carradine as the title character...
(1966).
The 1953 film The Redhead from Wyoming
The Redhead from Wyoming
The Redhead from Wyoming is a 1953 American western drama film produced by Leonard Goldstein and directed by Lee Sholem. It stars Maureen O'Hara as a saloon proprietress who becomes embroiled in a cattle war and Alex Nicol as the sheriff who tries to prevent it...
starring Maureen O'Hara dealt with very similar themes and in one scene Maureen O'Hara's character is told "It won't be long before they're calling you Cattle Kate."
In the 1968 novel True Grit
True Grit
True Grit is a 1969 American Western film written by Marguerite Roberts and directed by Henry Hathaway. It is the first adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel True Grit. John Wayne stars as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn and won his only Academy Award for his performance in this film...
by Charles Portis, the narrator tells of Rooster Cogburn's involvement in the Johnson County War. In the early 1890s Rooster had gone north to Wyoming where he was "hired by stock owners to terrorize thieves and people called nesters and grangers .... I fear that Rooster did himself no credit in what they called the Johnson County War."
The 1980 film Heaven's Gate and a TV movie called The Johnson County War (2002) also painted the wealthy ranchers as the "bad guys." Heaven's Gate was a dramatic romance somewhat based on events while The Johnson County War was based on the 1957 novel Riders of Judgment
Frederick Manfred
Frederick Feikema Manfred was a noted Western author.Manfred was born in Doon, Iowa. He was baptized Frederick Feikes Feikema, VII, and he used the name Feike Feikema when he published his first books...
.
The story of the Johnson County War from the point of view of the small ranchers was chronicled by Kaycee
Kaycee, Wyoming
Kaycee is a town in Johnson County, Wyoming in the USA. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. It is home to a museum that preserves the cattle ranching heritage of the area, especially the history of the Johnson County War....
resident Chris LeDoux
Chris LeDoux
Chris Ledoux was an American country music singer-songwriter, bronze sculptor and rodeo champion.During his career LeDoux recorded 36 albums which have sold more than six million units in the United States as of January 2007...
in his song Johnson County War on the 1989 album Powder River. The song included references to the burning of the KC Ranch, the capture of the WSGA men, the intervention of the U.S. Cavalry and the release of the cattlemen and hired guns.
The Banditti of the Plains
In 1894, witness Asa Shinn MercerAsa Shinn Mercer
Asa Shinn Mercer was the first president of the Territorial University of Washington and a member of the Washington State Senate....
published an indignant account of the war, titled The Banditti of the Plains
The Banditti of the Plains
The Banditti of the Plains, Or the Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892 is a book written by Asa Shinn Mercer...
. The book was suppressed for many years as the WSGA tracked down and destroyed all but a few of the first edition
First edition
The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed “from substantially the same setting of type,” including all minor typographical variants.- First edition :...
copies from 1894 printing and was rumored to have hijacked and destroyed the second printing as it was being shipped from a printer north of Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
. The book was later reprinted several times in the 20th Century.