Johnson County War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River or Wyoming Civil War, was a range war which took place in Johnson County, Wyoming, in the Powder River Country, in April 1892. The battle has since become a highly mythologized and symbolic story of the Wild West, and variations of the storyline have served as the basis for numerous popular novels, films, and television shows.
Contents |
[edit] Background
Violent conflict over land use has been a somewhat common occurrence in the development of the American West, but was particularly prevalent during the late 1800s and early 1900s when large portions of the west were becoming settled by the White American population for the first time. It is a period which historian Richard Maxwell Brown has called the "Western Civil War of Incorporation"[1] 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 both to stockraising as open range and to homesteading. Large numbers of cattle were turned loose on the open range by large ranches, sometimes financed by British and other investors.
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, and thus taken. The large ranches aggressively defended against cattle rustling by often forbading their own employees from owning cattle and by lynching (or threatening to lynch) suspect rustlers. Property and use rights were usually respected among big and small ranches based on who was first to settle the land and the size of the herd.
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. A primary function of the WSGA was to organize the cattle industry by scheduling roundups and cattle shipments.[2] Nevertheless, 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 often uneasy relationship between larger, wealthier ranches and smaller ranch settlers became steadily worse after the poor winter of 1887-1888, when a series blizzards and temperatures of 40-50 degrees below 0° F had followed an extremely hot and dry summer.[3] Thousands of cattle were lost and large companies began to aggressively appropriate land and control the flow and supply of water in this area. They justified these excesses on what was public land by using the catch-all allegation of rustling, and vigorously sought to exclude the smaller ranchers from participation in the annual roundup. With rustling in the area likely increasing due to the harsh grazing conditions, and with emotions running high, agents of the larger ranches killed several alleged rustlers from smaller farms. However, many were killed on dubious evidence or were simply found dead while the killers remained anonymous. A number of dubious lynchings of alleged rustlers took place in 1891, including the double lynching of innocents Ella Watson and Jim Averell.
A group of smaller Johnson County ranchers began to form their own Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Grower's Association (NWFSGA) to compete with the WSGA. The WSGA "blacklisted" the NWFSGA and told them to stop all operations, but the NWFSGA refused the powerful WSGA's orders to disband and instead made public their plans to hold their own roundup in the spring of 1892.[4]
[edit] The war
The WSGA hired a number of gunmen from Texas and organized an expedition of 50 men with the intention of eliminating alleged rustlers in Johnson County and break up the NWFSGA. The men proceeded by train from Cheyenne to Casper, Wyoming and then toward Johnson County, cutting the telegraph lines north of Douglas, Wyoming in order to prevent an alarm. The expedition was accompanied by two newspaper reporters whose lurid accounts later appeared in the eastern newspapers.
The first target of the WSGA was Nate Champion at the KC Ranch (name sake for today's town of Kaycee), a small rancher who was active in the efforts of small ranchers to organize a competing roundup. Four men were at the KC; two men who were evidently spending the night on their way through were captured as they emerged from the cabin to collect water at the nearby Powder River.; the third, Nick Ray, was shot and died a few hours later after making it back into the cabin. 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." he wrote. 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 to-night. 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."[5].
With the house on fire, Nate Champion signed his journal entry and put the journal in his pocket before running from the back door, six shooter in hand.[6]. As he emerged he was gunned down by four bullets and the invaders later pinned a note on Champion's chest that read "Cattle Thieves Beware"[7]
Two passers-by noticed the ruckus and rode to Buffalo (the county seat of Johnson County), where the sheriff raised a posse of 200 men and set out for the KC.
The WSGA force then headed north toward Buffalo to continue their show of force. The following day the posse led by the sheriff besieged the WSGA force at the TA Ranch on Crazy Woman Creek. After two days, one of the WSGA members escaped and was able to contact the acting Governor of Wyoming, Amos W. Barber. Frantic efforts to save the WSGA group from the sheriff's posse ensued, and subsequent telegraphs to Washington resulted in intervention by the President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison. Harrison ordered the Sixth Cavalry from Fort McKinney near Buffalo to proceed to the TA ranch and take custody of the WSGA expedition, thus saving them from the sheriff's posse, just as the posse was preparing to set fire to the large log barn in which the expedition had taken shelter.
The WSGA group was taken to Cheyenne to be held at the Laramie County Jail, where they received very preferential treatment, and were allowed to roam the streets by day as long as they agreed to return to the jail to sleep at night. Evenutally, they were released on bail and were told to return to Wyoming for the trial. Many simply fled back 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.[8]
[edit] Aftermath
Emotions ran high for many years following the polarizing events of the so-called 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 villains intent on monopolizing what was public land.
Although many of the leaders of the WSGA's hired force, such as W. C. Irvine, were themselves 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 scandal with overtones of a class war. As a result of the scandal, Wyoming went Democratic for a time[citation needed].
A longer economic legacy was that Johnson County was slower to develop economically than other parts of the state of Wyoming because the shadow of the war and subsequent events created the view that Johnson County was a less desirable place to live[citation needed].
[edit] The War In Popular culture
The Johnson County War, with its overtones of class warfare, 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 in well with the American myth of the west. The Virginian, a seminal 1902 western novel, solved the problem by taking the side of the wealthy ranchers, creating a highly mythologized tale dealing with the themes of the Johnson County war but bearing little resemblance to the actual events. The novel was popular, striking a strong chord with the public and later made into no less than six film versions (in 1914, 1923, 1929, 1946, 1962, and 2000).
Jack Schaefer's popular 1949 novel Shane also dealt with the strong themes associated with the Johnson County War, but instead took the side of the settlers. The novel spawned both a film Shane (1953) and a 17-episode TV Series (1966).
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 the historical events, while The Johnson County War was based on the 1957 novel Riders of Judgment. Yet another novel titled Riders of Judgment was released in 2001 that also depicts fictional events similar to that of the Johnson County Cattle War, except this Riders of Judgment was written by Robert Vaughn under the pen name of the now deceased legendary western author Ralph Compton .
In addition, numerous western films and novels have been made that borrow small facets of the Johnson County War and combine them with otherwise invented storylines. One example is the 1970 film The Cheyenne Social Club with depicts the Cheyenne Club as a brothel taken over by two Texans ultimately besieged by a throng of angry local ranchers.
[edit] The Banditti of the Plains
In 1894, eyewitness Asa Shinn Mercer published an indignant account of the war, titled The Banditti of the Plains. The book was effectively suppressed for many years.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Oxford University Press No Duty to Retreat Violence and Values in American History and Society by: Richard Maxwell BrownProduct Description 1992
- ^ Burt, Nathaniel 1991 Wyoming Compass American Guides, Inc p.157
- ^ Burt, Nathaniel 1991 Wyoming Compass American Guides, Inc p.156
- ^ Burt, Nathaniel 1991 Wyoming Compass American Guides, Inc p.159
- ^ Trachtman, Paul The Gunfighters Time-Life Books 1974 p. 212
- ^ Trachtman, Paul The Gunfighters Time-Life Books 1974 p. 212
- ^ Burt, Nathaniel 1991 Wyoming Compass American Guides, Inc p.159
- ^ Burt, Nathaniel 1991 Wyoming Compass American Guides, Inc p.160
