Johnson County War

The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a series of range conflicts that took place in Johnson, Wyoming from 1888-1893. The conflicts started when cattle companies ruthlessly persecuted supposed rustlers throughout the grazing lands in Wyoming. As tensions swell between the large established ranchers and the smaller settling ranchers and farmers in the state, violence finally culminated in Powder River Country, when the former hired armed gunmen to invade the county and wipe out the competition. It soon involved the lawmen of the area which led to a grueling stand-off, before the intervention of the United States Cavalry on the orders of President Benjamin Harrison suppressed it. The war ended as the cavalry relieved the invaders, and the failure to convict them with the murders they had committed.

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 its most famous historical figures. The events have served as the basis for numerous popular novels, films, and television shows, as well as being one of the most well-known range wars of the American frontier.

Background

Jim Averell, a Johnson County businessman, was lynched in 1889 for cattle rustling, although he owned no cattle

Conflict over land was a common occurrence in the development of the American West but was particularly prevalent during the late 19th century when large portions of the west were being settled by Americans for the first time through the homesteading act. It is a period which historian Richard Maxwell Brown has called the "Western Civil War of Incorporation"^[2] in which the Johnson County War was part of.

In the early days of 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. Each spring, round-ups were held to separate the cattle belonging to different ranches. Before the roundup, orphan or stray calves were sometimes surreptitiously branded, which was the common way to identify the cow's owners. Lands and water rights were usually distributed to whoever settled the property first, and other farmers and ranchers had to respect these boundaries (the doctrine was known as Prior Appropriation).^[3] However, as huge numbers of homesteaders moved into Wyoming, competition for land and water soon enveloped the state, and the cattle companies reacted by monopolizing large areas of the open range to prevent newcomers from using it. They also forbid their employees from owning cattle and threatened or lynched suspected rustlers.

The often uneasy relationship between larger, wealthier ranches and smaller ranch settlers became steadily worse after the harsh 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.^[4] 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. Hostilities worsen when the Wyoming legislature passed the "Maverick Act", which stated that every unbranded cattle in the open range automatically belonged to the cattlemen's association.^[5]

The WSGA

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 influential 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.^[6] The WSGA also employed an agency of detectives to investigate cases of cattle theft from its members' holdings.

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.^[7] Well armed bands of horse and cattle rustlers roamed across various portions of Wyoming and Montana, with Montana vigilantes such as the infamous Stuart's Stranglers declaring "War on the Rustlers" in 1884.^[8][7] Bandits taking refuge at the infamous hideout known as the Hole in the Wall were also preying upon the herds as well.^[9] 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 violence that happened. Before the events in Johnson County, Canton had already made a reputation of himself as a lethal gunman. At a young age he worked as a cowboy in Texas, and in 1871 started a career in robbery and cattle-rustling, as well as killing a Buffalo Soldier in October 10, 1874. Historian Harry Sinclair Drago described Canton as a "merciless, congenital, emotionless killer. For pay, he murdered eight — very likely ten men."^[10]

Early killings

On July 20, 1889, a range detective from the Association, George Henderson, accused Ella Watson, a local rancher, of rustling and branding cattle. The cattlemen sent riders to arrest Ella and forced her into a wagon. They then apprehended her husband, Jim Averell, and subsequently hanged them both on a cottonwood tree. The double lynching of Ella Watson and storekeeper Jim Averell enraged local residents and paved the way for the culmination of the war.^[11]

County Sheriff Frank Hadsell arrested six men for the lynching and a trial date was set. However, before the trial, threats were sent to the witnesses.^[12] One of those witnesses was young Gene Crowder, who mysteriously disappeared under unknown circumstances.^[13] Another, Kate's foreman Frank Buchanan, had a shoot-out with unknown suspects before disappearing from the county as well. Ralph Cole, Averell's nephew, died on the day of the trial from poisoning.^[12] The detective that accused Kate of rustling, George Henderson, was murdered by rustlers near Sweetwater Creek in October 1890, which further infuriated many of the locals. The double lynching of the Averells was soon followed by the lynching of Tom Waggoner, a horse trader from Newcastle, in June 1891.^[9] These killings would precipitate more hostilities and violence in the years to come.^[14]

The war

Prelude

A group of smaller Johnson County ranchers led by a local settler and cowboy 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.^[15] Soon, the prominent cattlemen sent out an assassination squad to kill Nate Champion in the morning of November 1, 1891.^[16] Champion and Ross Gilbertson were sleeping in a cabin somewhere in Middle Fork of Powder River, when two armed men burst in and pointed pistols at them.^[9] As the gunmen pointed their weapons at him, Champion yawned before reaching for a pistol hidden under his pillow. He shot both gunman; one of them, Billy Lykins, died a month later. The rest of the assassination squad subsequently fled. Champion was left uninjured, but he subsequently suffered powder burns in his face when the assassins took shot at him and missed. Investigations of the gunfight soon followed, and one of the hitmen confessed the names of those who were involved to two witnesses; ranchers John A. Tisdale and Orley “Ranger” Jones. Unfortunately on December 1, 1891, the two ranchers were soon assassinated on two separate occasion before the formal trial, and this caused outraged for the rest of the small ranchers and farmers in Johnson County.^[9] By early 1892, violence had reached its breaking point, as cases of hostile vigilantism were immediately pointed to the big cattle ranchers. Soon, newspapers such as the Big Horn County Rustler, published articles and speculations that a "war" was on the way.^[1]

The Invaders

Frank M. Canton, former Sheriff of Johnson County, was hired to lead the band of Texas killers

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 breaking up the NWFSGA.^[17] By that time, prominent names in Wyoming started taking sides. Acting Governor Amos W. Barber supported the cattlemen, who blamed the small ranchers and homesteaders to be responsible for the criminal activity in the state, while former cowboy and sheriff of Buffalo Red Angus, supported the homesteaders, who believed that the cattle barons were stealing their land.^[18]

In March 1892, agents have been sent out from Cheyenne and Idaho to recruit gunmen and finally carry out the plans for extermination.^[19] Soon, twenty-three gunmen from Paris, Texas and four cattle detectives from the WSGA were hired, as well as Wyoming dignitaries who also joined the expedition. State Senator Bob Tisdale, state water commissioner W. J. Clarke, and W. C. Irvine and Hubert Teshemacher, were both instrumental in organizing Wyoming's statehood four years earlier, also joined the band.^[20][21] 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.^[17] A total expedition of 50 men was organized which consisted of cattlemen and range detectives, as well as 23 hired guns from Texas. To lead the expedition the WSGA hired Canton. Canton's gripsack was later found to contain a list of 70 county residents 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.^[22] The group became known as "The Invaders," or alternately, "Wolcott's Regulators".^[23][24]

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 later helped the “invaders” avoid punishment after their surrender.^[25] The group organized in Cheyenne and proceeded by a 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.^[26] While on horseback Canton and the gunmen traveled ahead while the party of WSGA officials led by Wolcott followed a safe distance behind.

Battle of KC Ranch

The first target of the WSGA was Nate Champion, who was at the KC Ranch (also known as Kaycee) at that time. The group traveled to the ranch late in the night of Friday April 8, 1892, quietly surrounded the buildings and waited for daybreak.^[27] 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.^[27] Champion was besieged inside the log cabin.

Champion held out for several hours, killing at least four of the vigilantes, and wounding several others.^[10] 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 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."^[28][10]

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.^[28] 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".^[15][29] Two passers-by noticed the ruckus that Saturday afternoon and local rancher Jack Flagg rode to Buffalo (the county seat of Johnson County) where Sheriff Angus raised a posse of 200 men over the next 24 hours and the party set out for the KC on Sunday night, April 10.^[27]

Standoff at the TA Ranch

A map of the TA Ranch during the Johnson County War, depicting the positions of the Invaders, the posse, and the 6th Cavalry

The barn at the TA Ranch, where the "regulators" were besieged by the sheriff's posse.

The WSGA group then headed north on Sunday toward Buffalo to continue its show of force. The posse led by Sheriff Angus, 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. The sheriff's posse besieged them for two days, and constant fighting between the two raged on. Sheriff Angus threatened to either blow up the ranch with dynamite, or force their way in with an improvised battering ram, but was held back by rifle fire. Twenty of the gunmen then tried to escape the barn behind a fusillade, but the posse beat them back and killed three to five.^[27] One of the WSGA group escaped and was able to contact Governor Barber 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:^[30]

Harrison immediately ordered the U.S. 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".^[30] 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 breastworks to shoot gunpowder on the invader's log barn shelter so that it could be set on fire from a distance.^[20][21] The Sixth Cavalry took possession of Wolcott and 45 other men with 45 rifles, 41 revolvers and some 5,000 rounds of ammunition.^[31]

The text of Barber's telegram to the President was printed on the front page of The New York Times on April 14,^[30] and a first-hand account of the siege at the T.A. appeared in The Times and the Chicago Herald and other papers. On May 10th, a Marshall named George Wellman, who had been appointed deputy U.S. Marshall by Marshall Rankin, was ambushed and killed by locals in route to the small community of Buffalo. The incident received national attention, with Wellman being the first Marshall to die in the war.^[32] His death was grieved by a large crowd, and his funeral service took place in St. Lukes Church, Buffalo.

Arrest and legal action

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.^[20][21]

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.^[22] 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.”^[22]

The Invaders however, were protected by a friendly judicial system, and they took advantage of the corruptness held by the cattle barons.^[9] 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.^[21][33]

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.^[34][35]

Final killings

In the fall of 1892, as the aftershock of the stand-off was still rife throughout the county, two alleged horse rustlers were gunned down by range detectives east of the Big Horn River. The killers gradually escaped the law with assistance from Otto Franc, a rancher sided with the large cattle company faction.^[36] Tom Smith, a leader and prominent member of the Invaders, died in an unrelated, but similar raid on a train in the outskirts of Texas in November 3, 1892, a few months after the TA Ranch stand-off. He was currently working as a Deputy Marshall in the Eastern District of Texas, where he carried an infamous reputation for his participation of the Johnson County War.^[37]

In May 24, 1893, Nate Champion's brother, Dudley Champion, came to Wyoming looking for work before being indiscriminately shot and killed. Fifteen miles from town, Dudley came across the ranch of Mike Shonsey, who immediately shot him in cold-blood. A coroner's inquiry ruled Shonsey's actions as self-defense and he was acquitted of the murder. Afterwards, Shonsey left the country before the officials could continue with the investigation.^[38] A year before, Shonsey actually met Nate Champion near the Beaver Creek Canyon, where a fight almost commenced between the two, as Nate suspected that Shonsey was one of the five men who attacked him in his cabin.^[39] He further threatened Shonsey to give up the names of the rest of the assassins. This event made Shonsey harbor hatred for Nate and probably on his brother Dudley as well. Dudley Champion was the last person killed associated with the Johnson County War.^[40]

Aftermath

Ella Watson was lynched in 1889 by wealthy ranchers who accused her of cattle rustling, a charge that was later shown to be false.

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.^[41] 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 the Jesse James gang.^[10][42] These rumors have since been discredited.^[43] 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.^[43] 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 little 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 scandal 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.^[44] Wyoming voted for the Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 U.S. Presidential Election, and Johnson County was one of the two counties in the state with the largest Bryan majorities.^[45]

Economic analysis

Historian Daniel Belgrad argues that in the 1880s centralized range management was emerging as the solution to the overgrazing that had depleted open ranges. Furthermore, cattle prices at the time were low. Larger ranchers were hurt by mavericking (taking lost, unbranded calves from other ranchers' herds), and responded by organizing cooperative roundups, blacklisting, and lobbying for stricter anti-maverick laws. These ranchers formed the WSGA and hired gunmen to hunt down rustlers, but local farmers resented the ranchers' collective political power. The farmers moved toward decentralization and the use of private winter pastures.^[46] Randy McFerrin and Douglas Wills argue that the confrontation represented opposing property rights systems. The result was the end of the open-range system and the ascendancy of large-scale stock ranching and farming. The popular image of the war, however, remains that of vigilantism by aggressive landed interests against small individual settlers defending their rights.^[47] The end of the Johnson County War also signified the end of the open range in Wyoming. By 1893, the WSGA was finally opened to the other small ranchers and farmers, finally eradicating their monopoly and control over Wyoming business interests.^[9]

Legacy

A 7-foot bronze statue memorial of Nate Champion erected near the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum to commemorate his bravery during the Johnson County War.^[23]

The Johnson County War, with its overtones of class warfare and intervention by the President of the United States to save the lives of a gang of hired killers and set them free, is not a flattering reflection on the American myth of the west.^[48] The Johnson County War has been one of the most well-known and popular range wars in the frontier.^[48] Since then, the war and other range conflicts have been incorporated in the Western genre, which includes literature, films and television shows.^[49] The earliest records where written in 1894 by witness Asa Shinn Mercer entitled 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 the 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.^[50] The book was, however, reprinted several times in the 20th century and most recently in 2015. Frances McElrath's novel 1902 The Rustler, took inspiration from the Johnson County War that was sympathetic to the perspective of the small ranchers.^[51]

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.^[52][51] Jack Schaefer's popular 1949 novel Shane contained themes associated with the Johnson County War and took the side of the settlers.^[53] 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 main character, Rooster Cogburn, was involved 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."^[54]

Films such as Heaven's Gate and a TV movie called The Johnson County War, depicted the range war which painted the wealthy ranchers as the "bad guys."^[55] Heaven's Gate was a dramatic romance loosely based on historical events, while The Johnson County War was based on the 1957 novel Riders of Judgment by Frederick Manfred. The range war was also portrayed in an episode of Jim Davis's syndicated western television series Stories of the Century, with Nate Champion played by Henry Brandon and Ella Watson by Jean Parker respectively.^[56]

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.^[57] The Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in Buffalo featured dioramas and exhibits about the Johnson County War, as well as a 7-foot bronze statue of Nate Champion.^[23] Kaycee, Wyoming, the old site of the KC Ranch, also erected the Hoofprints in the Past Museum to pay tribute to the events that happened in the war.

See also

• List of feuds in the United States

References

Citations

Further reading

• Sandoz, Mari (1956). The Cattlemen. New York: Hastings House. ISBN 0803810873. 
• Smith, Helena Huntington (1967). The War on Powder River. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803251882. 
• O'Neal, Bill (2004). The Johnson County War. Austin, TX: Eakin Press. ISBN 1-57168-876-5. 
• Davis, John W. (2010). Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-4106-0. 

External links

• The Johnson County War: 1892 Invasion of Northern Wyoming
• Photographs and a brief account of Johnson County War

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