Cattle Kate

by Jana Bommersbach

  On Frances Willard: Called “Saint Frances,” Willard led the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union from 1879 until her death in 1898. In the first nine years of her leadership, she spoke in every American community of ten thousand people and many of five thousand, according to the PBS documentary Prohibition by Ken Burns. History now realizes Prohibition was the nation’s first campaign against domestic violence. A popular Literary Society topic in the 1880s was “Intemperance causes more sorrow than war.”

  On boiling coffee: This is taken from The Old West Quiz & Fact Book by Rod Grace, who recounts that an Eastern matron in a Western train station was dismayed by the boiling hot coffee, when a cowboy came to her rescue, offering her his coffee “that’s already saucered and blowed.”

  On Cheyenne: Ella Watson had arrived in “The Magic City of the Plains.” According to the Cheyenne Centennial report, in the decade of the 1880s, Cheyenne was the wealthiest per capita city in the world. It had the first municipal electric and telephone systems in North America. It would have the first library in the territory when it opened in 1886. The coming capital that the fictional Sally Wills bragged about would be as grand as anyone could imagine, built for the princely sum of one hundred fifty thousand dollars and dedicated on May 18, 1887, just in time for Wyoming to become the forty-fourth state on July 10, 1890. And yes, all the territories would become states—even Arizona, even though it would be the last one, not admitted until 1912 as the forty-eighth state.

  On the Cheyenne Club: There wasn’t a boast about the Cheyenne Club that was over-the-top. Sitting like a beacon on Seventeenth Street, it was about the most lush and exclusive club in the nation. You had to be a member of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association to join and there was always a waiting list. Its description is taken from Wyoming historical records, as is the description of Cheyenne’s major attractions and the Whipple House. The club lost its luster in the early 1900s and the building was eventually used for the Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce until it fell into disrepair and was torn down in 1936.

  On Herefords: Historical records of the Cheyenne Club show they called their white tie and tails “Herefords” in honor of the beloved sturdy beef cattle with white faces and chests. Tuxedos were not yet a common style in America. Herefords and Texas longhorns were the favorite cattle breeds in Wyoming Territory at the time.

  On women homesteaders: In her article “Ella Watson. Rustler or Homesteader” for the Annals of Wyoming magazine, Sharon Leigh wrote in 1992: “The opportunities for women changed dramatically with the passage of the Homestead Law of 1862…. It enabled women to provide for themselves and their families by continuing, for the most part, the same kind of work they were used to doing. However, being able to homestead in their own names changed the power structure of the family as well as the roles of women.”

  In her book, Staking Her Claim, Marcia Hensley estimates as many as two hundred thousand women attempted to homestead and as many as 67,500 were successful. She quotes a study that found before 1900, single women made up twelve percent of homestead claims, and after 1900, about eighteen percent. Nowhere in her excellent book on women homesteaders does Hensley mention the name of Ella Watson, one of the first and few single women homesteaders in Wyoming Territory in the 1880s.

  On the Rock Springs Massacre: By September 2, 1885, the Rock Springs coal mine employed almost six hundred Chinese workers and three hundred whites—all digging up coal to fuel the hungry engines of the Union Pacific Railroad. The portrayal of the massacre is based on the historical record, and an excellent article by Wyoming historian Tom Rea, published on his website.

  Chapter Seven—The Man I Love

  On Rawlins: Rawlins was founded in 1868 as a railroad settlement and incorporated as a city in 1886, according to its official website. It was named for General John A. Rawlins, a decorated Civil War veteran who was guarding a work crew building the Transcontinental Railroad in 1867 when he asked for a drink of fresh water. Scouts went out, bringing back what Rawlins declared as the best water he’d ever tasted. He said he hoped if anything were ever named for him, it would be a good spring. By 1870, Rawlins had 333 electors (mainly men who could vote—but there also were uncounted women and children); in 1884, it had 1,906, according to a report to the Secretary of the Interior. When Ella Watson arrived in Rawlins, in the fall of 1885, it was the second wealthiest area in the territory, with its grazing, mining, and railroads. It was and remains today the county seat of Carbon County.

  On Ella Watson: She is described by her nephew and others as five-foot-eight inches tall and weighing about one hundred seventy pounds.

  On Jim Averell: He is described as five feet six inches, with no weight specified, but his pictures show he was a slight man. Hufsmith’s 1993 book The Wyoming Lynching of Cattle Kate, 1889—considered an authoritative source on the hanging—notes he was called “Jimmy.” He was born March 20, 1851, in Renfrew County, Ontario. He was married in 1882 to Sophia Jaeger, but she died soon after giving birth to a son, who also died. On February 24, 1886, he filed Homestead Claim No.1227 on one hundred sixty acres on Horse Creek.

  On Rawlins House: Mary Hayes and her husband, Larry, originally from Missouri, were among the first businesspeople in Rawlins, Wyoming Territory, arriving with the railroad in 1868, according to an article in the Rawlins Daily Times. They owned and operated the Union Pacific Hotel for a decade—then the city’s “leading establishment,” but moved “uptown” in 1880 when they bought and expanded a boardinghouse they named the Rawlins House, which became “the leading hotel” of the town. Mary Hayes was a strong Irish Catholic woman who demanded decency in the girls who worked for her. Wyoming historian Rans Baker told the author in an interview that Mary Hayes said of Ella Watson, “She was a very fine domestic.” And he noted: “I guarantee you, if Mary Hayes felt Ella was immoral, she wouldn’t have worked in Rawlins House.” Mary Hayes operated Rawlins House until 1900. It was torn down in November, 1958 in the name of “progress” to make way for a parking lot, the Times reported.

  On vinegar pie: Heritage Recipes from Kansas supplied the recipe for Vinegar Pie: “2 tablespoons butter; 1/2 cup sugar; 3 tablespoons flour; 2 teaspoons cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves; 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice; 1 egg, lightly beaten; 2 tablespoons cider vinegar; 1 cup water; 1 pie crust. Cream butter and sugar. Sift together flour and spices, then add to flour mixture, mix well. Beat in egg, vinegar, and water. Pour into double boiler and cook over boiling water until thick. Pour into pie shell and bake about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.”

  On territories: What is now Wyoming was originally part of Dakota Territory, as were North and South Dakota and most of Montana. Wyoming was established as its own territory on July 25, 1868.

  On Ella missing out if she married: The ins and outs of homesteading that Jim tells Ella are based on the rules of the Homestead Act. According to Staking Her Claim, a single woman with a claim was no longer the required “head of household” if she married within the five years of “proving up,” and her claim would revert to her husband. Jim complaining that one hundred sixty acres in Wyoming was way too skimpy was indeed the much-heard complaint about the Homestead Act.

  On Billy Owen: William “Billy” Owen was one of Wyoming’s earliest surveyors and became U.S. mineral surveyor for Wyoming. A partial autobiography—eighty-four typewritten pages, single-spaced, written in about 1930—is on file at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming.

  On Mary Agnes Hellihan: She married Tom Sun in Rawlins in 1883; their descendents still ranch in the Sweetwater Valley. Sun met Mary at the Union Pacific Hotel where she worked for Mary Hayes. They ranched near Devil’s Gate, one of the geological formations in the area.

  On Ella’s claim: Carbon County court records show Ellen L. Watson filed a “squatter’s claim”—Claim No. 2003—to one hundred sixty acres on Horse Creek on August 30, 1886.

  Chapter Eight—The Man I Hate

&n
bsp; On Robin Red Vest: Hufsmith notes this was the derisive nickname for A.J. Bothwell. He details Bothwell’s family history and shenanigans, as does Daniel Y. Meschter, who devoted twenty-five years to researching the legal records of this affair. He self-published his findings in 1996 under the title Sweetwater Sunset. Bothwell was born February 18, 1854, in Iowa, where his well-off parents ran a “temperance” boardinghouse. He was the seventh of eight children and always idolized his older brothers, J.R., Frank, and George. He was an educated man, although tales that he was a Harvard graduate were fabrications. His oldest brother, J.R., was a Civil War quartermaster whose career ended in disgrace when he was court-martialed for stealing the army blind. But J.R. and his brothers went off into one financial scheme after another. Little brother Al decided to show his own mettle when, in about 1880, he tried cattle ranching in Colorado. But he was forced out as homesteaders moved in. By then, his brothers were in Wyoming Territory and lured him over to join their efforts: an oil well that had no oil; a railroad that had no rails. Every adventure brought in lots of investors, but no returns. Finally, Albert John Bothwell decided to try ranching one more time. He established his Broken Box Ranch in the Sweetwater Valley around 1883.

  On John Fales: He was the handyman for Ella and Jim, whose mother made Ella a new bonnet. No physical description of him exists, so his look and personality are the author’s imagination.

  On joke Fales tells Ella: This is paraphrased from the joke “Horse Tale,” found on the Only Funny Jokes website about Old West humor.

  On James Averell: His background is recounted from the documentation of several historians, including Hufsmith and Meschter. Averell enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1871 in Wisconsin, but was soon assigned to Fort Fred Steele near Rawlins, Wyoming Territory. By a string of luck, he missed the major battles of the Indian Wars. His first five-year hitch was uneventful; he was discharged on May 22, 1876, but on June 20, reenlisted for another five years. He was sent to join General George Crook in Wyoming. Three days before Averell reenlisted, Chief Washakie saved General Crook and his men from an ambush by Crazy Horse and a large group of Ogallala Sioux in the Battle of the Rosebud. Had it not been for this battle, General Crook was slated to join George Armstrong Custer in searching out the Sioux in Montana. A month later, on July 25 and 26, 1876, Crazy Horse was among the Indian chiefs who annihilated Custer and his men at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

  On final Pickell divorce: Pickell refused to answer the notices of Ellen’s claim for a divorce, but filed his own, claiming she had abandoned him. The divorce was finally official in early 1886, when Ella was already with Averell, Brumbaugh notes.

  On Jim killing Charlie Johnson: This wasn’t a clear-cut case of self-defense as Averell would always insist. There had been bad blood between the men for months and Averell had even alerted his fort commander that Johnson was out to get him for some slight that was never spelled out. On May 2, 1880, Johnson entered the bar in Buffalo and called Averell a “cowardly son of a bitch,” demanding a fistfight. Johnson did not draw his revolver, but Averell had his out and shot at the advancing Johnson three times. While there was agreement on the first two shots, there was a conflict on the fatal third shot. Not everyone agreed Johnson had spun around when he was shot in the leg. Some say he was “rushing for the door” when he was shot in the back. The next day, Averell wrote to a prominent friend asking for help and declaring “I was compelled to do so or be shot myself.” Before Johnson died several days later, he told a court official that he had no intention of killing Averell but, “My intentions were to settle the afare [sic] between us with a fistfight. I drew no weapon.” After many delays over the next year, the court got weary of the case and used the excuse of it being a military matter to get rid of it. This information came from several sources, including Grand Jury testimony, May 5, 1880, Wyoming State Museum, Meschter and Hufsmith.

  On handcarts: “Tongue nor pen can ever tell the sorrow,” says a heartbreaking film on the tragic 1856 Mormon handcart disaster at the Handcart Historic Site operated by the Mormon Church on Tom Sun’s original ranch. The site is open daily and proves a memorable visit. Mormons fled from Illinois to the Utah Territory after the murder of their founder, Joseph Smith, in 1844. Brigham Young became their new leader and founded Salt Lake City as their heaven on earth. He promised Mormons religious freedom, and an opportunity to build a wonderful new life. At first, converts came by wagon trains, but he realized many of his converts couldn’t afford that expense. Brigham Young came up with the idea of handcarts—people would pull their own wooden carts almost a thousand miles from Iowa or Nebraska to Salt Lake City. As incredible as that sounds, it was embraced by many, including hundreds of foreign converts who’d immigrated to America so they could find their Zion in Salt Lake City. It actually worked, until disaster hit when two companies of handcarts started out from Nebraska in August of 1856—way too late to get through Wyoming before winter. The converts in the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies were converts from England and Scotland. The snows came early that year, and while some wanted to turn back until spring, others pressured to move forward. They got as far as Devil’s Gate and couldn’t make it any farther. The lucky ones froze to death. The unlucky ones starved to death. Children watched their parents die and parents watched their children perish. A thousand people started out and over two hundred died. Brigham Young wasn’t aware these two units were still out there. Although he eventually tried to save them, it was too late. He canceled all future handcart travel.

  On Big Nose George: Averell was in jail with Big Nose George at the time of his lynching, confirms Wyoming historian Rans Baker. A mob pulled George from jail, tied his hands behind his back, put him on an empty kerosene barrel with a rope tied around his neck and kicked out the barrel. But the rope broke, allowing George to fall to the ground “where he begged to be shot,” according to “The Legend of Big Nose George” pamphlet published by the Carbon County Museum. As the lynch mob got a ladder and a heavier rope, George managed to untie his hands. When the ladder was pulled away, he was able to hold himself for a time but eventually, “gravity pulled him down, slowly choking him to death.” The body was left hanging for several hours, and when it was inspected, it was found to have no ears, as the hanging rope had worn them off. His body was skinned; the flesh was tanned and made into a pair of shoes proudly worn by John Osborne, the first Democratic governor of the State of Wyoming, to his inaugural ball in 1893. The Carbon County Museum, 904 W. Walnut Street, Rawlins, displays Big Nose’s death mask, lower skull, and the infamous shoes.

  On Yellowstone: The idea of setting aside land for the public’s benefit was revolutionary when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating the first national park in the world—Yellowstone National Park, on March 1, 1872. It covered two million acres in the northwest corner of Wyoming Territory and spilled into Idaho and Montana territories. The bill protected Yellowstone from private greed and ordered the area be “dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” notes “The Place where Hell Bubbled Up” by David A. Clary, Office of Publications, National Park Service, 1972. But the idea of a national preserve continued to be controversial, and Yellowstone had none of the protections found today for the national park system. It was defenseless to “poachers, squatters, woodcutters, vandals and firebugs,” Clary reports. In 1883 Congress debated the value of such publicly owned land, with some arguing that private enterprise should be in charge. In 1886, Congress stripped all money to protect Yellowstone and the Secretary of the Interior called on the Secretary of War for help. After August 20, 1886, Yellowstone came under the protection of the U.S. Army.

  On brush in front of teepee: According to Grace Raymond Hebard’s Washakie: Chief of the Shoshones, brush in front of a teepee meant the occupants were away but returning, while graves were often adorned with a cherished item of the deceased.

  On their weddin
g: Public records show that James Averell, thirty-five, and Ellen Liddy Andrews, twenty-four, applied for a marriage license in Lander, Fremont County, Wyoming, 105 miles west of the Sweetwater Valley. The license was issued on May 17, 1886. The application and the marriage license were signed by the county clerk and include the county’s seal. A third document, a “certificate of marriage,” was not filled out or signed. Hufsmith says it wasn’t uncommon for this last document to be overlooked, since the marriage license was already signed and sealed. Historians are unanimous in agreeing that Ellen Liddy Andrews was Ellen Watson. They surmise she changed her name just enough to protect her homestead claim in case this license would be discovered before her land was “proved up.” If the marriage had been discovered, she would have lost her own claim and it would become her husband’s.

  Chapter Nine—My Claim, No. 2003

  On items stocked at the roadhouse: These were gleaned from a variety of sources, including The White House Cookbook; The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, and Mrs. Snow’s Practical Cook Book.

  On Irish potato soup: Ella’s recipe from a historic cookbook started with washing and peeling six large potatoes, cutting them thin, like she cut the four onions. Into a pot they went, with a couple chicken cubes, six pieces of chopped celery, dried parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. She covered the pot and heated them to soften, then added four cups of milk and stirred it all until the soup thickened. To top it off, she stirred in three cups of grated cheese.

  On Canzada and Boney Earnest: The true stories told of Canzada outwitting the highway men and the couple’s friendship with famous western characters comes from Ruth Bebe’s Reminiscing Along the Sweetwater. Bebe is the daughter of cowpuncher Joe Sharp, who was horrified by the hanging of Ella and Jim and confronted Bothwell about it the day after the hanging. Sharp later helped with Jim’s estate and bought Jim’s elaborate wall clock, that ended up in Ruth Beebe’s home. Beebe’s thorough and wonderful history of the Sweetwater Valley was an invaluable help to this author. But her Reminiscing, published in 1973, does not include any discussion of the hanging. It wasn’t until a 1997 book by Mark Junge, The Wind is my Witness: A Wyoming Album, that the chapter on Ruth Beebe explained why: She said she went to see the descendants of Tom Sun “and told them that I was going to write a book, try to write a history of the Sweetwater Valley and its occupants, and how they came there and different things that happened. Oh, they just jumped on me and they said, ‘You can’t write a book!’ I taught school for thirty years, but they said, ‘You can’t write a book. No, that’s impossible.’ And just shoved me off. I went home and I said to my sister, ‘Why don’t they think I can write a history of it?’ She said, ‘Because they think that you’re going to expose that Cattle Kate thing again.’ So I went back down and told them that I didn’t intend to mention Cattle Kate, and I was gonna leave that part out. And they went to their museums, they got papers out, they got history of different things out that the first Mr. Sun had compiled, and they helped an awful lot with my book.”