Cattle Rustling

Elia Watson and James Averell made the mistake of homesteading on land that was previously controlled by a Wyoming cattle king - a mistake that cost them their lives.

As the days of the open range faded, conflicts bewteen the powerful western cattle barons and the homesteaders who had settled on the open ranges became bitter.  The homesteader had every right to their claim of 320 acres of grasslands, but some of the old time ranchers tried to discourage the settlers in hope of preserving more rangeland for their cattle.  Usually this was limited to cutting the settler's barbed wire fences or diverting their irrigation water, but as time went on the tactics became increasingly more violent.

The ranchers would complain that the homesteaders were actually rustlers who stole their cattle and horses.  These were purely exaggerations but the charge of cattle rustling allowed them to take more drastic actions. Such is the case with Watson and Averell.  Watson was a former prostitute from Kansas who came to Wyoming in 1886 and wed Averell, a Wyoming saloonkeeper who had a homestead on the Sweetwater River.

The story goes that they either never really married or kept the marriage a secret so that Watson could file a second homestead near Averell's place.  Both claims were located on lands claimed by powerful racher Albert Bothwell, although he didn't have legal rights to it either.  Bothwell used the lands for grazing his herds and was said to be one of the most arrogant cattleman of the entire region, so it is not surprising that he accused Watson and Averell of rustling.

In 1889, Bothwell and five of his men took the couple prisoner and hanged them.  Bothwell and his men were later charged with murder, but a pro-rancher jury promptly acquitted them.  It was the only incidence of a woman being executed - legally or illegally - in the history of Wyoming.

Next time...the coming of the Railroad