104-573: Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer and historian, considered the "father" of western fiction . He is best remembered for writing The Virginian and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant . Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown , a neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician raised at Grumblethorpe in Germantown. He
208-458: A Philadelphia firm but was never truly interested in that career. He was interested in politics, however, and was a staunch supporter of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt . Harvard's Board of Overseers had Theodore Roosevelt as a member in 1916 and Owen Wister as a member in 1918. In the 1930s, Wister opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal . Wister began his literary work in 1882, publishing The New Swiss Family Robinson ,
312-649: A cabin near the Middle Fork of the Powder River when a group of armed men went inside. Only two were able to fit into the small cabin while four others stood by outside. Champion was immediately awakened by the intrusion, and as the gunmen pointed their weapons at him, Champion reached for his own pistol hidden under a pillow and a shootout commenced. Champion successfully shot two of the gunmen, mortally wounding and killing assassin Billy Lykins. The rest of
416-502: A cannon but was turned down. A blacksmith named Rap Brown tried to build his own cannon, but it exploded when he first tested it. He then built a siege engine which the posse referred to as a "go-devil' or "ark of safety" - a large, bullet-resistant wagon that would help the settlers get close to the ranch so they could throw dynamite at the Invaders. Fortunately for the Invaders, one of their members, Mike Shonsey, managed to slip from
520-518: A catch-all allegation of rustling against their competition. Hostilities worsened when the Wyoming legislature passed the Maverick Act, which stated that all unbranded cattle in the open range automatically belonged to the large ranchers. The cattle barons also held a firm grip on Wyoming's stock interests by limiting the number of small ranchers and grangers who could participate, including in
624-501: A highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War , and taking the side of the large landowners. This is widely regarded as being the first cowboy novel, though many modern scholars argue that this distinction belongs to Emma Ghent Curtis 's The Administratrix, published over ten years earlier. The Virginian was reprinted fourteen times in eight months. It stands as one of the top 50 best-selling works of fiction and
728-580: A homemade bomb in the cavalry's barracks. Noted officer Charles B. Gatewood was seriously injured by the bomb blast in the barracks, shattering his left arm and ending his cavalry career. The Ninth Cavalry of " Buffalo Soldiers " was ordered to Fort McKinney to replace the Sixth, commanded by Major Charles S. Isley. In a fortnight the Buffalo Soldiers moved from Nebraska to the rail town of Suggs, Wyoming , where they created "Camp Bettens" to quell
832-401: A lifelong friend. When he started writing, Wister naturally inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier. His most famous work remains the 1902 novel The Virginian , a complex mixture of persons, places and events dramatized from experience, word of mouth, and his own imagination – ultimately creating the archetypal cowboy , who is a natural aristocrat , set against
936-821: A member of The Franklin Inn Club , a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University. He was also an elected member of the American Philosophical Society . In 1898, Wister married Mary Channing, his second cousin. The couple had six children. Mary died during childbirth in 1913. Their daughter, Mary Channing Wister, married artist Andrew Dasburg in 1933. In 1938, Wister died at his home in Saunderstown, Rhode Island . He
1040-554: A number of Western titles, including Hopalong Cassidy from 1948 to 1953. They also published comics starring actors known for their Western roles, including Tom Mix Western (1948–1953) and Gabby Hayes Western (1948–1953). Similarly, Dell Comics published Roy Rogers comics from 1948 to 1961, and Magazine Enterprises published Charles Starrett as the Durango Kid from 1949 to 1955. The Franco-Belgian comic-series Lucky Luke by Morris (cartoonist) and René Goscinny
1144-581: A parody of the 1812 novel The Swiss Family Robinson . It was so well received that Mark Twain wrote a letter to Wister praising it. Wister had spent several summers in the American West , making his first trip to the Territory of Wyoming in 1885, planning to shoot big game, fish trout, meet the Indians, and spend nights in the wild. Like his friend Teddy Roosevelt , Wister was fascinated with
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#17327981603151248-542: A range detective and member of the Invaders, mysteriously disappeared. In the fall of 1892, as the aftershocks of the stand-off were still being felt throughout the county, two alleged horse rustlers were gunned down by range detectives east of the Big Horn River . The killers escaped the law with assistance from Otto Franc , a rancher who had sided with the large cattle company faction. On May 24, 1893, Champion's brother, Dudley, came to Wyoming looking for work and
1352-453: A reputation as a lethal gunman. At a young age he had worked as a cowboy in Texas, and in 1871 he started a career in robbery and cattle rustling, as well as killing a Buffalo Soldier on October 10, 1874. Historian Harry Sinclair Drago described Canton as a "merciless, congenital, emotionless killer. For pay, he murdered eight—very likely ten—men." On July 20, 1889, a range detective from
1456-550: A seminal 1902 western novel by Owen Wister , took the side of the wealthy ranchers, creating a myth of the Johnson County War, but bore little resemblance to a factual account of the actual characters and events. Jack Schaefer 's popular 1949 novel Shane treated themes associated with the Johnson County War and took the side of the settlers. The 1953 film The Redhead from Wyoming , starring Maureen O'Hara, dealt with similar themes; in one scene O'Hara's character
1560-558: A senior Wister wrote the Hasty Pudding's then most successful show, Dido and Aeneas , whose proceeds aided in the construction of their theater. Wister graduated from Harvard in 1882. At first he aspired to a career in music and spent two years studying at a Paris conservatory . Thereafter, he worked briefly in a bank in New York before studying law; he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1888. Following this, he practiced with
1664-661: A specialized genre got its start in the " penny dreadfuls " and later the " dime novels ". Published in June 1860, Malaeska; the Indian Wife of the White Hunter is considered the first dime novel. These cheaply made books were hugely successful and capitalized on the many stories that were being told about the mountain men , outlaws , settlers, and lawmen who were taming the western frontier. Many of these novels were fictionalized stories based on actual people, such as Billy
1768-454: A trilogy of Western novels: The Englishman's Boy , The Last Crossing , and A Good Man . Other more recent Western authors include Ivan Doig and William Kittredge . The genre has seen the rumblings of a revival, and 2008 saw the publication of an all-Western short story magazine Great Western Fiction which was published by Dry River Publishing in Colorado . Nevertheless, the magazine
1872-686: Is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia . In 1976, Wister was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum . Since 1978, University of Wyoming Student Publications has published the literary and arts magazine Owen Wister Review . The magazine was published bi-annually until 1996 and became an annual publication in the spring of 1997. Mount Wister , just within
1976-534: Is considered by Hollywood experts to be the basis for the modern fictional cowboy portrayed in literature, film, and television. In 1904 Wister collaborated with Kirke La Shelle on a successful stage adaptation of The Virginian that featured Dustin Farnum in the title role. Farnum reprised the role ten years later in Cecil B. DeMille 's film adaptation of the play. Wister was a member of several literary societies,
2080-510: Is nearly universally accepted that the "Hollywood cowboy" was, and still is, based on this book. Western fiction Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and Louis L'Amour from the mid-20th century. The genre peaked around
2184-457: Is one of the most famous and estimated Western-comics in Europe. The popular Western comic strip Red Ryder was syndicated in hundreds of American newspapers from 1938 to 1964. In the 1970s, the work of Louis L'Amour began to catch hold of most western readers and he has dominated the western reader lists ever since. George G. Gilman also maintained a cult following for several years in
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#17327981603152288-415: 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 Cogburn 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
2392-583: The Battle of Suggs . Another two detachments were sent and this time the locals allowed the soldiers to investigate but no one was convicted. Another buffalo soldier, by the name of Brown, was also murdered, when a cowboy shot him while both were in a rifle range. Johnson and Brown were buried next to each other, and these events forced the Army to retire the regiment from the place in November 1892. Phil DuFran,
2496-497: The Beaver Creek Canyon , where a fight almost commenced between the two as Champion suspected that Shonsey was one of the five men who had attacked him in his cabin. He further threatened Shonsey and demanded he give up the names of the rest of the assassins. This event made Shonsey harbor hatred toward Champion and probably toward his brother Dudley as well. Dudley Champion was the last person killed in association with
2600-523: The Lady Baltimore cake is that Alicia Rhett Mayberry, a Southern belle , baked and served the cake to Wister in Charleston, South Carolina . Wister was said to have been so enamored with the cake that he used it as the namesake of his novel, Lady Baltimore . Many movie industry historians will agree that most, if not all, westerns can be claimed to contain influences from The Virginian . It
2704-577: The War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War , was a range conflict that took place in Johnson County , Wyoming from 1889 to 1893. The conflict began when cattle companies started ruthlessly persecuting alleged rustlers in the area, many of whom were settlers who competed with them for livestock, land and water rights. As violence swelled between the large established ranchers and
2808-576: The Western genre . 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 new immigrants for the first time through the Homestead Acts . It is a period that one historian, Richard Maxwell Brown, has called the "Western Civil War of Incorporation", of which
2912-539: 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. The first target of the WSGA was Nate Champion, who was at the KC Ranch at that time. They were tasked to perform the assassination that others had failed to carry out five months before. The group traveled to
3016-411: The "Best Western Writer of All Time". Early in the 1970s Indiana novelist Marilyn Durham wrote two popular Western novels, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing and Dutch Uncle . Western readership as a whole began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s. A partial exception was an innovation, the so-called "adult western". As Robert J. Randisi puts it, "it's a western novel with sex in it. That's right,
3120-415: The 1894 printing; they were rumored to have hijacked and destroyed the second printing as it was being shipped from a printer north of Denver, Colorado . The book was reprinted several times in the 20th century and most recently in 2015. Frances McElrath's 1902 novel The Rustler , took inspiration from the Johnson County War, and was sympathetic to the perspective of the small ranchers. The Virginian ,
3224-702: The 1920s, Western fiction greatly benefited (as did the author Max Brand , who excelled at the western short story). Pulp magazines that specialised in Westerns include Cowboy Stories , Ranch Romances , Star Western , West , and Western Story Magazine . The simultaneous popularity of Western movies in the 1920s also helped the genre. In the 1940s several seminal Westerns were published, including The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter van Tilburg Clark , The Big Sky (1947) and The Way West (1949) by A.B. Guthrie Jr. , and Shane (1949) by Jack Schaefer . Many other Western authors gained readership in
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3328-524: The 1950s, such as Ray Hogan, Louis L'Amour , and Luke Short . The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the tremendous number of Westerns on television . The burnout of the American public on television Westerns in the late 1960s seemed to have an effect on the literature as well, and interest in Western literature began to wane. In 1968 Charles Portis published True Grit , which became
3432-467: The 1970s and 1980s. Larry McMurtry 's and Cormac McCarthy 's works remain notable. Specifically, McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and McCarthy's Blood Meridian (both published in 1985) are recognized as major masterpieces both within and beyond the genre. Elmer Kelton , mostly noted for his novels The Good Old Boys and The Time it Never Rained , was voted by the Western Writers of America as
3536-484: The 23 hired guns from Texas. To lead the expedition, the WSGA hired Frank M. 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, real or alleged, they killed. The group became known as the "Invaders", or alternately, "Wolcott's Regulators". John Clay, a prominent Wyoming businessman,
3640-659: The Averells was followed by the lynching of Tom Waggoner, a horse trader from Newcastle, Wyoming, in June 1891. A friend of Waggoner named Jimmy the Butcher, who was once arrested for rustling cattle belonging to the Standard Cattle Company, was also murdered. Range detective Tom Smith killed a suspected rustler, and when he was indicted for murder, political connections to the WSGA secured his release. These killings precipitated more hostilities and violence in
3744-500: The Century , with Henry Brandon as Nate Champion and Jean Parker as Ella Watson. American Heroes Channel presented the Johnson County War in the sixth episode of their Blood Feuds series documentary. 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
3848-708: 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. Historian Daniel Belgrad argues that in the 1880s centralized range management was emerging as the solution to the overgrazing that had depleted open ranges. Moreover, cattle prices at the time were low. Larger ranchers also 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
3952-403: The Johnson County War was a part. In the early days of Wyoming , most of the land was in public domain , which was open to stock raising as an open range and farmlands for homesteading . Large numbers of cattle were turned loose on the open range by ranches . Each spring, round-ups were held to separate the cattle belonging to different ranchers. Before a round-up, an orphan or stray calf
4056-490: The Johnson County War. Emotions ran high for many years afterward. Some considered the large and wealthy ranchers as heroes who had sought what they regarded as justice by using violence to defend what they regarded as their rights to range land and water rights, while others saw the WSGA as heavy-handed outlaw vigilantes running roughshod over the law. A number of tall tales were spun by both sides afterwards to make their actions appear morally justified. Parties sympathetic to
4160-462: The Johnson County War." Films such as Heaven's Gate (1980) and The Johnson County War (TV-movie, 2002) painted the wealthy ranchers as the "bad guys". 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
4264-565: The Kid , Buffalo Bill , Wyatt Earp (who was still alive at the time), Wild Bill Hickok , and Jesse James . By 1900, the new medium of pulp magazines helped to relate these adventures to easterners. Meanwhile, non-American authors, like the German Karl May , picked up the genre, went to full novel length, and made it hugely popular and successful in continental Europe from about 1880 on, though they were generally dismissed as trivial by
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4368-717: 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 Herald and other papers. The WSGA group was taken to Cheyenne to be held at the barracks of Fort D.A. Russell (currently Francis E. Warren Air Force Base ) since the Laramie County Jail was unable to hold that many prisoners. They received preferential treatment and were allowed to roam
4472-515: The President, informing him of the increasingly dangerous "insurrection" in Johnson County. 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". The Sixth Cavalry from Fort McKinney near Buffalo, Wyoming,
4576-843: The Southern bias of the novel. Wister briefly attended schools in Switzerland and Britain, and later studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts , where he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals , and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter). Wister was also a member of the Porcellian Club , through which he became lifelong friends with future 26th President Theodore Roosevelt . As
4680-575: The Texans was recounted by cowboy John J. Baker, where the Texans ambushed and killed nine trappers whom they mistook for rustlers in Big Dry Creek, Wyoming. They received a $ 450 bonus for the slaughter. Soon, 23 gunmen from Paris, Texas , and 4 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, as well as William C. Irvine and Hubert Teshemacher, who had both been instrumental in
4784-438: 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. 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 dominance of large-scale stock ranching and farming. The popular image of
4888-488: The WSGA named George Henderson accused Ella Watson (better known as Cattle Kate ), a local rancher, of stealing cattle from a fellow rancher by the name of Albert John Bothwell. The cattlemen sent riders to seize Watson before capturing her husband Jim Averell as well. Both of them were subsequently lynched. This gruesome act was one of the rare cases in the Old West in which a woman was lynched, an event that appalled many of
4992-420: The annual round-ups. They also forbade their employees from owning cattle for fear of additional competition, and they threatened anyone they suspected to be rustlers. Although at a financial disadvantage, the homesteaders outnumbered the cattle barons significantly, and they tried to use this to win court cases by participating in the jury . However, records showed that they were still not successful. Many of
5096-408: The arrest of all of them." The Invaders, however, were protected by a friendly judicial system, and they took advantage of the cattle barons' corruption. Charges against the men "high in authority" in Wyoming were never filed. Eventually they 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
5200-500: The assassination squad subsequently fled. Champion was left uninjured except for some facial burns from gunpowder. In a subsequent investigation of the attack, the names of those involved were leaked to two ranchers: John A. Tisdale and Orley "Ranger" Jones. However, both men were ambushed and murdered while they were riding, which outraged many of the small ranchers and farmers in the county. The WSGA, led by Frank Wolcott (WSGA member and large North Platte rancher), hired gunmen with
5304-576: The association such as Frank Wolcott, Frank M. Canton and Tom Smith later left the area. The Johnson County War, with its overtones of class warfare coupled with the intervention ordered 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 . The Johnson County War has been one of
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#17327981603155408-434: The back door with a six-shooter in one hand and either a knife or a rifle in the other. As he emerged, the Invaders shot him dead. The killers pinned a note on Champion's bullet-riddled chest that read, "Cattle thieves beware". Flagg, after escaping his pursuers, rode to Buffalo where he reported Champion's dilemma to the townsfolk. Sheriff Angus then raised a posse of 200 men, many of whom were Civil War veterans, over
5512-544: The barn and was able to contact Governor Barber the next day. Frantic efforts to save the WSGA group ensued, and two days into the siege, late on the night of April 12, 1892, Governor Barber telegraphed President Benjamin Harrison a plea for help. For unknown reasons, the telegram failed to reach President Harrison, so Wyoming senators Joseph M. Carey and Francis E. Warren visited the White House in person and woke
5616-418: 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
5720-468: The best-known range wars of the frontier. It has been a popular feature of the Western genre of fiction, which includes literature, films and television shows. The Banditti of the Plains , written in 1894 by witness Asa Mercer , is the earliest record of the Johnson County War. The book was suppressed for many years by the WSGA, who seized and destroyed all but a few of the first edition copies from
5824-601: 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 Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in Buffalo featured dioramas and exhibits about the Johnson County War, as well as a 7-foot (2.1 m) bronze statue of Nate Champion. Kaycee, Wyoming, the old site of the KC Ranch, also erected the Hoofprints in the Past Museum to commemorate
5928-472: The charges were dropped on the excuse that Johnson County refused to pay for the costs of the long 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 for them Tensions in Johnson County remained high. On May 9, U.S. Marshal George Wellman was ambushed and killed by locals en route to the town of Buffalo. The incident received national attention, with Wellman being
6032-453: The community, making it more difficult for detectives to differentiate the criminals and the innocent homesteaders. Rustling in the local area was likely increasing because of the harsh grazing conditions, and the illegal exploits of organized groups of rustlers were becoming well publicized in the late 1880s. Well-armed outfits of horse and cattle rustlers roamed across various portions of Wyoming and Montana , with Montana vigilantes such as
6136-509: The county as well after a shootout with unknown suspects, and was presumed to be hiding or murdered. Ralph Cole, another nephew of Averell's, died on the day of the trial from poisoning. Enemies of the WSGA soon fought back. Henderson, the range detective who had accused Watson, was murdered near Sweetwater Creek in October 1890. The cattle barons soon tightened their control and hunted down those who tried to oppose them. The double lynching of
6240-415: The cowboy has sex with women. A new idea? Probably not, but heretofore this had not been seen in western novels (certainly not by Max Brand, Zane Grey, Owen Wister or Louis L'Amour). What these books actually showed was that men and women really did have sex in the old west. (Back when I started the series a rigidly traditional western writer of my acquaintance insisted to me that "women did not have orgasms in
6344-477: The culture, lore and terrain of the region. He was "...struck with wonder and delight, had the eye to see and the talent to portray the life unfolding in America. After six journeys [into the dying 'wild west'] for pleasure, he gave up the profession of law...", and became the writer he is better known as. On an 1893 visit to Yellowstone National Park , Wister met the western artist Frederic Remington , who remained
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#17327981603156448-408: The early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised Westerns such as Bonanza . Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside a few west American states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books. The predecessor of the Western in American literature emerged early with tales of the frontier . The most famous of
6552-628: The early 19th-century frontier novels were James Fenimore Cooper 's five novels comprising the Leatherstocking Tales . Cooper's novels were largely set in what was at the time the American frontier : the Appalachian Mountains and areas west of there. As did his novel The Prairie (1824), most later westerns would typically take place west of the Mississippi River . The notable writer Washington Irving
6656-512: 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. Although many of the leaders of the WSGA's hired force, such as William 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
6760-493: The eventual murder of 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
6864-461: The founding members were mostly western fiction writers, the organization began getting a number of other members from other backgrounds such as historians, regional history buffs, and writers from other genres. Western Fictioneers, founded in 2010, is a professional writers' group that encourages and promotes the traditional Westerns. It is the only professional writers' organization composed entirely of authors who have written Western fiction. Fans of
6968-554: The genre may join as patron members. The Western Fictioneers' annual Peacemakers competition awards prizes in many categories of Western writing. Johnson County War Homesteaders [REDACTED] United States Army Frank Wolcott Frank M. Canton [REDACTED] Amos W. Barber Nate Champion † William "Red" Angus [REDACTED] Benjamin Harrison [REDACTED] J.J. Van Horn [REDACTED] Charles B. Gatewood [REDACTED] Charles S. Isley The Johnson County War , also known as
7072-415: The ground for cover and killing the Invaders' horses to prevent them from escaping. The New York Times reported that twenty men tried to escape behind a fusillade, but the posse beat them back and killed three to five. Another Texas gunman, named Alex Lowther, accidentally shot himself mortally in the groin during the fight. As the siege dragged on, a settler rode off to Fort McKinney requesting to borrow
7176-485: The ground, discharging and hitting his knee. He was later escorted by two others to Fort McKinney to seek treatment, but died in the fort one or two days later from gangrene. The sheriff's posse finally reached the remaining Invaders holed up in a log barn at the TA Ranch, but the latter managed to hold them back, resulting in a siege that would last for three days. The posse surrounded the whole ranch, building pits on
7280-415: The gunmen opened fire on the cabin, Champion dragged the mortally wounded Ray back to the cabin. Ray died hours later, and Champion was left besieged inside the log cabin alone. Champion held out for several hours, wounding three of the vigilantes, and was said to have killed four others. Another settler by the name of Jack Flagg passed by Champion's ranch on his wagon together with his stepson and witnessed
7384-467: The homesteaders, and believed that the cattle barons were abusing the homesteaders. In March 1892, the cattlemen sent agents to Texas from Cheyenne and Idaho to recruit gunmen and finally carry out their plans for exterminating the homesteaders. This group became known as the "Invaders". The cattle barons had always used hired guns from Texas to take out suspected rustlers and scare away the nesters in Wyoming. One particular act of violence perpetrated by
7488-461: 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." The Invaders continued to shoot at the cabin while others set it on fire using a wagon they managed to steal from Flagg. Champion signed his journal entry and put it in his pocket before running from
7592-567: The infamous Stuart's Stranglers declaring "War on the Rustlers" in 1884. Bandits taking refuge in the infamous hideout known as the Hole-in-the-Wall were also preying upon the herds. Frank M. Canton , Sheriff of Johnson County in the early 1880s and better known as a detective for the WSGA, was a prominent figure in supposedly eliminating these criminals from Wyoming. Before the events in Johnson County, Canton had already developed
7696-487: The intention of eliminating alleged rustlers in Johnson County and breaking up the NWFSGA. 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 for the criminal activity in the state. Former cowboy, Indian War veteran, and Sheriff of Buffalo (the county seat of Johnson County), William "Red" Angus , supported
7800-492: The invaders painted Watson as a prostitute and cattle rustler. They painted Averell as her murderous partner in crime and pimp and Nate Champion as the leader of a vast cattle rustling empir. They claimed that he was a leading member of the fabled "Red Sash Gang" of outlaws that supposedly included the likes of the Jesse James gang. These claims have since been discredited. While men frequently visited Watson's cabin, this
7904-839: The large ranching outfits in Wyoming were organized as the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (the WSGA) and gathered socially at 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. The WSGA also employed an agency of detectives to investigate cases of cattle theft from its members' holdings. Grangers and rustlers often intermixed with one another in
8008-547: The literary critics of the day. One of the most famous pulp works of the era was Johnston McCulley 's first Zorro novel, The Curse of Capistrano (1919). Popularity grew with the publication of Owen Wister 's novel The Virginian (1902) and especially Zane Grey 's Riders of the Purple Sage (1912). The first Hopalong Cassidy stories by Clarence Mulford appeared in 1904, both as dime novels and in pulp magazines . When pulp magazines exploded in popularity in
8112-440: The local population. Reception from the settlers was negative and in one violent incident a gunfight erupted between them and some Buffalo Soldiers who entered the town. After being initially driven off, 20 more soldiers slipped from the camp to exact revenge, but the locals fought back, resulting in the death of one Buffalo Soldier named Private Willis Johnson, and the wounding of two other soldiers. The brief skirmish became known as
8216-459: The local residents and paved the way for future events in the war. 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 who were to testify against the aggressors. One of those witnesses was young Gene Crowder, who mysteriously disappeared under unknown circumstances before the trial. Another, Averell's nephew and foreman Frank Buchanan, disappeared from
8320-463: 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 Invader's plans reportedly included
8424-452: The most successful work of the era. Western novels, films and pulps gave birth to Western comics , which were very popular, particularly from the late 1940s until c. 1967 , when the comics began to turn to reprints. This can particularly be seen at Marvel Comics , where Westerns began c. 1948 and thrived until 1967, when one of their flagship titles, Kid Colt Outlaw (1949–1979), ceased to have new stories and entered
8528-643: The next 24 hours and 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. By early morning of the 11th however, news quickly came of a large hostile force heading towards them. They quickly rode and took refuge in the TA Ranch in Crazy Woman Creek . During their flight, one of the Texans by the name of Jim Dudley accidentally shot himself when his horse bucked and his rifle fell to
8632-430: The old west.")." Readership of western fiction reached a new low in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and most bookstores, outside a few western states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books. Nevertheless, several Western fiction series are published monthly, such as The Trailsman , Slocum , Longarm and The Gunsmith ; these are all "adult westerns". Canadian author Guy Vanderhaeghe wrote
8736-411: The only marshal to die in the war. Wellman had been one of the hired guns who joined the Invaders, and his death was grieved by a large crowd. The Sixth Cavalry, sent to relieve the county of its violence, was said to be influenced by intense local political and social pressure, and they were unable to keep the peace. One infamous event occurred when a group of men set fire to the post exchange and planted
8840-498: The organization of the State of Wyoming four years earlier, also joined the band. They were accompanied by surgeon Charles Bingham 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 which consisted of cattlemen, range detectives, and
8944-410: The ranch late 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 going to spend 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. As
9048-553: The reprint phase. Other notable long-running Marvel Western comics included Rawhide Kid (1955–1957, 1960–1979) Two-Gun Kid (1948–1962), and Marvel Wild Western (1948–1957). DC Comics published the long-running series All-Star Western (1951–1961) and Western Comics (1948–1961), and Charlton Comics published Billy the Kid (1957–1983) and Cheyenne Kid (1957–1973). Magazine Enterprises ' Straight Arrow ran from 1950 to 1956, and Prize Comics ' Prize Comics Western ran from 1948 to 1956. Fawcett Comics published
9152-473: 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 1892 and taking control of both houses of the state legislature in that election. Wyoming voted for
9256-539: The siege. The Invaders recognized Flagg as one of the men on the list and they started shooting at him. Flagg then rode away and, as the Invaders gave chase, he grabbed his rifle and beat them back. 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
9360-569: The smaller settlers in the state, it culminated in the Powder River Country , when the ranchers hired gunmen , who invaded the county. The gunmen's initial incursion in the territory alerted the small farmers and ranchers, as well as the state lawmen , and they formed a posse of 200 men that led to a grueling standoff which ended when the United States Cavalry on the orders of President Benjamin Harrison relieved
9464-450: The stock interests. The WSGA then blacklisted members of the NWFSGA from the round-ups in order to stop their operations. However, the NWFSGA refused the orders to disband and instead publicly announced their plans to hold their own round-up in the spring of 1892. Soon, the prominent cattlemen sent out an assassination squad to kill Champion on the morning of November 1, 1891. Champion and another man, named Ross Gilbertson, were sleeping in
9568-504: The two forces, although further fighting persisted. The events have since become a highly mythologized and symbolic story of the Wild West and over the years variations of the story have come to include some of its most famous historical figures. In addition to being one of the best-known range wars of the American frontier, its themes, especially class warfare , served as a basis for numerous popular novels, films and television shows in
9672-411: The war, however, remains that of vigilantism by aggressive landed interests against small individual settlers defending their rights. By 1893, the WSGA was opened to the other small ranchers and farmers, finally ending their monopoly and control over Wyoming business interests. Previous practices of the WSGA, such as vigilantism and confiscation of cattle, were finally stopped. Many prominent leaders of
9776-407: The wealthier ranchers and smaller settlers of relatively modest means steadily aggravated after the harsh winter of 1886–1887 , when a series of blizzards and temperatures of –40 to –50 °F (–40 to –45 °C), followed by an extremely hot and dry summer, ravaged the frontier. Thousands of cattle were lost in the calamity. To protect whatever livestock survived, the cattle barons reacted with
9880-554: The western boundary of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, is named for him. Near a house that Wister built near La Mesa, California , but never occupied due to his wife's death, is a street called Wister Drive. In the same neighborhood are Virginian Lane and Molly Woods Avenue (named for a character in The Virginian ). All of those streets were named by Wister himself. The most popular legend of
9984-488: The years to come. After the lynchings of their prominent competitors, the WSGA's control over the range was undisputed, until a group of smaller ranchers formed the Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Growers' Association (NWFSGA) to compete with the WSGA, led by a local cowboy named Nate Champion . Upon hearing this, members of the WSGA immediately viewed the new association as a threat to their hold on
10088-513: Was a distant cousin of Sally Wister through his descent from John Wister (born Johannes Wüster) (1708–1789), brother of Caspar Wistar . His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of Fanny Kemble , a British actress, and Pierce Mease Butler . Pierce Mease Butler, heir to a fabulous fortune, was a notorious profligate, gambler, and slaveowner. In 1906 Wister wrote a novel, Lady Baltimore , glorifying plantation life. His friend and Harvard classmate, Theodore Roosevelt , wrote to him criticizing
10192-543: Was because she mended clothing for cowboys as a source of income. 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
10296-598: Was inspired by Cooper and wrote tales of the American frontier beginning with A Tour on the Prairies which related his recent travels on the frontier. In 1834, he was approached by fur magnate John Jacob Astor , who convinced him to write a history of his fur trading colony in Astoria, Oregon . Irving made quick work of Astor's project, shipping the fawning biographical account Astoria in February 1836. The Western as
10400-630: Was ordered to proceed to the TA Ranch at once and take the WSGA expedition into custody. The Sixth Cavalry left Fort McKinney a few hours later at 2:00 on the morning of April 13 and reached the TA Ranch at 6:45 A.M. Colonel J.J. Van Horn, the officer in charge of the unit, negotiated with Sheriff Angus to lift the siege, and in return the Invaders were to be handed to civilian authorities. The Sixth Cavalry took possession of Wolcott and 45 other men with 45 rifles, 41 revolvers and some 5,000 rounds of ammunition, before escorting them first to Fort McKinney and then to Cheyenne. The text of Barber's telegram to
10504-539: Was short-lived and folded after only two issues. One of the most successful Western novels in recent times was The Sisters Brothers (2011) by Patrick deWitt . Western authors are represented by the Western Writers of America , who present the annual Spur Awards and Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement. The organization was founded in 1953 to promote the literature of the American West. While
10608-443: Was shot and killed in cold blood. 15 miles (24 km) from town, Dudley had come across the ranch of Mike Shonsey, who, after seeing him, immediately grabbed a gun and fired at him. A coroner's inquiry ruled Shonsey's actions were self-defense and he was acquitted of murder. Afterwards, Shonsey left the country before the officials could continue with the investigation. A year before Nate Champion's death, Shonsey actually met him near
10712-441: Was sometimes surreptitiously branded, which was the common way to identify the cow's owners. However, as more and more homesteaders called "nesters" and "grangers" moved into Wyoming, competition for land and water soon enveloped the state, and the large cattle companies, also known as “cattle barons”, reacted by monopolizing large areas of the open range, preventing homesteaders from using it. The often uneasy relationship between
10816-464: 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. The group organized in Cheyenne and proceeded by train to Casper, Wyoming , and then toward Johnson County on horseback, cutting
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