News
Johnson County War: Champion’s Murder
Sculptures by Michael Thomas in Buffalo depicting the Johnson County War
Last week we looked at some of the events leading up to the Johnson County Cattle War, the rustlers and small cattlemen vs the large, rich, cattle barons who felt the open range should be for their cattle alone.
Last week’s story ended with the murder of John Tisdale.
Carbon County Journal, Rawlins December 10, 1891. Murder Most Foul: John Tisdale is a small ranch man residing on the Powder River. He is classed by the stockmen as “rustler,” which probably means that he occasionally catches a maverick that the big stockmen think they ought to be allowed to steal.
He was a settler, had a wife and four little children, and was in the way of the would-be cattle kings. Tisdale had been to Buffalo and purchased clothing and groceries and Christmas toys for his little ones. On Thursday, when about nine miles this side of Buffalo there was a crack of a rifle from a sage bush, and Tisdale fell over dead in his wagon. One of the parties suspected of the murder, Deputy US Marshall Frank Canton, has already given himself up and demanded a hearing.
After the violence against the small ranchers such as Tisdale, Nate Champion, a rancher near present day Kaycee, and several small ranchers formed the formed the Northern Wyoming Farmers and Stock Growers’ Association (NWFSGA). The large ranchers had Wyoming Stock Growers Association, or the WSGA.
In March 1892, Frank Wolcott, North Platte rancher and member of the WSGA, led a group of gunmen into Johnson County with the intention of exterminating the rustlers and small ranchers and breaking up the NWFSGA. Several prominent names in Wyoming started taking sides in the conflict. Governor Amos W. Barber was in support of the rich cattlemen. William “Red” Angus, sheriff of Buffalo, supported the homesteaders, who believed that they also had a right to use the open range to graze their herds.
On Wednesday, April 13, 1892, there is this article from Barlow’s Budget. Douglas, Converse County. It billed itself as the “Oldest Newspaper in The Fetterman Country, Fair, Faithful, And Fearless.” The writer describes the violence this way.
Bloodshed in the North!! Stockmen Organize to Lynch Rustlers: A week ago last night, a special train passed west. At Casper horses, wagons and about fifty men were unloaded, and within an hour thereafter they pulled out for the north, over the Buffalo Road. Since then, a thousand and one conflicting rumors have prevailed relative to this party: who and what the men were, the object of the expedition, assassinations, battles, etc. Late yesterday afternoon— for the first time in ten days— the Douglas-Buffalo telegraph line was in working order, and The Budget with its usual enterprise presents here with a full report of the terrible events of the past few days in Johnson County.
(Special to the Budget) Buffalo, Wyoming, April 12, 6 p.m. — I have just returned from the scene of hostilities. The situation has not changed except advantageously for the besiegers, who have constructed barricades of baled hay on all sides of the extemporized fort, and within easy range of it -their trenches are now within sixty yards of the house, and the work is proceeding rapidly. A few hours will tell the tale. When the preparations are all completed the sheriff will again call upon them to surrender, and if they do not do so the regulators will be blown to atoms with their own dynamite -two cases of this explosive and a bottle of poisoned pills, for wholesale destruction, having been found among their captured cargo.
The party was most completely equipped, having with them a surgeon, two newspaper reporters, a telegraph operator with battery, instruments and wire, 3000 rounds of ammunition, extra saddles, guns, etc. The drivers captured were William Collum, George Helm and Charles Austin. They were following the regulators, with orders to proceed to Fort McKinney and there report to the commanding officer and ask for a place to camp until the band came. There is a captured regulator at the McKinney, hospital, who gives his name as Gus Greene, from Paris, Texas. He sent for the sheriff today and made a confession. He is seriously wounded and will die.
The statements of the captured teamsters is to the effect that they were hired lost Tuesday night at Cheyenne, to go immediately to the Bald Mountain Country, on a surveying expedition and pleasure trip. They left Cheyenne an hour or so thereafter on a special train from the south which, so they were told, had on board a party of about twenty-five men hired in Texas who were bound for Northern Wyoming on a cattle roundup.
The captured men claim that they knew absolutely nothing as to intentions of the party until after leaving Casper, when they were informed that the object of the expedition was to run out cattle thieves, and that their pay was five dollars a day.
The party proceeded on their way north, stopping Friday night at Senator Tisdale’s ranch on Powder River. That night about 11 o’clock a mounted detachment left for the KC Ranch, and there surprised and murdered Champion and Ray. The teams proceeded the next morning, camping Saturday night only a few miles from where the murders were committed.
That evening the regulators ate supper with the wagons, leaving in the direction of Buffalo about nine o’clock, leaving orders for their teams to follow next morning, as stated. They did so, and were captured en route by Sheriff Angus and party.
Nate Champion’s body was not found in the ruins of the KC Ranch building, as first reported, but in a gulch about 100 yards from the ranch, bullet ridden. On his body was found a diary he had kept on his doomsday. In it appear the following entries, in lead pencil:
April 9. — 6 am. — House surrounded by armed stockmen, who are firing at us. About daylight old man Jones went out after a pail of water but did not return. About that time another man went out and did not return. Soon Nick Ray went out to see what had become of them, and as he stepped out, he was shot in the head. He staggered back and fell on the bed, and I closed the door in the face of a storm of bullets. I must go and see how Nick is. Just 9 o’clock, and Nick is dead. If I can stand them off until night I will try and make a break for liberty.
Champion had on no shoes when found, and when the house was fired had undoubtedly made his unsuccessful break for liberty but had not gone far before being shot down. The two men who left the house at daylight, are believed to be held as prisoners by the whitecaps; but a report prevails that an unidentified body was found in the ruins of the burned cabin, and it is possible that one or both were killed. Coroner Watkins who went to the scene of the tragedy on the morning of the 11, has since been taken dangerously ill, and will die.
Sam T. Clover, a reporter for the Chicago Herald, accompanied the band from Cheyenne. He claims he understood that the expedition was against known cattle bandits, and he was after a “scoop” for his paper, he came near being “scooped” himself. The night rides of the party made him suspicious of unlawful intentions of the band, and after the assault on the KC Ranch he deserted the party and came on to Buffalo where he was arrested: but later succeeded in establishing his character and innocence of evil designs by friends at Fort McKinney. Following is a partial list of the names given the sheriff by the prisoners as members and leaders of the regulators. It scarcely seems possible that, such men would engage in an enterprise of that nature.
They are: Fred J Hesse, Frank M. Canton, H.W. Davis, Colonel Ray Parker, Senator JN Tisdale. Robert Tisdale, J. W. Hammond, Joe Eliot, C Carter, W J. Clarke, D.E. Clark. Charles Ford, William Henry, Scott, Davis, H. K. Teschemaker, F. DelBillier, Crippled Hand Powers. K. W. Whitcomb, Ben Morrison. Frank Wolcott, Dr. Pemberton and W. C. Irvine.
Ed Towse, city editor of the Cheyenne Sun, is also one of the party. Of the above. J. N. Tisdale and two others remained behind at the last rendezvous to cover the wagons but became uneasy and fled over the hills, horseback……
And in this snippet from a much longer article it tells about the invasion of the KC Ranch.
The Peoples Voice, Buffalo, October 29, 1892 The mob left Tisdale’s ranch about 11 o’clock on the night of the 8th of April and stopped several hours in a gulch on the road about four miles from KC Ranch, and waited for the return of Shonishay and their party. Shonishay and their party finally returned to the gulch where the balance of the mob were waiting and reported everything all right at the KC Ranch, they said the parties there not expecting anything and that they were playing the fiddle and have a good time generally. Shortly alter the return of Shonishay and party, the mob started for the KC Ranch. Joe Elliot had about 1O pounds of giant powder tied behind his saddle. It was the intention of the mob to blow the house at the KC Ranch up with the giant powder and to shoot any of the men who showed up in sight at the KC house after the explosion. But the mob got to the KC Ranch too late to use the powder, it was breaking day when we got in sight of the ranch, about the time the mob saw the KC house and the leaders of the mob Major Wolcott Frank Canton and Tom Smith, called to the mob to halt, pointed out the KC house and said, the parties they proposed to kill all who were living there and that they did not intend to allow any man about the place to get away alive.
Although the WSGA labeled Champion a rustler, one newspaper article says this about the killing.
Carbon County Journal on April 23, 1892: Something About Champion. Everybody must deplore the killing of Nate Champion and Nick Ray. Champion was of a peaceable disposition and attended strictly to his own business and was one of the bravest and warmest hearted men that ever adorned the Wyoming cattle ranges. From all accounts he died bravely. Standing by his partner to the last and then issued from the house, faced his enemies and sold his life as dearly as possible. His name will long be remembered by the stockmen of Wyoming. – Gillette News
Coming up next week: Part Three, Siege at the TA and The End of the War. A brief look at what’s coming up. From the Sundance Gazette. Friday, April 22, 1892, At Fort Mckinney: The Wires Still Down. Rustlers Gathered to Prevent the Removal of the Invaders. The invading party were surrounded at the T A ranch near Buffalo by about 400 of the so-called rustlers and settlers, armed to the teeth. Governor Barber called upon President Harrison for aid to the cattlemen.
