Skip to main content

Full text of "Annals of Wyoming"

See other formats 


• 


'  ■< 


*.' 


*«<« 


rt      • 


Ik 


* 


\ 


ri> 


.* 


v'#— 


^ 


/«.- 


f»l 


^  if 


THE  WYOMING  STATE  ARCHIVES,  MUSEUMS  AND  HISTORICAL  DEPARTMENT 

The  function  of  the  Wyoming  State  Archives,  Museums  and  Historical  Department  is 
to  collect  and  preserve  materials  which  tell  the  story  of  Wyoming.  It  maintains  the  state's 
historical  library  and  research  center,  the  Wyoming  State  Museum  and  branch  museums, 
the  State  Art  Gallery  and  the  State  Archives.  The  Department  solicits  original  records  such 
as  diaries,  letters,  books,  early  newspapers,  maps,  photographs  and  art  and  records  of  early 
businesses  and  organizations  as  well  as  artifacts  for  museum  display.  The  Department  asks 
for  the  assistance  of  all  Wyoming  citizens  to  secure  these  documents  and  artifacts.  Depart- 
ment facilities  are  designed  to  preserve  these  materials  from  loss  and  deterioration.  The  State 
Historic  Preservation  Office  is  also  located  in  the  Department. 


WYOMING  STATE  LIBRARY,  ARCHIVES,  MUSEUMS  AND  HISTORICAL  BOARD 

Frank  Bowron,  Casper,  Chairman 

Lucille  Clarke  Dumbrill,  Newcastle 

Dave  Paulley,  Cheyenne 

Mary  Sawaya,  Kemmerer 

Tom  Mangan,  Laramie 

Bill  Bruce  Hines,  Gillette 

Marion  Barngrover,  Worland 

Gladys  Hill,  Douglas 

Mary  Guthrie,  Attorney  General's  Office,  Ex-officio 


EDITORIAL  ADVISORY  BOARD 

Dona  Bachman 

James  Donahue 

Rick  Ewig 

Mark  Junge 

Linda  Rollins 

Mary  Garman,  Ex-officio 
President  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 

Frank  Bowron,  Ex-officio 
Chairman,  State  Library,  Archives,  Museums  and  Historical  Board 


ABOUT  THE  COVER— This  photograph  of  the  Tetons  was  made  by  Joseph  E.  Stimson,  an  individual 
whose  career  spanned  more  than  fifty  years.  Stimson,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
captured  much  of  Wyoming's  history  in  a  period  of  intense  and  rapid  transition.  His  efforts  resulted 
in  a  collection  of  more  than  7,500  glass  plate  and  nitrate  negatives.  They  are  now  part  of  the  Depart- 
ment's research  collections.  While  Stimson  sedulously  recorded  man's  imprint  on  Wyoming,  he  found 
time  for  many  beautiful  scenic  photographs.  The  Tetons  were  a  favorite  subject  of  his,  and  prints  of 
them  were  used  by  the  Union  Pacific  in  promotional  literature. 


NNALS  of  WYOMING 


Volume  58,  No.  1 
Spring,  1986 


GOVERNOR  OF  WYOMING 

Ed  Herschler 

DIRECTOR 

Dr.  Robert  D.  Bush 

EDITOR 

William  H.  Barton 

ASSISTANT  EDITORS 

Jean  Brainerd 
Rick  Ewig 
Roger  Joyce 
Ann  Nelson 

EDITORIAL  ASSISTANT 

Kathy  Martinez 

PHOTOGRAPHIC 
ASSISTANTS 

Paula  West-Chavoya 
Carroll  Jones 
Ed  Fowler 


WYOMING  STATE  PRESS 
MANAGING  EDITOR 

William  H.  Barton 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


MEMORIES  OF  AN  OIL  FIELD 2 

by  Elizabeth  Nuhn 

VOICE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

H.  V.  Rominger  and  the  Social  Gospel  in  the  West 8 

by  William  H.  Moore 

JOHN  D.  HAINES, 

Oklahoma's  Pioneer  Mountaineer  in  the  Tetons 16 

by  Joe  D.  Haines,  Jr. 

NATIVISM  IN  WYOMING  1868  TO  1930: 

Changing  Perceptions  of  Foreign  Immigrants 20 

by  Lawrence  A.  Cardoso 

SINGLE  WOMEN  HOMESTEADERS  IN  WYOMING  1880-1930 39 

by  Paula  M.  Bauman 

REVIEWS 54 

INDEX 64 

CONTRIBUTORS   68 


! 


UNIVE  i 

LAR  .. 


u 


ANNALS  OF  WYOMING  is  published  biannually  in  the  Spring  and  Fall  by  the  Wyoming 
State  Press.  It  is  received  by  all  members  of  the  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society  as  the  of- 
ficial publication  of  that  organization.  Copies  of  previous  and  current  issues  may  be  purchased 
from  the  Editor.  Correspondence  should  be  addressed  to  the  Editor.  Published  articles  repre- 
sent the  views  of  the  author  and  are  not  necessarily  those  of  the  Wyoming  State  Archives. 
Museums  and  Historical  Department  or  the  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society.  ANNALS  OF 
WYOMING  articles  are  abstracted  in  Historical  Abstracts.  America:  History  and  Life. 
Copyright   lWh  by  the  Wyoming  State  Tress 


MEMORIES  of  an  OIL  FIELD 


Grass  Creek  Dome,  called  Midwest  until  19231,  is  one 
of  the  most  important  oil  structures  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain fields.  It  is  located  in  the  southwest  part  of  the  Big 
Horn  Basin.  The  Big  Horn  Mountains  are  on  the  east,  the 
Owl  Creek  Mountains  on  the  south  and  the  Absaroka 
Range  on  the  west. 

In  June,  1914,  light  paraffin  oil  was  discovered  in  the 
frontier  sand,  and  the  early  development  was  confined  to 
this  strata.  In  1922,  a  well  drilled  in  the  Embar-Tensleep 
(Pennsylvania)  produced  a  heavy  asphaltic  gravity  oil. 

The  early  oil  men  who  frontiered  the  oil  industry  were 
not  all  college  men.  Among  the  outstanding  pioneers  was 
a  man  named  Jack  McFadden.  He  was  a  hard  working  Scot 
who  had  gained  early  experience  as  a  roustabout,  tool 
dresser,  pumper,  carpenter  and  blacksmith  in  an  Ontario, 
Canada  oilfield,  and  later  worked  for  the  Ohio  Oil  Com- 
pany. 

He  was  hired  by  James  Donnell  to  put  out  a  grass  fire 
that  was  threatening  a  pump  station  in  Randolph,  Ohio. 
He  was  a  young  man  with  much  determination;  he  was 
a  workaholic  who  wanted  to  work  night  and  day  seven 
days  a  week  and  was  capable  of  performing  any  job 
designated  him. 

In  1912,  Donnell  turned  his  attention  toward  Wyoming 
as  the  media  was  full  of  news  about  the  oil  strikes  there. 
Uncle  Jack  McFadden,  as  he  was  affectionately  called  by 
the  people  who  worked  with  him,  was  sent  to  Wyoming 

2 


to  file  oil  placer  claims  with  the  Federal  Government.  Un- 
cle Jack  secured  the  claims  for  the  Ohio  Oil  Company  in 
1913  and  brought  in  his  first  oil  well  in  1914  with  a  cable 
tool  rig.  By  the  end  of  1914,  he  had  brought  in  eleven  wells 
which  cost  the  company  $129,123. 

Most  of  the  early  wells  were  completed  in  60  days.  The 
drill  pipe  which  was  brought  in  by  mule  team  from  the 
railroad  in  Kirby  exceeded  the  $3.00  per  ft.  drilling  cost. 

In  1918,  my  father,  George  McCrady,  who  worked  for 
the  Ohio  Oil  Company  in  Indiana,  came  to  Wyoming  for 
my  mother's  health.  They  came  by  stage  to  Grass  Creek 
from  Thermopolis,  Wyoming.  He  said  he  thought  it  was 
the  most  desolate  place  in  the  world;  he  vowed  he  would 
stay  one  year.  Instead  he  came  as  a  driller  and  29  years 
later  retired  in  1947  as  superintendent  of  the  Grass  Creek 
field.  He  was  also  instrumental  in  the  early  development 
of  the  Buffalo  Basin  and  Oregon  Basin  fields. 

Many  of  the  early  oil  workers  came  from  the  Midwest 
and  East.  They  were  very  interested  in  education  so  early 
schools  became  an  important  goal.  The  first  school  known 
in  Grass  Creek  was  held  in  a  sheep  wagon  in  1915.  Miss 
Mary  Herring  was  the  teacher.  She  taught  the  youngest 
students  in  the  morning  and  the  older  students  in  the 
afternoon. 

Two  years  later,  the  sheep  wagon  was  replaced  by  a 
small  frame  building;  Miss  Alma  Murphy  was  the  teacher. 
In  1919,  more  room  was  needed  and  a  two-room  building 


by  Elizabeth  Nuhn 


was  erected.  Grades  from  one  to  nine  were  taught.  In  1920, 
the  school  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  school  was  held  for 
the  rest  of  the  year  in  the  basement  of  the  Ohio  Oil  Com- 
pany Amusement  Hall.  In  1921,  a  four-room  school  house 
was  built  to  hold  100  students  who  would  attend  school. 
It  was  modern  in  every  way  except  for  gas  lights.  In  1922, 
the  district  established  bus  routes  for  the  students. 

In  1932,  Mrs.  Katharine  A.  Morton,  State  Superinten- 
dent of  Public  Instruction,  came  to  present  the  first 
Superior  plaque  in  the  state  of  Wyoming  to  the  school. 
Some  of  the  school  board  members  who  promoted  educa- 
tion were  Mrs.  Marie  Francis,  J.  S.  Henry,  Burr  Farr,  E.D. 
St.  Clair  and  George  McCrady. 

The  oil  industry  slackened  in  1942,  and  the  staff  was 
reduced  to  two.  In  1951,  another  oil  boom  hit  and  in  1952, 
a  new  classroom,  a  lunch  room  and  gymnasium  were 
added.  The  new  gymnasium  was  dedicated  in  memory  of 
K.  O.  Cameron,  an  ardent  educator.  In  1960,  four  modern 
brick  teacherages  were  built.  In  the  remodeled  basement 
were  added  showers,  a  science  room  and  a  library.  Again 
enrollment  started  to  decline  and  all  students  were  bused 
to  Thermopolis.  Today,  the  teacherages  are  rented  to  peo- 
ple living  in  the  area.  The  school  house  is  closed  and  no 
longer  used. 

Teachers  who  were  outstanding  in  teaching  basic 
academics  were  Miss  Leona  Flint,  Miss  Irene  Orr,  Miss  Lula 
Lang,  Miss  Dora  Bender,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mann,  Mr.  and 


Mrs.  Holcomb  and  Miss  Baird. 

When  the  first  people  came  to  Grass  Creek,  many  lived 
in  tents.  The  Ohio  Oil  Company  under  the  supervision  of 
Jack  McFadden  soon  hired  carpenters,  and  houses  were 
built.  The  cookhouse  was  one  of  the  most  important 
buildings  to  be  built.  Many  single  men  and  married  men 
who  had  not  brought  their  families,  because  there  were 
no  houses,  came  to  work.  The  first  cookhouse  was  built 
on  the  north  side  of  the  dirt  hill  called  the  Hogs  Back.  The 
second  cookhouse  was  built  in  1925  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  hill.  The  cooks  fed  as  many  as  500  men  per  day  at 
one  time.  In  1925,  a  washroom  and  bathhouse  were  located 
close  to  the  cookhouse.  Later  a  four  room  modern  guest 
house  was  built  for  Ohio  Company  officials  who  visited 
the  camp. 

In  1921,  bunk  houses  were  added  to  the  area  near  the 
cookhouse.  Single  men  and  some  married  men,  whose 
families  had  not  found  housing,  ate  at  the  cookhouse  and 
slept  in  the  bunkhouses  that  were  maintained  by  the  ser- 
vice of  the  workers  at  the  cookhouse. 

In  1922,  a  murder  occurred  in  Grass  Creek  that  in- 
volved my  father,  George  McCrady,  in  the  trial.  On  May 
7,  1922,  a  bunkhouse  was  blown  up,  and  Harrv  Foight  and 
W.  C.  Seaton  were  killed.  Albert  (Bert)  Lampitt  had  been 
dating  Grace  Lee  who  was  employed  as  a  waitress  at  the 
cookhouse.  She  later  became  engaged  to  Ham'  Foight.  Bert 
Lampitt  became  jealous.  My  dad  was  the  driller  of  a  well 


in  Grass  Creek  at  this  time.  Harry  Foight  was  his  tool 
dresser.  My  dad  said  that  Bert  Lampitt  came  to  the  well 
in  the  afternoon  and  quarreled  with  Harry  Foight. 

My  dad  said  to  Lampitt,  "Bert,  this  is  no  place  to  fight. 
We  are  on  company  time.  Solve  your  problems  after 
hours." 

Bert  left  and  did  not  return.  That  night  explosives  were 
placed  near  the  corner  of  the  bunkhouse  where  Harry 
Foight  slept.  Footprints  of  a  man  leading  from  the  building 
to  a  shack  occupied  by  Lampitt  were  found.  Also  tracks 
of  his  car  were  traced  from  his  shack  to  the  oil  company's 
magazine  where  explosives  were  taken.  Albert  Lampitt  was 
convicted  of  the  murder  of  Harry  Foight  on  February  17, 
1923,  and  sentenced  to  life  imprisonment. 

The  Ohio  Oil  Company's  gas  plant  began  its  opera- 
tion in  1918.  A  three  inch  pipeline  conveyed  the  natural 
gasoline  product  to  Chatham.  Wet  gasoline  was  taken  from 
both  the  Ohio  Oil  Company  and  the  Standolind  Oil  Com- 
pany; each  had  its  own  vacuum  line  system.  People  who 
lived  in  the  camp  were  always  afraid  the  plant  would  catch 
on  fire.  Once  this  did  happen,  and  several  men  were 
severely  burned. 


on  our  window.  I  can  still  recall  the  event  vividly  in  my 
mind  today;  it  was  a  beautiful  picture. 

We  had  several  doctors  in  Grass  Creek.  The  first  was 
Dr.  Thomas  who  was  very  old.  He  was  a  short  plump  man 
who  carried  peppermints  in  his  coat  pocket  for  the  children 
of  the  families  that  he  visited. 

The  next  doctor  was  Dr.  Wilson  who  came  after  the 
hospital  was  built.  He  was  a  good  doctor,  a  rather  tall  hand- 
some man  who  only  stayed  for  a  short  time. 

The  next  was  Dr.  Taylor.  He  was  also  a  very  good  doc- 
tor who  could  diagnose  his  cases  even  though  he  had  too 
much  to  drink. 

The  people  who  lived  in  Grass  Creek  in  the  early  years 
had  no  televisions,  but  they  enjoyed  a  rich  community  life. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  community  there  were  dances 
at  the  Community  Hall  every  Saturday  night.  Families 
would  come  and  bring  their  children.  When  the  children 
became  sleepy,  they  would  make  a  bed  for  them  on  chairs 
or  benches  in  the  balcony.  At  midnight,  everyone  would 
go  to  the  basement  of  the  hall  where  the  ladies  had  brought 
sandwiches,  pickles  and  cakes.  Hot  coffee  was  made  and 
everyone  enjoyed  the  midnight  snack. 


The  Cook  House 

Boasted  a 

Commodious 

Veranda 


W+C.*- 


Mr.  Burr  Farr  was  superintendent  of  the  gasoline  plant. 
Some  of  the  employees  were  Lloyd  Huff,  John  Weland, 
Roy  Huff,  Elmer  Wasllingford,  Blakesly,  Billy  Reed,  Ed 
Reed,  Jack  McGeth,  Tommy  Malone,  Edgar  Williams, 
George  Dustin,  Ralph  Close,  Walt  Armstrong,  Ralph 
Greason  and  Gerald  Smotherman. 

In  the  early  days  the  wells  were  not  capped  and  would 
gush  into  the  sky  like  a  geyser  when  they  were  brought 
in.  I  remember  my  dad  telling  my  mother  at  what  time  a 
well  they  were  drilling  about  one-fourth  mile  from  our 
house  would  gush.  At  the  designated  time  she  gathered 
us  to  the  window  to  watch  this  event.  It  was  like  seeing 
a  geyser  for  the  first  time.  The  black  oil  sprayed  up-up- 
and  up,  and  the  wind  carried  the  oil  and  left  a  fine  mist 


There  were  also  box  socials;  the  ladies  would  fix  lunch 
boxes  and  decorate  them  beautifully;  then  they  would  fill 
them  with  the  most  delicious  foods  that  they  could  make. 
They  would  be  raffled  off  to  the  highest  bidder.  Competing 
boyfriends  really  soared  the  prices  on  the  bidding. 

Also,  when  couples  were  married,  everyone  came  to 
their  house  after  they  had  gone  to  bed,  got  them  up  and 
took  them  to  the  amusement  hall  where  they  held  a  dance 
in  their  honor.  I  was  only  about  four  when  I  remember 
attending  my  first  shivaree.  I  remember  sitting  on  my  dad's 
lap  as  he  buttoned  my  high  top  shoes.  Then  he  bundled 
me  up  and  with  my  mother,  sister  and  brother  and  drove  a 
mile  to  Lloyd  Robbins'  house  in  an  old  Model  T.  It  was 
pitch  dark  and  people  were  beating  on  pans  and  making 


The  First 

Class  Met 

in  a 

Sheep  Wagon 


s*€% 


A  1928 
School  Bus 


The  Grass  Creek 
School  House, 
Built  in  1917 


**«*«*     • 


.-—•  ■*■ " 


«* 


«** 


a  lot  of  noise.  Out  of  the  dark  came  the  bride  and  groom 
who  were  put  on  the  back  of  a  truck  and  taken  to  the  Com- 
munity Hall  for  a  dance. 

The  first  dance  band  came  from  Gebo,  but  soon  the 
people  of  Grass  Creek  were  forming  their  own  bands. 
Those  who  played  in  the  dance  bands  through  the  years 
were:  Ermon  and  Lois  Farr,  Darrell  Oliver,  Oscar  Snyder, 
John  McCrady,  Phil  McClure,  Mrs.  Blair,  Alma  Robbins 
and  Walter  Henrichs. 

Holidays  were  always  special  days.  Because  many  peo- 
ple were  from  the  Midwest  and  East  and  had  no  close 
relatives,  families  would  get  together  for  family  dinners. 
My  mother,  Kathryn  McCrady,  was  an  Indiana  farm  girl 
who  was  a  fabulous  cook.  She  always  invited  four  or  five 
families  for  dinner.  The  grown-ups  ate  in  the  dining  room 
and  the  children  in  the  kitchen.  Everyone,  after  eating  and 
visiting  all  afternoon,  attended  the  holiday  dance. 


A  Wooden  Oil  Rig 

During  the  summer,  families  would  get  together  and 
go  on  picnics.  Each  family  would  bring  what  they  had.  The 
picnics  were  fun  and  the  food  was  always  delicious  and 
plentiful. 

The  kids  in  Grass  Creek  never  had  a  dull  moment. 
There  were  always  a  million  things  to  do.  They  created 
their  own  fun.  The  Robbins  were  generous  with  their 
horses,  and  kids  would  ride  up  Grass  Creek,  Enos  Creek 
and  once  in  a  while  to  the  Dickie  ranch  where  the  cook 
rewarded  them  with  a  donut.  They  could  ice  skate  on  the 
creek  in  the  winter  and  wade  barefoot  during  the  summer. 
There  were  lots  of  places  to  go  sledding.  The  rim  rocks  to 
the  north  and  south  were  wonderful  places  to  hike  and 
burn  weenies  and  marshmallows.  There  was  a  motion  pic- 


ture once  a  week  at  the  Community  Hall.  There  were  sew- 
ing clubs  and  scouting  trips. 

There  was  a  tennis  court  that  was  built  in  1929  and  one 
of  the  best  miniature  golf  courses  in  the  state  was  built  by 
Jack  Francis.  With  such  good  tennis  players  as  Marie  and 
Jack  Francis  and  Zeke  Lewis  most  of  the  kids  in  Grass 
Creek  learned  the  basics  of  tennis  and  miniature  golf. 

Sunday  School  was  held  in  the  schoolhouse.  People 
danced  late  on  Saturday  night,  but  getting  to  Sunday 
School  was  a  must  with  most  families. 

One  of  the  homes  in  Grass  Creek  where  kids  had  the 
most  fun  was  the  Ralph  Robbins'  home.  Mr.  Robbins  was 
the  biggest  kid  of  all  and  had  the  heartiest  laugh.  Mrs.  Rob- 
bins was  a  good  sport  and  always  jolly.  We  used  to  play 
Blind  Man's  Bluff  and  were  sometimes  quite  rowdy,  but 
never  did  they  complain.  We  sang  songs  to  their  player 
piano  and  Mr.  Robbins  taught  all  of  us  to  polka.  They  ran 
the  dairy  and  made  ice  cream  almost  every  day.  When  the 
strawberries  were  in  season,  we  had  strawberry  ice  cream, 
and  when  the  peaches  were  in  season,  we  ate  peach  ice 
cream.  They  also  made  yummy  fudge,  caramel,  strawberry 
toppings  and  always  delicious  cakes.  They  had  an  ice  house 
where  they  stored  their  own  cakes  of  ice,  and  always  on 
their  table  was  a  pitcher  of  ice  cold  milk.  There  is  no  place 
in  the  world  today  that  could  compare  with  the  fun  times 
that  we  had  at  the  Robbins'  ranch. 

Fourth  of  July's  were  seeing  who  could  get  up  the 
earliest  to  set  off  firecrackers  under  a  friend's  window.  Also 
the  fireworks  display  from  the  dirt  hill  was  unique.  The 
trips  to  the  Cody  Stampede  were  memorable.  Early  trips 
to  Yellowstone  National  Park  in  a  Model  T  were  events  that 
most  people  will  not  forget.  The  narrow  road  up  Shoshone 
Canyon  was  scary,  especially  when  two  cars  met  and  one 
would  have  to  back  until  the  two  cars  could  pass. 

Fishing  was  a  sport  most  people  enjoyed;  the  streams 
were  never  crowded  and  the  catch  was  always  good.  Most 
people  hunted  sage  chickens,  deer,  elk  and  moose  in 
season  and  usually  were  successful. 

After  World  War  II,  everything  changed.  The  people 
chose  to  commute  to  Grass  Creek  from  Cody,  Meeteetse 
and  Thermopolis.  The  company  houses  were  sold  and 
moved. 

Today,  the  garage  and  office  still  remain,  but  the 
houses  are  gone  and  only  a  few  families  live  there.  The 
trees  and  lawns  of  the  once  picturesque  camp  hold  equip- 
ment and  stacks  of  pipes.  But  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see 
in  all  directions  are  grasshopper  wells  still  pumping  away 
and  new  wells  are  still  being  drilled. 

Gone  is  the  hustling  bustling  camp  of  the  early  days. 
Only  memories  of  those  who  lived  there  know  how  won- 
derful community  life  once  was  in  this  small  oil  field  of 
Grass  Creek. 

1  Midwest  was  changed  to  Grass  Creek  in  1923  because  there  were  other 
.towns  in  Wyoming  called  Midwest  and  the  mail  was  always  getting 
sent  to  the  wrong  Midwest. 


An  Oil  Well 
Cleaner 


A  Truck  Manufactured  by 
the  White  Company 


S  I 


The 

Gasoline 

Plant 


VOICE 

IN  THE 

WILDERNESS 


H.  V.  Rominger 
and  the 

SOCIAL  GOSPEL 
in  the  WEST 


by 
William  H.  Moore 


Virtually  all  students  of  American  progressivism  con- 
cede the  importance  of  the  new  "social  gospel"  in 
animating  early  20th  century  social  and  economic  reform. 
Sensing  a  widespread  disaffection  with  the  Church  and 
concerned  about  the  disruptive  impact  of  industrialization, 
immigration  and  urbanization,  a  variety  of  Protestant 
ministers  called  upon  clergymen  to  reexamine  scriptural 
mandates,  to  commit  the  Church  to  an  activist  role  in  com- 
batting the  dehumanizing  forces  in  the  country,  and  to  help 
shape  a  just  and  moral  society.  A  range  of  personalities 
and  interests  typified  the  Social  Gospel.  The  Rev.  Charles 
Parkhurst  in  New  York,  campaigned  against  vice  and 
municipal  corruption;  the  Rev.  Washington  Gladden  in 
Columbus,  Ohio,  sought  to  mediate  labor-management 
conflicts;  and  the  "Christian  Socialist"  Walter  Rauschen- 
busch  of  Rochester  Theological  Seminary  pointed  to  the 
contradictions  between  capitalism  and  Christianity.1 

Despite  its  importance  to  national  progressivism, 
scholars  know  little  about  the  dynamics  of  the  Social 
Gospel  in  the  hinterland.  Almost  all  our  studies  to  date 
have  focused  on  the  celebrated  eastern  ministers  who 
engaged  the  problems  of  industrialization  and  the  big  city. 
Clearly,  however,  ministers  trained  in  Social  Gospel 
seminaries  in  the  East  made  their  way  into  the  interior  of 
the  country  where  they  faced  a  variety  of  problems.2  While 
historians  are  far  from  any  systematic  understanding  of 
Social  Gospel  activists  in  the  West,  the  experiences  of  one 
clergyman,  H.  V.  Rominger,  do  suggest  some  of  the  frustra- 
tions and  limitations  such  men  encountered. 

Henry  Virgil  Rominger  was  born  in  Forsyth  County, 
North  Carolina,  in  1854.  During  the  Civil  War,  his  father 
died  of  disease  while  serving  in  the  Confederate  army. 
Possibly  prompted  by  his  earlier  pacifism  as  well  as  his 
German  family  heritage,  Rominger  enrolled  in  Moravian 
College  and  Moravian  Theological  Seminary  in  Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania,  from  1875  to  1877.  There  he  developed  a 
lifelong  admiration  for  the  heretic  John  Huss,  the  founder 
of  the  Moravian  movement.3 

Rominger' s  confrontational  stance  toward  the  Church, 
however,  seems  to  have  been  most  influenced  by  the  fac- 
ulty of  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  New  York  which 
he  attended  in  1877  and  1878.  Through  Roswell  D.  Hitch- 
cock, professor  of  Church  History,  he  became  convinced 
that  the  historical  church  had  departed  fundamentally  from 
the  teachings  of  Christ.  Once  considered  a  radical,  Hitch- 
cock was  working  on  his  controversial  book  Socialism  (1879) 
at  the  time  Rominger  was  studying  at  Union.  Hitchcock 
recoiled  in  horror  at  most  forms  of  secular  socialism, 
especially  the  "mad  communism"  of  the  Paris  Commune. 
Even  labor  unions,  government  intervention  and  popular 
democracy  threatened  to  loosen  upon  society  a  measure 


of  anarchy  that  would  ultimately  debase  and  devour  the 
individual.  Contrary  to  the  teachings  of  socialism  and  com- 
munism, Hitchcock  insisted  that  individual  and  Church 
regeneration  must  precede  genuine  social  reconstruction. 
A  rejuvenated,  primitive  Christian  character  would  trans- 
form society  far  more  successfully  than  artificial  statist 
ideologies,  he  argued.  The  impressionable  Rominger  ap- 
plauded Hitchcock's  contention  that  the  great  need  of  the 
day  was  "the  rechristianization  of  Christendom,"  the 
purification  of  individual  conscience  and  the  reaffirmation 
of  early  Christian  zealotry  against  social  ills  and  evils.  While 
Hitchcock's  immediate  impact  was  conservative,  his  call 
for  a  long-term  Church-led  transformation  of  society  clearly 
influenced  the  young  Rominger.4 

If  Hitchcock  called  for  a  return  to  the  primitive  Church, 
Rominger's  real  hero  at  Union,  Charles  Augustus  Briggs, 
professor  of  Old  Testament  studies,  provided  a  scathing 
condemnation  of  contemporary  Christianity.  Briggs  argued 
that  the  Church  had  become  an  agent  of  capitalist  society, 
that  it  had  fragmented  into  narrow  and  impotent  denomi- 
nationalism  and  that  it  had  forgotten  Christ's  social 
message.  "If  Christ  came  to  New  York  and  preached  in 
Wall  Street  as  he  did  in  Galilee,"  Rominger  remembered 
Briggs  observing,  "we  would  crucify  him  in  three  days."5 


"Even  labor  unions,  government  intervention  and 
popular  democracy  threatened  to  loosen  upon  soci- 
ety a  measure  of  anarchy  that  would  ultimately 
debase  and  devour  the  individual." 


The  author  wishes  to  acknowledge  research  funding  for  this 
article  from  the  Wyoming  Council  for  the  Humanities. 


After  a  year  of  teaching  in  Germany,  Rominger,  in  1880, 
began  a  two  year  course  of  study  in  theology  and  philos- 
ophy at  the  University  of  Berlin.  He  worked  with  several 
highly  regarded  theologians,  especially  J.  H.  W.  Stuck- 
enberg.  A  liberal  theologian  and  inexhaustible  writer, 
Stuckenberg  called  for  a  "Christian  sociologv"— for  a 
systematic  attempt  to  apply  New  Testament  principles  to 
all  social  issues.  More  emphatically  than  Hitchcock, 
Stuckenberg  condemned  the  attempts  of  social  theorists 
to  separate  morality  and  religion.  The  Church  should,  he 
insisted,  avoid  compromising  with  political  pragmatists  on 
issues  involving  essential  elements  of  Christ's  teachings. 
Rominger  thrilled  to  Stuckenberg's  call  for  Christian  ac- 
tivism, and  he  reveled  in  the  intense  atmosphere  of  the- 
ological debate  and  history  in  Berlin.  He  remembered  wit- 
nessing the  wedding  procession  of  Prince  Wilhelm  (later 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  II)  in  1881  and  gloried  in  the  libraries 
museums  and  galleries  of  the  city.6 


Laramie,  as  it  would 

have  appeared  to 

Alice  and  Henry  Rominger 


His  student  days  over,  Rominger  spent  the  next  30 
years  as  a  pastor  of  various  Moravian,  Congregational  and 
Presbyterian  congregations  in  the  American  West.  In  the 
1880s  he  served  a  Moravian  church  in  Osborne,  Kansas, 
a  Congregational  group  in  Fort  Gamble,  Washington  Ter- 
ritory and  other  congregations  in  Albany  and  East  Port- 
land, Oregon.  In  1890,  he  married  Alice  Beitel,  a  graduate 
of  the  Philadelphia  Conservatory  of  Music,  and  traveled 
around  the  world,  renewing  his  contacts  with  the  faculty 
at  the  University  of  Berlin  and  making  lantern  slides  of  his 
stays  in  Egypt  and  Palestine.7  He  clearly  hoped  that  his 
illustrated  descriptions  of  the  Holy  Land  would  enliven  his 
ministry  in  the  West. 

Widely  traveled,  happily  married,  residing  in  the  Pa- 
cific Northwest  that  he  loved,  Rominger  might  well  have 
hit  his  mid-career  stride  in  the  1890s.  Instead,  they  became 
a  decade  of  intense  disillusionment.  While  he  was  minister- 
ing in  Portland  in  1892,  the  city  hosted  the  Presbyterian 
General  Assembly.  There  heresy  charges  were  voted 
against  Charles  Briggs,  one  of  Rominger's  mentors  at 
Union  Theological  Seminary.  The  brilliant,  contentious 
Briggs  had  by  now  outraged  conservatives  with  his  Old 
Testament  criticisms.  Ultimately,  Briggs  was  convicted— a 
development  that  prompted  Union  to  sever  its  ties  with 
the  Presbyterian  Church  and  Briggs  himself  to  take  orders 
as  an  Episcopalian  clergyman.  For  the  remainder  of  his  life, 
Rominger  remained  outraged  and  disgusted  at  the  "melan- 
choly, wretched  performance"  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
"Heresy  is  only  orthodoxy  in  the  bud  and  orthodoxy  is 
heresy  gone  to  seed,"  he  later  wrote.  "The  hope  of  the 
world  and  the  progress  of  humanity  we  always  owe  to 
heretics.  They  are  the  world's  greatest  benefactors."  The 
Briggs  trial  had  shaken  forever  Rominger's  hope  that  Chris- 
tianity might  become  an  engine  of  creative  change  in 
human  society.8 

10 


Fitfully,  Rominger  attempted  to  regain  a  sense  of  pur- 
pose within  the  Church.  He  served  as  supply  pastor  to  one 
of  the  largest  congregations  in  Oakland,  California,  but 
resigned— supposedly  to  the  regret  of  church  members— 
because  he  wanted  a  lighter  workload  and  the  opportu- 
nity to  shepherd  a  smaller,  perhaps  more  malleable,  con- 
gregation. After  a  two  year  stint  as  an  acting  minister  in 
Hot  Springs,  South  Dakota,  he  became  pastor  of  a  small 
church  in  Crawford,  Nebraska,  in  1896.  There  he  seemed 
to  flourish.  In  less  than  three  years,  he  more  than  doubled 
the  size  of  the  congregation  and  presided  over  construc- 
tion of  a  new  sanctuary,  entirely  free  of  debt.9 

Rominger's  successes  in  the  small  western  Nebraska 
community  prompted  the  Union  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Laramie,  Wyoming,  to  offer  him  its  supply  pastorship  in 
April,  1899.  In  part,  because  Laramie  was  home  to  the 
fledgling  University  of  Wyoming,  Rominger  accepted  the 
call.  On  his  initial  visit  to  Wyoming  prior  to  the  offer,  he 
had  almost  certainly  met  several  leaders  of  the  university 
and  community  who  were  also  connected  with  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.  They  included  University  President 
Elmer  E.  Smiley,  a  former  Congregational  minister  himself; 
University  Professor  of  Chemistry  E.  E.  Slosson;  City  At- 
torney C.  P.  Arnold,  son  of  the  church's  first  minister;  Eli 
Crumrine,  church  trustee  and  member  of  the  city  council; 
and  Judge  James  H.  Hay  ford,  pietistic  reformer  and  until 
recently  publisher  of  a  local  newspaper.10  Remembering 
the  intellectual  atmosphere  he  had  enjoyed  at  Union  and 
the  University  of  Berlin,  Rominger  probably  came  to 
Laramie  expecting  a  more  receptive  environment  than  he 
in  fact  encountered. 

Laramie's  initial  reaction  to  the  Romingers  was  one  of 
bemusement  and  applause.  Alice  Rominger  won  attention 
by  riding  her  horse  side-saddle;  her  husband,  seen  as  a 
bit  scholarly  and  eccentric,  experimented  with  high  plains 


gardening  and  the  raising  of  castrated  roosters.11  As 
minister,  however,  Rominger  introduced  a  sense  of  history 
and  commitment  that  brought  overflow  crowds  to  the 
Presbyterian  church.  From  the  pulpit,  he  prescribed  a 
reading  list  of  classics  for  youth  in  the  community,  and  he 
enlisted  Arnold,  Hayford  and  others  into  joining  him  in 
an  exceptionally  popular  series  of  sermons  and  lectures  on 
19th  century  history.  Rominger  himself  spoke  on  the  moral 
progress  made  under  Queen  Victoria  and  lauded  the  sacri- 
fices for  humanity  made  by  John  Ruskin,  John  Howard  and 
Florence  Nightingale.12 

Approval  turned  to  alarm  in  late  1899,  however,  when 
Rominger  emerged  as  the  spokesman  for  moral  reform  in 
the  city.  By  the  turn  of  the  century,  both  Cheyenne  and 
Laramie  had  begun  to  experience  a  variety  of  "pro- 
gressive" agitations.  Early  in  1899,  Cheyenne  ministers  and 
a  newspaperman  launched  a  spirited  attack  on  the  city 
fathers  for  not  suppressing  gambling.  In  Laramie  during 
1897  a  new  non-partisan  business-oriented  council  had 
taken  over  from  an  older  government  so  riddled  with 
favoritism  that  it  appeared  unable  to  make  necessary 
physical  improvements  or  restrict  vice.  By  the  time  Rom- 
inger arrived  in  Laramie,  a  series  of  bonding,  sewer  and 
disease  control  measures  had  been  implemented  and  one 
local  newspaper  was  congratulating  the  council  on  its  abil- 
ity to  "contain"  gambling  and  the  saloon.13 

Since  two  prominent  Laramie  Presbyterian  women  had 
participated  in  a  mass  rally  against  gambling  in  Cheyenne 
and  since  that  campaign  had  attracted  considerable  press 
attention  locally,  Laramie  residents  became  unusually  sen- 
sitive to  vice  in  their  own  midst.  Aware  of  the  impact  of 
the  Rev.  Charles  Parkhurst's  dramatic  "tours"  of  New 
York's  fleshpots  and  gambling  dens  in  1892,  Rominger 
staged  a  daylight  "tour"  of  Laramie's  three  Front  Street 
brothels  in  November,  1899.  Then,  supported  by  the  Epis- 
copalian minister  and  the  local  Women's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  (including  several  Presbyterian  women),  he 
confronted  the  city  fathers  with  the  charge  that  their  $25 
a  month  "fine"  on  the  brothels  constituted  de  facto  licens- 
ing of  prostitution.  When  City  Attorney  C.  P.  Arnold 
demurred,  Rominger  curtly  volunteered  to  take  his 
parishioner  on  a  "tour"  of  the  vice  district.14 

Rominger's  clash  with  Arnold  closely  mirrored  the  na- 
tional debate  over  prostitution  at  the  turn  of  the  century. 
The  city  attorney,  like  many  moderate  progressives,  be- 
lieved that,  given  contemporary  social  values  and  perhaps 
human  nature  itself,  prostitution  simply  could  not  be 
eliminated.  The  proper  function  of  government,  then,  was 
to  attempt  to  minimize  its  impact,  to  protect  the  broader 
society  against  its  worse  ravages.  While  sidestepping 
outright  legalization,  these  regulationists  sought  to  contain 
the  brothel  to  select  areas  of  the  community  by  fines  and 
a  measure  of  harassment.  Any  overt  attempt  to  eradicate 
prostitution,  they  warned,  would  only  disperse  the  vice 
throughout  the  community  at  large,  offending  public  sen- 


C.  P.  Arnold,  City  Attorney 
and  Prominent  Presbyterian 


sibilities  and  contaminating  innocent  citizens.15 

Laramie,  like  many  frontier  communities,  had  func- 
tioned under  such  a  "fine"  system  at  least  since  the  1870s. 
Arnold  and  other  city  fathers  with  deep  roots  in  the  com- 
munity clearly  understood  the  system  even  when  they  did 
not  openly  discuss  it.  Perhaps  in  the  future,  when  Laramie 
was  no  longer  a  frontier  town,  when  the  population  had 
been  stabilized  and  "educated,"  prostitution  could  be 
eliminated  altogether.  For  the  moment,  however,  they  con- 
sidered regulation  as  the  only  practical  policy  available. 
They  appreciated  the  revenues  brought  into  the  city  by  the 
monthly  assessments  and  they  thought  of  themselves  as 
acting  responsibly  on  an  issue  of  considerable  volatility  and 
complexity.16 

To  Rominger  and  other  prohibitionists,  such  "practical" 
arguments  constituted  hypocrisy,  a  sell-out,  and  un- 
christian retreat  from  the  Church's  universal  mandate  of 
engagement  and  redemption.  Given  his  background,  Rom- 
inger was  probably  more  incensed  by  the  community's 
willingness  to  strike  a  bargain  with  conventional  assump- 
tions than  he  was  by  the  existence  of  prostitution  itself.  Cer- 
tainly, the  lessons  of  Hitchcock  and  Stuckenberg  must  have 
suggested  to  the  Presbyterian  minister  that  compromise 


I  1 


on  such  a  transparently  moral  question  would  leave  the 
local  church  members  spiritually  bankrupt,  that  it  would 
constitute  a  surrender  to  "secular"  pragmatists.  And  the 
heroic  and  confrontational  posture  of  Briggs  must  have 
stiffened  Rominger's  resolve  to  pursue  the  issue— once 
engaged— to  the  bitter  end.  He  rejected  Arnold's  call  for 
"light,  not  heat"  on  the  subject,  for  a  gradualist  approach 
to  the  problem,  for  an  appreciation  of  the  achievements 
of  the  city  council  in  restricting  the  saloon,  gambling  and 
the  brothels.17 


.  Rominger's  campaign  polarized 

Laramie  causing  friction 
within  his  own  congregation' 


For  more  than  six  months,  Rominger's  campaign  polar- 
ized Laramie,  causing  friction  within  his  own  congregation 
and  even  within  some  families.  Through  the  local  Min- 
isterial Union,  he  impressed  the  more  timid  Methodist  and 
Baptist  ministers  into  his  campaign.  When  the  council 
dallied,  he  began  swearing  out  citizen's  complaints  against 
property  owners  where  brothels  were  located  and  press- 
ing local  courts  and  juries  to  issue  stiff  fines.18  By  May, 

1900,  his  policy  of  unremitting  harassment  had  begun  to 
break  up  the  downtown  red  light  district.  One  city  father, 
livid  with  Rominger,  condemned  the  ministers  for  interfer- 
ing with  the  council's  prerogatives.  He  complained  bitterly 
of  the  dispersal  of  vice  throughout  the  community  and  of 
the  loss  to  the  city  of  revenues  from  the  monthly  fines. 
Although  Councilman  Crumrine,  of  Rominger's  own 
church,  insisted  that  any  citizen,  even  a  minister,  had  a 
right  to  petition  the  council,  the  city  fathers  clearly  favored 
a  retreat  to  the  red  light  district  policy.  While  the  issue  of 
prostitution  began  to  recede  after  the  council's  action,  Rom- 
inger persisted  in  pressing  the  city  fathers  for  a  closing  of 
Sunday  saloons,  for  sponsorship  of  a  temperance  palace 
and  for  repression  of  gambling.19 

Rominger's  unwillingness  to  respect  the  conventional 
limits  of  debate  almost  certainly  cost  him  his  job  in  early 

1901.  Church  elders,  meeting  in  C.  P.  Arnold's  office, 
voted  to  terminate  his  pastorate  in  April  of  that  year.  His 
replacement  would  be  a  far  more  conventional  and  predic- 
table figure,  A.  C.  Hogbin,  a  brother-in-law  of  Elder  E.  E. 
Slosson.  After  an  emotional  farewell  reception  by  some  75 
admirers  from  the  local  Prohibition  Club,  an  unemployed 
and  undoubtedly  embittered  Rominger  left  with  his  wife 
for  Philadelphia.  Like  his  hero  Charles  Briggs,  Rominger 
had  been  rejected  by  the  Presbyterian  Church.20 

The  defeat  in  Wyoming  came  midway  between  the 
Briggs  heresy  trial  and  Rominger's  ultimate  abandonment 
of  the  regular  ministry.  After  brief  pastorates  in  Dickin- 
son and  Hillsboro,  North  Dakota;  Red  Lodge  and  Laurel, 


Montana;  and  Rainier  and  Portland,  Oregon,  the  56  year 
old  Rominger  grew  so  discouraged  in  1910  that  he  shifted 
his  energies  to  a  small  apple  orchard  and  poultry  raising 
operation  on  the  Columbia  River  in  southern  Washington. 
While  he  still  preached  on  a  supply  basis  and  regularly 
taught  Sunday  School,  he  never  again  subjected  himself 
to  the  uncertainties  of  full-time  dependence  on  church 
work.  Instead  he  read  Goethe,  Froude,  Carlyle,  the 
muckraking  literature,  Christian  Century,  Common  Sense,  The 
Nation  and  theological  books.  Increasingly,  he  settled  into 
a  radical  stance  on  Christianity,  war  and  the  American 
economic  system.21 

The  people  of  Europe  and  America  have  never  been  Christians. 
They  have  never  accepted  the  Christian  religion  except  as  a  veneer 
and  hardwood  finish  to  their  essential  paganism.  War  is  the  worst 
wickedness  ever  spat  from  the  jaws  of  hell  but  it  is  the  "Christian" 
nations'  most  costly  and  highly  developed  instrument.  We  think, 
educate  and  organize  for  war  and  not  for  peace  ...  I  have  found 
our  present  organization  of  society  a  flagrant  contrdiction  [sic]  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  Gospel  of  Luke  and  other  teachings  of 
Christ,  and  when  the  preacher  insists  that  our  human  society  with 
all  its  trades  and  traffic  must  be  brought  up  to  the  level  of  Christ's 
character  and  teachings,  he  is  in  danger  of  being  classed  as  a  socialist, 
or  "red"  financed  from  Moscow  .  .  .  The  church  is  often  acting  as 
a  buffer  between  righteousness  and  the  forces  of  moral  obliquity. 
Shame  on  it.22 


Presbyterian  Church,  1872-1907 


12 


Little  in  the  interwar  period  prompted  Rominger  to 
reconsider  his  bleak  judgments.  He  remembered  with  bit- 
terness the  wartime  imprisonment  of  Socialist  leader  Eu- 
gene V.  Debs.  He  blasted  the  churches  and  ministers  for 
failing  to  protest  the  "judicial  murder"  of  Nicola  Sacco  and 
Bartolomeo  Vanzetti  in  1927.  After  a  trip  east  during  which 
he  preached  in  Winston-Salem,  North  Carolina,  and  at- 
tended a  Miami  Bible  class  conducted  by  William  Jennings 
Bryan,  Rominger  proudly  proclaimed  himself  "an  evolu- 
tionist, Revolutionist,  radical  [Christian."23 

A  measure  of  public  tolerance,  if  not  acceptance  or 
understanding,  came  to  the  aging  radical  in  the  1930s. 
When  his  orchard  operations  went  bankrupt  in  1931-1933, 
Rominger  worked  out  an  arrangement  permitting  him  to 
remain  on  the  land  where  he  split  wood,  tended  a  garden 
and  kept  some  poultry.  He  also  served  as  a  school  board 
member  and  justice  of  the  peace.  Most  satisfying  of  all, 
however,  Rominger  became  a  regular  contributor  to  the 
local  newspaper  where  he  expressed  himself  on  almost 
every  imaginable  subject.  He  attacked  "Hoover  pros- 
perity" and  the  economic  system,  supported  New  Deal 
public  power  projects  and  fought  the  liquor  traffic.24 

While  some  of  his  articles  were  so  radical  that  the  editor  - 
refused  to  print  them,  Rominger  drew  satisfaction  from  his 
belief  that  he  was  reaching  a  larger  audience  than  most 
ministers  with  his  religious  messages.  He  especially  en- 
joyed drawing  upon  Charles  Briggs'  Whither?  (1889)  in  an 
extended  debate  with  a  Methodist  minister  on  wealth  and 
the  church.25 

The  "haves"  are  to  share  with  the  "have-nots."  That .  .  .  is  the 
chief  theme  of  the  Bible  from  Genesis  to  Revelation.  The  Bible  is  an 
uncomfortable  book  to  be  read  by  millionaires  and  the  selfish  rich 
.  .  .  Christ  never  had  a  complimentary  word  to  say  for  the 
millionaires  of  his  day,  or  any  day  .  .  .  There  was  no  place  for  a 
millionaire  in  Christ's  society.26 

Proudly,  he  wrote  back  to  the  alumni  secretary  at  Union, 
"I  am  not  a  communist  or  anarchist,  but  a  good  deal  worse, 
for  I  believe  in  Christianity,  and  that  is  the  most  revolu- 
tionary doctrine  ever  communicated  to  man— if  we  once 
put  it  into  action,  which  we  don't."27 

The  specter  of  war,  however,  muted  any  optimism  that 
might  have  penetrated  Rominger' s  apocalyptic  world  view. 
While  he  cultivated  his  Victory  Garden  and  condemned 
Hitler  and  the  "Jap  savages,"  he  insisted  that  war  was  fun- 
damentally inconsistent  with  Christianity.  The  Armaged- 
don he  witnessed  had  sprung  from  the  absorption  of  the 
Church  by  Graeco-Roman  civilization  over  a  millennium 
earlier.  Christianity,  as  a  consequence,  had  become  a  "con- 
forming rather  than  transforming"  religion.  It  had  accom- 
modated to  society  and  then  splintered  into  denomina- 
tionalism.  It  had  failed  to  alter  western  man's  essential 
paganism.  "The  worst  enemy  of  man  now  is  man  him- 
self," he  wrote,  "and  the  science  and  machinery  he  has 
developed."28  Even  at  the  end  of  World  War  II,  he  cringed 
at  the  coming  atomic  war  for  which  an  essentially  bankrupt 
"Christian  Civilization"  seemed  to  be  preparing.29 


Charles  H.  Parkhurst 


Edwin  E.  Slosson 


Eli  Crumrine 


13 


It  would  be  his  final  jeremiad.  In  1947,  his  health  broke 
precipitously  with  the  death  of  his  wife  Alice,  who  had 
been  his  devoted  companion  and  chauffeur  for  so  many 
years.  Consequently  Rominger,  lonely  and  hospitalized, 
became  isolated  from  the  religious  debates  that  so  long  had 
given  definition  to  his  life.  Broken,  garrulous,  senile  and 
childless,  the  eccentric  old  radical  died  in  a  Vancouver 
hospital  in  1949. 30 

Henry  Virgil  Rominger  was  neither  an  original  thinker 
nor  an  effective  organizer  for  the  Church.  Naive  and  fre- 
quently abrasive,  he  never  found  a  truly  receptive  audience 
in  some  70  embittering  years  in  the  American  West.  His 
significance  lies  in  that  very  rejection.  A  tenacious,  in- 
formed foot  soldier  for  the  left  wing  of  the  Social  Gospel, 
Rominger  refused  to  accept  the  surrender  of  religion  to  a 


secular  state  or  to  secular  values.  Rather  he  sought  to  recap- 
ture the  truer,  more  uncompromising  primitive  Christianity 
that  he  had  learned  of  at  Union  and  in  Berlin.  Individual 
and  Church  regeneration,  based  on  Christ's  original 
message,  would  transform  society  from  the  bottom  up  and 
avoid  the  necessity  of  statist  solutions  or  contaminating 
compromises  with  evil. 

In  the  West,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  country,  main- 
stream Americans,  including  most  churchmen  and  cer- 
tainly most  progressives,  rejected  the  positions  he  adopted 
as  irrelevant,  impractical,  probably  even  as  un-American. 
A  voice  in  the  wilderness,  Rominger  took  pride  in  his  con- 
victions even  as  a  conformist,  rapidly  modernizing  society 
rushed  past  him.  At  least,  he  must  have  told  himself,  he 
had  kept  the  faith. 


1.  Charles  Howard  Hopkins,  The  Rise  of  the  Social  Gospel  in  American 
Protestantism,  1865-1915  (New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1940); 
William  G.  McLoughlin,  Revivals,  Awakenings,  and  Reform:  An  Essay 
on  Religion  and  Social  Change  in  America,  1607-1977  (Chicago:  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago  Press,  1978),  pp.  141-178;  and  Henry  F.  May,  Protes- 
tant Churches  and  Industrial  America  (New  York:  Octagon  Books,  Inc., 
1963).  For  an  excellent  recent  survey  of  progressivism,  drawing  heavily 
on  modernization  theory,  see  John  Whiteclay  Chambers,  II,  The  Ty- 
ranny of  Change:  America  in  the  Progressive  Era,  1900-1917  (New  York: 
St.  Martin's  Press,  1980). 

2.  For  a  recent  examination  of  Christian  activism  below  the  Mason-Dixon 
line,  see  John  Patrick  McDowell,  The  Social  Gospel  in  the  South:  The 
Woman's  Home  Mission  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
1886-1939  (Baton  Rouge:  Louisiana  State  University  Press,  1982). 

3.  Alumni  Catalogue  of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  the  City  of  New 
York,  1836-1936  (1937),  p.  77;  Rominger  to  Harold  Tryon,  May  22,  1946, 
Rominger  to  C.  R.  Gillett,  January  11,  1942,  in  Henry  Virgil  Rom- 
inger Alumni  File,  Union  Theological  Seminary  (RAF-UTS);  Laramie 
Boomerang,  April  3,  1899. 

4.  Rominger  to  Gillett,  January  11,  1942,  RAF-UTS;  "Roswell  Dwight 
Hitchcock,"  Dictionary  of  American  Biography  (New  York:  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  1932),  pp.  V,  79-80;  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  Socialism 
(New  York:  Anson  D.  F.  Randolph  and  Company,  1879),  pp.  23,  69, 
82-84.  See  Hopkins,  The  Rise  of  the  Social  Gospel,  pp.  67-68  and 
May,  Protestant  Churches  and  Industrial  America,  p.  166.  Rominger 
shared  Hitchcock's  belief  that  abuse  of  alcoholic  beverages  constituted 
a  serious  impediment  to  social  reconstruction.  Hitchcock,  Socialism, 
p.  104;  Skamania  County  [Washington]  Pioneer,  April  15,  1949. 

5.  Rominger  to  Gillett,  February  15,  1939,  RAF-UTS;  Hopkins,  The  Rise 
of  the  Social  Gospel,  pp.  136-137.  Briggs  wrote  that  "[o]ne  of  the  most 
distressing  signs  of  the  times  is  the  failure  of  the  Church  to  evangelize 
the  masses  in  the  great  cities."  Charles  Augustus  Briggs,  Whither?: 
A  Theological  Question  for  the  Times  (Edinburgh:  T.  &  T.  Clark,  1889), 
p.  2. 

6.  Rominger  to  "Snyder,"  April  24,  1928,  Rominger  to  Gillett,  December 
29,  1943  and  February  15,  1939,  RAF-UTS;  Hopkins,  The  Rise  of  the 
Social  Gospel,  pp.  111-112;  May,  Protestant  Churches  and  Industrial 
America,  p.  178;  John  O.  Evjen,  The  Life  of  J.  H.  W.  Stuckenberg— 
Theologian— Philosopher— Sociologist  (Minneapolis:  Lutheran  Free  Church 
Publishing  Company,  1938),  pp.  241^247. 


7.  Alumni  Catalogue  .  .  .,  1836-1936,  pp.  77-78;  Skamania  County 
[Washington]  Pioneer,  April  15,  1949;  Laramie  Boomerang,  December 
22,  1900  and  April  3,  1899;  Rominger  to  Gillett,  January  11,  1942,  RAF- 
UTS.  For  Rominger's  recollections  of  his  trip  to  Palestine,  see  his  lec- 
ture in  Laramie  Republican,  May  14,  1900. 

8.  "Charles  Augustus  Briggs,"  Dictionary  of  American  Biography  (New 
York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1929)  II,  pp.  40-41;  New  York  Times, 
June  9,  1913;  Rominger  to  Gillett,  January  11,  1942,  and  Rominger 
to  "Snyder,"  April  24,  1928,  RAF-UTS. 

9.  Laramie  Boomerang,  April  3,  1899;  Alumni  Catalogue  .  .  .,  1836-1936, 
p.  78. 

10.  Laramie  Boomerang,  April  1,  3,  May  23,  December  29,  1899;  Seventy- 
Fifth  Anniversary-Union  Presbyterian  Church,  Laramie,  Wyoming, 
1869-1944  (1944),  pp.  11,  15,  25-26.  On  Hayford,  see  author's  "Pietism 
and  Progress:  James  H.  Hayford  and  the  Wyoming  Anti-Gambling 
Tradition,  1869-1893,"  Annals  of  Wyoming  55  (Fall,  1983):  2-8. 

11.  Edith  Smiley,  "Pioneering  with  Wyoming  University,"  (unpublished 
typescript,  1936),  p.  5,  in  American  Heritage  Center,  University  of 
Wyoming,  Laramie  (AHC-UW). 

12.  Laramie  Republican,  December  4,  1899;  Laramie  Boomerang,  December 
29,  1899,  December  10,  1900,  January  12,  28,  1901. 

13.  Laramie  Republican,  March  31,  1899;  William  Howard  Moore,  "Pro- 
gressivism and  the  Social  Gospel  in  Wyoming:  The  Antigambling  Act 
of  1901  as  a  Test  Case,"  The  Western  Historical  Quarterly  (July,  1984): 
299-316;  Laramie  Boomerang,  January  4,  1899.  On  the  variety  of  "pro- 
gressive" reformers  in  larger  cities,  see  Samuel  P.  Hays,  "The  Politics 
of  Municipal  Government  in  the  Progressive  Era,"  Pacific  Northwest 
Quarterly  (October  1964):  157-169,  Bradley  Robert  Rice,  Progressive 
Cities:  The  Commission  Movement  in  America,  1901-1920  (Austin:  Univer- 
sity of  Texas  Press,  1977)  and  Mark  H.  Haller,  "Civic  Reformers  and 
Police  Leadership:  Chicago,  1905-1935,"  in  Harlan  Hahn,  ed.,  Police 
in  Urban  Society  (Beverly  Hills:  Sage  Publications,  1971),  pp.  39-56. 

14.  Wyoming  Tribune,  November  21,  1899;  Minutes  of  Laramie  City  Coun- 
cil, November  21,  1899,  Municipal  Building,  Laramie;  Laramie 
Republican,  March  31,  December  6,  1899;  Laramie  Boomerang,  April  1, 
1899;  Charles  Parkhurst,  Our  Fight  With  Tammany  (New  York:  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  1895);  Laramie  Boomerang,  November  22,  1899. 

15.  Mark  Thomas  Connelly,  The  Response  to  Prostitution  in  the  Progressive 
Era  (Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1980);  Ruth 
Rosen,  The  Lost  Sisterhood:  Prostitution  in  America,  1900-1918  (Baltimore: 


14 


The  Johns  Hopkins  University  Press,  1982);  David  C.  Humphrey, 
"Prostitution  and  Public  Policy  in  Austin,  Texas,  1870-1915," 
Southwestern  Historical  Quarterly  (April  1983):  473-516.  The  C.  P.  Ar- 
nold Papers  in  AHC-UW  shed  no  light  on  the  city  attorney's  quarrel 
with  Rominger  about  prostitution.  His  views  appear  to  have  been 
similar  to  those  of  his  father,  the  Rev.  F.  L.  Arnold.  See  Thurmond 
Arnold,  Fair  Fights  and  Foul:  A  Dissenting  Lawyer's  Life  (New  York: 
Harcourt  Brace  and  World,  Inc.,  1965),  p.  13. 

16.  Anne  M.  Butler,  Daughters  of  Joy,  Sisters  of  Misery:  Prostitutes  in  The 
American  West,  1865-1900  (Urbana  and  Chicago:  University  of  Illinois 
Press,  1985),  p.  100;  Laramie  Boomerang,  November  24,  1899. 

17.  Rominger's  one  available  sermon  in  Laramie  touching  on  prostitu- 
tion turned  into  a  Briggsian  condemnation  of  denominationalism. 
Laramie  Republican,  February  21,  1900.  Laramie's  debate  over  prostitu- 
tion bore  some  similarity  to  that  of  Helena,  Montana,  in  the  1880s. 
There,  older  pioneer  businessmen  spoke  for  a  measure  of  tolerance 
that  offended  a  newer  group  of  arrivistes,  who  sought  more 
thoroughgoing  moral  reform  based  on  eastern  models.  While  a 
youthful  newspaper  editor  and  newer  businessmen  led  Helena's  anti- 
prostitution  crusade,  Laramie  found  its  leadership  with  local  ministers 
and  church  women.  See  Paula  Petrik,  "Strange  Bedfellows:  Prostitu- 
tion, Politicians,  and  Moral  Reform  in  Helena,  1885-1887,"  Montana 
The  Magazine  of  Western  History  (Summer  1985):  3-13. 

18.  Laramie  Boomerang,  January  8,  10,  30,  1900;  Laramie  Republican,  January 
10,  1900.  See  the  Methodist  Rev.  F.  T.  Krueger's  sermon  on  "The 
Social  Evil"  in  ibid.,  December  18,  1899. 

19.  Laramie  Boomerang,  May  16,  December  11,  13,  1900,  February  11,  16,  - 
1901.  The  issue  of  restricting  prostitution  to  the  red  light  district  con- 
tinued to  be  both  a  local  and  national  problem.  Not  until  reformers 
mobilized  medical  evidence  indicating  that  disease  spread  from  the 
red  light  district  into  the  broader  community  were  any  long  term  in- 


roads made  against  the  brothel.  Ibid.,  October  12,  25,  1909,  April  2, 
1910;  Humphrey,  "Prostitution  and  Public  Policy." 

20.  Minutes  of  Session  of  Union  Presbyterian  Church  of  Laramie,  January 
22  and  April  18,  1901,  Box  1,  UPCL  Records  and  E.  E.  Slosson 
Biographical  File,  AHC-UW;  Laramie  Boomerang,  April  8,  18,  1901. 

21.  Alumni  Catalogue  .  .  .,  1836-1936,  p.  78;  Rominger  to  Gillett,  Oc- 
tober 31,  1911,  December  29,  1941,  December  29,  1943,  RAF-UTS. 

22.  Rominger  to  "Snyder,"  April  24,  1928,  ibid. 

23.  Rominger  to  Gillett,  December  29,  1941,  Rominger  to  "Snyder,"  April 
24,  1928,  Rominger  to  Gillett,  (?)  1925,  ibid. 

24.  Rominger  to  Gillett,  December  29,  1941,  February  1,  1936,  December 
29,  1943,  ibid.;  Skamania  County  Pioneer,  April  15,  1949.  Many  surviv- 
ing progressives  were  uncomfortable  with  the  New  Deal.  See  Otis 
L.  Graham,  Jr.,  An  Encore  for  Reform:  The  Old  Progressives  and  the  New 
Deal  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1967). 

25.  Rominger  to  Gillett,  December  29,  1943,  Rominger  to  Tryon,  May 
22,  1946,  RAF-UTS. 

26.  Rominger  letter  to  editor,  Hood  River  [Oregon]  News,  December  19, 
1934,  clipping  in  ibid. 

27.  Rominger  to  Gillett,  February  15,  1939,  ibid. 

28.  Rominger  to  Tryon,  May  22,  1946,  Rominger  to  Gillett,  December 
29,  1943,  and  undated  wartime  column  "Musings  of  a  Retired 
Minister"  in  Skamania  County  Pioneer  in  ibid. 

29.  Rominger  to  Tryon,  May  22,  1946,  ibid.  For  an  interesting  perspec- 
tive on  the  reaction  of  surviving  political  progressives  to  the 
breakdown  of  Soviet- American  cooperation,  see  Robert  Griffith,  "Old 
Progressives  and  the  Cold  War,"  The  Journal  of  American  History 
(September  1979):  334-337. 

30.  Rominger  to  Tryon,  October  16,  1947,  RAF-UTS;  Skamania  County 
Pioneer,  September  12,  1947,  April  15,  1949. 


L5 


Few  mountain  ranges  in  the  world  inspire  the  sheer 
awe  that  the  Grand  Tetons  in  Wyoming  impress  upon  their 
admirers.  Descriptions  that  invariably  include  phrases  like 
incomparable  grandeur,  sheer  beauty  and  magical  only 
hint  at  the  magnificence  of  this  unique  mountain  range. 
It  is  easy  to  understand  why  visitors  are  repeatedly  drawn 
back  once  they  have  visited  the  Tetons. 

Today,  the  Tetons  are  easily  accessible  via  modern 
highways  and  by  air.  But  in  1926,  the  year  John  D.  Haines 
of  Hominy,  Oklahoma,  journeyed  westward  to  the  Teton 
country,  conditions  were  much  more  primitive.  The  Grand 
Teton  National  Park  was  not  to  be  created  until  February 
26,  1929,  and  in  1926  there  were  no  paved  roads,  hiking 
trails  or  park  rangers.1  It  was  indeed  a  strenuous  enter- 
prise just  to  make  your  way  to  the  Jackson  Hole-Grand 
Teton  area,  much  less  attempt  to  climb  the  mountains. 

But  climbing  the  Grand  Teton  13,770  feet  to  its  sum- 
mit was  John  Haines'  goal  as  he  journeyed  from  Osage 
County  the  summer  of  1926.  The  first  recorded  climb  of 
the  Grand  Teton  had  been  made  by  William  O.  Owen, 
Franklin  S.  Spalding,  Frank  L.  Petersen  and  John  Shive 
on  August  11,  1898. 2  Then,  inexplicably,  the  summit  was 
not  again  visited  until  1923,  25  years  later. 

On  August  25,  1923,  three  Montanans,  Andy  DePirro, 
Quin  A.  Blackburn  and  Dave  DeLap  made  their  successful 
ascent  of  the  Grand.3  From  August,  1923,  until  August, 
1926,  a  handful  of  other  parties  made  ascents  of  the  Grand 
Teton.  It  was  Haines'  hope  to  join  this  elite  group  of 
pioneer  mountaineers  who  had  climbed  the  Grand.  Al- 
though Haines  had  no  previous  mountaineering  experi- 
ence and  little  equipment,  he  possessed  an  ample  supply 
of  determination.  The  28  year  old  electrician  from  Hominy 
was  also  in  excellent  physical  condition  for  the  strenuous 
climb. 

In  1926  the  Teton  country  was  still  virgin  wilderness 
with  numerous  of  its  glorious  canyons  unexplored  and 
most  of  its  peaks  unclimbed.  As  the  highest  of  the  peaks 
in  the  range,  the  Grand  Teton  was  the  peak  that  naturally 
attracted  the  interest  of  the  mountaineers.  The  Grand  has 
been  described  as  so  exceptional  as  to  be  conceded  a  place 
among  the  world's  great  peaks.4 

After  arriving  in  the  Jackson  Hole  area,  Haines  made 
camp  on  beautiful  Jenny  Lake  at  the  base  of  the  Grand 
Teton.  It  was  Haines'  good  fortune  to  become  acquainted 
with  Fritioff  M.  Fryxell,  a  young  man  of  26  years  from  Il- 
linois who  had  recently  completed  graduate  work  in  col- 
lege and  was  searching  for  a  topic  for  his  doctoral  disserta- 
tion in  geology.  Fryxell  had  first  visited  the  Tetons  in  1924 
while  searching  for  a  research  problem  on  the  subject  of 
mountain  glaciation.5  The  Tetons  provided  the  solution  to 
Fryxell's  quest. 


John  D 

Oklahoma' 


by  Joe  D.  Haines,  Jr.,  M.D. 


16 


riaines 

Honeer  Mountaineer  in  the  Tetons 


17 


Fryxell  spent  the  three  successive  summers  from  1926- 
1929  working  on  his  doctorate  and  in  1929  was  offered  the 
position  of  Park  Naturalist  in  the  newly  created  national 
park,  thus  becoming  the  park's  first  ranger.6  Fryxell  later 
went  on  to  become  the  major  contributor  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  geology  of  the  area  as  well  as  becoming 
the  most  eloquent  spokesman  for  the  unique  mountain 
range. 

In  August,  1926,  Haines  and  Fryxell  decided  to  make 
an  ascent  of  the  Grand  Teton,  taking  the  traditional  route 
pioneered  by  the  Owen  party  in  1898.  In  fact,  it  was  not 
until  1929  that  mountaineers  began  attempting  alternate 
routes  in  reaching  the  summit  of  the  Grand  Teton.  So, 
early  one  August  morning  Haines  and  Fryxell  began  their 
ascent.  The  climb  went  well  until  around  noon  when  the 
weather  turned  against  the  two  climbers.  Rain  and  snow 
alternated  as  the  mountain  created  its  own  weather  and 
the  cold  rocks  became  difficult  to  hold  onto.  The  two  men 
continued  onward,  however,  until  they  reached  a  horizon- 
tal ledge  about  600  feet  from  the  top.  By  following  the  ledge 
around  the  northwest  precipice  of  the  peak  one  can  reach 
the  base  of  a  succession  of  chimneys  which  extend  the  re- 
maining distance  to  the  top.7 

Along  a  twenty  foot  stretch  of  the  ledge  it  becomes  less 
than  three  feet  wide  and  even  less  high,  through  which 
one  "coons"  or  wriggles  like  a  snake,  unable  to  rise  even 
to  the  elbows.8  Thus  this  narrow  ledge  is  known  as  the 
Cooning  Place  and  its  traverse  is  safe  by  reason  of  the  in- 
ward slope  of  the  ledge.  The  Cooning  Place  is  a  definite 
high  point  of  the  climb  since  one  can  dangle  his  arm  out 
toward  the  brink  of  a  3,000  foot  abyss.9 


As  John  Haines  described: 

Mr.  F.  M.  Fryxell  and  I  climbed  to  a  height  of  13,246  feet.  We 
both  made  it  up  to  the  Cooning  Place.  There  Mr.  Fryxell  stopped 
and  I  went  on  up  over  the  (Cooning)  rock  and  above  maybe  75  or 
100  feet  in  altitude.  Up  there  I  could  see  Mr.  Fryxell  and  he  motioned 
with  his  arms  and  hands  for  me  to  come  back  down. 

I  will  say  that  I  was  in  no  mood  to  go  any  further  on  account 
of  the  weather.  Rain,  snow,  ice  cold  rocks  then  sunshine  all  in  the 
space  of  a  few  minutes.  We  stopped  climbing  at  12  o'clock  noon. 
We  traced  back  down  to  First  Saddle  (between  the  Grand  and  Mid- 
dle Tetons— elevation  11,600  feet)  and  on  down  Bradley  Canyon. 

We  kept  going  all  afternoon  and  until  about  4:30  a.m.  the  next 
morning  before  we  reached  camp  on  Jenny  Lake,  two  tired  and  sore- 
footed  climbers.  The  return  trip  took  a  lot  of  skin  off  our  toes  and 
legs.  We  would  take  our  boots  off  and  put  our  feet  in  the  cold  moun- 
tain streams— then  our  feet  and  legs  would  burn.10 

As  Fryxell  later  noted,  "The  snow  and  ice  we  en- 
countered above  the  upper  saddle  were  most  unpleasant 
and  scary."11 

The  two  men  had  come  within  a  mere  500  feet  of  the 
13,770  foot  summit,  but  they  were  to  be  denied  their 
ultimate  goal  on  this  outing.  Three  months  later  Fryxell 
corresponded  with  Haines  saying: 

Do  you  expect  to  get  back  to  the  Teton  next  summer?  I  am  quite 
sure  that  I  will,  probably  for  the  whole  summer.  I  have  decided  to 
work  my  doctorate  thesis  on  the  range  so  I  will  no  doubt  get  my  fill 
of  mountaineering.  I  wish  we  could  get  together  on  a  trip  or  two, 
say  on  another  try  at  the  Grand  Teton.  I  won't  be  satisfied  until  I 
get  to  the  top.12 


This  old  snapshot,  lent  by  the  author  shows  Haines' 
camp  at  Jenny  Lake. 


18 


Although  Haines  never  returned  to  the  Tetons  to  make 
another  attempt  at  the  Grand,  Fryxell  returned  many  times 
and  ultimately  made  at  least  one  ascent  of  every  peak  in 
the  range.  Whether  this  noteworthy  feat  has  ever  been 
duplicated  is  unknown  to  the  author,  but  it  involved  ten 
successive  summers  of  climbing  (1926-1935)  and  a  number 
of  trips  back  to  the  Tetons  after  1935. 13  The  1926  attempt 
by  Haines  and  Fryxell  was  both  men's  first  serious  ven- 
ture into  the  range.  Fryxell  followed  with  perhaps  50  or 
60  other  trips  (by  his  own  estimate),  mostly  climbs  and 
surely  a  record  of  distinction  by  the  standards  of  any  era.14 
As  Fryxell  later  recalled  of  John  Haines: 
He  was  a  tough,  resourceful  climber,  and  a  pleasant,  uncomplain- 
ing companion.  Poorly  equipped  as  we  were,  and  with  no  trails  or 
detailed  information  about  the  route,  we  did  well  to  get  as  far  as  we 
did.  And  later  experiences  in  the  Tetons  convinced  me  that  we  were 
wise  to  turn  back  when  we  did. 

That  summer  (1926)  was  my  fourth  devoted  to  hiking  in  the  West. 
I  was  very  fit.  So  was  (Haines).  He  was  much  hardier  than  most  of 
the  men  I  climbed  with  later.15 

And  so,  John  Haines  of  Hominy  nearly  became  the  first 
Oklahoman  to  ascend  the  Grand  Teton.  It  is  a  pity  that 
he  did  not  respond  to  Fryxell's  invitation  at  trying  the 
mountain  again.  Perhaps  more  pressing  matters  in  Osage 
County  diverted  Haines'  attention  or  perhaps  he  was 
satisfied  in  coming  as  close  as  they  did.  We  will  never 
know,  but  the  1926  climb  is  now  a  mere  footnote  in  the 
history  of  America's  most  remarkable  mountain  range. 


Haines,  on  the  right,  and  an  unidentified 
companion  in  the  park.  The  automobile 
appears  to  be  a  Chevrolet. 


1.  F.  M.  Fryxell,  Mountaineering  in  the  Tetons— The  Pioneer  Period  1898- 
1940  (Jackson,  Wyoming:  The  Teton  Bookshop,  1978). 

2.  Ibid. 

3.  Ibid. 

4.  Ibid. 

5.  F.  M.  Fryxell,  The  Tetons  Interpretations  of  a  Mountain  Landscape  (Moose, 
Wyoming:  Grand  Teton  National  History  Association,  1984). 

6.  Ibid. 

7.  Fryxell,  Mountaineering  in  the  Tetons. 

8.  Ibid. 

9.  Ibid. 

10.  John  D.  Haines,  personal  notes. 

11.  F.  M.  Fryxell,  personal  correspondence. 

12.  Ibid. 

13.  Ibid. 

14.  Ibid. 

15.  Ibid. 


N 


NATIVISM  IN  WYOMING 
1 868  to  1 930: 


Changing  Perceptions  of 
Foreign  Immigrants 

by 
Lawrence  A.  Cardoso 


A  grant  from  the  Wyoming  Council  for  the  Humanities  made 
possible  the  research  for  this  study.  The  author  thanks  the  Council 
for  its  support. 


20 


Nativism  intensified  rapidly  in  Wyoming  in  the  early 
20th  century.  This  complex  set  of  ideas  was  an  essentially 
conservative  attempt  to  safeguard  the  status  quo  against 
abrupt  changes  by  reviving  traditional  beliefs  and  values. 
Motivated  primarily  by  patriotism,  nativists  practiced  a 
defensive  nationalism  which  sought  to  preserve  ideas  and 
institutions  of  high  value  to  them  and  denigrate  anything 
perceived  as  a  danger  to  those  cherished  things.  Nativists 
saw  unassimilated  foreign-born  immigrants  who  were  not 
citizens  of  the  United  States  as  a  potent  internal  enemy. 
By  definition,  because  of  their  suspect  racial,  religious  and 
political  backgrounds,  the  newcomers  were  obstacles  in  the 
pathway  of  national  purification. 

This  anti-foreign  impulse  ebbed  and  flowed  after  the 
Civil  War.  Particularly  in  bad  economic  times  nativists 
questioned  the  advisibility  of  allowing  unrestricted  im- 
migration, especially  from  countries  in  southern  and 
eastern  Europe.  These  periods,  however,  were  brief  and 
did  not  see  the  end  of  immigration.  Most  Americans  con- 
tinued to  believe  in  the  ultimate  assimilation  of  immigrants 
because  of  the  strength  of  the  general  environment  in 
Americanizing  recent  arrivals.  It  was  the  outbreak  of  World 
War  I  in  1914,  well  before  the  United  States  became  a 
belligerent  in  April,  1917,  that  saw  nativist  sentiment  come 
to  be  the  dominant  viewpoint.  Disruptive  changes  during 
the  wartime  period  caused  massive  internal  migration  from 
rural  to  urban  areas  as  many  sought  to  take  advantage  of 
war-induced  prosperity.  Millions  of  men  left  their  homes 
for  military  service.  Federal  control  over  the  economy  ac- 
celerated. During  the  immediate  postwar  period  the  cock- 
iness of  domestic  radicals,  depression,  Bolshevik  revolu- 
tions in  Europe  and  increasing  labor  strife  on  the  home 
front  served  to  underscore  the  real  and  supposed  dangers 
of  rapid  and  unregulated  change.  Nativists  lashed  out  at 
America's  immigrant  population  as  part  of  their  campaign 
to  impose  order  on  the  national  polity  and  lessen  domestic 
turmoil.  This  national  tide  of  fear  and  paranoia  resulted 
in  increasingly  restrictive  federal  immigration  laws  and 
massive  efforts  to  speed  up  the  assimilation  of  resident 
foreigners  through  coercion.  Gone  forever  was  the  pre- 
sumption of  voluntary  Americanization. 

Wyoming  opinion  leaders  followed  these  national 
trends  beginning  with  the  creation  of  the  territory  in  1868. 
They  generally  welcomed  immigrants  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  before  1914  in  the  belief  that  the  unassimilated 
would  quickly  rise  to  local  standards  of  language,  culture 
and  patriotism  in  their  new  environment.  Local  expecta- 
tions in  these  early  days  strongly  resisted  a  gloomy,  fear- 
ful national  body  of  thought  which  challenged  European 
immigration.  The  pre-war  years  from  1914  to  1917  saw  a 
dramatic  turn  around  in  the  depth  and  intensity  of  nativism 
in  the  Cowboy  State.  This  change  stemmed  from  the  belief 
that  large  numbers  of  immigrants  comprised  a  fifth  column 


which  would  ultimately  destroy  Wyoming  society.  The 
validity  of  the  "melting  pot"  concept,  an  earlier  premise 
which  underlaid  a  benign  view  of  the  newcomers,  came 
under  increasing  attack.  The  United  States'  entry  into  the 
war  in  April,  1917,  intensified  these  qualms.  Post-war 
economic  instability  and  the  sensational  "Red  Scare"  of 
1921  and  1922  kept  negativism  toward  the  foreign-born  at 
a  fever  pitch  and  accelerated  the  desire  for  a  homogeneous 
nationalism.  Wyoming  joined  this  nativist  mainstream  of 
the  "tribal  twenties,"  and  avidly  supported  the  national 
consensus  which  shut  the  door  on  immigration.  Local 
elites,  with  the  apparent  blessings  of  popular  opinion, 
sponsored  and  enforced  state  legislation  which  sought  the 
forced  assimilation  of  the  foreigner  in  Wyoming.  Despite  the 
traditional  view  of  historians  that  local  people  welcomed 
all  immigrants  well  into  the  20th  century  with  only  sporadic 
reservations,  a  close  examination  of  our  sources  reveals  that 
this  was  not  the  case.1 

The  newly  established  territory  of  Wyoming  was  hun- 
gry for  population  after  its  founding  in  1868.  Boosters  from 
both  the  public  and  private  sectors  sought  large-scale  im- 
migration in  the  belief  that  areas  far  from  the  Union  Pa- 
cific Railroad  line  of  settlements  would  fill  up  with  in- 
dustrious farmers  and  mechanics.2  J.  H.  Triggs  in  his 
History  of  Cheyenne  and  Northern  Wyoming  sought  to  attract 
an  "intelligent  and  moral  class"  of  settlers.  Years  later, 
thinking  back  to  his  two  terms  as  territorial  governor,  Fran- 
cis E.  Warren  noted  that  Wyoming  in  the  19th  century 
"needed  all  the  good,  honorable  settlers  it  could  get."3 

These  high  hopes  of  rapid  economic  development 
drew  little  distinction  between  native-born  and  foreign- 
born  immigrants.  The  quest  for  families  to  plow  the  soil, 
tend  the  flocks,  work  the  mines  and  build  the  cities  dic- 
tated that  all  men  and  women  were  welcome  as  long  as 
they  contributed  to  the  creation  of  the  new  commonwealth. 
Indeed,  the  dismal  performance  of  the  local  economy  dur- 
ing the  first  few  decades  further  clouded  the  importance 
of  the  newcomers'  origins.  Germans,  wrote  an  editorialist 
for  the  Cheyenne  Daily  Leader  in  1868,  brought  much-needed 
"industry,  thrift,  intelligence  and  an  enthusiastic  devotion 
to  democratic  institutions."  Immigrants  from  other  areas 
of  western  and  northern  Europe,  such  places  as  the  British 
Isles,  Holland  and  Scandinavia,  were  similarly  welcomed 
as  additional  sources  of  strength  for  the  new  western 
society.4 

The  radical  shift  in  immigrant  origins  after  1890  did  lit- 
tle at  first  to  alter  local  perceptions  of  foreigners.  Millions 
of  people  from  southern  and  eastern  Europe  began  to  cross 
the  Atlantic  after  that  date  in  pursuit  of  better  lives.  By  the 
turn  of  the  century  these  "new"  immigrants,  as  historians 
have  labeled  them,  comprised  four-fifths  of  all  entrants  into 
the  United  States.  Their  numbers  would  total  25,000,000 
by  1914.  Russians,  Poles,  Greeks,  Italians  and  others,  were 


:i 


Territorial  Governor 

Francis  E.  Warren 

advocated  immigration  of 

good  honorable  settlers 

to  Wyoming. 


markedly  different  from  those  "old"  immigrants  who  came 
here  before  1890.  For  the  most  part  of  the  Catholic  and 
Jewish  faiths,  they  came  from  societies  which  did  not  share 
the  political  traditions  of  the  United  States  and  nations  of 
northern  and  western  Europe.  Their  homelands'  heritages 
were  ones  of  political  turbulence  and  autocratic  rule.  Many 
of  them  were  desperately  poor.  From  cultures  still  in  the 
pre-industrial  age,  these  often  swarthy-skinned  immigrants 
lacked  many  elemental  skills  which  would  have  led  to 
quick  success  in  the  United  States.  Instead,  almost  all  of 
them  were  suited  only  for  unskilled,  low-paying  jobs.  They 
seemed  to  be  light  years  removed  from  the  lifestyles,  tradi- 
tions and  promises  of  most  Americans  and  immigrants 
who  had  come  from  other  parts  of  Europe.5 

The  arrival  of  large  numbers  of  Italians,  Slavs  and 
others  from  southern  and  eastern  Europe  caused  great 
alarm  on  the  national  level  soon  after  they  began  arriving 
after  1890.  The  Dictionary  of  Races  or  Peoples,  published  in 
1911  as  part  of  an  extensive  federal  investigation  chaired 
by  Senator  Dillingham  of  Vermont,  spelled  out  nativist 
fears.  Eastern  Europeans,  it  was  claimed,  were  cruel, 
ferocious  and  untrustworthy  because  of  irrational  swings 
of  mood.  Since  many  of  them  came  from  areas  subject  to 
Russian  control,  they  had  no  understanding  of  self- 
government  or  the  prerequisites  for  that  form  of  rule. 
Italians,  most  of  them  from  the  southern  part  of  their 
homeland,  were  even  worse.  Over  the  course  of  history 


there  had  been  almost  no  admixture  of  Teutonic  blood;  in- 
stead, the  area's  population  had  distant  African  ante- 
cedents, rendering  this  group  of  people  incapable  of  any 
sort  of  progress.  Many  personal  vices  resulted  from  this 
historical  and  biological  evolution.  In  the  eyes  of  nativists, 
Italians  would  always  remain  prone  to  crime,  dependent 
on  charity,  vengeful,  superstitious  and  illiterate;  in  short, 
not  the  sort  of  people  who  could  contribute  to  the  progress 
of  the  United  States.6 

These  individual  pathologies  caused  many  well  known 
social  problems  for  their  new  homeland.  New  immigrants 
refused  to  spread  themselves  out  over  the  entire  country, 
so  as  to  ease  their  assimilation,  and  remained  congregated 
in  a  few  urban  areas  in  the  Northeast.  These  large  com- 
munities of  illiterate  and  inarticulate  people  were  easy  prey 
for  corrupt  political  bosses.  High  rates  of  poverty,  crime, 
vice  and  disease  also  characterized  these  eastern  slums. 
Huddled  together  as  they  were,  they  seemed  to  be  an  un- 
digestible  lump,  a  foreign  growth,  which  would  threaten 
and  then  destroy  American  culture.  All  facets  of  society 
were  at  the  mercy  of  this  internal  cancer:  religion,  law, 
politics,  rules  of  comportment,  customs  and  other  cher- 
ished traditions.  In  order  to  thwart  these  internal  dangers, 
members  of  the  Dillingham  Commission  recommended  the 
use  of  a  literacy  test  for  would-be  immigrants.  In  this  way, 
the  concentrations  of  foreigners  in  eastern  cities  could 
gradually  be  reduced  and  the  nation  saved.7 


22 


John  W.  Hoyt,  a  Territorial 
Governor  and  later  University 

President.  His  prayers  for 

statehood  included  the  assurance 

that  Wyomingites  were  of  the 

very  best  class  of  citizens. 


Wyoming's  leaders  thought  they  had  a  more  effective 
way  to  deal  with  these  problems  than  the  restriction  of  im- 
migration. Far  removed  from  the  East's  nagging  problems 
and  mounting  nativism  and  evermindful  of  slow  economic 
development,  local  boosters  believed  their  new  society 
could  solve  national  ills  by  transforming  the  newcomers— 
almost  magically— into  good  Americans.  Wyomingites  had 
a  limitless  faith  in  the  ability  of  the  frontier  environment 
to  assimilate  foreigners,  whatever  their  origins.  They 
placed  their  faith  in  the  precepts  of  a  common  humanity, 
equal  rights  and  confidence  that  the  system  could  rectify 
any  difficulties.  Whether  this  self-image  was  true  or  not 
was  beside  the  point.  Many  believed  it  was  true,  and  then 
proceeded  to  act  on  the  belief.  As  John  W.  Hoyt  expressed 
these  ideas  in  his  prayer  for  admission  into  the  Union, 
Wyomingites  were  "of  the  very  best  class  of  American 
citizens,  having  come  from  the  most  enlightened  portions 
of  the  United  States  and  Europe."  The  loyalty,  patriotism 
and  love  of  liberty  of  the  territory's  people,  wrote  Gover- 
nor Francis  E.  Warren,  "have  not  been  decreased  but  in- 
creased by  the  hardships  and  dangers  that  have  been  en- 
dured and  by  the  difficulties  that  have  been  encountered 
and  overcome  in  laying  the  foundation."8 

Coupled  with  this  strong  faith  in  the  environment  was 
an  optimistic  image  of  European  immigrants.  As  was  true 
of  Americans  on  the  whole  before  1914,  Wyomingites  saw 
the  newcomers  as  energetic,  hardy  and  yearning  to  become 


good  citizens.  Italians,  Greeks,  Slavs  and  others  would 
assimilate  quickly  and  adopt  the  Wyoming  self-image  be- 
cause that  was  what  they  desired.  All  were  Americans  in 
the  making.  The  local  educational  establishment  would 
help  guide  this  process  through  a  chauvinistic  presen- 
tation of  the  nation's  history  to  the  newcomers'  children, 
but  that  was  what  the  immigrants  wanted.  The  Old  World 
would  soon  be  forgotten  in  preference  for  the  New.9 

To  be  sure,  as  was  true  for  the  rest  of  the  United  States, 
stereotypes  about  southern  and  eastern  Europeans  existed 
in  Wyoming  among  local  opinion  molders.  Italians  were 
thought  to  be  addicted  to  the  vice  of  gambling;  Slavs  re- 
ceived their  full  share  of  negative  imagery  from  the  local 
press;  other  immigrants  were  said  to  suffer  from  defects 
in  their  mental  and  physical  makeup.  Local  newspapers 
blithely  used  terms  such  as  "paddy  green"  and  "dago 
pink"  in  their  columns.  On  occasion  the  hyperbole  of  local 
editorial  writers  matched  anything  found  in  the  nation. 
G.  S.  Walker  of  the  Wyoming  Industrial  Journal,  for  exam- 
ple, opined  in  1900,  when  it  appeared  that  China's  Boxer 
Rebellion  might  lead  to  violence  against  Orientals  in  local 
mining  camps,  that  most  immigrants  were  "of  the  worth- 
less, never-work,  anarchistic  type  and  should  be  turned 
back  from  our  shores."10 

Despite  this  evidence  of  negative  attitudes,  there  was 
no  campaign  of  sustained  and  systematic  nativist  agitation 
in  Wyoming  during  the  period  from  1868  to  1914.  Members 


23 


of  the  local  elite,  whether  newspaper  editors,  politicians, 
local  boosters  for  economic  growth  or  community  leaders, 
have  left  no  evidence  of  organized  restrictionist  sentiment 
during  the  period.  The  Immigration  Restriction  League,  so 
powerful  from  the  1890s  onward  in  other  parts  of  the  coun- 
try because  of  the  public  support  of  many  notable  public 
figures,  did  not  exist  in  Wyoming.  No  outpouring  of  sup- 
port by  the  elite  can  be  found  for  random,  spontaneous 
anti-foreign  outbursts.  What  incidents  there  were  coincided 
with  times  of  economic  stress  when  the  newcomers  pro- 
vided handy  scapegoats  for  general  malaise.  It  is  impor- 
tant to  note  here  the  circumstances  of  the  infamous  Rock 
Springs  Massacre  of  1885.  After  white  employees  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Coal  Department  murdered  28  Chinese 
workers,  Governor  Warren  moved  quickly  to  call  in  federal 
troops  so  as  to  restore  order,  protect  property  and  prevent 
the  further  loss  of  immigrants  lives.  During  the  depres- 
sion of  the  early  1890s  Populist  leader  Shakespeare  E.  Sealy 
denounced  foreign  laborers,  saying  they  deprived  native- 
born  workers  of  available  jobs.  At  about  the  same  time  the 
American  Protective  Association,  whose  members  saw  a 
Catholic  conspiracy  to  subvert  and  conquer  representative 
government  in  the  United  States,  was  particularly  effec- 
tive in  local  elections  against  the  two  major  established  par- 
ties in  Cheyenne  and  Laramie,  but  had  little  long-lasting 
influence  over  the  electorate.  The  frustration  and  disillu- 
sionment caused  by  the  Panic  of  1893  even  caused  the  state 
legislature  to  memorialize  the  Congress  to  restrict  "in- 


The  Rock  Springs  Massacre.  An 

extreme  example  of  anti-foreign 

outburst. 


discriminate  irnmigration  that  now  threatens  to  overwhelm 
the  nation."  These  manifestations  of  nativism  doubtlessly 
represented  only  a  small  part  of  what  was  a  deep-felt 
popular  resentment  against  immigrants  in  Wyoming,  par- 
ticularly during  times  when  laboring  men  and  women 
keenly  felt  job  competition  with  foreigners.  But  the  inar- 
ticulate found  no  sustained  support  from  any  segment  of 
Wyoming's  elite.  That  would  not  come  until  well  after  the 
turn  of  the  century.  For  the  time  being  prior  to  1914,  grass 
roots  grievances  died  with  their  immediate  economic 
causes  by  the  end  of  the  19th  century.11 

Nor  did  the  laws  of  Wyoming  before  1914  indicate 
substantial  sanctions  against  local  non-citizens.  Article  XIX 
of  the  state  constitution  of  1890  forbade  the  employment 
of  foreign  citizens  by  state,  county  or  municipal  govern- 
ments, but  this  provision  was  simply  copied  from  similar 
documents  in  nearby  states  without  discussion  on  the  part 
of  constitutional  delegates.  Delegates  also  adopted  a 
literacy  requirement  for  suffrage.  "We  refuse  [the  fran- 
chise] to  the  illiterate  because  they  are  incompetent 
voters,"  said  John  W.  Hoyt.  Wyoming  must  not  be 
"flooded    by    people    from    the    old    world,    without 


24 


Charles  L.  Vagner,  rancher,  merchant  and 
member  of  the  constitutional  convention  of  1889. 

knowledge  of  our  institutions,  without  ability  to  read  our 
constitution,  or  without  ability  to  govern  themselves."  The 
purpose  of  this  barrier  was  twofold.  First  and  foremost, 
the  men  who  wrote  this  basic  document  wished  to  end  the 
manipulation  of  foreigners'  votes  by  local  political 
machines.  Secondly,  the  literacy  test  was  at  best  only  a 
temporary  obstacle  to  full  immigrant  participation  in 
Wyoming  politics.  The  delegates  assumed  the  ready  and 
willing  desire  of  the  foreign-born  to  assimilate  and  literacy 
was  part  and  parcel  of  Americanism.12 

Only  one  law  dealt  specifically  with  the  foreign-born 
before  1914.  This  piece  of  legislation,  passed  in  1887,  pro- 
hibited the  inducement  of  immigration  through  means  of 
a  prior  contract;  that  is,  an  employer  could  not  invite 
workers  from  a  foreign  land  through  promises  of  employ- 
ment. Based  on  a  federal  law  of  1885,  this  territorial  statute 
was  an  attempt  to  deny  employers  the  use  of  low-paid 
strikebreakers.  Its  purpose  was  more  to  ease  labor  strife 
and  uphold  the  standard  of  living  of  American  citizens  than 
to  discriminate  against  non-natives.13  It  is  instructive  to 
note  here  another  example  of  this  early  period's  mild  ethnic 
and  racial  nativism.  Despite  strong  prejudices  against 
Asians  and  other  non-whites,  Wyoming  editorial  writers 
and  politicians  strongly  criticized  legislation  from  1869 
which  prohibited  interracial  marriages,  arguing  that  this 
ban  would  discourage  the  territory's  population  growth. 
This  law  was  repealed  in  1882  by  a  large  legislative  ma- 
jority.14 


Meyer  Frank,  one  of  the  founders  of  Newcastle 
and  three  times  its  Mayor. 

The  economic  success  and  rapid  assimilation  of  most 
early  immigrants  from  overseas  offered  the  most  convinc- 
ing proof  of  their  innate  abilities  and  desire  to  Americanize. 
Many  of  the  "old"  immigrants  originated  in  the  British 
Isles  or  had  lived  elsewhere  in  the  United  States  before 
coming  to  Wyoming.  This  meant  that  the  majority  of  the 
newcomers  were  familiar  with  the  English  language  and 
already  partially  assimilated  when  they  arrived.  Several 
cases  in  point,  of  many  which  could  be  singled  out,  indicate 
this  early  pattern.  Charles  L.  Vagner,  born  in  Denmark  in 
1849,  first  settled  in  Illinois  and  later  came  to  Wyoming 
where  he  operated  an  extensive  network  of  mercantile, 
banking  and  ranching  interests.  He  was  later  appointed 
to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Wyoming  and 
elected  to  the  state  constitutional  convention  in  1889  to 
represent  Carbon  County.  Meyer  Frank,  another  member 
of  the  convention,  was  born  in  Germany  in  1854.  In  the 
1880s  Frank  helped  found  and  build  Newcastle.  Local 
citizens  saw  fit  to  elect  him  their  mayor  for  three  terms. 
Lawrence  R.  Bresnahen  was  a  native  of  Ireland.  He  came 
to  Cheyenne  from  New  York  state  and  opened  a  retail  store 
in  1867.  Bresnahen  represented  Laramie  County  in  the 
Fourth  Territorial  Legislature  in  1875,  and  later  served  four 
terms  as  Cheyenne's  mayor.  Eugene  Amoretti,  Jr.,  al- 
though born  in  South  Pass  in  1871,  was  the  son  of  Italian 
immigrants  who  came  to  Wyoming  in  1868.  Amoretti  had 
extensive  business  interests  in  Fremont  County  and  later 
served  in  a  variety  of  city  and  county  offices.15 


25 


Eugene  Amoretti— Fremont  County  merchant 
and  politician. 

These  and  other  success  stories  on  the  part  of  im- 
migrants led  many  Wyomingites  to  believe  they  could  help 
solve  the  social  problems  associated  with  the  presence  of 
large  numbers  of  new  arrivals  in  eastern  cities.  Pro- 
immigration  spokesmen,  attempting  to  counter  national 
nativistic  patterns,  sought  to  continue  America's  role  as 
a  haven  for  the  world's  oppressed.  In  their  search  for  con- 
tinuity they  supported  a  variety  of  organizations  which 
were  designed  to  distribute  immigrants  more  evenly  over 
the  face  of  the  land.  In  this  way  immigrants,  deprived  of 
the  constant  reinforcement  of  old  country  ways  as  mem- 
bers of  a  subculture,  would  quickly  assimilate  once  they 
were  immersed  in  a  general  American  population.  Gover- 
nor Joseph  M.  Carey  became  a  charter  member  of  the 
American  Immigration  and  Distribution  League  of  New 
York  City,  seeking  to  further  the  "sacred  duty"  of  keep- 
ing America  the  land  of  open  immigration.  Carey's  pre- 
decessor, Bryant  B.  Brooks,  urged  the  pro-immigration 
Split  Ticket  Association  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  to  keep  Wyo- 
ming in  mind  as  a  final  destination  for  its  clients.16 

The  state's  heady  prosperity  during  the  period  from 
the  Spanish-American  war  to  1914,  although  not  as 
vigorous  as  many  had  hoped,  gave  yet  more  impetus  to 
attract  foreigners.  Governors  of  the  period  represented  a 
wide  consensus  on  the  desirability  of  this  policy.  Editorial 
opinion  held  that  if  the  state  could  attract  a  critical  mass 
of  immigrants,  word-of-mouth  advertising  would  then  take 


on  a  momentum  of  its  own  and  ensure  the  continuing  ar- 
rival of  thousands  of  Europeans.  Intense  support  from  the 
private  sector  complemented  public  policy.  Rancher  Frank 
C.  Bosler  of  Rock  River  spearheaded  this  campaign  when 
he  created  the  Wyoming  Publicity  Association  in  1911.  A 
statewide  immigration  convention,  held  in  Cheyenne  in 
January,  1911,  drew  representatives  from  all  parts  of  the 
state.  Bosler  called  this  meeting  "very  satisfactory  and  en- 
thusiastic." Members  of  the  Association  included  Carey 
and  his  son  Robert,  John  B.  Kendrick  of  Sheridan  and 
Patrick  J.  Quealey  of  Lincoln  County.17 

These  strenuous  public  and  private  efforts  had  mixed 
results,  but  they  do  show  the  commitment  of  local  leaders 
to  attract  as  many  "new"  immigrants  as  possible.  Roy 
Schenck,  Carey's  Commissioner  of  Immigration,  actively 
sought  to  attract  Russian  Jews.  State  government  co- 
operated with  federal  agencies  to  spread  immigrants 
throughout  the  land.  Schenck's  office  supported  the  trans- 
lation of  federal  promotional  literature  into  several  foreign 
languages,  hoping  this  would  draw  southern  and  eastern 
Europeans  out  of  festering  eastern  slums.  In  1912  Schenck, 
with  Carey's  backing,  unsuccessfully  sought  an  appropria- 
tion to  hire  an  agent  in  New  York  City  to  greet  new  ar- 
rivals just  off  the  boat,  all  the  while  extolling  the  virtues 
of  the  Cowboy  State.18 

The  thousands  of  "new"  immigrants  who  flocked  to 
the  state  as  a  result  of  these  private  and  public  efforts 
presented  local  people  with  a  decidedly  different  type  of 
inhabitant.  Few  had  lived  elsewhere  in  the  United  States 
for  any  period  of  time.  Virtually  none  of  them  knew 
English  or  were  acquainted  with  the  rudiments  of  the  Amer- 
ican way  of  life.  These  characteristics  set  them  off  sharply 
from  the  earlier  "old"  arrivals.  When  members  of  the  Dill- 
ingham Commission  surveyed  1,751  miners  in  Sweetwater 
and  Uinta  Counties  in  1908,  they  found  that  few  of  the 
newcomers  could  communicate  with  their  fellow  workers. 
Moreover,  employers  believed  that  Italians,  Greeks  and 
Montenegrins  (from  what  is  now  Yugoslavia)  were 
"tricky,"  undependable  and  unsuited  for  supervisory  or 
other  responsible  positions.  Employers  preferred  to  place 
their  trust  only  in  native-born  or  northern  European  work- 
ers. Much  the  same  negative  sentiments  were  in  evidence 
in  the  case  of  Klaus  Sevcik,  a  native  of  what  is  now 
Czechoslovakia.  In  what  must  have  been  another  mani- 
festation of  popular  resentment,  local  people,  according 
to  Ted  Olson  in  his  memoirs,  widely  regarded  Sevcik  as 
a  johnny-come-lately,  making  fun  of  his  rudimentary, 
thickly-accented  English  and  the  supposed  sluggishness 
of  his  character.  None  of  these  nativist  qualms,  however, 
extended  to  the  immigrants'  children,  since  they  were 
educated  in  the  pure  mountain  air  of  Wyoming  and  re- 
ported as  more  enlightened  and  progressive  (meaning 
assimilated)  than  their  parents.  Before  1914  this  view  of 
the  new  arrivals  simply  did  not  extend  to  the  second 
generation.19  It  would  take  wider  events  and  greater  fears 


26 


for  state  and  national  safety  to  have  these  ideas  become 
more  generalized  so  as  to  make  Wyoming  leaders  discard 
all  hope  for  the  immigrants  and  their  children. 

The  outbreak  of  World  War  I  in  Europe  in  August, 
1914,  provided  these  necessary  ingredients.  The  war's  in- 
herent tensions  and  insecurities  brought  to  a  head  and 
defined  a  more  general  concern  many  Americans  felt  about 
their  country's  traditions,  values  and  ideals.  This  perceived 
disorganization  brought  about  pressure  to  reform  condi- 
tions so  as  to  return  to  the  "good  old  days"  of  the  pre-1890 
period.  Immigrants  were  singled  out  as  one  of  the  many 
forces  which  had  corrupted  the  country.  Wyomingites 
shared  these  concerns  and  saw  several  additional  local 
problems.  Many  inhabitants  of  the  state  agreed  with 
Governor  Kendrick  who  feared  that  the  "tide  of  home- 
seekers"  pouring  into  the  state  would  eventually  lessen 
the  importance  of  the  livestock  industry.  Immigrants,  a 
very  noticeable  part  of  this  tide  prior  to  the  outbreak  of 
war,  thus  became  a  danger  to  the  status  quo.  Would-be 
reformers  in  Wyoming  consciously  built  on  local  anxieties 
in  order  to  further  their  causes.  Concern  over  regional 
political  differences,  entrenched  islands  of  privilege  and 
the  seeming  pervasive  existence  of  sin  and  corruption,  all 
said  to  frustrate  the  full  potential  of  growth  and  prosper- 
ity, laid  a  firm  groundwork  for  efforts  to  clean  up  the  state 
and  enforce  some  version  of  moral  regeneration.  As  was 
true  of  many  other  Americans,  Wyomingites  vaguely  but 
increasingly  saw  the  unassimilated  as  an  obstruction  to  the 
long-awaited  heaven  on  earth.20 

The  immediate,  precipitating  cause  of  the  flowering  of 
nativism  in  Wyoming  was  the  hope  that  the  United  States 
would  avoid  entanglement  in  the  conflict.  If  European  na- 
tions willingly  and  eagerly  sought  to  spill  the  blood  and 
destroy  the  treasure  of  their  neighbors  in  the  pursuit  of 
selfish  national  aims,  let  it  be  so;  the  United  States  could 
serve  its  own  best  interests  by  adhering  to  a  policy  of  strict 
neutrality.  Widespread  fears  swept  the  state,  however,  that 
members  of  immigrant  communities  hoped  for  victory  on 
the  part  of  their  original  homelands.  This  indicated  divided 
loyalty,  by  definition  disloyalty.  President  Woodrow 
Wilson  set  the  tone  of  these  nativist  fears  in  1915  when 
he  sought  repressive  legislation  designed  to  deal  with  those 
"who  have  poured  the  poison  of  disloyalty  into  the  very 
arteries  of  our  national  life  .  .  .  Such  creatures  of  passion, 
disloyalty,  and  anarchy  must  be  crushed  out."21 

Many  Wyomingites  certainly  saw  a  clear  and  present 
danger  close  at  home.  Many  counties,  a  special  state  cen- 
sus of  1915  showed,  had  achieved  an  uncomfortably  high 
percentage  of  foreign-born.  Almost  one-half  of  Sweetwater 
County's  population  had  been  born  overseas;  Carbon 
County  had  more  than  one-fourth  foreign-born.  These 
ethnic  enclaves,  formerly  so  eagerly  sought  after  and 
gleefully  welcomed,  were  now  said  to  be  enemies  lodged 
in  the  very  bosom  of  one  of  the  purest  bastions  of  American 
democracy.  Cora  Wanamaker,  editor  and  publisher  of  the 


Rock  Springs  Rocket,  despite  her  earlier  praise  of  all  im- 
migrants as  Americans-in-the-making,  decried  the  new- 
comers' illiteracy  and  ignorance  of  the  English  language 
and,  above  all,  their  lack  of  support  for  strict  neutrality.22 
An  editorialist  for  the  Casper  Record  thought  it  necessary 
to  remind  local  immigrants  to  lend  their  stern  support  to 
President  Wilson's  policy  of  neutrality.  Other  newspaper 
writers  issued  similar  calls  for  the  conformity  of  undiluted 
Americanism.  "We  used  to  think,"  read  an  editorial  in  the 
Laramie  Semi-Weekly  Boomerang,  "that  foreigners  came  here 
because  they  fled  from  things  they  disliked,  to  the  things 
they  loved.  This  is  no  longer  so."  This  editorial,  reprinted 
from  the  Denver  Express,  showed  that  Wyoming  was 
rapidly  joining  the  radically  changing  body  of  national 
opinion.23 

American  entry  into  the  war  in  April,  1917,  heightened 
and  intensified  nativists'  demands  for  conformity.  Anti- 
German  outbursts  have  been  extensively  detailed  else- 
where by  historians.  Local  authorities  banned  the  teaching 
of  the  German  language;  German-language  books  were 


"Vigilance  committees  in  Basin,  Thermopolis, 
Lander,  Douglas,  Powell,  Cheyenne  and 

elsewhere  kept  watch  on  suspected  agents  of 

the  Kaiser,  thought  to  be  in  all  parts  of 

Wyoming." 


burned  in  public  ceremonies.  Vigilance  committees  in 
Basin,  Thermopolis,  Lander,  Douglas,  Powell,  Cheyenne 
and  elsewhere,  kept  watch  on  suspected  agents  of  the 
Kaiser,  thought  to  be  in  all  parts  of  Wyoming.  Cheyenne's 
local  patriots  carried  the  war  effort  to  its  logical  extreme 
when  they  compiled  a  "warmth  of  patriotism"  index  for 
that  city's  inhabitants.24 

These  spectacular  incidents  were  only  a  surface  mani- 
festation of  a  vehement  and  rapidly  building  nativist  con- 
sensus directed  against  all  foreigners,  whatever  their 
origin.  This  prism  of  paranoia  was  greatly  strengthened 
by  federal  officials  who  brilliantly  exploited  the  swelling 
nativist  tide.  Film  makers  in  Hollywood,  for  example, 
poured  forth  at  the  urging  of  Woodrow  Wilson's  govern- 
ment a  steady  stream  of  motion  pictures  which  touted  bla- 
tant nationalism  and  pictured  the  United  States  as  the 
saviour  of  western  civilization.  No  attempt  was  made  to 
understand  those  who  for  real  or  imaginary  reasons  were 
not  totally  supportive  of  the  war  effort.  George  Creel's 
Committee  for  Public  Information  bombarded  Americans 
with  propaganda  which  further  exacerbated  pre-war  uncer- 
tainty about  the  immigrants  as  an  obstacle  to  national 
policy.    In    addition,    the    new    science   of   psychology 


27 


"proved"— by  testing  procedures  and  assumptions  which 
were  completely  discredited  in  subsequent  years— the  in- 
born inferiority  of  immigrant  men  who  volunteered  for  ser- 
vice in  the  armed  forces.  Almost  70  percent  of  Polish-born 
inductees,  to  give  only  one  example  here,  were  assigned 
a  test  grade  of  "D,"  indicating  a  mental  age  of  7  to  11  years. 
The  entire  nation,  it  was  loudly  proclaimed,  was  in  im- 
mediate and  extreme  danger  because  of  the  presence  of 
these  dullards.  Instead  of  viewing  the  large  number  of  im- 
migrant volunteers  as  proof  of  loyalty  to  their  new  home- 
land, nativists  used  this  group  of  men  as  guinea  pigs  in 
experiments  to  provide  data  for  already-held  negative 
stereotypes.25 

Wyoming's  elites  did  what  they  could  on  the  state  level 
to  maintain  nativism  at  a  fever  pitch.  Representative  Frank 
W.  Mondell  saw  our  internal  heterogeneity  as  a  grave 
obstacle  to  the  winning  of  the  war.  Organized  labor,  also 
anxious  to  form  and  enforce  a  unanimous  and  "correct" 
opinion  unsullied  by  foreign  pollution,  created  a  state 
chapter  of  the  American  Alliance  for  Labor  and  Democracy 
to  ferret  out  and  remove  disloyal  workers  from  their  posts. 
Newspapers  such  as  the  Sheridan  Post  cried  for  an  end  to 
unwarranted  tolerance  of  the  local  foreign-born.  It  was  high 
time  to  rake  the  local  population  with  a  fine-tooth  comb 
so  that  "everything  that  looks,  smells  or  tastes  of  treason 
[can]  be  taken  in  hand  and  fumigated  and  punished."  In 
more  prosaic  terms,  apparently  not  concerned  with  the 

28 


danger  of  inciting  nativist  mobs,  the  same  newspaper 
warned  miners  in  nearby  coal  camps  to  "stand  by  the  flag 
or  get  punched."26  Other  sources  by  local  opinion  molders, 
showing  they  were  quickly  catching  up  with  what  may 
have  been  dominant  popular  opinion  for  some  time,  issued 
dire  predictions  of  military  defeat  and  ensuing  Bolshevik 
revolution  if  the  seething,  illiterate,  treasonous  groups  of 
immigrants  in  Wyoming  were  allowed  to  retain  their  old 
country  ways.  Indeed,  the  "race  suicide"  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  in  America  in  the  face  of  a  raging  Latin  and  Slavic 
presence  was  about  to  occur  before  the  very  eyes  of  Wyo- 
mingites.  Evil  foreigners  "were  and  are  anti-social  in  their 
instincts.  They  cared  neither  for  good  government  nor  for 
freedom  and  liberty  save  to  subvert  all  order."  The  notion 
of  "race  suicide,"  first  put  forth  by  sociologist  Edward 
Allsworth  Ross  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  as  one  of 
the  red  flags  of  the  national  nativist  movement,  had  come 
to  be  part  of  the  Wyoming  mindset.  The  war  had  spawned 
a  belief  in  a  looming  racial  Armageddon.27  Something  had 
to  be  done  to  stave  off  disaster. 


Frank  Mondell  viewed  internal 

heterogeneity  as  a  grave  obstacle 

to  victory  in  World  War  I. 


"We  are  100  per  cent  American  in  the  State  of  Wyo- 
ming, and  we  are  going  to  remain  100  per  cent  American." 
Acting  Governor  Frank  Houx's  proclamation  in  1918  rep- 
resented the  near-universal  support  for  the  One  Hundred 
Percent  Americanism  movement  in  the  state.  The  essence 
of  wartime  nativism,  this  grass-roots  movement  preached 
near-religious  support  of  the  war  effort,  and  in  the  pro- 
cess expressed  great  apprehension  over  all  foreigners  in  the 
land,  not  only  those  from  Germany.  Local  elites,  before 
the  war  avid  supporters  of  immigration  to  Wyoming  in  the 
causes  of  national  salvation  and  state  economic  develop- 
ment, now  preached  the  dangers  of  the  Balkanization  of 
the  country.  Harrison  C.  Dale,  Professor  of  Political  Science 
at  the  University  of  Wyoming,  in  his  Lincoln's  Birthday 
address  of  1918  issued  a  clarion  call  for  what  he  called 
America's  "fundamentals  of  citizenship."  They  must 
"transcend  race,  and  [their]  ideals  must  be  so  high  that 
ancient  animosities  and  hereditary  loyalties  cannot  com- 
pete with  them,  or  divide  the  allegiance  which  they  de- 
mand." Throughout  the  state  local  leaders  sought  the 
quick  creation  of  these  nativist  groups,  agreeing  with  an 
editorialist  of  the  Douglas  Budget  who  believed  "there  is 
room  in  every  community  for  such  a  club  and  the  indica- 
tions are  that  practically  every  community  will  have  one."28 

Defensive  nationalism's  cry  for  conformity  intensified 
after  the  end  of  the  war  in  November,  1918.  All  of  Europe 
appeared  to  be  slipping  into  anarchism  and  revolution,  far 
removed  from  the  stated  wartime  goal  of  making  the  world 


SUNRISE,  WYOMING  MINERS 

Mines  and  railroads  offered  employment  to  large  groups  of  immigrants  from  varied  ethnic  backgrounds. 
When  they  went  on  strike,  nativists  overreacted,  riots  broke  out  and  federal  troops  were  called  in 
to  restore  law  and  order. 

UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD  WORKERS 


29 


safe  for  democracy.  Bolshevik  rule  gripped  Russia;  bloody 
attempts  were  made  to  spread  this  form  of  government 
to  other  areas  of  the  continent.  Numerous  undeclared  wars 
broke  out  as  various  nations  attempted  to  secure  territory 
thrown  up  for  grabs  by  the  postwar  fluidity  of  demarca- 
tion lines.  To  forestall  radical  efforts  in  the  United  States 
witch-hunting,  a  holy  war  to  return  America  to  "nor- 
malcy," gripped  the  land.  All  who  failed  to  acknowledge 
the  perfection  of  America  had  to  be  imperfect  themselves 
during  the  Red  Scare.  Officialdom  harassed  and  arbitrar- 
ily deported  many  of  the  foreign-born  to  remove  the 
bacillus  of  contamination.  The  immigrant  thus  remained 
a  focal  point  of  fear  for  the  future.29  * 

Events  in  Wyoming  gave  proof  to  many  that  the  end 
might  be  close  at  hand  at  home.  The  quick  collapse  of  war- 
time prosperity  in  1919  brought  disastrous  changes  to  the 
Cowboy  State.  Many  businesses  went  bankrupt.  Homes, 
farms  and  ranches  were  lost  to  mortgage  holders;  bank 
failures  mounted.  The  Great  Depression  of  the  1930s  had 
struck  a  full  decade  before  its  effects  were  felt  in  the  rest 
of  the  nation.  Resulting  labor  unrest,  seen  by  nativists  as 
the  cutting  edge  of  foreign  radicalism's  advance,  mounted. 
In  April  and  November,  1919,  7,000  miners  went  on  strike, 
closing  all  the  state's  coal  mines.  State  authorities,  fearful 
of  violence,  declared  martial  law  and  called  in  federal 
troops  to  ensure  law  and  order.  In  July,  1922,  3,500  railroad 
workers  struck,  putting  hundreds  of  trains  out  of  service 
and  giving  rise  to  two  riots  in  Sheridan.  In  1919,  organized 
labor  began  to  create  a  State  Labor  Party.30  Union  inten- 
tions, coming  as  they  did  at  the  height  of  the  Red  Scare 
and  representing  the  wishes  of  many  foreign-born  work- 
ers, led  to  great  fears  for  the  status  quo.  Governor  Robert 
D.  Carey,  expecting  the  worst,  told  the  legislature  in  1919 
that  "the  time  may  come  when  [anarchists]  will  invade 
"Wyoming"  in  order  to  assist  in  the  destruction  of  the 
established  order.  Carey  requested  anti-radical  legislation, 
but  action  on  his  bill  was  postponed  indefinitely.  Pre- 
sumably, it  was  believed  that  federal  authorities  had  the 
situation  well  in  hand.31 

Numerous  incidents  from  the  postwar  period  further 
indicate  how  deeply  and  quickly  nativism  had  embedded 
itself  in  the  minds  of  leading  Wyomingites.  Mrs.  Frank  W. 
Mondell,  President  of  the  National  Society  of  the  Children 
of  the  American  Revolution,  like  virtually  all  of  the  state's 


Joseph  M.  Carey  (top)  advocated  keeping  the 

U.S.  open  to  immigration,  while  his  son,  Robert 

(bottom)    feared    an    anarchist    invasion    of 

Wyoming. 


30 


Charles  E.  Winter  (top)  blamed  lack  of  support 
for  Prohibition  on  the  foreign-born.  Governor 
William  B.  Ross  supported  deportation  of  im- 
migrants who  violated  liquor  laws. 


residents,  blamed  the  war  for  exposing  terrible  fissures  in 
American  society.  Yet,  thankfully,  the  alarms  raised  had 
revealed  the  exact  causes  of  these  disruptions.  Social  prob- 
lems could  be  laid  for  the  most  part  on  the  door  of  the  im- 
migrant, most  of  whom  showed  a  "regrettable  lack  of 
regard  for  custom,  for  law  and  for  religion."  Representative 
Charles  E.  Winter,  Mondell's  successor,  blamed  lack  of 
popular  support  for  Prohibition  on  the  hyphenate  Amer- 
ican who  refused  to  let  go  of  Old  World  customs  which  glori- 
fied the  social  uses  of  alcohol.  In  a  similar  vein,  Governor 
William  B.  Ross  wanted  the  federal  government  to  bar  from 
citizenship  and  deport  all  of  the  foreign-born  who  had  been 
convicted  of  violating  anti-liquor  laws.  In  this  way,  Ross 
alleged,  moral  Americans  would  then  respect  their  moral 
laws.  Further  attempts  to  Americanize  Wyoming  can  be 
seen  in  the  new  policy  of  the  State  Board  of  Immigration. 
The  Board,  in  an  abrupt  departure  from  its  pre-1914  policies 
and  philosophy,  sought  only  "the  better  class  of  American 
citizens"  beginning  in  1923.  As  late  as  1930  Mary  N. 
Brooks,  wife  of  former  Governor  Bryant  Brooks  who  had 
been  an  ardent  proponent  of  building  a  cosmopolitan 
citizenry  during  his  term  as  chief  executive,  sought  to  un- 
cover what  she  thought  to  be  extensive  Bolshevik  infiltra- 
tion at  the  University  of  Wyoming  and  public  schools 
throughout  the  area.  She  suggested  a  loyalty  oath  to  the 
state  and  federal  constitutions  as  a  way  of  ferreting  out 
subversives.  State  leaders  had  moved  solidly  into  the  camp 
of  fear  and  uncertainty  when  they  looked  at  things 
foreign.32 

Ku  Klux  Klan  activity  in  Wyoming  gave  an  important 
indication  of  nativism  at  another  level  of  the  state's  popula- 
tion. While  the  Klan  never  achieved  the  strength  in  Wyo- 
ming that  it  did  in  many  other  states,  organizers  certainly 
thought  there  was  much  potential  here.  In  late  1924  Im- 
perial Wizard  Hiram  Evans,  on  a  tour  of  western  areas, 
established  a  chapter  in  Casper.  Meeting  in  local  Odd 
Fellows  Halls  and  Masonic  temples,  the  Klan  provided 
reinforcement  for  the  faithful.  In  Cheyenne  the  Klan's 
women's  auxiliary  was  incorporated  in  December,  1924, 
for  the  purpose  of  "furthering  American  principles  and 
ideals  and  institutions."  Only  "white,  female  persons  .  .  . 
of  American  birth"  were  eligible  for  membership.  Else- 
where, Klan  members  burned  crosses  and  harassed  the 
foreign-born  in  sporadic  campaigns  and  their  efforts  may 
have  been  decisive  in  defeating  Catholic  Joseph  C. 
O'Mahoney  in  the  Democratic  primary  of  1924.33 


31 


Radical  KKK  Nativists  may  have  caused  Catholic 
Joseph  C.  O'Mahoney  the  1924  election. 


Local  conditions  handicapped  the  extremism  of  the 
Klan,  however.  Many  Wyomingites  agreed  with  former 
University  of  Wyoming  President  Aven  Nelson  who  ex- 
pressed his  contempt  for  the  organization,  saying  that 
"nothing  more  unamerican  could  be  devised  than  to  en- 
trust the  administration  of  justice  to  unknown  parties 
working  under  the  cover  of  darkness  and  in  disguise.  This 
opens  the  way  for  a  reign  of  terror."  In  short,  the  Klan 
did  not  meet  local  definitions  of  the  American  way,  since 
they  operated  outside  of  established  institutions.  The 
Greybull  mayoral  elections  of  1924  gave  a  clear-cut  indica- 
tion of  the  relative  political  weakness  of  the  Klan  in  one 
local  contest.  Despite  its  bitter  opposition  to  candidate 
Elizabeth  Wiley,  local  voters  saw  fit  not  to  follow  the  Klan's 
advice  when  they  cast  their  ballots.34 

Despite  these  limitations  on  the  more  extreme  forms 
of  nativist  agitation,  there  was  a  strong  consensus  that 
foreigners  by  definition  were  dangerous,  especially  those 
who  had  not  sought  American  citizenship.  A  large  body 
of  state  law  sought  to  deal  with  this  perceived  threat  after 
1914.  As  early  as  1915  the  state  legislature  passed  and 
Governor  Kendrick  signed  a  new  law  which  required  a 
special  annual  license  for  all  non-citizens  who  owned  any 
type  of  firearm  or  fishing  tackle.  The  law  exempted  from 
its  provisions  bona  fide  residents  of  the  state  who  paid 


taxes  in  excess  of  $100.00  a  year  or  who  had  taken  steps 
to  acquire  public  lands.  These  exemptions  were  designed 
in  an  apparent  attempt  to  give  local  authorities  a  tool  to 
quell  threats  by  outside  agitators  and  local  unmarried  males 
who  worked  in  mining  camps  and  on  railroad  gangs.  Dur- 
ing the  war  nativists  urged  the  full  use  of  this  law  to  main- 
tain peace.  By  1925,  its  forebearance  exhausted  with  this 
moderate  approach,  the  legislature  outright  banned  all 
non-citizens  from  owning,  possessing,  wearing  or  carry- 
ing any  sort  of  gun,  knife  or  other  dangerous  weapon.35 
Many  other  state  statutes  discriminated  against  non- 
citizens,  as  Wyoming,  along  with  every  other  state  in  the 
nation  in  the  1920s,  increasingly  penalized  its  foreign-born 
population.  By  1930  members  of  this  minority  could  not 
work  as  attorneys,  embalmers  or  funeral  directors,  physi- 
cians, engineers,  realtors  or  certified  public  accountants. 
They  were  similarly  proscribed  from  employment  as  sur- 
veyors, hunting-party  outfitters  and  guides  or  supervisors 
in  mines.  No  member  of  this  group  could  work  in  any  job 
which  entailed  the  manufacture,  distribution  or  sale  of 
liquor.36 

At  the  same  time  Americanization  education  sought 
to  remove  the  cultural  presence  of  the  immigrant.  If  a 
newcomer  was  different  in  language  or  self-definition  or 
in  shared  memories,  he  or  she  was  un-American  and  there- 
fore not  an  acceptable  Wyomingite.  Earlier  assumptions 
about  the  commanding  ability  of  the  environment  as  an 
agent  of  Americanization  evaporated  with  the  onset  of  war. 
Assimilation  was  now  seen  as  something  too  important  to 
be  left  to  chance.  Wyoming's  local  school  districts  and  labor 
unions  set  up  classes  to  inculcate  knowledge  of  local  values 
and  the  "American  way  of  life."  These  voluntary  efforts 
were  encouraged  by  the  federal  Bureau  of  Naturalization 
as  part  of  President  Wilson's  efforts  to  clear  the  "poison" 
from  the  arteries  of  national  life.  Local  people  responded 
well  to  federal  guidance.  Grace  Raymond  Hebard's  efforts 
in  Laramie,  for  example,  were  so  successful  that  students 
who  took  her  classes  and  received  a  satisfactory  certificate 
from  her  were  granted  citizenship  without  further  exam- 
ination.37 

These  local,  ad  hoc  efforts  were  deemed  insufficient 
soon  after  the  war.  The  legislature  of  1919,  meeting  at  the 
height  of  the  national  and  state  Red  Scares,  overwhelm- 
ingly approved  the  first  statewide  Americanization  pro- 
gram when  it  required  all  non-English-speaking  people  in 
Wyoming  to  remedy  their  defect  by  attending  compulsory 
classes  in  English  and  American  history.  Governor  Carey 
said  he  was  "in  sympathy  with  the  purpose"  of  the  bill, 
but  believed  a  veto  of  the  proposal  was  in  order.  Unhappy 
with  the  vague  delegation  of  powers  to  the  state  Board  of 
Education,  Carey  also  found  the  bill  patently  void,  since 
the  state  constitution  required  school  attendance  only  for 
people  in  the  six  to  eighteen  year  age  group.  The  problem 
of  foreigners  had  to  be  dealt  with,  but  the  methods  em- 
ployed must  be  within  accepted  legal  and  constitutional 
norms.38 


32 


"Evening  Americanization  Class,"  taken  from  a 
1921-1922  Department  of  Education  Report.  Such 
classes  were  a  major  nativist  effort  to  Americanize 
Wyoming. 


Carey  called  for  a  revised  bill  in  1921,  the  next  time 
the  legislature  met.  The  governor's  Director  for  Vocational 
Education,  Jasper  R.  Coxen,  citing  the  "rather  large 
groups"  of  immigrants  in  the  state,  had  recommended  an 
appropriation  of  $5,000  to  fund  at  least  50  separate  classes 
in  English  education.  Legislators,  in  a  sharp  departure  from 
their  spending  patterns  for  other  requests,  were  even  more 
generous  than  Carey  and  Coxen  had  hoped.  They  author- 
ized a  total  of  $8,000  to  fund  classes  wherever  five  or  more 
people  requested  them.  County  school  boards  were  re- 
quired to  provide  personnel  and  facilities.  State  funds 
would  then  be  used  to  reimburse  county  boards  for  their 
expenses  in  paying  teachers.  The  latter  were  ordered  to 
stress  language  training  and  American  history  and  govern- 
ment in  the  classroom.  The  enrollment  of  foreign-born 
women  was  especially  sought,  since  they  would  then  help 
Americanize  their  children.  This  program  continued 
throughout  the  1920s.  Department  of  Education  statistics 
show  that  almost  5,000  adult  pupils  enrolled  over  the 
course  of  the  decade.  By  1932  the  program  was  in  marked 
decline  because  of  the  sharp  decrease  in  the  number  of 
non-citizens  in  the  state.39 


Growing  support  for  restrictive  federal  immigration 
laws  was  another  way  to  help  erase  the  foreign  presence 
in  Wyoming.  The  state's  congressional  delegation  for  many 
years  before  1914  had  failed  to  reflect  the  thinking  of  state 
leaders  on  this  issue.  Francis  E.  Warren,  in  the  Senate  un- 
til his  death  in  1929,  Warren's  colleague  Clarence  Don 
Clark,  in  office  from  1895  to  1917,  and  Representative 
Mondell,  in  Congress  from  1898  to  1922,  closely  followed 
national  nativist  trends  in  their  voting  patterns.  Beginning 
with  the  first  recorded  vote  to  override  President  McKin- 
ley's  veto  of  a  literacy  test  in  1898,  the  three  men  followed 
the  Republican  party's  position  of  favoring  restrictive 
legislation.  Warren,  Clark  and  Mondell,  as  well  as  their 
successors,  voted  as  they  did  for  the  immediate  benefits 
which  accrued  to  Wyoming  because  of  their  behavior.  By 
towing  their  party's  line,  they  won  political  allies  in  Con- 
gress for  their  efforts  to  open  up  federally  owned  western 
lands  to  exploitation,  garnered  more  tax  monies  for 
reclamation  projects  and  assistance  to  homesteaders  and 
won  authorizations  for  federal  buildings  and  military  in- 
stallations in  the  state.  Leaders  from  both  parties  at  the 
state  level  have  left  no  record  of  unhappiness  with  this 
situation.  Wyoming  benefited  greatly  from  heavy  federal  ex- 
penditures in  the  state,  and,  in  any  event,  immigration  was 
not  affected  to  any  important  degree  in  the  prewar  years.40 

Nativists  in  Congress  had  long  sought  a  literacy  test. 
This  hurdle,  the  ability  to  read  a  few  words  in  any 
language,  was  designed  primarily  to  bar  the  entry  of 


33 


southern  and  eastern  Europeans,  since  so  many  of  them 
were  illiterate.  Congress  lacked  the  votes  to  override 
presidential  vetoes  until  the  eve  of  America's  entry  into 
the  war.  On  February  1,  1917,  Congress  overrode  Presi- 
dent Wilson's  second  veto  of  a  literacy  test.  The  latter,  ad- 
vocated by  the  Dillingham  Commission,  seemed  moderate 
at  the  time.  The  country  was  swept  up  in  an  anti-foreigner 
mood  and  commercial  shipping  had  almost  disappeared 
because  of  the  war.  The  time  seemed  right  to  address  the 
widespread  consensus  on  the  evils  of  the  immigrant  pres- 
ence.41 

Wyoming's  elites  caught  up  with  their  congressmen 
and  probably  the  state's  general  population  in  seeking  a 
more  permanent  solution  to  the  horrors  of  immigration. 
Congressman  Mondell  railed  at  the  "foul  hordes"  of 
postwar  Europe  who  sought  entry  into  the  United  States. 
In  a  fractured  paraphrasing  of  the  Bible  he  went  on  to  note 
that  "He  that  provideth  not  for  his  own  household,  is 
worse  than  an  infidel,  and  what  shall  it  profit  America  if 
we  should  afford  asylum  to  all  the  earth  and  lose  our  own 
soul."  Public  opinion  strongly  supported  these  fears.  The 
anarchy  of  Italy  and  Greece  would  overtake  America, 
warned  the  Casper  Daily  Tribune,  if  we  continued  to  per- 
mit the  entrance  of  those  dedicated  to  the  destruction  of 
established  order.  "It  is  strictly  a  self-defense  proposition," 
in  the  words  of  a  writer  in  the  Rock  Springs  Rocket.*2 

Most  Wyomingites  preferred  some  sort  of  a  permanent 
quota  system  to  save  their  state  and  nation.  Labor  unions 
avoided  racial  and  religious  arguments  because  of  their 
large  foreign-born  membership  and  concentrated  on  the 
economic  effects  of  large-scale  immigration.  For  every 
foreigner  excluded,  stated  the  Wyoming  Labor  Journal,  a  job 
was  created  for  workers  already  here.  Others  in  the  state, 
while  not  disagreeing  with  labor's  position,  stuck  to  the 
theme  of  moral  and  religious  purity.  Church  groups,  edu- 
cators and  many  individuals  wanted  a  nation  returned  to 
mainstream  Protestant  fundamentals,  a  nation  unsullied 
by  contamination.  This  sort  of  widespread  grassroots  sup- 
port, fully  seconded  by  local  elites  now,  led  to  the  first  tem- 
porary quota  law  in  May,  1921.  This  law  stipulated  an  an- 
nual numerical  cap  on  all  immigration,  formulated  on  a 
3  percent  basis  of  the  census  count  of  1910.  Renewed  from 
year  to  year  so  as  to  give  Congress  time  to  consider  a  per- 
manent quota,  this  law  allowed  a  total  of  350,000  im- 
migrants entry  each  year.  Many  nativists  saw  this  law  as 
too  lenient,  since  it  recognized  and  institutionalized  the 
"new"  immigration  by  allowing  relatively  large  quotas  for 
southern  and  eastern  European  nations.43 

The  debate  over  the  nature  of  a  permanent  quota  gave 
full  evidence  of  how  drastically  Wyomingites  had  changed 
their  views  on  foreign  immigrants  since  the  pre-1914 
period.  Of  the  many  plans  put  forward,  the  most  drastic 
was  authored  by  Representative  Albert  Johnson  of  Wash- 
ington state.  The  Johnson  bill  set  a  quota  of  2  percent  for 
each  "nationality,  based  on  the  census  of  1890,  and  set  a 


ceiling  of  150,000  per  year  for  all  newcomers.  The  key  was 
the  base  year  chosen,  for  it  was  only  after  that  date  that 
the  so-called  new  immigrants  came  to  the  United  States 
in  large  numbers.  Johnson's  proposal,  enacted  in  1924,  re- 
mained the  law  of  the  land  until  1965.  Wyomingites  who 
voiced  their  views  on  the  issue  universally  supported  the 
Representative  from  Washington.  Local  people  believed 
that  nothing  less  than  American  nationalism  was  at  stake. 
If  America  was  to  remain  true  to  itself,  it  had  to  have  a 
homogeneous  population.  The  best  feature  of  the  Johnson 
bill,  according  to  Senator  Warren,  was  that  it  would  "do 
away  with  the  admission  of  a  lot  of  undesirables,"  espe- 
cially "Italians  and  some  of  the  other  Latin  peoples."44 
"Latin  peoples"  might  have  a  niche  in  the  New  World, 
but  they  were  better  advised  to  go  to  South  America 
because  of  its  familiar  race,  religion,  climate,  customs  and 
institutions.  There  was  no  place  for  them  in  Wyoming. 
"We  are  suffering  from  indigestion  of  the  foreign  element 
in  our  body  politic,"  said  Representative  Winter  on  the 
floor  of  the  House.  Local  people  had  given  a  resounding 
endorsement  to  Johnson's  proposal  because  it  gave  prefer- 
ence only  to  "those  who  descended  from  the  founders  and 
builders  of  the  Republic."45 

Thus  did  local  attitudes  toward  the  place  and  worth 
of  foreign  immigrants  in  Wyoming  change  in  the  period 
from  1868  to  1930.  Before  the  start  of  the  war  Wyoming's 
leaders  expressed  a  heady  optimism  toward  the  newcom- 
ers, confident  they  would  quickly  transform  themselves 
into  good  Americans  in  their  new  environment.  This  mind- 
set quickly  shifted  after  1914,  as  foreigners  became  the 
lightning  rod  of  discontent  for  a  wide  array  of  local  and 
national  problems.  Given  these  new  perceptions,  it  was 
natural  for  the  local  elite  to  adopt  national  nativist  beliefs 
with  ease  and  in  the  process  come  to  the  point  of  view 
which  was  already  held  by  many  of  the  state's  less  ar- 
ticulate inhabitants.  An  intellectual  revolution  had  occurred 
in  the  state. 

This  case  study  also  indicates  an  important  shift  in  the 
self-image  of  Wyomingites.  Their  earlier  optimism  in  the 
West's  environment  showed  the  unquestioned  desirabil- 
ity—and superiority— of  the  American  way  of  life.  Wyo- 
ming's place  in  this  grand  world  view,  if  not  unique,  was 
of  utmost  importance.  The  high,  dry  plateau  that  is  Wyo- 
ming was  the  near-perfect  distillation  of  all  that  was  possi- 
ble for  newcomers  in  America.  The  loss  of  this  self-con- 
fidence soon  after  1914  was  perhaps  part  of  the  price  paid 
for  the  passing  of  the  frontier  and  melding  into  the  rest 
of  the  nation  in  the  20th  century.  It  surely  represents  an 
important  part  of  the  watershed  which  differentiates  Wyo- 
ming's 19th  century  history  from  the  century  that  followed. 
Wyomingites,  like  most  other  Americans,  came  to  fear  the 
new,  the  different,  the  unexpected,  in  preference  for  the 
old,  the  uniform  and  the  accepted.  In  no  way  could  there 
be  a  challenge  to  accepted  dogma.  Whether  the  immigrants 
were  assimilating  or  not  was  irrelevant.  The  point  was  that 


34 


most  people  in  the  state  believed  the  newcomers  were  not 
giving  up  their  old  country  ways  and  did  not  wish  to  do 
so.  Wyoming  had  moved  in  its  value  structure  from  a  local 
optimism  and  acceptance  into  the  national  stream  of  fear. 
Nor  did  nativism  in  Wyoming  leave  much  room  for 
diversity.  There  was  one  and  only  one  accepted  norm  of 
behavior  and  thought  if  any  individual  was  to  be  con- 
sidered a  true  son  or  daughter  of  the  state.  There  remained 


little  evidence  of  the  once-common  cultural  mosaic  that 
characterized  the  state.  The  very  real  pressures  for  con- 
formity had  largely  erased  the  presence  of  European 
ethnicity.  Nativists  won  the  campaign  they  launched  in 
1914,  and  their  strongly  anti-foreign  and  anti-radical  tradi- 
tion would  come  to  dominate  the  state  for  the  rest  of  the 
20th  century.46  The  victory  has  been  theirs. 


Compare  T.  A.  Larson,  History  of  Wyoming  (2nd  ed.;  Lincoln:  Univer- 
sity of  Nebraska  Press,  1978),  p.  586;  Gordon  Olaf  Hendrickson,  "Im- 
migration and  Assimilation  in  Wyoming,"  in  Hendrickson  (ed.),  Peo- 
pling the  High  Plains:  Wyoming's  European  Heritage  (Cheyenne:  Wyo- 
ming State  Archives  and  Historical  Department,  1977),  p.  188.  The 
standard  account  of  nativism  in  the  United  States  is  John  Higham, 
Strangers  in  the  Land:  Patterns  of  American  Nativism,  1860-1925  (New 
Brunswick,  New  Jersey:  Rutgers  University  Press,  1955).  Stanley 
Coben,  "A  Study  in  Nativism:  The  American  Red  Scare  of  1919-20," 
Political  Science  Quarterly,  79  (March,  1964):  52-75,  is  the  best  examina- 
tion of  the  reasons  behind  the  rise  of  this  phenomenon  after  1914. 
E.  M.  Saltiel  and  George  Barnett,  History  and  Business  Directory  of 
Cheyenne  and  Guide  to  the  Mining  Regions  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
(Cheyenne:  L.  B.  Joseph,  1868),  p.  105. 

J.  H.  Triggs,  History  of  Cheyenne  and  Northern  Wyoming,  Embracing  the 
Gold  Fields  of  the  Black  Hills,  Powder  River  and  Big  Horn  Countries 
(Omaha:  Herald  Steam  Book  and  Job  Printing  House,  1876),  p.  32; 
Francis  E.  Warren  to  A.  D.  Hoskins,  April  12,  1924,  Francis  E.  War- 
ren Letter-Books,  American  Heritage  Center,  University  of  Wyoming 
(hereafter  cited  as  Warren  papers).  See  also  Board  of  Immigration 
of  the  Territory  of  Wyoming,  The  Territory  of  Wyoming.  Its  History, 
Soil,  Climate,  Resources,  Etc.  (Laramie:  Daily  Sentinel,  1874),  p.  44,  and 
passim. 

Donald  Hodgson  and  Vivien  Hills,  "Dream  and  Fulfillment:  Germans 
in  Wyoming,"  in  Hendrickson  (ed.),  Peopling  the  High  Plains,  p.  55, 
quoting  the  Cheyenne  Daily  Leader,  April  18,  1868;  John  A.  Campbell, 
"Diary,"  Annals  of  Wyoming,  10  (April,  1938):  62,  64.  Larson,  History 
of  Wyoming,  pp.  95,  158-159,  108-110,  details  the  gloomy,  stagnant 
and  disappointing  nature  of  economic  development  for  most  of  the 
territorial  period,  giving  added  urgency  to  hopes  for  rapid 
demographic  growth.  Bruce  Noble,  "The  Quest  for  Settlement  in 
Early  Wyoming,"  Annals  of  Wyoming,  55  (Fall,  1983):  19-24,  and  Lar- 
son, History  of  Wyoming,  pp.  117-119,  give  the  fullest  account  of  early 
attempts  to  increase  Wyoming's  population. 

Perceptions  of  the  "old"  immigrants  are  found  in  Barbara  Miller 
Solomon,  Ancestors  and  Immigrants:  A  Changing  New  England  Tradi- 
tion (Cambridge:  Harvard  University  Press,  1956),  pp.  158-161,  and 
Dictionary  of  Races  or  Peoples,  61st  Cong.,  3rd  sess.,  in  Reports  of  the 
Immigration  Commission  (Washington:  Government  Printing  Office, 
1911),  pp.  54,  115,  120,  129.  The  imagery  of  the  "new"  immigrants, 
in  sharp  contrast  to  earlier  arrivals'  reception,  may  be  seen  in  ibid., 
pp.  115,  129,   169-174. 

Ibid.,  pp.  82-83,  127;  Solomon,  Ancestors  and  Immigrants,  pp.  163-167, 
175. 


10 


11 


7.  Walter  E.  Weyl,  The  New  Democracy:  An  Essay  on  Certain  Political  and 
Economic  Tendencies  in  the  United  States  (New  York:  The  Macmillan 
Company,  1912),  pp.  68-69,  180;  Eliot  Norton,  "The  Diffusion  of  Im- 
migration," Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Sciences,  24  (July-December,  1904):  162-163;  Frank  P.  Sargent,  "Prob- 
lems of  Immigration,"  ibid.,  pp.  155-156. 

8.  John  W.  Hoyt,  "Memorial  Praying  for  the  Admission  of  Wyoming 
into  the  Union  of  States,"  (1889),  in  Marie  H.  Erwin,  Wyoming 
Historical  Blue  Book:  A  Legal  and  Political  History  of  Wyoming,  1868-1943 
(Denver:  Bradford-Robinson  Printing  Co.,  1946),  p.  658;  ibid.,  p.  649, 
quoting  Warren  in  a  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  This  strong 
faith  in  the  power  of  the  environment  to  Americanize  immigrants 
is  also  found  in  "Mountain  Influence,"  Wyoming  Industrial  journal, 
1  (April,  1900):  264;  Robert  A.  Strahorn,  The  Hand-Book  of  Wyoming 
and  Guide  to  the  Black  Hills  and  Big  Horn  Regions,  for  Citizen,  Emigrant 
and  Tourist  (Cheyenne:  [Chicago:  Knight  &  Leonard],  1877),  p.  109; 
Wyoming  Fanner  (Sundance),  March  13,  1889. 

9.  Elmer  E.  Smiley,  "Higher  Education  in  Wyoming,"  Proceedings  of  the 
Wyoming  Industrial  Convention  Held  at  Laramie,  December  11  and  12,  1901 
(Laramie:  Chaplin,  Spafford  and  Mathison,  1902),  p.  77.  Ted  Olson, 
Ranch  on  the  Laramie  (Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Company,  1973),  pp. 
47-48,  gives  the  reminiscences  of  one  immigrant's  son  who  reacted 
negatively  to  the  strong  assimilationist  stress  of  Wyoming's  educators. 
See  also  John  T.  Buchanan,  "How  to  Assimilate  the  Foreign  Element 
in  our  Population,"  Forum,  32  (February,  1902):  691,  for  another  strong 
statement  on  the  value  of  education  in  re-shaping  the  values  of  im- 
migrant children. 

Wyoming  Fanner  (Sundance),  November  28,  1888;  Laramie  Weekly  Sen- 
tinel, January  19,  1884;  Cheyenne  State  Leader,  February  25  and  March 
3,  1911;  Earl  Stinneford,  "Mines  and  Miners:  The  Eastern  Europeans 
in  Wyoming,"  in  Hendrickson  (ed.),  Peopling  the  High  Plains,  p.  132; 
Wyoming  Industrial  Journal,  2  (August,  1900):  63-64. 
Larson,  Histonj  of  Wyoming,  pp.  141-142;  Thomas  Arthur  Krueger, 
"Populism  in  Wyoming,"  (Master  of  Arts  Thesis  in  History,  Univer- 
sity of  Wyoming,  1960),  p.  46;  Lewis  L.  Gould,  Wyoming:  A  Political 
History,  1868-1896  (New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1968)  pp. 
207-211;  Donald  L.  Kinzer,  An  Episode  in  Anti-Catholicism:  The  American 
Protective  Association  (Seattle:  University  of  Washington  Press  l^M) 
pp.  89-90,  178,  254,  255-257.  Wyoming's  memorial  to  Congress  is 
documented  in  Senate  journal  of  the  Third  State  Legislature  of  Wyoming 
(Cheyenne:  Daily  Sun  Book  Print,  1895).  pp.  4S1.  515;  House  Journal 
of  the  Third  State  Legislature  of  Wyoming  (Cheyenne:  Daily  Sun,  18l>5) 
pp.  4,  288,  488.  The  Congressional  Record.  December  Q.  1895,  p.  5S. 
contains  a  copy  of  the  memorial. 


35 


12.  Wyoming  Territory,  Journal  and  Debates  of  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion of  the  State  of  Wyoming  (Cheyenne:  The  Daily  Sun  Book  and  Job 
Printing,  1893),  pp.  375,  377,  393  (quote).  Examples  of  manipulation 
of  the  foreign-born  at  the  polls  are  given  in  Larson,  History  of  Wyo- 
ming, pp.  241,  293-294. 

13.  Revised  Statutes  of  Wyoming.  In  Force  December  1,  1899  (Laramie: 
Chaplin,  Spafford  &  Mathison,  1899),  pp.  683-684;  Roy  L.  Garis,  Im- 
migration Restriction:  A  Study  of  the  Opposition  to  and  Regulation  of  Im- 
migration into  the  United  States  (New  York:  The  Macmillan  Company, 
1927),  pp.  90-93. 

14.  Roger  D.  Hardaway,  "Prohibiting  Interracial  Marriage:  Miscegena- 
tion Laws  in  Wyoming,"  Annals  of  Wyoming,  52  (Spring,  1980):  55-57. 

15.  Progressive  Men  of  the  State  of  Wyoming  (Chicago:  A.  W.  Bowen  &  Co., 
1903),  pp.  189-190,  322-323;  Erwin,  Wyoming  Blue  Book,  pp.  644,  645, 
647.  One  is  struck  by  the  large  number  of  foreign-born  inhabitants 
who  quickly  rose  to  local  prominence  in  the  pre-World  War  I  period. 
Examples  abound  in,  among  others,  Progressive  Men  of  the  State  of 
Wyoming;  Ichabod  S.  Bartlett,  History  of  Wyoming  (3  vols.;  Chicago: 
S.  J.  Clarke  Publishing  Company,  1918);  George  C.  Scott,  "Those 
God  Forsaken  Dobie  Hills:  Land  Law  and  the  Settlement  of  Bates 
Hole,  Wyoming,  1880-1940,"  (Master  of  Arts  Thesis  in  History, 
University  of  Wyoming,  1978). 

16.  Message  of  Governor  Joseph  M.  Carey  to  the  State  Legislature, 
January  12,  1911,  in  House  Journal  of  the  Eleventh  State  Legislature  of 
Wyoming  (Laramie:  The  Laramie  Republican  Company,  1911),  p.  31; 
Carey  to  S.  S.  Pearlstine,  May  5,  1913,  Carey  papers,  Wyoming  State 
Archives,  Cheyenne,  file  number  646,  where  Carey  calls  immigra- 
tion "the  best  work  ever  undertaken  for  the  people  of  Wyoming;" 
Harry  Green,  General  Director  of  the  American  Immigration  and 
Distribution  League,  to  Carey,  February  23,  1912,  file  number  3698, 
ibid.,  (quote);  Green  to  Carey,  March  21,  1912  and  June  24,  1914,  file 
numbers  3693  and  3387,  ibid.  Governor  Bryant  B.  Brooks  to  Frank 
P.  Sargeant,  U.S.  Commissioner  General  of  Immigration,  July  9,  1907, 
Brooks  papers,  Wyoming  State  Archives,  Cheyenne,  file  number  267; 
Patrick  Carolan,  Secretary  of  the  Split  Ticket  Association,  to  Brooks, 
October  8  and  19,  1906,  ibid.,  file  number  699  (hereafter  referred  to 
as  Brooks  papers).  Other  examples  of  strong  support  for  immigra- 
tion are  in  Cheyenne  State  Leader,  February  12,  1911;  S.  Conant  Parks, 
"The  Beet  Sugar  Industry,"  Wyoming  Industrial  Journal,  6  (November, 
1904):  129;  editorial  in  ibid.,  8  (October,  1906):  17,  supporting  a  Sheridan 
Post  call  for  a  state  bureau  of  immigration.  The  high  concentration 
of  immigrants  in  eastern  urban  areas  may  be  seen  in  Walter  F.  Willcox, 
"Distribution  of  Immigrants  in  the  United  States,"  Quarterly  Journal 
of  Economics,  20  (  August,  1906):  523-546. 

17.  Bosler  to  James  C.  Craig,  February  4,  1911,  Frank  Bosler  papers, 
American  Heritage  Center,  University  of  Wyoming;  Bosler  to  Arie 
Binkhorst,  January  23,  1911,  ibid.;  Robert  P.  Fuller  to  Bosler,  December 
20,  1910,  ibid.;  William  Monfort  to  Bosler,  June  10,  1911,  ibid.; 
Cheyenne  State  Leader,  January  29,  1911;  Laramie  Daily  Boomerang,  April 
30,  1910.  For  early  20th  century  hopes  for  farming  and  population 
growth  see  C.  A.  Parks,  "The  Campbell  System  of  Agriculture," 
Wyoming  Industrial  Journal,  3  (January,  1903):  178;  V.  T.  Cooke  to 
Brooks,  [undated],  1908,  Brooks  papers,  file  number  35.  William 
Hewitt's  "Changing  Perceptions  of  Agriculture  in  the  Cowboy  State: 
Wyoming  Farming  Before  World  War  I,"  Ph.D.  dissertation  in 
History,  University  of  Wyoming,  1984,  is  the  most  extensive  treat- 
ment of  this  failed  agricultural  experiment. 

18.  Brooks  to  Sargeant,  July  9,  1907,  Brooks  papers,  file  number  267; 
Wyoming  State  Board  of  Immigration,  Biennial  Report,  1911-1912 
(Cheyenne:  S.  A.  Bristol  Co.,  1912),  pp.  47-48,  57;  Hewitt,  "Chang- 
ing Perceptions,"  p.  125.  One  of  the  fruits  of  the  combined  state- 
federal  campaign  which  was  translated  into  several  foreign  languages 
is  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  Bureau  of  Immigration  and 
Naturalization,  Division  of  Information,  Agricultural  Opportunities:  In- 


formation Concerning  Resources,  Products,  and  Physical  Characteristics  of 
the  Western  States  (Northern  Group),  Comprising  Montana,  Wyoming, 
Idaho,  Washington,  and  Oregon,  and  the  Territory  of  Alaska  (Washington: 
Government  Printing  Office,  1912). 

19.  Report  of  the  Immigration  Commission,  Vol.  25,  part  3:  Japanese  and  Other 
Immigrant  Races  in  the  Pacific  Coast  and  Rocky  Mountain  States,  61st 
Cong.,  2nd  sess.  (Washington:  Government  Printing  Office,  1911), 
pp.  279-280,  292;  Olson,  Ranch  on  the  Laramie,  pp.  80-81. 

20.  Kendrick  to  Malcolm  Moncrieffe,  February  12,  1917,  John  B.  Kendrick 
papers,  American  Heritage  Center,  University  of  Wyoming  (hereafter 
cited  as  Kendrick  papers);  Ellis  W.  Hawley,  The  Great  War  and  the 
Search  for  a  Modern  Order,  A  History  of  the  American  People  and  Their 
Institutions,  1917-1933  (New  York:  St.  Martin's  Press,  1979),  pp.  11-13, 
gives  a  succinct  account  of  these  turn-of-the-century  concerns  on  the 
national  level.  William  Howard  Moore's  "Progressivism  and'the  Social 
Gospel  in  Wyoming:  The  Antigambling  Act  of  1901  as  a  Test  Case," 
Western  Historical  Quarterly,  15  (July,  1984):  299-316,  is  the  only  ac- 
count of  these  pre-war  tensions  in  the  state  of  Wyoming. 

21.  David  M.  Kennedy,  Over  Here:  The  First  World  War  and  American  Society 
(New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1980),  pp.  24  (quote),  24-27.  See 
also  "The  Hyphen  Must  Go,"  North  American  Review,  203  (March, 
1916):  343-344.  The  growing  sense  of  danger  to  the  status  quo,  largely 
inchoate  in  Wyoming  before  1914,  doubtlessly  was  responsible  in  part 
for  the  reinstitution  in  1913  of  earlier  laws  which  outlawed  miscegena- 
tion: Hardaway,  "Prohibiting  Interracial  Marriage,"  pp.  57-58. 
Legislative  efforts  in  1913  drew  almost  no  criticism,  a  sharp  depar- 
ture from  the  climate  of  opinion  when  these  laws  were  repealed  in 
1882. 

22.  The  Census  of  the  State  of  Wyoming,  1915  (Cheyenne:  Wyoming  Labor 
Journal  Publishing  Company,  1915),  passim;  Rock  Springs  Rocket, 
February  5,  1915,  May  23,  1916,  February  9,  1917.  The  latter  editorial 
is  reprinted  from  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune. 

23.  Casper  Record,  February  23,  1915;  Sheridan  Post,  June  16,  1916;  Laramie 
Semi-Weekly  Boomerang,  September  27,  1915,  reprinting  an  editorial 
from  the  Denver  Express.  See  also  Semi-Weekly  Boomerang,  December 
9,  1915,  January  10,  February  3,  August  3  (reprinting  an  editorial  from 
the  Kemmerer  Camera),  and  October  5,  1916,  for  similar  views. 

24.  Dale  A.  Poeske,  "Wyoming  in  World  War  I,"  (Master  of  Arts  Thesis 
in  History,  University  of  Wyoming,  1968),  passim;  Larson,  History 
of  Wyoming,  pp.  400-401;  Douglas  Budget  and  Converse  County  Review, 
August  9,  1917. 

25.  Timothy  J.  Lyons,  "Hollywood  and  World  War  I,  1914-18,"  Journal 
of  Popular  Film,  1  (Winter,  1972):  22-23;  Hawley,  The  Great  War,  pp. 
27-30;  Kennedy,  Over  Here,  pp.  53-63,  67-69;  Garis,  Immigration  Restric- 
tion, pp.  229-239.  "Proofs"  of  immigrant  inferiority  are  documented  in 
Hamilton  Cravens,  The  Triumph  of  Evolution:  American  Scientists  and 
the  Heredity-Environment  Controversy,  1900-1941  (Philadelphia:  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania  Press,  1978),  pp.  78ff.,  and  their  widespread 
dissemination  in  William  A.  Satariano,  "Immigration  and  the 
Popularization  of  Social  Science,  1900  to  1930,"  Journal  of  the  History  of 
the  Behavioral  Sciences,  15  (October,  1979):  314-317. 

26.  Sheridan  Post,  April  12,  1918  (first  quote),  November  23,  1917  (second 
quote);  Frank  Mondell,  "My  Story:  An  Autobiography  by  Frank 
Wheeler  Mondell,"  4  vols,  in  typescript,  Mondell  papers,  American 
Heritage  Center,  University  of  Wyoming,  III,  p.  610  (hereafter  cited 
as  Mondell  papers);  Laramie  Daily  Boomerang,  October  1,  1917,  reprint- 
ing an  editorial  from  the  Wyoming  Labor  Journal. 

27.  Laramie  Daily  Boomerang,  September  4,  1917  (quote),  reprinting  an 
editorial  from  the  Philadelphia  Ledger,  Sheridan  Post,  November  13,  1917; 
see  also  Daily  Boomerang,  April  5,  October  23,  1917,  February  7,  March 
13,  April  10,  and  June  15,  1918,  for  a  representative  sampling  of  opin- 
ion on  the  dangers  of  the  foreign  presence.  Ross  put  forth  the  no- 
tion of  "race  suicide"  in  his  "Causes  of  Race  Superiority,"  Annals 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Sciences,  18  (July,  1901): 

'  67-89. 


36 


30 


31 


28.  Houx  is  quoted  in  Higham,  Strangers  in  the  Land,  p.  194;  Harrison 
C.  Dale,  What  We  Are  Fighting  For.  An  Address  Delivered  Before  the 
Laramie  One  Hundred  Percent  American  Club  on  Lincoln's  Birthday,  1918 
(Laramie:  n.p.,  1918),  p.  1;  Douglas  Budget  and  Converse  County  Review, 
December  13,  1917.  "William  F.  Hamilton,"  in  Bartlett,  History  of 
Wyoming,  II,  pp.  214-216,  gives  another  example  of  a  participant  in 
Douglas'  One  Hundred  Percent  Americanism  movement.  The  temper 
of  the  times  is  further  revealed  by  events  during  the  1918  gubernatorial 
race.  Democrats  charged  that  Republican  candidate  Robert  D.  Carey 
was  under  the  undue  influence  of  German-born  Fred  J.  Wiedeke,  one 
of  Carey's  employees:  Larson,  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  403. 

29.  John  D.  Hicks,  Rehearsal  for  Disaster:  The  Boom  and  Collapse  of  1919-1920 
(Gainesville:  University  of  Florida  Press,  1961),  pp.  67-81;  Robert  K. 
Murray,  Red  Scare:  A  Study  in  National  Hysteria,  1919-1920  (Min- 
neapolis: University  of  Minnesota  Press,  1955),  passim;  George  Soule, 
"Radicalism,"  in  Harold  E.  Stearns  (ed.),  Civilization  in  the  United 
States:  An  Inquiry  by  Thirty  Americans  (New  York:  Harcourt,  Brace  and 
Company,  1922),  pp.  275-276. 

Labor  strife,  with  no  recognition  of  its  significance,  is  found  in  Erma 
A.  Fletcher,  "A  History  of  the  Labor  Movement  in  Wyoming, 
1870-1940,"  (Master  of  Arts  Thesis  in  Economics  and  Sociology, 
University  of  Wyoming,  1945),  pp.  81-86,  93-94,  110-112.  See  also  Lar- 
son, History  of  Wyoming,  pp.  411-413. 

Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Fifteenth  State  Legislature 
of  Wyoming  (Laramie:  Laramie  Republican  Company,  1919),  pp.  12, 
(quote),  310;  Stinneford,  "Eastern  Europeans,"  p.  133. 

32.  Address  of  Mrs.  Mondell  to  the  National  Society  of  the  Children  of 
the  American  Revolution,  April  17,  1923,  Mondell  papers,  file  22; 
Casper  Daily  Tribune,  April  25,  1924;  Journal  of  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives of  the  Seventeenth  State  Legislature  of  Wyoming  (Sheridan  and 
Casper:  The  Mills  Company,  1923),  p.  25;  Wyoming  State  Board  of 
Immigration,  Third  Biennial  Report,  1921-1923  (Sheridan:  The  Mills  Com- 
pany, 1923),  p.  4;  Mary  N.  Brooks  to  Grace  Raymond  Hebard, 
December  8,  1930,  in  Bryant  B.  Brooks  vertical  file,  American  Heritage 
Center,  University  of  Wyoming. 

33.  David  M.  Chalmers,  Hooded  Americanism:  The  History  of  the  Ku  Klux 
Klan  (New  York:  Franklin  Watts,  1981),  p.  221;  Larson,  History  of 
Wyoming,  pp.  455,  457;  Stinneford,  "Eastern  Europeans,"  pp.  134-135; 
Records  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Inactive  Corporation  Records, 
"Women  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,"  December  8,  1924,  corporation 
number  30874,  Wyoming  State  Archives,  Cheyenne. 

34.  Roger  L.  Williams,  Aven  Nelson  of  Wyoming  (Boulder:  Colorado 
Associated  University  Press,  1984),  p.  226  (quote);  Cora  M.  Beach, 
Women  of  Wyoming  (2  vols.;  Casper:  S.  E.  Boyer  &  Company,  1927), 
I,  p.  490. 

35.  Nate  P.  Wilson,  State  Game  Warden,  to  Kendrick,  March  16,  1915, 
Kendrick  papers;  Sheridan  Post,  April  16,  1918;  Wyoming  Revised 
Statutes,  1931  (Casper:  S.  E.  Boyer  &  Company,  1931),  p.  591. 

36.  Milton  R.  Konvitz,  The  Alien  and  Asiatic  in  American  Law  (Ithaca:  Cor- 
nell University  Press,  1946),  pp.  200,  203-204. 
Laramie  Daily  Boomerang,  October  23,  1916;  Sheridan  Post,  September 
14,  1917;  Beach,  Women  of  Wyoming,  I,  p.  122;  Biennial  Report  of  the 
State  Department  of  Education  of  Wyoming,  1918-1920  (Sheridan:  The 
Mills  Company,  1920),  p.  40.  The  best  general  account  of  this  part 
of  nativism  is  Edward  George  Hartmann,  The  Movement  to  Americanize 
the  Immigrant  (New  York:  Columbia  University  Press,  1948). 

Whether  before  or  after  1914,  it  is  abundantly  clear  that  the  vast 
majority  of  immigrants,  whatever  their  origins,  responded 
wholeheartedly  to  opportunities  for  Americanization.  That  was  why 
they  had  left  their  original  homelands  in  the  first  place.  To  give  only 
one  example  here  of  what  was  common  in  Wyoming,  43  Greek-born 
workers  who  were  employed  by  the  Union  Pacific  Coal  Company 
as  miners  in  Reliance  organized  an  Americanization  School  in  1921. 
They  sought  and  obtained  local,  volunteer  help  for  their  efforts. 
Teachers  donated  time  to  lead  classes  in  the  principles  of  citizenship. 


37 


The  Union  Pacific  Coal  Company  underwrote  expenses  incurred  in 
using  a  local  school  house:  Rock  Springs  Rocket,  February  4,  1921.  Hen- 
drickson  (ed.),  Peopling  the  High  Plains,  passim,  and  Gladys  Powelson 
Jones,  "Cheyenne,  Cheyenne,  .  .  ."  Our  Blue-Collar  Heritage  (Cheyenne: 
author,  1983),  pp.  89-90,  also  discuss  this  commitment  of  the  im- 
migrants. It  is  ironic,  and  yet  telling  that  local  nativists  chose  to  ig- 
nore the  newcomers'  desire  to  assimilate.  There  is  perhaps  no  better 
evidence  of  the  near-hysterical  intensity  of  nativism  in  the  Cowboy 
State  and  Wyomingites'  loss  of  faith  in  what  they  had  to  offer  im- 
migrants, particularly  those  from  southern  and  eastern  Europe,  after 
1914. 

38.  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Fifteenth  State  Legislature 
of  Wyoming  (Laramie:  Laramie  Republican  Company,  1919),  p.  12 
(quote). 

39.  Biennial  Report  of  the  State  Department  of  Education,  1918-1920,  pp.  39-40; 
Biennial  Report,  1921-1922,  pp.  56-57;  Biennial  Report,  1928-1930,  p. 
133;  Biennial  Report,  1930-1932,  p.  133. 

40.  Voting  records  of  the  three  men  on  immigration  restriction  may  be 
seen  in  Congressional  Record,  January  17,  1898,  p.  689;  December  18, 
1912,  p.  5023;  February  4,  1915,  p.  3078. 

Party  discipline  was  reinforced  by  the  geography  of  national 
politics.  Wyoming's  congressmen  spent  much  of  their  time  in  the  East, 
where  sharp  concern  over  immigration  ran  high.  Moreover,  Warren 
was  greatly  influenced  by  the  views  of  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge, 
the  pre-eminent  Republican  spokesman  for  immigration  restriction 
beginning  in  the  1890s.  Warren,  for  example,  initially  supported  entry 
into  the  League  of  Nations,  saying  in  an  interview  in  Cheyenne  in 
August,  1919,  that  the  League  offered  a  good  chance  to  avoid  another 
war.  Back  in  Washington  in  October,  under  the  sway  of  Lodge  and 
mindful  of  the  benefits  of  party  discipline,  Warren  opposed  American 
participation  in  the  League. 

The  only  exception  to  this  general  voting  pattern  occurred  in  1917 
when  Warren  and  Clark,  but  not  Mondell,  voted  to  sustain  Wilson's 
veto  of  the  literacy  test.  Warren's  correspondence  gives  no  reason 
for  this  departure  from  his  past  behavior,  but  it  is  probable  that  he, 
and  presumably  Clark,  had  more  pressing  international  issues  in 
mind.  An  important  advocate  of  military  preparedness  and  a  staunch 
supporter  of  peace,  Warren  feared  repercussions  with  Japan,  since 
certain  provisions  of  the  1917  law  gratuitously  restated  Japanese  ex- 
clusion from  the  United  States  (Congressional  Record,  February  15,  1917, 
p.  2629).  Earlier,  in  1916,  Warren  opposed  Philippine  independence  for 
fear  that  Japan  would  then  try  to  annex  the  islands.  As  late  as  1924, 
Warren  expressed  qualms  about  the  Immigration  Act  of  1924,  which 
on  the  whole  he  strongly  supported,  because  of  the  law's  restate- 
ment, again,  of  Japanese  exclusion  at  a  time  when  the  world's  powers 
were  attempting  to  limit  naval  armaments:  Warren  to  P.C.  Spencer, 
April  25,  1924,  Warren  papers;  Congressional  Record,  February  1,  1917, 
p.  2457;  Wesley  Donald  Bowen,  "The  Congressional  Career  of  Senator 
Francis  E.  Warren,  1912-1920,"  (Master  of  Arts  Thesis  in  History, 
University  of  Wyoming,  1949),  pp.  28-31,  47-48,  56-69,  73-77,  85,  97. 

41.  The  increasingly  restrictive  nature  of  federal  immigration  legislation 
and  the  political  difficulties  in  achieving  it  are  best  traced  in  Higham, 
Strangers  in  the  Land. 

42.  Undated  clipping  from  Chicago  Tribune  in  Mondell  scrapbook  number 
16,  April,  1921-June,  1922,  Mondell  papers  (first  quote);  Mondell,  "My 
Story,"  IV,  p.  781  (second  quote);  Casper  Daily  Tribune,  January  21. 
1921,  and  February  21,  1924;  Rock  Springs  Rocket.  June  3,  1921  (third 
quote). 

43.  Garis,  Immigration  Restriction,  pp.  142-168,  gives  a  good,  although 
biased,  account  of  the  political  battle  to  implement  a  quota  system. 
Wyoming  opinion  may  be  sampled  in  Wyoming  Lalvr  journal,  March 
14,  1924;  John  R.  Quinn,  "America  and  Immigration,"  ibid.;  Warren 
to  Grace  Raymond  Hebard,  April  11,  1924;  Warren  to  Mrs.  K  G. 
Dunlap,  April  12,  1924;  Warren  to  Reverend  K.  H  Moorman,  April 
10,  1924,  Warren  papers. 


37 


44.  Warren  to  M.  P.  Wheeler,  April  21,  1924;  Warren  to  Lovell  Commer- 
cial Club,  January  30,  1924  (quotes),  Warren  papers.  Warren,  caught 
up  in  the  nativist  tide  of  the  1920s  and  knowing  he  had  the  full  back- 
ing of  his  fellow  Wyomingites,  wrote  to  Imperial  Wizard  of  the  Ku 
Klux  Klan  Hiram  W.  Evans  that  the  Klan's  diatribe  against  Latins  and 
Slavs,  The  Menace  of  Modern  Immigration,  had  "much  good  food  for 
thought"  in  it:  Warren  to  Evans,  December  20,  1923,  Warren  papers. 

45.  Winter  is  quoted  in  the  Casper  Daily  Tribune,  April  25,  1924;  see  also 
ibid.,  May  20,  1921,  February  21,  23,  and  April  1,  1924;  Kendrick  im- 
migration correspondence  in  box  17  of  the  Kendrick  papers.  Many 
of  the  more  than  100  letters  were  sent  to  Kendrick  as  part  of  an  or- 
chestrated campaign  organized  in  Cheyenne  to  support  the  Johnson 


bill.  Smug  satisfaction  over  passage  of  the  Johnson  bill,  the  natural 
culmination  of  changing  Wyoming  perceptions  on  the  presence  of 
foreign  immigrants,  is  in  Casper  Daily  Tribune,  February  3,  1924;  Laramie 
Republic  Boomerang,  May  26,  1924;  Greybull  Standard  and  Tribune,  Oc- 
tober 17,  1924;  Warren  to  M.  C.  Brown,  April  21,  1924,  and  to  M.  P. 
Wheeler,  April  22,  1924,  Warren  papers. 
46.  For  example,  Statement  of  Commissioner  Alan  K.  Simpson  in  Select 
Commission  on  Immigration  and  Refugee  Policy  and  the  National  Interest 
(Washington:  Government  Printing  Office,  1981),  pp.  407-419;  William 
Hewitt,  "The  University  of  Wyoming  Textbook  Investigation  Con- 
troversy, 1947  to  1948  and  Its  Aftermath,"  Annals  of  Wyoming,  56 
(Spring,  1984):  22-23;  Larson,  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  451. 


38 


{Jn    ^/Wyoming,    1880-1930 


J^culLcl   <y\/{.    JDauman 


3^ 


The  Homestead  Act  has  been  called  one  of  the  great 
democratic  measures  of  world  history.1  Women  had  the 
opportunity  to  homestead,  because  the  act  made  no  dis- 
crimination towards  sex.  Single  women  took  this  oppor- 
tunity offered  to  them  and  did  homestead  in  the  state  of 
Wyoming.  It  is  important  to  explore  motives,  the  means 
by  which  they  obtained  land,  the  typical  life  of  women 
homesteaders,  the  status  of  the  women  once  the  certificate 
had  been  granted  and  what  became  of  the  land  once  a  cer- 
tificate had  been  granted. 

During  a  special  session  of  Congress,  Representative 
Aldrich  of  Minnesota  introduced  a  homestead  bill  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  and  on  May  17,  1862,  the 
Homestead  Act  became  a  reality  when  President  Lincoln 
signed  the  bill.  The  Homestead  Act  specified  the  qualifica- 
tions for  a  homestead  as: 

.  .  .  any  person  who  is  the  head  of  a  family,  or  who  has  arrived 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and  is  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
or  who  shall  have  filed  his  declaration  of  intentions  to  become  such, 
as  required  by  the  naturalization  laws  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment .   .   .  shall  be  entitled  to  one  quarter  section.2 

Homestead  land  became  available  not  only  to  a  man  over 
21  and  head  of  his  family,  but  to  a  single  woman  over  21 
and  head  of  her  family,  because  of  the  term,  "person." 
For  the  purpose  of  clarity,  "single"  women  are  defined 
as  women  who  have  no  husband.  Some  were  unmarried, 
some  widows,  some  divorcees  and  some  even  runaway 
wives. 

In  order  to  apply  for  homestead  land,  individuals  were 
required  to  include  the  information  of  the  exact  section, 
township,  range  and  meridian.  Thus,  for  example,  Agnes 
M.  Teusdale,  of  Laramie  County,  filled  out  an  application 
numbered  2491,  which  involved  the  land  legally  described 
as  the  "Northwest  quarter,  Section  28,  Township  20,  North 
of  Range  60,  West  of  the  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in  Wyo- 
ming, containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres."3  As  of 
January,  1863,  the  person  applying  for  homestead  land 
received  one  quarter  section  of  land,  or  160  acres.  If  the 
applicant  wanted  less  than  one  quarter  section,  (80  acres), 
or  less  of  unappropriated  lands,  then  the  land  went  for 
$2.50  an  acre  with  the  requirement  that  the  land  be  sur- 
veyed first. 


Congress  stated  homesteaders  would  have  a  set  period 
of  time  in  which  to  make  improvements  (prove  up)  on  their 
land.  Consequently,  five  years  from  the  date  of  entry,  the 
applicant  who  proved  up  became  entitled  to  a  patent  to 
his  or  her  homestead.  During  these  five  years,  the  appli- 
cant built  a  shelter  and  made  improvements  on  the  land. 
The  applicant  could  not  change  place  of  residence  or  aban- 
don the  said  land  for  more  than  six  months  at  any  given 
time.  Those  who  abandoned  the  homestead  lost  all  rights 
to  said  land.4  The  Homestead  Act  further  stated  that, 
.  .   .  said  person  may  have  filed  a  preemption  claim,  or  which 
at  the  time  the  application  is  made  subject  to  preemption  at  one  dollar 
and  twenty-five  cents  or  less,  per  acre;  or  eighty  acres  or  less  of  unap- 
propriated lands,  at  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  acre,  .   .  .5 

This  meant  any  person  who  had  the  means  could  pay  the 
required  amount  at  a  greater  sum  of  money  than  ordinar- 
ily would  be  required.  Congress  concluded  if  a  home- 
steader fulfilled  all  of  the  required  provisions  prior  to  the 
time  allowed  for  proving  up,  then  the  homesteader  "who 
has  availed  him  or  herself  of  the  benefits  of  the  first  sec- 
tion" of  the  Homestead  Act  could  pay  "the  minimum 
price,  or  the  same  price  to  which  the  same  may  have 
graduated,  for  the  quantity  of  land"  before  the  five  years 
had  expired.6  In  Laramie  County,  from  1890  to  1908,  fif- 
teen out  of  21  single  women  homesteaders  received  their 
certificates  before  their  five  year  deadline,  paying  the 
minimum  price  for  their  land.  Thirteen  out  of  the  fifteen 
completed  the  requirements  in  two  years  or  less.  (See  Ap- 
pendix A) 

Before  the  Homestead  Act,  the  principles  of  land  policy 
had  been  governed  by  various  preemption  acts.  Between 
1804  and  1841,  more  than  sixteen  acts  passed  granting 
rights  to  squatters.  Congress  felt  these  acts  "threatened 
the  principal  of  revenue  return  for  the  public  domain."7 
The  Preemption  Act  of  1841  allowed  "any  squatter  on 
unclaimed  land"  the  right  "when  the  land  was  surveyed 
and  came  up  for  auction"  to  "exercise  the  first  preemp- 
tion laws"  by  having  first  option  at  buying  the  land.8 

Within  a  decade,  Congress  realized  the  Homestead  Act 
was  inconclusive  in  that  the  act  did  not  appropriately  apply 
towards  conditions  in  the  West.  Therefore,  the  Timber 
Culture  Act  of  1873  allowed  a  person  to  receive  160  acres 
free  by  paying  the  same  fees  as  the  Homestead  Act.  In 
order  to  claim  160  acres  under  the  Timber  Culture  Act,  one 
had  to  plant  and  keep  growing  40  acres  of  trees  for  eight 
years.  Originally,  Congress  felt  that  the  prairie  states  could 
benefit  from  this  legislation.  In  actuality,  lack  of  water 
discouraged  many  homesteaders  from  utilizing  this  act.9 
By  1890,  all  the  most  desirable  farm  land  had  been  home- 
steaded.  People  on  the  western  prairies  realized  the  re- 
maining land  could  not  be  treated  the  same  as  the  land 
in  eastern  America.  In  the  remaining  arid  and  semi-arid 
lands,  160  acres  of  land  did  not  provide  a  living  for  a 
homesteader  trying  to  raise  a  dryland  crop.  Consequently, 
320  acres  became  available  to  a  homesteader  for  bare  sub- 


40 


sistence  when  an  amendment  to  the  Homestead  Act,  the 
Mondell  Revisory  Law  of  1909,  passed.10 

By  1912,  the  lawmakers  concluded  that  the  five  years 
required  on  a  homestead  caused  discouraged  home- 
steaders to  admit  defeat.  The  Homestead  Act  originated 
as  a  means  of  disposing  excess  Public  Lands  and  at  the 
same  time  earning  a  revenue.  Hence,  further  leniency  by 
Congress  in  1912  lowered  the  residency  requirement  from 
five  to  three  years,  and  permitted  an  absence  of  five  months 
each  year.  This  popularized  homesteading  for  women.  The 
majority  of  women  filed  their  homestead  claims  after  the 
residency  dropped  from  five  years  to  three  years  and  after 
more  land  was  awarded  to  the  homesteaders.11 

Along  with  the  Homestead  Act,  many  other  acts 
helped  homesteaders  in  obtaining  ownership  of  property 
in  the  West.  The  Desert  Land  Act  might  have  applied  to 
any  homestead  on  the  western  plains.  Passed  by  Congress 
on  March  3,  1877,  it  stated  the  applicant  must  be  a  resi- 
dent of  the  United  States  and  of  legal  age,  (21  years  old). 
The  land  would  be  sold  at  25C  an  acre  and  not  exceeding 
one  section  of  land  to  any  one  person.  A  water  system 
must  be  installed  on  the  land  within  three  years  after  fil- 
ing, providing  that  the  right  to  this  water  for  the  640  acres 
followed  bona  fide  prior  appropriation  laws.  Within  three 
years  after  filing  the  claim,  an  individual  had  to  pay  an  ad- 
ditional one  dollar  per  acre  to  the  land  office  for  the  full 
possession  of  the  land.12  One  who  apparently  took  advan- 
tage of  the  Desert  Land  Act,  Florence  Blake  Smith  of  north- 
eastern Wyoming  stated, 

I  was  now  a  homesteader  in  the  West,  and  a  potential  owner 
of  six  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  Wyoming.  The  wonder  of  posses- 
sion, the  joy  of  looking  out  over  one's  land,  thinking  on  the  dear 
dead  Pioneer's  toil  and  sweat  to  at  least  acquire  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres,  and  here  was  I  with  six  hundred  and  forty,  an  entire 
square  mile.13 

An  amendment  to  the  Desert  Land  Act,  called  the 
Carey  Act,  aided  two  women  in  Worland  to  obtain  home- 
stead land.  Mary  Culbertson  and  Helen  Coburn  Howell 
decided  to  homestead  in  Wyoming  in  that  area  of  Wyo- 
ming because  of  their  fathers'  interests  in  the  Hanover 
Canal  Irrigation  Project.14  Under  the  Carey  Act,  the  Board 
of  Land  Commissioners  and  the  state  engineer  studied 
detailed  assignments  as  to  the  feasibility  proposals  for  ir- 
rigation works  advanced  by  individuals  or  companies  and 
to  make  contracts  when  projects  appeared  sound.  The  state 
charged  the  settler  50C  per  acre,  and  the  private  contrac- 
tors charged  $20  or  more  per  acre  for  water  rights.  States 
could  not  sell  or  dispose  of  more  than  160  acres  of  these 
lands  to  any  one  person.  Ultimately,  the  Desert  Land  Act 
made  land  available  to  enterprising  homesteaders.  Home- 
steaders such  as  Culbertson  and  Howell  used  the  Desert 
Act  in  order  to  settle  land  previously  arid  and  unusable.15 

Utilizing  land  laws,  each  head  of  a  family  could  take 
160  acres  free  under  the  Homestead  Act  of  1862,  another 
160  free  under  the  Timber  Culture  Act  of  1873,  another  160 
at  $1.25  per  acre  under  the  Preemption  Act  of  1841  and 


640  acres  at  $1.25  per  acre  under  the  Desert  Land  Act  of 
1877. 16  Curiously,  most  of  the  women  homesteaders,  with 
a  few  exceptions,  did  not  take  advantage  of  these  other 
land  acts.  All  of  the  79  women  homesteaders  in  Laramie 
County,  between  March  25,  1896,  to  February  16,  1917, 
used  only  the  Homestead  Act  to  obtain  free  land  from  the 
United  States  Government.17 

While  the  opportunity  to  obtain  160  free  acres  brought 
many  young,  single  women  to  the  agricultural  frontier,  the 
other  reasons  are  as  varied  as  the  women's  individual 
backgrounds.  Some  took  up  homestead  claims  simply  to 
add  to  their  husbands',  fathers'  or  brothers'  holdings. 
Others,  especially  single  women,  intended  to  work  their 
claims  themselves.18  Single  women  homesteaders  had 
many  different  motives  for  homesteading.  They  included 
adventure  and  fun,  hunting  a  husband,  financial  security, 
independence  and  equal  rights  or  seeking  an  alternative 
to  the  reduced  opportunities  of  more  settled  regions.19 

Helen  Coburn  Howell  could  be  classified  as  an  adven- 
turous homesteader.  She  and  Mary  Culbertson  took  out 
adjoining  claims.  "Mrs.  Culbertson  and  I  lived  together 
in  great  harmony  the  necessary  time  to  prove  up,  she 
sleeping  on  her  side  of  the  line  that  divided  our  property 
and  I  on  mine,"  Howell  recalled.20 

Many  other  women  saw  the  opportunity  differently. 
They  perceived  homesteading  as  a  means  to  earn  a  dowry 
and  help  out  a  future  husband.  To  a  woman  seeking  a  hus- 
band, the  male/female  ratio  on  the  plains  was  attractive. 
Men  greatly  outnumbered  the  women.21  Natrona  County 
had  52  women  homesteaders.  Seventeen  of  these  married 
between  receiving  their  homestead  patent  and  homestead 
certificate.  (See  Appendix  B,  Table  III)  In  Campbell  County, 
Luella  Moyer  had  decided  to  come  West  to  marry  after  tak- 
ing out  a  homestead.  She  later  remembered, 
At  that  time  there  was  very  little  deeded  land  in  Campbell  County, 
and  a  hundred  and  sixty  acres  was  all  one  person  could  take.  If  a 
man  and  woman  were  to  be  married  and  the  man  had  proved  up 
on  his  homestead,  the  woman  could  take  hers  and  be  married  the 
next  day.  Later  this  rule  was  changed,  and  the  woman  had  to  live 
on  her  homestead  for  a  year  before  they  were  married.22 

Some  women  did  not  intend  to  settle  permanently  but 
rather  hoped  to  establish  their  claims  and  then  sell  out  to 
neighboring  farmers.  They  would  then  return  to  their  small 
towns  or  to  the  city  with  a  nest  egg.  Contemporary  letters 
and  diaries  by  homesteading  women  verify  that  some 
young  women  intended  to  exploit  their  claims  to  earn 
money  for  their  ventures.23  Some  schoolmarms  became 
homesteaders  after  they  viewed  the  economic  gain  that 
enterprise  might  offer.  Minnie  Hidy,  Bessie  Fox  and 
Blanche  Lyons,  all  schoolteachers  from  Laramie  County, 
took  out  homestead  claims  to  aid  local  ranchers  in  keep- 
ing their  ranches  intact.  These  women  sold  their  proper- 
ties immediately  to  the  stockmen  at  a  nice  profit.24 

Dr.  Bessie  Fell  decided  to  homestead  on  the  Western 
plains  because  of  the  financial  security  of  owning  land. 
From  Moville,  Iowa,  the  34  year-old  medical  doctor  had 


41 


suffered  a  financial  loss  in  the  1907  panic.  Her  loss  had 
been  so  large  that  when  she  arrived  in  southeastern  Wyo- 
ming with  her  three  orphaned  nieces,  she  had  only  75C 
in  her  pocket.25 

Homesteading  offered  a  peculiar  challenge  to  women 
to  achieve  equal  rights,  since  "free  land"  did  not 
discriminate  against  male  or  female  homesteaders.  Men 
and  women  "were  appallingly  equal— equal  labor,  equal 
privation  and  equal  failure— or  victory."26  Even  practiced 
farmers  failed,  however.  Statistically,  only  one  in  three 
women  managed  to  remain  long  enough  to  get  deeds  to 
their  farms.  At  the  age  of  52,  Emma  Peterson  decided  to 
try  once  more  to  gain  her  economic  independence  and  her 
rights.  From  a  large  family,  she  had  married  at  fourteen 
and  by  age  nineteen  had  become  a  widow.  Undaunted, 
Peterson  started  a  very  successful  millinery  shop  until  she 
remarried  a  second  time.  She  did  not  mind  forfeiting  her 
independence  for  a  husband.  After  fifteen  years,  the  mar- 
riage ended  in  the  death  of  her  husband.  The  opportunity 
available  to  her  through  the  Homestead  Act  made  her 
realize  that  by  gaining  land,  she  would  never  have  to  be 
totally  dependent  upon  another  human  being.27 

Women,  seeking  an  alternative  to  the  reduced  oppor- 
tunities of  a  more  settled  region,  were  usually  divorced, 
widowed  or  runaway  wives.  One  such  wife  was  Mary 
O'Kieffe.  One  day  in  1884,  at  the  age  of  43,  fed  up  with 
her  "ne'er-do-well"  husband,  she  decided  to  file  a 
homestead  claim  in  western  Nebraska  on  land  similar 


topographically  to  eastern  Wyoming.28  According  to  her 
son  Charley,  Mary  O'Kieffe  was  disappointed,  discour- 
aged, but  never  completely  broken.  The  woman  had 
dreams  of  a  better  life  somewhere  and  hoped  to  end  her 
unhappy  existence  by  starting  over  in  a  new  country  with 
freedom.29  She  had  the  older  children  assist  her  in  building 
a  cover  on  the  farm  wagon,  hitched  up  the  work  horses 
and  tied  the  milk  cows  to  the  wagon  sides.  To  the  rear  of 
the  wagon  she  attached  the  cultivator  and  on  top  of  that 
she  built  a  small  chicken  coop  to  hold  her  two  dozen  hens 
and  a  rooster.  The  journey  from  their  farm  on  the  Missouri 
River  to  the  new  homestead  was  a  distance  of  about  500 
miles.  After  many  adventures  on  the  51-day  journey  they 
arrived,  built  a  sod  house,  dug  a  well  and  set  up  house- 
keeping in  their  new  home.30 

Another  woman  seeking  an  alternative  was  Vesta  Keen. 
In  1911,  she  came  to  homestead  land  in  northeastern  Col- 
orado near  the  Wyoming  border.  At  33  years  of  age,  Keen 
was  alone,  as  she  liked  not  having  a  man  complicate  her 
life.  Part  Cherokee,  Keen  had  become  weary  of  some  of 
the  niceties  associated  with  women's  lives  in  the  East.  She 
wanted  to  ride  astride,  and  had  heard  women  in  the  West 
had  long  ago  abandoned  side  saddles.  Knowing  women 
had  been  voting  for  many  years  in  the  West,  she  longed 
to  express  her  opinions  at  the  polls.31 

Elinore  Pruitt  serves  as  an  example  of  a  woman  with 
inter-connected  motives  for  homesteading.  A  widowed 
mother  who  wanted  to  escape  her  past  lifestyle,  she 


LJioLatLon.   ciii.couxa.qza. 
i.omz  nomzi.tza.azxi. 


42 


cleaned  house  and  did  laundry  to  support  herself  and  her 
young  daughter  in  a  dismal  apartment  in  Denver.  Pruitt 
had  grown  up  on  a  farm  and  found  her  existence  in  Denver 
difficult.  She  longed  to  escape  "the  rattle  and  bang,  the 
glare  and  soot,  the  smells  and  the  hurry"  of  city  life  to  "the 
sweet,  free  open"  area  of  the  country.32  Acting  on  the  ad- 
vice of  her  minister,  she  advertised  for  a  position  as  a 
housekeeper  to  a  rancher  in  the  hope  she  could  start  a 
homestead  site.  Consequently,  Pruitt  found  herself  as 
housekeeper  to  Clyde  Stewart,  "a  Scottish  cattle  rancher 
who  spoke  with  a  burr  as  thick  as  his  wrist  and  played  a 
bagpipe  to  cheer  his  bachelor  solitude,  sixty  miles  from  the 
railroad  at  Burnt  Fork."33 

Some  women  came  West  to  visit  homesteading  rela- 
tives and  decided  to  stay  and  settle  on  their  own  claims. 
Divorced  Fredericka  Deike  came  West  to  see  her  brothers. 
During  her  visit,  she  decided  that  owning  a  homestead 
near  Burns  would  be  an  excellent  opportunity.  Women's 
motives  for  homesteading  varied,  but  universally  they 
valued  the  "free  land"  they  would  receive  in  order  to  bet- 
ter themselves  economically.  The  vastness  and  unbroken 
land  of  the  plains  had  a  particular  appeal  for  women  nor- 
mally not  accustomed  to  feelings  of  individuality  and 
power.34 

Homesteading  a  piece  of  land  required  making  many 
ingenious  plans.  One  needed  to  obtain  money  and  work 
hard  to  make  improvements  on  the  land  the  Homestead 
Act  required.  Florence  Blake  Smith  observed  that  "free 
land"  was  costly: 
There  would  be  filing  fees,  locating  fees,  transportation,  price  of 
lumber  to  build  the  required  habitable  house.  Also,  it  seemed,  one 
had  to  buy  posts  for  fencing  and  the  wire  to  string  between  them, 
all  of  which  added  to  a  prohibitive  sum  by  the  mile.  Then  on  necessity 
you  had  to  eat  to  live,  of  course,  during  the  slow  process  of 
homesteading.35 

In  order  to  begin,  prospective  homesteaders  obtained 
information  on  land  available  to  them  through  many  dif- 
ferent sources,  including  land  agents,  newspaper  articles, 
government  documents  and  friends  or  relatives.  Some- 
times the  necessary  information  proved  costly.  Smith  used 
the  services  of  a  land  agent  to  obtain  her  northeastern 
Wyoming  homestead.  She  worked  for  the  Federal  Reserve 
Bank  in  Chicago  and  had  become  intrigued  when  a  man 
told  her  about  homesteading.  She  paid  $100  for  the  relin- 
quishment and  about  $25  for  her  filing  fees,  the  usual  for 
homesteading.  By  using  the  services  of  a  land  agent,  Smith 
paid  an  additional  cost  of  $100  for  the  locating  fee.36 
Another  example  of  a  woman  using  a  land  agent  is  Ellen 
R.  Lathan.  Lathan  had  John  D.  Simpson  assign  her  a 
homestead.  He  allotted  her  the  Southeast  quarter  of 
Southwest  quarter  of  Section  7,  in  Township  18,  North  of 
Range  70,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in  Wyoming, 
containing  40  acres.  (See  Appendix  A)  On  another  occa- 
sion, Emma  Peterson,  in  1919,  read  about  an  oil  boom  at 
Newcastle,  where  land  was  also  available  for  homestead- 
ing, but  she  could  not  afford  the  locating  fee.37  Unfor- 


c#  mdk 


cow   ms.an 


t  Guttt 


the.   ta.HU   to   tfi 


Li.   woman. 


tunately,  some  homesteaders  often  painted  a  rosy  picture 
to  entice  others  to  the  West.  Those  who  responded  soon 
became  a  part  of  a  kind  of  conspiracy  and  practiced  the 
same  tactics  on  other  friends  and  relatives.38  As  previously 
noted,  Fredericka  Deike  was  one  example. 

The  government  allowed  six  months  from  filing  date 
to  establishment  of  residence.  This  provision  allowed 
homesteaders  to  return  home  to  prepare  necessary  ar- 
rangements. Florence  Blake  Smith  took  advantage  of  this 
opportunity  and  returned  home  to  her  banking  job  in 
Chicago  until  the  time  came  for  her  to  leave  for  Wyoming. 
Upon  her  return,  her  co-workers  "hailed"  her  "as  a 
heroine,  an  adventuress,  a  land-oumer."39  The  small  town 
Smith  picked  did  not  look  far  on  a  map  from  Chicago,  but 
actually  she  traveled  1400  miles  west,  a  journey  of  over  two 
and  a  half  days  by  train.  Good  friends  stopped  by  fre- 
quently to  bring  her  something  to  wear  out  on  the  prairie. 
The  items  included  riding  boots,  a  pair  of  heavy  breeches, 
a  pair  of  rubber  boots,  a  slicker  and  heavy  woolen  pajamas. 
Smith's  mother  furnished  her  with  two  yellow  plates,  cups 
and  saucers  to  match  and  a  pale  blue-checked  tablecloth. 
Smith  took  a  little  solid-walnut  kitchen  table,  a  sanitarv 
cot,  two  stout  kitchen  chairs,  a  small  low  rocker  and  a 
regulation  sheep  wagon  stove.  These  constituted  her 
housegoods.  She  used  her  bread  can  and  the  wooden 
boxes  in  which  she  had  shipped  her  canned  goods  for  ex- 
tra stools  if  needed.  Along  with  the  furniture,  she  brought 


43 


dvlns.   bu   tujslus.   js.£-t   ■    ■    ■ 


dainty  dotted  Swiss  curtains,  plus  a  few  pictures  from  her 
old  room  back  in  Chicago.40  Smith  used  a  portable  garage 
as  her  new  home,  which  measured, 

nine  by  twelve  feet  ...  It  was  just  the  size  of  our  living  room  rug 
at  home,  and  many's  the  night  I  spent  moving  the  furniture  inside 
of  it,  to  acquaint  myself  with  the  size  of  my  humble  "Shack"  to  be, 
in  the  West.  It  could  be  easily  assembled  by  a  woman.  Or  so  I  was 
told  by  the  affable  man  who  sold  it  to  me.  A  generous  number  of 
nuts,  bolts,  and  screws  had  been  included  to  prove  his  points  and 
to  provide  complications  for  "putter-upper."41 

Some  women  homesteaders,  however,  did  not  have 
the  help  of  relatives  and  friends.  A  destitute  widow  on  the 
Platte  River,  Mrs.  Townsend,  took  out  a  claim  and  as  most 
newcomers,  could  not  afford  to  bring  lumber  from  the 
mountains  for  a  dwelling.  She  did  not  have  the  strength  to 
cut  or  lift  the  three-foot-long  sod  "bricks"  to  build  a  soddy, 
as  most  of  the  homecomers  did.  But  she  dug  dirt  out  of 
a  sand  hill  bluff,  about  eight  to  ten  feet  high,  and  cleared 
a  tiny  six-by-eight  foot  room.  She  wedged  poles  across  the 
top  to  make  a  roof  that  slanted  down  over  the  front  of  the 
dugout,  and  she  built  a  front  wall  and  door  with  scraps 
of  wood  and  junk.  Grass  and  dirt  piled  on  top  kept  out 
the  worst  weather,  but  rain  always  leaked  into  the  little 
shelter,  and  dirt  constantly  sifted  down.  Perhaps  that  did 
not  matter,  since  the  floor  and  walls  were  also  dirt.  In  that 
hole  in  the  ground,  she  lived  like  a  human  prairie  dog.42 

44 


A  woman  usually  had  the  help  of  others  when  time 
came  to  build  her  house,  harvest  her  crops  or  any  other 
heavy  outdoor  chores.  Usually  women  hired  men  to  do 
the  harder  jobs,  as  did  Florence  Blake  Smith.  In  order  to 
make  improvements  Smith  "hired  a  man  to  plow  and  seed 
forty  acres  of  wheat."43  Mary  Culbertson  and  Helen 
Coburn  Howell,  also  "employed  a  man  and  his  son  to  do 
the  heavy  work— the  fence-making,  farming,  and  outside 
chores."44  Culbertson  and  Howell  shared  the  housework, 
cooked,  ate  together  and  regarded  their  life  on  their 
homesteads  as  a  high  adventure,  but  as  they  stated,  "We 
took  our  work  seriously  .  .  .  however  .  .  .  we  were  far 
from  idle  ourselves."45 

Surviving  on  a  homestead  seemed  like  a  costly  en- 
deavor for  most  single  women.  Food  prices  skyrocketed 
in  the  West  where  the  coffee  was  65  cents  per  pound,  but- 
ter 80  cents,  ham  60  cents,  sugar  17  cents,  flour  $3.75  for 
a  25-pound  sack,  eggs  45  cents  a  dozen  and  milk  15  cents 
a  quart.46  Consequently,  in  the  rural  West,  women  held 
jobs  as  teachers,  doctors  and  midwives,  laborers  and  any 
other  work  they  could  do  to  raise  money.  The  teaching  pro- 
fession promised  the  most  to  a  young  single  woman  who 
came  west.  Inspired  by  Catherine  Beecher,  a  pioneer 
teacher,  writer  on  moral  religious  topics  and  an  avid 
speaker  for  women's  education,  many  young  women  in 
the  East  went  to  the  agricultural  frontier  as  teachers.  Such 
an  occupation  also  fell  well  within  the  confines  of  ap- 
propriate female  behavior.  The  female  teacher,  Beecher 


noted,  can  "discern  before  her  the  road  to  honorable  in- 
dependence and  extensive  usefulness  where  she  need  not 
outstep  the  prescribed  boundaries  of  feminine  modesty."47 
Many  took  the  opportunity  teaching  gave  them  to  earn  ex- 
tra money.  Helen  Coburn  Howell,  of  Worland,  taught  as 
did  other  homesteaders  Hazle  J.  Pence,  Minnie  Hidy, 
Bessie  Fox  and  Blanche  Lyons.48  On  the  other  hand,  Dr. 
Bessie  Fell,  from  Carpenter,  supplemented  her  income  as 
a  physician  in  order  to  live  on  her  homestead.  She  in- 
herited a  medical  territory  covering  more  than  a  30  mile 
radius.  People  often  saw  her  in  her  horse  and  buggy  out 
on  call  at  all  hours  of  the  day.49  If  a  doctor  could  not  be 
found,  however,  homesteaders  found  themselves  doing 
tasks  originally  intended  for  doctors.  Elmore  Pruitt  Stewart 
had  to  nurse  her  own  newborn  baby,  Jamie,  when  he  be- 
came ill  "as  there  had  been  no  physician  to  help."50 

Women  took  on  any  other  jobs  that  became  available 
to  them.  Housekeeping  helped  many  women  to  live 
another  year  on  their  homestead.  Edna  Norris  Eaton  took 
advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  housekeep.  Following  her 
husband's  death  she  sold  their  ranch  and  filed  on  a  home- 
stead near  Recluse.  A  son  lived  on  this  homestead  with 
her  for  a  few  months,  helping  to  build  her  log  cabin  and 
make  other  improvements,  before  marrying  and  going  to 
Sundance  to  live.  Alone  on  the  homestead,  Eaton  found 
employment  for  several  years  as  housekeeper  for  Judge 
and  Mrs.  Raymond  of  Newcastle.51  Additional  acceptable 
occupations  women  could  pursue  in  order  to  raise  money 


to  help  them  make  improvements  on  their  land  included 
sewing,  cooking,  laundry  and  other  domestic  work.  Dur- 
ing the  time  each  year  that  Hattie  A.  Olsen  of  Albin  could 
legally  be  absent  from  her  homestead,  she  found  employ- 
ment at  St.  John's  Hospital  in  Cheyenne.  An  excellent 
seamstress,  she  sewed  for  women  and  children  of  the 
Albin  community.52  Florence  Blake  Smith  realized  she 
would  be  needing  money  to  tide  her  over  while  she  made 
improvements  on  her  property.  Hence,  she  kept  her  bank 
job  in  Chicago,  but  took  a  seven  month  leave  each  year. 
Every  spring,  after  taking  the  train  back  to  Wyoming, 
Smith  would  look  for  temporary  jobs  until  the  weather  per- 
mitted her  to  return  to  her  homestead.  She  found  work 
in  a  restaurant  making  "eight  dollars  in  salary  and  five 
dollars  in  tips"  per  week.53  At  this  time,  her  temporary 
job  provided  an  adequate  extra  income.  Later,  when  of- 
fered a  job  as  a  stenographer  with  a  local  attorney,  Smith 
felt  that,  "good  fortune  was  mine."54  In  this  position,  she 
earned  $25  a  week.55  On  the  whole,  women  applied  their 
abilities  in  many  diverse  ways  in  order  to  make  extra 
money.  This  need  for  supplemental  support  was  only  one 
of  the  many  problems  in  homesteading  the  free  land. 


-Js.ach.inq  ichool  u/ai  within  ths  confine.!  of  ah.hxo piiatz 
fs.ma.ls.  bsnauiox  ana  offsxsa.  a  luhfiLsmsntat  incoms  to 
vuomsn   nomsitsaasxi. 


4^ 


Life  on  the  homestead  was  hard  and  lonely,  even  for 
the  most  determined  idealistic  individual.  Dr.  Bessie  Fell 
emphasized,  "In  a  new  country  getting  established  was 
not  only  a  hard  and  continuous  battle  against  cold,  hunger, 
fire,  and  other  physical  hardships,  but  an  even  more  dif- 
ficult struggle  against  discouragement,  frustrations,  and 
gloom."56  One  had  to  be  a  druggist,  postmistress,  cook, 
mother  and  a  doctor.  One  had  to  be  imaginative  and  crea- 
tive. When  Dr.  Fell's  house  was  too  drafty,  she  filled  up 
the  walls  with  rocks  in  order  to  insulate  the  house  from 
Wyoming  winds.  Dr.  Fell  contended: 
All  pioneers  are  idealists  and  enthusiasts.  If  they  were  not,  they  would 
never  had  the  urge  or  the  courage  to  leave  the  old,  established 
homelands  and  risk  their  fortune  in  a  new,  uncharted  world.  Event- 
ually, of  course,  all  such  idealistic  dreams  are  idealized.  But  it  is  not 
as  easy  or  as  glamorous  as  the  story  books  about  the  westward  trek 
of  the  covered  wagons  often  pictured  it.  It  is  a  slow  process  and  a 
hard  day-to-day  struggle  and  only  the  strongest  are  able  to  survive.57 

This  philosophy  of  life  held  true  for  all  people  settling 
on  the  prairies.  One  very  good  example  of  life  on  the 
prairies  is  Elinore  Pruitt,  who  filed  on  her  claim  by  the  use 
of  the  amended  Homestead  Act.  She  had  240  acres  of  land 
adjoining  her  future  husband's  ranch.  Still,  she  would  not 
have  married  Clyde  Stewart  if  he  had  not  promised  she 
could  meet  all  her  "land  difficulties  unaided,"  for  she 
"wanted  the  fun  and  the  experiences."58  The  house  that 
Stewart's  hired  men  built  for  her  adjoined  his  ranch  house. 
Stewart  mowed  hay  with  a  team  of  horses  and  grew  large 

46 


C7~foms.ite.aa.ing    uja±   a   itruggLs   againit   dii.couxags.ms.nt, 
fzuitzationi   and  gloom. 


crops  of  potatoes  and  various  root  vegetables.  He  even  ex- 
perimented successfully  with  beans  and  tomatoes.  She 
made  preserves,  butter,  milked  the  cows,  raised  chickens, 
turkeys  and  children.   "When  I  read  of  the  hard  times 
among  the  Denver  poor,"  she  wrote  her  friend: 
I  feel  like  urging  them  every  one  to  get  out  and  file  on  land.  To  me, 
homesteading  is  a  solution  of  all  poverty's  problems,  but  I  realize 
that  temperament  has  much  to  do  with  success  in  any  undertaking, 
and  persons  afraid  of  coyotes  and  work  and  loneliness  had  better  let 
ranching  alone.  At  the  same  time,  any  woman  who  can  stand  her  own 
company,  can  see  the  beauty  of  the  sunset,  loves  growing  things, 
and  is  willing  to  put  in  as  much  time  as  careful  labor  as  she  does 
over  her  washtubs,  will  certainly  succeed;  will  have  independence, 
plenty  to  eat  all  the  time,  and  have  a  home  of  her  own  in  the  end.59 

Homesteaders  soon  realized  that  life  on  the  open 
prairies  was  a  gamble,  with  the  odds  against  success.  They 
frequently  fought  weather,  insects,  wild  animals,  loneli- 
ness, fear,  disease  and  new  unfamiliar  terrain.  Dr.  Bessie 
Fell  was  exposed  frequently  and  dangerously  to  the  rigors 
of  prairie  weather  and  to  the  hazards  of  night  driving  in 
an  open  buggy  or  horseback  over  uncharted  wilderness. 
These  great  physical  hardships  included  long  and  hazar- 
dous trips  during  rainstorms  and  blizzards.60 

Florence  Blake  Smith  hired  a  man  to  plant  her  wheat. 
According  to  her,  "He  must  have  planted  bird  seed.  The 


minute  the  green  stuff  showed  half  an  inch  above  the 
ground,  the  ground  was  black  with  birds,  and  the  green 
stuff  soon  got  discouraged  and  gave  up."61  Her  first  crop 
never  saw  harvest,  because  "it  was  a  dry  summer,"  and 
the  birds  ate  what  little  came  up.62  Hazle  J.  Pence  solved 
her  problem  concerning  water  by  filing  on  640  acres  of  graz- 
ing land  28  miles  north  of  Cheyenne.  She  located  her 
homesite  beside  a  spring  of  crystal  clear  water  which  was 
adequate  for  household  use.63 

The  hardest  part  of  homesteading  for  women  came 
when  their  fears  became  truths.  They  did  face,  indeed, 
some  very  real  dangers.  On  the  prairies  of  Wyoming  they 
confronted  snakes.  Mary  Culbertson  and  Helen  Coburn 
Howell  heard  of  a  snake  crawling  through  the  floor  boards 
of  a  hotel  in  Worland.  "With  visions  of  snakes  crawling 
through  the  floor  onto  us,  we  changed  our  sleeping  ar- 
rangements, and  there  after  Helen  slept  on  the  office  table, 
and  I  slept  for  two  miserable,  uncomfortable  weeks  on  two 
trunks."64  Florence  Blake  Smith  had  an  encounter  with  a 
rattlesnake, 

I  heard  that  terrifying  buzzzzzz  that  warns  you  of  a  rattlesnake.  Where 
he  was  and  in  which  direction,  I  had  no  idea,  since  he  remained 
perfectly  still  after  that  first  warning  .  .  .  usually  if  it  is  the  last  thing 
you  do,  ethics  demand  you  kill  a  rattler,  either  by  shooting  it  or  with 
rocks.65 

Fredericka  Deike  accompanied  her  children  one  and  three- 
fourths  miles  across  the  prairie  every  morning  to  the  hill 
south  of  their  neighbors  so  they  could  attend  school.66  She 
did  this  every  morning  and  afternoon  and  always  carried 
a  revolver  with  her,  as  she  was  afraid  of  coyotes  and 
snakes.67 

Women  had  many  other  fears.  In  1885,  Elizabeth  Gor- 
den  at  the  age  of  28  fulfilled  a  lifetime  dream  when  she 
homesteaded  in  northeastern  Colorado  near  the  Wyoming 
border.  Every  night  she  would  wedge  her  large  Saratoga 
trunk  between  her  bed  and  the  door  of  her  house  to  keep 
intruders  out  and  to  give  herself  a  feeling  of  security.68 
Gorden  never  lit  her  lamps  at  night  because  she  was  afraid 
of  strangers  after  dark.  She  also,  "...  had  a  pistol  which 
the  men  in  the  family  taught  her  how  to  use."69  Women 
contended  with  emergencies  sometimes  beyond  their  own 
expectations.  Mary  Culbertson  and  Helen  Coburn  Howell 
arrived  in  Worland  for  the  first  time  and  found  typhoid 
fever  raging  in  the  town.  They  considered  taking  the  next 
stage  home,  but  were  asked  to  give  their  services  to  the 
sick  as  nurses.  They  protested  they  knew  nothing  of  nur- 
sing, but  agreed  to  help.  Culbertson  and  Howell  got  along 
very  well.  There  were  about  fifteen  to  twenty  patients  with 
the  fever,  housed  in  an  improvised  hospital  in  an  old  log 
building.  Curtains  were  put  up  for  partitions  to  provide 
a  semblance  of  privacy.  The  nearest  doctor  was  at  Hyatt- 
ville,  about  45  miles  away.70 

As  did  most  homesteaders,  Ida  Watkins  dealt  with  her 
fears.  Just  across  the  border  of  Wyoming  in  Merino,  Col- 
orado, Watkins  worked  on  a  ranch  twelve  miles  round  trip 
from  her  homestead.  She  made  the  trip  both  ways  almost 


every  day,  as  homestead  legislation  required  the  prospec- 
tive landowner  actually  live  on  the  claim.  Watkins  had  a 
great  fear  of  horses,  and  hers  terrified  her.  Her  trips  back 
and  forth  to  and  from  her  job  became  a  private  hell.  If  she 
arrived  safely  each  night,  her  relief  was  short,  for  as 
darkness  settled,  she  listened  to  the  howls  of  the  prairie, 
and  imagined  many  an  attack.  She  awoke  the  next  morn- 
ing only  to  ride  her  despised  horse  to  work.  Watkins,  like 
most  other  homesteaders,  learned  to  compensate.  She  be- 
came such  a  good  rider  that  she  won  a  silk  dress  in  a  pony 
race  at  a  Fourth  of  July  celebration.71 

To  break  up  the  long  periods  of  very  real  fear  and 
loneliness,  social  gatherings  occurred  frequently.  Accord- 
ing to  Mary  Culbertson,  "one  of  the  favorite  forms  of 
recreation  then,  and  now,  was  dancing.  Every  special  oc- 
casion was  celebrated  in  this  way."72  Usually  each  time 
a  new  home  or  building  had  been  completed  the  local 
homesteaders  celebrated  and  initiated  the  new  building  by 
having  a  dance  within  the  new  walls.  According  to  Culbert- 
son, dances  could  be  held  at  any  time.  The  news  was  dis- 
patched around  the  countryside  and  everyone  for  miles 
around  would  be  there.73  As  the  towns  became  more  set- 
tled, dances  moved  to  one  room  schools,  so  small  that 
onlookers  had  to  stand  outside,  peering  in  the  doors  and 
windows.74  Usually  a  pot-luck  dinner  allowed  the  dancers 
to  take  an  intermission.  Women  were  all  expected  to  bring 
a  pie  to  the  dances,  as  an  "entrance  fee,"  for  the  evening.75 
As  the  dancers  left  for  home,  most  would  catch  a  nap  on 
the  way.  Sarah  Barbara  Claypool,  who  grew  up  on  the 
Wyoming  border,  stated  they  would  settle  their  wagons  into 
the  ruts  of  the  prairie  roads  and  then,  recalled  they  would 
"lean  back  and  rest  or  even  go  to  sleep;  the  horse  would 
follow  the  trail  home."76 

Many  people  entertained  themselves  in  their  own 
homes  by  forming  clubs,  reading  or  playing  a  musical  in- 
strument at  their  own  leisure.  Bertha  Davis  came  to  Wyo- 
ming in  September,  1908,  settling  twelve  miles  north  of 
Hillsdale.  Her  two  room  cabin  had  been  constructed  by 
Curt  Ellenberger,  who  had  a  claim  a  short  distance  to  the 
south.  During  the  latter  part  of  September,  Florence  and 
Milicent  Davis  came  out  to  live  on  their  homestead.  Each 
woman  slept  and  cooked  in  her  own  one  room  cabin  built 
in  her  corner  section  adjacent  to  the  other  woman.  Due 
to  their  close  proximity,  the  women  enjoyed  the  frequent 
company  and  conversation  with  the  local  cowboys.  Grad- 
ually, the  area  in  which  these  women  lived  had  been 
named  Calico  Hill  by  the  cowboys  because  of  the  calico 
cloth  worn  by  the  women.  Since  the  friends  lived  close  to 
each  other,  gatherings  occurred  often.  In  1909,  the  women 
formed  a  club  named  the  Jolly  Dry  Farmers,  a  home- 
maker's  club,  which  is  still  in  existence. 

By  the  time  women  proved  up  they  had  lived  through 
a  vast  number  of  experiences.  Understandably,  some 
women  took  longer  to  prove  their  claims  than  others.  This 
depended  upon  their  circumstances.  Susan  J.  McLauchlin 
took  out  her  homestead  claim  on  March  18,  1890,  but  did 


4" 


not  receive  her  certificate  until  June  17,  1908.  (See  Appen- 
dix A)  According  to  the  land  records,  McLauchlin  needed 
eighteen  years  in  which  to  fulfill  the  time  she  was  required 
to  live  on  her  homestead.  On  the  other  hand,  some  women 
took  advantage  of  the  clause  in  the  Homestead  Act  allow- 
ing the  homesteaders  to  pay  a  minimum  price  for  the  land. 
One  such  woman,  Emma  Dudley  of  Laramie  County,  took 
out  her  homestead  claim  on  October  26,  1908.  After  pay- 
ing a  fee,  she  received  her  certificate  on  November  24,  1908, 
a  total  of  30  days.  (See  Appendix  A)  Apparently,  Dudley 
was  more  affluent  than  McLauchlin. 

The  majority  of  women  homesteaders  who  settled  in 
Wyoming  remained  unmarried,  according  to  the  county 
land  records  of  Crook,  Laramie,  Natrona  and  Sweetwater 
counties  from  March  26,  1888,  to  March  12,  1943.  Of  the 
homesteaders,  68.9  percent  remained  unmarried.  These 
women  homesteaders  clearly  did  not  view  homesteading 
as  a  means  of  obtaining  the  land  as  a  dowry  in  order  to 
meet  a  husband.  Of  the  68.9  percent,  5.9  percent  died  in 
the  attempt  of  homesteading  land.  Once  a  claim  had  been 
taken  out  29.1  percent  married.  Only  approximately  two 
percent  of  single  women  homesteaders  were  widows  who 
must  have  viewed  homesteading  as  a  means  of  starting 
their  own  life  over  with  a  fresh  start.  (See  Appendix  B, 
Table  II) 

In  Laramie  County,  21  women  homesteaded  land  be- 
tween March  18,  1890,  and  January  2,  1908.  Of  these 
women,  ten  sold  their  claims  after  receiving  certificates  of 
ownership.  One-third  of  these  women  who  sold  were  un- 
married. Two  transferred  their  homestead  land  deeds  to 
their  husbands,  interestingly,  one  married  woman  sold  her 
land,  but  not  to  her  husband.  (See  Appendix  B,  Table  III) 

The  other  eleven  women  kept  their  land.  Of  these 
women,  38.1  percent  were  unmarried,  while  9.5  percent 
were  married.  Out  of  21  women,  there  was  only  one 
widow  and  she  kept  her  land.  These  statistics  clearly  show 
a  majority  of  these  women  were  unmarried.  (See  Appen- 
dices A  and  B,  Table  III) 

In  conclusion,  the  Homestead  Act  did  not  discriminate 
against  male  or  female  applicants  between  1888  and  1943. 
Of  the  6,527  homestead  patents  issued  in  Crook,  Johnson, 
Laramie,  Lincoln,  Natrona  and  Sweetwater  counties  (See 
Appendix  B,  Table  I)  nearly  twelve  percent  were  single 
women  homesteaders.  (See  Appendix  B,  Table  II)  This 
clearly  proves  that  single  women  took  advantage  of  their 
right  to  homestead  in  the  state  of  Wyoming.  Homestead- 
ing, a  non-glamorous  aspect  of  life,  offered  a  peculiar 
challenge  to  women.  As  mentioned  previously,  women's 
motives  for  homesteading  were  as  varied  as  the  individual 
backgrounds.  They  sought  adventure  and  fun,  a  husband, 
perhaps  financial  security,  independence  and  equal  rights. 
Many  pursued  an  alternative  to  the  reduced  opportunities 
of  the  more  settled  regions.  Homesteading  land  required 
ingenious  thinking.  The  adventurous  had  to  locate  infor- 
mation on  available  land,  apply  for  a  homestead,  pack  and 

48 


prepare  for  the  move.  Then  they  met  filing  and  relinquish- 
ment fees,  built  a  homesite,  maintained  economic  standing 
and  made  a  living  on  the  land  to  prove  up  and  receive  a 
certificate  and  deed.  Women  soon  realized  that  life  on  the 
open  prairie  was  a  gamble. 

The  Homestead  Act,  indeed,  was  one  of  the  great 
democratic  measures  of  world  history,  in  that  it  allowed 
women  the  right  to  own  land  by  homesteading.  The 
women  who  attempted  a  claim  were  inventive,  hardwork- 
ing, courageous  and  determined  to  obtain  and  fulfill  the 
requirements  of  a  homestead.  Overall,  these  single  women 
homesteaders  proved  to  be  just  that.  The  legacy  these 
homesteaders  left  can  be  seen  in  the  names  of  their  descen- 
dants who  live  in  southern  Wyoming.  The  characteristics 
that  made  these  women  can,  also,  be  seen  in  their  con- 
temporary relatives.78 


1.  John  Mack  Faragher,  Women  and  Men  on  the  Overland  Trail  (New 
Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1979);  Robert  T.  Hine,  The  American 
West:  An  Interpretive  History  (Boston:  Little,  Brown,  and  Company, 
1973);  T.  A.  Larson,  History  of  Wyoming  (Lincoln:  University  of 
Nebraska  Press,  1978);  Sandra  L.  Myres,  Westering  Women  and  the  Fron- 
tier Experience  1800-1915  (Albuquerque:  University  of  New  Mexico 
Press,  1982). 

2.  United  States  Congress,  Homestead  Act,  Ch.  75,  12,  Stat.  392  (1862), 
p.  1.  Historical  Research  and  Publications  Division,  Wyoming  State 
Archives,  Museums  &  Historical  Department,  Cheyenne,  Wyoming 
(WSAMHD). 

3.  Laramie  County  Clerk  Homestead  Certificate  Records,  Certificate 
number  904,  application  number  2491,  Agnes  M.  Teusdale,  Archives 
Division,  WSAMHD. 
Homestead  Act,  p.  1. 
Ibid. 
Ibid. 

Hine,  The  American  West,  p.  160. 
Larson,  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  174. 

United  States  Congress,  Timber  Culture  Act,  Ch.  277,  17,  Stat.  605 
(1873);  Larson,  History  of  Wyoming,  p.  174. 

Elizabeth  J.  Thorpe,  "A  Woman  Alone  Stakes  a  Claim,"  In  Wyoming, 
The  Spirit  of  America:  A  Bicentennial  Intervierv  with  Wyoming  People  (June- 
July,  1976). 

Peggy  Kirkbride,  From  These  Roots  (Cheyenne:  Pioneer  Printing  Co., 
1972),  p.  121. 

12.  United  States  Congress,  Desert  Land  Act,  43,  U.S.C.  Sec.  321-323 
(1976);  Lynette  Wert,  "The  Lady  Stakes  a  Claim,"  Persimmon  Hill, 
Vol.  6,  No.  2,  1976. 

13.  Florence  Blake  Smith,  Cow  Chips  V  Cactus:  The  Homestead  in  Wyo- 
ming (New  York:  Pageant  Press,  1962),  pp.  13,  24. 

14.  Mary  Culbertson,  "Experiences  in  Wyoming  of  Miss  Mary  Culbert- 
son,"  Historical  Data  collected  by  Lottie  Holmberg,  Works  Progress 
Administration  (WPA)  folder  699,  WSAMHD;  Helen  Howell,  "Mrs. 
Ashby  Howell:  Pioneer  Worland  Women  and  Humorous  Stories  of 
Her  First  Years  in  Wyoming  as  School  Teacher  and  Lady  Home- 
steader," WPA  folder  798,  WSAMHD. 

15.  United  States  Congress,  Carey  Act,  Sec.  4,  43,  U.S.C,  Sec.  641  (1976). 

16.  T.  A.  Larson,  Wyoming:  A  History  (New  York:  W.  W.  Norton  and  Com- 
pany, Inc.,  1977),  p.  118. 

17.  Laramie  County  Clerk  Records,  Book  95,  Homestead  Certificate  from 
March  25,  1896,  to  February  16,  1917,  pp.  1-642.  For  a  woman  alone, 
160  acres  was  quite  a  bit  of  land  with  which  to  cope. 


10 


11 


18.  Myres,  Westering  Women,  p.  258. 

19.  Elinore  Pruitt  Stewart,  Letters  of  a  Woman  Homesteader  (New  York: 
Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  1914);  Smith,  Cow  Chips  '«'  Cactus; 
Thorpe,  "A  Woman  Alone  Stakes  a  Claim,"  In  Wyoming,  pp.  26-29. 

20.  Howell,  WPA  folder  798,  WSAMHD. 

21.  Robert  P.  Porter,  The  West:  From  the  Census  of  1880  (Chicago:  Rand, 
McNally,  and  Company,  1982),  pp.  38-80. 

22.  Luella  Moyer,  "Mrs.  Luella  Moyer,  Campbell  County  Pioneer,"  In- 
terviewer Glendys  Wilkenson,  WPA  folder  906,  p.  1,  WSAMHD. 

23.  Myres,  Westering  Women,  p.  258. 

24.  Kirkbride,  From  These  Roots,  p.  121. 

25.  Alfred  Rehwinkle,  Dr.  Bessie  (St.  Louis:  Concordia  Publishing  House, 
1963),  p.  57. 

26.  Thorpe,  "A  Woman  Alone  Stakes  a  Claim,"  In  Wyoming,  p.  27. 

27.  Ibid. 

28.  Sheryll  Patterson-Black,  "Women  Homesteaders  on  the  Great  Plains 
Frontier,"  Westering  Women:  In  History  and  Literature  (Cottonwood 
Press,  1978),  p.  11. 

29.  Charley  O'Kieffe,  Western  Story:  The  Recollections  of  Charley  O'Kieffe, 
1884-1898  (Lincoln:  University  of  Nebraska  Press,  1960),  p.  7. 

30.  Patterson-Black,  "Women  Homesteaders  on  the  Great  Plains  Fron- 
tier," Westering  Women,  p.  11. 

31.  Nell  Brown  Propst,  Those  Strenuous  Dames  of  the  Colorado  Prairie 
(Boulder:  Pruett  Publishing  Company,  1982),  pp.  8-9. 

32.  Stewart,  Letters  of  a  Woman  Homesteader,  pp.  v,  11,  226. 

33.  Ibid.,  pp.  226-227. 

34.  Ibid.,  Smith,  Cow  Chips  V  Cactus;  Thorpe,  "A  Woman  Alone  Stakes 
a  Claim,"  In  Wyoming;  Propst,  Those  Strenuous  Dames,  pp.  5-23;  Jolly 
Dry  Farmers,  Calico  Hill:  Recalling  the  Early  Years,  Good  Times  and  Hard- 
ships of  Homesteaders  (Cheyenne:  Pioneer  Printing  Company,  1973), 
p.  23. 

35.  Smith,  Cow  Chips  'n'  Cactus,  p.  2. 

36.  Ibid.,  p.  13. 

37.  Thorpe,  "A  Woman  Alone  Stakes  a  Claim,"  In  Wyoming,  p.  27. 

38.  Propst,  Those  Strenuous  Dames,  pp.  8,  23. 

39.  Smith,  Cow  Chips  'n'  Cactus,  pp.  3,  13. 

40.  Ibid. 

41.  Ibid.,  pp.  2,  18. 

42.  Propst,  Those  Strenuous  Dames,  p.  17. 

43.  Smith,  Cow  Chips  'n'  Cactus,  p.  31. 

44.  Culbertson,  WPA  folder  699;  Howell,  WPA  folder  798,  WSAMHD. 


45.  Ibid. 

46.  Smith,  Cow  Chips  'n'  Cactus,  p.  28. 

47.  Kathryn  Kish  Sklar,  Catherine  Beecher:  A  Study  in  American  Domesticity 
(New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1973),  p.  97. 

48.  Kirkbride,   From  These  Roots,   p.   121;   Howell,   WPA  folder  798, 
WSAMHD. 

49.  Rehwinkel,  Dr.  Bessie,  p.  74. 

50.  Stewart,  Letters  of  a  Woman  Homesteader,  p.  190. 

51.  Edna  Norris,   "A  Courageous  Homesteader,"  WPA  folder  692, 
WSAMHD. 

52.  Myres,  Westering  Women,  p.  259;  Kirkbride,  From  These  Roots,  p.  131. 

53.  Smith,  Cow  Chips  'n'  Cactus,  p.  20. 

54.  Ibid.,  p.  21. 

55.  Ibid. 

56.  Rehwinkel,  Dr.  Bessie,  p.  69. 

57.  Ibid.,  p.  57. 

58.  Stewart,  Letters  of  a  Woman  Homesteader,  pp.  77,  79. 

59.  Ibid.,  pp.  16-27,  215,  280-281. 

60.  Rehwinkel,  Dr.  Bessie,  pp.  73-74. 

61.  Smith,  Cow  Chips  'n'  Cactus,  p.  31. 

62.  Ibid. 
Kirkbride,  From  These  Roots,  p.  131. 
Culbertson,  WPA  folder  699,  p.  2,  WSAMHD. 
Smith,  Cow  Chips  'n'  Cactus,  p.  106. 
Ibid. 

67.  Jolly  Dry  Farmers,  Calico  Hill,  p.  23. 

68.  Propst,  Those  Strenuous  Dames,  p.  43. 

69.  Ibid. 

70.  Culbertson,  WPA  folder  699,  p.  3,  WSAMHD. 

71.  Propst,  Those  Strenuous  Dames,  p.  8. 

72.  Culbertson,  WPA  folder  699,  p.  9,  WSAMHD. 

73.  Ibid. 

74.  Propst,  Those  Strenuous  Dames,  p.  7. 

75.  Smith,  Cow  Chips  'n'  Cactus,  p.  28. 

76.  Propst,  Those  Strenuous  Dames,  p.  7. 

77.  Jolly  Dry  Farmers,  Calico  Hill,  pp.  121-122;  Kirkbride,  From  These  Roots, 
p.  21. 

78.  Teresa  Jordan,  Cowgirls  (Garden  City,  New  York:  Doubleday  and 
Company,  Inc.,  1982). 


49 


APPENDIX  A 


County  Clerk  Records:  Book  95  p.  30 

Lucy  B.  Thomas 

Homestead  Patent:  February  8,  1892         Application  No.  1078 

Homestead  Certificate:  March  7,  1898         Certificate  No.    572 

Land  Description:  Lots  numbered  one  and  two,  and  the  East 

half  of  the  Northwest  quarter  of  Section  18,  in  Township 

14,  North  of  Range  61,  West  of  the  Sixth  Principal  Meridian, 
in  Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and  fifty-two  acres,  and 
twenty-four  hundreds  of  an  acre. 

Lucy  Thomas  married  and  sold  her  homestead  to  John  C. 
Gilland,  January  31,  1898,  for  $50.00. 

p.  31 
Ida  A.  Gilland,  formerly  Ida  A.  Thomas 

Homestead  Patent:  February  8,  1892  Application  No.  723 

Homestead  Certificate:  March  7,  1898  Certificate  No.  571 

Land  Description:  South  half  of  the  Southeastern  quarter,  and 
the  South  half  of  the  Southwest  quarter  of  Section  12,  in 
Township  14,  North  of  Range  62,  West  of  the  Sixth  Principal 
Meridian,  in  Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres. 

Ida  Gilland  kept  her  homestead  for  many  years. 

p.  79 
Jessie  Sinclair,  widow  of  Archibald  Sinclair,  Deceased 
Homestead  Patent:  February  7,  1895         Application  No.  2401 
Homestead  Certificate:  January  23,  1900     Certificate  No.    839 
Land  Description:  North  half  of  Northeast  quarter,  and  the  North- 
east quarter  of  the  Northwest  quarter  of  Section  6,   in 
Township  17,  North  of  Range  70,  West  of  the  Sixth  forty-one 
acres,  and  twenty-two  hundreds  of  an  acre. 

Jesse  Sinclair  kept  her  homestead  for  many  years. 

p.  87 
Elizabeth  Griffin 

Homestead  Patent:  April  27,  1898  Application  No.  2830 

Homestead  Certificate:  May  31,  1900  Certificate  No.  1065 

Land  Description:  North  half  of  Northeast  quarter  of  Section 
23,  and  the  West  half  of  the  Northwest  quarter  of  Section  24, 
in  Township  19,  North  of  Range  65,  West  of  the  Sixth  Prin- 
cipal Meridian,  in  Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres. 

Elizabeth  Griffin  kept  her  homestead  for  many  years. 

p.  107 
Claricy  B.  Thomas,  formerly  Claricy  Bowen 
Homestead  Patent:  November  28,  1900    Application  No.  2665 
Homestead  Certificate:  Dec.  26,  1900  Certificate  No.  1220 

Land  Description:  Southwest  quarter  of  Section  32,  in  Township 

15,  North  of  Range  66,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian, 
in  Wyoming  containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Claricy  Thomas  kept  her  homestead  for  many  years. 

50 


p.  160 
Eleanor  B.  Baxter 

Homestead  Patent:  May  22,  1899  Application  No.  3488 

Homestead  Certificate:  January  9,  1902       Certificate  No.  1093 

Land  Description:  Lots  numbered  one,  two,  three,  and  four  of 

Section  22  in  Township  12,  north  of  Range  70,  West  of  Sixth 

Principal  Meridian  in  Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and 

sixty-four  acres,  and  fifty-eight  hundreds  of  an  acre. 

Eleanor  Baxter  sold  her  homestead  land  on  June  21,  1902, 
to  a  Mrs.  C.  H.  Gooding  for  $300. 

p.  186 
Lizzie  Kisening 

Homestead  Patent:  September  19,  1898    Application  No.  2873 
Homestead  Certificate:  April  19,  1902         Certificate  No.  1027 
Land  Description:  Northwest  quarter  of  Section  10  in  Township 
17,  North  of  Range  60,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian 
in  Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 
Lizzie  Kisening  did  not  sell  her  land,  but  kept  the  home- 
stead. 

p.  218 
Emma  M.  Dudley 

Homestead  Patent:  March  25,  1902  Application  No.  3187 

Homestead  Certificate:  Dec.  19,  1902  Certificate  No.  1404 

Land  Description:  Northwest  quarter  of  Northeast  quarter  of 

Section  28  in  Township  17,  North  of  Range  69,  West  of  the 

Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in  Wyoming,  containing  forty  acres. 

Emma  Dudley  sold  her  claim  to  Charles  A.  Dereemer  on 

Oct.  1,  1918. 

p.  219 
Ellen  R.  Lathan,  assigned  by  mesne  conveyance  of  John  D. 

Simpson 
Homestead  Patent:  September  26,  1902    Application  No.  4748 
Homestead  Certificate:  December  20,  1902  Certificate  No.  1418 
Land  Description:  Southeast  quarter  of  Southwest  quarter  of 
Section  7,  in  Township  18,  North  of  Range  70,  West  of  Sixth 
Principal  Meridian  in  Wyoming  containing  forty  acres. 
Ellen  Lathan  obtained  this  land  through  the  provisions 
made  for  Civil  War  veterans.  She  either  was  a  war 
veteran's  widow  or  bought  the  right  to  homestead  from 
a  veteran.  She  kept  her  homestead.  There  was  no  record 
of  her  selling. 

p.  259 
Lena  Paulson 

Homestead  Patent:  October  13,  1902        Application  No.  2734 

Homestead  Certificate:  July  11,  1903  Certificate  No.  1087 

Land  Description:  East  half  of  the  southeast  quarter  of  Section 

3,  and  the  North  half  of  Southwestern  quarter  of  Section  2, 


in  Township  17,  North  of  Range  68,  West  of  Sixth  Principal 
Meridian  in  Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres. 

Lena  Paulson  kept  her  claim  according  to  the  records. 

p.  260 
Minnie  E.  Chambers 

Homestead  Patent:  February  12,  1902       Application  No.  3219 
Homestead  Certificate:  July  11,  1903  Certificate  No.  1349 

Land  Description:  Lots  numbered  one,  two,  and  three,  South- 
east quarter  of  Northwest  quarter  of  Section  1  in  Township 
17,  North  of  Range  68,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in 
Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and  sixty-two  acres,  and 
seventy  hundreds  of  an  acre. 

Minnie  E.  Chambers  sold  her  claim  to  Lena  C.  Lukins 
on  Nov.  3,  1907. 

p.  299 
Mari  Christenson 

Homestead  Patent:  September  26,  1902    Application  No.  2847 

Homestead  Certificate:  May  7,  1904  Certificate  No.  1448 

Land  Description:  Southwest  quarter  of  Section  8  in  Township 

12,  North  of  Range  62,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in 

Wyoming. 

Mari  Christenson  kept  her  homestead  for  numerous  years 
after  receiving  her  certificate. 

p.  344 
Latitia  Kelsey 

Homestead  Patent:  July  8,  1895  Application  No.  2039 

Homestead  Certificate:  April  20,  1905  Certificate  No.  890 
Land  Description:  Northeast  quarter  of  Northwest  quarter,  and 
South  half  of  Northwest  quarter  of  Section  17,  and  Southeast 
quarter  of  Northeast  quarter  of  Section  18  in  Township  18, 
North  of  Range  61,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in  Wyo- 
ming, containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Latitia  Kelsey  sold  her  land  to  James  D.  Gilleland  on 
October  31,  1905,  for  $500. 

p.  346 
Heirs  of  Elinor  Thomas 

Homestead  Patent:  January  31,  1903         Application  No.  3898 
Homestead  Certificate:  May  3,  1905  Certificate  No.  1547 

Land  Description:  North  half  of  Southwest  quarter  of  Southeast 
quarter  of  Southwest  quarter  of  Southwest  quarter  of  North- 
west quarter  of  Section  32  in  Township  15,  North  of  Range 
62,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in  Wyoming  containing 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Elinor  Thomas  died  between  taking  out  a  Homestead 
Patent  and  receiving  her  Certificate.  Her  heirs  inherited 
her  land. 

p.  402 
Mary  Bailey 

Homestead  Patent:  July  24,  1895  Application  No.  2227 

Homestead  Certificate:  September  4,  1906  Certificate  No.    889 

Land  Description:  West  half  of  Northeast  quarter  and  West 

quarter  of  Southeast  quarter  of  Section  18  in  Township  14, 

North  of  Range  66,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in 

Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Mary  Bailey  did  not  sell  her  homestead  directly  after 
receiving  her  certificate  but  kept  her  claim  for  many  years. 


p.  408 
Marsha  Kirkbride  formerly  Misealf 

Homestead  Patent:  December  20,  1904     Application  No.  3353 
Homestead  Certificate:  October  6,  1906      Certificate  No.  1775 
Land  Description:  North  half  of  Southwest  quarter,  Southeast 
quarter  of  Southwest  quarter  of  Section  23,  in  Township  18, 
North  of  Range  64,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in  Wyo- 
ming containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Marsha  Kirkbride's  husband  homesteaded  on  the  sec- 
tions, Section  23  and  24,  right  next  to  hers.  Consequently, 
their  home  place  was  quite  sizable. 

p.  437 
Mabel  E.  Underwood 

Homestead  Patent:  December  17,  1906     Application  No.  4262 
Homestead  Certificate:  March  29,  1907       Certificate  No.  2024 
Land  Description:  West  half  of  Northeast  quarter,  and  North  of 
Range  70,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in  Wyoming,  con- 
taining one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Mabel  Underwood  married  a  Mr.  Heosman.  She  sold  her 
homestead  to  J.  J.  Underwood  and  Son  on  January  3, 
1908,  for  $1. 

p.  461 
Martha  Pawson 

Homestead  Patent:  May  22,  1907  Application  No.  4575 

Homestead  Certificate:  August  16,  1907      Certificate  No.  2108 

Land  Description:  Southwest  quarter  of  Section  12  in  Township 

13,  North  of  Range  64,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian  in 

Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Martha  Pawson  took  out  a  homestead  apparently  to  ob- 
tain the  free  land. 

p.  506 
Susan  J.  McLauchlin 

Homestead  Patent:  March  18,  1890  Application  No.  489 

Homestead  Certificate:  June  17,  1908  Certificate  No.  223 

Land  Description:  West  half  of  Northeast  quarter,  and  the  East 
half  of  the  Northwest  quarter  of  Section  14  in  Township  17, 
North  of  Range  70,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian,  in  Wyo- 
ming containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Susan  Van  Zandt  McLauchlin  turned  her  homestead  over 
to  her  husband  on  June  18,  1908,  for  $480. 

p.  508 
Annie  Nelson 

Homestead  Patent:  January  2,  1908  Application  No.  4843 

Homestead  Certificate:  July  28,  1908  Certificate  No.  2169 

Land  Description:  Northeast  quarter  of  Section  18  in  Township  14, 
North  of  Range  60,  West  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian,  in  Wyo- 
ming, containing  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 

Annie  Nelson  sold  her  land  on  March  4,  1911,  for  $300  to 
Peleg  J.  Whitehead. 

p.  519 
Emma  M.  Dudley 

Homestead  Patent:  October  26,  1908         Application  No.  7389 

Homestead  Certificate:  Nov.  24,  1908  Certificate  No.  2235 

Land  Description:  Southwest  quarter  of  Southeast  quarter,  and 

the  South  half  of  the  Southwest  quarter  of  Section  21,  in 

Township  17,  North  of  Range  69,  of  Sixth  Principal  Meridian 

in  Wyoming,  containing  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres. 

Emma  Dudley  sold  her  land  to  Charles  A.  Dereemer  on 

October  1,  1918. 


51 


APPENDIX  B 
Table  I 


HOMESTEAD  PATENTS  OF  SIX  WYOMING  COUNTIES 


COUNTIES 

SINGLE  WOMEN 
HOMESTEAD  PATENTS 

TOTAL 
HOMESTEAD  PATENTS 

CROOK 

June  23,  1891-January  27,  1925 

541 

(13.3%) 

4058  (100%) 

JOHNSON 

March  26,  1888-September  30,  1932 

109 

(7.9%) 

1383  (100%) 

LARAMIE 

February  25,  1895-November  24,  1905 

50 

(16.6%) 

301  (100%) 

LINCOLN 

April  14,  1917-March  12,  1943 

10 

(13.1%) 

76  (100%) 

NATRONA 

April  29,  1903-March  22,  1925 

52 

(8.2%) 

636  (100%) 

SWEETWATER 

November  20,  1915-October  1,  1925 

10 

(13.7%) 

73  (100%) 

TOTALS 

772 

(11.8%) 

6527  (100%) 

*  Percentages  rounded  off  to  the  nearest  tenth. 

*  Note  that  Table  I  and  Table  II  both  show  11.8%  of  the  homesteaders  were  single  women. 


APPENDIX  B 
Table  II 


TWENTY-ONE  SINGLE  WOMEN  HOMESTEADERS 

LARAMIE  COUNTY 
MARCH  18,  1890,  TO  JANUARY  2,  1908 


WOMEN  WHO: 


NUMBER  OF  HOMESTEADERS 


PERCENTAGE  OF  TOTAL  (21) 


SOLD  LAND  (10) 

20%  Married,  sold  to  husband 

10%  Married,  sold  elsewhere 

70%  Unmarried,  sold  elsewhere 


9.5 

4.8 

33.3 


KEPT  LAND  (11) 
18.2%  Married 

9.1%  Widowed 

72.7%  Unmarried  (one  died) 


9.5 

4.8 

38.1 


*  Percentages  rounded  off  to  the  nearest  tenth. 


52 


APPENDIX  B 
Table  III 


SINGLE  WOMEN  HOMESTEADERS  IN  FOUR  COUNTIES 


COUNTIES 

Lived 

UNMARRIED 

Died           Assi 

gned 

MARRIED 

AFTER  PATENT 

Lived          Died 

WIDOW 

TOTAL 

CROOK 

Patent  Records 
June  23,  1891- 
January  27,  1925 

319 
61.3% 

36 
6.9% 

1 

.2% 

159            2 
30.6%        .4% 

3 
.6% 

520 
12.2% 

LARAMIE 

Certificate  Records 
March  25,  1986- 
February  16,  1917 

58 
73.4% 

3 
3.8% 

1 

1.3% 

14            0 

17.7%         0 

3 
3.8% 

79 
12.3% 

NATRONA 

Patent  Records 
April  29,  1903- 
March  22,  1922 

25 
48.0% 

0 
0 

3 
5.8% 

17            0 
32.7%         0 

7 
13.5% 

52 
8.2% 

SWEETWATER 
Patent  Records 
November  20,  1915- 
October  1,  1925 

9 
100% 

0 
0 

0 
0 

0            0 
0            0 

0 
0 

9 

12.3% 

TOTALS 

455 
68.9% 

192 

29.1% 

13 

2.0% 

660 
11.8% 

Percentages  rounded  off  to  the  nearest  tenth. 

Note  that  Table  I  and  Table  II  both  show  11.8%  of  the  homesteaders  were  single  women. 


53 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


WYOMING— Land  of  Echoing  Canyons.  By  Beverly  Elaine  Brink,  Ed.,  Brancie 
M.  Berg.  Third  in  the  Old  West  Region  Series.  (Hettinger,  North  Dakota: 
Flying  Diamond  Books,  1986)  Index.  Bib.  Illus.  Map.  176  pp.  $21.95. 

This  easy-to-read  book  is  set  up  in  three  parts.  Part 
One,  Land  of  Echoing  Canyons,  describes  the  natural 
wonders  of  the  state.  Any  amateur  or  professional  geolo- 
gist, archaeologist,  historian  or  preservationist  would  cer- 
tainly benefit  from  this  section  prior  to  visiting  landmarks 
described  throughout. 

Within  this  chapter  the  reader  will  begin  to  understand 
the  deep-seated  pride  that  citizens  of  Wyoming  have  for 
their  state.  Appreciation  for  the  state  and  its  natural 
resources  is  reinforced  over  and  over.  From  land  use  prac- 
tices to  industry  to  historical  facts  it  is  evident  that  the  state 
has  much  to  offer. 

In  colorful  detail  the  not-so-easy  survival  of  Wyoming's 
Native  Americans  is  analyzed.  Their  respect  for  the  land 
and  its  inhabitants  is  an  easy  fact  to  absorb.  Viewpoints 
and  changes  are  candidly  discussed  by  several  outstanding 
Indian  citizens. 

It  is  easy  to  recognize  that  game  and  fish  in  the  state 
is  big  business.  The  habits  and  habitats  of  hundreds  of 
species  that  roam  the  vast  landscape  are  dealt  with  on  an 
individual  basis.  Those  sportsmen  interested  in  hunting 
with  rifle  or  camera  will  find  this  section  a  ready  reference 
to  local  guidelines. 

Part  Two,  Wyoming  Today,  describes  contemporary 
lifestyles  found  around  the  state.  The  reader  soon  begins 
to  realize  that  Wyoming  had  them  all— trappers,  rendez- 
vous, country  dances,  plus  an  opera  or  English  salon— 
and  still  does! 

Readers  will  enjoy  the  numerous  biographical  sketches 
of  colorful  Wyomingites,  each  described  with  just  enough 
flair  that  you  feel  like  nothing  has  been  left  out.  You  are 
introduced  to  those  citizens  who  live  on  reservations  or 
in  the  cities  and  towns  that  dot  the  state. 


The  decade  of  "boom  and  bust"  felt  throughout  the 
1970s  is  an  accurate,  albeit  not  often  pretty,  account  of  what 
the  state  went  through  in  trying  to  accommodate  fast  paced 
changes.  The  reader  will  feel  a  surge  of  pride  in  those 
citizens  who  were  dramatically  affected  by  these  changes— 
from  the  miner  to  the  rancher,  each  of  whom  continue  to 
take  steps  to  protect  the  land  and  their  lifestyles. 

Part  Three,  History  of  Wyoming,  is  the  longest  chapter 
in  the  book.  The  positive  conclusions  of  this  reviewer, 
which  were  drawn  early,  were  consistently  reinforced  in 
this  chapter. 

Early  pioneers  like  Narcissa  Whitman,  Jim  Bridger  and 
Black  Beaver  are  all  brought  to  life  in  this  chapter.  They 
and  many  others  survived  numerous  social  ailments  along 
with  the  blizzards,  dust  storms  and  economics.  Through- 
out the  centuries  each  Wyomingite  has  shown  a  strong 
determination— one  they  have  doggedly  earned  and  fully 
deserve. 

I  appreciated  the  author's  mention  of  many  of  the 
state's  cultural  resources,  museums  and  historic  sites.  The 
section  on  John  Kendrick,  one  of  the  state's  most  successful 
citizens,  could  only  have  been  enhanced  by  a  picture  of 
his  stately  mansion  that  is  now  a  state  historic  site. 

This  reviewer  highly  recommends  this  book  for  those 
tourists  who  like  to  "study"  a  state  prior  to  their  visit,  to 
those  individuals  interested  in  making  Wyoming  their 
home  or  to  anyone  who  currently  lives  here  and  would 
like  a  quick  refresher  course.  At  $21.95  it  is  the  most  ex- 
pensive volume  of  the  series.  Regardless  of  the  price, 
however,  the  hard-bound,  nicely  illustrated  book  would 
make  an  enjoyable  gift  for  yourself  or  a  friend. 

LINDA  G.  ROLLINS 
Rollins  is  Public  Information  Officer  for  the  Archives,  Museums  and  Historical 
Department. 


54 


Washakie:  A  Wyoming  County  Histonj.  By  Ray  Pendergraft.  (Basin:  Sad- 
dlebag Books,  1985)  Index.  Notes.  Illus.  251  pp.  $12.95. 

Washakie:  A  Wyoming  County  History  has  recently  been 
added  to  the  growing  list  of  Wyoming,  regional,  commu- 
nity and  county  histories.  The  need  for  this  type  of  chroni- 
cle was  evinced  some  years  ago  and  answers  the  need  for 
specifics  which  make  up  the  whole.  Local  history  has  been 
encouraged,  defined  and  applauded  by  no  less  an  organi- 
zation than  the  American  Association  for  State  and  Local 
History,  headquartered  in  Nashville,  Tennessee.  That 
association's  correct  contention  is  that  any  person  or  per- 
sons living  in  a  precise  locale  know  more  about  their  past 
than  anyone  else,  ergo,  it  is  their  responsibility  to  record 
and  preserve  it.  When  possible,  they  should  share  and 
disseminate  it  through  publication.  The  goal  has  been 
reached  in  this  volume  on  Washakie  County. 

The  material  was  compiled  and  collected  by  lifelong 
county  resident  Ray  Pendergraft.  A  writer  of  some  ex- 
perience, he  has  published  poems,  short  stories  and  ar- 
ticles of  historical  content  for  a  number  of  years.  As  a 
descendant  of  a  pioneer  family,  he  grew  up  hearing  stories 
of  his  part  of  the  Equality  State.  These  include  accurate 
recollections  of  past  events  and  some  events  that  may  or 
may  not  be  considered  folklore.  Nonetheless,  both  are 
substantial  additions  to  his  history.  Further,  because  of  his 
long  association  with  many  other  Washakie  County  resi- 
dents, he  has  relied  on  the  oral  tradition— oral  history,  if 
you  will— to  flesh  out  certain  portions  of  the  book.  First- 
hand accounts  rendered  by  eyewitnesses  are  considered 
by  many  published  historians  as  the  best  source  of  infor- 
mation. I  give  you  John  Toland's  biography  of  Adolph 
Hitler  and  Merle  Miller's  biographies  of  Harry  Truman  and 
Lyndon  B.  Johnson  as  evidence. 

Pendergraft  has  approached  the  goal  he  set  for  himself 
logically.  He  compiled  a  great  deal  of  data,  apparently  tak- 
ing a  number  of  years  to  do  so.  He  then  set  about  to  write 
a  chronological  history  of  his  county  and  town.  The  final 
product  is  as  thorough  as  the  research  he  completed.  It  is 
clear,  informative  and  so  structured  that  in  years  to  come, 
it  will  serve  as  a  useable  reference/research  work. 

The  author  makes  some  points  that  others  planning 
a  similar  volume  should  keep  in  mind.  Washakie  County's 
experiences  with  and  participation  in  such  historical 
phenomena  as  Prohibition  and  World  War  II  are  just  as 
important  as  the  rest  of  America's.  Prohibition  was  cer- 
tainly as  big  a  problem  in  the  Big  Horn  Basin  of  Wyoming 
as  it  was  in  Chicago.  World  War  II  was  as  frightening  to 
the  people  in  and  around  Worland,  Wyoming  as  it  was  to 
those  individuals  living  on  the  Pacific  coast.  In  short,  the 
people  of  this  region  lived  their  history  every  bit  as  much 
as  those  in  other  geographic  areas. 

Pendergraft  devotes  space  to  two  still-controversial 
incidents  in  Wyoming's  past.  They  were  the  Spring  Creek 
Raid  of  1909  and  the  mysterious  death  of  Governor  William 


A.  Richards'  daughter  Edna  Jenkins  and  her  husband 
Thomas.  Neither  event  has  been  fully  explained  to  his- 
torians interested  in  them  and  they  probably  will  be 
discussed  and  re-discussed  as  much  as  the  Johnson  County 
Invasion  of  1892  and  the  career  and  execution  of  stock 
detective  hired  gun  Tom  Horn.  To  those  who  are  unaware 
of  these  two  pages  from  Wyoming  history,  the  informa- 
tion provided  will  be  enlightening  and  interesting. 

The  book  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  inclusion  of  many 
photographs.  They  do  a  fine  job  of  supplementing  the  text 
and  helping  to  tell  the  story.  The  inclusion  of  a  complete 
surname  index  will  be  welcomed  by  genealogists  and  other 
researchers  seeking  information  on  Washakie  County. 
Footnotes  are  present,  but  they  do  not  overwhelm  the  page 
as  is  the  case  in  some  publications.  Footnotes  that  suffocate 
the  writer's  text  really  have  no  place  in  a  readable  history. 

All  in  all,  this  book  is  a  solid  contribution  to  the  history 

of  the  region  and  of  the  state.  It  will  be  appreciated  and 

enjoyed  by  those  who  choose  to  take  time  to  read  it. 

LOT  B.  ALBRIN 
Albrin  is  a  free-lance  writer  who  has  reviewed  for  several  historical  journals. 


Buffalo's  First  Century.  By  the  Buffalo  Centennial  Book  Committee.  (Buf- 
falo: Buffalo  Bulletin,  1984)  Index.  Illus.  223  pp.  $20.00  cloth; 
$14.00  paper. 

Created  as  a  part  of  its  centennial  celebration  Buffalo's 
First  Century  is  a  portrait  of  one  of  Wyoming's  small  towns. 
It  is  a  compilation  of  historical  reports,  newspaper  articles 
and  first  hand  accounts  of  Buffalo's  history. 

Buffalo  began  as  a  supply  depot  for  Fort  McKinney 
during  the  1880s.  The  first  chapter  depicts  a  frontier  boom 
town  with  articles  from  the  Annals  of  Wyoming,  the  Buffalo 
Bulletin  and  from  previously  untapped  sources. 

Continuing  through  the  years,  the  book  includes  first 
families  and  early  businesses.  The  book  depicts  the  vast 
abilities  of  the  founding  fathers  as  they  strove  to  build  their 
vision.  Hard  working  men  and  women  who  ran  businesses 
while  securing  a  homestead  still  had  time  for  church  and 
community  activities. 

There  is  a  chapter  devoted  to  transportation  methods 
with  photographs  of  mule  and  ox  teams,  a  variety  of  stages, 
automobiles,  railroad  and  aircraft.  A  chapter  titled  "Legal 
Leanings"  includes  stories  about  the  early  day  judges, 
lawyers  and  the  county's  only  legal  hanging.  Information 
about  the  land  office,  the  library,  cemetery  and  post  office 
is  in  this  chapter  too. 

As  an  army  rest  and  recreation  center,  early  Buffalo 
had  more  than  its  share  of  saloons  and  brothels.  A  short 
chapter  dwells  on  the  cleverness  of  these  early  entrepre- 
neurs who  used  roller  skates  and  a  corral  tor  elk  to  draw 
customers. 


55 


Other  businesses  described  are  the  telephone  service, 
flour  mill,  brewery,  ice  business,  water  delivery,  the  Oc- 
cidental Hotel,  newspapers,  physicians  and  banking. 

Articles  on  prohibition  and  the  Works  Progress  Ad- 
ministration in  Buffalo  bring  the  book  into  the  20th  cen- 
tury. Chapters  on  schools,  churches  and  recreation  round 
out  the  view  of  the  town. 

The  modern  era  is  somewhat  neglected  by  the  book. 
Deliberately,  the  cattle  war  of  1892  is  barely  mentioned. 
The  index  is  of  local  family  names  without  subject  inclu- 
sions. Use  of  oral  history  transcriptions  and  nonprofes- 
sional writers  adds  or  detracts  from  the  volume  depending 
on  the  reader's  inclination.  Carefully  reproduced  photo- 
graphs present  a  visual  history  of  the  community  that  is 
truly  outstanding. 

One  of  the  goals  of  the  book  committee  compiling  the 
history  was  to  make  a  readable,  enjoyable  book.  In  this  I 
believe  they  have  succeeded.  The  variety  of  article  lengths 
and  depth  provide  accurate  information  without  over- 
dosing. In  all,  Buffalo's  First  Century  is  for  both  lay  reader 
and  historian. 


PATTY  MYERS 


The  reviewer  is  a  librarian  with  the  Johnson  County  Library. 


Son  of  the  Morning  Star,  Custer  and  the  Little  Bighorn.  By  Evan  S.  Connell. 
(San  Francisco:  North  Point  Press,  1984)  Index.  Maps.  441  pp.  $20.00. 

Evan  S.  Council's  Son  of  the  Morning  Star  is  vastly  eclec- 
tic, to  say  the  least.  He  is  all  over  the  scenery— in  the  best 
sense  of  the  words. 

Connell  has  produced  nothing  particularly  new  and 
startling,  but  he  has  collected  or  expanded,  in  some  ways, 
the  large  amounts  of  Custeriana.  The  book  is  refreshing 
certainly  in  not  again  serving  only  to  dissect  the  ill-fated 
Custer  battle  on  the  Little  Big  Horn. 

He  treats  of  the  fight  and  the  events  leading  up  to  it, 
of  course,  but  otherwise  he  has  produced  a  number  of 
vignettes  dealing  with  Custer,  his  not-so-merry  subor- 
dinates, army  types  and  others  with  whom  Custer  was 
associated. 

Of  first  importance,  the  book  never  lags  for  interest, 
particularly  for  those  to  whom  much  of  the  Custer  story, 
from  West  Point  to  the  end,  is  new. 

Included  in  Morning  Star  are  devastating  portrayals  of 
the  two  second  leads  in  the  final  Custer  saga— Captain  F. 
W.  Benteen  and  Major  Marcus  Reno. 

Connell  gives  a  fair  rundown  of  Reno's  defeat  in  the 
opening  of  the  Battle  of  the  Little  Big  Horn— be  it  a  tactical 
withdrawal  of  his  troops  or  an  ignominious  retreat,  or  a 
combination  of  both,  to  Reno  Hill.  Reno,  by  most  accounts, 
comes  off  poorly.  Benteen,  by  some  of  the  same  accounts, 
comes  off  better.  But  this  is  standard  Custer. 


Far  more  interesting  are  bits  and  pieces  of  the  two  men. 
Both  were  hard  drinkers.  Connell  recounts  the  time  Ben- 
teen in  his  alcoholic  cups  stepped  out  of  his  tent  and 
urinated  on  it,  while,  all  the  time,  there  was  present  a 
woman  visitor  of  starched  respectability.  After  all,  it  was 
de  rigueur  in  mid-Victorianism— and  later— to  seek  a  bush, 
a  tree  or,  at  least,  a  gully.  This  is  the  Benteen  whose 
cherubic  countenance  beams  out  from  the  latter-day  photo- 
graph so  well  known.  He  was,  Connell  develops,  anything 
but  a  cherub. 

Major  Reno  had  a  respectable  Civil  War  record,  but  he 
was  a  born  loser.  He  consumed  disabling  quantities  of  the 
frontier's  inebriating  forty-rod  rotgut.  He  brawled  with 
subordinates,  and  in  his  career  coup  de  grace,  he  ends  up 
a  Peeping  Marcus.  Reno,  as  Connell  recounts,  peeped  in 
a  window  at  the  apparently  attractively-ample  figure, 
however  chastely  clothed,  of  his  commanding  officer's 
daughter.  This  was  Col.  Samuel  Sturgis  who,  though  1,000 
miles  or  more  away,  received  two  body  blows  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Little  Big  Horn  episodes.  For  one,  he  was 
detached  to  recruiting  duty  in  St.  Louis  while  his  second- 
in-command,  Custer,  took  the  Seventh  Cavalry  to  its 
fateful  disaster  in  Montana.  For  another,  his  son,  Jack,  a 
lieutenant,  died  among  the  sagebrush  with  Custer. 

Connell  recounts  with  commendable  fairness  the  fact 
that  Custer  might  have  fathered  a  child  by  a  Cheyenne 
woman  as  he  cantered  around  to  "Gary  Owen"  (Custer's 
favorite  marching  song)  on  the  plains  of  Kansas  in  the  late 
1860s.  Custer  put  the  blast  on  Black  Kettle's  camp  in  a  sur- 
prise attack  at  the  Washita  Nov.  27,  1868.  Some  of  the  same 
Cheyenne  were  to  meet  him  again  in  Montana  as  June 
ebbed  in  the  Centennial  year  of  1876.  Most  of  them 
emerged;  George  Armstrong  Custer— son  of  the  Morning 
Star— did  not,  but  was  enshrined  because  of  emotion 
forever  in  the  imagination  of  his  country  men  and  others. 

But,  most  intriguing,  is  the  question  of  whether  his 
might-be  Cheyenne  daughter,  fair-haired,  light-com- 
plexioned,  perhaps  about  seven  or  so  years  old,  was  pres- 
ent in  the  Indian  camp  on  the  banks  of  the  Little  Big  Horn 
that  fateful  day  now  coming  on  110  years  ago? 

BURTON  THOMPSON 
Thompson  is  the  editor  of  the  'Credit  Edit'  newsletter  of  the  Uniform  Consumer 
Credit  Code  Office,  State  Examiner's  Office. 


The  Canadian  Prairies— A  History.  By  Gerald  Friesen.  (Toronto:  Univer- 
sity of  Toronto  Press,  1984)  Index.  Illus.  524  pp.  $22.50 

The  Canadian  Prairies— A  History  is  a  collection  of  infor- 
mation about  the  economic,  social  and  political  factors 
operating  over  nearly  four  centuries  in  ever-shifting  con- 
figurations which  characterize  Canada's  vast  interior 
prairies.  This  region,  along  with  its  co-region  on  the  Pacific 
Coast,  comprises  the  often  enigmatic  Canadian  West. 


56 


Author  Friesen,  gathering  perspectives  from  a  great  ar- 
ray of  contemporary  printed  material,  creates  for  the 
reader  his  interpretation  of  the  forces  at  work  which 
shaped  the  Canadian  prairies  into  a  distinctive  region. 
Writing  for  a  non-specific  audience  which  could  include 
scholars,  students  and  general  readers,  he  traces  the 
development  of  modern  prairie  society  from  the  1600s 
when  the  region  was  inhabited  by  traditional  native 
peoples  using  simple  subsistence  methods  to  the  present 
day  in  which  both  the  complex  agricultural  and  industrial 
technologies  dominate. 

The  central  theme  of  the  book  is  the  passage  of  time 
and  the  changes  thus  resulting;  some  positive  and  some 
not  positive.  The  author  limits  the  book  to  one  contiguous 
geographical  region,  which  although  topographically  di- 
verse, is  logically  delimited  on  the  west  by  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  on  the  east  by  the  stony  granite  Canadian 
Shield.  The  three  prairie  provinces,  Manitoba,  Saskatche- 
wan and  Alberta  are  shown  to  have  developed  a  recogniz- 
able "personality"  based  on  shared  weather,  landforms 
and  to  an  extent,  psychology. 

Friesen  thus  separates  out  the  prairies  from  the  coastal 
province  of  British  Columbia,  which  shares  neither  the 
harsh  weather  nor  landforms  of  the  prairies,  and  has  its 
own  pattern  of  development.  This  is  unusual  treatment, 
for  most  Canadian  history  books  deal  with  the  Canadian 
West  as  one  aggregate  unit  with  two  component  regions, 
often  within  a  sea-to-sea  context. 

Friesen  gives  generally  equal  weight  to  the  major  eras 
that  shaped  prairie  history;  the  natives  prior  to  European 
contact  (after  the  Wisconsin  Ice  retreat  10,000-12,000  years 
B.P.— 1600s),  the  native-European  interface  (1600s-1850), 
European  dominance  of  the  native  populations  (1850-1900), 
the  rise  of  the  Canadian  nation-state  (the  Confederation 
period  1867-1900),  the  post-Confederation  period  and  the 
Great  Depression  (1900-1940)  and  the  contemporary  post 
World  War  II  period. 

As  a  Professor  of  History  at  the  well-respected  Univer- 
sity of  Manitoba,  the  author  is  in  a  position  as  a  prairie 
dweller  to  steep  himself  in  prairie  lore  from  an  insider  posi- 
tion. His  sources  of  information  include  many  western- 
dwelling  scholars  and  some  fine  archives.  Some  biographi- 
cal sketches  of  the  pivotal  post-Confederation  era  figures 
are  part  of  living  memory,  which  gives  Friesen  an  edge. 

He  does  not  neglect  to  include  geographical  and  an- 
thropological data  in  the  first  part  of  his  book  to  set  the 
stage  for  the  definition  of  the  prairies  as  a  unique  region 
with  special  assets  and  liabilities,  and  to  provide  reference 
points  for  historical  events. 

Friesen  certainly  meets  his  objective  to  build  a  single 
volume  which  gives  the  reader  a  comprehensive  overview 
of  400  years  of  prairie  history  in  Canada.  However,  al- 
though he  alludes  to  providing  an  ethnohistory,  it  seems 
to  this  reviewer  that  he  falls  short  of  that  goal  in  com- 
parison to  other  historians  working  from  that  angle.  Surely 


he  tells  many  small  and  carefully  detailed  stories,  but  rather 
than  weaving  a  tapestry  with  them,  it  seems  more  like  he 
is  salting  his  history  to  remove  blandness. 

For  this  reviewer  also,  the  treatment  of  the  prairie 
region  as  something  more  separate  and  apart  from  the  rest 
of  Canada  than  it  actually  has  been  is  also  problematical. 
For  a  reader  looking  for  sweeping  trends  to  identify,  view- 
ing the  history  of  the  prairies  in  relative  isolation  (compared 
to  other  authors)  removes  much  of  the  high  drama  and 
mutes  the  essence  of  the  prairies.  This  is  not  to  imply  that 
Friesen  leaves  anything  out— because  he  doesn't;  he  simply 
does  not  play  off  prairie  history  against  the  larger  canvas 
of  Confederation  to  any  great  extent.  Much  of  the  punch 
of  certain  eras  of  Canadian  history  is  thus  lost;  times  when 
the  fate  of  the  Canadian  nation-state  rested  absolutely  on 
what  happened  west  of  the  Manitoba-Ontario  border. 

It  would  seem  to  this  reviewer  that  trying  to  write  what 
is  in  essence  a  survey  of  prairie  history  for  such  a  broad 
audience  has  many  pitfalls,  one  of  which  is  that  the  book 
may  disappoint  the  reader  who  has  studied  this  region  and 
is  looking  for  certain  aspects  which  could  be  consistently 
linked  into  the  paradigms  of  social  science.  However,  the 
general  reader  probably  does  not  have  this  requirement 
and  could  profit  from  reading  the  book  more  readily. 

MARY  C.  WALKER 
The  reviewer  is  a  student  at  the  University  of  Lethbridge,  Alberta,  Canada. 


American  Protestantism  and  United  States  Indian  Policy,  1869-82.  By  Robert 
H.  Keller,  Jr.  (Lincoln:  University  of  Nebraska  Press,  1983)  Index.  Bib. 
Notes.  Appendix.  Illus.  359  pp.  $27.95  cloth. 

The  so-called  Peace  Policy  of  1869  to  1882  was  the 
outgrowth  of  a  new  reformist  crusade  initiated  by  a  diverse 
mixture  of  individuals  who  ranged  from  religious  leaders 
such  as  John  Beeson  and  Henry  B.  Whipple,  to  public  ser- 
vants such  as  Secretary  of  Interior  Jacob  D.  Cox  and  Com- 
missioner of  Indian  Affairs  Ely  Parker.  Spurred  by  the 
senseless  1864  Sand  Creek  Massacre  and  government 
mismanagement  of  the  Santee  Sioux  during  the  Civil  War, 
reformers  petitioned  for  a  change  in  policy  which  would 
substitute  devout  Christian  agents  for  the  spoilsmen  who 
previously  had  dominated  reservation  affairs.  President 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  lent  his  crucial  support  to  the  experiment 
and  allowed  the  division  of  all  agencies  among  the  various 
Christian  denominations.  Although  their  methods  differed 
from  reservation  to  reservation,  these  "missionary  agents" 
operated  on  the  assumption  that  their  Christian  principles 
would  serve  as  good  role  models  for  the  Indians,  and  that 
the  purity  of  their  motives  would  end  legendary  corrup- 
tion within  the  Indian  Office.  Three  hundred  agents, 
assigned  by  thirteen  different  mission  boards,  administered 
the  policy  during  the  thirteen-year  period,  but  the  results 
fell  far  short  of  expectations. 


57 


Many  historians  have  categorized  the  Peace  Policy  as 
an  aberration  in  19th  century  policy-making  and  a  cata- 
strophic one  at  that.  Robert  H.  Keller,  Jr.,  a  professor  of 
interdisciplinary  studies  at  Western  Washington  Univer- 
sity, has  questioned  the  initial  assumption  and  confirmed 
the  latter.  Instead  of  interpreting  this  program  as  a  brief 
departure  from  past  and  subsequent  policy,  he  sees  a  con- 
tinuity within  the  entire  century  of  policy-making.  First, 
the  Peace  Policy  shared  the  assimilationist  goals  of  its 
predecessor  and  successor  programs  which  ultimately  led 
to  the  1887  Dawes  Severalty  Act.  Second,  the  close  associa- 
tion of  Church  and  State  in  matters  of  Indian  relations  had 
existed  since  the  beginning  of  the  nation,  despite  popular 
perceptions  of  the  separation  of  the  two  spheres.  Third, 
denominational  bickering  and  infighting  obscured  the 
shared  association  and  goals  common  to  all  the  missionary 
groups  and  their  representative  agents. 

Although  the  Peace  Policy  began  with  great  en- 
thusiasm and  achieved  some  notable  goals  in  Indian  educa- 
tion and  health  care,  the  program  faltered  by  1877  with  the 
loss  of  important  national  leaders,  non-cooperation  from 
some  Indians  who  resented  the  seemingly  hypocritical  at- 
tacks on  tribal  culture  and  the  continuous  assault  on  reser- 
vation lands  by  avaricious  white  groups.  In  dramatic 
fashion  and  with  an  impressive  array  of  well-documented 
evidence,  Keller  demonstrates  that  good  intentions  alone 
were  not  enough  to  construct  a  realistic  and  lasting  Indian 
policy.  When  read  in  conjunction  with  Clyde  Milner's  more 
narrowly  focused  With  Good  Intentions:  Quaker  Work  among 
the  Pawnees,  Otos,  and  Omahas  in  the  1870s  (1982),  this  work 
serves  as  the  best  treatment  of  an  important  phase  of 
American  Indian  policy.  Researchers  can  ill-afford  to  over- 
look it  in  their  own  investigations. 

MICHAEL  L.  TATE 
Professor  Tate  is  with  the  Department  of  History,  University  of  Nebraska  at 
Omaha. 


A  Day  at  a  Time:  The  Diary  Literature  of  American  Women  from  1764  to  the 
Present.  Edited  and  with  an  Introduction  by  Margo  Culley.  (New  York: 
(Feminist  Press,  1985)  Bib.  342  pp.  $12.95. 

The  importance  of  studying  women's  diaries  and  jour- 
nals for  an  understanding  of  the  "her  story"  in  history  is 
increasingly  recognized.  In  this  volume  which  excerpts  sec- 
tions from  29  diaries,  Margo  Culley  focuses  on  the  diary 
writing  of  "ordinary"  American  women. 

The  arrangement  is  chronological.  The  women  writers 
of  the  first  section  detail  life  in  Colonial  America.  The  sec- 
ond section,  "The  Journey  Out,"  records  the  experiences 
and  emotions  of  women  caught  in  the  great  mass  migra- 
tions of  the  19th  century.  The  20th  century  women  writers 
describe  the  complex  relationship  between  their  personal 
and  political  selves.  Excerpts  from  the  diary  of  Edith  K.  O. 
Clark,  1881-1936,  elected  Wyoming's  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction  in  1914,  is  presented  in  this  section. 


Margo  Culley  offers  the  interesting  comment  that  both 
the  words  "diary"  and  "journal"  come  from  the  French 
word  for  day.  A  diary  progresses  "a  day  at  a  time,"  but 
for  the  sensitive  reader  these  days  describe  the  inward 
journey  the  diarist  undertakes. 

As  we  read,  we  share  the  diarist's  discovery  and  be- 
come engaged  for  we  are  reading  a  form  of  literary  art  as 
important  as  any.  Culley  points  out  that  in  any  work  of 
art,  selectivity  is  the  guardian  principle.  What  is  excluded 
is  often  as  important  as  what  is  left  in.  In  other  words, 
whether  writing  to  herself,  to  a  real  or  to  an  imaginary 
reader,  the  diarist  consciously  shapes  her  narrative  just  as 
she  consciously  shapes  what  we  see  of  her  self. 

In  modern  literary  terms,  the  diary  is  a  construct,  an 
artistic  creation  which  includes  such  literary  elements  as 
characterization,  setting,  recurring  themes  and  images,  and 
audience.  For  all  that  a  diary  may  tell  us  about  an  age  or 
an  event,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  first  subject  is  the 
journey  of  the  author  herself. 

The  eleven  page  selection  from  the  diary  of  Edith  K.  O. 
Clark  focuses  not  on  her  public  life  as  a  Sheridan  County 
and  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  but  on  her 
private  life  as  a  homesteader  in  the  Big  Horn  Mountains 
of  Johnson  County,  Wyoming.  She  embarked  on  this  new 
career  in  her  early  fifties. 

This  short  section  records  her  pride  in  the  creation  of 
her  log  cabin— felling  trees,  peeling  logs,  raising  the  ridge 
pole  and  finally  living  in  her  cabin.  She  is  not  alone  in  her 
story;  there  are  many  friends  and  neighbors  but,  above  all, 
she  is  surrounded  by  the  power  of  nature  especially  in  the 
soul  thrilling  skyscape  and  in  the  terror  of  forest  fires. 

The  complexity  of  the  relationship  between  her  private 
and  political  life  is  painfully  reflected  as  she  records  that 
the  forest  fire  spread  around  her  cabin  and  those  of  her 
neighbors  unchecked  for  five  days  while  the  Forest  Ser- 
vice debated  jurisdiction. 

The  complete  diary  of  Edith  K.  O.  Clark  was  published 
in  Annals  of  Wyoming,  XXIX  (No.  2,  Oct.  1967),  217-44.  The 
manuscript  of  the  diary  is  at  the  University  of  Wyoming, 
Laramie,  Wyoming,  with  the  Agnes  Wright  Spring  papers. 

DONA  R.  BACHMAN 
The  reviewer  is  Curator  of  Education  and  supervises  the  volunteer  program  for 
the  Museums  Division  of  the  Wyoming  State  Archives,  Museums  &  Historical 
Department.  She  holds  a  Ph.D.  in  English  from  Northern  Illinois  University. 

Magic  Images:  Contemporary  Native  American  Art.  By  Edwin  L.  Wade  and 
Rennard  Strickland.  (Norman:  Philbrook  Art  Center  and  University  of 
Oklahoma  Press,  1981)  Index.  Notes.  Catalogue  of  the  Exhibition.  128 
pp.  $15.95. 

Magic  Images:  Contemporary  Native  American  Art  is  based 
on  an  exhibition  of  37  leading  American  Indian  painters 
and  sculptures  held  at  the  Philbrook  Art  Center  in  Tulsa, 
Oklahoma,  in  1981  ("Native  American  Arts  '81")  which 
was  organized  by  Edwin  Wade,  one  of  the  authors.  Dr. 
Wade,  curator  of  Native  American  Art  at  the  Philbrook  Art 


58 


Center,  holds  a  Ph.D.  in  anthropology  and  has  written 
many  books  and  articles  on  American  Indian  culture.  Co- 
author Rennard  Strickland  is  a  professor  of  law  and  history 
at  the  University  of  Tulsa.  A  scholar  of  Osage  and  Chero- 
kee heritage,  he  serves  as  Chair  of  the  Philbrook  Art  Center 
Indian  Committee. 

Magic  Images,  designed  and  edited  by  Carol  Haralson, 
is  presented  in  a  large  horizontal  paperback  format,  and 
is  much  more  than  a  photographic  retrospective  of  an  ex- 
hibition. The  book  presents  a  lively  balance  of  essays  and 
artwork,  including  a  section  of  full-color  reproductions 
from  the  exhibit.  In  the  Introduction,  "Contemporary  In- 
dian Art:  Evolving  Images  of  the  Native  American,"  the 
authors  explain  that  fundamental  changes  have  taken  place 
in  Indian  art  within  the  last  20  years,  and  as  a  means  of 
understanding  these  changes,  they  have  defined  four  main 
categories  of  visual  expression. 

"Historic  expressionsim"  is  defined  as  personal  re- 
interpretation  of  ancient  conventions— the  subject  matter 
may  vary  widely,  but  the  approach  is  the  highly  structural, 
two-dimensional  technique  used  in  the  19th  century.  The 
front  and  back  cover  of  the  book  displays  a  work  from  this 
category,  Randy  Lee  White's  1980  "Custer's  Last  Stand 
Revisited."  White,  a  Sioux,  takes  the  well  known  Chey- 
enne painting  of  the  Battle  of  Little  Big  Horn,  and  trans- 
forms it  into  an  Indian  version  of  the  energy  crisis.  Junk 
cars  were  sold  to  the  naive  Sioux  by  businessmen  who 
neither  knew  nor  cared  that  Indians  had  no  gasoline.  The 
painting  depicts  the  rusting  cars  from  aerial  perspective, 
with  stylistic  Indians  attacking  soldiers  protecting  gas  cans. 

"Traditionalism"  embraces  the  type  of  art  most  often 
identified  by  the  public  as  "Indian."  Historic  native 
imagery  (ceremonial  dances,  buffalo  hunts)  is  presented 
in  a  two-dimensional  technique,  and  usually  depicts  ideal- 
ized versions  of  earlier  Indian  ways.  Ranee  Hood,  Coman- 
che, is  exceptional  at  "capturing  an  image  of  what  has 
been,  as  a  cultural  vision  of  what  can  be."  This  school  of 
painting  lies  at  the  center  of  a  heated  debate  over  what  con- 
stitutes "real"  Indian  art.  The  works  of  Ranee  Hood  and 
others  portray  a  lifeway  long  gone— is  it  authentic  for  a  con- 
temporary Indian  to  depict  events  he  has  not  experienced? 
Some  critics  demand  that  Indians  paint  only  their  tribal 
past,  and  only  in  accepted,  prescribed,  "Indian"  styles. 

"Modernism"  encompasses  those  contemporary  In- 
dian painters  or  sculptors  who  experiment  with  main- 
stream (i.e.,  non-Indian)  contemporary  art  techniques,  but 
retain  Indian  imagery.  The  techniques  vary  widely,  from 
photorealism  to  cubist  abstraction  but  the  subject  matter 
is  always  recognizably  Indian.  Social  commentary  abounds 
in  this  category.  One  of  the  most  effective  statements  of 
the  plight  of  the  Native  American  in  an  Anglo  world  is 
Navajo  Greg  Choe's  "Tocito  Waits  for  Boarding  School 
Bus."  Claw-like  hands  of  a  grandmother  image  clutch  at 
the  shoulders  of  a  young  Indian  boy  wearing  a  school 
beanie,  amid  hostile  and  malevolent  symbols  and  shadows. 


"Individualism"  cannot  be  distinguished  from  main- 
stream contemporary  art.  It  does  not  rely  on  any  traditional 
Indian  visual  techniques  or  on  Indian  imagery.  These  ar- 
tists are  at  the  core  of  the  heated  debate  on  Indian/non- 
Indian  art.  One  of  the  artists  representing  individualism 
is  Chippewa  George  Morrison,  an  abstract  expressionist 
who  regards  himself  as  an  "artist  who  is  Indian  rather  than 
an  Indian  artist."  Morrison's  "Landscapes"  is  a  large 
brilliantly  colored  non-representational  acrylic  painting 
which,  in  the  words  of  an  art  historian,  "celebrates  the 
wholeness  of  order  and  chaos,  instinct  and  intellect,  and 
man  and  nature." 

The  authors  are  sensitive  and  sympathetic  to  the  plight 
of  the  contemporary  Indian  artist.  They  feel  that  Indians 
have  been  expected  to  produce  artwork  that  meets  the 
Anglo  expectations  of  "Indianness,"  and  as  a  result,  In- 
dian painting  by  the  late  1960s  was  characterized  by  hollow 
commercialism.  However,  Indian  art  is  no  longer  soothing 
and  reassuring;  its  intention  is  to  disturb.  Conventional 
themes  of  ceremonies,  costumes,  rituals,  hunts  and  dances 
have  given  way  to  "social  commentary,  personal  inspira- 
tion and  abstract  experimentation." 

Dr.  Wade's  essay,  "The  Ethnic  Art  Market  and  the 
Dilemma  of  Innovative  Indian  Artists,"  explains  that  while 
the  art  market  offers  a  source  of  income  to  poor  com- 
munities, it  condones  the  selling  of  ethnicity  in  the  form 
of  stereotyped  handicrafts.  This  situation  has  become  a 
vicious  circle— Indians  provide  a  certain  type  of  product 
which  in  turn  the  Anglos  expect  and  regard  as  Indian  art, 
thereby  rejecting  innovative  Indian  art.  There  may  be  no 
room  in  the  ethnic  art  market  for  those  artists  who  move 
away  from  tourist  products. 

From  the  very  first,  Anglos  took  control  of  quality, 
styles  and  designs  by  organizing,  staging  and  ultimately 
judging  Indian  arts  and  crafts  exhibits.  Patrons  rewarded 
the  styles  they  had  encouraged  and  ignored  or  disqualified 
innovative  works.  Such  exhibits  were  ultimately  protested 
by  members  of  the  American  Indian  Movement  and  others 
who  believed  Indians  were  encouraged  to  "perpetuate  a 
false  Hollywood  image  of  their  traditional  life,"  to  turn 
their  private  ceremonies  into  public  carnivals. 

A  harsh  critic  (Indian)  of  contemporary  commercial  In- 
dian art  states:  "Indian  art  is  a  bundle  of  safe  decorative 
ideas  and  motifs  that  have  been  repeated  so  doggedly  they 
have  lost  all  ability  to  communicate  or  awaken  our  aesthetic 
senses  .  .  .  it  is  a  place  where  Indians  can  hide  when  they 
do  not  want  to  compete  with  the  great  artists  of  the  non- 
Indian  world."  On  the  other  hand,  traditional  arts  and 
crafts  are  still  a  source  of  pride  for  their  creators. 
Economically  they  have  helped  Indian  societies  survive  that 
otherwise  would  have  long  been  submerged  in  mainstream 
America. 

"Magic  Images:  The  Artists  and  Their  Work"  consists 
of  eleven  full  page  color  photographs  from  the  Philbrook 
exhibit.  The  bias  of  the  authors  is  evident— of  the  four 


59 


categories  discussed  above,  Individualism  is  represented 
by  six  works,  the  rest  by  one  or  two  each.  Each  of  the 
eleven  are  reproduced  again  in  a  smaller  black  and  white 
version  along  with  a  description  of  the  work  and  the  artist. 

The  final  essay,  "Beyond  the  Ethnic  Umbrella:  Learn- 
ing More  about  Contemporary  Indian  Painting  and  Sculp- 
ture" by  Rennard  Strickland,  is  a  guide  to  understanding 
and  appreciating  contemporary  Indian  art.  Basically,  he  has 
provided  the  reader  with  a  lengthy  annotated  bibliography 
of  the  major  sources  of  scholarship  on  Indian  painting  and 
sculpture.  It  includes  reference  books,  biographies,  auto- 
biographies, museum  guides,  art  histories  and  exhibition 
catalogues,  and  is  intelligently  arranged  by  subject  matter 
and  section  of  country.  This  section  alone  makes  this  book 
extremely  valuable  for  anyone  with  more  than  a  passing 
interest  in  Native  American  art. 

Having  explored  the  traditional  versus  innovative 
debate  from  several  angles,  the  authors  hope  that  the  issue 
will  cease  to  be  important.  They  feel  that  a  sound  analysis 
of  Indian  art  requires  the  joining  together  of  art,  an- 
thropology and  history.  "The  future  of  American  Indian 
art  lies  not  in  restrictive  thematic  or  stylistic  images,  but 
in  the  individual  visions  of  artists  attuned  to  native  value 
and  sensitivities."  Such  a  philosophy  is  to  be  valued,  not 
only  as  it  pertains  to  Indian  art,  but  to  all  creative 
endeavors. 

ELIZABETH  ROSENBERG 
The  reviewer  is  a  former  art  teacher  and  is  currently  a  free-lance  artist  and  drafts- 
person.  She  has  done  illustrations  for  a  previous  issue  of  Annals. 


Native  Faces:  Indian  Cultures  in  American  Art .  By  Patricia  Trenton  and  Patrick 
Houlihan.  (Los  Angeles:  Southwest  Museum,  1984)  Ulus.  117  pp.  $15.95. 

It  is  perhaps  unfair  to  expect  that  an  exhibition  catalog 
achieve  the  full  independence  of  a  book,  yet  at  their  best 
such  publications  do  rival  their  more  literary  counterparts 
in  quality  and  usefulness.  Inevitably,  however,  the  value 
of  such  a  publication  is  directly  related  to  the  form  and  con- 
tent of  the  exhibition  it  describes,  as  it  is  nearly  impossi- 
ble for  the  catalog  to  transcend  the  limits  imposed  by  the 
materials  exhibited.  Precisely  these  problems  are  illustrated 
by  Native  Faces,  the  catalog  of  an  exhibition  at  the 
Southwest  Museum  of  paintings  from  the  Los  Angeles 
Athletic  Club  collection  of  Indian  portraits. 

The  joint  authors  of  the  catalog  are  Patricia  Trenton, 
Curator  of  the  Los  Angeles  Athletic  Club  Collection  and 
Patrick  Houlihan,  Director  of  the  Southwest  Museum.  Pre- 
sumably selected  by  these  two  individuals,  the  exhibit 
presents  a  variety  of  portraits  of  Indians  by  Southwestern 
painters  accompanied  by  artifacts  from  the  museum  col- 
lection which  seem  to  have  some  relationship  to  the  con- 
tent of  the  paintings.  Photographs  of  Indian  subjects  (in- 
cluding some  which  served  as  models  for  the  paintings) 

60 


and  of  the  various  artists  are  also  included.  Like  the  ex- 
hibit itself,  the  catalog  text  represents  the  two  rather 
separate  interests  of  the  individual  authors  rather  than  a 
merger  into  a  common  purpose. 

Sponsored  by  the  Los  Angeles  Athletic  Club,  the  pur- 
pose of  Native  Faces  is  clearly  to  feature  the  club's  excellent 
portrait  collection.  Largely  painted  between  1895  and  1930, 
these  portraits  are  by  such  artists  as  Henry  Raschen  and 
Grace  Hudson  from  California;  Joseph  Sharp,  Ernest  Blu- 
menschein,  Oscar  Berninghaus,  Victor  Higgins  and  others 
of  the  Taos  and  Santa  Fe  groups  of  painters;  and  Edgar 
Paxson  and  John  Hauser  who  painted  Indians  of  Jhe  plains 
areas.  Though  nominally  representative  of  "Indian  cultures 
in  American  art,"  the  show  is  dominated  by  the  Taos-Santa 
Fe  painters  and  their  pueblo  dwelling  subjects. 

Though  ranging  in  style  and  content  from  the  rather 
illustrative,  "National  Geographic"  style  of  Grace  Hud- 
son or  Joseph  Sharp  to  the  more  expressionistic  manner 
of  Walter  Ufer  or  Victor  Higgins,  the  paintings  do  serve 
to  document  to  some  extent  the  continuing  fascination  of 
American  artists  with  native  subject  matter.  Of  most  in- 
terest in  this  regard  is  the  work  of  those  artists  associated 
with  Taos  and  Santa  Fe  during  years  when  those  com- 
munities became  a  hub  of  artistic  interest  in  primitivism, 
attracting  in  addition  to  the  painters  such  figures  as  Mable 
Dodge  Luhan  and  D.  H.  Lawrence.  As  a  documentary 
history  of  the  particular  movements  in  American  art  it 
represents,  the  show  suffers  limits  by  being  structured  en- 
tirely from  the  works  owned  by  the  LA  AC.  Had  art  history 
rather  than  club  ownership  been  the  organizing  principle, 
a  more  comprehensive  showing  could  have  been  assem- 
bled. 

As  the  interest  of  the  LAAC  is  revealed  in  the  fine  arts 
orientation  of  the  portraits,  the  anthropological  interests 
of  the  museum  are  highlighted  by  the  artifacts  and  photo- 
graphs selected  to  accompany  the  pictures.  In  many  in- 
stances, items  illustrated  in  paintings  are  simply  paralleled 
by  actual  objects  to  suggest  the  accuracy  of  the  artists 
renderings.  Ironically,  in  some  cases,  the  artifacts  are  more 
beautifully  presented  photographically  than  in  the  paint- 
ing, leaving  the  reader  to  wonder  exactly  what  is  to  be  con- 
cluded by  the  juxtaposition.  Similarly,  some  of  the 
photographs  seem  intrinsically  as  meritorious  as  the  paint- 
ing on  which  they  are  a  gloss.  An  opportunity  is  lost  when 
the  authors  largely  confine  their  commentary  to  the  paint- 
ings without  much  regard  for  the  photographs. 

The  text  of  Native  Faces  continues  the  reflection  of  two 
diverse  interests  revealed  in  the  selection  of  paintings  and 
artifacts.  Both  authors  speak  in  independent  voices,  Houli- 
han writing  as  an  anthropologist  and  interpreter  of  Indian 
life  and  Trenton  as  an  art  historian.  Each  contributes  a 
series  of  short  essays  on  the  portraits,  one  of  which  puts 
the  work  in  the  context  of  art  history,  the  other  in  the  con- 
text of  cultural  anthropology.  Since  the  portraits  were  con- 
ceived as  artistic  expressions,  not  as  anthropological  il- 


lustrations,  we  perhaps  learn  more  about  them  from  Tren- 
ton than  from  Houlihan.  For  example,  a  1965  painting  by 
Kenneth  Adams  is  commented  upon  in  terms  of  color, 
structure  and  technique  by  Trenton,  while  Houlihan's 
essay  comments  on  the  accuracy  of  detail  and  digresses 
to  take  us  inside  the  building  against  which  the  figure  is 
posed. 

In  summary,  Native  Faces  more  nearly  whets  the  ap- 
petite than  satisfies  it.  As  an  introduction  to  a  neglected 
minor  tradition  in  American  portraiture,  it  introduces  a 
group  of  painters  deserving  of  a  more  complete  showing. 
As  an  anthropological  introduction  to  native  American 
traditions,  it  offers  little  beyond  discursive  commentary  on 
the  life  behind  the  paintings.  As  a  book,. it  suffers  the  prob- 
lems of  a  catalog  without  the  virtures  of  a  comprehensive 
exhibition  behind  it. 

WILLIAM  E.  GRANT 
Grant  is  professor  of  English  and  American  Studies  and  is  Director  of  the  Center 
for  American  Studies  at  Bowling  Green  State  University. 


American  Forestry:  A  History  of  National,  State  &  Private  Cooperation.  By 
William  G.  Robbins.  (Lincoln:  University  of  Nebraska  Press,  1985)  In- 
dex. Bib.  270  pp.  $26.95. 

The  U.S.  Forest  Service  is  the  principal  forestry  agency 
of  the  United  States  government.  This  study  provides  a 
general  description  of  that  agency's  relations  with  public 
agencies  and  private  enterprises  to  the  present.  Mr.  Rob- 
bins  is  professor  of  history  at  Oregon  State  University,  and 
his  book  is  a  result  of  a  contract  with  the  Forest  Service 
to  provide  a  "history  of  the  agency's  cooperation  with 
states  and  private  individuals  and  companies."  However, 
the  author  is  quick  to  point  out  that  the  interpretive 
framework  is  his  own. 

The  study,  arranged  chronologically  and  thematically, 
traces  the  roots  of  federal  forestry  starting  with  the  appoint- 
ment of  Franklin  B.  Hough  as  the  government's  first  for- 
estry agent  under  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  1876. 
Hough's  task  was  to  quite  simply  study  the  condition  of 
the  nation's  forests.  From  these  humble  beginnings  grew 
the  Division  of  Forestry  in  1881,  which  achieved  bureau 
status  in  1901.  In  1905  it  was  renamed  the  Forest  Service 
and  63  million  acres  of  federal  forest  were  transferred  to 
the  Department  of  Agriculture.  Gifford  Pinchot  headed  the 
agency  during  these  key  years  and  was  chiefly  responsi- 
ble for  the  creation  of  the  Forest  Service  bureaucracy  that 
exists  today. 

Because  this  is  a  study  of  Forest  Service  cooperation 
rather  than  a  history  of  the  agency,  Robbins  only  provides 
a  brief  outline  of  the  origins  of  the  Forest  Service.  It  grew 
out  of  a  somewhat  tardy  realization  by  an  enlightened  sec- 
tor of  the  American  public  that  the  nation's  forests  had 
been  systematically  ravaged  by  the  lumber  industry  and 


early  settlers  with  little  or  no  thought  for  maintaining 
future  reserves  and  adequate  watershed.  Indeed,  during 
the  early  colonization  of  America,  forested  land  symbol- 
ized savagery,  the  antithesis  of  civilization  and  the  clear- 
ing of  forested  land  was  interpreted  as  progress. 

American  forestry  and  the  height  of  the  lumber  trade 
"came  of  age"  simultaneously  in  the  first  decade  of  the 
20th  century.  Annual  production  of  lumber  reached  an  all- 
time  high  in  1906  and  1907.  It  is  here  that  the  author  makes 
the  key  point  of  his  study.  First,  he  maintains  that  "... 
despite  the  popular  belief  that  the  John  Muirs,  the  Sierra 
Club,  and  the  Izaak  Walton  Leagues  determined  the 
character  of  the  conservation  movement  in  the  early  twen- 
tieth century,  recent  scholarship  clearly  shows  that  eco- 
nomic and  political  issues  defined  conservation  argu- 
ments and  policies."  Concerning  the  nation's  forests,  the 
lumber  industry  had  an  economic  interest  in  forest  fire  con- 
trol, "...  timberland  taxes,  duties  on  forest  products  im- 
ports, railroad  rates,  reforestation,  varying  sizes  and  grades 
of  lumber,  and  the  inefficient  utilization  of  wood."  How- 
ever, the  lumber  industry  was  only  interested  in  conser- 
vation measures  that  benefitted  it  from  an  economic  stand- 
point. As  Gifford  Pinchot  so  aptly  stated,  "We  must  show 
first  that  forestry  will  pay." 

Secondly,  Robbins  points  out  that  the  basic  philosophy 
of  the  Forest  Service  came  to  embody  a  spirit  of  coopera- 
tion with  the  lumber  industry  rather  than  one  of  regula- 
tion. This  philosophy  grew  out  of  the  agency's  early  need 
to  gain  industry  support  in  conservation  and  wise  use  of 
the  nation's  timber  resources.  The  two  chief  foresters  who 
served  from  1910  to  1928,  Henry  Graves  and  William 
Greeley,  were  sympathetic  to  the  lumber  interests  and  in 
return  received  their  support  in  lobbying  Congress  for 
needed  funding.  The  spirit  of  Forest  Service  cooperation 
with  private  industry  has  continued  to  the  present  day  with 
only  minor  interruptions,  chiefly  during  the  Great  De- 
pression. 

Therefore,  early  forest  conservation  legislation  reflects 
the  input  of  the  powerful  lumber  lobby  and  the  economic 
and  political  motivation  behind  the  laws.  For  instance,  the 
Weeks  Law  of  1911  grew  out  of  the  large  forest  fires  in  the 
Pacific  Northwest  in  1910  that  were  disastrous  to  the  lum- 
ber industry.  The  act  permitted  federal  cooperation  with 
states  to  protect  private  forestland  on  the  watershed  of 
navigable  streams.  The  Clarke-McNary  programs  of  the 
1920s  expanded  federal  assistance  to  states  for  fire  protec- 
tion by  providing  matching  funds  to  establish  nurseries, 
enlarge  the  national  forest  system  and  study  state  forest 
tax  policy.  More  importantly,  it  represented  a  victory  over 
those  forces  which  sought  to  use  the  Forest  Service  to 
regulate  industry.  Industry  leader  Royal  Kellogg  later  con- 
fided that  the  act  "established  '.  .  .  the  principle  of  federal 
cooperation'  and  routed  the  proponents  of  federal  regula- 
tion." Basically  the  lumber  industry  was  concerned  with 
fire  protection  and  had  little  interest  in  other  conservation 


measures  such  as  reforestation.  It  is  revealing  that  when 
Chief  Forester  Greeley  resigned  in  1928,  he  accepted  an 
executive  position  with  the  West  Coast  Lumbermen's 
Association. 

Forest  Service  cooperative  programs  were  perhaps 
most  evident  during  the  Great  Depression  when  the  Ci- 
vilian Conservation  Corps  was  created  to  provide  unem- 
ployment relief,  and  the  shelterbelt  tree  planting  program 
was  employed  to  abate  prevailing  winds  and  lessen  soil 
erosion.  The  outbreak  of  World  War  II  ended  these  pro- 
grams as  war  mobilization  absorbed  the  unemployment 
roles.  Chief  Forester  Silcox  hinted  at  regulatory  measures 
to  assure  "that  lumbermen  conducted  themselves  in  a 
socially  responsible  manner."  However,  in  practice,  the 
Forest  Service  and  private  industry  continued  to  cooperate, 
and  President  Roosevelt  ordered  all  regulatory  proposals 
shelved  with  the  outbreak  of  war.  Wartime  priorities 
shifted  to  maximum  production  and  fire  control. 

The  author  describes  in  great  detail  the  various  co- 
operative programs  engaged  in  by  the  Forest  Service  after 
World  War  II  to  the  present.  Of  greatest  interest  is  the 
Multiple  Use-Sustained  Yield  Act  of  1960  which  directed 
the  Forest  Service  to  consider  all  potential  uses,  including 
recreation  and  protection  of  cultural  resources  when  de- 
veloping management  plans.  The  Forest  Pest  Control  Act 
of  1947  offered  federal  technical  and  financial  assistance 
to  state  forestry  agencies  to  control  insect  outbreaks.  The 
Forest  Service  ultimately  drew  harsh  criticism  from  citi- 
zens' groups,  spurred  by  the  publication  of  Rachel  Car- 
son's Silent  Spring  in  1962,  for  the  spraying  of  harmful 
pesticides  like  DDT.  The  Forest  Service  generally  denied 
the  harmful  effects  and  aligned  itself  against  these  con- 
cerned groups.  Robbins  spends  little  time  discussing  the 
role  of  the  Forest  Service  in  administering  important  en- 
vironmental legislation  of  the  1960s  such  as  the  National 
Environmental  Policy  Act  of  1969  and  clean  air  and  water 
acts. 

The  work  is  well  researched  with  fully  referenced  end- 
notes. While  the  author  uses  numerous  examples  of  Forest 
Service  cooperative  programs  in  individual  states  such  as 
Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Washington,  Oregon  and  Califor- 
nia, there  are  no  references  to  Wyoming  or  the  Rocky 
Mountain  region  which  would  lend  relevance  to  readers 
in  this  area.  The  author  presents  a  myriad  of  factual 
material  utilizing  a  spare  and  somewhat  dry  writing  style 
not  conducive  to  enjoyable  reading.  However,  his  main 
points  are  summarized  at  the  end  of  each  chapter,  and  the 
epilogue  provides  an  excellent  summary  of  the  entire  work. 
The  study  is  perhaps  best  used  as  a  reference  tool  which 
includes  material  not  previously  compiled  in  one  source. 

ROBERT  G.  ROSENBERG 
The  reviewer  is  a  private  historical  consultant  who  has  previously  written  ar- 
ticles for  Annals  of  Wyoming. 


The  Resewation  Blackfeet,  1885-1945:  A  Photographic  History  of  Cultural  Sur- 
vival. By  William  E.  Fair.  (Seattle:  University  of  Washington  Press,  1984) 
Index.  Bib.  Illus.  Maps.  232  pp.  $19.95. 

In  the  preface  to  a  World  History  of  Photography  (1984) 
Naomi  Rosenblum  writes,  "Because  of  their  ubiquity, 
photographs  .  .  .  have  served  to  confuse  and  to  clarify, 
to  lull  and  to  energize.  Interposed  between  people  and 
their  direct  experiences,  they  often  seem  to  glorify  ap- 
pearance over  substance."  It  is  exactly  that  glorification  of 
appearance  over  substance  which  informs  most  of  the  work 
of  frontier  photographers  who  settled  in  the  West  during 
the  pioneer  phase  and  who  augmented  their  portraits  of 
farmers,  ranchers  and  cowboys  with  photographs  of  Native 
Americans. 

Often  these  frontier  photographers  deliberately  manip- 
ulated Native  American  portraits  to  conform  to  stereotypes 
of  "Indianness"  to  show  Indians  not  as  they  were  but  as 
white  men  wanted  to  see  them— a  "vanishing  race"  lamen- 
tably being  destroyed  by  the  inexorable  advance  of 
civilization. 

Even  the  survey  photographers  like  W.  H.  Jackson, 
Timothy  O'Sullivan  and  John  K.  Hillers,  who  went  West 
on  government  sponsored  surveys  like  the  Hayden,  the 
Wheeler  and  the  King  Expeditions,  were  not  immune  from 
posing  Indians  as  they  thought  best.  Karen  Current  in 
Photography  and  the  Old  West  (1978)  writes  that  "...  the 
Indians  were  grouped,  scattered,  dressed,  undressed  (some 
with  just  one  breast  visible),  and  re-dressed."  As  eminent 
a  scientist  and  geographer  as  John  Wesley  Powell  clothed 
"some  of  the  Southern  Paiute  Indians  in  buckskin  and 
beaded  dresses  native  to  the  Northern  Utes." 

The  continuous  19th  century  confusion  between  race 
and  culture  and  the  absolute  paucity  of  Native  American 
photographs  taken  by  Native  Americans  makes  The  Reser- 
vation Blackfeet  an  extraordinary  study  and  one  of  great 
value  to  historians,  anthropologists  and  everyone  in- 
terested in  photographic  history.  The  premise  of  the  book 
is  very  simple.  Unlike  most  published  studies  of  Indian 
photographs,  this  book  is  comprised  of  snapshots  by  naive 
amateurs  who  captured  aspects  of  reservation  life  that  the 
professional,  ethnographic-oriented  photographers  had 
conspicuously  ignored. 

Photographers  like  William  Sheriff  Curtis,  author  of 
the  multi-volume  The  North  American  Indian,  spent  years 
trying  to  arrange  a  particular  photograph  of  three  Piegan 
(Blackfeet)  chiefs  near  a  small  buffalo  wallow  during  high 
summer  as  clouds  scuttled  across  the  horizon.  Curtis  was 
extremely  proud  of  this  photo  because  of  its  symbolism, 
yet  the  composition  had  been  invented  by  Curtis  and  did 
not  reflect  a  spontaneous  meeting  of  the  three  chiefs  nor 
any  aspect  of  the  contemporary  culture  of  the  Blackfeet. 

This  book,  The  Reservation  Blackfeet,  is  entirely  different 
because  it  was  developed  with  the  approval  and  support 
of  the  Johnson-O'Mally  Committee,  Browning,  Montana, 
and  the  Blackfeet  Elders  Honorary  Council.  Unlike  late  19th 


62 


and  early  20th  century  photographers  who  engaged  in 
"salvage  ethnography"  to  capture  lifestyles  and  customs 
which  had  generally  ceased  to  exist,  the  amateur  photog- 
raphers who  contributed  to  this  book  show  life  on  the 
reservation  as  it  was  actually  lived.  The  images  are  in  sharp 
contrast  to  the  popular  myth  of  the  Blackfoot  warrior  seated 
on  a  painted  horse,  wearing  a  beaded  necklace  and  car- 
rying a  feathered  lance. 

For  instance  there  is  nothing  romantic  about  the  photo- 
graphs "Issuing  old  clothing  at  Old  Agency,  1880s," 
"Issue  day  for  beef  rations  at  Blackfeet  Agency"  or 
"Reaching  for  entrails  at  the  agency  slaughterhouse." 
These  photos  are  extremely  important,  however,  because 
they  show  a  society  in  transition  as  do  the  images  "Sew- 
ing class,  Cut  Bank  Boarding  School,  1907,"  "Baking  bread 
at  the  Willow  Creek  School,  ca.  1907"  and  the  football  ac- 
tion shot  of  "James  Bad  Marriage  running  around  end,  Fort 
Shaw,  ca.  1915." 

William  Farr's  text  gives  the  photographs  meaning  and 
significance  by  explaining  them  in  context.  University  of 
Montana  historian  Farr  describes  the  snapshot-quality  of 
these  photos  and  the  aesthetic  of  the  amateurs  who  created 
this  valuable  photographic  record.  In  their  eagerness  to 
photograph  Indians  they  paid  little  attention  to  formal 
composition. 

Farr  writes,  "Aiming  and  clicking,  they  took  pictures 
of  cow  camps,  picnics,  Fourth  of  July  races,  straight-eight 
Buicks,  and  kids  .  .  .  They  blinked  in  dismay  when  their 
prints  came  back  with  trees  emerging  from  heads,  feet  cut 
off,  foreheads  blurred  .  .  .  yet  these  shortcomings  should 
not  concern  us  for  in  the  end  they  brought  home  to  albums 
and  drawing  room  boxes  pieces  of  a  tribal  history." 

The  Reservation  Blackfeet,  1882-1945  is  a  seminal  work 
which  reflects  visual  anthropology  at  its  best.  What  pro- 
fessional photographers  failed  to  accomplish  because  they 


failed  to  see  the  mammoth  social  transformation  to  reser- 
vation life,  was  accomplished  by  amateurs  who  had  no  pre- 
tensions about  their  work.  This  may  be  one  of  the  most 
important  tribal  histories  ever  published;  initial  research 
was  undertaken  by  teachers  at  Browning  School  District 
No.  9  to  help  young  Native  Americans  learn  their  tribal 
past. 

The  high  school  students  were  third-generation  de- 
scendants of  Blackfeet  who  had  lived  on  the  reservation 
yet  they  had  no  conception  of  their  own  roots  and  their 
own  history.  As  the  teachers  sought  photographs  to  help 
Indian  youth  understand  reservation  life,  ".  .  .a  haunt- 
ing, vital  question  underlay  so  many  glances,  so  many  ac- 
tions and  decisions:  how  much  could  Indian  people  change 
and  yet  remain  essentially  Indian?  Phrased  in  its  crudest 
and  most  obvious  form,  if  you  don't  look  like  a  stereotype 
Indian,  can  you  be  one?" 

As  Farr  notes  in  the  preface  to  the  book,  "This  con- 
flict between  change  and  cultural  survival  surfaced  as  the 
central  theme  of  this  photographic  history."  The  Reserva- 
tion Blackfeet,  1882-1945  is  a  major  scholarly  work  on  several 
levels— visual  anthropology,  photographic  history  and 
social  history.  The  book  also  fulfills  tenets  of  local  history 
by  aiding  people  in  comprehending  and  assimilating  their 
own  past.  The  photographs  are  carefully  reproduced,  the 
few  maps  are  essential  and  the  index  provides  easy 
reference. 

The  Blackfeet  Elders  Honorary  Council,  Farr  and  the 
University  of  Washington  Press  should  all  be  commended 
for  this  important  contribution  to  Western  history  which 
provides  an  intimate  look  at  a  proud  people  and  an  in- 
valuable analysis  of  a  society  in  transition. 

ANDREW  GULLIFORD 
Gulliford  is  in  the  American  Culture  Ph.D.  program  at  Bowling  Green  State 
University. 


o3 


INDEX 


Albrin,  Lot  B.,  review  of  Washakie:  A  Wyoming  County  History,  55 
American  Forestry:  A  History  of  National,  State  and  Private  Cooperation,  by 

William  G.  Robbins,  review,  61-62 
American  Immigration  and  Distribution  League  of  New  York  City,  26 
American  Protective  Association,  24 
American  Protestantism  and  United  States  Indian  Policy,  1869-82,  by  Robert 

H.  Keller,  Jr.,  review,  57-58 
Amoretti,  Eugene  Jr.,  25;  photo,  26 
Armstrong,  Walt,  4 
Arnold,  C.  P.,  10-12;  photo,  11 


B 

Bachman,  Dona  R.,  review  of  A  Day  at  a  Time:  The  Diary  Literature  of 

American  Women  from  1764  to  the  Present,  58 

Baird,  Miss ,  3 

Bauman,   Paula,   M.,    "Single   Women   Homesteaders   in  Wyoming, 

1880-1930,"  39-51;  biog.,  68 
Beecher,  Catherine,  44-45 
Beitel,  Alice,  10 
Bender,  Dora,  3 
Blackburn,  Quin  A.,  16 

Blair,  Mrs. ,  6 

Blakesly, ,  4 

Bosler,  Frank  C,  26 

Bresnahen,  Lawrence  R.,  25 

Briggs,  Charles  Augustus,  9-10,  12-13 

Brink,  Beverly  Elaine,  Wyoming-Land  of  the  Echoing  Canyons,  review,  54 

Brooks,  Bryant  B.,  26,  31 

Brooks,  Mary  (Mrs.  Bryant  B.),  31 

Bryan,  William  Jennings,  13 

Buffalo  Basin,  Wyoming,  2 

Buffalo  Centennial  Book  Committee,  Buffalo's  First  Century,  review,  55-56 

Buffalo's  First  Century,  by  the  Buffalo  Centennial  Book  Committee,  review, 

55-56 


D 

Dale,  Harrison  C,  28 

A  Day  at  a  Time:  The  Diary  Literature  of  American  Women  from  1764  to  the 
Present,  edited  and  with  an  introduction  by  Margo  Culley,  review,  58 
Debs,  Eugene  V.,  13 
Deike,  Frederika,  43,  47 
DeLap,  Dave,  16 
Denver  Express,  27 
DePirro,  Andy,  16 
Desert  Land  Act  of  1877,  41 
Dictionary  of  Races  or  Peoples,  22 
Dillingham  Commission,  22,  26 

Dillingham,  Sen. 22 

Donnell,  James,  2 
Douglas  Budget,  28 
Dustin,  George,  4 


Eaton,  Edna  Norris,  45 


Farr,  Burr,  3-4 

Farr,  Ermon,  6 

Farr,  Lois,  6 

Farr,  William  E.,  The  Resewation  Blackfeet,  1885-1945:  A  Photographic  History 

of  Cultural  Survival,  review,  62-63 
Fell,  Bessie,  41-42,  46 
Flint,  Leona,  3 
Foight,  Harry,  3-4 
Fox,  Bessie,  41,  45 
Francis,  Jack,  6 
Francis,  Marie,  6 
Frank,  Meyer,  25;  photo,  25 

Friesen,  Gerald,  The  Canadian  Prairies-A  History,  review,  56-57 
Fryxell,  Fritioff  M.,  16-19 


c 

Calico  Hill,  47 

Cameron,  K.  O.,  3 

The  Canadian  Prairies— A  History,  by  Gerald  Friesen,  review,  56-57 

Cardoso,  Lawrence  A.,  "Nativism  in  Wyoming,  1868  to  1930,"  20-38;  biog., 

68 
Carey  Act,  41 

Carey,  Robert  B.,  26,  30,  32-33;  photo,  30 
Carey,  Sen.  Joseph  M.,  26;  photo,  30 
Casper  Daily  Tribune,  34 
Casper  Record,  27 
Cheyenne  Daily  Leader,  21 
Claypool,  Sarah  Barbara,  47 
Close,  Ralph,  4 
Connell,  Evan  S.,  Son  of  the  Morning  Star,  Custer  and  the  Little  Bighorn, 

review,  56 
Crumrine,  Eli,  10,  12;  photo,  13 
Culbertson,  Mary,  41,  44-45,  47 
Culley,  Margo,  A  Day  at  a  Time:  The  Diary  Literature  of  American  Women 

from  1764  to  the  Present,  review,  58 


Gladden,  Rev.  Washington,  9 

Grand  Teton  National  Park,  16-19 

Grand  Tetons,  Wyoming,  16-19 

Grant,  William  E.,  review  of  Native  Faces:  Indian  Cultures  in  American  Art, 

60-61 
Grass  Creek  Dome,  Wyoming,  2-6;  photo,  2 
Greason,  Ralph,  4 
Gulliford,  Andrew,  review  of  The  Resenrntion  Blackfeet,   1885-1945:  A 

Photographic  Histon/  of  Survival,  62-63 

u 

Haines,  Joe  D.  Jr.,  M.D.,  "John  D.  Haines  Oklahoma's  Pioneer  Moun- 
taineer in  the  Tetons,"  16-19;  biog.,  68 
Haines,  John,  16-19;  photo,  19 
Hayford,  Judge  James  H.,  10-11 
Henrichs,  Walter,  6 
Henry,  J.  S.,  3 
Herring,  Mary,  2 
Hidy,  Minnie,  41,  45 
Histon/  of  Cheyenne  and  Northern  Wyoming,  by  J.  H.  Triggs,  21 


65 


Hitchcock,  Roswell  D.,  9,  11 
Hogbin,  A.  C,  12 

Holcomb,  Mrs. ,  3 

Houlihan,  Patrick,  Native  Faces:  Indian  Cultures  in  American  Art,  review  60-61 

Houx,  Acting  Gov.  Frank,  28 

Howard,  John,  11 

Howell,  Helen  Coburn,  41,  44,  47 

Hoyt,  Gov.  John  W.,  23-24 

Huff,  Lloyd,  4 

Huff,  Roy,  4 

Huss,  John,  9 

J 

Jenny  Lake,  Wyoming,  16-18;  photo,  19 

"John  D.  Haines  Oklahoma's  Pioneer  Mountaineer  in  the  Tetons,"  by  Joe 

D.  Haines,  Jr.,  M.D.,  16-19 
Jolly  Dry  Farmers,  47 


o 

Ohio  Oil  Company,  2-6 

O'Kieffe,  Charley,  42 

O'Kieffe,  Mary,  42 

Oliver,  Darrell,  6 

Olsen,  Hattie  A.,  45 

O'Mahoney,  Joseph  C,  31;  photo,  32 

Orr,  Irene,  3 

Owen,  William  O.,  16 


Parkhurst,  Rev.  Charles  H.,  9,  11;  photo,  13 

Pendergraft,  Ray,  Washakie:  A  Wyoming  County  History,  review,  55 

Petersen,  Frank  L.,  16 

Peterson,  Emma,  42 

Presbyterian  Church,  11-12;  photo,  12 


K 

Keen,  Vesta,  42 

Keller,  Robert  H.  Jr.,  American  Protestantism  and  United  States  Indian  Policy, 

1869-82,  review,  57-58 
Kendrick,  John  B.,  26-27,  32 
Ku  Klux  Klan,  31-32 


Lampitt,  Albert  (Bert),  3-4 

Lang,  Lula,  3 

Laramie  Semi-Weekly  Boomerang,  27 

Lee,  Grace,  3 

Lewis,  Zeke,  6 

Lyons,  Blanche,  41,  45 

M 

McClure,  Phil,  6 

McCrady,  George,  2-6 

McCrady,  John,  6 

McCrady,  Kathryn,  6 

McFadden,  Jack,  2-3 

McGeth,  Jack,  4 

McLauchlin,  Susan  J.,  47-48,  51 

Magic  Images:  Contemporary  Native  American  Art,  by  Edwin  L.  Wade  and 

Rennard  Strickland,  review,  58-60 
Malone,  Tommy,  4 

Mann,  Mr.  and  Mrs. ,  3 

"Memories  of  an  Oil  Field,"  by  Elizabeth  Nuhn,  2-7 

Midwest,  Wyoming,  2,  6 

Mondell,  Rep.  Frank,  28,  31,  33-34;  photo,  28 

Mondell  Revisory  Law  of  1909,  41 

Moore,  William  H.,  "Voice  in  the  Wilderness:  H.  V.  Rominger  and  the 

Social  Gospel  in  the  West,"  2-15;  biog.,  68 
Moravian  Movement,  9 
Morton,  Mrs.  Katharine,  3 
Murphy,  Alma,  2 
Myers,  Patty,  review  of  Buffalo's  First  Century,  55-56 

N 

Native  Faces:  Indian  Cultures  in  American  Art,  by  Patricia  Trenton  and  Patrick 

Houlihan,  review,  60-61 
"Nativism  in  Wyoming,  1868  to  1930,"  by  Lawrence  A.  Cardoso,  20-38 
Nelson,  Aven,  32 
Nuhn,  Elizabeth,  "Memories  of  an  Oil  Field,"  2-7;  biog.,  68 


Quealey,  Patrick  J.,  26 


R 


Rauschenbusch,  Walter,  9 

Reed,  Billy,  4 

Reed,  Ed,  4 

The  Reservation  Blackfeet,  1885-1945:  A  Photographic  History  of  Cultural  Sur- 
vival, by  William  E.  Farr,  review,  62-63 

Robbins,  Alma,  6 

Robbins,  Lloyd,  4 

Robbins,  William  G.,  American  Forestry:  A  History  of  National  State  and 
Private  Cooperation,  review,  61-62 

Rock  Springs  Massacre,  24;  photo,  24 

Rock  Springs  Rocket,  27,  34 

Rollins,  Linda  G.,  review  of  Wyoming-Land  of  the  Echoing  Canyons,  54 

Rominger,  Alice,  10,  14 

Rominger,  Henry  Virgil,  9-14 

Rosenberg,  Elizabeth,  review  of  Magic  Images:  Contemporary  Native  American 
Art,  58-60 

Rosenberg,  Robert  G.,  review  of  American  Forestry:  A  History  of  National, 
State  and  Private  Cooperation,  61-62 

Ross,  Edward  Allsworth,  28 

Ross,  Gov.  William  B.,  31;  photo,  31 

Ruskin,  John,  11 


Sacco,  Nicola,  13 

Schenck,  Roy,  26 

Sealy,  Shakespeare  E.,  24 

Seaton,  W.  C,  3 

Sheridan  Post,  28 

Shive,  John,  16 

"Single  Women  Homesteaders  in  Wyoming,  1880-1930,"  by  Paula  M. 

Bauman,  39-51 
Slosson,  Edwin  E.,  10,  12;  photo,  13 
Smiley,  Elmer  E.,  10 
Smith,  Florence  Blake,  41,  43-47 
Smotherman,  Gerald,  4 
Snyder,  Oscar,  6 
Son  of  the  Morning  Star,  Custer  and  the  Little  Bighorn,  by  Evan  S.  Connell, 

review,  56 
Spalding,  Franklin  S.,  16 

Split  Ticket  Association  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  26 
Standolind  Oil  Co.,  4 
St.  Clair,  E.  D.,  3 


66 


Stewart,  Elinore  Pruitt,  42-43,45-46 

Stewart,  Clyde,  43,  46 

Strickland,  Rennard,  Magic  Images:  Contemporary/  Native  American  Art, 

review,  58-60 
Stuckenberg,  J.  H.  W.,  9,  11 


Tate,  Michael  L.,  review  of  American  Protestantism  and  United  States  In- 
dian Policy,  1869-82,  57-58 

Taylor,  Dr ,  4 

Thomas,  Dr.  ,  4 

Thompson,  Burton,  review  of  Son  of  the  Morning  Star,  Custer  and  the  Little 
Bighorn,  56 

Timber  Culture  Act  of  1873,  40 

Trenton,  Patricia,  Native  Faces:  Indian  Cultures  in  American  Art,  review  60-61 

Triggs,  J.  H„  21 


U 


Union  Presbyterian  Church,  10 


V 


Vagner,  Charles  L.,  25;  photo,  25 


Vanzetti,  Bartolomeo,  13 

"Voice  in  the  Wilderness:  H.  V.  Rominger  and  the  Social  Gospel  in  the 
West,"  by  William  H.  Moore,  2-15;  biog.,  66 

W 

Wade,  Edwin  L.,  Magic  Images:  Contemporary  Native  American  Art,  review, 

58-60 
Walker,  G.  S.,  23 

Walker,  Mary  C,  review  of  The  Canadian  Prairies-A  History,  56-57 
Wanamaker,  Cora,  27 

Warren,  Sen.  Francis  E.,  21,  33-34;  photo,  22 

Washakie:  A  Wyoming  County  History,  by  Ray  Pendergraft,  review,  55 
Waslingford,  Elmer,  4 
Watkins,  Ida,  47 
Weland,  John,  4 
Williams,  Edgar,  4 
Wilson,  Pres.  Woodrow,  27,  34 
Winter,  Charles  E.,  31;  photo,  31 
Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union  (WCTU),  11 
Wyoming  Industrial  Journal,  23 

Wyoming-Land  of  the  Echoing  Canyons,  by  Beverly  Elaine  Brink,  review,  54 
Wyoming  Publicity  Association,  26 


67 


CONTRIBUTORS 


PAULA  M.  BAUMAN  has  served  as  Director  of  the 
Cheyenne  Frontier  Days  Museum  since  1983.  In  that  time, 
she  has  created  many  interesting  and  informative  exhibits 
and  has  hosted  a  number  of  important  art  shows.  Her  fam- 
ily has  lived  in  Wyoming  for  five  generations  and  presently 
is  engaged  in  ranching  in  the  eastern  part  of  Laramie 
County.  Bauman  received  both  her  Bachelor's  and  Master's 
degrees  from  the  University  of  Wyoming. 


LAWRENCE  A.  CARDOSO  is  an  Associate  Professor  of 
History  at  the  University  of  Wyoming.  Originally  from 
Connecticut,  he  obtained  his  Ph.D.  there  in  1974.  He  has 
published  extensively  and  his  list  of  scholarly  efforts  in- 
cludes the  book  Mexican  Emigration  to  the  United  States  done 
by  the  University  of  Arizona  Press  in  Tucson. 


JOE  D.  HAINES,  Jr.  is  a  physician  and  rancher  in 
Skiatook,  Oklahoma.  His  interest  in  histor/  includes 
membership  in  the  Hominy,  Oklahoma  Heritage  Associa- 
tion and  in  the  Oklahoma  Historical  Society.  He  has 
authored  ten  historical  and  four  medical  articles. 


WILLIAM  H.  MOORE  is  currently  an  Associate  Professor 
of  History  at  the  University  of  Wyoming,  with  an  emphasis 
on  20th  Century  U.S.  events.  He  is  particularly  interested 
in  the  post  World  War  II  period.  Moore  has  authored  a 
number  of  articles  and  in  1974,  the  University  of  Missouri 
Press  published  his  book,  The  Kefauver  Committee  and  the 
Politics  of  Crime. 


ELIZABETH  NUHN  is  a  retired  teacher  who  began  her 
career  in  Byron  and  Lovell  schools.  She  has  belonged  to 
several  literary  organizations  and  has  authored  three 
books,  on  two  occasions,  serving  as  a  co-author.  She  lists 
painting,  writing  and  reading  as  leisure  time  activities. 


68 


WYOMING  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society  was  organized  in  October,  1953. 
Membership  is  open  to  anyone  interested  in  history.  County  chapters  of  the  society 
have  been  chartered  in  most  of  the  twenty-three  counties  of  Wyoming.  Past 
presidents  of  the  society  include;  Frank  Bowron,  Casper,  1953-55;  William  L. 
Marion,  Lander,  1955-56;  Dr.  DeWitt  Dominick,  Cody,  1956-57;  Dr.  T.  A.  Lar- 
son, Laramie,  1957-58;  A.  H.  MacDougall,  Rawlins,  1958-59;  Mrs.  Thelma  G.  Con- 
dit,  Buffalo,  1959-60;  E.  A.  Littleton,  Gillette,  1960-61;  Edness  Kimball  Wilkins, 
Casper,  1961-62;  Charles  Ritter,  Cheyenne,  1962-63;  Neal  E.  Miller,  Rawlins, 
1963-65;  Mrs.  Charles  Hord,  Casper,  1965-66;  Glenn  Sweem,  Sheridan,  1966-67; 
Adrian  Reynolds,  Green  River,  1967-68;  Curtiss  Root,  Torrington,  1968-69;  Mrs. 
Hattie  Burnstad,  Worland,  1969-70;  J.  Reuel  Armstrong,  Rawlins,  1970-71;  William 
R.  Dubois,  Cheyenne,  1971-72;  Henry  F.  Chadey,  Rock  Springs,  1972-73;  Richard 
S.  Dumbrill,  Newcastle,  1973-74;  Henry  Jensen,  Casper,  1974-75;  Jay  Brazelton, 
Jackson,  1975-76;  Ray  Pendergraft,  Worland,  1976-77;  David  J.  Wadsen,  Cody, 
1977-78;  Mabel  Brown,  Newcastle,  1978-79;  James  June,  Green  River,  1979-80; 
William  F.  Bragg,  Jr.,  Casper,  1980-81;  Don  Hodgson,  Torrington,  1981-82,  Clara 
Jensen,  Lysite-Casper,  1982-83;  Fern  Gaensslen,  Green  River,  1983-84;  Dave 
Kathka,  Rock  Springs,  1984-85. 


Membership  information  may  be  obtained  from  the  Executive  Headquarters, 
Wyoming  State  Historical  Society,  Barrett  Building,  Cheyenne,  Wyoming  82002. 
Dues  in  the  state  society  are: 

Life  Membership  $100 

Joint  Life  Membership  (husband  and  wife) $150 

Annual  Membership $5 

Joint  Annual  Membership  (two  persons  of  same  family 

at  same  address) $7 

Institutional  Membership $10 


President,  Mary  Garman,  Sundance 

First  Vice  President,  Ellen  Mueller,  Cheyenne 
1985-1986  Second  Vice  President,  Mary  Nielsen,  Cody 

Officers  Secretary-Treasurer,  Loren  Jost,  Riverton 

Executive-Secretary,  Dr.  Robert  D.  Bush 

Coordinator,  Judy  West 


a4 


NNALS  of 
WYOMING 

Volume  58,  No.  2  Fall,  1986 


THE  WYOMING  STATE  ARCHIVES,  MUSEUMS  AND  HISTORICAL  DEPARTMENT 

The  function  of  the  Wyoming  State  Archives,  Museums  and  Historical  Department  is 
to  collect  and  preserve  materials  which  tell  the  story  of  Wyoming.  It  maintains  the  state's 
historical  library  and  research  center,  the  Wyoming  State  Museum  and  branch  museums, 
the  State  Art  Gallery  and  the  State  Archives.  The  Department  solicits  original  records  such 
as  diaries,  letters,  books,  early  newspapers,  maps,  photographs  and  art  and  records  of  early 
businesses  and  organizations  as  well  as  artifacts  for  museum  display.  The  Department  asks 
for  the  assistance  of  all  Wyoming  citizens  to  secure  these  documents  and  artifacts.  Depart- 
ment facilities  are  designed  to  preserve  these  materials  from  loss  and  deterioration.  The  State 
Historic  Preservation  Office  is  also  located  in  the  Department. 


WYOMING  STATE  LIBRARY,  ARCHIVES,  MUSEUMS  AND  HISTORICAL  BOARD 

Frank  Bowron,  Casper,  Chairman 

Lucille  Clarke  Dumbrill,  Newcastle 

Dave  Paulley,  Cheyenne 

Mary  Sawaya,  Kemmerer 

Tom  Mangan,  Laramie 

Bill  Bruce  Hines,  Gillette 

Marion  Barngrover,  Worland 

Gladys  Hill,  Douglas 

Mary  Guthrie,  Attorney  General's  Office,  Ex-officio 


EDITORIAL  ADVISORY  BOARD 

Dona  Bachman 

James  Donahue 

Rick  Ewig 

Mark  Junge 

Linda  Rollins 

Ellen  Mueller,  Ex-officio 
President,  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society 

Frank  Bowron,  Ex-officio 
Chairman,  State  Library,  Archives,  Museums  and  Historical  Board 


ABOUT  THE  COVER— An  early  photograph  of  "Old  Main,  "  when  it  housed  the  entire  University 
of  Wyoming.  Wyoming  Territorial  Governor  Francis  E.  Warren  signed  the  act  authorizing  the  establish- 
ment of  the  University  on  March  4,  1886.  The  bill  also  appropriated  $50,000  for  the  construction  of 
a  building,  which  would  become  known  as  Old  Main.  Construction  began  in  1886,  with  the  cornerstone 
being  laid  September  27,  1886.  One  year  later  the  University  opened  its  doors  to  students.  Today,  Old 
Main  is  one  of  Wyoming's  most  distinctive  public  buildings  and  is  on  the  National  Register  of  Historic 
Places. 


The  editorial  staff  of  Annals  of  Wyoming  dedicate  this  issue  to  Bill  Bar- 
ton, who  died  September  21,  1986.  Bill  worked  for  the  Wyoming  State 
Archives,  Museums  and  Historical  Department  since  1975.  Beginning  as 
a  research  historian,  he  eventually  became  head  of  the  Historical  Research 
and  Publications  Division.  Bill's  responsibilities  included  serving  as 
Managing  Editor  of  the  Wyoming  State  Press,  which  produces  numerous 
historical  publications  including  the  Calendar  of  Wyoming  History.  Bill 
was  Editor  of  Annals  of  Wyoming  since  1981. 


NNALS  of  WYOMING 


Volume  58,  No.  2 
Fall,  1986 


GOVERNOR  OF  WYOMING 

Ed  Herschler 

DIRECTOR 

Dr.  Robert  D.  Bush 

EDITOR 

William  H.  Barton 

ASSISTANT  EDITORS 

Jean  Brainerd 
Rick  Ewig 
Roger  Joyce 
Ann  Nelson 

EDITORIAL  ASSISTANTS 

Kathy  Martinez 
Judy  West 

PHOTOGRAPHIC 
ASSISTANTS 

Paula  West-Chavoya 
Carroll  Jones 
Ed  Fowler 


WYOMING  STATE  PRESS 
MANAGING  EDITOR 

William  H.  Barton 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


FORT  LARAMIE  HIJINKS: 

A  New  Manuscript  Account 
by  Thomas  B.  Brumbaugh 


MISPERCEPTION  AND  PUBLIC  POLICY: 
A  Case  Study  Based  on  the  Annual 
Reports  of  the  Commissioners  of 

Indian  Affairs,  1829-1890 

by  Robert  L.  Munkres 


10 


WYOMING'S  SENATOR  JOHN  BENJAMIN  KENDRICK: 
The  Politics  of  Oil,  Public  Land  and 

National  Park  Legislation  in  the  1920s 22 

by  Eugene  T.  Carroll 

EDUCATION  FOR  HEAD  OR  HAND? 

Land  Grant  Universities  of  Utah  and  Wyoming 30 

by  D.  Teddy  Diggs 

WYOMING'S  TRUSS  BRIDGES 46 

by  Rheba  C.  Massey  and  Rick  Ewig 

REVIEWS  55 

CONTRIBUTORS  61 

INDEX 62 


ANNALS  OF  WYOMING  is  published  biannually  in  the  Spring  and  Fall  by  the  Wyoming 
State  Press.  It  is  received  by  all  members  of  the  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society  as  the  of- 
ficial publication  of  that  organization.  Copies  of  previous  and  current  issues  rn.iv  be  purchased 
from  the  Editor.  Correspondence  should  be  addressed  to  the  Editor.  Published  articles  repre- 
sent the  views  of  the  author  and  are  not  necessarily  those  of  the  Wyoming  State  Archives 
Museums  and  Historical  Department  or  the  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society.  ANNALS  OF 
WYOMING  articles  are  abstracted  in  Historical  Abstracts.  America:  History  and  1  ife. 

«  '  Copyright   ll'Hd  by  the  Wyoming  St.ite  Press 


FORT  LARAMIE  HIJINKS: 
A  New  Manuscript  Account 


by  Thomas  B.  Brumbaugh 


"Why  is  Fort  Laramie  like  a  certain  vehicle?'' 
"Cause  It's  Buggy" 


ALL  PHOTOGRAPHS  WYOMING  STATE  ARCHIVES,  MUSEUMS  AND  HISTORICAL  DEPT    (AMH) 


1? 


'I 


j . 


M 


.^^a^jj. 


M  i  >•  1    M       \  M  1  c   1  v    . 

ft  THEi "• 

"is 


/'fin'    La  run. 


/<//< 


-^      v 


- 


M 


./-*//  i  / 


Portrait  of  the  Chugg  Water  Journal  editors,  (I  to  r)  William  Scott  Ketchum,  Dr.  Samuel  Preston  Moore,  Benjamin  Stone  Roberts  and  Stewart  Van  Vliet. 


Europeans  have  coveted  the  silky  pelt  of  the  American 
beaver  since  early  colonial  times,  and  during  the  first  half 
of  the  19th  century,  tall  beaver  hats  were  among  the  most 
conspicuous  male  finery  seen  on  the  streets  of  American 
towns  and  villages.  Beaver  coats  were  worn  by  both  men  and 
women,  while  beaver  "throws"  and  lap  robes  were  sewn 
together  for  innumerable  beds  and  used  in  every  sort  of 
conveyance  at  home  and  abroad.  Buffalo  hides  were  heavy 
and  less  luxurious,  but  also  served  these  and  a  hundred 
other  purposes,  and  the  growing  demand  for  furs  and 
leather  was  met  abundantly  as  the  pioneers  moved  into 
western  lands.  What  seemed  to  be  an  inexhaustable  supply 
of  "soft  gold"  was  discovered  by  the  first  explorers  of  the 
territory  around  the  junction  of  the  North  Platte  and 
Laramie  Rivers,  and  after  1812,  French-Canadian  and 
American  trappers  were  to  take  a  firm  stand  there.1 

By  1834,  a  log  stockade  named  Fort  William  for  its 
trapper-builder,  William  Sublette,  had  been  erected  near 
where  the  two  rivers  join,  and  a  stable  fur-trading  economy 
was  established  there.  Increasingly  a  place  of  refuge  and 
refreshment  for  those  early  pioneers  on  the  Oregon  Trail, 
in  1835  it  served  a  number  of  remarkable  missionary- 
settlers  and  their  followers,  including  Dr.  Marcus  Whit- 
man and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Parker.  On  a  second  trip  in  1836, 
Whitman  brought  along  his  wife  and  the  Rev.  and  Mrs. 
Henry  Spalding,  among  others.  In  1837,  the  artist,  Alfred 
Jacob  Miller,  came  through  on  a  western  safari  with  a  ti- 
tled Scottish  adventurer,  Sir  William  Drummond  Stewart, 
and  made  the  only  known  drawings  of  old  Fort  William, 
leaving  us  a  vivid  record  of  their  visit.  Aside  from  the  In- 
dians whom  he  depicted,  Miller  also  met  there  such 
famous  scouts  and  mountain  men  of  the  period  as  Kit  Car- 
son, Jim  Bridger  and  Joe  Walker. 

The  gradual  deterioration  of  Fort  William  led  to  its 
rebuilding  by  the  American  Fur  Company  in  1841,  when 
it  was  renamed  Fort  John,  presumably  for  John  B.  Sarpy, 
a  stockholder  in  the  enterprise.  Meanwhile,  competition 
from  Fort  Platte,  built  nearby,  had  only  helped  to  promote 
Fort  John's  growth,  and  in  1842  Lieutenant  John  C.  Fre- 
mont, making  his  first  trip  to  explore  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
recommended  to  authorities  in  Washington  that  it  was  a 
likely  site  for  a  military  post.  By  1843,  the  indomitable  Whit- 
man was  once  again  traveling  through  the  area,  this  time 
with  as  many  as  1,000  persons  in  tow,  and  trade  with  the 
Sioux,  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  Indians,  which  had  always 
surged  around  and  into  the  fort,  continued  to  expand.  By 
then  the  fort  was  called  Laramie  after  a  French  trapper, 
Jacques  La  Ramee,  killed  in  1821  by  Indians  in  the  vicinity. 
In  the  spring  of  1846,  the  young  Francis  Parkman 
visited  Fort  Laramie,  and  in  his  book,  The  Oregon  Trail, 
wrote  a  lively  description  of  its  "inmates"  and  its 
oblong  form,  with  bastions  of  clay  in  the  form  of  ordinary 
blockhouses,  at  two  of  the  corners.  The  walls  are  about  fif- 
teen feet  high,  and  surrounded  by  a  slender  palisade  .... 
Within,  the  fort  is  divided  by  a  partition:  on  one  side  is  the 
square  area,  surrounded  by  the  store-rooms,  offices,  and  apart- 
ments of  the  inmates;  on  the  other  is  the  corral,  a  narrow  place, 


encompassed  by  the  high  clay  walls,  where  at  night,  or  in 
presence  of  dangerous  Indians,  the  horses  and  mules  of  the 
fort  are  crowded  for  safe  keeping.  The  main  entrance  has  two 
gates,  with  an  arched  passage  intervening.2 

It  was  to  this  shabby  oasis  in  the  wilderness  that  the 
first  small  group  of  Mormons  came  about  a  year  later  under 
the  leadership  of  Brigham  Young.  By  1848,  there  were 
more  than  4,000  "Saints,"  men,  women  and  children, 
passing  through  each  year  on  the  way  to  Utah.  Trade  with 
them  and  others  was  brisk,  as  flour,  coffee,  sugar  and  feed 
for  horses  was  readily  available— for  a  price— but  the  fur- 
trading  business  was  no  longer  lucrative.  Clothing  styles 
were  changing  and  the  beaver  had  been  farmed  to  near 
extinction.  It  was  time  for  the  federal  government  to  take 
seriously  the  recommendations  Fremont  had  made  some 
six  years  earlier. 

Protection  and  service  for  the  pioneers  on  the  trail  was 
a  pressing  problem,  and  Congress  had  delayed  building 
a  number  of  projected  frontier  forts  during  the  costly  Mex- 
ican War,  but  by  early  1848,  Fort  Kearny  was  secure  on 
the  south  bank  of  the  Platte.  By  March,  1849,  United  States 
Adjutant  General  Roger  Jones  had  ordered  the  establish- 
ment of  an  army  post  at  Fort  Laramie,  and  Lieutenant 
Daniel  P.  Woodbury  of  the  Corps  of  Engineers  was  author- 
ized to  purchase  the  site  and  its  buildings.  In  June,  Major 
Winslow  F.  Sanderson,  with  Companies  A  and  E,  Mounted 
Riflemen,  became  the  first  garrison  in  charge.  Company 
C,  Mounted  Riflemen,  under  Captain  Benjamin  S.  Roberts, 
arrived  in  July,  and  in  August,  Company  G,  Sixth  Infan- 
try, under  Lieutenant  Levi  C.  Bootes,  completed  the 
command. 

With  the  flood  of  at  least  40,000  California-bound  gold- 
seekers,  perhaps  10,000  others  en  route  to  Oregon,  added 
to  some  thousands  of  Mormons  on  the  trail  in  1849,  it  was 
imperative  that  Fort  Laramie  expand  its  facilities.  Evidently 
much  of  the  military  command  was  put  to  construction 
work  under  the  direction  of  Woodbury,  and  we  know 
from  a  newly-discovered  manuscript,  The  Chugg  Water  Jour- 
nal, "published"  in  the  copperplate  handwriting  of  two, 
perhaps  three,  of  the  officers  in  charge,  that  by  October, 
"Old  Bedlam,"  a  two-story  officers'  quarters,  was  ready 
for  occupancy.  In  a  caricature  drawing  of  a  cavalry  drill, 
we  recognize  "Old  Bedlam"  with  a  puff  of  smoke  rising 
from  its  chimney,  and  the  nearby  powder  magazine  as  a 
backdrop  to  the  scene.  The  same  page  reports  in  its  un- 
failingly wry  style: 

Several  pilgrims  from  the  frontiers,  bound  for  the  Hole-v  Land 
reached  this  place  on  the  19th  inst.  and  have  pitched  their  tents 
on  the  banks  of  Deer  creek.  Their  object  in  coming  out  at  this 
delightful  season  of  the  year,  is  doubtless  to  make  an  early  dash 
next  spring  for  the  land  of  promise.  As  the  grass  is  most  lux- 
urious here  during  the  entire  winter,  if  winter  it  can  be  called, 
when  snow  is  only  five  feet  deep  on  the  level  and  the  mer- 
cury frozen,  their  animals  will  doubtless  rejoice  at  their  good 
fortune,  which  has  brought  them  from  the  barren  fields  oi 
Missouri,  Illinois  and  Indiana  to  such  a  quadrupedal  Paradise. 
It  is  to  be  feared  however,  that  these  enterprising  gold  dig- 
gers, like  the  South  Carolinian  who  took  a  running  start  of 


three  miles  to  clear  a  fence,  but  upon  reaching  it  was  obliged 
to  dismount  throw  it  down  &  walk  quietly  over:  we  say,  that 
like  this  chivalrous  gentleman,  we  fear  our  friends  have  taken 
too  long  a  start,  and  by  next  spring  they  will  find  they  have 
not  expedited  matters  much,  by  throwing  themselves  & 
animals  amongst  the  bleak  spurs  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  at 
this  season  of  the  Year. 

But  something  more  must  be  said  of  The  Chugg  Water 
Journal,  published  "ADSUM  AMICIS  ,"  which  gives  us 
a  remarkable  view  of  soldier  life  in  a  hardship  post  in 
Dakota  Territory.  The  unique  fifteen  folio  pages,  labeled 
Vol  I,  No  II,  through  Vol  I,  No  VI,  came  to  light  recently, 
when  an  acquaintance  of  the  writer,  a  "picker,"  looking 
for  flea  market  items,  bought  an  old  trunk  with  some 
papers  at  the  bottom,  from  an  estate  sale  in  New  Jersey. 
The  family  name,  he  remembered,  was  Van  Vliet,  and  it 
seems  clear  that  Captain  Stewart  Van  Vliet  (later  colonel 
and  brevet  major-general,  U.S.A.)  had  preserved  these 
pages  long  years  after  his  tour  of  duty  at  Fort  Laramie. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  he  is  one  of  the  "quartette"  of 
editors  whose  charming  portraits  we  have  in  two  draw- 
ings of  the  group,  and  he  may  have  been  the  author  of 
part  of  the  text.  He  certainly  amended  it  in  a  number  of 
places,  as  we  see  by  his  distinctive  hand.  The  fragile 
manuscript  was  offered  to  this  writer,  who,  admiring  the 
naive  illustrations,  purchased  it  with  some  thought  of  its 
importance.  After  a  little  research,  it  was  soon  clear  that 
most  of  the  playfully  disguised  names  of  officers  are  iden- 
tifiable. However,  the  name  of  that  "most  distinguished" 
artist  at  Fort  Laramie  unfortunately  remains  "sub  rosa" 
and  "incognito,  for  the  time  being,  as  he  fears  his  studio 
might  otherwise  be  too  much  crowded."  We  wish  that  the 
"beautiful  drawing  of  Fort  Laramie"  that  he  made  "con 
amore"  might  still  survive  with  the  manuscript,  but  we 
must  assume  it  was  awarded  in  the  contest  among  those 
"person[s]  who  shall  present  us  with  the  best  original  con- 
undrum." It  is  a  sad  loss. 

The  four,  but  variously  named,  Fighting,  Polemical  and 
Poetical,  Sporting,  Miscellaneous  and  General  Editors,  all 
seem  to  have  been  fond  of  conundrums,  jokes  about  mili- 
tary matters,  hunting,  music,  marriage  and  the  women 
and  children  of  the  fort,  if  not  necessarily  in  that  order. 
Following  the  conventions  of  such  newspapers  of  the  time 
as  the  Missouri  Republican,  which  they  imported  from  St. 
Louis,  the  Chugg  Water  has  little  news,  and  is  a  collection 
of  mock  correspondence,  features,  editorials,  quotations 
and  poetry.  The  "Mo.  Republican,"  they  noted,  had  but 
"little  of  general  interest  except  a  few  weddings,  deaths 
and  murders."  We  are  told  in  Volume  I,  Number  II,  that 
"the  Journal  although  devoted  to  literature,  science,  and 
the  fine  arts,  was  chiefly  established  as  the  organ  of  the 
Chugg  Water  Mining  Association  .  .  .  but  not  withstand- 
ing this,  it  will  be  devoted  to  the  interests  and  prosperity 
of  our  town,  and  the  edification  and  amusement  of  the  In- 
habitants." "The  largest  paper  printed  at  Fort  Laramie," 
it  would  appear  "occasionally,  and  sometimes  oftener,  if 
not  sooner."  Its  office  was  "directly  opposite"  the  Juvenile 


Infirmary,  "under  the  hill,  but  still  within  hearing  .  .  . 
when  the  wind  is  favorable.  " 

Along  with  Henry  J.  Coke,  an  English  traveler  who 
visited  the  rough  fort  in  July,  1850,  we  are  only  amazed 
to  find  among  the  inhabitants  such  attractive  persons  as 
"Captain  Rhete  and  his  wife,  both  very  nice  .  .  .  particu- 
larly the  wife.  It  seems  the  height  of  conjugal  devotion  on 
her  part  to  give  up  all  society  and  follow  her  husband  to 
such  a  corner  of  the  earth  as  this."  The  summer  ther- 
mometer reached  146  degrees  in  the  sun,  Coke  reports  in 
his  A  Ride  Over  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  Oregon  and  Califor- 
nia. In  spite  of  the  heat,  he  and  the  captain  went  hunting 
for  wolves  with  the  captain's  greyhounds,  and  killed  only 
a  badger,  "but  not  until  Rhete  had  used  his  pistol,  and 
pinned  him  to  the  ground  with  a  large  knife."3  Captain 
Thomas  Grimke  Rhett  ( + 1878),  to  give  his  full  name  cor- 
rectly, was  certainly  another  editor  of  the  Chugg  Water, 
although  his  military  titles  were  post  adjutant  and  quarter- 
master. By  1863,  he  was  a  major  and  chief  of  ordnance, 
District  of  Arkansas,  for  the  Confederate  Army. 

Before  the  discovery  of  The  Chugg  Water  Journal,  Coke's 
account  was  the  only  one  that  recorded  something  of  the 
camaraderie  of  those  first  officers  at  Fort  Laramie.  He  tells 
us  of  a  dinner  on  July  21,  1850,  with  a  Colonel  Somer  [sic], 
Major  Thompson,  Captains  Dyer,  Van  Vliet,  a  Mr.  Stillett 
and  two  unnamed  traveling  companions  who  "filled  the 
little  mess-room"  of  the  newly-erected  "Old  Bedlam." 

T 
■  1       / 


i  m«»> 


i   ' 


v  1v<i    uJsw  VtMJikl  i(wh.    Hu  t'fuJ   ltd   ItM    i 

r   ,•  i  X  X  t,».   Ub  'feu  LnJbJ  b  uU-  i 

JU      ».U      \    ,         ■    ■     V     (I  I  i>     [A        . 

1  I 

Jwvll  n  it'*    i*   h    it)nu.    m«u*  turn*  Itonkf 

(it    u*i  tw  A     I  -iv  iiu  |  li*J'  Vu«,t(L  u»  ita  nte«Ju 

iiuA    urn    I,   ii    t'uM..  iviu  ukiu  ti  iu»,  (\t 

U'Ufi  I*.    JIMRmmi   VUn    III   A  l"i    \X    8.   a'.'ii    \\ 


The  editors  were  fond  of  conundrums;  riddles  whose  answers  are  or 
involve  puns. 


Bear  hunting  near  Fort  Laramie  as  published  in  the  Chugg  Water  Journal  circa  1849. 


We  had  a  capital  feed  off  a  saddle  of  young  elk  and  green  peas; 
our  appetites  did  justice  to  the  occasion,  and  I  doubt  if  we 
ever  made  a  better  dinner.  The  conversation  ran  upon  general 
topics,  and  we  were  struck  with  the  intelligence  and  infor- 
mation of  the  officers.  In  other  respects,  small  blame  to  them, 
they  were  entirely  Yankee— perhaps,  a  little  more  gen- 
tlemanlike and  more  hospitable  than  the  generality  of  their 
countrymen.  They  seemed  to  want  the  cordiality  that  exists 
amongst  brother  officers  in  our  army,  and  I  believe,  would 
"give  out"  if  they  were  forbidden  the  use  of  the  word,  "Sir." 
After  all,  this  absence  of  formality,  which  is  the  nature  of  the 
beast,  may  be  no  great  harm,  for  a  familiar  oath  or  a  practical 
joke  is  often  the  prelude  to  unpleasant  results.4 

Can  it  be  that  these  young  officers  were  pompously 
exaggerating  military  etiquette,  themselves  playing  a  prac- 
tical joke  on  their  gullible  English  guests?  The  Chugg  Water 
is  so  full  of  fun  and  nonsense  that  such  "absence  of 
familiarity"  is  surprising  and  seems  out  of  character. 
However  that  may  be,  it  is  quite  possible  that  their  dinner 
conversation  may  have  turned  to  current  English  literature, 
for  a  mock-indignant  letter  to  the  Chugg  Water  editors,  at- 
tacking their  "sneers  at  the  helpless  and  innocent,"  is 
signed  by  one  "Sally  Nipper,"  whose  name  is  surely 
adapted  from  Susan  Nipper,  the  sympathetic  but  sharp- 
tongued  maid  who  appeared  in  Charles  Dickens'  Dombey 
and  Son,  published  the  year  before.  There  are  also  "Phil 
Mayo"  and  "Susan  Mildmay,"  who  may  have  popular- 
novel  origins,  and  there  are  two  woodcut  illustrations 
pasted  in  the  text,  evidently  clipped  from  English  periodi- 
cals, pretending  to  show  us  the  "Polemical  Editor  in  a 
Meditative  Mood,"  and  "John  Love  preparing  for  his  final 
exit  from  Bachelor-dom."  A  surgeon  named  "Fever,"  and 
"Lieutenant  Tubber"  must  be  Fort  Laramie  fabrications. 

Of  the  identifiable  "Yankee"  officers  in  the  Chugg  Water 
group,  there  are  at  least  four  who  had  graduated  from  West 
Point  and  would  fight  on  opposing  sides  in  the  coming 
Civil  War.  That  they  knew  some  French  and  a  little  Latin, 
is  clear,  and  there  is  more  than  a  little  evidence  that  they 
had  read  enough  of  English  poetry  and  the  Bible  to  have 
phrases  come  easily  to  mind  in  the  writing.  "We  wished 


indeed  to  obtain  a  niche  in  the  Temple  of  Fame,  and  our 
ambition  would  have  been  satisfied  with  one  in  the  lower 
story;  but  the  Fates  decreed  it  otherwise.  'What  Fates  im- 
pose, that  men  must  needs  abide,'  "  they  pontificated. 
Fortunately  for  their  fame,  they  composed  and  illustrated 
the  "Song  of  the  Grisly  Bears  at  Chugg  Water": 
The  Hunters  are  coming,  Oho!  Oho! 
The  Hunters  are  coming  to  lay  us  low, 
R*  *  *  *  *  is  coming,  in  his  seven  leagued  boots, 
M*  *  *  *T1  be  here,  with  the  gun  "he  shoots." 
The  Hunters  are  coming,  Oho!  Oho! 
The  Hunters  are  coming  to  lay  us  low. 
V*  *  *V*  *  *  *  is  coming,  and  we  must  be  going, 
For  he's  a  mighty  hunter  we  know. 
Our  skins  he'll  have  tann'd  to  make  him  a  dress, 
Our  bones  he'll  have  bleach'd,  to  send  to  the  East; 
Our  fat  he'll  have  try'd,  to  tallow  his  hair: 
For  he's  a  sworn  foe  to  the  grisly  bear. 
The  Hunters  are  coming  etc. 
(To  the  Tune  of  The  Campbell's  are  coming) 
The  names  of  Rhett  and  Van  Vliet  fall  easily  into  place, 
and  Dr.  Samuel  Preston  Moore  (1813-1889),  later  surgeon- 
general  of  the  Confederacy  on  the  staff  of  President  Jef- 
ferson Davis,  is  the  third.  Post-war  photographs  show  him 
wearing  a  prodigious  pair  of  mutton  chops,  which  may 
possibly  be  seen  in  early  growth  on  the  standing  officer 
at  the  center  of  the  editors'  group  portrait.5  Moore  may 
have  served  as  Polemical  and  Poetical  Editor  and  is  the 
butt  of  jokes  about  his  being  chaplain  and  a  "man  of  peace. 
In  an  account  of  the  "Battle  of  the  Sand  Pit,"  he  is  named 
"Surgeon    Mooreland,"    whose    conduct    was    "con- 
spicuous" for  "He  charged  alone,  about  200  yards  in  the 
rear  of  the  column."  "Coolness  and  presence  of  mind" 
was  shown  by  his  fellow-officer,  Captain  Thomas  Duncan, 
alias  Duckman,  "who,  upon  finding  that  the  Infantry  were 
outstripping  his  mounted  men  in  the  charge,  promptly 
ordered  his  men  to  dismount,  and  charge  on  toot."  As 
Poetry  Editor,  Moore  may  have  served  as  something  more 
than  amanuensis  to  "Zulphe  Ann,"  an  "extraordinary 


f/Z     SL**t.^£/ 


■»>.■,»>»**,><*   ir.i»,t,jj<t,u,  P«i    w«<to»  <4,  .   A„<  ,:-.    > ^*^.J./.J  ^.jr ^  ir/  rfmmj'J&Jjnfc. 


■■*/.<    <+*rny/S  /fit  4fa4/4u*s  f//*Jt  /fcJyJItifar&ZJ,  */ ///S/M/S*  tf/£-  ' 


CAVALRY    PRILL  ,  FORT    LARAMIE    . 


Hffu   tlmtlt  Ittmr  uXii^ht 
tuato    -> 'tit  U.  i+Ua  . 


*  3$. 


...,**...„ 


\    see  untn   onttiexr  wu\A\nr  wgv  , 


Cavalry  drill  on  the  Fort  Laramie  parade  ground.  "Old  Bedlam"  can  be  seen  in  the  background. 


young  lady  (she  is  but  little  over  40)"  and  contributed  a 
bit  of  doggerel: 

The  Cheyennes!  the  Cheyennes!  have  come  from 
below, 

With  the  steel-pointed  lance,  and  the  long  slender 
bow; 

And  are  bound  for  the  plains,  on  the  Platte  far  above, 

Where  roams  the  fat  Bison,  that  they  so  much  love. 

Stewart  Van  Vliet  (1815-1901)  at  the  "Battle  of  the  Sand 
Pit"  is  called  "Capt.  Vander  Venter,"  and  we  learn  that 
"had  he  not  been  obliged  to  stop  and  light  his  pipe  [he] 
would  have  been  the  first  man  in  the  enemy's  camp."  Old 
photographs  further  confirm  that  Van  Vliet  is  the  par- 


ticularly hairy  pipe-smoker  who  sits  on  the  right  of  the 
group,  the  Chugg  Water  in  hand.  He  was  the  "General 
Editor,"  we  can  confirm  by  his  portrait  as  such  above  the 
"Song  of  the  Grisly  Bears,"  but  judging  by  known  ex- 
amples of  his  bold,  almost  awkward  autograph,  we  are  able 
to  eliminate  him  as  the  Chugg  Water  calligrapher  or  "that 
most  distinguished"  artist  who  made  such  delicate 
drawings. 

If  our  logic  is  correct,  Captain  Rhett  (Alias  "Rhettwell") 
must  be  the  booted  "Sporting  Editor"  shown  in  one  il- 
lustration, but  it  is  also  tempting  to  see  the  round  face  of 
Benjamin  Stone  Roberts  (1810-1875)  in  the  other  seated  of- 
ficer. Given  the  aliases  "Roberto"  and  "Signor  Roberti," 


Illustration  of  the  Journal's 
"Fighting  Editor,  "who 
may  have  been 
William  Scott  Ketchum. 


he  is  the  subject  of  jokes  about  his  musical  skills  as  com- 
poser and  performer  "upon  a  novel  instrument  of  his  own 
invention."  Whether  for  musical,  editorial  or  other 
reasons,  he  seems  to  have  been  negligent  of  his  duty  and 
in  1851,  as  a  lieutenant-colonel,  was  the  subject  of  a  general 
court-martial.  Roberts  was  found  guilty  on  all  charges  of 
allowing  the  theft  of  horses  by  the  Indians,  and  the  mis- 
treatment of  animals  in  the  cavalry  remuda  under  his  com- 
mand in  1849,  but  was  returned  to  full  duty  nonetheless.6 

The  figure  seated  left  in  the  editorial  group,  smoking 
a  cigarette  and  wearing  full  uniform  and  sword,  may  be 
William  Scott  Ketchum  (1813-1871),  whose  pleasant  look 
is  difficult  to  relate  to  the  glowering  expression  we  see  in 
his  Civil  War  photographs.  He  may  be  the  "Fighting 
Editor"  (shown  "practicing"  in  a  delightful  drawing),  and 
we  are  posed  the  not-too-difficult  riddle  of  "Why  is  the 
Commander  of  the  Infantry  Company  at  the  Post,  a  terror 
to  evil-doers?"  and  we  learn  that  it  is:  "Cause  he  Ketch- 
um." Ketchum's  war  service  was  that  of  an  inspector, 
recruiter  and  auditor  for  the  U.S.  Army,  and  it  may  be  he 
whose  correct  and  legible  hand  wrote  some  part  of  the 
Chugg  Water  text.7 

"Multum  in  Parvo"  is  the  motto  inscribed  over  a  draw- 
ing of  "Juvenile  Place."  It  was  there  in  what  must  have 
been  the  very  crowded  living  quarters  of  the  old  adobe  Fort 
John,  that  married  officers  and  their  families  were  housed. 
There  is  much  ado  about  "the  large  lake  forming  near  the 
centre  of  Juvenile  Place,"  and  we  are  shown  in  a  colored 
drawing,  some  of  the  typical  activities  around  it.  "By  order 
of  the  Head  Matron,  Mrs.  Jane  Niper,  Sec'y,"  writes  a  let- 
ter in  which  "bachelor  editor  no.  4"  is  threatened  with 
"The  full  benefit  of  the  musical  concerto,  nightly  per- 
formed by  the  juvenile  amateur— occasionally  assisted  by 
the  Chaplain,"  as  a  fitting  punishment  for  a  disparaging 
remark  about  the  "said  Infirmary,"  also  called  the  "Family 
block"  and  the  "rue-des-enfants."  The  editor  is  asked  to 
remember  that  he  was  once  a  child,  and  "probably  inno- 
cent (when  very  young)."  "A  Married  Man"  who  signs 
himself  "Yours  in  bondage,"  writes  a  letter  of  warning 
about  the  menacing  situation.  A  sundial  that  was  erected 
for  the  benefit  of  the  community,  but  by  very  peculiar  logic, 
was  to  have  helped  keep  husbands  in  "proper  training 
.  .  .  failed  to  accomplish  one  portion  of  what  was  expected 
of  it." 

Identifying  Lieutenant  Levi  Clark  Bootes  ( + 1896)  with 
Levi  S.  Bootmaker,  Major  Winslow  F.  Sanderson  (  +  1899) 
with  W.S.  Sampson  or  Lieutenant  Daniel  Phineas  Wood- 
bury (1812-1864)  with  Lieutenant  A.  I.  Demisemiquaver, 
is  still  an  amusing  task  for  the  modern  reader  of  the  Chugg 
Water.  Perhaps  it  is  impossible  ever  to  identify  correctly, 
all  of  the  some  fifteen  officers  mentioned,  with  all  of  the 
references  to  them,  their  pictures  and  editorial  respon- 


'     '  fori  " 


I 


■  -  s 


:■  [-1     BY-       •-SLWN-    . '--'I 


John  Love  preparing  for  his  final  exit  from  "Bachelor-dom.  " 

sibilities.  No  doubt  it  is  enough  that  we  have  this  reveal- 
ing and  ingenious  document,  every  page  of  which  brings 
to  life  a  group  of  energetic  and  daring  young  men.  In  the 
fall  and  winter  of  1849-50,  Fort  Laramie  was  a  relatively 
quiet  and  routine  tour  of  duty,  and  thus  they  caricature 
a  hum-drum  existence  of  soldierly  waiting,  relieved  chiefly 
by  military  drill,  scouting,  hunting,  panning  for  gold  (?) 
and  observing  the  women  and  children  of  the  "Juvenile 
Infirmary."  Their  Chugg  Water  Journal  is  a  surprising 
treasure,  a  unique  documentation  of  hijinks  and  high  good 
humor  in  the  midst  of  ever-threatening  danger  along  the 
Oregon  Trail.  In  little  more  than  a  decade,  these  profes- 
sional soldiers  would  be  tested  much  more  severely  as 
Union  and  Confederate  army  officers  in  the  great  and  terri- 
ble events  of  the  Civil  War. 


1.  My  chief  sources  for  the  early  history  of  Fort  Laramie  are  David  L. 
Hieb,  Fort  Laramie  National  Site,  Wyoming  (Washington,  D.C.:  National 
Park  Service  Historical  Handbook  Series  No.  20,  1954.  Reprint  1961) 
and  Le  Roy  Hafen  and  Francis  Marion  Young,  Fort  Laramie  and  the 
Pageant  of  the  West,  1834-1890  (Glendale,  California:  The  Arthur  H.  Clark 
Co.,  1938). 

2.  Francis  Parkman,  The  Oregon  Trail  with  a  foreword  by  A.  B.  Guthrie, 
Jr.  (New  York:  The  New  American  Library,  1962),  pp.  83-84. 

3.  Henry  J.  Coke,  A  Ride  Over  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  Oregon  and  Califor- 
nia (London,  1852),  pp.  156-157. 

4.  Ibid.,  p.  151. 

5.  For  the  tentative  identification  of  Moore  and  others,  see  their 
photographs  in:  Francis  T.  Miller,  ed.,  The  Photographic  Histon/  of  the 
Civil  War  in  Ten  Volumes  (New  York:  The  Review  of  Reviews  Co.,  1912); 
Ezra  J.  Warner,  Generals  in  Gray:  Lives  of  Confederate  Commanders  (Baton 
Rouge:  Louisiana  State  University  Press,  1959);  Ezra  J.  Warner,  Generals 
in  Blue:  Lives  of  the  Union  Commanders  (Baton  Rouge:  Louisiana  State 
University  Press,  1964). 

6.  General  Orders  No.  11  .  .  .  General  Court  Martial  Convened  at  Fort  Laramie, 
Oregon  Route  (Washington:  War  Department,  1951). 

7.  Another  candidate  is  S.  P.  Moore,  who  wrote  a  rather  more  flamboyant 
hand.  Authentic  autograph  specimens  by  him  and  others  I  have 
studied,  were  of  Civil  War  date  or  later,  and  thus  are  difficult  to  relate 
with  complete  certainty  to  the  Chugg  Water  autographs. 


MISPERCEPTION  AND  PUBLIC  POLICY: 


A  Case  Study  Based  on  the  Annual  Reports 

of  the 
Commissioners  of  Indian  Affairs,  1829-1890 


by  Robert  L.  Munkres 


In  his  very  useful  little  book,  Why  Nations  Go  to  War, 
Professor  John  Stoessinger  postulates  misperception  as 
"perhaps  the  most  important  single  precipitating  factor" 
in  the  generation  of  open  conflict  between  nation-states. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  apply  Stoessinger's  con- 
cept (but  not  his  typology  of  misperceptions)  to  selected 
19th  century  relationships  between  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment and  Native  Americans  as  described  in  or  extrapolated 
from  Annual  Reports  of  the  Commissioners  of  Indian 
Affairs. 

Of  all  officialdom  at  the  national  level,  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  Affairs  was  the  one  officer  most  directly 
involved  on  a  continuing  basis  in  Government-Indian  rela- 
tions. The  information  and  "expert"  opinion  available  to 
him  on  such  matters,  therefore,  may  be  assumed  to  be  at 
least  on  par  with  that  available  to  others.  It  is  further 
assumed  that,  as  a  Presidential  appointee,  the  individual 
Commissioners  would  be  fairly  representative  of  those 
elected  officials  and  bureaucrats  dominant  at  the  time.  An 
examination  of  the  Commissioner's  Annual  Reports  ought, 
therefore,  to  yield  some  insights  into  the  role  of  mis- 
perception  vis-a-vis  the  formulation  and  implementation 
of  Federal  Indian  Policy  during  the  19th  century. 

in 


Misperception  as  a  result  of  ignorance,  always  a  live 
possibility  in  the  policy  process,  is  both  more  likely  and 
more  difficult  to  deal  with  when  truly  vast  cultural  dif- 
ferences separate  the  participants.  Thus,  for  purposes  of 
this  study,  I  will  deal  with  misperception  at  two  different 
but  related  levels.  On  the  first  level,  one  encounters 
misperception  arising  from  observable  and  recognized  dif- 
ferences in  values,  processes  and  goals.  Merely  recogniz- 
ing the  existence  of  differences  in  re  a  particular  subject  cer- 
tainly does  not  guarantee  an  accurate  appraisal  of  the  posi- 
tion of  either  participant  nor  of  the  relationships  between 
them.  The  second  level  of  misperception  is  probably  the 
more  difficult  contemporaneously  to  recognize.  It  involves, 
not  a  recognition  of  differences,  but  an  assumption  of 
equivalence  or  similarity,  accomplished  by  the  projection 
of  one  participant's  values  onto  the  other(s).  At  this  very 
fundamental  level,  substantially  antithetical  substantive 
and  procedural  values  may,  in  fact,  exist,  but  similarity  or 
equivalence  is  simply  assumed. 

Without  doubt,  the  misperception  that  was  both  most 
pervasive  and  most  influential  in  shaping  policy  develop- 
ment was  that  of  Indian  generic  and  genetic  inferiority.  In 
the  population  at  large,  references  to  the  inferiority  of  In- 


dians  was  very  frequently  accompanied  by  assertions, 
varied  in  vigor  and  vehemence,  of  white  superiority.  While 
the  Commissioners  of  Indian  Affairs  generally  eschewed 
stark  statements  to  that  effect,  they  accepted  without  ques- 
tion their  validity.  In  1862,  William  Dole,  for  instance, 
spoke  of  the  inability  of  Indians  to  compete  "with  their 
superiors  in  intelligence  and  those  acquirements  which  we 
consider  so  essential  to  success."1  A  little  over  seven  years 
later,  the  report  to  President  Andrew  Johnson  from  the  In- 
dian Peace  Commission  stipulated  the  acceptance  by  its 
members  of  "the  ever  ready  argument  that  civilization 
must  not  be  arrested  in  its  progress  by  a  handfull  of 
savages."2  Expressing  their  own  firm  desire  to  see  the 
country's  "agricultural  and  mineral  wealth  developed  by 
an  industrious,  thrifty  and  enlightened  population,"  the 
report's  authors  then  took  cognizance  of  "the  fact  that  the 
Indian  must  not  stand  in  the  way  of  this  result."3 

While  white  superiority  was  a  virtually  unchallenged 
and  unchallengeable  belief  during  the  19th  century,  the 
assumption  of  Indian  inferiority  gave  rise  to  a  modest  dif- 
ference of  opinion.  A  minority  opinion,  reflected  in  the 
1851  report  of  Commissioner  Luke  Lea,  held  that  the  In- 
dian "possesses  all  the  elements  essential  to  his  elevation 
.  .  .  and  which  only  need  the  proper  development  and 
direction  to  enable  him  to  tread  with  equal  step  and  dignity 
the  walks  of  civilized  life."4  Lea  concluded  "that  his  [In- 
dians] inferiority  is  a  necessity  of  his  nature,  is  neither 
taught  by  philosophy  nor  attested  by  experience."5  Some 
five  years  later,  in  November,  1856,  George  Manypenny 
partially  concurred.  Though  an  Indian's  "courage  is  un- 
doubted, his  perception  quick,  and  his  memory  of  the 
highest  order.  .  .  .  His  judgment  is  defective,  but  by 
proper  training  and  discipline  his  intellectual  powers  are 
susceptible  of  culture  and  can  be  elevated  to  a  fair  stan- 
dard."6 

In  like  manner,  E.  A.  Hayt  (1878)  recommended  that 
the  government  "move  slowly  in  the  process  of  making 
Indians  citizens  .  .  .,"  noting  that  "Indians  of  full  age  are 
infants  in  law."7  "Entire  civilization,"  he  went  on,  "with 
education,  a  knowledge  of  the  English  language,  and  ex- 
perience in  business  forms  and  matters,  especially  such  as 
relate  to  the  conveyance  of  lands,  should  precede  citizen- 
ship if  it  is  the  intention  of  the  government  to  save  the  In- 
dians from  pauperism  and  extermination."8 

To  the  extent  written  statements  accurately  reflect  the 
basic  beliefs  of  their  authors,  however,  majority  opinion 
vis-a-vis  Native  Americans  was  considerably  less  sanguine. 
From  T.  Hartley  Crawford  (1838)  to  Edward  Smith  (1875), 
Francis  Walker  (1872)  and  Hiram  Price  (1882)  a  dim  view 
of  Indians  predominated.  According  to  Crawford,  "Equal- 
ity he  [an  Indian]  does  not  and  cannot  possess  .  .  .,"9  while 
Walker  complained  "It  is  always  a  weary  work  to  lift  any 
man  or  people  from  degradation  to  self-respect,  self- 
restraint,  and  self-reliance.  .  .  ."10  In  working  with  In- 
dians, he  added,  one  encountered  in  addition  "the  excep- 
tional difficulty  of  a  nature  singularly  trivial,  and  habits 


singularly  incompatible  with  civilized  forms  of  life  and  in- 
dustry."11 Smith  alluded  to  the  popular  image  of  Indians 
as  "children,  utterly  unable  to  comprehend  their  own  great 
necessities  .  .  .,"12  and  Price  expressed  what  was  in  all 
likelihood  a  predominant  view  when  he  stated  categorically 
that  Indians  "are  an  untutored  and  untractable  people, 
who  are  naturally  indolent,  improvident,  and  shiftless,  and 
very  impatient  of  restraint  or  discipline."13 

On  the  subject  of  presumed  Indian  inferiority,  Walker 
perhaps  deserves  the  final  word.  In  his  report  for  1872,  he 
agreed  with  those  who  criticized  and  ridiculed  government 
policy  on  the  grounds  it  represented  "temporizing  with 
a  recognized  evil .  .  .,"14  but  noted  that  "Temporizing  as 
an  expedient  in  government  may  be  either  a  sign  of  weak- 
ness and  folly,  or  it  may  be  a  proof  of  the  highest  wis- 
dom. .  .  .  [Particularly]  when  an  evil  is  in  its  nature  self- 
limited,  and  tends  to  expire  by  the  very  conditions  of  its 
existence.  .  .  ."15  After  all,  he  argued,  "There  is  no  ques- 
tion of  national  dignity  .  .  .  involved  in  the  treatment  of 
savages  by  a  civilized  power.  With  wild  men,  as  with  wild 
beasts,  the  question  whether  in  a  given  situation  one  shall 
fight,  coax,  or  run,  is  a  question  merely  of  what  is  easiest 
and  safest."16 

With  attitudes  such  as  those  just  described  dominating 
the  policy  process,  it  is  small  wonder  that  the  Indian  Peace 
Commission  Report  to  President  Andrew  Johnson  in  Jan- 
uary, 1868,  included  the  following  observation:  "Whatever 
our  people  may  choose  to  say  of  the  insincerity  or  dupli- 
city of  the  Indian  would  fail  to  express  the  estimate  enter- 
tained by  many  Indians  of  the  white  man's  character  in 
this  respect."17 

The  range  of  opinions  concerning  the  educability  of 
Native  Americans  was  not  matched  by  attitudes  toward 
the  educational  process  itself.  Particularly  in  the  Indian  Ser- 
vice, the  desirability  of  Indian  education  was  generally  ac- 
cepted, as  were  a  number  of  goals  and  the  method  of 
achievement.  Throughout  the  century,  there  was  much 
support  for  the  opinion  expressed  in  1832  by  Commissioner 
Elbert  Herring: 

If  there  be  any  human  means  of  directing  the  intelligence 
of  the  Indian  from  its  narrow  and  contracted  sphere,  to  en- 
larged and  comprehensive  views,  it  must  exist  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  knowledge,  operating  to  expand  and  improve  the  men- 
tal faculties.  The  lessons  of  early  instruction  rarely  fail  to  earn' 
their  impress  to  after  life.  Indian  children  evince  a  faculty  of 
acquirement  no  wise  inferior  to  those  of  European 
origin.   .   .   ,18 

The  optimism  implicit  in  Herring's  pronouncement 
stood  in  stark  contrast  to  the  culturally  narrow,  but  well 
defined,  educational  goals  almost  universally  accepted,  as 
well  as  to  the  methods  that  were  presumed  appropriate 
to  their  achievement.  The  virtually  unquestioned  purpose 
of  education  was  the  dismantling  and  destruction  of  In- 
dian cultural  values,  and  their  replacement  by  values 
deemed  congruent  to  those  held  by  white  society.  Teaching 
Indian  children  the  English  language  was  easily  defensi- 
ble on  the  pragmatic  grounds  of  social  usefulness.  Without 


*L±* 


denying  its  utilitarian  effect,  however,  most  justifications 
leaned  heavily  on  assertions  of  cultural  superiority.  The 
remarks  of  J.D.C.  Atkins  in  1886  are  a  case  in  point.  No 
Indian  student  whose  education  was  being  supported  by 
the  United  States  Government  "is  permitted  to  study  any 
other  language  than  our  own  vernacular— the  language  of 
the  greatest,  most  powerful,  and  enterprising  nationalities 
beneath  the  sun."19  "The  English  language  as  taught  in 
America,"  he  concluded,  "is  good  enough  for  all  her  peo- 
ple of  all  races."20 

That  the  purpose  of  education  was  nothing  short  of 
cultural  indoctrination  was  unapologetically  announced  in 
October,  1889,  by  T.  J.  Morgan.  With  no  apparent  con- 
sideration of  possible  opposition,  Morgan  asserted  that  In- 
dian children  "should  be  taught  to  look  upon  America  as 
their  home  and  upon  the  United  States  Government  as 
their  friend  and  benefactor."21  There  is  no  record  of  con- 
temporary comment  concerning  the  intellectual  oddity  of 
indigenous  inhabitants  being  instructed  about  the  location 
of  their  home  by  latter-day  immigrants! 

Indian  children,  according  to  Morgan,  "should  be 
made  familiar  with  the  lives  of  great  and  good  men  and 
women  in  American  history,  and  be  taught  to  feel  a  pride 
in  all  their  great  achievements."22  This  "Great  Man"  ap- 
proach to  history  was  not  unique  to  Indian  education,  of 
course,  but  its  culturally  coercive  nature  is  readily  apparent 
in  what  was  to  be  ignored.  Native  Americans,  Morgan 
recommended,  "should  hear  little  or  nothing  of  the 
'wrongs  of  the  Indians,'  and  of  the  injustice  of  the  white 
race.  If  their  unhappy  history  is  alluded  to  it  should  be  to 
contrast  it  with  the  better  future  that  is  within  their 
grasp."23 

Two  more  points  need  to  be  noted  regarding  Indian 
education.  First,  the  implied  coercive  nature  of  the  educa- 
tional process  was  not  restricted  to  cultural  values  nor, 
secondly,  was  its  aim  totally  secular.  Physically  and 
psychologically  coerced  participation  in  Indian  education 
was  taken  by  many  to  be  a  prerequisite  to  success.  Walker 
(1872)  for  instance,  believed  it  unreasonable  "to  expect  that 
the  wild  Indians  will  become  industrious  and  frugal  ex- 
cept through  a  severe  course  of  industrial  instruction  and 
exercise,  under  restraint."24  Walker's  assumption  was, 
perhaps,  operationalized  with  "the  establishment  of  a 
training  school ...  at  Carlisle  Barracks,  Carlisle,  Pa.  under 
the  immediate  charge  of  Lieut.  R.  H.  Pratt."25  Referring 
to  a  student  body  "consisting  of  158  Indian  children  of  both 
sexes,  three-fourths  of  whom  are  boys,"  Hayt  (1879) 
reported  that  "These  children  have  been  taken  in  large 
numbers  from  the  Sioux  at  Rosebud,  Pine  Ridge  and  other 
agencies  on  the  Missouri  River,  and  from  all  the  tribes  in 
the  Indian  Territory  except  the  civilized  Indians."26  In  too 
many  instances  the  phrase  "had  been  taken"  represented 
a  literal  statement  of  fact. 

That  the  aim  of  education  was  not  exclusively  social 
and  secular  was  manifest  in  the  connection  posited  in  the 
19th  century  between  "civilization"  and  Christianity.  In 


view  of  this  widely  accepted  link,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
most  officials  involved  in  Indian  Affairs  believed  evan- 
gelism and  education  to  be  complementary  processes.  In- 
deed, Price  (1882)  went  so  far  as  to  conclude  that  "Civiliza- 
tion is  a  plant  of  exceeding  slow  growth,  unless  sup- 
plemented by  Christian  teaching  and  influences."27  Not 
surprisingly,  Price  saw  "the  labours  of  Christian  men  and 
women  as  educators  and  missionaries"  as  a  "very  impor- 
tant auxiliary  in  transforming  men  from  savage  to  civilized 
life  .  .  .,"  thereby  reclaiming  them  "from  barbarism, 
idolatry,  and  savage  life.  .  .  ,"28 

Insofar  as  the  efficacious  cultural  conversion  pi  Indian 
students  was  concerned,  one  other  problem  boded  large 
in  the  thinking  of  Indian  Affairs  officialdom.  Throughout 
the  19th  century,  there  was  a  continuing  concern  about 
what  might  be  called  the  phenomenon  of  "intellectual 
retrogression."  In  1826,  Thomas  L.  McKenney  alluded  to 
it  with  a  rhetorical  question,  asking  "If,  after  they  [Indians] 
shall  have  acquired  a  knowledge  of  letters,  and  of  the  arts, 
they  are  thrown  back  into  uneducated  Indian  settlements, 
is  it  not  to  be  apprehended  that  the  labor  of  instructing 
them,  and  the  expense  attending  it,  will  be  lost?"29  To  ob- 
viate this  unhappy  possibility,  McKenney  suggested  that, 
after  education  had  prepared  Indian  young  people  "to 
enter  upon  a  course  of  civilized  life,  sections  of  land  be 
given  to  them,  and  a  suitable  present  to  commence  with, 
of  agricultural  or  other  implements  suited  to  the  occupa- 
tions in  which  they  may  be  disposed,  respectively,  to 
engage."30 

Some  60  years  later,  Atkins  included  a  virtually  iden- 
tical recommendation  in  his  annual  report;  two  changes, 
though,  are  worth  noting.  Like  McKenney  before  him, 
Atkins  called  for  assisting  educated  Indians  in  "purchas- 
ing a  team,  in  breaking  and  fencing  land,  and  in  building 
a  house."31  Atkins,  however,  reduced  the  proposed  acreage 
of  the  homestead  from  the  section  (640  acres)  earlier  called 
for  to  the  congressionally  established  figure  of  160  acres. 
Further,  he  also  stipulated  that  the  appropriation  be  open 
only  to  those  Indian  males  "who  shall  graduate  from 
school  and  marry  an  Indian  maiden  who  has  also  grad- 
uated. .  .  "32  This  combination  of  requirements  and  in- 
ducements would,  in  Atkins'  opinion,  "greatly  encourage 
Indian  youths  and  maidens  in  their  resistance  to  the  evil 
and  savage  influences  of  their  untutored  friends,  and 
would  do  much  to  keep  them  from  a  return  to  savage 
life."33 

No  one  has  provided  a  neater  summary  of  19th  cen- 
tury policy  in  the  field  of  Indian  education  than  did  Com- 
missioner T.  J.  Morgan  in  October,  1889.  Pointing  out  the 
centrality  of  primary  schools  in  overcoming  "the  lack  of 
home  training,"  Morgan  advanced  three  specific  recom- 
mendations: (1)  "children  should  be  taken  at  as  early  an 
age  as  possible,  before  camp  life  has  made  an  indelible 
stamp  upon  them."  (2)  "The  instruction  should  be  oral 
and  objective,  and  in  the  highest  degree  simplified.  Music 
should  have  prominence,  and  the  most  tireless  attention 


General  William  T.  Sherman  and  Commission  in  council  with  Indian  Chiefs  at  Fort  Laramie.  Circa  1867-t 


should  be  given  to  training  in  manners  and  morals.  No 
pains  should  be  spared  to  insure  accuracy  and  fluency  in 
the  use  of  idiomatic  English."  (3)  "The  care  of  the  children 
should  correspond  more  to  that  given  in  a  'Children's 
Home'  than  to  that  of  an  ordinary  school."34 

Morgan  was  even  more  succinct  in  summarizing  the 
thrust  and  purpose  of  educational  policy. 

The  tribal  relations  should  be  broken  up,  socialism  destroyed, 
and  the  family  and  the  autonomy  of  the  individual  substituted. 
The  allotment  of  lands  in  severalty,  the  establishment  of  local 
courts  and  policy;  the  development  of  a  personal  sense  of  in- 
dependence, and  the  universal  adoption  of  the  English 
language  are  means  to  this  end.35 

Given  the  continuing  emphasis  on  the  need  to  in- 
tegrate Indian  youth  into  white  value  systems  through 
education,  there  is  a  tragic  irony  apparent  when  one  con- 
siders another  even  more  firmly  supported  facet  of  Federal 
Indian  Policy— the  policy  of  Indian  Removal.  Juxtaposing 
these  two  policies  results  in  a  curious  socio-political  equa- 
tion. Indian  survival  required  replacement  of  tribal  values 
with  white  values  through  education.  Indian  survival  re- 
quired that  Indians  be  removed  from  any  substantial  ter- 
ritorial or  "social"  contact  with  whites.  Thus,  it  appears 
that  Indian  survival  required  that  educated  Indians  be 
isolated  both  from  their  own  people  as  well  as  from  those 
whose  values  had  been  imposed  upon  them. 


The  support  for  a  policy  of  removal  was  constant 
throughout  the  19th  century.  First,  the  call  was  for  removal 
to  Indian  Territory  west  of  the  Mississippi,  then  to  what 
is  today  Oklahoma,  and  finally  to  designated  reservations. 
It  must,  however,  be  stressed  that  much  white  support  for 
removal  was,  in  fact,  based  on  a  real  concern  for  Indian 
welfare.  McKenney  spoke  for  many  when,  in  1828,  he 
raised  the  question, 

What  are  humanity  and  justice  in  reference  to  this  unfortunate 
race?  Are  these  found  to  lie  in  a  policy  that  would  leave  them 
to  linger  out  a  wretched  and  degraded  existence,  within  districts 
of  country  already  surrounded  and  pressed  upon  by  a  popula- 
tion whose  anxiety  and  efforts  to  get  rid  of  them  are  not  less 
restless  and  persevering,  than  is  that  law  of  nature  immutable, 
which  has  decreed,  that,  under  such  circumstances,  if  con- 
tinued in,  they  must  perish?  Or  does  it  not  rather  consist  in 
withdrawing  them  from  this  certain  destruction,  and  placing 
them,  though  even  at  this  late  hour,  in  a  situation  where,  by 
the  adoption  of  a  suitable  system  for  their  security,  preserva- 
tion, and  improvement,  and  at  no  matter  what  cost,  thev  may 
be  saved  and  blest?3h 

For  people  like  McKenney  there  was,  of  course,  always 
the  problem  of  Indian  willingness,  or  lack  thereof,  to  be 
removed.  McKenney  believed  he  had  evidence  that  most 
tribesmen  were  in  favor  of  moving  to  new  territory,  "but 
they  are  held  in  check  by  their  chiefs  and  others,  whose 
interest  it  is  to  keep  them  where  thev  are.",r  "And  to  this 


13 


feeling,"  he  went  on,  "may  be  superadded  the  uncertainty 
which  rests  upon  the  future,  drawn  from  the  lessons  of 
the  past."38  What  might  be  the  solution  to  these  problems? 
For  McKenney,  "The  presence  of  an  armed  force  would 
effectually  relieve  the  first;  and  the  adoption  of  a  system 
for  their  security,  and  preservation,  and  future  happiness, 
that  should  be  as  effective  and  ample  as  it  ought  to  be  per- 
manent, would  relieve  the  last."39  More  will  be  said  later 
about  the  use  of  the  military  as  an  instrument  of  policy  im- 
plementation. Suffice  it  here  merely  to  note  that  McKen- 
ney categorically  stipulated  that  military  power  was  to  be 
used  "not  to  compel  a  single  Indian  to  quit  the  place  of 
his  choice,  but  only  to  protect  those  who  desire  to  better 
their  condition,  and  in  the  exercise  of  their  wish  to  do  so."40 

As  already  indicated  at  some  length,  the  Indian  Of- 
fice's rationale  for  removal  was,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
phrased  in  terms  of  benefiting  the  "recipients"  of  the  po- 
licy. At  least  two  principal  advantages  were,  with  some 
consistency,  attributed  to  Indian  removal.  The  first  repre- 
sented a  curious  inversion  of  what  had,  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, become  mandatory  acknowledgments  of  Indian  in- 
feriority. As  early  as  1832,  Herring,  in  writing  about  the  "con- 
tiguity of  white  settlements"  to  Indians,  described  such 
contact  as  invariably  tending  "to  depreciate  the  Indian 
character.  The  evil  was  always  without  counterbalance  of 
possible  good,  either  present  or  in  reversion."41  Thirty 
years  later,  William  P.  Dole  was  equally  explicit.  "A  fruit- 
ful source  of  difficulty,"  he  noted,  "is  found  in  the  fact 
that  most  of  the  reservations  within  this  superintendency 
are  surrounded  by  white  settlements;  and  it  has  heretofore 
been  found  impossible  to  prevent  the  pernicious  effects 
arising  from  the  intercourse  of  vicious  whites  with  the  In- 
dians."42 By  the  time  of  Dole's  report  in  1862,  officialdom 
was  quite  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  separation  of  Indians 
and  whites  could  only  be  accomplished,  if  at  all,  by  remov- 
ing the  Indians  rather  than  by  attempting  to  restrain 
whites. 

The  second  principal  argument  had  to  do  with  the 
quality  and  the  amount  of  land  available  to  which 
tribesmen  could  be  removed.  Operational  assumptions  in 
regard  to  both  matters  were  possessed  of  serious  flaws. 
In  1876,  J.  Q.  Smith  expressed  considerable  doubt  as  to 
"whether  even  white  people  could  cultivate  profitably  the 
greater  part  of  the  Sioux  reservation  in  Dakota,"  then  con- 
cluded that  "In  the  Indian  Territory,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  fertile  land,  a  genial  climate,  and  room  for  more  In- 
dians than  there  are  in  the  whole  Union."43  Both  points, 
fertility  and  sufficiency  of  acreage,  were  advanced  again 
and  again.  Such  wealth  as  subsequently  came  to  be  gen- 
erated in  Oklahoma,  however,  did  not  come  in  significant 
degree  from  agricultural  productivity.  And  the  acreage 
made  available  was  sufficient  (//  fertility  had  been  a  fact) 
only  if  one  also  accepts  the  implicit  assumption  that  no  In- 
dian family  would  have  more  than  one  child  to  whom  an 
estate  could  descend. 

The  true  reason  for  removal  was,  of  course,  the  fact 

14 


of  white  expansion.  Among  others,  Walker  (1872)  recog- 
nized that  a  terrible  cost  was  being  exacted.  "We  are  richer 
by  hundreds  of  millions;  the  Indian  is  poorer  by  a  large 
part  of  the  little  that  he  has.  This  growth  is  bringing  im- 
perial greatness  to  the  nation;  to  the  Indian  it  brings 
wretchedness,  destitution,  beggary."44 

To  say  the  least,  a  majority  found  little  use  for  Walker's 
assessment.  As  early  as  1838,  in  fact,  it  had  even  been 
argued  by  Crawford  that  removing  Indians  could  be 
likened  to  the  mobility  of  the  white  population  "in  the 
numerous  changes  of  residence  that  considerations  of  bet- 
tering their  condition  are  daily  producing."45  Crawford 
went  so  far  as  to  stipulate  that  such  moves  were  harder 
on  a  white  who  was  "accompanied  by  his  family  only, 
[while]  the  Indians  go  by  tribes,  carrying  with  them  all  the 
pleasures  of  ancient  acquaintance,  common  habit,  and 
common  interests."  Indians  also,  according  to  Crawford, 
benefited  "from  their  condition  not  favoring  the  indul- 
gence of  the  finer  feelings."47 

J.  Q.  Smith  (1876)  summarized  what  he  thought  to  be 
the  most  important  goals  of  Indian  policy.  "First.  Concen- 
tration of  all  Indians  on  a  few  reservations.  Second.  Allot- 
ment to  them  of  lands  in  severalty.  Third.  Extension  over 
them  of  United  States  law  and  the  jurisdiction  of  United 
States  courts."48  Having  dealt  with  attitudes  toward 
Smith's  first  point,  we  now  move  to  the  second— a  con- 
sideration of  the  matter  of  land  ownership  and  land  use. 

That  Indians  would  oppose  loss  of  their  lands  and 
resist  efforts  to  alter  their  life  style  should  have  come  as 
no  surprise— and  to  most  whites  it  did  not.  Walker,  writing 
in  1872,  was  probably  representative  when  he  observed 
that  "It  was  not  to  be  expected— it  was  not  in  the  nature 
of  things— that  the  entire  body  of  wild  Indians  should  sub- 
mit to  be  restrained  in  their  Ishmaelitish  proclivities 
without  a  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  more  audacious  to 
maintain  their  traditional  freedom."49  The  manner  in  which 
Walker  made  his  point,  however,  is  strongly  suggestive 
of  the  presumptive  superiority  of  white  claims.  In  this 
respect,  Walker  was  again  quite  representative  of  general 
white  attitudes.  The  Indian  Peace  Commission,  reporting 
to  President  Johnson  in  January,  1868,  clearly  recognized 
the  likely  policy  outcome  of  such  a  presumption.  "If  the 
lands  of  the  white  man  are  taken,"  the  Commission  report 
reads,  "civilization  justified  him  in  resisting  the  invader. 
...  If  the  savage  resists,  civilization,  with  the  ten  com- 
mandments in  one  hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other, 
demands  his  immediate  extermination."50 

Whites  could  recognize,  if  not  respond  to,  the  motive 
force  behind  Indians'  defense  of  land  and  liberty.  They 
could  not,  however,  see  any  justification  for  or  legitimacy 
implicit  in  Indian  concepts  of  land  use.  From  the  earliest 
times,  white  authority  unquestioningly  accepted  the  ef- 
ficacy of  small  private  land-holdings,  together  with  farm- 
ing, as  "civilizing  instruments." 

•     Hunting  was  opposed  on  the  grounds  of  poor  eco- 
nomic productivity  as  well  as  an  impediment  to  accultura- 


tion.  From  an  economic  point  of  view,  the  disappearance 
of  game  (much  of  it  killed  or  driven  off  by  white  activities) 
and  the  lack  of  new  hunting  grounds  made  inevitable,  in 
the  eyes  of  policy-makers,  either  "the  civilization  or  the 
utter  destruction  of  the  Indians.  .  .  ."51  The  "cultural" 
objections  to  hunting  stemmed  from  the  perception  that 
it  measurably  slowed,  if  not  precluded,  the  Indians'  prog- 
ress toward  becoming  "civilized."  With  the  disappearance 
of  game,  the  amount  of  land  earlier  ceded  to  the  tribes  was 
deemed  to  be  excessive  also.  As  Orlando  Brown  (1849) 
pointed  out, 

Most  if  not  all  of  them  [Indians]  possess  an  extent  of  country 
which,  however  desirable  originally,  with  reference  to  their 
maintaining  themselves  by  the  chase,  now  ...  is  not  only 
of  no  use,  but  a  positive  disadvantage  to  them,  as  it  has  a 
tendency  to  keep  them  from  concentrating  and  applying  them- 
selves with  any  regular  or  systematic  effort  to  agriculture  and 
other  industrial  pursuit.52 

In  addition  to  the  presumptive  cultural  superiority  of 
farming  over  hunting,  there  were  at  least  two  additional 
facets  of  this  policy  area  that  merit  specific  attention— the 
nature  and  purpose  of  private  land  ownership  and  the  con- 
sensus which  developed  vis-a-vis  inducing  Indians  to  work 
the  land. 

White  authority  frequently  assigned  to  such  legal  con- 
cepts as  holding  title  in  fee  simple  and  distributing  land 
in  severalty  an  importance  and  impact  more  ideological 
than  pragmatic  in  nature.  All  through  the  19th  century, 
individual  ownership  of  land  was,  in  the  most  glowing 
terms,  described  as  an  irreplaceable  component  of  "civiliza- 
tion," "progress"  and  "prosperity."  Thus,  in  1832,  Her- 
ring noted  that  "the  habits  and  prejudices  incident  to 
savage  birth"  could  be  overcome  only  "by  the  institution 
of  separate  and  secure  rights  in  the  relations  of  property 
and  person."53  Six  years  later,  Crawford  was  even  more 
sweeping  in  his  judgment.  "Common  property  and  civil- 
ization cannot  co-exist,"  he  wrote,  for  "at  the  foundation 
of  the  whole  social  system  lies  individuality  of  property."54 
Such  singularly  positive  attitudes  dominated  nearly  a  cen- 
tury of  policy-making.  Atkins  (1885)  for  example,  believed 
"The  advantages  to  the  Indians  of  taking  their  land  in 
severalty  are  so  important  and  far-reaching  in  their  effects 
that  I  fear  to  dwell  upon  them  .  .  .  lest  I  be  accused  of 
drawing  a  roseate  picture  born  of  an  enthusiastic  imagina- 
tion."55 

Not  all  19th  century  officials  were  so  grandiose  in  their 
descriptions  and  expressions  of  support  for  private  owner- 
ship of  land— but  firm  their  support  was  nonetheless.  Dole 
(1862)  felt  that  "becoming  individual  owners  of  the  soil 
[was]  a  step  which  I  regard  as  the  most  important  in  their 
[Indians']  progress  towards  civilization."56  In  like  manner, 
Smith  (1876)  was  "doubtful  whether  any  high  degree  of 
civilization  is  possible  without  individual  ownership  of 
land,"57  and  Price  (1881)  assigned  to  the  allotment  of  in- 
dividual land  holdings  "the  effect  of  creating  individuality, 
responsibility,  and  a  desire  to  accumulate  property."58  Not 


only  does  it  teach  "the  Indians  habits  of  industry  and 
frugality,"  individual  ownership  would  also  have  the 
happy  effect  of  thus  relieving  "the  government  of  large 
annual  appropriations."59 

The  glowing  possibilities  so  eloquently  spelled  out  by 
white  officialdom  consistently  encountered,  among  others, 
one  fundamental  barrier  to  consummation.  That  barrier  can 
be  best  described  as  a  continuing  question,  "How  can 
potential  recipients  of  this  cornucopia  of  opportunity  best 
be  induced  to  accept  it?"  During  the  last  half  of  the  cen- 
tury a  very  specific  answer  to  that  question  was  repeat- 
edly promulgated.  As  early  as  1858,  Commissioner  Charles 
E.  Mix  had  recommended  not  only  the  distribution  of  land 
in  severalty,  but  that  individual  Indian  assignees  be  "re- 
quired to  remain  on  his  own  tract  and  .  .  .  cultivate  it."60 
Thus  binding  people  to  the  land  is,  of  course,  not  too  far 
removed  from  a  form  of  serfdom  since  the  Indian  "own- 
ers" could  neither  leave  the  land  nor  sell  it. 

Mix  appears  to  have  been  very  much  in  the  mainstream 
of  policy-implementation  thinking.  Walker  (1872),  for  in- 
stance, felt  that  Indians  had  to  be  made  to  realize  "that 
if  they  would  eat  they  must  also  work.  Nor  should  it  be 
left  to  their  own  choices  how  miserably  they  will  live,  in 
order  that  they  may  escape  work  as  much  as  possible."61 
"The  Government,"  he  went  on,  "should  extend  over 
them  a  rigid  reformatory  discipline,  to  save  them  from  fall- 
ing hopelessly  into  the  condition  of  pauperism  and  petty 
crime."62  Three  years  later,  Edward  P.  Smith  referred  to 
"the  necessity  ...  to  compel  Indians,  through  the  moral 
suasion  of  hunger,  to  do  that  which  they  dislike  .  .  .,"63 
and  Price  (1881)  called  for  giving  Indians  "every  facility 
for  making  a  comfortable  living,  and  then  compel  him  to 
depend  upon  his  own  exertions  for  a  livelihood."64  Only 
through  the  use  of  such  rigorous  techniques  could  what 
John  H.  Oberly  (1888)  described  as  "the  degrading  com- 
munism of  the  tribal  reservation  system  [which]  gives  to 
the  individual  no  incentive  to  labor,  but  puts  a  premium 
upon  idleness  and  makes  it  fashionable"  be  eliminated.65 

The  civilizing  efficacy  of  allotment,  severalty  and 
private  ownership  of  land,  which  was  described  with  such 
moral  fervor,  was  clearly  only  one  of  the  benefits  of  policies 
directed  toward  those  goals.  The  other  major  purpose,  very 
simply  stated,  was  to  reduce  Indian  land-holdings  so  as 
to  increase  the  amount  of  land  available  for  white  settle- 
ment. In  1858,  Mix  called  for  a  policy  of  locating  "the  dif- 
ferent tribes  on  reservations  embracing  only  sufficient  land 
for  their  actual  occupancy.   .   .   ,"66 

Through  the  years,  of  course,  various  treaties  and 
agreements  had  recognized  Indian  rights  to  a  far  larger  ter- 
ritory than  that  contemplated  by  Mix  as  appropriate  for 
inclusion  in  reservations.  White  reaction  to  such  treaty 
rights  was  summarized  quite  accurately  by  Commissioner 
Smith  in  October,  1876.  "There  is,"  he  wrote,  "a  very 
general  and  growing  opinion  that  observance  of  the  strict 
letter  of  treaties  with  Indians  is  in  many  cases  at  variance 
both  with  their  own  best  interests  and  with  sound  public 


15 


policy."67  Since  "Public  necessity  must  ultimately  become 
supreme  law,"  Smith  continued,  "their  highest  good  will 
require  these  people  to  take  ample  allotments  of  land  in 
severalty  .  .  .  and  to  surrender  the  remainder  of  their 
lands  to  the  United  States  Government  for  a  fair 
equivalent."68 

How  much  land,  one  might  reasonably  ask,  was  thus 
to  be  "surrendered?"  In  September,  1890,  Morgan 

estimated  that  under  .  .  .  special  legislation  .  .  .  about 
13,000,000  acres  of  land  have  been  secured  by  cession  from 
the  Indians  during  the  past  year;  and  there  are  agreements 
now  pending  before  Congress  through  which,  if  ratified,  the 
Government  will  acquire  some  4,500,000  acres  more;  all  of 
which  will  ...  be  open  to  white  settlement  in  the  near 
future.69 

"This  might  seem  like  a  somewhat  rapid  reduction  of  the 
landed  estate  of  the  Indians,"  Morgan  admitted,  but  the 
relinquishment  was  quite  justified  because  "for  the  most 
part  the  land  relinquished  was  not  being  used  .  .  ., 
scarcely  any  of  it  was  in  cultivation,  .  .  .  the  Indians  did 
not  need  it  and  would  not  be  likely  to  need  it  at  any  future 
time,  and  .  .  .  they  were  .  .  .  reasonably  well  paid  for 
it.  .  .  ."70  In  addition  to  these  arguments,  Morgan  also 
concluded  that  "the  sooner  the  tribal  relations  are  broken 
up  and  the  reservations  system  done  away  with  the  bet- 
ter it  will  be  for  all  concerned."71  With  the  accomplishment 
of  this   "settled  policy  of  the  Government,"  Morgan 


prophesied,  "The  American  Indian  is  to  become  the  In- 
dian American."72 

The  acquisition  of  Indian  lands  by  treaty,  act  of  Con- 
gress or  through  some  type  of  agreement  was  almost 
always  accompanied  by  a  stipulation  of  the  payment  to  be 
made.  One  of  the  most  frequently  utilized  forms  of  re- 
compense was  the  distribution  of  annuities.  Thus,  as  In- 
dian land-holdings  were  reduced  and  reservation  life  in- 
creasingly became  the  norm,  payment  by  the  government 
of  annuities  came  to  be  a  feature  of  Indian  Policy  as  per- 
vasive as  it  was  controversial.  Though  such  payments  were 
initially  authorized  as  compensation  for  rights  or  land  sur- 
rendered by  the  tribes,  their  continuation  for  the  life  of  the 
agreement  generated  considerable  controversy.  To  put  it 
bluntly,  white  authority  found  it  useful  to  promise  pay- 
ments to  the  Indians  in  order  to  secure  from  the  latter 
whatever  was  desired;  the  same  authority,  however,  came 
to  resent  such  payments  once  the  benefits  acquired  by  the 
"bargain"  were  firmly  in  hand. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  19th  century,  annuity 
payments  were  attacked  as  a  barrier  to  "civilizing"  the  reci- 
pients. Thus,  Lea,  writing  in  1851,  decried  the  difficulty 
of  trying  to  "arouse  the  spirit  of  enterprise  in  the  Indian 
.  .  .,"  which  difficulty  resulted  largely  from  "the  debas- 
ing influence  of  the  annuity  system."73  And  this  opinion 
was  still  going  strong  30  years  later,  as  reflected  in  Walker's 
stark  judgment: 


Indian  delegation  under  Spotted  Tail  at  Washington,  D.C.  1877.  Taken  at  Corcoran  Gallery  of  Art. 


16 


It  must  be  apparent  to  the  most  casual  observer  that  the  system 
of  gathering  the  Indians  in  bands  or  tribes  on  reservations  and 
carrying  to  them  victuals  and  clothes,  thus  relieving  them  of 
the  necessity  of  labor,  never  will  and  never  can  civilize  them. 
Labor  is  an  essential  element  in  producing  civilization.  If  white 
men  were  treated  as  we  treat  the  Indians  the  result  would  cer- 
tainly be  a  race  of  worthless  vagabonds.74 

It  is  quite  clear  that  government  officialdom  objected  to  the 
manner  in  which  Indians  chose  to  use  their  annuity  goods 
and  payment  to  an  extent  at  least  equal  to  those  raised 
against  the  payments  themselves.  Apparently  living,  even 
poorly,  off  what  would  today  be  called  "unearned  in- 
come," while  appropriate  for  a  small  segment  of  white 
society,  was  deemed  deleterious  for  Indians. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  third  of  the  goals  described  by 
Smith  in  1876.  As  noted  above,  that  goal  was  "Extension 
over  them  [Indians]  of  United  States  law  and  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  United  States  courts."75  Describing  efforts  to 
achieve  this  goal  resolves  itself  into  an  examination  of  two 
related  topics:  first,  the  methods  and  techniques  through 
the  use  of  which  the  Government  could  enforce  its  laws 
and  policy  prescriptions  and,  secondly,  the  role  of  the 
military  as  an  instrument  of  policy  implementation. 

As  seen  by  Commissioners  of  Indian  Affairs,  perhaps 
the  most  fundamental  requirement  of  effective  Indian 
Policy  was  that  of  enforcing  the  law  vis-a-vis  Indians  in 
the  manner  considered  appropriate  in  white  society.  If 
someone  breaks  the  law  or  violates  a  regulation,  they  must 
be  arrested  and  punished.  What  manner  of  punishment 
might  appear  to  be  appropriate?  To  this  question  both 
Brown  (1849)  and  Hayt  (1879)  provide  answers.  For  Brown, 
"the  only  effectual  remedy  .  .  .  will  be  for  Congress  to 
make  provision  for  the  trial  of  offenders  ...  in  some  ap- 
propriate manner,  and  for  their  punishment,  by  death, 
hard  labor  at  the  military  posts,  or  otherwise,  according 
to  the  nature  and  aggravated  character  of  the  offense."76 
Brown  also  recommended  that  the  government  assume 
jurisdiction  and  administer  punishment,  in  "cases  of  theft 
or  robbery,  and  of  habitual  or  repeated  intemperance 
among  the  members  of  a  tribe.  .  .   ."77 

Writing  30  years  later,  Hayt  called  for  removal  as  well 
as  punishment  of  recalcitrants.  To  accomplish  this  dual 
purpose,  "A  penal  settlement  for  the  confinement  and 
reformation  of  the  more  turbulent  and  troublesome  in- 
dividuals among  the  various  Indian  tribes  is  a  pressing 
want.  .  .  ,"78  He  went  on  to  assert  the  need  for  two  types 
of  such  "settlements," 

For  the  worst  class  of  refractory  Indians,  one  settlement  should 
be  in  Florida,  which  is  far  enough  away  from  Indian  reserva- 
tions to  make  any  attempt  at  escape  hopeless.  Another  set- 
tlement should  be  established  in  the  Northwest,  at  some  point 
where  a  considerable  quantity  of  arable  land  can  be  found, 
so  that  Indians  who  are  thus  restricted  in  their  liberty  may 
be  taught  to  work  for  their  support. ^ 

That  this  was  a  call  to  enforce  white  authority's  rules 
on  Indians  was  apparent,  but  true  "equality  under  the 
law"  was  hardly  contemplated.   At  least  two  key  dif- 


ferences between  whites  and  Indians  were  noted  by  Com- 
missioners Walker  (1872)  and  Smith  (1874)  respectively.  If 
a  white  man  did  not  like  a  particular  law,  he  was  legally 
free  to  leave  its  jurisdiction;  Walker,  however,  considered 
it  to  be  "Especially  .  .  .  essential  that  the  right  of  the 
Government  to  keep  Indians  upon  the  reservations  as- 
signed to  them,  and  to  arrest  and  return  them  whenever 
they  wander  away,  should  be  placed  beyond  dispute."80 
It  remained  for  Smith  to  note  another  form  of  unequal  ap- 
plication of  the  law.  "If  a  white  man  commits  depredations 
upon  the  Indians  in  their  own  country,"  he  wrote,  "no 
penalty  is  provided  beyond  that  of  putting  him  out  of  the 
country,  a  penalty  which  he  readily  takes  upon  himself 
when  escaping  with  his  booty."81 

In  addition  to  arrest  and  incarceration  as  techniques 
of  law  enforcement  and  policy  implementation,  two  other 
major  changes  were  recommended— one  an  immediate 
structural  change  in  the  political  system  and  the  other  a 
long-term,  permanent  alteration  of  social  patterns.  The 
structural  reform  and  its  rationale  were  both  straight- 
forwardly described  by  Atkins  (1886)  in  the  most  vigorous 
terms.  Atkins  proposed  that  tribal  authority  over  Indian 
land  be  replaced  by  territorial  governments;  in  his  view, 
the  power  of  Congress  to  implement  such  a  change  was 
superior  to  treaty-guaranteed  Indian  rights. 

While  I  would  greatly  prefer  that  these  people  should  volun- 
tarily change  their  form  of  government  .  .  .  These  Indians 
have  no  right  to  obstruct  civilization  and  commerce  and  set 
up  an  exclusive  claim  to  self-government  .  .  .  and  then  ex- 
pect and  claim  that  the  United  States  shall  protect  them  from 
all  harm,  while  insisting  that  it  shall  not  be  the  ultimate  judge 
as  to  what  is  best  to  be  done  for  them  in  a  political  point  of 
view.82 

So  far  as  relations  between  Indians  and  white  of- 
ficialdom was  concerned,  the  notion  that  the  "Government 
knows  best"  was  even  more  blatantly  stated  two  years  later 
by  John  Oberly .  The  long-term  alteration  in  social  patterns 
for  which  he  spoke  out  was  to  be  accomplished  by  the  com- 
plete "assimilation  [of  Indians]  with  the  masses  of  the 
Republic."83  Indian  values  must  be  replaced  with  Anglo- 
European  values;  each  Indian  "must  be  imbued  with  the 
exalting  egotism  of  American  civilization,  so  that  he  will 
say  T  instead  of  'We,'  and  'This  is  mine,'  instead  of  This 
is  ours.'  "84 

That  Indians  might  resist  this  "exalting  egotism,"  was 
a  problem  which  Oberly  faced  without  flinching.  If  Indians 
"shall  continue  to  persist  in  saying  T  am  content;  let  me 
alone,'  then  the  Guardian  must  act  for  the  Ward,  and  do 
for  him  the  good  service  he  protests  shall  not  be  done— 
the  good  service  that  he  denounces  as  a  bad  service."85 
And  should  Indian  "wards"  persist  in  their  recalcitrance, 
"The  Government  must  then,  in  duty  to  the  public,  com- 
pel the  Indian  to  come  out  of  his  isolation  into  the  civil- 
ized way  that  he  does  not  desire  to  enter.   .  .   ,"86 

As  the  19th  century  drew  to  a  close,  what  had  always 
been  implicit  in  Indian  Policy  became  starkly  explicit.  In- 
dian ways  and  values  were  not  to  be  permitted  to  survi\  e. 


"The  Indians  must  conform  to  'the  white  man's  ways/ 
peaceably  if  they  will,  forcibly  if  they  must.  They  must  ad- 
just themselves  to  their  environment,  and  conform  their 
mode  of  living  substantially  to  our  civilization."87  Thus 
concluded  Commissioner  Morgan  in  1889,  admitting  that 
"This  civilization  may  not  be  the  best  possible,  but  it  is 
the  best  the  Indians  can  get.  They  cannot  escape  it,  and 
must  either  conform  to  it  or  be  crushed  by  it."88 

From  the  point  of  view  of  Indian  Affairs  officialdom, 
the  proper  role  of  the  military  as  an  instrument  of  policy 
occasioned  ambivalence.  Throughout  most  of  the  19th  cen- 
tury, and  certainly  during  its  final  half,  the  Office  of  In- 
dian Affairs  and  the  War  Department  contended  both  with 
vigor  and  with  vehemence  for  dominance  in  administer- 
ing Federal  Indian  Policy.  Each  department,  not  surpris- 
ingly, stressed  its  own  superior  capabilities  and  insisted 
that  the  other  was  inadequate.  The  attitude  of  N.  G.  Taylor, 


While  commissioners  steadfastly  asserted  the  need  for 
military  authority  to  subordinate  itself  to  civil  officers,  most 
also  were  more  than  prepared  to  call  upon  military  forces 
to  enforce  policy  decisions  and  to  punish  Indian  violators. 
Thus,  Mix  (1858)  deemed  it  "essential  to  the  success  of  the 
system  that  there  should  be  a  sufficient  military  force  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  reservations  to  prevent  the  intrusion  of 
improper  persons  upon  them,  to  afford  protection  to  the 
agents,  and  to  aid  in  controlling  the  Indians  and  keeping 
them  within  the  limits  assigned  to  them."90  In  like  man- 
ner, ready  resort  armed  might  was  implicit  in  Dole's  (1862) 
warning  concerning  the  Sioux  of  Dakota  Territory;  "... 
not  a  moment  should  be  lost  in  making  preparation  to  pre- 
vent and,  if  need  be,  resist  and  punish  any  hostile 
demonstration  they  might  make."91  "Like  the  southern 
rebels,"   Dole  concluded,    "these  savage  secessionists 


Shoshone  Indians  at  Fort  Washakie,  1892. 


expressed  in  November,  1868,  is  representative  of  civil 
authority's  side  of  the  argument. 

Soldiers  are  educated  and  trained  in  the  science  of  war 
and  in  the  arts  of  arms.  Civilians  are  taught  in  the  sciences 
and  arts  of  peaceful  civilization.  In  lifting  up  races  from  the 
degradation  of  savage  barbarism  and  leading  them  into  the 
sunlight  of  a  higher  life,  in  unveiling  to  their  benighted  vision 
the  benefits  of  civilization  and  the  blessings  of  a  peaceful  Chris- 
tianity, I  cannot  for  the  life  of  me  perceive  the  propriety  or 
the  efficacy  of  employing  the  military  instead  of  the  civil 
departments,  unless  it  is  intended  to  adopt  the  Mohammedan 
motto,  and  proclaim  to  these  people  "Death  or  the  Koran."89 


tolerate  no  opposition  in  their  unfriendly  attitude  toward 
the  whites."92 

As  Indian-White  relations  deteriorated  during  the 
1870s,  the  purpose  for  which  military  force  was  to  be 
employed  was  stated  in  increasingly  punitive  terms.  For 
Walker  (1872),  it  would  be  an  occasion  for  personal  rejoic- 
ing "when,  in  fact,  the  last  hostile  tribe  becomes  reduced 
to  the  condition  of  suppliants  for  charity."93  In  similar 
fashion,  at  the  end  of  the  decade  Hayt  (1879)  observed  that 
"It  is  impossible  to  properly  govern  a  barbarous  people 
like  our  wilder  Indians  without  being  able  to  inflict  some 


18 


punishment  to  the  offender."94  He  went  on  to  note  tnat, 
in  his  opinion,  "to  suppress  insurrections,  and  to  chastise, 
by  the  penalties  and  losses  of  war,  those  who  rebel  against 
the  government  .  .  .  are  temporary  evils  to  the  Indians, 
and  unless  the  punishment  inflicted  is  unusually  severe 
the  lesson  is  soon  forgotten."95 

Perhaps  the  most  comprehensive  misperception  which 
pervades  the  material  here  presented  can  most  easily  be 
described  in  Burkean  terms.  The  18th  century  English 
political  practitioner  and  philosopher  suggested  that, 
before  a  habit  or  custom  (prejudice,  Burke  called  it)  was 
rejected,  some  attempt  ought  to  be  made  to  determine  why 
it  evolved  in  the  first  place,  i.e.,  what  function  did  it  serve? 
Implicit  in  this  suggestion  is  the  notion  that  neither  age 
nor  mere  variation  from  the  viewer's  norm  validates  a  con- 
clusion of  uselessness  or  inferiority. 

Unexamined  assumptions  of  cultural  and  racial  su- 
periority mitigate  against  an  effective  implementation  of 
Burke's  approach.  Clearly,  the  depth  and  breadth  of  the 
conviction  of  white  superiority  was  a  fundamental  con- 
tributor to  the  pervasive  possibility  of  conflict  in  Indian- 
White  relations  during  the  19th  century.  As  noted  above, 
where  cultural  differences  were  recognized,  Indian  in- 
feriority was  more  frequently  presumed  than  demon- 
strated. Even  those  who  were,  by  the  standards  of  the 


times,  sensitive  to  Indian  needs  virtually  never  saw  Indian 
values  and  practices  which  they  opposed  as  something  for 
which  finding  a  suitable  surrogate  was  a  prerequisite  for 
change  without  conflict.  Instead,  a  continuing  demand, 
both  simple  and  simplistic,  dominated  white  policy— things 
Indian  had  to  be  eliminated  and  replaced  by  things  white. 
Three  of  the  most  important  subjects  in  regard  to  which 
this  problem  arose  were  Indian  concepts  of  land  owner- 
ship and  use,  Indian  religion  and  Indian  concepts  of 
honor,  prestige  and  glory  associated  with  warfare.  In  all 
three  areas,  the  dismantling,  destruction  and  disap- 
pearance of  Indian  procedures  and  values  was  demanded, 
together  with  implantation  of  Anglo-European  practices 
and  ideas.  The  operational  assumption  seems  to  have  been 
"What  works  for  us  will  work  for  them  if  only  they  will 
accept  our  vision  instead  of  their  own." 

So  far  as  the  type  of  misperception  in  which  funda- 
mental differences  are  nonetheless  perceived  in  terms  of 
equivalence,  two  examples  stand  out:  (1)  basic  conceptions, 
as  well  as  the  operation,  of  socio-political  authority,  and 
(2)  the  role  of  combat  and  the  function  of  war.  In  regard 
to  the  first,  it  seems  never  to  have  penetrated  the  white 
policy-making  process  that  command  authority  in  the  Hob- 
besian  sense  simply  did  not  exist  in  Indian  society.  Unable 
to  comprehend  and  thus  to  confront  this  monumental 


4 

•r 

JtL                  s    * 

&^n 

Wv^B 

^X        -» -  4m0MI 

tr~                     ^^k  >>U^K^^|K  B&  M 

jr 

[JL 

■V    ''  /^ 

ij^k-m  IV   ] 

l    a w'  dj^L 

■■L/ 

■^^^■v*              ^ArfC 

JJ  \ 

m  Awf^^^^ 

I 

l  d       ^  1            ^m          Irafl 

J  pp 

Ml         MW*\ 

H 

NAtH     1 II     'j^St 

H 

V 1       B3           FJ 

This  group  gathered  at  Fort  Laramie  in  1868.  Included  are:  W.  G.  Bullock,  Man-Afraid-of-his-Horses,  standing  center.  On  the  right  Red  Beat- 
shakes  hands  with  James  Bordeaux. 


Another  meeting  of  Indians  and  Whites  at  Fort  Laramie. 


ultural  gap,  white  policy-makers,  regardless  of  periodic 
programmatic  variations,  uniformly  assumed  the  proba- 
bility of  a  response  pattern  that  was,  in  fact,  impossible! 

In  like  manner,  the  tribes  almost  never  fought  a  war 
in  the  sense  comprehended  on  the  basis  of  Anglo-Euro- 
pean historical  experience.  Large-scale,  collective  combat 
aimed  at  the  achievement  of  purposes  defined  by  group 
policy  was  almost  totally  alien  to  a  warrior's  way  of  think- 
ing. Indian  warfare  was  far  more  closely  related  to  devasta- 
ting individual  competition  than  it  was,  for  example,  to 
Grant's  victory  in  "The  Wilderness."  Since  individual 
combat  was  undertaken  for  individual  prestige  and  gain, 
certainly  "peace"  did  not  mean  the  absence  of  all  combat. 
Once  again,  however,  assuming  the  exclusive  legitimacy 
of  white  definitions,  no  substitute  for  combat  was  ever  con- 
templated. Eliminating  intertribal  warfare  (as  well  as  at- 
tacks on  whites)  was  seen  by  official  authority  as  confer- 
ring upon  the  tribes  the  benefits  of  "peace."  To  the 
tribesmen,  however,  attempts  to  ban  combat,  horse  steal- 
ing and  related  activities  meant  the  abrogation  of  the  very 
notion  of  honor,  prestige  and  glory.  White  policy  makers 
could  hardly  have  dealt  with  the  problem  of  possible  sub- 
stitutes because  they  were  culturally  incapable  of  perceiv- 
ing the  problem. 

The  historical  study  of  public  policy  can  all  too  easily 
result  in  little  more  than  an  assertion  of  contemporary  su- 
periority based  on  the  indisputable  efficacy  of  hindsight. 
It  may  also  become  an  intellectual  straitjacket  if  it  is  too 
readily  assumed  that  the  past  provides  relatively  clear  cut 


solutions  for  contemporary  problems.  Unfortunately,  his- 
tory rarely  repeats  itself  with  a  precision  sufficient  for  such 
an  accomplishment.  What  the  study  of  past  policy  prob- 
lems can  provide,  however,  is  an  instrument  for  sharpen- 
ing the  contemporary  capacity  for  asking  the  right  ques- 
tions. It  is  hoped  that  this  paper  is  such  an  instrument. 


All  page  citations  noted  below  refer  to  the  Annual  Reports  of  the 
Commissioners  of  Indian  Affairs  as  reproduced  in  Wilcomb  E.  Washburn, 
The  American  Indian  and  the  United  States:  A  Documentary  History,  Volume 
I  (New  York:  Random  House,  1973). 

1.  pp.  80-81 

2.  p.  141 

3.  Ibid. 

4.  pp.  60-61 

5.  Ibid. 

6.  pp.  64-65 

7.  p.  228 

8.  Ibid. 
pp.  31-32 
p.  189 
Ibid. 
p.  203 

316 
179 
182 
179 


9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 


17. 

p.  138 

18. 

p.  22 

19. 

pp.  395-396 

20. 

Ibid. 

21. 

p.  433 

22. 

Ibid. 

23. 

Ibid. 

24. 

p.  186 

25. 

p.  249 

26. 

Ibid. 

27. 

p.  318 

28. 

pp.  318-319 

29. 

pp.  6-7 

30. 

Ibid. 

31. 

p.  397 

32. 

Ibid. 

33. 

Ibid. 

34. 

p.  434 

35. 

p.  425 

36. 

pp.  9-10 

37. 

p.  11 

38. 

pp.  11-12 

39. 

Ibid. 

40. 

Ibid. 

41. 

p.  23 

42. 

p.  93 

43. 

pp.  217-218 

44. 

p.  185 

45. 

p.  32 

46. 

Ibid. 

47. 

Ibid. 

48. 

p.  217 

4^. 

p.  179 

50. 

p.  141 

si. 

p.  216 

52. 

p.  48 

S3. 

p.  26 

54. 

p.  36 

55. 

p.  357 

57.  p.  219 

58.  p.  311 

59.  Ibid. 

60.  p.  72 

61.  p.  185 

62.  Ibid. 

63.  p.  209 

64.  p.  301 

65.  p.  422 

66.  p.  69 

67.  p.  222 

68.  Ibid. 

69.  p.  454 

70.  pp.  454-455 

71.  Ibid. 

72.  p.  438 

73.  p.  61 

74.  p.  299 

75.  p.  217 

76.  p.  41 

77.  Ibid. 

78.  pp.  246-247 

79.  Ibid. 

80.  p.  186 

81.  p.  194 

82.  p.  383 

83.  p.  422 

84.  Ibid. 

85.  Ibid. 

86.  Ibid. 

87.  pp.  424-425 

88.  Ibid. 

89.  p.  168 

90.  pp.  72-73 

91.  p.  99 

92.  Ibid. 

93.  pp.  183-184 

94.  pp.  246-247 

95.  Ibid. 


56.  p.  93 


John  Benjamin  Kendrick 


WYOMING'S  SENATOR  JOHN 
BENJAMIN  KENDRICK: 


The  Politics  of  Oil,  Public  Land  and  National  Park 
Legislation  in  the  1920s 


by  Eugene  T.  Carroll 


22 


Wyoming's  Senator  John  B.  Kendrick's  congressional 
career  spanned  almost  three  terms  from  1917  to  1933.  Dur- 
ing that  time  Congress  passed  far-reaching  legislation  in 
the  areas  of  land,  forest,  mineral  and  water  use,  to  all  of 
which  Kendrick  devoted  his  total  energy  and  time.  A  true- 
to-life  Horatio  Alger  figure,  he  rose  from  a  cowboy  cattle 
herder  from  Texas  after  the  Civil  War  to  a  prominent  and 
respected  rancher,  banker  and  businessman  from  Sheridan 
County  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Cowboy  state.  At  age 
53,  Kendrick  entered  state  politics  as  a  legislator  in  1910, 
was  elected  governor  in  1914  and  United  States  senator 
in  1916.1 

Senator-elect  Kendrick's  credentials  were  presented  to 
Congress  in  January,  1917,  even  though  he  was  still  offi- 
cially governor  of  Wyoming  until  late  February.  He  joined 
a  group  of  Westerners  who  were  distinguishing  themselves 
on  a  variety  of  domestic  and  foreign  issues.  The  group  in- 
cluded Senators  William  C.  Borah  of  Idaho,  Thomas  J. 
Walsh  of  Montana,  George  W.  Norris  of  Nebraska  and  Key 
Pittman  of  Nevada.  Kendrick  was  assigned  to  committees 
on  Agriculture  and  Forestry,  Conservation  of  National 
Resources,  Indian  Affairs  and  Public  Lands  and  Surveys.2 

As  Kendrick  began  his  term,  the  nation  was  heading 
for  war  with  Germany  and  her  allies.  With  a  Congressional 
Declaration  of  War  in  April,  1917,  the  government  im- 
mediately began  a  campaign  to  conserve  the  nation's 
natural  resources  although  this  was  not  altogether  a  unique 
action  for  American  leaders.  From  William  Penn  to  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt,  they  had  urged  the  wise  use  of  all  natural 
resources.  The  19th  century,  in  addition,  had  produced  two 
schools  of  conservation  philosophy;  one,  the  "aesthetic" 
believed  that  wilderness  areas  should  be  set  aside  by  the 
government  where  citizens  could  come  and  enjoy  the 
beauties  of  nature.  Leaders  in  this  school  included  George 
Catlin,  Henry  Thoreau  and  John  Muir.  On  the  other  hand, 
John  Wesley  Powell,  considered  to  be  one  of  the  most 
powerful  voices  in  "utilitarian"  conservation,  and  Gifford 
Pinchot,  a  close  friend  of  President  Roosevelt,  believed  that 
natural  resources  could  be  altered  and  controlled  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind.  The  first  major  surge  in  this  whole 
movement  came  in  the  Roosevelt  administrations  (1901- 
1909).  It  was  he  who  set  aside  most  of  the  national  forests, 
reserved  river  valleys  as  dam  sites  and  followed,  gener- 
ally, a  course  of  caution  and  concern  toward  the  non- 
renewable resources  of  the  West.3 

The  most  important  national  conservation  issue  at  the 
time  of  Kendrick's  election  was  the  formulation  of  a 
reasonable  oil  leasing  policy  which  would  please  the  Presi- 
dent, western  senators,  independent  oil  operators  and 
homesteaders  who  had  found  oil.  The  climax  of  Congres- 
sional debate  came  in  February,  1920,  when  the  General 
Leasing  Act  was  finally  passed.  One  of  its  main  provisions 
offered  by  Senator  Reed  Smoot  of  Utah  regulated  leasing 
of  government  oil  land,  a  provision  bitterly  attacked  by 
some  western  senators  who  wanted  all  government  land 
open  for  development  .   .   .  without  any  regulations.  The 


Pickett  Act  of  1910  had  given  the  President  constitutional 
authority  to  withdraw  lands  as  he  saw  fit.4 

From  1914  through  February,  1920,  Congress  con- 
stantly debated  different  types  of  oil  legislation.  Kendrick, 
in  remarks  prepared  for  Senate  delivery  on  December  17, 
1917,  charged  the  government  with  lacking  a  definite  policy 
in  withdrawal  of  lands.  He  pointed  out  that  as  of  July  31 
of  that  year,  the  government  had  withdrawn  56,715,014 
acres  of  mineral  lands  in  the  Western  states  and  barred 
them  from  entry.5  His  remarks  were  offered  in  support  of 
a  bill  by  Senator  Walsh  similar  to  one  offered  by  Con- 
gressman Scott  Ferris  in  1914.  Both  bills  gave  authority  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  grant  exclusive  rights  to 
prospectors  on  not  more  than  640  acres  located  within  ten 
miles  of  any  producing  well  and/or  not  more  than  2,560 
acres  located  farther  than  ten  miles  from  a  producing  well. 
The  permittee  was  required  to  begin  work  within  four 
months,  drill  at  least  500  feet  and  then,  within  two  years, 
drill  wells  2,000  feet  in  depth.  The  Ferris  and  Walsh  bill 
perished  either  in  committee  or  in  the  House  or  Senate.6 

Kendrick's  Wyoming  constituents  and  friends  were 
divided  on  the  proposed  oil  legislation.  William  S.  Metz, 
a  political  associate,  urged  Kendrick  to  support  the  Walsh 
bill  because  he  felt  that  the  government's  withdrawal  order 
was  only  a  temporary  one.  Max  Ball  of  Cheyenne  and 
Leslie  A.  Miller  (later  Governor  Miller)  argued  that  the  In- 
terior Secretary  should  not  be  able  to  say  who  was  or  who 
was  not  able  to  buy  leases.  T.  W.  LaFleich  of  Sheridan  and 
W.  L.  Larson  of  Lovell  wondered  if  a  bill  could  be  passed 
to  lease  out  oil  lands  to  individuals  or  groups  to  at  least 
start  some  development  of  the  fields.  Kendrick  replied  that 
the  Walsh  bill  might  become  a  temporary  measure  rather 
than  a  comprehensive  law.7 

With  the  war  ending  and  the  election  of  Warren  G. 
Harding,  the  controversy  over  oil  legislation  finally  drew 
to  a  conclusion.  To  W.  H.  Harris  of  the  Wyoming  Oil  World 
in  Casper,  Kendrick  wrote  that  he  thought  the  leasing  bill 
was  on  "dead  center;"  to  Robert  R.  Rose,  also  an  oilman 
and  Casper  lawyer,  Kendrick  wrote  that  he  had  offered 
an  amendment  to  assist  the  man  who  might  lose  his  lease 
under  the  new  law.  The  amendment  failed,  though.8 

By  early  1921  President  Harding  was  making  cabinet 
appointments  which  would  portend  a  national  scandal. 
Albert  H.  Fall,  a  former  New  Mexican  senator,  was  ap- 
pointed Interior  Secretary,  while  Harry  Daughtery  was 
given  the  post  of  Attorney-General.  Both  were  close 
political  cronies  of  Harding  and  closely  allied  to  the  big 
business  interests  that  dominated  the  Republican  Party. 
Early  in  April,  1922,  Kendrick  began  hearing  from  Wyo- 
ming politicians  and  constituents  about  rumors  concern- 
ing the  leasing  of  the  Teapot  Dome  reserves  north  of 
Casper.  Former  Governor  B.  B.  Brooks  had  heard  that 
Secretary  Fall  had  been  granted  permission  by  the  Presi- 
dent to  transfer  the  reserve  from  Navy  to  Interior,  and  then 
lease  it  to  the  Mammoth  Oil  Company.  Neither  the  Con- 
gress nor  the  public  knew  of  these  secret  actions." 


A  portion  of  the  Teapot  Dome  Oil 
Fields  leased  by  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  Albert  H.  Fall'  which 
caused  a  national  scandal. 


Kendrick  moved  swiftly  to  the  news  of  the  rumored 
lease.  On  April  15,  he  introduced  a  resolution  requesting 
Fall  and  Navy  Secretary  Edwin  Denby  to  inform  the  Senate 
about  any  negotiations  with  private  parties  about  the  leas- 
ing of  Teapot  Dome.  He  contended  that  if  private  leasing 
was  going  to  become  a  common  legal  practice,  all  operators 
should  have  a  chance  to  bid  competitively.  His  resolution 
was  approved.10 

Senator  Robert  M.  LaFollette  followed  Kendrick's 
resolution  by  calling  upon  Fall  to  forward  copies  of  the 
lease  and  all  other  papers  relating  to  the  naval  reserve  in 
California  as  well  as  Teapot  Dome.  Fall  ignored  the  request, 
writing  instead  to  the  President  stating  his  justification  for 
the  lease.  On  April  28,  LaFollette  took  to  the  floor  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  Kendrick  had  taken  the  initiative 
in  the  leasing  matter,  focusing  the  attention  of  the 
American  public  on  possible  malfeasance  in  government.11 

In  the  fall  of  1923,  the  investigation  was  started  by  the 
Committee  on  Public  Lands  and  Surveys.  Smoot  of  Utah 
was  chairman  with  Senators  Lenroot  of  Wisconsin,  Nor- 
ris,  Pittman,  Walsh  and  Kendrick  as  some  of  the  addi- 
tional members.  However,  the  work  of  uncovering  the  cor- 
ruption would  rest  principally  with  Walsh.  Strangely 
enough,  Kendrick  was  not  even  present.  In  an  unusual  ex- 
change of  messages  before  the  hearings  started  in  October, 
Walsh  urged  Kendrick  to  return  from  his  Sheridan  home 
in  time  for  the  hearings.  Kendrick  replied  that  he  did  not 
believe  his  presence  would  be  at  all  necessary.  Walsh,  in 
a  telegram,  again  urged  his  return,  indicating  that  Ken- 
drick's absence  might  be  construed,  by  his  constituents, 
as  lack  of  interest  in  the  investigation.  Kendrick  ended 
speculation  about  his  plans  with  a  telegram  to  Smoot  two 
days  before  the  hearings  started,  stating  that  floods 
prevented  his  return  to  Washington.12 


Kendrick's  primary  reasons  for  not  attending  the  open- 
ing sessions  of  the  Senate  hearings  are  not  revealed  in  his 
correspondence  to  private  friends.  He  may  actually  have 
felt  that  he  had  gone  far  enough  in  revealing  the  scandal 
and  would  now  allow  his  lawyer-colleagues  to  take  the 
limelight.  On  the  other  hand,  his  family  correspondence 
reveals  a  constant  concern  about  the  seasonal  side  of  ranch- 
ing and  the  floods  may  have  been  a  genuine  excuse. 

In  many  ways,  Kendrick  was  more  involved  with  land 
policy  than  with  oil  legislation.  Congressional  debate  on 
land  use  had  been  going  on  since  the  founding  of  the  na- 
tion, notably  between  eastern  and  western  congressmen. 
The  problems  that  the  westerners  brought  to  the  Senate 
floor  had  already  been  solved  in  the  states  represented  by 
easterners.  In  many  ways,  those  problems  were  uniquely 
western  because  the  land  was  primarily  arid  or  semi-arid. 
While  the  1920  Leasing  Law  may  have  solved  the  problems 
with  oil,  other  laws  had  to  be  enacted  to  resolve  the  prob- 
lems of  entrymen  who  had  leased  land  under  the  various 
Homestead  Acts.13 

Just  a  few  months  before  Kendrick  took  his  Senate  seat, 
President  Wilson  had  signed  the  Stock-Raising  Act  of  1916. 
This  Act  permitted  entry  on  640  acres  of  non-irrigable  land 
for  stock-raising  with  a  stipulation  that  entry  could  not  be 
made  until  the  Geological  Survey  had  declared  the  land 
eligible  for  settlement.  Many  settlers  who  did  not  know 
of  this  stipulation  had  already  sold  their  eastern  homes  and 
started  west.14 

Kendrick  was  well  aware  of  the  failures  of  the  land  laws 
which  were  enacted  to  promote  settlement.  He  pressured 
colleagues  on  the  Senate  floor  and  the  Committee  on  Public 
Lands  to  pass  laws  encouraging  settlers  to  develop  the 
land.  For  example,  in  an  amendment  to  the  Stock-Raising 
Act  of  1916,  he  sought  to  provide  leaves  of  absence  from 


24 


Two  v/'ews  of5a/t  Creek.  (Above)  Street  scene.  (Below)  Gas  plant.  Most  of  the  Salt  Creek  area  was  public  domain, 
owned  by  the  federal  government.  As  a  result  of  the  79/6  Stock-Raising  Act,  homesteaders  could  claim  surface 
rights  to  640  acres  of  land.  The  1 920  Leasing  Act,  however,  allowed  the  federal  government  to  lease  the  oil  rich 
land  to  oil  companies.  Naturally,  conflict  arose  between  homesteaders  and  oil  companies,  occasionally  leading 
to  violence.  One  person  who  filed  in  7  920  was  Armin  H.  Ziehlsdorff,  but  the  Interior  Department  canceled  his  lease 
that  same  year.  Ziehlsdorff  asked  Kendrick  for  help  and  through  Kendrick's  persistence  a  relief  bill  allowing  "Salt 
Creek  homesteaders  to  exercise  rights  on  any  public  land  in  Wyoming  became  law  June  30,  1930." 


_-v^ 


a* 


:  v 


_u, 


homestead  claims  for  servicemen  who  wanted  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  rehabilitative  training.  The  Act  of  1916  provided 
that  time  spent  in  the  service  would  count  as  partial 
residence  on  the  homestead  entry.  The  problem,  however, 
was  that  after  a  wounded  man  was  discharged,  he  was  no 
longer  considered  a  serviceman.  He  then  stood  in  danger 
of  losing  his  homestead  by  default  on  the  residence  re- 
quirements. The  Kendrick  amendment  would  still  require 
that  no  settler  could  receive  a  patent  unless  he  lived  on 
the  property  for  one  year,  cultivated  and  improved  it.  The 
amendment  became  law  on  September  23,  1919. 15 

For  Kendrick  in  the  1920s,  much  of  the  controversy  on 
public  land  settlement  centered  around  the  efforts  of  a 
group  of  ex-servicemen  to  lease,  improve  and  hold  on  to 
land  in  the  Salt  Creek  oil  field  north  of  Casper.  Despite 
the  Supreme  Court  ruling  of  1915  that  the  President  had 
the  right  to  withdraw  land,  the  Midwest  Refinery  Com- 
pany had  entered  the  withdrawn  land  and  proceeded  with 
so-called  "assessment  work,"  as  well  as  some  actual  drill- 
ing operations.  Lands  that  were  unlawfully  entered  and 
seized  by  the  company  were  patrolled  and  guarded  by 
"lease  riders,"  the  majority  of  whom  were  on  Midwest's 
payroll.  By  1920,  Midwest  practically  controlled  the  entire 
Salt  Creek  oil  field.16 

The  ex-servicemen  had  leased  their  land  under  the 
Stock-Raising  Act  of  1916,  giving  each  man  surface  rights 
to  640  acres  of  non-irrigable,  non-forested  grazing  land. 
However,  the  1920  Leasing  Act  gave  the  government  the 
power  to  grant  leases  on  lands  that  had  been  improved 
on  by  the  entryman.  Midwest  oil  land  and  the  potential 
Salt  Creek  field  were  contiguous  to  each  other. 

Armin  H.  Ziehlsdorff,  an  ex-serviceman,  filed  his 
homestead  application  on  May  17,  1920.  The  application, 
as  did  all  others,  reserved  the  mineral  rights  to  the  govern- 
ment. His  lease,  however,  was  canceled  by  the  Interior 
Department  on  November  12,  1920,  because  it  was  in  con- 
flict with  oil  company  applications  for  oil  and  gas  leases 
and  permits.  Ziehlsdorff  filed  an  appeal  on  January  22, 
1921,  with  the  Interior  Department,  stating  that  he  had 
fulfilled  all  the  requirements  of  the  Act  of  1916.  The  Depart- 
ment then  asked  the  oil  claimants  to  show  how  much  of 
Ziehlsdorff 's  claim  they  would  need;  when  they  requested 
all  the  land,  his  lease  was  canceled.17 

By  1923,  Midwest  had  bought  much  of  the  land  belong- 
ing to  Ziehlsdorff 's  neighbors.  Apparently,  though, 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  Work,  who  had  replaced  Albert 
Fall,  would  not  withhold  cancelations  on  other  leases  if  a 
settlement  could  be  worked  out.  Ziehlsdorff,  however,  felt 
that  with  the  erratic  government  policy  of  leasing,  it  would 
be  better  for  Congress  to  investigate  the  Salt  Creek  field 
both  in  the  matter  of  granting  oil  leases  and  the  cancela- 
tion of  homestead  entries.  Ziehlsdorff  urged  Kendrick  to 
introduce  a  bill  for  direct  relief  from  the  government,  or, 
to  ask  the  Interior  Department  to  force  oil  companies  to 
institute  settlements.18 

In  1925,  Ziehlsdorff  again  asked  Kendrick  to  help  two 


other  men  and  him  on  the  lease  problem  with  Midwest. 
Kendrick  could  do  nothing  at  this  point.  By  1927  Ziehls- 
dorff charged  that  the  companies  had  not  attempted  to  drill 
on  the  land  since  1920.  In  desperation,  he  wrote:  "When 
will  the  government  help  the  entrymen?"  Kendrick,  after 
conferring  with  Interior  officials,  found  that  Ziehlsdorff 
might  be  able  to  refile  his  lease  but  not  receive  a  cash  com- 
pensation. Kendrick  introduced  his  first  relief  bill  for  the 
homesteaders  in  February,  1928.  The  Interior  Department, 
however,  was  opposed  to  the  bill  and  it  died  in  commit- 
tee. The  Wyoming  Democrat  persisted  and  reintroduced 
the  bill  in  1930,  and  with  the  main  provision,  the,  right  of 
Salt  Creek  homesteaders  to  exercise  rights  on  any  public 
land  in  Wyoming,  the  bill  became  law  on  June  30,  1930. 19 

Ziehlsdorff 's  letters  to  Kendrick,  through  the  1920s,  are 
interesting  in  two  areas:  (1)  the  persistence  of  home- 
steaders to  struggle  against  the  federal  bureaucracy  to  keep 
their  land  under  the  Stock-Raising  Act  of  1916  despite  the 
apparent  conflict  of  that  Act  with  the  Leasing  Act  of  1920; 
(2)  the  other  area  may  be  more  implied  than  explicit. 
Ziehlsdorff  and  other  settlers  may  wished  to  have  acquired 
oil  rights  to  the  land  for  themselves  in  a  collective  way, 
or,  they  may  have  been  holding  out  for  large  settlements 
from  the  oil  companies. 

Another  controversial  area  for  the  public  lands  in  the 
West  was  the  urgent  need  to  expand  the  boundaries  of  all 
national  parks,  including  Yellowstone.  With  the  addition 
of  cars  in  the  1920s,  improved  highways  and  thousands 
of  tourists,  the  need  for  expansion  was  imperative.  Ken- 
drick found  that  his  constituents  were  both  for  and  against 
the  expansion  of  Yellowstone.  P.  J.  O'Connor  of  Casper, 
president  of  the  Finance  Corporation  of  Wyoming,  argued 
that  while  the  extension  was  needed,  the  government 
should  not  take  taxable  property  out  of  the  state.  J.  J. 
Jewett,  manager  of  the  Riverton  Lumber  Company,  was 
also  in  favor  of  the  extension  but  was  opposed  to  the  in- 
clusion of  Jackson  Lake  and  the  Tetons  in  the  enlargement. 
P.  J.  Quealy,  president  of  the  Kemmerer  Coal  Company, 
agreed  that  the  Park  should  be  extended,  but  hoped  that 
Senators  Kendrick  and  Warren  would  support  the  livestock 
interests  over  the  transportation  interests.20 

Extensions  for  other  park  boundaries  had  become  such 
a  hot  issue  in  government  agencies  that  the  President's 
Conference  on  Recreation  finally  appointed  a  five-man 
committee  called  the  Coordinating  Committee  on  National 
Parks  and  National  Forests  to  survey  and  make  recommen- 
dations. When  this  intensive  survey  was  finished  in  1927, 
the  committee  recommended  that  Yellowstone  Park  should 
be  expanded  to  its  natural  boundaries  in  the  east  and  west, 
adding  approximately  300,000  acres.  A  bill,  embodying 
those  recommendations,  was  passed  by  Congress  and 
signed  by  President  Hoover  on  March  1,  1929. 21 

Another  recommendation  from  the  Committee  urged 
the  creation  of  Grand  Teton  Park.  Horace  Albright,  who 
became  National  Parks  Director  after  the  retirement  of 
Stephen  Mather,  had  always  strongly  believed  that  the 


26 


In  1929,  the  federal  government  added  300,000  acres  of  land  to  Yellowstone  National  Park. 


Grand  Tetons  should  be  a  separate  park.  Through  Mather's 
administration,  the  idea  of  the  park  was  opposed  by  the 
Forest  Service,  hunters  and  the  livestock  interests.  Senator 
Norbeck  of  North  Dakota,  in  January,  1928,  introduced  a 
bill  to  establish  the  "Kendrick  National  Park,"  but  it  was 
not  reported.22 

In  the  following  year  Kendrick  introduced  a  bill  to 
create  Grand  Teton  National  Park;  he  was  anxious  to  limit 
the  area  which  was  already  a  national  forest.  In  debate  the 
Wyoming  Democrat  indicated  that  while  his  state  had 
wanted  to  use  the  Teton  area  as  a  state  park,  the  Tetons 
should  really  be  a  national  monument.  One  provision  of 
the  bill  provided  no  highway  or  concession  grants  without 
the  consent  of  Congress;  another  provision  would  limit  the 
park  to  uncultivable  lands.  The  bill  passed  both  houses 
without  much  opposition.23 

In  addition  to  his  strong  belief  that  the  Grand  Tetons 
should  be  a  national  park,  Albright  wanted  to  include 
Jackson  Hole  in  Grand  Teton  National  Park.  He  was  one 
of  many  who  believed  the  same  way.  As  early  as  1898,  the 
Senate  directed  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  report  on 
the  area,  south  of  Yellowstone,  to  determine  whether  the 
Yellowstone  Forest  Reserves,  now  the  Teton  National 
Forest,  should  be  added  to  prevent  "extinction  of  the  large 
game  roaming  therein."24 

Efforts  were  made  from  the  beginning  of  the  20th  cen- 
tury to  the  time  of  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt  to  add  Jackson 
Hole  to  the  national  park  system.  In  1918,  for  example, 
Congressman  Frank  Mondell  of  Wyoming  made  several 
efforts  to  extend  the  Yellowstone  southward;  much  of  the 
land  incorporated  in  his  bill  was  in  a  national  forest,  and 
he  found  fighting  the  Forest  Service  very  difficult.25 

Then,  in  1926,  John  D.  Rockefeller  visited  Jackson  Hole 
with  Albright,  and  decided,  after  seeing  the  potential  com- 
mercialization, to  buy  the  private  lands  and  turn  them  over 
to  the  National  Park  Service.  Rockefeller  followed  through 
on  Albright's  suggestion  of  organizing  the  Snake  River 
Land  Company  to  buy  the  land,  and  named  Robert  Miller, 
a  banker  from  Jackson,  to  do  the  purchasing.  Kendrick' s 
only  contact  with  Miller  had  been  in  a  1925  letter  in  which 
he  confirms  that  the  government  was  planning  to  with- 
draw several  thousand  acres  of  unentered  land  in  Jackson 
Hole  for  park  and  game  refuge  purposes.  He  felt,  as 
always,  that  the  withdrawal  plan  should  be  talked  over  by 
the  various  interests  represented  in  Jackson  Hole.26 

There  was  very  little  doubt  that  Miller  paid  more  than 
fair  prices  for  private  lands.  The  laws  of  Wyoming  required 
that  land  should  be  assessed  for  true  value,  and  for  land 
which  the  state  had  assessed  for  $521,037,  the  land  com- 
pany had  paid  almost  a  million  and  a  half  dollars.  The  pur- 
chase program  was  about  complete,  and  the  Snake  River 
Company  was  prepared  to  turn  over  the  land  to  the  Na- 
tional Park  Service  to  be  added  to  Grand  Teton  National 
Park.27 

However,  charges  of  scandalous  practices  by  the  Rocke- 
feller people  swept  through  Congress.   Kendrick  and 


Senator  Robert  Carey,  also  of  Wyoming,  submitted  a 
resolution  on  June  10,  1932,  asking  that  the  Committee  on 
Public  Lands  and  Surveys  be  directed  to  investigate  the 
National  Park  Service  and  the  Snake  River  Land  Company. 
The  two  senators  were  disturbed  particularly  with  the  Park 
Service  over  allegedly  "discouraging  homestead  entries  in 
that  area  and  in  harassing  residents  and  settlers  on  public 
lands."28 

In  December,  1932,  Kendrick  wrote  to  Secretary  of  the 
Interior  Ray  Lyman  Wilbur  that  he  was  opposed  to  any 
further  extension  of  the  Yellowstone  and  Grand  Teton 
Parks.  In  the  same  month,  Carey  wrote  to  Arthur,, Woods, 
who  was  a  spokesman  for  Rockefeller,  that  in  his  opinion, 
the  Park  Service  had  been  uncooperative  in  refusing  to 
assist  the  investigation.  He  added  that  the  committee  had 
never  questioned  Rockefeller's  motives  in  purchasing  the 
land,  but  he  felt  sure  that  Albright  misled  Rockefeller  as 
to  the  value  of  the  land  he  purchased.29 

Even  after  Kendrick' s  death  in  1933,  the  investigation 
on  Jackson  Hole  continued;  in  fact,  there  was  an  almost 
uninterrupted  investigation  until  1943  when  President 
Roosevelt  established  Jackson  Hole  National  Monument. 
The  controversy  continued,  though,  until  1950,  when 
through  the  efforts  of  Senators  Joseph  O'Mahoney  and 
Lester  Hunt,  both  of  Wyoming,  all  but  9,000  acres  of  the 
monument  were  incorporated  into  the  park.30 

Kendrick's  energy  and  time  during  his  congressional 
career  were  spent  in  sponsoring  and  voting  for  vital 
Western  legislation.  Oil,  public  lands  and  national  park  ex- 
pansion were  three  typical  issues  of  the  day,  and  Kendrick, 
like  other  Western  senators,  believed  strongly  in  congres- 
sional actions  that  would  greatly  benefit  his  state  as  well 
as  the  entire  West.  His  successors,  Senators  O'Mahoney 
and  Gale  McGee,  pursued  Kendrick's  interests  with  the 
same  great  vigor  and  responsibility.31 


1.  This  article  is  taken  from  the  author's  Master's  thesis  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Wyoming  in  1977  on  the  congressional  career  of  Senator  Ken- 
drick. The  emphasis  in  the  thesis  was  centered  around  the  efforts 
of  the  Wyoming  Democrat  to  secure  legislation  in  the  areas  of  water 
and  land  reclamation,  national  parks  and  grazing  and  forest  conser- 
vation. (See  the  author's  article  on  Kendrick's  early  life  in  the  Spring, 
1982,  issue  of  the  Annals  of  Wyoming,  titled  "John  Benjamin  Kendrick: 
From  Texas  Cowpoke  to  Wyoming  Senator,  1879-1917.") 

2.  Congressional  Record,  LIV,  p.  938,  January  8,  1917;  LV,  p.  50,  March 
12,  1917;  p.  3790,  June  18,  1917. 

3.  The  materials  for  this  paragraph  were  taken  from  Roderick  Nash,  "The 
American  Conservation  Movement,"  Forums  in  History  (St.  Charles, 
Missouri:  Forum  Press,  1974). 

4.  John  Ise,  The  United  States  Oil  Policy  (New  Haven:  Yale  University 
Press,  1926),  pp.  313,  343;  U.S.  Vs.  Midwest  Oil  Company,  et  al., 
59  Law  Ed.,  236  U.S.  673  (1915). 

5.  Congressional  Record,  LIV,  pp.  388-391,  December  17,  1917. 

6.  Ise,  Oil  Policy,  pp.  332-339. 


7.  W.  S.  Metz  to  JBK,  July  18,  1917;  Max  Ball  to  JBK,  January  1,  1917, 
Box  21;  July  25,  1917,  Leslie  A.  Miller  to  JBK,  August  3,  1917;  T.  W. 
LaFleich  to  JBK,  June  19,  1917;  W.  L.  Larson  to  JBK,  June  20,  1917; 
JBK  to  TWLaF  and  WLL,  June  26,  1917,  Box  22,  John  Benjamin  Ken- 
drick  Collection,  American  Heritage  Center,  University  of  Wyoming. 
Hereafter  cited  as  the  "JBK  Coll." 

8.  JBK  to  W.  H.  Harris,  January  24,  1920;  JBK  to  Robert  R.  Rose,  January 
17,  1920,  Box  30,  JBK  Coll. 

9.  J.  Leonard  Bates,  The  Origins  of  Teapot  Dome:  Progressives,  Parties  and 
Petroleum,  1909-1921  (Urbana:  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1963),  p. 
212;  Ise,  Oil  Policy,  pp.  332-339. 

10.  Congressional  Record,  LXVII,  pp.  5567-5568,  April  15,  1922. 

11.  Congressional  Record,  LXII,  p.  5792,  April  21,  1922;  Ise,  p.  358;  Con- 
gressional Record,  LXII,  pp.  6047-6049,  April  28,  1922. 

12.  Ise,  Oil  Policy,  p.  359;  Thomas  J.  Walsh  to  JBK,  September  21,  1923; 
JBK  to  TJW,  October  1,  1923;  TJW  to  JBK,  October  6,  1923;  JBK  to 
Reed  Smoot,  October  13,  1923,  Box  39,  J-BK  Coll. 

13.  Bates,  p.  198. 

14.  Congressional  Record,  LV.  pp.  7547-7550,  October  1,  1917. 

15.  See  Benjamin  H.  Hubbard's  classic  study  in  land  laws,  A  History  of 
Public  Land  Policies  (New  York:  MacMillan  Company,  1924);  Congres- 
sional Record,  LVIII,  p.  58,  May  20,  1919. 

16.  Armin  H.  Ziehlsdorff  to  JBK,  February  21,  1924;  Memorandum  from 
Salt  Creek  Unit,  Wyoming  Homesteader's  Protective  Association  to 
JBK,  February  21,  1924,  Box  39,  JBK  Coll. 

17.  Wyoming  Homesteaders'  Protective  Association  to  JBK,  February  21, 
1924,  Box  39,  JBK  Coll. 


18.  AHZ  to  JBK,  December  5,  27,  1923,  Box  30,  JBK  Coll. 

19.  AHZ  to  JBK,  February  20,  1925;  JBK  to  AHZ,  February  25,  1925;  AHZ 
to  JBK,  April  19,  1927;  JBK  to  AHZ,  May  17,  1927,  Boxes  41,  46,  JBK 
Coll.;  Congressional  Record,  LXIX,  p.  3742,  February  29,  1928;  LXXII, 
p.  6349,  April  2,  1930. 

20.  P.  J.  O'Connor  to  JBK,  January  2,  1923,  Box  38;  J.  J.  Jewett  to  JBK, 
January  8,  1923;  P.  J.  Quealy  to  JBK,  January  8, 1923,  Box  38,  JBK  Coll. 

21.  John  Ise,  Our  National  Park  Policy:  A  Critical  History  (Baltimore:  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Press,  1961),  pp.  275-276. 

22.  Congressional  Record,  LIX,  p.  1473,  January  14,  1928. 

23.  Congressional  Record,  LXX,  pp.  2982-2983,  February  7,  1929. 

24.  Ise,  National  Park  Policy,  p.  490. 

25.  Ibid,  p.  491. 

26.  JBK  to  Robert  Miller,  February  12,  1925,  Box  40,  JBK  Coll. 

27.  Ise,  National  Park  Policy,  p.  494. 

28.  Congressional  Record,  LXX,  p.  12512,  June  10,  1932. 

29.  JBK  to  Ray  Lyman  Wilbur,  December  14,  1932;  Robert  Carey  to  Arthur 
Wood,  December  31,  1932,  Box  54,  JBK  Coll. 

30.  Ise,  National  Park  Policy,  pp.  495-506. 

31.  A  fourth  national  issue  for  Kendrick  was  the  use  of  water  in  the  West, 
especially  in  relation  to  the  North  Platte  and  Colorado  Rivers.  (See 
the  author's  comprehensive  article  on  Kendrick's  efforts  to  secure 
water  legislation  in  Congress  in  the  1920s  and  the  early  1930s  in  the 
Fall,  1978,  issue  of  the  Annals  of  Wyoming,  titled  "John  B.  Kendrick's 
Fight  for  Western  Water  Legislation,  1917-1933,"  pp.  319-333.) 


™ 


[I       ^w  t     .1    I  I  [/ 

f  /      '/i 

•  m  \-m 


#/  fy0< 


.J* 


Ear/i/  t'/t'U'  0/  (Jfa/;  Agricultural  College  with  Administration  Building  (Old  Main)  in  center. 


EDUCATION  FOR  HEAD  OR  HAND? 

Land  Grant  Universities  of  Utah  and  Wyoming 


by  D.  Teddy  Diggs 


30 


In  a  recent  annual  meeting,  the  Utah  State  University 
National  Advisory  Council  stressed  to  university  admin- 
istrators the  urgent  need  for  more  "liberal"  education.  To- 
day's graduates,  the  Council  explained,  are  well  provided 
with  the  technical  tools  for  successful  work  in  the  world 
yet  lack  knowledge  of  the  purpose  of  their  tools  and  work, 
lack  knowledge  of  the  values  of  human  life.  As  one  mem- 
ber concluded,  "The  very  heart  of  our  way  of  life  is  at  stake 
in  the  wedding  of  the  sciences  and  humanities."1 

This  wedding  proposal  is  by  no  means  new  or  unique, 
either  in  the  national  scene  or  in  the  local  context  of  western 
states  such  as  Utah  and  Wyoming.  Indeed,  nearly  100  years 
ago  the  first  Board  of  Trustees  of  Utah  State  University 
(then  known  as  the  Utah  Agricultural  College)  announced 
their  planned  education  policy,  one  which  "blended  ed- 
ucation of  the  head  and  hand."2  Similarly,  administrators 
at  the  University  of  Wyoming  designed  a  founding  policy 
which  would  introduce  technical  training,  while  not  forget- 
ting classical  ideas.  The  first  presidents  at  both  institutions 
searched  for  a  feasible  combination  of  the  two  types  of 
education.  Yet  even  if  the  presidents  were  to  find  a  work- 
ing combination,  the  final  key  could  be  provided  only  by 
the  local  communities.  For  without  the  support  of  the 
community— parents  to  send  children,  citizen  leaders  to 
back  proposals— neither  president  could  hope  to  keep  his 
job,  much  less  introduce  a  new  educational  theory. 

And  at  the  time  Utah  and  Wyoming  were  founding 
their  agricultural  colleges  in  the  early  1880s,  the  idea  of  join- 
ing head  and  hand,  humanities  and  sciences,  was  very 
much  in  its  formative  stages.  Throughout  the  18th  and 
early  19th  centuries,  classical  ideas  dominated  training, 
while  educators  strove  for  character-shaping,  humanitarian 
goals.  Gradually  the  more  progressive  thinkers  of  the  age 
began  to  espouse  the  idea  of  a  practical  purpose  to 
education— education  for  the  hand  and  sciences.  Prac- 
ticality—here defined  as  agricultural,  industrial  or 
utilitarian  training— continued  to  gain  support  in  the 
mid-1800s,  crystallizing  in  the  1862  Morrill  Land  Grant  Bill. 
With  this  act,  the  federal  government  financially  supported 
the  states'  foundings  of  new  institutions  whose  "leading 
objects  shall  be,  without  excluding  other  scientific  and 
classical  studies,  and  including  military  tactics,  to  teach 
such  branches  of  learning  as  are  related  to  agriculture  and 
the  mechanic  arts  ...  in  order  to  promote  the  liberal  and 
practical  education  of  the  industrial  classes  in  the  several 
pursuits  and  professions  in  life."3 

By  1890,  the  year  the  Utah  Agricultural  College  opened 
its  doors,  this  new  utilitarian  idea  was  established  through- 
out the  East.  The  Territory  of  Utah  simply  followed  along. 
The  Lund  Act  establishing  the  Utah  college  stated  the 
school's  purpose  nearly  verbatim  to  the  mandate  as  pro- 
posed by  the  Morrill  Law.4  Yet  even  so,  the  Utah  law  left 
much  leeway  for  further  expansion;  the  school  still  needed 
a  firm,  tactical  policy  for  its  operation.  As  it  turned  out, 
this  was  provided  by  Jeremiah  Wilson  Sanborn,  first  presi- 
dent of  the  agricultural  college.  After  the  school's  open- 


Jeremiah  W.  Sanborn,  first  president  of  Utah  Agricultural  College, 
Logan. 


ing,  and  during  the  early  years,  its  educational  philosophy 
would  be  influenced  and  altered  by  other  factors,  including 
the  college  community.  In  its  initial  conception,  however, 
the  college  relied  upon  the  first  president  and  the  first 
Board  of  Trustees  for  its  policies  and  promotion. 

This  first  Board  of  Trustees  took  a  natural  interest  in 
the  Territory's  education,  comprised  as  it  was  by  leaders 
of  the  area.  The  Lund  Act  provided  that  the  Board  include 
the  Governor  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Territory  of  Utah, 
as  well  as  the  Assessors  from  the  five  counties  of  Cache, 
Davis,  Utah,  Salt  Lake  and  Sanpete.5  At  their  first  meeting 
in  June,  1888,  the  members  chose  Governor  Caleb  West 
to  be  President  of  the  Board,  H.  E.  Hatch  to  be  Treasurer 
and  J.  T.  Caine,  Jr.,  to  be  Secretary.  Next,  they  addressed 
the  concerns  of  building  location,  design  and  construction. 
Additionally,  the  Board  began  a  search  for  the  future  direc- 
tor of  the  experiment  station.6 

The  Board  entrusted  this  last  task  to  Secretary  Caine. 
Caine,  a  long-time  citizen  of  the  West,  also  held  ties  to  the 
East.  His  father  was  the  Utah  Territorial  delegate  to  the 
U.S.  Congress,  and  the  junior  Caine  had  been  educated 
at  Cornell  University.  Searching  for  an  experiment  station 
director,  Caine  therefore  turned  to  his  own  alma  mater, 


writing  to  the  director  of  the  experiment  station  at  Cornell. 
In  answer  to  Caine's  letter,  Dr.  I.  P.  Roberts  suggested  a 
Mr.  Ed  Tarbell  and  J.  W.  Sanborn.  Caine  immediately 
recognized  Sanborn's  name  as  a  noted  member  of  the 
faculty  at  the  University  of  Missouri  and  as  the  author  of 
several  important  agricultural  papers.  According  to  Caine, 
he  intuitively  felt  Sanborn  was  the  correct  choice  and,  after 
several  offers  and  negotiations,  Sanborn  agreed  to  come 
to  Utah.  In  May,  1890,  five  months  after  Sanborn's  arrival, 
the  Board  elected  him  President  of  the  faculty  and  college.7 

The  rationale  behind  Caine's  unwavering  decision  on 
Sanborn  was  simple.  As  he  explained  in  a  report  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  this  man  was  known  internationally  as 
one  of  the  most  progressive  agricultural  researchers.  He 
was  also  "a  gentleman  of  broad  views  and  liberal  culture."8 
Caine  perceived  Sanborn's  strength  in  both  the  classical 
and  practical  fields. 

Sanborn's  practical  nature  tended  toward  agriculture. 
He  had  grown  up  on  a  farm  in  Pittsfield,  New  Hampshire, 
and  graduated  from  New  Hampshire  College.9  In  1882,  he 
was  appointed  professor  and  dean  to  the  small,  flounder- 
ing college  of  agriculture  at  the  University  of  Missouri. 
Once  there,  Sanborn  energetically  put  into  effect  numerous 
long-talked-about  plans.  He  experimented  with  crop  rota- 
tions, soil  treatments  and  livestock  feeding;  he  began  a 
statewide  farmers'  institute  program  which  lasted  for  40 
years.  By  the  academic  year  1885-86,  three  years  after  San- 
born's arrival,  the  president  of  the  University  of  Missouri 
felt  justified  in  retitling  the  university  catalog  the  "Annual 
Catalog  of  the  Agricultural  College  and  University."10 

Unfortunately,  Dean  Sanborn's  enthusiasm  for  success 
did  not  stop  with  the  college  of  agriculture  but  overlapped 
into  his  personal  life.  At  the  same  time  that  Sanborn  was 
drawing  his  salary  as  professor  and  dean,  he  also  received 
salaries  as  the  secretary  of  the  state  board  of  agriculture, 
the  statistician  for  the  experiment  station  and  the  secretary 
of  the  Kansas  City  Fat  Stock  Show.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  denounced  his  own  board's  nepotism,  proclaiming  that 
he  would  pay  a  board  member's  brother  only  half  what 
he  would  otherwise  pay  for  some  desired  cattle.  Not  sur- 
prisingly, Sanborn  soon  developed  enemies;  his  resigna- 
tion was  demanded  in  1888.  He  held  out  a  little  while 
longer— until  he  left  for  a  job  in  Utah.11 

Sanborn  was  a  man  of  action,  a  man  of  practicality, 
a  man  of  agriculture.  And  agriculture  rated  first  and 
foremost.  Sanborn's  primary  objectives  as  president  and 
director  were  to  experiment  in  and  improve  the  science  of 
agriculture,  to  teach  the  worth  of  the  farm  and  to  extend 
this  knowledge  to  the  people  of  the  Territory.12  Caine  noted 
of  his  colleague,  "To  him  Agriculture  was  far  more  impor- 
tant to  the  people  than  many  of  them  understood;  not  be- 
cause it  was  his  chosen  field,  but  because  it  was  absolutely 
essential  to  human  life."13 

Sanborn's  emphasis  on  the  essentials  of  life  was  not 
at  all  unconventional.  As  noted  earlier,  educators  through- 
out the  country  had  begun  to  push  for  the  "useful"  univer- 


32 


sity.  In  1883,  F.  W.  Kelsey,  a  Latinist  at  the  University  of 
Michigan,  advocated  learning  that  would  help  "the  fitting 
for  real  life  in  something  besides  discipline  and  culture  of 
the  mind."14  Neither  was  Sanborn  alone  in  the  newly 
founded  West.  David  Starr  Jordan,  President  of  Stanford 
University  in  Palo  Alto,  California,  noted:  "The  American 
University  of  to-day  seeks  neither  culture  nor  erudition  as 
its  final  end.  It  looks  forward  to  work  in  life."15  Yet  often, 
while  stressing  practical  training,  these  educators  ignored 
the  classical  ideas.  Jordan  never  even  formed  a  department 
of  philosophy.16  As  Calvin  M.  Woodward  of  Washington 
University  warned,  "In  turning  from  an  inherited  scheme 
of  education  which  faced  backward  .  .  .  we  must  not  fail 
to  preserve  the  dignity  and  the  nobility  of  our  educational 
standards."17  Even  those  who  agreed  with  Woodward 
were  not  sure  of  the  solution,  however.  Charles  W.  Eliot 
of  Harvard  University  hoped  simply  that  the  line  between 
an  educated  man  and  a  practical  man  might  just  disap- 
pear.18 

Sanborn's  uniqueness  lay  in  the  fact  that  he  did  not 
draw  this  line.  He  did  not  attempt,  as  he  noted,  to  replace 
classical  education,  but  merely  "to  meet  the  demands  of 
.  .  .  modern  industrial  life  upon  which  really  is  based  the 
possibilities  of  culture."19  Agriculture  did  deserve  top 
priority,  yet  so  too  did  the  development  of  the  mind.  San- 


born wrote:  "The  educational  policy  of  the  institution 
never  overlooks  the  fact  that  man  is  of  supreme  moment. 
It  does  not  rush  to  the  extreme  views  of  those  who  would 
educate  man  alone  as  a  mere  working  machine.  Man's 
supremest  pleasure  must  come  from  mental  culture.  .  .  ."20 
The  college's  president  did  not  attempt  to  balance  the  prac- 
tical and  the  classical  into  any  formal  ratio,  much  less  divide 
his  policy  on  a  50-50  basis.  For  him,  agriculture  must  be 
appropriated  100  percent  importance;  yet  liberal  ideas  too 
deserved  100  percent  attention.  Simple  addition  not  with- 
standing, both  were  possible.  The  two  ideas  did  not,  as 
was  popularly  thought,  repel  each  other.  Rather,  the  two 
objectives  could  be  met,  as  the  two  objectives  were  actually 
one.  Sanborn  explained  the  theory  in  an  article  in  the 
Logan,  Utah,  newspaper. 

A  course  in  the  Sciences  that  bear  upon  the  science  and  art 
of  agriculture  will,  as  a  matter  of  course  have  a  prominent  place 
in  the  college.  Fortunately  most  of  those  sciences  that  are  now 
reported  as  essential  to  a  liberal  and  even  to  a  cultured  educa- 
tion are  essential  to  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  involved  in  farm- 
ing. With  this  industry  as  with  no  other,  a  technical  educa- 
tion means  a  fairly  liberal  education.21 

Sanborn  did  not  limit  his  educational  philosophy  to 
theory.  From  this  basis,  he  chose  the  actual  subject  courses 
to  be  taught.  Together  with  the  Board  of  Trustees,  he  de- 
cided on  four  subjects:  mechanic  arts,  agriculture,  domestic 


Utah  Agricultural  College,  (I  to  r)  Home  of  Director  of  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  model  ham.  President's  house,  Experiment  station  building, 

south  wing  Old  Main. 


School  of  Commerce  at  ACU.  This  was  the  first  business  school  west  of  the  Mississippi.  This  was  an  accounting  class  taken  around  1902-3. 


arts  and  civil  engineering.22  Yet  classical  studies  were  not 
omitted.  The  Board  stressed  that  the  instruction  in  these 
courses  be  made  neither  wholly  classical  nor  wholly  tech- 
nical, as  man  experienced  both  physical  and  intellectual 
needs.  The  catalog,  noting  that  "the  College  authorities 
have  not  forgotten  that  man  is  before  the  industrialist," 
listed  the  additional  courses  of  English  composition  and 
grammar,  German  and  French.23  Furthermore,  the  Lund 
Act  provided  for  such  courses  as  moral  philosophy  and 
history.  To  teach  these  diverse  courses,  Sanborn  chose 
what  he  termed  a  "cosmopolitan"  faculty.24  Professors  in- 
cluded Miss  Abby  L.  Marlatt  from  Kansas  Agricultural  Col- 
lege and  J.  M.  Sholl  of  Purdue.  Sanborn  handpicked  six 
other  professors,  making  a  total  of  nine  on  the  first  fac- 
ulty roster.25  All  were  from  states  other  than  Utah.  The  only 
locals  connected  with  the  college  were  Caine,  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  and  Willard  S.  Langton,  an  instructor  in  the 
preparatory  department. 

This  "outside"  faculty  was  in  itself  a  significant  factor 
in  the  college's  founding.  With  only  two  Utahns  in  the  ad- 
ministration, would  the  Logan,  Utah,  community  readily 
accept  the  new  institution?  For  as  Caine  had  perceptively 
noted  when  he  chose  Sanborn,  "proper  support  from  the 

34 


people  and  the  Territory"  was  a  necessity  for  a  successful 
college.26 

Whether  or  not  the  community  supported  the  admin- 
istration is  difficult  to  determine.  It  appears,  however,  that 
there  was  no  direct  opposition.  As  for  the  community's 
endorsement  of  the  new  educational  institution  in  general, 
it  seemed  that  in  this  respect  Sanborn  would  be  fortunate. 
The  people  comprising  the  Logan  community  and  the  Ter- 
ritory of  Utah  were  mostly  (71.9%  statewide  in  1890) 
natives  and  immigrants  of  the  Mormon  faith— a  religion, 
it  is  popularly  thought  today,  which  has  long  promoted 
educational  training.  Among  the  Mormon  prophet  Joseph 
Smith's  many  well-known  revelations  are:  "The  glory  of 
God  is  intelligence,"  and  "A  man  cannot  be  saved  in 
ignorance."27  Studies  ranking  states  of  the  nation  ac- 
cording to  educational  achievement  consistently  place  Utah 
in  the  uppermost  standings.  In  1925,  William  C.  Bagley 
placed  Utah  second,  claiming  that  the  "Mormon  Church 
from  the  time  of  the  great  'trek'  laid  a  heavy  emphasis 
upon  education."28 

Other  treatises  followed.  In  May,  1943,  E.  L.  Thorn- 
dike  published  his  article,  "The  Origin  of  Superior  Men" 
in  Scientific  Monthly.  After  analyzing  the  1938  editions  of 


American  Men  of  Science  and  Who's  Who,  as  well  as  the  1932 
printing  of  Leaders  in  Education,  Thorndike  concluded  that 
Utah  led  the  nation  in  both  men  of  achievement  and  men 
of  science.29  Three  years  later  Raymond  M.  Hughes  and 
William  H.  Lancelot  published  Education— America's  Magic 
which  placed  Utah  first  in  "all-around  performance,"  as 
well  as  first  in  educational  accomplishment,  accomplish- 
ment commensurate  with  ability,  efficiency  of  effort  and 
the  education  of  adults.  Lancelot,  as  Bagley  earlier  had 
done,  attributed  Utah's  success  to  the  people  and  their 
values,  noting,  "This  [first  ranking]  appears  to  be  due 
almost  wholly  to  the  high  value  placed  on  education  by 
the  people  of  Utah.  .  .  ."30 

Continuing  the  trend,  in  1952  Robert  Knapp  and 
Hubert  Goodrich,  in  their  Origins  of  American  Scientists, 
listed  the  top  50  institutions  in  the  production  of  scientists. 
Utah  State  Agricultural  College  ranked  #25,  while  Brigham 
Young  University  finished  as  #32  in  the  nation.31  A.  W. 
Astin,  in  his  1962  article,  "Productivity  of  Undergraduate 


Institutions,"  stated  that  Brigham  Young  University, 
the  University  of  Utah  and  Utah  State  University  were 
all  "highly  overproductive."  While  Astin  acknowledges 
that  it  would  be  difficult  to  determine  the  reason,  he  also 
questions  whether  "certain  ethnic  or  religious  character- 
istics of  the  students  entering  these  institutions  may  be  im- 
portant factors  in  the  colleges'  productivity."32  Finally, 
nearly  ten  years  ago  Kenneth  Hardy  concluded  in  "Social 
Origins  of  American  Scientists  and  Scholars"  that  Utah 
was  "first  in  productivity  for  all  fields  combined  in  all  time 
periods."  Yet  Hardy,  a  Brigham  Young  University  psy- 
chology professor,  did  not  merely  suggest  a  Utah-quality 
education  causation,  but  directly  drew  the  line  between 
the  two,  noting  that  the  Utah  achievement  "seems  clearly 
to  be  due  to  the  influence  of  Mormon  values,  because  Mor- 
mon youth  predominate  in  the  colleges  of  the  state,  and 
because  other  variables,  such  as  climate,  geography, 
natural  resources,  and  social  class,  do  not  appear  to  ex- 
plain the  exceptional  record  of  this  state."33 


ACU  Library  on  a  crowded  day  taken  area  ic'()2. 


It  would  be  erroneous,  however,  to  take  these  studies 
as  a  whole,  lump  them  together  with  the  Mormon  prophets' 
quotations  on  an  ambiguously  defined  "knowledge"  and 
conclude  that  the  Mormon  religion  has  long  supported 
education.34  As  Frederick  S.  Buchanan  concludes  in  an  ar- 
ticle studying  this  Mormon-education  correlation,  other 
factors  do  need  to  be  considered— factors  such  as  those 
lightly  disqualified  by  Hardy.  Buchanan  lists  influences 
such  as  Protestant  beliefs,  professional  educators,  Utah  im- 
migrants and  the  Western  environment.35  Furthermore, 
while  the  conclusions  of  Utah  predominance  may  indeed 
be  valid— in  the  mid-20th  century— they  cannot  be  simply 
stretched  back  to  include  the  late  19th,  early  20th  centuries 
time  frame.  The  two  periods  do  not  quite  compare  in  terms 
of  education.  The  1925  Bagley  study  cited  earlier  ack- 
nowledges this  difference  in  time,  noting  that  Utah  showed 
the  "most  marked  inconsistency  between  its  apparent 
school  conditions  thirty  and  forty  years  ago  [the  1880s  and 
1890s]  and  its  present  high  station."36 

The  less-than-satisfactory  educational  atmosphere  of 
the  turn  of  the  century  decade  appeared  evident  in  the 
Logan  area.  One  1902  visitor  to  the  Cache  Valley,  Ray  Stan- 
nard  Baker,  noted  his  presupposition  that  the  Mormons 
would  be  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  world  by  their 
religion,  mountains  and  deserts— a  people  "unto  them- 
selves, ignorant,  superstitious."  Comparing  Mormons  to 
people  of  Eastern  farming  communities,  Baker  admitted 
that  the  Utahns  possessed  as  much  knowledge  of  the  out- 
side world  as  the  Easterners  yet  were  "not  great  readers 
.  .  .  and  not  intellectual  for  the  most  part."37  Another 
representative  of  this  line  of  thinking,  Bernard  De  Voto, 
wrote  in  even  harsher  terms  of  Utah  in  1926: 

No  poets  lingered  there,  no  musicians,  philosophers,  or 
scholars.  .  .  .  Civilized  life  does  not  exist  in  Utah.  It  never 
has  existed  there.  It  never  will  exist  there.  Those  who  have 
no  interest  in  social  or  intellectual  or  artistic  life  may  live  there 
as  well  as  anywhere  else.38 

In  attempting  to  explain  this  Utah  intellectual  am- 
biguity, one  fact  concerning  the  early  Mormon  philosophy 
of  education  should  be  kept  in  mind.  As  Brigham  Young 
explained  in  1869,  "Our  work,  our  everyday  labor,  our 
whole  lives  are  within  the  scope  of  our  religion."39  Applied 
to  the  classical/practical  division  in  education,  this  meant 
that  the  classical  aspect— value  and  character  shaping;  in- 
spirational, moral  and  artistic  guidance— remained  unof- 
ficially in  the  realm  of  the  church,  while  the  practical, 
everyday  work  was  handled  by  "education."  Addressing 
the  subject  of  education,  Young  encouraged  the  introduc- 
tion of  "every  kind  of  useful  studies"  into  the  schools.  He 
explained  further,  "I  would  like  very  much  to  urge  upon 
our  young  people  ...  to  pay  more  attention  to  arithmetic 
and  other  things  that  are  useful,  instead  of  acquiring  a  lit- 
tle French  and  German  and  other  fanciful  studies  that  are 
not  of  so  much  practical  importance."40 

Added  to  this  prophet  emphasis  on  practicality  was 
a  second,  environmental  impetus.  During  the  latter  years 

36 


of  the  19th  century,  the  Mormon  religion  became  exposed 
to  Eastern  ideas— and  Eastern  threats.  The  coming  of  the 
railroad  to  Utah  in  1869  brought  Eastern  enterprisers  and 
exploiters,  as  well  as  Protestant  and  evangelical  denomina- 
tions. In  Cache  Valley,  long  obliviously  isolated  within  its 
ring  of  mountains,  the  settlers  were  soon  exposed  to  this 
national  penetration.  A  telephone  line  through  Wellsville 
Canyon  to  Ogden  and  Salt  Lake  City  connected  in  1887. 
Small  mining  booms  erupted  in  1890-94  in  Hyrum,  Rich- 
mond and  Paradise.  As  Cache  Valley  began  to  buy  and 
sell  more  goods  to  other  states,  national  variables  such  as 
war  and  depression  affected  the  Cache  Valley  stability. 
Throughout  the  valley— and  the  Territory— foreign  influ- 
ences threatened  Mormon  autonomy.  As  a  result  of  this 
decreasing  church  influence,  combined  with  outside 
criticism  of  church  practices  such  as  polygamy,  a  renewed 
interest  in  education  arose— education  as  indoctrination, 
education  as  preservation  of  the  traditional  Mormon  way 
of  life.  Practical  manual  training,  which  would  econom- 
ically benefit  the  building  of  the  Saints'  Kingdom,  was  en- 
dorsed, while  the  potentially  destructive  "thinking" 
courses  of  philosophy  and  literature  were  downplayed.41 

The  emphasis  on  practicality  in  Utah  remains  in  evi- 
dence today.  Once  again,  the  nationwide  studies  show 
Utah's  relative  educational  position.  Robert  Knapp,  who 
had  earlier  cited  Brigham  Young  University's  scientific 
prominence  in  the  1950s,  later  calculated  the  school's  con- 
tribution to  the  humanities.  In  his  1964  book  The  Origin 
of  American  Humanistic  Scholars,  Knapp  noted  that  BYU  had 
awarded  56.3%  of  its  total  doctoral  dissertations  in  the 
physical  and  biological  sciences,  with  only  7.7%  given  in 
the  humanities.  Utah  State  University's  "contribution"  to 
the  humanities  was  hardly  that.  The  Logan  school  totaled 
61.6%  of  its  doctoral  dissertations  in  the  sciences;  1.4%  in 
the  humanities.42  For  many  Mormons  today,  the  intellec- 
tual and  moral  lessons  of  classical  humanities  are  still  easier 
relegated  to  the  church.  William  Mulder,  in  a  1970  volume 
of  the  Mormon  journal  Dialogue,  explained  that  "the  Mor- 
mon intellectual  as  humanist  finds  himself  deeply  entan- 
gled in  relative  kinds  of  truth  which  are  not  as  readily 
verifiable  as  in  chemistry  or  mathematics."43 

Yet  these  Mormon  thought  patterns  were  not  the  only 
influence  that  operated  in  Cache  Valley  or  in  Utah.  In 
addition,  by  1900,  38.5%  of  the  immigrants  and  native-born 
Americans  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits.  Of  these, 
56.9%  were  farmers,  planters  and  overseers,  while  30.4% 
were  agricultural  laborers.  Agrarian  values  provided  a  sec- 
ond fount  from  which  the  community  gathered  its  stan- 
dards, a  source  of  comparable,  if  not  equal,  significance 
to  that  of  the  Mormon  religion.44  In  a  search  for  support 
of  practical,  agricultural  training  in  this  area,  however,  the 
springs  frequently  ran  dry.  Farmers  generally  feared  the 
schools  and  distrusted  their  actions.  Isaac  P.  Roberts,  the 
director  of  Cornell  University's  agricultural  experiment  sta- 
tion, explained,  "Farmers,  like  other  people,  hesitate  to 
believe  and  act  on  theories,  or  even  facts,  until  they  see 


lit 


A  panoramic  view  of  the  University  of  Wyoming  in  1899,  showing  its  first  three  buildings,  Mechanical  Arts  Building,  Old  Main  and  to  the  right 
the  Agriculture  Barn  and  Greenhouse. 


with  their  own  eyes  the  proof  of  them  in  material  form."45 
Perhaps  the  Utah  State  Agricultural  College  benefited  from 
its  relative  late  start  in  1890,  for  then  farmers  were  able  to 
"see"  results  from  other  universities,  although  not  neces- 
sarily with  their  own  eyes.  For  whatever  reason,  the  possi- 
ble farmer  opposition  to  the  school's  practical  training  ap- 
peared to  have  little  effect  in  the  community. 

Meanwhile,  a  slightly  different  blend  of  the  practical 
and  classical  was  being  attempted  at  a  neighboring  land- 
grant  institution,  the  University  of  Wyoming.  Two  years 
prior  to  the  Utah  College's  founding,  the  Ninth  Legislative 
Assembly  of  the  Territory  of  Wyoming  provided  for  a  uni- 
versity "in  or  near  the  city  of  Laramie."  Unlike  the 
legislators  of  Utah,  the  men  of  Wyoming  did  not  mimic 
the  federal  Morrill  Land  Grant  Bill,  using  instead  their  own 
ideas  on  equality  and  education.  The  aim  of  their  univer- 
sity would  be  "to  provide  an  efficient  means  of  imparting 
to  young  men  and  women,  on  equal  terms,  a  liberal  educa- 
tion and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  different  branches  of 


literature,  the  arts  and  sciences,  with  their  varied  applica- 
tions."46 

"Applications"  was  the  key  word  for  the  first  Board 
of  Trustees.  Rather  than  waiting  for  a  future  university 
president  to  devise  an  educational  policy,  these  pioneer- 
ing men  proclaimed  their  own  firm  views  on  the  worth  of 
utilitarian  training.  As  noted  in  a  newspaper  article  sum- 
marizing the  Board's  ideas,  the  education  in  Wvoming 
would  be 

polytechnic  in  character,  in  short  that  it  shall  turn  out  a  class 
of  students  who,  when  they  graduate  shall  know  how  to  do 
something,  something  the  world  wants  done.  While  not 
ignoring  the  benefits  of  classical  education,  the  Board 
recognizes  the  fact  that  the  world  has  more  use  for  engineers, 
mining,  civil,  gass  [sic]  electric  engineers,  for  architects 
chemists,  and  mechanics,  than  it  has  for  men  who  can  merely 
cackle  greek.47 

The  future  president  of  the  university,  a  former  Gover- 
nor of  the  Territory  of  Wyoming,  agreed  with  the  Board's 
policy.  The  thoroughly  practically-minded  John  Wesley 


Hoyt  had  grown  up  on  a  family  farm  in  Ohio.  While  con- 
stantly striving  to  be  first  in  school,  the  young  Hoyt  was 
primarily  interested  in  agriculture.  As  he  wrote  in  his 
autobiography,  ".  .  .a  still  greater  happiness  [than  in 
school]  came  to  me  when  I  could  do  something  more  for 
the  common  cause  on  the  farm."48  After  graduation  from 
Ohio  Wesleyan  College,  one  year  in  Cincinnati  Law  School 
and  graduation  from  the  Eclectic  Medical  Institute  in  Cin- 
cinnati, Hoyt  continued  on  the  academic  course,  teaching 
at  both  the  Eclectic  Medical  Institute  and  at  Antioch  Col- 
lege. He  soon  left  his  professorship,  however,  moving  to 
the  cooler  climate  of  Wisconsin  to  serve  as  editor  on  the 
agricultural  journal  Wisconsin  Farmer  and  Northwestern 
Cultivator.  Here,  Hoyt  felt  he  had  found  a  position  to  which 
he  was  ideally  suited.  His  qualifications,  he  noted,  were 
"more  than  just  ordinary"  owing  to  "my  years  on  the 
farm,  my  study  of  the  sciences  that  could  be  made  avail- 
able, my  fondness  for  mingling  with  the  people  in  a  prac- 
tical way,  and  my  ambition  to  lead  the  whole  Northwest 
into  the  best  methods  of  agricultural  and  other  industrial 
pursuits."49 

These  journal  years  proved  to  be  a  pivotal  time  in 
Hoyt's  life.  Having  left  teaching,  Hoyt  now  became  in- 
terested in  education  from  the  political  side.  Chosen  in  1856 
one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  U.S.  Agricultural  Society, 
he  attended  the  U.S.  Exhibition  in  Virginia.  Next  he  served 
as  the  U.S.  representative  to  various  international  fairs,  in- 
cluding the  World's  London  Exhibition  in  1862,  the  Paris 
Exposition  in  1867  and  the  Vienna  Universal  Exposition  in 
1873.  Additionally,  Hoyt  traveled  throughout  these  years 
in  both  Europe  and  the  United  States  visiting  universities 
and  agricultural  institutions.  The  result  was  Hoyt's  en- 
thusiastic endorsement  in  the  United  States  of  the  in- 
dustrial, practical  education  prevalent  throughout  Europe. 
He  became  a  staunch  advocate  of  the  Morrill  Land  Grant 
Bill,  making  speeches  and  printing  petitions  in  his  jour- 
nal, the  Wisconsin  Farmer.  With  the  passage  of  the  Morrill 
Act,  Hoyt  next  concentrated  on  the  establishment  of  an 
agricultural  school  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  one 
which,  he  hoped,  would  combine  all  the  best  aspects  of 
the  many  schools  he  had  visited.  Within  four  years  he  ac- 
complished this  task,  again  with  the  aid  of  the  Wisconsin 
Farmer  to  gain  support  and  publicize  an  organizing  con- 
vention. Three  years  later,  in  1869,  Hoyt  adopted  the  cause 
to  which  he  would  devote  the  rest  of  his  life— the  found- 
ing of  a  national  university.  Having  concluded  from  his 
European  travels  the  relative  inferiority  of  American  educa- 
tion, Hoyt  proposed  the  federal  government  sponsor  or- 
ganized, focused,  national  education.  All  Hoyt's  ideas  on 
the  purpose  of  education,  then  and  later,  would  stem  from 
this  goal  of  national  university  education.50 

Regarding  education's  mission,  Hoyt,  like  Sanborn, 
perceived  the  benefits  in  practical-oriented  training.  In  an 
address  titled  "Industrial  Education  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica," he  explained  his  policy  that  practical  education  of  the 
working  classes  was  the  way  to  a  prosperous  nation.  Yet 


Hoyt  went  beyond  Sanborn,  advocating  the  social  change 
that  could  also  be  achieved  through  industrial  education. 
He  continued  in  his  speech,  concluding  that  such  training 
would  "insure  not  only  an  increase  of  their  producing 
power  for  the  common  good,  but  also  the  elevation  of  their 
respective  pursuits,  with  corresponding  improvement  in 
the  lives  and  manners  of  workers,  and  thus  steadily  lessen 
those  distinctions  and  degrading  discriminations  which 
have  so  broadly  separated  the  working  and  the  so-called 
'nonworking'  classes  in  all  the  past."51  This  was  Hoyt's 
primary  goal.  With  the  working  class  brought  up  to  the 
social  level  of  the  nonworking  class,  the  latter  would  event- 
ually disappear.  After  visiting  the  Andersonian  University 
in  Glasgow,  Hoyt  stated,  "One  such  college  [of  practical 
value]  in  each  large  city  of  the  realm  would  do  more  for 
the  progress  of  liberal  ideas  and  overturning  of  an  already 
tottering  aristocracy  than  all  the  purely  political  machinery 
that  can  be  brought  to  bear.  .  .  ."52 

Hoyt  was  a  true  social  reformer.  The  "end"  would  be 
equality  of  men;  the  "means,"  practical  training.  This  did 
not  mean,  however,  that  Hoyt  completely  ignored  classical 
training.  One  early  chronicler  of  the  university  noted  that 
it  was  Hoyt's  arrival  and  influence  which  accounted  for 
the  "literary  atmosphere"  pervading  the  institution. 
Robert  C.  Morris  wrote  in  1897,  "The  ideal  held  up  before 
the  students  and  community  during  these  years  was  that 
learning  and  culture  should  be  sought  for  their  own  sake, 
and  not  from  utilitarian  motives  only."53  Before  his  associa- 
tion with  the  university  and  while  still  serving  as  gover- 
nor, Hoyt  encouraged  the  Laramie  Literary  and  Library 
Association  and  helped  found  a  group  in  Cheyenne  similar 
to  the  Wisconsin  Academy  of  Science,  Art  and  Letters.  Yet 
to  Hoyt  classical  learning  was  an  established  given,  one 
which  would  remain  regardless.  While  not  discouraging 
the  classical,  it  was  Hoyt's  goal  to  boost  the  new  trend  of 
practical  training.54  In  an  1885  address,  Hoyt  best  explains 
his  own  ideas  on  how  classical  and  practical  ideas  fit  into 
the  true  objective  of  education.  He  noted 

that  the  once  lightly  honored  pursuits  are  taking  their  place 
among  the  professions;  that  useful  labor,  of  whatever  sort, 
is  honored  as  never  before;  that  there  is  a  growing  apprecia- 
tion of  the  necessity  of  fitting  the  worker  for  his  work  by  giv- 
ing him  the  best  equipment  that  science  and  intelligence  can 
furnish;  .  .  .  that  civilized  communities  in  all  countries  are 
moved  in  these  latter  days  to  efforts  for  cultivating  in  children 
everywhere  a  taste  for  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  art;  that 
moral  culture  in  the  schools  is  coming  to  be  considered  a 
needed  security  as  well  for  free  institutions  as  for  the  individual 
soul.55 

Hoyt's  ideas  resembled  those  of  educators  across  the  na- 
tion. He  did  not  actually  combine  the  practical  and  classical, 
as  Sanborn  did.  Yet,  neither  did  Hoyt  feel  the  need  to  draw 
a  line  between  the  two.  He  did  not  worry  about  the  balance 
because,  in  his  mind,  practical  and  classical  ideas  co-existed 
naturally. 

The  president  would  not  have  much  chance  to  expand 
his  ideas  further.  Hoyt  never  truly  "belonged"  to  the 


(Above)  Home  Economics  Class,  UW  photograph  taken  in  Merica  Hall,  1910. 
(Below)  University  of  Wyoming  Mineralogy  Class,  photograph  taken  in  1896. 


±L 


Laramie  or  the  Wyoming  community.  Indeed,  relations 
between  the  Territory  and  Hoyt  had  begun  on  a  bad  note 
before  Hoyt  made  his  initial  appearance  in  the  area.  In 
May,  1878,  the  Laramie  Sentinel  pronounced  its  backing  of 
the  incumbent  governor,  the  one  whom  Hoyt  was  to  re- 
place. The  paper  noted  the  difference  between  the  two 
men,  stating:  "Governor  Thayer  was  a  western  man  .  .  . 
for  many  years  a  resident  of  Nebraska.  He  knew  the  ways 
and  wants  of  the  West."56  And  as  the  Laramie  Boomerang 
once  noted,  Hoyt  "might  well  have  been  taken  for  one  of 
the  patriarch's  of  the  Old  Testament."57  Any  patriarch  from 
the  Old  Testament  World  would  have  contrasted  sharply 
with  the  restless,  rough  and  tumble  Laramie  atmosphere. 
Indeed,  if  we  are  to  believe  one  Laramie  chronicler,  J.  H. 
Triggs,  the  city  was  more  "rough"  than  anything  else.  This 
historian— writing  in  1875— recorded  the  demographics  of 
the  city's  settlement  population,  noting: 

In  about  three  months  its  population  aggregated  about  five 
thousand  souls.  Of  these  there  were  probably  about  one  thou- 
sand strong,  earnest,  daring  men,  ready  to  face  any  danger 
...  if  they  could,  in  any  honorable  way,  better  their  fortunes. 
One  thousand  more  that  were  ready  to  adopt  any  policy, 
honorable  or  otherwise,  so  that  they  got  money.  .  .  .  The 
balance,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  good  and  noble  women, 
were  made  up  of  gamblers,  thieves,  highwaymen,  robbers, 
cut-throats,  garroters,  prostitutes.   .   .   .58 

Unlike  the  planned  settlement  of  Logan,  the  first  citizens 
of  Laramie  merely  followed  the  railroad  tracks— and  their 
fortunes— westward . 

It  is  little  wonder,  then,  that  education  was  not  foremost 
in  the  founders'  minds.  The  majority  of  early  settlers  were 
much  more  concerned  with  making  a  living  than  they  were 
with  educating  their  children.  In  an  1870  report  to  the  U.S. 
Commissioner  of  Education,  a  writer  from  Sweetwater 
County  expressed  a  commonly-held  opinion: 

This  county  alone  should  have  at  least  150  old  enough  to  at- 
tend school  and  too  young  to  work,  which  latter  seems  to  be 
regarded  by  too  many  parents  as  the  chief  end  of  man,  and 
the  main  object  of  boys.  The  educational  interests  of  the  ter- 
ritory are  generally  neglected,  either  from  indifference  on  the 
part  of  parents,  or  an  avaricious  disposition  to  make  the  propa- 
gation of  children  return  early  profits,  or  their  superstitious 
dread  that  a  little  learning  is  a  [more]  dangerous  thing  for  their 
sons  and  daughters  than  blasting  in  a  mine,  driving  an  ox 
team,  or  taking  in  washing,  and  marrying  early.  I  believe  that, 
in  the  cause  of  education  the  Territory  of  Wyoming  is  behind 
all  other  States  and  Territories  in  the  Union,  except,  perhaps 
Alaska.59 

The  Wyoming  settlers,  in  this  respect,  did  not  differ  much 
from  farmers  nationwide. 

It  appears,  however,  that  there  were  exceptions  to  the 
rule  of  low  educational  priority.  Triggs,  in  his  account  of 
Laramie,  continued,  "Public  instruction  has  been  liberally 
encouraged  here  in  the  past,  and  this  eminently  intelligent 
and  enterprising  people  are  not  likely  to  let  this  want  re- 
main long  unsupplied."60  And  Hoyt,  in  his  initial  canvass 
of  the  Territory  as  governor,  noted  his  "surprise"  at  the 
educational  institutions  and  "instrumentalities,"  or  in- 
structional equipment.  He  reported  to  the  Secretary  of  the 


Interior  in  1878  that  Wyoming's  general  educational  system 
was  one  of  the  best  in  the  United  States.61 

These  varying  views  were  the  result  of  different  classes 
in  the  society  and,  of  course,  different  intents  behind  the 
writings.  Hoyt,  as  the  new  governor  of  the  Territory, 
hoped  and  looked  for  good  points;  Triggs,  writing  a  history 
of  Laramie,  wrote  in  an  optimistic,  promotional  vein;  and 
the  writer  to  the  Commissioner  of  Education  filed— we 
assume— an  honest,  factual  report.  As  for  the  differing  class 
views,  Terence  Fromong,  in  his  study  of  early  Wyoming 
education,  claims  that  the  two  classes  in  Wyoming  held 
two  opposing  views  concerning  the  purpose  of  education. 
The  lower  classes— day  laborers,  miners,  farmers— who 
worked  manually  for  a  living  and  needed  their  children's 
work  wages,  felt  that  modern  education  tended 

...  to  lift  boys  and  girls  to  places  they  are  not  fitted  to  fill, 
to  disgust  them  with  the  work  which  they  are  fitted  to  do, 
which  must  be  done,  and  which  can  be  easily  obtained.  Our 
theory  of  education  is  constantly  losing  sight .  .  .  that  the  mass 
of  people  in  every  generation  and  under  whatever  form  of 
government  must  be  laborers.  .  .  .  [Children]  should  have 
an  education  which,  when  completed  will  make  the  subject 
better  fitted  to  pursue  well  the  work  for  which  he  is  fitted, 
which  makes  him  not  ashamed  to  do  it,  and  which  thus 
dignifies  labor.62 

These  laborers,  as  noted  in  the  1870  report  to  the  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  were  not  supportive  of  education 
beyond  the  basic  rudiments. 

The  classes  above  the  laborers,  on  the  other  hand,  felt 
education  had  a  much  wider,  theoretical  purpose,  one  that 
benefited  not  only  the  student,  but  also  the  community 
as  a  whole.  Hoyt,  one  of  the  best  examples  of  this  view, 
noted,  "Without  the  intelligence  of  its  people  no  commu- 
nity may  hope  to  maintain  a  free  government."63  This 
group,  therefore,  tended  to  enthusiastically  support  educa- 
tion, including  higher,  classical  education. 

Yet  these  professional  classes  constituted  a  minority: 
3.3%  in  1890,  2.6%  in  1900.  This  class  disproportion  did 
also  exist  in  Utah.  But  as  noted  earlier,  a  strong  number 
of  Utahns  were  farmers  and  a  large  majority  were  Mor- 
mons. The  Laramie  community,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
more  heterogeneous,  with  a  much  more  equalitarian 
spread  among  both  the  occupational  sector  (excluding  the 
professional  area)  and  the  religious  affiliation.  In  the  largest 
of  the  occupational  groups— agrarians— the  majority  of 
workers  were  spread  rather  equally  among  farmers,  labor- 
ers and  stock  raisers,  rather  than  being  concentrated  in 
farming,  as  in  Utah.  In  religion,  the  largest  group- 
Catholics— constituted  only  a  small  majority,  48%. 

Did  this  majority  of  Catholics  nevertheless  affect  the 
community's  educational  views?  One  answer  may  be  found 
in  the  national  educational  studies  mentioned  earlier.  In 
1931,  Harvey  C.  Lehman  and  Paul  A.  Witty  concluded  that 
scientists  of  the  Catholic  faith  were  "grossly  under- 
represented."64  Knapp  and  Goodrich,  in  their  Origins  of 
American  Scientists  (1952),  noted  that  Catholic  schools  were 
"very  unproductive."65  And  the  general  productivity  in- 


.4" 


dexes  calculated  by  Hardy  (1974)  consistently  ranked 
Catholic  schools  lowest  or  next  to  lowest.  In  addition, 
Hardy  observed,  these  schools  were  not  only  "at  the  bot- 
tom," but  also  "well  below  average  for  all  schools  studied" 
with  the  exception  of  one  field:  the  arts  and  professions.66 
Catholic  students,  it  seems,  were  not  prone  to  practical 
studies. 

Yet  in  the  case  of  Wyoming,  Catholicism  was  merely 
a  sidelight.  It  did  not  form  a  majority;  neither  did  the 
religion  itself  establish  a  working,  day-to-day  relationship 
with  its  followers.  No  patriarchal,  community  religious 
leader  provided  educational  guidelines.  Similarly,  agrarian 
farming  values  were  peripheral.  What  did  affect  community 
values — and  therefore  educational  views— was  the  large, 
practical-minded  working  class. 

Both  Presidents  Hoyt  and  Sanborn  lasted  only  four 
years.  For,  while  the  administrators  busily  designed  found- 
ing policies  for  the  new  institutions,  the  townspeople  re- 
mained quietly  unaware.  Once  the  colleges  opened  for  in- 
struction, however,  they  also  opened  themselves  to  the 
critique  and  involvement  of  the  communities.  Both  presi- 
dents stressed  the  new  idea  of  practical  training,  blended 
with  the  already  existing  classical  ideas.  Ironically,  the 
downfall  of  each  administrator  did  not  result  from  com- 
munity opposition  to  the  new  trend  of  practicality,  but 
from  the  townspeoples'  quick  adoption  of  the  idea. 

On  its  first  day  of  instruction,  the  Utah  Agricultural 
College  attracted  22  students.  At  the  beginning  of  the  sec- 
ond year,  Sanborn  was  able  to  boast:  "During  the  sum- 
mer evidence  has  constantly  accumulated  of  the  friendly 
feeling  of  the  public  towards  the  college.  The  opening  con- 
firmed the  impressions  received— more  students  being 
present  the  first  day  than  ever  before  congregated  in  the 
chapel."67  The  enrollment  that  second  year— 1891— was  139 
students.  At  the  beginning  of  1892  the  number  increased 
to  280,  with  approximately  one  third  of  these  coming  from 
the  city  of  Logan  itself.  By  1893,  enrollment  totaled  366. 68 

Yet  even  though  Utah  sent  increasing  numbers  of  its 
young  adults  to  the  school  for  instruction,  the  community 
began  to  agree  less  and  less  with  Sanborn's  policy.  While 
continuously  praising  the  practical  aspects,  the  citizens 
now  denounced  the  classical  side.  In  an  article  titled  "In- 
dustrial Education"  in  the  Logan  Journal,  the  editors  wrote 
of  the  "isms"  and  "ologies"  of  the  universities  of  the  past. 
Thought  to  properly  equip  the  young  men  and  women  for 
life,  this  education  instead  left  the  students  completely  un- 
prepared for  a  life  of  work.  The  editors  proclaimed,  "It  is 
no  doubt  true  that  no  one  should  say  ought  against  a 
purely  literary  and  scientific  learning,  but  since  so  few  are 
destined  to  a  sole  use  of  these  acquisitions  in  after  life,  it 
is  important  that  knowledge  available  for  the  millions 
should  be  more  freely  bestowed  upon  the  young."69 

The  community  presented  a  barrier  to  the  successful 
development  of  the  Utah  Agricultural  College— not 
through  a  direct  opposition  to  the  new  idea  of  practical 
education,  but  rather  through  its  "hearty  endorsement" 


John  W.  Hoyt,  first  president  of  the  University  of 'Wyoming,  1887-1890. 
From  1878-1882  Hoyt  served  as  governor  of  the  Territory  of  Wyoming 
and  in  1889,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Wyoming  Constitutional  Convention. 


of  the  idea.70  The  remnants  of  the  classical  ideas,  imported 
from  the  East,  were  no  longer  desired  in  the  practical  West. 
The  carefully  intertwined  classical/practical  structure  achieved 
by  Sanborn  began  to  weaken.  The  president,  who  had  at- 
tempted to  keep  and  integrate  the  classical  imports,  soon 
manifested  the  Eastern,  non-Mormon  threat  felt  in  the 
community.  He,  also,  was  no  longer  wanted.  When  it  was 
learned  in  May,  1894,  that  Sanborn  had  tendered  his 
resignation  nine  months  earlier  in  order  to  return  to  his 
family  farm,  the  Logan  newspaper  printed  the  community 
response:  "It  would  seem  from  this  that  the  gentleman  has 
.  .  .  made  up  his  mind  to  shake  the  dust  of  Utah  from  his 
feet.  .  .  .  The  Journal  bears  Mr.  Sanborn  no  ill  will— it 
wishes  him  success  on  his  New  England  farm  and  in  his 
editorial  work,  in  which,  by  the  way,  he  has  had  experience 
for  the  last  two  years  while  drawing  his  salary  from  the 
people  of  Utah."71 

In  Wyoming,  Hoyt's  troubles  with  the  community  con- 
tinued. While  he  had  succeeded  in  securing  an  illusory 
goodwill,  it  was  temporary,  too  weak  to  support  him  as 
president  of  the  university.  The  Board  of  Trustees  dis- 
charged Hoyt  in  December,  1890,  supplying  numerous 
reasons  including  "lax"  discipline,  Mrs.  Hoyt's  involve- 
ment with  the  university,  "violent  and  intemperate 
language"  in  chapel  exercises  and  an  "unfortunate"  finan- 
cial reputation.72  The  last  charge  resulted  from  several 
specific  instances.  First,  the  Board  and  Hoyt  had  disagreed 


over  the  use  of  Morrill  Act  funds.  It  appears  Hoyt  desired 
instructional  equipment  for  the  agricultural  and  mechanic 
arts  departments,  while  the  Board  wanted  the  money  spent 
on  other  causes.73  Second,  Hoyt  had  ordered  steel  engrav- 
ings for  portraits  from  New  York,  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  Board.  After  the  Board  learned  of  the  purchase,  it 
ordered  Hoyt  to  return  the  engravings  as  no  funds  existed 
for  such  a  purchase.  Hoyt  proceeded  to  make  copies  and 
hang  them  in  the  university.  The  Board  concluded, 
"Among  men  not  lost  to  honor  in  business  intercourse  the 
act  of  John  W.  Hoyt .  .  .  would  be  considered  a  despicable 
act  of  piracy  the  opposite  in  example  to  that  which  ought 
to  be  set  before  the  students  of  any  school."74  Finally,  the 
Board  ended  its  statement  of  allegations,  stating  that  Hoyt 
was  "out  of  place  as  an  instructor  of  youth.  We  found  him 
to  be  very  impractical,  visionary,  extravagant  in  his  views, 
autocratic,  egotistic,  artful,  untruthful,  greatly  influenced 
by  his  family  and  persistently  aiming  to  ignore  the  Trustees 
and  override  the  Faculty."75 

There  was,  of  course,  an  underlying  motive  to  the 
Board's  dismissal  of  Hoyt,  not  mentioned  in  their  report. 
When  Wyoming  was  admitted  to  the  nation  as  a  state,  new 
government  positions  opened.  Hoyt,  interested  in  a  Senate 
seat,  nevertheless  refused  to  publicly  declare  his  candidacy. 
As  a  result,  the  county  delegates  were  committed  to  sup- 


port him  at  the  convention.  Five  of  these  delegates  also 
were  interested  in  the  Senatorial  seat;  four  of  these  five 
were  university  Board  of  Trustee  members  as  well.  After 
Hoyt  lost  the  seat,  without  fighting  to  win,  he  was  dis- 
missed by  action  of  the  Board.76 

Hoyt  did  fight,  however,  to  regain  his  position  as  presi- 
dent. In  the  two  months  of  January  and  February,  1891, 
he  wrote  at  least  eight  letters  to  members  of  the  new 
Board  of  Trustees.  These  included  a  30  page  pamphlet— 
"Leading  Facts  in  the  Public  Record  of  Ex-Governor  John 
W.  Hoyt,  LL.  D."— containing  24  pages  of  favorable  recom- 
mendations and  reviews  of  him  and  his  work.77  Another 
printed  pamphlet,  addressed  anonymously  to  ''My  Dear 
Friend,"  noted,  "What  I  now  need  is  the  present  earnest 
help  of  my  true  friends  in  breaking  the  power  of  the  cor- 
rupt combination,  here  by  means  of  representations  to 
members  of  the  new  board.  .   .  ."78 

Evident  in  all  these  letters  was  Hoyt's  public  embar- 
rassment. He  repeatedly  listed  all  his  many  prestigious 
positions,  yet  noted,  "It  was  reserved  for  a  coterie  of  school 
trustees  in  this  little  mountain  town  to  put  me  under  the 
ban  of  their  displeasure,  and  to  mar,  if  possible,  this  record 
of  a  life  devoted  to  public  good."79  If  allowed  to  continue 
as  president,  Hoyt  did  not  plan  to  remain  long;  he  would 
resign  in  a  few  months.  He  merely  hoped  for  "a  prompt 


Old  Main,  University  of  Wyoming 


42 


re-instatement  as  my  only  possible  vindication,"  and  "that 
I  be  rescued  from  this  present  discredit  before  the 
world.  .  .  ."80 

Evident,  also,  from  these  letters  was  the  politician 
Hoyt's  lack  of  political  acumen  in  this  affair.  He  consist- 
ently denounced  the  members  of  the  old  Board  to  the 
members  of  the  new.  For  example,  he  stated: 

A  few  ambitious  men,  most  of  them  wanting,  as  came  to  be 
manifest,  in  nearly  every  requisite,  managed  to  get  themselves 
placed  in  control  and  have  since  appeared  to  think  they, 
themselves  owned  the  institution.  .  .  .  The  men  in  control 
were,  some  of  them,  even  narrower,  more  ignorant  of  educa- 
tional matters,  and,  worse  than  all,  more  conceited,  than  I 
knew— men  who  made  no  proper  distinction  between  a  uni- 
versity and  a  district  school.   .   .   .81 

Not  surprisingly,  the  new  Board,  not  wanting  to  pass 
judgment  on  the  old  Board,  refused  Hoyt's  application. 
Furthermore,  the  Board  repeatedly  refused  to  pay  the  re- 
mainder of  his  salary.82 

Yet  Hoyt  had  hit  on  the  fundamental  line  of  conflict: 
the  president  wanted  a  university,  in  line  with  the  best  of 
the  nation;  the  Board  wanted  a  working,  useful  college. 
Grace  Hebard,  a  member  of  the  new  Board,  referred  to 
Hoyt— years  after  the  affair— as  "the  outstanding  one  [of 
the  presidents]  intellectually,  due  to  his  years  of  prepara- 
tion, and  his  experience,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  he  had 
a  marvelous  vision  for  the  future  and  we  are  living  on  that 
vision  today,  which  has  not,  even  after  forty-one  years, 
been  completed."83  As  the  newspapers  would  note  after 
his  dismissal,  Hoyt  was  "too  visionary  and  impractical," 
"too  theoretical  and  impractical."84  In  answer,  Hoyt  noted 
that  "a  practical  man  is  one  who  wisely  adapts  means  to 
useful  ends.  This  definition  accepted,  my  own  claim  is  suf- 
ficiently established."85  Unfortunately  for  Hoyt,  it  was  not. 
He  remained  in  Laramie  for  a  short  time,  attempting— 
unsuccessfully— to  publish  a  weekly  periodical  of  "high 
editorial  and  literary  merit."86  After  failing  in  this 
endeavor,  for  lack  of  financial  support,  Hoyt  returned  East 
to  Washington,  D.C.,  in  order  to  pursue  his  life-long 
goal— the  establishment  of  a  national  university. 

Neither  Hoyt  nor  Sanborn  was  perceived  as  practical 
enough  by  people  in  Wyoming  and  Utah,  people  who 
overwhelmingly  favored  useful  training.  The  Mormons  in 
Utah  needed  useful  instruction  to  aid  in  the  building  and 
preservation  of  their  kingdom;  the  farmers,  unsure  about 
higher  education  in  general  for  their  children,  nevertheless 
would  favor  the  practical  over  the  classical.  In  Wyoming, 
too,  the  people  favored  the  practical,  although  for  different 
reasons.  Here,  the  population  was  dispersed  throughout 
the  different  occupations  and  religions.  However,  the  ma- 
jority were  laborers,  people  who  saw  no  need  for  their 
children  to  learn  much  beyond  the  basics  needed  for  work. 

Yet  the  influence  of  the  people  on  educational  policy 
was  limited.  True,  the  communities  did  defeat  Sanborn  and 
Hoyt  in  the  immediate  terms  of  local  public  opinion.  Yet 
both  Sanborn  and  Hoyt  nevertheless  succeeded— each  in 


his  own  manner — in  establishing  a  feasible  educational 
policy.  To  Sanborn,  the  present  mattered,  and  the  "pres- 
ent" for  students  in  the  1890s  required  practical  training 
for  a  life  of  work,  coupled  with  the  character-shaping 
benefits  of  classical  ideas.  In  Wyoming,  Hoyt  looked 
beyond  Sanborn's  present,  seeing  past  the  immediate 
gains  of  practical  training  and  glimpsing  the  social  changes 
possible.  Stressing  practicality  as  well  as  equality  and 
reform,  Hoyt  reflected  the  progressive  attitudes  of  his  time. 
Sanborn,  on  the  other  hand,  was  an  individualist.  While 
not  as  farsighted,  his  educational  policy  was  the  most 
distinctive.  In  either  case,  the  president  introduced  the  new 
educational  theory  of  the  time.  Over  the  years  educational 
ideas  would  again  change,  upsetting  the  delicate  relations 
between  the  practical  and  the  classical  once  established. 
As  a  result,  university  advisory  councils  today  seek  anew 
policies  that  will  wed  the  humanities  and  sciences,  join 
"head  and  hand." 


1.  Logan  Journal  [Logan,  Utah],  May  20,  1983,  p.  7  (hereafter  cited  as 
Journal). 

2.  Report  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Agricultural  College  of  Utah,  1892 
(Salt  Lake  City,  1892),  p.  8. 

3.  U.S.  Congress,  Senate,  Congressional  Globe,  37th  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  July 
2,  1862. 

4.  Laws  of  the  Territory  of  Utah  Passed  at  the  28th  session  of  the 
Legislative  Assembly,  1888,  p.  217  [Section  8]. 

5.  Ibid. 

6.  Minutes  of  the  Utah  Agricultural  College  Board  of  Trustees  (hereafter 
cited  as  Utah,  Board),  1888-1890:  June  29,  1888;  April  15,  1889;  April 
16,  1889;  May  18,  1889;  November  16,  1889;  President's  Office,  Utah 
State  University. 

7.  Ibid.,  May  17,  1890. 

8.  Report:  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Agricultural  College  of  Utah,  and  Accom- 
panying Documents,  1890  (Salt  Lake  City,  1900),  p.  3. 

9.  John  T.  Caine,  Jr.,  "Jeremiah  Wilson  Sanborn:  First  Director  of  the 
Utah  Experiment  Station  and  First  President  of  the  Agricultural  Col- 
lege of  Utah,  A  Tribute,"  in  Joel  Edward  Ricks,  ed.,  The  Utah  State 
Agricultural  College:  A  History  of  Fifty  Years  (Salt  Lake  City,  1938),  p.  35. 

10.  Jonas  Viles,  The  University  of  Missouri,  1839-1939:  A  Centennial  Histon/ 
(Columbia,  Missouri,  1939),  pp.  301-2. 

11.  Ibid.,  p.  194. 

12.  Ricks,  Utah  State,  p.  40. 

13.  Caine,  "Sanborn,"  p.  36. 

14.  F.  W.  Kelsey,  "The  Study  of  Latin  in  Collegiate  Education,"  Educa- 
tion, III  (1883):  270. 

15.  Kevin  Starr,  Americans  and  the  California  Dream,  1850-1915  (New  York, 
1973),  p.  338. 

Laurence  R.  Veysey,  The  Emergence  of  the  American  University  (Chicago, 
1965),  p.  80. 

Calvin  M.  Woodward,  "The  Change  of  Front  in  Education,"  Science. 
XIV  (September  27,  1901):  476. 

18.  Charles  William  Eliot,  "The  Aims  of  Higher  Education,  "  Educational 
Reform:  Essays  and  Addresses  (New  York,   18^8).  p.  224. 
J.  W.  Sanborn,  "Agricultural  College  ot  Utah."  Juvenile  Instructor 
XXVII  (July  15,  1892):  434. 
Ibid.,  438. 
journal,  February  8,  1890. 


16 


17 


L9 


43 


22.  Utah  Board,  April  19,  1890;  Report  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  1392,  p. 
8;  The  Utah  Agricultural  College  Announcement  of  Its  Opening  Year 
1890-91,  p.  13. 

23.  Utah  Agricultural  College  Announcement,  p.  9. 

24.  The  Buzzer,  Volume  11  (Logan,  Utah,  1910),  p.  11. 

25.  Ricks,  Utah  State,  p.  26;  John  A.  Widtsoe,  In  a  Sunlit  Land:  The 
Autobiography  of  John,  p.  46. 

26.  Report:  Board  of  Trustees,  1890,  p.  3. 

27.  Doctrine  and  Covenants  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints, 
93:36;  131:8. 

28.  William  C.  Bagley,  Determinism  in  Education:  A  Series  of  Papers  on  the 
Relative  Influence  of  Inherited  and  Acquired  Traits  in  Determining  In- 
telligence, Achievement,  and  Character  (Baltimore,  1925),  pp.  80,  85. 

29.  E.  L.  Thorndike,  "The  Origin  of  Superior  Men,"  Scientific  Monthly, 
LVI  (May  1943):  424-33. 

30.  Raymond  M.  Hughes  and  William  H.  Lancelot,  Education— America's 
Magic  (Ames,  Iowa,  1946),  pp.  12,  40. 

31.  R.  H.  Knapp  and  H.  B.  Goodrich,  Origins  of  American  Scientists:  A 
Study  Made  under  the  Direction  of  a  Committee  of  the  Faculty  ofWesleyan 
University  (Chicago,  1952),  p.  22. 

32.  Alexander  W.  Astin,  "  'Productivity' of  Undergraduate  Institutions," 
Science,  136  (April  13,  1962):  133-34. 

33.  Kenneth  R.  Hardy,  "Social  Origins  of  American  Scientists  and 
Scholars,"  Science,  185  (August  9,  1974):  500.  These  are  not,  of  course, 
the  only  studies  ranking  the  states'  educational  levels.  See  also  Roy 
C.  Woods,  "Where  Does  Your  State  Rank?"  American  School  Board 
Journal,  110  (April  1945).  Woods'  notes  provide  further  sources  to  con- 
sult for  comparative  studies  conducted  up  to  1945.  Several  other  works 
have  moved  beyond  simply  ranking  the  states,  focusing  on  the  possi- 
ble causes,  including  region,  which  may  lead  to  college  and  individual 
"productivity."  See:  Robert  H.  Knapp  and  Joseph  J.  Greenbaum, 
The  Younger  American  Scholar:  His  Collegiate  Origins  (Chicago,  1953); 
John  L.  Holland,  "Undergraduate  Origins  of  American  Scientists," 
Science,  126  (September  6,  1957);  Donald  L.  Thistlethwaite,  "College 
Environments  and  the  Development  of  Talent,"  Science,  130  (July  10, 
1959);  Lindsey  R.  Harmon,  "High  School  Backgrounds  of  Science 
Doctorates,"  Science,  133  (March  10,  1961). 

34.  However,  several  doctoral  dissertations  have  been  written  in  this  vein, 
e.g.  Ray  L.  DeBoer,  "A  Historical  Study  of  Mormon  Education  and 
the  Influence  of  Its  Philosophy  on  Public  Education  in  Utah"  (Ph.D. 
dissertation,  University  of  Denver,  1951).  DeBoer  claimed:  "A  pas- 
sion for  education  has  become  one  of  the  common  denominators  of 
Mormon  culture.  'The  glory  of  God  is  intelligence'  has  become  the 
most  quoted  of  all  the  Prophet's  aphorisms,  and  it  undoubtedly  has 
been  a  potent  factor  in  the  educational  philosophy  of  the  Latter-day 
Saints  Church"  (36).  Wendell  O.  Rich,  "Certain  Basic  Concepts  in 
the  Educational  Philosophy  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  1830-1930"  (Ph.D.  dissertation,  Utah  State  University, 
1954),  noted:  "Salvation  is  related  to  achievement  along  the  path  of 
development  and  a  man  is  understood  to  be  saved  no  faster  than 
he  gains  knowledge."  (219). 

35.  Frederick  S.  Buchanan,  "Education  Among  the  Mormons:  Brigham 
Young  and  the  Schools  of  Utah,"  History  of  Education  Quarterly,  22 
(Winter  1982):  454-55. 

36.  Bagley,  Determinism  in  Education,  p.  84. 

37.  Ray  Stannard  Baker,  "The  Vitality  of  Mormonism:  A  Study  of  an 
Irrigated  Valley  in  Utah  and  Idaho,"  Century  Magazine,  LXVIII  (June 
1904):  173. 

38.  Bernard  De  Voto,  "Utah,"  American  Mercury,  VII  (March  1926):  319, 
321. 

39.  Brigham  Young,  Journal  of  Discourses,  XIII  (July  18,  1869):  60.  A  helpful 
index  to  the  speeches  contained  in  the  Journal  is  Ruth  M.  Jones' 
Pioneer  Thoughts  on  Education,  Compiled  from  the  Journal  of  Discourses 
(Salt  Lake  City,  1955). 

40.  Brigham  Young,  Journal  of  Discourses,  XII  (April  8,  1867):  31-32. 

41.  One  example  of  the  weakening  Mormon  control,  already  noted,  was 


the  non-Mormon  line-up  of  the  Utah  Agricultural  College's  first  fac- 
ulty in  1890.  For  discussion  of  Utah's  response  to  the  Eastern 
newcomers  and  the  effect  on  education  see  Leonard  J.  Arrington, 
"The  Intellectual  Tradition  of  Mormon  Utah,"  address  to  plenary  ses- 
sion of  Utah  Academy  of  Sciences,  Arts,  and  Letters,  September  13, 
1968,  published  in  Utah  Academy  Proceedings,  45,  Part  2,  1968,  and 
Arrington,  "The  Latter-day  Saints  and  Public  Education," 
Southwestern  Journal  of  Social  Education,  VII  (Spring-Summer  1977). 
Concerning  the  change  in  Cache  Valley,  see  Arrington,  "Transition 
to  the  Modern  Era  1890-1910,"  Joel  E.  Ricks  and  Everett  L.  Cooley, 
eds.,  The  History  of  a  Valley:  Cache  Valley,  Utah-Idaho  (Logan,  1956), 
pp.  205-39.  For  further  elaboration  on  the  idea  that  Mormons  of  the 
time  downplayed  "thinking"  courses,  see  Allan  Dean  Payne,  "The 
Mormon  Response  to  Early  Progessive  Education,  1892-1920"  (Ph.D. 
dissertation,  University  of  Utah,  1977).  / 

42.  Robert  H.  Knapp,  The  Origins  of  American  Humanistic  Scholars  (New 
Jersey,  1964),  p.  14. 

43.  William  Mulder,  "Problems  of  the  Mormon  Intellectual,"  Dialogue: 
A  Journal  of  Mormon  Thought,  V  (Autumn  1970):  122.  Nevertheless, 
the  relationship  with  the  Mormon  Church  did  affect  scientists  as  well. 
See  Richard  Tracy  Wootton,  "Religious  Orientations  of  Utah  Scien- 
tists Related  to  Certain  Problems  of  Latter-day  Saint  Church  Educa- 
tion" (Ph.D.  dissertation,  University  of  Utah,  1956). 

44.  Charles  S.  Peterson,  "Changing  Times:  A  View  From  Cache  Valley, 
1890-1915,"  60th  Faculty  Honor  Lecture,  Utah  State  University 
(Logan,  Utah,  1979)  presents  the  thesis  of  a  dual  Mormon-agrarian 
influence  in  Cache  Valley. 

45.  Isaac  P.  Roberts,  Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges  and 
Experiment  Stations,  Proceedings,  1889  (Washington,  1889)  as  quoted 
in  Roy  V.  Scott,  The  Reluctant  Farmer:  The  Rise  of  Agricultural  Exten- 
sion to  1914  (Urbana,  Illinois,  1970),  p.  3. 

46.  Session  Laws  of  Wyoming  Territory,  Ninth  Legislative  Assembly,  January 
12,  1886,  Chapter  37,  Section  35,  p.  84. 

47.  Laramie  Sentinel,  May  1,  1886  (hereafter  cited  as  Sentinel). 

48.  John  W.  Hoyt  and  Kepler  Hoyt,  "Life  of  John  Wesley  Hoyt,  A.M., 
M.D.,  LL.D.  (October  13,  1831-May  23,  1912),"  Mss.,  Wyoming  State 
Archives,  Museums  and  Historical  Department,  Cheyenne,  Wyo- 
ming, p.  3.  For  a  condensed  account  of  Hoyt's  life,  based  largely  on 
this  autobiographical  manuscript,  see  also  Henry  J.  Peterson,  "John 
Wesley  Hoyt:  Territorial  Governor  of  Wyoming,  1878-1882,"  Annals 
of  Wyoming,  22  (January  1950):  338-41. 

49.  Hoyt,  "John  Wesley  Hoyt,"  pp.  24-32,  quote,  pp.  31-32. 

50.  Ibid.,  pp.  32-201.  For  details  concerning  Hoyt's  educational  ideas, 
especially  his  devotion  to  the  founding  of  a  national  university,  see 
also  James  Raymond  Schumacher,  "The  Life,  Educational  Work  and 
Contributions  of  John  Wesley  Hoyt"  (Ph.D.  dissertation,  University 
of  Wyoming,  1970). 

51.  Hoyt,  "John  Wesley  Hoyt,"  p.  86. 

52.  Ibid.,  p.  116. 

53.  Robert  C.  Morris,  Collections  of  the  Wyoming  Historical  Society 
(Cheyenne,  1897),  p.  118. 

54.  Sentinel,  September  28,  1878;  Message  of  John  W.  Hoyt,  Governor 
of  Wyoming,  to  the  Seventh  Legislative  Assembly,  Cheyenne,  January 
12,  1882,  p.  25. 

55.  John  W.  Hoyt,  "Address,"  Special  Report  by  the  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, Educational  Exhibits  and  Conventions  at  the  World's  Industrial  and 
Cotton  Centennial  Exposition,  New  Orleans,  1884-1885;  Part  II,  Proceedings 
of  the  International  Congress  of  Educators  (Washington,  D.C.,  1886),  pp. 
98-99. 

56.  Sentinel,  March  18,  1878. 

57.  Laramie  Boomerang,  June  28,  1929  (hereafter  cited  as  Boomerang). 

58.  J.  H.  Triggs,  History  and  Directory  of  Laramie  City,  Wyoming  Territory 
(Laramie,  1875),  p.  5. 

59.  As  quoted  in  Terence  D.  Fromong,  "The  Development  of  Public 
'    Elementary  and  Secondary  Education  in  Wyoming:  1869-1917"  (Ph.D. 

dissertation,  University  of  Wyoming,  1962),  p.  51. 


44 


60.  Triggs,  Laramie  City,  p.  25. 

61.  Schumacher,  "John  Wesley  Hoyt,"  p.  58. 

62.  "Schooling  Which  Does  Not  Educate,"  Indianapolis  News,  as  reprinted 
in  Cheyenne  Daily  Leader,  September  4,  1879. 

63.  As  quoted  in  Fromong,  "Education  in  Wyoming,"  p.  88. 

64.  Harvey  C.  Lehman  and  Paul  A.  Witty,  "Scientific  Eminence  and 
Church  Membership,"  Scientific  Monthly,  XXXIII  (December  1931). 

65.  Knapp  and  Goodrich,  Origin  of  American  Scientists. 

66.  Hardy,  "American  Scientists  and  Scholars,"  p.  503. 

67.  Journal,  September  9,  1891. 

68.  Report  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Agricultural  College  of  Utah,  1892, 
p.  10;  Ricks,  Utah  State,  p.  41;  Journal,  May  31,  1893. 

69.  Journal,  June  2,  1894. 

70.  Ibid.,  February  8,  1890. 

71.  Ibid.,  June  9,  1894. 

72.  Minutes  of  the  University  of  Wyoming  Board  of  Trustees  (hereafter 
cited  as  Wyoming  Board),  December  13,  1890  (President's  Office, 
University  of  Wyoming);  Board  of  Trustees  Statement,  February,  1891, 
University  of  Wyoming  Collection,  American  Heritage  Center 
(hereafter  cited  as  UWC,  AHC). 

73.  Schumacher,  "John  Wesley  Hoyt,"  pp.  89-93. 

74.  Wyoming  Board,  February  17,  1891. 


75.  Board  of  Trustee  Statement,  February,  1891. 

76.  Hoyt,  "John  Wesley  Hoyt,"  p.  366. 

77.  "Leading  Facts  in  the  Public  Record  of  Ex-Governor  John  W.  Hoyt, 
LL.  D.,"  UWC,  AHC. 

78.  J.  W.  Hoyt  to  "My  Dear  Friend,"  January  13,  1891,  UWC,  AHC. 

79.  J.  W.  Hoyt  to  Board  of  Trustees,  February  24,  1891,  UWC,  AHC. 

80.  J.  W.  Hoyt  to  Grace  Hebard,  January  12,  1891;  J.  W.  Hoyt,  letter, 
January  13,  1891,  UWC,  AHC. 

81.  J.  W.  Hoyt,  letter,  January  13,  1891.  Other  letters  written  to:  Dr.  A. 
A.  Johnson,  new  president  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  February  24, 
1891;  Johnson,  February  25,  1891;  Board  of  Trustees,  February  24, 
1891;  Board  of  Trustees,  February  24,  1891;  Johnson,  March  26,  1891; 
Board  of  Trustees,  June  11,  1891;  Board  of  Trustees,  July  25,  1891, 
UWC,  AHC. 

82.  Wyoming  Board,  February  25,  1891;  J.  W.  Hoyt  to  Board  of  Trustees, 
June  11,  1891,  and  June  25,  1891,  UWC,  AHC. 

83.  Grace  Hebard  to  Kepler  Hoyt,  July  6,  1928,  Hoyt  Biographical  File, 
UWC,  AHC. 

84.  Sentinel,  March  8,  1891;  Boomerang,  December  15,  1890. 

85.  J.  W.  Hoyt  to  Board  of  Trustees,  February  24,  1891,  UWC,  AHC. 

86.  Hoyt  Biographical  File,  UWC,  AHC;  Hoyt,  "John  Wesley  Hoyt,"  p. 
514. 


Ji 


WYOMING'S  TRUSS  BRIDGES 


by  Rheba  C.  Massey 
Rick  Ewig 


Bridge  over  Green  River,  Sweetwater  County,  built  1913. 


For  more  than  100  years  people  traveling  the  roads 
throughout  Wyoming  have  seen  the  many  different  types 
of  truss  bridges.  These  structures,  as  part  of  a  vast  transpor- 
tation network,  have  played  an  important  role  in  the  set- 
tlement of  the  state.  Today,  however,  more  and  more  of 
the  trusses  are  being  removed  and  replaced,  thereby  de- 
nying Wyoming  a  portion  of  its  history. 

Transportation  systems  were  vital  to  the  settlement  of 
the  West.  The  paths  laid  out  by  animals  were  followed  and 
supplemented  by  Indians,  fur  trappers,  western-bound 
emigrants,  railroads  and  automobiles.  One  important  facet 
of  this  transportation  web  was  bridge  construction.  Com- 
pared to  wading,  swimming,  rafting  or  ferrying,  bridges 
were  a  tremendous  improvement  in  the  crossing  of  water- 
ways. At  first  constructed  of  readily  available  materials  and 
the  most  basic  design,  it  took  until  the  1870s  for  metal 
bridges  in  such  forms  as  cantilever,  arch,  suspension  and 
truss  to  come  West. 

Only  the  truss  bridge  was  of  modern  invention  and 
one  which  "may  be  considered  primarily  an  American 
achievement."1  Because  of  the  railroad,  the  early  19th  cen- 
tury witnessed  a  great  expansion  of  truss  bridges.  En- 
gineers designed  such  spans  as  the  Howe,  Pratt,  Whipple 
and  others  to  handle  the  heavier  loads,  longer  crossings 
and  greater  rigidity  requirements  of  the  railroads.  These 
attributes  also  made  the  trusses  attractive  to  road  builders 
in  the  late  19th  and  early  20th  centuries. 

The  history  of  truss  bridge  building  in  Wyoming  can 
be  traced  back  to  1875  when  the  U.S.  Army  contracted  with 
the  King  Bridge  and  Manufacturing  Company  of  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  to  build  a  bowstring  truss  over  the  North  Platte 
River  two  miles  from  Fort  Laramie.2  This  structure  is 
thought  to  be  the  oldest  existing  military  bridge  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  Most  truss  bridges  in  the  state,  however, 
were  not  built  in  this  manner. 

At  first,  private  individuals  built  the  necessary  bridges, 
but  eventually  such  endeavors  became  the  property  and 
responsibility  of  the  public.  Wyoming  counties  accepted 
full  responsibility  for  building  roads  and  bridges  in  the 
early  1900s.  Oftentimes  the  appropriations  for  these  pro- 
jects were  the  largest  county  allocations  of  funds.  During 
these  times  various  counties  paid  thousands  of  dollars  for 
a  single  metal  truss  bridge  and  on  occasion  had  to  delay 
construction  of  certain  bridge  projects  because  all  the 
available  funds  for  a  certain  year  had  been  expended. 

The  usual  procedure  followed  by  the  counties  in  the 
construction  of  a  bridge  was  to  advertise  for  bids— most 
times  asking  the  contractors  to  prepare  plans— and  then 
accept  the  "lowest  and  best"  bid.  The  major  contractors 
who  bid  on  Wyoming  bridges  came  mostly  from  the  Mid- 
west and  Colorado.  These  included  the  Canton  Bridge 
Company  of  Canton,  Ohio,  Midland  Bridge  Company  of 
Kansas  City,  Missouri,  Midwest  Steel  &  Iron  Works  Com- 
pany of  Pueblo,  Colorado,  and  Monarch  Engineering  of 
Denver,  Colorado. 

As  the  use  of  automotive  transportation  became  more 


prevalent,  an  adequate  system  of  roads  and  bridges  was 
even  more  paramount.  The  number  of  tourists  who  came 
to  enjoy  the  many  spectacles  of  Wyoming  greatly  in- 
creased. Also,  as  automobile  use  spread  it  affected  in- 
dividual lifestyles.  People  living  in  Wyoming's  small, 
remote  communities  no  longer  had  to  be  confined  to  their 
isolated  areas,  but  could  travel  to  the  mountains  or  other 
cities. 

Roads  all  across  the  country  were  ill-prepared  for  the 
increasing  traffic.  In  1914,  there  were  71,000  miles  of  state 
highways  nationally,  half  of  which  were  just  graded  earth 
and  only  about  half  of  the  states  had  highway  departments. 
The  typical  bridges  of  the  time  used  concrete  T-beams  for 
short  spans  and  pony  and  through  trusses  for  longer 
spans. 

Wyoming  was  not  totally  devoid  of  highways  at  the 
time.  Some  enterprising  businessmen  across  the  nation 
formed  the  Lincoln  Highway  Association  in  1913.  The  Lin- 
coln Highway  eventually  crossed  southern  Wyoming.  Ad- 
ditionally, the  Black  and  Yellow  Trail  crossed  northern 
Wyoming  in  1914.  Wyoming  still  needed  major  improve- 
ments in  its  road  system,  however. 

An  important  step  toward  a  modern  and  adequate 
state  highway  was  the  creation  of  the  Wyoming  Highway 
Department  in  1917,  in  accordance  with  the  July,  1916, 
Federal  Highway  Act.  That  same  year  the  state  received 
$61,200  of  the  first  federal  appropriation  for  highway 
funds.  At  its  inception,  lack  of  finances  marked  the 
Highway  Department  and  hampered  its  efforts  to  correct 
the  dismal  road  and  bridge  situation  it  saw. 

At  this  time  Wyoming  was  a  vast  wilderness  so  far  as  her  road 
system  was  concerned.  A  number  of  trails  connected  the  prin- 
cipal centers  of  population,  and  there  was  little  if  any  travel 
on  them  with  the  exception  of  the  rural  mail  delivery.  The 
County  or  State  had  no  right  of  way  to  speak  of,  and  where 
there  was  any  roads  or  trails,  their  location  was  such  as  made 
it  impractical  to  retain  the  existing  lines.  There  was  probably 
no  bridge  in  the  State  suitable  for  carrying  modern  traffic  such 
as  improved  roads  would  develop.3 

Studying  bridge  construction  in  Wyoming,  the  State 
Highway  Department  concluded  that  it  "is  of  particular 
interest  and  importance  because  several  factors  affecting 
the  design  of  structures,  which  do  not  call  for  special  study 
in  the  more  fully  settled  and  flatter  sites  of  the  East,  here 
demand  the  most  careful  consideration."  A  few  examples 
are  the  normally  dry  streams  or  draws  which  may  carry 
inordinately  large  amounts  of  water  because  of  a  sudden 
cloudburst.  Also,  flow  of  streams  at  times  may  be  affected 
by  irrigation  projects  and  the  "disposition  of  materials  fur- 
ther affects  the  design  in  a  number  of  cases,  as  do  also  the 
extremely  long  distances  from  railroad  shipping  points, 
which  in  some  instances  increase  the  cost  of  concrete  work 
from  five  to  eight  times  that  in  other  localities."4 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  new  highway  department 
was  to  standardize  bridge  plans  and  specifications.  Each 
Board  of  County  Commissioners  received  the  new  plans. 


47 


Oldest  truss  bridge  in  Wyoming,  constructed  in  1875  by  the  U.S.  Army  across  the  North  Platte  River.  Located  two  miles  from  Fort  Laramie  and 
thought  to  be  the  oldest  existing  military  bridge  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Photograph  taken  in  1930. 


The  state  hoped  to  reduce  the  number  of  bridge  failures, 
most  of  which  happened  due  to  faulty  foundations. 

The  onset  of  the  Depression  was  a  boon  to  road  and 
bridge  construction  in  Wyoming.  The  federal  government 
appropriated  money  for  various  relief  projects  during  these 
hard  times,  such  as  a  federal  building  program  and  an  ex- 
panded highway  construction  program.  In  1934,  the  high- 
way program  put  to  work  approximately  25%  of  Wyo- 
ming's unemployed  during  seasonable  weather.5 

After  World  War  II,  the  erection  of  a  new  truss  bridge 
in  Wyoming  was  rare,  but  these  spans  still  played  a  major 
part  in  the  state's  highway  system  because  of  their  versa- 
tility. One  attribute  is  its  easy  disassembly,  transportation 
and  reassembly.  Therefore,  these  bridges  are  constantly 
on  the  move,  ending  up  over  a  different  river  or  creek,  or 
stored  in  a  highway  yard  waiting  to  be  used  again. 

Today  truss  bridges  are  fast  becoming  replaced  by  the 
modern  I-beam  and  girder  bridges.  Thus,  these  historic 
truss  bridges  are  now  seen  as  artifacts  representing  impor- 
tant developments  in  structural  technology.  An  under- 
standing of  the  importance  of  historic  bridges,  combined 
with  active  public  support  for  using  federal  programs  to 
encourage  preservation  is  the  key  to  increasing  rehabilita- 
tion and  reuse  of  these  truss  bridges.  The  Wyoming  High- 
way Department  (WHD)  and  the  Wyoming  State  Historic 


Preservation  Office  (WSHPO)  are  working  cooperatively 
to  preserve  these  historic  truss  bridges  for  adaptive  reuse. 
In  1982,  the  WHD  completed  a  historic  inventory  of  168 
truss  bridges.  Thirty-eight  truss  bridges  were  nominated 
to  the  National  Register  of  Historic  Places,  and  of  these  38 
only  28  bridges  remain.  Some  of  these  are  scheduled  for 
replacement  and  are  available  to  public  and  private  sources 
for  alternate  uses.  Two  truss  bridges  (Pick  and  Pelous) 
have  been  preserved  for  adaptive  reuse  during  the  last 
year.  As  Wyoming  communities  recognize  the  significance 
of  these  older  bridges  within  America's  contemporary 
landscape,  perhaps  more  will  be  retained  as  working, 
useful  reminders  of  our  state's  historical  development. 


David  Plowden,  Bridges:  The  Spans  of  North  America  (New  York:  The 
Viking  Press,  1974),  p.  35. 

John  Dishon  McDermott,  "Fort  Laramie's  Iron  Bridge,"  Annals  of 
Wyoming  (October  1962):  136-144. 

Wyoming  State  Highway  Commission,  First  Biennial  Report  of  the  State 
Highway  Commission  of  the  State  of  Wyoming,  1917-1918  (Laramie,  Wyo- 
ming: The  Laramie  Republican  Company,  Printers  and  Binders,  1919), 
p.  9. 

"Wyoming  State  Highway  Department  Newsletter"  (July  30,  1921), 
Number  3,  p.  14. 

Wyoming  State  Highway  Commission,  Ninth  Biennial  Report  of  the  State 
Highway  Commission  of  the  State  of  Wyoming,  1932-1934,  p.  11. 


(Above)  Wind  River  Diversion  Dam  Bridge,  Fremont  County.  Longest  highway  truss  bridge  in  Wyoming,  consisting 
of  eight  Warren  pony  trusses.  Built  in  1924  by  Taggart  Construction  Company,  Cody,  at  an  estimated  cost  of  $58,000. 

(Below)  Bridge  over  Powder  River,  Sheridan  County.  Constructed  in  1915  of  one  Pratt  truss  and  one  Warren  truss. 
The  only  one  of  its  kind  in  the  state. 


4^ 


Bridge  over  Wind  River,  Fremont  County.  A  1930s  bridge  constructed  from  Wyoming  Highway 
Department  (WHD)  standard  draivings.  In  1953,  the  WHD  contracted  with  Charles  M.  Smith, 
Thermopolis,  to  reassemble  this  bridge  over  the  Wind  River.  This  is  the  longest  of  several 
long-span  Parker  through  trusses  in  the  state. 


Bridge  over  Cheyenne  River,  Niobrara  County.  At 
first,  probably  a  railroad  truss,  later  moved  to  this 
location.  It  is  one  of  only  two  vehicular  Penn- 
sylvania truss  bridges  in  the  state. 


50 


Little  Colorado  Bridge  over  Green  River,  Lincoln  County.  Civilian  Conservation  Corp.  enrollees  from  Camp  Kemmerer  erected  this  steel  truss  bridge 
in  1939-40.  The  steel  section  was  from  an  old  bridge  over  Blacksfork  near  Bryan.  Sheepman  used  this  bridge  as  a  short  cut  to  the  Little  Colorado 
Desert.  The  construction  was  part  of  the  Taylor  Grazing  program  xohich  improved  old  plus  built  new  roads  and  trails  throughout  the  range  district. 


Bridge  over 
Shoshone  River, 
Big  Horn  County. 
Built  by  McGuire 
and  Blakeslee, 
Lovell,  in  1925-26 
on  a  federal  aid 
project.  Designed 
by  the  iNHD,  it 
was  one  of  many 
Warren  pony 
trusses  erected  in 
the  state  at  the 
time. 


Bridge  over  Green 
River,  Sweetwater 
County.  Built  by 
Colorado  Bridge 
and  Construction 
Company  in  1913. 
With  a  span  of 
150'  this  is  one  of 
the  longest  of  the 
early  Pratt 
through  trusses 
which  were  com- 
mon on  the  county 
road  system  at 
that  time. 


3BE 


■==■■,=4 


52 


Bridge  over  Green 
River,  Sweetwater 
County.  Sweet- 
water County  con- 
tracted with 
Charles  G.  Sheely, 
Denver,  in  1909, 
to  construct  this 
bridge  called  the 
Big  Island  Bridge. 
It  is  a  two-span 
Pratt  through 
truss. 


Bridge  over  North 
Platte  River,  Car- 
bon County. 
Called  the  "Butler 
Bridge,"  Chris 
O'Neil  of  Platt- 
ville,  Colorado, 
built  this  170' 
Camelback  truss  in 
1930  for  $11,920 
to  replace  a  timber 
bridge  which  had 
been  heavily 
damaged  by  the 
spring  flood  of 
1929.  Platte 
Valley  residents 
petitioned  the  Car- 
bon County  Com- 
missioners for  its 
reconstruction. 


£*==»i= 


1BE 


DBG 


IBE= 


"i 


Pick  Bridge  over  North  Platte  River,  Carbon  County.  In  1907,  citizens  of  Rawlins  and  Fort  Steele  petitioned  the  Carbon  County  Commissioners, 
"praying"  for  a  steel  bridge  across  the  North  Platte  River.  In  1909,  the  Commissioners  awarded  the  contract  to  Charles  G.  Sheely,  Denver,  for 
$12,700.  The  county  moved  this  Parker  through  truss  in  1934  twenty-one  miles  up  the  river  to  the  Pick  Road  Crossing.  Recently  the  WHD  had 
planned  to  dismantle  the  bridge.  The  Carbon  County  Historical  Society  formed  a  committee  to  seek  the  preservation  of  the  bridge.  The  Carbon  County 
Commissioners  are  now  working  with  the  WHD  to  leave  the  bridge  in  place. 


Jg^  ANNAL  'S  REVIEWS  ((§[ 


Coxey's  Army:  An  American  Odyssey.  By  Carlos  A.  Schwantes.  (Lincoln 
and  London:  University  of  Nebraska  Press,  1985)  Index.  Notes. 
Illus.  Map.  321  pp.  $22.95. 

For  seven  weeks  during  the  harsh  economic  times  of 
1894,  Coxey's  Army  caught  the  nation's  eye.  Jacob  Coxey, 
an  Ohio  businessman,  began  a  movement  which  became 
known  as  the  Commonweal  of  Christ  and  was  composed 
of  "industrial  armies"  from  around  the  country.  Hoping 
to  get  relief  for  the  many  unemployed  workers,  the  move- 
ment ended  in  failure,  when  the  federal  government  ig- 
nored their  proposed  programs. 

Carlos  Schwantes,  in  his  book  Coxey's  Army:  An 
American  Odyssey,  examines  this  episode  in  American 
history  from  several  different  angles.  First,  the  press  played 
an  important  role.  Newspapers  focused  the  nation's  atten- 
tion on  this  first  national  crusade  against  unemployment, 
and  while  still  not  full-fledged  yellow  journalism,  it  at  least 
had  a  "yellowish  tinge"  according  to  Schwantes.  Addi- 
tionally, he  sees  it  as  a  history  of  "American  reform"  and 
as  a  chapter  in  history  which  shows  the  modern  welfare 
state  had  its  "roots  in  popular  protest." 

The  strong  suit  of  the  book,  however,  is  in  the  nar- 
rative of  the  many  marches  to  Washington,  D.C.  Coxey 
led  the  march  from  his  hometown,  Massillon,  Ohio,  to 
the  U.S.  Capitol.  This  march  is  fascinating  in  itself  because 
of  the  many  hardships  endured  and  the  colorful  characters, 
such  as  Carl  Browne,  Coxey's  co-leader,  but  it  is  the 
marches  from  the  West  which  receive  the  greatest 
attention. 

Schwantes  points  out  that  most  of  the  marchers  came 
from  the  West  and  it  is  in  the  West  where  the  movement 
"attained  its  greatest  strength  and  significance."  Industrial 
armies  formed  in  Washington,  California,  Montana,  Ore- 
gon and  Colorado.  The  members  marched,  rode  trains— 
sometimes  stealing  the  trains  and  then  being  chased  by 
law  enforcement  officials  closely  resembling  "Keystone 
Cops"— and  at  times  via  the  nation's  waterways.  Of  course, 
not  all  of  the  armies  found  their  way  to  Washington,  D.C. 

A  short  time  before  the  formation  of  Coxey's  Army, 
Frederick  Jackson  Turner  presented  an  address  on  the  end- 
ing of  the  frontier.  The  many  western  Coxeyites  traveling 
east  seemed  to  validate  Turner's  thesis.  According  to 
Schwantes,  this  protest  movement  from  west  to  east  "un- 
dermined the  popular  belief  that  the  fertile  agricultural 


lands  of  the  frontier  represented  America's  most  practical 
form  of  social  security  and  a  wise  alternative." 

In  order  to  present  us  with  this  interesting  and  well- 
written  account  of  Coxey's  Army,  Schwantes  researched 
an  impressive  number  of  primary  sources,  the  majority  of 
which  are  newspapers  from  around  the  country.  A  map 
of  the  many  routes  traveled  is  provided  along  with 
photographs  of  the  people  involved  and  of  the  trips  east. 

Finally,  although  Coxey's  Army  did  not  result  in  any 
immediate  relief  for  the  many  unemployed  of  the  1890s, 
Schwantes  sees  it  as  having  far-reaching  effects.  According 
to  him,  "it  chipped  away  at  the  popular  belief  that  pov- 
erty and  unemployment  were  mainly  the  result  of  in- 
dividual weakness  and  laziness  and  promoted  the  idea  that 
the  federal  government  was  responsible  for  the  economic 
well-being  of  its  citizens,"  an  issue  which  is  still  being  ad- 
dressed today. 

RICK  EWIG 
The  Reviewer  is  Senior  Historian  for  the  Historical  Research  and  Publications 
Division  of  the  AMH  Department. 


The  Medicine  Bows:  Wyoming's  Mountain  Country,  by  Scott  Thybony,  Robert 
G.  Rosenberg  and  Elizabeth  Mullett  Rosenberg.  (Caldwell,  Idaho: 
Caxton  Printers,  Ltd.,  1985)  Index.  Illustrations.  Bibliography.  Ap- 
pendix. 180  pp.  $7.95. 

Wyoming  is  known  throughout  America  as  the  home 
of  spectacular  alpine  country.  Outdoorsmen  across  the 
land  speak  with  reverence  when  discussing  the  mountain 
peaks  of  Grand  Teton  or  Yellowstone  National  Parks. 
While  no  one  would  dispute  the  grandeur  of  these  highly 
publicized  destination  resorts,  seasoned  Wyomingites 
often  know  of  special  mountain  places  which  remain  un- 
familiar to  the  average  tourist.  The  Medicine  Bow  Range 
is  such  a  place. 

Recreation  enthusiasts  readily  appreciate  the  lack  of 
notoriety  regarding  the  Medicine  Bows— or  Snowy  Range 
in  local  parlance.  A  few  northern  Coloradoans  have 
discovered  the  fine  skiing,  snowmobiling,  hiking  and 
fishing  available  in  the  Snowy's,  but  the  area  remains 
largely  the  playground  of  southeastern  Wyoming  resi- 
dents. While  solitude  seekers  revel  in  this  relatively 
unknown  and  uncrowded  environment,  historians  have 
to  lament  the  lack  of  attention  hitherto  paid  the  Medicine 


Bow  Range.  Considering  that  the  routes  of  the  Overland 
Trail  and  original  transcontinental  railroad  exist  in  close 
proximity  to  these  mountains,  not  to  mention  the  Indians, 
miners,  lumberjacks  and  national  forest  rangers  who  have 
lived  and  worked  in  the  surrounding  high  country,  one 
would  think  the  area  worthy  of  serious  historical  study. 

The  Medicine  Bows  by  Scott  Thybony,  Robert  G. 
Rosenberg  and  Elizabeth  Mullett  Rosenberg  represents  a 
first  step  towards  filling  this  regrettable  historical  data  gap. 
Although  primarily  a  history  of  the  Medicine  Bow  National 
Forest,  the  book  covers  a  broad  topical  spectrum  ranging 
from  prehistoric  and  Native  American  dwellers  to  contem- 
porary water  resource  issues.  The  authors  merit  particular 
commendation  for  tracing  the  recent  rise  of  recreational  use 
in  a  forest  once  dominated  by  exploitive  mining  and  tim- 
bering interests. 

Unfortunately,  the  book  displays  a  reportlike  writing 
style  devoid  of  interpretation  or  extended  explanation. 
Lacking  any  contextual  framework,  the  reader  is  left  to  sort 
through  a  litany  of  facts  and  draw  his  or  her  own  conclu- 
sions. This  task  proves  difficult  as  the  authors  frequently 
beg  questions  with  statements  such  as,  "In  1844,  [John  C] 
Fremont  once  again  entered  the  Medicine  Bow  region  from 
the  west  on  his  return  from  California."  While  the  reader 
might  justifiably  wonder  why  Fremont  had  been  in  Califor- 
nia and  what  events  caused  his  return  to  the  Medicine 
Bows,  these  obvious  questions  are  never  addressed. 

The  text  is  also  hampered  by  a  cumbersome  notation 
style.  Conventional  footnotes  are  eschewed  in  favor  of 
parenthetical  abbreviations  which  refer  the  reader  to  the 
bibliography  for  a  complete  citation.  While  this  system  is 
not  totally  impractical,  it  does  represent  a  departure  from 
accepted  footnoting  rules.  More  importantly,  enclosing  the 
citations  in  parentheses  tends  to  seriously  disrupt  the  flow 
of  the  narrative. 

To  their  credit,  the  extensive  bibliography  readily  at- 
tests to  the  authors'  considerable  research  skills.  They 
deserve  applause  for  utilizing  their  skills  to  examine  a 
previously  underdeveloped  topic.  The  book  wisely  avoids 
the  cattle  and  cowboy  theme  which  has  often  acted  to 
misrepresent  Wyoming's  history  and  Wyomingites  in 
general.  Instead,  a  new  addition  has  been  made  to  the 
remarkably  brief  list  of  scholarly  studies  which  presently 
constitute  the  body  of  Wyoming  historiography.  Until 
someone  takes  the  authors'  work  a  step  further  by  launch- 
ing an  analytical  study  of  these  mountains  and  their 
environs,  Snowy  Range  aficionados  will  want  this  book  for 
their  personal  collections. 

BRUCE  J.  NOBLE,  JR. 
Noble,  former  Suwey  Historian  with  the  AMH  Department  is  noiv  a  Historian 
for  the  National  Parks  Service,  Washington,  D.C. 


U.S.  Army  Uniforms  and  Equipment,  1889  By  the  Quartermaster  General  of 
the  Army.  Foreward  by  Jerome  A.  Greene.  (Lincoln:  University  of 
Nebraska  Press,  1986)  Index.  Illustrations.  375  pp.  $9.95. 


During  the  past  two  decades  considerable  interest  in 
the  U.S.  Army's  uniform  and  equipment  during  the  Vic- 
torian era  has  prompted  the  publication  of  many  books  and 
monographs.  In  his  foreward  to  U.S.  Army  Uniforms  .  .  ., 
Jerome  Greene  lists  some  of  these  modern  works  as  well 
as  provides  a  concise  bibliography  of  other  19th  century 
government  publications  related  to  the  topic  of  martial  at- 
tire and  equipage.  His  chief  service,  however,  stems  from 
making  this  rare  edition  available  to  the  public,  for  as  he 
states,  this  book  "marked  a  milestone  in  the  development 
of  standards  and  specifications  for  clothing  and  equipment 
...  by  the  War  Department."  • 

Long  out  of  print,  this  difficult  to  find  volume  contains 
an  incredible  wealth  of  information.  It  should  be  a  stan- 
dard for  museum  registrars,  historic  sites  dealing  with  fron- 
tier military  life  and  for  individuals  interested  in  "living 
history."  Students  of  material  culture  of  the  late  1800s  will 
also  find  the  reprint  a  fine  addition  to  their  library  since 
such  items  as  chairs,  mattresses  and  scrub  brushes  appear 
along  with  excellent  line  drawings  of  each  item,  as  well 
as  detailed  descriptions  of  the  pieces.  The  same  minute  in- 
formation which  made  it  possible  for  contractors  and 
quartermaster  manufacturing  depots  to  fabricate  the  ma- 
terials contained  in  this  work,  likewise  make  it  possible  to 
duplicate  some  of  the  objects  today. 

While  smaller  in  size  than  the  original  bulky  version, 
this  paperback  is  still  of  adequate  dimensions  for  easy 
reading.  The  quality  of  reproduction  is  more  than  accept- 
able since  the  illustrations  were  carefully  executed  line 
drawings  in  the  1889  edition.  In  fact,  they  are  suitable  for 
use  in  exhibit  work  should  museums  wish  to  employ  them 
in  displays  depicting  life  at  old  army  garrisons.  The  only 
minor  objection  is  the  cover  stock  which  is  easily  damaged 
if  not  handled  with  care.  Nevertheless,  this  slight  drawback 
does  not  detract  from  the  wealth  of  data  found  in  Li.  S. 
Army  Uniforms.  .  .  .  Consequently,  the  University  of 
Nebraska  Press  should  be  congratulated  for  recognizing 
the  utility  this  obscure  book  will  have  to  a  wide  range  of 
readers.  I  hope  their  effort  will  prove  successful  and  spark 
other  similar  attempts  to  distribute  important  reference 

sources  to  the  public. 

JOHN  P.  LANGELLIER. 

The  reviewer  is  the  Head  of  the  Museums  Division  of  the  AMH  Department. 


Dust  Bowl  Descent.  By  Bill  Ganzel.  (Lincoln:  University  of  Nebraska  Press, 
1984)  Photographs.  Technical  Notes.  130  pp.  $29.95. 

The  work  of  the  Farm  Security  Administration  during 
the  Great  Depression  has  been  described  in  many  publica- 
tions. Professor  Rexford  Tugwell,  head  of  one  of  the  U.S. 
Government's  alphabet  agencies,  the  Resettlement  Ad- 
ministration, hired  a  former  student,  Roy  Stryker,  to  head 
up  the  FSA.  The  people  whom  Stryker  hired,  in  turn,  are 
recognized  as  some  of  America's  foremost  documentary 


photographers:  Dorothea  Lange,  Russell  Lee,  Walker 
Evans,  Arthur  Rothstein,  John  Vachon,  Jack  Delano,  Ed- 
win Rosskam,  Carl  Myrdans  and  Marion  Post  Wolcott. 
Their  images  taught  Americans  something  about  migrant 
workers,  sharecroppers,  the  dust  bowl  and  a  down-and- 
out  America  of  the  1930s.  The  FSA  photographs,  80,000 
of  them  covering  a  period  of  nine  years  (1935-1943)  are 
located  in  rows  of  grey  steel  file  cabinets  in  the  Prints  and 
Photographs  Division  at  the  Library  of  Congress.  Not  only 
are  these  images  symbols  of  the  terrible  ordeal  which 
America  suffered,  they  are  in  some  cases  fine  photographic 
art. 

Photographs  taken  40  years  later  by  Bill  Ganzel  in  Dust 
Bowl  Descent  are  similarly  journalistic  as  well  as  artistic  in 
composition  and  exposure.  "My  interest  was  to  do  photo- 
graphs that  stood  on  their  own,"  explained  producer 
Ganzel  at  his  Nebraska  ETV  office  in  Lincoln.  Indeed,  the 
37  year-old  Nebraska  native  not  only  accomplished  that 
purpose,  by  combining  Depression  photographs  with  his 
own,  he  has  produced  a  sensitive  document  on  the  Great 
Plains. 

Even  if  you  do  not  take  time  to  read  Ganzel' s  brief  text, 
you  will  have  no  problem  with  the  obvious,  as  well  as  sub- 
tle, comparisons  of  Ganzel's  follow-up  photography.  The 
pictorial  Dust  Bowl  Descent,  9%"  x  IOV2"  in  size,  is  no  or- 
dinary "in  the  points  of  the  pioneers'  tripods"  effort.  In 
some  cases,  Ganzel's  subjects  were  exactly  those  selected 
by  FSA  photographers,  but  in  other  cases  the  subjects  were 
only  similar  and  were  photographed  by  Ganzel,  hundreds 
of  miles  distant  from  the  original  FSA  location.  When 
Ganzel  could  find  the  people  seen  in  the  Depression  views 
he  made  their  portraits,  often  in  the  same  environment  as 
the  original.  But  he  also  recorded  people  who,  by  their  ac- 
tivities, had  something  in  common  with  their  predecessors. 
For  example,  they  might  be  herding  livestock,  dancing, 
drinking,  watching  a  rodeo  or  carnival  burlesque,  or  be 
children  playing  "fox  and  geese"  in  a  snow-covered  coun- 
try schoolyard. 

Compare  one  of  Ganzel's  own  favorites— his  1979  por- 
trait of  North  Dakota  farmer  William  Huravitch— with  one 
taken  of  Huravitch  by  Russell  Lee  in  1937  and  you  will  see 
not  only  a  person  who  has  aged  42  years,  but  also  an  en- 
vironmental portrait  that  is  more  intriguing  than  the 
original.  The  similarity  of  the  views  is  still  obvious, 
however.  In  Lee's  view  the  young  Huravitch  sits  on  the 
wooden  porch  stoop  of  his  log  home,  smoking  his  pipe, 
while  in  Ganzel's  photograph  the  old  man  Huravitch  sits 
stiffly  upright  on  a  weatherbeaten  bench  in  front  of  an  aged 
frame  farmhouse,  putting  a  pinch  of  snuff  in  his  cheek. 

Some  of  Ganzel's  subjects  posed,  some  did  not  and 
some  who  posed  provided  happy  accidents,  like  Florence 
Thompson.  Dorothea  Lange  posed  Thompson,  the  "Mi- 
grant Mother"  in  1936,  with  her  three  infant  children  cling- 
ing to  her.  When  Ganzel  photographed  the  elder  Thomp- 
son she  was  surrounded  by  her  three  middle-aged  daugh- 
ters on  the  lawn  of  a  Modesto,  California,  home,  her  right 


hand  against  her  cheek  in  much  the  same  way  she  held 
it  in  1936.  According  to  Ganzel,  the  gesture  was  un- 
conscious and  when  he  remarked  to  his  subjects  that  there 
was  a  similarity  in  the  gestures  over  the  years,  Thompson's 
daughters  became  aware  for  the  first  time  that  they,  too, 
used  their  mother's  mannerism.  How  little  some  habits 
change  in  43  years!  Not  long  after  Ganzel  recorded  the 
Thompsons  on  film,  Florence  died.  And  so  it  was  with  Net- 
tie Featherston,  whom  Dorothea  Lange  posed  in  1938  as 
the  "Woman  of  the  High  Plains,"  a  slim  young  woman 
in  coarse  dress,  her  left  arm  across  her  breast  supporting 
the  right  arm  and  the  hand  that  shielded  her  eyes  from 
the  Texas  Panhandle  sun. 

Some  of  his  subjects  Ganzel  located  simply  by  dialing 
directory  assistance;  others  required  detective  work  to  find. 
But,  in  nearly  all  cases  the  people  he  found  he  interviewed 
and  then  composed  thoughtfully,  with  the  result  that  his 
own  photographs  have  become  valuable  documents  in 
themselves.  One  comparison  that  does  not  live  up  to  his 
high  standards  is  shown  below  a  photograph  by  Russell 
Lee.  It  shows  the  rear  ends  of  ponies  lined  up  at  a  1940 
stock  show  in  San  Angelo,  Texas.  Ganzel's  companion 
photo  shows  the  protruding  hips  of  a  girls'  drill  team  taken 
in  the  same  town  in  1979.  The  idea  is  clear  enough,  but 
the  photograph  is  not  of  the  usual  high  caliber  offered  by 
the  author. 

During  his  travels  in  search  of  FSA  subjects  Bill  Ganzel 
was  not  simply  the  detached  scholar  who,  supported  by 
a  steady  income,  went  about  his  job  as  a  scientist  in  a 
laboratory.  For  a  while  he  suffered  from  unemployment 
and  a  $10,000  debt.  Although  he  would  not,  could  not, 
know  the  depths  of  depression  suffered  by  people  who — 
forced  from  their  homes  by  tractors,  dust  or  low  farm 
prices— knew  not  where  their  next  meals  were  coming 
from,  he  experienced  anomie  and  the  fatigue  that  would 
come  from  logging  50,000  miles  across  the  Great  Plains  in 
a  Volkswagen  bug  and  later,  a  Toyota  Landcruiser.  He 
learned  to  welcome  the  sight  of  his  motel  room  each  night 
where  he  could  flop  down  in  front  of  an  undemanding 
television.  "I  became  addicted  to  TV— a  touch  of  home," 
he  recalled. 

Ganzel's  purpose  in  Dust  Bowl  Descent  was  not  to 
demonstrate  how  the  lives  of  FSA  subjects  had  materially 
changed,  although  obviously  some  had.  He  wanted  to  con- 
tinue the  FSA  project  in  a  type  of  "serial  document."  The 
result  of  his  conscientious  effort  is  not  a  comprehensive 
documentary  but  rather  a  selective  work  that  stands  on  its 
own  merit,  a  sensitive  and  noteworthy  chronicle  of  the 
Great  Plains  as  a  unique  environment. 

"Certainly  I've  come  to  a  new  understanding  of  the 
prairie  environment  and  the  plains  landscape,"  said 
Ganzel.  "And  I  have  specific  and  fond  memories  of  the 
people  who  opened  their  lives  to  me.  Perhaps  it  is  the 
stories  they  told  me  about  the  times  they  went  through 
that  I  remember  most.  Sitting  in  living  rooms  in  Felt, 
Oklahoma,  or  Williston,  North  Dakota,  I  began  to  realize 


that  these  were  more  than  just  stories  that  parents  tell 
unimpressed  children.  ...  I  began  to  understand  the 
human  costs  of  the  Depression,  how  difficult  a  time  it  really 
was.  This  was  not  a  history  text,  but  instead,  individuals 
who  had  been  caught  up  in  a  terrible  social  upheaval  and 
survived.  As  I  looked  at  their  faces,  I  began  to  realize  the 
simple  survival  was  something  to  be  proud  of." 

Ganzel  also  can  be  proud  of  Dust  Bowl  Descent,  a  book 
which  is  more  than  just  another  coffee-table  publication. 
Credit  also  goes  to  the  University  of  Nebraska  Press  staff, 
particularly  Richard  Eckersley  for  his  fine  layout,  design 
and  typographical  work.  The  quality  of  images  in  Dust  Bowl 
Descent  is  no  accident,  being  the  result  of  a  laser-copying 
process  employed  by  the  printer,  Dai  Nippon  of  Japan.  If 
you  enjoy  history  as  well  as  photography  you  can  curl  up 
in  your  Lazy-Boy  and  turn  the  pages  of  Dust  Bowl  Descent, 
pondering  over  the  photographs  of  Depression  survivors 
and  scenes  from  the  heartland  of  America  that  were  done 
by  some  of  America's  finest  photographers,  including  the 
talented  Bill  Ganzel. 

MARK JUNGE 
The  reviewer  is  Deputy  State  Historic  Presentation  Officer  of  the  AMH 
Department. 

The  Mount  Rushmore  Story.  By  Judith  St.  George.  (New  York:  Putnam's 
Sons,  1985)  Index.  Bibliography.  125  pp.  $13.95. 

"...  Mount  Rushmore  and  the  Black  Hills,  close  to 
the  geographical  center  of  the  United  States,  have  touched 
many  people  in  many  ways."  This  is  the  theme  pursued 
by  Judith  St.  George  in  The  Mount  Rushmore  Story.  The 
Black  Hills  are  visited  by  numerous  tourists  each  year,  with 
many  traveling  to  Mount  Rushmore  to  admire  the  grandeur 
of  the  sculpture.  Carved  in  granite  on  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain are  the  faces  of  George  Washington,  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, Theodore  Roosevelt  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  These  four 
presidents  represent  the  nation's  founding,  political 
philosophy,  expansion  and  conservation. 

The  memorial  was  suggested  by  Doane  Robinson,  sec- 
retary and  historian  of  the  South  Dakota  Historical  Society. 
The  project,  believed  to  be  a  tourist  attraction,  was  sup- 
ported by  South  Dakota  Senator  Peter  Norbeck  and  other 
officials  at  the  state  and  federal  level  of  government.  St. 
George  chronicles  the  ups  and  downs  of  government  fi- 
nancing to  complete  the  memorial,  as  well  as  the  strug- 
gles between  the  National  Park  Service  and  sculptor  Gut- 
zon  Borglum  concerning  administration  of  the  site. 

St.  George  has  written  a  biography  of  Borglum  and 
his  monumental  task  to  turn  the  face  of  a  mountain  into 
a  gigantic  tribute  to  the  greatness  of  America.  Mount 
Rushmore  is  not  only  a  monument  to  Borglum's  artistic 
and  engineering  skills,  it  is  a  lasting  tribute  to  the  workers 
who  labored  on  the  project.  Built  during  the  Depression, 
the  project  gave  employment  to  out-of-work  miners,  cow- 
boys and  ranch  hands:  many  who  had  no  previous  ex- 
perience working  with  stone. 


The  book  is  richly  illustrated.  These  photographs  reveal 
not  only  the  history  of  the  Black  Hills,  but  more  impor- 
tantly, the  building  of  the  monument;  documented  in  a 
series  of  photographs  taken  by  Lincoln  Borglum.  The  visual 
presentation  adds  immensely  to  the  understanding  of  the 
Mount  Rushmore  story. 

St.  George  should  be  praised  for  her  diligent  efforts 
to  point  out  why  the  Black  Hills  are  important  to  the 
American  Indian,  especially  the  Sioux.  Readers,  however, 
are  left  to  ponder  the  specific  significance  of  the  monument 
to  the  Indians.  Is  it  a  violation  of  Indian  sacred  territory? 
The  author  again  allows  the  reader  to  decide. 

So,  too,  all  people  must  decide  the  value  of  the  granite 
sculpture.  The  details  of  its  building,  equipment  used, 
engineering  techniques,  all  add  to  an  understanding  of  the 
monument's  history.  However,  readers  are  left  by  ques- 
tions about  the  destruction  of  nature  and  the  monument 
as  a  visual  intrusion  upon  the  environment.  As  St.  George 
points  out,  the  same  issues  have  plagued  the  National  Park 
Service  as  it  administers  the  area  and  preserves  it  for 
posterity.  Perhaps  it  is  this  one  topic  that  the  author  could 
have  expanded:  the  manner  in  which  the  NPS  interprets 
the  site  for  the  visitor. 

Good  interpretation  sets  the  stage  and  presents  fac- 
tors for  the  visitor,  and  each  person  will  decide  for 
him/herself  what  is  beautiful  or  true.  St.  George  has  ac- 
complished this  in  her  book.  She  has  told  the  reader  the 
story  of  Mount  Rushmore  and  encourages  each  person  to 
interpret  "the  significance  of  this  ancient  granite  moun- 
tain." 

This  book  should  be  "must"  reading  for  all  visitors  to 
Mount  Rushmore. 

PATRICIA  ANN  OWENS 
Ms.  Owens  teaches  history  and  political  science  at  Wabash  Valley  College,  Mt. 
Carmel,  Illinois. 


The  Sixth  Grandfather:  Black  Elk's  Teaching  Given  to  John  G.  Neihardt. 
Raymond  J.  DeMallie,  ed.  (Lincoln:  University  of  Nebraska  Press, 
1984)  Index.  Bibliography.  Maps.  Appendices.  462  pp.  $19.95  cloth. 

The  almost  mystical  relationship  between  author-poet 
John  G.  Neihardt  and  Oglala  Sioux  holy  man  Nicholas 
Black  Elk  forms  the  central  theme  of  Raymond  J.  DeMallie's 
The  Sixth  Grandfather.  Dividing  his  work  into  three  parts, 
DeMallie  begins  by  presenting  a  biography  of  Black  Elk, 
centering  on  his  later  life  and  his  literary  partnership  with 
Neihardt.  The  book's  two  remaining  sections  contain  the 
transcripts  of  Neihardt's  interviews  with  Black  Elk  and 
other  Lakotas  on  which  his  books  were  based.  The  first 
set  of  interviews,  conducted  in  1931,  covers  Lakota  history 
from  the  1860s  until  the  Wounded  Knee  Massacre  in  1890. 
It  was  during  the  course  of  these  interviews  that  Black  Elk 
revealed  the  sacred  vision  which  guided  much  of  his  life. 
The  second  set  of  interviews,  conducted  in  1944,  contains 
a  general  history  of  the  Lakota  people  largely  set  prior  to 
the  coming  of  white  men.  From  these  interviews  Neihardt 


58 


composed  two  works,  Black  Elk  Speaks  (1932)  and  When  the 
Tree  Flowered  (1952),  which  DeMallie  credits  with  helping 
preserve  Lakota  culture.  Also,  because  of  their  popular- 
ity with  the  general  reading  audience,  Neihardt's  writings 
have  served  to  introduce  non-Indian  readers  to  the  Lakota 
philosophy  and  world  view. 

Born  in  December,  1863,  Black  Elk  received  his  great 
vision  in  1873  and  began  his  career  as  a  medicine  man  in 
1881.  His  curiosity  about  the  white  world  led  him  to  work 
in  Europe  with  "Buffalo  Bill"  Cody's  Wild  West  Show 
from  1886  to  1889.  After  returning  with  his  new  knowl- 
edge, he  worked  as  a  healer  until  1900  when,  according 
to  his  vision,  the  time  came  for  him  to  perform  rituals 
designed  to  destroy  all  the  Lakota's  white  enemies.  Un- 
willing to  be  responsible  for  such  a  slaughter,  Black  Elk 
turned  instead  to  Christianity,  a  faith  he  had  studied  since 
his  first  contact  with  whites.  He  embraced  Roman  Cathol- 
icism, joining  a  congregational  society  and  working  as  a 
missionary  and  catechist.  Yet  Black  Elk  maintained  his  role 
as  a  traditional  leader,  taking  part  in  ceremonies  and  even 
arranging  to  perform  them  for  whites  to  educate  them  in 
Indian  culture.  His  relationship  with  Neihardt  induced  him 
to  relive  his  vision  and  attempt  its  fulfillment. 

As  DeMallie  points  out,  Neihardt's  interviews  were 
painstakingly  translated  and,  when  necessary,  reorganized 
into  an  easily  readable  form.  DeMallie  himself  edited  out 
many  of  the  redundancies  and  used  numerous  footnotes 
to  clarify  references  to  obscure  people  and  events  and  to 
provide  bibliographical  references  for  further  reading.  Even 
with  these  technical  alterations,  the  richness  of  spirit  rein- 
forces the  idea,  supported  by  DeMallie,  that  Neihardt's 
writing  favorably  reflects  the  majestic  scope  of  Black  Elk's 
teachings.  While  the  literary  refinement  is  Neihardt's,  the 
story  is  unquestionably  Black  Elk's.  Such  a  partnership  was 
clearly  Black  Elk's  intent.  Believing  Neihardt  was  sent  to 
learn  wisdom,  Black  Elk  first  adopted  him  and  then  made 
him  heir  to  his  sacred  vision.  Accordingly,  Neihardt  related 
to  the  outside  world  Black  Elk's  vision  of  the  power  of  the 
Lakota  to  bring  together  all  people  in  union  with  the  power 
of  the  cosmos.  That  Black  Elk  maintained  his  Christianity 
alongside  traditional  beliefs  is  not  surprising,  given  the 
reverence  with  which  many  Native  Americans  hold  a 
variety  of  religious  beliefs  without  one  excluding  another. 

While  Neihardt's  works  have  given  a  valid  and  con- 
sistent interpretation  of  Black  Elk's  teachings,  he  did  avoid 
some  of  the  more  violent  aspects  of  the  Oglala  holy  man's 
vision.  DeMallie  has  published  the  entire  text  of  the  great 
vision,  including  a  section  omitted  by  Neihardt  in  which 
Black  Elk  received  the  power  to  destroy  all  whites.  Because 
Black  Elk  had  refused  to  employ  his  destructive  powers 
when  the  time  came,  Neihardt  chose  to  omit  this  aspect 
of  the  vision  in  order  to  stress  the  spiritual  unity  which 
he  perceived  Black  Elk  himself  had  chosen  as  the  ultimate 
heart  of  his  message. 

In  the  end,  Neihardt's  works  reflect  Black  Elk's  despair 
that  he  could  not  bring  the  fruits  of  his  vision  to  his  peo- 


ple in  his  lifetime.  Yet  as  DeMallie  points  out,  Black  Elk 
lived  a  rich  and  productive  life  in  both  the  Lakota  and  the 
white  world.  A  teacher  of  faith  in  two  cultures,  Black  Elk 
actually  succeeded  because  his  vision  remains  alive.  Just 
as  Neihardt's  writings  and  Joseph  Epps  Brown's  The  Sacred 
Pipe  introduced  their  readers  to  Black  Elk,  The  Sixth  Grand- 
father is  indispensible  reading  for  those  who  wish  to  fur- 
ther explore  Black  Elk's  world. 

jODYE  LYNN  DICKSON  SCHILZ 
The  reviewer  is  a  member  of  the  faculty  at  Mankato  State  University,  Minnesota. 


An  Annotated  Bibliography  of  Northern  Plains  Ethnohistory.  By  Katherine  M. 
Weist  and  Susan  R.  Sharrock.  (Missoula:  Contributions  to  An- 
thropology, No.  8,  Department  of  Anthropology,  University  of  Mon- 
tana, 1985)  Index.  299  pp.  $15.00  paper. 

This  long  overdue  bibliography  will  be  a  welcome  ad- 
dition to  the  reference  libraries  of  academic  scholars  of 
Northern  Plains  Indian  ethnohistory.  The  authors  have 
limited  the  geographic  region  for  context  to  the  area 
bounded  on  the  South  by  the  North  Platte  River,  on  the 
North  by  the  Saskatchewan  River,  the  East  by  the  Missouri 
River  and  the  West  by  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Their  time 
period  for  inclusion  is  from  1690  to  1880  (prior  to  the  "reser- 
vation period").  Entries  have  also  been  limited  to  those 
which  they  consider  primary  resources. 

Nomadic  tribes  identified  within  this  region  and  time 
period  are:  The  Blackfeet  (Piegan,  Blood  Northern  Black- 
feet);  Gros  Ventre  (Atsina);  Assiniboine;  Plains  Cree; 
Plains  Ojibwa;  Crow;  Cheyenne;  Arapaho;  and  the  Teton 
Dakota  (Oglala,  Brule,  Hunkpapa,  Minneconjou,  Blackfeet, 
Two  Kettle,  Sans  Arc).  The  authors  also  added  other  tribal 
units  residing  at  times  within  the  region  (the  Yankton, 
Yanktonnai  and  Santee  Sioux).  Horticultural  tribes  selected 
for  inclusion  are  the  Mandan,  Hidatsa  and  Arikara  (Ree). 
Other  tribes  which  visited  the  region  during  the  pre- 
reservation  period  are  the  Pawnee,  Shoshone,  Flathead, 
Nez  Perce  and  the  Pend  d'Oreille. 

The  fact  that  there  are  several  omissions  in  this  tribal 
list  may  be  due  to  scarcity  of  recorded  observations  within 
the  time  period  on  tribes  not  included.  For  example,  John 
Swanton  in  The  Indian  Tribes  of  North  America  (Bureau  of 
American  Ethnology,  1945)  records  the  Kiowa  as  residing 
in  Montana  and  Northern  Wyoming  prior  to  1840.  How- 
ever, in  the  past  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  primary 
information  (other  than  early  maps)  regarding  this  period 
of  Kiowa  history.  The  same  vacuum  appears  to  shroud 
early  Kiowa-Apache  and  Comanche  history  in  Wyoming. 

Of  the  718  annotated  entries,  126  are  reports  to  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States.  Although  this  congressional 
compilation  would  appear  to  be  quite  comprehensive,  only 
three  other  federal  reports  are  indexed  to  the  exclusion  of 
important  Department  of  the  Interior  Census  Office  reports 
and  records  of  the  National  Archives  of  the  United  States 
relating  to  American  Indians.  Pertinent  reports  of  the 
Bureau  of  American  Ethnology  are  listed  under  the  sec- 


S9 


tion  titled  "Ethnographic  Sources."  However,  entries  of 
this  section  are  not  listed  in  the  index  and  readers  must 
find  them  on  their  own.  Index  inaccuracies  are  also  frus- 
trating (example:  the  annotation  number  for  Robert  H. 
Lowie  turns  out  to  be  the  one  for  Elsie  Clews  Parsons). 

Wyomingites  will  search  in  vain  for  Virginia  Cole 
Trenholm's  The  Arapahoes,  Our  People,  and  The  Shoshonis, 
Sentinels  of  the  Rockies.  MacKenzies  Last  Fight  with  the 
Cheyennes  (a  primary  resource  report  to  Congress  in  1890 
by  Capt.  John  Bourke)  is  also  missing  along  with  the  Seven 
Visions  of  Bull  Lodge  (edited  by  George  P.  Horse  Capture) 
which  records  the  life  of  the  Gros  Ventre  healer  in  Mon- 
tana between  1802  and  1886. 

A  comprehensive  annotated  bibliography  on  the  topic 
of  this  publication  would  evidently  require  several  volumes 
for  primary  sources  alone.  Although  several  discrepancies 
and  omissions  have  been  noted  above  in  this  bibliography 
by  Katherine  Weist  and  Susan  Sharrock,  it  provides  a  much 
needed  reference  for  researchers  of  Northern  Plains  Indian 
ethnohistory. 

MIKE  MAYFIELD 
The  reviewer  is  Curator  of  Anthropology  and  Natural  History  with  the  Museums 
Division  of  the  AMH  Department. 


Vie  Arapaho.  By  Alfred  L.  Kroeber.  (Lincoln:  University  of  Nebraska  Press, 
1983)  Illus.  Index.  463  pp.  $8.95  paper. 

Publishers  note:  This  volume  is  a  photographic  reprint  of 
The  Arapaho  as  it  originally  appeared  in  the  Bulletin  of  the 
American  Museum  o/National  History,  volume  18  (1902,  1904 
and  1907),  published  in  three  parts. 

This  book  may  be  a  little  "involved"  for  the  casual 
reader  of  Indian  history  and  culture  but  for  the  serious  stu- 
dent of  Plains  Indian  culture  Kroeber' s  work  is  unequaled. 
Not  only  will  this  work  stand  alone  but  it  would  provide 
a  solid  base  for  further  study.  The  presentation  of  Arapaho 
material  culture,  both  descriptively  and  in  terms  of  illustra- 
tion, is  outstanding. 

Kroeber' s  The  Arapaho  was  the  first  comprehensive  ac- 
count of  this  important  Plains  Indian  Tribe  and  its  reap- 
pearance as  a  Bison  Book  paperback  will  surely  be  wel- 
comed by  amateur  and  professional  anthropologists  alike. 
Kroeber  was  Franz  Boas'  first  doctoral  candidate  in  the 


newly  founded  Columbia  University  Department  of  An- 
thropology when  Boas  sent  him  out  to  Indian  Territory  at 
the  turn  of  the  century  to  study  the  decorative  art  of  the 
Arapaho  for  his  dissertation.  At  that  time  Boas  was  the 
foremost  anthropologist  in  the  United  States;  he  for- 
mulated a  program  of  research  and  publication  that  was 
to  dominate  American  anthropology  for  the  next  several 
decades.  Kroeber,  one  of  his  most  productive  students,  not 
only  implemented  that  program  but  added  to  it  in  impor- 
tant ways. 

Kroeber  spent  his  first  season  among  the  Southern 
Arapaho  in  Indian  Territory,  the  second  among  the  North- 
ern Arapaho  of  Wyoming  and  the  third  among  the  lin- 
guistically related  Gros  Ventre,  or  Atsina,  in  Montana. 

At  first  Kroeber  concentrated  on  decorative  art  and 
symbolism,  while  making  a  collection  of  material  culture 
for  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  Soon,  how- 
ever, he  extended  his  studies  to  other  aspects  of  Arapaho 
life,  particularly  to  ceremonial  organization  and  religion. 

Just  about  every  aspect  and  object  of  Arapaho  material 
culture  is  minutely  described  and  illustrated  and  Kroeber's 
drawings  are  outstanding.  For  instance,  there  are  six  pages 
of  symbolism  in  embroidered  (in  beads,  porcupine  quills 
or  in  fibers)  and  painted  designs  with  accompanying 
explanations. 

But  material  culture  is  not  all.  The  work  touches  upon 
nearly  every  imaginable  facet  of  Arapaho  culture.  Meticu- 
lous attention  has  been  paid  to  ceremonies,  games,  religion 
and  stories  of  the  supernatural,  tribal  organization,  kin- 
ship, decorative  art  and  regalia.  Plus,  the  articles  of  every- 
day life:  clothes,  pottery,  utensils,  tents  and  the  all- 
important  pipe. 

In  his  foreword,  Fred  Eggan,  Professor  Emeritus  of 
Anthropology  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  wrote:  "For 
all  of  these  reasons— for  its  description  of  the  tribe,  and 
for  the  illustrations  it  offers  of  the  tools,  utensils,  toys,  and 
clothing  in  use  at  the  turn  of  the  century— Kroeber's  work 
remains  an  essential  book  on  the  Arapaho,  as  valuable  to 
anthropologists  everywhere  engaged  in  comparative  stud- 
ies as  to  students  coming  fresh  to  the  Indians  of  the  Great 
Plains." 

NEAL  L.  BLAIR 

The  reviewer  is  former  Editor  of  Special  Publications  for  the  Wyoming  Game  and 
Fish  Department. 


__  60 


CONTRIBUTORS 


THOMAS  B.  BRUMBAUGH  was  born  in  Chambersburg, 
Pennsylvania.  He  now  resides  in  Clarksville,  Tennessee, 
and  is  Professor  Emeritus  of  Fine  Arts,  Vanderbilt  Univer- 
sity, Nashville.  He  attended  Indiana  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  University  of  Iowa  and  Ohio  State  Univer- 
sity receiving  his  B.S.,  M.A.  and  Ph.D.  degrees  respec- 
tively. He  was  Editor  of  Architecture  of  Middle  Tennessee,  and 
has  been  published  in  various  journals  in  the  United  States 
and  abroad  regarding  art  and  architecture. 


D.  (DIANA)  TEDDY  DIGGS  presently  serves  as  Editor, 
of  the  Southern  Methodist  Press,  a  position  she  has  held  since 
1984.  Previously  she  was  Editorial  Fellow,  Western  Historical 
Quarterly.  Originally  from  Tucson,  Arizona,  Diggs  obtained 
her  B.A.  degree  in  history  from  Southern  Methodist  Uni- 
versity, 1982,  and  her  M.A.  degree  in  history  from  Utah 
State  University,  1985. 


ROBERT  L.  MUNKRES  has  served  for  many  years  as  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Science  at  Muskingum  College,  Ohio.  He 
was  born  in  Nebraska,  attended  school  there  and  received 
his  M.A.  and  Ph.D.  degrees  from  the  University  of 
Nebraska.  He  has  been  frequently  published  in  Annals  and 
is  the  author  of  the  publication,  Saleratus  &  Sagebrush:  The 
Oregon  Trail  Through  Wyoming. 


RHEBA  C.  MASSEY  is  Review  and  Compliance  Historian 
for  the  State  Historic  Preservation  Office,  AMH  Depart- 
ment. Born  in  Ohio,  Massey  now  resides  in  Fort  Collins, 
Colorado.  She  attended  the  University  of  Oklahoma  and 
received  her  B.A.  and  M.A.  degrees  from  Colorado  State 
University. 


EUGENE  T.  CARROLL  is  a  native  Montanan.  He  is  pres- 
ently engaged  in  private  practice  in  Child  Counseling  and 
Workshop  Presenter.  He  received  his  M.A.  in  history  in 
1977  from  the  University  of  Wyoming,  then  received  an 
M.S.  degree  from  Eastern  Montana  College,  1981.  He  has 
been  published  previously  in  Annals  of  Wyoming  and  is 
presently  working  on  a  biography  of  Senator  John  B. 
Kendrick. 


RICK  EWIG  is  Senior  Historian  in  the  Historical  Research 
&  Publications  Division  of  the  AMH  Department.  He  at- 
tended the  University  of  Wyoming  where  he  received  his 
B.A.  and  M.A.  degrees  in  history.  A  previous  work,  "The 
Ordeal  of  Lester  C.  Hunt,"  was  published  in  an  earlier 
issue  of  Annals  of  Wyoming.  A  native  of  Wisconsin,  he  has 
resided  in  Wyoming  since  1974  following  a  stint  with  the 
U.S.  Air  Force. 


ill 


INDEX 


Albright,  Horace,  26,  28 

American  Fur  Company,  5 

An  Annotated  Bibliography  of  Northern  Plains  Ethnohistory,  by  Katherine  M. 

Weist  and  Susan  R.  Sharrock,  review,  59-60 
The  Arapaho,  by  Alfred  L.  Kroeber,  review,  60 
Astin,  A.W.,  35 
Atkins,  J.D.C.,  12 

B 

Bagley,  William  C,  34 

Baker,  Ray  Stannard,  36 

Ball,  Max,  23 

Bear  Hunting,  near  Fort  Laramie;  photo,  7 

Blair,  Neal  L.,  review  of  The  Arapaho,  60 

Bootes,  Lt.  Levi  C,  5,  9 

Bordeaux,  James;  photo,  19 

BRIDGES,  Wyoming 

Big  Island  Bridge,  Sweetwater  County;  photo,  53 
Butler  Bridge,  Carbon  County;  photo,  53 
Cheyenne  River  Bridge,  Niobrara  County;  photo,  50 
Green  River  Bridge,  Sweetwater  County;  photo,  46 
Green  River  Bridge,  Sweetwater  County;  photo,  52 
Little  Colorado  Bridge,  Lincoln  County;  photo,  51 
North  Platte  River  Bridge,  Goshen  County;  photo,  48 
Pick  Bridge,  Carbon  County;  photo,  54 
Powder  River  Bridge,  Sheridan  County;  photo,  49 
Shoshone  River  Bridge,  Big  Horn  County;  photo,  52 
Wind  River  Bridge,  Fremont  County;  photo,  50 
Wind  River  Diversion  Dam,  Fremont  County;  photo,  49 

Brigham  Young  University,  35 

Brooks,  B.  B.,  (Gov.),  23 

Brown,  Orlando,  15 

Brumbaugh,  Thomas  B.,  "Fort  Laramie  Hijinks:  A  New  Manuscript  Ac- 
count," 4-9:  biog.,  61 

Buchanan,  Frederick  S.,  36 

Bullock,  W.  G.;  photo,  19 


Cache  Valley,  Utah,  36 

Caine,  J.  T.  Jr.,  32 

Canton  Bridge  Company,  Canton,  Ohio,  47 

Carey,  Sen.  Robert  D.,  28 

Carlisle  Barracks,  Pa.,  12 

Carroll,  Eugene  T.,  "Wyoming  Senator  John  Benjamin  Kendrick:  The 

Politics  of  Oil,  Public  Land  and  National  Park  Legislation  in  the  1920s," 

22-29 
Casper,  Wyo.,  23 
Chugg  Water  Journal,  4-9 
Chugg  Water  Mining  Association,  6 
Coke,  Henry  J.,  6 

Commissioners  of  Indian  Affairs,  10-21 
Committee  on  Public  Lands  and  Surveys,  24 
Companies  A  and  E,  Mounted  Rifleman,  5 
Company  C,  Mounted  Riflemen,  5 
Company  G,  Sixth  Infantry,  5 
Conundrums,  6 

Coordinating  Committee  on  National  Parks  and  National  Forests,  26 
Coxey's  Army:  An  American  Odyssey,  by  Carlos  A.  Schwantes,  review,  55 
Crawford,  T.  Hartley,  11,  15 


D 

Daughtery,  Harry,  23 

DeMallie,  Raymond  J.,  The  Sixth  Grandfather:  Black  Elk's  Teaching  Given 
to  John  G.  Neihardt,  review,  58-59 

Denby,  Edwin,  24 

Diggs,  D.  Teddy,  "Education  for  Head  or  Hand?  Land  Grant  Univer- 
sities of  Utah  and  Wyoming,"  30-45 

Dole,  William,  11,  14,  18 

Duncan,  Capt.  Thomas,  7 

Dust  Bowl  Descent,  by  Bill  Ganzel,  review,  56-58 

Dyer,  Capt.  ,  6 


"Education  for  Head  or  Hand?  Land  Grant  Universities  of  Utah  and 

Wyoming,"  by  D.  Teddy  Diggs,  30-45 
Eliot,  Charles  W.,  33 

Ewig,  Rick,  "Wyoming's  Truss  Bridges,"  46-54;  biog.,  61 
Ewig,  Rick,  review  of  Coxey's  Army:  An  American  Odyssey,  55 


Fall,  Albert  H.,  23,  26 

Federal  Highway  Act,  47 

Federal  Indian  Policy,  13 

Ferris,  Scott,  Cong.,  23 

Forest  Service,  28 

"Fort  Laramie  Hijinks:  A  New  Manuscript  Account,"  by  Thomas  D. 

Brumbaugh,  4-9 
FORTS 

John,  Wyo.,  5 

Kearny,  Wyo.,  5 

Laramie,  Wyo.,  4-9;  photos,  8,  20 

William,  Wyo.,  5 
Fremont,  Lt.  John  C,  5 
Fromong,  Terence,  40 


Ganzel,  Bill,  Dust  Boivl  Descent,  review,  56-58 
General  Leasing  Act,  23 
Goodrich,  Hubert,  35,  40 
Grand  Teton  National  Park,  Wyo.,  26,  28 

Greene,  Jerome  A.,  U.S.  Army  Uniforms  and  Equipnent,  1889  By  the  Quarter- 
master General  of  the  Army,  review,  56 

H 

Hardy,  Kenneth,  35,  41 

Harris,  W.  G.,  23 

Hatch,  H.  E.,  32 

Hayt,  E.  A.,  11-12,  17-18 

Hebard,  Grace  R.,  43 

Herring,  Commissioner  Elbert,  11 

Hoyt,  John  Wesley,  38,  40-43;  photo,  41 

I 

INDIANS-CHIEFS 

Spotted  Tail;  photo,  16 
Indian  Peace  Commission,  11,  14 
Indians,  Shoshone  at  Fort  Washakie,  1892;  photo,  18 
Interior  Department,  25-26 


J 

Jackson  Lake,  Wyo.,  26 

Johnson,  President  Andrew,  11 

Jones,  Adj.  Gen.  Roger,  5 

Jordan,  David  Starr,  33 

Junge,  Mark,  review  of  Dust  Bowl  Descent,  56-58 

K 

Kelsey,  F.  W.,  33 

Kendrick,  John  Benjamin,  22-29;  photo,  22 

Ketchum,  William  Scott,  9;  photo,  8 

King  Bridge  and  Manufacturing  Company,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  47 

Knapp,  Robert,  35-36,  40 

Kroeber,  Alfred  L.,  The  Arapaho,  review,  60 


LaFleich,  T.  W.,  23 

LaFollette,  Sen.  Robert  ML,  24 

Langellier,  John  P.,  review  of  U.S.  Army  Uniforms  and  Equipment,  1889 

By  the  Quartermaster  General  of  the  Army,  56 
Langton,  Willard  S.,  34 
LaRamee,  Jacques,  5 

Laramie  Literary  and  Library  Association,  38 
Laramie  Sentinel  newspaper,  40 
Laramie,  Wyo.,  37-38,  40,  43 
Larson,  W.  L.,  23 
Lea,  Commissioner  Luke,  11 
Leasing  Act,  1920,  26 
Lehman,  Harvey  C,  40 

Lenroot,  Sen. (Wise),  24 

Lincoln  Highway  Association,  47 
Logan  Journal  newspaper,  (Utah),  41 
Love,  John;  photo,  9 
Lund  Act,  31 

M 

Mammoth  Oil  Company,  23 

Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses;  photo,  19 

Manypenny,  George,  11 

Marlatt,  Miss  Abby  L.,  34 

Massey,  Rheba  C,  "Wyoming's  Truss  Bridges,"  46-54;  biog.,  61 

Mather,  Stephen,  26 

Mayfield,  Mike,  review  of  An  Annotated  Bibliography  of  Northern  Plains 

Ethnohistory,  59-60 
McGee,  Sen.  Gale,  28 
McKenney,  Thomas  L.,  12-14 
Tlie  Medicine  Bows:  Wyoming's  Mountain  Country,  by  Scott  Thybony,  Robert 

G.  Rosenberg,  Elizabeth  Mullett  Rosenberg,  review,  55-56 
Metz,  William  S.,  23 

Midland  Bridge  Company,  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  47 
Midwest  Refinery  Company,  26 
Midwest  Steel  and  Ironworks,  Pueblo,  Colorado,  47 
Miller,  Alfred  Jacob,  5 
Miller,  Leslie  A.,  (Gov.),  23,  28 
"Misperception  and  Policy:  A  Case  Study  Based  on  the  Annual  Reports 

of  the  Commissioners  of  Indian  Affairs,  1829-1890,"  by  Robert  L. 

Munkres,  10-21 
Missouri  Republican  newspaper,  6 
Mix,  Commissioner  Charles  E.,  15,  18 
Monarch  Engineering,  Denver,  Colorado,  47 
Mondell,  Cong.  Frank  W.,  28 
Moore,  Dr.  Samuel  Preston,  7,  9 
Morgan,  T.  J.,  12,  16,  18 
Mormons,  Utah,  5,  34,  36,  43 


Morrill  Land  Grant  Bill/Morrill  Law,  31,  37-38 
Morris,  Robert  C,  38 

The  Mount  Rushmore  Story,  by  Judith  St.  George,  review,  58 
Mulder,  William,  36 

Munkres,  Robert  L.,  "Misperception  and  Public  Policy:  A  Case  Study 
of  the  Commissioners  of  Indian  Affairs,  1829-1890,"  10-21;  biog.,  61 

N 

Ninth  Legislative  Assembly,  Territory  of  Wyoming,  37 
Noble,  Bruce  J.  Jr.,  review  of  The  Medicine  Boivs:  Wyoming's  Mountain  Coun- 
try, 55-56 

Norbeck,  Sen.  ,  (North  Dakota),  28 

North  Platte  River,  Wyo.,  47 

o 

Oberly,  John  H.,  15,  17 

Office  of  Indian  Affairs,  18 

Old  Bedlam,  5-6;  photo,  8 

O'Mahoney,  Sen.  Joseph,  28 

Owens,  Patricia  Ann,  review  of  The  Mount  Rushmore  Story,  58 


Parker,  Rev.  Samuel,  5 
Parkman,  Francis,  5 
Pickett  Act,  1910,  23 
Pinchot,  Gifford,  23 
Powell,  John  Wesley,  23 
Pratt,  Lt.  R.  H.,  12 
Price,  Hiram,  11-12,  15 


Quealy,  P.  J.,  26 


R 


Red  Bear;  photo,  19 

Rhett,  Capt.  Thomas  Grimke,  6-8 

Roberts,  Capt.  Benjamin  S.,  5,  8 

Roberts,  Dr.  Isaac  P.,  32,  36 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  28 

Rose,  Robert  R.,  23 

Rosenberg,  Elizabeth  Mullett,  The  Medicine  Bows:  Wyoming's  Mountain 

Country,  review,  55-56 
Rosenberg,  Robert  G.,  The  Medicine  Bozos:  Wyoming's  Mountain  Countn/, 

review,  55-56 


St.  George,  Judith,  The  Mount  Rushmore  Ston/,  review,  58 

Salt  Creek,  Wyo.,  26;  photos,  25 

Sanborn,  Jeremiah  Wilson,  31-34,  38,  41,  43;  photo,  32 

Sanderson,  Maj.  Winslow  F.,  5,  8 

Schilz,  Jodye  Lynn  Dickson,  review  of,  The  Sixth  Grandfather:  Black  Elk's 

Teaching  Given  to  John  G.  Neihardt,  58-59 
Schwantes,  Carlos  A.,  Coxey's  Army:  An  American  Odyssey,  review,  55 
Sharrock,    Susan    R.,    An    Annotated    Bibliography   of   Northern    Plains 

Ethnohistory,  review,  59-60 
Sherman,  Gen.  William  T.,  13 
SholL  J.  M.,  34 
The  Sixth  Grandfather:  Black  Elk's  Teacliing  Given  to  John  G.  Neihardt.  by 

Raymond  J.  DeMallie,  review,  58-59 
Smith,  Edward  P.,  11,  15 
Smith,  J.  Q.,  14-17 
Smith,  Joseph,  34 
Smoot,  Sen.  Reed  (Utah),  23-24 
Snake  River  Land  Company,  Wyo.,  28 


Spaulding,  Rev.  Henry,  5 
Stewart,  Sir  William  Drummond,  5 

Stillett, 6 

Stock  Raising  Act,  1916,  24 
Stoessinger,  Prof.  John,  10 


Tarbell,  Ed.,  32 

Taylor,  N.  G.,  18 

Teapot  Dome  Oil  Field,  Wyo.;  photo,  24 

Thompson,  Maj. ,  6 

Thorndike,  E.  L.,  34-35 

Thybony,  Scott,  The  Medicine  Bows:  Wyoming's  Mountain  Country,  review, 

55-56 
Triggs,  J.  H.,  40 
Truss  Bridges,  Wyoming,  46-54 

u 

U.S.  Anny  Uniforms  and  Equipment,  1889  By  the  Quartermaster  General  of 

the  Army,  foreward  by  Jerome  A.  Greene,  review,  56 
University  of  Wisconsin,  38 
University  of  Wyoming,  37-43;  photo,  37 
University  of  Wyoming,  Home  Economics  Class,  Merica  Hall,  Mineralogy 

Class;  photos,  39 
University  of  Wyoming,  Old  Main;  photo,  42 
Utah  Agricultural  College,  31-37,  41-43;  photos,  30,  33,  35 
Utah  Agricultural  College,  School  of  Commerce;  photo,  34 
Utah  State  University  National  Advisory  Council,  31,  35 


w 

Walker,  Francis,  11,  14-18 

Walsh,  Sen ,  23 

War  Department,  18 

Warren,  Sen.  Francis,  E.,  26 

Weist,  Katherine  M.,  An  Annotated  Bibliography  of  Northern  Plains 
Ethnohistory,  review,  59-60 

West,  Gov.  Caleb  (Utah),  32 

Wilbur,  Ray  Lyman,  28 

Wisconsin  Farmer  and  Northwestern  Cultivator,  38 

Whitman,  Dr.  Marcus,  5 

Witty,  Paul  A.,  40 

Woodbury,  Lt.  Daniel  P.,  5,  8 

Woods,  Arthur,  28 

Woodward,  Calvin  M.,  33 

"Wyoming's  Senator  John  Benjamin  Kendrick:  The  Politics  of  Oil,  Public 
Land  and  National  Park  Legislation  in  the  1920s,"  by  Eugene  T.  Car- 
roll, 22-29 

Wyoming  State  Highway  Department,  47-48,  50,  52,  54 

Wyoming  State  Historic  Preservation  Office  (WSHPO),  48 

"Wyoming's  Truss  Bridges,"  by  Rheba  C.  Massey,  Rick  Ewig,  46-54 


Yellowstone  National  Park,  26;  photo,  27 
Young,  Brigham,  5,  36 


Ziehlsdorff,  Armin  H.,  26 


Van  Vliet,  Capt.  Stewart,  6-8 


WYOMING  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  Wyoming  State  Historical  Society  was  organized  in  October,  1953. 
Membership  is  open  to  anyone  interested  in  history.  County  chapters  of  the  society 
have  been  chartered  in  most  of  the  twenty-three  counties  of  Wyoming.  Past 
presidents  of  the  society  include;  Frank  Bowron,  Casper,  1953-55;  William  L. 
Marion,  Lander,  1955-56;  Dr.  DeWitt  Dominick,  Cody,  1956-57;  Dr.  T.  A.  Lar- 
son, Laramie,  1957-58;  A.  H.  MacDougall,  Rawlins,  1958-59;  Mrs.  Thelma  G.  Con- 
dit,  Buffalo,  1959-60;  E.  A.  Littleton,  Gillette,  1960-61;  Edness  Kimball  Wilkins, 
Casper,  1961-62;  Charles  Ritter,  Cheyenne,  1962-63;  Neal  E.  Miller,  Rawlins, 
1963-65;  Mrs.  Charles  Hord,  Casper,  1965-66;  Glenn  Sweem,  Sheridan,  1966-67; 
Adrian  Reynolds,  Green  River,  1967-68;  Curtiss  Root,  Torrington,  1968-69;  Mrs. 
Hattie  Burnstad,  Worland,  1969-70;  J.  Reuel  Armstrong,  Rawlins,  1970-71;  William 
R.  Dubois,  Cheyenne,  1971-72;  Henry  F.  Chadey,  Rock  Springs,  1972-73;  Richard 
S.  Dumbrill,  Newcastle,  1973-74;  Henry  Jensen,  Casper,  1974-75;  Jay  Brazelton, 
Jackson,  1975-76;  Ray  Pendergraft,  Worland,  1976-77;  David  J.  Wasden,  Cody, 
1977-78;  Mabel  Brown,  Newcastle,  1978-79;  James  June,  Green  River,  1979-80; 
William  F.  Bragg,  Jr.,  Casper,  1980-81;  Don  Hodgson,  Torrington,  1981-82,  Clara 
Jensen,  Lysite-Casper,  1982-83;  Fern  Gaensslen,  Green  River,  1983-84;  Dave 
Kathka,  Rock  Springs,  1984-85;  Mary  Garman,  Sundance,  1985-86. 


Membership  information  may  be  obtained  from  the  Executive  Headquarters, 
Wyoming  State  Historical  Society,  Barrett  Building,  Cheyenne,  Wyoming  82002. 
Dues  in  the  state  society  are: 

Life  Membership  $100 

Joint  Life  Membership  (husband  and  wife) $150 

Annual  Membership $5 

Joint  Annual  Membership  (two  persons  of  same  family 

at  same  address) $7 

Institutional  Membership $10 


President,  Ellen  Mueller,  Cheyenne 

First  Vice  President,  Mary  Nielsen,  Cody 
1986-87  Second  Vice  President,  Loren  Jost,  Riverton 

Officers  Secretary-Treasurer,  Eleanor  Schofield,  Green  River 

Executive-Secretary,  Dr.  Robert  D.  Bush 

Coordinator,  Judy  West 


987" 


I