Wyoming Stock Growers Analysis

Fifty-two armed men boarded a secret train in North Cheyenne, Wyoming headed for Casper, Wyoming. Made up of prominent men of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, employees and hired guns from Texas, Idaho and other parts of the United States, the group disembarked the train in Casper and started on horseback to Buffalo, Wyoming. The mission of this mob was to hang 70 men on a list of “rustlers” in the town of Buffalo which was considered a that time to be a haven and hideout for numerous rustlers and cattle thieves in the Wyoming Territory. T. A. Larson, a historian and authority on Wyoming history ranked this event as “the most notorious event in the history of Wyoming” This historic event focused on Johnson County and the city of Buffalo, …show more content…
was President, George W. Baxter was Vice-President and H.B. Ijams was Secretary. Each of these men sway within the Association, but they also had a large on the impact of Cheyenne as a city. First, there was John Clay, Jr. who was one of the largest cattle owners in the state of Wyoming. Clay had cattle in five different counties and was partners in a company called the Gordon and Campbell Ditch Company. Clay has been suspected by many historians to have involvement with the Johnson County War. Clay in several instances claimed to be against the invasion and was said to informed Frank Walcott he was against and invasion. Clay had an alibi due to the fact he was in Europe during the raid on Johnson County. However, certain evidence appears which indicated Clay knew what was happening and was a major player, but was far enough away that the trail would go cold in regards to his involvement. In Frank Schurbert’s book, Voices of the Buffalo Soldier: Records, Reports and Recollections of Military Life in the West, Schurbert points out an incident where Buffalo soldiers were requested of Senator Francis E. Warren to be sent to Johnson County to quell the insurrection there and bring these cattle rustlers to justice. The telegram that went to Warren from Wyoming came from six men, Frank Walcott, Henry G. Hay, George H. Baxter, Henry A. Blair, Willis O. Van Devanter and of course John Clay. For someone that was against and invasion was certainly working on getting and troops sent in to stop something and was working with the man with whom he indicated he was supposedly advising against any type of invasion in that county. John Clay however was not the only member of the Association involved and certainly not the