All posts by CavalrymanSteakhouse

Sarah Pease

Equality Wall - Wyoming Women

462-Sarah-Pease-juror-Dura

Sarah W. Pease of Laramie served on the first grand jury to include women, which convened in March 1870.

The women on the grand jury and trial jury were selected less than six months after Wyoming’s first territorial legislature granted women equal political rights. Eliza Stewart Boyd’s name was the first female’s to be drawn from the voter’s roll to serve on the Laramie grand jury. The other five women included Mrs. Amelia Hatcher, Mrs. G.F. Hilton, Mrs. Mary Mackell and Agnes Chase Baker, who was dismissed at her request.

Wyoming has long enjoyed a series of “firsts.” In February of 1870, Esther Hobart Morris of South Pass City, Wyoming was appointed as the nation’s first female justice of the peace. In 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected as the first woman governor to complete the term of her husband who died in office.

Learn more about Sarah Pease

I.M. Hartsough

Equality Wall - Wyoming Women

460-I.-M

I.M. Hartsough was one of the first women to be called to serve on a criminal or “petit” jury in Wyoming to try Andrew Howie for the murder of John Hoctor. The jury voted unanimously to convict Howie.

Wyoming has long enjoyed a series of “firsts.”  In early 1870, Laramie’s judges called for female jurors.  The women who served on the grand jury and trial jury were selected less than six months after Wyoming’s first territorial legislature granted women equal political rights.

In March of 1870, Eliza Stewart Boyd’s name was the first female’s to be drawn from the voters’ roll to serve on the grand jury that would convene later that month. Soon after, five other Laramie women made history, becoming the first women in the world to serve on a trial jur. They  included Mrs. Amelia Hatcher, Mrs. G.F. Hilton, Mrs. Mary Mackell and Agnes Chase Baker.

There was quite an uproar against female juries as they tended to be very conservative and sentenced men to long incarcerations and even hangings.

Learn more about I.M Hartsough

Resources

Women in Rodeo

The Rodeo

1118-fdayparr--dura

Women have long participated in the rodeo.

“Prairie Rose” Henderson debuted at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in 1901, and by 1920, women were competing in rough stock events, relay races and trick riding. However, after two serious rodeo accidents involving women, the newly created Rodeo Association of America (R.A.A.) became opposed to female involvement in rodeo. Eventually,  women organized into various independent associations and staged their own rodeos.

Today, women’s barrel racing is included as a competitive event in professional rodeo, with breakaway roping and goat tying added at the collegiate and lower levels. Women compete equally with men in team roping, in traditional roping and in rough stock events at women-only rodeos.

In “Cowgirls of the Rodeo,” Mary Lou LeCompte writes, “Regardless of the skills involved, costume, pulchritude, and bloodline were much more important than athletic ability in determining the final winners of sponsor contests … the introduction of sponsor contests was a major setback to women, as they represented all of the things that female athletes had to overcome, such as the emphasis on beauty and attire instead of athletic skill and the concept that females are really props or decorations, not legitimate athletes.”

Learn more about women in rodeo and great rodeo you can enjoy!

Resources

The First Train into Laramie

Wyoming Railroads

785-first-train-into-laramie-ru

Although Jane Ivinson of Laramie wrote (some 31 years later) that she and her family rode on the first Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) train into Laramie on May 10, 1868, other accounts give different dates of when the first train actually arrived.

From reports in both the Cheyenne Leader and Frontier Index (published in Laramie at the time) that were dated May 5, 1868, as well as letters written by railroad contractor Jack to his wife Frances on May 2, 1868, it is clear that the first train actually stopped in Laramie on May 4, 1868.

Many of the people who may have ridden the first train possibly lived along Elizabeth Creek — now called Spring Creek — in tents and crude huts and mainly served the needs of nearby Fort Sanders’ residents.

Learn more about the Union Pacific Railroad and Laramie, Wyoming. 

 

Jack Casement –The Brigadier General Who Built the Railroad

Wyoming Railroads

780-building-train-on-bear-river-ru

When Grenville Dodge was appointed as Chief Engineer in charge of overseeing the engineering and planning of the transcontinental railroad in 1866, he hired the Casement Brothers as his contractors.

Jack Casement was in charge of the actual construction of the transcontinental railroad and his brother Dan oversaw accounting and payroll, occasionally dipping into his own pocket to meet payrolls. A veteran of the Civil War, workers on the railroad referred to Jack Casement as “General Jack.” He led his railroad crew with the same efficiency and toughness that distinguished his army career. However, he faced many frustrations during his tenure, from inclement weather to Native American attacks. Worse yet, Union Pacific leadership was known to be inefficient, which often played a role in halting construction.

Learn more about “General Jack” Casement.

Resources

The Frontier Index

Wyoming Railroads

740-frontier-index-pg-1---18680602000

At the end of the Civil War, Virginian journalist brothers Legh and Frederick Freeman decided to follow the Union Pacific Railroad’s progress to extend its tracks to the West coast with their newspaper called The Frontier Index.

The Freeman brothers began their journey at Fort Kearney in Nebraska Territory and followed the railroad across Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and eventually to Utah, printing the news from wherever they could find shelter along the way. Advertising and printing jobs – when they could get them — paid their way west.

In Laramie, the Freemans set up shop at Fort Sanders but were “booted out” when they made the mistake of writing a less-than-flattering article about the fort’s commanding officer General Gibbons and his southern background. They had rooms built in town and continued the Frontier Index in Laramie through July, when they packed up and moved on to the next town on the line.

Laramie newspapers to follow included the Laramie Sentinel (1878-1895), the Laramie Republican, the Boomerang and the Daily Times.

Learn more about the Frontier Index and the early Laramie newspapers.

Resources

Construction Train

Wyoming Railroads

712-supply-trains-ru

During the construction of the railroad, wagon trains went ahead of each construction site to deliver the needed materials to build the tracks. As the construction workers progressed forward they found construction materials waiting, which helped the process run smoothly.

Above, emigrant wagon trains move along the same trail used by Jack Casement’s construction train. For the pioneers, using the same right-of-way made the trip easier.

Learn more about the construction trains that helped build the Transcontinental Road.

Resources

The Meeting

Fort Sanders History

690

Participants at Meeting at Fort Sanders, July 1868

Left to Right: Sidney Dillon; Gen. P. H. Sheridan; Mrs. Joseph H. Potter; Gen. John Gibbon; Mrs. John Gibbon; 13 year-old John Gibbon, Jr.; Gen. U. S. Grant (with hands on fence); Col. Frederick T. Dent, military secretary to Gen. Grant; unidentified woman and young ladies; Gen. Wm. T. Sherman (sitting on stile); unidentified woman and children; unidentified; Mrs. John W. Bubb; Capt. Mail; Mrs. Lincoln Kilbourn; Brig. Gen. Adam Jacoby Slammer; Gen. W. S. Harney (with white beard and cape); Dr. Thomas Durant (with hands clasped); unidentified; Lt. John S. Bishop; Col. (Brig. Gen. Volunteers) Lewis Cass Hunt; Brig. Gen August Kautz; Lt. Col. Joseph H. Potter, commander of Ft. Sanders.

In 1868,  a “showdown” occured at Fort Sanders between General Grenville Dodge and Dr. Thomas Durant, American financer and railroad promoter, over the proposed route of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Formerly associated with the construction of other railroads, notably the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad across Iowa with engineer Henry Farnam, Durant came to the Union Pacific Railroad as vice president and general manager to extend a number of his own interests that would benefit financially from its construction.

By December 1865, the Union Pacific had only completed 40 miles of track, reaching Fremont, Nebraska, and some further 10 miles of roadbed. Peter A. Dey, Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific, resigned — also over a routing dispute with Durant.

During the meeting in 1868,  General Grant made it clear that the federal government expected General Dodge to be in charge of the railroad project, although he was already in dispute with consulting engineer Silas Seymour.

Following the completion of the railroad, Dodge became the president of the Texas & Pacific Railway.

Learn more about the history of Fort Sanders. 

Resources