In 1871, Edward Ivinson was already the owner of a successful dry goods store in Laramie when the opportunity to buy a bank presented itself.

Two years earlier, bankers H.J. Rogers and John Donnellan built Laramie’s first bank made with stone walls on 2^nd street for $10,000. When the two ran into financial difficulties with their other business interests, they sold the bank to Posey S. Wilson for just $8,000; he then sold it to Ivinson for the same price only two months later.

Ivinson’s bank was a privately run institution for two years until he received a U.S. government charter to conduct business as the Wyoming National Bank of Laramie in 1873. He appointed his wife, Jane, to the bank’s board of directors. Throughout the years, other banks would challenge the Wyoming National Bank, but none of them posed any major threat to Ivinson. He sold his interest in the Wyoming National Bank in 1888.

Learn more about Edward Ivinson’s bank.

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The year was 1892, and the Wyoming Republican Party was in trouble. Who better to run for governor than Edward Ivinson, a successful banker with enough cash to finance his own campaign?

However, just like in today’s long, drawn out and negative elections, the Democratic press in Wyoming “made mincemeat” of the inexperienced Ivinson, tying him to the Johnson County war. They also mocked him for his poor speaking abilities. Wherever they could, newspapers across Wyoming territory ridiculed Ivinson. Even his hometown publication, the Boomerang, likened his image to that of the devil. Worst of all, it printed mock ballots before the November election already filled in for Ivinson’s Democratic opponent, John Osborne.  Osborne won the election.

It would be many years before Edward Ivinson would set foot into the political arena once again. In 1918, Ivinson was elected mayor of Laramie. This time, however, the Boomerang had nothing but praise for the 88-year-old.

Learn more about Edward Ivinson and the gubernatorial election of 1892.

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This three-story brick building on 2^nd Street and what is now Ivinson was the tallest building in Laramie when it was first built. It soon became quite noticeable that Wyoming’s strong winds were causing the building to sway so the third story was removed to make it more stable.

This building still exists today as Jeffrey’s Bistro.

Learn more about 2nd and Ivinson. 

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The Short Tenure of Laramie’s First Mayor
By
Kim Viner
Laramie Plains Museum

Seven city officials were selected by a group of townspeople at a meeting on May 2, 1868, but in subsequent weeks officers of the new government began resigning. The criminals thieved and killed and brazenly flouted any law or decency, without much to stop them. By autumn, the townsfolk were fed up, formed vigilance committees and took dramatic action on the night of Oct. 18 to round up and apply swift justice.

The first summer was turbulent, with little or no effective law enforcement.  Melville C. Brown was elected mayor, but he resigned after six weeks due to intimidation by the lawless element and his colleagues ineptitude. In the fall, a vigilance committee drove out the worst of the outlaws (a few hangings helped!) and the town settled down. One member of that vigilance committee was N. K. Boswell, who became the first sheriff in Albany County (1869).

The Short Tenure of Laramie’s First Mayor

It is a widely-repeated story that Laramie’s first mayor, Melville C. Brown, was elected on May 12, 1868 and resigned after three weeks in office because the town was “ungovernable.” But, is the story true?

Brown was born in Maine on August 18, 1838. At about age 20 he travelled to California to join his father, Enoch, in his mercantile and mining businesses. After four years there, he moved on to Idaho where he studied law, served in several local government positions and in the Idaho Territorial Legislature.

In October 1867, he moved to Cheyenne, Dakota Territory, to establish a law practice. After a short five months he decided to continue on to Laramie City. Most sources indicate the 30-year-old Brown arrived in Laramie on May 1, 1868.

Shortly thereafter, the events of the story noted above unfolded. While it sounds good, the truth is a bit more mundane. Brown’s own resignation letter which was published in Laramie’s Frontier Index on June 16, 1868 states:

“In consideration of the fact of the incompetency of many of the officers selected on the 2d of May, A.D. 1868, in conjunction with myself, and the incapacity and laxity of said officers in the discharge of their duties, I find it impossible for me to administer the city government in accordance with my views of the necessity of the case, and therefore thanking the people of the city of Laramie for honoring me with the highest position in their gift, and for their co-operation and in the somewhat difficult administration of a provisional city government, I respectfully tender my resignation.” The letter was dated June 12, 1868. The word “ungovernable” does not appear (but it does display a lawyer-like nearly unintelligible sentence).

Short articles in the Cheyenne Leader and Frontier Index papers also clearly indicate that Brown was elected to head the provisional government earlier than May 12, 1868, so he actually served a little over 5 weeks in office.

It appears that the well-known, but incorrect, story was first written by J.H. Triggs in an 1875 Laramie city directory. While Triggs’ other information is generally correct and supported by contemporary newspapers, in this case Triggs got it wrong. Unfortunately he does not give any information on his sources for dates or the reason Brown resigned. It is conceivable that Brown was bemoaning the other officers because they tried but could not deal effectively with the ongoing violence. But it seems more likely that, based on his own words, he felt they were just not capable of doing their jobs. So, he quit.

All sources agree that the citizens of Laramie gave up on any attempt to form a government for several months. It was not until October 1868 that another election was held with L.B. Chase chosen as mayor. In the interim the town was ruled over by a gang of “rowdies” who generally did as they pleased to ensure their unlawful and profitable activities were conducted without interruption.

Brown for his part remained in Laramie for many years and served in numerous government capacities, including as president of the Wyoming Constitutional Convention which convened in 1889; it drew up the first constitution for the new state. He left Laramie in 1900 when he was appointed by President McKinley to be a federal judge in Alaska. He resigned that post under somewhat mysterious circumstances in 1904 and moved to Seattle, Washington, to practice law. He returned to Laramie in late 1907 and recommenced his law practice. He remained in Laramie until his death on April 9, 1928.

Kim Viner, “The Short Tenure of Laramie’s First Mayor,” Volunteer at the Laramie Plains Museum

In 1870, Dr. John Finfrock housed the first collection of more than 1,000 books from the newly formed Wyoming Library and Literary Association at his offices on South A Street in Laramie. In 1902, Eli Crumrine and Dr. Aven Nelson successfully petitioned the Andrew Carnegie foundation for a $20,000 grant to support a public library in Laramie.

The Carnegie Library still stands today at 4th and Grand Avenue, although the Albany County Library system has two other branches in Centennial and Rock River, Wyoming.

Learn more about the Albany County Library System.

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The original structure of the Frontier Hotel in Laramie was nothing more than a log building built by Legh and Frederick Freeman, publishers of the Frontier Index. Forced to leave Fort Sanders in the 1860s for printing less than flattering remarks about the Fort’s commanding officer, General Gibbons, the Freemans built a log structure for themselves in Laramie that was large enough for the printing press, a living room, and several rooms to let. They called it the “Frontier Hotel.”

The Freemans sold the hotel to William Crout, a frontiersman who added on to the building and enjoyed much success – as well as many wives — throughout the years he owned the hotel. Locally, the Frontier Hotel was famous for its unfinished shed, which was used as the gallows to hang “Big Steve” Long and his half brothers, Ace and Con Moyer, men who had intimidated area ranchers into signing over the deeds to their ranches.

Sam Steward, an African American cowboy known as “Bronco Sam” and his wife Kitty lived at the Frontier Hotel for many years. Believing Kitty to be unfaithful, Sam shot Kitty and then turned the gun on himself. She survived three days and he survived ten before succumbing to the gunshot wounds.

Learn more about the Frontier Hotel. 

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A group of influential Republicans organized the “Laramie Daily Boomerang” in the late 1880s and hired Edgar Wilson “Bill” Nye – lawyer, justice of the peace, United States commissioner and national newspaper correspondent – as the editor and manager. The Boomerang was named for Nye’s mule. The Boomerang newspaper is still in operation today.

Learn more about the history of Laramie newspapers and others across the state of Wyoming. 

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Nathaniel K. Boswell was the first warden of the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie in the 1860s. During his career, he arrested Jack McCall, the man who shot “Wild Bill” Hickok in Deadwood City, South Dakota. Boswell also arrested the notorious stage robber George “Big Nose” Parrott.

Boswell was a Republican who participated in Theodore Roosevelt’s famous 55-mile ride from Laramie to Cheyenne.

Learn more about N. K. Boswell. 

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 Southeast Wyoming is known for being dry and dusty today, but imagine what it was like in the late 1860s as the railroad expanded west!

The term “Hell on Wheels” was coined by newspaper editor Samuel Bowles to describe the gambling houses, dance halls, saloons and brothels of all sorts that sprouted up along the tracks as the Union Pacific Railroad workers made their way westward. Once it was determined that the train would be coming through an area, the nearest town was considered an “end-of-track” town. Hell on Wheels. End of the Track. With so little entertainment to offer the vast numbers of men who arrived to work on the rail line, a place like the Keystone Dance Hall in Laramie was one of the few attractions to pass the time.

Learn more about the Keystone Dance Hall. 

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