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 … Continue reading Sarah Pease
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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 … Continue reading I.M. Hartsough
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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 … Continue reading Women in Rodeo
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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 … Continue reading The First Train into Laramie
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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 … Continue reading Jack Casement –The Brigadier General Who Built the Railroad
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To construct the railroad, groups of workers shoveled the earth to create mounds of dirt and gravel. Other workers laid down the ties that held up the tracks. These groups worked in tandem, racing through the mountains to meet up with the Union Pacific Railroad. Learn more about the men who built the Transcontinental Railroad. Resources
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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, … Continue reading The Frontier Index
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Railroad engineers used dynamite to blast through mountains to create tunnels. Although tunnels were time and labor intensive, they were preferable to constructing steep mountain passes or routing trains over dangerous bridge crossings. Learn more about how the railroad engineers built tunnels through mountains. Resources
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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 … Continue reading Construction Train
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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. … Continue reading The Meeting
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