Clashes Between Cattle and Sheep Owners on the Laramie Plains

Although cattle and sheep owners did not settle their differences without violence in many areas of the West, the Laramie Plains were peculiarly free of such trouble. Creighton, Hutton and Alsop, pioneer ranchers, had both sheep and cattle. Insofar as the writer is aware, there were only two incidents on the Laramie Plains in which violence and death followed a controversy over ranch by cattle and sheepmen.

The first incident happened on Dutton Creek and is reported in the Laramie Boomerang for May 3, 1905. This article gives an interview with Mrs. James Daugherty, a remarkable pioneer woman who was in town as a witness in a suit of the railroad company. She was the first woman to cross the plains on a stage, and her first husband, Mr. Lubber, was killed by Indians near the home on Dutton Creek on September 17, 1876. He was from Denver and she had married him there after taking a trip to Virginia City, Montana, as a nurse to a doctor’s family. Mr. Lubber was killed under mysterious circumstances, and the rumor was that he was killed at the instigation of cattle interests, which rumor has never been authenticated. Be that as it may, the fact is that a sheepman was killed after being warned to keep off that range. Mrs. Fannie G. H. Johnson, who lived on the Hansell place on Cooper Creek, knew where Mr. Lubber was buried near that ranch, but in recent years activity by the oil companies has obliterated the location of the grave.

Mrs. Florence McCollum and the late Joe King furnished the writer with information concerning the so-called Albany County Sheep Raid. The headlines in the Laramie Boomerang tell the story in short and startling sentences. On April 27, 1904, the story on the front page was headed: “Raid upon a sheep camp—three hundred sheep slaughtered by masked men—Maxwell and Stevens flock were grazed upon deeded land leased from owner by sheepmen—Raid by band of sixteen masked men on sheep camp of Maxwell & Stevens on Weaver Ranch, twenty-four miles south of Laramie—Two sheep wagons destroyed by fire and 300 head of sheep killed—Cyrus Engbrson, foreman of the sheep camp, brought in word after walking seven miles from sheep camp to Tie Siding and thence by train to Laramie. Warrants sworn out for the men recognized by the herders.”

This story was in favor of the sheepmen. However, there was another side to the story, and in a news item on May 14, 1904, Anny Keyes stated in a letter to the newspaper that the sheep were trespassing and on April 18 were on the Keyes ranch land where they did not belong. In another item appearing in the May 15, 1904, Laramie Boomerang, a number of ranchmen who signed their names maintained that the sheep flock of Maxwell and Stevens had trespassed on their lands at various times and were trespassing as much of the time as they were on their leased land. The June 4, 1904, Laramie Boomerang carries the news item titled—“A verdict of not guilty. Ranchmen charged with sheep raid are acquitted. Jury was out five hours—Prosecution sought to prove identification by the herders and defense an alibi in each case. Herders swore that they recognized raiders in spite of their masks.”

The ranchmen were particularly irate because Mr. Stevens, who had run these sheep on the South Sybille, had brought them over to the Tie Siding area and had gone into partnership with Mr. Maxwell, ostensibly to gain range rights, and then had leased the Weaver land, which the ranchmen maintained was not sufficiently large to furnish range for the band of sheep, and consequently the sheep were constantly trespassing on the property of neighboring ranchers.

The Laramie Boomerang for Dec. 13, 1904, states that Dr. Stevens bought out the interest of Mr. William Maxwell in the Maxwell-Stevens herd of sheep. The sheep are ranging upon the range of Mr. Stevens in the Sybille in charge of Charles Jarvis as foreman.

This incident was the only one of consequence in which Albany County cattle and sheepmen disagreed, and the trouble broke out in violence. In fact, the earliest ranchers, such as Creighton, Hutton and Alsop, ran both cattle and sheep, and Bob Homer ran sheep for many years until the bad storms late in the 1880s forced him out of the business.

Clashes Between Cattle and Sheep Owners