Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-08

Calves and cows were frozen by tens oi
thousands Contrary to hope, 1885 brought
luck almost as bad. The winters of '86 and
'87 completed the record of four bad years
in succession. At the close of that dreadful
period the number of cattle surviving in
Wyoming was only about half that of 'S3.
Beet. too, had gone down rapidly in price.
The consequences were dire. Many q cattle
king abdicated his throne, his mortgages
usurping it. One great company after an.
other fell into bankruptcy. Even the banks
that had extended credit to the cattle men
were crippled badly or ruined. Two
Cheyenne banks closed their doors, and two
of the bankers, penniless, committed sui
eide. A third banker, who had served two
terms in Congress, wound up with nothing
and quit the place. Some whilom kings
took to small clerkships and petty counter
: businesses, most of those who failed, how
ever, abandoning the scenes of their
triumphs. Cheyenne went In mourning
Amid busy rumors of losses and failures
and heartrending shrinkages of real estate,
its people, for the first time in history, be-
gan to use pennies.
Rise of the Small Stockmen.
The immense bubble had burst. In the
summers of 80 and 81 a considerable num-
ber of firms and companies, existing now
men on the roundup or were inadequately
represented. The cattle to be gathered in
these instances would hardly pay for them
selves. A new situation confronted every
body. Abandoning the range meant
abandoning the watered lowlands, too, and
the latter where title was imperfect, were
promptly entered under United States law
by cowboys and new settlers, who set up
herds of their own. In the great northern
central county, johnson, homesteaders
drifted in year by year, and a dozen small
towns had grown up on Clear creek, Powder
river, and Crazy Woman's Fork, at points
200 or 800 miles northwest of Cheyenne.
The new railroad built along the North
Platte, 100 to $50 miles north of Cheyenne,
also brought in settlers-small merchants,
farmers and fioaters.
- OF course, new settlers and old, Of every
element, banded themselves together against
the moriburd Stockmen's Association. The
neglected shreds and ends of former great
herds offered chances to rustlers to extend
their own possessions by means of the brand
ing iron. Consequently great deal of the
hoofed property of the northern country has
for three or four years been passing rapidly
into the hands of small stockmen. Perhaps
a full third, however, of the old-time cattle
kings have their stock companies, and what
taken into the Stockmen's Association, and
to-day it has 465 members Many are
owners of small herds as compared with the
great ones of the old days. That fact gives
the big cattlemen room to say that all stock
men outside of the association are only
rustlerS
Rumors OF Marked Men.
Some of the ranches of the estab-
lished cattle kings are close to the new
and they have seen with hot
indignation, that the settlers know how to
operate Federal land laws against Wyom-
ing law; that land and cattle, although
they have not wings, are passing somehow
from their grasp and into the possession of
despised small farmers, petty stockmen,
and mostly lawless rustlers
The antagonism between the cattle owners
on large scale and the cattle owners on a
small scale became intensified 10 the
small owners the big are always Seattle
kings and thieves" Last years general
although ostensibly supervised
bodies contesting in many parts of the
range over the branding of the cattle. The
big men declared that, outnumbered, they
were obliged to stand day by day and see
their calves branded by the rustlers with
the trademarks of the latter. The big men
said tl.ey would torestaIl the rustlers by
placing an armed force early in the field
and thus control the range.
1t is believed in the settlements that the
killing of Tisdale and Jones, two cowboys
who were suspected of rustling, few
months ago, was instigated by the large
owners. A feeling OF apprehension has
since spread among the small stocamen that
others of their number are marked men. In
fact, the names of the men to be picked off
as examples have been mentioned freely. 1t
was also announced recently that prominent
members of the State Stock Commission
would organize q company, make dash into
the small stockmen's country about Buffalo,
near Fort Mckinney, kill off alleged
rustlers and withdraw, without leaving any
trace OF their identity.
The First Armsd Invasion.
Early in the morning of Sunday, April 10,
a small stockman named Smithy, living on
the North Fork of Powder River, not far
from the Big Horn Mountains, heard a con-
tinuous firing. AS it came from the direc-
tion of neighboring ranch, known as the
"k. c." from the herd-brand of its owners,
he rode over to ascertain the cause. He
found the ranch house surrounded and be-
sieged by strangers, while the inmates were
defending themselves desperately. Smithy
galloped off northward to Crazy Woman,
giving the alarm at ranches along the way,
and on fresh horse started for Buffalo, 25
miles further on. There he informed
Sheriff Angus of johnson county of the
affair. The Sheriff, gathering posse, set
off to the rescue. He arrived at the K. c.
ranch at daylight on Monday, but the
party had finished its work. The
house had been burned, and two dead
bodies, those of Nate Champion and Dick
Ray, were found in the ruins. Because it
was supposed that Champion and Ray were
rustlers, it was supposed also that the men
who killed them were cattlemen.
The invaders started toward Buffalo; but
the country had been aroused, and rustlers,
small stockmen, and even grangers had
armed themselves and started in pursuit of
them. They took shelter in the T. A.
ranch, Is miles from Buffalo, where, at 2
o'clock Monday morning, they were at
tackled by the rustlers party. The fight
was kept up all day, Sheriff Angus and his
posse coming up in the meantime. On
Tuesday the Sheriff appealed to the State,
and, finally, to the Federal authorities,
and on the morning of the 18th three troops
OF United States cavalry from Fort McKin-
ney arrived at the T. A. ranch. To them
the besieged party surrendered. None of
them had been injured. The rustlers'
party, which also had met with no loss, dis
persed.
Blood at the Next Roundup.
The cattlemen were escorted by the cav
airy to Fort Mckinney. On the 18th the
prisoners, under strong guard of cavalry,
were started on the march for the railroad
on the Platte. Fort Fetterman was reached
on the 23d. Major Fechet, in command of
the escort, there turned his charge over to