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Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux)
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Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) |
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Subject: ADD: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) From: Joe Offer Date: 02 Aug 21 - 08:01 PM We had a discussion at the Singaround about the Johnson County War. Background information would be appreciated. JOHNSON COUNTY WAR (Chris LeDoux) Headed for Wyoming, in 1882 A woman, a team, and a wagon Gonna make our dreams come true Settled in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountain slope Life is sweet, we lived on the meat Of the deer and the antelope We cut house logs up on the mountain With the team we hauled 'em down Peeled 'em and we stacked 'em up House, and bottom ground (??) Traded for some cattle, turned 'em out on the open range The skies were blue and we never knew How things were gonna change Ol' Powder River, you're muddy and you're wide How many men have died along your shore? When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a side There's no middle ground in this Johnson County War Well, the neighbors stopped by yesterday While I was outside choppin' wood And they filled me in on the local news There ain't none of it sounded good Said, there'd been some cattle stealin' By some no-count outlaw bands We'd all been branded rustlers By the big ranchers of this land Well it was us against the cattlemen And the years just made it worse First the drought and then the tough winter Johnson County had been dealt a curse Then there came the story about the two Dry Gulch attacks. Ranger Jones and John Tisdale both shot in the back Ol' Powder River, you're muddy and you're wide How many men have died along your shore? When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a side There's no middle ground in this Johnson County War And then last night at supper time Riders stopped by chance They said the cattleman and their hired guns Just burned the Kaycee ranch Two men had died this mornin' Shot down in the snow Now the vigilante army was on the march to Buffalo Well the county was in an uproar And every man saddled up to ride Caught the cattlemen at the TA ranch And surrounded all four sides We hailed the house with bullets And swore they were gonna pay But the cavalry came across the plains And once again they saved the day Well, they marched them off to Cheyenne And no one went to jail The cattlemen were all turned loose And the hired guns hit the trail And I guess the only justice Wasn't much to say the least Last winter me and mine ate mighty fine On the cattle baron's beef Ol' Powder River, you're muddy and you're wide How many men have died along your shore? When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a side There's no middle ground in this Johnson County War There's no middle ground in this Johnson County War Source: Musixmatch (corrected by Joe Offer, but still uncertain in spots) Songwriters: Chris Ledoux https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS5CTMQ2Vro |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) From: Joe Offer Date: 02 Aug 21 - 08:22 PM There is a Wikipedia page on the Johnson County War: The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a range conflict that took place in Johnson County, Wyoming, from 1889 to 1893. Johnson County is a huge county, right smack dab in the center of Wyoming - it's just east of the beautiful mountain pass town of Ten Sleep. As I entered Johnson County, I got stuck in a torrential thunderstorm, the most violent thunderstorm I've seen since I moved from the Midwest to California. It was a magnificent storm, but scary. -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) From: GUEST,# Date: 02 Aug 21 - 08:44 PM Excellent video: "C-SPAN Cities Tour - Casper: Wyoming Cattle War" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BITxQJ8LG5E It gives the background and a clear, brief history. Very much worth a listen. Only takes 16 minutes. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) From: leeneia Date: 03 Aug 21 - 12:54 AM Idle curiousity. There are 12 Johnson Counties in America. Johnson is the most common American last name. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) From: mayomick Date: 03 Aug 21 - 10:50 AM what about the family name Cartwright ? |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) From: pattyClink Date: 03 Aug 21 - 12:10 PM The lyrics from Musicmatch are garbled in a few places, here is a cleaned up version: especially 2d verse 2d line 4th verse 3d line Headed for Wyoming in eighteen eighty-two A woman, a team, and a wagon, gonna make our dreams come true Settled in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountain slopes Life was sweet, we lived on the meat of the deer and the antelope We cut house logs up on the mountain, with the team we hauled 'em down Peeled 'em and we stacked 'em up, plowed some bottom ground Traded for some cattle, turned them out on the open range Skies were blue, but we never knew how things were gonna change Oh Powder River, you're muddy and you're wide How many men have died along your shore When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a side There's no middle ground in this Johnson County War Well the neighbors stopped by yesterday while I was outside chopping wood They filled me in on the local news, there ain't none of it that sounded good Said there'd been some cattle stealing, by some no count outlaw band We'd all been branded rustlers by the big ranchers of this land So it was us against the cattle men and the years just made it worse First the drought and then the tough winter, Johnson County been dealt a curse Then there came the story about the two Dry Gulch attacks Ranger Jones and John Tisdale, both shot in the back Oh Powder River, you're muddy and you're wide How many men have died along your shore When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a side There's no middle ground in this Johnson County War Then last night at supper time, well, a rider stopped by chance He said the cattle men, their hired guns, just burned the Kaycee ranch Two men had died this morning, shot down in the snow Now the vigilante army was on the march to Buffalo Well, the county was in an uproar and every man saddled up to ride They caught the cattle men at the TA ranch and surrounded all four sides They hailed the house with bullets, swore they were gonna pay Then the cavalry came from across the plains, once again they saved the day Well, they marched them off to Cheyenne, no one went to jail The cattle men were all turned loose and their hired guns hit the trail And I guess the only justice, wasn't much to say the least Last winter me and mine ate mighty fine on the cattle baron's beef Oh Powder River, you're muddy and you're wide How many men have died along your shores When you brand a man a rustler, he's gotta take a side There's no middle ground in this Johnson County War There's no middle ground in this Johnson County War
-Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) From: GUEST,pattyClink Date: 05 Aug 21 - 08:07 PM Well let's at least add a bio of Mr. LeDoux, a fairly unique life. https://www.chrisledoux.com/bio |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Johnson County War (Chris LeDoux) From: Neil D Date: 06 Aug 21 - 07:31 AM The Johnson County War is an important and iconic event in the history of the American West. It was basically an attack on homesteaders by rich, powerful cattlemen who didn't want to give up the open range, a conflict that played out again and again in different areas of the West. What we need to understand is that the cattlemen were nearly always in the wrong. The passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 gave settlers the right to purchase land from the government at a low price and establish farms and small ranches. The cattleman used intimidation and outright violence to try to drive the small landowners off the range, and even though their actions were illegal, they generally got away with it because of their wealth and political influence. In Johnson County the cattleman branded the homesteaders as rustlers, They weren't. Of course there were rustlers active in the area as in any cattle raising region, but the large ranchers used that fact to make war on any small landowner competing for land and water rights. Then they hired a small army of of outlaws, gun thugs and other disreputable characters from Texas to invade the county. One of their first actions was the murder of nine miners who had nothing to do with land or cattle whatsoever. Then they went after a cowboy named Nate Champion. Nate's "crime" was forming an organization of small ranchers to compete with the Wyoming Stock Grower's Association. The WSGA had sent assassins to kill him 5 months earlier but when gunman invaded his cabin in the middle of the night Nate pulled a pistol from under his pillow, shot two of them and escaped. Now this small army of Texas killers had him cornered at the KC ranch that's mentioned in the song. Mr Champion single-handedly held them off for several hours, killing four and wounding three more before they managed to set fire to the cabin. He came out shooting but fell in a hail of bullets. By now word had spread of the happenings at the KC and the Sherriff of Johnson County, who was sympathetic to the homesteaders, had raised a posse of 200 men. The cattleman army now found themselves under siege and outnumbered at the TA ranch. The governor, whose sympathies lay with the cattlemen, appealed to President Harrison to send in the US Army. When the soldiers broke the siege the cattlemen's force was arrested and held prisoner at a military base. However, even though papers found on the leader of the gunmen contained a hit list of 70 homesteaders and implicated over 20 prominent stockmen for having hired and directed the cattlemen's force, no charges were ever brought. A great amount of Western novels, films and TV shows deal with these range wars. Some. like a 1902 novel by Owen Wister called "The Virginian" were sympathetic to the cattlemen and even glorified lynchings and other extrajudicial violence. The movie "Shane" on the other hand, was sympathetic to farmers and painted the large ranchers and their minions quite villainously. The first person to write about Johnson County was an interesting character named Asa Shinn Mercer. Mr Mercer is one of those now forgotten figures who pops up at different times in history for diverse reasons. In the early days of Seattle which was suffering for a severe lack of women, Asa went back east and recruited proper young women of good families to make the long journey west, take jobs as teachers, store clerks, etc. Nearly all ended up marrying local men and populating the region. To this day being descendant from these Mercer Girls is considered quite prestigious in the Seattle area. These events formed the basis for a popular 70s TV series called "Here Come the Brides." Asa Mercer would eventually be the founder and first president of the University of Washington but Between the Mercer Girls and the U of W he was a practicing journalist. When the Johnson County War broke out he was editor of the official publication of WSGA. But even though he was being employed by the stockmen, he recognized immediately the heinous nature of their actions against the homesteaders, and being a courageous journalist with integrity, he began to editorialize against them while still in their employ. In 1894 he wrote a detailed history of the war titled "Banditti of the Plains", the Banditti of course being the rich and powerful ranchers. This book was heavily suppressed at the time. The entire first printing was ordered destroyed by a court after a lawsuit was brought by the WSGA. An entire second printing mysteriously disappeared from the boxcar of a Union Pacific train. His printing press was burned, he was arrested and jailed and the book plates destroyed. His writings were seized in the mail as obscenity and his business was ruined, but his views were ultimately proven true. The book was the main source material of a notorious 1980 film called "Heaven's Gate". I say notorious because director Cimino went so over budget and the film performed so poorly at the box office, that it propelled United Artist Studio into bankruptcy. I personally enjoyed the movie and it has begun to develop a bit of a cult following, particularly the director's cut. There's one scene most Mudcatters will enjoy where a young man plays a fiddle tune while skating around an early roller rink. Go to Youtube and type in Heaven's Gate: Roller Skate Dance. |
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