Chapter XXI: Appendix (1)

The following confession of George Dunning, one of the hired men of the invasion, was written by him while in the Johnson County jail, at Buffalo, duly sworn to and published in the Northwestern Live Stock Journal in October, 1892. As the result of that publication the editor of the journal was arrested for criminal libel while in the city of Chicago, and his printing office seized. The postmaster at Cheyenne held all the copies of the paper containing the confession as “obscene” literature, referring the matter to the Postmaster General and getting instructions (after the election) to let the paper go through the mails. Fortunately, a part of the mail left the Cheyenne office before the postmaster found out the contents of the paper, and a goodly number of copies went out by express, so that the public got the information before it quite generally.

The statements made in the confession are of a startling nature, but so many of them are known to be true that the public is disposed to accept the entire story as true in detail. The writer hereof has seen and read the original of the letters written to Dunning by H. B. Ijams, and they confirm the statements given in the confession in regard to them.

The blush of shame will come to any honest man who reads the hellish plot, as laid before Dunning, especially when he reflects that a crazy, wicked attempt was made to execute the very plans as detailed. Of course, there is a good deal of superfluous verbiage used in the confession, but this is to be expected in an article prepared by an uneducated man:

CONFESSION OF GEORGE DUNNING

About the 1st of March, 1892, I was on my way from the 79 mine near Silver City, Owyhee County, Idaho, to Boise City, Idaho, which is a distance of about 60 miles. I had heard there was about to be a sale made of the 79 mine and group of mining claims; I and four other parties have a lease on the 79 mine and group of mining claims. I was going to Boise City to see W. B. Knott, the owner of the 79 mine. I wanted to see him about getting my pay for what work I had done about the 79 mine. According to our contract with W. B. Knott we took a three years’ lease on the 79 mine and group of mining claims with the understanding that if the property was sold before the expiration of our lease that each of the leasers should be paid $4 a day and all expenses for what time he worked, and each leaser was to receive $1,000 besides. When I left the mine I walked to Snake River the first day, a distance of about 30 miles, and stayed all night with a man by the name of Cox. The next morning I left Cox’s place to go to the Hot Springs. As I was passing Mr. Bernard’s place Mr. Bernard asked me if I had received a letter from Mr. Stearns of Nampa. I told him I had not. Mr. Bernard said Mr. Stearns would like to see me. I asked Mr. Bernard if he knew what Mr. Stearns would like to see me about. Mr. Bernard said that Mr. Stearns would like to employ the right kind of a man to run a cow outfit in Johnson County, Wyoming, for a friend of his and that they would pay me big wages. I told Mr. Bernard that I and some other parties had a three years’ lease on the 79 mine and it had always, for the last 12 or 13 years been considered one of the best mines in the state, and that while we were running the south drift that the ledge had lately widened out and showed higher grade rock than any other place in the mine. I told Mr. Bernard that I heard that the mine was about to be sold, and if the sale came off I would have money enough to go into something for myself, and if the sale did not come off that I should go back to the mine and get out rock so that as soon as the roads got good I could get the rock milled and get my money for it. Mr. Bernard said he heard we had a good layout on the mine, but that the man that wished to hire me and some of my friends to run his outfit of cattle was very wealthy and a member of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association; that the association had had a good deal of trouble with their stock in Johnson County, and that the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association was the largest and wealthiest association of the kind in the world, and if I wanted to go to Wyoming to work, and if I and my friends would fill the bill that money would cut no figure with the stock association. I thought the matter over a minute or two. I was satisfied there was something wrong. I told Mr. Bernard that I would think the matter over and have a talk with Mr. Stearns; that I could see Mr. Stearns in Nampa on my way to Boise City. I then went on to the Hot Springs ranch.

When I got to the Hot Springs ranch I told some of my friends that Old Bernard was up to some of his skulduggery; that he had another scheme in view; that I did not take much stock in it, but I was going to see Mr. Stearns when I went through Nampa on my way to Boise City, and that I would learn more of the particulars. At this time I was not acquainted with Stearns. This man Bernard that I had the conversation with in regard to coming to Johnson County, Wyoming, to work, was one of the leaders in the stock association in Owyhee County, Idaho, seven or eight years ago. Everything in the line of the stock business in Owyhee County, Idaho, seemed to be running smooth until the stock association was founded at Silver City, Idaho. There was at that time little or no complaint of stock stealing in that part of the country. About the time the stock association was in working order there were rumors of cattle and horse stealing by the wholesale started around the country and men who belonged to the association said if the small stockmen did not sell out or leave the country that they would make them costs enough in court to break them up. When court sat in the fall the men who belonged to the stock association kept up their howl about the amount of stealing that was going on. The sheriff of the county had turned out defaulter to a large amount of money, and in order to cover up his defalcations had committed a number of forgeries. The sheriff picked up the grand jury on the streets and managed to manipulate them in such a manner that the grand jury found two indictments against me for branding cattle, and indicted a number of others besides myself. The amount of money the sheriff was a defaulter was settled for him and the courts failed to convict a man that was indicted by that grand jury. This man Bernard took a very active part in the prosecution of all cattle cases. I know him personally to be a thief and a perjurer. He was continually talking about the need of a vigilance committee while the stock association was in its glory in Owyhee County, Idaho. The association only lasted about two years in Owyhee County, Idaho; it then went to wreck.

In the course of a day or so after my conversation with Mr. Bernard in regard to my coming to Johnson County to work for a cattle outfit I was in the town of Nampa, Idaho, on my way to Boise City. Mr. Stearns called to me on the streets and asked me if it would be possible for me to go to Johnson County, Wyoming, and take charge of a cattle outfit. Mr. Stearns said that it would be better if I could take four or five of my friends along; that everything would be fixed satisfactorily in regard to the money matter; that we would have a show to make some money. Mr. Stearns then went on to explain how he came to speak to me about the matter; he said he was back East on a visit last summer and he met an old friend and school chum of his by the name of Clark; said Clark was one of the best men he ever knew in his life; that Clark had made barrels of money out of the cattle business and owned a large amount of cattle in Johnson County, Wyoming, and vicinity. Mr. Stearns then went on to tell me that Clark had told him while he was back East last summer that the cattle thieves, or rustlers, were committing great depredation on his stock in Johnson County, Wyoming, and that every man they hired was standing in with the rustlers, and that things would have to take a change in Johnson County or the stockmen would have to gather up what stock they could and leave the country. Mr. Stearns said he had a talk with Mr. Clark about me and some of my friends, and told Clark that if he would give us good wages that we would run his cattle for him, and that we would run them on the square; and that it would be a cold day if Clark did not get what cattle belonged to him.

Mr. Stearns next showed me three or four telegrams that had been sent to him from Cheyenne, Wyoming, one of which read: “Please send party by next train, if possible.” When I saw the telegrams there was but little doubt in my mind but what the whole business was crooked. Mr. Stearns told me that money would be forwarded to me from Cheyenne or else a man would come from Cheyenne to Nampa and explain matters, if I thought I could go to Johnson County, Wyoming. I told Mr. Stearns that I could go and to have his man, who Mr. Stearns told me would be H. B. Ijams, secretary of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association, meet me in the course of three or four days in Nampa, Idaho. I told Mr. Stearns that I would be back from Boise City by that time. I then went to Boise City and came back to Nampa, Idaho, where I was introduced to Mr. H. B. Ijams, of Cheyenne. Mr. Ijams and I then went over to Mr. Stearns’ office to have a talk about the cattle business. Mr. Ijams talked very freely about matters pertaining to the cattle business in Wyoming and especially in Johnson County. Mr. Ijams complained bitterly about the depredations he claimed that were committed upon the bands of horses and cattle by the rustlers in Johnson County and vicinity; he said that the stock growers’ association would either have to put a stop to the thieves or else sell out or gather up their stock and drive them to some other state. Mr. Ijams said the stock growers’ association had owned stock on the range too long to be run out of the country by an outfit of thieves, and if it was necessary the association would fight the thieves until the last one of them was wiped out of existence. Mr. Ijams said the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association had paid out thousands of dollars for hiring men from different parts of the country to kill off the horse and cattle thieves in Wyoming. Mr. Ijams said the methods of the stock association were expensive, but he knew of no other way to keep the thieves down. Mr. Ijams spoke of the hanging of a man by the name of Waggoner, a horse man, and the lynching of Averill and Cattle Kate, and about the killing of Tisdale and Jones last fall and the assault on Nate Champion and his partner on Powder river last fall. Mr. Ijams said last fall the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association made a contract with certain parties to kill off 15 men who were considered by the stock association to be the leaders among the stock thieves in Johnson County, Wyoming. Mr. Ijams gave me to understand that the men who were employed by the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association to do the killing last fall in Johnson County, Wyoming, were Frank Canton and Joe Elliott and Tom Smith and another man whose name I forget, who Ijams said got off all right to Montana. Mr. Ijams said our men got Tisdale and Jones all right. The next job they tried after they attempted to do up Champion and his partner, on Powder river, they went into the Champion cabin about daylight and told Champion and his partner to give up, and at the same time one of the party fired his pistol at Champion’s head; Champion then shot one of the party up the coat sleeve with his revolver and another through the ribs. The party then left Champion’s place, leaving their grub, blankets and several horses and overcoats in the vicinity of Champion’s place. Mr. Ijams said that the failure of their men to do up Champion and his partner, on Powder river, and the killing of Tisdale and Jones last fall put an end to the killing business for the rest of the winter in Johnson County.

Mr. Ijams said that after the assault on Champion and his partner and the killing of Tisdale and Jones last fall, on the Powder river, there was a good deal of excitement in Johnson County, and people were getting on the war path; that the stock association thought that if they had some of the thieves killed off that it would terrorize the balance in such a manner that the most of them would leave the country. Mr. Ijams said the stock association were mistaken in regard to the effect produced by the killing off of a few thieves by men who were hired by the stock association; that instead of terrorizing the rascals that the thieves were becoming more bold in committing their depredations upon live stock, and that the thieves were getting more on the war path every day of their rascally lives. Mr. Ijams said that the course the stock association had been pursuing for a number of years in regard to killing off the thieves in Johnson County and vicinity had bitterly prejudiced a great many ranchers and business men and other people who never owned any stock, against the stock association; that he had thought the matter over a great deal and had lately come to the conclusion that the stock association had not gone about the killing off of the thieves in the right manner. Mr. Ijams said that since the assault on Champion and his partner and the killing of Tisdale and Jones, on Powder river, last fall that the stock association had another scheme in view for doing up the thieves and he thought it was the proper one under the circumstances, and that this last scheme would meet the approbation of a great many law-abiding citizens of Johnson County, who would shudder at the idea of the stock association hiring men in Cheyenne or Texas to come to Johnson County to shoot the cattle thieves in the back. Mr. Ijams said that the latest scheme of the stock association was to publicly wipe the thieves in Johnson County, Wyoming, out of existence; the way he said the stock association of Montana did in that state eight or nine years ago. Mr. Ijams said that after the assault on Champion and the killing of Tisdale and Jones that one of the stock association’s best men, a man by the name of Tom Smith, had gone to Texas to get 25 men to join the rest of the outfit in Cheyenne whenever the stock association saw fit to make a raid on Johnson County and kill off the thieves; said Smith used to be a deputy United States Marshal in Texas; and that a number of deputy United States Marshals would come from Texas with Smith. Ijams said Smith had been engaged in the business of killing off cattle thieves for a number of years, and was the most successful man he knew of in his line of business. Ijams said Smith was the man who put up the job to hang a horseman named Waggoner. Ijams said Smith and party read a bogus warrant to Waggoner and took him a short distance from home and hanged him. Mr. Ijams said the stock association were hiring the men that Smith would bring from Texas on the basis of $5 a day for each man hired and all expenses would be paid by the association; and the association would pay each hired man $50 for every man that was killed or hung by the mob on the raid. Ijams said that most of the work would be accomplished in a month, but he intended to divide the mob up after the first month’s work and have five men in each squad, and have them ride over the country for several months and kill the thieves whenever they run on them. Mr. Ijams said the mob would probably kill off about 30 men in Johnson County while on their raid; that the stock association wanted to kill off more, but that a good many thieves would escape. After the mob got through with Johnson County they were to visit other parts of the country. Mr. Ijams said the mob would have three or four months’ work and it might take them all summer. When the mob got through with Wyoming, Ijams said the association had raids planned for other parts of the country. Ijams said the stock association had 25 or 30 friends in Buffalo and vicinity who would join the mob when they got in the vicinity of Buffalo; said the friends of the stock association in Buffalo were determined men, and that the mayor of the town (a man I believe by the name of Burritt) was at the head of their organization. Ijams said the governor and Judge Blake were back of this movement to wipe the thieves in Johnson County out of existence. Ijams told me about the United States Marshal helping him plan the raid and said that the stock association had some very warm friends in Congress and the United States Senate, among whom he said was Senator Carey, a man of great influence and wealth. Ijams spoke about the sheriff and his deputies in Johnson County, and said they were in sympathy with the cattle thieves, and that he would rather have the sheriff and one of his deputies, a man I believe by the name of Rowles, hung than any two s-- of b-- he knew of. Ijams spoke of Rowles as the affidavit fiend; said Rowles had caused the stock association a good deal of trouble by getting out affidavits against some of the parties the stock association had employed to kill off the cattle thieves in Johnson County. Mr. Ijams said the stock association had a great many influential friends all over Wyoming; he said the association paid no attention to the courts in Johnson County; that all the courts were on their side; he spoke about Frank Canton being arrested for killing Jones and Tisdale, and said the evidence was very strong against Canton, but that Canton’s friends were obliged to prove an alibi for him; said the affidavits in regard to Canton’s proving an alibi had been gotten up to fit the case, and were false as far as the truth of the matter was concerned; that it was no trouble for the stock association to procure affidavits to fit any case. Ijams said that if the raid came off that it would come off before the cattle round-up; he said that when about 30 of the thieves were killed off that 300 or 400 people who were in sympathy with the thieves would get up and leave the country the best way they could; that the people who were in sympathy with the thieves would leave their stock on the range; that before the raid was over the stock association would have a round-up of the cattle in Johnson County and take possession of all the cattle on the range that belonged to the cattle thieves and their sympathizers; that the stock association would ship the beef and brand over the rest of the rustlers’ cattle. Ijams said that if I and my friends were willing to work with the mob on the same terms that the stock association were hiring the rest of the mob in Texas that the stock association would be glad to have us join the mob in Cheyenne at some future time. I told Ijams that I thought his terms were very liberal. Ijams said there would be no trouble about any of the mob getting their money according to contract. I told Ijams that I was willing to take the stock association for my pay. Ijams said that it had not been definitely settled yet just when the mob would leave Cheyenne or just what action the stock association would take about the matter. Ijams said it would be necessary for him to return immediately to Cheyenne and confer with two other men who were officers in the stock association, who, with him, had the management of affairs in regard to recruiting a mob of men to come to Johnson County, Wyoming, and kill off the cattle thieves. Ijams said his propositions to me were made as an agent of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association. And before the association knew just what they would do about the matter it would be necessary for the association to hold a meeting at their headquarters in Cheyenne, and before the mob could start from Cheyenne to Johnson County, Wyoming, to kill off the cattle thieves, that it would be necessary at the stock association meeting for every member of the association or his representative to endorse the general plan of campaign of Ijams and the other two officers of the association who were connected with the recruiting of the mob to come to Johnson County, Wyoming, for the purpose of killing off the cattle thieves and rustlers. Mr. Ijams said he would write me a letter once in a while after he got back to Cheyenne and keep me posted in regard to affairs. I then left Ijams in Nampa and went to Caldwell, nine miles west of Nampa. This interview I had with Ijams in Nampa, Idaho, was on the 7th of March, 1892. Before I left Ijams in Nampa I asked him what was the general reputation of the cattle thieves and rustlers in Johnson County in the neighborhood where they lived. Ijams said the thieves the stock association intended to have killed off generally bore a good reputation in Johnson County and vicinity where they lived. Ijams said they were not generally considered thieves or outlaws in Johnson County and vicinity.

After my arrival in Caldwell I did not know hardly how to regard Ijams’ proposition. Ijams was perfectly sober at the time of our interview and seemed to be a very intelligent kind of a man. I saw Ijams talking in Nampa to one of the head men of the Ada County Stock Association, a man by the name of Valentine. I thought the matter over a good deal. Ijams did not seem to get mad or excited during our conversation in Nampa, but seemed to talk about the matter of murdering 30 or more men in much the same manner that many people would talk about taking a picnic excursion. I could not think for some time that Ijams was in earnest, he seemed to have other business in the county besides interviewing me. Ijams asked me if I knew a man by the name of Lamb, in Silver City, Idaho, that used to be editor of the Silver City Avalanche, and wanted to know if Lamb was in Silver City or vicinity. I told him that Lamb was in Delamar, Idaho, about nine miles from Silver City. Ijams said that he once loaned Lamb $1,500 in St. Louis and that Lamb had never returned the money. Ijams said he had a notion to go to Silver City and see Lamb. Ijams inquired about Lamb’s ability to pay the $1,500 and gave up the trip. I was satisfied that Ijams and some of those fellows in Nampa were trying to give me a talk on the side to see if I would not have Ijams arrested in Nampa, Idaho, or make a fool out of myself in some other way. Ijams while in Nampa had shown me a list of the men he wanted killed in Johnson County, Wyoming. Ijams spoke about three of the Ninemeier brothers who had killed three men at Silver Mountain, Idaho, and said they had been recommended to him as the right kind of men for his business. The governor of Idaho had offered $1,500 each for the capture of the Ninemeier brothers that murdered the three men in Silver Mountain, Idaho.

When I was at Caldwell waiting to get paid for my work about the 79 mine I thought over Ijams’ proposition a good deal. I could not conceive how any one had any reason to think that I and my friends were so diabolically inclined as to join a mob and go to a distant part of the country and engage in the business of murdering men by wholesale who stood in the same position before the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association that I and my friends a few years ago did to the Owyhee County Stock Association in Idaho. I and my friends in Idaho are about the only ones that ever had any trouble with the stock association in Owyhee County, Idaho. The stock association dealt us a good deal of aggravation for nearly two years, a large amount of which was blackmail, and some of the wretches had not quit lying the last I heard from them. While the stock association was in existence in Owyhee County, I took a very active part in dealing the institution misery. I and my friends took a very active part in prosecuting and trying to bring to justice some of the perjurers and assassins whom we claim were in the employ of the stock association. I have gone to a good deal of trouble and expense in Idaho to work a hardship upon that misguided and unfortunate institution of a stock association during its short and melancholy existence in Owyhee County, Idaho. The more I thought of Ijams’ propositions the more I became convinced that Ijams had been imposing on me with his stories in regard to killing off the cattle thieves in Johnson County, Wyoming. When the members of the Owyhee County Stock Association in Idaho were talking unusually wicked and seemed to be thirsting for gore, I and some of my friends formed an association for the purpose of bringing to justice any of the members of the stock association who should do a small stockman an injustice. And we intended to bring to justice any criminals that might be in the employ of the stock association and we were quite successful in running down some of the criminals in the employ of the stock association. Our association was an organization for the mutual protection of the small stockmen. We were to brand each other’s stock when convenient and favor each other in other ways. Our association I have every reason to believe is in as good running order today as it ever was. We call it the Owyhee and Bruneau Stock Association. Soon after my interview with Ijams in Nampa, Idaho, I saw a friend of mine in Caldwell by the name of Henry Dement, who was a member of our organization, for running down vigilantes or criminals in the employ of the stock association of Owyhee County, Idaho. I spoke to Dement about the propositions that Ijams had made to me in Nampa; Dement said it would be a good idea for me to keep my eyes open; that the stock association was strong in Wyoming, and it was hard telling what they would do in that country. After I saw Dement I thought the matter over a good deal and came to the conclusion that as far as Ijams’ proposition to me was concerned, that the whole business was a fake. I could not conceive how Ijams could imagine that I and my friends were composed of the right material for a mob. I could not think of any circumstance that any of us had ever been accused of that would justify Ijams in arriving at his conclusions. After a couple of weeks I got two letters from Ijams, saying he would keep me informed when he wanted me and party to start for Cheyenne, and he would let me know the number of men to bring with me. When I had my first interview with Ijams I knew nothing about any of the troubles in Johnson County, Wyoming. After I got my second letter from Ijams I began to pay some attention to his stories. After I got my second letter from Ijams I went to Boise City to see about getting my pay for my work about the 79 mine; on my way to Boise City and in Boise City I met several men who had lately come from Johnson County or vicinity. I inquired about the state of affairs in Johnson County in regard to the cattle business. One of these men I had a talk with was Bob Gunnall, a noted foot racer, and bartender at the Wilson Hotel in Nampa, Idaho. Gunnall said he was just from Johnson County and vicinity; came from there about six months ago. Gunnall told me about the killing of Jones and Tisdale, and about the state of affairs generally in Johnson County, Wyoming. Gunnall was very bitter against the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association, and said the association had spent thousands of dollars for the purpose of hiring professional assassins in Texas and other places to come to Johnson County, Wyoming, and vicinity and shooting law-abiding people in the back. Gunnall said the people of Johnson County were wild with excitement on account of the murders that had been committed upon peaceable and law-abiding citizens in Johnson County by assassins in the employ of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association. Gunnall spoke well of the people of Johnson County and vicinity; said that, as a rule, they were as law-abiding a class of people as could be found anywhere; that he believed there was less stock stealing going on in Johnson County than there was in most any county where there was as much stock as there was in Johnson County. I asked Gunnall if he did not think the stock association would attempt at some time to hang up some of the people of Johnson County the way the stock association of Montana hung up the so-called thieves in that state eight or nine years ago. Gunnall said it would be just as good a thing as the people of Johnson County would want for the stock association to turn a mob loose in Johnson County; that a mob of 2,000 men could not intimidate the people of Johnson County. The other men I saw and had conversations with seemed to have about the same idea about matters in Johnson County, Wyoming, that Gunnall did. They all spoke of the people as a law-abiding class of people, and all agreed that the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association of Cheyenne had been importing assassins from Texas and other places to Wyoming for the purpose of shooting people from ambush whom the stock association styled rustlers or cattle thieves. After I had my conversation with Gunnall and others in regard to the cattle business in Johnson County and vicinity, I began to think that Ijams might have been in earnest, to a certain extent, in regard to his propositions to me. I was convinced of the utter hopelessness and foolishness for the stock association to ever send a mob to Johnson County, if Ijams meant anything by his propositions to me. I supposed he meant to recruit an outfit of men and have them go to work in Johnson County in his cow outfit, and then see, after he was well acquainted with his men, how many men he could select out of the outfit that were of the same stripe that Frank Canton had been represented to me to be.

I began to think Ijams was in earnest. I stayed in Boise City several days and tried to get my pay for my work in the 79 mine, and tried to get money from other sources, and spoke to some of my friends, Henry Dement and Frank Speelman, about rustling money for one of them to come to Johnson County, Wyoming, and let certain parties know about Ijams’ proposition to me. I could not get the money to send a man ahead in time in inform the authorities in regard to Ijams’ proposition to me. It did not use to be any trouble for me to borrow a few hundred dollars in Idaho. I most always had money when I was engaged in the cattle business. But during the last few years that I have been mining and doing other work, I have gone broke on pretty nearly every project I have tackled. I had $1,484 coming to me for my work about the 79 mine. I have not got any of the money yet. I soaked my revolver in Caldwell in a pawn shop to get money to go to Boise City on, and try to rustle money in order to send a man ahead to let certain parties in Johnson County know what propositions Ijams had been making to me. I never got my six-shooter out of soak until Ijams sent me the money to come to Cheyenne. I left the letters that Ijams sent me with Henry Dement of Caldwell, Idaho. I talked the whole matter over with Dement and others, so that if the mob came into Johnson County or were captured on the way they could not make any bull story stick in regard to their coming to Johnson County with peaceable intentions. Ijams always represented to me that the first thing the stock association had to do was to kill off the rustlers and then the stock association would have a round-up of the cattle in Johnson County before the mob left the County, and that the stock association would appropriate all of the rustlers’ cattle and horses and all stock that belonged to the sympathizers of the rustlers.

Before I left Idaho I tried to get Bob Gunnall to come to Cheyenne with me. I was satisfied from what I heard that Gunnall was well acquainted in Cheyenne and had relations living there who were well fixed and could let Gunnall have the money to come ahead and inform the authorities in Johnson County in case we had reason to believe the outfit that was to leave Cheyenne was a mob and were coming to Johnson County with the intention of killing off the rustlers. I told Gunnall that I was confident that we would capture enough of the criminals in Cheyenne to pay us handsomely on account of certain parties I expected would be in Cheyenne with the mob about the time we got there that had large rewards offered for their capture. Gunnall said he would like to come, but I would make it all right any way, and that he was badly in debt in Nampa and could not leave the country until he had squared up; that he had to go to Delamar right away and run a foot race; that it would be $1,200 or $1,500 in his pocket to run the race.

I arrived in Cheyenne April 2nd, 1892; I came in on the 5 o’clock afternoon train; I was in town five or ten minutes when I met Ijams on the street. He said he was just looking around and was expecting to see me and a party from Idaho. He asked me how many men I had brought along with me. I told him that I was obliged to come alone on this trip, as I and my friends were expecting a good deal of trouble in my part of the country, and it would be necessary for every one of my friends to get to the front if matters took the turn that we expected they would. He said that we would get along nicely any way; that Smith had no trouble in getting the number of men in Texas that he wanted at the rates the stock association offered, $5 a day wages and all expenses paid by the association, and $50 bounty to be paid to each hired man for every man that was killed in the said raid made by the mob in Johnson County or vicinity. I said the terms were the same as we had talked about at Nampa. Ijams asked me if the terms on which the stock association had hired the men in Texas were satisfactory to me. I told him I thought the terms of the association were very liberal. He said if I chose to remain in the country after the raid that the stock association would be able to offer other inducements to me. He then asked me if I had brought my bedding and saddle or my guns. I told him that I brought nothing with me but my revolver. He said that he would go around town with me tomorrow and show me the stores where the stock association generally did their trading, and he would make arrangements for me to get anything I needed in my line, and have it charged to the stock association. Ijams said he would have plenty of time, that we could not start as soon as he thought we would when he sent me the letter to Caldwell. Ijams said the stock growers’ association had not held their meeting yet, and that the men from Texas would not come from Denver until the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association had held their meeting. Ijams said the coming meeting of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association would be the most important meeting of the kind ever held in the Western country. Ijams said it would be necessary for every member of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association to be present at the next meeting or to be represented by proxy, and that it would be necessary for every one of them to endorse the general plan of campaign of Ijams and two other officers of the association who had charge of the arrangements for recruiting a mob of men for the purpose of coming to Johnson County, Wyoming, and killing off the rustlers. Ijams then asked me if I had a hotel that suited me. He said I could stop at the Inter-Ocean or the Metropolitan, and that the stock association would settle my bill. He said that there were a number of stockmen who were going on the raid to pilot the mob through the country stopping at those two hotels. I told Ijams that I had on my working clothes and I would rather stop at some cheaper hotel. He said all right, to suit myself, to knock around town and enjoy myself the best I knew how, and if I wanted a suit of clothes or money I could have them, and that I would want to get me a good rig, that I was now working for a rich firm and that at the figures I would get for my work that it would not take me long to pay for a good outfit, and that one average killing for the mob would pay for a first-class rig and probably more. Ijams and I then parted; I went over to the Dyer House, a 25-cent hotel, and registered my name. After supper, about 8 o’clock in the evening, I met Ijams and two other men on the streets. Ijams introduced the two men to me as Mr. Morrison and Mr. Tabor. He said Morrison and Tabor would show me around the town. I had a long conversation with Morrison and Tabor that evening. They said they had been in the employ of the stock association for a number of years as stock detectives; they said they had worked for the stock association so long that the association thought they owned them. They said they were going along with the rest of the mob when they left Cheyenne to go to Johnson County to kill off the rustlers. They said the mob would first come to Buffalo and kill off what men they wanted in town, that they would shoot or hang up the sheriff and his deputies and would depose the civil authorities and keep possession of the town until the stock growers’ association could have their own officers to take charge of the courts of Johnson County. They said the mob would have to do a good deal of fighting in Johnson County; but when the mob cleaned up Johnson County that it would raid Natrona, Sheridan and Converse counties, and would meet with little opposition in those counties and in Sweetwater County; that the rustlers outside of Johnson County were unprepared to make a fight, and were not expecting anything, and that all the mob would have to do would be to hang them up as they came to them. Morrison and Tabor said the mob would have its hands full in Johnson County; that last fall the Wyoming stock growers had employed four men to kill off a number of rustlers; that these four men made an assault on a man by the name of Champion and Gilbertson, on the Powder river; said these four men intended to hang Champion and Gilbertson in their cabin; that they went into the cabin about daylight and told Champion and Gilbertson to give up, that they had get them this time; that while these four men were holding their revolvers on Champion and Gilbertson that Champion got his revolver and shot one of the party up the coat sleeve and the other through the ribs; that the party then retreated leaving their horses, overcoats, bedding, some grub and a Winchester, that Tom Smith had at one time made Frank Canton a present of. I understood Morrison to say that the parties to the assault on Champion and Gilbertson were Frank Canton, Joe Elliott, Tom Smith and Fred Coats; they said that last fall after the assault on Champion and Gilbertson, that there were two men killed near Buffalo by the name of Jones and Tisdale; they said that the party that killed Jones and Tisdale was in the employ of the stock association; they said that Champion and others knew who these men were that were in the employ of the stock association, and that the mob would do all witnesses up that knew of any facts that would tend to criminate any of these parties who had been in the employ of the association for the purpose of killing off the rustlers; they said the stock association had offered these four men in their employ for the purpose of killing off the rustlers $1,500 for each man killed. They asked me what arrangements I had made with Ijams in regard to my wages during the raid of the mob in Johnson County. I told them I had not made any definite arrangements yet, but that I would work the same as the rest of the mob. They said that the stock growers’ association had told them that they were hiring the Texas men on the basis of $5 a day wages and all expenses paid by the association, and $50 bounty to be paid to each hired man of the outfit for every man that was killed by the mob; they said the stock association told them they would give them the same rates, but if any of the mob were getting more, that they wanted the limit; that they did not want to work cheaper than the rest of the mob on account of having been in the employ of the stock association for a number of years. Tabor said he was in the Powder River country, in Johnson County, last fall; that the men who were in the employ of the stock association for the purpose of killing off the rustlers had terrorized Johnson County to such an extent that everybody carried Winchesters and six-shooters wherever they went, and that when the settlers were going to Buffalo, if they were on horseback, that they hardly ever traveled the main roads, and that they always tried to ride around the gulches and bunches of brush. Tabor said that the settlers seemed to think that the stock association had a man hired to stand behind every bunch of brush or rock in the country for the purpose of taking their scalps for the bounty that was offered by the stock association. Tabor said his business in Johnson County was looking over the country and keeping cases on rustlers. He said that a liquor or dry goods drummer could not come into Buffalo without the settlers thinking that he was in the employ of the stock association and had his valises loaded with dynamite for the purpose of blowing them up.

This is the substance of my interview with Morrison and Tabor the first night I was in Cheyenne.

On the morning of the 3rd of April I met Ijams on the street. I told him that I was looking around town to see about getting me a Winchester. He said he had just bought me one that morning, a 45-90 Browning Brother’s patent. He said the outfit would get all their guns at one store, and that the stock association would foot the bill. I went over to the store to look at my gun. I saw a number of stockmen getting guns and ammunition, among whom were H. W. Davis, D. R. Tisdale, J. N. Tisdale and others. The next day I got me a saddle and the rest of my rig. The day I got my gun I saw a man in the gun store April 3rd, when I was looking at my gun. His name was Fred Wombold. He said he used to scout for the government with a man by the name of Ketchum, brother of the man that was lynched by the Olive outfit in Nebraska. We had a long talk about mob law generally, and Wombold said he had been watching things around the gun shop, and that the stockmen had already bought over 20 guns there that day, and that they were organizing a mob to come to Johnson County to kill off the rustlers. I told Wombold when the mob would leave Cheyenne. He gave me to understand that he would come ahead of the mob and inform the authorities in Johnson County. There was a good deal of excitement at the gun store when the mob got their guns. Ben Morrison and Tabor told me that the whole town was onto the racket of the mob going to Johnson County. They said that all the officials in Cheyenne were friends of the stock association, and we would not be molested on that account. I asked them if the soldiers were not liable to hold up the train when the mob got opposite Fort Russell. They said that Governor Barber had the running of the soldiers and he would not allow them to molest the mob; that Barber had helped plan the raid the mob was about to make, and that the officers at Fort Russell were friends of the stockmen.

On the evening of the 3rd of April I got acquainted with a man by the name of Mike Burns from Buffalo. We had a long talk about the mob; he told me he would start for Buffalo on the morning train and would inform the authorities in regard to the mob. On the 4th of April I helped to brand the horses that the mob left Cheyenne with; there were three carloads of them; they were branded AL on the left shoulder. When we were branding horses I was introduced to Joe Elliott, Van Tassal, Ewing, Clark and others. When we were branding horses there was a good deal of talk about the state of terror the settlers of Johnson County were in on account of the depredations that had been committed upon the settlers by Elliott, Canton, Tom Smith and Fred Coats. There was a good deal of talk about the necessity of killing off all men who were witnesses against Elliott, Canton, Tom Smith and Coats. These were the four men that it was claimed were in the employ of the Wyoming Stock Association for the purpose of killing off the rustlers last fall. It seemed to be the general opinion among the gang at the stockyards that if the mob could kill off about 30 rustlers in Johnson County that it would terrorize the settlers in such a manner that 300 or 400 settlers that owned stock and were in sympathy with the rustlers, would leave the country the best way they could, and the stock association would have no trouble about appropriating their stock, together with the stock of the rustlers the mob intended to kill.

On the 5th day of April I helped to load the three wagons and the three carloads of horses, and the baggage that belonged to the mob; a man by the name of Van Tassal bossed the job. I saw Ijams again on the afternoon of the 5th of April. He said the Wyoming Stock Association had held their meeting; he said the stock association had approved of the general plan of the campaign of his (Ijams) and the other two officers of the stock association who had charge of the arrangements for recruiting the mob and of the general plan of killing the rustlers. He said the mob would get along nicely; that every man that was a member of the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association was backing up the movement; that Governor Barber, Judge Blake, the United States Marshal and nearly all the state officials were on the side of the stock association, and would stay with the mob through thick and thin. He said the mob had some very influential friends in Congress and in the United States Senate, among whom he said were Senators Carey and Warren, whom he said were men of great influence and wealth. I asked Ijams if he thought the outfit might not be arrested at Fort Russell on the way to Casper. He said there was no danger; that Governor Barber and Senators Warren and Carey would manipulate the troops; that the troops could not be called out except for the protection of the mob, and that the mob would be able to take care of itself, and that the officers at Fort Russell were friends of the stockmen. I asked Ijams how about the troops at Buffalo. He said the troops at Buffalo were an outfit of sons-of-b----; that they had been stealing beef from the stockmen for years, and that the officers at McKinney upheld them in committing their depredations; that the soldiers at McKinney would invest the amount they saved by not drawing beef rations in luxuries, and the soldiers at McKinney were able to eat plum duff three times a day.