May 08, 2011, 05:10 PM
Cattle Kate (aka Ella or Ellen Watson)
From: Oregon Trail: The Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, By Federal Writers’ Project, c. 1939, p. 186
"Right on this road to the SITE OF BOTHWELL, 2 m. During the summer of 1889 the town had a store, a blacksmith shop, a newspaper called the Sweetwater Chief, a post office, and a saloon owned by Jim Averell. But the owner suspended publication of the newspaper for lack of news and support, the storekeeper moved away, the blacksmith shop was closed, and the settlers drifted away. Two graves remain - those of Jim Averell and his consort, Ella Watson. Ella, known as Cattle Kate, ran a hog ranch near Averell's saloon and store. Averell's place was a hang-out for rustlers, though cowboys also came there for a night's carousal; before they left the place Averell usually had all their money and Cattle Kate had the promise of her brand on from one to half a dozen calves. In a few months Kate's fenced-in pasture held a herd of questionable origin. Cattle owners of the neighborhood decided that drastic measures must be adopted. accordingly, a group of cowmen took Averell and the woman to Spring Creek gulch, some five miles from Averell's place, and hanged them from the limbs of a scrub pine, The deputy sheriff, who later found the bodies, brought them back here for burial. In time six men accused of the lynching were arrested but the case was dismissed.
Note by poster: no mention of what happened to the cattle, nor to the profits which both Jim and Kate reasonably had accumulated.
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