Ellen Watson: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|American rancher (1860–1889)}}

{{for multi|the Scottish cricketer|Ellen Watson (cricketer)|the American poet, translator and teacher|Ellen Doré Watson|the subject of the photograph ''American Gothic''|Ella Watson}}

|image =Ella Watson.jpg |caption ="Cattle Kate".JPG Watson

|birth_place = Arran Lake, [[Bruce County, Ontario|Bruce County]], [[Canada West]]

'''Ellen Liddy "Ella" Watson''' (July 2, 1860<ref name=vanpelt157>Van Pelt, p. 157.</ref> – July 20, 1889) was a [[Settler|pioneer]] of [[Wyoming]] who became known as '''Cattle Kate''', an [[outlaw]] of the [[Old West]], although the characterization is a dubious one, as subsequent research has tended to see her as a much maligned victim of a self -styled land baron. Watson had acquired homestead rights on land with water resources vital to the wealthiest rancher in the county, Albert Bothwell, when she was accused by him of [[cattle rustling]]. She was abducted from her home and [[lynching|lynched]] along with her husband by Bothwell and some other ranchers he had incited against her. The bodies were left hanging for 2two days, and the reputation that attached to her until recently was quickly established by newspaper publicity. Accounts of Watson as a rustler are now regarded as highly biased. Her life has become an Old West legend, and inspired a number of television and film accounts.

Soon after the move, Watson went to [[Smith Center, Kansas]], to work as a cook and housekeeper for H.R. Stone. While there, she met farm laborer William A. Pickell. They married on November 24, 1879.<ref name=vanpelt157/> Their wedding portrait survives, depicting a "tall, square-faced woman",<ref name=vanpelt154>Van Pelt, p. 154.</ref> Watson was probably 5 foot 8 inches tall, and weighed about {{convert|165|lb|kg}}. She had brown hair, blue eyes and a Scottish accent, inherited from her parents.<ref name=davis69>Davis, p. 69.</ref>

Pickell was verbally and physically abusive and drank heavily. He would often beat Ella with a horsewhip. In January 1883, Watson fled to back to her parents' home. Pickell came after her, but was intimidated by her father and fled, and had no contact with her afterwards.<ref name= Kate/><ref name=Brumbaugh/> Watson moved to [[Red Cloud, Nebraska]], {{convert|12|mi|km}} north of her family's [[Homestead (buildings)|homestead]]. She worked at the Royal Hotel for a year while establishing residency and then filed for divorce.<ref name=vanpelt157/>

That same year she moved, against her family's wishes, to [[Denver, Colorado]], to join one of her brothers who lived there. She then moved on to [[Cheyenne, Wyoming]]. It was unusual during that period in American history for a woman to move independently and alone, but she found work as a seamstress and a cook.<ref name= Kate>{{cite book |title=The Wyoming Lynching of Cattle Kate, 1889 |last=Hufsnmith |first=George W. |year=1993 | publisher=High Plains Press |location=Glendo, WY |isbn=0931271169 |url=http://www.highplainspress.com/cattlekate.html |accessdateaccess-date=December 23, 2009 }}</ref><ref name=Brumbaugh>{{cite web|accessdateaccess-date=December 23, 2009 |url=http://watsonkin.com/aunt.html |title=The Lynching of my great Aunt |work=Daniel W. Brumbaugh |publisher=Watsonkin.com website |year=1998 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202055416/http://watsonkin.com/aunt.html |archive-date=December 2, 2010 }}</ref>

Watson disliked Cheyenne and in late 1885 or early 1886 followed the railroad to [[Rawlins, Wyoming]], where she began working as cook and waitress in the premier boarding-house in town, the Rawlins House.<ref name=vanpelt158>Van Pelt, p. 158.</ref><ref name= Kate/><ref name=Brumbaugh/>

With her savings, Watson bought cattle from emigrants on the trails.<ref name=vanpelt165>Van Pelt, p. 165.</ref> She fenced about 60 acres of her land with [[barbed wire]], but this would not have been enough grazing area for her small herd. In this era, many ranchers grazed their cattle on public land. In 1872, about two dozen of the cattlemen with the largest ranches banded together to create the [[Wyoming Stock Growers Association]] (WSGA) to protect their rights to the [[open range]].<ref name=wilson59>Wilson, p. 59.</ref> After suffering massive losses in [[the Snow Winter of 1880–1881]], when cattle were unable to get to the grass under the snowdrifts, ranchers began growing hay as an alternative way of feeding the animals during the winter. For an area with little rainfall, this meant that access to water for irrigation was now crucial to the survival of the ranches.<ref name=mclure274>McLure, p. 274.</ref> The land claimed by Watson and Averell controlled {{convert|1|mi|km}} of water along Horse Creek.<ref name=wilson61/>

Over a three-year period, Watson and Averell filed applications for five different brands and were denied each time.<ref name=davis72>Davis, p. 72.</ref> In 1889 she bought a previously registered brand, "L-U", (an altered pronunciation of 'Ella') from John Crowder.<ref name=mclure274/>

In a move that may have been retaliation for the repeated denial of her brand applications, Watson filed for approval to construct a water ditch to irrigate more of her land. This ditch, if built, would reduce the amount of water available to neighboring ranchers, including Bothwell.<ref name=vanpelt166>Van Pelt, p. 166.</ref> Bothwell, who had fenced the public land he used, though this was not in accordance with the law, began to fence in parts of Ella's ranch and sent his cowboys to harass the couple. The couple apparently did not realiserealize the danger they were in. On July 20, 1889, a range detective, George Henderson, was cited by Bothwell in a meeting with other ranchers as having seen that Watson had rustled cattle. Some wanted nothing to do with BothwellsBothwell's plan to lynch the couple, but five agreed.<ref name=Brumbaugh/>

Watched by Gene Crowder, Bothwell and those ranchers he had convinced to go along with him arrived on the ranch with a [[buckboard]] and told Ella at gunpoint to get inon it or be shot as they were arresting her for rustling and taking her to Rawlins.<ref name= Kate/><ref name=Brumbaugh/> Crowder rode for help, reporting the news to the couple's friend Frank Buchanan. By the time Buchanan reached where they had stopped, Bothwell was stringing up a rope, and one of his men putting a noose around her neck. Buchanan started shooting, but was forced back and both Jim and Ella were hanged.<ref name= Kate/><ref name=Brumbaugh/>

County Sheriff Frank Hadsell and Deputy Sheriff Phil Watson (no relation to Ella) arrested Albert Bothwell and five other men for the two murders. A trial date was set, but Gene Crowder and John DeCorey both left the area before the trial, while Buchanan was initially taken into protective custody, but later disappeared and was widely thought to have been murdered, despite claims to the contrary by a newspaper.<ref name= Kate/><ref name=Brumbaugh/> Although the events caused a political controversy in the state, Bothwell acquired both homesteads of the murdered victims and ran his ranch without any legal repercussion or other retribution until he retired to Los Angeles, where he died in the Twenties1920s.<ref name= Kate/><ref name=Brumbaugh/>

Watson is the only woman to have been hanged in Wyoming.{{cn|date=March 2022}} Her death, and that of Averell, "became symbols of the societal contempt raging against rustlers during the latter part of the nineteenth century."<ref name=vanpelt155>Van Pelt, p. 155.</ref> The Cattle Kate myth was largely accepted until the late 20th century, when composer George Hufsmith began researching Watson's life for an opera, ''The Lynching of Sweetwater''. He received a lot of information from her family and eventually used his research in writing a biography of Watson.<ref name=vanpelt156>Van Pelt, p 156.</ref>

The 1953 movie ''[[The Redhead from Wyoming]]'' was loosely based on the myth of Watson as Kate Maxwell. [[Maureen O'Hara]] played a madam who inadvertently helped Averell ([[William Bishop (actor)|William Bishop]]) run a cattle rustling empire.<ref name=franscell279>Franscell, p. 279.</ref> Another highly fictionalized version of the lives of Ella Watson and James Averell was produced in 1980. ''[[Heaven's Gate (film)|Heaven's Gate]]'', directed by [[Michael Cimino]] and starring [[Kris Kristofferson]] and [[Isabelle Huppert]], was "one of the most costly films ever made - and one of Hollywood's biggest box office failures".<ref name=lackmann52>Lackmann, p. 52.</ref>

[[Category:WyomingPeople Territoryof the American Old West]]