In the 1890s, Butch Cassidy, Al Hainer and Jacob Snyder were young cowboys working a circuit of ranches together in the remote Owl Creek area of Wyoming.
They worked hard and played hard, carrying their sidearms openly and dreaming of making their fortune in the cattle business.
They lived by their own rules of conduct and took care of those in need, even if it meant breaking the law.
Snyder first met Cassidy and Hainer in either 1891 or 1892, after the two had abandoned their ranch in Dubois and arrived in the Owl Creek area looking for work. The three soon became close friends, often spotted together.
Although they may have bent the law to suit themselves, so did Judge Jay Torrey, owner of the Embar Ranch, along with his foreman, Jack Price.
As the two sides clashed, it became apparent who controlled the law in the Owl Creek region, and it wasn’t the young cowboys.
Hand Over Your Guns, Boys
Historian Mary Allison, author of “Dubois Area History,” tells a story shared by then-Lander Town Marshal Hank Boedeker.
Boedeker said he met up with Cassidy and his two friends Hainer and Snyder as they were riding into Lander. Boedeker did not want the young cowboys riding around town with their sidearms.
“Fellas, I want your guns,” he recalled telling them. “I won’t have you getting someone into trouble and getting yourself into a mess here in town. I know that won’t happen if I have possession of your guns.”
Boedeker said that Snyder did not want to give up his guns, but Cassidy told him to hand the weapons over.
“It’s all right boys,” Cassidy was said to say, Allison wrote. “We’re giving him our guns.”
Hainer unbuckled his guns, but Snyder did not until, Boedeker said, Cassidy gave him one of those hard looks he was known for, and Snyder unbuckled his guns.
Lassoing Cougars & Poaching Cattle
Christian Heiden, whose parents homesteaded on Owl Creek near the Embar Ranch, had an uncle who ran the saloon near the Embar that the three cowboys would frequent.
Years later, Heiden recalled the first time he had met the three young men in a 1937 interview featured in “Outlaw Trail” by Charles Kelly .
“I can well remember my first glimpse of Butch when, with his pals Jakie Snyder and Al Hainer, he came galloping up to the place,” Heiden said. “Cassidy was dragging a mountain lion he had roped that day and tied him to the hitching rail, where the lion snapped and spat at the assembled cow punchers who had piled out of the saloon to tease him.”
Heiden said he drove the stage from Embar to Meeteetse and got to know Cassidy and Snyder well as they often rode along with him.
“Butch and his pal Snyder rode with me one time up to Meeteetse,” Heiden reportedly said. “We stopped at Rose Williams’ log cabin for a meal.”
Williams was a widow who served meals and sometimes whiskey, according to Bill Betenson, author of “Butch Cassidy, My Uncle.” She also was a popular madam and ran a house of ill repute from her cabin.
That day she served up a somewhat meager meal of jackrabbit, and Cassidy asked Heiden if that was the usual bill of fare.
“I told him it often was,” Heiden said, Betenson wrote. “Butch suggested that we go hunting and we started out on horseback.”
The three ran into a few buffalo, the last Heiden ever saw, and then some deer. Cassidy wouldn’t bother with them and later shot a 2-year-old calf.
“What’s the brand?” Heiden said he asked as he examined the kill.
“Never mind the brand,” Cassidy said. “It’s meat we’re after.”
Cassidy, Snyder and Heiden took the beef back as a gift for the widow Williams.
Court Battles
In 1893, Cassidy was charged with riding two Embar ranch horses on the open range.
This started a series of lawsuits back and forth between Cassidy and Jay Torrey, owner of the Embar. Cassidy was charged a $25 fine and set free, which historian Betenson said apparently angered Torrey, who became an adversary of Cassidy, Snyder and Hainer.
In the fall of 1893, author Mike Bell wrote in his book “Butch Cassidy’s Big Horn Basin Bunch,” Cassidy and Snyder won a “writ of replevin.”
It was a court order allowing them to recover their personal property that they claimed the banks had been wrongfully taken.
Unfortunately for the two young men, the cases were dropped when the banks did not recover any of the stolen stock.
Snyder filed another charge of theft against the bank on Jan. 9, 1894, with Cassidy acting as surety according to the Fremont County Justice of the Peace record book.
Snyder later dropped the charges and filed another set of charges on Jan. 29, 1894.
This time it was against the Embar foreman Jack Price for stealing eight meat cattle from himself and Cassidy. Cassidy also filed the complaint against Price the same day.
Price appeared before Justice of the Peace Ed Cusack objecting to the sufficiency of the bonds for each case.
On Feb. 19, the day Cusack was to rule on the ownership of the disputed cattle — on behalf of the Embar — Price forced the sale of the eight cattle by claiming they were being held in Embar pastures and the ranch was refusing to hold them any longer.
Sheriff Charles Stough of Lander dutifully published the order of sale in the newspaper as required by law.
On March 12, 1894, it was reported in the Fremont Clipper newspaper that Price sold the cattle belonging to Snyder and Cassidy to his brother Jacob Price for $100, and their horses were sold for $68 to John H. McCoy and Fred McClain.
Neither Snyder nor Cassidy received compensation.
To add to the insult, in July of that same year, Cassidy was found guilty of stealing horses from the Embar, the very ranch he had accused of stealing his cattle and horses.
He disputed the theft charge and claimed he had bought the horses from another Embar cowboy and friend, Billy Nutcher. His pleas fell on deaf ears and Cassidy was sentenced to serve two years in the penitentiary at Laramie County.
According to his younger sister Lula Parker, Cassidy spent the next two years dreaming of revenge and showing Wyoming what a real outlaw could be.
Despite his frustration with the one-sided law, Cassidy was a model prisoner who would soon be joined by his friend, Jakie Snyder.
Revenge Rides From Andersonville
In 1911, Lawyer H.S. Ridgely spoke of the lawlessness of the time and of the men he knew personally, including Jacob “Jakie” Snyder.
Ridgely’s speech in Basin, Wyoming, was later printed in The Northern Wyoming Herald.
Despite Cassidy being in jail at the time, Ridgely said that the Owl Creek country of 1894 was infested by the Kid Currie and Butch Cassidy gang of outlaws and desperadoes, which included Snyder.
“The early settlers of that region were soon engaged in a merry war with this gang, which soon resolved itself into a struggle of the survival of the fittest,” Ridgely said. “But law and order finally triumphed, as it has always done along our western frontier.”
Andersonville was a lively settlement built across the river from the original townsite of Thermopolis.
The outlaw element would rendezvous in Andersonville, known for its saloon and house of ill repute, while the more lawful citizens were building up Thermopolis across the Bighorn River to be a more respectful town, according to Ridgely.
“There had been several log shacks erected (in Andersonville) and these were occupied by some of the toughest characters that ever ran loose in any man’s country,” Ridgely said. “Many stirring clashes took place between the two elements.”
At the time, Snyder was staying in Andersonville, still apparently nursing anger over the cattle and horses the Embar Ranch had stolen from him. An opportunity to get his money back came along on Election Day, November 1894.
The voting place was at the Embar Ranch which was a 30-mile ride from the settlements. With the exception of three men, the inhabitants of Thermopolis had gone to Embar to vote and attend an election dance.
The three men left in the town were store owner Ed Enderly, businessman Thad Slane and a blacksmith remembered only as Savelant.
In the afternoon, one of the toughs came over to Thermopolis from Andersonville.
When he discovered the fledging town nearly abandoned, he returned to the shacks on the opposite side of the river and with two others, all heavily armed, returned to the Enderly store.
There, they commanded Enderly to unlock his safe.
Guns A-blazin’
“Enderly put up a desperate fight, but was overcome after receiving a blow over the head with a six-shooter that all but scalped him,” Ridgely reportedly said. “They forced him to open his safe and obtained some two thousand dollars and mounted their horses and attempted to escape.”
Slane and Savelant heard the fight just in time to open fire on the escaping bandits. A running fight ensued that resulted in the capture of one of the bandits, none other than Cassidy’s friend Snyder.
The fight had been so intense that the money was dropped by the holdup men in the road, which was recovered. Snyder was held by his captors in the back room of Enderly’s store, but during the night was retaken by his friends across the river.
Savelant rode to Embar for help.
Jack Price, who was now deputy sheriff and the foreman who had been sued by Snyder for theft, organized a posse against his adversary. The men arrived in the middle of the night and immediately posted guards and patrolled the town until daylight.
At dawn, they crossed the Bighorn River and surrounded all the log cabins. Once positioned, weapons held ready, Price and his men demanded an immediate surrender of everyone in the shacks.
The greatest resistance, Ridgely said, was at a house of ill fame. After much parlaying, all hands surrendered and with them was Snyder.
“Snyder was released on bail but before trial was caught stealing cattle of the Embar company, prosecuted and convicted of grand larceny,” Ridgely said. “He was sent to the penitentiary for a term of years and his connection with the holdup was dropped. His companions in the holdup were never detected.”
Jay Torrey and the Price brothers had won the court battles and continued to build up their cattle herds while their adversaries sat in prison.
Husband Takes Revenge
Snyder had joined his friend, Cassidy, in the Laramie state prison until Cassidy was released on good behavior.
While Cassidy turned to a life of revenge robbery, Snyder quietly became a wealthy businessman in Shoshoni after his release years later.
Snyder was taking care of his mother, who had moved to Thermopolis, and had gone into the sheep business when he made headlines one last time.
He had a falling out with his business partner, Bill George, in 1907 when the other man accused him of being too friendly with his wife. George’s rage simmered for over a year.
The jealousy escalated, and when George caught Snyder talking to his wife one afternoon in September 1908, he responded by shooting his former partner and friend in the lungs and head.
While this may have immediately killed a lesser man, the newspapers marveled at the time that Snyder clung to life long enough to forgive George for his jealous rage.
“Both shots were pronounced fatal to a common man, but Snyder is a man of remarkable nerve,” The Laramie Boomerang reported. “George is in a grave condition and has little regret for his act. Snyder is still alive, but his recovery is very doubtful.”
George was still furious and wanted to finish the job. While under arrest, he was led to Snyder’s side and more harsh words were exchanged. George told Snyder that he had shot him and why.
“Cool down,” Snyder, still conscious, was said to respond.
Apparently, this subdued George, who bid Snyder goodbye and said he hoped to meet him in heaven.
“That’s alright, Bill, that’s alright,” Snyder said, according to the Boomerang.
Years later, historian and former Shoshoni resident Charles Harvey, who knew Snyder well, said that Snyder was known in the region as a tough man.
Harvey said that Snyder had survived a murder attempt before and was reputed to have swam the icy Wind River on a previous occasion with a 30-30 bullet hole in one lung.
It was no surprise, then, Harvey said, that Snyder sat up in bed on the fifth day after being shot and demanded a glass of beer.
Snyder’s doctor said it was a miracle Snyder had lived so long. A couple of days later, Jakie Snyder ran out of miracles.
The Associated Press ran a small blurb that Snyder had been murdered, and a month later, George was acquitted of his murder, the jury finding him justified in shooting Snyder since George was protecting his wife’s honor.
Ironically, H.S. Ridgely, the lawyer who had shared the story of Snyder’s robbery and capture, labeling him a desperate outlaw, was the same lawyer who defended George and wrote the final version of Snyder’s story.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
