Moreton Frewen, a British gentleman and future uncle to Winston Churchill, declared that if he lost his bet on a horse race, he would move to America and punch cows on the Yellowstone.
True to his word, after his loss, Frewen boarded a steamer in the spring of 1879 and headed for the “Wild West.”
Frewen was known as an adventurer and had earned the nickname “Mortal Ruin” for his unfortunate business deals.
He was the well-educated younger son of an old Sussex family and well known in England as a fine shot and good horseman. When he left for America, over one hundred people stood on the docks to see him off on this latest adventure.
First Trip To America
Frewen had first visited America in 1878 as the guest of John Adair, a wealthy businessman who had founded the JA Ranch, the first cattle ranch established in the Texas panhandle. The trip was only to last three months, and Frewen was glad for the distraction from the hunting in England.
During this first trip to the Wild West, Frewen met many of America’s celebrities such as Phineas T. Barnum, Bat Masterson and General Philip Sheridan, who first proclaimed the beauty of Yellowstone to the young adventurer. This short trip spent in America left an impression on Frewen.
“I reached England when the London season of 1878 was just hull down; but my arrival from America, be sure, attracted no small interest,” Frewen wrote in his memoirs, “Melton Mowbray And Other Memories.”
The English lord was asked to share the stories of his adventures and the people he had met, especially while in Colorado, Texas, and on the Great Plains.
“I was an object of much curiosity to my friends,” Frewen said. “But my decision to emigrate forthwith and punch cows on the Yellowstone — this was received with some derision.”
Fateful Horse Race
As the season wound down, Frewen bet his summer’s loot on the Doncaster Cup. There were only two horses in the race, and Frewen wagered all his money on what would ultimately be the losing horse. After his tremendous loss, Frewen was elated.
“America was under the lee, and I felt quite excited and bucked up,” Frewen said. “I looked and indeed felt so happy, no one ever dreamed I was a heavy loser.”
It was the last bet Frewen ever placed on horses or cards, as he prepared to go to America and build a ranch along the Yellowstone River. However, once he reached the Wyoming Territory, Sheridan informed him that there was too much Indian trouble in Yellowstone, and he needed to reconsider where he would settle.
A Lord’s Cattle Ranch
Frewen decided that he would build his ranch along the Powder River and, after a dangerous trek from Fort Washakie with his brother, Richard, arrived in April 1879 on his homestead. Work had already begun on their cabin, the first two-story building in Wyoming and luxurious for the standards of that day. It would become known as Frewen Castle, the same name given to local landmarks.
“Before the last of the autumn, my brother and I found ourselves most comfortably housed,” Frewen said. “That summer we drove in a fine herd of cattle, buying the 76 Brand from Mr. Tim Foley, a ranchman on the Sweetwater.”
Frewen was insistent that, despite stories circulating years later, he had not been cheated with this purchase. Rumors said that Foley had driven the cattle round and round a hill and sold the same beasts twice over to the British lords.
Founding Fathers
The brothers made a profit by the following year and were doing well. However, it irked Frewen that they had to pay taxes to a city three hundred miles away.
“Cheyenne was the nearest jail, and it was in Cheyenne we had to pay our county taxes,” Frewen said. “So the idea occurred to us that it would be more convenient if we set up the mechanism of government nearer at hand.”
The Territory of Wyoming was an area about equal to England and Scotland combined, Frewen noted. It had already been surveyed into a potential county covering about fifteen thousand square miles.
“Even the name Johnson County had been assigned, and its county capital was to be on Clear Creek, where now is the little town of Buffalo,” Frewen said.
To bring this new county about, Frewen had to find fifty signatories on a petition who would also pledge that they had a certain amount of capital on hand. The population was small, but it was a challenge Frewen was determined to take on.
Outlaw Settlers
Frewen had gotten everyone from the local beaver trapper to all his men to sign but was lacking twelve signatures to make Johnson County legal.
It was then that a carpenter who had just arrived from Deadwood to work on their house brought good news. He had passed a camp with the dozen men that Frewen needed.
“A hard looking crowd,” the carpenter said, “but can write their names, I expect, as well as other people.”
Frewen immediately rode out and found the camp, which was guarded by a man who suspiciously acted as a sentinel for the camp. Regardless, Frewen promptly produced his petition, and the twelve men signed, claiming that they were indeed bona fide settlers of the future county.
Since the rules also stated that each man had to have money to invest in the new county, Frewen asked if he could earmark any specified capital. It was a delicate matter, and he was surprised when the men started laughing.
Finally, Frewen said, a strikingly handsome man called Black Hank interrupted the merriment to inform Frewen that money would soon be arriving.
“There ain’t a lot of cash capital here just now, but we are expecting a visit from Uncle Sam’s Paymaster in the next few days, if some of those tough outfits on this side of Fort Laramie don’t go through him and attach his cash balances,” Black Hank said.
Frewen admitted that he did not at the time stop to consider what errand would bring “Uncle Sam’s Paymaster” into this untamed wilderness to pay these men. His errand was complete, and he took his leave of the men, content that Johnson County would soon be established.
“They all promised to look in on me sixty miles higher up the river when they passed my way,” Frewen said. “But a fortnight later there was a hue and cry.”
The Paymaster, on his road to Fort McKinney to pay the troops there and at Forts Terry and Phil Kearny farther north, had been held up in broad daylight and relieved of a large sum.
“It was pretty clear that my twelve bona fide settlers were the road agents, and such was the capital that Black Hank Harrington had hypothecated in advance to include in our petition to the legislature,” Frewen said.
At the time, Frewen apparently stayed silent on the matter, for Johnson County was established based on these signatures.
A year later, Black Hank signed on as the cook on Frewen’s ranch.
Wyoming Barons
For the next six years, Frewen ran his cattle in the Wyoming Territory while also hosting many of the British elite on his ranch. He hunted the Bighorn Mountains and watched as Wyoming began to slowly change from the wild country it was when he first arrived to a more settled land with less space for his large cattle herds to roam.
After a disastrous winter killed most of his cattle and his socialite wife refused to live at his hunting lodge, Frewen made the heart-wrenching decision to sell out and move away from his “Wild West” home along the Powder River.
On June 23, 1885, Frewen made a final note in the ranch visitors’ book at the 76 Ranch.
“Am leaving tomorrow via Superior for England, and this abode of pleasant memories and good sport is to be abandoned.”
Thus ended a chapter in Wyoming’s early history as the Frewen brothers returned to England, leaving behind their legacy as the Barons of Wyoming.
Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
