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rights of homesteaders. The killers could frighten· men who
were not entirely sure of their legal rights, but Jim Averill could
answer them back by quoting a pertinent section of the Wyom-
ing code.
Worst of all, Jim Averill subscribed to eastern newspapers.
He read the false reports which the big cattlemen spread
against the homesteaders. According to them every settler
was a thief and a liar. In turn Jim Averill wrote letters to the
newspapers correcting the false reports, explaining the case
for the homesteaders, and his letters were printed in the same
columns.
However, his feeble voice was not equal to the organized
campaign in the newspapers. It was merely accepted by the
cattlemen in Wyoming as a warning that Averill was a man
they had to blot out. They recognized · him as the spearhead
of the opposition to their unjust mQnopoly of the land.

The homesteaders were acquainted with the Board of Live-
stock Commissioners who were always finding some excuse
to prove that their fences were in the wrong place or that they
had not legally proved up on their claims. Even though the
homesteaders had government papers to back up their claims,
they were constantly flouted by men who sided with the cattle
barons.
There was another organization called the Cattlemen's As-
sociation, but this was composed of the same men who made
up the membership· in the Board of Livestock Commissioners.
First one group claiming to be from one "official" combina-
tion and then another group claiming to be from the other'
would ride up to a ranch and demand what they called their
rights. The average settler was completely confused by the
legal accusations hurled at him, and if he held out for a while Buffalo Bill (right) with Pawnee Bill: They aided Vernon.
it was only to meet more deadly measures.
After their threats the cattlemen sent their hired guns to use
fire as a deadly hint that a settler had better not stay. If the One "accident" after another made the prairie a hell of fear,
burning of all his possessions did not convince him, then he was and no man with a family dared to risk their welfare. Family af-
shot when he went to round up his cattle. Widows and children, ter family withdrew toward the west, hoping to find government
after such episodes, usually found some way of getting out of protection in some spot not being stifled by the big cattlemen.
the prairie, and it did not matter to the big outfits where or how
they went. Their whole object was to clear the prairie so that Jim Averill decided that the homesteaders ought to organize
their cattle could roam on a never-ending pasture, otherwise for their own protection against the Board of Livestock Com-
they could not retain their power and importance. missioners and the Cattlemen's Association, so one day he call-
ed a meeting in his trailside store. Settlers from many miles
around came, to discuss ways in which they could get govern-
Author's Photos.
ment protection or in which they could help one another to
continue on their farms. But the only result of this meeting was
that Jim Averill became more than ever the marked target for
the barbs of the syndicate.
The settlers had brought their families through. hundreds of
miles on starvation rations. They had fought Indians and had
seen their loved ones die of wounds or sickness before they ar-
rived on the prairie. They had continued to starve and had
worked with a superhuman effort in order to prove up on their
acres. Moreover, they were still without comforts and still lack-
ed bare necessities. But they were willing to hang on, through
natural miseries, in the hope of eventual success.
However, to live through evil attacks by men determined that
they should never enjoy the land on which they labored, regard-
less of their legal rights, sickened them. For a piece of their own
land they were willing to suffer, but against the "bloated octo-
pus" of their organized enemies they felt helpless, and they
chose to flee.
Despite (even because of) Jim Averill's newspaper letters,
and despite his letters to the Land Office in Washington, the
situation became more and more desperate. After all, near
neighbors had been burned out or shot, one family after anoth-
er had been glad to get away in a bare wagon after their other
possessions had be(?n destroyed. The A verills still held out, but
they felt the pressure increasing as one effort after another was
made to catch them in a position that would justify one of the
henchmen in killing them or in dragging them off to jail.
Tom Grant-his posse found Vernon's slain parents. Once a stranger was brought into the store by Black Mike, a
12 GOLDEN WEST