Wyoming

THE STATE OF Wyoming was inhabited by Native American tribes long before the arrival of the first French trappers in the late 1700s. Gradually, settlers arrived, but the area was not opened up until it became a part of the Oregon Trail. By the 1850s, work had started on the Union Pacific Railroad that, in 1867, reached the town of Cheyenne, later to become the state capital. The Wyoming Territory was established in 1868, and in the following year it extended suffrage to women, becoming the first state to allow women to vote. This was, in part, to help Wyoming gain enough electors to achieve statehood. Wyoming was admitted to the Union on July 10, 1890.

Throughout its history, Wyoming has been a predominantly conservative state, and has traditionally voted Republican, with only two counties clearly Democratic. The first governor, Francis E. Warren, was a Republican. He was born in Massachusetts, and served in the American Civil War, before establishing a farm in what is now Wyoming. He was appointed governor of Wyoming Territory, in 1885, by President Chester A. Arthur, but was removed by Grover Cleveland in 1886, and reappointed by Benjamin Harrison in March 1889. In September-November 1890, he was elected as the first state governor of Wyoming. He was governor only briefly, before becoming a U.S. Senator. Dr. Amos Walker Barber succeeded him. Originally from Pennsylvania, Barber was elected as secretary of state, became acting governor, and then governor, remaining in office until 1893, whereupon he returned as secretary of state.

The third governor, John Eugene Osborne, a Democrat, defeated Barber in the 1892 gubernatorial election, with allegations of election irregularities. He remained governor until 1899, when Republican William A. Richards was elected, defeating rival candidates [Page 874]William H. Holliday and Lewis C. Tidball. The next governor, DeForest Richards (no relation of William A. Richards), won the 1898 gubernatorial election, defeating Democrat Horace C. Alger by 1,394 votes. In the next gubernatorial election, in 1902, DeForest Richards defeated George T. Beck, the largest victory margin in the state thus far. However, Richards died four months into his second term, and was succeeded by Fenimore Chatterton, who became acting governor, and failed to win re-election in 1904. Part of this electoral defeat was the refusal by Chatterton to commute the death penalty imposed on Tom Horn, a murderer, was ultimately hanged for a murder that he may not have committed. John Brognard Okie, a Wyoming landowner and sheep rancher, ran for a seat in the Wyoming House of Representatives, and although he was declared the winner in a tight race, he was subsequently unseated following allegations of fraud.