FRANK GREET
Frank Greet was
born October I, 1885, at
When very young,
his parents moved to Red Lodge,
Early in 1891 the father and his eldest son, Ernest, moved to their homestead on Spring Creek, a branch of the Nowood River, seven miles south of where Ten Sleep, Wyoming, now is, and started the spring's work on their land, while the second brother, Will, and the mother remained at Red Lodge until the end of the school year so Frank and his twin brother, Fred, could finish their first year at school. They then joined their father and brother at their new home.
Here Frank and Fred rode horseback seven miles to the Upper Spring Creek, School, or attended school in the Buckmaster home on Otter Creek or stayed at the Mark Warner home on the Nowood, and attended school in a cabin on the Mike Lynch ranch east of the present town of Ten Sleep, depending upon the season of the year, and where they were having a term of school.
While Frank was a very young bay the community church at Ten Sleep, the first church building in the present Washakie county, was built; everyone helped according to his means and ability. The young boys and their parents all had a part in this building project, and all were very happy when the church was completed and all could attend services conducted by ministers of various faiths, who came to serve them at various times. The church was placed in the cemetery, and a lot was assigned to each family who assisted with the building of the church. A lot was assigned to the Greet family, and it is in this lot that Frank's remains will be placed today to rest until the resurrection day.
Their parents died while the boys were very young, but they carried on until the spring of 1909 when they sold their Spring Creek ranch and bought the 3 Circle ranch from Joe Henry. This ranch is about twelve miles further up the Nowood, and is known by the name "Double Crossing," a place where teams and wagons had to cross a bend in the creek in two places before they could go up country to the south. Here the twins lived and worked the rest of their lives, and added to the place as they could, until they had established the present Greet Brother's Ranch.
On February 5, 1913, Frank married Edna Pyle. The wedding took place at the Gus Coleman ranch on Upper Canyon Creek. It is now known as the Marple Ranch.
Life is full of
joys and humor; one occasion of both concerned the marriage license. Since
Frank was the first one to apply for a marriage license in the newly organized
Four sons and two daughters were born to this union. They are: George, Neil and John of Big Trails, who are now operating the Greet Brother's Ranch; James (Bill) of College Place, Washington; Marjorie, Mrs. Arthur L. Smith, of San Jose, California, and Mrs. Mary Jordon of Lander, Wyoming.
When the
Frank was very happy with his family, a good neighbor, always willing to help anyone who was in need of assistance, and a good citizen. He commanded the respect of all who knew him.
Frank passed away
at 9:00 P.M. on Monday, May 22nd, 1967 at the
Besides his wife
and children, he is survived by his twin brother, Fred, of
Services were conducted by Pastor Richard Stenbakken at the Ten Sleep Seventh-day Adventist Church on Thursday afternoon, May 25, 1967 at two o'clock. Burial was in the Ten Sleep Community Cemetery, with Veile Mortuary in charge.
FRANK GREET:
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE SPRING CREEK RAID
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE SPRING CREEK RAID (as told by Frank Greet to Edna Greet, 1961)
In the spring of 1909 Fred and I were living on the Nowood, at the mouth of Spring Creek. Our father, George Greet, had homesteaded the ranch when we were about six year old. After his death in 1904, and our mother's death in 1906, our older brothers advised us to stay with the ranch and eventually build up a herd of cattle. So far we owned less than a dozen head, and they were of milk cow stock. Greet Brothers were as yet just the 'Greet boys', 23 years old and 'batching' by themselves.
We had a chance to sell the ranch to Porter Lamb of Lander, and buy a larger one from Joe Henry. It was a few miles farther up the creek, in what we considered a better location. By going in debt we closed the deal. On April 2nd Fred took a load of our belongings to our new home, where I had been staying a day or two, building a telephone line. Henry had been on the Red Bank line and I was hooking up to the Granger line. I went back to Spring Creek with Fred that evening. To our surprise we found there were two bands of sheep camped where the road crossed the creek just above our cabin. A sheep wagon and a buck board were with the band on the north side, and a sheep wagon and a supply wagon were with the band on the south side. Joe Emge, Joe Allemand and Joe Lazier were with the band nearest our cabin, on the north side of the creek.
Lamb and his brother-in-law, John Merrideth, had arrived with a load of their belongings, and had pitched a tent in the yard to sleep in. They had left Mrs. Lamb at Billy Goodrich's on Upper Canyon Creek until they could get the house in some sort of order. The story goes that Lamb had told Merrideth before they left Lander that he was moving into a real cattle country this time. When they came over the hill that evening and saw a sheep wagon on each side of the creek, Merrideth looked at Lamb a moment and then exclaimed, "And I thought you said this was a real cattle country!"
After the men in the wagon nearest us had finisher making camp, Emge brought their horses down to our barn, fed them some hay, and then turned them into the pasture. We told him that we would ask them to eat supper with us but for the fact that we were moving, and had taken all our grub to the other ranch except for barely enough for our own supper and breakfast. "Well," said Emge, "come up to the wagon and eat with us. We have plenty."
The idea of eating in a sheep wagon appealed to us, and we accepted the invitation. We loaded the last of out things into our wagon, ready to leave in the morning, and then we went over and ate supper with Emge, Allemand and Lazier, and visited with them for awhile. They told us that Bounce Helmer and a Frenchman named Pete Cafferal were with the other wagon. We might have stayed in the wagon with them longer, but felt that we should be with Lamb, so about eight-o'clock we went back over to the house. We talked for a while and then went to bed, Lamb and Merrideth in their tent, and Fred and I in the house.
I had not yet got to sleep when I heard a racket up at the camp, which I thought was coyotes. Now I think it might have been shooting. The dogs were barking, and presently the shooting started. The night was clear, with a bright moon, and the four of us got out of bed and lined up against the house in the shadows, and listened. That was 10 o'clock, or a little after. The rifle fire continued for about an hour, with no other sound except the barking of the dogs.
Then suddenly the wagons in both camps were ablaze, and I hear a voice shout - "Throw up your hands! Throw 'em up!" Then a shot. Fred and Merrideth saw a man walk over in the firelight and stand looking down for a moment, and then walk away. Lamb and I did not notice him.
About then we thought we heard horses running and a sound as though they might have run into a fence. We have wondered since if that was when the telephone wire was cut. We all stepped out away from the house in an effort to see the horses. Zing!! a bullet whined over our heads. The warning was enough. We hurried back into the house. Lamb remarked that a tent didn't afford much protection, and dragged his bed into the house.
We didn't do much sleeping the rest of the night, and were in no hurry to go outside next morning. The telephone was dead, so we knew the line had been cut. After breakfast we ventured over to the scene of the shooting.
The wagons in both camps were only smoldering ruins. In the north camp five dogs lay dead, and Fred remembers one little live pup lying beside the body of Allemand near the end of the wagon tongue. The tongue of the buckboard where it had been hooked to the sheep wagon was burned off. Otherwise the buckboard was unharmed. We stared at the gruesome sight for a while, and then for some reason I started to circle the ruins. Suddenly I saw a grinning skull in front of what had been the door of the wagon, and called the attention of the others to it. Then I saw another body near the middle, in front of the bed. I had to point both of them out to the others. The body at the doorway was identified later as that of Emge, by the gold teeth. He had evidently been lying in the doorway, with his rifle under his arm. The magazine in the rifle was empty, and there were empty shells on the ground.
At the other camp both wagons were burned, and perhaps thirty head of sheep were dead. Bounce and Pete were nowhere to be seen.
We found where the telephone wire had been cut, between the road and the house, and tied it together. Then we went to the house and called Walter Fiscus, who had the telephone office in Ten Sleep. We told him what had happened, and asked him to notify the authorities in Basin, the county seat. Sheriff Felix Alston and Prosecuting Attorney Percy Metz arrived at the ranch that evening with a team and buggy. They told us to bring the body of Allemand down to our house. We used the door to our cellar to lay him out on.
The news had got out, of course, and it seemed like everybody in the country came, out of curiosity to see the scene of the raid. Al Morton was living down the creek, about where Everett Cheney now lives, and Felix got him to come and take charge, and keep the crown at a little distance. Joe Allemand was shot in the left side, the bullet ranging a little upward through the body, and into the right elbow just under the skin, on the outside. The other two bodies were burned, except for the charred trunks. One smoldered all day. Allemand also had a shallow neck wound, and one report was that he had been nearly decapitated with a sharp instrument, such as a shovel. But Dr. Walker, who had been called to the scene from Hyattville, told me that although at first he thought it might have been a cut made by some instrument, after thinking it over he decided it was probably a freak bullet wound. It was in the side of the neck, clean-cut and deeper in the center.
When word of the raid got around, Mrs. Lamb up at Billy Goodrich's was wild to know if Porter were all right. When she had no word on the second day following the raid she got Billy to ride down and see. Herb Brink was staying there, so he went along. A light snow had fallen the night of the day after the raid, and when the sheriff saw Brink's footprints he recognized them as being the same as some around the wagons. It seems there was a crack across the sole of one boot. Bill Garrison was also staying at Goodrich's. He went over to the Post Office on the Brown ranch and stayed until quite late. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Henry were their also for a while. Ed Eaton was working for Joe Henry at the time.
Coffins were brought to the ranch, and the bodies place in them. Allemand had owned a place that later became part of the late Taylor Brother's Ranch. He left a wife and two children, one a small baby. The bodies were taken to the Allemand place for burial. Ruben Johnson drove the wagon that carried the body of Allemand, and I rode with him. Fred rode horseback, as did many of the men. A minister by the name of Sheppard preached the funeral sermon. The graves are near a little stream, a branch of Spring Creek.
March 11, 1964, letter from James Greet asking about Ten Sleep Raid, etc.
1 - who gathered
up sheep next morning? Frank not sure,
Chabot may have helped, and neighbors - perhaps Chatfield and Bert Arnold who
was living on what is now the Fred Bader place.
Pet Cafferal got on the stage on his way back
to
Bear George McClellan was still on the ranch above Bigtrails, Coleman was on Canyon Creek and Joe Henry where we are. Jake Goodrich was across the Creek from where Salzman's house is now, and married to Bounce's mother (Aunt Ade). That is where Pete and Bounce headed when they were turned loose after the raid and told to keep going and not look back. The story is that they went up the creek as straight as they could, not bothering with the bends and took the yard gate off its hinges in their haste to get home to the house.
Clarence Waln and Bill Cook stayed at the HH (Frank Helmer's) the night of the raid - was going riding for horses.
Clyde Harvard was herding bulls on Otter Creek Vee for Keyes and Shaw.
Bert Arnold asked for buckboard to go to funeral. Spliced an end on the tongue.
We had our last load on the wagon, the evening of the 2nd of April, ready to leave in the morning - April 3rd but on account of the raid, we had to stay over a few days longer.
Shooting must have started between 10 and 10:30 p.m. Source: Edna Greet notes.
Notes on Spring Creek Raid from Uncle Fred & Aunt Dora Greet in letter to James Elmer Greet.
To answer your questions concerning "Ten Sleep & No Rest" by Jack Gage.
1. Joe Allemand's place is the upper place of the
Emge's place is the little place at the mouth of
The two men were running sheep together, so they were on their way home to their ranches when the raid took place. Everyone liked Allemand but disliked Emge. The raiders knew Allemand went home that day after he pitched camp for the rest. He did go home, but he was uneasy about what might happen, so he went back to camp and got there in time for supper. That is how Allemand got caught and killed with the rest.
Emge came to the Greet place when Fred and Frank got home, and asked if he could put the horses in the pasture. The boys said "Yes," and "If we had more food we'd ask you to have supper with us. We are moving up to the Henry place, and expect to take our last load tomorrow. We have food enough only for our supper and breakfast." Emge said, "We have plenty of food, so, why don't you come and have supper with us?" So the five men, Fred & Frank and the 3 who were killed, had supper together.
In the meantime, Porter Lamb & his brother-in-law came with their first loads. so the boys hurried home to receive him. That is how there were 4 men at the Greet cabin that night.
The school teacher and the two cowboys that occupy such an important place in the story are all fictitious characters. They take up too much time in the story, when there were so many real characters who could have been worked in. They really were tiresome to me. But it is an "Historical Novel."
Joe Henry's second wife was Mrs. Johnnie Hopkin's widow, who was a Goodrich a sister of Bill and Bob Goodrich. Also a sister of Mrs. Charley Orchard.
The Greet family
moved to the Spring Creek ranch in 1891.
Grandpa Greet homesteaded it.
They came from Red Lodge,
Fred & Frank moved to the present Greet Ranch in April 1909. They were moving when the raid took place on April 2, 1909. Instead of going up with their last load the next day, they inspected the remains of the camp, patched the telephone wire (which the raiders had cut) and notified the authorities. They had to come in a spring wagon from Basin, so it was night before they got there, Fred cooked for them from food that was in the Allemand supply wagon. They were there several days inspecting and trying to figure out what had happened. Percy Metz and the Sheriff Austin from Basin were there and stayed with them.
Herb Brink, the man who did the killing had been working for Joe Henry, and his gun was found in his bed roll in the bunk house there on the present Greet Ranch.
The men had all agreed that there should be no killing. Brink was a wild "tough" guy, and he did the killing. He wanted to kill "Bounce" Helmer and the man with him, but one of the other men said, "If you kill them, I'll leave your carcass here on the prairie for the birds." So he didn't kill Bounce or the other man.
The officers did well to snoop around and arrest all the men who took part in the raid.
Jack Gage
promised Fred and Frank that he would not use names of people who still had
relatives living in the country. So he
called Alexander Leander, and one or two similar deals so near right that he
might as well have used the real names.
End. The letter written by Dora
Greet also says: "Charlie Wyman had
a heart attack too." His obituary
was in the Northern Wyoming Daily News,