They Wore Pants, Carried a Gun or Rode Like A Cowboy: CATTLE ANNIE and LITTLE BRITCHES

They were the newspaper writers dream come true and the inspiration for numerous 'penny dreadfuls' and dime novellas. Often ignored for their more violent, gun toting brethren, these women are an important chapter in the history of the westward expansion.

The challenges of the west often meant that some aspects of ‘civilization’ tended to fall under the onslaught of necessity.  It was not unusual for frontier women, from the era of Daniel Boone and beyond to have mastery in firearms that would have shocked people in eastern cities. The further west people moved the more flexible were the social structures defining gender roles. Hunting, riding, chopping wood, and a host of activities that their more rarefied sisters back would have seen as unladylike by Victorian standards were commonplace.    

Wearing men’s clothes was not a fashion statement as much as a safer alternative when forced to do certain work.  There was, to the western woman, a practical streak.  There was also, historic precedence, because in every nearly every conflict of the American nation there were women who donned male attire, signed up or joined in, and fought the enemy as defined in that moment. In the American Revolution, the Civil War, and in the American Frontier women dressed as men to either pass as a man or as a means to do the task of a man forbidden them as a woman.

In Oklahoma, there were several of these stories.  They are delightful in the sense that some adopted the costume but never tried to hide their identities, some hid their gender and their companions, by mutual consent, accepted them for what they presented themselves as and some even pulled the wool over everybody’s eyes in their masquerade.  They cannot be labeled with any common word s they were soldiers, outlaws, and cowhands.  There are probably more of them, hidden from history and family alike, and one can imagine that may still bring a chuckle to the ghosts of these women who shook free of social constraints to establish their unique place in history on their own terms.

These 'desperadoes' were active for only a short couple of years but they captured the imagination of people.  Their youth is often the most striking aspect of their story. "Cattle Annie" was Anna Emmaline McDoulet Roach who was born in 1882 in Douglas, Kansas and who died in 1978 in Oklahoma City. She was sent to Farmington Correctional Institution in Massachusetts in 1895.   She married and settled down to a long-lived and very law abiding life.  

"Little Britches" was born Jennie Stevenson in 1879 in Barton, Missouri (where Wyatt Earp had lived with his first wife who died). She preferred to wear men's clothes and that, combined with her more diminutive stature, earned her the nickname.  In 1895 she married a deaf-mute named Ben Midkoff but soon left to hook up with Frank Wilson.  Selling whiskey to the Indians in Osage Nation they were arrested in Perry and brought to the local regional court in Pawnee by U.S. Deputy Marshall Frank Canton. No information has been found for what happened to her and no death information has been located by most researchers.

Rose Dunn aka "Rose of the Cimarron", along with "Cattle Annie", "Little Britches", Jessie Finley (Finley), and Flora Quick Mundis aka Tom King would fill dramatically the void left by the mysterious murder of Belle Starr in 1889 near Eufaula.  A fascinating page of truly unique history...found in Oklahoma...on the fringes of "Hell."

On the Edges of Hell: Rose of the Cimarron

_SEE UPDATED ENTRY - She was called the "Rose of the Cimarron" due to her love of riding around the river of that name. One of the advantages of life in the west was the tendency to allow more freedom to girls on farms and ranches. Many a daughter or wife could ride, shoot and run a spread with the same ease as her male counterparts. 

Rose  Dunn was born in about 1879 and was the youngest of ten, daughter of William H. Dunn and Sarah C. Brenner Dunn. Several of her brothers were considered some of the worst outlaws of early day Oklahoma by U.S. Deputy Marshal Charles F. Colcord.

One of the Western Advantages was more freedom

Her brothers Bill, Dal, Calvin and George ran as a gang and had dealings with both the law and the outlaws (the Doolin and Dalton gangs) in the wild 1890's.  

She and her brothers lived around Ingalls. Some indicate that they had all come down from Kansas. Another source claims that Bill, and his brothers, were working one of the big cattle spreads in the region pre-Land Run.  When the Land was set to be opened for settlement the U.S. President ordered all the cattle combines and spreads to vacate.  That meant 'pink slips' for the cowboys. Many went west and northwest and some to Texas or New Mexico. Some stayed put and became the noted outlaws of the badlands in and around Oklahoma and Indian Territories.

Ingalls would be the site of a notorious gun battle between outlaws and U.S. Marshals, leaving several dead and forever marking the town and the people involved in the pages of western historical lore. Rose in her teen or early adult years became infatuated with one of the members of the gang her brothers hung with - George "BitterCreek" Newcomb. It was time when everyone had a nickname or outlaw label. In the early 1890's Rose was an almost mascot of the group, with most thinking highly of her for her looks or her spirit or her kindness to them. 

During the 'Ingalls Gunfight battle', September 1, 1893, she is said to have faced flying bullets to take a replacement Winchester to her idol Newcomb.  This was not true. When all settled, she married and moved far away to leave behind her the days as the alleged "Rose of the Cimarron".  

Note, although a popular photograph is often used and labeled with her name, it is believed to be a fake.  The image, showing a young woman in a striped dress holding a revolver, was said to have been made under the direction of U.S. Deputy Marshall Bill Tilghman, in an attempt to shield the true identity of Rose and help her make a new start.

Many of the outlaws of the Ingalls Battle were known to have frequented some of the dens and houses in Hell's Half Acre.  Many of the lawmen had walked its streets helping to keep peace.  Just another indication of the way "Hell" had a tendency to seep out into surrounding areas.

Rose Dunn aka "Rose of the Cimarron", along with "Cattle Annie", "Little Britches", Jessie Findley (Finley), and Flora Quick Mundis aka Tom King would fill dramatically the void left by the mysterious murder of Belle Starr in 1889 near Eufaula.  A fascinating page of truly unique history...found in Oklahoma...on the fringes of "Hell."

 Bonus: Her story inspired this classic and lovely song from Poco.