A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
The Weed Family
Matt 1857- 1834
Bruce 1887-1949
Many of our early pioneers were honest hard-working men and women working to rebuild their lives and our country after a devastating Civil War. They built the towns and ranches that are the foundations of Wyoming today, but not all of our early pioneers were perfect human beings. Indeed, there were some cads, liars and scoundrels among the early Lander Valley settlers.
Matthew Dwight Weed moved to Dakota Territory when he was 23. He was employed as a stagecoach driver for the Niobrara Transportation Company and had been working in that job for four years when he took a bride, Liodusky Jane Ulrey in 1886. Their son, Martin Bruce was born the next year. The Weed family moved to Lander in 1891 where Matt managed the stagecoaches for the same company and soon was promoted to superintendent. His wife worked in the stage offices and later found a job working with the new telephone company. They built a fine brick house on South Fourth Street in Lander and their son, Bruce attended the Lander public schools and graduated from Lander Valley Vocational High School in 1905. Matt also had cattle, sheep and mining interests, and he invented a liniment for use on livestock that he advertised in the local paper. The family was prospering. The family bought land close to the Little Popo Agie in the Red Canyon area to start a ranch of their own in 1908, which a few years later led to a tragedy that would change the family’s fortunes.
In May of 1911 the family milk cow went missing and Matt’s wife, Liodusky went looking for it. She took a stout spoke off of a wagon wheel to use as a prod to help move the cow. Her little dog accompanied her. Her body was found later that day by a neighbor. She was dead with a broken neck. The cow and her calf were grazing close by and her little dog was guarding her body when she was found. The county coroner came to investigate. It was assumed that the cow, because it had a calf by its side, became aggressive toward the dog and perhaps the dog ran to its mistress for protection leading the cow back to her which caused Mrs. Weed to trip and stumble down a 10 inch embankment breaking her neck in the process. When found, she still clung to the spoke she had used for protection.
Shortly before his mother’s death Bruce had married a woman named Virginia Taylor and they had a daughter Erma, but the marriage appears to have been unhappy, and the couple divorced in 1913. When the railroad finally came to Lander in 1906, the time of the stage coach was drawing to a close. Over the next 20 years Matt Weed not only lost his wife and his job, but also his fortune, his house in Lander and his ranch land were lost in foreclosure proceedings. Matt Weed died a pauper as an inmate of a poor farm in Nebraska in 1934, seemingly estranged from his son, Bruce.
In the next generation Virginia divorced Bruce Weed for his infidelities, and quickly found herself in financial difficulty as a single mother with a 2-year old daughter. Some years later Virginia took Erma to Los Angeles, where they found work in a hotel. While in L.A. Erma was removed from her mother’s care and put in juvenile detention. Virginia was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. As an adult Erma made her way back to Wyoming and married, but her marriage only lasted a year. She died in Douglas, Wyoming in 1989.
Picking up Bruce Weed’s story, he married four more times after the divorce from Virginia. His second wife was Miss Elizabeth Goetell, a woman he had met through a lonely hearts ad. Bruce made a trip to New York to meet Elizabeth and married her in 1919 just two weeks after they met in person. He claimed to be a mining engineer and was promoting gold and oil mines in Wyoming. The couple lived with Elizabeth’s parents.
A New York newspaper correspondent sent the Lander Journal a story about Bruce Weed, who stated he was recently married in that city in order to secure some large oil holdings In Wyoming which were not to come Into his possession until he married. The Journal editor sarcastically remarked, “It must be quite easy to unload stories onto New York newspaper men.” But this was no story. The end result was the discovery by prospective New York and Wyoming investors that Bruce Weed’s promotions of wealth to be had in Wyoming oil and gold futures were entirely fictitious. This ended, for Bruce, all financial support, to say nothing of a tarnished reputation, and his wife’s parents brought about his immediate and total separation from their daughter and granddaughter.
Not to be deterred by this disappointment, Bruce Weed was then free to roam about the matrimonial market in search of another wealthy spouse. His third marriage was in 1928 to Anna Oman in Sioux City, Iowa. It is unclear if this marriage was ever formally dissolved. Bruce married a fourth time in 1936 to widowed Helen Louise Nutt in Ohio. On this marriage licenses Bruce lied about his marital status claiming to never have been married before. Again, this marriage was probably not formally dissolved. He clearly kept true to his “modus operandi” of abandonment. Bruce’s fifth and final marriage was to Kathryn Helm in 1940 in South Dakota.
Bruce died in Los Angeles in 1949. He had refused to respond to his dying father’s request for his presence at his deathbed, and most tragically, he left many wives in his wake and children who did not have the advantage of growing and flourishing in safe and happy homes.
Author: Liz Farmer: Pioneer Museum
Next up for the Fremont County Museum
March 21, 6pm at the Dubois Museum, “Circle Up Along the Wind River” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
March 29, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Celebrating Women’s History Month” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
April 19, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Sheep Shearing Day” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
April 26, 9-2 with the Pioneer Museum, “Garden Expo Craft Booth” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
April 26, 10am at the Dubois Museum, “Wind River Kites: Make Your Own Kite” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
May 1, 2pm at the Dubois Museum, “Shippen Family Legacy in Dubois” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
May 17, 9am with the Dubois Museum, “Butch Cassidy at Jakey’s Fork” Wind River Visitors Council Adventure Trek Series
May 22, 7pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Lander 1925” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
May 24, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Being a Pioneer Kid” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
May 24, 10am at the Pioneer Museum, “Lander Main Street Trek” Wind River Visitors Council Adventure Trek Series
May 31, 11am at the Riverton Museum, “Horned Owl Draper Raptor Experience” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
Call the Dubois Museum 1-307-455-2284, the Pioneer Museum 1-307-332-3339 or the Riverton Museum 1-307-856-2665 for detail regarding their programs.
The Dubois Museum, the Pioneer Museum in Lander and the Riverton Museum need your financial support. In the current economic environment, the museums are more reliant than ever on donations from the private sector to continue to provide the quality programs, collections management, exhibits and services that have become their hallmark over the last four years. Please make your tax deductible contribution through the Wind River Cultural Centers Foundation www.windriverccf.com or by sending a check to Fremont County Museums 450 N 2nd Rm 320 or taking it directly to the museum you choose to support.