www.uwyo.edu/ahc

Special Issue:

WesternPolitics andLeadership

Milward L. Simpson is inauguratedgovernor, 1955. Milward L. SimpsonPapers, American Heritage Center.

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From the Director

The Simpson Institute was created last yearthanks to the generosity of Julienne Michel,

UW benefactor and friend of former U.S. SenatorAlan K. Simpson and his wife, Ann. In the lastissue of Heritage Highlights we announced thatKim Winters had been chosen to serve as thearchivist for the Alan K. Simpson Institute forWestern Politics and Leadership. I asked Kim toedit this issue which features the papers of anorganization, several individuals, and a collectionof books from the Toppan Rare Books Library fromthe fields of politics, religion, education, and law.

I hope you enjoy reading about the leaders oftwo of the best known Wyoming political fami-lies, Milward L. Simpson and Joseph M. Carey, aswell as about the educational efforts of Wyoming’sLeague of Women Voters to increase participationin the state’s political process. Harriett Elizabeth“Liz” Byrd not only served many years in

Wyoming’s legislature, but was also an educatorin Cheyenne who was selected as Wyoming’sTeacher of the Year in 1967. Nathaniel S. Thomas,during his twenty-five years in the state, signifi-cantly expanded Wyoming’s Episcopal Church.Byron Hirst’s long and distinguished careerincluded prosecuting and convicting Cheyenne’smayor and chief of police for corruption duringWorld War Two.

Do not believe for a moment that the collec-tions highlighted in this issue are the only papersof western leaders held by the Center. These areonly representative of the many collections wehave and it is impossible in only a few pages tomention all of them. If you have any questionsabout the above-mentioned collections, or anyother collections at the AHC, I hope you will con-tact us. ❚

— Rick Ewig, Interim Director

Athird generation Wyomingite, Milward L.Simpson was the first native governor of

Wyoming. Simpson wasknown not only for hisdirect approach to poli-tics, but also for his quicksense of humor. Asked ina 1976 newspaper inter-view why a man from astaunchly Democraticfamily had joined the Re-publican party, Simpsonexplained, “When I was21 and about to cast myfirst vote my dad madeone of his speeches. Heconvinced me that Demo-crats are fine, but Repub-licans always win, so Iregistered as a Republi-can.” Simpson was bornon November 12, 1897, in

Jackson, Wyoming, to parents William Lee andMargaret Burnett Simpson. Milward’s father wasan attorney in Lander, Fremont County, Wyoming,where Milward spent the first few years of his life.The family later moved to Meeteetse, Wyoming,and then to Cody, Wyoming.

Simpson attended Cody High School andgraduated in 1916. He enrolled in the Universityof Wyoming, but dropped out to enlist in theinfantry during World War One, during whichtime he served as a first lieutenant in the armyinfantry. Following the war he returned to UWand earned a B.S. degree in political science in1921. Simpson was also a prominent athlete at UWduring 1917-1921. He was the only UW athlete tohave ever concurrently captained the football, bas-ketball, and baseball teams. In 1996 he wasinducted into the University of Wyoming Athlet-ics Hall of Fame.

After graduation from the University of Wyo-ming, Simpson attended Harvard Law School,

Milward L. Simpson

Continued on page 4

Milward L. Simpson and wife, Lorna, n.d.Milward L. Simpson Papers, AmericanHeritage Center.

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Nathaniel S. Thomas: A Religious Leader in Wyoming

In the history of the Episcopal Church in Wyo-ming, the efforts of Ethelbert Talbot, Wyoming’s

first Episcopal bishop, and John Roberts, minis-ter on the Wind River Reservation, are wellknown. But the work of Nathaniel S. Thomas hasbeen overlooked.

In 1909, Thomas became Wyoming’s secondEpiscopal bishop. Nearly eleven years had passedsince Bishop Talbot had left the state, and churchleaders had subsequently put Wyoming under theadministration of the bishop of Colorado. Withan increase in settlement in Wyoming since theturn of the century, the church had much poten-tial for growth, but it would need leadership.Thomas’s appointment was a bold gamble.

Thomas, who had spent most of his ministe-rial career in Kansas, now found himself in a newland, entrusted with a unique mission. Nonethe-less, he entered the field with a strong backgroundin education and spiritual leadership. Shortly af-ter assuming his new office, the church’s presencebegan to expand across Wyoming. New churchesand Sunday schools were established through thehard work of an army of missionaries, ministers,laymen and lay women. The work was not easy,but Thomas had an innate ability to motivatepeople. Individuals doubting their abilities or lack-ing self-confidence received words of encourage-ment and guidance. Individuals perseveringagainst all odds or making significant inroads re-ceived added words of assurance and support.While patience was often required in his occupa-tion, Thomas could be demanding and forceful inorder to get things done. Thomas saw the Episco-pal Church as being more than just a compositeof churches and Sunday schools. He wanted it tohave an institutional presence as well, and de-voted his energies to various projects and pro-grams. To document and further fuel the church’swork, Thomas initiated a statewide Episcopalmagazine, Wyoming Churchman (1913-1934). Heoversaw the construction of Bishop Randall Hos-pital in Lander (1909), the Cathedral Home forChildren in Laramie (1910), St. Michael’s Mission

in Ethete (1913), andSt. John’s Hospital inJackson (1915). TheCathedral School forGirls (1921) and theCathedral School forBoys (1924) were builtin Laramie near theuniversity to providepreparatory schooling.The church operatedWyoming’s first radiostation, KFBU, in 1925.Its religious and secu-lar programs wereheard across the stateand, if atmosphericconditions were justright, in other parts ofthe country. Duringthe early 1920s, thechurch took an activerole in a short-livedstate ecumenical movement.

Probably Thomas’s most ambitious, albeitunsuccessful, project was the creation of a nationalboys’ school at Fort Laramie. To Thomas, the fort’shistoric significance made it the ideal setting. Hemade every effort to line up financial and politi-cal support for this venture. Unfortunately, hiseffort was ill timed. Just as he was advancing hiscause, the newly formed Wyoming State Histori-cal Landmarks Commission was working to safe-guard the fort as a historical site. In the end, thecommission won.

In 1934, Thomas left Wyoming for Florida.During his 25 years of service, he firmly anchoredthe Episcopal Church in Wyoming and made surethat its presence would have a lasting effect uponthe state for years to come. The Episcopal Dioceseof Wyoming Collection at the American HeritageCenter aptly documents the pivotal work of thisreligious leader. ❚

Nathaniel S. Thomas, n.d. Episcopal Church.Diocese of Wyoming Records, AmericanHeritage Center.

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receiving his law degree in 1925. In 1924 Simpsontook over his father’s law firm and passed the barexam in 1926.

In 1926 Milward Simpson was elected to theWyoming State Legislature from Hot SpringsCounty and served one term. Asked in later inter-views why he only ran once he explained that hisfather moved the law firm to Cody and that, “adarn pretty blue-eyed brunette,” Lorna Kooi, hadagreed to marry him. Simpson recalled in a 1976interview, “I’d been courting her for darn nearthree years…Most of the time she was off onround-the-word cruises with her parents, meet-ing all kinds of rich fellows. But I was persistent.I sent her a cable and a bouquet of roses at everyport.” Simpson and Lorna Kooi were marriedin 1929, and Milward continued to practice lawin Cody. They had two children: Peter KooiSimpson, born in 1930, and Alan Kooi Simpson,born in 1931. Both sons went on to serve Wyo-

ming and the nation.Milward Simpson headed the University of

Wyoming Board of Trustees for 18 years, as wellas serving on the National Executive Council ofBoy Scouts. In 1954 Simpson was elected asWyoming’s governor and served one term. Hewas elected United States Senator in 1962 andserved until 1966.

The Milward L. Simpson Papers containmaterial relating to Simpson’s days as a lawyer,governor, and senator. They include legal files, cor-respondence, photographs, legislative files, andpersonal files. The Milward L. Simpson Papers area major collection in the American HeritageCenter’s Alan K. Simpson Institute for WesternPolitics and Leadership and are currently avail-able for research with written permission from theSimpson family. Anyone wanting to access thepapers should contact Kim Winters at 307-766-2594, or kimain@uwyo.edu. ❚

Milward L. Simpson (Continued from page 2)

Byron Hirst

Byron Hirst achieved national recognition asa “crime fighter” in 1943. Some national

magazines even called him the “Tom Dewey ofthe West.” In addition to prosecut-ing graft in Cheyenne, Hirst wasactive as a prominent attorney,public-spirited citizen, and busi-nessman. He was a Cheyenne“mover and shaker” from 1937until his retirement in 1987.

He belonged to many civicand religious organizations, oftenserving as president, or at least asan active member of the board.Hirst, an ardent champion of con-servative causes, also found timeto promote a wide range of com-munity organizations such as ahospital, country club, and thearts. His civic career included the

Young Men’s Literary Club and the Cheyennecommittee of the Newcomen Society.

Hirst was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, in1912, moving with his parents to Cheyenne whenhe was 15. He earned his bachelor’s degree fromthe University of Nebraska in 1933. From thenuntil 1937 he worked for Senator Joseph C.O’Mahoney as a private secretary. Meanwhile heearned a J.B. and L.L.B. from George WashingtonUniversity and an L.L.M. from Harvard LawSchool. He was admitted to the District of Colum-bia bar in 1936.

Hirst returned to Cheyenne in 1937, and twoyears later he switched to the Republican party,organizing the Cheyenne “Wilkie for President”Club. He was elected Cheyenne’s prosecuting at-torney, and in 1943 he successfully prosecuted themayor, the chief of police, and the chief ofdetectives for graft. For this achievement, he

Continued on page 5

Byron Hirst. From 1933-38Hirst was a 2nd Lt. in the armyreserve. Byron Hirst Papers,American Heritage Center.

5

Distinguished for its many contributions tothe early political history and business de-

velopment in Wyoming, the Carey family has along affiliation with political offices including twosuccessive generations of Wyoming governors.

Joseph Maull Carey was born in Milton, Dela-ware, in 1845 and attended schools in the easternUnited States. After obtaining his law degree fromthe University of Pennsylvania and passing thebar in 1867, Carey practiced law in Philadelphiabefore moving to Wyoming. His involvement withlaw continued and he served as the first U.S. at-torney for Wyoming Territory beginning in 1869.

President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Careyto the position of associate justice to the WyomingTerritorial Supreme Court, a position he servedin until 1876. Carey then became active in politicsand served as a delegate to the U.S. Congress fromthe Wyoming Territory where he sponsored billsthat lead to Wyoming statehood. He went on toserve as a Wyoming Senator from 1890-95. Sena-tor Carey sponsored the Carey Land Act passedby Congress in 1894, which aided Western statesirrigation. In 1910 Carey was elected to one termas Democratic governor of Wyoming, at a timewhen he was a registered Republican.

Carey was also involved in business andagricultural interests. He founded the J. M. Careyand Bros. Land Company, Wheatland Develop-ment Company, and the Wheatland IndustrialCompany. He also served three terms as the mayorof Cheyenne, Wyoming, from 1881-85. Active in

many Wyoming agriculturaland civic organizations, Careywas a member of the WyomingStock Growers Association andserved as president of the Wyo-ming Livestock Association. Helater served as a member of theBoard of Trustees at the Univer-sity of Wyoming.

Joseph Maull Carey wasmarried to Louisa David in Sep-tember of 1877, and the couplehad two sons, Robert Davis andCharles David. Robert servedone term as Wyoming governor,1919-1923, and later as a U.S.senator for Wyoming, 1930-37.Joseph M. Carey and Robert D.Carey were the only father andson elected governors of Wyoming. Like his father,Robert D. Carey was active in the WyomingStockgrower’s Association, including serving aspresident of the organization from 1917-18. Afterthe death of their father in 1924 at the age of 79,sons Robert and Charles managed the J.M. Careyand Bros. Land Company.

The Joseph M. Carey Family papers docu-ment the political and business interests of theCarey family. Correspondence, business records,biographical files, speeches, newspaper clippings,diaries, and artifacts are included. ❚

Joseph M. Carey Family Papers

gained national recognition after the press dubbedhim the “Tom Dewey of the West.”

From 1953 to 1958 Hirst served in the Wyo-ming State Senate, where he was the executivesecretary of the Wyoming Compilation Commis-sion that edited and published Wyoming’sannotated statutes for the first time. He was also

a member of the Wyoming Digest Committee thatpublished the first digest of legal decisions.

The Byron Hirst collection contains some cor-respondence, photographs, and an oral history ofHirst’s early days in Cheyenne. There are also nu-merous awards and mementos of his career as anattorney and conservative booster in Cheyenne. ❚

Byron Hirst (Continued from page 4)

Governor Carey, ca. 1910.American Heritage CenterCollections.

6

Brigham Young is best known as a religiousleader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-

Day Saints. In his capacity as president of

Educational Leadership in Utah:Brigham Young’s Promotion of the Deseret Alphabet

the church, he was also the force behind anintriguing educational reform. In the early 1850s,in his second term as Utah Territorial Governor,he announced that he would like a new phoneticalphabet, called Deseret, taught in the schools.

Regents of the university in Salt Lake City,including George D. Watt, W.W. Phelps, Parley P.Pratt, and Heber C. Kimball, developed the newsystem of orthography. It was still English, but justa different written form of it that President Youngbelieved would make more sense, as well as takeup less space and, therefore, save paper. The origi-nal Deseret alphabet had 40 letters; a copy of itwas reproduced in an 1861 book in the AHC’sToppan Rare Books Library by Jules Remy calledJourney to Great Salt Lake City. After slight revisionto some of the letters, a 38-letter alphabet was usedin three primers. The Toppan Library has copiesof all three of these. The first and second primerswere published in 1868; the third, published in1869,was the first book of Nephi from the Book ofMormon. (The whole Book of Mormon, translatedinto Deseret by Orson Pratt, was also publishedin 1869; the Toppan Library, unfortunately, doesnot have a copy of that.)

For more detailed information on this subject,see the article by Stanley S. Ivins “The DeseretAlphabet,” in the Utah Humanities Review (1, 1947:pp.223-239), the entry with that title in the Ency-clopedia of Mormonism (Vol.1, 1992: pp.373-374),and another one with the same title by Sam Wellerand Ken Reid in True West (Sept./Oct., 1958: pp.14-16). The latter article has an illustration of the frontpage of the Salt Lake City newspaper, DeseretNews, in 1859, showing use of this alphabet. Thenew system was slow to catch on, however, andwith Brigham Young’s death in 1877, the impetusbehind its use also died.

To get an idea of how this phonetic alphabetworks the page with the illustration of birds in alandscape was transliterated, using the Deseretalphabet guide in the front of the book. (A begin-ner can work out this page in approximately half

The threeDeseret primers.From left toright: DeseretFirst Book,the Book ofMormon, andDeseretSecond Book.Lloyd TaggartCollection,Toppan RareBooks Library,AmericanHeritage Center.

Deseret characters and their pronunciations in standardEnglish (page located at the beginning of each primer.)Lloyd Taggart Collection, Toppan Rare Books Library,American Heritage Center.

Continued on page 7

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an hour.) It reads (from the top down): DeseuretSekund Book, LESN 3, The Spuring (Deseret Sec-ond Book, Lesson 3, The Spring). In the spuringov the yeeur, the budz in the turez poot fouerth.(In the spring of the year, the buds in the trees putforth.) The levz kum owt, and then tha poot onthaur fin duress ov gauren. (The leaves come out,and then they put on their fine dress of green).The turez look ga, hwooen tha ahur in fool bloom.(The trees look gay, when they are in full bloom.)The blosumz kloth them in ah ga duress ovhwooit, and ured, and gauren. (The blossoms cloththem in a gay dress of white, and red, and green.)

Nekst kumz the furoot. (Next comes the fruit.) Thefin dures ov the turez is biootifool too the i. (Thefine dress of the tress is beautiful to the eye.) Butthe furoot iz plezunt too the tast. (But the fruit ispleasant to the taste.)

Transliteration of the page on the right is leftto curious readers who would like to work out afamiliar Christian prayer in Deseret script forthemselves. These Deseret script books, as wellas other historic Mormon books from LloydTaggart’s Collection, are available for anyone tosee in the Toppan Rare Books Library, AmericanHeritage Center. ❚

Left: Pages from the Second Deseret Book. Lloyd Taggart Collection, Toppan Rare Books Library, AmericanHeritage Center.

Right: Pages from the Second Deseret Book. Lloyd Taggart Collection, Toppan Rare Books Library, AmericanHeritage Center.

The Deseret Alphabet (Continued from page 6)

8

The League of Women Voters was formed in1920 at the final convention of the National

American Woman Suffrage Association. Its pur-pose at that time was to teach women how to use

League of Women Voters of Wyoming

Local groups were formed in Casper, Chey-enne, Laramie, and Worland. The first presidentof the Wyoming league was Mrs. Raymond R.(Gladys) Jones of Cheyenne, the first secretary wasMrs. H. Nelson Smith of Laramie, and the firststate agenda item was “a study of the election lawsof Wyoming with a view to clarification, interpre-tation, and revision.” Early meetings of the Wyo-ming league were attended and supervised by anational organizer. “The National Board was very,very strict with us regarding almost every kind ofaction,” Helen Hollister recalled. “We were toldto be sure to wear a hat and carry gloves when wewere soliciting funds.” A few of the women mem-bers also needed further education in political ter-minology. One report, otherwise very good, wassubmitted by a young woman who “did notclearly understand the difference between ‘stat-ute’ and ‘statue.’ ”

Over the years the league has conducted non-partisan research on issues such as air quality, can-cer, correctional institutions, equality, jobs, landuse, suffrage, and waste removal and recycling.From the beginning, water use and water law wereimportant issues for the league. Helen Hollister,first Wyoming state league water chairman, fol-lowed Gladys Jones as president. “The idea of non-partisanship appealed to many women,” Mrs.Hollister recalled.

Legal advice and political support for theLeague were always generously provided in the1960s by Wyoming Senator Milward L. Simpson.Every other year the league’s national conventionwas held in Washington D.C. where SenatorSimpson made a point of meeting with the del-egates from his home state. A week later an 8 by10 photograph of the meeting arrived from thesenator’s office at the delegates’ homes.

The League of Women Voters of WyomingRecords at the American Heritage Center includeresearch files and subject files as well as businessand administrative records of the organization andinstructional materials developed by the leaguefor voters’ information. The materials cover Wyo-ming political contests, ballot access and fairnessissues, and social and environmental concernsfrom the mid 1950s to the 1990s. ❚

Milward L. Simpson, Helen S. Hollister, George Hollister in WashingtonD.C., ca. 1960s. League of Women Voters of Wyoming Records,American Heritage Center.

their new voting power. Since then, the Leaguehas played an important role in defining electionissues, encouraging voter participation, and spon-soring non-partisan political debates.

In the 1950s the national board of the leagueundertook a strong effort to organize state leaguesin North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, andNevada. In North Dakota the formation of awomen’s league was openly opposed by conser-vative male groups. In Wyoming, opposition wasnot so well-organized, but, according to HelenHollister, “I soon discovered that some men anda few women did not approve of the league.”Nevertheless, the Wyoming chapter of the Leagueof Women Voters was organized in 1957 “to pro-mote political responsibility through informedand active participation of citizens in govern-ment” and with the stated policy that “it shall notsupport or oppose any political party or candi-date.” Instead, the league focused on non-parti-san study of election issues and the disseminationof information so that voters could make up theirown minds.

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The Francis E. Warren Papers document theremarkable life and career of one of

Wyoming’s most notable political figures. FrancisEmroy Warren was born in Hinsdale, Massachu-setts, in 1844. He attended public school and theHinsdale Academy. During the Civil War, heserved in Company C, Forty-ninth Regiment,Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as a private andnon-commissioned officer. In 1868, Warren emi-grated to Wyoming at the request of his friend A.R. Converse, to join him in the mercantile busi-ness. Warren quickly became a partner in the busi-ness and then, in 1877, Warren bought outConverse and changed the name of the businessto F. E. Warren & Company, later to be known asthe Warren Mercantile Company.

Warren was involved in numerous other busi-ness ventures, the most notable of which were theWarren Live Stock Company, the Brush Swan Elec-tric Company, and the Cheyenne and NorthernRailroad. Other investments included an irriga-tion company, a phonograph company, and ex-tensive real estate holdings.

Warren was actively involved in Wyomingpolitics. He began his political career as a mem-ber of the Cheyenne City Council, serving from1873 to 1874. He was elected to the Council of theTerritorial Assembly in 1873, serving as councilpresident during his first term. Warren served asterritorial treasurer in 1876, 1879, 1882, and 1884and mayor of Cheyenne in 1885. He also servedas the chairman of the Republican Central Com-mittee for many years.

In 1885, President Chester Arthur appointedWarren territorial governor of Wyoming. Warrenwas appointed to a second term in 1889 andbecame the first governor of the state of Wyoming,when the territory achieved statehood in 1890. Heserved as governor of the new state for slightlymore than a month, resigning after his election bythe state legislature to serve as one of the two U.S.senators from Wyoming. Warren enjoyed an illus-trious senatorial career, serving from 1890 until1893 and from 1895 until his death in 1929. At thetime of his death, Warren had served as a U.S.senator for thirty-seven years, a term of service

Francis E. Warren Papers

Francis E.Warren, formerWyominggovernor, n.d.Francis E. WarrenPapers, AmericanHeritage Center.

which eclipsed that of any other senator up to thattime.

During his senatorial career Warren demon-strated his impressive leadership abilities whileserving terms as chairman of the Committee onIrrigation and Reclamation of Public Lands, theMilitary Affairs Committee, and the Appropria-tions Committee. He worked closely withWyoming’s other senator, Joseph M. Carey, topush through the Carey Act for the reclamationof public land, as well as an amendment to therivers and harbors bill that provided support fora survey of rivers in Wyoming and Colorado toidentify reservoir sites.

The Francis E. Warren Papers contain per-sonal and political correspondence, military pa-pers, scrapbooks, financial and legal records,photographs, business records for the Warren LiveStock Company and the Warren Mercantile Com-pany, as well as records pertaining to Warren’sother diverse business ventures.

In addition to documenting Warren’s per-sonal and political life, the collection providesvaluable information about the Rock SpringsMassacre, the Johnson County War, the WyomingWool Growers Association, and life in Wyomingfrom 1868 through the first three decades of thetwentieth century. ❚

10

o why don’t you run for the state legisla-ture?” With this casual suggestion, Liz

Byrd’s father launched her into a precedent-settingcareer as the first African American legislator inWyoming since statehood. In 1981, Harriett Eliza-beth “Liz” Byrd was elected to serve as one ofLaramie County’s state representatives. Her elec-tion to the legislature was on the tail end of analready outstanding career as an award-winning

teacher in the Laramie Countyprimary school system.

Born April 20, 1926, into theprominent Rhone family ofCheyenne, Liz Byrd is a fourthgeneration Wyoming native.Her grandfather, Charles J.Rhone, arrived in Wyoming asa child in 1876 and later becamea renowned cowboy and then arailroader. His son, Robert“Buck” Rhone, also workedwith the railroad, employed asa machinist. Robert encouragedLiz and her two brothers to edu-cate themselves as a “means ofsurvival.”

Graduating in 1944 from aCheyenne high school, Lizbegan to pursue her dream of

becoming an elementary school instructor. Puttingthe names of all the colleges that interested herinto a mayonnaise jar, she pulled out the winnerat random: West Virginia State College. She laterrecalled that her experience at this predominantlyblack college gave her a newfound respect forherself. In 1949, she graduated from college andreturned home to Cheyenne to begin her teach-ing career. Despite being one of the few degreedapplicants, Byrd said she was denied entry to theLaramie County School District due to her minor-ity status. She taught at Fort F. E. Warren Air ForceBase for the next ten years before finally gaining ateaching position with the County. Her excellentteaching abilities were recognized when Byrdwas named Wyoming’s Teacher of the Year for1967–68 and Outstanding Teacher by Instructor

Harriett Elizabeth Byrd

magazine in 1967. In 1976, Liz Byrd earned amaster’s degree in elementary education from theUniversity of Wyoming.

Although she enjoyed her work as an elemen-tary school teacher, Byrd became concerned aboutthe lack of benefits for teachers and inadequatematerials used in the classroom. Her fathercharged her to “do something about it” andhanded her the filing fee to register as a legisla-tive candidate. She won the race for state repre-sentative as a Democrat in a year whenRepublicans captured the majority of the seats inthe legislature. Byrd continued her teachingresponsibilities through her first three terms in thelegislature and included her students as much aspossible in the legislative process. Her studentsparticipated in the passage of bills naming theAmerican buffalo (bison bison) as the Wyomingstate mammal, the Knightia Fossil as state fossil,and the cutthroat trout as state fish.

Byrd served as state representative forLaramie County for eight years. She then ran forand won one of four Laramie County senate seatsin 1988. In her legislative career, Liz Byrd was theprime sponsor of legislation that included raisingthe age of majority to nineteen; passage of a childsafety restraint law; and the conferment of spe-

Liz Byrd with her two brothers, ca.1935. Harriett Elizabeth ByrdPapers, American Heritage Center.

Liz Byrd with her students, Laramie County SchoolDistrict #1, ca. 1965. Harriett Elizabeth Byrd Papers,American Heritage Center.

Continued on page 11

“S

11

Mrs. Theodore Gostas POW/MIA Papers

Mary O’Hara

Johanna Gostas of Sheridan, Wyoming, servedas Wyoming coordinator for the National

League of Families of American Prisoners andMissing in Southeast Asia. Her husband, U. S.Army Maj. Theodore W. Gostas, was taken pris-oner by the North Vietnamese during the TetOffensive in February, 1968, and released inMarch, 1973, following the signing of the Parispeace agreement in January that same year. Uponhis capture, the Vietnamese discovered Maj.Gostas was a counter-intelligence officer throughan article in the Stars & Stripes. His treatment suf-fered as a result and he was one of only five Ameri-cans to serve more than four years in solitary

confinement. Johanna Gostas worked with the na-tional and state POW/MIA groups from 1968 to1973 and was a National League of Families rep-resentative to a 1971 conference on prisoner of wartreatment held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Gostas POW/MIA Papers contain corre-spondence, news releases, pamphlets, newspaperclippings, and printed materials from various stateand national groups relating to Johanna’s workon POW/MIA issues. Also included is correspon-dence from other POW wives and families, post-ers depicting Wyoming POWs, and materialsrelated to the Geneva conference. ❚

Among the extensive AHC collections ofwomen writers of the American West, the

Mary O’Hara collection stands out. A writer of fic-tion as well as a composer of music, Mary trav-eled from New York with her husband toWyoming in 1930. They lived on the RemountRanch near Laramie for fifteen years before mov-ing back to the east coast. During her years in ru-ral Wyoming, Mary O’Hara wrote her three mostinternationally celebrated novels, which reflect hervivid, poignant ranch experiences: My FriendFlicka, Thunderhead, and Green Grass of Wyoming.All three novels were soon made into blockbusterHollywood motion pictures. The popularity of thenovels and films left a lasting literary legacy forMary O’Hara’s time in Wyoming. Mary wrote her

novella The Catch Colt along witha musical play version completewith the composition and the li-bretto.

Her papers include manu-scripts, galley proofs, andreviews of several of O’Hara’swritten works. There are alsothree scrapbooks containing let-ters, fan mail, reviews, and otherclippings from a variety of pub-lications concerning My FriendFlicka and Green Grass of Wyo-ming. There are also a number ofpersonal photographs. ❚

Mary O’ Hara, n.d. AmericanHeritage Center Collections.

cial license plates to POWs and Disabled Veter-ans. In 1990, she won a nearly decade-long battleto honor Martin Luther King, Jr. with a day of rec-ognition. The result was Martin Luther King, Jr./Wyoming Equality Day observed yearly on Janu-ary 12.

After retirement from the legislature, Byrdremained active in the Cheyenne community

Byrd (Continued from page 10)

along with her husband, James “Jim” W. Byrd.James Byrd also set a precedent as the first Afri-can American police chief in Cheyenne.

The Harriett Elizabeth Byrd collection con-tains memorabilia, news articles, awards, andphotographs pertaining to her teaching and leg-islative careers. The collection also contains per-sonal photographs of the Rhone family. ❚

12

American Heritage CenterP.O. Box 3924Laramie, Wyoming 82071-3924

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDUniversity of Wyoming

For anyone wanting to know moreabout the AHC’s politics and leader-

ship collections, the AHC has published aGuide to Politics and World Affairs Resources,detailing the kinds of collections whichhave been mentioned in this issue of Heri-tage Highlights. Tying into the theme of thisyear’s American Heritage Center Sympo-sium, Re-figuring the Ecological Indian, theAHC also has available a Guide to NativeAmerican Resources. Other guides producedby the AHC cover topics such as Wyominghistory, twentieth century American cul-ture, women’s history, and mining andgeology. The guides sell for $5 plus $2 ship-ping and handling. Contact the AHC, P.O.Box 3924, Laramie, WY, 82071, (307) 766-4114. ❚

AHC Guides Available