My family has been in this area for a few years. And by a few years, I mean generations. I proudly tell anyone with even the tiniest interest that my dad’s grandpa was a mayor. The last mayor of the 19th century in fact. That’s just his paternal side though since his mom hailed from New York state. My mom’s roots however, are a little more plentiful. Both sides on her maternal side came to the area due to coal mining. Coal was the lifeblood of this community after all. Mom’s paternal side, took a more circular route to get here. Ranching outside of town brought the family to the area before eventually moving into town. So, whenever I read a book about local history, I always hope to bump into some family history. It’s true what they say, be careful what you wish for because you just may get it.

For any first timers reading this blog let me quickly explain something that will help the rest of this post make sense: every summer I conduct local cemetery historical walking tours. My tours are not sponsored by anyone or any organization (I wish!). Rather, it’s just me being an amateur historian doing my best to share tidbits of stories I have learned about my community. To sum it up, I research by reading historical books or by other similar methods and then offer to share stories that I find interesting about our little community.

Sometimes, and it is happening more often now since I have been doing this 10 years, I get handed a story. Someone comes on my tour and says, “But you know about…” Or “Did you know…” to which I usually respond, “No, I did not know but I’m about to learn.” I then learn the story and try to condense it down to fit it in my tour timeframe. Last year, I was handed one such story.

It was during my tour about some of the women that came to this area. The tour focuses solely on the some of the founding mothers, if you will, that helped shape this community. A descendent of one of the women I share a story about happened to be on tour. After the tour, she told me about a book she had written about a family with plots in the cemetery. The family was part of her cousins’ line. She offered to send me the book. Free. As a gift. And she mailed it to me.

When I finally made time to read it, I expected to learn more about the family she had mentioned. Because of the locale of the book, I was also hoping to maybe bump into some family history on my dad’s side of the family that spent time in that general area. Since the book took place outside of the timeframe my dad’s family was in the area, I let go of the hope of finding any personal connection. But by complete surprise, I did meet someone on my mom’s side. And it is quite a story! A story I knew nothing about.

Let me back up a little bit though and share a little bit about the principal character in the book before I go exposing some family branches.

The story is about Sam Leckie who came to Wyoming at the end of the 19th century and built a ranch at the base of the Wind River Mountain range. It is a fairly remote area with harsh winters but he made a go of it with his family. An industrious sort, he also built a small trading store, a bar, and even a post office for travelers passing through.

We’ll just jump straight to the action. September 14, 1905, a man by the name of Orien Moore, stopped at the Leckie bar. No one remembers that he had anything to drink. But witnesses recall Sam drinking with a few of his buddies. At one point, Orien left the bar and for whatever reason started picking at the casing around the window outside the building. Sam got after him for doing that and ended up chasing Orien off and shooting his gun in Orien’s direction – but deliberately missing him – for emphasis. He was heard to say he would kill Orien if he returned.

Orien couldn’t let it go. After a day of anxiety and adrenaline, he ended up going back for his horse. Instead of just getting his horse and going though, he went back to the bar and he carried a rifle. It was a small 10×10 building so there wasn’t any extra room to hide or not be noticed. Witnesses say, when Orien entered, Sam and Orien locked on to each other with their eyes. They stood about 6 feet apart.

Sam drew first and missed. Orien quickly shot his rifle after and did not miss.

There was no denying what he had done, Orien turned himself in. Because of the small community, Orien was afraid he wouldn’t get a fair trial. He ended up being convicted and sent to the state penitentiary for life. Of which, he served 5 years and then escaped.

In 1935, due to the desperation of the Great Depression causing an influx in the prison system, and since Orien was never heard from again, the government counted him as reformed and pardoned him. Did he ever know this? No one can say.

As far as historical stories go, you have to admit, this is a pretty good one. You’ve got the caricature of the old west stamped all over this. Of course I’m going to share it on my tour.

But, and this is where it took a surprising turn, there is a little bit more to the story. Here comes that personal connection I’m always hoping to discover.

I had just finished the chapter about Orien Moore killing Sam Leckie and that he had turned himself in without a fight. Nothing about it sounded familiar. Turn the page, new chapter, chapter 7. Orien’s half brother Charley Testers attempted to raise money for a lawyer. Hmm, I thought, my great-grandpa’s name was Charley Teters. But Charley was a common name so I kept reading.

The family came from Missouri. Hmm, I thought, the Teters family came from Missouri. Come to think of it, I believe Moore is in the family tree somewhere. Then I read the family had ties to Brown’s Park. No more hmm, I put the book down and looked at my family tree.

My great grandpa Charley’s dad died and his mom remarried a John Moore. They had three children together, 2 daughters and a boy named Orien who was 10 years younger than my grandpa.

Good crud! My great grandpa’s half brother killed a guy and went to prison! And then escaped. And then possibly settled in Brown’s Park. But that last part is more theory than proven fact.

The author of the book is cousins with the descendants of the Sam Leckie. I am related to the one who shot Sam. I emailed her thanking her once again for sharing the book and letting her know about the newfound connection.

I have read a lot of local historical books looking for little nuggets of family history. Have to be careful doing that though, you never know what’s going to fall out of those branches.