Butch Cassidy (3 page)

Robert and Ann Parker traveled the eighty miles from their home in Washington, Utah, to be present at the birth of their grandchild. Also present were the maternal grandparents, Robert and Jane Sinclair Gillies. The elder Parker held the baby Robert in his arms as the newborn was blessed and given his name.

During his tenure as a mailman, Maxi often crossed Circle Valley, a broad, flat plain surrounded by mountains and through which ran the Sevier River. He was convinced the fertile land was quite suitable for growing crops and raising cattle. Importantly for Maxi, it looked like a fine place to raise a family.

Maxi eventually purchased 160 acres in the valley from a man named James. The property was located some three miles south of Circleville, a small settlement near the confluence of Cottonwood Creek and the Sevier River, consisting of little more than a few Mormon residences and a schoolhouse. As soon as he was able, Parker moved his wife and six children into a two-room log cabin constructed near the base of a hill. The year was 1879, and young Robert was thirteen years old.

One room of the cabin served as kitchen and living area, and the entire Parker family slept in the other, their beds being little more than pallets made from ticking stuffed with straw and corn husks. The floor was also covered with straw that, in turn, was topped with cloths and homemade rag carpets. Over time, a separate kitchen and two bedrooms were added.

During the first year on the property, Maxi cleared the land, dug canals, and planted crops. His first agricultural effort yielded wheat, and despite high winds and other weather problems, he managed a harvest.

The family endured freezing winters, severe droughts, and occasional floods. During the harsh winter of 1879–1880, they lost all but two of their cows, a disaster from which it took years to recover. But recover they did, and during the process Maxi managed to homestead additional property, adding more land to the family’s holdings.

To help make ends meet, Maxi went to work cutting mine timbers at Frisco, a small mining town located just west of Beaver. He also hauled wood for charcoal near St. George, about one hundred miles from Circle Valley. In time, the Parker family grew to fourteen children.

During this period, squatters were becoming a growing problem in that part of Utah. It was only a matter of time until Parker was forced to deal with them. Another family of Mormons had settled onto a portion of the new Parker homestead and began tilling the land and grazing livestock. Because little in the way of formal law enforcement existed in the region, and because Maxi was committed to following the rules established by the Mormon church, he reported the trespass to the local bishop and requested the squatters be required to leave. In a surprising decision, the bishop judged the newcomers more deserving of the land than Parker and awarded it to them.

Parker had spent years, along with a great deal of energy and money, building this portion of his ranch only to have it taken away from him by the church authorities. Though Ann Parker was a devoted member of the faith, Maxi was lax about attending services. He also smoked cigarettes, which violated the rules of the Mormon church. Parker was convinced taking his land away from him was the church’s way of punishing him for his perceived transgressions. Angered by the unfair judgment, Maximillian Parker had little to do with the Mormon church thereafter.

In spite of the setback, Parker remained a hardworking rancher and a good husband and father. As soon as he was old enough, young Robert began accompanying his father and helping with the chores.

Robert Parker reveled in the time he spent with his father and in many ways patterned himself after Maxi. From his father, young Parker learned much about loyalty, a trait that characterized him in later years. He also learned about the value and virtue of hard work and completing a task. In time, he also came to share many more of his father’s attitudes, particularly those relating to the Mormon church.

Robert also adored his mother and his siblings. He constantly saw to their welfare, entertained them, took them for horseback rides, found pets for them, and generally worked to be a contributing member of the large family.

According to one researcher, young Robert Parker remained loyal to the Mormon church, even continuing to tithe the required 10 percent throughout his life. Most, however, do not share this contention. According to Robert’s sister, Lula Parker Betenson, the young boy stopped attending church services and, like his father, harbored contempt for the Mormon church as well as a disdain for religious hypocrites in general for the rest of his life.

Robert LeRoy Parker, a smiling and happy son of Utah, was a third-generation Mormon and a member of a somewhat prominent family. This same lad who loved his family so much and was the pride of relatives and peers would grow up to become Butch Cassidy, noted rustler, train robber, and bank robber and one of America’s most famous outlaws.

Two

Youth

Little is known about or even particularly noteworthy of Robert LeRoy Parker’s early youth save for his strong attachment to his family, a singular difficulty with the law, and a chance encounter with a man who was to influence him for the rest of his life.

As young Robert grew up in the close-knit and hardworking Parker family, he reveled in the association with his father and enjoyed working side by side with him on the ranch. At an early age, Robert developed a fascination with horses that eventually led to the development of remarkable skills as they related to breaking, training, and riding. Even as an early teenager, young Parker manifested this talent.

As the oldest child, Robert LeRoy Parker had a well-developed sense of responsibility and a special fondness and affection for his siblings. He often played with his brothers and sisters, and sometimes entertained them by performing tunes on the harmonica. In addition to his own family, other area youngsters enjoyed young Parker and often sought him out. With his own family, as well as with children of neighboring ranchers, Parker was easygoing and patient.

As he grew into his teenage years, the towheaded youth exhibited the deep-set blue eyes and square jaw of his mother. From his father, he inherited a sense of humor, determination, and dependability.

Robert LeRoy Parker was a mere thirteen years of age when he experienced his first encounter with the law. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be a negative one. At the time, he was working for a rancher named Pat Ryan not far from the town of Milford, located approximately forty miles northwest of Circleville. The Parker family had debts to pay, and in addition to farming and ranching, Maxi had taken on additional work cutting railroad ties and hauling timber. To help with the family expenses, young Robert decided to contribute, and he eventually secured a job on the Ryan Ranch. Ryan quickly grew impressed with the boy. Robert proved early he was capable of doing a man’s work, and he was dependable and intelligent.

One payday, Robert decided he needed a new pair of overalls, so he rode into Milford to make the purchase. On arriving at the mercantile store, he was mildly annoyed to find it closed. Having already made the long journey into town and, not wanting to wait around for the owner to return, Parker gained entrance, selected a pair of overalls, and left a note promising to return another day with payment for the pants.

This act, conducted with all the best intentions, was unacceptable to the store owner who immediately reported it as a theft. Two days later, lawmen arrested Parker. After the details were sorted out and it was eventually determined no serious crime had been committed, the youth was released.

The incident left several important impressions on the boy. For the most part, he was concerned that the allegation of theft was embarrassing for his family, and he regretted the shame it may have cast upon them. Additionally, even though he was young and inexperienced in such things, Parker remained appalled at what he considered a bullying miscarriage of justice and appeared from that point on to harbor certain contempt for the law. Because he was brought up by his family to be honest and forthcoming, he presumed in his youthful naïveté that everyone else was also, that others would understand and appreciate such things in their fellow man. The boy’s lack of worldly experience was in part responsible for his cultivation of this embryonic idealism. This was soon to change.

Author Charles Kelly provides a somewhat different explanation of Parker’s first brush with the law. Based on an alleged interview with a former Juab County sheriff, Kelly determined Parker had been arrested for stealing a saddle. While in jail, the boy was “mistreated by the sheriff of Garfield County.” Angered by his treatment, Parker, according to Kelly, swore vengeance then and forevermore against lawmen. There is no evidence that such a thing actually happened.

Following his employment at the Ryan Ranch, Robert, along with his mother and two brothers, soon found work closer to home at the Marshall Ranch and Dairy around 1881 or 1882. Initially, Maxi was not in favor of the arrangement but was finally persuaded when he became convinced that the extra money earned, along with free milk, cheese, and butter, would help get them back on their feet. Kelly wrote that Maxi Parker actually purchased the Marshall Ranch, but the majority of Cassidy scholars are in agreement that neither evidence nor likelihood of such a thing happening was apparent.

According to local gossip recorded by some researchers, the Marshall Ranch occasionally served as headquarters for gangs of horse thieves and cattle rustlers. One of the outlaws who frequented the ranch was a man named Mike Cassidy, who, some say, was the generally acknowledged leader of the rustlers. It was at the Marshall Ranch during his second year of employment that Robert Parker met Mike Cassidy. The event amounted to a significant turning point in the life of the boy.

Mike Cassidy was many things. He was a competent cowhand with years of experience with horses. Cassidy was well known throughout the region for his skills in breaking horses and often found himself in demand with area ranchers. Cassidy was also highly skilled with a pistol. He was considered a marksman who allegedly could place a bullet through a silver dollar at forty paces.

Mike Cassidy was charismatic. A likeable man, he was often idolized by area youth who considered him a kind of hero. He was well liked and respected by the group of cowboys he associated with and never lacked for friends.

Mike Cassidy was also an outlaw. He was known to be a cattle rustler and a horse thief. It is maintained by some historians that while working at the Marshall place Cassidy continued stealing horses and cattle from other ranchers. In fact, he held a large herd of his own in Bryce Canyon, a rugged, dissected maze of sandstone canyons located some sixty miles to the southeast.

Some have argued about the legitimacy of Mike Cassidy’s reputation as an outlaw: A few have claimed he was, pure and simple, one who broke the law. Others attribute to him a certain prankishness modified by a skewed perception of what justice actually was, or should have been. In truth, the West was filling up with railroaders and cattle barons, leaving very little land for men and families of modest means. The smaller ranchers and cattlemen, such as Cassidy, often roped and branded strays, called mavericks, from the larger herds owned by the corporate ranchers. In many parts of the country, such activity was recognized and accepted, and the maverickers assumed a few cattle here and there would not be missed. Men like Mike Cassidy regarded the strays as the price the larger cattle ranchers had to pay for pushing the smaller operators out.

However, the wealthy cattlemen held the money and the power. They were capable of manipulating laws and lawmen to serve their own interests, and often did. For many, mavericking was not tolerated. Soon the maverickers were deemed nothing more than common rustlers who were hunted down and sometimes hung on the spot.

It has never been entirely clear whether or not Mike Cassidy was simply a hardworking cattleman trying his best to get ahead or if he was little more than a common cattle thief. In any case, he often found himself at odds with laws and lawmen.

Like other young men, Robert LeRoy Parker was attracted to Mike Cassidy from the very first time he met him at the Marshall Ranch. Parker was impressed with the older cowboy’s skills with livestock. It may be assumed that he also admired the experienced cowman’s attitude relative to the wealthy cattle barons.

The outlaw’s life must have seemed quite glamorous to the young Parker. It was a life filled with excitement and a certain level of danger, whereas Parker’s was one filled with menial duties, hard work, and growing boredom. Author Larry Pointer wrote that it was no small stretch for Parker “to rationalize Cassidy’s rustling as retribution for the transgressions of religious hypocrites and greedy land barons.”

The outlaw Mike Cassidy likewise took a liking to Parker. He was impressed with the youth’s already well-developed skills with livestock. During the days of their relationship on the Marshall Ranch, Cassidy passed along much of his knowledge and technique of horse breaking and training to the boy. Cassidy gave Parker a saddle and spent time teaching him the fine points of horsemanship. In a short time, Robert LeRoy Parker was almost as good a horseman as Cassidy.

Cassidy also gave Parker a pistol, along with money for cartridges. When time was available, he taught the youngster how to handle the weapon. Before long, Parker was nearly the marksman Cassidy was known to be. By the time he was sixteen years of age, the youngster could shoot with remarkable accuracy, even from the back of a galloping horse. With the passage of several weeks, Parker was regarded as the best shot in the valley, replacing Mike Cassidy with that distinction.

When Cassidy’s herd of stolen cattle became too large to be contained by the Bryce Canyon environs, he decided to move them to the Henry Mountains, another sixty miles to the southeast, near the Colorado River. In need of some extra cowhands to work the herd, it is believed that he asked young Parker to go along. The experience, if it actually happened, likely further solidified the relationship between the two, and Parker probably learned even more about handling livestock and shooting a gun.

A short time later, Mike Cassidy ran afoul of the law again. He fled to Mexico where, according to most reports, he remained until he died.

The growing relationship between the boy Robert LeRoy Parker and the outlaw Mike Cassidy did not go unnoticed by Ann Parker. Concerned that the two were spending far too much time together, and worried about the potentially harmful influence the outlaw could have on her son, she eventually moved Robert and his two brothers back to Circleville.

In spite of his mother’s concerns and admonitions, young Parker maintained contact with Mike Cassidy for a time. Several months later, when Cassidy indicated he would be leaving the Marshall Ranch and moving on, Parker asked to accompany him. Perhaps aware of the concern evinced by the boy’s mother, and perhaps in a sincere attempt to keep the youth from going astray, Cassidy discouraged him. He counseled Parker to remain with his family.

With the continuous hard work on ranches, and with constantly practicing his horsemanship skills, Parker’s frame filled out with hard muscle. When he was eighteen years of age, he was five feet nine inches tall and weighed approximately 155 pounds. Though strong and durable, Parker remained soft spoken and friendly to all. He was characterized as having a disarmingly charming smile and was quick to laugh and generally liked. He continued to be regarded as dependable, hardworking, and loyal to his employers and to his friends.

Though Mike Cassidy had departed, Parker was still guided by many of the lessons he learned from the older cowboy. Though he was unable to follow Cassidy at the time, he did so later, at least figuratively.

Shortly after turning eighteen years of age in 1884, Robert told his mother he was leaving, that he needed to find opportunities above and beyond those offered at the southern Utah ranch. He spoke of traveling to Telluride, Colorado, and finding a job in the mines.

According to his sister, Lula Parker Betenson, on the day Robert decided to leave, his father was working at some distant location. His mother carefully packed him a supply of provisions and rolled them into a blue woolen blanket his grandfather had made for him when Robert was a baby.

As Robert saddled his horse, the family dog, Dash, grew excited at the prospect of going along, as was his custom on the ranch. Robert asked his mother to hold the dog so he wouldn’t follow. After mounting his mare, Babe, and taking the reins of his colt, Cornish, Robert LeRoy Parker rode away from the family homestead.

According to writer Richard Patterson, Mormons had a tradition of planting Lombardy poplar trees wherever they settled. Years earlier, Robert and his mother worked together to plant a row of poplars along the path that led to the main road. As he now rode down the path, Robert remembered that time of planting as he passed the line of trees.

The incident was to be recalled forty years later.