A Well Know Character...Little Jo Monaghan

In 1904, the Boise City Capital News reported the death of Jo Monaghan, "a well-known character" who had worked, ranched and ridden roundups in Idaho for more than thirty years.

Deemed like able, if a little odd, by his neighbors, Jo had never given anyone reason to suspect that he was actually a woman. He had even enjoyed such exclusively male privileges as voting and serving on juries.

Jo Monaghan arrived in Owyhee County, Ruby City, Idaho in 1867. This city was Idaho's latest center for the gold rush fever. Jo was only 5ft tall in his cowboy boots. He was slight and and had a high pitched voice. His nick name became "Little Joe".

Jo Monaghan lived in Ruby City, in a little shack for 10 years. He tried his skill at mining
(but was unsuccessful) and sheep herding. He also raised chickens and hogs, and made money by keeping a cow and selling the milk to the miners. 

He took a job as a sheepherder and spent 3 years, alone with just his horse and dog watching over the sheep. Jo fended off wolves through the long snowy winters.

Jo also worked on cattle drives or wrangling and shearing sheep for local ranchers. He never bathed or bunked with the other cow hands and laid his bedroll outside. He also had no interest in bars and dance halls.

Little Joe had only one close friend, an older mine superintendent. He entrusted him with all his hard earned money for safe keeping. The superintendent disappeared one day with all of Joe's savings, 2 decades worth. Joe and his neighbors formed a posse and chased after the thief, but never found him or the money.

Little Joe was a natural on horseback He took to breaking wild horses for a living-he became known throughout the Owyhee's as a superior horseman.

In early 1880's little Joe moved to Rockville, along the Idaho and Oregon border, and started a homestead. 21 citizens lived in Rockville-Joe loved the little city. He was well liked by all there and before long he had a dozen head of his own cattle and horses.

Joe continued to take jobs on other ranches. Through these ranchers- it was suggested that Little Joe try out for a Wild West Show. The other ranchers arranged a meeting between Little Joe and Andrew Whaylen. Andrew Whaylen was a former member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show who was starting his own show.

Whaylen's Wild West Show hired Little Joe and featured him as "Cowboy Joe" and offered $25 to any man who could bring in a bronc that Joe could not ride. Little Joe was able to ride any bucking horse with ease and even horses that had thrown all the other local riders.

Whaylen saw an article for Vitagraph Film Co. They touted themselves as the next big thing-"moving pictures". Whaylen wrote to the film co. and suggested they film his Wild West Show.

Albert Smith of Vitagraph eagerly accepted-it would be the first Western movie to be filmed west of the Mississippi. The shows star performance was Cowboy Joe Monaghan. He was filmed on a bucking bronc.

After the Wild West show closed for the season, Joe returned home to his ranch. In 1903 Joe was driving his cattle to pasture near the Boise river, when he took ill. He was taken to the Malloy Ranch for care. He died there on January 1904.


During the burial preparations, Joe's long held secret was revealed. Joe was actually a woman. There was further evidence found in Joe's home. The neighbors were going through Joe's things and found letters written by Joe's sister.

The letters told about a debutante from Buffalo New York, Josephine Monaghan, who had a child out of wedlock. She was disowned by her wealthy family. Her son's name was Laddie. She was a desperate mother trying to make a living by working as a waitress at a restaurant in New York City. Laddie was born in 1866 and her and the child were abandoned by the father. At one point Joe was forced to put, Laddie in an asylum. All this became to much for Josephine (Joe) and she left her child with her sister.

 Laddie eventually graduated from Columbia Law School and entered the New York State Bar Association.

 Josephine (Jo) Monaghan's amazing story was made into a movie called "The Ballad of Little Joe".

Information for this story came from the books-
"Cowgirls" by candace savage
"More Than Petticoats:Remarkable Idaho Women" by Lynn E Bragg



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The Angel of Tombstone.....Ellen Cashman

 

Frontier Angel, Miner's Angel and the Angel of Tombstone were all names known to Ellen (Nellie) Cashman. Ellen was famous throughout the Old West as a nurse, entrepreneur, gold miner and Angel. Ellen was once described as "Pretty as a Victorian cameo and, when necessary, tougher than two-penny nails."

Ellen Cashman was born in Queenstown, County Cork Ireland in 1845. Her father died when she was young, so Ellen, her sister, Frances (Franny) and her mother immigrated to the United States. Ellen and her family settled in Boston, where Ellen began work as a bellhop in a prominent Boston hotel. It is said she met General Ulysses S. Grant, here and he urged Ellen to head west. Ellen and her family did, they headed out west to San Francisco, Ca in 1865.
 
Ellen was busy working as a cook at various miner camps including Virginia City and Pioche Nevada. Ellen would take the money she earned from the miner camps and open a Miner's Boarding House at Panaca Flat, Nevada in 1872.

In 1874 Ellen came down with gold fever. She, along with 200 Nevada gold miners, traveled to the Cassiar Mountains in British Columbia, Canada to strike it rich. While in Cassiar she set up another boarding house for miners. This time asking for donations to the Sister of St. Anne in return for services at the boarding house. While in Cassiar, Ellen heard of 26 miners who were injured and suffered from scurvy. She quickly put together a six man search party and collected food and medicine to bring to the stranded miners. The conditions in the mountains were bad and Ellen was advised by the Canadian Army not to proceed on her search. She went anyways and eventually after 77 days of tough weather conditions, Ellen located the injured miners who numbered 75 men not 26. She administered a vitamin C diet to nurse the group back to health. Ellen would later be known as the "Angel of Cassiar".

Ellen eventually found her way to Arizona. First stopping in Tucson and then later in 1880 to Tombstone Arizona, just after the arrival of the Earp brothers. Ellen opened a restaurant and hotel called Russ House which served 50 cent meals and advertised "there are no cockroaches in my kitchen and the flour is clean."  Legend has it that a man once complained about Ellen's cooking and a fellow patron Doc Holliday drew his pistol asking the man to repeat what he said. Embarrassed the man replied, "Best I ever ate."  
Ellen spent her years in Tombstone as a business owner, influential citizen, and an Angel of Tombstone. Ellen was a life long Catholic and convinced the owners of the Crystal Palace Saloon (one of whom was Wyatt Earp) to allow Sunday church services until she could raise enough funds for the construction of the Sacred Heart Church. She also raised money for the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, and the miner's hospital there in Tombstone.

Ellen came back from an unsuccessful gold expedition in Baja, California and learned her sister had died of tuberculosis and left Ellen to raise her  5 children. Ellen sold the Russ House and spent the next years with the children wandering the mining camps of Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona. Ellen would eventually joined the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada's Yukon Territory. Ellen arrived in Dawson where she opened a restaurant, a mercantile outlet and a refuge for miners. Ellen lived in Dawson for 7 years and was know to all as one of the greatest figures of the Klondike gold rush.

In January 1925 the Angel of Tombstone, Ellen (Nellie) Cashman developed pneumonia and died. She was buried at Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, British Columbia. Entrepreneur, humanitarian, gold miner, Angel whatever you choose to call her Ellen embodied the spirit of the Old West through her courage and entrepreneurial spirit.





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