Dora McGrath: A Lady of the Wild West
She was the daughter of homesteaders and wife of a coal miner. A mother, business woman, stylish lady of society, soldier advocate, and first woman senator of Wyoming.
This courageous mother was a true pioneer of Hot Springs County, Wyoming.
The Pioneers of Outlaw Country.
Cowboys, Lawmen and Outlaws… to the businessmen and women who all helped shape Thermopolis and Hot Springs County, Wyoming.
Here are their stories.
Dora McGrath: A Lady of the Wild West
A single gunshot rang out. It was night on a bustling Wyoming street - yet no one admitted to recognizing the gunman who escaped into the crowd….
Dora McGrath had been living in Wyoming since she was a teen-ager – a young wife who, with a newborn, had followed her husband, parents and sisters to their new home near Fort Fetterman.
As Dora made her way to this wild frontier, her adventures and hard work had only just begun. This pioneer of the plains and friend to the outlaw and lawmen alike, would one day be part of high society and become the first woman senator of Wyoming. Dora would survive the tragedy of murder, lose those she cherished most and, with gloves off, fight for those who remained.
Dora McGrath was born Dora Delina Thomas in North English, Iowa in November of 1868, the eldest of three daughters. Her father, George Washington Thomas, was a Civil War veteran who had marched with Sherman and the Northern Abolitionists. After the war had ended, he married Nancy Jane Miller a southern belle and a hard-working Methodist. She was raised to be a lady of dignity, even in a calico dress. She instilled in her daughters the importance of family and of an education.
At 16, Dora married the dashing 21-year-old James T. Barker in their home state of Iowa. Shortly after, in 1887, her family – and husband – immigrated to Wyoming but Dora stayed behind with their newborn daughter. As soon as Nina Blanch was old enough, Dora traveled alone on the stage line with her infant to meet her husband in Douglas. This exhausting trip would have been in a four-horse coach and taken long days of travel in-between stage stops.
The young family had gotten a room for the night in Douglas to rest up for the next leg of their journey. However, a terrible storm came up and literally flooded them out of bed. They hired a rancher to take them to their new home at Fort Fetterman. They rode through a horrific storm as the lighting and thunder crashed around them, protecting their infant daughter from the onslaught.
She reached Wyoming just in time to help make it a state. At the time, Dora McGrath lived in Iowa, women did not vote. It was an almost unheard of thing for them to mix in politics or voting. There were plenty of politicians who were more than willing to help the 18-year-old mother, however. On election morning, a gentleman called at her door and asked her if she would like to vote and she assured him that she would, so she was bundled off to the polls, given a ticket that was already scratched and told to drop it in the ballot box. Not knowing any better, she did exactly as she was instructed.
In the afternoon, another gentleman came to her door asking if she had yet voted. She told him that she had done so that morning and who had taken her to the polls. He informed her that she had voted all wrong and that she would have to do it all over again. So he in turn took her to the polls where another scratched ticket was given her with similar instructions to that of the morning. So, without doubt, Mrs. McGrath did her part to make Wyoming a state.
Shortly after, Jim became the foreman in the Glenrock mine and then, in the spring of 1891, he took over the duties of deputy sheriff. Unfortunately for the Barkers, the Converse County newspaper, Bill Barlow’s Budget, ran a story on how overpaid he was as a lawman. The editor complained loudly that $40 a month was too much and that a salaried deputy was not needed in either Glenrock or Lusk. Dora’s husband resigned by December and returned to the coal mines.
In the meantime, Dora’s parents opened a boarding house and her mother ran it with strict rules but with a heart of gold. Nancy had nothing to do with the cards and liquor that ran freely through the territory and often took a firm stance against such vice. She had, more than once, chased off men like Tom Horn who would harass her younger two daughters.
Bible reading was a part of everyday life in the boarding house and she expected all her boarders to listen, regardless of who they were. Cowpuncher, coalminer, gambler or outlaw would slip into a chair and listen to what she had to say.
It was a hard life but the Thomas daughters had been raised to be unafraid of work. Four years after moving to Glenrock, Dora’s 17-year-old sister Minnie had married Martin McGrath, an ambitious merchant. He set his sights on the business opportunities of a new community called Thermopolis and by 1895 had moved his young family 200 miles away. Undaunted by the thirty-six-hour trip by stage, Dora visited her sister in early summer. She fell in love with the new region and was eager to explore the area, especially nine miles away from the settlement where hot water bubbled out of the ground.
It was a late Wednesday afternoon, when family friend, Dr. Rugg, was driving a spirited team across the hot stream at the Springs. Dora and her youngest sister, Miss Stella Thomas, were his passengers when the team stepped into the hot water. Frightened, they bolted and broke the buggy off near the end. The minute it broke the horses started on a run, the end going into the ground, the buggy in the air and its occupants into the mud. None of them were seriously hurt, but they made the news throughout Wyoming which reported the trio appeared as a “ a most sorrowful sight.”
Despite her misadventure at the springs, Dora and Jim continued to visit Thermopolis.
Two years later, the Springs were purchased by the government and homesteading was allowed. Immediately, a horse rider was sent to Lander, the county seat, to establish a new town and the original townsite of Thermopolis was abandoned. New Thermopolis was moved closer to the hot springs and Dora’s brother-in-law established himself as a leading businessman in the fledging town.
As Mart and Minnie made their home at the springs, Dora and Jim remained in Glenrock, raising their four children. Jim continued to work in the coal mines and was an active member of the Odd Fellows, traveling to Casper for Lodge meetings. Dora kept a keen interest in Thermopolis and promoted the town to her neighbors, many who left Converse County for the hot springs.
When their youngest son, Harry, was five years old, patriotic fever gripped Glenrock. War had been declared and Jim was one of the first men to sign his name as a volunteer. Ultimately, he wasn’t sent but remained ready to go fight in the Spanish-American War of 1898.
1899 was a promising year for the young family. The coal business was booming and Jim was fixing up a home on five acres near town. They had fruit trees and bushes bearing fruit and room for the children to roam free.
However, ominous clouds hung over the family. In late June, the Converse County Herald reported an event that foreshadowed their future.
“Jim Barker accidently hit Frank Wiley behind the right ear with a broom handle Friday night and for a time Frank did not know what hurt him, but he is all right now.”
In late October, Jim’s temper flared and he brutally beat their neighbor on the main street of Glenrock. A feud had been building between Jim and John Blessing, the local blacksmith. Jim’s bird dog had been chasing and worrying John’s sheep so Blessing ordered one of the men working for him to shoot at the dog. Reports varied if the dog was killed or not but the results were the same.
The Natrona County Tribune reported on the confrontation. “That night when Blessing went up town to get his mail, Barker called him out of the post office into the street and knocked him down and kicked him horribly until bystanders rushed to Blessing’s rescue. Blessing got up and as he started off called Barker a coward, and said that he would make him eat it before he slept.”
About fifteen minutes later, Barker was standing in the back portion of the post office building, in one of the rooms used as a residence by his brother-in-law, the postmaster Dr. Rugg. Jim was reading a letter and Dora was standing behind him, her hand on his shoulder as she read the letter with him. Suddenly, a shot was fired through the kitchen window.
Jim fell to the floor mortally wounded. The ball passed through his arm, one lung, grazed the backbone and lodged against a rib. The wounded man lived until Saturday morning.
Saturday evening, a post mortem examination was held by Dr. Hoff, who found that the bullet, evidently from a 45-caliber revolver, had caused his death. The entire lower portion of his body had been paralyzed from the time of the shooting, and the right lung was found so be collapsed and full of blood.
John Blessing was immediately arrested and Saturday morning was taken to Douglas. He belonged to the Masonic order, and the local papers advocated for him as a hardworking man of good reputation. He was married with a large family.
James Barker, according to the same paper, was a coal miner by occupation and leaves a wife and four children. He is a member of I. O. O. F. order. He did not have the reputation of being a quarrelsome man, but would fight on the slightest provocation. He was powerfully built and with an ideal physique, perhaps his equal would not be found in this section of Wyoming.
Barker displayed a wonderful nerve after he was shot, and until his death. He refused to see the minister, saying that if he had to die, he could stand for it without the aid of a minister. When told by Dr. Hoff that he had to die, he took it calmly, almost as though it concerned some other than himself. He bid his wife, children and friends good bye as thought he was going on a short journey, soon to return.
It is a question in the minds of many of the citizens as to really who committed the crime. The coroner’s jury brought in a verdict of death by a gunshot wound by parties unknown, and as there seems to be no evidence against Blessing, his friends claim he will be released at the preliminary examination.”
No one saw the shot fired, though several saw someone running from the scene of the tragedy who, in the darkness, resembled Blessing. John Blessing was acquitted the following May and the murder of James T. Barker was never solved.
A month after her husband’s murder, Dora had rented out their family home and returned to Iowa with her in-laws, her children in tow. It was expected that she might be leaving permanently but Wyoming was her home.
1900 marked the family’s second Christmas without Jim and it took a tragic turn. The young widow had opened a small boarding house in Thermopolis and was taking in sewing to support her family. On this fateful Christmas day, Dora’s 14-year-old daughter, Nina, and her 27-year-old sister, Minnie, both died of typhoid fever. There was no one else to take care of her sister’s children so Dora took over the care of her young nephews, Roy and Lester.
Two years later, Dora married her sister’s widower, Martin McGrath, in Thermopolis.
She worked at the family store alongside her new husband as the buyer for the ladies’ furnishing department of the McGrath & Higgins Store. Both her sons worked as clerks and the family business flourished.
Despite the remoteness of the new town, life in Thermopolis for Dora and her family were full of social events, parties, weekly club meetings, basketball games and travel for both business and pleasure. They went on vacations to Mexico and on buying trips to Chicago and New York City.
In 1910, Martin bought the family a new 40 horse powered Inter-State automobile and the McGrath car quickly became a favorite sight in Thermopolis. Even though, at first, they had a chauffeur, Dora was soon behind the wheel taking trips with the local ‘autoists’ to Billings, Yellowstone and Denver. It was noted on a joy ride to Billings that “they found plenty of road but not all of it in the best condition for a speedway.”
In May of 1916, Martin sold his merchandise and store to the Woods Brothers and began to develop his oil interests in earnest. Dora and her family wintered in Los Angeles, California that same year but their hearts remained in Thermopolis and they split their time between the two states.
When World War I broke out, Dora’s oldest son, Ralph Barker, was the first to enlist in Thermopolis, followed by his younger brother Harry and stepbrother, Roy. They wrote frequently to their mother who was living in California at the time, focusing her time on the war effort. She visited the Wyoming “boys” in the army training camps, sending reports back to the anxious mothers which were then published in the local paper.
Dora made friends with many French people in California and learned to speak their language. When her sons were serving in France, she received notice that one of them had been gassed in combat. She conceived a great desire to go to France and establish a convalescent soldier’s home. She had studied the language and her friends had leased a house for her in France. She was nearing her time of departure from the States when she became ill and frequent spells of nausea sent her to the doctor to find out her aliments.
Again, it was the same reason that had kept her from coming to Wyoming with her family years before and in spite of the fact that she was 50 years old, the physician smilingly said, “nothing to worry about, but I’m afraid you have to postpone the trip until the stork’s arrival.” Dora did not go to France, but gave birth to her fifth child several weeks later.
The two-and-a-half-pound baby girl, Frances Lorraine, was named in honor of France and doted on by her parents, older sister, Edna, and step-brother, Lester. As her daughter attended dramatic school in Hollywood to become an actress and Lester studies art, Dora continued her war efforts.
When Loraine was nine months old, Dora returned home to Thermopolis and, in September 1917, she organized the Mother’s League, the only one of its kind in the world. Throughout the war, her various committees were devoted to supporting their boys and comforting the bereaved mothers who had lost sons.
With the war over, Dora’s work did not end. Her son, Ralph, and stepson, Roy, had both suffered greatly from the combat and the mustard gas. Neither fully recovered and their mother’s heart ached for the pain they were suffering.
Then, in 1922, Martin died, one day after Loraine’s third birthday. Dora was once again a widow with a small child. To support her family, she opened the first Skaggs store in Thermopolis but being a businesswoman and single mother did not stop her work on behalf of her “soldier boys”.
Two years after Mart’s untimely death, she formed the American War Mothers. Even during peacetime, Dora remained a lifelong advocate of Hot Springs County servicemen and women. Fueled by her passion to build a veteran hospital in Thermopolis near the healing mineral hot springs, Dora ran for the legislature.
The American War Mothers helped catapult her to victory. In 1930, she became Wyoming’s first woman senator and held the position for four years. Her veteran’s bill, however, did not pass until she finally removed the requirement of the hospital being built in Thermopolis. With that stipulation gone, the bill passed and the veteran hospital was ultimately built in Cheyenne in 1934.
Dora served two terms as a Wyoming Senator and continued her work with the soldiers. She also joined the Republican Citizens Committee Against National Prohibition during the Chicago convention of 1932.
Along with all her other activities, she has taken an active part in church work.
After successfully voting to end Prohibition in Wyoming, Dora focused her attention to preserving the history of Hot Springs County. In April 1929, she had organized the Hot Springs County Pioneer Association and its first members included pioneers, tribal leaders, businessmen and former outlaws. It was soon the largest Pioneer Association in the state.
During her tenure as President, Dora led the movement to build a historic museum and preserve important landmarks such as the Woodruff Cabin. In 1940, her dream was achieved and most of the artifacts the early pioneers donated remain on exhibit today including the Yellowstone Carriage. She remained as its president until her death in 1949 at the age of 80.
Her battle-scarred son, Ralph, found new life in her mission to build a museum and he became its most vocal advocate. After years of unemployment, the former soldier became the first director of the museum.
Dora McGrath may have slipped into the shadows and is not known to many today, but her legacy lives on in Thermopolis and Wyoming. The Veteran’s Hospital she fought for still serves our soldiers in Cheyenne and the museum she helped bring to reality has grown, now residing in a new location on Broadway.
Dora McGrath was truly a lady of the west and mother to Thermopolis!
We leave you with a poem she pinned and left behind for the next generation.
“God keep you safe my dear,
All through the night
Rest close in his encircled arms
Until the light
My heart is with you
As I kneel to pray.
Good night.”
Thank you for listening to Pioneers of Outlaw Country. I am your host, Jackie Dorothy.
Be sure to subscribe to “Pioneers of Outlaw Country” so you don’t miss a single episode of this historic series. The stories of our pioneers were brought to you by Hot Springs County Pioneer Association.
This podcast was supported in part by a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, a program of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.
This is a production of Legend Rock Media.
