Believe it or not this is going to turn into a ghost story but first lots and lots of background. Long have I been interested in the exploits of Kid Curry (Harvey Logan) and his brothers in the Little Rockies.
No part of the story is more interesting than the story about the death of Jim Winters and his partner Abraham Gill after taking over a ranch that the Logan Brothers thought belonged to them.
I first got wind of this story in a small book written about the Little Rockies by Gladys Costello. Called “The Golden Era of the Little Rockies” the small soft cover was printed in 1978.
In the chapter about Kid Curry, Costello quotes old timer Bill Kellerman which begins our strange ghost story.
“Henry Curry (I think Kellerman meant to say Johnny Curry, not Henry Curry as it was Johnny Curry who got killed at the ranch that he determined to get back for Mrs. Tressler) figured in a shooting episode at the Jim Winters ranch south of the mountains. This not only resulted in his death but the death of Jim Winters. The Winters ranch had been squatted on by Dan Tressler about 1890. He and his wife separated and she was taken to a friend’s ranch on the Missouri river by John Curry whom she planned to marry. Tressler sold the ranch to Jim Winters and his half brother Abrahm (sic) Gill. Mrs. Tressler thought she was entitled to the property and persuaded John Curry to get it for her. He gave Winters a notice to vacate within a certain period or face the consequences. Winters knowing full well what the consequences would be kept a loaded rifle behind the back door of his house. On the date specified John Curry was seen approaching the Winters place on horseback. Winters fired and Curry lay dead with a bullet between his eyes. Within six months Winters was in his grave a short distance from the grave of John Curry. He was shot from ambush as he stood on a porch. It was regarded as a revenge killing on the part of the Curry gang.”
Wallace Coburn in several books tells this same story so probably it has the ring of truth to it.
Johnny Curry had lost an arm and so was not as quick on the trigger as his brother Harvey.
It is true that Curry planned to marry Mrs. Tressler and they planned to settle down and make a living ranching on the ranch that is still very much in existence today. To pinpoint the buildings, it is the first ranch east of the turn from the road to Landusky on the Harlem to DY Junction highway.
Johnny Curry did stop in on more than one occasion and tell Jim Winters that he had to move as the ranch was not his to buy from Mr. Tressler. What the legalities of such are I do not know but it was a bad enough issue that Curry gave Winters a deadline and said that if he was still on the ranch when the deadline came, Curry would shoot him dead!
The deadline came and went. Johnny Curry showed up one day at the ranch and called Winters out of the ranch house door. Curry announced he was going to kill Winters and went to draw his gun but being one handed fumbled a bit which gave Winters time to draw and fire, killing Curry dead.
From that time until his own death a few months later, Winters was a marked man. He knew it and must have lived a life from Hell looking around every corner at all times knowing that sooner or later the Curry’s were coming after him. His half brother Abraham Gill was of no help suddenly deciding he had pressing business in New York if I recall.
The day came. It was just sunrise at the ranch. Jim Winters stepped out his front door, clad in his nightgown, toothbrush in hand to brush his teeth. He was killed instantly from an unknown assailant.
Months later Abraham Gill came back to take control of the ranch and as he put it, to find out who murdered his partner. Shortly after returning, Gill disappeared from the face of the earth. I have reported several times in “Looking Back” columns that it was suspected but never proven that the Curry gang had dispatched Gill too.
Maybe a year later someone coming to a section of the Little Rockies saw two things that looked a lot like graves. Authorities were summoned and sure enough one grave contained the remains of Gill. The other grave contained the remains of his horse. Never proven, but the community understood full well what had happened.
One thing should be made clear. The Curry boys were very popular. They were ranchers and cowboys and got along well with the ranching community who often enough hid them when need be. Their enemies were the gold miners of the area and there were plenty of them and those feelings were what led to the famous Kid Curry killing of Pike Landusky in Landusky, once and for all making Curry an outlaw.
So, what about the ghosts? That is the most interesting part of this sad tale. Years later a little girl staying at that ranch came running into the house exclaiming that there was a man dressed in a night gown and holding a tooth brush walking around outside. Her parents looked but there was nothing there. The apparition was seen several more times through the years.
To this day, around Halloween, at dawn at that ranch is a place I would not like to be. I do not want Jim Winters coming after me toothbrush in hand and attired only in his nightgown. No decorum at all! Oh the shame of it all!
