People & Peoples

President Hayes appointed John Hoyt Governor of Wyoming Territory on April 10, 1878. The new Governor took the oath of office May 29, 1878 and served until August 22, 1882.

President Grant appointed John A. Campbell Governor of the Wyoming Territory April 3, 1869. The newly appointed Governor took the oath of office on April 15, 1869 and served until March 1, 1875.

John B. Kendrick rose from poverty to great wealth and later to the pinnacle of political power. He arrived in Wyoming Territory in 1879 with a Texas trail herd, and by the early years of the 20th century was running his own ranches and a local bank. A Democrat, he was elected governor in 1914, and later served three terms in the U.S. Senate. There he worked tirelessly on irrigation, land use, and protection of natural resources. With humor, charm, broad intelligence and a willingness to work with political opponents, he became a model for long-term success as a Democrat in a Republican state.

Jim Geringer was first elected to the Wyoming Legislature in 1982, and served six years in each house before taking office as Governor of Wyoming in 1995.

The JC Penney Company, long among the world’s largest department store chains, traces its roots to a one-room shop in a small Wyoming coal-mining town at the turn of the last century. Penney’s career in Wyoming lasted just a decade, but in 1902, Wyoming provided exactly what young Penney needed to found a chain that has survived, as of 2011, for 109 years.

Jack Gage was serving as Secretary of State when Governor Hickey resigned to enter the U.S. Senate. Gage became acting Governor January 2, 1961 and served for the duration of Hickey's term.

The vivid, charismatic J. B. Okie raised sheep near Badwater Creek at the turn of the last century, and was so successful he was called “Sheep King.” A businessman with great vision, he soon owned half a dozen stores in small towns in central Wyoming, and eventually an equal number in Mexico. Lost Cabin, Wyo., named for the legendary Lost Cabin Mine, was his base. Okie built an opulent mansion there, a big bunkhouse for employees, bungalows for guests, an office building, a roller rink, a golf course and an aviary full of birds of paradise (left), cockatoos and macaws.

Gerry Spence, born, reared and educated in Wyoming, is recognized nationwide for his powerful courtroom victories.

President Cleveland appointed George W. Baxter Territorial Governor in 1886. The new Governor took the oath of office November 11, 1886 and served until December 20, 1886.

The Tongue River in northern Wyoming must have been as beautiful as it is now when George Bent saw it in 1865, with big, lazy curves under cottonwoods, the grass thickening on its banks and the trees sending out their first green shoots in early May. Nowadays, irrigated hay fields and the tiny towns of Dayton and Ranchester lie along the river. In May of 1865, however, one stretch of it was packed with human beings. That month, there was as large a town on the Tongue as that river has ever seen.