Jack Morrow - The Notorious Nebraska Road Ranch
Jack Morrow and his crooked road ranch were an unassuming danger to travelers on the Oregon Trail.
Imagine you are traveling the Oregon Trail. What are the dangers you’ll have to be aware of? Well, you’ll probably predict things like cholera, rivers crossings, and wagon accidents. If you’ve read Tyrant’s Road, you’ll probably also try and protect against rattlesnakes, storms, and gun accidents as well. You might also realize it is worth your time to keep eye out for Indian attacks and don’t forget to watch your fellow travelers for their crimes. The longer you think about the possible dangers travelers faced the longer the list gets. And just when you think you’ve figured out all of the things that are trying to get you, you learn about Jack Morrow.
Readers of And the Wagons Rolled have likely been introduced to Jack Morrow. Jack Morrow is an intriguing figure in western Nebraska history. His story can help teach us more about what life was like on the Oregon Trail and remind us that people on the frontier were just people. There were good people, bad people, and people in between. There were people that would kill you at the drop of a hat, people who would give you the shirt off their back, and those that would stand by and snatch the hat and the shirt if they could get away with it. Jack Morrow appears to be the latter.
The story of Jack Morrow and his road ranch starts in 1860. By that time trail traffic had increased significantly and travelers were seldom out of sight of one another. Whether it was people heading to the west coast, miners, stagecoaches, freighters, or the Pony Express, the trail was highly traveled. In my book, History of the West with Sam Payne: And the Wagons Rolled, it’s something that Sam was a little disappointed about. As travel increased more and more, some entrepreneurs saw a golden business opportunity. If they could build “road ranches” along the trail they could provided goods and services to the people as they traveled. One of the first to capitalize on this opportunity was a man by the last name of Robidoux near Scott’s Bluff. As trail traffic increased the idea certainly got more popular. By 1860 there was a road ranch every 15 miles or so following the Platte River. Here is where Jack Morrow enters the story.
Morrow was a man looking for an opportunity and he saw it along the dusty trail skirting the south side of the Platte River near present-day North Platte. In the spring of 1860, he built himself a home and began doing business with the folks that traveled the trail. Like most road ranches, Jack Morrow operated an honest business out the front door. If you needed some extra provisions, you could buy some. Need some cookware? Mr. Morrow could provide. Lame oxen? Trade for a new one. Road ranches were great businesses because they provided goods and services that people truly needed. However, as honest as Morrow’s business was out the front door, it was the business he did out the back door that has forever marked him as an exploiter rather than an honest businessman. Here we will let a few primary sources guide the way to understanding the Morrow Ranch and how it operated.
This screenshot shows the approximate location of Jack Morrow’s ranch. Location is south of the Platte River and southeast of present day North Platte, Nebraska.
John Bratt
First up is John Bratt’s Trails of Yesterday. Bratt went west in 1866 when he hired on as a bullwhacker. Here is how Bratt remembered his first experience at the Morrow Ranch.
“When we were opposite the junction of the North and the South Platte rivers we ran against the Jack Morrow dike that the noted ranchman had dug to prevent any freighting or emigrant wagons from traveling north of his road ranch... We stayed an hour or so trading at the Morrow ranch and I had the privilege of meeting that noted ranchman, who wore a diamond (said to be valued at $1000.00) in his yellow and badly soiled shirt bosom. There were several hundred Sioux Indians, squaws and papooses camped near the ranch, besides numerous squaw men and others, among whom can be named Jack Sharp, Bob Rowland, Tod Randall, Turgeon and some other noted frontiersmen who could talk the Sioux language fluently. This noted ranch had a hard name among emigrants on account of its record of Indian thefts. Scarcely a train passed it but that lost stock and when the owner of the stolen stock would appeal to Morrow, that gentleman would be truly sympathetic and offer to sell him others at a big figure. Morrow or some of his crooks would usually have a bunch of work cattle, work horses or mules under herd in the hills. This herd was kept replenished from emigrants ' stolen stock, which he would sell " just to help them out.” The ranch was well stocked with provisions, clothing, firearms, whiskey, tobacco, etc., which were sold at very high prices... Had any one told me then that my four daughters would be born within a mile of this notorious ranch, I would not have believed it.”
There are a few interesting points that John Bratt makes. One is that he calls Morrow the “noted ranchman” on several occasions apparently showing no enmity. Later, however, he goes on to end the section calling Morrow’s station a “notorious ranch.” Part of that reputation stems from the main point of the passage that is how Morrow would steal from the travelers. So, Morrow would steal cattle, mules, and horses from the emigrants, hide them in the hills, then sell them at a later date for “a big figure.”
In modern times there seems to be some debate as to whether the crooks were whites or Indians. Judging by the Bratt description it is likely that it could have been both. If you are reading And the Wagons Rolled, I guess you’ll have to decide who they were.
It is also interesting to note the construction of a dike from the river. Apparently, word of Morrow’s rough reputation had spread and travelers tried to stay as far away as possible. Instead of changing business practices, Morow cut a trench in the trail so people had to go right through his front yard. Talk about persistence.
Eugene Ware
While the Bratt entry can give us a foundation for understanding the Morrow Ranch, there are other sources describing the place as well. Another source comes from Eugene Ware in his book The Indian War of 1864.
On December 23rd the officers of our posts were invited up to Jack Morrow's ranch to dinner… Jack Morrow's ranch was out on the prairie, nearly south of the junction of the two Platte rivers… Going up, we detected with a field-glass an Indian's head peering over the top of the ridge at us, but he afterwards scudded away and disappeared. We were told at Morrow's that the Indians were keeping constant lookout from that point, although the weather was exceedingly cold…(Morrow) was a tall, raw-boned, dangerous-looking man, wearing a mustache, and a goatee on his under lip. He was said to be a killer, to have shot a man or two, and to have passed his life on the plains. He was said to have daily altercations with pilgrims, and to have gone on drunks that were so stupendous in their waste of money and strange eccentricities that he was known from Denver to Fort Kearney and very largely in Omaha. He was said to have had an Indian wife, although I never knew whether that was true or not. He had a very large stock of goods, and a row of "pilgrim quarters." His ranch-house was built of cedar logs, and was two and a half stories high and sixty feet long… He stored away great quantities of furs, robes, dried buffalo-meat and beef, and other stuffs, for shipment, in a sort of annual caravan, which he made down to Omaha.
“..when we arrived there -- Morrow was either two-thirds full or pretended to be. My opinion of it was that it was merely pretense. In a little while he brought out a basket of champagne, and after we had paid our attention to it our dinner began. It was broiled antelope heart, baked buffalo hump, fried beaver tails; a regular pioneer banquet…
“Just before the leave-taking began, (Morrow’s foreman) wanted to ask me a question privately, and I went out with him. And the question was, whether he couldn't get a contract to furnish the Government with one hundred thousand pounds of shelled corn at five cents a pound, and if I would not use my efforts with the post commander. I told him that I certainly would not; that the corn could be put down much cheaper than that and that I couldn't recommend it. He took it good-naturedly, and on the way back to the post…This whole proceeding was so raw that none of us ever made any visit again to Jack Morrow.”
Here we get another description of the Morrow Ranch that fits Bratt’s description. According to Ware, Bratt was quite a businessman with a large number of goods for sale. He also notes how he felt Morrow was a “killer” and a “dangerous looking man.” You might also notice the mention of an “Indian” on top of a hill acting as a lookout of some sort.
The second half of the entry isn’t as straightforward, but maybe shows Morrow’s character as good as any. First off, Ware suspects Morrow is acting half-drunk when their party shows up. It is important to note that Ware is traveling with army personnel at this time. Morrow treats them to quite a feast in an apparent show of hospitality. After dinner is done, then the other shoe falls.
Morrow’s foreman pulls Ware aside and tries to secure a large corn contract for a high price. Then Ware responds, “I told him that I certainly would not; that the corn could be put down much cheaper than that and that I couldn't recommend it.”
The intentions couldn’t be more clear; Morrow intended to wine and dine the army personnel, and then have them recommend a lucrative contract with Morrow. It was a ploy that didn’t work. Ware couldn’t be more clear in how disgusted he and the others were with the encounter when he ends, ”none of us ever made any visit again to Jack Morrow.”
While crime on the Oregon Trail was not uncommon, Jack Morrow appears to have been in the top level of crooks. It is also worth noting that in 1866 Lincoln County, Nebraska was created and Morrow was elected as a county commissioner. The question is, should that even surprise us?
If you are reading And the Wagons Rolled hopefully this post creates a little deeper twist into the plot. At this point, the characters would not have known this about Jack Morrow because his ranch was brand new. The reality is, the events in the book try and portray the event as it may have happened to some similarly unsuspecting traveler by Jack Morrow’s “notorious” ranch. The danger was sudden and unexpected and perhaps not the danger an Oregon Trail traveler would have expected.
