2/15/2010:
The trials of horse rustlers Kid Trailer and Ky Matthews continued on this date in 1910 in Minot, North Dakota. Four famed lawmen in attendance marked the occasion as the "end of organized rustling in the northwest." Kid Trailer, alias of Jack Winnefield, formerly worked in the Jones-Carlyle rustling gang. He had a reputation as an excellent fiddle player, but earned his nickname from his frequent attachments to known outlaws. The Jones-Carlyle gang would run cattle and horses north to Canada, changing the brands and operating an extensive trail system of outposts and hide-outs. The trail, known most commonly as the "Outlaw Trail," was put in place by Butch Cassidy in the 1880s. By 1904, the Jones-Carlyle gang had broken up, with the death of both Jones and Carlyle. Kid Trailer took up on a homestead near Stady, North Dakota, along with his pal Joe Knapp.
Valley County Sheriff, S. J. Small; Deputy "Sid" Bennett; Valley County's Marshall Wells; and Williams County Sheriff, E. R. Olson met during the trials to reminisce about the old days of rustling. Sheriff Small worked the previous seven years in Valley County, Montana, just across the state border. His proximity to the border, which rustlers liked to cross in order to avoid capture, led to a close working relationship with North Dakota lawmen. His deputy, "Sid" Bennett, was a former Montana rancher, who grew familiar with the rustlers during his fifteen years of cattle work. Marshall Wells worked for nearly twenty years with the United States Indian service before becoming Marshall in Valley County. And Sheriff Olson of Williams County was credited with capturing the last of these great rustlers, Kid Trailer - although it could be argued that Sheriff Olson had less to do with Kid Trailer's capture than Kid Trailer's own pal, Joe Knapp.
Knapp heard of the $800 reward on Trailer's head and decided to turn him in. When Trailer was sentenced to twenty years in the North Dakota State Penitentiary, he stated, "Take good care of my buckskin horse until I get out, and when I do, Joe will be a dead man!" Trailer was paroled a few years early, and took up smuggling whiskey from Canada. It is rumored that he died in Arizona in the 1970s. He may have been one of the last great rustlers of the northwest after all.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican. Tuesday (Evening ed.), February 15, 1910: p.2.