THE SUNDANCE KID

AND

HENRY LONG MYSTERY

Tom McCarty To The Rescue

Andrew Allred was the first settler in Wayne County Utah. His son Marion was the first white child born in Wayne County, and his granddaughter Chloe Jane Morrell was the second. Chloe Jane is my grandmother.

There was a road that went over a summit from Grass Valley to Rabbit Valley, and then onto Robbers Roost. The McCarty's lived in Grass Valley. In 1876 Allred established a trading post in Rabbit Valley, which is called Loa today. Grass Valley and Rabbit Valley were sparsely populated then so you could just about call the McCarty's and the Allreds next-door neighbors. All travelers would have to stop to refresh their animals at Allred's place because it was the first water and pasture for the animals after the climb over the summit. There is a monument there now, called Allred's Point.. (The History of Allred Point) The outlaws and rustlers, including Cap Brown, Butch Cassidy, and the McCarty's, would stop at Allred's place when they traveled to the Robbers Roost.

In 1876 Allred's daughter Luzernia (future wife of Henry Long, aka Sundance Kid?) married Silas Morrell. They lived and had children on his homestead. In 1889 Silas broke his back in a sawmill accident, and this accident left him an invalid. Not only did Luzernia have to raise a family, she had to tend to an invalid husband and work the ranch. Silas lingered on for a few years and then died in 1893.

The McCarty's attempted to rob the bank in Delta Colorado Sept. 6, 1893. Bill and his son Fred McCarty were killed, but Tom McCarty escaped. On Sept. 8, Gene Grimes found Tom hiding near Cortez Colorado. Tom McCarty told Grimes about a family he had helped. Here is the story quoted directly from Pearl Baker's Book, THE WILD BUNCH AT ROBBERS ROOST page 154.

Tom McCarty speaking
"Then we helped in other ways two. One time I was coming in from New Mexico and stopped at a ranch I hadn't been to in three of four years. In that time the man had died, and the woman was trying to get along by herself and raise three kids. She had the best location in that part of the state, good grass and a nice stream of water that ran through most of her range, and finally through her homestead. It was a good outfit but run down a lot when I pulled in. She was glad to see me, but there didn't seem to be much to eat in the place and it looked poor. I couldn't figure it out until she had told me her husband had been sick a long time and it had cost them a lot of money. The banker had always wanted the ranch to build a summer home on, so had loaned them the money and was coming out the next day to foreclose the mortgage. I had plenty of money on, usually do have, so I gave her the cash to pay of the mortgage. She didn't want to take it, but I told her it would be all right, wouldn't cost me anything. The next day I hid in the cedars and watched the banker ride in to collect his money. I couldn't hear what was said, But I could sure see he didn't like the deal a bit, when he had to give her back the mortgage. Don't rightly know why he had it along, just to gloat over her I guess. I made it a point to meet him down the trail a piece, and we had a little visit that cost him the profit of the deal. I didn't go back to the ranch but she must have heard what happened , and I often wondered what she thought about it."

This description by Tom McCarty matches perfectly the Morrell family and their homestead in Fremont Utah.

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