(Ella Watson)

Born: c. 1861
Died: 1888
AKA: Kate Maxwell

Caught in the battles between cattle barons and small ranchers, Ella Watson was a cattle rustler who paid for her thefts with her life.

Heading west

The oldest of ten children, Watson was born in Lebanon, Kansas. Her father was a wealthy farmer. When she was about sixteen years old, Watson ran away to join the carnival in St. Louis, Missouri. When the family found her, she was forced to return to Lebanon. At the age of eighteen she married a middleaged widower, who was also a farmer. Less than two years later, she left her husband, who had been unfaithful.

Watson headed for Kansas City, Missouri, where she worked as a maid for a prominent banker. After a brief stay there, she left Missouri for Red Cloud, Nebraska, where she worked as a dancer and saloon hostess...