Stage Stops and Women’s Work in the Cattle War

Gifted by Chele Needens and Cheyenne Greub
Gathered by Aubrey Edwards
Buffalo, July 2025

Cheyenne shares the memory of her husbangs great-great-grandmother Mae Greub, and the importance of womens work at the stage stops during the Johnson County Cattle War.

Aubrey: Do you know of what role women were playing in the Johnson County Cattle Wars? 

Cheyenne: Well, so [my husband] Jesse's great-great-grandmother, would have been great-great-grandmother, right? Mae Greub because he's named after Jesse, which was her husband. So it was great, great. They had a stage stop at Greub, Wyoming. At the time they had a post office, a stage stop, their house. They were like the halfway point between Mayoworth. So it was Kaycee, and then you went towards the mountain, and then Mayoworth was a stage stop, and then Greub which was just across the road from the old 28 Ranch, which was part of the Cattle War they went through there, and then up to the TA [Ranch]. And my husband, I actually worked for the Old 28 ranch for 10 years. Lived there on Greub Road, actually. So that was fun. 

Chele: Not to butt in, but where we live now, the guy that owned the property we live on was the stage stop here in Buffalo. 

Cheyenne:So, yeah, the stage stops. That's kind of what the women did. Once the stage coach would come in, whether it was for mail or people coming and going, or whatever. They cooked meals, and she was the post mistress, and so they kind of just did stuff like that. They had dances there, they had the Greub schoolhouse, of course. And so, she probably did some teaching, but, yeah, they played a big role in that kind of stuff. Just being where they needed to be, when there were people coming and going.

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.