OCR Text |
Show Page 42 held great respect for his word, regarding his character above reproach." The real reason may have been that the entire Brown's Park Cattle Association consisted of rustlers, who simply chose Rash to lead them. Rash's questionable methods of acquiring cattle apparently did not bother Elizabeth Bassett, who had picked him out as a suitable partner for Ann. Perhaps her encouragement of the relationship was partly responsible for Ann changing her mind about marriage. Not one to be easily swept off her feet, Ann may have seen the marriage as a convenient way of increasing the Bassett holdings. Then again, over the years Ann had become accustomed to being around Rash, and perhaps she had come to love him. As mentioned, Ann had known Rash most of her life. He had accompanied the Bassett children to Craig, Colorado, in 1892 when they went there to attend school. Five years later a Craig newspaper article mentioned that Ann and some of her family were in Craig visiting friends at Christmas, again accompanied by Matt Rash. At that time Ann was nineteen; Rash was thirty-two. Not everyone was as indulgent as Elizabeth and Ann Bassett with regard to cattle rustling, however. A group of cattlemen in the area objected to their cattle disappearing into other people's herds and joined together in the Snake River Stock Growers Association. Many of the association's members were |