Who Was Prairie Rose Henderson?

Prairie Rose Henderson, the first woman to win a trophy at the Grandaddy of 'em All—Cheyenne Frontier Days, 1906.

There are those who say "Prairie Rose Henderson" was born Ann Robbins. They say she was from a ranching family in Wyoming and she was raised breaking horses for her parents and neighbors. They say she made quite a name for herself as a top horse trainer by the late 1880s.

While that would be great if it were true, it's not. The person rodeo history knows as "Prairie Rose Henderson" was born Rose Gale on February 5th, 1875, in Bristolville, Ohio. Her parents were Ezra Gale and Melvina Ina Ormsby Gale. Her father died when she was around 8 years old. As was not unusual for the times, her mother married another Gale family member by the name of William. After their marriage, the Gales picked up and moved to Nebraska. While they may have been farmers, Rose was not a bronc stomper or horse trainer growing up.

Rose is an inductee in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame at the National Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Her bio lists her date of birth as 1880 and the year of her death as 1939. Both dates are wrong. And while the museum lists her as Prairie Rose Henderson, they don’t list her real name. They also don’t say she was one of the first women allowed to compete in rodeo. They left out how she was the "First Woman to Win A Trophy At Cheyenne Frontier Days—1906."

Her being the "First Woman to Win A Trophy At Cheyenne Frontier Days—1906" is right there on Rose Coleman's gravestone. She used the stage name Prairie Rose Henderson while performing in rodeos.

Rose was known for her famous riding clothes, dubbed Turkish Trousers." in reality, they were bloomers she made into a costume.

Rose started in rodeo at Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1899. A few years before that, in 1897, a Union Pacific Railroad passenger agent by the name of Frederick W. Angier watched a few cowboys play hell trying to get a few head of unbroke range horses into a freight car. Angier supposedly said words to the effect of, "There's people who would pay to watch that!" He passed his idea along to the Cheyenne Daily Sun-Leader Edwin A. Slack.

Slack and local businessman Warren Richardson wanted to start a festival in Cheyenne similar to Greeley, Colorado’s Potato Day Festival. They called their festival "Frontier Day." Most agree it was hashed out over whiskey and cigars in the Tivoli Saloon at the corner of 16th Street and Carey right there in downtown Cheyenne.

It started as being about testing a working cowboy's ranch skills. Among the events in the early days was bronc riding, steer roping, and a few others including quarter, half, and one-mile long horse races, and relay races. There was a mock Pony Express reenactment, as well as a stagecoach holdup to entertain the crowd. While bullriding certainly wasn't a ranch skill, there were those cowhands who would challenge each other to see who had the guts to ride a bull. After that, the challenge became who could stay on one the longest. Out of that, we have bullriding. As for bronc riding, there’s the old adage, "there’s never been a horse that couldn’t be rode and there’s never been a cowboy that couldn’t be throwed." Well, even back in the day, many a young cowboy proved that adage true—especially when it came to riding rodeo rough stock.

As for bulldogging, also known today as “steer wrestling,” like bullriding it was not a part of cowboy skills used on a ranch. Fact is, it didn’t come about until the late 1890s when black-cowboy Bill Pickett rode his horse next to a runaway steer and jumped on the critter to catch it. Pickett grabbed the runaway by the horns and twisted it back to wrestle it to the ground. Pickett bit the steer on the lip while wrestling it. Yes, he bit its lip!

Among cowboys at the time, it was known that a bulldog could catch a stray steer by biting the steer's lip to gain control. It's said that Pickett figured he could do the same thing. So, he practiced his technique and each time Pickett would bite the steer in the lip while wrestling the steer to fall backward. Bulldogging hasn't changed much, but modern-day steer wrestlers don't have to bite a steer's lip anymore. Of course, most are happy about that.

As for women in rodeo, they did it all. They busted broncs, steer roped, and even bulldogged. They raced horses, did trick riding and rope tricks, jumped over automobiles, and did several other stunts. Some were bronc riding and horse race champions.

The gal who was born Rose Gale—and later used the stage name of Prairie Rose Henderson—married Arthur Columbus Clayton in Nebraska in 1892. The newlyweds moved to Bristolville, Ohio, and almost immediately she had two children, May Cora and Henry Arthur. After a few years, they relocated to Wyoming. That's how Rose first became acquainted with the state.

In Wyoming, Rose and Arthur competed in the first Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1899. Most reports agree that she won the first Cheyenne Frontier Days horse race for women. Her prize was a $45 silver saddle. While a $45 saddle might not sound like much today, $45 in 1899 is equivalent in purchasing power to $1,304.98 in 2018. So really, a $45 saddle was nothing to laugh at.

Soon after that, Rose joined the Irwin Brothers Wild West Show. She became an instant sensation, famous for her riding clothes dubbed "Turkish Trousers." In reality, they were her bloomers which she made into a costume. She was known for making all her outrageous costumes. From attaching ostrich feathers and leather fringe to her outfit to her wide-brimmed hats and knee-high bloomers, she was a vibrant personality. And while her smile alone was enough to win over an audience, she was an extremely talented cowgirl.

In 1904, The Denver Post newspaper donated a trophy cup which would go to the annual winner of a women’s cow pony race. It was called "The Denver Post Championship." It was a three-horse-change relay race. She entered that race using three borrowed horses. She won that race, narrowly beating out Joella Irwin who was a top competitor at the time. The newspapers loved Rose, and they saddled her with the handle "Prairie Rose" Clayton, “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.” It was about that time when she started using the stage name “Prairie Rose Henderson.” As for “Henderson” and where it came from? That’s a mystery.

Prairie Rose Henderson (center) posing with fellow rodeo performers Kitty Canutt (left) and Ruth Roach (right) during the Pendleton Roundup

As with other women rodeo performers, she competed against men on their level. That's important because many are under the misconception that women in those days were fragile as pieces of porcelain. Not hardly! Rose competed on equal terms with cowboy bronc riders. And though Rose competed in relay racing, flat racing, performed rope tricks and trick riding, she was primarily a bronc rider. In 1906, she took home the Gold Cup after winning the very first official Cowgirls Saddle Bronc Event. That trophy is mentioned on her headstone.

She had a reputation as a great competitor. But sadly, her competing took a toll on her marriage and soon she found herself a divorced single mother of two teenagers. On her own, she knew her responsibility was to support herself and her children. So, from her taking a job as a cook in a Utah mining camp to packing up everything and moving herself and her children to California, she took jobs wherever she could to support and feed her family. Some say she went to California to work as a stunt rider for the first motion picture studio in Hollywood which opened in 1911. Others say she went to California because she got an offer to be a part of the first annual Los Angeles Rodeo. We know that Rose won the saddle bronc riding event at the second annual Los Angeles Rodeo in 1913.

Rose Clayton competed in the first Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1899. Most reports agree that she won the first Cheyenne Frontier Days horse race for women. Her prize was a $45 silver saddle. She started using the stage name "Prairie Rose Henderson" in 1904.

While in California, her daughter Mary Cora met a young man and was married. Soon after that, her son Henry met his future wife. Her name was Ann Robbins.

In 1914, Rose met and married Homer E. Corwin. He was supposedly a trick roper. They moved to Arizona when he had a chance to act in silent movies in the early westerns being filmed there. At some point, while living in Arizona, Rose was hired for the New York Stampede held at the Sheepshead Bay Raceway in 1916.

With a crowd of over 24,000 people in attendance, the New York Stampede was a contest between the champions of rodeo. Those competing there were rodeo legends Yakima Canutt, Art Acord, Fred Stone, Sam Garett, Chester Byers, Tommy Kirnan, Floyd Irwin, Harry Walters, Leonard Stroud, Clay McGonigill, Dorothy Morrell, and Prairie Rose Henderson.

After that Rose returned to Cheyenne, where she won the bronc riding championship sponsored by Union Pacific Railroad in 1917. She was awarded a large silver buckle with her name on it. That buckle would have a big part to play in the legend of Prairie Rose Henderson later.

In Arizona, she remained married to Corwin until they divorced in 1926. A couple of years later, while still in Arizona, she met her last husband Charles Coleman. After a year, they married in 1929, and immediately she talked him into going to Wyoming and buying a ranch near Rawlins.

Almost as soon as they arrived in Wyoming, Rose retired from performing. There are those who say she retired simply because she was already 54 years old and worn out from the physical abuse of being a bronc rider for so many years. Others say she retired when women's bronc riding as an event was stopped in rodeo. Women's bronc riding came to a complete halt right after rodeo performer Bonnie McCarroll was killed. While giving a bronc riding exhibition at the Pendleton Round-Up in September of 1929, she was thrown, and her horse stomped her spine. She died and that was the end of women’s bronc riding.

As for Charles Coleman, he’s said to have been quite the hombre. At the age of 34, he got into a fight and killed a man. Supposedly he broke the man’s neck. He was arrested and charged with manslaughter. The charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Although, some say he intimidated the witnesses into not testifying. As for his troubles in Wyoming, it’s said Rose blamed herself for that since she felt guilty about getting them to move there. Of course, things not working out for him in the way of ranching didn’t make it any easier. By then, the stock market had crashed, and the Great Depression was tough on everyone.

As for him being an abusive husband or not, there are a couple of references to his hard drinking and beating Rose when he felt like it. It’s believed she was thinking about moving to California to be with her son for safety.

In February of 1933, Fremont County Sheriff James W. Thompson drove to the Coleman ranch in the Green Mountains. He was there to arrest her husband for cattle rustling. Charles swore up and down that he didn’t do it. After a while, he admitted to it saying, “We’re hungry.”

Sheriff Thompson met with Rose before taking Charles off to jail. Later, he recalled how he apologized to her for having to take him in on such a horrible night with a blizzard taking place. Thompson also said how he had remembered her from her early days in rodeo. He was surprised when he saw Rose that night. He said she looked old and tired, hunched over a little, and she had been crying when he drove off that night with her husband in the back seat.

Rose is said to have watched Sheriff Thompson drive off. At that moment, she had no idea that Charles would be found guilty of butchering a steer, or that he wouldn’t return home until after serving a sentence of a year in state prison. At that moment, with the blizzard coming down harder than before, she knew she needed to bring in her animals. She knew they needed to be out of the bad weather.

At the sheriff’s office, Thompson grew more and more uneasy about leaving Rose there alone in the middle of such weather. So, when his deputy showed up for duty that night, he sent his deputy back to the Coleman home to pick her up and bring her back to town.

By the time the deputy finally arrived at the Coleman’s, snow was coming down worse than it had been all day. While the deputy’s thoughts were about picking her up and not getting stuck in the snow getting back, he searched and found no one was there. Blinded by the snow, he found his search useless. So, he gave up and later returned to the station to give his report to the Sheriff. It’s said Sheriff Thompson was not happy when finding out that the old woman who he remembered so well as a young rodeo star was missing.

The next day, Sheriff Thompson and a search party returned to the Coleman ranch to look for Rose. Among the searchers were neighbors who found Rose's dogs safely locked in a shed, safe and warm. With the mountain country blanketed in deep snow, it became evident very early on that the search was in vain. With little hope of finding her, search parties kept at it. It’s said they searched for what was seemed like miles around the Coleman ranch. They found nothing. There was no trace of her. She had simply disappeared.

Rumors spread saying, with her husband Charles locked up, that she used the opportunity to get out from under him and escape. Other rumors went around that she changed her name and was living alone in this place and that depending on the rumor. Newspapers reported that "Prairie Rose Henderson" had died in that snowstorm. The reports that Prairie Rose Henderson and not Rose Coleman had vanished angered her son, Henry, who was notified of her disappearance. He wrote newspapers to correct their omission of not noting her real name. He tried to tell them that her real name was Rose Clayton-Coleman, or simply Rose Coleman. It didn't matter to the papers and they continued to list her by her stage name. It's a sad commentary to say that no one listened to Henry. It's sad to think that the story of the death of the famous rodeo star with the stage name Prairie Rose Henderson seemed more important to the newspapers than that of the death of Rose Clayton-Coleman, but it appeared that way.

On July 17, 1939, almost seven years after her disappearance, a wildfire broke out in the Green Mountains near her ranch. One of the people battling the forest fire that day was a sheepherder by the name of Martinez. He stumbled on a partial skeleton which was exposed during the fire. The sheepherder reported finding bones mixed in with some blue clothing and what was said to be "a barely recognizable human being in torn trousers." Sadly, it was all that remained of Rose Coleman. Along with her, just to the right of her body, was the remnants of a leather halter.

Speculation being what it is, it's believed that snow was falling extremely heavy when she figured she'd bring her pony into their barn for safety. She had put her dogs in their shed and headed out toward their barn for a halter. The leather halter found with her body was recognized as being the pony halter she was known to use. After setting out with the halter, she must have become confused and lost in the blinding snow which by then was coming down heavy. It's speculated that she became disoriented in the blizzard, in the whiteout conditions, and had wandered in the opposite direction of where she needed to go.

Headstone of the legendary Prairie Rose Henderson, listed under her far-less well-known legal name, Rose Coleman.

Because of time, the elements, and scavengers, there really wasn’t much left of her when she was found. Legend says she was identified as "Prairie Rose Henderson" because she was wearing her Union Pacific Railroad championship buckle when her body was found.

Some have reported that there isn’t a coroner’s report and that she didn’t have a funeral. That’s not true at all. The official coroner's report identified her remains as 57-year-old Rose Coleman. Her cause of death was listed as, "Exposure to the elements." Her son, Henry, had his mother buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Cheyenne. Besides friends and neighbors, many of the old timers of rodeo showed up to pay their respects to the woman who they called one of the true “Sweethearts of Rodeo.”

In 1901 at Cheyenne Frontier Days, she went to the judges and said she wanted to ride a bronc. It was apparent that she wanted to because she believed she could. Rose was already well known as being headstrong and determined. She demanded she be treated the same as any other contestant there and be allowed to ride a bucking horse. At one point, she went so far as to tell the rodeo judges, "If you can’t produce a rule that forbids me from riding, then you have to let me have a spot in the contest!"

The judges were completely confounded. There were no such rules which forbid women from competing with men in an event. And while the judges couldn't figure out why a woman would want to be a bronc peeler and ride such a fire-breathing beast, they let her ride.

That’s who Rose was. She was special in that she was a great in rodeo’s early days. Looking at her for what made her who she was, all in all, Rose was a true American Cowgirl. She was strong-willed, resilient, adventurous, tough, but still good-natured, loving, kind and responsible. She was known by all who competed against her as a tough competitor and straight shooter, but also friendly and a help to all who knew her. Yes, Rose Coleman was a true American Cowgirl.

—Tom Correa is originally from Hawaii where his fondest memories are those of growing up on his grandfather’s ranch. Tom served in the Marine Corps, has degrees in Criminal Justice and Inspection Technology. He traveled a great deal working around the country, during which time he took every opportunity to research American history. After retiring to Glencoe, California, where he lives with his wife Deanna, cares for rescue horses, target shoots, and volunteers at the local American Legion Post, he started a blog, The American Cowboy Chronicles where he shares his research of the Old West while celebrating our American heritage. As a writer and blogger, he has provided research material to other writers and organizations. While his work has been published online and is referenced in Wikipedia, he is now working on a book dealing with his research of the Old West. http://www.americancowboychronicles.com/