The History.

"A View of Laramie," taken c. 1915. Photo was taken from St. Matthew's Cathedral, looking south. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

Inside the old courthouse in Laramie, c. 1887. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

Laramie on Second Street between Thornburg (Ivinson Ave.) and Grand Avenue after snowstorm, late 19th century. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

Oat field in the Laramie Plains, persons unidentified, date unknown. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

A parade on Second Street in Laramie in celebration of Armistice Day during WWI, 1919. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

Original Union Pacific Railroad Depot on the day soldiers returned from the Spanish American War, c. 1898. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

History of the Museum.

The Laramie Plains Museum legacy began in 1898 when the Laramie Women’s Club began saving treasures they believed would be important mementos of the area’s history. Wyoming had just been a state for eight years when, led by Mary Godat Bellamy— the first woman representative to a government legislature in Wyoming— a small band of women began accumulating artifacts that would become the basis of the present-day museum’s collection. Mrs. Melville Brown was the Club’s first president and Jane Ivinson was of its earliest members.

In 1969, the Episcopal Diocese announced that it was negotiating to sell the Ivinson property, as it was a drain on resources. It seemed that the beautiful and historic house was doomed to be demolished, with condominiums, apartments, even just a parking lot replacing the original buildings on the handsome full-square block. Fortunately, the Laramie Plains Museum Association was ready for a new home.

The Laramie Plains Museum Association was officially created in 1966 through the efforts of Laramie Woman’s Club and Albany County Historical Society. These two vital organizations had been saving items of area history throughout the first half of the 20th century—storing them in homes, closets at the courthouse and City Hall--knowing that one day a community museum should be housing and caring for such a significant collection of area history. Neil Roach offered his home at 15th and Grand as a first location for a museum if the Association could raise $40,000 for its purchase. The LPMA did raise the funds and were in the Roach home by the end of 1967. They had 100 members in their Museum Association.

When the Episcopal Church announced that the Ivinson Mansion was threatened, Alice Hardie Stevens, a founder of the Laramie Plains Museum Association, led the community in a drive to save the historic property. Her goal was to provide a more spacious home for the museum while saving the Ivinson Mansion.

Mrs. Stevens and the town of Laramie succeeded in raising over $100,000 in contributions and grants. In 1972, the Laramie Plains Museum Association purchased the Ivinson Mansion. The home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places that year, and was cleaned and basically repaired so that it could hold the museum. Later in 1972, the museum moved to the mansion, and there it remains. The past years have been filled with ongoing fund raising, planning and renovations so all of the building could be restored to their original opulence and functionality.

Virginia Cottage, the building that originally was used for a gymnasium, performance stage and extra dormitory space during the Girl's School era, was rechristened the Alice Hardie Stevens Center in honor of the special woman who's quest it was to save the mansion from destruction. The Alice Hardie Stevens Center is now a reception center available to rent for special events like weddings, meetings, parties, mixers and specialty classes, and providing a source of some income for the Laramie Plains Museum. It's upper level serves as storage for part of the museum's collections and provides research space for museum staff.

More History

The Ivinson Family

The Ivinson family consisted of Mr. & Mrs. Edward and Jane Ivinson, their adopted daughter Margaret (Maggie) Ivinson Grow, her husband Galusha B. Grow, and their three daughters, Helen Jean (Jean), Frances Adele (Fanny), and Mary Elizabeth (Libus). Pictured from left to right is Helen Jean Fewel, Mrs. Ivinson, holding her great grandson, William Fewel, Mr. Ivinson, Gulusha B. Grow, Mary Elizabeth, Galusha Grow, and Margret Ivinson Grow. This photo was taken on a vacation to San Francisco in 1899. The philanthropic endeavors of the Ivinson’s helped the City of Laramie to thrive and remain on the map while other “end of track” towns faded into history.

Ivinson Mansion during Girl’s School, c. 1925.

The Girls’ School

Mr. Edward Ivinson gifted his grand house to the Episcopal Missionary District after the death of his wife, Jane. In 1921, the Ivinson mansion became The Jane Ivinson School for Girls. It’s purpose was to give young ladies from outlying ranches the opportunity to achieve a high school education. One room school house educations typically stopped after sixth or eighth grade and difficult travel conditions, such as hazardous weather and long travel to and from the ranches often made going to school in Laramie daily impossible.

A black and white photograph of Laramie. — Laramie at Second Street and Garfield, c. 1888.

City of Laramie

The City of Laramie was founded in 1868 with the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad. Mr. Ivinson was instrumental in this endeavor as he sold the railroad the wooden ties and operated a general goods store. Slowly the collection of tents, that made up the tent city distilled into a collection of buildings where businesses and industry thrived. Today, Laramie can boast over 150 years of history including Wyoming women’s suffrage which was granted to all Wyoming women in 1869.

Meet Jane and Edward.

Edward Ivinson was born September 20, 1830, on the River Estate, St. Croix, in the West Indies. Of English descent Edward returned to London by ship at the age of seven to attend the elite boys school, Croft House Academy in Brampton with his three brothers, Joshua, John, and Thomas. They arrived in London on the day of Queen Victoria’s coronation on June 28, 1838. During holidays from school and upon completion of his education Edward worked on his grandfather’s farm in the English countryside, where he learned the value of self-discipline and hard word alongside his higher education. These traits served Edward well after he immigrated to the United States.

Jane Wood Ivinson was born October 22, 1840 in Bolton, a tiny village in Lancashire, England. She was the youngest of thirteen children born to her mother, and the only one to live past the age of two. Jane lost her father when quite young and her mother, struggling amidst failing health, difficulties with childbearing and the death of her husband, chose to marry a man by the name of Waddington of Lancashire, England. Jane’s mother was left with her maternal grandparents while her newly married mother and step father immigrated to New York for a fresh start. Despite Jane’s difficult childhood she grew up to have an indomitable spirit. At the young age of 12, Jane boarded a ship to New York to be with her mother. She landed in December of 1853 where she was greeted at the docks by Edward Ivinson.

This fortuitous meeting by the eventual couple was the beginning of a story that is typical of pioneer history, one of making a home in a new place.

Jane, Edward and adopted daughter Margaret Ivinson, circa 1868.

Jane and Edward Ivinson on their 60th Wedding Anniversary, 1913.

Jane Ivinson’s School for Girls.

Jane Ivinson wanted their grand home to be used in a way to better the lives of those less fortunate. Six years after her passing, Edward donated their mansion to the Episcopal Church creating the Jane Ivinson School for Girls in 1921. It was to serve those girls who lived on ranches outside of town who had difficulty attending high school. Eventually, girls from several states around the west would attend the school. In 1926, due to high enrollment the Virginia Cottage, today the Alice Hardie Stevens Center, was built to create additional dormitory space as well as a gymnasium and stage. The school operated for 37 years as a girls school and closed in 1958 after the organization of a bus system that allowed for rural transportation.

Ivinson Hall (Ivinson Mansion), date unknown.

Virginia Cottage (Alice Hardie Stevens Center) during Girl's School, date unknown. Photo is incorrectly labeled "Joslin Cottage" (Carriage House).

Ivinson Hall (Ivinson Mansion) at commencement, circa 1925.

St. Matthew's Cathedral on Thornburg (Ivinson Ave.) and Third Street, Laramie, Wyoming.

City of Laramie History.

Laramie began as an “end of tracks” town typical of those 30 day refuges for the workers who built the railroads across the United States. The tents and cabins were built so that a fair-sized population was already arrived before the first passenger train made it's way to Laramie in May of 1868. The first summer of Laramie saw lawlessness and crime, so bad that the first mayor of Laramie, Mr. M. C. Brown resigned after only six weeks.

In the fall, a vigilante committee convened to rid the town of the lawless elements. Shortly after this time a school, churches, stores, and many permanent residents remained. Laramie continued to operate as a railroad town into the mid 20th century but other industries thrived including a rolling mill, a tie treatment plant, a brick yard, and others.

Wyoming was organized as the Wyoming Territory in 1869 when a territorial legislature was established. During this first legislative session Wyoming women were granted suffrage on December 10, 1869. In 1870, Laramie was the first place for a woman to vote in a general election with the same rights as men. Laramie was also the first place for women to serve on a jury—in 1870.

In 1886, Territorial Governor F. E. Warren provided for the establishment of the University of Wyoming which was set up in Laramie. The first class graduated on July 10, 1890, before Wyoming became a state.

Laramie at Second Street and Garfield, c. 1888. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

Second Street looking south, Laramie, Wyoming, c. 1915. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

Freighting outfit, Third Street, Laramie, Wyoming, date unknown. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

Photo of the City of Laramie, c. 1870. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

Albany County Court House, Laramie, Wyoming, date unknown. (credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

“Jane Ivinson’s letter. ”

San Diego, Cal. Dec.20th 1899.
To the committee of the Woman’s club, Laramie, Wyoming.

Dear Ladies:

In compliance with your request for a description of the pioneer days of Laramie, I submit the following, with the hope that you will kindly consider that the time you gave me was very short, and has been spent in traveling, and that in presenting this I have simply drawn on my memory unaided by written memoranda of any kind:

In February of 1868, Mr. Ivinson with some friends came to Fort Sanders, on his way to California, intending to make the rest of the journey as soon as the railroad was finished. Memphis, Tenn., his former home having just passed through a siege of yellow fever and cholera, he thought he needed a radical change. So when Gen. Gibbons and some others went from Fort Sanders to Laramie to lay out the town he went also and purchased a lot on which he put up a store. By the last of February he returned to Memphis, settled up his business and brought his family with him to Laramie. On May the 10th, 1868, I, together with my husband, little girl and maid alighted from the first passenger train as it rolled into the first depot, situated where the present freight house is, in the little prairie settlement which was the site of our handsome city. As I looked around, the first glimpse of my surroundings was anything but reassuring. Where now are seen sightly buildings and green lawns, then only here and there could be seen a white tent rearing its unpretending head amid the expanse of rolling plains hemmed in by the mountains to the west and Black Hills to the east. Our own dwelling was more pretentious, being composed of logs and a board roof without shingles. Shingles were considered superfluous, as everyone informed us that it never rained in this part of the country. You may imagine my sensation in coming from my beautiful home in Tennessee , with its balmy air and fragrant flowers to this little pioneer hamlet, where luxury was unknown and fortunes were to be carved out by dint of great perseverance and stout hearts.

We found it impossible to find a place where we could get a meal, as the first restaurant of Laramie was then only a frame without sides or roof, but Mr. Ivinson took us over to a tent occupied by Mr. Aaron T. Williams, who had just started a bakery. There we had the good fortune to be served with coffee and ham and sandwiches. Mr. Williams placed two boxes for us to sit upon and covered them with newspapers. After satisfying our hunger, our furniture having not arrived, we then had to make arrangements for accommodations for the night, which was done by the clerks in Mr. Ivinson’s store dividing up their bedding with us. Then with a sigh as the only token of our homesickness, we settled down to rest, only to be aroused by a deluge of rain, in this country where shingles were never needed and it never rains. No it did not rain, it only poured and consequently we were drenched. When we arose in the morning, a new tent had sprung up like a mushroom and we learned that a Mr. Boise was the new-comer whose wife had gone east to purchase a stock of millinery.

As I viewed my surroundings that morning, I saw on the corner where Frezee’s handsome block now stands [218-220 S. 2nd], a large tent reaching from that point to about where the Diamond saloon is situated. This place was used for a gambling tent and was called "John Bull’s Tent."

Where the blue front of the old Trabing store now stands [300-302 S. 2nd] was a tin restaurant. Thus named from the fact that everything was served on tin. No meals were given for less than a dollar and ranging from that upward.

One of my former ambitions had been to have a field to labor in where help was needed and unlimited good could be drown, and I realized that I had now reached that place. So with a brave heart, I looked around to see what material was at hand to aid in the immense work now laid out before me. Tents were now springing up thick and fast and among the families coming in were several little children. This caused me to consider seriously the organization of a Sunday school which I did. Mr. Charles Wright and his family were among these new comers. They came to me and suggested that the school be a union school. But I thought it best to have the church Sunday school in the morning, and the union school in the afternoon. We had Mr. Boise, and wife, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Steel, Mr. Batchelder, Mr. Charles Wright and family, Mr. Valentine Barker and wife, who now live in Cheyenne, and a number of others whose names I have forgotten. We all worked in harmony and never tired of it, for the work we all loved to do. We had also at that time a private school, kept by George Lancaster, but some of the families in town were not able to pay the expenses of a private school, so that gave us the inspiration to start a public school. So we all started in to organize the school, but the greater part of the work fell upon Mrs. Baker and myself, who got up a number of social dances to defray expenses. And let me say, that there was more true enjoyment and harmony in that little band of earnest workers, than one could imagine.

The first Sunday school was composed of Eva Owen, now Mrs. Downey, Etta Owen, now Mrs. Roach, Willie Owen, Jimmie Symons, Willie Bath, Phil. Bath, Curtis Boise, Bob Baxter, the oldest daughter of Mrs. Naismith, and the Tamer family, three girls and one boy. In the fall, Mr. Harper brought his family, now Mrs. Alice Marsh, Edward Harper and Nellie Harper. There were quite a number of others whose names I cannot remember. It gives me great pleasure to see the girls and boys raised on our bleak plains such able men and women.

The Episcopal church was the first church to hold services in Laramie, and was conducted by Mr. Joseph Cook, of Cheyenne, who would come over and give an evening’s service, the money collected being given him to pay his expenses to and from. We organized the church on the anniversary of St. Matthew on the 21st of September, 1868, and the Rev. John Cornell was sent out in October by Bishop Randall. When he arrived, the first thing he did was to search for materials to build a first thing he did was to search for materials to build a church. We realized $1,000. Mr. Evans, one of the constructors of the railroad giving $500 and the balance was given by about a half a dozen others. The balance of the money Mr. John Cornell raised among his friends in the east. After paying for it, we had about $500 over.

When Bishop Randall made us our first visit, he said, "You must try to entertain the young men and keep them from the gambling hall." I said, "Well, bishop what shall we do?" "Give them a social with music and a little dancing." So being given permission by the bishop and being fond of dancing myself, I thought it was all right. When the judges came over to hold court, we being then a part of South Dakota, we gave them a social and served coffee, cake and sandwiches. How delighted they were! Each one giving $5.00 for a certain cup of coffee like mother made. In this way we realized $110.10, the extra ten cents being given by little Willie Owen. I felt as proud of that ten cent piece as I would of ten dollars from anyone else, as he was only a child and gave it so freely.

Before this when we held services, we had no permanent place, so any store room offered us, we would take and fix it up as much like a church with our scanty material as possible. This generally consisted of a dry goods box and a soap box covered and made to represent a reading desk. Around the walls were pinned blankets to keep out the keen blasts of wind. We had benches made and would carry the lamps and organ with us from place to place and make everything as comfortable as possible. Then after service we moved everything away. We had a number of gambling halls and dance houses at that time, but here, let me say with due respect to those men who had gone astray then before our services would begin, they would close their dance hall ‘till after the meeting was over, which showed they had not forgotten the little prayer at their mother’s knee, but still showed reverence to the Supreme Being. Then you would hear them resume business with the then familiar call "Keno, one more couple this way."

As the people increased, the denominations separated. The first to leave the union was the Baptists, then the Presbyterians, and then the Methodists, each trying to get to the same foot stool by different ways, but all leading to God our father.

The first Christmas tree was given in the dining rooms of the new railroad hotel, the present Thornburgh [at the end of Ivinson Ave.]. This house was built in one month in September; we all worked very hard, especially Mrs. Eliza Boyd, who proved to be a most indefatigable and earnest worker, and all of us entered into this undertaking with all of our energies, bent on making a success. The men going out a bringing in greens. We decorated the dining room beautifully and as the guests assembled on this first Christmas evening friends met, who had not seen each other for months, and exchanged greetings with hearts full of love and peace. When the passenger train passed through that evening, the passengers expressed surprise at seeing in that wilderness of sand and sage brush, such a beautiful Christmas display of good cheer and plenty. We distributed one hundred books, besides other presents. So you can see how the Sunday School had increased from 12 to 100 in such a short time. I am sure no tree laden with richer and more costly presents ever gave one-half the pleasure that evergreen tree, with its load of books and toys, did that evening.

We had now a flourishing school and everything was working the right way for the good of the children, and when I look at our beautiful and imposing university and realize the little band of workers who started the material for it, I feel very happy.

In conclusion I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Jane Ivinson