Bill Shuey

Montana Cattle Queen Bill Shuey

Phoebe Anderson was born dirt poor in rural Missouri, moved to Kansas with her father and brother only to see them slaughtered during the Lawrence guerrilla raid. Armed with a hatred of the bushwhackers and the ability to shoot the eyes out of squirrel at 100 yards, she dresses as a boy and joins the Union Army as a sharpshooter. Later she leaves the military and becomes a riverboat gambler, then works in a hospital in New Orleans nursing wounded soldiers. She wins half interest in a cattle ranch in a poker game and heads for Texas and then Montana to start a ranch in the Beaverhead Valley. She endures harsh winters, Indians, cattle rustlers, and the isolation of living in 19th century Montana, to build a cattle ranch and home for her children.