[3] Then a small-time rustler, Cassidy was serving a two-year term in the State Penitentiary for possession of a stolen horse worth only $5.

[4] At the conclusion of his term, he was replaced by DeForest Richards (a very distant cousin), also a Republican, and was appointed assistant commissioner of the General Land Office.

During his tenure, he helped save Indian ruins and other important monuments from damage and destruction by asking Edgar L. Hewett of New Mexico for a list of sites that should be protected.

Hewett sent back a memorandum that listed Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and many others, and Richards had it published as a circular.

In 1912, he traveled to Melbourne, Australia, to start a new life after the violent deaths of his daughter Edna and her husband, Thomas Jenkins.

[6] He had attended an honorary banquet for his old friend Elwood Mead, former State Engineer of Wyoming, who was then in charge of developing irrigation in that country.