Forever after known as Mother Featherlegs, she arrived in Wyoming in 1876 and established a bawdyhouse on the Cheyenne-Black Hills trail. Her place also became a refuge for outlaws ambushing stagecoaches. Acting as a go-between for the road agents, Mother Featherlegs was entrusted with the loot of money and jewelry until the bandits could safely dispose of the stolen booty.

In 1979 Mother Featherlegs was found dead, murdered while filling a bucket of water at her spring. She was buried at the site of her cabin. Footprints around the spring pointed to Dangerous Dick, an old friend, who had apparently skipped the country with the woman’s money and jewelry.

Davis had returned to his old haunts and criminal activity in the swamps of Louisiana. He was captured and charged with murder and robbery a few years later. Before he was lynched, Davis confessed to killing Mother Featherlegs and revealed that her name was actually Mrs. Charlotte Shepard.

The story Davis told was; “Ma’am” Shepard was one of a gang of cutthroats that operated in the swamps of northern Louisiana after the Civil War. Eventually all the gang members had been hunted down and eliminated, except for Mrs. Shepard and Davis, known in Louisiana as “The Terrapin.” Ma’am Shepard fled north to a healthier climate after her sons, Tom and Bill, were honored guests at a vigilante necktie party.

That might have been the end of the story, except in 1964 Lusk residents Jim Griffith and Bob Arrow, along with the residents of Lusk dedicated the monument during the reenactment of the Denver to Deadwood stage run. One of the major contributors was Del Burke, whose Yellow Hotel brother in Lusk was still in operation at that time.

A marker stands at the site of her cabin, and her famous ruffled pantaloons have had adventures of their own. Stolen from the site in 1964, they ended up in a Deadwood saloon until 1990, when a determined posse of Lusk residents raided the saloon and retrieved that garment. They now have a permanent home in the Stagecoach Museum in Lusk.