Willard Eratus Christiansen

Willard Erastus Christiansen was born in Ephraim, Utah to a Swedish father and German mother – both Mormon converts. He was later raised in Levan, Utah where he claims to have learned to be a cowboy by the age of thirteen. The young man remained in Levan until events caused him to flee the area in pursuit of the outlaw life. Along with his new life would come a new name, Matt Warner.

When he was still a teenager, Warner got into a fight with another local boy, Andrew Hendrickson, over the affections of Warner’s first love, Alice Sabey. Enraged at the other teen moving in on his girl, Warner grabbed a fence post and beat Hendrickson over the head with it. Believing he had killed his foe, Warner fled the scene. After stopping home to say goodbye to his parents, Warner hit the road for Wyoming.

Safely out of Utah, Warner hired on with a ranch owned by Jim Warren. Warren was a cattle rustler who Warner credits with introducing him to the outlaw life. Warner spent the period from the age of fifteen to twenty living and working on the Diamond Mountain, the latter half of this time with his own ranching outfit.

It was on the Diamond Mountain that Warner got into his first gunfight. A man by the name of Polito stole one of Warner’s horses and when confronted drew his gun. The two men fired at the same time with only Warner’s bullet finding its mark. Shot in the leg, Polito gave up the whereabouts of the horse. Warner took the man to receive medical attention and allowed Polito to recuperate on Warner’s ranch.

Around this time Warner received a visit from Moroni Hendrickson, the brother of the boy Warner thought he had killed. Hendrickson let Warner know that his brother was not dead and the situation in Levan had settled down. The two men developed a fast friendship and Warner hired Hendrickson on as one of his ranch hands.

Another visitor to the Diamond Mountain was Lew McCarty, the son of Warner’s brother-in-law Tom McCarty. Wild Bunch member Elzy Lay also stopped by Warner’s ranch with a hot tip that Warner and McCarty found too good to pass up.

Lay told the men of a shop owner who had lost his inventory to creditors. The shop owner hired Bill Sparks to help him steal back the goods and transport them back to his shop to sell. Realizing the shop owner couldn’t exactly alert the authorities that his stolen goods had been stolen; Warner and McCarty sensed an easy score. The two men ambushed the wagon and tied up the shop owner along with Bill Sparks who was in on the heist. Warner and McCarty loaded up four horses with the stolen loot, then released the two men and headed back to Warner’s ranch. After dividing the stolen merchandise with Lay and Sparks, the outlaws gave the rest away to some of the poorer families living in nearby Brown’s Park.