USA > California > Lassen County > Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California; containing everything that can be learned about it from the beginning of the world to the year of Our Lord 1870 Also much of the pioneer history of the state of Nevada the biographies of Governor Isaac N. Roop and Peter Lassen and many stories of Indian warfare never before published > Part 14
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mysterious person. He was a gambler, and some say he was a desperado and a road agent, or highwayman. Others say he was a good citizen until his brother was killed by the Mexicans, and then he went to gambling and took indiscriminate revenge upon Mexicans and native Californians whenever he had a chance. He always had plenty of money, but no one knew how he got it. It is said that he was once arrested and brought before a police judge on a charge of vagrancy to see if they could not force him to tell how he made his money. The judge asked him how he made his living. "Whitehead" reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of twenty-dollar gold pieces and said "That is how I make my living." The vagrancy charge was dismissed. This has been told about Ross while the Honey Lakers were waiting for the darkness to come on. Weatherlow and McVeagh both got sick at this place and went back home.
At dark the thirty remaining Never Sweats started out again and traveled all night as before. Nothing occured to relieve the monotony of the journey excepting an accident that happened to Storff. Not long after they left camp he struck a match to light his pipe, and when it flared up his horse shied and threw him heavily to the ground. He was a fat man and was "considerable shuck up" by the fall; and when they picked him up he looked at his broken pipe, rubbed the injured part of his anatomy, and groaned out, "Oh, mein Gott, mein pipe, mein pelly!" They reached Peavine springs the next morning and stayed there the most of the day. Dow says that while they were there a brother of Theodore Winters came along on his way to Washoe valley. They didn't want any one go ahead of them and let people know they were coming, so they stopped him and took him along with them. Hines says that while they were camped there a man came along on foot. He was some kind of a foreigner and knew very little English. They thought he might be a spy, so they held him there until they were ready to go on. Hines also says that in the afternoon another man came to them on foot. He said he was Theodore Winters of Carson valley and that Elliott had sent him out to meet the party from Honey Lake. He was to find out when they would reach Genoa, and then return and tell Elliott so he could have everything ready when they arrived. They didn't know anything about Winters and at first thought they would keep him with them; but after they had talked it over
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and looked at the matter in every light, they concluded they would have to send a messenger to Elliott, anyway, and they might just as well let this man go back. He said he had left his horse somewhere on the road to give him a chance to rest, and when they let him go he immediately took the road to Carson valley. It turned out that he was just what he represented him- self to be and went right back and reported to Elliott.
It was a long ride from there to Genoa, so they took an early start. They had to go to the emigrant crossing -- the Stone & Gates crossing, now Glendale-to get across the Truckee river. It was out of their way, but there was no nearer crossing. Near what was afterwards the foot of the grade going to Virginia City some one had built a stone corral, the second work of man they had seen since leaving home, and there they stopped and let their horses rest. In Washoe valley they were joined by a few men, probably Masons who knew of their coming. They reached Genoa on Monday, the 14th day of June, just at day- light, or a little before. Some of the citizens were up and there were a few lights burning. Major Ormsby told them after- wards that he and his Wife sat up all night. At that time Genoa was a little place of one street on which there was a hotel, a store, a blacksmith shop, a couple of saloons, a feed stable, and some dwelling houses. Elliott met them just before they got into town and told them to tie their horses behind a long barn near by. Here they were joined by some more Masons. Elliott then divided up the party and told them what men he wanted and where to go after them. Hines thinks that the Honey Lake men made the arrests. The larger party surrounded Lucky Bill's house and called him out. Dow says that as soon as he came out and saw Elliott in the crowd he said "My life is not worth a bit." He and his son Jerome gave themselves up without making any trouble. The son was a boy about seventeen years old. R. W. Young says Mrs. Thorrington plead hard for the boy, but didn't say anything about her husband. Hines and three others went to a saloon after two men. They went into a hallway in the saloon, opened the doors of the rooms where the two men slept, and told them to get up and come to the doors. They did so and then Hines brought their clothes to them and they dressed themselves before going into the street. These two men, Orrin Gray and John McBride, were gamblers. After the arrests were
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made a young fellow started to leave town on horseback, but the Honey Lakers stopped him and held him as long as they stayed there. They then stationed men all around the little town to keep any one from going out to warn the other men they were after. By this time the people of the village had begun to get up, and when they saw what had happened some of them waved their handkerchiefs from the windows. The prisoners were put into a large room in the second story of the Singleton Hotel and kept under guard while their captors had breakfast. The town was now pretty well waked up and excited. Many of the citizens told the Honey Lakers that now was the first time they could breathe freely for a long time, that the lawless element had them terrorized, and that they didn't dare say anything for fear they might be talking to some of the gang. (D. H. Holdridge, who was seventeen years old at that time and lived in Genoa, says that his father, Louis Holdridge, had sold a ranch west of the Sierras. About this time he went over there to get some money that was due him. Lucky Bill's gang heard about it and planned to kill him for his money while he was coming home through the moun- tains. Major Ormsby learned about their plan and wrote to Mr. Holdridge telling him to wait a while before coming home. He did so and on that account did not reach Genoa until after the gang was broken up.)
D. R. Hawkins says that at the time he was a boy twelve years old. He woke up in the morning and found the town full of armed men. He and his Father went to the hotel and with the permission of the guards went up stairs and found Lucky Bill bound and reclining on the floor in the far corner of the room. His Father said "Well, Bill, what is all this about?", and the reply was "Mr. Hawkins, these men have come here to hang me and I guess they are going to do it." Mr. Hawkins also says: "Presently I passed down and onto the sidewalk and saw two men earnestly discussing the situation, and I stopped to listen that I might learn what was going on. One stood with his back against the house and his right hand resting on the muzzle of his rifle while his right foot was held up and placed against the wall. After standing thus for a while on one foot he dropped the other and in doing so the bowknot of his legging string caught on the hammer of the gun and set it off. Only a small hole was made in the palm, but the whole back of
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his hand was blown away. Dr. Daggett, who always seemed present where needed, soon set about dressing the poor fellow's wound. At a later date I saw Dr. Daggett on the same spot save the life of Cisco whose wrist was nearly severed by Jerome Thorrington with a Bowie knife." The man who shot himself was Tom McMurtry, a cousin to Mrs. Amos Conkey, and the accident crippled his hand. A short time after breakfast Elliott took part of the men and went up the river to the ranch of Lute Olds and arrested him and Ike Gandy and Calvin Austin. Gandy showed fight, but Elliott stepped up to him with his pistol and he gave up. They took the men to town and that afternoon the Never Sweats and their prisoners, accompanied by a few of the Carson country settlers, went down the river to the Clear Creek ranch then owned by R. D. Sides, L. B. Abernathy, and J. M. Baldwin. They went there because there was a hotel where they could board, and there was a large barn where they could keep their horses, their prisoners, and themselves. Besides this it was ten miles away from Genoa and Lucky Bill's friends, and they expected trouble with them. It was also in an open country where they could not be surprised.
As soon as they reached the Clear Creek ranch they began to make arrangements to capture Edwards. They told Jerome Thorrington that if he would help them get Edwards, they would let him go free and do the best they could for his father. It has been told that they promised to let Lucky Bill go, too, but the Honey Lake men say they made no such promise. It is said that Jerome didn't want to betray Edwards; but his father told him that Edwards's testimony would clear him (Lucky Bill), and finally the boy agreed to do what they wanted him to. They told him to take a basket of provisions and go to the place where Edwards was camped and tell him that a party of men had come from Honey Lake after him; and that his father wanted him to come that night to Thorrington's ranch on the river and they would leave the country at once and stay until the trouble blew over. Just before dark the boy started for the hills to find Edwards. About the same time twelve men started for Lucky Bill's river ranch which was six or seven miles above Genoa. Elliott, Dow, Gilpin, Henderson, Theodore Winters, Marion Little, who was Sides's brother-in-law, and perhaps Tom. Watson were in the party. Between the Clear Creek ranch and the one
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where they were going there was a big bend in the river, but they went straight across the country and saved both time and travel. As soon as they reached their destination they stationed Hender- son out by the river and Dow in a log corral on the other side of the house. The house had two rooms, the front one being used as a living room and the back one as a bedroom. Martha Lamb was living here with her baby. Elliott and Winters stood on each side of the door with clubs in their hands. Afterwards, while on their way home, Edwards told Hines that he started for the ranch without any suspicion, but the nearer he got to it the more he thought that everything was not all right. Just before he reached the house he put his revolver into the front of his shirt where it would be handy, cocked both barrels of his shotgun, and carried it so it would be ready for instant use. He and the boy got to the ranch about midnight. Jerome knocked at the door and the man stationed in the back room asked who was there. Edwards answered that it was a friend, and the man came to the door and opened it and stepped to one side. The boy came in and was followed by Edwards, who was immediately knocked down; and the same blow, or one from the other club, broke both barrels of the shotgun from the stock. He was seized at once, his arms and legs were tied, and the wound on his head was bound up. Dow says the first words Edwards spoke were "I deserve it." After daylight Elliott and Gilpin, who were guarding him, were sitting on a bench counting the money taken from him-quite a large sum. While they were doing this the prisoner drew up his legs so he could reach the rope with which they were bound and managed to untie it. He then jumped off the bed where he had been lying, rushed out through the other room, and ran for a slough not far from the house. The other men were standing in front of the outside door and when he ran past them they set up a yell and some of them fired at him, but didn't hit him. Elliott ran after him, and being a good foot- racer, gained on him rapidly. When Edwards reached the slough he jumped into it and Elliott, who was then close to him, jumped in on top of him. Both men were pulled out of the water and in a short time they started with their prisoner for Genoa where they had a blacksmith iron him. Joseph Frey says that the black- smith's name was G. W. Hepperlcy, and that the irons, one of them made from the handle of an old frying-pan, were riveted on
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and a chain put between them. After this was done they went on to the Clear Creek ranch.
The news of what had been done must have spread over the country very rapidly and, of course, all sorts of stories were told. One was that Edwards intended to assassinate Major Ormsby as he was going to Placerville, but the coming of the Honey Lakers prevented it. The whole country must have at once separated into two factions-those who favored Lucky Bill and those who did not. Probably the most of those who had once been Mormons and their friends were on his side. J. A. Thompson in a letter to the "Sacramento Union" says: "One hundred and fifty citi- zens met to-day to try the men arrested. There is no excitement here, and all seem disposed to give the men a fair and impartial trial." The "Bee" says: "The people of Honey Lake and Carson valley say that the $1500 offered by the people of Snell- ing's ranch is no object-they will not deliver him up to stand the chances of a trial in California and that he shall not leave their hands alive. The inhabitants of the valleys breathe freer at present than they have done for two years, knowing that there was an organized band of robbers and murderers amongst them and that as they now have got the leaders in their hands it will be the means of breaking up the organization."
The trial of the arrested men commenced on Tuesday, the 15th of June, and was held in the barn at the Clear Creek ranch. In the published accounts of what was done here at this time they call the men who held this trial a vigilance committee, but it was nothing of the kind. It might be called a People's, or Citizen's, Court. It was a gathering of men in a country where there was no law excepting what they made themselves, and they were trying to do justice and punish criminals.
They went about it in an orderly way. John L. Cary of Placerville was appointed judge and John H. Neale of Honey Lake and Dr. B. L. King of Eagle valley were associate judges. Elliott was appointed sheriff and Gilpin was his deputy. A jury was regularly impaneled, and the witnesses were all put under oath. F. and S. say : "The judges, jurors, and spectators sat in the court-room, armed with guns and revolvers." The other prisoners were tried before the cases of Edwards and Lucky Bill were brought up. Gandy was found innocent of any crime and was discharged. With him it was the case of "Old
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Dog Tray"-he was caught in bad company. Different stories are told about the punishment of the others. T. and W. say that two of them were fined $1000 each and ordered to leave the country, and the balance were discharged. Joseph Frey says these two were Olds and Austin and the latter had nothing with which to pay his fine. The Placerville correspondent of the " Alta Californian" says "Olds was found guilty of harboring horse thieves for which he was fined $875 and banished from the coun- try not to return under the penalty of being shot. Another man was fined $220 and banished with the same penalty attached." E. Penrod says that Olds was fined $800 and Austin $200, and that Olds was held for both fines. The Honey Lakers are quite positive that the men arrested in Genoa were fined $250 apiece, that a part of all the fines was paid, and that the money was taken to pay the bills of the crowd at the Clear Creek ranch.
Tuesday night the report came that "Billy" Rogers was coming with a hundred men to rescue Lucky Bill. Preparations were at once made to give him and his men a warm reception, but they failed to come. Not many of Lucky Bill's friends put in an appearance at the trial.
Thorrington's trial began on Thursday. In his case there were eighteen jurors, six of them from Honey Lake, and they, too, were regularly empaneled. The accused man was allowed to have Major Reese to defend him. William Dow, Joseph Frey, Emanuel Penrod,-Williamson, the two Hale Brothers, and- Taylor were among the jurors. The names of the others could not be ascertained. Elliott and Edwards were the principal witnesses. In addition to the other testimony given by him, Elliott read the memorandum he had made of what Edwards and Thorrington told him. Thompson and West's History of Nevada has the following: "The evidence under oath was taken down by C. N. Noteware, late secretary of state for Nevada; and the writer of this has read it all. Not a thing appears there implicating Lucky Bill in anything except the attempt to secure the mur- derer's escape. The absence of any knowledge on the part of the accused of the guilt of Edwards is a noticeable feature in that testimony; that party, after having acknowledged his own guilt, swore positively that he had assured Lucky Bill that he was innocent, and no one else testified to the contrary, yet the jury, believing that he did know, decided that he was guilty as acces-
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sory to the murder after the fact, and condemned him to be hanged." It says nothing about Elliott's testimony or about Lucky Bill's visit to Honey Lake Valley. Dow says Edwards testified that while Lucky Bill was in Honey Lake valley he helped plan the murder of the Frenchman. It was proved that Thor- rington made a visit to this valley, had that conversation with Perrin, and stayed while here with Mullen, Edwards, and Snow. He also fed Edwards after he came to Genoa and tried to help him get out of the country.
The jury was instructed that twelve of them could bring in a verdict. They rendered their decision at eight or nine o'clock Saturday morning, June the 19th, and Thorrington was sen- tenced to be hanged that afternoon. The Placerville corre- spondent of the "Sacramento Union" says the verdict against Lucky Bill was that he was guilty of planning the murder of the Frenchman and harboring murderers, thieves, and desperadoes. Edwards was sentenced to be taken back to Honey Lake and hanged.
Thorrington's Wife and Martha Lamb were brought to see him before he died, and the woman showed more grief than the wife did. Young says that just before Lucky Bill was taken away to be executed Elliott went up to Jerome, who was standing near by, and offered him his hand saying "I'll bid you good-by." The boy threw his hand back and said he would never shake hands with any man who helped murder his father. While the trial was going on a gallows had been erected about a mile from the Clear Creek ranch, and here the condemned man was hanged not far from three o'clock in the afternoon. The wagon was driven between the two poles and Thorrington stood up in the hind end of it. John C. Davis, who had been a sailor, tied the knot in the rope. Lawrence Frey, who was the driver, was to start the team and drop Lucky Bill out of the wagon, but it is said that he did not want his neck broken and so he swung him- self out of it. The Placerville correspondent of the "Alta Cali- fornian" wrote "He made no confession but took things coolly, putting the rope around his own neck. His last words were, 'If they want to hang me, I am no hog.' " His body was taken to Genoa and probably was buried there.
It has been published that on account of his execution Lucky Bill's wife went insane, was confined for many years in the
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asylum at Stockton and died there, and that Jerome became a gambler and a drunkard. Perhaps these things occurred, but they were not entirely the result of his death. Dow says that after Lucky Bill was sentenced he was guarding him. He heard him tell Jerome to let whiskey and gambling alone, and added "That is what has brought me to this." He also told the boy to take good care of his mother, and intimated that she would not be crazy when he was gone-virtually saying that his con- duct had already made her crazy. (Mr. Holdridge says that Mrs. Thorrington had quite bad crazy spells for some time before her husband was hanged.)
Sunday morning the Honey Lakers started for home taking Edwards on the "Bald Hornet" along with them. He was not tied, and all the way home he rode along and talked just the same as the others. T. and W. say that Theodore Winters, Walter Cosser, and Samuel Swager were appointed a committee to go to Honey Lake and see that Edwards was hanged, but the Honey Lakers say they never came along with them. The first night they stayed at the Peavine springs and the next at the lower end of Long valley. The third day in the afternoon they reached the Breed ranch about four miles southeast of Bankhead's, and there they stopped. At first they thought they would hang Ed- wards right away that day. Some of the men in the company had been away from their homes all that spring and part of the summer hunting Indians and outlaws, and they were in a hurry to get through with it. Edwards begged for time to write some letters home to his folks in the States, but at first they were not willing to grant him this privilege. Hines and some others, who thought they were not treating him right, left the crowd and went on home. It was finally agreed to let him live another day and allow him to write his letters. He also left some rings to be sent to his relatives, but it is said that they were worn out by the men to whom they were intrusted.
On the afternoon of the 23d he was hanged on a butcher's gallows that stood near the cabin. He seemed to think that he had forfeited his life and that it was right to hang him. As he stood with the rope around his neck he made a speech, and among other things said that Snow was innocent-that he was only a hired man and knew nothing about the murder, and that they never trusted him with any of their secrets. (In spite of this,
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though, the Honey Lakers always believed that Snow knew all about it.) They had his grave already dug near by, but he said he would like to be buried in the upper part of the valley where he once had some friends. Orlando Streshly stepped up and told him he would see that he was buried where he wanted to be. Edwards told him he would like to be buried half way between Streshly's place and his own mine. Streshly complied with his wish, and as near as can now be told, his grave is about three- fourths of a mile south of where the Richmond schoolhouse now stands, on the west side of the road and not far from it.
Elliott received the "Bald Hornet" and the money found on Edwards for what he did. It was always said that he went to Merced county and got some of the reward offered there for the arrest of Edwards. In his old age the "Bald Hornet" fell into the hands of Cap. Hill who kept him until he died.
As a result of the punishment of these men, quite a number of hard characters suddenly left this valley and others paid considerable more attention to their conduct than they had previously done. No doubt but that it had the same effect in the Carson country. It also made the feeling between the two factions there much more bitter than before, and that feeling still exists in the minds of some of the men who lived there at that time.
The Salt Lake Mormons who were acquainted in the Carson valley were greatly angered because of the hanging of Lucky Bill. In the fall of 1858 Mr. Dow went back to the States and came back across the plains the following summer. He reached Salt Lake City in July, and while staying there for a few days he went down to Coon's ranch on the Jordan river. Coon told him what had happened to Lucky Bill and said that he got his information from Major Reese. He then asked Dow where he was from, and when told that he was from Honey Lake valley Coon said he must have known something about it at the time. Dow told him that he heard about it. The other man looked at him very sharply and asked him if he was sure that he was not one of the crowd that did the hanging. Dow said again that he heard about it, but was very busy just then. Dow was satisfied that if the Mormons had known that he was one of the Honey Lake party, they would have killed him before he got away from there. The same year Hines had a trading post on the Humboldt
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river. One day a crowd of Mormons came along and stopped at his place a while. They cursed and abused the Honey Lakers for the part they took in the hanging of Lucky Bill, but Hines said it was too big a crowd for him and he kept still.
T. and W. say that an unsuccessful attempt was made to collect the fines assessed hy the court at the Clear Creek ranch. Concerning this Joseph Frey says: "A month or two after the trial Theodore Winters and some others gathered up the Olds cattle and put them into the corral of - - Mott seven miles above Genoa. They expected a crowd would be raised to take the cattle away, and so Winters came to me and told me to go to Washoe valley at once and get all the men I could to come up there, at the same time telling me what men to get that could be depended upon. I had just been down to Washoe valley and back, but I took the same horse I had ridden and started out. They used my horse to gather up the horses of the men I went after, and I got fifteen or twenty men and came back with them. It was estimated that my horse was ridden one hundred and twenty-tight miles in thirty-six hours. There were thirty or forty men lying in Mott's barn waiting for a crowd to come and take the cattle, but they never came. A cattle man named Douglas furnished the money to pay the fine and probably took the Olds cattle for security. The next year, during the Virginia City excitement, Olds came back into the country and was not molested. When a United States court was established in Ne- vada he tried to get back the money paid for his fine, but was told by John Musser, the best lawyer in the territory, that in the absence of law a People's court was the highest court known."
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