USA > California > Lassen County > Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California to 1870 > Part 45
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THREE INDIANS KILLED FOR THE MURDER OF PARTRIDGE AND COBURN
After the murder at Deep Hole a careful watch was kept on all the Indians who frequented that part of the country with the hope that something would turn up to show who the guilty parties were. The "Reno Crescent" of October 9, 1869, says "Since writing the notice of the arrest of two Indians, charged with being guilty of the murder of Partridge and Coburn, we have seen the desperadoes. One of them is a Washoe, familiarly known about Franktown as Dick Sides, whose hide would not be worth the trouble of hanging up to dry after showing his pretty face to a camp of Piutes. The other is said to know the whereabouts of the murderers." October 16th it says "Several Indians have been arrested by the officers of Washoe county, suspected of the murder of Partridge and Coburn at Deep Hole
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springs. Two of them are now in Reno in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Edwards. They will have an examination, and be held to answer or discharged, as the testimony may indicate guilty or not guilty."
Alvaro Evans tells the following. Through some Washoes the Reno constable heard that the Indians who killed Partridge and Coburn were camped at Steamboat springs and he went out there and arrested them. They were taken to Reno and kept in jail a few days and then given an examination before John S. Bowker, Justice of the Peace. There was no evidence against them, but it appears that they were held for a few days after the examination. Just about the time the Squire was going to turn them loose he met Evans on the street, and knowing that the latter was acquainted with a good many Indians, he asked him to come down to the jail and see if he knew any of them. Evans went there with Antone Gallagher, who had been riding for the Evans Brothers at Pyramid lake. Gallagher recognized one of them as an Indian who had shot an animal belonging to the Evans Boys and then stood him off with a pistol when he tried to look at the beef. Two of the Indians accused the other one of being the murderer, and he accused them of committing the deed. Evans told Squire Bowker to hold the Indians and he would write to Honey Lake and let Cap. Hill know about it, and the Honey Lakers would come down and take care of them. When Hill got the letter he and Charles Cramer started out and went to Reno, picking up William E. (Paul) Jones at the Junction House. The three Indians were turned over to them and the next morning they left town for Susanville.
Evans says he heard the following account of what followed. Two men who were painters and who had come to Reno from Susanville, followed and overtook them at the top of the hill north of Reno. They were going to take the Indians away from the Honey Lakers, but after a parley it was concluded that the best thing to do was to kill them. They told the Indians that the wagon had broken down and had them get out and go toward an old shaft near by to get some timbers. When they went to the shaft they were shot and thrown into it.
Several other stories are told about this affair. In the different accounts one, two, or three men went along from Reno to help kill the Indians. One man told that the Honey Lakers
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were followed by eight or ten single rigs and a few double ones. When they arrived at the top of the hill word was passed along the line that the axle of the hind wagon, in which the Indians were riding, had broken down. They all stopped, and before the men with the head team knew anything about it the Indians had been killed and thrown into one of the shafts. Of course this exonerated the Honey Lakers from any blame in the matter.
The "Crescent" of October 30th says "Three gentlemen, Messrs. Jones, Cramer, and Hill of Honey Lake valley left here Friday evening (the day before) in company with a couple of Piute Indians. The Indians, we believe, employed Jones & Co. as guides to show them a cut-off to Honey Lake valley. A few miles out their stock stampeded, but we guess the Indians found the cut-off. No reward offered for either horses or Indians. 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou the prophets ?'"
The following story was told to the writer by a reliable man who said that he had it from Paul Jones.
At that time Jones was living at the Junction House twenty- five miles north of Reno. Hill and Cramer drove so fast that when they reached his place their team was tired out and they asked him to let them have his team to drive to Reno and back. He was working a colt and on that account was afraid to let them take the team. Hill told him to come along and drive his own team and they would pay him for it. After considerable talk he told them he had no time to spare, but that to accom- modate them he would go, and didn't want any pay for it. Accordingly he went with them and that night they got into Reno. Upon their arrival the three Indians were turned over to them, although the Washoe county officials had no legal right to do it.
Jones said that when they started for home the next morning quite a number of Indians followed them on foot out of Reno, and he drove pretty fast to get away from them. Hill said he would be if he was going to haul Indians ninety miles just to hang them. The others tried to talk him out of the notion of doing anything else, but he had been drinking and was angry and would not listen to them. When they got to the top of the hill the Indians were told to get out because the wagon had broken down. They refused to do it and were then yanked out. When the shots were fired it frightened Jones's
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team and he had to circle them around in the sage brush to keep them from running away, and this kept him so busy that he didn't know for sure who killed the Indians. After throwing the dead Indians into the shaft the other two men got into the wagon and they resumed their journey. When Hill and Cramer reached home they said that Indians had jumped out of the wagon and attempted to escape. In doing this they ran into the shaft and all of them were killed. The Honey Lakers under- stood. If no one but these three men were present, it is very probable that Hill shot the Indians. It has been told that he generally killed an Indian whenever he had an opportunity to do so.
The "Crescent" of November 13th says "It is currently reported that the Piutes are greatly incensed against certain citizens of Honey Lake, who are supposed to have killed the three Indians taken from this place, and threaten that in case they cannot punish the guilty to be avenged on such white men as they can get hold of. Many persons located in the new and sparsely settled portions of the state feel that they hold their scalps by a very uncertain tenure. There is serious danger that an indiscretion on the part of our officials will cost some good men their lives." It then condemns the practice of treating Indians as though they were not human beings, and says that white men who fail to respect the rights of the Indians are lower than the most degraded of the human family.
On November 24th the "Crescent" said "Brother Partridge (John C. Partridge was editor of the "Lassen Sage Brush" at that time.) devotes nearly a column to us and to the defense of certain persons suspected of coldblooded murder." The "Cres- cent" said it was not an admirer of savages, neither was it an admirer of whites who emulated the brutality of savages. The Indians charged with the murder of Partridge and Coburn were arrested in Reno by the officers of the law under the impression, which still exists, that the offense was committed within the jurisdiction of that county. It did not know by what means they were taken from the custody of the officers, and had only to say that if surrendered voluntarily and without a proper requisition, then the officer so surrendering was guilty of mal- feasance in office, an error of magnitude from which might, and from which it had just cause to fear would result in serious
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consequences. The guilt or the innocence of the Indians was a question of no moment in this connection. If they were guilty of a crime under the law, they should have been punished under the law, not for the sake of the savages, but for the sake of our own civilization. Unless the "Lassen Sage Brush" had some- thing more to say, this was the end of the war between Reno and Susanville.
None of the Washoe county officials were punished because they gave up the Indians without a requisition, neither did the Piutes kill Honey Lakers or any one else in revenge. These were the last whites killed by the Indians in this section of the country. The day of Indian troubles was done in this county.
ANOTHER INDIAN HANGED IN SUSANVILLE
Some time during the fall after the killing of Partridge and Coburn an Indian who had been living around the station at Deep Hole, "Partridge and Coburn's pet," some called him, came into Susanville. At that time anything in the shape of an Indian from that part of the country aroused the anger of the people of this valley, and he was promptly arrested by one of Sheriff Long's deputies. He was kept in jail for a short time, and as there happened to be no one in town before whom he could have an examination, a plan was formed to get him out of the Sheriff's hands. Some one got Squire McMurphy of Janesville to order the prisoner brought before him, and Cap. Hill was deputized as constable to do this. When the prisoner was given to Hill he took him down to Main street, bought some sweet crackers, and gave the Indian all he could eat of them. He then put a rope around the Indian's neck and led him away toward Janesville, going by the Richmond road. When he reached the river bridge south of town ten or a dozen men took his prisoner away from him and led him to an old well dug by Abner Boyd near the southwest corner of the block bounded on the north by Court street and on the west by Lassen street. A fence rail was thrown across the well and the rope on the Indian's neck was tied to it. Just then some one in the crowd said that the rope was too good to hang an Indian with-it would make a good halter for a horse. So he untied the rope from the Indian and the rail and put a bale rope in the place of it. The Indian was then pushed into the well and when he stopped
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THE YEAR 1869
struggling some one cut the rope. After this was done Hill ran back to town yelling that they had taken the Indian away from him and hanged him.
Mrs. E. V. Spencer told the writer that many years after Partridge and Coburn were killed a Pit river Indian told her how it happened. The Indian's story, whether true or false, was as follows: A band of Pit river Indians were going through the Deep Hole country in pursuit of two or three white men who had with them some Pit River squaws they had stolen. The Indians were very angry with these men in particular, and all white men in general, and when they ran across Partridge and Coburn without any weapons they killed them just because they were white men.
The latter part of November twelve Indians came into Willow Creek valley and camped. Tunison went to their camp and ordered them to leave the next morning. Part of them left the next day and the rest of them the day after that. They dared do nothing else but obey. Their day was done.
THE DEATH OF GOVERNOR I. N. ROOP
February 14, 1869, Governor Isaac Newton Roop died in Susanville, aged forty-seven years, lacking about a month.
I. N. Roop was born in Carroll county, Maryland, March 13, 1822. He was the son of Joseph and Susan (Engle) Roop and was of German descent, his ancestors having emigrated to Mary- land in colonial days. In 1838 the family moved to Ashland county, Ohio. Here his father engaged in farming and stock- raising until 1858 and then removed to Keokuk county, Iowa, where he died at an advanced age.
Shortly after reaching Ashland county I. N. Roop went to work for himself, his first business being in connection with a saw and gristmill. In this place he was married to Miss Nancy Gardner, December 24, 1840. His Wife died in Ohio, June 20, 1850, at the age of twenty-seven years, leaving three children, Susan, Mrs. A. T. Arnold of Susanville, California; John, a doctor now living in Oklahoma, who during the War of the Rebellion was in the Seventh Iowa Infantry and served as an aide to General Grant; and Isaiah, who was in the Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, and was wounded at South Mountain. He died of the small pox while in the army.
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In September, 1850, Mr. Roop started for California. He came by the Nicaragua route and was a passenger on the ship that brought the news of the admission of California into the Union. He went to Shasta county where his brother, Josiah Roop, was carrying on a general merchandising business. He became his partner and served as post master at Shasta City. In a fire which occurred there June 14, 1853, a large hotel which he had built and his store building were both burned. He lost $10,000 by this fire and was left without a dollar in the world. The fire took place at nine o'clock in the forenoon, and after he had saved the books belonging to the post office, he left his own property and helped to save the lives of the school children. What he did after this has been fully told in the foregoing pages, for the history of the pioneer days of Lassen county is almost a biography of I. N. Roop during those years.
Governor Roop was an able, energetic, and generous man. He always took a leading part in the affairs of this section and for many years was considered to be the most prominent man here. The idea of his life seemed to be the advancement of this part of the country. He died comparatively poor, although if he had carefully looked out for his own interests, he might have gained considerable wealth. It is said that he aided some one in almost every emigrant train that ever passed through Susan- ville instead of trying to make money by taking advantage of their necessities, as many did.
Among the resolutions on his death adopted by Lassen Lodge No. 149, F. & A. M., of which he was a member, were the follow- ing: "Resolved, That the benevolent impulses, the charitable disposition, the generous promptings-emanations of a noble heart-the enlarged mind, the persevering will, and the manly attributes that adorned the intellect and character of the de- ceased will ever be deeply esteemed, fondly cherished and remembered by his brethren of Lassen Lodge. "Resolved, That as Masons, we deplore his death, and as citizens we feel that the community of which he was so long a leading and useful member, has experienced an irreparable loss."
In an Obituary published in the "Lassen Sage Brush" John C. Partridge, the editor, who knew him intimately for a good many years, said "Governor Roop was a man of enlarged mind and noble charities, true in his friendships, kind in his disposi-
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tion, and manly in his character. If human weaknesses were his, they were of the heart. If to poor human nature it is given to err, his errors were the promptings of a generous soul unmixed with meanness and unclouded by the darker shades of malevolent passions. The genial smile, and the hand of hospitality ever ready to be extended, will be missed by the stranger when he visits the town of Susanville. The death of Governor Roop will create a vacuum difficult to be filled. The community in which he lived so long could better have lost other men than him. Peace to his ashes."
"The Reno Crescent" quoted a part of the Obituary given in the "Lassen Sage Brush" and its editor, J. C. Lewis, then said "We, too, would add our tribute to the inherent worth of Governor Roop. His early youth was a fight against poverty and the best energies of his manhood were wasted in frontier life. Yet his natural abilities were wonderful, and the stormy buffets of the world could not weaken one fiber of the infinite tenderness of his great heart. Could his youth have been blessed with learning, and his mind trained into healthier channels, he would have lived a peer of the ablest in the land, and when he died the bells of a nation would have tolled. As it is his flowers will be neglected, his pets will miss his whistle, and his friends will feel the void his absence makes. And yet it is well as it is, he filled his place, and if no funeral plumes waved over his bier, and no costly monument is raised above him, still could he be for an hour recalled he would not wish a change. He sleeps close by the town his energy called into being, all 'round him his neighbors and friends are resting, and Heaven itself would be no place for him were his friends excluded. 'After life's fitful fever he sleeps well.' "
Governor Roop received very little gratitude from the people of this section. Almost everything was named in honor of Peter Lassen who was not the pioneer settler of the county, who lived here less than four years, and who never did anything in par- ticular for the country. A street in Susanville is the only thing in the county that bears Roop's name, and no monument was placed over his grave until forty years after his death.
The Governor was buried in the cemetery at Susanville. Mr. and Mrs. A. T. Arnold had a monument made for him in Marysville, but it was destroyed by fire before they could get it
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out of town. Nothing more was done about it until 1914. That year a simple, massive monument, made from native granite, was erected over his grave by the Masons of Honey Lake Valley and Lassen Parlor, No. 99, N. S. G. W.
The monument was unveiled September 9, 1914. The cer- emonies were conducted by the Masonic fraternity assisted by the N. S. G. W. and the N. D. G. W. An invocation by Rev. J. H. Westervelt of the M. E. Church, the singing of "America" by the audience, an address by J. A. Pardee, a prominent lawyer of Susanville, and a prayer and the benediction by Rev. Wester- velt, constituted the brief programme given. After the address the American flag that draped the monument was removed by Mrs. S. L. Damon and Miss Laura Lowe, representatives of the N. D. G. W.
May this monument remain there to tell the name of the pioneer of the county as long as the granite-ribbed mountains from which it was taken keep their silent watch over the valley he loved so well.
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CHAPTER XVI IN CONCLUSION.
OLD WINNEMUCCA'S DEATH
Taken from a letter to the "Reno Gazette"
O LD Winnemucca died near Coppersmith's ranch, or sta- tion, on the south side of Surprise valley October 21, 1882. His daughter and his son Lee were with him. When the writer of this letter visited him he was lying beside the fire in his wickiup, wrapped in a rabbit skin robe, with his feet buried in warm ashes and a mahala fanning him with a bush. When his son was asked if he gave him medicine, he said the old chief would not take any, neither would he eat anything.
Nearly two months before that he and his young squaw and her two-year old papoose started from Pyramid lake to Ft. Bidwell. On the way Winnemucca was taken sick and was obliged to camp near Coppersmith's station. He accused the squaw of bewitching him, and finally ordered her to be stoned to death. But first she was ordered to go to a spring and wash herself so that she might be clean when she appeared before the Great Spirit. She went to the spring and hanged herself to a post, but was cut down by a Piute who was on the watch before she was dead. The evening before Old Winnemucca died about a hundred Indians took the squaw to the spring where she had been ordered to bathe. Some of the other squaws washed her from head to foot and sprinkled her all over with fine ashes. They then started for a range of hills a few miles from the Coppersmith station, leading the squaw naked and barefooted. Upon reaching the chosen spot they built a circle of fires, lighting up a space about a hundred feet in diameter. In the center of this was a stump, and to this they tied the squaw by one foot with a band of rawhide. Then each buck brought in a certain number of stones about the size of a man's fist and laid them in a pile within the circle of fires. When all was ready the Indians joined hands and began a monotonous chant which lasted a few minutes, when one of them stepped into the ring and began to harangue them. As he continued to speak the poor squaw gave vent to piercing shrieks. This lasted for some minutes, then at a signal all was silent except the wails of the intended victim.
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Then the speaker sprang toward her and grasped the child and swung it around his head while they all yelled like demons; but the squaw did not make a single sound. Suddenly he dashed the child upon a rock killing it instantly. He then resumed his place in the circle, which swung around chanting as before, until the one who killed the papoose came opposite the pile of stones he had collected. Stepping forward he picked up a stone, and going within ten feet of the victim he threw it at her with all his strength. The missile struck her on the side and was answered by a shriek of anguish. He returned to his place and the circle swung around until another Indian was entitled to a throw. It seemed that it was forbidden to strike her on the head, and this was kept up until she lay upon the ground a mass of mangled flesh. Then the speaker took a big rock, and as she lay on her back he went up and crushed her skull. Then for a few minutes pandemonium reigned, after which they dis- persed and collected wood for a pile upon which they placed the remains of the squaw and her baby and set it on fire. A few were left to keep up the fire and the rest returned to Old Winnemucca to comfort his dying moments with the assurance that his young squaw had preceded him to the Indian's happy hunting grounds. This story was related by a half-breed called "Grizzly John" who was an eyewitness to the scene.
THE DEATH OF YOUNG WINNEMUCCA
Sam Davis's History of Nevada says that Young Winne- mucca died of the consumption at Wadsworth, Nevada, Novem- ber 5, 1871.
LASSEN COUNTY PIONEER SOCIETY
From the "Lassen Advocate" of February 16, 1882
"At a meeting of a number of the old settlers of Honey Lake Valley at Johnston & Wood's Hall, in Susanville, Feb- ruary 14th, 1882, for the purpose of taking into consideration the practicability of organizing a pioneer society, Dr. H. S. Borrette called the meeting to order, and on motion of A. A. Smith, Hon. J. D. Byers was chosen chairman ; W. H. Crane was selected as secretary. A brief but feeling address was made by the chairman, concluding with the statement that the meeting had been called for the purpose of, as he understood it, organ-
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izing a society of pioneers who settled in the territory of what is now Lassen County prior to January 1, 1860.
"Dr. H. S. Borrette read the following paper :
'The territory now forming the boundary of Lassen County was but a few short years ago a wilderness occupied by the Piute and Washoe Indians. Up to the year 1856 but very few whites had permanently settled in Honey Lake Valley, and those were principally occupied in stock raising or as traders- yet these few settlers formed a nucleus of pioneers battling for years with the savages and undergoing the many privations and annoyances of border life, until they were finally joined by others, making the settlement of sufficient strength to compel the Red Man to retire, and give to the hardy pioneer peaceable possession of the territory. But as the years rolled on-from the many exigencies and diversities of interests-many of the first settlers removed from our midst, and the few that remain are being absorbed in the general mass and are becoming lost to view; but the ties of friendship that bound them together as pioneers for the protection of life and property can never be effaced from memory; and although seas and continents may separate them, the kindest thoughts and well wishes with the hand of friendship will always be extended to all the old friends of pioneer days; and to this end it is desirable that a pioneer association or club be formed, to be known as the Lassen County Pioneer Association, and the object to perpetuate and cement the friendship of the long-ago.'
"E. V. Spencer being called upon spoke in favor of an organization, and alluded with feeling to many of the incidents of early settlement, and the differences caused by them, and hoped that all the old settlers would join in forming the society, and in meeting together once a year, and recounting and keep- ing fresh the many occurrences of border life.
"A. A. Smith, Dr. Z. N. Spalding, N. Clark, Dr. P. Cham- berlain, D. Titherington, E. G. Bangham, and W. H. Crane spoke briefly in favor of the organization, and on motion a committee consisting of W. H. Crane, E. V. Spencer, and Dr. M. P. Chamberlain was appointed to draft a constitution and a code of by-laws, to be submitted to a meeting to be held March 4, 1882, at the same place.
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