USA > California > Nevada County > History of Nevada County, California; with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and manufactories > Part 27
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. The infant days of Truckee were days of trouble and its paths rocky and full of thorns, so over-run was it with bad men and fallen women. Between two of the latter class, Belle Butler and Carrie Smith, existed a feeling foreign to love, and Carrie, accompanied by her favorite knight, George Prior, celebrated the glorious anniversary of our independence in 1869,
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BYRNE FASHION
CO.
LIVERY
TABLE
STABLE
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FASHION LIVERY STABLE, BYRNE & CO. GRASS VALLEY , NEVADA C9, CAL.
PUBLISHED BY THOMPSON & WASH
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HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
by going to the loss of Lotta Morton where the object of lar hatred resided, and alumed und threats ne I to kill the fair Bell The fruit Belle is said to have been a bright beautiful and intelligent young woman, in fact as much of a "lander la ly ItM was the wilful Bella and the ight of la aty in chi in " worked upon the feeling of John Whipby, the social gallant of Loter Morton, that be chivalrously apmal lar enn & wil the following morning ' want guuuing " for Prior. They met in a saloon on Fourth street and an active engage- ment enned, during which some eight shota were exchanged, und when the worker of battle cleared away Whipcy lay deal. mit Prior desperately wounded The sul fate of the cham- pions served not to draw hostilities to a close, last they were vigorously removed by the fair principals. While going down town to pruenre n room for her wounded lover, Carrie enconu. tered Lotta, so recently bereft of her heart's idol, and instantly there was "blood upon the moon." A desperate clawing of Inir mod scratching of physiognoamies ensued, during which Belle apprenched with sourder in her eye and revolver in her Ind. She hell the pisted to the back of the struggling Carrie mul pulled the trigger, but the intended vietim nt the critical moment changed her position so as to get a firmer hold upon Lotta's lack hair, and the lallet wounded Lotta instead. This ended the series. Bello was convicted of assault with intent to murder und sent to San Quentin for righteen months. Prior recovered from his wounds, but was crippled for life. t'arrive, or "The Spring Chicken" as she was called, was a very dangerous and violent female, and a few months later stabbed Inimes Fagan with n knife, for which she was lined $150, osenping a heavier penalty by the omision of the jury to add " with a deadly weapon " to their verdict for nssault
In the year 1867. John Me Nichols and Pat Doolin resided with their families nt Moore's F'lat, and, although neighbors, were none the less friends. MeNichols hand about $5,000 in money, and his wife, fearing that he would spend it while on a drunken spree, carried it to neighbor Doolin's, and with the lady of that house buried it in the cellar in a tin kettle. When wanted ngain by Mrs. MeNichols the buried treasure was not to be found, the Doolins asserting that while they were away from home one day, some one passed through the back door of the house and the trap door of the cellar and appropriated the treasure. The Doolins were arrested, but discharged for want of evidence. They afterwards removed to You Bet. This was the beginning of trouble between the families, and MeNichols followed Doolin from phee to place, threatening to kill him. Finally on the nineteenth of December, 1869, Doolin shot and killed MeNichols, at You Bet. claiming that fear for his life impelled him to the deed. although at the time of the shooting there was no immediate provocation. He was tried the follow- ing April. the jury failing to agree upon a verdict. His second
trial (wwwrrel in June, 1570 and lastel -ix days resulting in the acquittal of the accumel.
Upa Simpler 2 11 Christian Gunnison, generally ki wu as Jawan, and two other men were playing canl in d'orly & Th mp kin's saloon on Broad street Nevala City wlun Benjamin Real. who sat on the edge of the talde made remark about the game which Gunnison rented, and sabe vory uncivil language passal between them Rival passer ont Ent vem returned with a revolver and buygran to abuse Cimnion The latter arose and advanced toward Real, hold- ing a chair in front of him for a shield, and said " you dare nut "hot," when Real fire with fatal offret, the ball passing under the chair and into Gunnison's bay. At the trial the jury gave a verdict of manslaughter, much to the astonishment of the judge, who said that a verdict of murder in the first degree was warrantel by the testimony. The full penalty of the law, ten years in the penitentiary, was given the convicted man. In 1878 he received a pardon from Governor Irwin, it being claimed that if kept longer in prison he would die of consump- tion. He returned to Nevada City and passed the time away in idleness and drinking until September 15, 1879. Upon thmt day John Met'arty and a friend were in Clark & Egan's saloon, conversing about a gun, and at the moment young MeCarty made some expression thereto, Reed entered and said, "I don't want you to talk like that." MeCarty made some frivolous remark and passed into an inner room. Reed then went out, but soon returned and entered the room MeCarty had gone into. A sound of scuffling was innnediately heard issuing from the apartment and the voice of Met'arty crying ont for assist- ance, saying that Reed had stabbed him. Reed then rushed out, hearing a bloody knife in his hand, which he threw down in the street. He was immediately followed from the inner room by McCarty, the blood streaming down from fearful gashes in his face and throat, who seized a glass from the conn- ter and hurled it unsuccessfully at the retreating figure of Reed. The fugitive entered McCarty's saloon and surrendered himself to the Deputy Sheriff, and was lodged in the county jail.
As a sample of the queer verdicts a jury sometimes gives, the following case is in point. Thomas Dowling and William Twomey quarrelled at Moore's Flat, in 1872, and Twomey stabbed Dowling twenty-four times with a bowie knife, four- teen of the thrusts entering the body. The wounds were not fatal, and when " twelve good men and true" heard the case, and had the location of each several cut indicated to them, they retired, scratched their heads, probably played innumerable hands of poker, and then returned with a verdict of "assanlt and battery." Twomey was sentenced to pay a fine of $500. Sueli jury trials are an aggravation to the spirit and lead to and form an excuse for mnoh law. Upon no theory but that of
self-defense could a man inflict twenty- four knife wounds upon another and not be guilty of assault with intent to commit inunder, and if in self -defense he should have been acquitted. the jury could at least have added the words " with n deadly weapon " to their verliet
There lived at Mooney Flat in 1572 a family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. John Stanton and William Stanton, a brother of John. Between William Stauton and his sister in-law there had been frequent quarrels, and she had innde threats agninst. his life. Upon the evening of November 7, 1872, William Stanton was in the cowhouse putting some bny in the manger, the darkness being dispelled ly a light held by his brother's wife, when the double report of a gun was heard and he feel dead to the ground. Neighbors come rushing in and found the Inaly on the floor, and near by n shot gun belonging to the Stanton family, both barrels but just discharged. The pockets of the murdered man had been hastily ritled of some 8130. It was supposed that the shot was tired by a Negro unmed Bate man tinines, instigated by Mrs. Stanton, who was holding the light. Mrs. Stanton was held on the charge of murder and Chaines was placed under heavy bonds to appear as a withwww. This order, however, was afterwards reversed, Chaines being tried for the murder and a notte prosegui entered in Mrs. Stanton's ense, she giving testimony against the Negro. She said that she saw Gnines immediately after the shooting but not. before, and that he made her promise to emneval this knowl- edge; that he robbed the body und secreted the money where, by his direction, she afterwards found it. Gaines was tried three times, cach trinl resulting in a disagreement by the jury. HE was held for a fourth trial, but afterwards discharged.
A most desperate and futal street duel occurred in Truckce about nine o'clock in the evening September 5, 1873, between Andy Fugate and Jack White, two of the desperodoes that hud for several years infested the town. Bad blood had existed between the two men for some time, there being "n woman in the case," and when they met that evening on Front street, Fugate inquired of White if he was " heeled," und receiving un affirmative answer, drew his revolver uml said "Sail in then." They did sail in, and so did the bystanders, sailed into store doors, down basements, up stairways and even groveled upon the sidewalk in their anxiety to avoid stopping the bullets that began to whiz and sing along the street. But few shots had been fired when White fell off the sidewalk, badly wounded. Fugate then walked up to the prostrate man and deliberately fired several shots into his body at short range. Notwith- standing this, White raised himself with his last expiring strength and fired three bullets into vital portions of Fugate's anatomy. After the charges in the revolvers were all emptied these two desperate men, grinding their teeth with rage, and while drawing the last faint breaths of life, snapped at each
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HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY. CALIFORNIA.
other with their empty revolves, until they both lay back and ceased to breathe forever.
The body of Henry Townand, a German who own I and was herding a band of he pat at three miles from Bes, was found lying between two the near ly cabin Friday Septem ber 12, 1873. The toilet hole were in histo ly and his skull was cru bed in by wane implement evidently the bat end of a revolver. Suspicion was at once directed at Will am Grant, whom Town of had ju t dischargel frem his employ and with when he had a difficulty con arning way. Grant was nowhere to be found, last two days later returned to the cabin which was tring watched by a guard in ambush and was cap. tured He wurde a fall confession to au tice Kriser, in which he elninod that the killiner wn the result of a tight over the settlement of their accents; that Townsend had him down upon the thus of the cabin mind was rapidly getting the better of him, when he mann al to reach his revolver and shot his antagonist in the choubler; that the wounded man immediately junge up, crying out " You have killed me," and ran out of the catin; that he felt like a tiger that had tasted blood and ment have more, and without realizing what he did rushed after the wounded man, overtok him where the londy was afterwards found, and shot him in the head killing bin instantly ; that if he beat him with the end of the revolver he lund no recollection of doing so and but faint impresion of other events, so dazed were his faculties when he committed the deed; that he ran away, but his conscience so proved upon him for killing the only friend he had in the country and one who had always been kind to him, that he could not resist the desire to go back to the spot where he had committed his terrible crime, heure the reason for his return and capture. He was tried for murder, convicted of murder in the second degree and sent to the penitentiary for n term of years.
There is no car in the criminal annals of Nevada county that has attracted such attention and interest at home and nbrond, or that, offering such a favorable outlook for the prose- eution, has so entirely failed of justice as the celebrated Trout Creek Case. At the time of its occurrence there was a Con- gressional Commission on the way to this State to inquire into the Chinese question, and the net committed at Truckee was especially unfortunate in that point of view, as tending to prejudice the minds of the investigators and to confirm the claim that was made that the objection to the Chinese came alone from the rutlian element. The aet was also condemned by thinking men and law-abiding citizens throughout the State, who recognized the fact that the Caucasian enuse was injured instead of aided by every case of violence towards the Mongolians. The Caucasian League to which it was sought to attach responsibility for the act, and to which the men who committed the deed belonged, also condemned it aud disavowed
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any kn willy f it and declared that violence in the further- ar of therljeet was especially denouner I and prohibited by t ir costitnt n
The facts may be frietly stated as follows .- On the night of
calen on Trout creek, about three miles from Trucker. One of them approached the cabin, poural coal vil upon it, ignited it and retirel. When a Chinaman appeared from within the shanty to throw water non the burning roof, he was fired upon but was uninjured The party then proceeded about the fourth of a mike to another cabin, which they also bay- tized with coal oil and ignited. In the calin were four China- men, who were not long in discovering that their home was on fire They rushed down to the creek to procure water to extinguish the flames. when they were fired upon by the ambushed party, and one of them, Ah Ling, was killed and another wounded; the other two escaped into the woods, leaving their calin with its contents to be totally consumed by the fire.
Detectives were immediately sent to Trucker to ferret out the perpetrators of the outrage, but worked unsuccessfully for works The confessions of Calvin MeC'allough and G. W. Getchell were both obtained while they were miles away from the scene of the outrage and miles distant from each other, and while neither knew that the other had made a statement. Their stories were almost identical, and were to the effect that after the meeting of the Caucasian League had adjourned, on the night in question, the idea of raiding these Chinese cabins was suggested, and met with instant favor among the men who were then together. They then procured guns and coal vil and started up Trout ercek to the scene of the murder. What afterwards occurred has been already related. Notwith- standing the assistance given them by these confessions, the letectives were still unable to make any discoveries in Truckee. Seven of those implicated by MeCullough and Getchell were indieted for murder, and a test case was made on the indiet- ment of J. O'Neil.
So much excitement had been created by the ease and so much interest was taken in it, that eminent counsel was employed on both sides, and every effort made by the proseeu- tion to convict the defendant. Getchell and MeCullough were placed upon the stan) and told their stories, corroborating each other in every particular. The defense placed some fifty wit- nesses upon the stand, by whom every material statement made by the two prosecuting witnesses was overwhelmingly contradicted and an alibi proven for each of the implicated men. A bristling hedge of protecting testimony was thrown about the accused parties, upon which no impression could be made by the prosecution. The most delicate and deceptive catch question was readily answered, and in such a way as to leave no vulnerable point open for attack. At last the prose-
cution abandoned the case in despair, and O'Neil was acquitted by the jury, while a nolle prosequi was entered in the other six cases. While no one doubts that the deed was committed as above related, still all admit that it can not be so proven in a court of law so long as the people are in the same frame of mind as they were at the unsuccessful trial.
About midnight of September 6, 1877, a dispute occurred between Richard Pollard and one Gilbert in the bar room of the Pacific Hotel, Grass Valley. Pollard was very abusive, and as Gilbert retired from the room, applied a vulgar epithet to him. At. this Fry, the barkeeper interfered and rebuked Pollard, when the latter elosed the door, asserting his intention to have it out with Fry. There was but one other man in the room at this time, who decided to leave, and at once acted upon the decision, but almost immediately heard the report of a pistol, and returning to the room with assistance, found that Fry had been fatally shot in the neck. Upon the trial the prisoner endeavored to show that he had shot F'ry in self-defense, but a verdict of murder in the first degree with imprisonment for life was remlered by the jury, and Pollard received his sentence accordingly.
We close the record with the deed committed carly Sunday morning, December 7, 1879. A number of young men had been up nearly all night having a good time, and were in Clark & Eagan's saloon, Nevada City, when James H. Byrne, between whom and Robert White, a member of the party, there had been a previous difficulty, entered and asked them all to drink with him. They at first declined but afterwards assented, when Byrne refused then to permit them to drink. Hot words ensued, and Byrne drew his revolver threatening to shoot White, but it was taken away from him. The quarrel continued and Byrue received a eut over the eye from some glassware that had been thrown by some one. At this juneture Byrne managed to regain possession of his revolver and shot White, the bullet entering the skull over the right eye. Byrne was sobered by the act and expressed deep contrition for what he had done in a fit of drunkenness: White lingered for several weeks between life and death and finally recovered.
The foregoing list of bloody deeds presents a frightful array of crime for one small county in thirty years, but were all the cases of shooting and stabbing faithfully recorded the list would swell to more than four times the size. No attempt has been made to keep track of the broils in which wounds, fatal or otherwise, have been received, and many cases of · violent death are reserved for the chapter entitled "Robberies and Noted Highwayinen." Murders have been almost an everyday occurrence, and so long as there are in a town as many saloons as places of legitimate business they will ever continue to be so. That to reduce the number of saloons is to reduce the amount of crime is a fact disputed but by a few.
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RESIDENCE OF T. CRASE, GRASS VALLEY, NEVADA Cº, CAL.
PUBLISHED BY THOMPSON & WEST.
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HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
CHAPTER XXXIV
ROBHERIES AND NOTED HIGHWAYMEN
The Redder's Parties lagen Marietta Ten Is -Jun Wester P rus Wells Fargo & Le Dove Twenty Thousand Ikiller A Raud P Ira A Highwayman's Strategien Sophien Vegard and the "ters Wanting a blast-Date Iroll back and Homolo Jun 12 strategy Fergus Washington a High Hank Brown and the Koldere " This Min Hommesa" The Heller Triumvirate l'ete fallon, the Mountain Sprit Rubbery adf the Furcka Stage slut Iwath ol William F + umnings.
As HAS been before remarked the crime of robbery was not very prevalent until after the advent of the " Sydney Ducks " and other desperados in 1551, when the roads and mountain trails beenme lidl with highwaymen and foutpads; houses were entered, sluice boxes Folded, men " hold up" in the public streets, stages, express und park trains plundered, and all who resisted ruthlessly slaughtered. The feeling of security which ull had previously enjoyed gave way to a suspicion, each man of his neighbor. The lonely traveler on the road and the man returning late to his home in the city were ever upon the alert, watching for au nurbushed robber, magnifying, by imagination, every rustle among the trees or the faint celo of his footsteps mon the walk into the sound of an approaching highwayman
This was the condition of things that led to the formation of vigilance and protective associations by the citizens. Streets were patrolled by volunteer guards of citizens, men hell them- selves ready to parsuo mal capture or kill the perpetrators of crime ut a moment's warning. The country was scarcely set- thal at all, except where were located the scattered mining emups; mountain trails were numerons and ditheult to follow; gorges and canous offered secure hiding places, so that the pur- snit. of criminals was always a difficult task and seldom a suc- cessful one; everything seemed to favor the commission of erinte and a successful escape.
The three most voted highwaymen in this portion of the State in the early days were Joaquin Murietta, Tom Bell and Jim Webster. In regard to the time of their operations, the magnitude of their deeds and the extent of their notoriety they rank in the order above given. Joaquin Murietta was known and feared from one end of the State to the other as the " Bloody Jonquin." Tom Bell also hund an extended notoriety. Int chiefly in the northern mines. Jim Webster was a purely local character. These " Knights of the road" had many fol- lowers and many imitators, who kept travelers constantly in terror, nud gave the officers of the hw an opportunity to famil- inrize themselves with the topography of the country while searching for them.
JOAQUIN MURIETTA.
The name of this blood-thirsty bandit is recalled, even now, with a shudder, by those who lived in dread of his terrible
band when they romal frem ne enl of the State to th otl r robbing and our bring nos tos tel travelers lief .1 ni-l er Shvan origin. ar llal a affter living in Morys VID whoen ho veel frequently to visit m 1550 and Isil 11. lalben mining in ~ Dora anl had quietly submittel techav- ing Fi claim ' jumpel" once fait when it was triel the ml the le master and was severely wound. ] This kind of treatment arne to have soured his disposition, and it was then that he entered upon the life of a bandit
Ilis land were partly Mexicans and partly desracines of other nationalities His operations were not very extensive in the upper part of the State, although in November, 1851, la male a raid through this region, braving his bbody trail la.bin.1 him. Within a few days, the laslies of twenty- three men who lad lawn mardered and robbed were found. most of them in the vicinity of the Houcut. The larger portion of them inli- rated that the unsuspecting victim, while quietly parsning his way on the public highway, had been laswaal from an anlass- omdle, dragged into the bashes, and dispatched with a knife The whole region thew to arms; sheriff's passes and vigilance committees scoured the country in search of the perpetrators. Imt they eseaped to the southern part of the State
A mmuber of Mexicans were arrested on suspicion of being connected with the outrages, and it is a matter of astonish- ment that none of them were lynched, so excited and exas perated were the people. Joaquin only escaped from one field of danger to enter another; the whole State was arone to action; a price was set apon his head, and he was being hunted in all quarters. In the Summer of 1853 a company of rangers, under Captain Harry Love, who is said to have been a cowardly braggart, followed him like blood-homuds from place to place. At last he was overtaken by a squad belonging to the company of rangers, and was killed while trying to escape. Another notorious cut-throat belonging to the . gang. Three-Fingered Jack, was also killed, and his untilated hand and the head of the terrilde Joaquin were severed from the bodies, and exhibited throughout the State as evidence of their death. While these trophies were being displayed in Marysville, the sister of the bandit attended the exhibition to see for herself if her brother had met the fate claimed for him. She was overheard by Judge O. P. Stidger to remark to a gentleman in Spanish, "That's not my brother." She was asked who it was, and smilingly replied, "It is Joaquin Gonzales." The country had been suffering at the hands of three Joaquins, and she claimed that the rangers had not yet captured the notorious one. The reason assigned by some for her making the claim was family pride, as they firmly believed it to be the head of the true Joaquin Murietta. To support this claim is the fact that it was recognized by many who were acquainted with Murietta, in all portions of
the State On the other hand, it has been inserted that Joaquin clean I to Mexico, ware le was seen and noognized by those who knew him, years after his snyporel death. Which ever of the theory in the correct one, it is a fact that the Legislature appropriate Si (44) for the captors, of which Harry Lasse, as captain of the rangers in turn upproprinted the greater portion t., himself
Second only in notoriety to the cruel and blood thirsty Joaquin was the celebrated Tom Bell, the " thentlemon ligh wayman " His true name was Thomas J Hodges, a native of Rome, Tennessee, Where he was born about 1826 His parents Were most excellent and respected people, and gave young Hodges a thorough education. He graduated from a medical institution, and shortly after receiving his diploma, joined us regiment and proceeded to the seat of war in Mexico, where he served honeruldy as a non commissioned officer until the close of the struggle. Like thousands of others, he was attracted to California ly its golden allurements, and began life is n miner. The hard work and privations of a miner's life, coupled with a lack of success, caused him to follow in the footsteps of many, whose loose moral ideas led them into gambling as a means of saleistener. Soon tiring of this, le took to the rond, where he continued his games of chance, sirapdy staking his revolver against whatever loose coin his victims had about them.
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