USA > California > Siskiyou County > History of Siskiyou County, California > Part 26
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On the second of July, 1863, having alreally become considerably under the influence of liquor, he entered French's saloon, and began flourishing a knife in a threatening manner, and was deprived of it by the barkeeper. Among others in the saloon was James Duffy, who had been drinking, and whom King accused of having his knife. The accusation was denied, and upon being informed where the knife was, King demanded it from the barkeeper and it was restored to him. Throwing the weapon upon the floor and striking a tragic attitude, he exclaimed: "There lays me dagger. Whoever picks
it up, dies by me hand." Not dreaming of danger, Duffy stooped, picked up the weapon and laid it upon the counter, saying, "You wouldn't kill me, your best friend, would you ?" "Yes, I would," he said, as he took up the knife and made several false motions, touching Duty's breast with the handle, while the victim stood there smiling, unconscious of danger. Suddenly King reversed the knife, and with a quick, hard blow, buried it deep in Duffy's heart, the murdered man sinking to the floor with the exclamation," You have cut me." King made a pass with the bloody weapon at the barkeeper, and then sprang to the door and fled. The horrified witnesses of the tragedy stood for an instant in blank amazement, and then hastened in pursuit of the murderer, whom they soon overtook and secured after a slight resistance.
He remained in jail until the following February, when, after a trial lasting three days, he was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and was sen- tenced by Judge E. Garter to be executed Friday, March 18, 1864. An appeal to the Supreme Court gained for the condemned man a new trial, based upon the construction of a statute, and not upon the merits of the case. He was again tried in Septem- ber, and was sentenced to be hanged on Friday, November 4, 1864, but an application to the Su- preme Court produced a stay of proceedings until the case could be reviewed by that body. While awaiting the decision of the court, on Saturday, the eighth of February, 1865, he made a bold, and for a time, successful attempt to regain his freedom. Confined in the jail, which was the old wooden building first erected by the county, were also George Foster and Robert Ferry, both under a sen- tence to the penitentiary for grand larceny, and McGuire, a deserter from the army. The last named was allowed in the corridor, and was in the habit of calling for water. About eight o'clock on the night in question Foster succeeded in getting out of his cell, and after releasing the prisoners from their cells, had McGuire call for water, as usual, and when Jailor Mccullough opened the door he was seized, gagged, and bound, and the prisoners escaped, having their irons still upon them. They had been gone but twenty minutes when their flight was discovered. The town was aroused, and people started in all directions in search of the fugitives. About daylight Ferry was caught at Cherry creek by John Hen- dricks and others, having been unable to get rid of his irons. About two o'clock Sunday afternoon William Short and Charles Brown found King in a clump of manzanita bushes, near Deming's old brick- yard, but a short distance south-west of Yreka. His long confinement of nineteen months had so weakened him that he had been unable to procced further or to remove the irons from his limbs, although one of them he had succeeded in sa wing partially through. A party composed of Livy Swan, A. V. Burns, J. Babb, A. D. Crooks, Sherman, Stone, and Groots, in pursuit of Foster and McGuire, stopped Monday night at Cherokee Mary's, a resort for thieves, nine miles from Yreka. Abont four o'clock Tuesday morning the two fugitives ap- proached the house and were ordered to surrender, and upon attempting to escape were fired upon by Jesse Sherman, with a shot gun, and Foster was
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wounded in the head and captured, while McGuire escaped by flight. Foster had succeeded in removing his irons, and now, severely wounded, was conveyed again to jail, while McGuire went to Fort Jones, and, finding escape impossible, gave himself up. Foster and Ferry had the terms of their sentences increased, while McGuire, who would have been released in a few days, was sent to San Quentin for two years for his little exploit in jail-breaking.
George Foster, alias Charles Mortimer, alias Charles J. Flinn, was the leader in the jail delivery, a hardened and reekless felon, and ended his career upon the scaffold. He was first sent to San Quentin from San Francisco for three years, and when his term expired, went back, chloroformed a man and robbed him of $1,800, was arrested, and escaped from offieer Rose, by knocking him senseless and nearly cutting his throat. He then came to Siski- you county, and was soon sentenced to three years for grand lareeny, which term was increased to seven years for his participation in the jail delivery. After his release he continued his career of erime, finally murdering a woman in Sacramento, Septem- ber 19, 1872, for which act he paid the penalty upon the gallows, not, however, until his brother lost his life in a desperate attempt to release him from the jail in which he was confined while awaiting the day of his execution.
The Supreme Court having reviewed the case and sustained the decision of the lower court, King was brought before Judge Garter in May, and was sen- tenced to be hanged on Friday, June 23, 1865. Preparations were accordingly made by Sheriff A. D. Crooks by ereeting a gallows in the jail-yard. King's conduct during the trials had been one of bravado and defiance, and this he maintained to the last, being quite abusive while on the scaffold. He remarked as they were leading him from his cell to the place of his death, "I'm the handsomest man here, if I am going to be hung." But few specta- tors were admitted within the jail walls to witness the last act of this terrible drama, which eulminated at nine minutes to two o'clock. The murderer who thus received the just punishment for the crime, nearly two years after he had plunged the fatal knife into an innocent and unsuspecting bosom, was buried a little east of town, near the remains of Crowder and Sailor Jim, executed several years before.
WILLIAM WILLIAMS.
Influenced by passion and whisky, William Wil- liams committed a murder for which he was once under sentence of death, and now occupies a cell in the penitentiary, where he is doomed to remain till death comes to his relief. He was an old sailor, short and heavy, with a dark complexion, and a hasty temper. For years he herded stoek on the Siskiyou mountains, and was familiar with every hill and ravine in the range. Ill-feeling existed between him and John Todhunter about the killing of a colt, which culminated in murder. On Sun- day, May 8, 1870, Williams went to Cottonwood, where he spent his time in getting drunk and mak- ing threats. About six o'clock in the afternoon he invited several to come and see him kill Tod- hunter, and then went to Brown's saloon, where his victim was playing cards, whom he immediately
caught by the collar. Todhunter raised a chair to strike him, but bystanders interfered, and a scuffle ensued, in which Williams drew a knife, and was thrown to the floor under a billiard table. Todhun- ter then rushed into the street followed by the frenzied man with the knife, who chased him across the street. The fugitive pieked up a stone to defend himself with, but Williams dodged under his raised arm, and plunged the knife into his side, penetrating the heart. The wounded man fell to the ground, and eommeneed striking out with his feet to keep his assailant away. The others then rushed up and secured Williams, while his victim raised slowly to his feet, and then fell back dead. The murderer was conveyed to the Yreka jail, where he spent several days in weeping and lamenting the crime his passions, inflamed by liquor, had led him to commit.
On the thirtieth of January, 1871, his trial was commenced in the District Court, before Judge Ros- borough, and lasted five days. He was defended by E. Steele and J. Berry, while the prosecution was conducted by District Attorney Edwin Shearer, assisted by Calvin Edgerton. After a deliberation of two hours the jury brought in a verdict of mur- der in the first degree. The day for pronouncing judgment was postponed from time to time to allow the defense to prepare a motion for a new trial, which was presented and denied on the twenty-fourth of February, and sentence of death pronounced, the day of execution not being fixed. Later a warrant was issued by Judge Rosborough, appointing Friday, April 21, 1871, for the execution of the sentence. A supersedeas was obtained from the Supreme Court, and the case reviewed before that body on appeal, the points relied upon being the absence of a material witness, refusal of the judge to give certain instructions, and the denial of a motion for a new trial. It took a whole year to reach a decision; and April 23, 1872, Chief Justice Wallace filed an opinion, in which the others concurred, affirming the judgment of the lower court, in which he said: "We diseover no error in the action of the court below in any of the proceedings of the trial. The various legal propositions involved were correctly placed before the jury by the learned judge in an elaborate charge, remarkable for its elearness and force." May 29th, T. A. Bantz, district attorney, moved for judgment, and Judge Rosborough set Friday, July 26, 1872, as the day for the execution.
Efforts were then made to have his sentence com- muted to imprisonment for life. Williams frequently declared he never would be hanged, and attempted to make good his assertion by escaping from jail on the evening of the second of July. Sev- eral months before he had succeeded in cutting his irons, but the fact was discovered before he effeeted his escape. By the aid of outside friends he secured a file, saw, hatehet, and auger. On the night referred to Sheriff Morgan was in Etna, and Jailer Ed. O'Neil was down town, leaving him a elear field to work in. The rivet that secured the chain to the rings about his ankles was quickly filed off, and then he commenced upon the hinges of his cell door. After partially sawing these off he aban- doned the task and made an opening in the door by boring holes through it and taking out a piece.
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Through this he crawled into the corridor, pried the door of the jailer's room from its hinges and thus made his way into the yard, After filling the key- hole of the gate-lock with gravel, he climbed over the fence by the aid of a table, box, and barrel, and made direct for the Siskiyou mountain. At half- past nine the jailer returned and was unable to get his key into the lock, A light was procured, and after considerable delay the gravel was picked from the lock and the gate opened, when the cause of all the trouble became at once apparent. Sheriff Morgan soon arrived, and messengers were sent out in all directions to get trace of the fugi- tive. At noon the next day word came from Cot- tonwood that he had crossed the Klamath at Groat's ferry, and the slieriff hastened thither with a party. A guard was placed at his cabin, as they expected him to go there for his shot-gun, and then secrete himself in the chaparral, with which he had been familiar for years. At dark he ap- proached the cabin, but hastened away when he discovered the ambuscade, followed by half a dozen ineffectual shots. Some Indians were procured to trail the fugitive through the brush, and for a week all efforts to capture him were futile. Williams left a very indistinct trail by jumping from stone to stone, so faint that the Indians had great difficulty in seeing it, and the whites could not see it at all, and denied that the Indians could, thus delaying and hindering them so much that they refused to continue the search. A number of ruses were adopted to entice him to his cabin or elsewhere, to procure food, but all failed. At last a stratagem was successful. His friends were told that the gov- ernor had commuted his sentence, and that if he would come in he would not be hanged. Trusting to this promise he delivered himself up on the eighth, only to find, when again safely lodged in jail, that he had been deceived. His account of the life he led on the mountain that week was an interesting one. He had a pistol and hatchet, and had killed a young bear, on which he lived, using the skin l'or a coat, and had built a little bark hut in the chaparral. The pursuers passed so near him several times that he could ahnost touch them.
His friends now interested themselves in securing a commutation of his sentence, urging as a reason for such action the deception and promise that had induced him to surrender. Governor Booth was of the opinion that the reasons were good, and his sen- tence of death was changed to life imprisonment in the penitentiary at San Quentin, to which he was conveyed, and where he now performs daily labor for the State.
CHAPTER XVI. THE COURT OF JUDGE LYNCH.
AT its best and under the most favorable circum- stances the exercise of lynch-law is barbarous and cruel. The taking of human life in punishment for crime by the constitutel authorities when it has been so decreed by a legal tribunal is terrible enough, and is only justified because society must protect itself; but when the safeguards of the law are thrown aside and prejudice becomes the judge, pas-
sion the jury and inhumanity the executioner, it becomes horrible.
The absence of competent tribunals for the pres- ervation of peace and the adjudication of disputes, led in 1849 and 1850 to the settlement of all diffi- culties by the people themselves. So speedy was this method, and so beneficial in its effect upon soci- ety by restraining the commission of crime, that it became engrafted upon the legal system of the State long after the necessity for it had vanished. Wher- ever was found a mining camp, there also was material for a miners' jury. Men acted too often upon hastily formed opinions. A man was shot, the murderer was captured; a jury of miners was formed and a judge selected; the investigation was super- ficial and one-sided; a verdict of death was rendered, and the victim was quickly borne to a trec and hanged; all this, perhaps, in a few hours. Some- times a murderer escapes from the toils of the law through some technicality, and the people in their righteous indignation mete out to him the punish- ment he so richly deserves. In such a case, though it were better that the law be respected, there is an excuse for the exercise of violence; but when a pris- oner is taken violently from the hands of the law, or is seized before the law has had an opportunity to take charge of him, and is executed by an unreasoning mob inflamed with passion, then there ceases to be a shadow of excuse for the act, and it becomes a murder, cruel and heartless, and none the less so because committed by a hundred than if the act of but one.
Several such have occurred in Siskiyou county, the victims in most cases being Indians. The hang- ing of the Frenchman was an instance of this kind, when a man, probably crazy, was taken from the custody of the legal officers and hanged under eir- cumstances of great cruelty. The Millhouse affair would have been another could it have been consum- mated. Many have been whipped for theft and other offenses, several of which occurrences are here related, but by no means all of them, enough, how- ever, to show how such things were done.
A great many Indians have been hung and shot at different times, but as these occurrences happened during or in connection with some general Indian difficulty, they are detailed in the history of Indian difficulties in another chapter. A white man had but little chance for his life when in the hands of a mob; an Indian had none. There is only one instance of the escape of one of this race from the violence of a mob, that of Rising Sun, and he did so by his boldness and dexterity, and not because the inob relented in its purpose.
INDIAN HANGED AT SCOTT BAR.
A small company of prospectors was at work on the south bank of the Klamath, near the mouth of Scott river, early in the spring of 1851, among whom was D. D. Colton. A horse belonging to them having strayed across the river, two of the party named Converse and Haynes crossed over and cap- tured it. While on their way back Converse laid down his gun and stooped over a spring to get a drink, when an Indian picked up the weapon and shot the unsuspecting drinker dead. His companion jumped on the horse and made for the river, pursued
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by the savages, but was drowned before getting across the stream. The others hastened to Scott Bar with the news, and a party was made up that captured the Indian who shot Converse, and brought him to the Bar. The Indians along the river knew but little about the use of guns at that time. except that they were very dangerous things to get in front of; but the one who had done the shooting was an Oregon Indian, a Cayuse, or a Chinook, familiar with white people and fire-arms. The cap- tive was taken before Alcalde R. B. Snelling, and after a regular trial was sentenced to be hanged, notwithstanding an energetic defense by lawyer Clarkson. General R. M. Martin was the sheriff at the Bar, and upon him devolved the duty of exe- cuting the sentence of the court. A butcher's gal- lows stood not far away, to which a short rope with a noose was fastened. A lariat was tied from one post to the other, about half-way up, and a plank was placed with one end upon this and the other on the ground, making an inclined plane, up which the prisoner was led so as to stand under the noose. General Martin did not relish his part of the job, and when a diminutive Kanaka offered to relieve him he accepted gladly. The Indian was large, and the Kanaka small, but by climbing upon his victim he managed to get the noose over his head. By some means the Indian got the rope in his mouth, and clung to it with all his strength. He had exhibited the reverse of the stoical calmness in the face of death so generally ascribed to the Indian character, and had cried and pleaded for life, and now that he had the rope in his teeth he clung to it as a last hope. The executioner placed his knee against the Indian's breast, and pulled the rope from his mouth with a jerk, breaking the teeth. He then placed the noose around the prisoner's neck, drew the knot tight, and descended to the ground. In order to save the lariat without cutting it, the plank was pulled away, but the Indian's feet rested on the rope, and it had to be cut, though the crowd expressed the opinion that it was a shame to spoil a good lariat just to hang a dirty Indian.
INDIAN WHIPPED AT SCOTT BAR.
In 1851 an Indian stole some dust from Varney & Lytle, on Poorman's Bar, and was caught while endeavoring to sell some specimen pieces in a saloon. A brief trial was given him, and it was decided that he should be whipped, and that B. F. Varney should wield the rope. He was tied up and Varney began to lay on the stripes, but with such gentleness that Lytle became disgusted. "Give me that rope," be said, as he took the whip from his partner's hand. Squaring himself for the effort, he rained blows upon the Indian's back until he writhed under them, great ridges rising at every blow. When he was done the Indian was released, with a warning not to come within shooting dis- tance of the river, and justice was satisfied.
FRENCHY WHIPPED ON SCOTT RIVER.
There was working on Scott river in the spring of 1852 a young lawyer from Illinois named Smith. He had been there but a short time, but by dilligent labor had accumulated nearly two thousand dollars in dust, which he always carried in a sack in the
pocket of his coat. This he always took with him to his claim and never let it get out of his sight, leaving it on his bunk at night and using it for a pillow when he slept. He had a young wife and baby waiting anxiously his return, and his savings had now amounted to what he considered a " home stake," while he was laying plans for his homeward journey. Occupying the same cabin with him was a little Frenchinan, a Dr. Baid, known to all as Frenchy. This man knew the habits of Smith and just where he kept his dust. One night Frenchy was absent at Humbug, and Smith with a few others were sitting in the cabin, when they heard a little noise in the corner by the bunk, but paid no atten- tion to it. When Smith picked up his coat when preparing to retire for the night, he was filled with consternation to find it light and empty. The sack of dust was gone. Search in the bunk and through the cabin failed to reveal the missing treasure. That no one inside had taken it Smith knew, for they had been where he could see them continually. A careful examination revealed the fact that at the head of the bunk where the coat lay, the chinking between the logs had been disturbed. All rushed outside, and there were found the footprints of the robber by the side of the cabin, where he had removed the chinking, inserted his hand, taken the gold, restored the chinking and departed. Smith's mind at once reverted to Frenchy. He remembered that but a short time before he had left his coat in the cabin by mistake, and Frenchy had come to his claim to notify him of the fact, and that the next time he weighed the sack it was six ounces short. He asserted that Frenchy was the thief beyond a doubt.
News that a miner had been robbed soon spread in the morning, and a crowd quickly gathered to discuss the matter and see what could be done. It was determined to capture Frenchy, and if found guilty, to, hang him. Cyrus Hurd was selected to go to Humbug after the suspected man, and when he reached there found the object of his search just bound for Yreka. He was informed by citizens of Hum- bug that Frenchy was there when the sum went down the night before and the rising sun that morn- ing revealed him still there. The night was a dark one; the trail from Humbug to the bar was ten miles long, so rugged and rocky that it was dif- ficult to travel it in the day-time and seemed impos- sible at night. No one believed the man could go that ten miles to the bar and ten miles back again over that rough mountain trail in the darkness. Nevertheless Hurd decided to take the man to Scott Bar, and so followed him to Yreka. In that town the year before there had been a vigilance commit- tee of which Alvy Boles was chairman, and to him Hurd repaired for assistance. Yreka was then in Shasta Plains township, in Shasta county. Boles sat down to write a warrant, and soon evolved the following formula, and placed the document in the hands of his constable, Abraham Thompson, to serve :-
STATE OF CALIFORNIA, County of Shaste, Vigilant Com. vs. Dr. Baid. Shaste Plains Township.
To any constable of Shaste Plains Township this day complaint having laid before me the Vigilant Committee that the crime of felony has Ben committed and accusing the above named Dr.
JEREMIAH DAVIDSON.
MRS. JEREMIAH DAVIDSON.
JEREMIAH DAVIDSON,
Of Scott valley, is from Scotch-Irish ancestry, though directly his father James is a native of Penn- sylvania and his mother of West Virginia, in which latter State the parents were married, and lived about thirty miles below Wheeling. Jeremiah, the third child, was born on the twenty-first of Janu- ary, 1824. Some time after his birth, James David- son removed his familv, then consisting of Narcissa, David M., Jeremiah, William Fleming, and Hannah Jane, the children, together with their mother, to Vermillion county, Indiana, and settled in the town of Eugene, where four more children were born, Sarah, Finly H., Ann Eliza, and James A. Jere- miah, the subject of our sketch, worked on a farm during his boyhood and early manhood, attending school in winter. He was married on the twenty sixth of August, 1847, to Miss Margaret Ann John- son, daughter of Hugh and May Johnson, a native of Indiana and born February 24, 1827. Jeremiah and wife had nine children by this union, five of whom are still living. They were born as follows : Alonzo F., September 16, 1848, at Savannah, Illin- ois ; Finly H., March 27, 1854 in Scott valley ; John Henry, June 29, 1856, died March 17, 1864 ; David M., April 26, 1858, died March 10, 1864; William and Charles, March 5, 1860, the latter dving March 25, 1860, and the former March 22, 1864 ; Charles McDermit, April 23, 1862: May Elizabeth, May 6, 1865 ; Jeremiah, Jr., September 30, 1866, and Margaret A., July 24, 1868. Shortly after his mar- riage Mr. Davidson moved to Elk River Mills in Clinton county, Iowa. While there he was engaged in the coopering business. In the course of the next few months he changed to Wapello, Iowa, and to Savannah, Illinois, where learning of the great fortunes which were being made in the gold fields of California, he determined to go there himself.
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