USA > Idaho > The history of Idaho > Part 7
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"This statement is made because it was falsely charged at the time by Bill Mayfield and other enemies of Captain Standifer that men, women and children were indiscriminately slaughtered by his command. Exactly the reverse was true. In no instance that I know of, were non-combatants killed except the one above related, and while neither Standifer nor his subalterns knew of or could have averted that atrocity, its perpetration was not with- out palliating excuses. Emery had a sister in the horrible Bruneau butchery of a few years before, who suffered indignities that can- not be told in print, and in retaliation he had sworn that no Bannock Indian should ever escape him alive. But after the above incident, no opportunity was given him to gratify his just pas- sion for revenge.
"While the events here recorded were transpiring, Captain Stan- difer with his portion of the company was 'cleaning up the Mal- heur country.' Several bands of Indians were routed and destroyed in that section and two little children-a boy and a girl-made prisoners. The boy was taken to Placerville and given to John Kelley, the noted violinist, who raised him to manhood. Much to
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the surprise of everybody, the youngster developed into a contor- tionist of superior powers and was exhibited by Mr. Kelley in various parts of the world. The girl was also given a home, but I never heard what became of her.
"After the fight on what I believe to have been Jordan Creek, and the murder of the two unfortunate squaws, Thatcher and Greenwood's party, finding their provisions scant, with no signs of more Indians in the vicinity, seventeen men led by the writer of this and provided with ten days' rations, started to the head of the Owyhee River, the rest returning to Boise Basin. I had forgotten to mention the fact that we had crossed the Bruneau and Owyhee rivers before the fight on Jordan Creek. Going up the river about a day's journey, we came upon the trail of the herd of horses we had failed to secure at the fight. Following this for a couple of days, we came upon a freshly abandoned camp. Fires were still burning, but nothing had been left except a dog. That some of the party killed, and we again went forward on the trail, which was now fresh, but night came on and the herd had not been overtaken. About 11 o'clock the next day the trail gave out and a search disclosed that the animals had been scattered all over the plain. This had been done to baffle pursuit. But we pushed on, stimulated by the hope of a big capture, and soon came into a plain trail, so plain that 100 horses must have passed to make it. A little after dark that evening, we observed lights ahead of us and across the Owyhee River, but could do nothing that night. At daybreak the next morning we were again in the saddle, only to learn to our great disappointment and mortification, that our game had taken advantage of the opportunity afforded them to steal away under the cover of night.
"We followed a few miles farther and finding that they had gone into the deep snows on Stein's Mountain, and that our supply of provisions was about exhausted, we retraced our steps, reaching the ferry at the mouth of the Owyhee after a two days' fast. Finding no provisions there, we were accompanied by the ferry- man, Lewis Rambow, to the mouth of the Payette, where our wants were cheerfully and liberally supplied by a packer named Sloan.
"Of the names of that collection of 'rough diamonds,' I can now recall only these: (Jeff) J. J. Standifer, James Greenwood, Geo. W. Thatcher, James F. Cheatly, Eli Riddle, Wall Lawrence, F. M. Scott, Green Martin, Sam McLeod, J. S. Lewis, Dave Ficirall, Dave C. Updyke, Wes Jenkings, Nat Crabtree, Frank Crabtree, Ben Marmaduke, Thomas Cook, Dan Tolbert, W. H. Sutton, 'Doc.' Morey, Dr. David H. Belknap, Dr. J. H. Ratson, 'Doc.' Leather- man, Jas. Aukey, Bob Emery, J. M. Cummings, - Wooley,
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Chas. Allender, John Black, A. E. Callaway, John Benfield, John G. Bell, Carroll, Jas. McCuen, - Warwick, Matt.
Bledsoe, Lafe Gates, Sam Hendy, James Matthews, Jesse Peters, Geo. Riley, Buck Strickland, Andrew Jenkins, Packard, Gerry Anderson, T. J. Sutton, and 'Mountain Jack,' the latter so called because he did not know his own name. From his earliest rec- ollections he was attached to a family of Buffalo Snake Indians. He knew nothing of his parentage or origin; dressed as an Indian and spoke the Snake language in 1863 much more fluently than he did English. He used a bow and arrow or a gun with equal facil- ity and felicity, and could follow a trail as unerringly as a blood hound. According to his own account of himself, he was a slave until he was old enough to prove his valor and prowess in battle, when because of certain clandestine exploits as a warrior, he was relieved from the degredation of drudging with the women and permitted to carry arms, after which his lot was one of compara- tive ease. In a conversation on the subject, he stated to the writer of this that he preferred the life of a white man to that he led with the Indians, but he feared the insinuations and jeers of which he was constantly the victim would force him to return to the tribe he had voluntarily abandoned, and there was logic in his fears. For while out with our party rendering the excellent service he did, it was no uncommon thing to hear him spoken of, in tones meant for his ear, as 'that damned Indian,' and in many other and far less complimentary terms. These insults he was frequently inclined to resent to the endangering of his own and other lives and would certainly have done so but for the influence which Lieutenant Green- wood and myself had acquired over him.
"The history of such a being is worth preserving because of the forcibleness with which it illustrates the risks and dangers encoun- tered by immigrants who dared the savage in his desert retreats when 'the plains' were to nearly all men a realm of mystery and terror that few cared to enter, and where many who entered dis- appeared as completely as if swallowed by the sea. That 'Jack' had been captured by the savages in some scene of blood cannot be doubted. His fair complexion, blue eyes, flaxen hair and pro- nounced German features demonstrated the purity of his Cau- cassian blood, but the incidents of his capture and the fate of his parents are secrets that have perished with the actors in the great drama of the plains half a century ago."
CHAPTER XII.
RUSH TO BOISE BASIN MINES, PACKING, SADDLE TRAINS, MERCHANDIS- ING, MINING, ETC.
Early in April, 1863, the rush for the Boise Basin mines started in earnest from California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington Ter- ritory. Not only miners, but merchants, packers, ranchers, sport- ing men, lawyers and an occasional preacher were in the throng. Many came by steamer from San Francisco to Portland, and there took the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's steamers for Uma- tilla or Wallula, as these places were the head of navigation for these mines. Wallula was 22 miles further up the river than Uma- tilla and a few miles further from the mines, but the fare, however, was the same to either place and the rate for freight the same. The object of this was to boom the towns of Walla Walla and Wallula and for a time the travel was very nearly equally divided between Umatilla and Wallula. Some brought saddle horses and a few pack animals, but the majority were without animals, and were not prepared to purchase when they arrived at Umatilla or Wallula. Frequently three, four or five of them would join together and purchase one pack animal and pack it with their blankets and a small supply of provisions, lead the animal and walk to the Basin. Many would buy a lunch, roll it up in their blankets, shoulder them and "hit the road" in a few minutes after they landed from the steamer, trusting to replenish their stock of grub at some packer's camp or at some of the temporary stations established on the road for the purpose of collecting toll on some trail or horse-bridge and also for selling something to drink. We cannot say it was whiskey, although called by that name; at any rate, a little of it went a long ways.
Another class of men who came did not seem to be in such a rush. They preferred to hire transportation for themselves and their baggage and have some one go with them who knew some- thing about the country and the road, and who would pack a suf- ficient supply of provisions along for the trip, and when the time came to camp, look out for the animals. This kind of traveling came under the name of "saddle trains." The owner of the train would furnish each passenger with a horse and a saddle so he could ride, would also pack a small amount of baggage for each person and furnish sufficient amount of substantial provisions for the trip, with the necessary cooking utensils. The passengers did the
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cooking in camp while the train master looked after the animals, packing, etc. The fare for this trip was fifty dollars and each passenger was expected to pay in advance. Toll cost about ten dol- lars for the round trip for each animal, and added to this was the cost of the grub, the shoeing of the animals, the wages for the train-master, and frequently the loss of a horse or two. It took about fourteen days for the round trip and then horses and train- master had to lay off for a week to rest from the hard trip, so it will be seen that all they took in was not clear profit. Besides, it was seldom there was any travel on the down trip, excepting in the fall, and the travel up by that time would be very light.
The writer engaged in this business with a man by the name of William Ish. We sent out one small train to the Auburn mines on Powder River in Oregon from Walla Walla about the 10th day of April, 1863, and on the 18th day of April, I left Walla Walla with a saddle train of sixteen passengers and four pack animals for Placerville in Boise Basin. This was the beginning of the saddle train business in the Boise Basin mines.
I would like to state here that I have traveled and "roughed" it a great deal in this western country with many different men, but these sixteen passengers who were all California miners were the best all-round traveling companions I ever had. Every man did his part in camp; no grumbling or growling on the road, but on the contrary, all were always pleasant and agreeable. They were well- informed, intelligent men. This partner of mine did not care much about going on the road. He was, however, a good rustler to get passengers, but was not very particular to get competent men to take charge of the train, so I would usually meet the trains he sent out and send the man or men back with my animals and take charge of the train going to the Basin. In this way I was kept on the upper part of the road for several months. My part- ner soon moved headquarters to Umatilla on the Columbia, where the most of the passengers were now landing from the steamboats. Very soon other saddle trains started to carrying passengers and the fare was reduced to forty dollars and later to thirty dollars. By September the travel to the Basin was almost over for the season, so we engaged in packing. In the Spring of 1864, we com- menced the stage business, of which we shall speak later on.
The population of the mining camps in Boise Basin in the Sum- mer of 1863 was variously estimated from fifteen to twenty thou- sand, mostly men. It took great quantities of provisions, tools, etc., to supply the demand. Everything had to be packed on ani- mals from Umatilla or Walla Walla, except a small amount, prin- cipally flour, which came from Salt Lake City, Utah. A great many
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pack mules and horses were necessary to transport these supplies as it was necessary to get in enough to last through the Winter and until trains could come in again in the Spring.
Packing was quite a good business freight ranging from sixteen to twenty-five cents per pound. The placer mines at Idaho City, Centerville, Placerville, Pioneer and Granite Creek all paid well. Money was plenty and the miners spent it freely. A number of men went into the mercantile business and the majority of them laid in heavy stocks for Winter and Spring use. For these they paid high freights and many of them lost money, for merchan- dise was cheaper in the Spring of 1864 than in the Fall of 1863, owing to the overstock. Saloons were plentiful and did a thriving business. Hotels and restaurants made money. One or more feed stables were started in each camp. The owners of these places had hay cut from small bottoms near by-a kind of swamp grass. This hay was baled and packed into the towns. They also had small stocks of grain packed from Oregon. Oats were retailed at fifty cents per pound in small quantities, or forty cents per pound by the sack. Hay in small quantities sold at forty cents per pound and baled hay, weighing two hundred pounds or more, twenty-five cents per pound. I paid twenty-five cents per pound by the bale for a very poor quality of hay to feed my pack ani- mals, both in Placerville and Idaho City in December, 1863. This may seem an exaggeration, but it is true. Another instance of high prices : I delivered a cargo of goods in Idaho City late in the month of October, 1863, and knowing the grass near the road for fifteen miles out was pretty well eaten off, I had my cargo un- loaded as soon as possible and stacked near the merchant's store for whom I was packing, and started my train out for grass, keep- ing only one man with me, and our saddle mules. We intended to deliver and check up the freight with the merchant and go to our camp that night. We led our two saddle mules into a feed yard and I requested the man in charge to give them a good feed of hay. We then delivered and checked up the freight without delay, received our freight money and concluded we would go to a restaurant and get something to eat. On our way to the res- taurant, we stopped at this feed yard to see how our mules were faring. They were tied to the fence close together and I could not see a spear of hay near either of them. I spoke to the man in charge saying, "You have tied our mules, but you have forgotten to feed them hay." He answered that he had fed them but that they had eaten it all up. I told him to give them some more. He replied in this way: "I will give them more, but I want you to understand that I charge forty cents per pound for hay.' I told
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THE HISTORY OF IDAHO
him to go on and feed them and I would pay for it. We went to the restaurant and were back in half an hour. I called for the amount I owed him for feeding the two mules. The bill amounted to thirteen dollars and sixty cents, the man claiming he had fed the mules just thirty-four pounds of hay. I paid the bill and we started for camp where mules could eat the grass that nature provided free of charge.
Considering the variety and different classes of people, also the number of saloons and the amount of gambling carried on in these mining camps, the general conduct of the people was good. True, there was occasionally a tough character, but they were few, all things considered.
The mines were generally worked by shoveling the dirt and gravel into a string of sluice boxes or sometimes rockers. The gold was what might be termed "coarse, fine gold," and was easily saved by having a number of slats put in across the sluice boxes. The water would carry the dirt and gravel down the sluice boxes and the gold would settle to the bottom and lodge against one of these cross riffles or slats in the sluice boxes. When they wished to clean up, they would stop shoveling in the boxes, turn the water off, scrape up whatever was lodged against these riffles in the sluice boxes, wash or pan it out, then they would have the clean gold. After drying it, they could weigh it in gold scales and tell what they were making per day.
These clean-ups were generally satisfactory, usually amounting from ten to one hundred dollars per day for each day's work. This gold had combined with it a considerable amount of silver which reduced its market or coin value down to from fourteen to sixteen dollars per ounce. We have no accurate means of know- ing the amount taken from these mines in 1863, but it is esti- mated at about five million dollars.
CHAPTER XIII.
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OWYHEE AND ROCKY BAR.
On May 18, 1863, about twenty-eight men on a prospecting tour, led by Michael Jordan, camped on what is now called Jordan Creek in Owyhee County, about six miles below where Booneville now stands, and began to prospect for placer mines. They pros- pected the creek for a few miles below their camp and for ten miles up the creek, finding very good prospects all along the creek. After a few days, some of these men returned to the Boise Basin for supplies and when they came back, there was a rush of miners for these mines and soon all of the creek was lo- cated. This creek is a small stream, excepting in the Spring when the snows are melting.
The towns of Booneville and Ruby City were located on this stream for trading posts. The former place was located by a man by the name of Boone, hence the name. As for the other little town, the name was given because some quartz had been dis- covered there that contained ruby silver.
These placer mines were not very extensive, being confined mostly to the creek, the bottom land and the bars. The moun- tains came down close on either side so the strip was quite narrow. The quality of the gold was medium coarse and was very pretty, but owing to a large amount of silver combined with the gold, the value was only about twelve dollars to the ounce. As these placer mines were easily worked and not very extensive, by the second year they were almost worked out but in the meantime, many of the prospectors had discovered and located good quartz claims.
The same year, 1863, some prospecting was done up the South Fork of the Boise River and its tributaries at and near what is now known as Rocky Bar, then in Alturas County, now Elmore County. Some placer gold was found on Boise River and its tributaries, but neither very rich nor extensive.
Another town was located and named Esmeralda and became the county seat of Alturas County. Quite a number of good gold quartz ledges were discovered in this camp, which proved to be better than the placer mines.
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CHAPTER XIV.
THE MURDER OF LLOYD MAGRUDER AND OTHERS BY LOWRY, HOWARD AND ROMAIN-THEIR CAPTURE AND RETURN BY HILL BEACHY -THEIR TRIAL, CONVICTION AND EXECUTION
AT LEWISTON, IDAHO.
Lloyd Magruder was a prominent packer and trader in the northern and northeastern mining camps in Idaho Territory, whose headquarters was at Lewiston, which place is situated on the north bank of Snake River at the junction of Clearwater River with Snake River in Idaho. In August, 1863, Mr. Magruder pur- chased a cargo of miners' supplies and loaded his pack train of some sixty to seventy mules, to pack into and sell in the mining camp of Virginia City, then in Idaho, now in Montana, a distance from Lewiston of about 300 miles.
At that time the late Hill Beachy was keeping the principal hotel in Lewiston. He and Magruder were old acquaintances and warm friends. After Mr. Magruder had loaded his train of mules and started them out on the trail, leaving his men in charge, he turned and rode to Mr. Beachy's hotel to bid his old-time friend good-bye, expecting to return in about three months to meet his family and friends that he was leaving behind. It is said that Mr. Beachy was talking to his wife about Mr. Magruder when the latter rode up to bid him good-bye. Mr. Beachy had said to his wife that he had had a dream the night before about his friend Magruder that troubled him very much. He dreamed that his friend had been at- tacked in the mountains and had been murdered and robbed. How- ever, he exchanged greetings with Mr. Magruder cheerfully, and before he left, Mr. Beachy loaned Mr. Magruder a fine gun for him to take on his trip.
The trail which Mr. Magruder had to travel over was through a wild, unsettled, mountainous country, but was passable for pack and saddle animals. Mr. Magruder with his men and pack animals moved along without any accident worthy of note, making the usual drives for pack animals of from ten to fifteen miles per day, until within a few days' travel of his destination, when they were overtaken by a party of men on horseback from Lewiston. There ap- pears to have been eight in the party, most of whom Magruder had met in Lewiston, but he knew nothing of the character of any of these men. They all seemed pleased to overtake Mr. Magruder and willing to help him with his packing the balance of the trip,
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and all the pay they asked was their grub. Everything went on smoothly and well. They reached their destination all right. Mr. Magruder opened up his goods for sale in Virginia City, which was then a new and rich placer mining camp. Money was plentiful among the miners, but supplies were scarce, so Mr. Magruder found sale for his goods at good prices.
Of the men who had overtaken Magruder, D. C. Lowry, David Howard and James Romain belonged to the class called "road agents," or murderous robbers. Wm. Page was a mountaineer trap- per and sometimes worked at mining; Bob Zachary and three oth- ers whose names are unknown, were miners. They left Magruder on their arrival at Virginia City and went to work mining. The other four hung around Magruder's camp, assisted him some in taking care of his pack animals and watched the rapid sale of his goods and the large amounts of gold dust taken in by him for the sale of his goods, stopping and boarding most of the time at Ma- gruder's camp.
About the middle of October, Mr. Magruder had sold out the last of his goods and desired to return to Lewiston with his pack train as soon as possible, before snow fell and obstructed travel on the mountain trail that it was necessary for him to travel in order to reach his home. In the meantime, the men who had helped him pack through from Lewiston had quit and gone to work in the mines. Here Magruder now had some twenty-five to thirty thou- sand dollars of gold coin and gold dust and a large train of pack mules, all of which he wanted to get to Lewiston, and the only way was over the long mountainous trail that he had come in on, where there were no settlements and but little travel. The first thing to be done was to get help to drive his pack train, care for them and help to protect his treasure. The three men before mentioned, Lowry, Howard and Romain, had acted so clever with Magruder that he had come to the conclusion that they were very good men and they seemed willing to go back with Magruder to Lewiston and help him get his train through, so they were engaged, and so was Wil- liam Page, the trapper, who had come with the other three. In ad- dition to these four, Mr. Magruder engaged a Mr. Phillips and a Mr. Allen and also two young men from Missouri, names unknown, who had been mining and were supposed to have about two thou- sand dollars each in gold dust, making a crew of eight besides him- self.
They started out; everything went well until they had gotten about two-thirds of the way to Lewiston. They camped near the summit of a mountain, near a spring on one side of the camp, and a deep canyon on the other side.
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THE HISTORY OF IDAHO
It appears from the testimony, that an agreement had been made between Howard, Lowry and Romain, that at this camp they would kill Mr. Magruder, Phillips, Allen and the two young men from Missouri. They decided not to kill William Page, the mountain trapper, as he was so well acquainted with all the mountain trails that he might be of service to them.
As near as can be ascertained, Page was put on guard duty that night with the animals and was told what was going to to be done and ordered to keep his mouth shut under penalty of death, and a further promise of an equal division of the money they expected to get if he did as directed, which he did. Magruder and Lowry were on guard away from camp a short distance. Phillips, Allen and the other two young men were in bed, supposed to be asleep. Between ten and eleven o'clock, Lowry managed to get up close behind Magruder with an axe which he had concealed, and struck Magruder a powerful blow on the head which knocked him sense- less to the ground. Lowry followed up his murderous assault with more blows, then went quickly to the camp where he, Howard and Romain soon killed the other four that were sleeping, in the same way. Page, who was watching the mules nearby, claims that he saw all of these murders committed.
The next thing, after securing the money, was to pick out some of the best mules to ride, and then drive the balance of them into the deep canyon and kill them, then to tie up the dead men into blankets and roll them over a steep precipice into the canyon, then to burn up all the camp equipage, including apparahoes, ropes, etc. All this time these murderers were wearing moccasins on their feet (with which they had supplied themselves) to make it appear to any persons who might come that way that Indians had com- mitted the foul murders.
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