USA > Idaho > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 10
USA > Montana > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 10
USA > Oregon > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 10
USA > Washington > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 10
USA > Wyoming > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 10
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Boone Helm.
revolver, challenged Fred to an immediate deadly combat. Fred sprung up, drew his knife, and was advancing to close with the drunken brag- gart, when the by-standers interfered, and de- prived both of their weapons, which they entrusted to the keeping of the saloon-keeper, and Fred returned quietly to his game.
Helm apologized, and expressed regret for his conduct, and left the saloon. A few hours after- wards he returned. Fred was still there. Step- ping up to the saloon-keeper, Helm asked for his revolver, promising that he would immediately depart and make no disturbance. No sooner was it returned to him than he turned towards Fred, and uttering a diabolical oath, fired at him while seated at the table. The ball missed, and before the second fire, Fred, unarmed, with his arms folded across his breast, stood before his antago- nist, who, with deadlier aim, pierced his heart. He fell dead upon the spot. Helm cocked his pistol, and looking towards the stupefied crowd, exclaimed, -
" Maybe some more of you want some of this ! "
As no one deigned a reply, he walked coolly away.
If Helm was arrested for this murder, he
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escaped ; for the next we hear of him he was captured on Frazer river in the fall of 1862, as will appear from the following extract from a British Columbia paper : -
" The man, Boone Helm, to whom we referred some weeks since, has at last been taken. He was brought into this city last night strongly ironed. The first clue of the detectives was the report that two men had been seen trudging up the Frazer river on foot, with their blankets and a scanty supply of provisions on their backs. The description of one corresponded with the descrip- tion given by the American officers of Boone Helm. Helm's conduct on the road is conclusive evidence that he was aware he was being pursued. He passed around the more populous settlements, or through them in the night time. When over- taken, he was so exhausted by fatigue and hunger that it would have been impossible for him to have continued many hours longer. He made no resistance to the arrest, -in fact, he was too weak to do so, - and acknowledged without equivocation or attempt at evasion that he was Boone Helm. Upon being asked what had be- come of his companion, he replied with the utmost sang froid : -
"' Why, do you suppose that I'm a fool
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enough to starve to death when I can help it ? I ate him up, of course.'
" The man who accompanied him has not been seen or heard of since, and from what we have been told of this case-hardened villain's antece- dents, we are inclined to believe he told the truth. It is said this is not the first time he has been guilty of cannibalism."
While on his return for trial in the spring of 1863, leave was obtained from the proper author- ities at Portland, Oregon, to confine him in the penitentiary there until provision could be made to secure him safely at Florence. There I will leave him for the present, as, after accompanying me thus far through the horrible narrative of his adventures, my readers doubtless, now that he is fairly within the sharp fangs of the law, hope soon to learn that justice has finally overtaken him, and that the world is freed from his further depredations.
Three brothers of Boone Helm came to the Pacific coast between 1848 and 1850. They all died violent deaths. At the time of the return of Boone Helm to Florence for trial for the murder of " Dutch Fred," one of these brothers, familiarly called '" Old Tex," was engaged in mining in the Boise diggings, two hundred miles south of
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Florence. He had a good reputation for honesty, liberality, and courage. He was, moreover, a man of eccentric character. It is told of him that in one of the mining towns he threatened to shoot on sight a person with whom he had a per- sonal difficulty. His enemy hearing of this, swore to reciprocate the intention upon the first oppor- tunity. A chance soon after offering to carry his threat into execution, he said to " Old Tex," as he presented his pistol to fire, --
"Tex, I heard that you said that you'd shoot me on sight."
Looking around, "Tex " replied, " Well, didn't you say you would shoot me, too ?"
" Yes, I did."
" Well, why don't you do it then ? All you've got to do is to pull that trigger, and that's the last of ' Old Tex.'"
This stoical bravery won the admiration of the man and defeated his bloody purpose.
" Tex," said he, " I don't want to kill you."
" Do you mean that ? " asked " Tex."
" I do."
" That suits me," replied " Tex," " let's go and take a drink." And thus their enmity ended in making them fast friends. "Tex " was killed by being thrown from a wild horse, in Walla Walla, in the year 1865.
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Boone Helm.
It was to this brother that Boone Helm, when he found all hope of escape at an end, applied for assistance. True to the fraternal instinct, " Tex " promptly responded, and soon made his appear- ance in Florence, with a heavy purse. He soon satisfied himself that unless the testimony could be suppressed, the trial must result in conviction ; and to this object he immediately addressed him- self. Some of the witnesses had left the country. " Tex " succeeded in buying up all that remained, except one. He wanted an extravagant sum. "Tex " finally agreed to pay it, if he would at once leave the country and never return. The extortionist accepted the conditions. Fixing his cold, gray eye on him, " Tex," as he handed him the money, said: "Now, remember, if you do not fulfil the last condition of the bargain, you will have me to meet."
Shylock knew the character of the man too well to trifle with him.
The day of trial came, no witnesses appeared, the case was dismissed, and the red-handed mur- derer and cannibal was again at liberty to prowl for fresh victims. The true-hearted brother who had purchased his life, as soon as he was free, took him kindly by the hand, and in a voice choked with emotion, said to him, -
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Boone Helm.
" Now, Boone, if you want to work and make an honest living, go down to Boise with me. I have plenty of mining ground, and you can do well for yourself : - but if you must fight, and nothing else will do you, I will give you an outfit to go to Texas, where you can join the Confederate armies, and do something for your country."
Boone accompanied his brother to Boise, and for a while engaged in mining, but it was not a congenial occupation. He soon signified his desire to go to Texas, and "Old Tex," true to his promise, furnished him clothing, a horse, and a well-filled purse. He set out in quest of new adventures, but, as we shall see hereafter, did not go to Texas.
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Charley Harper.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHARLEY HARPER.
CHARLEY HARPER AT COLVILLE- NEW YEAR'S BALL - KICKS AND ABUSES A WOMAN -IS PURSUED BY THE PEOPLE, UPON WHOM HE FIRES - CAPTURED AND HUNG - VIGILANTES OF FLORENCE BANISH "FAT JACK "_ HE RETURNS, IS WARNED, AND LEAVES TOWN -STOPS AT NESELRODE'S CABIN - COMPANY FIRE UPON THE CABIN - KILL NESELRODE AND "FAT JACK "- WHO TO BLAME.
WE return now to Charley Harper, whom we left at Colville on the Upper Columbia, a fugitive from the Vigilantes of Florence. Fear had exer- cised a healthful restraint upon his conduct, and during the brief period that had elapsed since his flight, though by no means a model citizen, he had been guilty of no offences of an aggravated
character. He was, however, known to be a favorite with the roughs, a gambler, a drunkard, and a man of desperate resources. Good men shunned and watched him. Had there been a Vigilante organization in existence then, he would have received its closest observation. But
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Charley Harper.
in a condition of society where all classes inter- mingled, he contrived to slip along without molestation.
New Year's Day brought with it the customary ball, to which all were invited. The preparations were on a scale commensurate with the wishes and means of the miners, who generally, upon such occasions, spare no expense while their money holds out. Everybody in the town was in at- tendance, Charley Harper among the number Attracted at an early hour of the evening by the sparkling eyes and voluptuous person of a half- breed woman, he devoted to her his entire atten- tion, dancing with her often, and bestowing upon her many unmistaken civilities. As the evening wore on, Charley became boisterous, swaggering, and noisy. His inamorata declined his further attentions, and refused his hand for a dance. In- censed to madness by this act, crazy with liquor, he knocked her down, and beat and kicked her in a most inhuman manner after she had been prostrated. This roused the indignation of the by-standers, and Charley, seeing vengeance in their demonstrations, fled in terror before them. They pursued him through the streets, he retreat- ing and firing upon them until he had emptied his revolver The pursuit ended in his capture,
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"harley Harper.
a rope was procured, and in a few moments after- wards the lifeless form of the wretched desperado was swinging in the cold night wind from the limb of the tree nearest the place of his arrest. Thus ended the life of one who, among his own associates, bore the name of being the meanest scoundrel of their gang.
After the affray which terminated in the death of "Cherokee Bob " and Willoughby, the Vigi- lantes of Florence met, passed congratulatory reso- lutions, and renewed their measures for the effec- tual suppression of crime in their midst. Their Executive Committee was instructed to warn all suspicious characters to leave the place immedi- ately, - and they determined to visit with con- dign punishment those who disobeyed. The lead- ing men among the offenders had fled in anticipa- tion of some public demonstration, so that those who remained were few and powerless. Among these was a tall, lean, cadaverous individual, de- risively called " Fat Jack," who, like " Happy Harry," belonged to that class of negative scoun- drels, whose love for crime is confined by fear to petty thefts. "Fat Jack" obeyed the order to leave, and went to Walla Walla. Brooding over his expulsion with increasing indignation, and en- couraged in the belief that he could return with-
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out molestation, after a short period he went back to Florence, muttering by the way violent threats against those who had banished him. Two months had elapsed since his hegira. It was late in the afternoon of a cold, stormy, March day when he entered the town. At his first appear- ance he was promptly waited upon by the mem- bers of the Executive Committee, who ordered him to retrace his steps at once, or he would be hanged. Hard as this order may seem to the casual reader, to have neglected it would have endangered the efficiency of the committee and opened a way for a return of the roughs to their old haunts.
The poor wretch turned his face to the storm, and wandered through the darkness, sleet, and wind, despairingly, from cabin to cabin, in search of food and lodging. Every door was closed against him, and he was rudely and unpityingly told to " Be gone," by all from whom he sought relief. At a distance of four miles from Florence he stopped at a late hour of the night at the door of a worthy man by the name of Neselrode. Jack answered frankly the old man's questions. Nesel- rode admitted him, gave him supper, and a bed by his cabin fireside. A hired man was the only other occupant of the house.
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Charley Harper.
At a later hour of the night, two men roused Mr. Neselrode, and demanded the person of "Fat Jack." Neselrode, on being told that they had no authority, refused to surrender him to an irre- sponsible party, as to do so would be on his part a violation of the laws of hospitality. His refusal was followed by the instant discharge of two double-barrelled shot-guns which riddled the door with buckshot, and stretched in death-throes both the kind-hearted host and his criminal guest. The one surviving man threw open the door, and bade the dastardly ruffians to enter, telling them the murderous effects of their shots. They availed themselves of the darkness to flee without recog- nition. None of the citizens of Florence were more indignant when told of this cruel assassina- tion than the Vigilantes themselves. A meeting was held denouncing the perpetrators, and pledg- ing the citizens to the adoption of every possible means for their early detection and punishment. Alas ! the criminals remain to this day undis- covered. They belonged, doubtless, to that class of officious individuals, of whom there are many in the mining camps, who in point of moral char- acter and actual integrity are but a single remove from the criminals themselves, - men who live a cheating, gambling, dissipated life, and seek a
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Charley Harper.
cover for their own iniquities by the energy and vindictiveness with which they pursue others ac- cused of actual guilt. If the various protective societies which at one time and another have sprung up in the mining regions to preserve peace and good order are liable to any charge of wrong, it was their neglect to punish those men who used the organization to promote their own selfish purposes, and in the name of Vigilante jus- tice committed crimes which on any principle of ethics were wholly indefensible. The fact that in some instances wrong's of this kind have occurred, only adds to the proof, that in all forms of society, whether governed by permanent or tem- porary laws, there are always a few who are adroit and cunning enough to escape merited punishment.
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Pinkham and Patterson.
CHAPTER XV.
PINKHAM AND PATTERSON.
CHARACTER OF PINKHAM - HIS BIRTHPLACE - HIS LIFE IN CALIFORNIA - GOES TO FLORENCE-IS APPOINTED U. S. MARSHAL OF IDAHO -CHARACTER OF PATTERSON - HE KILLS STAPLES - IS ACQUITTED OF MURDER - DIFFERENCE IN THE CHARACTERS OF THE TWO MEN -PINKHAM ARRESTS PATTERSON THEY MEET AT WARM SPRINGS - PATTERSON KILLS PINKHAM - PATTERSON ARRESTED BY ROBBINS - PATTERSON'S CRUELTY - ORGANIZATION OF VIGI- LANTES - CONFRONTED BY A SHERIFF'S POSSE - VIGILANTES DISBAND - TRIAL OF PATTERSON - ACQUITTAL -GOES TO WALLA WALLA - IS KILLED BY DONAHUE. ยท
No two men filled a broader space in the early history of the Florence mines than Pinkham and Patterson. Their personal characteristics gave them a wide-spread notoriety, and a sort of local popularity, which each enjoyed in his separate sphere. They were both leaders, after their own fashion, in the heterogeneous society in which they moved, and he was deemed a bold man who would gainsay their opinions, or resist their enterprises.
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Pinkham and Patterson.
They were both gamblers, and lived the free and easy life of that pursuit ; a pursuit which, in a new mining camp, next to that of absolute ruffianism, enabled its votaries to exercise a power as unlimited as it is generally lawless and insur- rectionary. Indeed, there, it is the master vice, which gives life and support to all the other vices, and that surrounds and hedges them in.
The order of influences which govern and direct the social element of a mining camp in its infancy are exactly the reverse of those which govern and direct the social element of an Eastern village. The clergyman, the church, and the various little associations growing out of it, which make the society of our New England vil- lages so delightful, and, at the same time, so disciplinary and instructive, are superseded in a mining community by the gambling saloon, cheap whiskey, frail women, and all the evils necessarily flowing from such polluted combinations. In the one case, religion and morality stand in the fore- ground, protected by the spirit of wise and in- flexible laws ; in the other, the rifle, the pistol, and the bowie-knife are flourished by reckless men, whose noblest inspirations are excited by liquor and debauchery. While all that is good and true and pure in society is brought into unceasing
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Pinkham and Patterson.
action in the one case, all that is vile and false and polluted reigns supreme in the other. We look to the one condition of society for all great and good examples of humanity, and to the other for such as are of an opposite character.
If we are to credit the early history of New England, Miles Standish was a central character of Puritanic chivalry and fidelity. The people had faith in his Christian character, and entire confidence in his strong arm and fertility of expedients in the hour of danger. Some such sentiment, qualified by the wide difference in the moral character of the two men, attached the mining community of Florence to Pinkham. He was a bold, outspoken, truthful, self-reliant man, without a particle of braggadocio or bluster, care- ful always to say what he meant, and to do what he said. Fear was a stranger to him, and des- perate chances never found him without desper- ate means.
Pinkham was a native of Maine, and physi- cally a fine type of the stalwart New Englander. In stature he was more than six feet, and in weight upwards of two hundred pounds. To the agility of a mountain cat he added the quick, sharp eye of an Indian and the strength of a giant. Trained by years of frontier exposure, he
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Pinkham and Patterson.
was skilled in the ready use of all defensive weapons. When aroused, the habitual frown upon his brow gathered into a fierce scowl, and the steely gray eyes fairly blazed in their sockets. At such times he was dangerous, because it was his custom to settle all disputes with a word and a blow, and the blow almost always came first. The intensity of his nature could not brook altercation.
Pinkham had been an adventurer ever since the discovery of gold in California. He was among the first of that great army of fortune- seekers which braved the perils of an overland trip to that distant El Dorado in 1849. If, before he left his New England home, no blight had fallen upon his moral nature, it is certain that soon after his arrival in the land of gold his character took the form which it ever after- wards wore, of a gambler and desperado. In this there was nothing strange, as he was but one victim in a catastrophe that wrecked the characters of thousands. The estimate is small, which places at one-half the number of the early Pacific gold-seekers, those who fell victims to the moral ruin of life in the mining camp. It was the fruitful nursery of all those desperate men, who, after years of bloody experience, expiated
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their crimes upon the impromptu scaffolds of the Vigilantes, or in some of the violent brawls which their own recklessness had excited. Pink- ham's pursuits in California were those of the professional gambler. At one time he kept a common dance-house in Marysville. It is fair, in the absence of facts, to presume that his life in the Golden State was a preparatory fore- ground for the one which followed in the moun- tains of Washington Territory. He was among the first, in 1862, who were lured to that Terri- tory by the reports of extensive gold discoveries. Among the desperate, reckless, and motley crowd that assembled at Florence immediately after the discovery of the mines, was Pinkham, with his faro boards and monte cards, " giving the boys a chance for a tussle with the tiger and the leop- ard." It was not long until he became a central figure in the camp. The wild, undisciplined, pleasure-seeking population, attracted by the out- spoken boldness and self-assertion of the man, quietly submitted to the influence which such characteristics always command. And no man better understood his power over his followers, or exercised it more warily, than Pinkham. The reputation which he enjoyed, of being a bold, chivalric, fearless man, ready for any emergency,
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however desperate, gained for him the favor of every reckless adventurer who shared in his gen- eral views of the race.
Unlike most of the gamblers and roughs, who for the most part sympathized with the Confeder- ates, Pinkham was an intense Union man. He never lost an opportunity to proclaim his attach- ment for the Union cause, and denounced as traitors all who opposed it. No fear of personal injury restrained him in the utterance of his patri- otic sentiments, and as he always avowed a readi- ness to fight for them, his opponents were careful to afford him no opportunity. At every election in Idaho City after the organization of the Terri- tory, he was found at the polls surrounded by a set of plucky fellows armed to the teeth, ready at his command for any violent collisions with seces- sionists that the occasion might inspire. His tall form, rendered more conspicuous by the loud and inspiring voice with which, to the cry of " negro worshippers," "abolitionists," and " Lincoln hire- lings," he shouted back " secessionists," " copper- heads," "rebels," and " traitors," was always the centre of a circle of men who would oppose force to force and return shot for shot.
On his return to Idaho City from a business visit to the States, a few days before the anniver-
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sary of our national independence of the year in which he was killed, he was so indignant that no preparations had been made for a celebration, that when the day arrived he procured a National flag, hired a drummer and fifer, and followed them, waving the banner, through the streets of the town, greatly to the disgust of the secessionists. The South had just been conquered, and the dem- onstration wore the appearance of exultation, but no one aggrieved by it had the hardihood to interrupt its progress. "Old Pink," as he was familiarly called, was much too dangerous a char- acter to meddle with.
With all his rough and desperate characteristics, Pinkham had no sympathy for the robbers and murderers and thieves which swarmed around him ; and when Idaho was organized the governor of the Territory appointed him sheriff of Boise County. Soon afterwards he received the appoint- ment of United States marshal, an office which made him and his friends in some measure the representatives of law and order. By promptly discharging the duties of these offices, he was held in great fear by the criminal population of the Territory, and won the respect of the best citizens for his efficiency and fidelity.
Patterson was a native of Tennessee, from
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whence, in boyhood, he went with his parents to Texas, and grew to manhood among the desperate and bloody men of that border State. His char- acter, tastes, and pursuits were formed by early association with them. He was a gambler by profession, but of a nature too impulsive to depend upon it as a means of livelihood. When he came to California, he turned his attention to mining, alternating that pursuit with gambling, as the in- clination seized him. Like Pinkham, he was a man of striking presence, - in stature six feet, and of weight to correspond, with a fair complex- ion, light hair streaked with gray, sandy whiskers, and, when unaffected by liquor or passion, a sad, reflective countenance, lit up by calm but expres- sive blue eyes. His habitual manner was that of quiet, gentlemanly repose; - and to one unac- quainted with his characteristics, he would never have been suspected of a fondness for any kind of excitement. In conversation he was uniformly affable when sober, and bore the reputation of being a very genial and mirth-loving companion when engaged with others in any exploring or dangerous enterprise. He was brave to a fault, and perfectly familiar with all the exposures and extremes of border life, - as ready to repair the lock of a gun or pistol as to use those weapons in
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attack or defence. His kindness and thoughtful- ness for the comfort of any of his party in the event of sickness, and the resources with which he overcame obstacles in the numerous expeditions of one kind and another in which he participated, made him a great favorite with all who knew him, and gave him a commanding power over the society in which he moved. He was naturally a leader of those with whom he associated. Had these been his only characteristics, Patterson would have been one of the most useful men in the min- ing regions, - but whiskey always transformed him into a demon. Patterson was not a steady drinker, but gave himself up to occasional seasons of indulgence. He was one of that large class of drinkers who cannot indulge their appetites at all without going through all the stages of excite- ment, to complete exhaustion. From the moment he entered upon one of these excesses to its close, he was dangerous. The whole man was changed. His calm, blue eye looked like a heated furnace and was suggestive of a thirst for blood. His quiet and gentlemanly manner disappeared. His breath was labored, and his nostrils dilated like those of an enraged buffalo. He remembered, on these occasions, every person who had ever offended him, and sought the one nearest to
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