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 13
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 13
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 13
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 13
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 13
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agement. A few traders had followed the tide of emigration from Colorado with a limited supply of the bare necessaries of life, risking the dangers of Indian attack by the way, to obtain large profits and prompt pay as a right- ful reward for their temerity. Regarding their little stock as their only resource, the company set to work at once, each man for himself, to obtain means to buy with. Prices were enor- mous. The placer was still unpromising. Frost and snow had actually come. With a small pack supplied from the remains of their almost ex- hausted larders, the men started out, some on foot, and some bestride their worn-out animals, into the bleak mountain wilderness in pursuit of gold. With the certainty of death in its most horrid form if they fell into the clutches of a band of prowling Blackfeet, and the thought uppermost in their minds that they could scarcely escape freezing, surely the hope which sustained this little band of wanderers lacked none of those grand elements which sustained the early settlers of our country in their days of disaster and suffering. Men who cavil with Providence, · and attribute the escape of a company of half- starved, destitute men from massacre, starvation, and freezing, under circumstances like these, to
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luck or chance or accident, are either destitute of gratitude or have never been overtaken by calamity. Yet these men all survived to tell the tale of their bitter experience.
My recollection of those gloomy days, all the more vivid, perhaps, because I was among the indigent ones, was emphasized by a little incident I can never recall without a devout feeling of thankfulness. Intelligence was brought us that a company of miners was working the bottom of a creek in Pike's Peak Gulch, a distance of sixty miles from the Prickly Pear camp over the Rocky Mountain range. Cornelius Bray, Patrick Dougherty, and I started immediately on a horse- back trip to the new camp in search of employ- ment for the winter. One pack-horse served to transport our blankets and provisions. Our in- tention was to cross the main range on the first day and camp at the head of Summit creek, where there was good grass and water. In fol- lowing the Mullen road through the canon, when about two miles from the ridge, Bray's horse gave out and resisted all our efforts to urge him farther. There was no alternative but to camp. The spot was unpromising enough. There was no feed for our horses, and our camp by the road- side could not escape the notice of any band of
1
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Indians that might chance to be crossing the range. It was the custom in this Indian country for packers and others to seek some secluded spot half a mile or more from the trail for camp- ing purposes ; but here we were cooped up in a cañon not ten rods wide, and the only practicable pass over the range running directly through it. Of course we all mentally hoped that no Indians would appear.
I had, while at Fort Benton, held frequent con- versations with Mr. Dawson, the factor at that post, who had spent many years in the country, and was perfectly familiar with the manners and tactics of the Indians. He had warned me against just such an exposure as that to which we were now liable, and when night came, know- ing that the country was full of roving bands of Bloods and Piegans, I felt no little solicitude for a happy issue out of danger. Evening was just setting in, when snow began to fall in damp, heavy flakes, giving promise of a most uncom- fortable night. Our only shelter was a clump of bushes on the summit of a knoll, where we spread our blankets, first carefully picketing the four horses with long lariats to a single pin, so that in case of difficulty they could all be con- trolled by one person. Dougherty proposed to
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stand guard until midnight, when I was to relieve him and remain until we resumed our trip at early dawn. Bray and I crept into our blankets, they and the bushes being our only protection against a very heavy mountain snow- storm. Strange as it may seem to those unfa- miliar with border life, we soon fell asleep and slept sound until I was aroused by Dougherty to take my turn at the watch. I crawled from under the blankets, which were covered to the depth of five inches with " the beautiful snow," and Dougherty fairly burrowed into the warm place I had left.
About three o'clock in the morning the horses became uneasy for want of food. Preparatory to an early departure I gathered in a large heap a number of small, fallen pines and soon had an immense fire. It lighted up the cañon with a lurid gloom and mantled the snow-covered trees with a ghastly radiance. The black smoke of the burning pitch rolled in clouds through the atmosphere, which seemed to be choked with the myriad snow-flakes. So dense was the storm I could scarcely discern the horses, which stood but a few rods distant. Wading through the snow to the spot where my companions slept, I roused them from their slumbers. I could liken them
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Captain Fisk's Expedition.
to nothing but spectres as they burst through their snowy covering and stood half-revealed in the bushes by the light of the blazing pines. It was a scene for an artist. Despite the gloomy forebodings which had filled my mind, at this scene I burst into a fit of loud and irrepressible laughter.
It was but for a moment, for, as if in answer to it, the counterfeited neigh of a horse a few rods below and of another just above me, warned me that the danger I had feared was already upon us. It was the signal and reply of the Indians. Bray and Dougherty grasped their guns, while I rushed to the picket pin, and, seizing the four lariats, pulled in the horses. A moment afterwards, and from behind a thicket of willows just above our camp, there dashed down the canon in full gallop forty or more of the dreaded Blackfeet. In the light of that dismal fire their appearance was horribly picturesque. Their faces hideous with war paint, their long ebon hair floating to the wind, their heads adorned with bald-eagle's feathers, and their knees and elbows daintily tricked out with strips of antelope skin and white feathery skunks' tails, they seemed like a troop of demons which had just sprung out of the earth, rather than beings of flesh and
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blood. Each man held a gun in his right hand, guiding his horse with the left. Well-filled quivers and bows were fastened to their shoul- ders, and close behind the main troop, driven by five or six outriders, followed a herd of fifty or more horses they had just stolen from a company of miners on their way to the Bannack mines, and who had encamped for the night at Deer Lodge. These animals were driven hurriedly by our camp, down the canon, the main troop, mean- time, forming into line on the other side of them so as to present an unbroken front of horsemen after they had passed, drawn up for attack. This critical moment we improved by rapidly looping the lariats into the mouths of our horses and bringing our guns to an aim from behind them over their fore-shoulders. As we stood thus, not twenty yards asunder, confronting each other, the chief, evidently surprised that the onslaught lingered, rode hurriedly along the front of his men and with violent gesticulations and much vehement jargon urged them to an instant assault. They strongly expostulated, and by numerous antics and utterances, which I after- wards ascertained meant that their guns were wet and their caps useless, finally persuaded him to resort to the bows and arrows. The chief was
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very angry, and from the violence of his gestures and threatening manner I expected to see ser- eral of the Indians knocked off their horses. When the Indians, in obedience to his command, hung their guns on the pommels of their saddles, and drew their bows, the attack seemed inevi- table. Our guns were dry, and we knew that they were good for twenty-four shots and the revolvers in our belts for as many more.
Satisfied that an open attack would eventuate in death to some of their number, nearly one- half of the Indians left the ranks and passed from our sight down the canon, but soon reap- peared, emerging from the thicket on the opposite side of our camp. We wheeled our four horses into a hollow square, and, standing in the centre, presented our guns at each assaulting party. As
our horses were the booty they most wished to obtain, they were now restrained lest they should kill them instead of us. A few moments of painful suspense - moments into which days of anxiety were crowded - supervened. A brief consultation followed, and the chief gave orders for them to withdraw. They all wheeled into rapid line, and with the military precision of a troop of cavalry dashed down the canon and we saw them no more.
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Thankful for an escape attributable to the snow which had unfitted their guns for use, and to the successful raid they had made upon our neighbors, we saddled our horses and hurried over the mountain range with all possible speed. While crossing, we found two horses which, jaded with travel, had been abandoned by the Indians. We took them with us, and on our arrival at Grasshopper some days after, restored one to Dr. Glick, its rightful owner.
" I have had seven horses stolen from me by these prowlers," said he, "but this is the first one that was ever returned."
The little gulch at Pike's Peak was fully occupied when we arrived, and after remaining a few days, we mounted our horses and made a ted- ious but unadventurous journey to Bannack, then, and for nearly a year afterwards, the most im- portant gold placer east of the Rocky Mountains.
The fame of this locality had reached Salmon river late in the fall of 1862, and many of the people left the Florence mines for the east side. Among them came the first irruption of robbers, gamblers, and horse-thieves, and the settlement was filled with gambling houses and saloons, where bad men and worse women held constant vigil, and initiated that reign of infamy which nothing but the strong hand could extirpate.
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Bannack in 1862.
CHAPTER XVIII.
BANNACK IN 1862.
PLUMMER'S SUPPOSED ATTEMPT AT REFORM - DREAD OF CLEVELAND - CLEVELAND SUSPECTED OF EVANS'S MURDER - HIS CONDUCT AT GOODRICH'S HOTEL - PLUMMER'S INTERFERENCE - SHOOTS CLEVELAND - GEORGE IVES AND CHARLEY REEVES APPEAR - HANK CRAWFORD AND HARRY PIILEGER TAKE CLEVELAND AWAY - CLEVELAND'S DEATH - PLUM- MER'S INTERVIEW WITH CRAWFORD - QUARREL BETWEEN IVES AND CARRHART - RECONCILIATION - How EMIGRANTS SPENT THE WINTER - J. M. CASTNER - ATTACK OF MOORE AND REEVES UPON THE INDIANS - KILLING A CHIEF AND A PAPPOOSE - SHOOTING OF CAZETTE.
IT is charitable to believe that Henry Plummer came to Bannack intending to reform, and live an honest and useful life. His deportment justi- fied that opinion. His criminal career was known only to two or three persons as criminal as him- self. If he could have been relieved of the fear of exposure and of the necessity of associating with his old comrades in crime, it is not improba- ble that his better nature would have triumphed.
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Bannack in 1862.
He possessed great executive ability - a power over men that was remarkable, a fine person, polished address, and prescient knowledge of his fellows - all of which were mellowed by the advantages of a good early education. With all the concerns of a mining camp experience had made him familiar, and for some weeks after his arrival in Bannack he was oftener applied to for counsel and advice than any other resident. Cool and dispassionate, he evinced on these occa- sions a power of analysis that seldom failed of conviction. He speedily became a general favor- ite. We can better imagine than describe the mixed nature of those feelings, which, fired with ambitious designs and virtuous purposes, beheld the way to their fulfilment darkened by a retrospect of unparalleled atrocity. So true it is that the worst men are the last to admit to themselves the magnitude of their offences, that even Plummer, stained with the guilt of repeated murders and seductions, a very monster of iniq- uity, believed that his restoration to the pursuits and honors of virtuous association could be es- tablished but for a possible exposure by some of his guilty partners. He knew their watchful eyes were upon him; that they were ready to follow him as leader or crush him as a traitor.
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Bannack in 1862.
Of no one was he in greater dread than his sworn enemy, Cleveland. This man, who made no secret of his own guilty purposes, had fre- quently uttered threats against the life of Plum- mer, and never lost an opportunity publicly to denounce him. Their feud was irreconcilable. Cleveland had incurred suspicion as the murderer of a young man by the name of George Evans, and was regarded generally as a desperado of the vilest character. It was no credit to Plum- mer that he came in his company to Bannack. But their previous criminal connection was as vet unrevealed.
A few days after the disappearance of Evans, a number of citizens were seated and in general conversation around the fire in a saloon kept by Mr. Goodrich. Among the number were Plum- mer, Jeff Perkins, and Moore. Suddenly the door was violently opened and Cleveland entered. With an air of assumed authority he proclaimed himself " chief," adding witlr an oath that he knew all the scoundrels from the "other side " and intended to get even with some of them. The covert threat which these words revealed did not escape the notice of Plummer, but Cleve- land upon the instant charged Perkins with hav- ing violated a promise to pay some money which
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Bannack in 1862.
he owed him in the lower country. Perkins assured him it had been paid. "If it has," said Cleveland, "it is all right," but as if to signify his distrust of Perkins's statement, he commenced handling his pistol and reiterating the charges. To prevent Cleveland from carrying his apparent design of shooting Perkins into execution, Plum- mer fixed his eyes sternly upon him and in a calm tone told him to behave himself, that Perkins had paid the debt and he ought to be satisfied.
Quiet was restored for the moment and Per- kins slipped off, intending to return with his pistols and shoot Cleveland on sighit. Here the difficulty would have ended had not Cleveland, in an evil moment, in a defiant and threatening manner, with mingled profanity and epithet, declared that he did not fear any of them. Filled with rage, Plummer sprang to his feet, drew his pistol, and exclaiming, " I am tired of this," followed up the expression with a couple of rapid shots, the last of which struck Cleveland below the belt. He fell on his knees. Grasping wildly for his pistol, he appealed to Plummer not to shoot him while he was down. "No," said Plummer, whose blood was now up; " get up." Cleveland staggered to his feet, only to
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receive two more shots, the second of which entered below the eye. He fell to the floor, and Plummer, sheathing his pistol, turned to leave the saloon. At the door he was met by George Ives and Charley Reeves, each of whom, pistol in hand, was coming to take part in the affray. Each seizing an arm, they escorted Plummer down the street, meanwhile suggesting with great expletive emphasis a variety of surmises as to the possible effect of the quarrel upon the public.
Hank Crawford and Harry Phleger, two re- spectable citizens, hastened to the aid of the dying desperado, whom they conveyed to Craw- ford's lodgings. His bed being poorly furnished Cleveland sent him to Plummer's to get a pair of blankets belonging to him. The interview between Crawford and Plummer on this occasion showed that the mind of the latter was ill at ease. Like Macbeth's dread of Banquo, so he felt that, while Cleveland lived, -
" There is none but he Whose being I do fear; and under him My genius is rebuk'd."
In the brief colloquy which took place between them, Plummer asked Crawford no less than three times what Jack had said about him. His
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past career of crime was all before him. Craw- ford as often replied, " Nothing."
"'Tis well he did not," at length responded Plummer, " for if he had I would kill him in his bed."
Crawford then told him that, in reply to sev- eral questions asked him, Cleveland had said : -
" Poor Jack has got no friends. He has got it " (meaning his death-wound), " and I guess he can stand it."
Crawford left with the impression that Plum- mer still thought Cleveland had exposed him, and was careful afterwards to go armed, as he felt that his own life was in danger. Cleveland lingered in great agony for three hours, and was decently buried by Crawford. Soon after he had been removed to Crawford's cabin, Plum- mer sent a man known as "Dock," a cook, into the cabin as a spy, where he remained until Cleveland died. He said that the only reply Phleger received to repeated questions concern- ing the difficulty between him and Plummer was, "It makes no difference to you." The secret, if secret there was, died with him.
No immediate investigation was made of the circumstances of this affray. It was thought by many that Plummer merely anticipated Cleve-
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Bannack in 1862.
land's intention by firing first. Shooting of pistols and duelling were so common as of them- selves to excite no attention. Many bloody encounters took place of which no record has been preserved, and which at the time, were regarded as very proper settlements of difficul- ties between the parties.
A few incidents as illustrative of the customs of a mining-camp will not be out of place in this immediate connection. On one occasion dur- ing the winter a quarrel sprung up between George Ives and George Carrhart in the main street. After a long wordy war interlarded with much profanity and various opprobrious epithets, Ives ran into a saloon near for his pistol, exclaim- ing, " I will shoot you." Carrhart followed him and both reappeared at the door of the saloon a moment thereafter, each armed with a revolver. Facing each other upon the instant, both parties raised their pistols and fired without effect. After a second fire with no better effect, both parties walked rapidly backwards till they were widely separated, at the same time firing upon each other. Ives having emptied his revolver, stood perfectly still while Carrhart took deliberate aim and shot him in the groin, the ball passing through his body, inflicting a severe wound.
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Bannack in 1862.
Soon afterwards they reconciled their difficulties, and Ives lived with Carrhart on his ranche the remainder of the winter.
Many of the early emigrants arrived at Ban- nack so late in the fall that they could provide themselves with no better shelter from the weather during the winter than was afforded by their wagons. Of this number were Dr. Biddle and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Short, and their hired man from Minnesota. While seated around their camp fire one dismal afternoon, engaged in conversation with Mr. J. M. Castner, a bullet whizzed so near the ear of Castner that he felt its sting for several days. Castner ascertained that it was fired by one Cy. Skinner, a rough, who excused himself with the plea that . he thought they were Indians, and by way of amends invited Dr. Biddle and Castner to drink with him. Castner had the good taste to de- cline.
The very composition of the society of Ban- nack at the time was such as to excite suspi- cion in all minds. Outside of their immediate acquaintances, men knew not whom to trust. They were in the midst of a people which had come from all parts of this country and from many of the nations of the Old World. Laws
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Bannack in 1862.
which could not be executed were no better than none. A people, however disposed to the preser- vation of order and punishment of crimes, was powerless for either so long as every man dis- trusted his neighbor. The robbers, united by a bond of sympathetic atrocity, assumed the right to control the affairs of the camp by the bloody code. No one was safe. The miner fortunate enough to accumulate a few thousands, the mer- chant whose business gave evidence of success, the saloon-keeper whose patronage was supposed to be productive, were all marked as victims by these lawless adventurers. If one of them needed clothing, ammunition, or food, he obtained it on a credit which no one dared refuse, and settled it by threatening to shoot the person bold enough to ask for payment. Such a condition of society, as all foresaw, must sooner or later terminate in disaster to the lovers of law and order or to the villains who depredated upon them. Which were the stronger? The roughs knew their power, but their antagonists, separately hedged about by suspicion as indiscriminate as it was inflexible, knew not how to establish confidence in each other upon which to base an effective opposition. Meantime the carnival of crime was progressing. Scarcely a day passed unsignalized by outrage or
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Bannack in 1862.
murder. The numerous tenants of the little grave-yard had all died by violence. People walked the streets in fear.
This suspense was at last broken by a murder of unprovoked, heartless atrocity, which the people felt it would be more criminal in them to overlook than it was in the perpetrators to com- mit. In January, 1863, that notorious scoundrel, Charley Reeves, bought a squaw from the Sheep Eater tribe of Bannacks. She soon fled from him to her friends to escape his abuse. The tepee was located on an elevation south of that portion of the town known as " Yankee Flat," a few rods in rear of the street. Reeves went after her. Finding her deaf to persuasion, he employed vio- lence to force her return to his camp. An old chief interfered and thrust Reeves unceremoni- ously from the tepee. Burning with resentment, Reeves and Moore fired into the tepee the next evening, wounding one of the Indians. They then returned to town, where they were joined by William Mitchell, with whom they counter- marched, each firing into the tepee, and this time killing the old chief, a lame Indian, a pappoose, and a Frenchman by the name of Cazette, who had come to the tepee to learn the cause of the first shot. Two other persons who had been influenced
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Bannack in 1862.
by similar curiosity were badly wounded. When the murderers were afterwards told that they had killed white men, Moore with a profusion of pro- fane appellations said "they had no business there."
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Moore and Reeves.
CHAPTER XIX.
MOORE AND REEVES.
MOORE AND REEVES FLEE - MASS MEETING OF CITI- ZENS - THEY ARE ARRESTED - TRIAL AND ACQUIT- TAL OF PLUMMER FOR KILLING CLEVELAND - MODE OF TRIAL - INCIDENT AT BLACKFOOT-TRIAL OF MOORE AND REEVES - INCIDENTS OF THE TRIAL - SENTENCED TO BANISHMENT - BANISHMENT AND RE- TURN OF MITCHELL.
ALARMED at the indignation which this brutal deed had enkindled in the community, Moore and Reeves, at a late hour the same night, fled on foot in the direction of Rattlesnake. They were preceded by Plummer, who it was supposed had gone to provide means for their protection. He, however, afterwards asserted that he left through fear that in the momentary excitement the peo- ple would hang him for shooting Cleveland.
A mass meeting of the citizens was held the next morning, and a cordon of guards appointed to prevent the escape of the ruffians. When it was discovered that they had gone, on a call for
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volunteers to pursue them, Messrs. Lear, Higgins, Rockwell, and Davenport immediately followed on their track. The weather was intensely cold. The route of the pursuers lay over a lofty moun- tain covered with snow to a great depth. After riding as rapidly as possible, they came up with the fugitives at a distance of twelve miles from town. They had taken refuge in a dense thicket of willows on the bank of the Rattlesnake. Be- ing challenged to surrender, they peremptorily refused. Pointing their pistols with well-directed aim at the approaching party, and interlarding their discourse with a flood of oaths, they or- dered them to advance no farther on peril of their lives. The advantage was on the side of the robbers, and they could easily have shot down every one of their pursuers. A parley ensued. The position of both parties was fully discussed. The conviction that it was equally impossible for the pursuers to effect a capture, and for the ruffians to escape such a pursuit as would be made if they did not return, induced the latter to agree to a surrender, upon the ex- press condition that they should be tried by a jury. The pursuing party gave a ready assent to this arrangement, and the fugitives returned in their custody to town.
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Plummer was put upon his trial immediately. While that was progressing a messenger was sent to Godfrey's Cañon, ten miles distant, to summon Mr. Godfrey and the writer, who, with others, were erecting a saw-mill there Before their arrival at midnight, Plummer was acquitted, no doubt being entertained, on presentation of the evidence, that he had killed Cleveland in self-defence. Several witnesses testified that they had on various occasions heard Cleveland threaten to shoot Plummer on sight.
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