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 29
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 29
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 29
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 29
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 29
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" He is very busy, and will not be home until late, if at all," replied the woman.
"I must see him immediately," urged Beachy, with increasing earnestness. " My life depends upon it. Here, madam," he continued, thrusting a hundred dollars into her hands, " secure me an
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interview as soon as possible. He is the only per- son here who can aid my escape. I dare not be seen, but will conceal myself in the clump until he comes."
Beachy says he never was satisfied whether it was gold or pure womanly sympathy for his ap- parent distress which obtained for him a speedy meeting. By assuming the character of a partner in the Boise enterprise who had miraculously es- caped arrest, and was then in pursuit of his com- panions, he learned that the men he was pursuing intended to remain in San Francisco until they could have their dust, amounting to seventeen thousand dollars, coined, when they would go to New York by way of the Isthmus, and return to Virginia City in the spring. To make the delu- sion perfect, Beachy, at the close of the interview, gave his informant one hundred and fifty dollars, with which he purchased for him a horse, which he delivered to him at a late hour of the even- ing, at East Portland, on the opposite bank of the Willamette river. Bidding him good-by, Beachy mounted the horse, and was soon lost to view in the pine forest, his dupe believing that he had enabled him to escape the authorities of Boise. In two hours afterwards the horse was returned to its owner, and the purchase-money restored.
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How to reach San Francisco in time to arrest the fugitives before their departure for New York, was not easy of solution. No steamer would leave Portland for ten days, and an overland journey of seven hundred miles, over the muddiest roads in the world, was the only alternative. The nearest telegraph station was at Yreka, four hun- dred miles distant. Wearied with the unremit- ting travel and excitement of the previous week, Beachy hired a buggy and left Portland at mid- night, intending to overtake the coach which had left the morning before his arrival. This he accomplished at Salem, late in the afternoon of the next day. When the coach reached the mountains, its progress was too slow for his impatience, and he forsook it, and, mounting a horse placed at his disposal by an old friend, rode on, hoping to come up with the advance coach. He fell asleep while riding, and, on awakening, found himself seated upon the horse in front of its owner's stable, at a village twenty miles distant from the one he left. Here he hired a buggy and overtook the coach the next morning.
Two days afterwards he arrived at Yreka. He immediately sent a telegram to the chief of the San Francisco police, and was overjoyed upon his arrival at Shasta, twenty-four hours afterwards,
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to receive a reply that the men he was pursuing were in prison, awaiting his arrival. At midnight of the second day following, he was admitted to the cell where the prisoners were confined.
They had been arrested by stratagem two days before. As Howard and Lowry were escaped convicts from the California penitentiary, they naturally supposed that they had been arrested upon recognition, to be returned for their unex- pired term. This they were planning to escape by bribing the officers, whom they had told of their deposit in the mint, denying at the same time that Page had any interest in it.
When therefore the chief of police entered the cell, and turned on the gas, disclosing the presence of Hill Beachy, had Magruder himself appeared, they would not have been more astonished. With dismay pictured upon his countenance, Howard was the first to break that ominous silence by a question intended either to confirm their worst fears, or re-animate their hopes of escape.
" Well, old man," said he, gazing fixedly upon Beachy, " what brought you down here ?"
" You did," was the instant reply.
" What for, pray?" persisted Howard, assuming an indifferent air.
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" The murder of Lloyd Magruder and Charley Allen."
The eyes of the questioner dropped. He drew a long breath. A deadly pallor stole over his face.
" That's a rich note," said Lowry, affecting to laugh. " We left Magruder at Bannack, well and hearty."
"We shall ee. Good-night, boys," said Beachy, and he offered each his hand.
Page clasped his hand heartily, and, by several scratches upon the palm, signified that he had something which he wished to communicate.
Four weeks were spent in San Francisco, in the effort to obtain the custody of the prisoners. As fast as one court would decide to surrender them, another would grant a writ of habeas corpus for a new examination. At length the Supreme Court of the State decided in favor of their surrender to the authorities of Idaho for trial. In anticipation of a series of similar legal delays in Oregon, Beachy, before leaving, obtained from General Wright, the commander of the Depart- ment of the Pacific, an order upon the military post of the Columbia, directing an escort to meet the prisoners at the mouth of the river, and deliver them with all possible despatch to the civil authorities at Lewiston.
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On the voyage from San Francisco to the mouth of the Columbia, the prisoners occupied the state-room adjoining Beachy's. An orifice was made in the base of the partition between the apartments, under the berth occupied by Howard and Lowry. After they had retired, Beachy would apply his ear to it, to glean, if possible, from their conversation, any circum- stances confirming their guilt. On one occasion he heard Lowry observe that " Magruder had a good many friends," and Howard reply that "all five of them had friends enough." This satisfied him that others beside Magruder had been killed, and that he was on the right track. At the mouth of the Columbia, a small steamer wich a military escort received the prisoners. They were conveyed immediately to Lewiston. A large assemblage had gathered upon the wharf, intend- ing to conduct the prisoners from the boat to the scaffold. Protected by the military, Beachy suc- ceeded in removing them to his hotel, amid loud cries of "Hang 'em," "String 'em up," by the pursuing crowd. He then appeared in front of the building, and in a brief address informed the infuriated people that one of the conditions on which he obtained the surrender of the men was that they should have a fair trial at law. He had
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pledged his honor, not only to the prisoners, but to the authorities, that they should only be hanged after conviction by a jury. This pledge he would redeem with his life if necessary. He made it, believing that his fellow-citizens of Lewiston would stand by him. " And now," said he, " as many of you as will do so, will please cross to the oppo- site side of the street." The movement was unanimous.
" Be gorra ! Mr. Beachy," exclaimed an Irish- man, after he had passed over, "you're the only mon in the whole congregation that votes against yourself."
The prisoners were heavily ironed and strongly guarded in an upper room of the hotel. No legal evidence of their guilt, no evidence that a murder had been committed, had yet been obtained. Page was reticent, though believed by all to have been the victim of circumstances. A week elapsed, and no disclosures were made upon which to base a hope of conviction. Tired of waiting, it was at length arranged with the district attorney that Page should be permitted to testify as State's evidence.
Beachy now concerted, with several others, a plan for getting at the truth. In a vacant room, accessible from the main passage of the build- ing, he suspended from the ceiling four ropes with
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nooses, and under each placed an empty dry-goods box. Every preparation was seemingly made for a secret and summary execution.
In a room on the opposite side of the hall he spread a large table, with paper, pens, and ink, and obtained from the county clerk three plethoric legal documents, which were put in the hands of persons seated at the table. A clerk was also there, who had seemingly been engaged in writ- ing out the confessions of Howard, Lowry, and Romaine, which were represented by the docu- ments already referred to.
When these preparations were completed, two guards entered the room occupied by the four prisoners, and conducted Howard downstairs to a room in the basement. An hour or more elapsed, and the same ceremony was observed with Lowry, and after another hour with Romaine. The sol- emnity of this proceeding was intended to impress Page with the belief that his comrades had been severally executed by the Vigilantes. When, an hour later, the guards returned, they found him in a cold perspiration, and scarcely able to stand.
He was met by Beachy at the door.
" Page," said he, " I have done all in my power to save you, because I believed you less guilty than
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the others, but I find I can do no more. Whether you live or die now remains with yourself. Your old friend, Captain Ankeny, has worked hard for you." "
As he said this, the party came to the door of the room where the ropes were suspended, which had been purposely opened. The hideous prepa- rations glanced upon the terror-stricken vision of the trembling prisoner. Beachy slammed the door with a crash, exclaiming, with well-simulated anger, as he turned to the attendants, -
" I told you to keep that door closed," and re- sumed his conversation with Page.
" There is," said he, " a bare chance remaining for you. Your comrades are still living. They have each made a confession, and now the oppor- tunity is afforded you. If you make a clean breast of it, and tell the truth, it is possible you may escape by turning State's evidence ; but if not, there is no alternative but to hang you all. One thing let me say : if you conclude to accept this possible chance for life, tell the truth."
" I certainly will do so, Mr. Beachy," said the terrified man.
He was then seated in front of the clerk at the table. Beachy sat on one side, holding one of the documents, as if to compare his testimony with it,
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and Captain Ankeny and another person, each with a similar document, sat opposite. The build- ing was of logs. A gathering outside could be heard through the chinks, discussing the propriety of admitting Page to testify.
" He is as guilty as the others, and should suffer the same fate," said one.
" It's nonsense to try them," said another. " The Vigilantes should hang them all immedi- ately."
" It'll do no harm to hear what he has to say," said a third, " but he'll probably lie."
" Not if he regards his life. He'll be easily detected in that, and then he'll be hung without mercy," remarked another.
These surroundings, terrible to a guilty con- science, were not alleviated by the frequent inter- ruptions of Beachy and Ankeny, who, to all out- ward seeming, were closely comparing the state- ments of Page with those of his companions. The confession thus obtained bore internal evidence of truthfulness ; and, when it was finished, Page en- treated Beachy not to return him to the room with the other prisoners.
" They will kill me if they suspect me of be- traying them," said he, "and the fact that we have all been requested to confess will make them suspicious."
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Page was heavily ironed, and confined in a sepa- rate room on the side of the hall opposite the room occupied by the other prisoners, who, in the seem- ing severity with which he was treated, received the impression that he was singled out as the real criminal. Acting under Beachy's instructions, Page occasionally stood in the doorway of his apartment, so that the other prisoners could see him, and they improved these opportunities by making significant signs to him to be silent. Howard would break out into a song, into which he would improvise words of caution for Page to observe. At length, at their own request, the prisoners were occasionally permitted to perambu- late the hall, and at those times opportunity was given to converse with Page. They finally would enter his room, and in a conversation with him, while, as he supposed, he was enjoying one of these stolen interviews, Beachy heard Lowry tell Page that the body of Brother Jonathan - meaning Magruder - could never be found, whether the others were or not. It was a great satisfaction to Beachy to learn, from this and several other little incidents that occurred while the murderers were in custody, that he had made no mistake in arrest- ing them.
Twenty-four hours before the trial, the prison-
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ers, as required by the laws of Idaho, were served with a copy of the indictment found against them, with a list of witnesses, in which it appeared that the charge was substantiated by the testimony of Page. This was the first intimation they had that he was to be received as State's evidence. Lowry read enough of the indictment to learn this fact. Handing it to Beachy, he exclaimed with an oath, --
"I have read far enough. If old Page is to testify, the jig is up. I don't wish to know any more."
.More than a hundred persons summoned as jurors were rejected in selecting an impartial jury. Good counsel was provided for the prisoners ; and after a careful and protracted trial, in which no legal effort was spared both to convict and to defend, the prisoners were found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged on the fourth day of March, 1864, six weeks after the trial.
During this interval, they were confined in their old quarters, where they received every attention from Mr. Beachy and his wife. As the day of ex- piation drew nigh, both Lowry and Romaine con- fessed to their participation in the murder, and the truth of Page's testimony; but Howard denied it to the last.
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The scaffold was erected in a basin encircled by abrupt hillsides, from which ten thousand people, including almost the entire Nez Perce tribe of Indians, witnessed the execution.
A few weeks afterwards, Beachy and a few friends, under the guidance of Page, visited the scene of the murder, and returned with the remains of the unfortunate victims, which were decently buried in the cemetery at Lewiston.
Page remained in the employ of Beachy several months - an object of general reproach and execration. A year had little more than elapsed when he became involved in a drunken brawl, and was killed by a shot from the pistol of his adversary.
Mr. Beachy, after repeated rebuffs, succeeded in getting the seventeen thousand dollars, which the murderers had deposited in the mint at San Francisco. This was given to the widow and heirs of Magruder. After a delay of some years, the Legislature of Idaho appropriated an amount sufficient to defray the expense he had incurred in the capture and prosecution of the murderers ; and he subsequently removed to San Francisco, where he died in the year 1875, esteemed by all who knew him, not less for his generosity of heart, than the other manly and noble qualities of his character.
NEIL HOWIE, Captor of Dutch John.
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CHAPTER IX.
HOWIE AND FETHERSTUN.
FLUTTERING AMONG THE ROBBERS - DUTCH JOHN'S ATTEMPTED ESCAPE - ARREST BY NEIL HOWIE IN BEAVER CANON - HOWIE AND FETHERSTUN CONVEY HIM TO BANNACK - INCIDENTS BY THE WAY, AND AT BANNACK - DUTCH JOHN EXAMINED AND AD- JUDGED GUILTY - FETHERSTUN TAKES HIM IN CUS- TODY.
SEVERAL days after the execution of "Red" and Brown, when their bodies were taken down for burial, there was found, fastened to each, a monograph which has few parallels for brevity in the annals of necrology. "Red ! Road Agent and Messenger ! " " Brown ! Corresponding
Secretary !" Laconic, but explicit, they fitly epitomized the history, both in life and death, of these ill-fated men.
The little company of Vigilantes arrived in Nevada early the morning after the execution. The Committee assembled immediately to consider what action should be pursued with reference to
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the disclosures made by " Red," but, as the results of their recommendations will hereafter appear, no further allusion to the subject is necessary at this time.
The fluttering among the robbers, when it became known that two men of their number had fallen, was very perceptible both at Bannack and Virginia City. Many of them fled at once ; others, who would have accompanied them, had they heard of the disclosures made by " Red," believed themselves secure, until some testimony should appear against them. Not anticipating treachery from any of their comrades, they regarded such treachery as wholly unattainable.
Dutch John was not of this number. Alarm grew upon him day by day, after the execution of Ives. He knew that, with the unhealed bullet wound in his shoulder, his identity with the rob- bers who attacked Moody's train would be clearly established. He went to Plummer with his fears. Plummer advised him to leave the Territory. In pursuance of this advice, he shouldered his saddle and left Bannack in the direction of Horse Prairie. A person who saw him leave, suspecting that he had designs upon a fine gray horse, wrote to the owners of the animal, warning them of his approach. They lay in watch for the thief, and
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discovered him sitting in the underbrush. They immediately hedged him in, and captured him. After a severe lecture and taking his saddle, they gave him an old mule and blanket, and bade him depart. Accompanied by a Bannack Indian, he rode slowly down the road leading to Salt Lake.
A few days after the execution of Ives, John X. Beidler, who had officiated on that occasion, went down the Salt Lake road to meet a train which was expected from Denver. Meeting it at Snake river, he returned with it to Beaverhead valley, where he was told of the attack, by Dutch John and Marshland, on Moody's train, and fur- nished with a description of the robbers. His in- formant, believing that Moody's shot would prove fatal, told him that he would know the body of the robber by his leggings.
"I need a pair of leggings," replied X., " and, if I find the man dead, will confiscate them." Beidler turned back, and met Dutch John and the Indian in Beaver cañon, at the toll-gate. Failing to recognize him as the robber, he offered him a drink from a bottle of schnapps. John's hands were so severely frozen that he could not grasp the bottle. Beidler soaked them in water, to take the frost out. While thus employed, John asked,- " Is it true that George Ives has been hanged ?"
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" Yes," replied Beidler ; " he's dead and buried."
" Who did it ?" inquired John.
" Oh, the Virginia and Nevada people."
" Did they find out anything ?"
" They found out some things," said Beidler, " and are now after the robbers of Moody's train. One of them, Dutch John, was shot, and I expect to find him dead upon the trail. If I do, I shall confiscate his leggings, for I need a pair very much."
" Would you take his leggings if you found him ? " inquired Dutch John.
" Of course I would, if he was dead," said Beidler.
They continued to chat till late in the evening, passing the night together, Beidler never suspect- ing him to be the robber he was in pursuit of. The next morning Beidler dressed John's frozen hands, and they separated.
The next day, while making his way through Beaver cañon, John was seen and recognized by Captain Wall and Ben Peabody, who were en- camped there by stress of weather, with a pack train, en route to Salt Lake. They saw him and the Indian take shelter in a vacant cabin at no great distance beyond their camp, and went im- mediately with the information to John Fether-
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stun, who was also near at hand with eight teams and drivers, awaiting an abatement of the tempera- ture. Fetherstun recommended that John should be hanged to one of the logs projecting from the end of the cabin. Wall and Peabody wanted him to be returned to Bannack. Being unable to agree, Wall and Peabody proceeded down the road to the camp of Neil Howie, who was on his return from Salt Lake, in charge of three wagons laden with groceries and flour. If they had searched the world over, they could have found no fitter man for their purpose. Brave as a lion, and as efficient as brave, Neil Howie inherited from nature a royal hatred of crime and criminals in every form. He laid his plans at once for the cap- ture and return of John to Bannack. The men belonging to his train promised him ready assist- ance. In a short time John and the Indian ap- peared in the distance, and the courage of Neil's friends, which began at that moment to weaken, "grew small by degrees, and beautifully less,"
as the stalwart desperado approached, until, to use an expression much in vogue in those days, they concluded that as they " had lost no murder- ers," the reasons given for the arrest of this one were not sufficiently urgent to command their as- sistance in such a formidable undertaking. In
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plain words, they backed out of their promise. Neil, whose contempt for a coward was only equalled by his abhorrence of a murderer, still determined upon the capture. It would be a libel upon the honest Scotch inflexibility which had come down to him through his Covenanting pro- genitors to recede from a resolution which his conscience so fully approved. Dutch John rode up and asked for some tobacco.
" We have none to spare," said the train mas- ter. "Go to the big train below. They will supply you."
He cast a suspicious, uneasy glance at the men, and, with the Indian by his side, rode on. Neil looked after him until nearly lost to sight, then mounted his pony and rode rapidly in pursuit, with the hope of obtaining aid from the big train, which belonged to James Vivion. He soon over- took the fugitive, whom he found with rifle in hand, ready to defend his liberty. The Indian, too, apprised of Neil's approach, passed his hands over his quiver, seemingly to select an arrow for instant use. Carelessly remarking, as he passed, that he had to borrow a shoeing hammer to pre- pare the stock for crossing the divide, Neil rode on under the muzzle of John's rifle, without draw- ing his reins until he arrived at the train. The
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remark disarmed John's suspicions, or he would doubtless have fired upon him.
Neil related the particulars of John's career. " It is a burning shame - a reproach to the Terri- tory, and will be an eternal reproach to us if we permit so great a villain to escape. Just reflect, - he is a horse-thief and a murderer, stained with blood, and covered with crimes. Let us arrest him at once."
All to no purpose. The men, one and all, declined having anything to do with it. Mean- time John came up and asked for some tobacco.
" Have you any money ?" inquired one of the men.
" Not a cent," was the reply.
" Then," said his interrogator, "we have no tobacco for you."
" Oh ! let him have what he wants," interposed Neil. "I will pay for it."
John's face wore a grateful expression. He thanked Neil, and with the Indian took his departure. Neil made another hurried appeal, not to let the murderer and road agent escape, but the men refused to help.
" Then," said he, " I will arrest him alone," and he strode rapidly after John, shouting, -
" Hallo, captain ! hold on a minute."
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John wheeled his mule half round, and sat awaiting the approach of Neil. To the stature and strength of a giant, John added a nature hardened by crime, and the ferocious courage of a tiger. His face, browned by exposure, reflected the dark passions of his heart, and was lighted up by a pair of eyes full of malignity. Nature had covered him with signs and marks indicative of his character. Neil, on the other hand, was rather under the medium size, with nothing in his general make-up that denoted uncommon strength or activity, though, when aroused, no mountain cat was more active in his movements, and strength seemed always to come to him equal to any emergency. His clear gray eye, calm and gentle in repose, became very powerful and com- manding under excitement.
With his gaze fixed steadily upon the ruffian, he marched rapidly towards him. John slewed his rifle around, grasping the barrel with his left, and the small of the stock with his right hand, as if preparing for a deadly aim. Neil's hand fell with an admonitory ring upon the trusty revolver in his belt, which had never failed him. For an instant only, it seemed that either the rifle or pistol would decide the adventure ; but the ruffian quailed before the determined gaze of Howie,
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who passed unharmed beyond the muzzle of his rifle, and stood with his hand upon the flank of the mule. Looking John steadily in the eye, in a quiet but authoritative tone, Neil said to him, -
" Give me your gun and get off your mule."
With blanched face and trembling hands, John complied, at the same time expressing his willing- ness to submit to the capture.
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