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 30
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 30
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 30
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 30
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 30
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" You have nothing to fear from me," said he as he alighted, and handed the reins to Howie. It is said that occasions will always find men suited to meet them. This occasion found, among a crowd of twenty or more experienced mountain- eers, only Neil Howie as the man endowed with moral and physical courage to grapple with it.
The prisoner accompanied his captor to the camp-fire. The weather was intensely cold. Many of the oxen belonging to the trains had died from exposure, and others were so severely frozen that they lost their hoofs and tails the succeeding spring. As soon as Howie and his prisoner were thoroughly warmed, Neil said to him, -
" John, I have arrested you for the part you took in the robbery of Moody's train last month. Every man in that company charges you with it."
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" It's a lie," said John. "I had no hand in it at all."
" That question can be easily decided," replied Neil, " for the man they supposed to be you was wounded by a shot in the shoulder. If you are not the person, there will be no bullet mark there. I don't wish to make a mistake, and your denial of the charge makes it necessary that I should examine. Just remove your shirt."
John reluctantly complied, all the while pro- testing his innocence. When, however, the shoul- der was bared, the scarcely healed perforation settled all doubts in Howie's mind concerning the personal identity of his prisoner.
" How is it," said he, " if you are not the man. that you have this scar ?"
"I got it accidentally while asleep by my camp- fire. It was cold, and I lay near the fire. My clothes caught fire, and the cap ignited, discharg- ing my pistol, which was strapped to my side."
" Let me prove to you that this story cannot be true," said Neil.
Placing a cap upon a stick, he held it in the hottest blaze of the camp-fire. Minutes elapsed before it exploded.
"Do you not see," he continued, "that long before the cap on your pistol would have exploded,
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you would have been burned to death ? But there is still another reason. If it had exploded, as you say, the ball could never have wounded your shoulder. You must go with me to Bannack. If you can prove your innocence there, as I hope you may, it will all be well with you."
Leaving his prisoner in charge of the train company, Neil started in pursuit of a person to aid in conveying him to Bannack. Unsuccessful in this, he left with John in company, and pro- ceeded to Dry creek, where was a camp of fifty or sixty teamsters. Such was their fear of the roughs, that they one and all refused to assist him. While deliberating what next to do, a man by the name of Irvine suggested to him that if Fetherstun could be induced to aid, he would be a suitable man for the purpose. Neil went immediately to Fetherstun's camp, fully deter- mined, if again rebuffed, to attempt the journey with his prisoner alone. Fetherstun volunteered without hesitation, and for the two following days while awaiting an abatement in the weather, took the prisoner in charge and confined him, under guard, in the cabin he had left but the day before.
On the third day Howie and Fetherstun started with John for Bannack, the weather still so severe
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that they were obliged every few miles to stop and build fires to escape freezing. On one of these occasions, while Fetherstun was holding the horses and Howie building a fire, their guns having been deposited some forty feet away, the prisoner, under pretence of gathering some dry wood which was in a direct line beyond the guns, walked rapidly towards them, intending evidently to possess him- self of the weapons, and fight his way to an es- cape. His design, however, was frustrated by his captors, who fortunately secured the guns before he could reach them.
During the night when they were encamped at Red Rock, misled by the apparent slumber of his captors, John rose up, but, upon gazing around, met the fixed eye of Howie, and immediately re- sumed his recumbency. As the night wore on, the two men, worn with fatigue, again sunk into repose. Assured by their heavy breathing, John again rose up, but scarcely had he. done so when Neil, rising too, said quietly, -
"John, if you do that again, I'll kill you."
The ruffian sunk upon his blankets in despair. He felt that he was in the keeping of one who never slept on duty. Still the hope of escape was uppermost. Seeing a camp by the roadside, he naturally concluded that it belonged to a company
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of his comrades, and commenced shouting and singing to attract their attention. As no response followed and no rescuers appeared, he soon became silent and despondent.
This trip of three days' duration, with the ther- mometer thirty-five degrees below zero, and no other food than the shank of a small ham, uniting with it the risk of assassination and of personal contest with robbers, exposure to an arctic atmos- phere, and starvation, while it bore ample testi- mony to the moral intrepidity and physical endur- ance of Howie and Fetherstun, and marked them for a pursuit which they ever after followed, was also rife with associations which bound these brave spirits in a friendship that only death could sever. It is no injustice to any of the early citizens of Montana to say that, not less for its present ex- emption from crime and misrule than for the active and vigilant measures which, in its early history, visited the ruffians with punishment, and fright- ened villany from its boundaries, is the Territory indebted to the efficient co-operative labors of these self-sacrificing, heroic men. They were pioneers who deserve to rank in future history with such men as Boone and Kenton ; and long after the names of many now oftener mentioned in connection with circumstances of trifling im-
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port are forgotten, theirs will be remembered and honored. Noble Howie ! how short a time it seems since he was cut down in the very prime of his manhood, upon the distant shores of Guiana. Many, many years must pass before the memory of his heroic actions, his genial nature, his warm, impulsive friendship, will be forgotten by those who knew and loved him in his mountain home.
To return to the narrative. When the captors had arrived at Horse prairie, twelve miles from Bannack, Fetherstun encamped with the prisoner, while Howie rode on to the town to reconnoitre. Fears were entertained that the roughs would at- tempt a rescue. It was understood that if Howie did not return in three hours, Fetherstun should take the prisoner into town. Accordingly, he pro- ceeded with him without molestation to Sears's Hotel. Soon afterwards Howie, meeting Plum- mer, said to him, -
" I have captured Dutch John, and he is now in my custody at Sears's Hotel."
" You have ?" replied Plummer with a leer. " What is the charge against him ? "
" Attacking Moody's train."
" Well, I suppose you are willing he should be tried by the civil authorities. This new way our
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people have of hanging men without law or evi- dence isn't exactly the thing. It's time a stop was put to it. I'll take John into my custody as sheriff, and relieve you from all further responsi- bility."
"Not exactly, Plummer," replied Howie. " I shall keep John until the people's tribunal decides whether they want him or not. I've had a good deal of trouble in bringing him here, and don't intend he shall escape, if I can help it."
After a few more words they separated. Mean- time Fetherstun had left Sears's Hotel with his prisoner, and gone down the street to Durand's saloon. Fetherstun, being an entire stranger, kept close watch of his prisoner. They sat down at a table and engaged in a game at cards. Howie came in, and warned Fetherstun to be on the alert for a rescue, promising to return in a few minutes. Buck Stinson and Ned Ray soon after made their appearance, and shook hands with John. They were followed by four or five others, and the num- ber finally increased to fifteen. Fetherstun's suspicions, excited from the first, were confirmed on seeing one of the men step up to John, and say in an authoritative voice, -
"You are my prisoner ;" which remark was followed by a glance and a smile by the ruffian,
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as much as to say, " I'm safe now, and your time has come."
Fetherstun, anticipating an attack by the crew, stepped into a corner, and drew his revolver. Those of my readers who have since had frequent opportunity to estimate the cool, determined cour- age of the man, will know that this preliminary movement was only preparatory to the desperate heroism and energy with which, had occasion re- quired it, he would then have sold his life to a crowd of supposed desperadoes. They took the prisoner away without resistance, and Fetherstun returned to his hotel. Four or five men were there, of whom, on inquiry, he learned that Howie had not been there. As soon as he heard this, he said to them, -
" Gentlemen, I don't know whom I am address- ing, but if you're the right kind of men, I want you to follow me. I am afraid the road agents have killed Neil Howie. He left me half an hour ago, to be back in five minutes."
He seized his gun, and was about to leave when a man opened the door, and told him not to be uneasy. This seemed to satisfy all the company except Fetherstun. He left the hotel, gun in hand, and at no great distance came to a cabin filled with men, with Dutch John as the central
JOHN FETHERSTUN, Overland Express Messenger.
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figure. Being denied admission, he demanded his prisoner. He was told that they were examining him. The men whom Fetherstun had mistaken as road agents had mistaken him for the same. Explanations soon set both right, and John was restored to the custody of Howie and Fetherstun, who marched him back to the hotel, where he was again examined.
After many denials and prevarications, he finally made a full confession of guilt, and corroborated the statements which " Red " had made, implicat- ing the persons whose names are contained in the list he had furnished. This concluded the labors of that day, and at a late hour Howie and Fether- stun, unable to obtain lodgings for their prisoner in any of the inhabited dwellings of Bannack, took him to an empty cabin on Yankee Flat.
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CHAPTER X.
EXECUTION OF PLUMMER.
RE-ACTION IN PUBLIC SENTIMENT - MINERS ALL BE- COME VIGILANTES - ALARM OF PLUMMER - MESSEN- GERS TO BANNACK - ARREST AND EXECUTION OF PLUMMER, RAY, AND STINSON - INTERVIEW WITH PLUMMER'S BROTHER - PLUMMER'S CRAFTINESS.
RETRIBUTION followed rapidly upon the heels of disclosure. The organization of the Vigilantes of Nevada and Virginia City was effected as quietly as possible, but it embraced nearly every good citizen in Alder gulch. Men who before the execution of Ives were seemingly indifferent to the bloody acts of the desperadoes, and even questioned the expediency of that procedure, were now eager for the speedy destruction of the entire band. Every man whose name appeared on the list furnished by Yager (Red) was marked for early examination, and, if found guilty, for condign punishment. The miners forsook their work in the gulch to engage in the pursuit and capture of the ruffians, regardless alike of their
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personal interests, the freezing weather of a severe winter, and the utter desolation of a country but partially explored, immense in extent, destitute of roads, and unfurnished even by nature with any protection against exposure.
The crisis demanded speedy action. The delay of a day or even an hour might enable the lead- ing ruffians to escape, and thus defeat the force of a great and efficient example. The ruffians them-
selves had taken the alarm. Many of them were on their return to Walla Walla, and others were making preparations for leaving. It was of spe- cial importance to the object in hand, that Plum- mer, the chief of the robber band, should be the first to suffer. That individual, ignorant of the disclosures that had been made by Yager, was at Bannack, quietly preparing for an early departure from the Territory. Calm and placid in outward seeming, his conduct bore evidence that he was all terror within. He was too familiar with the extreme phases of character not to suspect that he had possibly been betrayed by some of the num- ber that had been captured, though much too polite and sagacious to manifest by his deport- ment the presence of any such suspicion. But he was constantly on the alert. Not a beat in the pulse 'of the community escaped his notice.
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Execution of Plummer.
Not a strange face that he did not closely scan, nor a gathering occur whose details escaped him. The language of looks and signs and movements was as familiar to him as that of words, and in it he read plainly and unmistakably that his reign of deception was at an end. The people had found him out, and he knew it. His only mistake was that he delayed action until it was too late.
At a late hour of the same night that Dutch John was examined, four Vigilantes arrived at Bannack from Virginia City, with intelligence of the organization at that place, asking the co-opera- tion of the citizens of Bannack, and ordering the immediate execution of Plummer, Stinson, and Ray. A hurried meeting was held, and the Sabbath daylight dawned upon a branch organiza- tion at Bannack. The day wore on unmarked by any noticeable event until late in the afternoon. Three horses were then brought into town, which were recognized as belonging to the three murderers.
" Aha !" said one citizen to another, "those rascals scent the game and are preparing to leave. If they do, that will be the last of them."
" We can block that game," was the rejoinder. Several members of the Vigilance Committee met on the spur of the moment and adopted
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measures for the immediate arrest and execution of the three robbers. Stinson and Ray were arrested without opposition, - one at Mr. Toland's cabin, and the other, stretched at the time upon a gaming table, in a saloon. The party detailed to arrest Plummer found him at his cabin, in the act of washing his face. When informed that he was wanted he manifested great unconcern, and proceeded quietly to wipe his face and hands.
" I'll be with you in a moment, ready to go wherever you wish," he said to the leader of the Vigilantes. Tossing down the towel and smooth- ing his shirt-sleeves, he advanced towards a chair on which his coat was lying, carelessly remarking : " I'll be ready as soon as I can put on my coat."
One of the party, discovering the muzzle of his pistol protruding beneath the coat, stepped quickly forward, saying as he did so, -
" I'll hand your coat to you." At the same moment he secured the pistol, which being observed by Plummer, he turned deathly pale, but still maintained sufficient composure to converse in his usual calm, measured tone. The fortunate discovery of the pistol defeated the desperate measures which a desperate man would have employed to save his life. With his expertness in the use of that weapon, he would doubtless
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have slain some or all of his captors. He was marched to a point where, as designated before the capture, he joined Stinson and Ray, and thence the three were conducted under a formi- dable escort to the gallows. This structure, roughly framed of the trunks of three small pines, stood in a dismal spot three hundred yards from the centre of the town. It was erected the previous season by Plummer, who as sheriff had hanged thereon one John Horan, who had been convicted of the murder of Keeley. Terrible must have been its appearance as it loomed up in the bright starlight, the only object visible to the gaze of the guilty men, on that long waste of ghastly snow. A negro boy came up to the gal- lows with ropes before the arrival of the cavalcade. All the way, Ray and Stinson filled the air with curses. Plummer, on the contrary, first begged for his life, and, finding that unavailing, resorted to argument, and sought to persuade his captors of his innocence.
" It is useless," said one of the Vigilantes, " for you to beg for your life ; that affair is settled, and cannot be altered. You are to be hanged. You cannot feel harder about it than I do ; but I can- not help it if I would."
"Do not answer me so," persisted the now
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humbled and abject suppliant, " but do with me anything else you please. Cut off my ears, and cut out my tongue, and strip me naked this freez- ing night, and let me go. I beg you to spare my life. I want to live for my wife, - my poor absent wife. I wish to see my sister-in-law. I want time to settle my business affairs. Oh, God !" Falling upon his knees, the tears stream- ing from his eyes, and with his utterance choked with sobs, he continued, -
" I am too wicked to die. I cannot go blood- stained and unforgiven into the presence of the Eternal. Only spare me, and I will leave the country forever."
To all these, an l many more petitions in the same vein, the only answer was an assurance that his pleadings were all in vain, and that he must die. Meantime, Stinson and Ray discharged volley after volley of oaths and epithets at the Vigilantes, em- ploying all the offensive language of their copious vocabulary. At length the ropes were declared to be in readiness, and the stern command was given,-
" Bring up Ned Ray." Struggling wildly in the hands of his executioners, the wretched man was strung up, the rope itself arresting his curse before it was half uttered. Being loosely pin- ioned, he thrust his fingers under the noose, and,
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by a sudden twist of his head, the knot slipped under his chin.
" There goes poor Ned Ray," whined Stinson, who a moment later was dangling in the death- agony by his side. As Stinson was being hoisted, he exclaimed, " I'll confess." Plummer immedi- ately remarked, " We've done enough already, twice over, to send us to hell."
Plummer's time had come. "Bring him up," was the stern order. No one stirred. Stinson and Ray were common villains ; but Plummer, steeped as he was in infamy, was a man of intel- lect, polished, genial, affable. There was some- thing terrible in the idea of hanging such a man. Plummer himself had ceased all importunity. The crisis of self-abasement had passed, hope fled with it, and he was now composedly awaiting his fate. As one of the Vigilantes approached him, he met him with the request, -
" Give a man time to pray."
" Certainly," replied the Vigilante, " but say your prayers up there," at the same time pointing to the cross-beam of the gallows-frame.
The guilty man uttered no more prayers. Stand- ing erect under the gallows, he took off his neck- tie, and, throwing it over his shoulder to a young man who had boarded with him, he said, -
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Execution of Plummer.
" Keep that to remember me by," and, turning to the Vigilantes, he said, " Now, men, as a last favor, let me beg that you will give me a good drop."
The fatal noose being adjusted, several of the strongest of the Vigilantes lifted the frame of the unhappy criminal as high as they could reach, when, letting it suddenly fall, he died quickly, without a struggle.
The weather was intensely cold. A large num- ber of persons had followed the cavalcade, but were stopped by a guard some distance from the gallows. The Vigilantes surrounded the bodies until satisfied that the hangman's noose had com- pleted their work, when they formed and marched back to the town. The bodies were afterwards buried by the friends of the criminals.
Buck Stinson was born near Greencastle, Indi- ana. His parents removed to Andrew county, Missouri, when he was about fourteen years of age. He was a bright and very studious boy, was de- voted to his books, which he read almost con- stantly, and gave promise of genius; and many who knew him predicted for him a brilliant and honorable future. His family was highly respect- able.
Henry Plummer was born in the State of Con-
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necticut, and was in the twenty-seventh year of his age at the time of his death. His wife, who had gone to her former home in the States three months previous to his execution, was entirely ignorant of the guilty life he was leading, and for some time after his death believed that he had fallen a victim to a conspiracy. She was, how- ever, fully undeceived, and the little retrospect which her married life with him afforded, con- vinced her of his infamy.
Many of the citizens of Montana doubted whether the name by which he was known was his true one ; but its genuineness has been estab- lished in many ways, and, among others, by the following incident, which I here relate as well to illustrate the subtlety of Plummer, as to show the standing and character of his family relations.
In the summer of 1869, soon after the comple- tion of the first transcontinental railway, being in New York City, I was requested by Edwin R. Purple, who resided in Bannack in 1862, to call with him upon a sister and brother of Plummer. He learned from them that they had been misled concerning the cause of their brother's execution by letters which he wrote to them in 1863, in which he told them that he was in constant danger of being hanged because of his attachment to the Union.
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Execution of Plummer.
They honestly believed that his loyalty and patriot- ism had cost him his life, and they mourned his loss not only as a brother, but as a martyr in the cause of his country. From the moment that they heard of his death, they had determined, if ever opportunity offered, to pursue and punish his murderers, and, with that purpose in view, were about to leave by railroad for Ogden, Utah, and complete the remaining five hundred miles of the trip to Montana by stage coach. The next day, accompanied by Mr. Purple, I had an interview with them, and found them to be well-educated, cultivated people. They were very eager in their desire to find and punish the murderers of their brother, and repeatedly avowed their intention to leave, almost immediately, in pursuit of them. Both Mr. Purple and I used all the plausible ar- guments we could summon to dissuade them from the undertaking, without revealing any of the causes which led to Plummer's death. All to no purpose. Finding them resolved, we concluded that, rather than allow them to suffer from the deception they labored under, we would put in their hands Dimsdale's "Vigilantes," with the assurance that all it contained relative to their brother was true. We urged them to satisfy themselves, from a perusal of it, of the utter
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Execution of Plummer.
fruitlessness of their contemplated journey. The following day we called upon the brother, who, with a voice broken by sobs and sighs, informed us that his sister was so prostrated with grief at the revelation of her brother's career that she could not see us. He thanked us for making known to them the terrible history, which other- wise they would have learned under circumstances doubly afflicting, after a long and tedious journey.
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Death of Pizanthia.
CHAPTER XI.
DEATH OF PIZANTHIA.
ATTACK UPON THE CABIN OF JO PIZANTHIA, A MEXI- CAN FREEBOOTER - HE SHOOTS GEORGE COPLEY AND SMITH BALL -COPLEY DIES OF THE WOUND - OUTRAGED CITIZENS SHELL THE CABIN - PIZAN- THIA'S CAPTURE EFFECTED WITH MUCH DIFFICULTY -HIS BODY IS RIDDLED WITH BULLETS, WHILE HE IS BEING HANGED - THE CABIN FIRED, AND THE BODY BURNED TO ASHES.
THE next movements of the Vigilantes were followed up with remarkable expedition. The work they had laid out contemplated the execu- tion of every member of Plummer's band who, upon fair trial, should be proved guilty of robbery or murder. They intended also to punish such incidental rascals as were known to be guilty of crime, and to act as a protective police, until such time as a competent judiciary should be estab- lished in the Territory. There were many suspi- cious characters prowling around the gulches, who, though unaffiliated with the robber gang, were engaged in the constant commission of crimes.
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Death of Pizanthia.
Flumes were robbed, burglaries committed, and broils were of frequent occurrence. The country was full of horse and cattle thieves. By prompt and severe punishment in all cases of detection, and by the speedy arrest and examination of all sus- pected persons, the Committee intended to strike with terror the entire lawless population, which had so long and unceasingly violated the laws and privileges of civilized life with impunity.
The execution of Plummer, Stinson, and Ray met with general approbation. Every good man in the community was anxious to become enrolled on the list of the Vigilantes. The dark shadow of crime, which had hung like an angry cloud over the Territory, had faded before the omni- presence of Vigilante justice. The very feeling of safety inspired by the change was the strong- est security for the growth and efficiency of the organization.
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