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 37
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 37
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 37
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 37
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 37
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This threw him out of employment, and he went immediately to Carlisle, Illinois, whence, early in the spring of 1863, he drifted with the tide of emigration to the Beaverhead mines. As with all men of ardent temperament, his habits of drinking, by long indulgence, had passed by his control. He was subject to fits of occasional intoxication, and these, unfortunately, became so frequent, that seldom a week passed unmarked
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by the occurrence of one or more scenes of riot, in which he was the chief actor. Liquor en- kindled all the evil elements of his volcanic nature. He was as reckless and ungovernable as a maniac under its influence, but even those who had suffered outrage at his hands during these explosive periods, were disarmed of hostility by his gentle, amiable deportment, and readiness always to make reparation on the return of sobri- ety. His fits of rowdyism, moreover, always left him a determined business man, with an aim and purpose in life. As a remarkable manifestation of this latter quality, soon after he went to Mon- tana, a steamboat. freighted with goods from St. Louis, unable from low water to ascend the Mis- souri to Fort Renton, had discharged her cargo at Milk river, in a country filled with hostile Indians ; and Slade was the only man to be found in the mines willing to encounter the risk of carrying the goods by teams to their place of destination in the Territory. The distance was seven hundred miles, full half of which was un- marked by a road. The several bands of the Blackfeet occupied the country on the north, and the Crows, Gros-Ventres, and Sioux on the south. Slade collected a company of teamsters, led them to the spot, and returned safely with the
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goods, meeting with adventures enough on the way to fill a volume.
After the discovery of Alder Gulch, Slade went to Virginia City. It was there that I first met him. Slade came with a team to my lumber-yard, and selecting from the piles a quantity of long boards, directed the teamsters to load and take them away. After the men had started with the load, Slade asked me, -
" How long credit will you give me on this purchase ? "
" About as long as it will take to weigh the dust," I replied.
He remarked good-humoredly, " That's played out."
" As I can buy for cash only, I must of neces- sity require immediate payment on all sales," I said, by way of explanation.
Slade immediately called to the teamster to return and unload the lumber, remarking, as soon as it was replaced upon the piles, -
" Well, I can't get along without the boards anyhow ; load them up again."
The man obeyed and left again with the load, Slade insisting as before, that he must have time to pay for it, and I as earnest in the demand for immediate payment. The teamster returned and unloaded a second time.
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Joseph A. Slade.
" I must and will have the lumber," said Slade ; and the teamster, by his direction, was proceeding to reload it a third time, when I forbade his doing so, until it was paid for.
Our conversation now, without being angry, became very earnest, and I fully explained why I could not sell to any man upon credit.
" Oh, well," said he, with a significant toss of the head : " I guess you'll let me have it."
" Certainly not," I replied. "Why should I let you have it sooner than another ?"
" Then I guess you don't know who I am," he quickly rejoined, fixing his keen dark eyes on me.
"No, I don't; but if I did, it could make no difference."
" Well," he continued, in an authoritative tone and manner, " my name is Slade."
It so happened that I had never heard of him, my attention being wholly engrossed with busi- ness, so I replied, laughingly, -
" I don't know now, any better than before."
" You must have heard of Slade of the Over- land."
"Never before," I said.
The reply seemed to annoy him. He gave me a look of mingled doubt and wonder, which, had
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Joseph A. Slade.
it taken the form of words, would have said, "You are either trying to fool me, or are yourself a fool." No doubt he thought it strange that I should never have heard of a man who had been so conspicuous in mountain history.
" Well," he said, " if you do not know me, ask any of the boys who I am, and they will inform you. I'm going to have this lumber ; that is dead sure," and with an air of much importance, he moved to a group of eight or ten men that had just come out of Skinner's saloon, all of whom were attachés of his. "Come, boys," said he, "load up the wagon."
Several of my friends were standing near, and the matter between us had fully ripened for a con- flict. At this moment, John Ely, an old friend, elbowed his way through the crowd, and learning the cause of the difficulty, told me to let Slade have the lumber, and he would see that I was paid the next day. I readily consented. Ely then took me aside and informed me of the des- perate character of Slade, and advised me to avoid him, as he was drunk, and would certainly shoot me at our next meeting.
Early in the evening of the same day, Slade, instigated by the demon of whiskey, provoked a fight with Jack Gallagher, which, had not by-
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standers disarmed the combatants, would have had a fatal termination. Soon after this was over I saw him enter the California Exchange, accom- panied by two friends whom he invited to drink with him. When in the act of raising their glasses, Slade drew back his powerful arm and struck the one nearest him a violent blow on the forehead. He fell heavily to the floor. Slade left immediately, and the man, being raised, recov- ered consciousness and disappeared. Slade re- turned in a few moments with another friend whom he asked to drink, and struck down. Again he went out, and soon came in with another whom he attempted to serve in the same manner, but this man rose immediately to his feet. Slade was foiled by the interference of bystanders, in the attempt to strike him again. Turning on his heel, his eye caught mine. I was standing a few feet from him by the wall. He advanced rapidly towards me, and, expecting an assault, I assumed a posture of defence. Greatly to my surprise, he accosted me civilly, and throwing his arm around me, said jocosely, -
" Old fellow ! You didn't think I was going to cheat you out of that lumber, did you ? "
He then asked me to drink. I respectfully de- clined.
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Joseph A. Slade.
" It's all right," said he, and walked away.
I met him afterwards several times during the evening, but he said nothing more.
Nine years after these occurrences, in July, 1872, I went from Helena to Fort Hall by coach, to accompany the United States Geological Sur- vey, under charge of Dr. Hayden, to the National Park. Dan Johnson, the driver from Snake river to the fort, being unwell, and having a vicious horse in his team, asked my assistance, and I drove for him to the station. We fell into a desultory conversation, and Dan's reserve wearing off, he gave me a look of recognition from under the broad rim of his hat, abruptly exclaiming, -
" If I'm not much mistaken, I've seen your face before."
" Very likely. I've passed over the line many times."
" That's not it. It's a long time since I have seen you, and I have got you mixed up with some old recollections of Virginia City, as long ago as 1863."
" I was there a good portion of the time during the fall of that year."
"Just as I thought," he replied ; "you're the very man who sold the lumber to Slade. We boys thought Slade would shoot you, when you
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Joseph A. Slade.
refused to trust him for the boards. He came pretty near doing it, and it wa'n't a bit like him not to. I was one of the teamsters then, and we all expected a big row about it, and stood by, ready to pitch in. I ain't that kind of a man now, but things were different then, and anybody that worked for Slade, if he wished to escape being shot, had to stand by him in a fight. I never knew why Slade didn't shoot you, but there was never any telling what he would do, and what he wouldn't. Sometimes it was one thing and some- times another, just as the notion took him ; but if he ever was put down by a man, which wasn't often, he always seemed to remember it, and was civil to him afterwards. You were in mighty big luck to get out of the scrape as you did."
In illustration of this latter peculiarity, an incident is related of Slade, which occurred dur- ing that portion of his life passed on the over- land stage route. He and one Bob Scott, a somewhat noted man of the time, had become interested in a set-to at poker; game followed game, and drink followed drink. Both were exhilarated by liquor, bets grew larger, and finally in one game each had "raised " the other till Slade's money was exhausted. Slade pointed to the piles of coin heaped upon the table, exclaiming,-
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Joseph A. Slade.
" Bob, that money belongs to me."
" It does if the cards say so," said Bob, " not otherwise."
" Perhaps," rejoined Slade, " my cards are not better than yours ; but," drawing his revolver and pointing it at Scott, "my hand is."
Scott glanced at him with amazement, and for a moment both parties were silent. At length Slade reached forward to pull down the pile of double eagles and transfer them to his pocket, when, with the quickness of lightning, Scott pushed aside the pistol with one hand, and dealt his antagonist a stunning blow between the eyes with the other. Slade fell, and Scott fell on him, and gave him a severe drubbing, only permitting him to rise on his promising to behave himself.
The game was renewed and no reference made to the fight, until Slade, thoroughly sobered, quietly remarked, -
" Well, Bob, if you'd pounded me about two minutes longer, I'd have got sober sooner."
Soon after he came to Virginia City, Slade located a ranche on the margin of Meadow creek, twelve miles distant, and built a small stone house in one of the wildest dells of the mountain over- looking it. This lonely dwelling, seldom visited by him, was occupied solely by his wife, who fit-
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Joseph A. Slade.
tingly typified the genius of that majestic soli- tude over which she presided. This ill-fated lady was at this time in the prime of health and beauty. She possessed many personal attractions. Her figure was queenly, and her movements the perfection of grace. Her countenance was lit up by a pair of burning black eyes, and her hair, black as the raven's wing, fell in rich eurls over her shoulders. She was of powerful organization, and having passed her life upon the borders, knew how to use the rifle and revolver, and could per- form as many dexterous feats in the saddle as the boldest hunter that roamed the plains. Secure in the affection of her husband, she devoted her life to his interests, and participated in all the joys and sorrows of his checkered career. While he lived, she knew no heavier grief than his irregularities. In his wildest moments of passion and violence, Slade dearly loved his wife. Liquor and license never made him forgetful of her happiness, or poi- soned the love she bore for him.
The frequent and inexcusable aets of violence committed by Slade made him the terror of the country. His friends warned him of the conse- quences, but he disregarded their advice, or if possible behaved the worse for it. It was an in- variable custom with him when intoxicated, to
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Joseph A. Slade.
mount his horse and ride through the main street, driving into each saloon as he came to it, firing at the lamps, breaking the glasses, throwing the gold scales into the street, or committing other acts equally destructive and vicious, and seldom unaccompanied by deeds of personal violence as unprovoked as they were wanton and cruel. Peo- ple soon tired of pecuniary reparation and gen- tlemanly apologies for a course of brutality, which, sooner or later, they foresaw must culmi- nate in outrage and bloodshed. All the respect they entertained for Slade when sober, . was changed into fear when he was drunk ; and rather than offend one so reckless of all civil restraint, they closed and locked their doors at his approach. In the absence of law, the people after the execu- tion of Helm, Gallagher, and their associates, es- tablished a voluntary tribunal, for the punishment of offenders against the peace, which was known as the People's Court. It possessed all the requi- sites for trial of a constitutional court; and its judgments had never been disputed. Alexander Davis, a lawyer of good attainments in his pro- fession, and a man of exemplary character, was the judge. Slade had been often arrested and fined by this tribunal, and always obeyed its de- crees, but an occasion came when he refused longer
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Joseph A. Slade.
to do so, and treated its process and officers with contempt.
He was arrested one morning after a night of riot and violence. He and his companions had made the town a scene of uproar and confusion. Every saloon in it bore evidence of their drunken mischief and lawlessness. They were taken before Judge Davis, who ordered the sheriff to read the writ to them, by way of an arraignment. Fair- weather, one of Slade's comrades, placed his right hand on his revolver and with his left hand men- acingly snatched the writ from the sheriff before it was half read, and tearing it in twain, cast the pieces angrily upon the floor and ground them under his feet.
" Go in, Bill," said Slade, addressing him and drawing his revolver, "I am with you. We'll teach this volunteer court what its law is worth anyhow."
The sheriff, who probably entertained Falstaf- fian ideas of valor, made no resistance, and the court was thus virtually captured. This transac- tion roused the Vigilantes, who had only been prevented from summarily punishing Slade on several occasions during the previous three months at the earnest intercessions of P. S. Pfouts, Major Brookie and Judge Davis. The two first named
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of those gentlemen now abandoned him. A large number of the Committee assembled, and while they were engaged in council, a leading member sought out Slade, and in an earnest, quiet tone, said to him, -
" Slade, get your horse at once and go home, or you will have serious trouble."
Slade, himself a member of the Vigilantes, startled into momentary sobriety by this sudden warning, quickly inquired, -
" What do you mean ?"
" You have no right to ask me what I mean. Get your horse at once, and remember what I tell you. "
" All right," he replied ; " I will follow your advice."
A few moments afterwards he made his appear- ance on horseback, to obey, as his friend supposed, the warning he had given him ; but, seeing some of his comrades standing near, he became again uproarious, and seemed by his conduct to ignore the promise he had made. Seeking for Judge Davis, whom he found in the store of Pfouts and Russell, he interrupted him while conversing with John S. Lott.
" I hear," said he, addressing him, " that they are going to arrest me."
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Joseph A. Slade.
" Go home, Slade," said Davis; "go at once, and behave yourself, and you may yet escape."
" No," he replied, "you are now my prisoner. I will hold you as a hostage for my own safety."
" All right, Slade," said the judge, smiling, and still continuing to converse with Lott.
" Oh, I mean it," replied Slade with an oath, pulling a derringer from his pocket and aiming it at Davis.
William Hunt, who had been an eyewitness of these proceedings, now stepped up, and, facing Slade defiantly, said to him, -
" You are not going to hurt him. He can do and act as he pleases, and don't you dare to touch him."
Slade made some careless rejoinder.
" Slade," said Hunt, "if I'd been sheriff, the first thing I would have done when I got up this morning would have been to arrest you. By that means I would have saved your life, probably pre- vented bloodshed, and we would have had a quiet town to-day."
" We had better make you sheriff, then," re- plied Slade.
" No, I have no wish for it; but if I were, I have got nerve enough to arrest you, and would certainly have done so."
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Joseph A. Slade.
" Well, well," said Slade, now thoroughly quieted, " let us go out and get a drink."
The two men left the store. In a few moments Slade returned, and, approaching Davis, said, - "I was too fast. I ask your pardon for my conduct, and hope you will overlook it."
In the mean time the Vigilantes, undetermined what course to pursue, had sent a request to their brethren at Nevada to join in their deliberations. Six hundred armed miners obeyed the summons, sending their leader in advance to inform the Executive Committee that, in their judgment, Slade should be executed. The Committee, unwilling to recommend this measure, finally agreed that, if unanimously adopted, it should be enforced.
Alarmed at the gathering of the people, Slade again sought the presence of Judge Davis, to re- peat his apologies and regrets for the violence of his conduct. He was now perfectly sobered, and fully comprehended the effect of his lawlessness upon the community. The column of Vigilantes from Nevada halted in front of the store, and the executive officer stepped forward and arrested Slade.
" The Committee," said he, addressing him, " have decided upon your execution. If you have any business to settle, you must attend to it im- mediately."
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Joseph A. Slade.
" My execution ! my death ! My God ! gentle- men, you will not proceed to such extremities ! The Committee cannot have decreed this."
" It is even so, and you had better at once give the little time left you to arranging your business."
This appalling repetition of the sentence of the Committee seemed to deprive him of every vestige of manliness and courage. He fell upon his knees, and with clasped hands shuffled over the floor from one to another of those who had been his friends, begging for his life. Clasping the hands of Judge Davis and Captain Williams, he implored them for mercy, mingling with his ap- peals, prayers and promises, and requests that his wife might be sent for. "My God ! my God ! must I die ? Oh, my dear wife ! why can she not be sent for?" were repeated in the most heart- rending accents.
Judge Davis alone stood by the unhappy man in this his great extremity, and tried to save his life. He conversed with several leaders of the Commit- tee, suggesting that they should substitute banish- ment for death. But the people were implacable. Slade's life among them had been violent, lawless, desperate. No brigand was more dreaded by all who knew him ; and the speech which, at the foot
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Joseph A. Slade.
of the gallows, Davis addressed to the crowd in his behalf, fell like water upon adamant. There was no mercy left for one who had so often for- feited all claims to mercy. Yet there were a few men, even among those who had doomed this man to death, that would have given all they possessed to save his life. They could not witness his exe- cution ; and some of them, stout of heart and ac- customed to disaster, it is no shame to say, wept like children when they beheld him on his march to the scaffold.
As soon as Slade found all entreaty useless, he sent a messenger for his wife, and recovered in some degree his wonted composure. The only favor he now asked of the Committee was, that his execution might be delayed until his wife ar- rived, - a favor that would have been granted could the Committee have been assured that her presence and remarkable courage would not have excited an attempt at rescue, and been the cause of bloodshed. The scaffold, formed of the gate- way of a corral, was soon prepared, and, everything being in readiness, Slade was placed upon a dry- goods box, with the fatal cord around his neck. Several gentlemen whom he sent for came to see him and bid him farewell. One of his comrades, who had exhausted himself in prayers for his re-
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Joseph A. Slade.
lease, as the fatal moment drew nigh, threw off his coat, and, doubling his fists, declared that Slade should be hanged only over his dead body. The aim of a hundred rifles brought him to his senses, and he was glad to escape upon a promise of future good behavior. The execution immedi- ately followed, Slade dying with the fall of the drop. His body was removed to the Virginia Hotel, and decently laid out.
A few moments later his wife, mounted on a fleet horse, dashed up to the hotel, and rushed madly to the bed on which the body lay. Casting her- self upon the inanimate form, she gave way to a paroxysm of grief. Her cries were heartrending, mingled with deep and bitter curses upon those who had deprived her of her husband. Hours elapsed before she was sufficiently composed to give directions for the disposition of the body.
" Why, oh, why," she exclaimed, in an agony of grief, " did not some of you, the friends of Slade, shoot him down, and not suffer him to die on the scaffold ? I would have done it had I been here. He should never have died by the rope of the hangman. No dog's death should have come to such a man."
The body was placed in a tin coffin filled with alcohol, and conveyed to the ranche, where it re-
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Joseph A. Slade.
mained until the following spring, when it was taken to Salt Lake City and buried in the ceme- tery. A plain marble slab, with name and age graven thereon, marks the burial-place of Slade, - a man who surrendered all that was noble, gene- rous, and manly in his nature to the demon of intemperance. A friend of his, in a recent letter to me, relating to him, says, -
" Slade was unquestionably a most useful man in his time to the stage line, and to the cause of progress in the Far West, and he never was a robber, as some have represented ; but after years of contention with desperate men, he became so reckless and regardless of human life that his best friends must concede that he was at times a most dangerous character, and no doubt, by his defiance of the authority and wholesome discipline of the Vigilantes, brought upon himself the calamity which he suffered."
JOHN X. BEIDLER, Leading Vigilante and Express Messenger.
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A Modern Haman.
CHAPTER XX.
A MODERN HAMAN.
BEIDLER - WOMAN FOR BREAKFAST - MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF A CHINAWOMAN IN HELENA - ARREST AND DISCHARGE OF HANSON -CLAGGETT'S RIFLE - ELECTION DAY - EFFECTS OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE - MURDER OF HAYES BY LEACH - ARREST OF LEACH BY X. - HYNSON'S CONDUCT ON THE OCCASION AND AFTERWARDS - X. SUSPECTS HYNSON OF THE MURDER OF THE CHINAWOMAN - FINDS CLAGGETT'S RIFLE IN HIS POSSESSION, AND RESTORES IT TO THE OWNER - AR- RESTS HYNSON -HEIS PUT IN JAIL - HIS THREATS - COWARDLY CONDUCT WHEN RELEASED BY JOHN FETHERSTUN - THREATENS X. - GOES TO BENTON -- COWARDICE AND HUMILIATION ON MEETING X .- ASKS HIS ASSISTANCE, AND RECEIVES A PLACE AS NIGHT WATCHMAN - GETS A JOB AND BETRAYS HIS TRUST - X. MAKES A SEIZURE AS MARSHAL - ABUSIVE TREAT- MENT OF WILLIAMS BY HYNSON - HVNSON BUILDS A SCAFFOLD, AND IS HANGED THEREON - LETTER FROM HIS MOTHER.
" WE'VE got a woman for breakfast this time, and a Chinawoman at that," said X. Beidler, as he drew up to the well-filled breakfast table of the saloon where he boarded. "There's no want of
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variety. We had a negro election day, and plenty of white men the week before." (The ex- pression " a man for breakfast," signifies, in min- ing parlance, that a man has been murdered dur- ing the night.)
" What is the new sensation, X. ? " inquired one of the boarders.
" Nothing remarkable," replied X., "a China- woman choked to death, and robbed of a thou- sand dollars during the night."
" Who did it ?"
" That's the mysterious part of it. It was done by some one who don't wish to be known. He's an exceptional scoundrel ; generally, our murders are committed publicly."
" Have yon no idea who committed the deed ?"
" Oh, yes, but then I may be mistaken. I'll say nothing about that at present. The woman was ready to leave for Boise this morning with negro Hanson, who has been living with her for some time. I don't think Hanson killed her, but it can do no harm to arrest him on suspicion, and hear his statement."
This brief colloquy occurred in Helena on a Sabbath morning in September, 1867. The town was at that time infested with thieves, ruffians, and
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murderers. Shooting affrays, resulting in death to some of the parties concerned, had been of almost daily occurrence for several weeks, and the citizens began to fear a return of the days of 1863.
X. Beidler ate deliberately, and when he had finished, sauntered out in pursuit of Hanson, whom he soon found, arrested, and took before a magistrate. The negro was frightened, but pro- tested his innocence.
" How was it ?" inquired the justice, in a kind tone. " Tell us all you know."
" I'll do that, sure," replied Hanson. " You see, this woman and I were jest as close friends as there's any need of. She had eight hundred dollars in dust and greenbacks, and three horses. We had agreed some time ago to go to Boise, and made our arrangements to leave this very morning. I went up to the house last evening and found a white man there. I didn't take no partikler notice of the man, but I think I would know him again if I saw him. I left, and did not go back till this morning, when I found the woman lying dead upon the floor. 'Fore God, that is all I know about the murder of the woman."
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