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 38
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 38
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 38
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 38
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 38
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After a few more questions relating to the size and general appearance of the man whom he left
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in company with the woman, Hanson was dis- charged.
"I know," said X., significantly, " that he is not guilty. Let him go. We'll look furth the murderer."
Some ten days previous to this time, Hon. Wil- liam H. Claggett came over from Deer Lodge to address the citizens of Helena on the issues of the political campaign, then in progress. He brought with him a Henry rifle marked on the stock with his initials. Forgetting to take it from the coach on his arrival, he returned from the hotel after it, and it was gone. It had been stolen during his momentary absence. After a diligent but unsuc- cessful search, it was given up for lost. X., how- ever, promised to keep a lookout for it.
Election day came, when the negroes, for the first time in our history, were to exercise the right of suffrage. It was a great day for them ; and the few that were in the city, soon began to make their appearance, dressed up for the occasion as for a holiday. A riot was anticipated, as threats had been made by the roughs in town that the negroes should not vote without a fight. X. Beidler stood near the polls to preserve the peace, and see that every man, black or white, was pro- tected in voting. In the mean time a colored
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barber and his negro associate had a set-to at fisticuffs, to decide some knotty point in politics. The crowd arrested the combatants, and while conducting them to the magistrate, the barber escaped and ran home. Hayes, still in their cus- tody, was roughly charged by one John Leach with having drawn a pistol upon a white man.
" You lie if you say that," was the indignant reply of Hayes.
" Do you call me a liar ? " retorted Leach.
" Yes, you or any other man who says I drew a pistol or carry one."
As he said this, the crowd released Hayes, and he walked down the street to a barber shop, where he was followed by Leach, who seized him by the collar with one hand, and drawing and cocking a pistol with the other, repeated the ques- tion, -
" You drew a pistol upon a white man, did you ? "
Hayes again replied in the negative, and rais- ing his arm said, -
" Search me, if you think I have any weapons. My fuss was with a colored man, not with you. I don't want anything to do with you." As he turned to release himself from the grasp of Leach, that ruffian, aiming at his heart, said, -
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" If you open your mouth again, I'll kill you," and instantly fired, the ball entering the left side, below the breast. Hayes lived about an hour.
On being apprised of the affray, X. Beidler hastened to the spot to arrest Leach. A crowd of roughs stood around to protect him, but Beid- ler, pistol in hand, at the risk of his life, pushed his way through it, and seizing Leach by the col- lar, secured him with handcuffs and led him to jail. Knives had been drawn in the mêlée by Leach's friends. A deadly blow had been aimed at Beidler by one Bill Hynson, which he evaded by the dexterous use of his right arm.
After the man was in prison, and quiet restored, Hynson sought out Beidler, who was then, as now, a terror to the roughs, and said to him, -
" X., I saved your life. I knocked off the blow just in time."
Comprehending the object of this salutation, X. replied dryly, -
" I'm all right now, and much obliged to you. I suppose you saved my life."
Hynson, mistaking the irony for sincerity, fol- lowed it up by a request that Beidler would use his influence to get him a position on the police force of Helena. Beidler gave him no encour- agement, and a few days afterwards he told Beid-
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ler he had got a better thing and did not wish the place.
From the meagre description given by Hanson of the man he saw in company with the China- . woman, during the evening preceding her mur- der, Beidler's suspicions fell upon Hynson. He watched him narrowly, but could find no clew.
A day or two after the murder, at a very early hour in the morning, Beidler, in pursuit of cir- cumstances to justify his suspicions, abruptly en- tered an old, deserted building, which a lot of loafers and roughs had appropriated for sleeping purposes. The floor was covered with their blankets, and the sudden presence of Beidler among them at so early an hour caused great consternation. They crept from their covers, and exchanging hurried glances with each other, as if to inquire, " Which of us is this day a victim for the dry tree ? " fled from the building like rats from a sinking ship. Hynson was among the number. In the hurried observation he had taken of the room. Beidler saw, lying beside Hynson under his blanket, a Henry rifle, which by the initials on the stock he recognized as Claggett's. After the room was de- serted, he returned to it, and seizing the rifle sent it to its owner by the next express.
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Hynson missed the rifle. Meeting Beidler the next day, he inquired if he had seen it.
" Yes," replied X. " Whose is it ?"
" Mine," said Hynson defiantly.
"Yours !" rejoined X. sternly. " How came you by it? You have seen the initials on the stock. Don't you know whose it is ?"
Seeing that Beidler was not to be deceived, Hynson, after some prevarication, acknowledged that he took the rifle from the coach.
"I thought," said he, "I might as well have it as any one."
This admission of guilt would have been fol- lowed by Hynson's immediate arrest had not Beid- ler hoped by delay to find some evidence against him of murder. The negro Hanson had, in the mean time, seen Hynson. He told Beidler he re- sembled the man he saw at the house of the China- woman. Beidler hesitated no longer, but at once arrested Hynson for stealing the rifle, intending to keep him in custody until satisfied of his guilt or innocence of the higher crime. Impatient of this restraint upon his liberty, Hynson daily vented his wrath upon his keepers.
" As soon as I get out," said he to John Fether- stun, "I intend to kill you. Only give me the chance, and see how quick I'll do it."
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A Modern Haman.
John laughed, dismissing all his threats with some axioms less complimentary to his courage than his bravado, such as, "You crow well," " Barking dogs seldom bite," etc.
Beidler soon became satisfied that no evidence could be found sufficient to convict Hynson of murder, and the stealing of the rifle in a commun- ity where higher crimes were committed daily with impunity did not call for heavier punishment than the thief had already received. So Hynson was released. As Fetherstun opened the door of the prison for him, he said, -
" Have you got a six-shooter ?"
" No," replied Hynson.
" Then I'll give you one, and you can turn loose," at the same time drawing a revolver from his belt and offering it to him. Seeing that Hyn- son hesitated, he immediately added, " Take it. It will give you the chance you've been looking for so long."
Hynson declined taking it, saying, -
" I was in jail and feeling bad when I said that. You've always been kind to me. I've got nothing against you, and don't want to hurt you, but I'm going for X., sure, -the man that put me in here."
X. needed no protector, especially when warned.
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A Modern Haman.
No man could draw and fire a pistol with deadlier aim or greater rapidity, and so Hynson found no opportunity of putting his threat into execution.
In the spring of 1868, Beidler, on his return to Helena from the Whoop-up mines, spent a few days en route at Benton. The steamboats from St. Louis were daily arriving with freights, which from this point were conveyed in teams to all the towns and mining camps in the Territory. Hyn- son, who had hired as a teamster to Scott Bullard, a heavy Helena freighter, was on his way to Ben- ton. Learning that Beidler was there, he fre- quently in conversation avowed the intention of shooting him on sight. As the train approached Benton, Bullard rode into town in advance of it, and apprised Beidler of his danger.
The day after the arrival of the train, Hynson and Beidler approached each other in the street. The former extended his hand in a friendly man- ner, which Beidler seized with his left hand, keep- ing his right in reserve for the use of his pistol.
" I am told," said Beidler, " that you have come here to kill me."
"I kill you!" said Hynson, in well-affected surprise.
" Yes, you," said Beidler, dropping the hand he held ; " and if you wish to try it, you'll never
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have a better chance. If that's what you want, you can't pull your pistol too quick."
Hynson glared at the little, athletic man who confronted him so boldly, and saw in those burn- ing eyes and that steady muscle not the smallest trace of fear.
Seizing Beidler again by the hand, he said in hurried tones, -
" X., I did make a fool of myself when drunk in camp with the boys, in some remarks relating to you, but I didn't mean it. I don't want to hurt you, and never did. Now, let's be friends."
Beidler, who had no other feeling than contempt for the bragging poltroon, listened in silence to what further he had to say.
" I want you," said Hynson, " to aid me in get- ting the position of night-watchman in this city."
X. replied to this request in general terms, and, turning on his heel, left Hynson, who afterwards, by some means which X. could not fathom, re- ceived the appointment he desired.
Before leaving Benton, X. received a letter from Silver Bow requesting him to watch for and arrest a person who had stolen a lot of nuggets and jewelry, and gone from that place to Benton. Called suddenly away by more important business, X. intrusted Hynson with this service, who caught
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the thief and recovered the property, which he appropriated to his own use, pawning the jewelry for a sum of money, which was soon squandered. When X. returned, Hynson, with much difficulty, redeemed most of the jewelry, which Beidler re- turned to the owner.
About this time Beidler, as deputy United States marshal, made a seizure of some contraband goods. One Charles Williams was an important witness in the case. The court was held at Helena, one hundred and forty miles distant from Benton. Beidler discovered that the defendant and his friends had a plan on foot to prevent Williams from going to court, which he determined to fore- stall. He met Williams by appointment a couple of miles from town, furnished him a horse, a Henry rifle, and ten dollars in money, and directed him to ride with all possible despatch to Helena, he intending to follow in the coach, which was to leave in a few hours. Beidler saw nothing of his witness on the route, but, as he had told him to avoid the road the first day as much as possible, this occasioned no surprise ; but when the second and third days passed without his appearance, he feared some accident had befallen him. The day after his arrival at Helena he received information that the horse had been found hitched to a post
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A Modern Haman.
in Benton, with the saddle and gun on his back, and that Williams had been hanged. Beidler re- turned to Benton and secured his property. In a confidential conversation with Hynson he learned that before the execution of Williams was com- pleted he was cut down, taken by his captors below Benton, placed upon a raft in the Missouri, and upon his promise to leave and not return to the country, permitted to escape with his life. This story, discredited at the time, was confirmed by Williams himself four years afterwards.
Hynson's participation in this high-handed out- rage, while acting as a conservator of the peace, roused public indignation against him. A few days afterwards he provoked a dispute with Mr. Morgan, the sheriff, and slapped him in the face. One trouble followed another, until, in the sum- mer of 1868, a Mr. Robinson was knocked down and robbed in the street, and the circumstances all pointed unmistakably to Hynson, the night watchman, as the aggressor. As there was no positive proof of his guilt, he was suffered to retain his position without molestation.
On the morning of the 18th of August, the same season, Hynson was observed to convey to a spot on the prairie, a mile or more distant from town, three pine-tree poles about twelve feet long
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and four inches in diameter. Tying one end of these three poles securely together, he raised them up in the form of a tripod. When they were sta- tioned in a substantial manner, and to his liking, he went to a store and purchased a small coil of rope.
" What is the rope for, Hynson ? " inquired a bystander.
" To hang a man with," was his reply.
The listeners understood this as a joke, and dis- missed the subject with a laugh.
Hynson next employed a negro to go out and dig a grave near the tripod.
" Who's dead, Massa Hynson ?" inquired the man.
"Never you mind," replied Hynson. "Go ahead and dig the grave. I'll furnish the corpse."
The negro obeyed, and the grave was in readi- ness at nightfall.
The next morning the lifeless body of Hynson was found suspended from the tripod by the rope he had prepared.
The citizens flocked in crowds to the spot. Among them was the negro who dug the grave. When he saw the swaying form, and had scru- tinized the ghastly face, he exclaimed, -
"'Fore God, dat's de gemman dat tole me
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to dig de grave, and said he'd furnish de corpse."
After the body was cut down, there was found in a pocket the following letter from the mother of Hynson : -
" MY DEAR SON, - I write to relieve my great anxiety, for I am in great trouble on your ac- count. Your father had a dream about you. He dreamed that he had a letter from your lawyer, who said that your case was hopeless. God grant that it may prove only a dream ! I, your poor, broken-hearted mother, am in suspense on your account. For God's sake, come home."
336
James Daniels.
CHAPTER XXI.
JAMES DANIELS.
CAREER IN CALIFORNIA - MURDER OF GARTLEY - AR- RESTED BY THE VIGILANTES - TRIED BY COURT AND FOUND GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER - SENTENCE - PARDON - HUNG BY THE VIGILANTES - VIGILANTES IN THE WRONG.
OF the early history of this individual I know but little, and but for circumstances attend- ing his "taking off," should not trouble my readers with any notice of him. That he was hard- ened in vice and crime, and, possibly, was one of the worst of all the ruffians whose careers I have passed under review, will hardly admit of a doubt, when the reader is informed that he murdered one man in Tuolumne County, California, and was only prevented by want of agility to complete a race, from killing another. His appearance in Helena, and the commission of the crime for which he lost his life, were almost simultaneous. In a quarrel incident to a game of cards, near Helena, he stabbed and instantly killed a man by
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James Daniels.
the name of Gartley. He was immediately ar- rested by the Vigilantes, who surrendered him to the civil authorities. On his trial for murder, circumstances were proved, which, in the opinion of the jury, reduced his crime to manslaughter. Judge Munson sentenced him to three years' im- prisonment in the territorial prison. After a few weeks' confinement, a petition for his pardon, signed by thirty-two respectable citizens of Hel- ena, was also presented to acting Governor Meagher, who, under a mistaken sense of his own powers, issued an order for his release. The right to pardon belonged exclusively to the Presi- dent. Judge Munson went immediately to the capital to show the law to the Executive, con- vince him of his error, and obtain an order for the re-arrest of Daniels. Meantime, that individ- ual, uttering the most diabolical threats against the witnesses who had testified against him, found his way back to Helena ; and before the judge could effect his object with the governor, in fact, on the night succeeding the day of his arrival in Helena, Daniels was arrested by the Vigilantes and hanged.
As I have endeavored to justify, in all cases where I deemed the circumstances warranted it, the action of the Vigilantes in taking life, so, as
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James Daniels.
such circumstances were not apparent in this case, do I deem it a duty to say that they committed an irreparable error in the execution of this man. However much, by his threats and reckless con- duct, he may have deserved death, they had no right to inflict it. If he had been wrongfully pardoned, he could easily have been re-arrested. He was a single individual in the midst of a populous community, warned by his threats of his designs, which could easily have been thwarted by arresting him, or by setting a careful watch over his actions. No excuse can be offered for the course that was pursued. This, at least, was one case where the Vigilantes exceeded the boundaries of right and justice, and became themselves the violators of law and propriety.
I was at that time a member of the Executive Committee of the Virginia City branch of the Vigilante organization, and that Committee dis- avowed all responsibility for the execution of Daniels, and expressed its disapproval of that act, which, it was believed, did not have the official sanction of the Executive Committee of Helena, but was regarded as the unauthorized act of cer- tain irresponsible members of the organization at Helena.
And I will here take occasion to say that this
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James Daniels.
was not an isolated instance. Under the pretence of Vigilante justice, after the establishment of courts of justice in Montana, and when many of the respectable citizens of the Territory had vir- tually abandoned the order, a few vicious men continued occasionally to enforce its summary dis- cipline. Several individuals were hanged who had been detected in stealing horses, several for giving utterances to threats of vengeance, and several on mere suspicion of having committed crime. As soon as this order of things was understood by the people, the Vigilante institu- tion was brought to an end, and the men who had misused its powers were given to understand that any further employment of them would probably cause it to re-act upon themselves. These abuses had not been frequent, and when discovered were promptly terminated.
340
David Opdyke.
CHAPTER XXII.
DAVID OPDYKE.
EARLY LIFE OF OPDYKE - HIS WANDERING AND SUCCESS IN MINING - APPEARANCE IN BOISE CITY -PUBLIC SUSPICIONS - HIS STABLE HEADQUARTERS FOR THE ROUGHS OF THE TERRITORY - HISTORY OF PARKS - HIS MURDER AND ROBBERY BY THE "OPDYKE GANG " - OPDYKE'S COMPLICITY IN THE PORT-NEUF ROB- BERY - FRANK JOHNSON - BEECH - HANK BUCKNER THE MURDERER OF BROWN - HIS MYSTERIOUS ESCAPE FROM MONTANA - APPEARANCE IN IDAHO -NEIL HOWIE SENT TO RETURN HIM TO MONTANA - FAILS - OPDYKE ELECTED SHERIFF - CONTEMPLATES DE- STRUCTION OF PAYETTE VIGILANTES - HUMILIATING RESULTS - IS A DEFAULTER AND PROSECUTED - PAYS THE DEFALCATION - THREATENS GRAND JURY - IN- DIAN EXPEDITION - OPDYKE LEADER - ADEN'S PACK TRAIN - OPDYKE CLAIMS IT, AND IS DEFEATED ON . RAYMOND'S TESTIMONY - CLARKE SHOOTS RAYMOND - Is HUNG BY THE CITIZENS - VENGEANCE THREAT- ENED BY THE " OPDYKE GANG " - VIGILANT MEAS- URES OF CITIZENS - ROUGHIS DISAPPEAR - OPDYKE AND DIXON LEAVE BOISE CITY - ARE FOLLOWED BY VIGILANTES AND HUNG - BREAKING UP OF TIIE "GANG."
THIS man, on some accounts the most noted among the roughs of Idaho, was of patrician
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David Opdyke.
origin, - the degenerate scion of a family which boasted among its members some of the leading citizens of New York. He was born in the vici- nity of Cayuga Lake, New York, about 1830, and could not have been more than thirty-six years of
age at the close of his infamous career.
He went
to California in 1855, where, for want of more con- genial occupation, he was employed for two years by the California Stage Company as a stage driver. Thence, in 1858, he sailed to British Columbia, but finding no business there suited to his tastes, returned the same year to California, spending two unprofitable years in Yuba county, and two years succeeding in Virginia City, Nevada. Excited by the intelligence from the Northern mines, in 1862 he went to Florence and Warren in Idaho, and the fall of that year found him in Boise county, where he located and worked a valuable claim on the Ophir. In 1864, with an accredited fortune of fifteen hundred dollars, he removed to Boise City and bought a livery stable in the centre of the town, which is still pointed out to visitors as having been the rendezvous of one of the most reckless and numerous bands of robbers and road agents in the mountains.
Opdyke's associations were bad, and he was suspected of aiding in the circulation of spurious
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David Opdyke.
gold dust, at that time an extensive business with the roughs of the country. His stable soon be- came the headquarters of all the suspicious char- acters of Boise, Owyhee and Alturas counties. From these and other circumstances, the public was prepared to believe that all the thefts and robberies occurring in the country were com- mitted by persons connected with the "Opdyke gang," but so careful were they to cover their tracks, that no positive evidence could be found against them.
A gentleman by the name of Parks went from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Baker county, Oregon, in 1862, where he was elected sheriff. He was very much respected. Early in the fall of 1864, he went to Idaho, and in Owyhee county purchased and located claims on several quartz lodes, speci- mens of which he selected to exhibit to his East- ern friends, and packed carefully in a valise. Coming to Boise City, preparatory to his depar- ture for the States, he passed through the streets with the heavy valise in his hand, which, being observed by some of the "Opdyke gang," was supposed by them to contain a large quantity of gold dust. He remained in Boise four or five days, and was narrowly watched by the roughs.
On the morning of his departure, at three
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David Opdyke.
o'clock, several of the robbers left by a trail, and coming up with the coach seven miles east of the city, caused the driver to stop, fired upon Parks, rifled his pockets of two or three hundred dol- lars in money, and departed with the much- coveted valise. Their chagrin at finding it to contain mere quartz specimens, may be better imagined than described. Parks returned in the coach to Boise, and died in less than a week of his wounds. He was buried by the Masons. No clew to his murderers could be found at the time ; but in some of the criminal developments made afterwards, it was ascertained that Charley Mar- cus and three others of the " gang " were directly concerned in the attack.
The next murderous outrage in which the " Opdyke gang " was concerned, was the murder and robbery, in Port-Neuf canon, of five coach passengers from Montana, in the summer of 1865. It is now known that Opdyke furnished arms and ammunition for the party from Idaho, which en- gaged in this expedition, and shared in the booty. Seven or eight of his gang left Boise at the time, and were joined at Snake river by an equal party of Montana roughs, who participated with them in the robbery. Frank Johnson, ostensibly the keeper of a public-house eight miles below Boise
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David Opdyke.
City, was one of the confederates in this crime. His house was long a rendezvous for robbers, and his partner Beech kept a similar meeting-place at the Overland Ferry on Snake river. Beech was hung by the Vigilantes in Nevada in 1865. Johnson eluded the pursuit of the Vigilantes, fled to Powder river, Oregon, where he was arrested by Captain Bledso, Wells, Fargo and Company's messenger, on a charge of stealing horses. Found guilty on his trial, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in the Oregon Penitentiary.
Soon after the Port-Neuf robbery, information was given to the Montana authorities, that one Hank Buckner, an escaped murderer from that jurisdiction, had turned up in Idaho, and was living in Boise City. In the fall of 1863, Buck- ner, in a dispute with one Brown in the Madison valley, drew his pistol and shot him. Buckner was arrested, examined in Virginia City, and placed in custody of the sheriff, from whom, by means never made public, he escaped. The sheriff, a very respectable man, was examined by the Vigilantes, and acquitted of blame in the matter; but the story he told, which was positively credited by the Vigilantes, ought to have led to further investigation, as it implicated others.
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David Opdyke.
Governor Green Clay Smith sent Neil Howie to Idaho, with a requisition upon Governor Lyon for the delivery of Buckner to the Montana authorities. The "Opdyke gang," of which Buckner was one, concealed the fugitive, on Howie's arrival, in Dry creek, ten miles distant from Boise City. Reenan, the sheriff of the county, found and arrested him. Governor Lyon being at Lewiston, Buckner was examined, and despite the efforts of his friends, who flocked in hundreds to his defence, was ordered by the ma- gistrate to be confined in jail in Idaho City, until an order for his surrender could be obtained. Before this could be received, a writ of habeas corpus was issued by the probate judge of the county, and Buckner was released on straw bail. Howie, seldom thwarted, as we have seen in ear- lier portions of this history, returned to Montana, greatly crestfallen, without his prisoner. Buck- ner, who was believed to have been a leader in the Port-Neuf robbery, is still at large.
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