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 5
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 5
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 5
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 5
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 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
63
European Treaties.
Great Britain had no right, by discovery or otherwise, to any portion of this part of the territory. " The opening," says Greenhow, " through which its waters are discharged into the ocean was first seen in August, 1776, by the Spanish navigator Heceta, and was distinguished on Spanish charts, within the thirteen years next following, as the mouth of the River San Roque. It was examined in July, 1788, by Meares, who quitted it with the conviction that no river existed there. This opinion of Meares was subscribed, without qualification, by Vancouver, after he had minutely examined the coast, ' under the most favorable conditions of wind and weather,' and notwithstanding the assurance of Gray to the contrary." The actual discovery of the mouth of the Columbia was made on the 11th of May, 1792, by Captain Robert Gray, a New England navigator, who says in his log- book under that date : " Beheld our desired port, bearing east-south-east, distant six leagues. At eight A.M., being a little to the windward of the entrance of the harbor, bore away, and ran in east-north-east between the breakers, having from five to seven fathoms of water. When we were over the bar, we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up which we steered."
64
European Treaties.
Captain Gray remained in the Columbia from the 11th until the 20th of August, during which time he sailed up the river fifteen miles, gave to it the name it still bears, trafficked with the natives, and named the capes at the entrance and other points above.
The United States had this claim by discovery to the mouth of the river, and the interior drained by it and its tributaries before the Louisi- ana purchase was made. After that was agreed upon, at the instance of Mr. Jefferson, Lewis and Clarke were appointed to explore the country up the Missouri to its source and to the Pacific. From the moment of their appearance on the Missouri, their movements were watched by the British, and as soon as the object of their expe- dition was discovered, the North-West Company, in 1805, sent out their men to establish posts and occupy territories on the Columbia. The British Company proceeded no farther than the Mandan villages on the Missouri. Another party, despatched on the same errand in 1806, crossed the Rocky Mountains near the passage of the Peace river, and formed a small trading establishment in the 54th degree of latitude,- the first British post west of the Rocky Moun- tains. Neither at this or any subsequent time
65
European Treaties.
until 1811 does it appear that any of the waters of the Columbia were seen by persons in the ser- vice of the North-West Company.
Lewis and Clarke arrived at the Kooskooskee river, a tributary of the Columbia, in latitude 46° 34', early in October, 1805, and on the 7th of that month began their descent in five canoes. They entered the great southern tribu- tary, which they called Lewis, and proceeded to its confluence, giving the name of Clarke to the northern branch ; thence they sailed down the Columbia to its mouth, and wintered there until the middle of March, 1806. They then returned, exploring the streams which emptied into the Columbia, and furnishing an accurate geograph- ical description of the entire country through which they passed.
Early in 1811 the men sent to the north-west coast in the interest of the Pacific Fur Company, by John Jacob Astor, erected buildings and a stockade with a view to permanent settlement, on a point of land ten miles above the month of the Columbia, which they called Astoria. With the exception of one or two trading posts on some of the small streams constituting the head waters of the river, the country had not at this time been visited by the English. Further detail
66
European Treaties.
of the history and trials of the Pacific Fur Com- pany is unnecessary in this place, but the reader who desires to acquaint himself with it is referred to Irving's " Astoria " for one of the most thrilling narratives in American history.
In 1818, after Astoria had been sold by the Americans to the British Fur Company, and the stockade occupied by British troops, it was restored to the United States under a provision of the Treaty of Ghent, without prejudice to any of the claims that either the United States, Great Britain, Spain, or Russia might have to the ulti- mate sovereignty of the territory. The claims of the respective nations were afterwards con- sidered by the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain and the United States. Messrs. Rush and Galla- tin, who represented our Government, proposed that the dividing line between the territories should be drawn from the north-western extrem- ity of the Lake of the Woods north or south as the case might require, to the 49th parallel of latitude; thence west to the Pacific. The British commissioners, Messrs. Goldburn and Robinson, agreed to admit the line as far west as the Rocky Mountains. Our representatives on that occasion supported the claim of our Government by citing Gray's discovery, the exploration of the Colum-
67
European Treaties.
bia from source to mouth by Lewis and Clarke, and the first settlement and occupancy of the country by the Pacific Fur Company. The British commissioners asserted superior claims, by virtue of former voyages, especially those of Captain Cook, and refused to agree to any boundary which did not give them the harbor at the mouth of the river in common with the United States. Finding it impossible to agree upon a boundary, it was at length agreed that " all territories and their waters claimed by either power west of the Rocky Mountains should be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and sub- jects of both for the space of ten years ; pro- vided, however, that no claim of either or of any other nation to any part of those territories should be prejudiced by the arrangement."
On the 22nd of February, 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the United States, and by the treaty it was agreed that " a line drawn on the meridian from the source of the Arkansas northward to the 42nd parallel of latitude, and thence along that parallel westward to the Pacific, should form the northern boundary of the Spanish posses- sions and the southern boundary of those of the United States in that quarter."
On the 5th of April, 1824, the negotiations
68
European Treaties.
between the United States and Russia were ter- minated by a convention signed at St. Peters- burg, by which, among other provisions, was one to the effect that " neither the United States nor their citizens shall, in future, form an establish- ment on those coasts or the adjacent islands north of the latitude of 54° 40', and the Rus- sians shall make none south of that latitude."
These concessions on the part of Spain and Russia left the United States and Great Britain sole claimants for the entire territory described at the commencement of this chapter, - the claim of Great Britain having been fortified by a treaty with Russia in 1825, in which the Russian Government agreed, as they had done with our Government the previous year, that the line of 54° 40' should be the boundary between their respective possessions.
The period of ten years' joint occupation by our Government and Great Britain agreed upon in 1818 was now approaching a termination. A new negotiation was opened, and after submit- ting and rejecting several propositions for a set- tlement, it was finally agreed between the two Governments that they should continue in the joint occupancy of the territory for an indefinite period, either party being at liberty to demand a
69
European Treaties.
new negotiation on giving the other one year's notice of its intention.
The relations thus established between the two Governments continued without interruption until the attention of Congress was called to the subject by President Tyler in his message read at the opening of the session of 1842. The sub- ject was referred to the committees on foreign affairs in both Houses of Congress, and a bill was introduced in the Senate for the occupation and settlement of the territory, and extending the laws of the United States over it. A pro- tracted debate followed, the bill passed the Sen- ate, was sent to the House, where a report against it was made by Mr. Adams, chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, and the ses- sion expired without any debate on the subject. When the report of the debates in Congress reached England, it produced some excitement in the House of Commons, and in February, 1844, the Honorable Richard Packenham, plenipoten- tiary from Great Britain, arrived in Washington with full instructions to treat definitively on all disputed points relative to the country west of the Rocky Mountains.
In August following the British minister opened the negotiation by a proposition which
70
European Treaties
would have given Great Britain two-thirds of the entire territory of Oregon, including the free navigation of the Columbia and the harbors on the Pacific. This was promptly rejected, and no further attempt at adjustment was made until the following year. An offer was then made by President Polk, which being rejected, closed the door to further negotiation. The President rec- ommended to Congress that the agreement for joint occupation be terminated.
A very animated debate, which continued until near the close of the session, sprang up, in which the question of boundary lost most of its national features in the sharp party conflict to which it was subjected. The Democrats, generally adopt- ing the recommendations of the President, advo- cated the extreme northern boundary of 54° 40', and were ready, if necessary, to declare that as the ultimatum. A few leaders among them, of whom Colonel Benton was, perhaps, the most prominent, united with the Whigs in opposition to this extreme demand, and the line was finally established by treaty on the 49th parallel.
This mode of settlement probably averted a war between Great Britain and the United States, but after a careful survey of all the facts, including discoveries, explorations, and settle-
71
European Treaties.
ments, I cannot but feel that the concessions were all made by the United States, whose title to the whole of the territory was much more strongly fortified than that of Great Britain to any portion of it.
Hon. James G. Blaine, in a speech delivered at Lewiston, Maine, on August 25, 1888, said : - " The claim of the Democrats to the whole of what now constitutes British Columbia, up to lati- tude 54° 40', was a pretence put forth during the presidential canvass of 1844 as a blind in order to show that they were as zealous to secure North- ern territory as they were bent on acquiring Southern territory. President Polk made his campaign on this claim. The next thing the country heard was that Mr. Polk's administration was compelled to surrender the whole territory to Great Britain, confessing that they had made pretences which they were unable to maintain or defend. Had they not forced the question to a settlement, the joint occupation which had come down from Jefferson to that hour would have peacefully continued, and with our acquisition of California two years afterwards and the immedi- ate discovery of gold, the thousands of American citizens who swarmed to the Pacific coast would have occupied British Columbia, and the final
72
European Treaties.
settlement would doubtless have been in favor of those who were in actual possession, and but for the blundering diplomacy of the Democratic party, which prematurely and without any reason forced the issue, we should to-day see our flag floating over the Pacific front, from the Gulf of California to Behring's Straits."
This chapter is the merest outline of the facts, an extension of which will be found in Green- how's "History of California and Oregon," to which work I am chiefly indebted for the infor- mation herein contained.
73
Henry Plummer.
CHAPTER IV.
HENRY PLUMMER.
SNAKE RIVER - ITS SCENERY - LEWISTON - ITS APPEARANCE AND SOCIETY - LOYALISTS AND SECES- SIONISTS - ARRIVAL OF PLUMMER AND HIS COM. PANIONS - A DOMESTIC HISTORY - PLUMMER LEA- DER OF THE ROUGHS -JACK CLEVELAND - CHERO- KEE BOB - BILL BUNTON AND OTHERS.
THE Snake river or Lewis fork of the Column- bia takes its rise in a small lake which is sepa- rated by the main range of the Rocky Moun- tains from the large lake of the Yellowstone, that being less than twenty miles distant from it. The Yellowstone, the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin, forming the head waters of the Mis- souri, and the Snake, the largest tributary fork of the Columbia, all rise within or near the limits of the territory recently dedicated by the Government to the purpose of a National Park.
As contrasted with the large rivers of regions other than the one it traverses, the Snake river would be a very remarkable stream, but there,
74
Henry Plummer.
where everything in nature is wonderful, it is simply one of the marked features in its physical . geography. From its source to its junction with the Clarke fork of the Columbia, a distance of nine hundred miles, it flows through a region which, at some remote period, has been the scene of greater volcanic action than any other por- tion of North America. Unlike other streams, which are formed by rivulets and springs, this river is scarcely less formidable in its appearance at its commencement than at its termination. It leaps into rapids from the moment of its exit, and its waters, blackened by the basaltic bed through which it flows, roar and fret, and lash the sides of the gloomy canon which it enters, presenting a scene of tumult and fury, that extends far beyond the limits of vision. This initiatory character it maintains, alternated with occasional reaches of quiet large expansions, and narrow contractions, fearful and tremendous cata- racts, to its debouchure into the Columbia. Its channel and its course, alike sinuous, have ob- tained for it its name. Navigation is impeded by reason of fearful rapids, every few miles of the first five hundred after leaving the lake. The shores for most of the distance are barren rock, always precipitous, often inaccessible from
-
75
Henry Plummer.
the river, and frequently engorged by lofty mountains and rocky canons which shut its inky surface from the light of day. The scenery, though on the most tremendous scale, is savage, unattractive, and frightful. Its waters lash the base of the three Tetons, so celebrated as the great landmarks of this portion of the continent. As they approach the Columbia they break into frequent cataracts, the largest of which, the great Shoshone Fall, with a perpendicular descent of two hundred and fifty feet, presents many points of singular interest.
On the river, twelve miles above its mouth, at a point accessible from the Columbia by small steamboats, stands the little village of Lewiston, which, at the time of which I write, was the capital of all the vast territory that had been just organized under the euphonic name of Idaho. This territory then included Montana, which had not been organized. Lewiston, being the nearest accessible point by water to the re- cently discovered gold placers of Elk City, Oro Fino, Florence, and Warner Creek, grew with the rapidity known only to mining towns into an em- porium. In less than three months from the time the first immigrants commenced to establish a settlement there, several streets of more than a
76
Henry Plummer.
mile in length were laid out, thickly covered on either side with dwellings, stores, hotels, and saloons, chiefly constructed of common factory cotton. A tenement of this kind could be ex- temporized in a few hours. The frame was of light scantling or poles, and the cloth in most cases fastened to it with tacks. Seen from a distance, the town had the appearance of being built of white marble, but truly
" "Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,"
for upon entering it the fragility of the material soon disabused the vision and the admiration of the beholder. At night, when lights were burn- ing in these frail tenements, a stranger would think the town illuminated. The number of drinking and gambling saloons was greatly in ex- cess of stores and private dwellings, and to nearly all of these was attached that most important attraction of a mining town, the hurdy-gurdy. The sound of the violin which struck the ear on entering the street, was never lost while passing through it, and at many of the saloons the evi- dence of the bacchanal orgies which were in progress inside was often apparent in the eager- ness exhibited by the crowd which surrounded the building without. The voices of auctioneers
77
Henry Plummer.
on the street corners, the shouts of frequent horsemen as they rode up and down the streets, the rattle of vehicles arriving and departing for the miners' camps, troops of miners, Indians, gamblers, the unmeaning babble of numerous drunken men, the tawdrily apparelled dancing women of the hurdy-gurdys, altogether present a scene of life in an entirely new aspect to the per- son who for the first time enters a mining town. It is a feature of modern civilization which can- not elsewhere be found, search the whole world
over. The thirst for gold is shared by all classes. Those who are unwilling to labor, in their efforts to obtain it by less honorable means, flock to the mines to ply their guilty vocations. Hence there is no vice unrepresented in a mining camp, and no type or shade of character in civilized society that is not there publicly developed. The misfortune is, as a general thing, that the worst elements, being most popular, generally preponderate.
Our civil war was raging at the time that Lewiston became a mining emporium. Sympa- thizers with each party fled to the mines, to escape the possible responsibilities they might incur by remaining in the States. They carried their poli- tical views with them, and identified themselves with those portions of society which reflected
78
Henry Plummer.
their respective attachments. Loyalty and Seces- sion each flourished by turn, and were the prolific causes of frequent bloody dissensions. There was no law to restrain human passion, so that each man was a law unto himself, according as he was swayed by the evil or good of his own nature. The temptations to evil, not so numerous, were much more powerful than were ever before pre- sented to a great majority of the immigrants. Gambling and drinking were made attractive by the presence of debased women, who lured to their ruin all who, fortunate in the possession of gold, could not withstand their varied devices.
In the spring of 1861, among the daily arrivals at Lewiston, was a man of gentlemanly bearing and dignified deportment, accompanied by a lady, to all appearance his wife. He took quarters at the best hotel in town. Before the close of the second day after his arrival his character as a gambler was fully understood, and in less than a fortnight his abandonment of his female com- panion betrayed the illicit connection which had existed between them. Alone, among strangers, destitute, the poor woman told how she had been beguiled, by the promises of this man, from home and family, and induced to link herself with his fortunes. A fond husband and three helpless
1
f 1
79
Henry Plummer.
children mourned her loss by a visitation worse than death. Lacking moral courage to return to her heart-broken husband and ask forgiveness, she sought to drown her sorrow by plunging still deeper into the abyss of shame and ruin. Soon, alas ! she became one of the lowest inmates of a frontier brothel. This latest crime of Henry Plummer was soon forgotten, or remembered only as one of many similar events which occur in mining camps.
He, meanwhile, in the pursuit of his profession as a gambler, formed the acquaintance of many congenial spirits. From their subsequent opera- tions it was also apparent that at his instigation an alliance was formed with them which had for its object the attainment of fortune by the most desperate means. Every fortunate man in any of the mining camps was marked as the prey, sooner or later, of this abandoned combination. Every gambler or rough infesting the camp, either voluntarily or by threats was induced to unite in the enterprise ; and thus originated the band of desperadoes which, for the succeeding two years, by their fearful atrocities, spread such terror through the northern mines. Plummer was their acknowledged leader.
Professional gamblers everywhere, in a new
80
Henry Plummer.
country, form a community by themselves. They have few intimates outside of their own number. A sort of tacit understanding among them links them together by certain implied rules and reg- ulations, which they readily obey. Of the same nature, we may suppose, was the bond which united Plummer and his associates in their infernal designs of plunder and butchery. The honor which thieves accord each other, the prospect of unlimited reward for their vicious deeds, and the certainty of condign punishment for any act of treachery, secured the band and its purposes against any betrayal by its members.
Nowhere are the conventionalities of social life sooner abandoned than in a mining camp. To call a man by his proper name there generally implies that he is either a stranger or one with whom you do not care to make acquaintance. The gamblers were generally known by diminu- tive surnames or appellations significant of their characters. I shall so designate those of them who were thus known, in this narrative.
Prominent among the associates of Plummer at Lewiston, were Jack Cleveland, Cherokee Bob and Bill Bunton. Cleveland was an old Califor- nia acquaintance, familiar with Plummer's early history. He used this fatal knowledge. as it
81
Henry Plummer.
afterwards proved, in a dictatorial and offensive manner, often presuming upon it to arrogate a position in the band which by common consent was assigned to Plummer.
Cherokee Bob was a native Georgian, and received his name from the fact that he was a quarter-blood Indian. He was bitter in his hatred of the loyal cause and all engaged in it. Before he came to Lewiston he had, in an affray of his own plotting, killed two or three soldiers in the Walla Walla theatre. He fled to Lewis- ton to escape the vengeance of their comrades.
Bill Bunton was a double-dyed murderer and notorious horse and cattle thief. He had killed a man at a ball near Walla Walla, was tried for murder and acquitted on insufficient evidence. He afterwards killed his brother-in-law, and in cold blood soon after shot down an Indian, and escaped the clutches of the law by flight. Pos- sessing himself of a ranche on Pataha creek, he lived there with his Indian wife, under the pre- text of farming. It was soon ascertained, how- ever, that his business was secreting and selling stolen stock. The officers made a dash upon his ranche, but the bird had again flown. Soon afterward, disguised in the blanket and paint of an Indian, he entered Lewiston, and lounged
82
Henry Plummer.
about the streets for several days without excit- ing suspicion. During this time he became a member of Plummer's murderous band.
There were several others whose names are unknown, that entered into the combination formed for systematized robbery and murder at this time. Around this nucleus a large number of desperate men afterwards gathered. They became so formidable in numbers, and their deeds of blood were so frequent and daring, that the mining camps were awed by them into tacit submission, and witnessed without even remon- strance the perpetration of murders and rob- beries in their very midst, of the most revolting character.
83
Society in Lewiston.
CHAPTER V.
SOCIETY IN LEWISTON.
SHEBANGS - COMPLAINT OF NEZ PERCES - RECKLESS- NESS OF ROUGHS, AND INDIFFERENCE OF CITIZENS - INCIDENTS AT THE SHEBANGS - HORSE ROBBERY - EXPRESS RIDERS - MOSE - HIS ESCAPE - FEAR- LESSNESS - SEVERITY OF WINTER - EFFECT UPON MINING - EXPOSURE TO CRIME - CONDITION OF LEWISTON IN THE WINTER OF 1861-2 - KIRBY MUR- DERS A COMRADE - HIS ARREST AND ACQUITTAL - MURDER OF HILTERRANT - CITIZENS' MEETING - ROUGHIS IN THE MAJORITY - PLUMMER'S INTERFER- ENCE - HILTEBRANT'S BROTHER.
TOWARDS the close of the summer of 1862, the band organized by Plummer having in- creased in numbers, he selected two points of rendezvous, as bases for their operations. These were called " shebangs." They were enclosed by mountains, whose rugged fastnesses were avail- able for refuge in case of attack.
One was located between Alpwai and Pataha creeks, on the road from Lewiston to Walla Walla, about twenty-five miles from the former,
84
Society in Lewiston.
and the other at the foot of Craig's Mountain, . between Lewiston and Oro Fino, at a point where the main road was intersected by a trail for pack animals. The location of the latter was upon ground reserved by treaty to the Nez Perces Indians, and near a military post established for its protection. The chief of the tribe com- plained, to the resident agent of the Indians, of the aggression. He laid the complaint before the commandant of the post, who treated it with neglect. The robbers occupied the spot without molestation, and when they abandoned it it was of their own accord.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.