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 9
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 9
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 9
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 9
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 9
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THE decay of a mining town is as sudden and rapid as its growth, and the causes which occasion it as problematical. Few, comparatively, of the great number of placer camps in the Rocky Mountains, once peopled with thousands, survive beyond the third year of their existence. As soon as the placers fail to remunerate the miners they are abandoned. The crowd de- parts, and if any remain, it is that sober, substan- tial class which is satisfied with small gain as the reward of unceasing toil. Intelligence of new discoveries brought to a failing placer will cause the immediate departure of great numbers engaged in working it. These stampedes are among the most notable features of mountain
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life. Sometimes when the discovery of a new. placer is announced, the entire population of a mining town strive with each other to be the first to reach it. Horses are saddled, mules are packed, sluices abandoned, and the long and unmarked route filled with gold hunters. Away they go, over mountains, across streams, through cañons and pine forests, with the single object of making the first selection of a claim in the new location. Not unfrequently it is the case that a single company is the first to learn of the discovery of a new rich placer. If the claim it has worked is abandoned the succeeding morn- ing, it is received by the camp as incontestable evidence that a mine of superior richness has been found, - and hundreds start in pursuit of the missing company. Rumor is a fruitful cause of stampedes. Disappointments are more fre- quently the consequences than rewards. In- stances are common where whole camps have been deserted to follow up a rumor, and be dis- appointed, and glad to return at last. There is nothing permanent in the life of a gold miner, -- and beyond the moment, nothing strong or abiding in his associations.
" Whither he goes or how he fares, Nobody knows and nobody cares."
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Florence had suffered from these causes. The roving portion of the population had gone, some to Boise, some to Bannack, and some to Deer Lodge. Cherokee Bob and Cynthia still re- mained, but Harper had fled, and Peoples, English, and Scott slept the "sleep that knows no waking." Bill Willoughby, a suspected mem- ber of Harper's gang, was Bob's only companion.
The New Year was approaching. The good wives and daughters, in accordance with usual custom, proposed that it should be celebrated by a ball, - a proposition to which the other sex joyfully acceded. Extensive preparations were made for the supper and the ball-room attract- ively decorated. Cynthia made known to Bob her desire to go. He said in reply, " You shall go, and be respected like a decent woman ought to be." So he asked Willoughby to take his " woman to the ball, and," said he, "if things don't go right, just report to me." Cynthia assented to the arrangement, and Willoughby promised compliance. The guests had arrived when Cynthia, hanging on the arm of Wil- loughby, made her appearance. Scowls and sneers met them on every hand. A general com- motion took place among the ladies. In little groups of five or six, scattered throughout the
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room, they whispered to each other their deter- mination to leave if Cynthia were permitted to remain. The managers held a consultation, and Willoughby was told that he must take Cynthia home. No alternative presenting, he obeyed.
The gentlemen present were prepared to meet any further disturbance, but none occurred, and the ball passed off pleasantly. The next day Cherokee Bob marshalled his forees to avenge the insult, but was restrained by the evident preparation with which the citizens anticipated his design. He and his companions swaggered around town flourishing their pistols and bowie- knives, boasting of their prowess, but careful of giving personal offence. It would have been well for them had their resentment cooled here, but Bob's malice was not to be satisfied so easily. Two days had passed, and Cynthia's humiliation was unavenged. Before the close of another it must be propitiated with blood. Accordingly, the next morning it was agreed between Bob and Willoughby that they would precipitate the battle.
The most efficient leader of the citizens was a saloon keeper by the name of Williams, famil- iarly called "Jakey." He was an athletic man, and a determined enemy of the robbers, by
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whom he was held in great fear. He had been the hero of more than one desperate affray, and was regarded by Bob and Willoughby as the only obstacle in the way of their bloody project to kill the managers of the ball. The first act, therefore, in their contemplated tragedy was to dispose of him. "Jakey" at first sought to avoid them. They pursued him from house to house, till, tired of fleeing, he finally declared he would go no farther. Returning by a circuit- ous path, he was overtaken and fired upon by his pursuers while entering his saloon. He fired in return, and springing back, seized a loaded shot- gun, and rushed into the street. Meantime, several citizens joined in the fight, which soon became general. The ruffians found themselves contending against fearful odds. Willoughby was slowly retreating with his face to his assail- ants, and firing as rapidly as possible. Cherokee Bob was pursuing the same strategy in an opposite direction. The twelfth fire exhausted Willoughby's pistols. He turned to run, with "Jakey " in full pursuit. Exhausted from loss of blood, which was pouring from sixteen wounds, he soon fell, and, throwing up his hands, ex- claimed to one of his pursuers who was in the act of firing : -
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" For God's sake, don't shoot any more. I'm dying now," and surrendered himself to death.
Bob beat a retreat at the first fire. Dodging behind a corner, where his head only was exposed, he fired upon his pursuers until his pistols were nearly empty. While aiming for another shot, a ball fired from an opposite win- dow brought him to the earth, mortally wounded. He was taken to his saloon, and died the third day after the affray, in the full, and to him, con- solatory belief that he had killed "Jakey " Wil- liams at the first fire of his revolver. He had a brother living at Lewiston. His last words were, "Tell my brother I have killed my man and. gone on a long hunt." His real name was Henry Talbert.
Cynthia was now without a protector. At his request she soon joined her old lover, Bill May- field, at Boise. This reunion was destined to be of short duration. The following spring May- field went to Placerville, Idaho, for a brief so- journ. A quarrel over a game of cards sprung up between him and one Evans. Mayfield drew his revolver, intending to settle it by a fatal shot, but Evans interposed : -
"I'm not heeled " - the mountain phrase for "I am not armed."
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" Then go and heel yourself," said Mayfield, sheathing his revolver, " and look out the next time you meet me, for I'm bound to kill you at sight. One of us must die."
The next day, while Mayfield and two friends were walking in the suburbs, they came upon a muddy spot, across which a narrow plank had been laid. This necessitated crossing it in single file. Mayfield was in the centre. Evans was in a cabin beside the crossing, but a few feet dis- tant. Seizing a double-barrelled shotgun, he fired upon Mayfield from his place of concealment, through an open window. Mayfield grasped for his revolver, but fell without power to draw it, exclaiming " I'm shot." He died in two hours, illustrating in his demise the Scriptural axiom, " with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Evans was immediately arrested, but escaped from jail that night, and being fur- nished with a horse by a friend, fled the country, and was never apprehended.
After Mayfield's death Cynthia entered upon that career of promiscuous infamy which is the certain destiny of all women of her class. It is written of her that " she has been the cause of more personal collisions and estrangements than any other woman in the Rocky Mountains."
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CHAPTER XIII.
BOONE HELM.
BOONE HELM - HIS EARLY LIFE - MURDERS SHOOT IN MISSOURI - TRIED AND CONVICTED, AND ES-
CAPES BY STRATAGEM TO CALIFORNIA - KILLS
SEVERAL PERSONS AND FLEES TO DALLES -
ATTEMPTS A JOURNEY ON HORSEBACK ACROSS THE TERRITORIES TO CAMP FLOYD IN UTAN - DISASTERS BY THE WAY - CANNIBALISM - JOHN WV. POWELL'S LETTER - MURDER AT SALT LAKE - RETURNS TO WASHINGTON TERRITORY - FIGHTS WITH AND KILLS DUTCH FRED - CAPTURED ON FRAZER RIVER AND TAKEN TO BRITISH COLUM- BIA - SUSPECTED OF KILLING AND EATING HIS COMRADE - CONFINED IN PENITENTIARY AT PORT- LAND - THE HELM BROTHERS - COOLNESS OF "OLD TEX " - HELPS BOONE ON HIS TRIAL -BUYS UP WITNESSES - BOONE ACQUITTED AND GOES TO BOISE. ·
SOME men are villains by nature, others become so by circumstance Hogarth's series of pictures representing in contrast the career of two apprentices illustrate this truth better than words. Both commenced life under the same in- fluences. The predominance of good and evil
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is exhibited by the natural tendency of one to overcome all unfavorable circumstances by close application to business, and by virtuous associa- tions, and of the other to idleness, vicious indul- gences, and corrupt companionship. The one becomes Lord Mayor of London, and in the dis- charge of official duty passes sentence of death upon the other.
The wretch I am now about to introduce to the reader was one of those hideous monsters of depravity whom neither precept nor example could have saved from a life of crime. Boone Helm was a native of Kentucky. His parents emigrated to one of the newest settlements in . Missouri while he was a boy. The rough pur- suits of border-life were congenial to his tastes. He excelled in feats of physical strength, and delighted in nothing more than a quarrel which brought his prowess into full display. He was an inordinate drinker, and when excited by liquor gave way to all the evil passions of his nature. One of the exploits recorded of him was that of hurling his bowie-knife into the ground and regaining it with his horse at full speed. On one occasion, while the circuit court was in session, the sheriff attempted to arrest him. Helm resisted the officer, but urging his
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horse up the stairs into the court-room, astonished the judge by demanding with profane emphasis what he wanted of him.
In the year 1848 he married a respectable girl, but neither her affection nor the infant daughter born to him a year later could prevail with him to abandon his vicious and profligate habits. His wife sought security from his ill- treatment in divorce, which was readily granted. This freed him from family responsibilities, and he at once determined to emigrate either to Texas or California. Littlebury Shoot, a neighbor, while Helm was intoxicated, had, for pacific pur- poses, promised to accompany him, - intending when he was sober to avoid the fulfilment of the ' promise by explanation. Helm was told of his intention. He called upon Shoot, who had re- tired, and meeting him at the door of his house, with his left hand on his shoulder, in a friendly tone thus addressed him : -
"So, Littlebury, you've backed down on the Texas question, have you ? "
Shoot attempted an explanation, but was stopped by the peremptory demand : -
" Well, are you going or not ? Say yes or no." " No !"
At the utterance of this reply, Helm buried his
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bowie-knife in the breast of the unfortunate man, who, without a struggle, fell dead at his feet. Mounting his horse immediately, he rode away. The brother of the victim and a few resolute friends followed in pursuit. They tracked him through several neighborhoods and captured him by surprise at an Indian reservation, and returned him to Monroe county for trial. He was con- victed of murder; but his conduct was such while in confinement as to raise serious doubts of his sanity. After his conviction, under the ad- vice of physicians, he was consigned to the lunatic asylum, his conduct meantime being that of a quiet, inoffensive lunatic. His keeper, finding him harmless, indulged him so far as to accompany him on daily walks into the country surrounding the institution. On one occasion, on some urgent pretence, Helm asked permission to enter a willow copse, which was readily granted. Afterwards
the desire to enter this copse whenever he ap- proached it seemed to take the form of mania. Suspecting no ulterior design, his keeper indulged him. One day, meeting a friend near the spot, the keeper, during Helm's absence, engaged in conversation. Time passed unnoticed at first, but as the stay of Helm was prolonged, the keeper, fearing some accident had befallen him, made a
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rapid search through the thicket. But the bird
had Hown. His stratagem was successful. He was never afterward seen in Missouri, but upon his escape he fled immediately to California. Sev- eral persons were killed by him while there, in personal rencontre. At length he committed act- ual murder, but escaped arrest by flight. In the spring of 1858 he arrived at Dalles, Oregon. Fearful of a requisition for his return to Califor- nia, Helm, in company with Dr. Wm. H. Groves, Elijah Burton, Wm. Fletcher, John Martin, - Field, and -- McGranigan, attempted a journey on horseback to Camp Floyd, Utah, sixty miles south-west of Salt Lake City, by way of Fort Hall. A ride of several days brought them to the Grand Ronde river. During that time they had become sufficiently acquainted with each other to banish all those feelings of distrust natural among stran- gers in a new country. Helm, who to his criminal qualities added the usual concomitant of being a loud-mouthed braggart, while narrating his exploits said in a boastful tone to McGranigan : -
" Many's the poor devil I've killed, at one time or another, - and the time has been that I've been obliged to feed on some of 'em."
" Yes," replied McGranigan, casting a sinister glance at Groves, " and we'll have more of that feasting yet."
-----
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The cold sincerity with which these words were uttered struck a chill to the heart of Groves, which experienced no relief when a few moments afterwards Helm proposed a plan for organizing a band of Snake Indians, and returning with them on a predatory excursion against the Walla Wallas.
" The Walla Wallas," said he, " own about four thousand horses. With such a band of Snakes as we can easily organize for the enterprise, we can run off two thousand of the best of those animals, and after dividing with the Indians, take ours to Salt Lake and dispose of them to advantage."
Groves, who had heard enough to satisfy him that a longer stay with this company would be accompanied by risks for which he had neither inclination nor fitness, mounted his horse at a late hour that night, and spurred back to the Dalles as rapidly as possible. On his arrival he sent intelligence to the chief of the Walla Wallas of Helm's contemplated foray, warning them to keep a careful watch upon their horses. His plans be- ing frustrated, Helm remained in the vicinity till autumn, when, in company with his five compan- ions, he continued his journey to Camp Floyd. Five hundred miles of this route lay through a wilderness of mountains, unmarked by a trail and filled with hostile Indians. It was late in October
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when the party left Grand Ronde river. The mountains were covered with snow. Cold weather had set in for a season whose only changes for the next six months would be a steady increase of severities. The thermometer, seldom above, often marked a temperature thirty or forty degrees be- low zero in the mountains. The passes were snowed up to the depths of twenty and thirty feet. Wild game, however abundant in summer, had re- treated to the forests and fastnesses for food and shelter. Snow-storms and sharp winds were blind- ing and incessant. Deep ravines, lofty mountains, beetling crags, and dismal cañons, alternated with impenetrable pine forests, inaccessible lava beds, and impassable torrents, encumbered every inch of the way. Death on the scaffold or escape through this terrible labyrinth gave the alternative small advantage of the penalty. Small as it was, Helm and his companions took the risk and plunged into the mountain wilderness. He alone escaped.
In the absence of other narratives of this remarkable adventure, I record his own, as detailed to John W. Powell in April of the following year. Mr. Powell says : -
" N. P. LANGFORD,
" DEAR SIR : On the 10th of April, 1859,
I was on my way from Fort Owen, Bitter Root
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valley, to Salt Lake City. My party consisted of one American named James Misinger, a French- man called ' Grand Maison,' a French half-breed named Antoine, and three Indians.
"I had crossed the Snake river just above Fort Hall, pitched my lodge, and was entering to indulge in a brief sleep, when I heard some one outside ask in a loud tone of voice, 'Who owns this shebang?' Stepping to the door and looking out, I saw a tall, cadaverous, sunken-eyed man standing over me, dressed in a dirty, dilapi- dated coat and shirt and drawers, and moccasins so worn that they could scarcely be tied to his feet. Having invited him in and inquired his business, he told me substantially the follow- ing : ---
" His name was Boone Helm. In company with five others he had left Dalles City, Oregon, in October, 1858, intending to go to Camp Floyd, Utah Territory. Having reached the Raft river, they were attacked by a party of Digger Indians, with whom they maintained a running fight for several miles, but none of the party was killed or severely wounded. Late in the evening they reached the Bannack river, where they camped, picketed their horses near by, and stationed two sentinels. During the night one of the sentinels
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was killed, the savage who committed the deed escaping on a horse belonging to the party.
" Upon consultation, it was decided that they had better leave that place as soon as possible. The sky at the time was overcast with storm- clouds, and soon after they got into their saddles the weather culminated in a snow-storm, which increased in violence until it became terrific. Finally, being unable to see anything but sheets of snow, they became bewildered, and knew not in what direction they were proceeding. Morn- ing brought no relief. In the midst of an ocean of snow, they were as oblivious of locality in day- light as if total darkness had encompassed them. They knew they were somewhere between Ross's Fork and the Bear river, and this was their most definite knowledge.
" At last they reached Soda Springs on Bear river, where familiar landmarks came in view. They then travelled up that river until they reached Thomas's fork, where they were forced to stop, from the lean and exhausted condition of their horses and the depth of the snow. Here they found a very comfortable cabin, and perforce went into winter quarters.
" Their provisions soon being all gone they commenced subsisting on their horses, killing one
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after another, until they had eaten them all but a celebrated race-horse which had been valued on the Upper Columbia at over a thousand dollars. Seeing now that they must all perish unless they soon reached a point where supplies could be obtained, the race-horse had to share the fate of the others. His meat was 'jerked' or hastily dried, that they might the more conveniently carry it on their backs. They then made snow- shoes of the hides of the horses, and started back towards, and aimed to reach, Fort Hall, where they supposed they would meet with human beings of some kind, white men, half-breeds, or Indians.
" The party kept together until they had got beyond Soda Springs, where some had become so exhausted they could scarcely travel, - and their ineat getting frightfully small in amount, Helm and a man named Burton concluded not to en- danger their own lives by waiting for the wearied ones, so they left them behind.
" The two finally reached the Snake river, and moved down it in search of Fort Hall, having nothing to eat but the prickly-pear plant. When they had reached the site of Cantonment Loring, Burton, starving, weary, and snow-blind, was un- able to proceed ; and a good vacant house being
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there, Helm left him, and continued on for Fort Hall.
" Reaching the fort, he found it without an occupant. He then returned and reached Burton about da k. When out in the willows hard by, procuring firewood, he heard the report of a pistol. Running back into the house, he found Burton had committed suicide by shooting him- self. He then concluded to try and find his way into Salt Lake valley Cutting off, well up in the thigh, Burton's remaining leg (he had eaten the other), he rolled the limb up in an old red flannel shirt, tied it across his shoulder, and started.
" About eight miles out he met an Indian going in his lodge. He entreated the savage to take him along; but the Indian said he had nothing himself to eat, and that his family were starving. Helm exhibited handfuls of gold coin, when the Indian consented to his accompanying him.
" He remained at this lodge about two weeks, paying the Indian ten dollars a meal. His food consisted of ants and an unpalatable herb, called in the mountains the 'tobacco plant.'
" The above facts Helm gave me with tears in his eyes, and said, 'I will give you all I have in the world, - which is only nine dollars, -to take
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me to the settlements.' I told him I did not desire money for helping a man in his condition.
" That same evening the Indian with whom Helm had been stopping, visited me. His name was Mo-quip. I had known him for several years. He fully corroborated Helm's story, in regard to the carrying and eating the body of his companion. 'When I first tasted of the flesh,' said Mo-quip in his own tongue, 'I knew not what it was, but told the stranger it was bueno * game, - better than I had myself. The stranger then took hold of one of the corners of a red shirt that was around his pack, and jerked it up, when a white man's leg, the lower end ragged from gnawing, rolled out on the ground.' Altogether Helm had paid Mo-quip two hundred and eighty dollars.
" Having given him a new suit of buckskin, and furnished him with a horse, he set out with my party for Salt Lake City. Just after pitching my lodge the first evening after starting with him, ' Grand Maison,' very much frightened, came to me with a sack of gold coin which he said Helm had asked him to conceal until they reached Salt Lake City. I took the money and counted it - it amounted to fourteen hundred dollars.
" Though satisfied there was something wrong, * Good.
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Boone Helm.
I said nothing, and took Helm on to the set- tlements. Having ascertained in the meantime that he was the worst kind of a desperado, I called him to me as soon as we had reached the end of the journey, and handed him his money, saying, ' You can now take care of yourself.' He coolly put the coin in his pocket, without express- ing a syllable of thankfulness for the assistance I had rendered him.
"It was not long until he had squandered all he had in gambling and drinking, and was finally expelled from Salt Lake valley for his atrocities.
" Hoping these facts may be of service to you, allow me to subscribe myself,
" Your obt. servant, " JOHN W. POWELL."
We have good reason for believing that before Helm fled from Salt Lake City he murdered, in cold blood, two citizens, at the instigation of some of the leading Mormons, who, after the deed was done, concealed him, and finally aided in his escape from arrest. Certain it is, that after leav- ing there, he travelled through southern Utah, and by a long circuit reached San Francisco, from whence he returned by water to the Dalles in Oregon.
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Here he engaged in fresh villainies. Several murders which were committed along the route leading from the Columbia river to the gold mines were laid to his charge. At one time, in Washington Territory, he stole a herd of horses which he sold at Vancouver's Island. In this course of varied and hardened crime he passed his time till the spring of 1862, - with his usual good fortune escaping detection or arrest. In June of that year he made his appearance in Florence, where he soon found, among the roughs, congenial associates.
A man of that mixed character which united the qualities of a gambler, a skilful pugilist, and an honest, straightforward miner in his single person, known only as "Dutch Fred," at this time enjoyed a local notoriety in Florence which had won for him among his comrades the appella- tion of "Chief." He was neither a rowdy nor desperado, and in ordinary deal, honest and generous ; but he gambled, drank, and when roused, was a perfect Hercules in a fight. Helm having been plied with liquor, at the request of an enemy of Fred's sought him out for the pur- pose of provoking a fight. Entering the saloon where Fred was seated at a faro table, Helm, with many oaths and epithets and flourishes of his
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