USA > Montana > A history of Montana, Volume II > Part 6
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STORY OF THE MAN WHO HUNG GEORGE IVES
The hanging of George Ives in 1863, was one of the most exciting events which stirred the new country of that day. Nelson Story, Sr., of Bozeman, is the man
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who took the place of the over-awed sheriff and carried out the stern edicts of the law, and he it is who tells the following story, taken from the Republican Courier of February 16, 1909:
(By Nelson Story, Sr.)
"Much has already been written concerning events of the early days of Montana and although the general field has been pretty thoroughly covered and the events very correctly narrated, there are still many thrilling inci- dents which occurred but have never been in print.
"Doctor Deams, Mr. N. P. Langford, and others, have given interesting facts in their accounts of the settle- ment of eastern Idaho, the discovery of gold, and the formation of vigilance committees, etc.
"The writer was a resident of Summit, Alder Gulch, in the summer of 1863, occupied in the packing of sup- plies and selling them to the miners of the gulch. About the first of December, 1863, a man appeared in Summit. He had come from the Bitter Root valley with a wagon- load of potatoes to the Nevada, or Lower Town, some two miles below Virginia City, which he wished to sell.
"I bought the potatoes, went the following day with my pack outfit, consisting of about fourteen Mexican boros, to the Lower Town, where I arrived about the middle of the afternoon. After depositing my pack outfit in a hay corral I procured my dinner and then went to about the center of the town, then consisting of a row of one-story log buildings upon either side of the one street for a distance, parallel with Alder Gulch, of a quarter of a mile.
"Here the trial of Geo. Ives was in progress. He was being tried for the killing of a German by the name of Nicholas Tabault, in the Stinkingwater valley, near the ranch of Rogert Dempsey.
"The jury consisted of twenty-four members. Colonel Sanders was prosecutor, Robert Hereford acting sheriff. The trial took place in the open, out of doors, in front of log buildings, on the west side of the street. Benches and logs served as seats; a wagon body for the judge's stand. Guarding this honorable court some hundred men, with guns in their hands, stood and sat in a circle around the prisoner and jury.
"About five o'clock the jury retired to a nearby cabin. They were out but a short time. It was fast growing dark. As they took their seats again upon the jury bench, Col. W. F. Sanders immediately stepped forth upon a bench and in a clear tone of voice announced the decision of the jury-which was 'guilty'-twenty- three deciding in the affirmative-one dissenting.
"Sanders spoke for a few minutes about as follows : 'The dissenting juror is one of the road agents, beyond all reasonable doubt,' and advised hanging the prisoner, Ives, immediately. He further said that a move would be made to rescue the prisoner; that there were many lawless people there and more were assembling.
"At this time a crowd of spectators numbering several thousand had gathered and before this gathering the attorney defending the prisoner asked that Ives might have time to fix up his business affairs, which was con- sented to. This took up about one hour and by the time he had finished, darkness had set in upon us, it being about seven o'clock.
"The air was filled with apprenhension and upon hear- ing Sander's speech and warning of rescue, the writer. being fully equipped with pistol and carbine, stepped forth into the guard without being invited, for all the guard were made up of volunteers. Hereford ordered a hollow square to be made around the prisoner, marched us with the prisoner up the road to the east some two hundred yards, then side stepped us to the west into a vacant space about twenty feet square, and between two one-story log buildings. Two logs were extended across from one building to the other forming ridge-poles. From about the center of these logs was suspended a
rope with noose affixed and a large dry goods box for a drop.
"We formed in rank upon either side of the open space facing outward to keep the crowd from invading the inclosure. The adjoining buildings were soon cov- ered with people. Hereford put Ives upon the box im- mediately with his hands pinioned behind him, facing east. The writer stood about in the center of the line on the west. At my left shoulder stood Benjamin Eze- kiel, a boarding house keeper for miners in Summit. Upon my right stood a boy not over twenty-one. Some one of the guard asked Ives if he killed the Dutchman. 'No, I did not,' he answered. 'Who did?' was asked. 'Alex. Carter,' he replied.
"Sheriff Hereford then got upon the big box, adjusted the noose around Ives' neck, while upon the east build- ing and directly over Hereford's head, a rescuing party made up of a number of men, stood with their revolvers in their hands making threats.
"One fellow said that he would shoot the rope off. Another that he would shoot Hereford. One man stepped ont upon the two logs as if to carry out his threat. Hereford jumped down from the box, dodged under the projecting gable end of the east building from where he shouted, 'What do you say boys, shall we hang him?' No one responded.
"I took Ezekiel by the right shoulder, gave him the order to take hold of the box upon which Ives stood. Quick as thought we took the box from under Ives and down he came with a crash into the rope. Ezekiel and I stepped back to our places, our guns in our hands cocked, ready for action.
"The crowd threw themselves upon the ground, fall- ing over each other as they came down, for they feared the guns of the guard who were now much excited. A shot, purposely or accidentally fired, would have caused the guard to shoot into the crowd, although in the darkness they could not have distinguished friend from foe. It was so dark that only well known acquaint- ances could with difficulty apprehend each other close by.
"The would-be assassins upon the roof of the east cabin quickly disappeared. The crowd melted away. A doctor was brought in who pronounced Ives dead. When Ives, the day before, was arrested near the ranch of Robert Dempsey, Dempsey and a tall cadaverous look- ing man carrying the name of Long John, were arrested as participants. They were put under guard in a cabin adjoining the place where court proceedings were being held to try Ives.
"There were several log fires burning. Our guard re- traced their steps to these fires. The rough element, those dissatisfied with the hanging of Ives, were doing some loud talking. An old lawyer filled with booze was leading in denunciations of the hanging. We took him and put him in the improvised jail with Dempsey and Long John.
"About ten o'clock, one Bill Hunter, who ran a saloon situated on the west side of the street some two hundred yards below our camp fires (said saloon was noted as being the headquarters for the road agents), came out of his front door with hat and coat off and in a loud voice denounced the stranglers who had hung Geo. Ives.
"With one impulse to put him in with Dempsey and Long John, a dozen of us started to arrest him-we were on the double quick and got almost upon him before he saw us. Charles Brown was in the lead, I was next. Brown carried a double barreled shot gun and I a carbine (an army affair) which loaded at the breech with fixed ammunition and a large hat cap upon a tube.
"Hunter sprang for the door of his saloon-Brown grabbing to get hold of him and I bringing up behind Brown in order to assist in case of a catch. Into the saloon through the northwest corner of the building (a log one-story affair somewhat spacious in size) we went. The bar was in the southeast corner of the building,
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the stove in about the center of the room. There was a door in the southwest corner of this room leading to an adjoining apartment. This door opened outward and Hunter made for it with Brown reaching for him. As Hunter and Brown passed the west end of the bar coun- ter, out jumped a man, the bar keeper, his hat and coat off, with a big revolver in his hand pressed close to Brown's back. I gave him a vigorous thrust with my carbine which brought him to a right about face looking into the muzzle of my gun. I ordered him to give up the pistol. He held up both hands. As I reached to take the pistol my carbine slipped in my left hand and being at full cock my little finger displaced the hat cap. I then drew my revolver. A bystander took the pistol from his hand.
"Brown pursued Hunter to the back door and Hunter, after passing through, slammed the door back against Brown. Brown, with one thrust of his double barreled gun knocked the door from its hinges into the next room where there was no light. Brown did not pursue further but turned to see the bar keeper give up his pistol.
"No less than one hundred people were in the saloon at the time, many of whom were road agents. Brown and I kept our guns presented at the crowd as we backed to the door which had been closed behind us. Brown opened the door as both my hands were full (a gun in one and a pistol in the other) then we stepped out. Our companions had balked at the door and did not come into the saloon.
"We were obliged to return to the camp fires without our prisoner, but very thankful to return with whole bodies for one slip or mistake or the least bit of hesita- tion on our part would have brought many pistols to bear upon us. We were the aggressors ready to shoot at the first demonstration.
"Alexander Carter, who killed the Dutchman, and four others, road agents, left for Deer Lodge that night. They were all hung before spring. Bill Hunter was hung that winter near Manhattan, in Gallatin valley.
"The next day after the execution of Ives, Robert Dempsey and Long John were examined by the court, found innocent of any wrong doing and released. Demp- sey had an Indian woman and family and had been in the country some years. Long John possessed an In- dian woman and little else of this world's goods. Sher- iff Robert Hereford was then upwards of fifty years of age. I do not now recall to mind the judge who tried the case against Ives, or the attorney who defended him.
"At the break of day the following morning after the hanging, I was packing my potatoes for the Summit, some ten miles away, over a trail where one boro fol- lowed another in single file. These events occurred be- fore vigilance committees had been formed.
"Charles Brown was a portly young German, about twenty-seven years of age, lived in Miles City where he kept a livery for many years after. He died in Klon- dike some seven years ago.
"Benjamin Ezekiel was a man of about thirty years of age at that time. He merchandized in Helena for years after and died there.
"Of the hundred or more people in Bill Hunter's sa- loon the night that Ives was hung those living will rec- ollect the attempt to arrest Hunter.
"I do not think Hereford ever knew who took the box from under Ives while he (Hereford) was in such fear of his life that he had lost control of himself.
"After eastern Idaho had been erected from Montana, the first legislature at Bannack voted Hereford five hun- dred dollars for services rendered in hanging Geo. Ives.
"Ives would have been rescued in less than ten sec- onds if the large dry goods box had not been removed as it was in the moment of excitement and indecision of the sheriff."
RONALD HIGGINS is striving under a cloud that it is difficult to dissipate or overshadow; the cloud of be- ing merely his father's son when that father was one of the biggest men of his time in the land where he was best known. Christopher P. Higgins was a native son of Irish soil and brought with him to. this land the daring and optimism of his countrymen. Leaving Ireland shortly after the great famine of forty-nine and fifty, he immigrated to this country when only a lad of eighteen. His fearlessness and love of adventure drove him almost at once to the west. In 1855 he came to Montana and entered the army that he might join in the campaigns against the Indians. When the In- dians began to realize the strength of their pale-faced brothers and the Great Father at Washington and re- turn to their peaceful lives, Mr. Higgins became one of the first white men to settle in their midst. He estab- lished the first trading post in the Bitter Root valley. * It was situated on a point six miles from what is now Missoula and later was moved to the present town site. Mr. Christopher Higgins was thus the actual founder of the thriving city of Missoula. He first laid out what is now known as the C. P. Higgins addition and later, as the town grew in population, he drew much of the chart of the present city. Naturally, he was one of the largest landholders. His interests grew with those of the great northwest until he became a man of large affairs. He established the first banking house in his home city, the one which is now the First National Bank. Later, he established and conducted in his own name the C. P. Higgins Western Bank of Missoula. Not that, the banking business occupied the entire time and energy of Captain Higgins. It was to him only one of his many and varied interests. His mercantile interests were large and growing larger and he was admitted to be one of the cattle kings of the west.
These heavy responsibilities proved too much even for his Irish courage and ambition. He died in 1889, in the vigor of his manhood. His fifty-five years of con- tinual accomplishment have erected to him a monument of deeds that will make his name remembered so long as Missoula is a city and Montana a freedom-loving state proud of her pioneers and their deeds of prowess.
Captain Higgins had won in marriage Julia P. Hall, a native daughter of the vast northwest, born at Fort Hall, Idaho. To them were born seven sons and two daughters, three sons and one daughter of whom are still living. Francis G. Higgins former lieutenant- governor of Montana being his oldest son.
Ronald Higgins was born in Missoula, September 10, 1884. He seems to have received from the father whom he was scarcely permitted to know a heritage more important than cattle and lands, an indefatigable energy and a desire to make good in his own name.
After completing the elementary course in the pub- lic schools of Missoula, he was sent to Philip Exeter Academy, of Exeter, New Hampshire where he grad- nated in 1904. The following autumn he entered Prince- ton University where he remained for two years a student in the regular collegiate course. While in Princeton, he hecame a member of the Cannon Club. living in the chapter house and enjoying all sides of university life.
Having chosen the law for his profession, Mr Hig- gins decided to take his legal training in the State University of Michigan, believing the Ann Arbor law school to be equal if not superior to schools of its kind in the universities further east. At least, it is better equipped to meet the needs of the man who in- tends to pursue his practice in the west. In 1909 he completed his legal studies, returned to Montana, was admitted to the bar and located in his home city, Mis- sonla. While at the University of Michigan he be- came a member of the Chi Psi fraternity.
Already his name stands for more than that of a rich
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man's son. He is active in the Republican politics of the state, a clever campaigner and a speaker much to be desired. At the general election in 1910 he was given a seat in the legislature-the twelfth legislative assembly of the state of Montana, being the only Re- publican elected from his county. This fall (1912) he was re-elected a member of the legislature. In his polit- ical life he has shown himself to be a thoroughly sane progressive Republican.
He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, being at the present time exalted ruler of Hell Gate Lodge No. 383, and a young attorney of unusual promise. As yet he has resisted the claims of matrimony.
CHRISTOPHER POWER HIGGINS, the father of Ronald Higgins, was born in Ireland on the sixteenth day of March, 1830. His parents were Christopher and Mary Higgins, themselves natives of the Emerald Isle.
When eighteen years of age he came to the United States and went immediately to the west. That he might defend his new-found home against the enemies from within as well as from without, he enlisted in the regular army. After five years of active service in the dragoons, he joined Governor Stephens, the famous Indian fighter of the northwest. With him he helped in the original survey of the Northern Pacific. He was with him in fifty-five, when the treaty was drawn up with the Nez Perce Indians. This was the treaty which led to the final peace covenant with the Flat Heads and the Pend d'Oreilles. The following season the party went to Fort Benton, where they negotiated with the Blackfoots. This done, their labors among the red men seemed ended and the little company disbanded at Olympia, Washington.
In recognition of his services, Mr. Higgins was soon given the commission of captain in the army and ordered to carry on his work of subduing the Indians. Until 1856, he remained in this branch of the service, when he was assigned to the quartermaster's depart- ment. For four years more he served his country, two years of the time acting as government agent at Walla Walla.
In 1860 he resumed his life as a civilian and purchased Mr. Isaac's interest in the mercantile business of Wooden & Isaacs, at Walla Walla. Loading his share of the merchandise on the backs of seventy-five pack animals, he went through Hell Gate canyon and set up in business for himself in the little city of Mis- soula. Here, for the remainder of his life, he devoted himself to the upbuilding of the town' and here his son, Ronald, was born. In sixty-five, he erected one of the first lumber mills of the vicinity and in seventy he built the block that is still known as the "old Higgins wooden block." In seventy, also, he engaged in the banking business and later, when his bank merged with the First National, he was chosen as president of the corporation. In 1889, he erected the new Higgins block and was arranging to open a new bank on the ground floor when he was called from his life of active service.
Mr. Higgins had been extensively interested in the raising of cattle and horses as well as in various mining properties. He left a large estate consisting of property in Portland and Seattle as well as considerable real estate in and about Missoula.
FRANK H. WOODY. Not the mere quest for adven- ture animated those strongest and best of the pioneers who came to Montana fully half a century ago, but, on the contrary, these men who represented the ele- ment of citizenship through which has been developed and built up this great commonwealth, were prompted by landable ambition, by definite purpose and to conquer opposing forces. Theirs was the spirit of the empire builder, and in the perspective of years none can deny
the magnitude and value of their achievement, though to the younger generation of the present day the story of their trials, hardships and perils reads like a romance of pure fiction. Montana must ever owe a debt of honor and gratitude to such pioneers, for they were the ones who laid broad and deep the foundations on which has been reared the magnificent superstructure of a great and opulent commonwealth. Among the pioneers of this type still living in Montana is Judge Frank H. Woody, of Missoula, the judicial center of the county of the same name. He ran the full gamut of experi- ences in connection with life on the western frontier, and few can offer more varied and interesting rem- iniscences concerning conditions and influences of the early days. With the exception of an interim of about three years he has continuously maintained his home in Montana since 1856, and he has witnessed and been an influential factor in the development of the state along both civic and material lines. More than a half-century of residence in Montana, has made him an authority in regard to the details of transition, mak- ing the advancement from the condition of the wild and untrammeled frontier to the present epoch of most advanced social and industrial prosperity. He has long been numbered among the representative members of the bar of Montana, has served in various offices of public trust, including that of district judge in Missoula county, and his life has been ordered upon the highest plane of integrity and honor, so that he has been ac- corded the fullest measure of popular confidence and esteem in the state which has long been his home, and in which he is essentially a representative citizen, as well as a distinguished pioneer. Ever loyal to the best and highest interests of his adopted state, he has gen- erously aided in her struggles and in her triumphant progress,-a man to whom it is specially gratifying to accord recognition in this history of Montana. He is engaged in the active practice of his profession in Mis- soula and is one of the leading members of the bar of this section of the state.
Judge Woody was born in Chatham county, North Carolina, on the Ioth of December, 1833, and is a son of Robert and Pyrene (Hargrave) Woody, both of whom passed their entire lives in that state and both of whom were representatives of sterling families founded in the South in the colonial era of our national history. The Woody family was of the staunch old stock representing the Society of Friends in the early history of North Carolina. The father was a man of ability and steadfast character and his active career was devoted principally to agricultural pursuits, in connec- tion with which he gained prosperity but not wealth.
On the old homestead plantation Judge Woody was reared to adult age, and in the meanwhile his educa- tional advantages were limited. He attended school in a somewhat irregular and desultory way until he had attained to the age of eighteen years, when he realized his most insistent ambition at the time, as he was enabled to continue his higher academic studies. For one year he was a student in the New Garden Board- ing School, an institution which was maintained under the auspices of the Society of Friends and which was the nucleus of the present Guilford College. After leaving this institution Judge Woody devoted a year to teaching school in the eastern part of his native state, and then, in 1853, at the age of nineteen years, he went to Indiana, in which state he taught one year in the public schools of Parke and Fountain counties, the while he was enabled to continue his own studies in another Quaker institution.
Actuated by the advice, before it was given, of Horace Greeley, to "go west and grow up with the country," in 1855 Judge Woody made his way to Kan- sas, where he joined a freighting train of wagons that was starting on the long and perilous journey across the plains to Salt Lake City. At Fort Laramie, Wyom-
Frank & Hrady
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ing, Judge Woody left this train and joined a party of immigrants en route to Washington territory. He proceeded as far as the Sweetwater river, where he was taken ill and compelled to remain a few days. He then fell in with a party of Mormons, whom he accompanied to Salt Lake City, where he arrived on the 15th of August, 1855. Although ill and almost destitute, his proud spirit and resolute purpose were unshaken, and after a period of one year's residence in Utah, he joined a party that was setting forth for the Flathead country, to trade with the Indians. About the middle of October, 1856, he arrived at Hellgate river, near the present site of the city of Missoula, Montana, and he remained in the Bitter Root and Missoula valleys until the early part of November, 1857, when he started on a venturesome trip to Fort Walla Walla, Washington, near the site of the present city of Walla Walla. There he remained until the summer of 1860, when he returned to Montana, where he has maintained his home during the long interven- ing years. Concerning this memorable journey. Judge Woody has written a most graphic and interesting account, the same having been published in the Mis- soulian of Sunday, December 15, 1912. Within the compass of a review of this order it is of course im- possible to reproduce or even canvass in detail the record given, but a few quotations may be given, as indicative of the conditions of the time:
"In the fall of the year 1857 I found myself in the Flathead Indian country, then in the Territory of Wash- ington, where I had drifted with some Mormon ,Indian traders in October, 1856. At that time there were in that country no white people except a few traders, a small Catholic mission, and a small Indian agency, near the mouth of the Jocko river, this being occupied by a white man named Henry G. Miller and his wife, Minnie Miller, who was the first white woman ever in the present state of Montana, and the only one then in that country. During the intervening time I had led somewhat of a vagabond life, doing a little work for one or two of the Indian traders, and hunting, fish- ing and trapping with the Indians and half-breeds. Late in the fall of 1857 I became tired of my isolation from the white settlements and became quite anxious to mix again with people of my own race and color; but how to do so was a serious question. The nearest place inhabited by white people was Fort Walla Walla, in the Walla Walla valley, about five hundred miles west of the place where I was then living, and the country intervening was inhabited by different tribes of Indians, many of them being anything but friendly to the whites. and some of them being in a state of actual hostility .*
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