Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
I remained with Uncle Kit until the first of October, looking
after things in general, when he asked me to accompany him to
Denver City, which was one hundred and eighty miles from Taos.
About the middle of the afternoon of the sixth day we rode into
Denver, from the southwest. When near where Cherry creek runs
through the city we saw an immense crowd of people in the streets,
so we pushed on to see what the excitement was.
When near the crowd we met three or four men on horseback riding
up the street. We asked what was causing the excitement. One of
them replied: "Oh, nothing, only they are going to hang a man down
there in a few minutes."
This being the first opportunity I had ever had to see a man hung,
we stayed and saw it through. We rode up to the edge of the crowd,
which was about forty yards from the scaffold where the hanging
was to take place, and had been there but a few moments when we
saw the sheriff coming with the prisoner, having a very strong
guard of some two hundred men all well armed. As soon as the
prisoner stepped on to the platform some one handed him a chair to
sit down in.
The sheriff turned to the prisoner and said: "Mr. Gordon if you
have anything to say, now you have the opportunity. I will give
you all the time necessary to say what you wish."
The prisoner rose to his feet and brushed his hair back,
apparently cool, but the moment he commenced to talk I could see
the tears begin to trickle down his cheeks.
I thought it a most pitiful sight. He did not talk long, but
briefly thanked his friends for their kindness towards him during
his confinement, and said: "Gentlemen, I think you did very wrong
in holding out the idea to me that I would come clear, when you
knew very well that there was no show whatever for me," and took
his seat.
A gospel minister then stepped upon the platform and engaged in
prayer. When he rose from praying the prisoner was weeping
bitterly. The sheriff then stepped up to him and said: "Come, Mr.
Gordon, your time is up," and he took him by one arm and another
man by the other, and when he raised to his feet they tied his
hands behind him, tied a cloth over his face, led him on to the
trap and the sheriff placed the rope around his neck and started
down the steps to spring the trap, when the prisoner sang out:
"Come back, Meadows, come back!"
The sheriff turned and walked up to where the prisoner was, and he
said:
"Meadows, fix the rope good so it will break my neck, for I want
to die quick."
After the sheriff had fixed the rope he stepped down and sprung
the trap, and from where I was I could not see that Gordon made
the least struggle after he dropped.
Just as we were ready to leave here who should step up but our old
friend Mr. Joe Favor, whom we had not seen for a long time. He
insisted on us going to his store, telling us where to put our
horses. So, after putting our horses up, we went around with him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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