Vigilante Days and Ways: The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and IdahoLangford, Nathaniel Pitt
History
Vigilante Days and Ways: The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho
Langford, Nathaniel Pitt
Frontier and pioneer life -- Northwestern States; Northwestern States -- History; Vigilance committees; West (U.S.) -- History
Immediately after sentence of death had been passed upon Stinson and
Lyons, Dr. Steele returned to his cabin, two miles down the gulch. The
result of the trial had furnished him with food for sad
reflection,—especially as the duty of passing the death sentence had
devolved upon him. Other considerations followed in quick succession. He
has since, when speaking of it, said that he never indulged in a more
melancholy reverie, than while returning home from this trial. The youth
of the convicts; their evident fitness, both by culture and manners, for
any sphere of active business; the effect that their execution must have
upon distant parents and friends,—all these thoughts presented
themselves in sad array before his mental vision; when, as he was about
entering his cabin, a quick clatter of hoofs roused him, and turning to
see the cause, he beheld the subjects of his gloomy reflections both
mounted upon the Indian pony, approaching at the animal’s swiftest pace.
He had hardly time to recover from his surprise, and realize that the
object was not a vision, until the animal with its double rider passed
him,—and Lyons, nodding familiarly, waved his hand, accompanying the
gesture with the parting words,
“Good-bye, Doc.”
The body of the unfortunate Dillingham lay neglected upon a gambling
table in a tent near by, until this wretched travesty was completed.
Then a wagon was obtained, and, followed by a small procession, it was
hurriedly buried. The tears had all been shed for the murderers.
“I cried for Dillingham,” said one, on being told that his wife and
daughters had expended their grief upon the wrong persons.
“Oh, you did,” was the reply. “Well thought of. Who will pray for him?
Will you do it, judge?”
Judge Bissell responded by kneeling upon the spot and offering up an
appropriate prayer, as the body of the unfortunate young man was
consigned to its mother earth.
Soon after the murder of Dillingham, Charley Forbes suddenly
disappeared. No one knew what became of him, but it was supposed that he
had fallen a victim to the vengeance of his comrades for the course he
had taken in securing for himself a separate trial. This supposition was
afterwards confirmed by some of the robbers themselves, who stated that
in a quarrel with Moore at the Big Hole River, Forbes was killed.
Fearing that the friends of the murdered ruffian would retaliate, Moore
killed Forbes’s horse at the same time, and burned to ashes the bodies
of horse and rider. This fact was known to Plummer only, at the time of
its occurrence.
Dillingham was a straightforward, honest young man, and his office as
deputy sheriff was given him under the supposition that he would readily
affiliate with the roughs. Lyons, Stinson, and Forbes, who were also
deputies, supposed him to be as bad as they were.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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