Montana Vigilantes


The history of vigilante justice and the Montana Vigilantes began in 1863 in what was at the time a remote part of eastern Idaho Territory. Vigilante activities continued, although somewhat sporadically, through the Montana Territorial period until the territory became the state of Montana on November 8, 1889. Vigilantism arose because territorial law enforcement and the courts had very little power in the remote mining camps during the territorial period.
In 1863–1864, Montana Vigilantes followed the model of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance that existed in 1850s California to bring order to lawless communities in and around the gold fields of Alder Gulch and Grasshopper Creek. There are estimates that over 100 persons were killed in "road agent" robberies in the fall of 1863. The Vigilance Committee of Alder Gulch organized in December 1863, and in the first six weeks of 1864 at least 20 road agents of the infamous Plummer gang, known as the "Innocents", were captured and hanged by the organization. Formal territorial law reached Alder Gulch in late 1864 with the arrival of Territorial Judge Hezekiah L. Hosmer and vigilante activity ceased in the region.
As the gold fields of Alder Gulch and Grasshopper Creek declined in 1865, prospectors and fortune seekers migrated to newly discovered areas in and around Last Chance Gulch. As lawlessness increased, vigilante justice continued there with the formation of the Committee of Safety in 1865. During the period 1865–1870, at least 14 alleged criminals were executed by Helena's vigilantes. In 1884, ranchers in Central and Eastern Montana resorted to vigilante justice to deal with cattle rustlers and horse thieves. The best-known vigilante group in that area was "Stuart's Stranglers", organized by Granville Stuart in the Musselshell region. As formal law enforcement became more prevalent in the region, vigilantism fell into decline.
Vigilantism in pre-territorial and territorial Montana has been written about, romanticized and chronicled in personal memoirs, biographies, documentary and scholarly works, film and fiction for well over a century. The first book published in Montana was Thomas J. Dimsdale's 1866 first edition of The Vigilantes of Montana, which was compiled from a series of newspaper articles he wrote for the Montana Post in 1865. Historical analysis of the period ranges from disrepute to heroism, with debates over whether the lack of any functioning justice system and the understanding of due process at the time meant the vigilantes acted in a way they thought was best for their communities or if modern standards of due process should govern analysis of their actions.

Bannack and Virginia City

On July 28, 1862, gold was discovered along Grasshopper Creek, a tributary of the Beaverhead River, in a remote part of eastern Idaho Territory, leading to the establishment of the town of Bannack. Bannack was a gold rush boomtown that was the first territorial capital of Montana Territory for a brief period after the territory was established in 1864. Less than a year after the Grasshopper Creek find, on May 26, 1863, gold was discovered along Alder Gulch, a tributary creek northeast of the Ruby River that lies between the Tobacco Root Mountains and the Gravelly Range and east of Bannack. The Alder Gulch find became one of the largest placer mining gold fields in the western U.S. The mining settlements of Virginia City and Nevada City, Montana, which sprang up in Alder Gulch, boasted thousands of prospectors and fortune seekers by the end of 1863. These new settlements generally lacked justice systems found in populated portions of the territory, such as in the territorial capital in Lewiston, Idaho. In 1863, gold was the preferred form of currency in western frontier communities and had a value, fixed and guaranteed by the U.S. Government, of $20.67 per ounce. Almost all economic transactions in western mining communities were accomplished with gold nuggets, flakes or dust as currency and not surprisingly, the more gold one had, the more wealth one possessed. During the early years of the territory, there was no secure way to transport wealth out of the region. The only means of transporting wealth out of the Alder Gulch gold fields was via horseback or slow moving wagons and stagecoaches on a limited number of trails and primitive roads leading south and west to Salt Lake City and San Francisco or east to Minnesota. Roads and trails leading to Alder Gulch included the Bozeman and Bridger Trails connecting to the Oregon Trail from the east, the Mullan Road from points west and from Fort Benton, Montana the head of navigation on the Missouri River and the Corinne Road from Corinne, Utah and points south. Additionally, there was a single track, stage road that connected Alder Gulch with Bannack. Several commercial freight and two passenger stage companies, Peabody and Caldwell's and A.J. Oliver's, operated on this route. Stagecoaches had to stop at several different ranches during the trip to water and change horses, feed passengers and provide overnight lodging. One of these ranches, the Rattlesnake Ranch, was owned by Bill Bunton and Frank Parish, who were later hanged by the vigilantes as road agents and members of the Plummer gang.

Road agents and the Plummer gang

In a region where valuable gold was plentiful, transportation was insecure and effective law and order was lacking, travelers became easy prey for robbers. By late 1863, thefts and murders along the routes in and around Alder Gulch had become common. In their writings about the vigilantes, Thomas Dimsdale and Nathaniel P. Langford estimated that at least 102 travelers were killed by robbers in the fall of 1863. Many more travelers left the region and were never heard from again. As this became a more frequent occurrence locals began suspecting that these crimes were being carried out by a single group of outlaws, known as "road agents", under the control of Bannack sheriff Henry Plummer. The gang became known as the Innocents because of their passwords, I am innocent.

Notorious robberies, attempted robberies and murders in 1863

  • On October 13, 1863, Lloyd Magruder was killed by road agent Chris Lowrie. Magruder was an Idaho merchant leaving Virginia City with $12,000 in gold dust from goods he had sold there. Several of the men he hired to accompany him back to Lewiston, Idaho were in fact criminals. Four other men in the party were also murdered in camp - Charlie Allen, Robert Chalmers, Horace Chalmers and William Phillips - by Lowrie, Doc Howard, Jem Romaine and William Page.
  • On October 26, 1863, the Peabody and Caldwell's stage was robbed between the Rattlesnake Ranch and Bannack by two road agents believed to be Frank Parish and George Ives. Bill Bunton, the owner of the Rattlesnake Ranch who joined the stage at the ranch was also complicit in the robbery. The road agents netted $2,800 in gold from the passengers and threatened them all with death if they talked about the robbery.
  • On November 13, 1863, a teenage Henry Tilden was in the employ of Wilbur Sanders and Sidney Edgerton to locate and corral some horses owned by Sanders and Edgerton. Near Horse Prairie, Tilden was confronted by three armed road agents. He was carrying very little money and was allowed to depart unmolested, but with the warning that if he talked, he would be killed. He did not heed the warning and told Sanders' wife, Hattie and Sidney Edgerton that he had recognized one of the road agents as sheriff Henry Plummer. Although Tilden's report was discounted because Plummer was respected, this incident led to increased suspicion in the region that Plummer was the leader of a gang of road agents.
  • On November 22, 1863, the A.J. Oliver stage was robbed on its way to Bannack from Virginia City by road agents George Ives, "Whiskey Bill" Graves and Bob Zachary. The robbery netted less than $1,000 in gold and treasury notes. One of the victims, Leroy Southmayd made the mistake of reporting the robbery and identifying the road agents to Bannack Sheriff, Henry Plummer. Members of Plummer's gang confronted Southmayd on his return trip to Virginia City, but Southmayd was cunning enough to avoid injury or death.
  • In November 1863, Conrad Kohrs traveled to Bannack from Deer Lodge, Montana with $5,000 in gold dust to buy cattle. A conversation with Sheriff Plummer in Bannack led Kohrs to believe he might be robbed while on the trail back to Deer Lodge. While in an overnight camp his associates located road agents George Ives and "Dutch John" Wagner surveying the camp, armed with shotguns. A day or two later, Kohrs was on horseback returning to Deer Lodge when Ives and Wagner gave chase. Kohrs' horse proved the faster and he evaded confrontation before reaching the safety of Deer Lodge.
  • In early December 1863, a three wagon freight outfit organized by Milton S. Moody was going to Salt Lake City from Virginia City. Among the seven passengers was John Bozeman. The freight wagons were carrying $80,000 in gold dust and $1,500 in treasury notes. While camped on Blacktail Deer Creek, road agents "Dutch John" Wagner and Steve Marshland entered the camp, armed and ready to rob the train. Members of the camp had armed themselves well and Wagner and Marshland were able to escape, claiming they were just looking for lost horses. Two days later, Wagner and Marshland were both wounded in an unsuccessful attempt to rob the wagon train as it crossed the Continental Divide at Rock Creek.
  • On December 8, 1863, Anton Holter, who was taking oxen to sell in Virginia City, survived an attempted robbery and murder. When road agents George Ives and Aleck Carter, whom Holter recognized, discovered Holter was not carrying any significant wealth, they tried to shoot him. He was able to avoid being shot and escaped into the brush.

    The failure of miners' courts

Prior to the creation of the Montana Territory on May 26, 1864, and the arrival of the territorial courts, the only court system available for the residents of Bannack and Virginia City were the informal miners' courts. The miners' courts were a vehicle of the organized mining districts to resolve mining claims and disputes between miners in the district. When confronted with a major crime such as murder, they usually proved ineffective at resolving the crime to the satisfaction of the community.
While there are not many accounts of early courts in Alder Gulch, probably due to their informality and short existence, John X. Beidler recalled a murder trial in the Virginia City miners' court in his memoirs. The trial was in the fall of 1863 and concerned the murder of J.W. Dillingham. The trial was held outside, due to the fact that every resident took part. In the end all three defendants were set free. The first, Charley Forbes, was freed after he gave an eloquent and sentimental speech about his mother. The other two, Buck Stinson and Haze Lyons, were convicted and set to be the first men executed in what would become the state of Montana. However, at what would be a very public hanging friends and sympathizers of Stinson and Lyons convinced the crowd to vote again on the execution. Two attempts at counting the vote were made according to Beidler. The first people voting 'hang' were to walk up-hill while those voting 'no hang' were to walk down-hill. This vote was rejected and the next attempt had four men form two gates and people would cast their vote by walking through the 'hang' gate or the 'no hang' gate. Beidler claims that friends of the condemned men simply walked through the 'no hang' gate repeatedly casting fraudulent votes that possibly allowed two murderers to walk free.
On December 19–21, 1863, a public trial was held of George Ives, the suspected murderer of Nicholas Tiebolt, a young Dutch immigrant. Hundreds of miners from around the area attended the 3-day, outdoor trial. George Ives was prosecuted by Wilbur F. Sanders and Ives was convicted and hanged on December 21, 1863. Sanders played a prominent role in Montana history and eventually became the first U.S. Senator from Montana when the territory gained statehood in 1889. While the Ives trial resulted in an execution many residents were frustrated by a cumbersome process that could easily be manipulated. This sentiment is illustrated by a quote from Thomas Dimsdale who wrote the first published account of the Montana Vigilantes, originally written in 1865 as a series of articles for the Montana Post and later compiled into a book.