This first appeared in the Dillon Tribune as a letter to the editor.
Saturday, February 22, 1997
Great Falls, Montana
1500 4th Ave North
Phone 406 453 4545
Stay Away Joe Publishers
I was on my way back from visiting Dillon, Twin Bridges, Argenta, Bannack, Missoula, Helena, and Bozeman. In Helena at the Montana Historical Society I had found out that Dan Cushman, author of MONTANA - THE GOLD FRONTIER, and other books about Montana, including the fabulously successful and funny Stay Away, Joe, is still alive. His address lead me to an older house in the near-to-downtown section of Great Falls. An older man answered my ring, and when I said, "I'm looking for Dan Cushman," he replied, "I'm Dan Cushman." I explained I wanted to buy the two above books, and he said, "Yes, they are available, please come in."
I introduced myself, but he is a bit hard of hearing, and I am sure he did not catch my name, which I pronounce phonetically, Schmitt-roth, which is closer to the original German, Schmitt-rote, but I did explain right away that I was born and raised in Dillon, mother born in Bannack, uncles born in Argenta, and had lately discovered an interest in the Vigilantes and Henry Plummer, which he discusses in his book, Montana - The Gold Frontier.
Well, he started reminiscing about his time in Dillon, "the best town I ever worked in." And the people he worked for, Chan Stallings, Toni French (born in Bannack in 1868), the old Shafers (early Bannack and Argenta), and then he mentioned that he worked a bit for that assayer, Smith-row, whose brother used to have the bakery. That assayer was my uncle, Walter Schmittroth, and the baker was my father, Louis. We talked a while about people we knew, but he was born in 1909 and I in 1924, and when I was a kid of 10 running around the mountains above Argenta prospecting with one of the Shafers (Henry), he was already 25. But he had also prospected with one of the older Shafers.
He must have had a real interest in history during his time in Beaverhead County, because when I mentioned my interest in Henry Plummer and the Vigilantes, he said right away, "You know, many of the old-timers of Bannack had more sympathy for Henry Plummer than the Vigilantes." I started to explain that I thought that while some of the road agents were guilty of some crimes, others were innocent. He interrupted, saying, "There were no road agents, only a couple of bungled robberies, that netted a negligible amount." He believes there simply was not an organized gang, and so if there was no gang, Henry Plummer could not have been the leader of a gang.
I then mentioned that Sidgney Edgerton and his nephew Wilbur Sanders, both lawyers, were concerned about law and order, which is why they instigated and participated in the extra-legal activities of the Vigilantes. He had a different slant on that too. He claims that the vendetta against Henry Plummer had more to do with who was to become the new U.S. Marshal for Eastern Idaho, which is where Bannack and Virginia City were at the time of the Vigilante killings. In the summer of 1863, when Plummer was the elected and respected Sheriff of Bannack, the Union League, a group of citizens supporting the North in the Civil War, was asked to recommend a marshal. There was a ballot, and to the chagrin of Nathaniel Langford, Henry Plummer was the unanimous choice. Some sources say Langford, the secretary of the Union League, refused to forward the recommendation, but this is in doubt, since another source claims that indeed the recommendation was forwarded, and after he was hanged by the Vigilantes the appointment came through. This is a subject for further research.
Another area of my interest in Henry Plummer is his mining activities, and since Cushman had worked as a miner and prospector, and has written two books about the mining history of Montana, I thought he might help me. I asked about the Dakota lode, the first gold quartz lode in Montana. He knew right away what I was talking about, and said that it is the Gold Bug Mine, same place, new name. Henry Plummer and his partner owned Claim 7 West of the Discovery, about which a correspondent from the Sacramento Daily Union wrote in the June 17, 1863, edition, "in one day's crushing from the claim of Plumer and Ridgely I saw $3,800 in neat amalgam in the retort." A note on spelling, Plumer vs. Plummer. The family name was Plumer, and Henry signed it that, with one m, but Americans of the time had preconceived notions about spelling and Plumer became Plummer. In the same article, the correspondent of the Union went on to add, "No man stands higher in the estimation of the community than Henry Plumer."
After getting Dan Cushman to autograph my two books, I left, knowing that I had just talked to an unusual and interesting man, a giant among the writers of Montana.
Louis Schmittroth
Box 1226
Athabasca AB T9S 2B1
Canada