Nathaniel P. Langford
Langford spent 14 years in Montana, having come out with the Fisk
expedition in the summer of 1862. He was born (1832) and raised in the
state of New York, and was an educated person. He was a mason before
setting out for the West, and was present at the first masonic funeral
in Bannack in the fall of 1862. He was a successful merchant in both
Bannack and later Virginia City. In November, 1863, he and Samuel
Hauser left Bannack on an extended business trip to the States, and so
was not present at the formation of the Vigilantes, nor during the
lynching of Sheriff Henry Plummer in January, 1864. When he returned
however he joined the Vigilantes, and was privy to some, at least, of
their secrets. He was a passionate Republican, and a bitter antogonist
of Henry Plummer, a Democrat, whom he prevented from being considered
for the post of U.S. Marshall.
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