"The leader was a Bavarian baker, with a red shirt and carrying a red. flag. I had 1,000 sacks of barley. This barley was put up in flour sacks. I had 260 of Utah flour that I held at $25.00 per sack, but had sold 250 to Denny and Rockfellow, at $27.50, and 20 sacks of St. Louis flour at $28.00 per sack, and had probably 8 or 9 sacks, a day or two before the riot broke out, but had told my friends to come and get some -- so the day of the riot I only had one sack. They came and examined my barley sacks, and at last went away satisfied. A few days after the riot, I was successful in obtaining four loaves of bread of the bakers in Nevada for $16.00. The reason for this was, that I had gone to Frank Tenny and Louis Koch, the bakers, and told them that there was to be a flour riot, and that they had better take their extra supply and put it in a dry well, out behind their place, and cover it over with cord wood, as they had a large supply of that on hand. They took my advice, and hid their flour. Bakers were allowed ten sacks. I told them that I would sell their surplus to the boarding houses down the gulch, but not for more than $70.00 per sack, and as flour was selling for from $100 to $150 per hundred, I did not consider I was robbing anyone. I used to buy all the whiskey barrels, so people did not mistrust me when I took a barrel any place, so I would put a sack of flour in a barrel and make my delivery in that way. In that way I disposed of between 50 and 60 sacks for them. My work kept me pretty busy, and every night except Saturday, I would go to bed, between 9:00 and 9:30. On Saturday bills were paid, and I felt that as 14 saloon men and four hurdy houses were patrons of mine, I must spend some of my money with them. I would go the rounds of the saloons, and probably treat the boys, and of a night would buy probably 50 dance tickets, at $1.00 each. Then I would give them to the boys. I never danced once in any of those houses. I was in Little Doe's place one night, and had treated the boys and was ready to leave, when a blacksmith called "Dump" (I never knew any other name for him) said: "Charlie, set them up again." "I would but I am afraid I would get a little too much." "Will you set them up, if I will?" he asked. "I guess you seem to think you are the only man with money. I will show you that I have some, too." And he took a big gold sack and scattered gold all over the floor. You must remember, we had dirt floors in most of the saloons. I had three friends who were poor, and as Little Doc was a pretty generous fellow, I said: "Doc, can't you let my friends come down and make the clean-up, and you give them half they gets" He said, "Sure," and those fellows took a hoe and a gold pan and cleaned up between $900 and $1,000.00. When I saw "Dump" do that, I said: "Dump, you will either die in the gutter, or on a manure pile." And he did die on a manure pile, back of Bill Owsley's livery stable in Butte, not many years after.
Women in those houses did not drink anything but light drinks, as it was no part of their business to become intoxicated.
There was a fellow in camp -- a neighbor of mine, who was very poor. He had a wife and two children. I had given him wood, also something to eat. Had later let him take a team with which to haul wood. He came to my place one evening and said that he was in trouble, and wanted me to help him; said that the dance house was trying to take his wife away. I went up to the hall with him and he said: "Jane, I don't want you to leave me." She replied that he could not make a living for her, and the children, and that she could, by dancing, support herself and them. Seeing that she no longer cared for her husband a fellow who was called a lawyer, got up and made a speech, and divorced them, right out on the street. A Mormon girl came up, and put her arm around his neck, and said, "Don't cry; I am ready to marry you right now."
An Incident With Skinner.
"Cyrus Skinner was running a saloon in Virginia City, and requested credit from me, as he said he was a poor man, who had a wife to support. There came a time when he owed me about $400.00, so one day I went into his place of business, and he said: 'Charlie, you are just in time. I have got plenty of money today.' We weighed out the dust into my sack, when four or five gamblers that were playing cards behind me began to shoot at one another. Cyrus got all the gold in my sack, and you bet I did not take time to tie it. I put it in my pocket and left the house. Wishing to pay some bills a few days after, I went into John Creighton's st,ore, and turned out the dust. (This Creighton weas the man who built the first telegraph line into Montana from Salt Lake.) John said: 'Charlie, where did you get this bogus dust?' I told him that that was good, clean dust; that I had been paid by Cyrus Skinner. He soon put some acid on it, and showed me my mistake. We soon learned that a Canadian -- I will not tell his name -- had been circulating this stuff. He was banished, but came back, and was a good citizen afterwards."
Two Men Hang a Man.
This is a remarkable story. It needs no embellishment from the pen of any man to make it of peculiar interest.
"If I remember, it was sometime in March, 1864, that Charlie Brown came to me and said that he wanted me to make one of a party of eight, that was to go to Deer Lodge, Hell Gate, etc., for highwaymen. I do not remember all the names, but Charlie Brown, Louis Hooker, J. X. Beidler, and a young man about twenty, named Ike, was along. This young fellow, though a boy, was one of the bravest men I ever saw. When we arrived at the mouth of Rock Creek, near Hell Gate, Charley Brown said: 'It will not do for us all to go together; Charlie the Brewer, and I, will go up Rock Creek to the cabin, we have been told may be the rendezvous of the robbers. If we find too many of them, we will come back and overtake you.' We left the party, as they were to go straight down the river. (I never suffered so much in my life with the cold. He showed me his hands; all the fingpers, over fifty years afterwards, showed signs of the fearful cold of that night, as they had no gloves.)
"It was about five miles up Rock Creek to the cabin. We had to pass through deep snow, but it was soft and we did not make any noise. We soon saw that there was a light in the cabin. Charley said to me, 'We will advance; if you see me fall on my knees, you do the same.' I said: 'I will have to thaw out my hands before I can do anything.' So I began to rub them with snow, and soon had the frost out. We soon got to the cabin, and looking in the window, we saw that there was probably but one man in it. Charley told me to open the door, and that he would rush in and cover the fellow. He always carried two elk skin strings, with which to tie a man if need be. We found that there was only one man, and he was in bed asleep. Charley soon had him covered and tied. The fellow said, 'I have been expecting you fellows for some time, and have not been able to sleep, and I just did go to sleep when you came.' I asked Charley in German what we should do, and he said, we will hang him. I was sent out doors to see if one of the roof logs was sticking out far enough for our purpose. I found one that was, and we led the fellow out and hung him. As the cabin was nice and comfortable, we barricaded the door and piled into bed and slept for several hours, with the fellow hanging on one end of the house.
We left, and started to overtake the rest of the party, but found that they had done their work and were coming back."
(Mr. Beehrer did not know the name of the man. I can find no account of it in history, but I do know Mr. B. well enough to believe his story.-- The Author.)
How the Young Man Got Free.
Mr. Beehrer said: ''We did not always hang men."
"It was generally supposed that the Vigilantes would hang any wrong doer. Captain Williams called me to come down to Adelphia Hall one afternoon, as there was a matter to be taken into consideration. It seems that a young boy, not yet twenty-one, had had a brother killed on the plains, by a party whom he had followed to Virginia City, with the expectation that he would be brought to judgment. Ballanger (the same man who afterwards took up the Warm Springs in Deer Lodge Valley), was keeping a hotel. The beds in those days were bunks, built in tiers, one above another, three high. This young man was placed in one, and directly above him there was a miner sleeping, who had his buckskin sack so placed that the young fellow saw it, cut the string, and extracted the gold dust -- something over $200.00. This money seemed to change his disposition. Forgetting the quest of his brother's murderers -- he poured his money over the gambling table. In doing this, he exposed a nugget that was part of the dust. This nugget has been seen by two or three people, so they could identify it. This led to the young fellow's arrest. When I arrived at the hall, they explained the matter to me, and asked my opinion, as to whether he should be hung or banished. My reply was: 'Never banish a person. If he is not good enough to live with us, we had better hang him, never turn him loose on anyone else.' I also told him that I did not believe that we should hang him; that we should take into consideration his youth, and try to do something for him, to find him a job and have him report to someone each night and morning, until he had secured enough money to pay the man whom lie had robbed, then turn him loose. I said, 'Let him report to Judge Lott.' The Judge objected to this. Someone wanted to know who would give him a job. I told him that I would see to that. So I took the boy into a room by himself and explained the matter to him -- that he was to get a job, report twice each day to me, and all extra money would be given to Judge Lott until he had paid his debt -- then he would be turned free. So I tool- him down and put him to work with John Wagner.
I want to say that he paid his debt, and the last day he made his report to me, he cried with gratitude. John Wagner and Everson had a claim on German Flat. This John Wagner was a very fine man. It was to him that I wrote the letter that 'Dutch' John got, in robbing the mail, and that caused me to be called onto the carpet by Col. Sanders, for an interview with the Vigilance Committee, to explain why John had the letter, if I knew."