The Vigilantes of Montana:
1864 Revisited

Victim 4: J. Edward S. (Ned) Ray

Ned Ray arrived in Bannack about 10 days before Henry Plummer was elected Sheriff, which took place on May 24, 1863. Soon thereafter Plummer chose Gallagher, Dillingham, Stinson, and Ray as deputies. Plummer departed shortly thereafter to the Vail farm on the Sun River, near present day Great Falls, to marry Electa Bryan, sister of Martha Vail.

It is not known if Plummer had been acquainted with Ned Ray in California, where, it is said, he had worked as an engineer in Benicia near San Francisco. He was not a miner, but seemed to spend most of his time as a gambler, which was not necessarily a dishonorable profession. (One of the author's favorite uncles, Bill Stahl, born in Argenta in 1892, was a professional gambler, but also honest, upright, kind and generous. He was also an exconvict, who paid did his time for his crime, and never again committed a crime. If he had lived in Bannack at the time of the Vigilantes perhaps he would have been hanged.)

Ned Ray was also a fugitive from justice, having been convicted of participating in the theft of two mules in Salt Lake city, sentenced to prison, but escaped in 1863, ending up in Bannack. Whether Plummer knew this or not is not known, but Plummer also had been wrongfully convicted in Nevada City, and would have had some sympathy for Ray.

There is no record of any crime, or accusation of crime, during the short time he spent in Montana from May, 1863, until he was hanged along with Plummer and Stinson on January 10, 1864. Other than, of course, the "confession" of Red Yeager.

During the first week of January, 1864, the Sheriff, Henry Plummer was ill, and it fell to Buck Stinson and Ned Ray to carry on the law enforcement duties. Their last act before being hanged by the Bannack vigilante mob was to arrest "Club Foot" Mathews, who had been charged with leaving Bannack for Salt Lake with a large debt unpaid. The miner's court had issued a warrant for his arrest, and Stinson and Ray had ridden two days to catch up with the Alex Toponce. This incident is depicted in detail in the book by Noyes, pages 229-230, a recollection by W. B. Carter who was along on the trip:

In January a party of 25 men and one woman left Virginia for Salt Lake with a mule outfit. The train with our blankets in one of the wagons went on ahead of us. As soon as my partner and I got settled up we started for camp. One of us had a gun, the other a revolver, and we traveled about 150 feet apart so no one could surprise us. The next morning Club-Foot Mathews found his mules missing, but we pulled out and came to the place right where my ranch house now stands, about five miles north of Dillon, and camped for the night. Mathews found his mules and started to overtake us, when, just on the other side of the Point of Rocks, he saw some fellows coming towards him on horse back. Not liking the looks of things he threw his gold sacks into the snow, marking the place well, then he pulled into the station, where he stayed all night, being afraid to go on. He hired a man to keep on the left side of the river and overtake us, and get one of us to send a team back and help him get his dust. The party he sent got to our camp about midnight. The next morning one of the boys went back to help him, while the balance moved to a place since owned by Jim Selway, where we waited until they could overtake us. Shortly after they had joined us, we saw three men coming to our camp on horseback. One of those men was Buck Stinson, and the other was Red -- or Ned Ray -- do not know for sure; the third man was one well-known to all of us (House), and only came to our camp, as Stinson a deputy of Plummer's did not care to come, as his mission was to arrest "Club-Foot" for debt. "Club-Foot" said that it was a just debt, and that he would like to get greenbacks enough from us to give to Buck, so he would know he was all right. We soon got the money and gave it to him. Alex Toponce wanted us to take Buck and hang him at once, but of course, we could not agree to that. "Club-Foot" started out with the two deputies, on foot, as he was afraid they might kill him and take his mule. They pulled off over the hill, toward Rattlesnake crossing, and only a short time after leaving us they saw the men coming from toward Virginia City. Stinson and his friend pulled out and left ''Club-Foot" alone. He continued on into Bannack and found Buck, who turned the money over to him. He settled his accounts and overtook us down on the Snake River. Buck was hanged on the 10th, just a few days after he was at our camp.
So, up to a few days before he and Stinson were hanged, they were exercising their duties as law enforcement officers under the jurisdiction of the miner's court -- the same court Wilbur Sanders participated in when he prosecuted George Ives for the murder of Tiebolt.

My opinion: Ned Ray was not guilty of any crime while in Montana from May of 1863 until January 10, 1864.