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Lou and They THE STORY OF "AJAX" 85 happiness. Better to be an optimist than a pessimist, better to go through the world with a smile than a frown, better to write of the good that gold can do than to tell of the hellish misery it has wroughl So let us back once more, in this little story, to the time when the prospecton Cris Weaver, his brother, and others, gazed from the main divide on the little basin at the head of Ruby. I do not know how this man Weaver happened to find gold in Ruby, and only know from my old friend Lou Smith of Butte that is was Weaver who was considered the discoverer. It would take no great amount of imagination for anyone to go back to that summer in 1862 and find that mining was already being conducted, on a small scale, on Dahlonaga creek, a branch of the North Fork of Salmon river, just over the divide from Ruby. The prospector of those days did not think anything of a several mile jaunt in his hunt for a place that would ..pan." No doubt Weaver took a stroll one Sunday, probably for game, and found gold in Pioneer basin. It took but a short time for the news to go to others and soon a little camp was in full blast, washing the yellow metal for grub stakes. From that day to this more or less gold has been taken out,· although it never was a rich section. The Big Hole basin, or valley proper, did in no way appeal to these minen as a place of residence, and most of them left as 100n as the ..Grasshopper Diggings" were discovered, which was only a few days after. I have no facts at hand that tell me as to the lucky man who found pay at Ban- nack. Some say White. Mike Steel said: ..John Smith, Pat Maloy and Bill Maloy were the men." Anyway, the late Judge Stapleton of Butte was in early. People that were going to the Idaho mines came to Ban- nack instead, and built the town that was to have the honor of being Montana's first capital. I did not get ·to Bannack until 1866, so was too late to witncn the lawlessness that held sway there under Henry Plummer and his gang of toughs. The old scaffold on which Plummer, Ray and Stinson were hanged January 10th, 1864, was up the gulch a short distance from our house. From Mr. Wm. Roe I gleaned the fol- lowing facts concerning the execution of these men (not before in print, I believe, at least part of it has never been). Roe was one appomted to help get these men. One was at a dance on Y ankec Flat, and Roe tnd some one else went for him. At. soon as he was told that they wanted him, his wife threw her arms about his neck and held on for dear life. Roe said: "I never had anything as bard to do in my whole life as came to my lot then. That woman standing there with her arms about her husband's neck, sobbing pitifully, tears streaming down her cheeks and begging us not to take him. I had to use force to remove her arms and hold her while the man with me led him away." When these men were gathered that cold night under the scaffold, they made pleas for their lives, but no one as abjectly as Plummer, the ring- leader. Mr. Roe said that he did not blame them in the least; that any- one, almost, would have done as Plummer did, if he thought a talk would have given him his liberty. R. P. Eaton captured Ray and after he was 86 THE STORY OF "AJAX" hanged, Mrs. Ray came out and asked him where her Ned was. He replied; "Your Ned is alright." (This man Eaton became the next sherif,f of Bannack District, Idaho territory). I will try and give in Mr. Roe's language an ac:a>unt of the hanging of "Dutch John:" Mrs. Ray had been given her husband', body, but Plummer and Stinson had been taken to a small cabin across the street from the hotel. This cabin was not yet completed, as the chinking and dobbing had not been done. There was a work bench on which Plummer was laid, and Stinsen was placed on the floor, and a little way from the work bench. When we made up our minds to hang John, he was taken to this cabin. You must ~ember that when we hung the others it was very cold, and it wa, probably on this ac- count that we did not bury them at once, and why their remains had been placed in the cabin. It was a mighty weird sight, the dead high- waymen lying there; the band of stalwart men bent on doing their duty in ridding that section of those who had been so bold in their deviltry, and . the tall form of "Dutch John" standing there dimly, in the candle light, on a dry goods box that was to be used as the drop that was to send his soul to his maker. The cabin was full, and when the box yas pulled from beneath John we all surged, the light went out and my heels caught on Stinson's body, and to keep from falling I threw one hand out and it fell on Plummer's frozen face. Jesus! but it was cold! We closed the door and left John hanging there all the next day. It was probably about 8 or 9 o'clock the next evening, anyway it was dark, when I chanced to lObk toward the cabin and I could see every once in a while a light through the chinks. It startled me for a moment, but I made up my mind: to investigate. I went over and pushed the door open and found little Davy Morgan scratching matches and looking up at John. 'What are you doing here, Davy'?' I asked. 'Say, Bill, I just came over to see the bloody buggar,' was his answer. It is needless to say that Davy was "drunk." Years after this same Davy cut down "Plummers' Scaffold" because some of the fellows, jokingly, told him that if he didn't reform they would hang him on it. I recall that during a political campaign quite a number of us were looking for the location of this scaffold, among us Col. Sanders. I found one of the stumps and from it extracted a bullet, which was given to the colonel, a "souvenir" that he told me afterward he valued very highly. This old dead town of Bannack gave life to the territory, and later to the state of Montana. Many of the men who have helped to make the story of Montana were a part of Bannack in those early days. When the first legislature met, there was no fancy structure built of granite, with frescoed walls, polished dome and well kept grounds. The only rooms available were two cabins, one a large sized one, built for theatrical purposes but not finished; the other a small cabin at the other end of the street. ( In one of the volumes of the Historical Society is shown a cut of the buildings first used for the purpose, an adobe and a small cabin near it. These are not the buildings, for the ones used were on the north '.rHE STORY OF "AJAX" 87 side of the street and these are on the south side. The "House" is now a stable, three miles from Bannack on Taylor creek, owned by Chas. Retallack). A cut of the home of Governor Edgerton is to be had these days, copyrighted by Tribune Pub. Co., of Dillon. It shows a low log cabin that has been used for years as a stable. It did not matter what kind of a house the men met in, they were there for business and while they may have had their little scraps, they were soon forgotten. ..Uncle John" Bishop says: "That Col. Broadwater got on the peck one day and was going to wipe out the whole legislature when he met a freighter named Tom Pitt, who knocked the colonel out in the first round." Speaking of that time, '"Uncle John" tells of the first loan' he ever made in Montana: There was a fellow named Rohbacker who lived at Boulder that came to Bannack that winter to lobby for a charter to build a toll bridge. As the legislators were not as avaricious then as they be- came later under Daly and Clark, .it did not require much or any money to get a worthy bill through. Rohbacker needed $50.00, which I gave him without interest On his return home he sent me the money, in gold, by express, which cost me $2.50. Some time afterwards I had occasion to stay all night with Rohbacker, thinking that my accommodating him would be good for a night's lodging. He turned my horse in the pasture, gave me a bed on the floor and charged me $3.50." I will say to my readers, do not hunt Uncle John up with the expectation that he is still doing business in the old way. He leamed1 his lesson. I have told you that we left Bannack in the spring of 1868 for Sil- ver Star, a small town on the Cherry creek, a tributary of the Jefferson river.
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