The Fatal Fall of Barrett Scott: Vigilantes on the Niobrara

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1992 The Fatal Fall of Barrett Scott: Vigilantes on the Niobrara James W. Hewitt Lincoln, Nebraska, Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Hewitt, James W., "The Fatal Fall of Barrett Scott: Vigilantes on the Niobrara" (1992). Great Plains Quarterly. 659. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/659 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. THE FATAL FALL OF BARRETT SCOTT VIGILANTES ON THE NIOBRARA JAMES W. HEWITT Vigilante activity, in which a somewhat or Although some vigilante activity did not go ganized group takes the law into its own hands, beyond rhetoric, moral suasion, and threaten has been extant in the United States since the ing notes to malefactors, violence was the usual 1700s and reached its zenith on the western hallmark of the vigilante movement, and lynch frontier during the last half of the nineteenth law preceded the common law across much of century. 1 Many a hapless horse thief, or careless the frontier. Commentators differ as to whether cattle rustler, met his end in a hangman's noose, frontier lawlessness was the cause or the result as those who had property sought to protect it of the American proclivity toward violence as from those who had none. an effective problem solver, but bodies swinging As America moved westward along the great from tree limbs or railroad whistling posts could trails, it left courts, judges, law, and order be lead to sober rumination among the lawless ele hind. Until new communities could be formed ment. 3 and governments established, something had to Most vigilante groups, because they were be done to protect life and the possessions of constituted of middle and upper class citizens those who had them. Vigilante movements were who were somewhat familiar with a written body often the answer.2 They were almost always an of law, had a formal written constitution or effort by the monied class in a settlement to re articles that members signed. The groups usu create some semblance of a legal system and to ally organized for a specific purpose, such as protect life and property. driving the cattle thieves out of Keya Paha County, and disbanded when their goal was achieved. Most groups were formed when their members perceived local law enforcement as James W. Hewitt is an attorney-at-law in Uncoln, either ineffectual or non-existent, but, as will Nebraska, with a keen interest in Great Plains his be seen later, some operated contempora tory, especially Great Plains legal history. neously with the duly constituted authorities. 4 Organization and duration distinguished the [GPQ 12 (Spring 1992): 107·1201 vigilante organization from the lynch mob, 107 108 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1992 which was spontaneously organized for a par that vigilantism has subtly but persistently un ticular purpose and immediately disbanded after dennined America's respect for law and the le its purpose had been satisfied or foiled. Vigi gal system by implying that the people may lantes often accorded their accused a speedy choose when and when not to obey the law. In trial, sometimes with appointed counsel. The our culture, trial by jury, rather than trial by rate of conviction fell very little short of 100 combat, is the preferred method of resolving percent, and pre-sentence investigation was not disputes. But if the public has little or no con a familiar concept. Trial, sentencing, and ex fidence in the judicial system, a feeling that ecution of the judgment were virtually simul appears to be spreading in the United States, taneous. then trial by combat, or at least by force of Vigilantism has attracted the attention of arms, has a very definite appeal. 6 And that is many of America's authors. One of the first the essence of the vigilante movement. novels of the West-Owen Wister's The Virgin ian-portrays vigilantes in a favorable light. NEBRASKA VIGILANTES IN THE 18805 Cowhands, agents of their property-owning em ployer, hang a friend who has violated a trust Five counties--Brown, Rock, Holt, Boyd, and stolen horses. No lawmen are involved, and and Keya Paha-straddle the Niobrara River in the vigilantes are drawn very sympathetically. north-central Nebraska. The Niobrara and the The reader has little, if any, doubt that those Keya Paha, one of its major tributaries, offer lynched are guilty. In Walter van Tilburg Clark's plenty of water, rugged box canyons, and pine The Ox-Bow Incident, the focus is entirely dif covered hills; in a phrase, good cattle country. ferent. A mob of townsmen hang unfortunate Not many fanners have tried to wrest a living strangers who are ultimately shown to have had from this wrinkled landscape. And for many no connection with the crime that had been years, the ranchers have been as hard and stem committed and that was not as serious as the as the land. mob had believed. Duly constituted authorities During the 1880s when horse and cattle are present but ignored. thieves plagued the area the locals fought back. The two antipodal views of vigilante activity At least three vigilante groups were fonned in serve to point up that which is good and bad the five county region. They were the Niobrara about vigilantism. Where no lawmen are pres Mutual Protective Association, headquartered ent, resort to self-help can be rationalized. But in Brown County and led by A. T. Burnham; if there are legitimate representatives of law and a group in Keya Paha County, subsequently order present, there is no justification for ig known as the Fanner's Protective Association, noring or subverting the legal process. Vigilante led by Merritt Taylor, John Sullivan, and Sol activity was rooted in the pernicious notion of Long; and the Holt County Regulators, under "popular sovereignty"-a belief that the people the leadership of Mike Coleman and C. C. were the real sovereigns, who could take the Dodge. 7 At least seven miscreants met their end law into their own hands when it failed to pro at the hands of one or another of the vigilante tect them, and who could refuse to obey the bands. law when they believed it to be unjust or op There is little doubt that the legally consti pressive. 5 Such beliefs have spurred on many of tuted authorities, however well-meaning they the great moments of history, such as the Amer may have been, were not of much help. The ican Revolution, but they do not work well on country was rough, the trails few, the distances a day to day basis. considerable. Especially north of the Niobrara, Although in the short run vigilantism may it was a long way to anywhere. Waiting for the have established or preserved law and order, the sheriff to show up could consume a lot of time. net long-tenn effect would appear to have been The courts were functioning, but criminal detrimental. Richard Maxwell Brown suggests cases were not their metier. Out of the first VIGILANTES 109 seventy cases to reach the Supreme Court of December 1883, a wounded horse thief, being Nebraska from Holt County, sixty-five were civil cared for in northern Holt County, was hanged and five criminal-and of that five, three in by the Holt County Regulators under the com volved Barrett Scott. 8 Thus virtually all of the mand of Mike Coleman, who had been wounded classic indicators of vigilante activity were pres in the ribs in the same affray as the horse thief. ent, and the ranchers of the Niobrara breaks When word got out that the thief was recover responded in classic fashion. They formed into ing, Coleman and six of his band found a tall groups, swore their oaths, and set out to rid the tree and dispatched the unfortunate. 11 area of rustlers. The most celebrated hanging in the 1883- Both local residents and historians have raised 84 round of vigilantism was that of "Kid" Wade. questions about the motivation of the vigi Kid was a well-known horse thief who had done lantes. No concrete evidence of chicanery ex time in the Iowa State Reformatory and had ists, but the vigilantes may not have been ridden with the famous "Doc" Middleton gang entirely altruistic. Instead their enforcement ac in 1878 and 1879. He got out of prison in 1882 tivities may have masked cattle and horse theft and soon was back along the Niobrara. His fa or been simply a guise for disposing of unwanted ther, John Wade, had a claim just below the obstacles. 9 confluence of the Niobrara and Keya Paha, in The Keya Paha group, which included Sol northern Holt County. Late in 1883, the Kid Long as one of its leaders, hanged a man named stole several horses near Niobrara and Yankton, Kit Murphy in November 1883. Murphy, who Dakota Territory. When his father disappeared, had a claim in Keya Paha County, north of the the Kid went into hiding near LeMars, Iowa, Niobrara, had had a dispute with Sol Long over approximately two hundred miles east of O'Neill. some house logs that Long had cut on Murphy's An informant revealed his whereabouts, and claim. Vigilantes visited Murphy's home, drove early in January 1884, C.

Load more