Vigilante Days and Ways / The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho

by Nathaniel Pitt Langford

“We shall see. Good-night, boys,” said Beachy, and he offered each his hand.

Page clasped his hand heartily, and, by several scratches upon the palm, signified that he had something which he wished to communicate.

Four weeks were spent in San Francisco, in the effort to obtain the custody of the prisoners. As fast as one court would decide to surrender them, another would grant a writ of habeas corpus for a new examination. At length the Supreme Court of the State decided in favor of their surrender to the authorities of Idaho for trial. In anticipation of a series of similar legal delays in Oregon, Beachy, before leaving, obtained from General Wright, the commander of the Department of the Pacific, an order upon the military post of the Columbia, directing an escort to meet the prisoners at the mouth of the river, and deliver them with all possible despatch to the civil authorities at Lewiston.

On the voyage from San Francisco to the mouth of the Columbia, the prisoners occupied the state-room adjoining Beachy’s. An orifice was made in the base of the partition between the apartments, under the berth occupied by Howard and Lowry. After they had retired, Beachy would apply his ear to it, to glean, if possible, from their conversation, any circumstances confirming their guilt. On one occasion he heard Lowry observe that “Magruder had a good many friends,” and Howard reply that “all five of them had friends enough.” This satisfied him that others beside Magruder had been killed, and that he was on the right track. At the mouth of the Columbia, a small steamer with a military escort received the prisoners. They were conveyed immediately to Lewiston. A large assemblage had gathered upon the wharf, intending to conduct the prisoners from the boat to the scaffold. Protected by the military, Beachy succeeded in removing them to his hotel, amid loud cries of “Hang ’em,” “String ’em up,” by the pursuing crowd. He then appeared in front of the building, and in a brief address informed the infuriated people that one of the conditions on which he obtained the surrender of the men was that they should have a fair trial at law. He had pledged his honor, not only to the prisoners, but to the authorities, that they should only be hanged after conviction by a jury. This pledge he would redeem with his life if necessary. He made it, believing that his fellow-citizens of Lewiston would stand by him. “And now,” said he, “as many of you as will do so, will please cross to the opposite side of the street.” The movement was unanimous.

“Be gorra! Mr. Beachy,” exclaimed an Irishman, after he had passed over, “you’re the only man in the whole congregation that votes against yourself.”

The prisoners were heavily ironed and strongly guarded in an upper room of the hotel. No legal evidence of their guilt, no evidence that a murder had been committed, had yet been obtained. Page was reticent, though believed by all to have been the victim of circumstances. A week elapsed, and no disclosures were made upon which to base a hope of conviction. Tired of waiting, it was at length arranged with the district attorney that Page should be permitted to testify as State’s evidence.

Beachy now concerted, with several others, a plan for getting at the truth. In a vacant room, accessible from the main passage of the building, he suspended from the ceiling four ropes with nooses, and under each placed an empty dry-goods box. Every preparation was seemingly made for a secret and summary execution.

In a room on the opposite side of the hall he spread a large table, with paper, pens, and ink, and obtained from the county clerk three plethoric legal documents, which were put in the hands of persons seated at the table. A clerk was also there, who had seemingly been engaged in writing out the confessions of Howard, Lowry, and Romaine, which were represented by the documents already referred to.

When these preparations were completed, two guards entered the room occupied by the four prisoners, and conducted Howard downstairs to a room in the basement. An hour or more elapsed, and the same ceremony was observed with Lowry, and after another hour with Romaine. The solemnity of this proceeding was intended to impress Page with the belief that his comrades had been severally executed by the Vigilantes. When, an hour later, the guards returned, they found him in a cold perspiration, and scarcely able to stand.

He was met by Beachy at the door.