Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

The editor proceeds to comment upon the fact that while the marshal seems to have been grossly derelict in his duty, there was no reason to charge the officers or the citizens of the town with being secessionists and that the idea of conspiring against the garrison was "all bosh." He charges that the soldiers were frequently drunk and objects of danger to the people of the town.

It is interesting to notice that in the same issue of the Statesman, June 28th, the regular Union ticket for the election to take place on July 14th appears and has for its motto, "The Union Must and Shall be Preserved."

It is evident from the Statesman as well as from the recollections of old-timers that there was a very strong secessionist influence in Walla Walla at that time. The general attitude of the Statesman is interesting to the historian because it represents so large a class of the citizens of the United States at that time. While the paper is uncompromisingly for the Union, it is mortally afraid of the question of emancipation and of anything like "nigger equality." Its tone toward President Lincoln is rather critical and in several cases it charges him with being swayed by abolitionists. As time went on the Union sentiment became more and more pronounced. Mr. F. W. Paine gives us an anecdote which shows the tension in the year 1863, as follows:

In 1863 Delazon Smith and Dave Logan were candidates respectively on the democratic and republican tickets in Oregon for representative to Congress. They met to speak in the vicinity of Milton, a commnunity which at that time was intensely democratic. A number of Walla Walla republicans, among whom were Mr. Paine and Charles Painter (and all who knew Mr. Painter will recall that although one of the kindest of men and best of neighbors, he was an intense republican and not at all averse to fighting for his opinions) went to Milton to lend their encouragement to the republican side. Reaching a sort of public house in the vicinity, they waved a flag which they had taken along and finally put it up on a corner of the building. The proprietor coming out and discovering it, inquired of Mr. Paine if it were his, to which Mr. Paine made answer that although the flag was not his, it had come with the company of which he was a member, and he presumed it was the intention to let it remain where they had put it until they were ready to take it down themselves. The proprietor then demanded that it should be taken down. The republicans replied that that flag would not go down as long as there was a man left who had put it there. A fracas seemed imminent and in fact began when the proprietor of the house, whose valor seems to have been considerably of a spirituous nature, backed out and the flag remained.

Besides the influence of divided politics, and the friction between the soldiers and the citizens, besides all the general lawlessness of that period of miners, cowboys, and Indians, there was a special feature of the times which aided in leading to the formation of the Vigilance Committee. This was the existence of organized bands of thieves and cattle-rustlers all over the Northwest. The ramifications of these groups of law-breakers extended from California to Montana and Idaho. The recently published book by Ex-Governor W. J. McConnell of Idaho, in regard to early times in the mines of Northern Idaho and the Boise Basin, the Magruder murder, and the operations of the Vigilantes in those sections, with many other similar incidents, gives a vivid picture of the times of horse-thieves, cattle-thieves, and gold-dust thieves. In fact, as it was an era of thieves and highwaymen of all sorts, so it was also an era of vigilance committees over the same era as a necessary defense against desperadoes. Judge Thomas H. Brents, as his friends well knew, had a fund of hair-raising stories of his own experiences as an express rider during that period. Another man well known around Walla Walla and throughout Eastern Oregon as an express rider during the same time was no less a person than Joaquin Miller, "The Poet of the Sierras."

A number of incidents scattered through the columns of the Statesman in 1863, 1864, 1865, indicate the kind of events which led directly to the formation of the Vigilantes. For instance, in the issue of May 2, 1863, is an account of the discovery of about a hundred horses which were cached away in a mountain valley at the head of the Grande Ronde River. It was believed by those who discovered them that they had been driven there by a bunch of "road agents" who had been hung at Lewiston a few months before. In the issue of the Statesman of June 20th of the same year, there is an item about the recovery of seventeen stolen horses on Coppei Creek near Waitsburg by a vigilance committee. In the next number is an item to the effect that the same men that had stolen the seventeen horses came back and ran away six more, and sent word back that they had the horses on the north side of Snake River and they dared the owners to come over for them. They said that there were seven of them and they had three revolvers each and they would be glad to see company. The farmers of Coppei organized a well armed force and crossed the river. They discovered the horses and took possession of them, but the vainglorious road agents were nowhere in sight.

In the Statesman of April 14, 1865, we find the first definite account of the operations of the Vigilantes. It appears that a certain individual called "Dutch Louie" had been taken, according to his account, from his bed by Vigilantes at the hour of midnight, and hanged until he was nearly dead, in order to make him testify against someone whom he did not want to name. It appears at the same time that there was an anti-Vigilantes organization which took possession of another man who was in the habit of coming to town and getting "d. d.," and tried to compel him to give evidence against the Vigilantes. In the next issue of the Statesman there is an account of the pursuit of cattle thieves who had run away sixty cattle from the Wild Horse Creek, and had come to a halt on Mill Creek three miles above Walla Walla. Mr. Jeffries followed them with a posse of citizens and found some of the cattle, and according to the story one of the thieves was hung by the Vigilantes, although the paper intimates that the story of the hanging was without foundation. In the same issue there is an account of Mr. Samuel Johnson (and he was well known for many years as one of the prominent citizens of the Walla Walla country) having lost sixty head of cattle out of his band and following them by a trail from the Touchet to a point on the Columbia River sixty miles above Priest Rapids. The same paper also has an item about the "skeedaddling" of thieves, and it gives a suggestion that there is a point beyond which endurance ceases to be a virtue, and that the farther these worthies "skeedaddle" the less chance there will be of their being found some morning dangling at a rope's end.

The Statesman of April 21, 1865, contains an account of some regular "hangings" by the vigilance committee. It seems that on the Sunday morning previous, a man named McKenzie was found hanging to a limb near the racetrack, which at that time was a short distance below town. It appeared from reliable testimony that he was implicated in the theft of the cattle stolen from Mr. Jeffries. During the same week, two men named Isaac Reed and William Wills, were caught at Wallula, charged with stealing horses, and they traveled the same road as McKenzie. Before taking their final jump-off, they acknowledged that they were members of a regular band who had a large number of stolen horses on the Columbia somewhere above Wallula, and that there had just been a fight among the members of the band, in which one had been killed. During the same week the famous hanging of "Slim Jim" was consummated from a tree which still stands in the southern part of town. He was charged with having assisted "Six-toed Pete" and Waddingham to escape from the county jail. The author of this work derived much of his information in regard to the period of the Vigilantes from Richard Bogle and Marshall Seeke, both well known for many years in Walla Walla, now deceased, but all who were residents of the town during 1864 and 1865 are sufficiently familiar with the events of the time. They do not, however, seem to be inclined to talk very much about it. The general supposition is that the most prominent citizens of Walla Walla were either actively or by their support concerned in the organization. They had secret meetings and passed upon cases brought before them with great promptness, but with every attempt to get at the essential facts. In case they decided that the community would be better without some given individual, that individual would receive an intimation to that effect. In case he failed to act upon the suggestion within a few hours, he was likely to be found adorning some tree in the vicinity of the town the next morning. Although to modern ideas the Vigilantes seem rather frightful members of the judiciary, yet it is doubtless true that that swift and summary method of disposing of criminals was necessary at that time and that as a result of it there was a new reign of law and order.

The most famous of all the cases during that period, was that of Ferd Patterson. This famous "bad man" had begun his career in Portland by killing a captain in the Union army, as a result of an encounter which took place in one of the principal saloons of that city. This man, Captain Staple, lifted his glass and cried out, "I drink to the success of the Union and the flag!" Patterson was a southerner and when all the men about him lifted their glasses he threw his down exclaiming, "The Union and the flag be damned!" The other men cried out to Captain Staple, "Bring him back and make him drink!" The captain turned to follow Patterson, who was upon the stairs, and at the instant a revolver shot rang out and the captain fell with a bullet in his heart. Patterson, however, was acquitted on the ground of self-defense. In fact, like other professional "bad men," he was skilled in getting his opponent to draw first and then with his great quickness he would send a deadly shot before the opponent could pull his trigger. After several similar instances, Patterson came to Walla Walla and was located for a time at what is now called Bingham Springs. It was a station at that time on the main stage line between The Dalles and Boise, and had a good hotel, bath-house, and other conveniences for travelers. On a certain day there appeared at Bingham Springs the sheriff of Boise, whose name was Pinkham. Pinkham was a strong Union man and Patterson, as we have seen, just the reverse; and the two parties at that time were so well balanced that it was just a turn of the hand which would hold supremacy. Meeting Patterson one day, as he was just emerging from the bathing pool, Pinkham slapped him in the face. Patterson said, "I am alone today without my gun, but one of these days I will be fixed for you and settle this matter." Pinkham replied, "The sooner the better." A few days after this, Patterson walked up and slapped Pinkham. Both men drew their revolvers, but Patterson's shot took effect first, and another man was added to his long score. The brief item in respect to this Pinkham affray appears in the Walla Walla Statesman of July 28, 1865.

Some weeks passed by and Patterson came to Walla Walla where he was supported mainly by various light-fingered arts and gambling games in which he was an adept. It was considered by many that he was too dangerous a man to have in the community, but it was a very difficult matter to get any evidence against him. Very few dared to incur his enmity. Finally, a man named Donnehue, who was a night watchman in the town, took upon himself to try, convict, and execute the famous gambler all in one set of operations. It appears from the account given by Richard Bogle that between eight and nine o'clock on February 15, 1866, Patterson had entered his barber shop, which was then situated on Main Street, between Third and Fourth, as it would be at the present time. While the barber was engaged upon the countenance of the gambler, Donnehue entered and stood for some little time watching the operation, and just at the moment of completion of the combing of his hair, about which the gambler was very particular, Donnehue suddenly stepped up and shouted, "You kill me or I'll kill you." And at the same moment he let fly a bullet from his revolver. Patterson, who was a man of magnificent physique, although mortally wounded, did not fall but endeavored to reach his own gun; and while doing so, and in fact having gotten out upon the street, Donnehue emptied the revolver into the staggering form of his antagonist. Patterson died within a few minutes and Donnehue was arrested at once without resistance upon his part, and taken to jail. He was never tried, but soon after left town, with his pockets lined with gold dust, according to reports. It was generally supposed for many years that the Vigilantes had passed upon Patterson's case and had appointed Donnehue to execute their sentence in the only way that could be done without loss of somebody else's life. We are informed, however, by one of the most reliable old-timers in Walla Walla, a man still living, that the Vigilantes did not pass upon Patterson's case and that his death was pure murder on the part of Donnehue. However that may be, there is no question but that the community drew a long sigh of relief when it was known that Ferd Patterson had been retired from active participation in its affairs. With the death of Patterson, and the close of the Civil war, and still more as a result of the beginnings of farming, it may be said that the era of the Vigilantes came to an end. They gradually disbanded without anyone knowing exactly how or why, and by degrees there came to be established an ever-growing reign of law and order in Old Walla Walla.