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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2021)
Wednesday Wednesday, October 13, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Tillman Glaze’s fiddle. Prineville Sheriff James Blakely life for many years. Till¾s Prineville. Till¾s brother Joe a summer evening. There¾s a defense. When the man¾s thought he couldn¾t get a fair fence around Glaze Meadow with Till¾s brother Joe. Mossy later turned himself in to the new county seat in Prineville and was released with a verdict of self-defense. But many accounts written of those years tie Mossy to the reign of the Prineville Vigilantes. In 1902, 20 years after the events occurred, a Portland newspaper article called it <Crook County¾s Reign of Terror.” The Prineville Vigilantes started from a stockman¾s association for protection from cattle thieves, but somehow evolved into masked men who left a skull and crossbones death notice on the doors of their enemies, and then killed and hung them from bridges and juniper trees. Nine or more people in Prineville were killed. A d e e p e r d iv e in to accounts from that time revealed that Mossy Barnes was believed to be one of the Vigilantes. Despite his folksy name, Mossy Barnes was no poor country boy. He was James Morse Barnes, the son of Elijah Barnes, one of the founders and first mayor of Prineville. Elijah Barnes was understandably bitter because his first ranch in Prineville was lost to the government¾s land grant to Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon-Road Company. He was not compensated and the road company was accused of some fraud, not completing the roadwork promised. Elijah never recovered from the unfairness of it. Mossy, his father, Elijah, and his brother George were described as a “fighting family,” and accounts alleged that young Mossy helped carry out a plan to pick a fight with Mike Mogan after a poker game, to create a quarrel and kill him. Mossy claimed the shooting was in self-defense, but the dying man identified the gun Mossy used as belonging to a leader of the Prineville Vigilantes. Some accounts accused Mossy of other Vigilante murders. Mossy was advised to hide out at Glaze Meadow. Public opinion was first with the Vigilantes due to frustrations with lax local Tillman Glaze enforcem law enforcement. When the new county seat was formed in Prineville in 1883, the appointed county officers and court officials were nearly all Vigilantes. Mossy returned from his Glaze Meadow hideout and was acquitted by reason of self-defense. After a string of killings in Prineville, the public and local rancher James Blakely had had enough. When the Vigilantes threatened him with death, Blakely formed “The Moonshiners,” citizens who rode in the moonlight looking for the masked riders. Then the Vigilantes threatened they would break up the Moonshiners gang for good. But many had joined Blakely, and the Moonshiners were 75 strong the night of a showdown at Glaze¾s saloon. orted to have Till Glaze is reported tried to stay neutral in the dispute, considering Blakely a friend. In 1884 The Oregonian reported that Blakely said, “The gang members were looking out the windows of Till Glaze¾s saloon, I was fighting mad, and so were the rest of us. We were ready to fight it out right there. »If you think you can stop us, come on out and try it!¾ I hollered at the gang.” They didn¾t come out, and it¾s said that on that night the Vigilantes power was broken and they never rode again. A few months later, James Blakely was elected sheriff. The stories of Mossy Barnes disappear after that. His father, Elijah, still bitter over the loss of his claim, moved back to Missouri. Brother George, a lawyer, died in a gunfight in Canyon City. In 1889, Till sold Glaze Meadow to his friend, the new Prineville sheriff James Blakely, who reportedly used the cabin in Sisters as a retreat. Then, in 1894, Till got into a dispute over a horse race in Burns and died in a saloon shootout. He and many of his family rest together in Juniper Haven Cemetery in Prineville. Till¾s gun and beloved violin are at the Bowman Museum, carefully protected 13 by family and friends for 130 ye years. The beautifully tooled le leather case is a marvel and ha the words “Till Glaze has P Prineville” carved on the co cover. The violin is inlayed w a shell flower. with And 13 years after his su summer of fence-building at G Glaze Meadow, 36-year-old M Mossy hung himself in the upstairs of his family¾s house in Prineville, a house that still st stands today. Historian Steve L at the Bowman Museum Lent and I agreed we don¾t really be believe in ghosts, but then St Steve paused and said “But...” He explained that in his 20 ye years at the museum at least 12 renters of the Barnes house ha come in asking, “What had happened in this house?” They reported sightings of a man sitting in the house and walking the hallways. Today if you wander the wild reaches of Glaze Meadow, there is no trace of Till¾s cabin, but a small piece of Mossy¾s fence still stands. And on the right summer evening in July, you may think you hear a ghostly violin tune as spirits of the wild and tragic West gather and the moon rises. NOW W O OFFERING...”DESHROOMS!” FFF E R IN NG ... .””D E S H R O O M S !” Indoor-grown, Indo oo r-- g r o w n , healthy, h e allt h y,, fancy, f a ncyy , and a nd delicci o uss delicious M U S H R O O M S ! MUSHROOMS! 243 N. Elm St., Sisters 541-549-8198 WE DELIVER! MEAT S, GAME ALASKAN SEAFOOD CHEESES SANDWICHES BEER, WINE, CIDER 110 S. 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