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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 1914)
Twenty-eight ; Pages East Oregoni&n Round-Up Souvenir Edition Pendleton, Oregon, Friday, September, 25, 1914 Page Five , A Fir$t Hand Story of the Mo$t Dramatic Event of the Early West. F 1 TME SAIN FRANCISCO VJGJLAINTES . - , One of the mod, interesting chap ten in the history of the went 1h per taining to the period when the prim itive law machinery broke down, or proved Ineffective, and the Vigilantes took the law into their own hunda. There are many Bectlone of the west where vigilance .committees were formed, Umatilla, county being in the llHt. But the orlglnul Vigilantes of the west operated In Sun Francisco short ly after the great gold rush of 49. Thnt was the flrnt great migration to the west. Alpng w ith the honest gold xeekers vthere came gamblers, rob bers and murderers of every hue. It was not long until they made life in tolerable to Iuw abiding men and uteps were taken to restore order and decency. Edward F. Flint of San Francisco was the youngest member of the Vigi lantes of 1851 and he is said to be the preseut sole survivor of that organi zation, lie recently wrote a story till ing of the work of the committee and it appeared In a Hun Francisco publi cation. The story In full follows: San Francisco has experienced muny unusual happenings, such events as try men's souls, and in every instance there have been found men capable of coping with each situation, regard less of how trying It may have been and notwithstanding the dangers to which the individual may have been exposed. The citizenry of San Fran cldco truly have been tcHled with fire, and sword, and have emerged ennob led by the daring of their deeds, their culm consideration In the most trying clrcumxtances, their deep sense of justice and firm unflinching Judg ment. After fifty-eight yeara I recall vividly the minutest details of one of the moot strenuous epochs in the his tory of this throbbing city on the shores of the Pacific, a period when men strong and stern were required to stive the city from the threatening dominance of organized and thor oughly entrenched bands of criminals. I am tho only survivor of the Execu tive Committee of the Vigilance Com mittee of 185 and was Its youngest member, and by reason of my mem bership played a part demanded by duty and by every sense of Justice In the momentous happenings of those days, especially the trial and execu tions of Cora and Casey and the ar rent and Imprisonment of the Hon. Inivid S. Terry, chief jiiHtice of the su preme court of California. On two occasions 1J became nepes ry fur the people of Hun Francisco, through the Vigilance Committee, tn take charge of the administration of justice, to strike terror to the hearts of evildoers, and to encourage and asKift all who desired good govern ment. The affairs of the municipality were In the control of corruptionlHtfl( and these conscienleaa characters sur rounded themselves with an even more criminal class, many of them excon victs, end continued to, control by In timidation and ballot-box stuffing. The vigilance committee of 1851 was called Into being by a condition of law lesHiiess and violence which had grown out of the influx of bad men attract ed to California from all parts of the world by the opportunity offered literally to pick up gold in our moun tains and valleys. While the immi gration of 1860 largely was of business men and mechanics from the Eastern and Middle states of our country, and the better class of foreigners, very many never visited the mines but set tled In San Frunclsco, Sacramento, Stockton and Marysville. In 1851 those who were In San Francisco were too much absorbed In other activities tn give attention to the city govern ment, and It fell Into the hands of in ferior and often bad men. In the win ter of 1850-51 many men of the de praved and criminal class were drawn from the mlnea to San Francisco, where gambllng-hnuses were running day and night, and all kinds of vici ous Indulgence were carried on open ly. There also arrived many former convicts from Sydney, Australia, which wu the penal colony of Great T'rltaln, and muny acts of violence were laid to these "Sydney Ducks," as w'e Milled them. One morning In February, 1(151, the community was shocked to learn that a murderous at tuck had been made during the nlk'lit on a merchant numed Jansen in his store In Jackson street. He had been left for dead, but his Injuries proved less serious than at flrnt supposed. An exconvlrt was arregted on suspic ion of the crime and although there was great excitement about his trial he proved an alibi and was released. May 3, 1851, there was a fire which destroyed nearly the entire city, and l! was believed generally the the con flagration was of incendiary origin A bitter feeling existed toward the class of men naturally suspected of the deed and, when another fire fol lowed In June, maps meetings were held, and a Committee of Vigilance was organized. William T. Coleman, a prominent merchant, was chosen president and executive officer of the committee. He was a born leader, brave In confronting evil at peril of life, bold In deciding a course of ac tlon. and prompt in carrying It out. Within thirtv days four men were han'(l ut nlnht In Buttery rtreet. which was on the water front, about twenty bud characters were banished. jnnd a large number fled the cltv. Such ' swift justice hud a salutary effect, but HR:iln the people became lax In their I confederation of municipal affairs, and iiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii:iiiii!iiiiiiititiiitii:iiii:!i!!iiiii::iiiiiiiiiiii!i:i;i!ii!iii:i!!!:ni!ii ., . fit , - V IIS . B . J . " . " --" - fW , ,v-, v ., y, ,,- . .. ;i-!'r .... -V"'n4-;;;vi''" " m .... - m I. 1 -., vv (r i . f. ! i DOMESTIC LAUC3BRV I Eastern Oregon's finest laundry n I J Nothing but the most moclefrt machinery B fj None but the most competent employees. I With our new collar moulder just installed, we 5 have made a great improvement in the laun- dering of collars. 5 By our new method we so launder col lar that if j top edge, where it it tamed over, is not "sharp but slightly rounded giving more spate all along between the inside 'and outside of the collar where the tie slides. Old Way New Way This new method prevents the edges of the collars from cracking and eliminates all need of yanking your ties. No distance too far for us to receive bundles. I Telephone 60 Pendleton, Oregon In the year 1855 "a mun for breakfast" wan the usual order of things. Crime was rampant. James King of Wil liam, a prominent citizen, established the Evening Bulletin, with the avowed purpose of exposing the conditions that existed, .and so vigorous were its attacks and scathing Its denunciation that the paper was read universally, and, naturally, its editor Incurred the ill-will .of the criminal class. in November, 185G, United States Marshal Itlchardson was killed by Charles Cora, a gambler and notorious character, In Clay street, near Lelds dorff. Cora was arrested near the scene of the murder, and taken to the county Jail. When he was brought to trial In the district court I was a member of the jury Impaneled to try the case. Owing to the Intense feel ing throughout the city. Judge Nor ton ordered that the Jury be kept to gether during the trial, and conse quently we were boarded at a hotel and kept away from our families for eleven -days. The Jury disagreed, all but one voting "Oullty of Murder in the First degree." We were all aware that the one who held out had been bribed. In commenting on thN miscarriage of Justice the Bulletin said it was not tioejtpected, .a criticism we felt keenly, for the pury was com posed, wlih oie exception, of some oi the foremost business men of the city. With renewed vigor Mr. King de nounced the negligent officers of the law and the ballot box Bluffers. At the previous election James P. Casey hud been chosen supervisor with the aid of the criminal element and the manipulation of the ballot boxes, which were provided with false sides and bottoms, as we afterward learned. The Bulletin of May 1 4, 185. pub lished Casey's record as an ex-convict from the New York state prison. Casey went to the Bulletin office and demanded of King the reason for at tacking him. to which King replied: "Is It not true?" "What has that to do with It?" hotly rejoined Casey; but Editor King would not argue the matter with him and showed him the door. Casey de parting in a rage. An hour or so later King: left the Bulletin office in Montgomery street, between Clav and Merchant, and was proceeding-toward his residence when Casey encountered him near the corner of Washington frtreet, and without warning drew a Pistol and shot King In the breast Some of King's friends, w ho had fear ed violence at the hands of Casey, heard tho shot and hurried to King s assistance. Casey evaded them and ran up Merchant street toward the city hall, at Kearny and Merchant streets, where a hack was waiting for him, and in a few minutes he had tak en refuge in the county Jail, the offi cers of which were his friends. The news of the shooting of King spread like wild-fire, and in a very short time a large crowd had assembled around the Jail and appointed a guard to pre vent me escape of Casey. The sheriff also summoned all his available force to protect the Jail from possible as sault. The multitude became greatly excited, and bold proposals were made to storm the Jail and take Casey out and hang him. Mayor Van Ness ap peared and addressed the people, counseling peace, but the crowd was yet mindful of the killing of Marshal Bichurdson by Cora, and the failure of Justice in that instance. 'There are too many hung Juries and too few hung mcnl" the crowd shouted. In the meantime some of the mem bers of the Pioneer Society had met in their rooms on the corner of Wash ington and Kearny streets, and In less than an hour a large concourse w-as on hand to discuss the situation. It w-as not long before It was decided to form a Vigilance Committee, and Mr. Coleman, president of the Committee of 1S51, was summoned to be Its ex ecutive officer. The agreement that was drawn up pledged each 6igned to stand by the others. News of the for mation of the committee spread with amazing rapidity, and men literally streamed into the headquarters to sign their names to the roll. It was some time before I learned of the ex istence of the committee, and I was No. 750 on the roll. The following day the list contained several thousand names, " Anticipating etroflg t'ppusltion to th committee, It w decided to arm a se lect lot of members, including a ma jority of the military companies, whose members had almost universally Join-I d Ihe committee, and within forty- j eight hours after the shooting ot j Editor King there were two thousand five hundred armed men, drilling, ! principally at night. In the vicinity of ! the committee's headquarters, which had been established in Sacramento i street, below Front street, where cells had been prepared for the confine-1 ment of prisoners. The entrance to the building was protected by bags filled with sand piled in a seml-clrcle six feet high, which gave it the name of Fort Gunny Bags, and it was here that the most tragic events In the ex istence of the committee were staged. The old bell on top of the building was there to summon the good citi zenship of tho city at Its very first clang; all were prepared, lest Its ring ing be the sounding of a deth-knell. As the life of King hung In the bal ance, tho indignation and determi nation of the people to right their wrong grew npnee, but they were re strained from drastlo action by the as surance that Cnsey would be taken from the custody of tho sheriff and by the commit4 . Those opposed to the Vigilance Committee, and there were many highly respected citizens who did not accord with the views of our organi zation, met and called themselves the Iitiw and Order Tarty, and, of course. . ill. nJ f 'mm y 14 New 1915 Buicks have been sold and delivered by us during the last six weeks an &uto sales record in the Round-Up city if you want an uninterrupted return . on your investment. if you want a car with the greatest climbing power and lowest upkeep cost You are looking for a Buick KVEKY BUCK FILLY EQIIPPED. Improved Delco starting and lighting system Longer wheel base Wider doors More Luxurious upholstering The last word In snappy, stream line bodies Automatic spark device .Stewart-Werner gravity feed vacuum system Extra tire, Inner tube and tire cover Weed chains Non-skid tires on rear Fully equipped, even to the number brackets. New style electric headlight, with dimmer attachment." Electric tail lamp. Combination electric instrument board and trouble lamp with extension. All lamps black, nickel trimmed; electric horn; high grade speedometer; robe-rail and foot rest; one extra demountable rim; front and rear license plate hangers; new style adjustable tire irons in rear; complete set of tools, including jack, pump and tire repair kit; high-grade mohair top with new style Inside operating side curtains and dust hood; new style rain vision ventilating windshield. Proven the most popular and serviceable car for Eastern Oregon roads by thorough test. Buick Prices, Fully Equipped F. O. B. Pendleton C-2i Buick Koadster; 2S II. P. C-25 Buick Touring Car; 28 II. P. C-3C Buick BoaJster; 37 II. P. C-S7 Buick Touring Car; 37 It P. (l-ho Buick 6 Cvl. Touring; 55 IL P. ?1100 .$1150 .91400 .$1450 .91800 THE OREGON MOTOR GARAGE Telephone 468 B. F. TROMBLEY, Prop. 119-121 W.CourtSt. t mmmm " n-T-Wii -p- T.-t J Hal t t l it -3 1 ::r mm RiipQii f tow We Buy the best Bluestem Wheat regardless of cost. If you are looking for a Cheap Flour, don't buy Blue Ribbon. v Byers Turkey-Red Flour makes morebread to the sack. Made from Eastern Hardwheat Round-Up Flour A high grade flour at a lower price FARMERS ATTENTION Big Bend Bluestem and Eastern Turkey-Red SEED WHEAT For Sale at Cost The Pendleton Roller Mills M Er-3 EH Ok Illllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!llllil!l!llllllllllll!lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllli;illll7 (Continued on Page Fourteen)