4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL NOVEMBER 29, 2017
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History: Vigilante gunfi ght
In the 1890s,
47-year-old
Kelsay Porter
lived alone on a
remote farm in the foothills of the Wallowas, in
a tiny Union County community called Pine Val-
ley. He was a shy, timid bachelor who had moved
to this remote place for privacy, sometime in the
1880s. And for many years, he got his privacy,
and lived harmoniously with the few neighbors.
But then the Mache family moved in next door.
Ben and Mary Mache, with their 17-year-old
son Ben Jr., had blown into Pine Valley a few
months before, and already they had a reputation
in the community as “hard characters.” This was
especially the case with the younger Ben, who
carried a six-shooter and used it far more than was
considered appropriate. He didn’t use it to shoot
to kill — but he’d been known to send bullets
zipping past people’s ears to make his point. At
Christmastime in 1895 he had just been released
from the state prison, where he’d served a short
stretch for rustling cattle.
For Porter the problem was, the most con-
venient road to the Mache farm was a shortcut
across Porter’s land, which came within just a few
feet of his barn.
Porter’s initial request that the Maches use a
different route was ignored. So he built a fence
across it. The Maches tore the fence down. Porter
went to the justice of the peace to complain; the
justice told him to just ignore them, because there
was nothing the law could do about it.
But word of Porter’s complaint reached the
Maches, and infuriated them. The elder Ben
Mache threatened to kill Porter. Porter responded
by having a judge put him in bond.
By Finn JD John
For The Sentinel
Young Ben Jr. was not under bond, though, and
therefore could do as he wished without worry-
ing about losing his bond. So he decided to get
even, and he and a friend rode out to Porter’s farm
with their six-shooters drawn. They found Porter
working in his fi eld, and opened fi re — sending
bullets zipping by his ears and into the ground
near his feet. Terrifi ed, Porter ran and hid in his
house; thereupon, Ben and his friend leisurely
stole some horse tack from his barn and went on
their way.
It was after this incident that Kelsay Porter bor-
rowed a Winchester rifl e. He fi gured if the law
wouldn’t do anything, he’d better be ready to do
something himself.
Then came New Year’s Day in 1896.
The events of that day are still in some dispute.
There are two versions: the one Kelsay Porter
gave when he turned himself in later that day; and
the one the Union County coroner and sheriff de-
veloped after looking over the scene.
Here’s Porter’s version of the story:
On that day, the Maches were driving a sleigh
pulled by two horses, returning home to their
farm; Ben Jr. rode behind them. Porter was on the
roof of his house, clearing off snow. As the sleigh
passed his barn, Porter shouted at the Maches to
stay off his land.
“You lie!” retorted the elder Mache. “This is a
public highway. If you fence it up again, we’ll kill
you!”
Ben Jr. apparently thought this was his cue to
go into action, and he once again fi lled the air
around Porter’s ears with buzzing lead. Porter
jumped from the roof and again ran into his house
— but this time, he didn’t stay in it. He came out
with the Winchester ready to go, and he appears to
have gone clear berserk.
Ben Jr., sitting high on his horse, was the fi rst
to go down under a hail of Winchester lead, but
Porter didn’t stop there. The team bolted with the
sleigh; Porter followed after, still fi ring. A stray
bullet killed Mary Mache. Another hit one of the
horses and it fell dead, pitching Ben Sr.’s body
over into the creek.
Porter continued shooting into the now-dead
bodies of his neighbors until all of his bullets were
gone — there were 18 bullet wounds found in the
Maches, plus the one that hit the horse.
So, that was Kelsay Porter’s story, and he was
sticking to it. But after traveling out to the farm
from Union City, coroner E.R. Lang and sheriff’s
deputy J.H. McLachlin started to suspect some-
thing fi shy about his story. Dr. Lang fi gured out
that Ben Sr. had actually been killed not by gun-
fi re, but by being clobbered with something —
probably the rifl e butt. So Porter had chased Ben
Sr. down, and beat him to death? And then stood
over his obviously dead victims thumbing car-
tridges into the side of the Winchester for a good
45 seconds, then squared off and blasted away
some more. Why? Because he was still blind with
battle fury? Or to stage the scene so it looked
more like a gunfi ght?
Also, the deputy found, looking on that roof,
that much of the snow on it was packed down,
and it looked an awful lot like someone had been
lurking there waiting for the sleigh to come along.
From up on that roof, Porter would have been able
to see, and shoot, a good long distance.
Had Porter actually waited there, shot the boy
from ambush before he could reach pistol range,
then chased after the parents as they tried to race
away on the sleigh, picking Mary off and then
shooting a horse to stop their fl ight? Had he then
run up to the wreckage, clubbed Joseph to death
with his empty rifl e, reloaded, and pumped eight
more rounds into the dead body so that it would
look like a fair fi ght?
What he saw at the scene convinced the deputy
that this was the real story. The real turning point
was the fi nding of how Ben Sr. had died. Had
“Old Man Mache” been killed in an exchange of
bullets, with his notoriously trigger-happy son in-
volved, no one would have made much of a fuss
— not in eastern Oregon in 1896. And they prob-
ably would have viewed the shooting of Mary
Mache as a tragic accident. But chasing a man
down and bashing his head in with a rifl e butt was
not the sort of thing a fellow can claim was done
in self-defense.
In the end the jury agreed, and sentenced Kel-
say Porter to hang for murdering the family.
As the day of the execution drew near, Porter
remained true to his shy, quiet nature. He gave
no interviews and declined to say anything to the
crowd of gawkers that stared up at him as he stood
on the gallows on Friday, Nov. 9, 1897; he went to
his death silent as a sphinx. But he wrote a short
letter, just before his execution, and handed it to
a Presbyterian minister to be released after his
death.
“This is my last request on Earth,” he wrote.
“The real cause of my trouble is the way children
are raised to live too easy, regardless of the law of
justice and right. Parents, please raise your chil-
dren with a principle that will defend their char-
acter.”
In other words, he was blaming everything on
Ben and Mary Mache’s parenting style.
Dr. Fuhrman:Osteoporosis and how to prevent it
About 60 percent of women
and 40 percent of men over 50
have low bone mass, and those
numbers increase with age. The
National Osteoporosis Founda-
tion estimates that 50% of wom-
en and 25% of men over 50 will
have an osteoporosis-related
fracture during their lifetime.
Bone is constantly being bro-
ken down and rebuilt, and in os-
teoporosis, there is an imbalance
leading to a decrease in bone
mass and an increase in fracture
risk. The best protection against
osteoporosis is to tip the balance
back toward bone building with
a combination of exercise and
excellent nutrition
Exercise: When we increase
muscle strength, we increase
bone strength, which is why
strength training is important.
Mechanical forces produced by
exercise stimulate activity in
bone-building cells, leading to
denser, stronger bones – not just
stronger muscles. Weight-bear-
ing exercises improve balance
and build bone strength, and
non-weight bearing strength
training also helps increase
bone density. While swimming
and biking are good for car-
diovascular conditioning, they
don’t help protect against oste-
oporosis like running or lifting
weights. In women who are at
a risk for osteoporosis, back
strengthening exercises are es-
pecially benefi cial for protec-
tion against spinal fractures.
For women, I also recommend
wearing a weighted vest for a
few hours each day. A weighted
vest can be worn during exer-
cise and also while you work or
shop and bend, stand, and move
C ottage G rove
S entinel
(541) 942-3325
throughout the day. Wearing a
weighted vest also burns extra
calories, increases core strength
and stabilizes muscles, thus im-
proving balance and decreasing
the risk of falls.
Calcium from greens, seeds
and beans: Ninety-nine percent
of the body’s calcium is stored
in bone. The intermingling
of bone mineral with colla-
gen fi bers provides bone with
strength and fl exibility. A diet
full of natural plant foods pro-
vides the calcium required to
build strong bones. Green veg-
etables in particular are rich cal-
cium sources. For example, one
four-ounce serving of steamed
kale has just as much calci-
um as one cup of cow’s milk.
Broccoli, bok choy, sesame
seeds, and garbanzo beans are
also excellent calcium sources.
Furthermore, the body absorbs
about 50 percent of the calcium
in many green vegetables, com-
pared to only 32 percent of the
calcium in milk. I don’t recom-
mend high-dose (1000 mg/day)
calcium supplements, because
some studies have linked these
supplements to an increased risk
of cardiovascular disease, and
high dose calcium supplements
have not been superior to lower
doses in studies on preventing
bone fractures.
Magnesium from nuts and
seeds: Calcium is important, but
it’s not the only bone-building
mineral. Sixty percent of the
body’s magnesium, which is es-
sential for bone formation and
structure, is found in bone. Al-
most half of Americans do not
meet the recommended intake
for magnesium.
Vitamin K1 from green veg-
etables: Vitamin K is a crucial
component for maintaining
healthy bones, specifi cally for
the process of bone mineraliza-
tion. Higher intake of vitamin
K1 is associated with lower
rates of bone loss and fractures.
Vitamin K exists as K1 and K2;
the richest source of K1 is green
vegetables, and K2 is produced
by microorganisms. It is import-
ant to get both K1 from green
vegetables and K2 from a sup-
plement.
Plant protein from beans,
seeds, and nuts: Starting in mid-
life and especially after the age
of 70, it becomes more import-
ant to ensure adequate protein
intake for healthy bones. Phy-
tate from beans, whole grains,
nuts and seeds: Phytate was
once known as an “anti-nutri-
ent,” a substance that prevents
us from absorbing certain min-
erals, however the phytate in
plant foods might actually ben-
efi t bone health. Studies have
found that women who con-
sume more phytate had either
greater bone mineral density or
less bone mass loss over time.
Antioxidant-rich fruits and
vegetables: The best foods for
bone health are whole plant
foods. Studies show that indi-
viduals with the highest con-
sumption of fruit and vegetables
have the strongest bones. High-
er levels of oxidative stress are
linked to lower bone mineral
density, suggesting that the an-
tioxidant content of fruits and
vegetables may be partially re-
sponsible for their bone health
benefi ts.
Bone-healthy supplements:
The major source of vitamin D
for most people is sun exposure,
and vitamin K2 is not easily ob-
tained from plant foods. It is im-
portant to get adequate amounts
of these bone-supporting vita-
mins, and supplements are use-
ful. Vitamin D regulates calci-
um and phosphorus absorption.
The worst foods for bone health
are those that cause calcium to
be removed from bone and lost
Administration
James Rand, Regional Publisher
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Editorial
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zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Customer Service
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Production
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in the urine. Excess sodium pro-
motes the excretion of calcium.
High caffeine intake is associ-
ated with increased bone loss
and osteoporotic fractures. A
nutrient-dense, plant-rich (Nu-
tritarian) diet, combined with
the conservative use of supple-
ments assures individuals they
are achieving maximum protec-
tion against later life disease.
LETTER TO
THE EDITOR
According to Cottage
Grove Sentinel article the re-
cent waterline rupture caus-
ing some homeowners dam-
age to their properties is not
the City's fault and therefore
the affected folks are stuck
with the clean up bills and
their homeowners insurance
probably wont help them ei-
ther for needed repairs. Per
City's manager, Mr. Meyers
stated that city will not help
these tax paying citizens.
He quotes that an investiga-
tion done by City / County
Insurance Services declared
that there was no negligence
on the city's part. Perhaps no
negligence but the city still
owns the equipment, i.e. the
waterline.His reasoning that
maybe in the future there
may be some kind of disaster,
perhaps an earthquake and
maybe some people may sue.
Very lame explanation if you
ask me. According to Meyers
he doesn't want " open legal
can of worms". I feel very
sorry for the affected home-
owners. If a law suit is in the
cards for them, then maybe
they can all chip in and get
the legal representation they
need for all of them. I just
wonder if any of the City's
upper management folks
lived in this affected neigh-
borhood then the outcome
as far as help would be dif-
ferent?
Susan Zaji
Cottage Grove
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