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Hill Beachey dreamed that his best friend had been assassinated, but how could he prove the crime?
Une October night in 1863, Hill Beachey
awakened from a horrible nightmare. He
had dreamed he was in Montana's Bitterroot.
Mountains and had seen a man split Lloyd Ma
gruder's skull with an ax and toss his body into
a deep ravine.
Beachey tried to brush the dream aside, but it
tormented him until he told his wife about it
Maggie Beachey rebuked her husband and pleaded
with him to forget it.
"Lloyd Magruder has been murdered," Beachey
insisted angrily, "and I won't rest until I track
down his killers."
Beachey was one of the first settlers of Lewiston,
Idaho. He had come there from California with
Magruder, who started a general store in Elk City.
Magruder was Beachey's closest friend. The Elk
City merchant had come to him in July saying he
was taking some merchandise 300 miles to miners
on Grasshopper Creek in Montana and would re
turn in a couple of months.
That was not unusual in 1863. Merchants often
took wagon trains of merchandise hundreds of
miles over trails to mining settlements. But ever
since Magruder had hit the trail, Beachey. had
feared his friend was in terrible danger.
Beachey's fears increased a few days after Ma
gruder left when he saw four of the town's worst
ruffians set out on the trail. Beachey was sure
they were out to get Magruder after he exchanged
his merchandise for gold dust. Now, with Ma
gruder due back, had come the disturbing night
mare which he couldn't forget.
A few nights after the dream, Beachey remained
longer than usual at his stagecoach office. He saw
a tall man, his coat collar pulled high and hat brim
riding low to hide his face, purchase four tickets
for Walla Walla, Wash.
Beachey rushed outside just as the stagecoach
was pulling away, but he caught a glimpse of the
four men's faces and recognized them as the ruffi
ans he had seen leaving Lewiston shortly after
Magruder. Beachey shouted for the driver to stop,
but the wind drowned out his voice.
Beachey was sure the men were running away
with Magruder's gold, and told his dream to all '
who would listen. But they laughed at him and
said Magruder wasn't dead. Someone from Elk
City had reported that Magruder's wife had re
ceived a letter saying he wouldn't be home for
another week or 10 days.
One morning a wagon train was sighted coming
down the old Nez Perce trail. Everyone
thought it was Lloyd Magruder and rushed
to meet him, but it wasn't the storekeeper. The
wagonmaster said Magruder had left Montana
ahead of him and should have reached Lewiston a
week before.
"That's it!" cried Beachey. "Magruder is dead!
Murdered just as I saw it in my dream."
He went to the governor of Idaho Territory and
persuaded him to issue requisitions on the Pacific
states and territories calling for the return of the
wanted men to Lewiston for trial.
Beachey himself set out to track down those he
believed had murdered Magruder. He hurried to
Walla Walla and found the quartet had left four
days before for Portland. He pushed on toward
Portland, traveling on foot, horseback, in stage
coaches, rowboats, and riverboats.
At each stop Beachey learned the men were just
ahead of him. Everywhere they were losing heav
ily at cards, but they always seemed to have plenty
of gold dust
In Portland he learned the men had sailed for
San Francisco two days before. They had told of
plans to sail for New York or South America. An
other steamer wouldn't leave Portland for 10 days.
The nearest telegraph line to San Francisco was
Yreka, 400 miles south over mountain roads.
Beachey traveled the 400 miles in less than four
days, using every type of conveyance available.
He telegraphed a description of the four men to
San Francisco police with a request to hold them.
In San Francisco, Beachey found the quartet
detained on an old robbery charge. He hired an
attorney to represent Idaho Territory and the legal
barriers finally were cleared. Then he hired special
guards and returned to Lewiston with his prisoners.
Once home, Beachey realized he had no real
evidence. Magruder was missing, but there was
no proof that he had been murdered.
He made a final desperate attempt to wring a
confession from the men, who were being held
under heavy guard. Four nooses were erected,
and one by one, at one-hour intervals, the men
were led from their quarters.
The last of the prisoners, William Page, an old
teamster, was near collapse when the guards called
for him. He thought the others had been hanged.
Beachey told Page he believed him less guilty
than the others and that he still could save himself
by turning state's evidence. As they approached
the nooses, Page poured out the grisly details of
the murder of Lloyd Magruder.
Magruder's head had been split with an ax in
the Bitterroot Mountains and his body tossed into
a ravine where it was covered with swirling snow
just as Beachey had dreamed the crime.
After a fair trial, three of the quartet were
hanged for the murder of Lloyd Magruder. Page
was let off because he took no actual part in the
slaying, but little more than a year later he was
killed in a drunken brawl.
As for Hill Beachey, residents of Idaho Territory
never doubted him again.
Family Weekly, September 21, 195 7