The Nevada journal., 1856-11-14
Evidence
Taken before tie Coroner concerning The
death of w. w. WRIGHT and DAVID
JoHNsoN.-RePart Of the Jury.
stats OF CALIFORNIA, !


JoHNsoN.-Repars Of the Jury.
STATS OF CALIFORNIA,
County of Nevada. 3d.
On Coroner's Inquest, held by me,
John Grimes. on this 9TH day of Novem-
Der, A. d. 1856, upon the bodies of w.
w. Wright and David johnson, the fol-
lowing persons were sworn to act as
jurors under the law, to wit: John
Dixon, L. E. Beans, John Webber,
Charles Hall, II. A. Mills, Charles
Kent, John Mccoy A. S. Laird, Vim.
G. Harrington, Thos. Chambers, H.
Dawley, and A. E. Head; and the fol-
lowing was the testimony taken on said
inquest:
T. I. BALDwIN-On Monday, No
vembcr Sd, 1856, before noon, I came
into town; saw Lee Schell with
valise; Wallace Williams and myself
watched him; Williams got man to
follow him; there were two men named
Farley with Sehell; the three went to
Gold. Flat, near Wiggins' mill, and
Schell got horse from the Farley boys;
man named Brown watched him to the
Half Mile House on the Grass Valley
road Schell then struck off from the
main road to the head of Wolf Creek,
as l heard. In the evening, about 5
O'Clock p NJ, w. Williams was informed
of the horses being in Gold Ravine; he
came and told me, and went to Whig-
hams to tell him; he came back to my
nd 70 - al g. al I
told Williams that it would be better to
have another man with us, and he gave
his pistol to Joseph Vanhook, and we
three started then from Williams house
for the horses. We concluded that we
would hobble the horses, and let the
prisoners, or those escaped from the Jail,
mount before we hailed them. Will
liams went to Armstrong's house to get
rope, and prevailed on Armstrong to
come along; he got the rope and Arm
strong came with him; we then APP
preached to within about twenty steps
cf the horses; we saw two men stand
ing on the bank above the horses we
hailed them and they.answered us we
discovered that they were watching the
horses; one was A. L. Robinson, of
Hiscock Ravine, the other / knew, but
not his name. Robinson helped Will
liams to tie the horses feet, and then
Robinson and the man with him went
home, being unarmed Robinson said
they had watched the horses from about
noon. Robinson supposed, with us, that
the horses belonged to the prisoners,
Webster and the Farnsworths, who
broke jail the night before. After Rob-
inson left, Williams came back and
gave the orders, he acting, by common
consent, as the leader. He placed me
mmediatcly below the horses, in ditch
about eight feet deep, and distant about
forty or fifty feet below the horses the
others were placed behind trees, in ops
posite directions; the horses were right
in front Of the main road that led to
Buena Vista Ranch. Williams, Van
hook and Armstrong were on the oppo-
site side of the ravine from me; the
horses were fifty, sixty or seventy feet
from them, and they were directly op-
posite from them. [ had double-bar-
relied shot gun, and no other weapon
it was loaded, as near as | can recollect,
with fourteen pistol balls, seven balls in
each barrel; they were of the size of
ball for six inch Colts revolver; |
had no knife Or pistol. Wallace VIII
liams had, as far as | can ascertain, no.
thing but le-barrelled shot gun
he borrowed the gun from O. E. Green,
as he came to my house, and left it sit
ting by the fence until we came down.
| asked Williams what kind of arms he
was to have; he said he thought the
gun would suffice. Green told him that
the gun was loaded with small shot; he
said afterwards that he drew the wads
and put three pistol balls in each barrel
on top of the shot. Vanhook had no.
thing but Colts revolver, six inch l
think it was loaded. and not discharged
during the melee. Armstrong had
pistol, so he said it must have been
six-inch revolver; [ think that was the
size. We all took our positions, and
remained perfectly still; we were not
to hre until the prisoners mounted the
horses, and then NOT till Williams gave
| the word "Halt l'' and then we were to
spring ou. and take them, and if they
should run, we were to shoot them. In
about twenty minutes after we had been
there, heard footsteps coming from
towards Armstrong; house, through the
brush, in a northerly direction; l
thought there were two or three foot
steps; one man came up close to me
past the ditch where | was squatted
down; it was about 81 o'clock P. NJ,
and nearly dark the man passed within
sixteen or eighteen feet of me he went
up to the horses and spoke in low tone
and said, by God, the horses are here
yet !" He whistled low whistle twice,
when [ answered in whistle, and it
was also answered by whistle from the
place where ] heard the footsteps two
other men came up and passed within
eighteen or twenty feet of me, and went
up towards the horses where the first
man was standing then the three men
came hac ck fo n ,,oint ri0bt -, f-o,+ &c