The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-11-13
How a Sheriff Treated a Mob.

David Cotton, california millionaire,
died recently in gan Francisco, aged
forty-seven. He was born in Monson,
Me-, was taken by lis parents to Gales
burg, ILL.,, in early life, and while yetta
minor went to California during the days
of the gold excitement. Soon after bis
arrival there he aided in the capture oi
an Indian chief who had murdered two
miners, and for this act Of courage he
was in time made sheriff of Siskiyou
county, which Office he held four years,
and during an exciting period of border
life on the Pacific slope. The following
incident shows how he met the attempt
of a mob OF miners to rescue two of their
companions from jail:
They assembled in the evening, two
hundred in number, and marched up to
the jail. They demanded that the donrs
be opened. The jail-keeper referred
them to the sheriff, and asked for time.
It was granted, no one dreaming of re.
sistance. The sheriff was sent for. he
came. but to the surprise OF all declined
to surrender the prisoners. he was
sheriff, 80 he said, "and was sworn to
preserve the law"
The mob laughed derisively at first.
It was joke. He must yield, so they
declared, and if wise, would yield grace.
fully. But the sheriff was in dead
earnest. He said: "You can't come
in unless you kill me first" This
speech put an end to the laughter, at
least, for the matter looked serious
The miners had not come to kill sheriff,
nor with the expectation of being
obliged to do it. But they had come to
get their man, and him they would not
go away without. So a parley ensued,
and in the meantime his under sheriff,
Major White, slipped a pistol into the
sheriff's hand. Up to that moment he
had been unarmed. There was more
talk and more threats. The crowd said:
$50 about your business and don't make
fool of YOURSELF" and the sheriff re-
iterated the statement that he "stood
upon the law and his duty, and that the
door should not be entered save across
his dead body" Here was deadlock
neither would yield. At last it was
brought to an end by an angry miner,
who could stand it no longer, saying:
"Then die, you fool, if you insist on
it" cooking and presenting revolver.
Cotton did not wait for him to fire, but
banged away at the speaker, knocking
him over, and kept it up till his pistol
was empty, the crowd scampering off the
ground as fast as they could run, leav-
ing the sheriff for the moment in posses
sion of the building.
But they did not run far. They had
been taken by surprise, and now, for
the first time, were angry. They rallied
when out of range of the pistol, and
soon formed to march back, yowing ven-
geance. This time they would do more
than release a prisoner-they would
hang sheriff. And 80 they would have
done bat for the fact that the law-abid-
ing citizens OF Yreka had now come to
the defense of the jail, and the sheriff
was in force sufficient to beat off the
attack. The mob was driven away,
leaving several deed, and carrying with
them still more wounded. The front of
the jail, where Cotton stood when he
first opened fire, was marked with nearly
hundred balls, yet he received only
two, and these only triaing wounds. 1t
is almost needless to add that no prison
ers we're ever afterward taken out of
Siskiyou county Jail, either to be hanged
or liberated, and the mob spirit through.
out the whole coast received most de-
cided check from the prompt and deter.
mined action of Sheriff Cotton, backed
up by his fellow-citizens of Yreka.
Upon the reception of the news Gov.
John Bigler at once appointed Cotton
to be brigadier general of militia for the
northern portion of the State.