The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-19
WILD MAN OF WISE RIVER
An Old-Timer Gives His Recol-
lections of Him.
HIS HATRED FOR INDIANS
dis Partner Was Killed by Them and
He Never Failed to Spot One
When He Got a Chance-A
Lifelong Revenge.

Great Falls, Dec. 1S.-"In looking over
my scrapbook yesterday said a Great
- ais old-timer, Il came across a clip
ping from the Standard of two years
ago Wnlcn gave an account of the cap
Ture OF Ted Pettingill, the wild man of
wise river. | say capture, in the figur-
dtlve sense only. as Pettingill had con-
scented to his capture and exhibition at
20 cents a look. Pettingill had been Iiv-
Ing the life of wild man in Silver Bow
county for years, and nothing what
ever was known of where he came from
or his reasons for living the life he did
knew Pettingill first 43 years ago.
ana as ne is now dead the little 1 can
tell OF his history can do not harm.
Z In 1854 George Pettingill came to
clark county, Wisconsin, from some
place In Vermont, and with a partner
went to trapping and hunting. In those
DAYS Pettingill was counted the strong
est man in all Wisconsin, and his deeds
of prowess in the hunting field were
hreside tales. He was intelligent and
a great reader, but had but little to
say to anyone. In 1857 his partner a
little German, whose name / forget,
was killed by the Chippewa Indians.
and from that time Pettingill became a
very demon in his pursuit and butchery
or that tribe. No matter where he
slghted an Indian, that Indian was his
meat, and the number he killed was es-
minated at all the way from so to 500.
People in Wisconsin at that time We're
not particularly worried about the fate
or poor Lo, and when one would be
found in the woods with a bullet
through his brain, no questions were
asked, and he was credited up to the
bloody account of George Pettingill
! After four years of this work, and
by the time he had the remaining In
dams almost dead of nervous prostra-
tion. people began to get a notion it
ought to be stopped, so one day after
he had shot an Indian from load of
wheat in plain sight of 80 people he was
arrested and placed in Jail at Neillsville
The Jail was not very strong one, and
before an hour had passed PettingiE
literally tore the jail to pieces and the
United States marshal who had him in
charge was forced to place him in irons
and move on to Chippewa Falls. From
ahere he was taken to La Crosse. and
given his choice of hanging or enlisting
he chose the latter, and in May. 1861
was enlisted in Company c, Thirtieth
Wisconsin. This was the last heard of
him for over 80 years until the account
of his doings in the Standard, to which
j refer.
There is another matter in connec-
ton with Pettingill which was curl
Gus coincidence. to say the least Dur
ing the time he lived in Clark county
ut was noticed that every spring after
the log drives a large amount of coun-
terfeit silver dollars We're found in cir
culation, and PettingilI was strongly
suspected of knowing something
about it. Along in 1868 "a line fence was
being built by Judge Race, now of |
Great Falls, and two Swedes who We're
digging the post holes uncovered eight |
quarts of counterfeit dollars, hidden |
away in glass jars, directly under what |
had been the fireplace in Pettingilfs |
cabin. The find created a good deal of |
excitement at the time, but as Pettingill |
was never heard of again the matter
was allowed to drop. Still | have often
thought about Pettingill and what he
done in all those 40 years.