The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-13
Csan Francisco CALI

I Inat pioneer element Which made the
early mining. staging and racing days
of the golden west memorable among
! the records of the nations growth.
The conditions were such that for for
| ty years California, Nevada, Oregon
and Idaho, with their stage lines criss-
| crossing and penetrating the rich,
] mountainous countries, offered the
most tempting inducements to high
/ waymen, and made necessary a system
/ OF treasure guarding that reached its
/ perfection on the Pacific slope.
! The shotgun messengers with
i whom this article has to deal, were,
] and still are. the very incarnation of
! human feariessness. They rode upon
! the front seat of the stage, one foot
! on the treasure box, one hand grasping
/ the lock and the other hand gently
! clasping the barrel of the sawed-off
4 shotgun, made expressly for the bust
ness of opposing the sudden and ever
expected attacks of desperate masked
robbers.
Mike Tovey, Eugene Blair, George
NJ. Haekett, Shotgun Jimmy" Brown,
| are names of probably the most IA
| nous shotgun messengers ever known.
II is with their actual experiences that
l the succeeding paragraphs deal. From
! surviving friends, from old letters and
| from other sources have been collected
the thrilling incidents that indicate but
a Fart of what these men and their
fellows went through in their danger
/ GUS and trying business. It is plain
fact, far more entertaining than fiction,
because persons are still living who
! Knew the men and remember the terri
! nc nights they had on lonely mountain
roads.
Mike Tovey, who was murdered by a
hlghwayman in Amador county on
July 10, 1893, after twenty-five years of
thrilling experiences as a shotgun mes
senger, had no peer as an indomitable
| ana absolutely fearless guardian of
treasure boxes His assassination
aroused intense feeling, and his funeral
attracted hundreds of people 20 the lit
| tie cemetery in Jackson, where he was
| laid to rest under a. great mound Of
| MOVERS He was native of Illinois, a
I SlX-Iooter, OF powerful build, with steel
gray eyes which few could elude His
friends were in every mining tow on
| the Pacific slope, for he was gene. us
10 fault, and good Story-teller,
! though he would never relate his own
! experiences.
In 1881 he had a sensational shooting
| hight with two robbers in western Ne
| vada- One of his friends has given the
| story On the Bodie stage" said he.
were Mike Tovey and a new extra
| the coach arrived ait the spot where the
other stage had been robbed TOvey got
| down and, by the light of a lantern.
round the mems tracks in the dusty
! road AS there was little travel at that
| time OF night the tracks were undis-
] turbed. They led along in the direction
| the stage was going. Every little while
IoVey would get off and make another
examination to see if the fellows had
! IeIt the road. Finally he had the stage
! stop at the fork where the Hall and
/ Simpkins road branched off. about ten
/ miles from the scene OF the robbery.
/ he took the lantern, leaving his shot
| gun on the drivers seat and again
stepped forward. Just as he reached
J the mead of the near leaders two shots
/ were fired almost simultaneously, miss
/ ing Tovey and killing the horse.
| Iovey dropped his lantern, darted
p4ck pehlnd the stage lights. and grab
! Deu ms gun. At the same instant ona
! OF the robbers yelled: You were irving
10 sneak up on US, were you?' and. with
1rlghtful oath, exclaimed: If there's
! a shot fired, We'll kill YOU ALL
IoVey called back, as though he
| were frightened: What are you kicking
! about? There's nobody talking about
shootlng but yourself. II you want
! anything, come out and get it, Then
! ne Whispered to the new guard to slip
out on the other side of the stage and
attend to the robber over there while
he looked out for the one on his side.
| The robber approached slowly in the
I darkness, and, when he got to the
/ shoulder of the wheel horse. Tovev shot
MIN dead. The temporary guard scram-
/ oled behind the stage and let off both
barrels, but missed his man. Tovey
/ hurried round and was in the act of
firing when Sharp, the other robber.
pulled his trigger and put a bullet
through ToVey's arm, causing him to
( crop his gun, which went off when il
struck the ground
/ Sharp sprang back into the brush.
and everybody thought he had escaped.
When Tovey examined his arm by the
stage lights the blood was gushing from
it so freely that it seemed an artery
was severed and that attention must be
given it at once.
The temporary guard, who couldn't
shoot straight. and one of the passen-
gers started with TOvey for a farm
house close by, where his arm was
dressed. They had got but a few hun
dred yards from the coach when the
other robber, who had been lying low
and listening, stepped no to the coach
and ordered the driver to throw out the
express box. He then coolly proceeded
to smash the box open. Tovey. weak
and almost fainting now from loss of
blood, heard the significant sound of
the AK, and pleaded to be led back
so that he could get shot ct the man.
t1ndlng that of no use, he SWore at
the new guard, and called him all kinds
OF a coward but could not induce him
10 return aid tackle the fellow. The
robber took $3.50 from the box. withou,
paying any attention to his dead part
re=
"On May 2 1892, Tovey was shot al
from ambush near Sheep Ranch. in
Calaveras county. and he returned the
fire. During the fusillade young cir
passenger was killed outright, while
the driver was so badly wounded that
II was feared for a while that he would
die TOVey escaped with a shattered
arm. He jumped from the stage during
the lighting and pursued the man. but
did not get him. Many people thought
it was Sharp. who had been released
from prison and had long before vowed
that he would kill Tovey.
a few minutes past o'clock on the
, evening of June Is, 1888 a man cam,
dashing into Jackson behind a fOamins
horse and shouted the startling new,
that the stage from lone had been at
tackled on the Morrow grade. about fv,
miles from Jackson, by a lone high
wayman. who had murdered Mike To
vey, shot the driver, Dewitt Clinton
Radcliffe, and two of The horses. Tn,
town was swept by the exciting in
formation. Within twenty minutes tn
sheriff and a posse started for tn
scene. At $40 o'clock the coach. minu
two of its horses, drove into Jackson
a half hour late. bringing the body O
Mike TOvey.
The stage, at the time of the murder
was travelling at normal gait. vii
I liam Shallenberger of San Francisc,
| 81 H.. :,