The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-01-27
"FLoPPING BILL"
Battle Against Outlaws in Montana
Resulted IL, IL. Do,,rann

Battle Against Outlaws in Montana
Resulted in His Roundup.
1t Is story of which little has been
told, says The St Louis Globe-Demo-
crat. Most of us who rode with Flop
ping Bits yigilantes have left the
State or crossed the great divide. Those
who have remained are reticeft," said
and ex-cowboy the other day. "As to
the thirty or more desperate horse
thieves and cattle rustlers who opera
ted in Northern Montana in the early
SGs-well, bleaching bones on the wind
swept prairies tell no tales.
I'm 1885 the cattle and horse business
in Northern Montana was becoming
more and more improbable, for the
reason that there was organized bands
of horse thieves, who had stopping
places from the Canadian line to Mex
leo, and who made more money in the
business of stealing horses and live
stock than the real owners could in
raising them. OF course, more horses
than cattle We're stolen. because they
We're easier to get away with, and in
those days were worth great deal
more money. The stealing became so
serious that the cattlemen of Northern
Montana were forced to do, something,
and in the fall of 1886 they Gid it. When
the cattlemen start to do anything they
do it up brown, and it was so in this
case.
'The tale of the hanging of road
agents of 1S6S-'64 by the vigilants of
Alder Gulch has been told so often that
it has become known from one end of
the world to the other, and is looked
upon as the biggist thing Of its kind
which was ever pulled off in Montana
This is a mistake, and the cowboys of
Northern Montana in the year 1885,
from September to November, hanged
and shot more men than the vigilantes
of Alder Goulch ever dreamed of. This
may seem like fairy tale at this time,
but it is fact, and there are men in
Northern Montana at the present day
who have the papers to prove the
assertion. ~
During the fall roundup Of the
Judith, in 1885, it was decided to do
some hanging. Who proposed the mat
ter, or by whom meetings were held, it
is not necessary to state, as one of the
leaders of the cowboy vigilantes is
now prosperous stockman within a
few miles of old Fort Maginnis. An
other is prosperous sheepman living
near Tibet, and another lives in Butte,
after having spent number of years
abroad. And there are others, but the
matter of the real determination of the
rustlers was carried on under the di-
rection of 'Flopping Bill Cantwell.
Hopping Bill was a desperate
character himself, and worked against
the rustlers because it paid better
than to work with them. From Sep
TENDER, 1885, until the weather became
too cold to ride, 'Flopping BIZ and his
band of horsethief exterminators
worked, and when they had finished
there was no count of the men whose
candles had been snuffed, but there are
men in Great Falls today who ), can
name at least twenty-six of them, and
it has always been estimated that
about thirty people were hanged or
shot by Flopping Bills' band in that
fall.
THE first performer in the bloody
drama Of determination was a half
breed near Fort Maginns. Some one
believed he had stolen steer and
butchered it, ana one night during
August, 1885, he was taken near the
ranch of Reese Anderson and strung
up to a cottonwood tree without a
chance to say his prayers. if he knew
any. That was the beginning, and
shortly after 'Flopping Bill called for
volunteers to search for horses which
had been stolen from the herds Of seV-
eral we'll known stockmen. The requis-
ion was made upon the roundup, which
. was camped upon the Musselshell,
. about sixty miles above its mouth, and
, reckless riders and desperate men only
were chosen.
THE posse made a hard ride that
day, and by night they came to the
, cabin of man named Downs, near the
mouth Of the Musselshell. Downs kept
sort of a trading post, and was sus-
pected Of being in league with the
thieves. 1t was early daylight when the
posse surrounded the cabin, and when
/ Downs came out it was Hands up!" A
: search of the corral and vicinity dis
: covered twenty-five D. H. s. horses,
and Downs was asked to explain. He
saw that he was up against it, and
gave full list of all the men connected
2 with the 'rustling' business, and indi-
= Gated where they had their rendezvous.
: The Missouri runs swift and deep
I where the waters of the Musselshell
!; enter it, and the banks are high and
- steep. A rope was placed about the
neck of Downs and convenient tree
. was looked for. Some one spied large
grindstone which stood alongside of
i, the cabin.
"'Tie it to his neck and drop him In
the river, was the suggestion, and it
was carried out literally. To-day the
big round grindstone, with the hole in
the centre, lies in the bottom Of the
= Missouri near the mouth of the Mus
selshell, and If time and water have
) not proved too much for the hempen
, rope, the neck bones at least, of Jim
Downs are the grindstone's companion.
ARMED with the information derived
, from Downs, the posse rode south to
the mouth of Lodge Pole Creek where
there were several 'rustlers' located,
D and in the early morning light three of
= them were captured and strung up on
= the same cottonwood trees which sur
E rounded the cabin where they had
I lived. One of the hempen ropes with
= which the hanging was done swung in
Il fha hraaza foT MANY wears and Dnrh a nc