The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1923-07-12
GREAT FALLS PIONEER WHO
GAME WEST with @R0DGER

| these men were executed is still
: standing as it was. 1t was unfinish-
} ed and a nail was never driven after
!, that to further it's construction, he
{ relates.
, The last execution that Sipe knows
of and the only one that happened
during his three and one-half years
residence in Alder gu1ch occurred in
the fall of 1854 when the vigilance
committee hanged a man for the
theft of $3.50. The man had stolen
the money from his employer and
had tried to skip the country. He
was overtaken by the vigilance
committee at Salt Lake City, brought
back to Nevada City, near Virginia
City, given a brief trial, found guilty
and was Immediately hanged. The
execution took place in the old
slaughter yard, on the rigging
that had been fixed up with two
poles and a cross bar on which to
draw the slaughtered cattle for
dressing. The convict was stood on
a drygoods box with a rope tied
around his neck and fastened to the
top Of the pole and at the proper
time the box was kicked out from
under him.
Stealing was the worst crime and
a man was more often hung for this
than for killing someone in a shoot
ing fracas. AS soon as a man was
found guilty and the committee de-
cided what to do with him it was
Immediately done. The captain of
| kho aoroxo{fan OF fho% ffrno uyoc p;11
| Williams and the execution occurred
during the administration of Sheriff
Beidler. The ways of the Vigilantes
often appeared cruel but it was only
through them that the rights of the
citizens were protected until the laws
governing this state could be made.
The work OF the vigilance committee
practically ceased in the spring of
'65. Occasionally they took a hand
in affairs but only in extreme cases.
Sort Of Jack-of-AIl-Trades
Mr.. Sipe, then being only a boy,
worked at various trades and occu-
pations. He herded stock, worked
on farms, was butcher boy, grocer
boy and even Turnkey in the board
ing house. During the first winter
he spent in this state it was SO cold
that all placer digging was suspend
ed during the winter and the scarcity
of work caused lots of hardship
among the miners. With these other
the price of flour advanced
to enormous figures. In those days
the nearest whistle of a railroad en-
CINE was at st. Paul OF Omaha and
the flour was brought up the Mis-
souri, river to Fort Benton by boat
and freighted across to Virginia City
or was procured from the flour mills
at Salt Lake and hauled in wagons
up to Alder Gulch.
In the fall the merchants had put
in a large supply of flour but were
boarding 1t, causing the price to in
crease from $50 per hundredweight
to $125. An ordinary loaf of bread
cost the miners about $1.25. The
miners rebelled when flour reached i
S1.25 pei pound and organized a
company and travelled down the
gulch nine miles to the junction, ga
recruits as they went, and
when they returned to Virginia City
had a company of ESQ men.
They instituted a search for flour
and found sacks hidden in h~aystacks
and in prospect holes. The sacks
we're seized and distributed evenly
among the miners. If a man had
more than two sacks of flour, all
over that amount was taken but if
be had only two sacks he was not
molested. This ended the high price
Of flour. It never reached such a high
mark in the years that followed but
ran usually from $40 to $65 per hun
dredweight. Many of the miners
lived on meat straight, which luckily
plentiful and vegetables were
quite easily obtained. 1t was
this flour famine that Mr.
sipe was working in a boarding
louse. The loaf of bread that cost
80 cents was about the size of the
ordinary 15-cent loaf. The bread
vas served then something as butter
vas served in the hotels and res
aurants until, recently, two slices
hat was all he could have. Many
miner who for some eas was a
title late to his meal would be minus
lis bread, for as soon as they found
hat he wasn't there "to represent
lis claim it was declared jumpable
nd away would go the bread.
Charity Their Religion
Perhaps there is no more charit-
bile people than the miners and
arly settlers. II there was anyone
q need q purse would be made up
or that person that would greatly
urprise the civilized people of the
asst. Hundreds of dollars would be
TAKE NO CHANCES--DEMAND
uCNOW WuITEO