The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-02-23

half a dvzen others, hosting drinks,
and in a reedy, weak-sounding voice,
told him that he was under arrest. If
you'll just walk along with me-" said
the sheriff, 81 won't need to put no
cuffs on you"
The man, heavily built and a head
taller, squared his back to the bar and
looked down at the officer. well, so
you're the shur'ff," he said. . Yes"
. -. "Got your star on your" 49,.
eyes" "Got your gun on you?"
"Yes.",. It's a good thing.
Some of you shur'ffs ought to carry
two or three guns. You couldn't do
nothing without EN-" mop" 80.
mo. If you had to get somebody with
out them guns and stars you'd be plumb
helpless. You'd-Say-".
The sheriff reached down under his
coat and pulled out a pear-handled
As, but he didn't throw down on the
man. Instead he laid the gun on the
bar, gave it a shove that sent it sliding
away down the mahogany, then shuck-
ed out of his coat. The bigger mar
barely had time to square off before
the sheriff led with a maul-like left
to the jaw.
It was a beautiful fight, that ragged
from the bar to the swinging doors,
and from the swinging doors back
through and wei the card tables. Men
came running from as fer cS the STOCK
yards and crowded in to watch. And
when it was over the sheriff retrieved
his gun from the bar, buttoned his coat
and adjusted his Stetson over a dis
colored eye. Looking down at his
prisoner he said, IF you'll just walk
along down the street with me, I won't
need to put no cuffs on you"
The incident is still talked about. It
occurred at Red Lodge, almost 40 years
ago, when the town was starting its
heydays as a coal mining camp. The
sheriff was John B. Dunn, first elected
sheriff of the newly created county OF
Carbon. The action was typical OF the
way in which he attended to his duties
in the town and mountainous country
side during the late '9os.
At that time the county needed the
frequent attention of the sheriff. AS
vet an open cattle country, coal deposits
were being developed, towns were be-
ing built, and a new population was
coming in, some of that population
containing elements just as unruly as
the rowdy elements belonging to the
ranges and COW towns. The saddle of
the law had but recently been cinched
down, and all of the people were not
through bucking by any means.
In 1896 there were 1,180 people at
Red Lodge, most of them men employed
in the mine of the Rocky Fork Coal
company and in mines over the hill IN
the Bear creek gulch. The town boosted
three new red brick two-story build
ings, a considerable footage of board
sidewalk, and about 20 saloons. The
business houses had shifted down to-
ward Rock creek from the "old town"
location, and most of the dwellings, par
ticularly the company houses n the
big boarding houses that sheltered the
large bachelor population, were strung
along the west bank of the creek across
from the mine.
It was a live sporting town. Its men,
when not working in the mines, IN the
stores, or out on the cattle runs, anus
ed themselves by hunting, promoting
boxing matches, holding horse races,
and often by plain street fighting. 1t
wal the duty of the sheriff to arbitrate
the fighting, in addition to his regular
activity in regard to bandits, horse
thieves and murderers. (The usual
method of arbitrating a common street
fight was to take both fighters and the
spectators into the nearest saloon,
where the arbitration was accomplish
ed more easily and comfortably than on
the street. Saloons were easy to 1lno
on the main street,
John Dunn stepped into the picture
as sheriff after the first county cleo
ton, held Nov. 6, 1896. He succeeded
Thomas Hogan, who had beer ap-
pointed sheriff when the county was
created in 1895. When he took Office
in 1897, Dunn was qualified by his w
character, and by Is years OF exper-
fence in cattle and mining towns OF
Montana. He was a Missour1an, winch
in itself wa something.
Born at St. Louis. he put in his school
days in Franklin county, and studied
in a business college in St. Louis. In
1881 he answered the well-known call
of the west, and before that year was
out, he was in Virginia City. He was
10 years old, and by his W admission,
"the greenest that ever came out OF
Missouri"
The greenness was worked out OF him
during the next IL years while he was
In the employee of Varney and Farrell,
and later O foreman for n of the big
pest stock outfits in the Madison river
county, that of Henry Filing and Sam
Buford. He learned then the principles
and practices Of beef and horseflesh
raising, and for the rest of his life he
followed that game, when not in public
service. He became acquainted with
the methods of cattle and horse thieves
through experience with rustlers that
actively operated back and forth across
the Idaho line.
The year after his marriage to Nellie
E. Oliver in 1893, he settled at the pres
ent location of Silesia, first coming
down to southern Montana in charge
of a herd of Buford g. Filings cattle,
that were shifted from the Madison