The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-08-13
~ LEANSLNG of the western Mon
tana gold mining camps Of or
ganized bands Of outlaws In the
Sivfios hod ifa c~nrntArnarf In

Sanized bands Of outlaws in the
~ sixties had its counterpart In
central and northern Montana
70 years later when 2 band OF bard q.
the neighb0rhoOd Of 80 men inside Of
60 days to end cattle rustling and horse
stealing which had grown to such pro:
portions in that section as to be q real
threat to the livestock industry.
The stockmen first began to feel the
effects Of the raids upon their herds OF
cattle and bands Of horses In 1883, An
effort was made in the fall of that
year., at a meeting of cattlemen in
Helena to organize for action against
the stock thieves, but came to moth:
ing. It wa brought before the second
annual convention Of the Montana
Stockgrowers association at Miles City
in April, 1884. Some Of the younger of
the stockmen were in favor Of organ
izing q little army and cleaning the
rust1ers out. Among those who favored
such action were Theodore Roosevelt,
later to be president Of the United
States, and Count DeMores, both Of
ness in Dakota.
Leader in the opposition to such 9
move was Granville Stuart, who at that
time was running the DIS brand In
Fergus county. He favored obtaining
legislation making the penalty for
rustling 70 severe that the stealing
would lose its attractions. The con:
s~ervatives won in the argument and
the stockmen made no direct move
against the range thieves.
Stuart's position was that the rustlers
were organized, armed with the most
modern weapons, were deSperadoeS n
dead shots. He said a fight would result
in the loss of many lives on both sides,
and that the stockmen who took part
and were not killed themselves would
have to stand trial for murder If they
killed any of the r1Stlers. When news
Of the stockmenis dispute and its re-
suit spread over the range, the thefts
became more serious than ever through
central Montana, east to the Dakota
boundary and south to the Yellowstone
Rutlers' rendezvous dotted the bad
lands Of the Missouri river and the
Musselshell country.
The inevitable clash came IN tune,
1885, when NarciSS L~avardure and Joe
Vardner came up the Judith river from
the direction of the Missouri and
camped opposite where j. A. Wells had
a herd Of cattle in charge Of q cow
boy who had a string of eight saddle
horses: The cowpuncher left his camp
was no sooner out of sight than Lavar-
dure and Vardner crossed the river
and drove off the seven saddle horses
When funning the horses up Eagle
creek they were met by William
and ordered them to stop. They but
increased their speed and L~avardure
shot at Thompson, but missed. Thomp-
son gave chase, shot n fatally wound
ed Vardner, and after several miles
captured I%avardure, and brought him
and the horses back to wells camp.
Lavardure was placed under guard in
a stable. Two nights later the guard was
overpowered by an armed posse and
Lavardure taken out and hanged. That
was on June ~.
On July 3, Sam Mckenzie, a Scotch
half-breed who had a camp on the
Missouri river under .pretense of being
horses in his possession and hanged
two miles from Fort Maginnis.
The identity of the men who COM
posed the posses which ended the
rustling has never been known to any
but themselves. They were under the
Cantren. During the years that have
interviewed since that time, Hopping
Bill has been given a hard reputation.
Whether he was as desperate a char
acter as tradition now says he was, Is
a matter for argument. Certain 1t Is
he was no mammals boy. Although he
acted without sanction of the law in
side of justice which is more than car
be said of the men upon whose trail
he camped, for they ignored both Law
and justice. It is doubtful If he was as
big. a ,ruffian as many since
capacity Of a territorial stock detective
for several years after the operations
of the range VigilanteS.
The years, too, have colored the &C
tionS Of Cantren and his men with
many different hues. For instance it
has been said that Billy Downs, horse
and cattle thief and peddler of whisky
to the Indians, was not hanged, but
river after a huge grindstone was tied
to his neck, because there was no tree
handy. Granville Stuart in his Forty
Years on the Frontier" says that
Downs and a companion, california
Ed I,oo were r. hanged sSa1,t on II the sha night a,1s. Of Ivy
At any rate Downs was not executed
until after the posse had found %
stolen horses bearing the DIS brand
Of Stuart's outfit in his corrals. Fac
ing death, Down "~squealed"; gave the
possemen the names Of all the men
and the location of their hideouts.
Armed with the information which
Downs had given them; the party went
to the mouth of Lodge Pole creek
where three rustlers were captured in
the early morning and strung up to a
cottonwood tree. In the meantime an
other party Of Vigilantes had crossed
the river at Rocky Point and caught
two notorious horse thieves, n "Red
Mike" and the other Brocky Gala
CHER.
At this time some of Flopping Bills
men wanted to quit, but Bill pointed
out to them that they themselves would
be hanged under civil Law if their part
in the lynchings became known, and
that the best way out was to go ahead
and clean out the last rustler. None
Of them left the party.
Fifteen miles below the mouth Of
the Musselshell at q stretch along the
Missouri known as Long Johns bot.
TOM was the cabin occi1niod hu oid