Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-06-18

who remembered the reported details
OF Meagher'S mysterious death and as
serted that there had been unques-
toned enmity between him and the
VigilanteS.
David Mack, in an interview which
appeared in the Anaconda Standard
stated that Meagher, while acting gov
ernor, had pardoned criminal named
Daniels who had been tried, convicted
Of manSlaughter and sentenced to life
imprisonment This unauthorized par
don, according to Mack, had angered
the Vigilantes. A committee of 10. he
said, had followed Meagher from Vir-
ginia City to Helena and from there
to Fort Benton, where, on July l, 1857,
they had taken him off the @. A.
Thompson, murdered him and buried
his body.
Old-timers recalled many facts which
might well bear up this claim. They
remembered that Meagher, unquestton-
ably sober, had been in fear OF his Life
and had insisted that enemies were
out to get him. He had vanished, mys-
teriously and suddenly, and, although
the boat was crowded, only one person
claimed to have witnessed his disap-
pearance, the negro barber, whose YER
acity was questionable. Against his tes-
timony were arranged certain facts
Meagher'S anxiety to defend himself
against enemies. His unauthorized par
don Of the criminal, Daniels, an act
that had angered his old enemy, Judge
Munson. The solemn, supposedly death
bed confession of Frank Diamond, who
claimed the VigilanteS had given him
$4,000 for killing Meagher.
But Diamond, recovering from his
attack Of tremens, refuted his confess
sion, declaring he had never killed any
man, and that all he knew of Meaghers
death was what he read IN the papers.
Granville Stuart stated: eff there was
any quarrel between Meagher and the
never heard of 1t, and I
would naturally have heard Of 1t, had
here been"
w. r. Sanders stated: General
Meagher had no more loyal friends
han those in Fort Benton, who So
icitiously surrounded him there in his
asst hours It Is regrettable that so
much Is said and written Of the man |
ler Of his death which Is untrue"
Stuart asserted: Both the Daniels
tory and the Diamond story are pre- |
1osterous. Meagher fell off the boat
nto the river while the boat was tied
o the bank. 1t Is absurd now to try to
connect the Vigilantes or anyone else
With his accidental DEATH
And so the matter was allowed TO
est. For As years the muddy Missouri
lad shrouded the mystery Of the death
# one OF Montana's pioneers. It will
continue to DO so to the end Of time.
But the river cannot shroud the mem
Try Of a man who gave his youth, his
alents, his years to forging COM
nonwealth out of the wilderness.
Sanders wrote Of him: "HiS form
vas manly, his manners cordial, his
iemeanor gracious, his conversation
instructive, his wit kindly, his impulses
generous. I agree with Horace Greeley,
Who once said to me: General Meagher
S one of the finest extemporaneous
speakers I have ever heard"
The cause of General Meagher'S
leath may not directly concern us
low, 70 years after the tragedy What /
ices concern us is the heritage he and
,ther pioneer builders bequeathed US
Montana.
In Helena a statue he's been erected
% his memory, which is Just, for
among all the laws enacted during his
bird session, in 1866, later to be an
llled by congress, one act remained
ralid, the one locating the seat Of gov
,rnment of Montana territory in
Helena.