Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-10-26
MEAGHER'S DEATH
NOT A SUICIDE
FACTS POINT TO ACCIDENT, NOT
SELF-DESTRUC-
TON
Had Had Much to Drink Before Re
firing to StaterOOm Which Opened
on Unguarded Deck; Cried for Help
When Swept Away.

Efforts have been made from
time to time to throw an air of
mystery about the tragic death
of General Thomas Francis
Meagher, Irish patriot, noted Civil
war general, territorial secretary
and acting governor of Montana,
which occurred through drowning
In the Missouri river July, 1867.
Several attempts have been made
to prove it was suicide, and a few
years ago there appeared a man
in western Montana, who sought
to prove it murder.
The following true account Of the
incident was given to Lieutenant
Bradley by I. G. Baker, a business
man at Fort Benton, at whose home
Governor Meagher had been a dinner
guest the night before his tragic death,
and it was preserved in the papers of
that military officer, who before his
unfortunate death in the Nez Perez
campaign, gathered for posterity much
Of the early history of the territory,
On the first day of July, 1867, Gen.
Thomas Francis Meagher, then acting
governor of Montana, arrived at Fort
Benton from Helena to receive some
arms granted by the federal govern
ment to the territory, and expected
soon to arrive by steamboat on the
Missouri river He was a guest at
dinner Of I. G.. Baker, then a resi-
dent at Fort Benton, and later in the
day wrote letter to his wife in
Bakers office-the last that he ever
penned to her.
The boat that was to bring the arms,
not having yet arrived at Fort Ben
ton, and the town suffering few at
fractions to a stranger, the governor
resolved to go down the river to meet
her, and for this purpose took passage
on. the steamer c.. A. Thompson, then
lying at the landing nearly in front
of Bakers store. Meeting some friends
on board, the evening was passed in
a convivial manner, the governor
drinking deeply, and becoming intoxi-
Gated. When offended by some mean
ingless remark he grew angry and ex-
cited and charged some of the GENTLE
men present with desiring to take his
life. The party finally broke up, and
laboring under the effects Of the eve
ning's dissipation. the governor retired.
Seen in Water by Waterman
About 10 o'clock that night Bakers
at the landing discovered
q man struggling in the river and
shouting for assistance as he was
borne rapidly down the stream by the
swift current. The Waterman ran with
the tiding to Baker, who was still en-
ployed in his office. In a moment a
number Of persons were gathered up
on the shore opposite the scene of
occurrence. A boat was Immediately
launched and search was instituted.
Baker and several others walked for
q considerable distance along the
shore downstream looking and listen
ing for further traces of the drowning
man, but in vain.
In the meantime, the watch on the
G. A. Thompson had repeated the
alarm on board, and the stateroom
Of the governor was found unoccupied.
He could be found nowhere and no
One else being missing, it was evident
that the unfortunate man seen strug-
Cling In the water had been General
Meagher.
A steamer was lying at the levee
only about so yards below the G. A.
and it was the general i'm
preston that he was almost instantly
swept by the current under her bot
tom and drowned beyond a chance of
Efforts to recover the body
we're for some time continued but
without disclosing q trace of it.
The swift current of the upper Mis-
souri, does not surrender its luckless
victims. Tidings came the next sum-
ner that late in the season a body
lad been found and buried far down
he river, by an ascending steamer,
1ut it Is not known whether it was
hat Of Montana's unfortunate gov
,rnor. Such was the miserable fate Of
his brilliant but dissipated man.
Death Greatly Lamented
Notwithstanding his faults the gov
.rnor's good qualities had won him |
general esteem throughout the terri |
DRY he governed and his death was
lamented. His name is pre-
'erved in one of the counties Of Mon
ana and his sad end formed one of |
he enduring tragedies of her history. |
He was charged by the ungenerous |
With suicide, but with no ground Of
His dispairing cries for |
he help that could not be offered, |
While he was struggling in the water
,recludes such an assumption for /
General Meagher was not a man to |
lave been frightened into sucn dem
had he personally courted !
watery grave.