Previous to 1863
there was no regular line of transportation through
Bannock County, the mails being carried by pony express,
which made the postage on letters cost from fifty cents
to one dollar each, and the few people whose business
called them across southern Idaho traveled singly or in
groups, in the saddle, or by wagon, as suited their
convenience end opportunity. But, however they traveled,
they all followed the line of the old Oregon Trail.
In 1863, Oliver and Conover stocked a road from Virginia
City, Montana, to Salt Lake City, the impetus given to
transportation in these parts by the development of the
mines in Montana promising to make such a venture
successful. The trail through Bannock County followed
closely the present tracks of the Oregon Short Line
running north from Fort Hall along the Montana division.
The stations were from twelve to fifteen miles apart,
there having been one at Fort Hall, another near the
Lavatta ranch, another at Pocatello creek and a fourth
just west of McCammon, formerly called Harkness.
The freighting season opened in April and lasted until
November. The bottom lands to the west of Pocatello were
a favorite wintering resort for the freighters because
of the facilities they offered in the way of protection,
water and food.
The freight wagons were drawn by either mules or oxen,
and so slow was their progress that they made only from
three to five trips a season. The more costly and
perishable merchandise, such as drug's and chemicals was
usually carried on the passenger stages.
A mule train was made up of from eight to twelve animals
attached to two or three wagons; an ox train of about
fourteen animals. These cumbrous outfits traveled about
twelve miles a day.
The passenger stages, however, traveled about one
hundred miles in twenty-four hours. They were drawn by
from four to six horses, who were changed every twelve
or fifteen miles, while the drivers changed every fifty
miles. They were usually accompanied by a messenger, who
was a kind of guard and rode beside the driver. Most of
the stages were of the thorough-braced type, the bodies
resting upon leather straps instead of springs, which
gave them an easy, swinging motion. They were usually
fitted with three seats and carried nine passengers, and
were very comfortable to travel in. A few post stages,
which
would accommodate twenty-six passengers, were run over
this road, but the traffic was not heavy enough to bring
them into general use.
In 1864, Ben Halliday, whose name has been given to a
street in Pocatello, secured a contract to carry the
United States mails, and bought out Oliver and Conover.
This line was later called the Halliday Overland Mail
and Express, a name retained in the Overland Limited of
today, on the Oregon Short Line and Union Pacific
railroads.
Ben Halliday was well known throughout the far west
fifty years ago, and his name is linked inseparably with
her early history. Mr. Hiram T. French, in his History
of Idaho, says: ''Ben Halliday was a prominent figure in
the development of the country west of the Mississippi,
and filled a place that no man lacking in courage,
judgment or character could have held. To one who knows
the west, 'Overland' is even yet a word to conjure by.
In fancy one sees the dashing horses and lurching coach,
and hears the crack of the driver's whip."
Hon. John Hailey writes from personal knowledge of the
famous stage man as follows: "Ben Halliday was a little
over the average in size, strong in stature, fine
looking, sociable, generous, energetic and farseeing. In
conversation his intellectual face and eyes would fairly
shine. He was open and frank in all his dealings. He was
brave, quick and daring in engaging in any legitimate
business that tended to open the resources of this great
western country.
"At the time Mr. Halliday established his Overland Stage
Line from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City, and from
Salt Lake City to Helena, Montana, and to Boise, the
country through which his stages must run was wild,
inhabited by none save Indians, usually hostile, and a
few white men who were equally dangerous. Few men would
even have entertained the idea of engaging in such a
dangerous and hazardous business, which involved the
investment of several hundred thousand dollars to build
substantial stations, and fit up the road with the
necessary live and rolling stock, forage, provisions,
men arms, and ammunition for the protection of life,
property and the United States mail, but Mr. Halliday
did it successfully. He opened the great Overland Route
and transported mail and passengers from the east to
west and return with reasonable celerity and security,
besides making the route much safer for others to travel
and blazing the way for the Union Pacific railroad,
which was commenced soon after."
The stage line through Bannock County passed from the
hands of Ben Halliday to the Wells Fargo Express
company, and later to the firm of Gilmore and Salisbury,
who continued the service until the opening of the Utah
and Northern railway made stages a thing of the past.
The mountain fastnesses along the Portneuf canyon made
this the most dangerous stretch of road between Salt
Lake City and Butte. It was very difficult to trail men
over the lava rocks that abound along this route, and
the wild nature of the country beyond them offered road
agents a fair chance of safety. The gold bullion brought
down from the Montana mines made a tempting prize, and
encouraged highway robbery to such an extent that the
outrages in time gave birth to the vigilantes, who gave
the robbers short shrift and in time succeeded in
practically ending their operations.
The first holdup in Bannock County occurred in 1863,
about a mile and a half west of Pocatello creek, when
Jack Hughes, a Denver man, was robbed of $6,000 by
Brocky Jack, at that time a well-known character along
the stage road. The trick was easily turned and Brocky
Jack escaped with his booty without firing a gun.
In 1865, a far more serious affair was perpetrated near
Robbers' Roost Creek, a few miles west of the present
town of McCammon. A stage of the Concord type, carrying
several passengers and $60,000 of private money, was
betrayed by its driver, Frank Williams, to a gang led by
Jim Locket. As he rounded a steep hill, Williams turned
his horses suddenly, breaking the reach of the coach,
and the road agents, concealed in the brush, which was
so thick at this point that it scratched the sides of
the stage, gave the word to halt. Among the passengers
were two wealthy St. Louis merchants, David Dinan and a
man named McCausland. These men were apprehensive of
being held up and carried their guns in their hands,
ready for instant use. This precaution probably caused
their death. At the cry, "Hands up," the passengers
discharged their guns into the brush, shooting too high
to wound their opponents, but thereby bringing upon
themselves a volley that killed both Dinan and
McCausland and two other men, one of them being Lawrence
Merz, a passenger who was sitting by the driver. Charles
Parks, a messenger, riding within the coach, was shot in
the foot, while one man, whose name is variously given
as Brown and Carpenter, escaped unhurt. The murdered men
were buried in a gulch near the scene of their death and
the coach, riddled with bullets, was taken to Malad.
None of the members of this gang were apprehended, but
Williams, the driver, was arrested and hung. He retained
his position for some ten days after the holdup, and
then, actuated perhaps by a guilty conscience and the
fear of detection, resigned and went to Salt Lake. Here
it was noticed that he spent money very freely, and he
was seized later in Denver. Jim Locket was a man of such
notorious character that no attempt was made to trail
him, the few settlers in the neighborhood at that time
preferring to give him as wide a berth as possible.
Three men, named McCay, Jones and Spangler, followed a
stage out of Malad City in 1870, and held it up some six
or seven miles from that city. Spangler and Jones were
afterward captured, but Jones escaped from jail, and
Spangler cleared himself by giving information that led
to the recovery of $6,000 of the $9,000 taken from the
coach.
Two weeks later, in 1870, a very daring holdup was made
by two men near the top of the Malad divide. One of the
men was variously known as Ed. Flag, Frank Long and
Frank Carpenter. The other, whose name was Stone, was
said to belong to a good family in Louisville, Ky.
These two men placed three dummies in a half exposed
position near the road and succeeded in making off with
$36,000 in gold bullion without firing a shot. The stage
carried no passengers.
The driver returned to Malad and said that he had been
held up by a gang of five men. After some deliberation,
J. N. Ireland, now a resident of Pocatello, Tom Oakley,
Daniel Robbins and four others, set out to trail the
bandits. This was not a difficult matter in the early
days, provided the fugitives took to the brush, which
they were obliged to do in most cases in order to find
concealment. Their horses, in pushing a way through the
growth, left a well defined track that a child could
follow, and as travelers were few, there was little
danger of hitting the wrong trail. But while it was
sometimes an easy matter to follow up a gang of robbers,
few men cared to undertake the task. A road agent knew
that capture probably meant death and his very
occupation was a sufficient guarantee that he would kill
without scruple. He had the advantage, too of being able
to ambush his pursuers, and shoot them before they could
seek cover.
The posse of seven men took up the trail of the bandits
at the spot where the hold-up occurred and traced them
to Birch Creek. As evening came on and darkness closed
in, and when they bad ridden some twenty miles, the
pursuers came within a half mile of the robbers, whom
they found to be on the opposite side of the creek. In
the early morning they crossed the creek, and were close
upon Flag and Stone, before those men were aware of
their proximity. Not expecting the pursuit, the
highwaymen were not on their guard. They concealed
themselves in a steep hollow, where slender willows,
about the thickness of a man's finger, and seven feet
high, grew in such profusion that they formed an
impenetrable hiding place.
Mr. Ireland and his party rode past this hollow to the
robbers' horses, where a council of war was held. At
last Mr. Ireland and Dan Robbins volunteered to trail
Flag and Stone while three of the party remained with
the horses, and Tom Oakley, armed with a very fine rifle
belonging to Mr. Ireland, took a position on the
hillside behind a rock, where he could pick off the road
agents if they emerged from the brush.
Cautiously, with every sense alert, the two daring men
worked their way into the hollow. They knew they were
within a few feet of their quarry, but could see nothing
of them. Presently Mr. Ireland said: "Dan, here's where
we're close upon them, because they have trampled these
willows down and they have sprung up again."
At the same moment Oakley's voice called a warning from
the hill, "Look out! You're close on them!"
Simultaneously a shot rang out and Daniel Bobbins fell,
riddled with shot. Flag and Stone made a clash from
cover, but Oakley brought them both down with two
well-directed shots from his rifle. The two men lay side
by side, Flag dead, and Stone with a wound in his leg
that necessitated its amputation.
Mr. Ireland and his companions tried to get Stone to
tell where the $36,000 taken from the coach was hidden.
Stone at first insisted that the stage had been held up
by five men, three of whom had in turn robbed himself
and Flag, who were left empty-handed. These three men,
Stone said, had the money. Tom Oakley, after whom the
town of Oakley in Bannock County was named, was a man of
forbidding appearance and a bad man to trifle with. He
took a hand in the matter and Stone finally confessed
that the money was hidden near Elkhorn, where it was
afterward found.
After the fight, which occurred in the early morning,
Mr. Ireland rode back to Malad and returned the same day
with a doctor, having traveled over forty miles after
his harrowing experience.
Mr. Robbins recovered from his wounds and died a few
years ago in Salt Lake. At the time they entered the
willow thicket, Mr. Ireland was wearing a grey and Mr.
Robbins a white shirt. Stone said afterward that he and
Flag saw the gleam of the white shirt through the
foliage, and were thus enabled to shoot Robbins,
although they could see no other portion of the two men.
Stone was sent to the penitentiary at Boise, but after a
short imprisonment secured a pardon and became a
preacher.
Not until after their return from this expedition did
Mr. Ireland's party learn that a large reward had been
offered for the capture of the two road agents. A
quarter of the $36,000 stolen was divided among the
seven men, who received $1280 each.
Another successful use of dummies was made by a lone
bandit, who placed several at a turn in the road not far
from Malad, and succeeded in relieving a coach, driven
by James Boyle, of several bars of gold. There were no
passengers in the stage.
One night during the summer of 1873 a stage manned by
Charley Phelps and Joe Pinkham was ordered to stop by a
road agent, while passing through Portneuf canyon.
Instead of obeying the order, the stage men fired in the
direction of the voice. The fire was returned and
Phelps, who was driving, fell back, mortally wounded.
Pinkham caught up the reins and the stage dashed on
without stopping. Phelps was buried in the cemetery at
Malad, where the following inscription stands over his
grave:
"In memory of Charles Phelps, of St. Lawrence County,
New York. Driver on the Overland Stage Line, who was
mortally wounded, July 16, 1873, in an attack on his
coach by highwaymen, in Portneuf Canyon, Idaho, and died
on the following day.
"Age 43 years. "He fell, as all true heroes fall.
While answering to his duty's call.
"This stone is erected by his friends and companions,
who loved and respected him, and sincerely mourn his
death."
The days of the stagecoach have passed, and with them
the incidents that we class under adventure and romance
in the reading, but that meant hardship, danger and
exposure in the making. The advent of the railroad was
the beginning of a new era in Bannock county an era of
prosperity and growth, but also, let us not forget, an
era for which the way was paved by the hardy pioneers
who faced the wilderness unafraid, and tamed it for the
uses of civilization. These men, following their humble
lot in life and performing their toilsome duties from
day to day, were in truth empire builders, to whom is
due the respect and honor of all right feeling men.
The History of Bannock County
Idaho, By Arthur C. Saunders, Pocatello, Idaho. U. S.
A., The Tribune Company. Limited, 1915
History of
Bannock County, Idaho
This site includes some
historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular
period or place. These items are presented as part of
the historical record and should not be interpreted to
mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the
stereotypes implied. |
