HENRY PLUMMER.
The following brief sketches of the career of crime which terminated so
fatally for the members of the Road Agent Band, are introduced for the
purpose of showing that they were nearly all veterans in crime before
they reached Montana; and that their organization in this Territory was
merely the culminating of a series of high-handed outrages against the
laws of God and man.
Henry Plummer, the chief of the Road Agent Band, the narrative of whose
deeds of blood has formed the ground-work of this history, emigrated
to California in 1852. The most contradictory accounts of his place of
birth and the scene of his early days are afloat; upwards of twenty
different versions have been recommended to the author of this work,
each claiming to be the only true one. The most probable is that he
came to the West from Wisconsin. Many believe he was from Boston,
originally; others declare that he was an Englishman by birth, and
came to America when quite young. Be this as it may, it is certain,
according to the testimony of one of his partners in business, that, in
company with Henry Hyer, he opened the “Empire Bakery,” in Nevada City,
California, in the year 1853.
Plummer was a man of most insinuating address and gentlemanly manners,
under ordinary circumstances, and had the art of ingratiating himself
with men, and even with ladies and women of all conditions. Wherever he
dwelt, victims and mistresses of this wily seducer were to be found.
It was only when excited by passion, that his savage instincts got
the better of him, and that he appeared--in his true colors--a very
demon. In 1856 or 1857, he was elected Marshal of the city of Nevada,
and had many enthusiastic friends. He was re-elected, and received
the nomination of the Democratic party for the Assembly, near the
close of his term of office; but as he raised a great commotion by his
boisterous demeanor, caused by his success, they “threw off on him,”
and elected another man.
Before the expiration of his official year, he murdered a German named
Vedder, with whose wife he had an intrigue. He was one day prosecuting
his illicit amours, when Vedder came home, and, on hearing his
footsteps, he went out and ordered him back. As the unfortunate man
continued his approach, he shot him dead. For this offense, Plummer
was arrested and tried, first in Nevada, where he was convicted and
sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary; and second, in Yuba county,
on a re-hearing with a change of venue. Here the verdict was confirmed
and he was sent to prison.
After several months confinement his friends petitioned for his
release, on the alleged ground that he was consumptive, and he was
discharged with a pardon signed by Governor John P. Weller. He then
returned to Nevada, and joined again with Hyer & Co. in the “Lafayette
Bakery.”
He soon made a bargain with a man named Thompson, that the latter
should run for the office of City Marshal, and, if successful, that he
should resign in Plummer’s favor. The arrangement became public, and
Thompson was defeated.
Shortly after this, Plummer got into a difficulty in a house of
ill-fame, with a man from San Juan, and struck him heavily on the head
with his pistol. The poor fellow recovered, apparently, but died about
a year and half afterwards from the effect of the blow, according to
the testimony of the physician.
Plummer went away for a few days, and when the man recovered he
returned, and walked linked with him through the streets. Plummer went
over to Washoe and, joining a gang of Road Agents, he was present at
the attack on Wells & Fargo’s bullion express. He leveled his piece at
the driver, but the barrels fell off the stock, the key being out, and
the driver, lashing his horses into full speed, escaped.
He stood his trial for this, and, for want of legal proof, was
acquitted. He then returned to Nevada City.
His next “difficulty” occurred in another brothel where he lived with
a young woman as his mistress, and quarreled with a man named Ryder,
who kept a prostitute in the same dwelling. This victim he killed with
a revolver. He was quickly arrested and lodged in the county jail of
Nevada. It is more than supposed that he bribed his jailor to assist
him in breaking jail. Hitherto, he had tried force; but in this case
fraud succeeded. He walked out in open day. The man in charge, who
relieved another who had gone to his breakfast, declared that he could
not stop him, for he had a loaded pistol in each hand when he escaped.
The next news was that a desperado named Mayfield had killed Sheriff
Blackburn, whom he had dared to arrest him, by stabbing him to the
heart with his knife. Of course, Mayfield was immediately taken into
custody, and Plummer, who had lain concealed for some time, assisted
him to get out of jail, and the two started for Oregon, in company.
To prevent pursuit, he sent word to the California papers that he and
his comrade had been hanged in Washington Territory, by the citizens,
for the murder of two men. All that he accomplished in Walla Walla
was the seduction of a man’s wife. He joined himself, in Idaho, to
Talbert, alias Cherokee Bob, who was killed at Florence, on account of
his connection with this seduction. Plummer stole a horse, and went on
the road. In a short time, he appeared in Lewiston, and after a week’s
stay, he proceeded, with a man named Ridgley, to Orofino, where he and
his party signalized their arrival by the murder of the owner of the
dancing saloon, during a quarrel. The desperado chief then started for
the Missouri, with the intention of making a trip to the States. The
remainder of his career has been already narrated, and, surely, it
must be admitted that this “perfect gentleman” had labored hard for
the death on the gallows which he received at Bannack, on the 10th of
January, 1864.
As one instance of the many little incidents that so often change a
man’s destiny, it should be related that when Plummer sold out of
the United States Bakery, to Louis Dreifus, he had plenty of money,
and started for San Francisco, intending to return to the East. It is
supposed that his infatuation for a Mexican courtezan induced him to
forego his design, and return to Nevada City. But for this trifling
interruption, he might never have seen Montana, or died a felon’s
death. The mission of Delilah is generally the same, whether her abode
is the vale of Sorek or the Rocky Mountains.