Roundup High School - Rodeo Yearbook (Roundup, MT)

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TO 5 WBilhWT€% OF I AW A(M€ )he stage was late. As he entered a lonely stretch of road, the driver caught sight of four masked horsemen in tho road. Halt! Throw up your handsl All hands went up. Get down, all of you. The passengers clambered out of tho stage and lined up with their hands above their heads. Ono of the bandits wont through the mail sacks, tho baggage, and men's pockets searching for gold and valuable articles. Such incidents were ccmmon along the road between Bannad: and Virginia City, Montana, in 1870. Honest people were getting tired of such lawlessness and determined to do something about it. An unimportant incident started the action. A man shot a sage hen, which fell in a clump of sage brush. Vfnen he went to get it, he found a dead man. The neighbor, whom he asked to help load the body into his wagon, refused to have anything to do with the whole matter. His refusal immediately placed him under suspicion. That night a group of honest men swore to band together for revenge and to punish the guilty people. They questioned the suspected man and only after they threatened to blow his brains out did he confess he was a member of Plummer's gang, bmt another member had committed the murdor. Tho murderer was arrested and given a fair trial. Everyone expected that he would be rescued by his gang. The trial was tense. It is said that when the prosecuting attorney stood up to ask for a death penalty the cocking of guns could be clearly heard, This marked the turning point in the power of the outlaws. This same group of men took the vigilante oath and became the first vigil- ante committee in Montana. The organization spread to all the mining oamps in the region and proceeded to wipe out lawlessness. They captured a member of Plummer's gang who confessed his own guilt and named all the rost of the members of tho gang. Tho vigilantes now moved quickly. They wanted to round up all tho gang before anyone could escape. A posso wont to Bannack whore Henry Plummor, tho chiof of tho gang, was sheriff. Ho and his pals tried to oscapo but woro captured. As he was led out to be hanged, he turned yellow, begging that his tongue be cut out, and his ears cut off, but that his life be spared. His com- rades, however, took their medicine like men. With their leader dead, the gang broke up and the members fled, but they were pursued by the vigilantes. Thirty-two men 'were hanged and a great many were banished from the territory. The length of time that the Plummer gong was in power was short, but its effect on Montana history was great. There was no groat use for the vigilante committee after the smashing of Plummer’s gang. In a few years Montana become a territory. The federal government could now maintain order, so the committee was entirely disbanded. In the opinion of the American pioneer, law and order had to be upheld. If the government would not do it, he would do it himself. It is through such people as those vigilan- tes that America has become a groat nation, and Montana a great state.