Old Missoula

 

My Experience as a Resurrectionist

It was not the expected stipend from a medical student, or a reward to be offered by some sorrowing relative for a missing corpse, that caused me to become a desecrator of the grave.

A phrenological society in New York had repeatedly applied to me to furnish them, if possible, with the head or rather skull, of one of the notorious road agents that had been hung by the “Vigilantes of Montana,” at Hell Gate during the winter of 1863-64, and I finally concluded to furnish them the article they so much desired, if it was within the scope of my power to do so. To aid me in carrying out my resolution, I called upon a noted desperado, Matt Craft, a Pennsylvanian, who kept a saloon at the time in Hell Gate, and who was assassinated by Thomas Hagerty in Missoula, December 1865. He was a particular friend to me and I knew that I could command his services for any occasion that required to be covered with the mantle of darkness.

Having stated my wishes to him, he readily agreed to aid me in carrying them into effect, and appointed the midnight hour succeeding the dreary November day of 1865 for the execution of the purpose.

The bodies of the road agents that were hung at Hell Gate had been buried without much ceremony in the immediate vicinity of the village and it was only a short walk from the saloon of my friend to the resting place of the dead malefactors.

At the appointed hour, when no longer any lights were visible, I was on hand, and arming ourselves with the necessary implements required for the undertaking, we started out to obtain the “subject.” It was a very dark night, and the moaning Autumn wind was favorable to our prospect in drowning any noise that might occur in the prosecution of the work on hand. We arrived at the “diggings” without mishap, and Matt, who was tolerably well acquainted with the ground, started out on his hands and knees to prospect for a grave. He left me standing, leaning upon the spade, and my chief protection against the chill night air was the gunny sack, in which I expected to bring away my prize.

The beating of my heart registered twenty minutes before Matt called, “Here is one of them, come along with your spade and let’s dig him up.” With alacrity I responded to his call, but when I arrived at the spot he seemed perplexed and said: “It is a mistake. These stakes indicate the graves of Cooper and Skinner, they were buried in coffins, and we may have some trouble in getting at their heads. Just sit down a minute while I prospect for some other fellow that was buried with his boots on.” After a little while he discovered another stake, and having obeyed the call to his side, I soon found him diligently employed taking off the cover of earth that sheltered the corpse mouldering underneath. In a few minutes Matt had dug himself out of sight. “I’ve got him,” sounded his voice coming up from the sepulchre, “but his head isn’t loose yet.” “Twist it off,” said I, “and throw it up, for I am getting cold.” I heard a snap and immediately afterwards caught in my arms a slimy-feeling thing, which, with a short shudder, I consigned to the sack.

The grave was filled up again and hurriedly smoothed over to (illegible) lit a lamp. I was anxious to see my “head” and having rolled it out upon the floor and shed a flood of light upon it, I at once discovered that the hair adorning it was rather long, and that prominent bumps indicating “white intelligence,”[1] were entirely missing.

My “head” turned out to be that of an Indian (a son of the present Pend Oreille Chief Michelle) who was hung by the citizens of Missoula County in the spring of 1864, for the murder of a white man named Ward.

It was consigned back to its body at an expense of $2.50 on the following morning, and this ended my experience as a resurrectionist. – Y

The above article appeared in The Benton Weekly Record on February 20, 1880.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/143749608

Charles Schafft wrote several other articles in this newspaper during this period. He attached either his name, or initials, to several of them, yet neglected to endorse some of them. Clearly, he wrote this article, as no other living writer could fit the profile he has sketched here. He was present at the assassination of Matt Craft in Missoula. The medical request for the skull is likely false, since there would be many other easier sources for that sort of thing. More than likely, the morbid request for the skull of one of the Plummer gang was the real incentive for what occurred here. Think of the robber’s clubfoot on display in Virginia City. The sites of the graves in Hell Gate have never been discovered.