Old Missoula

Four Missoulian Views of Weeksville – “Tough Railroad Town”

 

Tale of Forgotten Cities Is Recited

Old-Timer Tells of Weeksville, Where Bandits Were Hanged

A story of a community of more than 5,000 persons which virtually sprang up over night and then disappeared as suddenly was told yesterday by an old-timer Missoulian, who has lived here since the Northern Pacific was completed.

That city is Weeksville – and her history is similar to that of three others which housed workers connected with the construction of the Northern Pacific railway in the early ‘80s. Weeksville is not one of the famous dead cities of the west – there is hardly a trace of it left, whereas the dead cities were of permanent enough construction to leave evidences of the life that once throbbed through their thoroughfares.

The history of Weeksville was brought to mind through the discovery of the skeletons of the two bandits, “Ohio Dan” and “Barber Jim,” last week. Both of these men were known to the old-timer.

The old-timer went to Weeksville in the fall of 1882, when he was clerking for the Eddy-Hammond Mercantile company, the predecessor of the Missoula Mercantile company. He was very young in those days, and had gone first as a representative of the company to Shannonville, west of the present site of Thompson Falls, in the spring of 1882. Shannonville was a city of same type – a tent city made up of gamblers, merchants, railroad workers and Chinese.

In the summer of the year above mentioned, the inhabitants of Shannonville “pulled stakes” and moved eastward to Thompson Prairie, the new operation end, with Weeksville the new track end. The store followed the crowd, but the old-timer moved on to Weeksville, where he set up a store as a representative of his company. He stayed in Weeksville during the fall and winter of 1882 – 1883.

Weeksville, which now is represented only by a station – more even than the other frontier towns – then had a population of more than 5,000, counting the floaters. Its term of life was longer than that of the others because of two rock cuts which had to be blasted out.

As an example of the magnitude of the rock work, he described one blast which occurred. A large chamber was constructed, into which was transferred many tons of powder for the one blast. There were other blasts almost as large, he remembers.

There is a cloud in the mind of the old-timer as to the identity of the two men who were found. As he remembers it, they were buried on the flats and not in the bank. Also the description by which certain old-timers had identified the skeletons stated that “Ohio Dan” was identified because one leg was shorter than the other. As to the burial place, the old-timer said he could be mistaken because he had left Weeksville for Last Chance two days before the men were executed.

But he had a definite explanation for the reason of Ohio Dan’s lameness. Dan had got into a row with an express messenger on a train and reached for his gun. As he grabbed his weapon he accidently pulled the trigger and the bullet clipped off the tip of his heel. Consequently Dan used crutches for the short remainder of his life.

When the old-timer met Ohio Dan, he was a hard-worker, making ties for the Eddy-Hammond company. Finally he got in with a “bad bunch of fellows” and got to gambling and into other deviltry.

The capture of the two bandits came as a result of a decision by the railroad company to clean up some of the “bad men” of the district. There were bad men there, old-timer says, and they were nervy men, well able and ready to defend themselves – and they were dead shots. At the time the clean-up started there had been a large number of hold-ups, sluggings and some murders.

Weeksville, and her sister towns which too have disappeared, were rough frontier towns. They were “wide open.” The railroad workers would come to town every two weeks and stay until they had spent their earnings and then return to work. Every man “packed a gun” in those days, and some of them used them. It was not that these men were looking for trouble but each man was the defender of his own rights. The professional man carried his gun out in the open where everyone could see it, the same as anyone else.

At its height Weeksville contained approximately 1,000 who were merchants, saloonkeepers or gamblers. Some had their families there. Western chivalry decreed that in any case women were respected – and that tradition was lived up to, the old-timer avers. When a saloon or gambling den opened up, the signal of its opening was to throw the key into the street, because from that day to the end it never would be closed.

When Weeksville was done for – when the railroad forces were moved farther east to the last stand of the frontier towns during the railroad construction, the businesses and sporting places moved likewise to Last Chance, at the confluence of the Missoula and Flathead rivers.

Last Chance was so named, the old-timer explains, because it was the last where one could get a drink before he entered the reservation.

“Many people will be skeptical concerning a recital of the days when the Northern Pacific was built,” said the old-timer. “But it is true. It was a repetition of the old frontier days when the Union Pacific was stretched across the continent. Perhaps the nearest to a revival of the frontier days as we knew them was during the gold rush in Alaska, when Dawson was such a camp.

“It is an experience that one can get only by living in that environment,” concluded the old-timer with a wistful smile and a far-away look in his eyes.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on March 2, 1924.

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An article in The Weekly Missoulian in 1909 painted a slightly different picture of hangings described above. See excerpt below:

“At Weeksville five road agents, or thugs, as they were called, met their fate. They had been murdering people for some time, and in some cases would even kill a man for his watch or for fun, just to be doing something; but at last they were caught and brought up before a court composed of the settlers and found guilty. Then Judge Sanders, the man for whom our county was later named, sentenced them to be hanged. Three were strung up to a large fir tree, which is still standing, just across Weeksville creek bridge. Two more were shot while trying to get away and the sixth was crowded so closely by the men that he jumped into the river; he was fired upon and when almost across the stream he went down. Some thought, he was shot while others thought he was seized with cramps and drowned. He was not seen after that, until about 10 years later when some of the old settlers recognized a man who was brought up for stealing horses as the same fellow. This time he didn’t get away so easily. He was sent to the penitentiary for a term of one year. Crooked as he was, he must have had lots of grit to come back to the place from which he was driven years before.”

 

The excerpt above is from the Weekly Missoulian on November 12, 1909.

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Will Cave, the Missoula historian, also addressed the Weeksville hangings in one of his Missoulian columns in 1922 – excerpt below:

The Weeksville Vigilantes.

During the winter of 1882-3, while “Hallett’s Army” was building the grade and laying the track for the Northern Pacific railroad along the Clark’s Fork, they established winter headquarters and chief supply point at Weeksville, eight miles west of Plains. Gamblers, thugs, desperadoes galore gathered at this point to prey upon the laborers who were drawing down regular pay checks. Robbery and murder soon became everyday occurrences. It is probable that in comparison to its population as well as in consideration to its relatively brief period of existence as a “town,” Weeksville was one of the toughest if not the very toughest place which ever sprung up in the west, and which I realize, is a mighty strong assertion. Under conditions then prevailing, the location was just sufficiently removed from legal authority to stimulate the natural tendencies of the lawless to extremes of violence, that lawless element evidently presuming the situation such as to render its activities as practically immune from any reckoning for its misdeeds. This condition of affairs prevailed pretty considerably for so long a time as comparatively unknown laborers were the only victims, but at length, when one night on the Weeksville bridge, but a stone’s throw from the headquarters, the company physician was held up and robbed, the better element discovered it was time to call a halt. A Vigilance Committee was formed which in accomplishment did no discredit to its forerunners of ’64. The Weeksville committee did not confine their work strictly to the use of the hangman’s knot, but often used the trusty Colt or Winchester to as deadly purpose.

The Case of “Billy the Kid.”

I have no data from which to draw details, with one exception. During the summer of 1882 there was a “bad man” gambler and thug around Missoula who had tacked on to himself the nickname of “Billy the Kid,” in emulation of the notorious Arizona bandit. I have seen him often. When he became a victim of the Weeksville committee, a current narration of the manner of his taking off still remains in memory. He was called to the door of a saloon, by the committee and told to run. He was started in the direction of the river which was distant about 100 yards. By the time he reached the water’s edge he was carrying so much lead that, plunging in, the 50 feet depth of water there precluded the necessity of any formal burial. There were three men hanging from one tree near town one morning. The Vigilantes’ operations lasted over only a few days, but were complete. It was estimated that in one month through murder or by the activities of the committee, between 30 and 50 men died “with their boots on.” During the summer following, it was nothing whatever uncommon to find a corpse along the edge of the river anywhere below Weeksville.

The above excerpt is from The Sunday Missoulian on February 19, 1922.

 

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Probably the most accurate Weeksville story – 1941

Tales of Long Ago: Weeksville

By Dan Arms.

As Told to James W. Faulds

Weeksville, 84 miles west of Missoula, during the fall of 1882 and winter and spring of 1883, was the principal construction town along the Northern Pacific on the western section of the railway that was being built east to connect with the construction from the east at Gold creek – 61 miles east of Missoula. In fact Missoula is almost in the center of the gap that was to be closed by the completion of the railroad at Gold Creek in 1883.

Weeksville had one hotel, five restaurants, four general stores, 10 saloons and two hurdy gurdy dance halls.

A population of 1,000 increased 500 at night by the workers who came to town for relaxation. All travel was by stage or other horse-drawn vehicles.

During the winter of 1882 and 1883 the town got tough. Many of the workmen were held up and robbed during the night life and a number of times slugged men were thrown in the river which bordered the town. Some came to the surface down the river and were identified as men working in the vicinity of Weeksville. Because of this the people of Weeksville and vicinity proceeded to plan a stop to the lawlessness. During January, 1883, a Vigilante committee was organized at a railroad construction camp four miles east of Weeksville. Notices “3-7-77” were posted at the camp and at Weeksville. The figures in those days were well known to all as a warning to those without visible means of support to leave the vicinity. The railroad camp was known as No. 13. Many who were leaving the camp took up their abode in Weeksville. Word was sent to the camp about its undesirables taking up their abode in the town.

One afternoon a party of Vigilantes came from Camp 13 to Weeksville, took one “Billy the Kid,” not the “Arizona Kid,” near the river to hang him. While the Vigilantes were getting a rope over the limb of a tree, the “Kid” tore loose from his captors, ran to the river, out onto the ice and jumped into the water and disappeared in the current. While he was running to the river many shots were fired at him and he fell once, but got up and made it to the water.

After this many were seen taking the railroad grade for the west. Shortly after, while the Vigilantes were giving one “Blondy” the third degree, he was promised he would go free if he told who had been doing the “holding up” and taking money from the men who were working on the construction when they came to town on pay days. His list as given to the Vigilantes contained among others, “Billy the Barber” and “Ohio Dan,” who were then on their way west toward Idaho.

The Vigilantes went to the superintendent of construction and told him the story. He gave them an engine and caboose and told them to go west on the railroad line. They found the pair at Clark’s Fork, Idaho. They were brought back to a point two miles west of Weeksville and hanged.

During highway construction a number of years ago a steam shovel working in a cut of sand uncovered the skeletons. All that remained were bones, shoes, with only the soles and frayed leather. A $10 gold piece and a $20 gold piece were found, along with part of the sweatband of a hat. Also there was a barber’s hone, which is now in the possession of William G. Brooks, then state fire marshal, who was on the scene when the bones were uncovered.

The only safe in Weeksville was in the general store of Eddy, Hammond & Co., a branch of the Missoula store. This firm later became incorporated as the Missoula Mercantile company. Large sums of money were kept on hand to pay off the men who were working in the sawmills and woods nearby. A faro dealer who had a $5,000 bank roll always left his money in the safe during the day while he slept and called for it in the evening when he opened his game, which ran through the night. One evening, when leaving with his money, he said he would not bring it back in the morning as he heard the store was to be robbed. Immediately the manager and clerks buckled on .45 Colts revolvers, placed shotguns loaded with buckshot at convenient places and gave out word the store was ready for any holdup. But it was not attempted. The tipoff from the gambler probably saved the day.

During the winter of 1882 and 1883 there were 2,000 white men and 5,000 Chinamen working on construction between Heron and Plains. No construction machinery was used, the work being done by manual labor, team and scraper.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on September 21, 1941.

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Dan Arms was long time Montana resident starting in 1882, when he went to work for the Eddy & Hammond Co. in Missoula, and at points west. He saw many of the key events in Western Montana’s growth throughout his life. He died in Missoula in 1943.

James Faulds was a Missoulian reporter, correspondent, and editor for almost 40 years – 1920 to 1958. His father, J. R. Faulds, at one time was publisher of the Stevensville, N. W. Tribune.