Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: The Shared Memories of Pioneers by Clyde A. Milner Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 5 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 15:24:51 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 05:53:19 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:53:19

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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s9 460 Major Problems in the History of the American West . . . by the writings of his friends to such an extent that his own contribution added little to what had afready been published," These references to Dimsdale demonstrate that published accounts can influence shared memories, just as reminiscences of the overland tralls may have been influenced by false reports of Indian massacres in the newspapers and fictionalized presentations of Indian attacks in poputar novels. Dimsdale’s book, because it appeared so quickly after the actual events, became part of people's memories of those events. But the interconnections are even more fascinating. In afl ilkellhood, Dimsdale talked to Wilbur F. Sanders and Granville Stuart before he wrote his artictes, He may even have talked to Conrad Kohrs and Harriet Sanders. No doubt they all read Dimsdate's book, ff not his articles in the Post. Ultimately, when they wrote memoirs, they could think back both to the events of the day and to the accounts they or thelr friends had given to Dimsdale. Langford's later book may have repficated this form of double memory. In Wilbur Fisk Sanders's 1913 memolr of the trial of George Ives—an event that brought Sanders early fame and that also precipitated the formation of the vigilance committee— Sanders wrote: In fact, the written authorities of Langford’ and Dimsdale are hearsay, nelther one of these gentlemen having been present but thelr information was gathered from actors In this stirring tragedy, and I consider them reliable, Although both Dimsdale and Langford relied on the memories of observes from the vigilante days, the accuracy of these books still may be questioned. Each book is an uncritical apotogy for the vigilantes’ actions. Later ploneer reminiscences retain this same attitude and the same possibliity for error: and many of them, consclously or not, seem to modify, elaborate, or possibly misrepresent what fs found in Dimsdale and Langford. Wilbur Sanders In his memoir, for example, wrote that George Ives tried to compose a letter to his mother and only completed ‘‘a half dozen lines"* before being hanged. fn 1903, Reginald Stanfey, in a long reminiscent letter to Sanders’s son. James, claimed that Ives's last words were "* 'Tell my mother I died an innocent man.’ ** Neither Wilbur Sanders nor Dimsdale reported these last words, and Dimsdale included no last fetter from Ives to his mother. Dimsdale did claim that Ives took off his boots; evidently, Ives had often declared that he would never die with his boots on. Sanders admitted that he had heard this story, but could not remember if it had happened, Stanley made no reference to Ives's boots, Regardless of the variations on boots, letters, and last words, all three accounts agree that Ives was hanged. Untike the overland memoirs where Indian attacks may or may not have occured, the memoirs of the mining camps did not include fabricated hangings. Enough occurred at the time. Also, whereas the Indians remained a constant but vague threat—specific tribes or particular warriors rarely being mentioned—the road agents are vividly, even positively, characterized. Reginald Stanley described George Ives as he stood ready for his execution as a ‘‘fine handsome young fellow” The Popular imagination 461 who was '‘a born leader of men i hy eee the Gent course,** Harriet senatt ummer, the elect of the rond agents: Sted sheriff of B © making of a hero in him ts had a similar opinion of annack who directed the Operations He [Plummer] wa's slender, graceful, a }, and mild of epecch. tee and fine address, a fatr complexton, sendy hair and aerating Person whom one would select as a daring highwayman and murderer tee comments underscore an important aspect of the vigilante sto fen es asd ay i pa ploneet community. Indians hed threat to the overlanders Plummer, Tyas vtnd the twenty the eee . es, and the twentyranged by ws ealantes however, were not that dffereet fant rae ave , rile a the miatre ae -n mistaken on Appearances alone as everyday urviving the Indian threat had been an emble matt the struggle to bring civilization to the wilderness, She antenna re agents continued this theme, but here the threat to civilization was the internal evil of the road gents and not the external wilderness and Its etre ponte Ironically, in terms of murderous actions, the internal threat fence indian ee fro tclertal opine reality than the often imagined és mer an one hundred people in less than two = SY Hane weedeted vet uUlaws are often viewed as heroes in the fotklore and ets fin Ara arcs Em songs have glorified such fm utch Cassidy, These outlaw heroes are men forced to do wrong, They robbed institutt cian that the singers and storytellers viewed a r more evil hemes and ralroads As presented in the memolrs of Montana's pion ee ny pioneers, th sents ey pierent These outlaws robbed and murdered the ple weeetet proneers who hanged these murderers—the vigllantes—are At least one story, the hanging of Ca ptain J. A, berolc image of the vigilantes, Slade Is not characterises menenneers the “His early murderous career is often stressed, especially his notorious mementos mori: the severed ears of a man he killed In Col lorado t a arena fon and tee eae hanging came about beers whe otous, drunken conduct. Some b ugisnce committee may have o i Becheting ta pposed his execution; but Dimsdale, a sathering of six hundred ‘mi I hat the hence &° . f Isted that the h tated out. In effect, the vigilantes eieouled . § ad hens lade because of hi to do evil In the mining camps. Even Re nal § soerentta riniiscence of the vigilantes wrote: wea Sunt nee ri ‘4 iketito mens ot ie ee Is the story of his wife's daring fi €. Harriet Sanders recalled that M Sh was a large, fine looking woman of commandl ort says that she did riot walt for a saddle but sprang pon her Reet horse reas