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Volume 049-4 - October 1995 (10 pages)
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Page: of 10
ton, Lillooet or Florence. True, at Oro Fino, Plumer killed
Ford, and had Plumer been caught at the time the people
might have executed him. Since that time, however, the
true circumstances have been developed, and all unite in
bearing testimony that Plumer acted on the defensive.
Plumer has been a resident of Bannock City since last
December, and no man stands higher in the estimation of
the community than Henry Plumer.
Mayfield is at Boise river, worth some fifty thousand
dollars; and all reports that either Plumer or Mayfield are
hung, or have ever been arrested for robbery, are base lies,
circulated for the purpose of injuring men who, by the
force of circumstances, have become fugitives from their
country.
However, on January 10, 1864, Henry Plumer was in fact
hanged, probably by some of the same men who had elected
him sheriff a few months earlier. Whether it was a fact or not
that no man stood higher in the community’s estimation in
1863, there could be no doubt that he was hoisted higher in
1864. His altered status resulted from the discovery by a local
vigilance committee that their chief lawman was in cahoots
with a gang of thieves, a situation lamented by an anonymous
acquaintance who composed this obituary for the Aurora
Times in Esmeralda County:
HENRY PLUMMER.—This young man, who died on the
scaffold, at the hands of the Vigilance Committee of Virginia city, Idaho Territory, was personally known to many
of our citizens. Plummer, some few years since, lived at
Nevada, California, where he had a large bakery, and was
considered wealthy. He afterwards got elected City Marshal. Then at a later period, when out of office, Plummer
shot a man in a bawdy house. Before trial he broke jail and
left Nevada forever. At Virginia, Idaho Territory, Plummer
got in with the “roughs” who ruled everything, and was
elected sheriff of the county, which office he held at the
time of his execution. When arrested, documents were
found in his possession showing him to be connected with
the band of thieves and murderers who infested that Territory.
Henry Plummer was a young man, small in stature, of
prepossessing appearance, and of fair education. He had
energy, ability and business tact, sufficient to have made
him a useful citizen and an honorable member of society.
But that terrible course which has taken possession of so
many young men on the Pacific coast, the desire to be
considered a desperado and fighting man, was the ruin of
him. He had killed two men at least, and shot and cut a
number of others. When the last hour arrived in his reckless career, and the shadow of death flitted before his eyes,
Plummer is said to have weakened. His fortitude gave way
and he cried like a child. We doubt not that in the bitter“ness of despair he exclaimed, as did one of the unfortunate
young men who met death on the scaffold last week in this
city, “O, God! that I had another life to live!®
an,
8. Greenbacks, pp. 232-235.
Idaho Territory in
the 1860s
0 20 40 6 & Ico to 140
SCALE IN MILES
re OOF INO
“el @ ElKCity
Florence tod,
Ft Lembi* Bannock,
@ Auburn } ay i “Ne Nespda
i i \ Virginia
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BOOK REVIEW
David A. Comstock: Greenbacks and Copperheads, 18591869. Grass Valley CA, Comstock Bonanza Press, 1995.
This is the third (and last) volume of the series, The Nevada
County Chronicles. The first of these was Gold Diggers and
Camp Followers, which covered the time span 1845-1851, and
was reviewed in the Bulletin for July 1982. This issue of the
Bulletin also had a chapter of the book. An important source of
this book was the correspondence of Niles Searls and Charles
Mulford, with Tallman H. Rolfe and Indian Chief Wema as
additional characters.
The second in the series was Brides of the Gold Rush, which
covered the years 1851-1859, and which was reviewed in the
Bulletin for October 1987. The same central personalities enliven
the book, while a large number of persons not encountered in the
33