Show TEE PIKE howard 0 spencer arrested for the killing DETAILS OF THE MURDER COMMITTED IN 1859 the story of the shooting as told iy ay george many of the older residents of this territory will remember the killing of sergeant pike twenty nine years ago in salt lake city it has generally been considered that if spencer was the perpetrator of the deed lie was justified in view of the facts preceding the killing of sergeant pike there have been men however who were actuated by no friendliness toward spencer and who have ever since cherished a hope that chev might some day be able to put him to the necessity of defending himself when he odds were against him the following from the cus affords an interesting record of the case the readers of the iveiros will remember that last week howard 0 spencer of kane county was arrested at liberty park on a charge of unlawful cohabitation and the marshals stated that he was wanted iu beaver on monday they did not take him however but kept him at the penitentiary where last night lie was served with a warrant of arrest on the charge of murder the offense alleged to have been committed twenty nine years ago on saturday on august when sergeant ralph pike was shot and killed on main street in this city george was also arrested at afternoon for being an accomplice in the killing the case has been worked up for some time by warden arthur pratt who has held several conferences with mr in which it is said the latter ad that he had taken part in the offense with others whom no names when mr spencer was arrested it was given out that it was for another offense in order that the marshals could take into custody others who were charged with being associated with him and it was not until this idea was given up that the arrest of was made and the whole case let out As stated twenty nine years have elapsed since sergeant pike was killed and but a small portion of those now iu utah have any knowledge of the circumstances in those days matters in utah were m a very unsettled condition johnstons army had come in the year before and were quartered at camp floyd they were terrorizing the people in ever way possible for instance when the army first arrived they were in some respects destitute in order to obtain necessities some of the soldiers would sell a coat clothing was very scarce then or sometimes a whole suit of clothes to a citizen for something he needed for his comfort after a lew months had elapsed and when the army was more comfortably quartered squads of soldiers would go about and when they found a citizen off alone if he had in his possession any of the articles innocently purchased they would seize upon them without so much as a thought ot recompense on one occasion in thoele tooele county half a dozen soldiers met a man wearing a soldiers coat and pants they seized him stripped him of every vestige oi clothing and left him on the range miles from any human habitation in an entirely nude condition animals too were taken by the troops and in fact similar occurrences to the one related were so frequent as to cause considerable bad feelings to exist though the people bore anese outrages judge cradlebaugh was here at the time and as an evidence of the way in which the military were allow ed and encouraged cou raged by him to commit deeds of lawlessness and afterward receive protection tec tion the following extract from the report of the grand jury made at provo march 1859 which is a part of the court record will show having been summarily and insultingly discharged by the hon john cradlebaugh IT S associate justice for said territory utah while in fut and diligent performance of our duties as a sworn inquest wo do hereby enter cur solemn protest against the language and conduct of the aforesaid judge cradlebaugh addressed and used towards us at ana tims of our discharge we were surrounded in our deliberations in oar jury room by a detachment the army and army officers quartered within hearing of the evidence of witnesses while being examined by us we presented indictments for offenses against the laws of the united states our indictments were treated with contempt and the prisoners indicted have been liberated without trial witnesses subpoenaed to be examined by us have been treacherously arrested and thus we have been deprived of their evidence it was at the same time that vie governor of utah alfred gumming of georgia found it necessary in order to protect the people to issue a proclamation requiring the troops to cease their interference with the citizens and declared the presence of pol diera lias a tendency not only to terrify the inhabitants and disturb the peal peale e of the territory but also to subvert the ends of justice thia waa on march 27 1839 under this state of thinya an event occurred at rush valley thoele tooele county which was reported in the at the time as follows ASSAULT about 5 p iu of the dinst barcli Mar cli 1858 au assault was made upon howard 0 spencer by a commissioned noncommissioned non officer at the head of a detachment of U S troops the officer struck spencer with liis gun it appears from what we have learned that alie difficulty occurred about the occupation cu pation of a house and corral in the north part of bush valley and which the proprietors spencer little co had previous been peremptorily ordered by the detachment to vacate we have not yet ascertained the particulars sufficiently satisfactorily to publish but shall give the full facca when we leam them howard 0 spencer was then quite a young man 20 to 25 years of age he was nephew to daniel spencer of the firm of spencer little co mentioned m the quotation ahr house and corral were located on a ranch in hush valley the soldiers wanted the grazing land and ordered the to remove stock etc As in those times discretion wag the belter part of valor in such cases it was decided to vacate for this purpose howard 0 spencer and two or three others were bent out arriving the ranch on the afternoon of the they intended removing all of the stock caray next morning and watching it to prevent its being sanlen at tho hour named the ranchman ranchmen ranch men were feeding the stock at the corral 11 0 spencer be ng engaged in hay with J pitchfork the detachment of troops were bivouacked bivouac ked at a tent some distance ds tance below sergeant jralph pike of the infantry came up with a guard of eight or ten and ordered alie ranchman ranchmen ranch men to move off instanter ins they replied that it would be necessary to wait tiu morning when they would move stock ami all this would not do and sergeant pike them to depart at once the young man spencer replied that he would not go until he could tho dock with him as he was there for that purpose at this juncture sergeant pike struck spencer a terrible blow with the butt of hig musket mr had a pitchfork in his hand and threw it up to bae himself the handle was broken by abo brutal officers blow and the hammer of the weapon buried itself in buu there yaa a frightful gash along the right side of his head laying the skull bare while through the hole in the skull the workings of the bram could be seen young spencer fell to the ground unconscious and one of the soldiers exclaimed turn his head down hill and let him bleed he was afterwards taken up and car red to the tent but was brought back again and left by the soldiers for dead at he house be regained consciousness holever ho vever during the bight lie was expected to die evera moment but his friends decided to start for this city early nest morning and brought him a rough and weady drive of 47 miles in a wagon in this cita ho was cared for and became convalescent from alie full effects of the blow however he has not recovered even to the present time his brain being somewhat seriously ai especially under any excitement the next chapter in the history of the case is the following record of the occurrence of august 11 1850 on the sidewalk near kahns store just north of the old salt lake house then known as townsends Town sends hotel sergeant ralph pike infantry having been indicted by the grand jury in attendance upon the district cobit now in session for an assault with intent to kill committed upon the person of howard spencer in jrush Valley last march had come to the city from camp floyd under a military guard of eight or ten soldiers in command of lieutenant marshall to answer to the indictment and instead of being taken into custody by the U S marshal or committed to prison to await his trial like others accused of crimes was permitted to go about the city in charge of some of the soldiers of the guard about 1 p m on thursday while walking down east temple street with three soldiers he was met by a man near townsends Town sends hotel who spoke to him and then drew a pistol and shoe him the ball entering the right side at the twelfth rib inflicting n mortal wound of which he died about 1 monday morning it is said that at the time of the occurrence there were at least men including several of the army and the soldiers ot the guard that came with pike from camp floyd within pistol shot of the slayer and yet he walked cooly about half way across the street before any effort was made to arrest him and then he ran and succeeded in getting away with from thirty to forty men in pursuit of him from the attending circumstances suspicions havo rested upon spencer who came near losing his life by the brutal assault made upon him by pike to which reference has been made but so so far as we have been informed no ono was able to identify the daring individual who thus in a public street committed one of the highest dimes known to the law without any apparent attempt at concealment at the time of the shooting sergeant pike was between two of the soldiers the man who fired the shot walked up to him and remarked you are sergeant pike are you not yes sir answered the he started back in apparent alarm at that instant the other produced a pistol and placing it near the sergeants right side fired the sergeant fell mortally wounded while his slayer turned and started to cross the street toward the alley which now runs between barnes davis and teas dels store he was across the street before the crowd of men most ci whom were armed who were at the hotel started up they would have fired then but a wagon came down the street and partially covered him george string am was among the crowd but just what his connection with the shooting was has not yet been made public it is for the shooting that H 0 spencer is now under arrest and george is charged with having aided him both were brought in from the penitentiary today to day and arraigned before commissioner norrell E 1 watrous was the attorney for mr and lo 10 grand young for mr spencer on being arraigned before the commission er on the charge of murder both of the nut guilty awl were taken back to alie penitentiary the preliminary examination ia set for friday next at 2 p m the marshals say that mr spencer admits having shot sergeant pike but claims that he was justified aa the sergeant tried to kill him wednesdays tribune contained a vicious and libelous account of the killing of sergeant pike the account was so shamefully false and malicious that even anthony ether of springville Spring ville an old timed anti mormon who was familiar with many of the circumstances connected with the aal air he being at the time of the occurrence connected with the camp floyd garrison could not read it without feeling indignant he sat down at once and penned the following to the tribune which for a wonder that sheet published it in its issue next day editor tribune the statement eliat you published in the tribune of yesterday in relation to the pike murder is entirely wrong it is as follows in 1852 when colonel was in salt lake he made a government reservation of the land were stockton in kush vaclev now stands and whan general albe rt sidney holmson came to utah in 1858 in the spring of he sent lieutenant maxwell of the tenth infantry with sergeant pike and twelve men of the tenth infantry to take possession of the government reservation to herd stock howard spencer having located himself there with liis herd refused to give up possession lieutenant maxwell ordered sergeant pike to go and eject spencer from the corral spencer ran at the sergeant with a pitchfork when sergeant pike struck him over the head with his musket and broke his skull he then got a government ambulance and took spencer to salt lake city and gave himself up to the authorities for assaulting spencer spencer being then too sick to give liis evidence the examination was postponed and some time afterward it pike came to salt lake city to have his examination the court being then held in ho old constitution building buil dini and at the recess of the court pike started to po to the old salt lake house to get his dinner when howard spencer followed him and shot him in the back with a revolver the bullet striking ue handle of a bovie knife entering his body about three inches to the liht of thy spinal column and cortnik out about two inches on alio left of the nave spencer waa afterward fur abo murder and on his examination bv sound swearing proved an alibi and was discharged I 1 was one of the party who being then in the city took sergeant pike s body back to camp floyd and buried it I 1 then being a sergeant in the old second dragoons in chaigr of general albert johnsona Johnso nf staff following is the heralds account ol 01 an interview held by inq reporter spencer and Bt ringham howard 0 was first geen he 19 a tall and rather rawboned raw boned man over six byet in height and 50 of a he appeared very calland cal mand alien asaei to give liis version of alie affair he deiy reluctant about talking ajic drawn out howey pr lie began to tall very freely about the causes which if up to the affair and told the antory of hie first trouble with sergeant in about these words ono cold stormy dav in march I 1 hr licko in the year went fruin this city to hush galley goodo county to drive in some stock for my uncle daniel spencer I 1 was accompanied by alt ollit now dead there were home of general Johnston 8 solders out there and they had been killing the cattle several of which had been shot before I 1 arrived clift had been drinking a little and was feeling rather out of sorts so when we were met by ono of the officers alio was with tho detachment and asked some questions by him I 1 guess 70 answer just to snit him that evening wept the cattle anen sergeant pike marched ur to me with a little squad af pf soldiers Bol diers and ordered ma to drive the 1 I told bim 1 byant to that then struck ceover the head with his gun I 1 threw up my pitchfork to ward off the blow but the handle was broken into three pieces and the gun came down apon my head breaking my skull and pressing alie pieces of broken bone into the brain I 1 heard some one sav turn his head down hill and let him bleed and I 1 more spencer indicated how lie threw up his fork showing that he held it in both hands in front of and above the head in a position like that of the prime parry of a soldiers bayonet exercise spencer then showed the reporter the result of tho blow there is a deep ditch running along the upper right side of the licad extending from the forehead clear back to the occipital bone this is about n inch and a half wido and about half an inch deep it is a great wonder eliat the man ever regained his feet I 1 dont know continued er lie struck me the butt of the gun or with the barrel it was many days before I 1 consciousness but my friends tell me that alie soldiers were carrying me off when luke johnson a briend of mine happened along and seeing my condition told alie soldier that he was my physician and he would take charge of me they carried me to johnsons house and the next day brought me to salt lake my head healed but the pieces of dead bone left in |