OCR Text |
Show STRENUOUS WESTERN SENATOR. Has Faced Death in Mining Camps and Assisted Judge Lynch. (New York Journal.) Nebraska's new senator. C. II. Dietrich, Diet-rich, played a part in the early history of the Black Hills only second to that played by his old friend, Seth Buller. the first sheriff of Deadwood. Senator Dietrich Diet-rich has looked into the face of death many a time at ' close range, and. as a member of a vigilance committee, he has helped Judge Lynch. The new senator went west from Aurora, Au-rora, Ills. He began to make his living when he was 8 years old. He chored for farmers, snatching what schooling he could get from the little log school house during the winter months. Then he became be-came a blacksmith, and. savins: $1-0 in 1N75, he paid his expenses to Cheyenne. Wyo. Here he bought provisions and blankets, and, hiring a transport to Deadwood. he tied the blankets on his back and trudged along beside the wagon that contained his provisions. The jour-ncv jour-ncv was made in winter, W( miles along a trail that led through Red canyon, in which, just before he went through and just after, many white immigrants had been killed by Indians. Early in 1S7(i Senator Dietrich helped to build the first store of Deadwood. "The Pioneen" After it was built, Dietrich delivered merchandise all over the Dead-wood Dead-wood country, traveling at night most of the time, to avoid the Indians. - In the winter of 1S7l'-77 Dietrich and his two partners located the Aurora mine. It became famous because-of the numerous attempts to dispossess the three men who located it. and the stanch resistance -made. The owners of the Hidden Treasure Treas-ure and the Keats were the men whom Dietrich blamed for the trouble made for him and his partners. In those days all prospectors were trespassers, tres-passers, and the man in possession was the man who had the cinch on the situa-i situa-i tion. The owners of the Aurora were well intrenched. They publicly stated what would happen were attempts made to drive them out. The opposition was afraid to make an open assault. The Aurora people had built a sod house and sunk a shaft. They kept one man on guard ah the time. This man heard a pebble fall from the hillside above the cabin. A man he saw and challenged gave no answer and ran i away. The man dropped something. It was a giant powder bomb. It was learned afterward that it was the man's intention inten-tion to ignite the fuse, drop rhe bomb on top of the Aurora cabin and blow the Aurora outfit into kingdom come. There was a lull in the fight for a while. Then the Aurora people were offered $10,000 for their mine. They declined de-clined to sell. So the. conflict reopened. Tunnels were run. and it was the opinion opin-ion of the Aurora people that failure to blow them up from above was to have been followed by an attempt to blow them up from below. So, just -as their night shift went into the Hidden Treasure Treas-ure to relieve, the day shift. Dietrich and his partners and their men lined up at the mouth of the Hidden Treasure tunnel tun-nel and refused to let the day shift out. This was after Cephas Tuttle had been shot and killed and Dietrich himself had been shot twice, one bullet cutting his forehead. When the owners of the Hidden Hid-den Treasure found the Aurora people had laid powder mines above the tunnel and could blow up the shift in the mine if so disposed, there was a capitulation. Dietrich sold his interest in the Aurora to Brown & Thun, bankers, and to Senators Sen-ators Roscoe Conklin and Thomas Piatt of New York and ex-Senator George A. Spencer of Alabama. Then Dietrich became be-came a member of the vigilance committee, commit-tee, which took the place of the conventional conven-tional court of the east. . The. first case the vigilance committee handled impressed Dietrich greatly with the charm under which his life is protected. pro-tected. D.' Thomas Smith was the culprit, cul-prit, ills wifo had been a rich widow of Denver. Smith went to the Black Hills. He began to drink and to lead a disorderly life. In the fall of ls7ti his wife came on. She said he had deserted her and their child, and had taken all her monev, and had finally refused support sup-port when she at last established communication com-munication with him. The committee was called together and the woman told her troubles. Then the acting marshal, Con Stapleton. and Dietrich were asked by the committee to find Smith and bring him to trial. They found Smith at Belle Union, where Wild Bill was killed, and. calling htm out. told him wnat was wanted. Smith said he would .not go. So force had to be applied. Jn the struggle. Smith drew a knife and cut Dietrich between the fingers ami in tne abdomen. Smith was tried by the committee, and the verdict ver-dict was that all the property known to belong to Smith monry he had loaned out and property he had bought for a woman had to be turned over to Mrs. Smith. After that was done. Smith was to leave camp before W a. m. the next day or suffer the penalty, which was death. &&! "I slept that nisht In a cabin owned by Judge Lynch Torman," Senator Dietrich was telling not long ago, "There was only an old piece of blanket at the door. I was sitting in the cabin, just thinking about turning in for the night, when the blanket at the door was pulled aside suddenly anil Smith stepped in. He had a Winchester in his hand and he threw it to his shoulder. ' Smi'.h had a quick and powerful man to ! deal with, for Dietrich tore the Winchester Win-chester from Smith's hands, and. grappling grap-pling with him. soon had him under control. con-trol. Then he took Smith's word of honor that he would leave town at once and ! let him go. Early the following morning I Smith met Con Stapleton. who was talking talk-ing to another man. and blazed away at Con. The bullet missed Stapleton and killed the man Stapleton was talking with, a professor from an eastern college. Smith was afterward killed in California. ' "To show vou how honorable western men are." Dietrich said. "I must tell you that there were many men in the gulches who had borrowed money from Smith or unknown to Mrs. Smith or to any one else save Smith. So soon as they heard the verdict of the committee they came into camp and yielded up the property or paid the money they owed." |