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Research Question Number 2: What
prompted Beachy to go after the suspects?
It's a complicated question. For one thing, Beachey had to have a sufficient basis not only to prompt his giving chase but also to justify an official warrant being issued by William B. Daniels, acting territorial governor. Beachey may also have had to have sufficient evidence to convince California Governor Leland Stanford to both hold the men in custody and release them to Beachey for removal to Lewiston.
Beachey's dream is mentioned in a number of accounts as part of the reason Beachy gave chase. Indeed, in some it becomes elevated to the main reason he gave chase. But Julia Conway Welch convincingly discredits the dream's role -- saying (a) that it was incorporated into the story for dramatic effect, (b) that the dream was unnecessary to the story because Beachey had entirely reasonable reasons for giving chase, and (c) that more reliable accounts make no mention of it.
Yet, in some accounts the dream is offered in a seemingly authoritative voice. Joe Baily ("The Magruder Murder," The Spokesman-Review, Mar 16, 1963, pp. 7-8), for example, wrote:
It's a complicated question. For one thing, Beachey had to have a sufficient basis not only to prompt his giving chase but also to justify an official warrant being issued by William B. Daniels, acting territorial governor. Beachey may also have had to have sufficient evidence to convince California Governor Leland Stanford to both hold the men in custody and release them to Beachey for removal to Lewiston.
Beachey's dream is mentioned in a number of accounts as part of the reason Beachy gave chase. Indeed, in some it becomes elevated to the main reason he gave chase. But Julia Conway Welch convincingly discredits the dream's role -- saying (a) that it was incorporated into the story for dramatic effect, (b) that the dream was unnecessary to the story because Beachey had entirely reasonable reasons for giving chase, and (c) that more reliable accounts make no mention of it.
Yet, in some accounts the dream is offered in a seemingly authoritative voice. Joe Baily ("The Magruder Murder," The Spokesman-Review, Mar 16, 1963, pp. 7-8), for example, wrote:
He
[Beachey] was a friend of
Magruder's, an acquaintance from Marysville days, and he seems to have
been an alert, highly imaginative man, because he was not only the one
who, following the murder of Magruder, went after the murderers, but he
always insisted, and his wife backed him up in it dutifully, that he
had had a dream ahead of time in which he saw his friend Magruder
murdered with an axe, and even made out in it the one who did it.
(pp. 7-8)
Baily's
remarkable sentence,
it bears repeating, asserts that Beachey "always insisted" that he'd
had
the foreboding dream and that his wife "backed him up in it [i.e., this
claim] dutifully." And yet Baily's account continued with the
following hasty retreat from the same central claim:
How much of this is fact and
how much is fiction is hard at this late date to say. It adds to
the lore of the murder anyway. A good many writers have said it
was true, and it has always made a fancy story, good reading of the
kind the oldtimers loved, and still love and it has been as much as
anything because of Hill Beachy's dream -- Hill Beachy's nightmare
perhaps -- that the Magruder murder has become over the century a
highly popular subject for student papers and for historical society
gatherings. (p. 8)
Baily, in
short, giveth the
dream story with one hand and then took it away with the other!
Beyond the dream, of course, there were other clues Beachey is thought to have noticed that prompted his concern -- and ultimately his chase. Magruder's horse and saddle, discovered at Tammany Flat is perhaps the key clue. But there were also the alleged names of the travelers -- the Smith brothers and the Jones brothers -- offered at the Luna House Hotel when one of their number sought to reserve passage on the stagecoach to Walla Walla. Then there was Beachey's notice of the heavily weighted canteens the men carried -- filled, Beachey guessed, with Magruder's hard earned gold dust. Some accounts even suggest that Beachey actually recognized the men as roughs who had left Lewiston shortly after Magruder's pack train departed, although in a different direction.
Not one of these clues is without problems. For instance the Smith-and-Jones-brothers clue is inconsistend with the four false names -- presumably drawn from the stagecoach passage reservations -- brought to Acting Governor Daniels and transcribed into the warrant he issued. The vexing weakness of all accounts of the clues is that (a) they were recounted in the unreliable context of commerically oriented publications about crime and punishment in the American West or (b) they were recounted long after the fact and based on iffy sources.
What's needed here, it seems to me, is a careful search for contemporary and more authoritative descriptions of what Beachey knew and how that knowledge played into his decision to give chase and the production of the Idaho Territory warrant that Daniels generated.
Evan Filby recently posted a blog on Idaho's first newspaper, The Golden Age, published between Aug 2, 1862 and 1865 or perhaps early 1866. It seems likely that this publication would have covered the Magruder/Beachey story at the time. Might its accounts offer more detailed and more credible descriptions of the clues Beachy and Daniels relied upon?
The Idaho State Historical Society library's holdings include a run of The Golden Age from 1862 to 1864. Julia Conway Welch made good use of The Golden Age in her book on the Magruder murders, although she referenced no article therein specifically concerning Beachey's reasons for seeking a warrant or giving chase. Still, it would seem entirely worthwhile to check this source, beginning in mid-October, 1863, for possible reporting and accounts.
What's needed therefore is a collaborator in the Boise area who can visit the Idaho State Archives, at 2205 Old Penitentiary Road in Boise, to examine The Golden Age for reporting on Beachey's suspicions and clues -- ones, it seems, that Welch may not have found or made use of.
Beyond the dream, of course, there were other clues Beachey is thought to have noticed that prompted his concern -- and ultimately his chase. Magruder's horse and saddle, discovered at Tammany Flat is perhaps the key clue. But there were also the alleged names of the travelers -- the Smith brothers and the Jones brothers -- offered at the Luna House Hotel when one of their number sought to reserve passage on the stagecoach to Walla Walla. Then there was Beachey's notice of the heavily weighted canteens the men carried -- filled, Beachey guessed, with Magruder's hard earned gold dust. Some accounts even suggest that Beachey actually recognized the men as roughs who had left Lewiston shortly after Magruder's pack train departed, although in a different direction.
Not one of these clues is without problems. For instance the Smith-and-Jones-brothers clue is inconsistend with the four false names -- presumably drawn from the stagecoach passage reservations -- brought to Acting Governor Daniels and transcribed into the warrant he issued. The vexing weakness of all accounts of the clues is that (a) they were recounted in the unreliable context of commerically oriented publications about crime and punishment in the American West or (b) they were recounted long after the fact and based on iffy sources.
What's needed here, it seems to me, is a careful search for contemporary and more authoritative descriptions of what Beachey knew and how that knowledge played into his decision to give chase and the production of the Idaho Territory warrant that Daniels generated.
Evan Filby recently posted a blog on Idaho's first newspaper, The Golden Age, published between Aug 2, 1862 and 1865 or perhaps early 1866. It seems likely that this publication would have covered the Magruder/Beachey story at the time. Might its accounts offer more detailed and more credible descriptions of the clues Beachy and Daniels relied upon?
The Idaho State Historical Society library's holdings include a run of The Golden Age from 1862 to 1864. Julia Conway Welch made good use of The Golden Age in her book on the Magruder murders, although she referenced no article therein specifically concerning Beachey's reasons for seeking a warrant or giving chase. Still, it would seem entirely worthwhile to check this source, beginning in mid-October, 1863, for possible reporting and accounts.
What's needed therefore is a collaborator in the Boise area who can visit the Idaho State Archives, at 2205 Old Penitentiary Road in Boise, to examine The Golden Age for reporting on Beachey's suspicions and clues -- ones, it seems, that Welch may not have found or made use of.
Finding (8/15/2013)
The more I munch my way through the literature on the Magruder/Beachy story, the more I see the pervasive and pernicious influence of Nathanial Langford's commercially oriented and semi-fictionalized 1890 account. The antidote to Langford, it seems to me, is to find independent accounts penned as close to the time of the actual events as possible. In that connection, it's useful to examine a newspaper report published in San Francisco's Daily Alta California for Thursday morning, November 5th, 1863. This is one of the earliest San Francisco accounts I've been able to find.
Therein
is provided a quite detailed description of the series of clues and the
sequence of concerns that prompted Beachey to give chase. I've
posted the article's entire text here.Daily Alta California article, Nov 5, 1863
What might be gleaned from this account? First of all, it's notable that there is no mention of Beachey's dream. Such an account might not have mentioned the dream, of course, even if Beachey had related it to the reporter. Yet, and nevertheless, it's worth noting that no dream is mentioned.
Next, it's notable that the article renders the suspicions raised by the four travelers in new ways. Regarding their mounts, for example, it relates: "The party, it appeared, rode into Lewiston on fine animals, well rigged, with camp equipage, a mule, etc., all of which they left at a private stable and deserted without endeavoring to effect a sale." Such indifference to the value of their property, the article suggests, posed the possibility of an untoward explanation.
Also notable is that the article says Magruder's letters, delivered by "Lew. Thompson," and suggesting that Magruder and his crew would leave five or six days after Thompson, arrived in Lewiston "a few days" after the departure of the four suspicious characters. Langford's account -- which, as Julia Conway Welch (1991) endeavored to explain, sought to dramatize the anomalousness of Beachey's suspicions by suggesting counterarguments to them -- has Beachey's wife mentioning Magruder's letter at 2am on the predawn morning of the suspect's departure. Beachey, according to Langford, reminded his wife of his foreboding dream. To which she responded:
'"How
improbably, Hill," said Mrs. Beachy, smiling. "Why, only
yesterday Lloyd's wife received a letter from him, saying that he would
not start for twelve days, and that he would have a strong company with
him"' (Langford, p. 318).
Next in the article comes the arrival of "Messrs. Ricke, Southwick & Co.," bringing news that Magruder and his party "left five days previous to them, describing the horse ridden by Allen on leaving, and fears were entertained they had met with foul play." Their arrival prompted the examination of the "animals and harness" of the four suspects, which in turn led to the identification of Magruder's "saddle, bridle, spurs and saddle blankets" along with other property belonging to Allen.
Finally, the Daily Alta California's account includes -- indeed, concludes with -- mention of the discovery of the remains of a "Boston man" at Hell Gate, which were (as subsequent events would show) apparently mistakenly identified as either Magruder's or Allen's.
All of which combines to offer a pretty strong foundation for Beachey's belief and the issuance of Acting Governor Daniels' warrant for the arrest of the four suspects. We cannot, of course, assume that everything in the Alta's report is reliable historical fact. But the Alta's report, at a minimum, adds a valuable counterbalance with respect to Langford's often relied upon account. Thus, the Alta's account also adds to the mix of sources that may at some point actually clarify the issue of what clues, exactly, prompted Beachey to give chase.
Next in the article comes the arrival of "Messrs. Ricke, Southwick & Co.," bringing news that Magruder and his party "left five days previous to them, describing the horse ridden by Allen on leaving, and fears were entertained they had met with foul play." Their arrival prompted the examination of the "animals and harness" of the four suspects, which in turn led to the identification of Magruder's "saddle, bridle, spurs and saddle blankets" along with other property belonging to Allen.
Finally, the Daily Alta California's account includes -- indeed, concludes with -- mention of the discovery of the remains of a "Boston man" at Hell Gate, which were (as subsequent events would show) apparently mistakenly identified as either Magruder's or Allen's.
All of which combines to offer a pretty strong foundation for Beachey's belief and the issuance of Acting Governor Daniels' warrant for the arrest of the four suspects. We cannot, of course, assume that everything in the Alta's report is reliable historical fact. But the Alta's report, at a minimum, adds a valuable counterbalance with respect to Langford's often relied upon account. Thus, the Alta's account also adds to the mix of sources that may at some point actually clarify the issue of what clues, exactly, prompted Beachey to give chase.
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