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First Train Robbery
On The Pacific Coast |
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The landlady of the
Sardine Valley House gave the Washoe County officer a very good
description of the other two men. She described them accurately and went
into details about their clothing. Among other things she said that one of
them wore "gambler's boots; and from her description of the other man, the
officer rightly guessed that he was John Squiers, an old stage robber whom
the officers of Storey County had been trying to land for years. He was
heading for Sierra Valley where his brother Joe, an honest blacksmith,
resided and where he thought he could rest in safety until the excitement
caused by the robbery had subsided. After feeding and resting his horse,
which had been on the go since daylight, the officer in about an hour took
up the hunt for the other men. |

Virginia City,
Nevada,
1866.
This image available for
photographic prints
and downloads
HERE! |
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It was now 10 o'clock at
night and the snow was falling fast. The officer was out of his
jurisdiction and unacquainted with that section of the country. He
therefore found it necessary to procure a guide to put him on the right
road to Sierra Valley; otherwise he might land at Webber Lake or
Downieville many miles away. There were several men at the Sardine Valley
House, but none of them had "lost any robbers," and they refused to act as
guides. A boy, however, volunteered for ten dollars to go with the officer
as far as Webber Lake Junction and put him on the right trail to Loyalton
in Sierra Valley, but with the distinct understanding that, in case the
robbers were encountered, the boy was to turn back and let the officer
fight it out alone. Nothing of the kind occurred, however, and at about
midnight they arrived at the little town of Loyalton in Sierra Valley,
California.
Arousing the landlord of
the only hotel in the village, the officer made himself known and asked if
there were any strange guests in the house. The landlord replied that he
had one, and described him, but the description did not fit either of the
men sought. The officer, however, thought best to take a look at the man
and asked the landlord to show him to the room.
By this time, either from
the cold or from the thought of a desperado being in his house, the
landlord's teeth were chattering, and he declined to go; but giving the
officer a candle, told him the man was in room 14. The hotel had just been
built, and had not been painted, and on account of the damp weather the
doors were swollen and the door of room 14 could not be shut tight enough
to lock. For this reason the occupant had placed a chair under the knob on
the inside of the room and had gone to bed, probably feeling quite secure
against intruders.
The officer after
reaching the second story of the hotel readily found room 14, and noticing
that the door stood partly open, he gently pushed it until the chair moved
sufficiently to enable him to get his arm through the crack and remove the
obstruction. This he did without awakening the sleeper, and the first
object that attracted his attention after entering the room was a boot,
lying on the floor, with the little heel that had made the tracks he had
followed for so many miles, and that afterward cut such an important
figure in the trial of the robbers.
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After entering the room
the officer found his man sleeping like a log and first proceeded to
remove a six-shooter from under his pillow without disturbing his
slumbers, and also went through his clothes in search of further evidence
to connect him with the robbery. Enough was found to assist in the later
conviction of the men. When the officer finally aroused him to place him
under arrest, he bounded from his bed and landed in the center of the room
like a wild animal. Rushing back to the bed, he reached for his gun, but
found it missing, while the officer, covering him with a Henry rifle,
commanded him to get on his clothes, which he did without any further
parley. He then was marched on ahead of the officer and down the street to
a saloon where he was bound and placed under guard, while the officer went
in search of the other man. The man arrested in the hotel proved to be
Parsons, a gambler from Virginia City.
Proceeding on toward
Sierraville,
California,
the officer found John Squiers at his brother's house. The officer knew
Squiers and believed that he would have some trouble in taking him "in the
open." Arriving at Joe's house before daylight and before any one was
astir, he placed himself in the rear of the house, in the willows, and
waited. Presently a man came through the kitchen and left the door ajar,
proceeding to the barn with a pail on his arm, evidently about to do the
morning milking. The officer slipped into the house through the kitchen
and into four separate rooms where men were sleeping before he found the
man he was looking for. Here again the officer had the luck to disarm the
man without waking him, and gathering up his clothes and boots he aroused
him and at the muzzle of the rifle drove him out of the house and then
allowed him to put on his clothes.
While this was being
done, the man who had entered the barn came out, and Squiers immediately
yelled to him that he was being robbed. The household was soon in
commotion and the crowd was growing noisy.
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A train makes it through the Sierra-Nevada,
1871,
Courier & Ives.
This image available for
photographic prints
and downloads
HERE! |
After securing the prisoner,
the officer made a speech to the crowd explaining that he was an officer
in discharge of duty and that he had arrested Squiers on suspicion of
complicity in the train robbery. Squiers, however, knowing the officer,
claimed that the latter had no right to make an arrest in
California.
This view was concurred in by the crowd, especially as Joe Squiers, the
brother of the captured man, was a respectable citizen of the valley,
where he had many friends. It began to look bad for the officer. But a
team was being hitched up and when it was ready and standing in the rear
of the saloon, the prisoner was rushed into it and the officer succeeded
in getting away from the crowd and eventually landed both Squiers and the
other prisoner in the Truckee jail where Gilchrist already was confined.
Continued Next
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From the Rocky Mountain General Store
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Photographs of the Old West - From our personal
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