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First Train Robbery
On The Pacific Coast - Page 3 |
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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.
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A train makes it through the Sierra-Nevada,
1871, Courier & Ives.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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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.
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.
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.
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Historic view of Truckee,
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.
On arriving at Truckee, the officer
telegraphed to H. G. Blasdel, the Governor of
Nevada, for a
requisition on Governor Haight of
California.
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On the following day this arrived and the prisoners were taken across the
line into
Nevada over
the same railroad whose train they had assisted in holding up. While
awaiting the requisition Gilchrist ha been kept separate from the other
men and had been "sweated," with the result that he made a complete
statement before a Notary Public, in which he gave the names of all the
parties connected with the robbery.
A telegram was
immediately sent to Wells-Fargo in
Virginia City, directing the arrest of
"Jack" Davis, and another was sent to Reno calling for the arrest of John
Chapman, Sol Jones, Chat Roberts and Cockerell.
Davis was arrested in
Virginia City by Chief of Police George Downey and Constable Ben Lackey;
and Jones, Roberts and Cockerell were taken in Long Valley by a posse
headed by Chief Burke of
Sacramento and Louis Dean of Reno. Chapman, who
was in San
Francisco on the day of the robbery, came up to Reno on the
following day, and, was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Edwards. This completed
the arrests. The entire gang had been rounded up in less than four days
after the robbery occurred and most of the money was recovered. Gilchris
showed the officers where the money was cached, saying that it was the
intention to let it remain there until the excitement of the robbery had
subsided, when it was to have been dug up and divided.
Continued Next
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