Two men hanged.
George W. Brown, an alleged outlaw, was said to have been associated with Henry Plummer’s gang of Innocents in Montana.
Probably born in Minnesota, Brown grew up to marry a Sioux woman and the couple had several children. During the Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota, he served as a scout under Lieutenant Colonel William Rainey Marshall. By 1863, Brown had found his way to Montana, where he was said to have been an influential member of the ruthless gang of road agents called the Innocents.
During Montana’s gold rush days of 1863, the law was sometimes non-existent in the region that was then in the Territory of Idaho. With road agents actively pillaging the roads, stealing from stagecoaches, freight caravans, and especially from the ore wagons hauling the gold shipments. During these violent crimes, nearly 100 people were killed. Outraged locals decided that justice in the court was too slow and ineffective, and the Montana Vigilantes were born.
One suspected road agent was Erastus “Red” Yager and the vigilantes were on a mission to find him. They soon tracked him to the Stinkingwater Valley in Madison County. With him, was George W. Brown. The vigilantes told Yager that he would be taken back to Virginia City to stand trial. Though there is no written record of a confession, the vigilantes said that Yager made a complete confession while traveling back to Virginia City, naming the majority of the road agents in the gang and pointing the finger at Sheriff Henry Plummer as the leader.
Afterward, Yeager and Brown were found guilty by the posse and were hanged from a cottonwood tree along the Ruby River near Laurin, Montana, about 11 miles northwest of Virginia City on January 4, 1864. The Vigilantes left the bodies hanging from the tree as a warning to the outlaws. A note was pinned to Yeager’s body “Red! Road Agent and Messenger.” and to George Brown “Brown! Corresponding Secretary.”
© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated December 2021.
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