An
election was held for the purpose of forming a sort of community
organization, the first election ever known in Montana. The men
from the East had brought with them some idea of law and
organization. There were now in the Montana fields many good men
such as the Stuart Brothers, Samuel T. Hauser, Walter Dance, and
others later well known in the State. These men were prominent in
the organization of the first miners' court, which had occasion
to try--and promptly to hang--Stillman and Jernigan, two ruffians
who had been in from the Salmon River mines only about four days
when they thus met retribution for their early crimes. An
associate of theirs, Arnett, had been killed while resisting
arrest. The reputation of Florence for lawlessness and bloodshed
was well known; and, as the outrages of the well-organized band
of desperadoes operating in Idaho might be expected to begin at
any time in Montana, a certain uneasiness existed among the
newcomers from the States.
Two more parties, likewise bound for Idaho and likewise baffled
by the Salmon River range, arrived at the Montana camps in the
same summer.
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