Book Review: The Murders at Convict Lake by George William III

Book Review: The Murders at Convict Lake by George William III, illustrated by Dave Comstock, TBR Trust, Carson City, Nevada, 1984.

I came upon this story when we visited Convict Lake in the mammoth lakes area of Western California.  This story starts in Nevada.  The State Prison was at Carson City, the state capitol.  On Sunday evening, September 17, 1871, there was a mass break out at the prison.  Frank Clifford was one of the planners.  There was only one guard on duty, in light of it being Sunday.  This guard, while returning the men to their cells after dinner, was struck from behind by a make-shift weapon.  From there, the prisoners managed to dig into a crawl space in the ceiling, and travel to another guard’s room.  That guard awoke startled, and was able to escape and warn the prison staff.  However the prisoners were able to getting into a storm room and steal some weapons.  Frank Denver, the warden and Lieutenant Governor confronted them, and shot Clifford in the stomach with a derringer.  He went to retrieve a larger weapon he too was struck in the head by a metal object.  He was shot with his own gun.  Bob Dedman, a lifer, but personal staff of the warden took up a chair and beat the prisoners back.  He too was knocked senseless and also left for dead.  Both these men would recover.  The prisoners now gained access to the armory, and armed themselves with rifles and shot guns and pistols along with ample ammunition.  Ed Goyette, a prisoner, saved Dedmon’s six-year-old daughter who wondered into the midst of the shooting.  F.M. Isaacs, a guard in the court yard fired a six-shooter at this prisoners until he himself was hit in the leg.  John Newhouse, a guard shot E.B. Parsons of the Verdi train robbery.  He himself was shot in the back of the head but survived.  Another guard, Perasich, also fired and hit three prisoners before being shot in the hip.  Matt Pixley, owner of the hotel that was adjacent to the prison attempted to fire as well but was shot dead by Charlie Jones.  Goyette also helped wounded staff make it to safety.  Twenty-nine would escape, heading in different directions.  This story follows the train of six convicts who headed south to Mono County in California.  This included Jones who was in prison for murder, John Burke for manslaughter, Tilton Cockerill a Verdi train robber, Bedford Roberts, the youngest at 19 in jail for stage robbery,  Moses Black for larceny and Leander Morton in jail for mail robbery.  He was considered very dangerous.  Several different posses followed them along their way at different times, through the desserts of western Nevada and then into California and past Mono Lake.  Along the way the committed several crimes, the most heinous being the murder of a Pony Express rider Billy Poor by Jones and Morton.  This turned the locals against them and urged the local posses to continue after them.  September 23 the posse finally overtook them.  Half the criminals were gone, Jones, Burke and Cockerill, looking for berries.  However Robert Morrison of the posse spotted the group by the Monte Diablo Creek (now Convict Creek).  A gun battle ensued, which did not go well for Morrison and he was killed by Black.  Roberts, the young criminal was wounded in this exchange.  Another member of the posse was also killed, Mono Jim, a Native American who was holding horses.  Jim thought the convicts were posse members and a gun battle ensued when he realized his error.  He was killed by Morton.  The lake here is now called Convict Lake and the highest peak behind the lake Morrison Peak. 

The convicts continued their journey south, hoping to cross the Sierra Nevada range.  In the attempt they soon lost a couple more horses (they had collected several from the posse) and were eventually captured.  They were taken to Bishop, and tried to blame the murder of Morrison on Roberts.  However he was also captured where the other two had left him for dead.  The men were being taken back to Carson by wagon, when a vigilante group intervened.  This group took possession of the prisoners, and held a quick trial.  The two older, Black and Morton were hung from a make shift gallows with a poll set upon the chimney of a house on one side, and a tripod on the other.  Roberts was returned to Carson as the vote was tied in his case for hanging or no. 

19 of the escaped prisoners were tried for murder.  Jones was not captured and either died in the desert or escaped.  Two had already been hung.  Eight were unaccounted for.  The convicts were found not guilty of murder, as the murder were blamed on Jones and Morton.  Later, the original conviction of Roberts would be overturned on appeal.

A couple years later, the Nevada State Legislature voted to appoint a professional warden, to be assigned by the governor.  Dedman did not agree with this, as it was part of the duties of Lieutenant Governor he had won by election.  A battle almost ensued when he was being replaced, but he finally acquiesced and moved to San Francisco.

Book Review: Fort Churchill: Nevada Military Outpost of the 1860's

Fort Churchill: Nevada Military Outpost of the 1860's, edited by Stanley W Paher, Research by Kathryn Totton, Nevada Publications, Las Vegas, NV 1981.


Fort Churchill was located about thirty miles east of  Virginia City along the Pony Express Trail in western Nevada.  It was an answer to the Paiute Wars of 1860 and was created to protect the overland trails and interests in Nevada.  It was initially manned by regular troops, but with the start of the Civil War most of the regular troops wen East to fight.  Californian and Nevada volunteers then had responsibility for the fort.  The garrison at the fort varies from 80 to 500 men.
This book starts with a very good description of the First and Second Battles of Pyramid Lake.  The first the white militia went ill prepared, and were routed.  Major William Ormsby was killed, as were most of the hundred or so men with him.  However the return battle had a different result.  Regular federals from California joined the fight, as did a larger volunteer militia with almost 500 members.  The Indians were quickly overwhelmed.  The first day of fighting heavy casualties were inflicted.  The second day most of the Native Americans had melted away leaving the field.  The volunteer militia went home, however the regular federal troops stayed and took up defensive positions.  With Captain Joseph Stewart commanding, this was the group that made Fort Churchill.  The cost of the fort was more than what would be expected, however natural resources were few and wood was hauled some distance to the fort, as were all other needed items.  Initially they guarded the Pony Express route, and as this gave way to the telegraph, they protected the telegraph wires.
The fort did not have an outer wall.  It had buildings on three sides.  On on side were the hospital, commissary and quarter master store and headquarters, on the north were officer housing, very fine two-story homes, and on the west were the regiment quarters and mess halls.  There were also corrals for horses.  there were as many as four calvary regiments located there at times.
After the fort was built, the were only occasionally involved in calming Indian issues, however they did happen.  Lieutenant Colonel Charles McDermit was killed in the last such conflict in 1865.  Fort McDermit was built near where he was killed.
The fort was more often used to keep a lid on Southern sympathizers during the war.  They would be arrested, and taken to the fort an put to work until the would sign a loyalty pledge.  Other civic issues were also handled by the military including a threatening strike by the mine worker in Virginia City.  Another time the investigated a lynching by a vigilance committee.
After the war the need for the fort became less and less.  It was changed form fort status to barracks status, and less and less people were stationed there.  It was closed in 1869 and much of the assets sold.  However there are still some ruins on the site.

Mormon Station aka Reese's Station: Nevada's First Permanent Settlement

Mormon Station was established in 1851.  It was a response by a couple of Mormon entrepeuners to the need for a station on the California Trail, for outfits to recruit before going over the Sierra Nevada.  The Nevada State Park website describes the history:
In June of 1850, two members of the Mormon Battalion, Abner Blackburn and Hampton Beatie, established a temporary trading post on the west side of Carson Valley. Their stories of this beautiful area on the emigrant trail intrigued their Salt Lake employer, John Reese, and his nephew, Stephen Kinsey.
In the spring of 1851, Reese and Kinsey loaded more than a dozen wagons full of supplies and set out for the Carson Valley. The Reese Company built a permanent trading post, approximately one mile south of the temporary trading post established by Blackburn and Beatie. Reese’s Station soon had a blacksmith shop, livery stable, and flour and saw mills nearby.
http://parks.nv.gov/parks/mormon-station-state-historic-park/
The Genoa City history adds some clarification:

Explorers and trappers made their way through this area but it wasn't until June of 1851 when John Reese and his party built a trading post that the area began to attract settlers and became a permanent settlement. Reese and his men took up land claims extending from the Walley's Hot Springs marsh area south of Genoa into Jack's Valley on the north. Since most of the men in Reese's party were Mormon, the location became known as Mormon Station. After building a trading post, Reese built a house and sent for his family in New York. Later, Reese added a blacksmith shop and a large corral for livestock.

The Overland Emigrant Trail passed down what is now Genoa's Main Street. Reese's operation did very well and when the Mormons were called back to Salt Lake City in 1857, Reese decided to stay to protect his business and extensive land claims. A great deal of buying, trading and selling of land went on during these early years. Reese did return to Salt Lake City in 1859 after business reversals.

Orson Hyde, an elder in the Mormon Church, was sent to "Mormon Station", Utah Territory, to set up a government, survey the town into lots, and define the state line between California and Utah Territory. He renamed Mormon Station "Genoa" in 1855. As the story goes, Hyde admired Christopher Columbus and so named the town site" Genoa" after Columbus's birth place, Genoa, Italy. Orson Hyde was the first probate Judge. Court matters were settled by Judge Hyde in the loft of Reese's trading post. Entrance to the loft was gained by climbing a ladder on the outside of the building then climbing through a large window into the loft. This loft was also used as a type of hotel for those pioneers traveling by foot and wishing to stay the night.

http://www.genoanevada.org/history.htm
There is some argument as to whether this is the first settlement, as the town of Dayton also lays a claim.  Turns out there were miners living in Dayton, before Reese established Mormon Station.  However they had not built permanent buildings.