Distinctly Montana Magazine

67 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m the ur-Mason of lore. The rider, Langford knew, was sounding the group out for Masonic associations. Langford eagerly ap- proached the man when he was away from prying ears. According to Langford, "We employed the time we were together in relating each to the other his Masonic experi- ence, and bearing mutual tes- timony to the satisfaction we had derived from the Order, and to its peculiar adaptabili- ty to our condition in this new country." In short, a "friendship was thus formed, through the in- strumentality of Masonry, which could not otherwise have found existence." For one man with the un- likely name of Paris Pfouts, and surely many others too, it provided an opportuni- ty to meet with like-minded individuals without indulg- ing baser instincts. And, in a frontier filled with temptations toward vice, in which many of the social avenues for men to meet and enjoy fellowship involved drunkenness, fighting, thieving, and the rental of female compa- ny, that could prove rare. But what could all that secrecy purchase? Friendship, certain- ly. Brotherhood. Community. But is it possible that members of this benevolent order, meeting in obscurity on the Montana frontier, could employ all that secrecy and obfuscation in ser- vice of conspiracy? Or put plainly, did some of Montana's burgeoning Freema- sons plan a series of vigilante killings? • • • Within a year of that first official meeting, a group of seven men would meet in Nye and Kenna's Dry Goods Store in Virginia City. Two of them, Wilbur Sanders and Paris Pfouts (who would be elected their president), were Masons.*** Though the rest of the men do not appear to have been Freemasons, it seems clear that the secrecy and camaraderie of the Ancient Order influenced all of those gathered. Secrecy would have to be paramount, natural- ly, because the topic of conversation was as solemn as the grave: the killing, perhaps justified, of some badmen. As Langford recounted later, "Suffice it to say that, attracted by the promises which this Territory gave of the easy acquire- ment of wealth, a great number of the hardened villains who had infested the various mining camps on the Pacific slope, assembled here for the purpose of availing themselves of such op- portunities as might offer to depredate upon the hard earnings of the honest and laborious people of the Territory." Against this backdrop of worsening crime in the gold camps of Montana, a known trou- blemaker named Ives had tried to kill a man named Holter in a botched robbery. His bullet had passed through the man's hat and grazed his scalp, but had left him alive. The gunmen cocked his pistol, leveled it, and pulled the trigger again, but the gun failed to fire. Holter, a Norwegian businessman who would later have great success in Helena, ran away in the moment of con- fusion caused by the misfire and managed to reach town and report that Ives was his attempted murderer. A few days later, the mutilated body of a well-liked young man named Nicholas Tiebolt was found, and locals rightfully suspected that Ives, and some oth- er local roughnecks, were involved. A posse was dispatched to find and arrest him. After a trial, Ives was lynched in front of a crowd. The Masons and their brothers in conspiracy resolved to form a vigilance committee like the one that had arisen in San Fran- cisco in 1856, and in so doing to kill or drive away the criminal element, including Ives's cohorts and, eventually, the crooked sheriff Henry Plummer, whose gang, it has been estimated, was responsible for dozens of murdered travelers along the territo- ry's roads. In the months to come, fifty or so citizens volunteered to be vigilantes. They would kill nearly 30 men, most but not all confirmed outlaws and ruffians. Historian and associate justice Mark C. Dillon writes, in his book The Montana Vigilantes, 1863-1870: Gold, Guns, and Gallows, that Freemasonry "may have been a factor in the growth of the Vigi- lance Committee in Alder Gulch and in the trust that its early mem- bers had for one another... The fraternal bond of the Masons par- alleled the bond of trust that needed to exist among members of ***A persistent rumor has it, even among some amateur Masonic historians, that all of the men who met on that night were Freemasons. Indeed, the evidence suggests that only two of the seven were Masons. Nevertheless, some hold that the 7 in 3-7-77 refers to these men. Olaf Seltzer painted this depiction of the first meeting held by Freemasons in Montana. COURTESY OF DANIEL GARDINER, GRAND LODGE OF HELENA.

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