Humpy McDonald

A few days before I got through working for Jake Linville, young Doc Linville came riding in from a trip to Miles City. He sure was on the prod. He rode to Miles on horseback, it is a several day trip, almost a hundred miles each way. He was there to collect what the county owed him for notifying the Sheriff early this spring about finding the body of old man Ennis.

When the ice went out of Little Powder this spring, Doc happened to be riding along the bank of the river when he noticed a bundle of clothes and a saddle washed to the shore. He recognized the stuff as the property of old Ennis. The stuff must have been thrown into the river through a hole cut in the ice and weighted down with a rock. After the ice went out, the stuff broke loose and washed to the shore.

We all thought old Ennis left the country last winter. His stuff disappeared, his horse and saddle were gone and a note was nailed to his door saying, “I have gone to hell.” But when Doc found that stuff he figured that someone killed Ennis.

He then rode over to Ennis’ cabin to investigate. The cabin was occupied by Humpy McDonald. Humpy found the cabin empty and moved in about two weeks before.

Humpy is a sheepherder, he is a little cuckoo, he never bathes, seldom shaves, and his straight black hair comes to his shoulders and over his beady black eyes. They have a strange crazy look about them. He came from the swamps of Florida a few years ago. His nose was mashed at one time or other and it affects his speech and smell I think.

When Doc rode up to the cabin Humpy came out and like everyone here in the west he asked Doc to get off his horse and come in and have a bite to eat. Of Course Doc wouldn’t eat any of Humpy’s filthy grub, but he did get off his horse and went inside the cabin. The smell inside was terrible.

Doc then told him about finding Ennis’ stuff and said he would like to look around inside the cabin. That was alright with Humpy and as the worst smell came from toward the bunk Doc looked under it. The cabin had a rough cottonwood lumber floor. Doc noticed that some of the boards were loose so he pulled Humpy’s bedroll off of the bunk, yanked the bunk away, pulled up the boards and there was Ennis’ body under a few inches of dirt. He was pretty well gone, there was dry blood spattered on the front of his shirt and chest. Doc realized Ennis was shot and buried there.

Ennis used to have some pretty stiff poker games in his cabin. We are almost sure we know who done him in. One rancher owed him quite a gambling debt.

After Doc found the body he rode to the county seat in Miles City to report the murder to the Sheriff and like I said it is a several day trip. Riding through the slush, snow and ice was not very pleasant.

Then after Doc got back from Miles City with the Sheriff he rustled around and got some ranchers together to hold an inquest. So naturally he expected pay for all of that work. But when he got back from the county seat the other day he told us that he could not collect a cent. He said the damn beer bellies in Miles City courthouse plain beat him out of what he had coming. No wonder Doc was plenty mad. 

Doc said when he and Humpy dug the dirt away from Ennis’ body Humpy said he thought he could smell something lately but did not know what it was. He just thought the cabin smelled bad.

Humpy slept over that body two weeks and after the body was found he moved his bedroll into the lean-to barn until after the inquest. And then instead of burning the cabin down, he took it apart log by log and moved it to another location and it is his home now. The body was left where it was found. We do not know what became of Ennis’ saddle horse. Whoever killed Ennis must have led the horse off into the hills and shot him, then cut a hole in the ice and threw the saddle and other stuff into the river to get rid of it. And probably intended to burn the cabin down later, but after Humpy moved into it he didn’t get a chance to do it.

If the stuff would have stayed in the river, and the cabin burned, no one would have known that Ennis was killed.  Everyone would have kept on thinking that Ennis left the country.”

Continuing east from where Doc found the dead man partially buried is a dark gray sand rock that may or may not be a grave marker.

Sedition in Eastern Montana

The Montana Sedition law, enacted in a special session of the state legislature in February 1918, criminalized just about anything negative said or written about the government or its conduct of the war. Stiff criminal penalties–a maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine–conveyed the seriousness of the crime. Sedition is the illegal promotion of resistance against the government, usually in speech or writing. 

Most of the 79 persons convicted of sedition under Montana law worked at menial, blue-collar or rural jobs. Half were farmers, ranchers or laborers. Others worked as butchers, carpenters, cooks, teamsters, bartenders and saloon swampers. More than half of the men sent to prison were born in Europe, many in Germany or Austria. Probably the most dangerous place to open one’s mouth was Custer County (which included present-day Powder River County). A total of 13 persons were tried for sedition in Miles City, the county seat; ten were convicted.

Only one woman was convicted of sedition in Montana, Janet Smith. Born in Iowa in 1876, she lived in Deadwood, S.D. for a year and also in Lead City, S.D. before coming to Montana in about 1906 and to the Powder River country in about 1910, marrying WK Smith. She and her husband together owned close to 1,000 acres, on part of which Smith ran 2,000 head of sheep with R.R. Selway. He also owned 300 head of cattle, 35 horses and had “accumulated a competency” of $30,000 to $50,000.

The couple were arrested for sedition and tried in Miles City. The statements and actions attributed to them sound hard-bitten and distrustful, the kind made by tough, taciturn loners—in other words, the kind of people that might be expected to survive in the desolate buttes and gulches of southeast Montana.

Witnesses testified that Janet Smith “advocated turning the stock into the crops to prevent helping the government.” They said she declared the Red Cross to be a “fake,” and that “while she didn’t mind helping the Belgians with the relief work, the trouble was that the damned soldiers would get it.” She allegedly sent back War Savings Stamps supplied by the Post Office Department.

The political and economic establishment, led by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, saw a mounting threat by political dissidents, such as the Industrial Workers of the World, and sought laws to destroy them. The IWW had been active in promoting strikes against leading industries, such as copper mining, logging and agriculture to increase wages being eaten away by inflation and to improve execrable working conditions. At the same time, wartime frenzy overtook the state. Even in a state as remote as Montana, most people believed American democracy to be threatened by German threats of world domination. Fear and hatred overcame common sense. Extreme laws were passed. German residents, in particular, bore the brunt of such passions. German books were banned and burned. Even preaching in German from the pulpit was banned, a law that was cruelly enforced even after the armistice was declared.

Additional information on the Montana Sedition Project.

One of those off and on guys – more off than on.

One of those off and on guys – more off than on. Caused much trouble among employees with too much talk. Drank a good deal. Wrecked a truck and a valuable load when I was riding with him – R.H. Jarvis, Stevensville, MT reference for Albert Tracy for Northern Pacific Railroad

View full record.

Warm Springs, from Sacred Indigenous Ground to Resort to Asylum

In early 20th century Powder River County records, mostly documented by the Broadus Independent newspaper, several people were committed to Warm Springs, an asylum and state hospital during the Kingsley era. These stories come from Powder River County (formerly part of Custer County):
  • A son committed his father based partly on reports from his teacher, who may have suggested inappropriate behavior by the father. Toward his son? Toward the teacher? Incapable of taking care of his son? Specifics are lost to history.
  • Several men for sexual perversion
Warm Springs, Montana has a history that includes a resort, an asylum, and a state hospital, as well as a geothermal site and a wildlife management area: 
  • Geothermal site sacred to indigenous peoples
    Warm Springs is located on Warm Springs Mound, a calcite geothermal site with hot water that seeps from a limestone cone. The mound was sacred to several local Native American tribes, who called it the “Lodge of the Whitetailed Deer”.
  • Resort
    The Warm Springs area was originally a resort that opened in 1871.
  • Asylum
    In 1874, resort owners Dr. Armistead Mitchell and Dr. Charles Mussigbrod converted it into an infirmary, which became an insane asylum in 1877.
  • State hospital
    The Montana Territorial Government founded the hospital in 1877, and the state purchased it in 1912. The hospital was renamed Warm Springs State Hospital in 1965, and then Montana State Hospital in 1983