James G. Doherty, a lad of sixteen, arrived in New York City
in October, 1883 with his mother, sister and brother. His father dead in
Ireland, Doherty made his way to Big Butter Creek in Umatilla County with his
family and stayed first with his mother's cousin, Catherine Doherty Nelson.
Doherty and his brother Bernard went to work for their brother-in-law, Charles
Cunningham, until buying their own place and continuing in the sheep business.
In 1891, the Doherty brothers moved to Blackhorse Canyon, about six miles north
of Heppner and engaged in the cattle business. At the time of this event, James
Doherty was married and head of an expanding family of eight children.
James Doherty in 1906, with Catherine Doherty
and the first seven of their children: L to R
Ann, Nora, Tina, Mary, Francis, Sara, Margaret.
Southern
Umatilla County in the early 20th century was a pretty rough area. Down in this
country one early historian described the area as “a rude borderland, where
sheep, cattle, and mining interests battle for the supremacy and Winchester
rifles and “six shooters” are more respected than the law.”
This area is, he
says, “a rough, wild but exceedingly romantic region, past Big Pots and Little
Pots, Vinson, Nye, and Butter Creek, famed for their extensive sheep and cattle
industries. Among these rugged hills and in the hundred canyons may be seen peacefully
grazing nearly all of Umatilla county’s 300,000 sheep, besides many thousands
of cattle…”
Cattle and sheep require grass and grazing land, and by this time
common lands are getting scarcer. In southern Umatilla and Morrow counties, the
government of President Roosevelt has created forest reserves (1906). In 1907
the forest reserves were renamed national forests and in June of 1908, all of
the Heppner National Forest and a portion of the Blue Mountain National Forest
were combined into the Umatilla National Forest that we know today. The process
of grazing allotments in the national forests was contentious, and sheep and
cattle interests vied for separate area. Regional quarrels also occurred, with
Oregon interests seeking to have sheep and cattle from Washington State
excluded from the Umatilla allotments. The process also involved designated and
separate “drive lanes” to herd stock to and from allotments. While on the
public lands, it was the stockmen’s responsibility to monitor where animals
were grazing and to abide by the terms of their allotments.
This responsibility
was traditionally shared. In February,
1907, a meeting of about 200 stock raisers was held in Heppner to request
government permission to pasture stock on the forest reserves and presumably to
discuss allotments. Later in the spring, a meeting of cattlemen was scheduled
in Gurdane to discuss employing men to ride after and care for their stock on
the reserve, and of dividing the range between cattlemen and sheepmen. This
meeting was initiated by George Horseman, a cattleman from The Pots near
Gurdane who circulated a petition calling for the meeting.
HORSEMAN AND McBROOM
From information gleaned from court records
and newspaper accounts, as well as family lore, we know that there was bad
blood for some time between Horseman and a younger cattleman named Clarence
McBroom. In McBroom’s camp were several other relatives and clan members, as
well as connections to powerful politicians in Pendleton, the county seat.
McBroom’s
family moved to Umatilla county in 1862 from Missouri. He was the youngest of
ten siblings, four boys and six girls. Names that appear in court records and
in newspaper reports include his brother, Edgar L. McBroom, a well-known and
connected rancher, as well as owner of The Golden Rule Hotel from the Pendleton
area; his uncle John Gurdane who was a pioneer rancher in the county and his
cousin, Tom Gurdane, who was a city marshal in Pendleton (The Gurdane family
originally settled in the Little Pots area near the community of Gurdane). Also
in the picture was William Curtwright, a brother-in-law of Edgar McBroom and
Daniel Hicks and James Hall who were married to McBroom’s sisters. There were
other siblings in this family, many of them probably quite nice. The sort of
people you might want for neighbors.
In
February, 1907, Clarence McBroom was 23 years old and described in court
records as “weighing about 180 pounds and and was quite vigorous”. George
Horseman was described by the East Oregonian as about 80 years old. The court
record merely says that he was "past middle age".
Horseman was the oldest of three Horseman
brothers, the others being Albert and Clarence, the latter then deceased.
BAD
BLOOD PRECEDED THE MEETING
In the spring of 1906 a quarrel occurred between
Horseman and McBroom, in which McBroom was stabbed by Horseman. Apparently
McBroom went to Pendleton to try to have Horseman arrested, but was persuaded
to drop the case. The Pendleton East Oregonian reported that “It is said that
Horseman has borne a hatred for McBroom ever since and has desired to kill
him”.
McBroom, who lived
around with various relatives and had a homestead near Gurdane, was said to be
popular and to drink “but little”. His uncle, E. L. Gurdane stated that he was
not disposed to get into trouble or to threaten anyone. But the trouble kept
increasing.
In December, an incident about a fence happened. Some of McBroom’s
wire fencing has fallen into the public road. The county judge (county administrator) of Umatilla county issued a written
request for its removal. It seems that Horseman met McBroom on the road and
advised him of the order and asked him, or perhaps was more forceful, to remove
the fencing. Horseman was not the county road supervisor who should have
followed up on the judge’s order. McBroom became very angry and visited upon
Horseman “vile and opprobrious epithets”. He ordered Horseman to get off his
horse and threatened to beat him.
Horseman,
sensibly, rode away, but McBroom mounted his horse and followed Horseman. In about
150 feet McBroom met his clansman William Curtwright and said to him, “If you
will go with me, I will catch him, pull him off his horse, and beat him to
death”.
The very next day, Horseman was watering stock near a fence when
McBroom neared him on the road on the other side of the fence. McBroom,” with
an oath and vile words” said, “I've got you now.” McBroom dismounted and
approached the fence. Horseman however brandished his pocket knife and McBroom
did not attempt to climb over the fence. McBroom mounted his horse and rode
away saying that he would kill Horseman. Soon after, the ever supportive
Curtwright passed the place carrying a rifle. Thereafter, according to court
records, whenever Horseman saw McBroom passing along the road, he avoided him.
A
couple of other incidents lead up to the Gurdane event. At the February, 1907
stockmen's meeting in Heppner, the same Curtwright made threats against
Horseman to the effect that “if my cattle do not go on that range, it is
Horseman that is to blame for it and he will never see Pots again”. By this he
meant the the neighborhood of “Pots” near which Horseman lived. Contemporary
records don't tell us any more about Horseman and Curtwright's cattle.The court
later noted that this threat was made known to Horseman prior to the May
meeting in Gurdane.
On March 28, 1907, Clarence McBroom said in a conversation
with a person named George Taylor, “I will kill the son of a bitch before the
summer is over with”. Then on May 10th
McBroom told Anthony Corley whose family was from the Gurdane area that he
planned to attend the next day’s meeting in Gurdane and, referring to Horseman
said, “I am going to give him a licking and a God damned good one”. In court
later it was established that the last two threats were not communicated to
Horseman before May 11th.
Gurdane as it looks now.
THE MEETING AT GURDANE
On May 11th the early morning was chilly and
George Horseman was helping to light a fire in the Gurdane schoolhouse in
preparation for the gathering stockmen. Horseman then went outside and was
shaking hands with a neighbor when he was sucker punched under the ear by
Clarence McBroom.
McBroom, backed up by his motley crew continued to beat on
Horseman, striking him in the face, severely biting his thumb, and throwing him
to the ground. As the fight was beginning and while it was in progress,
Horseman urged bystanders to take McBroom away. But they were prevented from
doing so by James Hall, McBroom’s brother-in-law, who said, “Let him beat him
up for a while”.
No one stepped forward …
until James Doherty a rancher from Blackhorse Canyon, about six miles north of
Heppner, stepped out of the crowd and challenged Hall, “If you don’t take him
off, I’ll kick him off”. Doherty was a gutsy sort of guy and became a legend to
his descendants for this stance.
Hall told McBroom to get up, which he did.
Horseman had two teeth knocked loose, his lip nearly cut in two, his nose
“slightly” broken, his thumb and hand lacerated, and a contusion on his back in
the region of his kidneys. As a result of the contusion, he passed bloody urine
several times immediately after the attack. It was a pretty bad beating.
At
this point McBroom went into the school house and Horseman went to the school’s
horse trough to clean up. While at the trough, washing the blood from his
bruised face, the ever pleasant Curtwright walked back and forth behind
Horseman, abusing and cursing him, and calling him all kinds of vile and
opprobrious names. Referring to the beating Curtwright said, “You haven’t got
half of what you will get”. He then stated that if he caught Horseman driving
his (Curtwright’s) cattle again, he would never drive any other person’s stock.
In a short time - ten minutes according to court records - McBroom in the
school house discovered that he had lost his pocket knife. He left the building
but instead of looking for his knife, he joined
with Curtwright and they both continued to curse and abuse Horseman.
Both advanced toward Horseman, one on the right and one on the left.
Curtwright, alluding to a weapon which he knew that Horseman carried said, “You
God damned son of a bitch, and I'll shove that gun up your ass”. McBroom,
equally pleasantly added, “I'll make you eat it".
Advancing, Curtwright assumed a
threatening attitude and according to witnesses looked like he was going to
attack Horseman. Horseman stepped back a bit and told them to stay away from
him. Another witness said it looked like McBroom was going to make a run on
Horseman.
McBroom had his hand in his pocket and attempted to take it
out. Horseman pulled his gun from his pocket and fired…McBroom was felled by a shot “just below the right eye”.
AFTER THE KILLING
Horseman quickly mounted his
horse and set out for Pendleton. At Nye Junction, Horseman telephoned Col. J.
H. Raley and asked that he and Judge James A. Fee, both Pendleton Attorneys,
defend him at trial. A telephone message was sent to Sheriff Til Taylor that
Horseman was on his way to Pendleton to give himself up. The message was
received at about 1:00 pm and by 2:30 Taylor had left Pendleton with the
intention of meeting Horseman.
Soon after a party consisting of District
Attorney Phelps, Coroner Ralph Folsom, E. L. McBroom and others set out for
Gurdane to retrieve McBroom’s body and to investigate the killing. The East
Oregonian quoted McBroom’s uncle as to his peaceful disposition, and cited
“those who know Horseman” as saying “He holds a reputation that is not
enviable” and that “He is said to have been of a troublesome disposition in the
past and to have been a ‘gunman’”.
Sheriff Taylor and Horseman arrived back in
Pendleton about 9:30 that evening. The Portland Oregonian described Horseman at
this time: “He is badly broken up over the affair and his face, which is cut
and scratched, with the eyes red from weeping, presents a haggard appearance”.
TWO
VERSIONS
The Prosecutor in this case offered evidence which was intended to
show that after the initial fight, and as McBroom was leaving the school
grounds for his home, Horseman smarting from his beating and taunts of
cowardice drew his gun and pointed it at McBroom’s back. McBroom’s brother-in-law,
Daniel Hicks, seeing the drawn gun shouted to Horseman, “Don’t do that, George.
Don’t do that!” Whereupon McBroom turned toward Horseman just in time to
receive a shot in the face.
The defense team of James H. Raley and James A. Fee
advanced the theory that McBroom, facing Horseman, attempted to withdraw his
hand from his pocket and that Horseman, fearing from the severe beating which
he had received, and from the threats of his assailants which had been
communicated to him, that his life was in danger, fired at and immediately
killed McBroom.
James Doherty was called as a witness at the coroner’s inquest
and at Horseman’s trial.
The issues of law revolved around whether there was a
conspiracy between McBroom and Curtwright, and whether Curtwright’s threats
made at Heppner could be linked to McBroom. McBroom’s threats had not been
communicated to Horseman by the time of the killing. The judge ruled that a
conspiracy was not established and Horseman was convicted of manslaughter and
sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. Horseman appealed.
The Supreme Court
of Oregon in November 1908 reversed the judgement and ordered a new trial.
THE
DOHERTY LORE
James Doherty was forty-one years old in 1907, a family man with
eight children. He and his brother Bernard had spent several years in the
Butter Creek area between 1883 and 1891, working for Charles Cunningham and
then ranching on their own before moving to Blackhorse Canyon. No stranger to
the hard life of the stockman, it is not surprising that he stepped forward.
What is surprising is that no one else seemed to do so. The Supreme Court’s
words on this are, “Finally one of the men present said to Hall, in referring
to McBroom, “If you don’t take him off, I’ll kick him off”. The family likes a
little more emphasis in the statement. Onie McLauglin’s version was “… or I’ll,
By God, kick him off!"
I heard my father tell this story once at the
kitchen table, and again when my father died, Onie McLaughlin told it at dad’s
wake. The interesting thing is that both tellings were very similar to each
other and are faithful to court and newspaper records. An important point is
that this family story follows closely to Horseman’s defense, and does not
corroborate the prosecution’s theory.
Finally,
it appears that both McBroom and Horseman may have been somewhat unsavory, but
the difference in age and apparently, fitness, paints a pretty clear picture
which one was the thug in this case.
I must also note the very interesting
language used by the court, and especially “opprobrious” (scurrilous, abusive,
etc).
I don't know what ultimately happened to Horseman, or even whether there
was a second trial. To confuse the issue there was another Horseman around at
that time – George Lindsey Horseman -
who was kind of colorful in his own right and a pretty upstanding character and I've tried to be
careful not to get the two confused in this story.
Roger Doherty, February 2015
