George Lane
George Lane was born between 1827 and 1834, and died January 14, 1864 in Virginia City, Montana.
In "Real People," by Earl C. Lane (see footnote 1), starting on page 11 comments are made about this George Lane. Earl quotes Mike Lane's father Pat [brother to Connor] as saying to Mike, "if you get to the United States, go to California, and go see Maggie McGuire at the Miner's Golden Nugget in San Francisco. She can stake you whatever you want to do as she is a friend of George Lane, your uncle."
Later in the same book, Earl states that when Mike got to the Miner's Golden Nugget, Maggie said, "I have bad news for you. George Lane got in trouble at Virginia City, Montana and was hanged." Maggie said he was blamed for something he didn't do. But, he knew the others that were mixed up in the robbery. [note "Clubfoot" George Lane was hanged by vigilantes in Virginia City]. She also stated, "I have his money he left with me for you Lane boys. You are supposed to go to Montana and buy a ranch and also homestead when it comes open."
According to Earl in "Real People," Maggie McGuire then gave Mike a large sum of money and put the rest in an account under her and Mike's name. She also said, "Don't go around Virginia City or say anything to anybody about George Lane. Don't spend much money. Go to work for awhile, save your money and make a payment on land."
Finally, on page 15 of his book, Earl states: "Mike traveled to California again to talk to Maggie McGuire and get more money to help move his family and the Kelleys out of Ireland. When he asked her more about George Lane, he found out that George had made money in California gold mines and owned a claim in Virginia City. In Virginia City, he loaned money to miners, who gave him an interest in their claims in return. He worked as a cobbler, making and repairing shoes, harnesses and saddles. Unfortunately, everything in Virginia City became a total loss, and the current owner of George's claims remained a mystery."
Whether or not this George is really a brother to Pat and Connor, or whether he is the same "Clubfoot" that was hung with Sheriff Plummer and his gang in Virginia City needs to continue to be researched. Originally, James C. Donahue told his children that we were related to Clubfoot George, but in later years he said that was just a tale.
According to all the sources, Clubfoot George Lane was hung on January 14, 1864 along with Frank Parish, Boone Helm, Jack Gallagher, and Hayes Lyons and his body lies in "Boot Hill" cemetery in Virginia City, MT. An article, "Boot Hill, Virginia City," in the Special Edition 2001 of the Madisonian entitled Capitol Times, Virginia City Montana, provides the "story" of this cemetery. The burials remained unmarked for 43 years after the burials. Then in 1907, a vigilante named A. B. Davis, who had said he could always point out the graves of Boone Helm, Jack Gallagher, Frank Parrish, Hayes Lyons and Clubfoot George, was asked by the mayor, James G. Walker to try to point out Clubfoot's grave [since some people did not believe Davis]. The Mayor had the grave pointed out by Davis exhumed, and Clubfoot's foot was readily identified. The Mayor then took a part of the casket and the deformed foot bones and placed them in a cabinet of curios at the courthouse. The bones, protected by a glass bell-jar, now are in the Thompson - Hickman Museum.
Some indications are that George was in the Salmon River and Snake River areas of Idaho before moving to Virginia City in the fall of 1863. Supposedly, he turned himself in to Fort Lapwai, Idaho to avoid being caught earlier. He also was said to come from Massachusetts by way of San Francisco, prior to that. As an example, see Chapter V entitled "Joint Hangings of the Virginia City Five" of an on-line hypertext book entitled, "Vigilante Victims," by R. E. Mather and F. E. Boswell and found on the Montana Vigilantes site at URL, http://www.montana-vigilantes.org/victims/joint5.html [accessed on 2/11/2002, taken from "Vigilante Victims: Montana’s 1864 Hanging Spree," Mather, R. E. & Boswell, F. E., History West Publishing Company, Oklahoma City, OK]
This text has the following write-up with footnotes: "While in his early twenties, the Massachusetts native had joined the California gold rush, working first on a farm in Yuba County and later relocating to Calaveras County, where he found lodging with a merchant who allowed him to clerk in his store. On hearing of the 1860 gold discovery in Washington Territory, Lane journeyed to the northern mines, but there encountered serious trouble. A Lewiston rancher accused him and a companion, Bill Roland, of 'running off horses' on Camas Prairie. The two suspects surrendered themselves to the commanding officer of Fort Lapwai, who assigned them to a detail constructing buildings on post." Other such incidents also are listed in this and other write-ups.
The Vigilante Victims text is by R. E. Mather and F. E. Boswell, and one author, Ruth Mather in an e-mail to J. Donahue on 2/12/2002 states: "A few details from our George Lane file: (1) An article in The Sacramento Daily Union, 15 February 1864, (page 3, column 2) mentions George Lane and states that an acquaintance of Lane believes he was innocent. Louis has a copy of this article. (2) The 1852 census of California, Yuba county, lists a George L. Lane, age 24, a farmer from Massachusetts. The 1860 California census lists in Calaveras County, (page 357) a George Lane, age 27, a clerk, born Massachusetts, living with a 44 year old merchant from Virginia."
One of the most often quoted, contemporary accounts of the Vigilantes was the "Vigilante Days and Ways," by Nathaniel P. Langford, Richard B. Roeder Series Editor, Sweetgrass Books, reprint series, Foreworded by Dave Walter, 1996, American & World Geographic Publishing, Helena, Montana. The Lapwai incident is written up in this text also on page 38 as: "One of the shrewdist of the gang, who from a personal deformity was called "Clubfoot George" well known as a robber and horse thief, escaped arrest by surrendering himself to the commandant of Fort Lapwai (a United States post twelve miles distant), who confined him in the guard house." According to the "Vigilante Victims" footnotes, the two suspects were assigned to a detail constructing buildings on the base and the authors cite the "Oregon Statesman" (Salem), 24 November 1962.
This text [the "Vigilante Victims"] also discusses another incident in June of 1863 when some members of a vigilante organization in Coppei (a little settlement northeast of Walla Walla) pursued two men driving a stolen horse herd toward the Snake River. The thiefs abandoned their supplies and livestock and jumped into a canoe and rowed to safety on the opposite bank of the Snake. Later some members of this "posse" told a news reporter that they "supposed" the scoundrels had been WIlliam Bunton and "Clubfoot George." The following week brought another raid and another livestock recovery, but no sign of the thieves. Though Coppei citizens had no proof of the culprits' identity, the local newspaper printed the two suspects' names, adding that one posse member was "positive" in his identification. The authors cite as their source, the "Washington Statesman" (Walla Walla), 20 and 27 June 1863.
Langford, in "Vigilante Days and Ways" also states on page 142, "Dance and Stuart commenced business in Virginia City in the fall of 1863 with a large stock of goods. George Lane, better known as "Clubfoot George" whose history in the Salmon River mines I have already given, came to them with a pitiful story of his misfortunes, and ask for a place in their store for his shoemaker's bench. Though cramped for their own accommodation, they made room for him. He commenced work, meantime watching all their business operations, for the purpose of reporting when and by whom they sent money to their Eastern creditors."
Again, on page 157, Langford states, "Messrs. Dance and Stuart, wholesale merchants of Virginia City, had arranged to send by us to their creditors at St. Louis, fourteen thousand dollars in gold dust. It was contained in a buckskin sack, and sealed. Clubfoot George, whose honesty none of us suspected, had heard us hold frequent discussions in the store of Dance and Stuart, as to the chances of safely getting thorough with it to the states." He goes on with a long, convoluted story about Hauser giving Plummer the gold in Bannock for safekeeping, a Mormon freighter and how Plummer and others almost robbed them, but kept changing their minds. He explains a scarf given by Plummer to Hauser to keep warm was a ruse for his road agents to be able to identify him.
There are other sources indicating that some attending the executions felt George was innocent, but these were not the written documented records. The Montana Heritage Project, St. Ignatius, MT has provided some analysis of these instances on their web pages at http://www.edheritage.org/ Other historians have questioned the number of supposed robberies, the distances allegedly traveled by the road agent "gang" and the lack of any organized gang. [For example, see "Vigilante Victims" discussed above]. There are also rumors that were documented about the Vigilante effort being a Masonic plot against the Irish Catholics, or a political battle by which the Republicans were able to eliminate potentially dangerous Democratic rivals, that it was a plot to keep Plummer from becoming the US Marshall, even that it was the Union supporters that killed the southern sympathizers, and finally that the Irish were stealing the gold to support the rebellion in Ireland [which didn't happen until 1916, so they must have saved it a while]. The stories and lack of proof probably mean it was a rough and ready time in Montana and some survived and some didn't.
Unfortunately, most of the "information" about this timeframe in Montana deals with Sheriff Henry Plummer and a few of the other "road agents" or "gang of outlaws." There is little specific information regarding Clubfoot George. As with other stories of the time, many are part fact and part story. An example is found in "Virginia City, Montana," by Jim Edwards of Virginia City, published by Ragged Ass, printed and distributed by The Madisonian Print, Virginia City Montana. Of course, he has a write up about Clubfoot George. He tells the same story that he had written for the Madisonian [see beginning notes] about documenting boot hill and the grave locations. Then he goes on with "Clubfoot George Lane was a shoemaker who had his shop next door to the Wells Fargo Office. This shop was built between two buildings which were about twelve feet apart. By using those walls a roof, a back wall and a front were added. There was a knothole in the wall of the Wells Fargo building. By removing the knot he could peek in or listen through the hole to know what was happening, getting schedules of departing stagecoaches and their contents. If it was a gold shipment he would pass the information on to the Road Agents, who would then lay in wait to rob the coaches. This method of spying wasn't new to George. It was said that as a kid he used to spend hours peeking through the knothole in his Grandpaw's wooden leg."
I was quite curious about this story, so called Jim Edwards on 1/11/2002. He had no information on George's ancestory, let alone whether his Grandpaw had a wooden leg. He had embellished the story a mite based on a child's song about looking through his Grandpaw's wooden leg. He is fascinated about Montana's history and fascinating to talk to, but has no better information on Clubfoot than what is included above.
Most sources of what happened when George was brought before the Vigilante Committee use one of the versions of Langford's book such as "Vigilante Days and Ways" previously referenced. On page 234-235 of that text, the following is provided after he was told why he was arrested [for being a road agent, thief, and a accessory to numerous robberies and murders on the highway].
"If you hang me, you will hang an innocent man." "We have positive proof of your guilt." was the response of the examining officer. "There is no possibility of a mistake." "What will you do with me?" "Your sentence is death," was the answer. His eyes dropped, and his countenance wore an expression of deep contrition. For some moments he covered his face with his hands, seemingly overcome by the dreadful announcement. At length, dropping his hands, and looking into the face of the officer, he inquired, --- "Can I have a minister, to pray for and talk with me?" "One shall be immediately sent for," And when the clergyman appeared, Lane, in care of the guard, spent his remaining hours of life in attending to the affairs of his soul.
Also, in this same text, on page 241 it tells of the actual hanging, in which Clubfoot George was the first of the five hung that day in Virginia City.
No more requests being made, the men laid hold of the cords attached to the box occupied by George Lane. Just at that moment the unhappy wretch descried an old friend clinging to the logs of the building, to obtain sight of the execution. "Good-by, old fellow," said he. "I'm gone," and, without waiting for the box to be removed, he leaped from it, and died with hardly a struggle."
We can, from these existing sources determine that George was in his early twenties, when he went to California from Massachusetts. This was not probably as early as the beginning of the 1849 gold rush, but shortly after that and before 1852 [possibly before the 1850 census as a G. L. Lane appears in the same location in 1850 as in 1852 California censuses]. If he was 24 in 1852, it would make him born in 1828. If he was 27 in 1860 [of course these two dates aren't reconciled], he'd be born in 1833.
Since we have Lane relatives in Holyoke, Massachusetts it is conceivable he came through there from Ireland, or he could simply have been a cousin and his family could have lived in Massachusetts, or he could be totally unrelated, but this would not match with the information in Earl Lane's book first mentioned above. The birthdate time frame and location [Massachusetts or Galway Co. Ireland, or even Cork Co. Ireland] will continue to be checked, along with the Miner's Golden Nugget Saloon in San Francisco, Maggie McGuire, immigration record, birth records in Ireland and all other clues.