Fremont-Huerfano County CO Archives News.....Two Men Are Hung June 30, 1931 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ann Martinez ann7253@msn.com August 10, 2005, 11:20 am Daily Record June 30, 1931 Canon City, Colorado, Daily Record, Saturday, June 30, 1931 Two Men are Hung For the Murder of Mr. Newman First Lynching in This Section That People Recall Was to Avenge Brutal Murder of Local Stockman The first Hanging in these parts that any living person can tell you anything about was the hanging of Felepe Salazar and Jose Talmadge on dark night in July, 1876. Record reporters have read the account published in the Canon City Times, July 27, 1876 and have interviewed several gentleman who were present and some ladies and other gentlemen who were in town but did not attend. So we can tell you a lot more about that first hanging than did Henry Ripley, Editor of the Times, told his readers in July 1876. Newman Murdered By Two Mexican Employees Mr. Newman was a highly respected resident of the community. He had not lived here long. He had brought here 75 or 100 head of horses and was intending to establish a horse ranch somewhere near. He had his horses in Shaw Park. Two Mexicans employed about town persuaded Mr. Newman that they could show him a park where he could fence a narrow draw and he would have a magnificent pasture and horse ranch “without much fencing or cost”. The Mexicans were Felepe Salazar and Jose Talmadge. They were recognized as rather superior Mexicans and Talmadge was said to be half Greek. Lou and Andy Hemmerie remember them, as they made adobe for several buildings here including some for their mother, Mrs. Hemmerie, who build the building now occupied by the Vaughn restaurant and the Western Union Telegraph office. True Blancett says he knew Newman very well ant that he told him not to take these two chaps with him as he distrusted them. He thought they were too smart to be good. One day about the first of July 1876, Mr. Newman and his two guides started of in a light wagon and a team of horses to find this horse ranch park, which could be secured by the building of a short fence. The party eventually drove out over Oak Creek grade, through Rosita and wee headed through Wet Mountain valley as if going toward Gardner. Probably the first night out after passing Rosita, Mr. Newman was murdered. The murderers stripped the body of all clothing down to underwear, wrapped it in a blanket and tried to hide it in the brush. Murder will out, so they say, and it was only a few days before the body was discovered and officers were (unreadable cut off from photocopier) to Canyon City in the night late in July. Frank Bengly was sheriff at the time but the prisoners were in the hands of two deputies, T. E. Barrett of Rosita and J.C. Baer, who had followed and captured them. Crowd in Murray’s Saloon Decides on Hanging Murray’s saloon was the popular place for men to meet and gossip over the day’s doings. That old saloon meeting place in the rooms over which the Federal Court met with the great Judge Moses B. Hallet on the bench and in which churches held their socials and entertainments is tame enough today with Ira J. Falres grocery store as it’s chief tenant. In that summer of 1876 the town was full of railroad workers building the Rio Grande railroad, stage drivers, teamsters, cowboys and adventurers. Mr. Murray did a thriving business that year. On this hot night late in July 1876the crowd at Murray’s was large. No one knows just why the crowd was larger than usual that night. Even boys who have an instinct to knowing that something was going to happen helped to crowd the place. The Hammerie boys, Lou and Andy, newcomers to the community were there. Trumon, Blancett who had chased many a bad Indian was in the crowd. He and Mel Yard had some authority – a leadership in a crowd like that. It was not late, probably along about 9 o’ clock when somebody came in and ann ounced that the officers were bringing the Newman murders into town. Who first said, “Lets Hang’em” matters little now- nor does it matter who pulled the ropes tight around the small necks of the two who died that night. As has been said once before, we are not looking for executioners. In these rambles among the early scenes but just for eye witnesses. We just want the low-down. Even the ( unreadable ) to the seen of action. The federal court upstairs had (unreadable) (nothing?) to do with the cases. But the court of popular opinion that was not long in trying, convicting, and sentencing to be hung by the neck until dead, two murders, Salazar and Talmage. Salazar Is Hung And Left on Ditch Bank The mob was quick to act. The county had no jail at this time. The city had a little brick calaboose located at about 416 Rudd Avenue. It stood there long and many remember it, but it was torn down a few years ago. Officers Barrett and Baer took the prisoners to this little brick calaboose. They had Talmadge inside fastened to his cell with handcuffs and chains. Then officers opened the cell door to admit Salazar, but the mob was quick and strong. Men overpowered the officers and Salazar in the scrimmage broke and ran. He jumped in the big ditch and the crowd came pell mell through the big ditch about waist deep in water that night, but it was a warm night. Salazar was quickly captured and hung in an old shed at the rear of the property at 603 Rudd Avenue. Andy Hemmerie had long lived at 602 Rud. He was an observer of the events that night. He says that a sister of William H. McClure lived in an adobe house right on the corner. The man was hung in an old shed at the rear of her home. Later that night some of the men thought that it might be a shock to this good lady to go out in the morning and find a dead man hanging in her wood shed so the went back and cut the body down and dragged it out in the sage brush on the big ditch bank half a block away. Arthur T. Richardson recalls that he had been sent out early the next morning to turn the water in on their crops. Walking along the bank of the big ditch, along near 6th and rudd a little northeast probably, he came upon a dead man lying in full view of the bank. It was Salazar. It was said at the time that when Salazar was hung he had on a pair of pants he had taken of the dead body of Mr. Newman. Others Storm Jail and Get Talmage While this bunch of men and boys were attending to Salazar another self-appointed committee stormed the little brick jail and took Jose Talmage away from the officers. He was taken across First Street bridge and hung in a little cottonwood grove about a hundred yards west of where the bridge now stands. With two executions (unreadable) There is a tradition that as a committee was Talmage through town they stopped at Murray’s and gave him a good stiff drink of whiskey. Richard Houle recalls that that was reported at the time. Mr Houle did not patronize bars nor attend hangings so was not an eye witness. There was a tradition that Dr. J. W. Dawson was driving his old grey horse and professional buggy in from an all night call in Hot Springs addition very early the following morning. Coming to the grove of cottonwoods, the horse shied, roared up and came near running away. It is reported the doctor said the to the man apparently standing in the bushes, “Get the hell out of here,” or words to that effect, not knowing that the man had been hanged and was dead. Trumon Blancett recalls that one of the leaders of the party attending to Talmage was John Braden, old time stage driver and bold frontiersman. He took a personal interest in the execution of Talmage and helped to expedite it as much as possible. The trees in the little cottonwood grove were small. All trees you know in this vicinity in 1876 were young and small. It was really difficult at that time to find a tree in the vicinity of Canon City to hang a man on. So when they threw the rope over the limb of the tree and pulled the man up, the limb of the tree bent down just enough so that the man’s feet touched the ground. John Braden always equal to the occasion when fearless men operate took the man’s feet off the ground and held them out in such a position that the whole weight of the man’s body would pull on the ropes- and thus he was choked to death. Read It as It Was Written in 1876 In another column will be found the report of the murder and the account of the hangings, copied from the Canon City Times exactly as printed in July 1876. In our report on the affair we have accepted most of the essential statements made by the Times as facts. They were written at the time and should be accurate, although will say they are woefully lacking in interesting details. Trumon Blancett, who was out that night and with the party from it’s beginning, does not agree with all the details in our narrative and even with the report in the Times. Henry Ripley was a psalm singer and did not mix with the people of the town except those who attended Sunday school and prayer meeting. That he had no acquaintances among the boys who congregated at Murray’s and took part in hangings, so that he was in no position to get the low down on the events of that night. Henry Ripley surely did not get much of the details of that exciting affair- or did not print them. But on the points of the story where good men differ, the Hemmerie Boys, Lou and Andy, agree with the details in the report by Mr. Henry Ripley in the Times. And nobody we have met yet have accused the Hemmerie boys of being psalm singers in 1876. The McRay Girls Remember the Night Mexicans Were Hung If the McRay Girls, Blanche and Beulah had been boys and if they could have gotten away from the closed observation of their father, George F. McRay, and mother Sarah McRay, they probably would have attended at least one of these hangings, as it occurred close to their home in South Canon. However, they were pretty young for that sort of thing, and Mrs. McRay would not have let them go even to a game of baseball on Sunday, much less to see the hanging of any man, no matter how many men he had murdered. Mrs. Claude S Rogers and Mrs. Lane, as the McRay girls are known now, remember the incident distinctly. They lived just about three blocks up First Street in South Canon and there were few houses between their home and the river. In discussing the incident the other day, Mrs. Rogers said, “ Our family came to Colorado from Kalamazoo Mich. In March 1875 and settled in South Canon. My father and mother were very kindly and hospitably inclined, especially toward people from Michigan for whom they felt a sort of neighborly affection and it was largely on that account, that we were deeply interested in the murder of Mr. Newman, who we learned lived near Kalamazoo before coming west to engage in the cattle business. We had some correspondence with relatives of Mr. Newman in Kalamazoo after were informed that he had lived near our old hometown and always regretted that we did not know him as he was reported to be a very fine gentleman. We have now in our possession the photograph of a niece of Mr. Newman’s sent us many years ago in connection with correspondence relating to his murder. Salazar Family Lived On Anson Rudd Property Anson Rudd recalls the hangings. He was a young boy at the time. He was not out that night and did not hear about the trouble before morning. Like all boys he chased out in the morning as soon as he heard to see the bodies of the two who had been hung. Mr. Rudd knew Felipe Salazar very well. The young Mexican lived with his parents in a little log cabin on the Rudd homestead. The little cabin was located on the river bluff just back of the residence site where Wm. A MacKinze lives now. Rudd says the parents were nice old Mexican folks and that the mother kept her little humble home as clean as anybody home is kept. After the tragedy the family moved away. They could not stand the disgrace brought upon them by their wayward son. Trumon Blancett Tells Of Hanging As He Recalls It (First portion missing) Jose Talmage having been captured at the Martinez Plaza on the upper Huerfano, and soon after given into the charge of Deputy Sheriff Barrett who brought him to Canon. Filipe Salazar, the other murderer was captured near Florence by Deputy Sheriff Boer. As these officers were taking the prisoners to the jail they were overtaken by a party of men who demanded the prisoners but they refused to surrender them. They were hurried to the jail and one of them fastened in his cell and while the cell door was being opened for the other, a rush was made, the prisoner snatched from the officers and hurried from the jail. The officers locked up the jail as quickly and soon after coming out were accosted by a party of men supposed to be the same who had taken the other prisoner, who demanded the keys. Mr. Baer told them they could not have them, and at the same time handed them to and hoping that the movement would not be seen and thus the mob be prevented from doing further violence. The movement was seen, however, and the assistant compelled to give up the keys, when the prisoner was taken out. In the morning one of the bodies was found suspended to a tree on the south side of the river and the other lying on his face on the bank of the ditch in town with a large rope about his neck. He had evidently been hung in a barn nearby and afterwards dragged out to where it was found. A jury was summoned and an inquest held on the bodies. Squire Ring acting as coroner, J. C. Baer, T. E. Barrett, Wm Locke, the officers in charge of the prisoners when the attack was made, Dr. J. W. Dawson, Felix Topain and Joseph Austin were examines as witnesses, their evidence being as given above. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased came tot their death at the hands of parties to them unknown. This so far as we know is the first case of the kind in Canon and we can but hope that it will be the last. Though in this case the victims richly deserved their fate, it is to be regretted that a resort to mob law could be found necessary, yet such are our laws and such rulings of our courts that practically there is no such crime as murder in Colorado, and the most cold blooded murderers escape the punishment they deserve. It is not to be wondered at that people who have witnessed the farcical trial of the butchering Italians should deem it necessary to the ends of justice that they should take the law into their won hands. This affair is the legitimate fruit of the decision made in the Italian case and while that decision stands such cases are likely to occur in any community. While we disapprove of mob law in any shape, we can but feel that this act, while saving our county probably thousands of dollars, will serve as a warning to the criminally disposed which will for a long time prevent the recurrence of such crimes as that for which these men have paid the penalty. ( From the Canon City Times, July 27, 1876) Additional Comments: This was sent to me by a reletive of my husband. Jose Talmage was the brother of my husbands great grandfather. I thought you might find it interesting. The father of Jose Talmage was Joseph Tolmich from Hungary and a vetran of the Civil War, he lived in Colorado from 1870 until his death in 1898. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 15.8 Kb