When the Sheriff's Department refers to Philip George as the County's 'only hanging', they mean the only 'judicial' hanging: Above: 1895 map of Benton County. Soap Creek is west of Wells. From Dick Ballard, Corvallis Pioneer:
"One of the dangers to the traders and travelers was from the highwaymen. These were mostly toughs from the Willamette Valley who robbed and killed without mercy. Father never talked of these things except with old timers, but there was a man named Bill Igo, who had worked at freighting at the same time father was in the business and who used to stay at our house for quite a while at times. I have heard them talk about the highwaymen and how they were punished.
There was a man in the Willamette Valley who had taken in a homeless lad and raised him as one of his own. Later this boy went to the mines and fell in with the outlaw gang. Through their confederates in town the gang would learn of some man starting out with a large amount of gold and would then waylay and kill him. This man who had befriended the lad was in the mines. He sold out this holdings and because he had a large sum with him he left on a round-about way, avoiding the main road. In spite of the precaution the highwaymen met him and he recognized the boy he had helped. This boy promised to do his best to save him and finally helped him to escape. He had seen and recognized the whole party and immediately returned to Lewiston and raised a posse. Such law and order as there was then was mostly enforced by the Vigilantes. The criminals were brought in and placed in a wooden building under guard. The tough element in the saloons and gambling halls were in sympathy with the prisoners and immediately started a move to set them free. While the mob were drinking and otherwise working themselves up to the point of making a jail-delivery, the vigilantes took the gang out and hung them on a hurriedly made scaffold. The leaders of the highwaymen were Dave English from the Soap Creek district in this county and Three-fingered Pete. There were eight or ten others. Father and Bill Igo knew most of them. Igo was in Lewiston when they were hung but he never admitted having anything to do with the dead." - Dick Ballard (Other residents told similar stories about other lynchings in the area.)
'Lewiston' is now called Lewisburg. 'Soap Creek' is north of town.
Above: The Soap Creek School
Above: An OSU restoration project at Soap Creek
Crime
The Gazette warned, "Keep your doors locked and windows
fastened these nights; don't put your gold, jewelry, and
greenbacks under your pillow or in the oven." Instead, the
newspaper suggested, citizens should use one of the several banks
in town which had modern safes where people could store their
valuables. The newspaper also cautioned against being too quick
on the trigger, saying, "Those of our citizens who are fortified
with pistols must be careful about firing them off before you are
awake as you may hit yourself or some member of your family."
Note: Corvallis was alcohol-free even in the Fifties. The "driving the saloons from Corvallis" which Mr. Dunn speaks of, is unclear. Long time Corvallis resident Ed McClain was told by his older brother that the businesses on First Street along the Riverfront, where saloons were largely located, were set afire to drive the Asian residents there from the City."
There are other kinds of outlaws in Oregon too.
