The Hall Brothers
by Cal Campbell

James Hall was only 19 years old and his younger brother Frank had just had his 18th birthday. Both young men lived on a small ranch in eastern Wyoming on the border with South Dakota.

The two brothers were similar in looks; however, James was very tall for being only19 and measured close to 6 feet 5 inches. James also had fair skin and curly red hair. He was very shy and embarrassed by his many freckles.

However, his brother Frank was somewhat smaller in stature standing only 6 feet 2 inches. Unlike his brother, Frank had dark auburn straight hair and a somewhat darker complexion.

As both their father and mother were tall and the boys grandparents had been very large for individuals in the mid-1800s, it was not surprising that all of their neighbors considered the Hall family to be very big people.

The family had difficulty in maintaining the ranch as their land was poor. After two summers of drought they barely had enough grass to feed their very small heard of long-horn cattle that they had bought in Cheyenne, Wyoming, from a group of cowboys driving a heard from Texas.

Today, many would say the family had a "cash flow" problem. With only nine cattle in their small herd, there really was no work for the two boys as their father Don could manage the ranch by himself.

An additional two mouths to feed just put the family further and further in debt to the only store in Newcastle, Wyoming. In fact, the owner of the general store had told the Hall family that he could no longer carry their markers, and they needed to settle their back debts in a month. Otherwise, Mr. Larson could no longer give them grocery stables and run a "tab."

It was early in May that the boys decided to leave the ranch and seek job opportunities across the border in South Dakota.

The Hall family only had one rifle to keep the coyotes at bay when the new calves were born in the spring. Therefore, the boys started their adventure without horses, a rifle or a pistol. Neither boy had very warm clothes to start their long journey, but their mother gave each a threadbare blanket.

With their well-worn cowboy boots the boys headed west. As their father needed the one "cutting horse" for the ranch, the boys were to walk into South Dakota. Their mother gave James and Frank a few biscuits and a little coffee and sent them on their way. Frank also carried a hunting knife.

The younger son Frank had practiced and was a good shot with his sling-shot. James hoped that his younger brother could hit a rabbit and supply them with some meat on their intended long walk.

It was nearing dusk when the Hall brothers sighted a campfire about a half mile ahead. The smell of boiling coffee and fresh meat meant that the campers had food that they could share. The younger brother Frank was the more cautious of the two and hesitated about walking toward the campfire, not knowing if it was safe.

It was at this point that James stated, "Frank, we have absolutely nothing of value, except the cloths on our back." Therefore, Frank agreed with his big brother, and they announced their arrival, so as not to upset the two men huddled beside the warm fire.

To the brothers delight the two men, A.J. Allen and Louis Curry, invited the two boys to share their meal of biscuits and a rabbit they were cooking. The evening was cool, and so all four of the men enjoyed the hot coffee boiling on the pine stick fire.

With a full stomach for the first time in days, James and Frank settled down for what they thought would be a peaceful sleep.

Perhaps after not eating for a day, it was Frank who awoke about midnight to urgently disappear into the pine forest to relieve himself. James had warned Frank not to stuff himself with so many biscuits and rabbit or else risk the "trots."

It was during Frank's absence that a posse of men, led by the local sheriff from Rapid City, woke the three remaining men and immediately arrested them for stealing horses from the Salisbury-Gilmer Stage Company. The stage company was located in Crook City, not far from Rapid City.

Frank hid behind a large bolder, not far from the camp, and witnessed the arrest. As he did not want to risk being the fourth captive he was very silent, trembling with fear.

The posse took the three men and their horses into Rapid City and locked them in a barn. Immediately, James Hall began to beg the sheriff to release him since he did not know that the horses were stolen and had only arrived at the campsite that evening.

As soon as the three men arrived in Rapid City, the owners of the Stage Company identified their horses as belonging to them. In fact, the owners of the Stage Company were so happy to have their horses returned that they paid for drinks to the waiting group of citizens who had witnessed the posse and men coming into town.

In early evening, a Judge Robert Burleigh conducted a hearing and later turned the evidence over to the grand jury for them to make a decision as to the three men's guilt or innocence.

Perhaps, due to the group of cowboys having free liquor supplied by the owners of the stage company, a group of vigilantes, all with masks, broke into the barn where the three men were being held captive and forced them up a near-by hill.

All the way up the hill, the townspeople could hear the young Hall boy crying and begging for his life. However, the vigilantes were too drunk to listen to the pitiful screams and proceeded with the hanging.

By law, the three men were to have been given the standard hanging for horse thieves. This meant that the three would be placed on horses with their hands tied behind them. Then the horses would be slapped on their hindquarters, and after taking off the men would be left dangling from their ropes with broken necks.

However, when Judge Burleigh made it to the top of the hill the next morning, he assumed the role of coroner and conducted his inquest to find that the knots had been so poorly formed that the three men had died of asphyxiation – not broken necks as horse thieves were supposed to have died. To be strangled was a slow and very painful death.

All three of the men were taller than the average man in the 1800s, so it was not surprising that all three men had their feet touching the ground. This probably accounted for the strangling and not the broken necks.

In the wild west of the mid-1800s justice was, at times, too quickly carried out – this was one example where a few citizens of Rapid City felt real remorse.

* * *

After waiting until the posse had disappeared into the night, Frank carefully took a few of the supplies discarded by Allen and Curry. He was cautious in not taking everything and carefully brushed away his footprints so if the sheriff returned he would find most of what was brought to the camp by Allen and Curry.

Frank walked all night to distance himself from Rapid City not knowing what would happen to his older brother. However, he knew what they did with horse thieves

Hoping for a fair trial and praying that Allen and Curry would verify James story of having just arrived that evening, perhaps, just perhaps, his brother would be released.

About four or five in the morning, Frank spotted a ranch in the distance. Frank decided to take a chance and stop and ask for directions to the nearest town. If the rancher and his wife were honest, hardworking ranchers like his parents, maybe they would have him stay for breakfast.

Frank dare not tell the ranchers, John and Ellen Swango, what had happened during the night. Rather, he told the middle-age couple that he was forced to leave his parent's ranch in Wyoming. Although they loved their boy, they just could not afford to have another mouth to feed. He purposefully did not tell the Swangos of his brother James.

As the Swangos were more prosperous and had a vast herd of the very best cattle, the elder Swango asked if Frank would like a job. John and Ellen had a bunkhouse for their hired wranglers.

John, together with a few of the men on the ranch, fitted Frank with clothes, a fine horse and saddle. They did not offer Frank a Colt six-shooter as they really did not know anything about this stranger appearing in the very early morning.

After enjoying a big breakfast with the boys who worked for the Swangos, he was expected to ride out with the group and look for stray calves that may have been separated from the herd during the night.

It was difficult for Frank to keep from falling asleep in his saddle. Anyway, the chestnut cutting horse that they loaned Frank did most of the work that day and Frank hardly had to touch the reins of the horse they called Snipe.

After a week of working on the ranch from sunup until sundown, the cowboys asked Frank if he would like to join them for a night on the town in Rapid City.

Although Frank was at first hesitant, he agreed to join the group. Frank purposely did not tell the Swangos his last name and neither his new employer nor his fellow cowboys asked. In those days, the pay was given in cash. Therefore, last names were not necessary.

After a few drinks in a Rapid City bar, a local asked the cowboys from the Swango ranch if they would like to hear the story of the hanging of the horse thieves. After the story the local cowboy wanted them to ride up the nearby hill as they had posted a sign that would warn any potential outlaws to think twice about stealing anything from a Rapid City resident.

After a short ride up the rather steep hill the Swango cowboys read the following sign that was posted directly under the "hanging tree."

The sign was printed with the following words:

HORSE THIEVES BEWARE

Here lies the bodies of Allen, Curry and Hall.
Like other thieves, they had their rise, decline and fall;
On yon pine tree they hung till dead,
And here they found a lonely bed.
Then be a little cautious how you gobble horses up,
For every horse you pick up here, adds sorrow to your cup;
We're bound to stop this business, or hang you to a tree,
For we've hemp and hands enough in town to swing the whole damn clan.*

*(This sign appears beside the "hanging tree" and is credited to the article Bad Boys of the Black Hills, author Barbara Fifer.)

Needless to say, Frank hid his sorrow and with tears in his eyes he rode alone back to the ranch. Frank could not sleep t hat night and the other cowboys in the bunkhouse heard sobs in the night. They all snickered and thought that the young man was merely homesick for his parents back in Wyoming.

REVENGE

In about a month following his day in Rapid City, all Frank Hall could think about was his older brother swinging from the pine tree overlooking Rapid City. The other wranglers on the ranch noticed that Frank was often lost in thought and appeared "on edge" and moody. Often, he would lose his temper over the most mundane of events.

Frank had made a close friend of Tex Bennett, a drifter like himself, from Texas. Now, Tex was an expert with his Colt .45 and could shoot the burning wick from a candle thirty yards away.

Following what seemed like an eternity, but really only about three months, Frank had saved enough of his wages to buy a used Colt .45 from one of the cowboys on the Swango's ranch.

Frank then begged Tex to teach him to shoot and to quick draw from his oiled holster. Tex did not question why Frank wanted to quick draw and to shoot with accuracy. The only targets on the Swango's ranch were rattlesnakes and the coyotes.

The coyotes were "taken out" with a rifle and the rattlesnakes were "usually" far enough away that a cowboy could shoot the snake without needing to "quick draw."

No, the only reason to "quick draw" with accuracy was to participate in a gun duel with another man. The attitude that Frank had begun demonstrating started to worry Tex and a few of the other wranglers.

Even Mr. Swango had noticed a change in young Frank.

Finally, after persuading Frank to have a few shoots of whiskey in the bunkhouse after supper one evening, Frank broke down and told the story of how his younger brother James had been hung in Rapid City by a group of drunken vigilantes.

It was the older Mexican cowboy who "spilled the beans" on Frank and told Mr. Swango the story of Frank's brother James. Mr. Swango became interested in the story as he too had trouble with Lou Gilmer of the Salisbury-Gilmer Stage Company.

What happened prior to Frank arriving at the Swango ranch was that Mrs. Swango and her daughter Virginia had been stopped on the road to Rapid City by Lou Gilmer and a few of his friends.

Lou stopped the Swango buggy and proceeded to pull the two ladies to the ground and attempted to rape Mrs. Gilmer. Lou Gilmer's friends restrained Virginia, by whipping and tearing her clothes.

However, before the group could lay a hand on Virginia, a group of cowboys from the Swango ranch rode to the rescue and after a lengthy gun battle, the Gilmer gang outraced the cowboys back to town. The only casualty was a long ugly scar on the very beautiful face of Virginia. This was caused by Lou Gilmer's whip.

None of the Gilmer gang or the cowboys were killed in the gun fight. However, one of Swango's wranglers had to wear a sling on his arm caused by a bullet to his upper shoulder. This prevented the cowhand from working for nearly a month.

Immediately, Mr. Swango rode into town to report the incident. However, since Lou Gilmer had control of the town, the sheriff dismissed the charges and told Swango to leave town and forget what he "believed" to have happened on the trail.

Now Frank had an ally in the pent-up rage against the Salisbury-Gilmer Stage Company. Frank thought that if Lou Gilmer had not bought all of those free drinks that the vigilantes would never have had the nerve to break his brother James out of the barn and proceed with the hanging.

It was a bit unusual that Mr. Swango would invite one of his wranglers to dinner in his fine home with his wife and beautiful daughter Virginia.

However, Mr. Swango had developed a plan to extract revenge on Gilmer of the Salisbury-Gilmer Stage Company.

Mr. Swango thought that with a fine dinner of the very best steak and wine he could persuade the young Frank to "take out" the slick Mr. Gilmer. Also, as an upstanding citizen with much to lose if he was implicated in the plot, he wanted Frank to take all of the risks and to distance himself from the assassination attempt on Mr. Gilmer.

The plan was "hatched" that evening. With all the practice on shooting that Frank had received from Tex, the young Hall boy thought he could even the score all by himself.

But Mr. Swange, being older and wiser, thought that they needed more of an edge than a fair gunfight. This is where the old Mexican by the name of Garcia comes into the picture.

Mr. Swango brought Garcia to the big house, and together they shared a drink on the spacious sprawling porch. (Mr. Swango would never let a Mexican in his home.) Mr. Swango knew that Garcia was not of a mind to bushwhack Mr. Gilmer.

Nevertheless, Garcia had begged the Swangos to bring his brother Jose from Mexico to work on the ranch. The reason that Mr. Swango did not send for Jose before was that after many inquiries he found that Jose had been in and out of jail and was somewhat of an unsavory character.

It was also rumored that Jose had run with a group of outlaws terrifying settlers on the Texas border. This time Mr. Swango was all to happy for Garcia to contact his brother and bring him to the ranch.

The plan on how to settle the score with Mr. Gilmer was now taking place.

It was a slow process in the mid-1800s to first contact Jose, and then for the Garcia brother to travel to western South Dakota. In the meantime, Frank polished his gun handling abilities and was gaining both quickness and accuracy with his Colt .45 pistols.

When Jose Garcia finally arrived at the Swango ranch, the other cowboys stayed their distance as Jose was as mean a character as they had ever seen in that part of the country.

Jose had long greasy hair and a long scar that started just below his left eye and ran down to just above his unshaven jaw. As Jose had a habit of chewing cigars, his teeth were stained a dirty yellow.

Also, the wranglers on the ranch immediately knew he was a "gunfighter" as he strapped his two pistols low on his belt and had them tied down with rawhide cords.

The plan was now developing, and both Mr. Swango and Frank wanted the deed completed with due haste. Anyway, the Swango's did not want Jose on their ranch any longer than possible.

Mr. Swango had watched young Frank practice drawing and shooting and thought why risk the death of this young man when he had hired a true professional to take care of the shooting.

Therefore, Mr. Swango persuaded Frank to practice with a sawed-off shotgun that Jose had brought with him from Mexico.

A meeting was held in the Swango's barn with Mr. Swango, Jose and Frank in attendance. Mr. Swango made Frank and Jose swear to secrecy the plan of killing Gilmer. The reason was that although Swango wanted very much to get rid of Gilmer, he did not want to be implicated.

The plan was to wait until there was a moonless night and then have Jose start an argument in a Rapid City saloon with Gilmer hoping the two would step into the street for a duel.

In Jose's broken English he asked, "How will I identify this hombre Gilmore?" As Jose had never seen Mr. Gilmore, it was the elder Swango that had to describe Gilmore. He stated, "That son-of-a-bitch Gilmore has white wavy hair worn down to his shoulders and has a handle-bar mustache."

In case Jose was not able to "bring down" Gilmer, then Frank would be waiting in the shadows with the sawed-off shotgun ready to finish the job.

The very ugly Jose strode into the bar where they knew Gilmer liked to challenge the other citizens in a high stakes poker game.

Jose asked to join in the game with the purpose of cheating at cards and thus bring about the anger of Gilmer. Now Gilmer was known to have a bad temper and perhaps Jose could entice him into a gunfight.

After dealing off the bottom of the deck, Gilmer grabbed Jose's wrist and at the same time pulled his colt .45. A quick thinking bartender pulled his shotgun from under the counter and halted Gilmer from firing.

The bar tender told both Jose and Gilmer to step outside to settle their differences. Once outside both men agreed to take ten paces, turn and fire. However, Jose took only nine paces turned and shot the gun from Gilmer's hand. Jose's second shot struck Gilmer between the eyes.

The sheriff collected several witnesses and they all told the same story that Gilmer had called Jose out and indeed this was a fair fight.

It was now the duty of the Sheriff to tell Jose to get out of town and never to return. After a short ride to the Swango ranch to collect his $1,000 bounty, Jose headed, with due haste, back to Mexico.

Indeed, the revenge that Frank had sought was complete and he was not implicated. Frank also rode out of town w ithout anyone seeing him.

Frank had now spent nearly five years on the Swango ranch and thought that he needed to head back to his parents' home to check on his parents and tell them the bad news concerning their son James.

As a reward for participating in the ambush and also to further distance himself from Frank Hall, the elder Swango gave Frank several of his best cattle to take back to Wyoming.

In fact, there were over twenty cattle to take back to Wyoming. As there could be cattle rustlers on the trail, Frank persuaded his friend Tex to accompany him back to Wyoming. In this arrangement one could sleep while the other wrangler could keep watch over the cattle.

Needless to say, the parents were very happy to see Frank, but also grieved after hearing that their other son James had died.

In all the years after arriving home, Frank never did tell his parents how James had died. Instead, he told his parents that James had died in a freak accident by being trampled on by a horse he was attempting to break for use as a saddle horse.

When Frank's mother asked, "Frank, did you meet any young ladies the past five years you were on the Swango's ranch?" Frank answered, "Yes, Mom and after I establish myself, and have a nest egg, I will go back to the Swangos and court their daughter Virginia." "Hopefully, I will be able to secure the blessings of her parents, and I can begin courting this beautiful blond girl with the cute round face." Purposely he did not tell his parents of Virginia's scar on her otherwise beautiful young face.

Frank's mother had always wanted grandchildren and thought that perhaps their son should not wait too long. In fact, she stated, "You know there may be other fellows who would step in and sweep this cute little filly away from you."

Frank's answer to his mother's urgency was documented as saying, "Don't worry Mom, Virginia is away at an all-girls boarding school and will not be returning to the ranch for at least two years."

"Well," Frank's mother stated, "There sure ain't no girls in Newcastle that you would want anything to do with as they are all either ugly or come from poor ranch families such as ours."

In the meantime, Tex stayed for only a few weeks on the Hall ranch and then moved on to Texas to visit his parents and perhaps rekindle a romance with his boyhood sweetheart.

The End

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