A month or so ago there was a discussion on Miles City murders and nobody brought up the killing of Dr. Carlin and his son at Stone Schack on Christmas day, 1884. I was disappointed in all of you.

Do any of the Miles City historians know more about this case than what is in Hoopes book? I can not find Dr. Carlin in the 1880 census but would be greatly helped by a first name if anyone has it.

Where is Box Elder that his ranch is near?

See, I don't know much about this case so just about anyone can look good commenting on it.

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Sod Buster: Mocking legitimate historical discourse in its appropriate forum is not a good way to stay in grace with the operator of this site. Your account is now gagged. You can get another one by signing up using a real e-mail address instead of the free one that you used in the past.

Jack,

There's a Box Elder Creek in McCone County. Its almost due north of Miles and south of the the Missouri. That's pretty far north of Miles probably too far to be the one you're interested in.

But, if you have access to the Flynn Creek South Topo Map - you should be able to find it and see what you think.

Maybe you can google for it as well, here's the coordinates: Latitude: 48.01694 - Longitude: -105.80417.

If these urls will work - you can map it from there and check out some of the other "Box Elders" in Montana and see if any of them are close to the area you are interested in.

http://gazetteer.hometown...artRow=833

http://gazetteer.hometown...ox%20Elder

The killing of Dr. Carlin and the baby son he held in his arms is one of the most egregious events in Miles City History. You wouldn't have found him in a census because he and his family had just moved to Montana days earlier. His killing was blamed on a local criminal for whom the law was searching, but the truth of the matter is he was killed by the Conley Brothers (local lawmen) and their possess who called for the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. The doctor obeyed and was thus murdered. I believe he had come from Ohio. His wife returned there and went quietly mad. The doctor's associates in Ohio passed a resolution condemning the action.Nobody was ever formally charged with the killing.

At the last Historical conference I attended one of the presenters did a pro-Conley Brothers paper based entirely on their careers in the Western part of the state without being aware of their checkered carrer here in Custer Counter. The Yellowstone Journal of the day had many stories about the entire affair.

Johnnie Lockett Thomas

Ms. Thomas, is this one of the Conley's you're referring to?

http://www.lib.umt.edu/gs...D001D01310

His write up in "Progressive Men of Montana" is a certainly glowing one - but then it's quite likely that he wrote it himself or had someone write it for him (that's always a problem with subscription biographies such as this). I suppose we'd all be paragons of virtue, if we could write our own biography

Sorry for the ugly link/url, but that's the way it comes out

Thank you Johnnie for the information. I should have known that you would be familiar with this case.

I have taken a quick look at the Miles City newspapers of the day and see that they have quite a bit of information. The printer on the microfilm machine at the library likes to mess up so I was not able to make copies--plus I only had a few minutes to spend looking for information. I plan on looking thru those papers when I get a chance.

I did find (from Dr. Hoopes) where Dr. Carlin was from in Ohio and found an index to the county's old newspapers on the internet. I contacted the historical researcher at their library who sent me the newspaper artice from their newspaper, plus family obituaries, and a family history of the Carlin family.

The Miles City newspaper at the time got the wrong first name (intitials) for Dr. Carlin and that was my problem in finding him in the 1880 census. He was in Louisiana at the time and several of his children were born there. I don't know where the child killed here was born, but his last child (born after his death) was born in Miles City. The reason for the family's trip to Miles City was to get Mrs. Carlin to town for the birth of the baby.

Hal--according to the Ohio article, the Conley brothers were Frank and James.

Johnnie--If you would like copies of what I have found in Ohio let me know and I will send you copies.

Jack

Jack, there's nothing here you don't already know . . . but when I saw it I thought maybe an extra citation to add to your footnotes might be handy.


Father And Child Shot Dead
THE NEW YORK TIMES
December 29, 1884, page 3

ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 28.--A Miles City special to the Pioneer Press gives an account of a terrible tragedy near that place. On Christmas morning a dance at a private house was broken up by a wrangle between two visitors. . . .

Continued at:
http://query.nytimes.com/...94659FD7CF

Whoa..Sweet find Hal. Hats off, I would have never thought of looking up Miles city in the N.Y.T. at leased not that far back. Very interesting stuff you have found there and it shows that at one time MilesCity was bigger than it now is.

Thanks Hal--The New York Times always makes a nice footnote citation.

In searching Google for another murder in Jordan in 1905 I found it had made the New York Times. Maybe I should check out all of the local killings.

Unfortunately newspaper coverage like that might make the readers of the the Times think those of us in eastern Montana are not as civilized and cultured as them.

I have a picture and information on the person the posse was looking for (Maurice "Bob" Sullivan) but have not found an early picture of either of the Conley brothers or Dr. Carlin and family.

In her history of Garfield County, Mae Billing said that Dr. Carlin lived in what is now Garfield County on a tributary of the Little Dry. It is amazing that a Doctor from Ohio moved his family to such a remote area of Montana in the early 1880s to raise sheep.

Jack

the thread that killed the sod buster...R.I.P. strong warrior, you are missed

Jack,

It's too bad The Times' online archive isn't easier to search, but it's always interesting to see what turns up while shifting though the returns.

I've been keeping my eyes open for anything on Carlin or the Conleys - this was the first little tidbit I spotted.

>>It is amazing that a Doctor from Ohio moved his family to such a remote area of Montana in the early 1880s to raise sheep.

Yes, I'm often curious why and how folks ended up in rural Montana . . . what drove them to make what often were very radical life-changes. The how's and why's of it would likely make a pretty interesting book.
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ABE,

There were resident and roving correspondents at the Fort and in Miles from day one. People back east were hungry for news from the West, especially (it seems) for sensational news or items about the "romance" of the West.

But, as you can see from the items in the "News from the 80s" thread, once in awhile (maybe 1 out of 4 or 5 stories) they reported on less sensational happenings.
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Mule,

I thought twice about resurrecting this thread . . . but I decided that Sod Buster would have wanted it to serve some useful purpose ;-)

[This message has been edited by Hal Neumann (edited 6/6/2008).]

Missed this one last night.


Following A Murderer
THE NEW YORK TIMES
December 29, 1884, page 2,

MILES CITY, Montana, Dec. 28.--Vigorous search has been made for two days and nights by officers and vigilantes for "Bob" Sullivan, who fled immediately after shooting Roberts, Thursday afternoon. "Jim" and Frank Conley found him at a ranch 15 miles north of here. . . .

Continued at:
http://query.nytimes.com/...94659FD7CF

Hal, it's me again. About the reporters scatterd around the country, I had a college professor that was researching the Hearst,Hurst? family. Everyone knows that he had an army of reporters everywhere gattering news and gossip on people. Anyway my professer was out there a bit and was trying to link the Hurst infor mation with the early files that J. Edgar Hoover had on people. His idea was that hoover got info on the famous Hurst muder on his yacht and black mailed the hurst family for the hurst files on the big old money families of the U.S. It was interesting but all fabricated.
Just a note.

Thanks for posting this stuff, I could eat this stuff up forever, very interesting.