In the John and Jane Hickey article I stated they had an adopted son Tom. The family story goes that Tom was taken in by the family while living in Granite when the young boy’s family was destroyed by a murder. The following news article is the only account research uncovered that may be about this incident. Tom became estranged from the family after John died and Tom decided he should have been heir to a mining fortune, which of course John never attained.
"Martin Scott was a very powerful, six foot man, born on April 3, 1837, in Madison County, Indiana who enlisted with the Co. G. 17th Indiana Volunteers and went west in 1861. He began working as a wagon master after his discharge in Little Rock and married. His wife died seven months later in 1866. Scott then traveled up the Missouri River to Fort Benton where he began working as wagon master throughout Montana and then worked as a brakeman for a few years. He returned to work as a wagon master in Butte and married Mrs. McCluskey on July 5, 1886. In August they moved to Granite where he worked for John Hickey, while living in a tent. During that winter he chopped wood for the mines as it paid better money and built a house. Some men put up a tent close to their house and began “baching.” Mrs. Scott was seen going into their tent and coming out with a box under her arm which ultimately ended up being items she had stolen from the tent. The men left the camp but Mrs. Scott began drinking heavily and “was never the same woman to me after that.”
On November 12, Scott stated he had been ill all summer and believed he was going to die when Mrs. Scott became very drunk and abusive. A neighbor came over and asked her to quiet down which made her even worse. “She swore at me and I slapped her across the mouth. She left and I saw no more of her until the next morning when John Hickey came and told me my wife had come to his house drunk and had stayed there all night; and neither he nor his wife wanted her there.”
She returned home sobered up and all was fine until Monday when a constable came and told Martin he needed to come to his office as there was a complaint filed for assaulting his wife. Scott was fined $25 and was released to go find the money. He obtained $14 on Tuesday and on Wednesday went to earn more, returning home with his gun after dark. On opening the door, according to Martin, he was knocked over and fell into a bathtub. Getting up, he struck a person several times with his gun before fainting. Sometime later hearing groaning, Martin roused and found his wife very drunk lying on the floor. He insisted he had no idea she was injured until striking a light and saw she was lying with her head on some tools. Asking her where she got the liquor she stated “Tom the Butcher” brought it to her. Also that it was Tom who assaulted Martin when he came through the door. She then confessed to Martin that she had lain with Tom and many other men.
The above statements were made by Martin in February after his arrest and trial. According to The New Northwest, Martin Scott, on November 18, 1887 was found by Officer McDonald and Thatcher “sitting on the bed in his cabin, with his rifle in his hands, and his wife lying on the floor near by, dead. Her head was terribly crushed as if by some blunt instrument, corresponding to the depressions which would be made by a splitting wedge and other tools which were lying covered with blood and hair, which witnesses testified were made by them and not the gun. There was also blood on the gun, which was broken.”
Because excitement was high over the incident Deputy George Hammond took Martin to Deer Lodge to be jailed. The trial was held in the December court and was “fair, impartial and thorough and he made his own statement to the jury.”
The January 6, 1988, New Northwest detailed the conviction and that he would suffer the penalty of death by hanging on February 17, 1888. The February 17th article detailed building the gallows and Martin’s description of the incident. His activities in the final 24 hours of life included stating “I know I have done wrong. I forgive all.”
“The execution was perfect...pulse ceased 11:45 am.”
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