Hugh O'Neil Escapades Continued

 

The National Archives for Military Service Records is unable to find any record of service by Hugh O’Neil (12-17-2003). But records in the Salt Lake City Archives show Hugh O’Neil had an account for supplies at Fort Floyd, as did other civilian military teamster’s. These civilian men were given the title of Major so they could gain access to the military forts to pick up supplies. 

All accounts, be it historical documents, the two pictures we have or family documents, affirm that Hugh was a man of large proportions and possessed great strength and fortitude. This fact is further evidenced in his bare fisted boxing match with Con Orem, in Virginia City on January 2, 1865. A round by round description of all 185 rounds can be read in the historical writing titled The Frightful Punishment, written by Warren J. Brier, in 1969. The research for this book came from the published description of the pugilists endeavor written round for round by a reporter for the Montana Post, January 3-4, 1865. The story also includes the publicity leading up to the bout and other advertised and fought bouts of Con Orem and Hugh O’Neil’s in later years. 

Hugh was a heavy drinker and social person, known to light his cigars with a $10.00 bill when the children were in need of sustenance, as related by Jane O’Neil Hickey in 1931 in an interview with Winifred Griffith the daughter of Jane’s sixth child, Bertha. Hugh was a true pioneer and as such, a politician and negotiator. Such as, when his skills were instrumental in 1863 at Grasshopper Gulch, where he problem solved a rumor started by two Frenchmen that about two hundred Bannack Indians were stealing from a small group of miners. 

These two groups had lived close together all winter during which the Indians had kept the miners alive by sharing their stores of food. Some of the level headed miners convinced the Indians to move a little farther from Bannack, but some of the men went to the moved camp and found the Indians ready to fight. A couple of days later shots were heard and two Indians (one was the well liked Chief Snag), were found dead. The other Indians had departed. Hugh was: “furious and called the killing of the Indians a cowardly, dastardly act. Buck Stinson, who was later executed by the Vigilantes, took O’Neil’s tirade as applying to himself and said he was insulted. With a double- barreled shot gun filled with buck shot he set out one night to kill O’Neil. Friends of both men calmed him down and took away the gun,” according to the Jefferson County Sentinel. 

But Stinson carried a grudge. Fearing that the Indians would go on the warpath, a relief party was sent out to escort a freighter outfit from Salt Lake that was due with sorely needed supplies. Hugh was elected Captain of the group. When they came upon a group of Indians, all disappeared except three, which included Pete” and “Slim”, two Indians that had been employed with the freighter company. Buck Stinson and the other road agents in the party wanted to execute the Indians right there. Stinson it was believed would have killed O’Neil with a stray bullet during the execution. O’Neil was aware of the danger and the fact that the killing of the Indians could lead to an Indian war. O’Neil was able to convince all of the group, but the road agents, that the Indians were innocent and should not be killed. He negotiated that two of the Indians would be held and the other sent out to bring back the rest of the tribe. If they were peaceful and unarmed then the group agreed to let them go, otherwise they would all be killed. Only squaws, papooses and old men were found. Therefore, all the Indians were set free and hastened on their way to Idaho. The Indian war was prevented, but the road agents did not forgive Hugh O’Neil, and later one tried to kill him, during a boxing match in Helena. To be continued… .