GUNFIGHT AT THE HEADQUARTERS SALOON
By: John C. Russell
[NOTE: This is a transcript of a story that appeared in the
Inaugural Issue, 2009 of the Montana
Historian. John C. Russell is the
Executive Director of the Gallatin Historical Society and Pioneer Museum.]
The settlement of the American West was accomplished by
all classes of people involved in all aspects of life. There were trappers, cattlemen, miners,
thieves, farmers, prostitutes, lawyers, bankers, businessmen, businesswomen and
homemakers. Some came to Montana with
their families, others by themselves.
Some of our ancestors were pious while others were pompous. some were socialites and some were loners. Despite this complex mix of people, our image
of the west usually focuses first and foremost, on the cowboy. The cowboy has received the brunt of
attention in the American media. He's
been depicted as tough, reliable, good with a rope, fast with his fists, and
quick on the draw. Gunfights between
cowboys have been romanticized in countless movies and television shows. In reality, they were rare. But they did occur, and, like any other
western town, Bozeman had its share of killings that resulted from a "showdown." This article is about one of those
conflicts: the gunfight at the Headquarters
Saloon.
In the autumn of 1879, Bozeman was showing evidence of
becoming a thriving community. Schools
had been established, as, of course, had churches. Fort Ellis offered security and
protection. Various social groups gave
citizens activities like dramas and music.
The temperance movement struggled to eliminate alcohol. Housekeeper clubs kept women in tune with the
latest in fashion, cooking and childcare.
The Lockey's Store in Bozeman offered clothing, groceries, hardware and
even tobacco. The Lunch House sold fresh
bread, pastry, pies and cakes. Nelson
Story and Lester Willson had recently opened a bank, and two ambitious
businessmen named Sloan and Proffitt established the City Meat Market.
But Bozeman, Montana, was still in many ways a cow
town. It was a popular weekend
destination for cowpokes looking for a drink and some female
companionship. Saloons enjoyed a good
business thanks primarily to soldiers from Fort Ellis. One of the more prominent watering holes in
young Bozeman was the Headquarters Saloon, owned by business partners Matthias
"Cy" Mounts and Benjamin Franklin Sanborn. It was located just east of Bozeman Creek, on
the north side of Main Street near the present City Hall. The Saloon proudly advertised its offerings
in the Avant Courier informing
potential customers of the recent arrival of shipments of imported brandy,
wine, genuine Sultana Cigars, and foreign and American mineral waters. One of the establishment's more famous
advertisements read, "Go to the Headquarters Saloon to get the celebrated
Rock & Rye Whiskey, the best medicine in the world for lungs." The saloon also boasted an ample supply of
1872 G.W. Taylor Whiskey.
October 31, 1879. Mrs. Eli Keeney sat waiting patiently
in her buggy on Bozeman's Main Street, waiting for her husband to leave the
Headquarters Saloon, a block and a half away.
After a day in town Eli Keeney had decided to join his brother E.J.
(that would be Elias) for a couple of drinks before going home. Mrs. Keeney did not accompany her husband. Proper women of the day wouldn't think of
going into a drinking establishment.
Mrs. Keeney had been waiting for nearly an hour when she
spied her husband on the wooden sidewalk walking towards her. As he got closer, she noticed he was battered
and bruised, obviously from a fight. Mr.
Keeney began to climb into
the buggy, then
suddenly stopped, got back out of the buggy, and retrieved his revolver from
under the seat. Mrs. Keeney had no time
to react, to ask her husband what was wrong before he headed back for the
Headquarters Saloon. Perhaps if she had
reacted quicker, uttered the right phrase, the carnage that was about to unfold
would have been averted.
Keeney
and his wife were newcomers to Bozeman.
The couple and their two children
(Annie
and William) had just moved to the Gallatin Valley two months earlier from
Oregon. The Keeneys had not had time to
make many friends, and Eli's quarrelsome disposition, often exacerbated by
liquor, had been a deterrent to the couple's socializing.
Cowpokes liked to frequent the Headquarters Saloon. On October 31, two of them passing through
town had stopped there for drinks. Like
the Keeneys, they were brothers: twenty-two year old William Roberts and his
twenty year old brother, Sim. Both were
natives of Texas. William had left home
in 1876 to herd cattle in Nebraska and Wyoming.
Sim joined his brother in Wyoming in 1878, and both were hired by
cattleman John T. Murphy in February of 1879 when Murphy established the
Montana Cattle Company on the huge open range between the Musselshell and
Yellowstone Rivers. Murphy's brand became
legendary--the famous "79" in honor of the year the operation began.
While the Keeneys and Roberts were enjoying their late
afternoon quaffs, Eli Keeney and William Roberts struck up a conversation. As is often the case between strangers who
imbibe too heavily in alcohol, the conversation became heated. The topic of discussion is unknown, but it
culminated when Keeney called Roberts a liar.
"I am a boy yet, but little more than twenty
one," retorted Roberts, "but I'm man enough not to take the lie from
anyone. Are you heeled?"
"No," said Keeney in response to the familiar
western term for packing side arms.
Roberts took off his revolver and cartridge belt and
handed them to E.J. (Elias) Keeney while Sim Roberts watched from a comfortable
distance. There then commenced a rough
and tumble fight that didn't last long and ended with William Roberts the
victor. With bruises to both his face
and ego, the battered and bloodied Keeney left the saloon and headed for his
buggy. E.J. Keeney and the Roberts
brothers stepped outside onto the front sidewalk. E.J. turned to Roberts and asked, "Do you
know who that man was who you just whipped?"
"No," Roberts replied, at which point Keeney
said, "He is my brother."
Prior to the fight Roberts had become well enough acquainted with E.J.
Keeney to consider him a new friend.
"My God," said Roberts. "If I 's a known that I would have taken
anything from him."
"It's alright.
He insulted you and deserved thrashing."
The Roberts brothers and E.J. Keeney returned to the bar
where William and Sim bellied up for another round. A few moments later Eli Keeney entered the
Headquarters. E.J. noticed the revolver
in Eli's hand and immediately intercepted him, telling him he had made a fool
of himself and it would be best if he just went home. Eli ignored his brother and approached
William Roberts, who was drinking at the edge of the bar near the piano stand.
Hearing the approach, Roberts began turning to his left
and saw Keeney who, now at point blank range, lifted his revolver and shot
Roberts just below the left rib cage.
Blood poured from the wound as Roberts staggered and then pulled his gun
and shot Keeney twice. As both men fell
to the floor simultaneously, Sim Roberts pulled his gun and also fired at
Keeney.
Sim Roberts began backing out of the saloon as his
brother and Eli Keeney lay on the saloon floor. The shooting attracted the attention of deputy
sheriff J.L. Sanborn, who was nearby at the time. Upon entering the saloon and seeing the two
men on the floor and Sim Roberts with his pistol drawn, Sanborn tried to arrest
the cowboy. Sim, though, would have none
of it: he kept Sanborn and the saloon
patrons at bay by firing over their heads and near their feet. Sim Roberts escaped and headed for the
Fridley Brothers Stables, where he quickly mounted his horse, reloaded his
revolver, and galloped out of town.
The saloon had been full when the gunfight began, but it
quickly emptied. Sanborn ordered the
building closed and sent for the coroner.
An examination of Roberts found that one bullet fired by Keeney had cut
off a main artery and lodged in his hack.
Roberts lived for ten minutes on the saloon floor before dying. During his last moments he said nothing. The coroner then examined Keeney's body and
found three wounds, any of which would have been fatal. One of the shots fired by William Roberts chipped
Keeney's chin, passed through his neck and severed the spinal cord. The other had hit Keeney in the left shoulder
and severed his backbone before exiting the body below the right shoulder
blade.
The shot fired by Sim Roberts had struck Keeney in the left
ear and completely passed through his head before exiting just below the right
ear. It was a gruesome scene from a
gunfight that had lasted seconds.
A coroner's jury was soon convened and concluded the
following: That William Roberts came to
his death from a pistol shot fired with felonious intent by Eli Keeney, and Eli
Keeney came to his death at the hands of William Roberts, in self-defense.
Now back to Sim Roberts.
He rode his horse bareback for three hours before stopping at Benson's
Landing, near present day Livingston.
Here he found an acquaintance whom he sent back to Bozeman to first see
to it his brother got a decent burial and second, to inquire if it would be
safe for Sim to return and surrender to the law. While the messenger rode to Bozeman, Sim
Roberts continued his ride east.
Back in Bozeman, Eli Keeney was unceremoniously buried on
Saturday, November 1. Several prominent
citizens of the town got together and arranged the burial services for William
Roberts, as he had no relatives in the town.
What motivated G.W. Wakefield, Nelson Story, George Ash, Warren Evans,
Walter Cooper, L.S. Willson, J.D. Chesnut, H.B. Calfee, P.P, Worsham and J.S.
Mendenhall to make sure you Roberts got a descent burial is unknown. Perhaps all had come to know and like the
cowboy since he moved to Montana. The
funeral for Roberts was held on Sunday, November 2, 1879, at the Methodist
Episcopal Church, the Reverend C.L. Richards officiating. The funeral procession to the cemetery was
one of the largest that had been seen in Bozeman up to that time.
While his brother was being buried in Bozeman, Sim
Roberts was near Sweet Grass, one hundred sixteen miles away, when his messenger
overtook him and told him it was indeed safe to return to Bozeman and that his
brother was receiving a Christian burial.
Roberts then headed back to Bozeman and arrived Monday night. There was no attempt to arrest him when he came
to town and on Tuesday, November 4, he turned himself in, appeared before the
probate judge, and posted bond. He was
ordered to return to court the following Monday to appear before the grand
jury.
Sim Roberts obeyed, and on Monday, November 10, he appeared
before the grand jury. After hearing
testimony, the grand jury unanimously agreed that it failed to find "a
true bill" against Sim Roberts, meaning he was not guilty of any crime. On Thursday, November 13, the cowboy left for
the Musselshell, herding a small band of cattle that was also bound for the
Montana Cattle Company. As he left town,
he told friends that he planned on visiting Bozeman for Christmas.
As is usually the case in the aftermath of tragedy, those
most affected by the events pulled their lives together and moved on. Mrs. Ella Keeney (my 2 great-grandmother)
married George B. Hamilton near Hamilton on February 3, 1880. We don't know if Sim Roberts made good on his
promise to return to Bozeman in time for the Christmas season, but we do know
he began a courtship with schoolteacher Ada Ruth Bostwick. Those two were married, ironically, near
Hamilton, on August 27, 1880, and went on to raise a family.
The gunfight at the Headquarters Saloon doesn't have
quite the appeal of the "Gunfight at The O.K. Corral," or the
"Great Northfield Raid," or for that matter the phrase "Dodge
City on a Saturday Night." It has
received no recognition among those whose hobby is western gunfights and
gunfighters--and believe me, there are many of them. Perhaps the names of the participants, Keeney
and Roberts, don't have the same tantalizing ring like Earp, Holiday, or James. That, coupled with Montana's isolation, has
left the events in Bozeman of October 31, 1879, in obscurity. Like all western showdowns, the gunfight at
the Headquarters Saloon had no significance on the local community's future,
but still it's a reminder of how dangerous those days could be. Granted, we too live in violent times, and it
could be argued the gunfight at the Headquarters Saloon wasn't much of a fair
fight. Nonetheless, it and other such
encounters contribute to our perception of the wild west..
####
Nancy Ellen Swank Keeney Hamilton with unknown
gentleman. Could it be son William?
Hmmm. Note that all these photos
were taken in the same studio, and none of the men look like Eli. Double Hmmm.
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