A Spyglass in the Cascades: How a Ten-Man Tacoma Posse Foiled a Northern Pacific Train Robbery

Tacoma, April 28. — Special. — Superintendent O'Neill of the Northern Pacific railroad left at 3 o'clock this afternoon for Ellensburg. He took with him Frank Watt and A. M. Duffield, who were assisting Sheriff Hutson in the pursuit of the two escaped train robbers who were with the gang that held up the passenger train near Cle-Elum last Friday night.

Hank Harrington and Brooch Harrison, the two men captured by the posse Friday night, are still in jail at Ellensburg. The strongest possible evidence is said to have been secured against these two men and their associates, and it is expected that they will be sent over the road.

The man who gave the plot away to the railroad is in this city. It is announced by the detectives that his name is Harry Wilson. It is so announced for the reason that his name is something entirely different. Of course he is keeping under cover.

The posse of ten picked Tacoma men who made the capture, and who were relied upon to do most of the shooting in case it came to a battle, were: Ex-City Detective Frank Wilson, A. M. Duffield, L. V. Staton, John Scroggs, M. Krotton, ex-Chief of Police Lincoln Davis, Cass Plant, William Hicks, George H. Tripp and John Ellison.

Three weeks ago, when the man called Harry Wilson came in with the information that a plot was being formed to rob the train and that he had been asked to join, Frank Wilson assumed charge of the case. He has since been sojourning in the wilds of the Cascade range, hunting and fishing, and succeeded in locating Harrington, Harrison and four others, who are still at liberty, and all of whom are said to have been in the plot. Wilson watched the men on the mountainside with a spyglass and located the place where they intended to cache the money they expected to get. He also located the place where they had stored the giant powder for blowing open the safe.

Ex-Police Capt. A. M. Duffield joined him and assisted in the work. Then the rest of the posse was enlisted and made two camps in the mountains. When word came Friday that the attempt to rob the train was to be made that night, the forces were drawn together and the men placed at the bridge, six miles west of Cle-Elum, and at the point where the robbers intended to break open the express car.

Friday afternoon the highwaymen walked up the track from Easton to a point near Nelson. They placed their hats in a bag, blackened their faces and donned masks. The intention was to stop the train at Nelson, three-fourths of a mile from the bridge where the posse was located, cut off the engine, baggage and express cars, and run them across the bridge, there to blow open the safe. Dynamite and tools to do the work were in readiness.

This scheme miscarried, as when the train was signaled to stop Engineer Champlin was unable to come to a halt in the 1,000 feet the robbers had estimated on, but went on several hundred feet beyond them. They failed to walk up to the engine, and the train went on.

The posse at the bridge, seeing the train go by, could not understand what had happened. Then, seeing two men approaching, they hid until the men were on the bridge and then captured them. The men were Harrington and Harrison.

The plot as laid by the robbers was a murderous one. They were prepared to blow up the express car with dynamite in case the express messenger would not open it. They had a 14-pound sledge hammer, two finely tempered chisels, a dark lantern and a quantity of powder, burnt cork for blacking their faces, and gunny sacks in which to carry out the gold.

Brakeman Looney, of the train that was stopped, had an easy time. When the train was stopped he was sent back to flag the freight train that was coming in the rear. His train then went off without him, leaving him among the robbers. They fired several shots in the air to frighten him, but otherwise did not bother him.

One of the men who escaped is a rancher named Combs. The man who informed the railroad of the plot and who joined the gang is Charles Vinson, an ex-convict. The would-be robbers are a crowd of crooks who live in the mountains near Easton, on the Northern Pacific railroad, and who have made a living stealing from the railroad during the winter by breaking into unprotected freight cars on the siding at Easton.