Henry F. McFarlin
(Doc) & Charles C. Staffek
[Excerpts from Mrs Jennie McFarlin’s Interviews with the Gazette & Personal Files; Photos from Gazette Files]
Revised 20 June 2001c
Henry Frederick (Doc) McFarlin was born 1 March
1866 in
Jennie Staffek arrived in
Charles cigar factory was across the street from the depot, and on July 23, 1891, Jennie witnessed a hanging, and ‘set the record straight’ by telling what really happened. (Seems the newspaper accounts glorified the event by omitting the fact that the man was dead when hanged).
“It was reported that two bums were
asked by saloon owner, Joseph Clancy, to pay for a quart of beer. Clancy was
using a mallet to drive the tap into the beer keg when the bums grabbed the
mallet and beat Clancy to death. A sheepherder who had been asleep grabbed a
rifle and stopped one of the men who was then promptly
jailed. The bum was ‘rescued’ by a mob that tore down the jail door
and hanged.
The newspaper account said that 20 willing
volunteers pulled so willingly on a rope thrown over a telegraph pole crossbar
that the man’s head split open, killing him instantly. The body was left dangling for arrivals on the train to see.
Mrs McFarlin recalled that it was common knowledge that the man
had been shot before the lynching. Also not mentioned
was the fact that some woman out a white sheet over her head and tried to scale
the pole.”
Charles’ home was across the street from the pole, and thought he should sell and go into the sheep business. (He retained the cigar factory). Being in a good location it sold quickly. His cigar factory employed six men. In four years time he lost $40,000 in the venture. He became city alderman and in 1909 went on a boating trip on the Yellowstone River with adopted daughter, Clara, Theresa West, Minnie Wagner, Joe Bailey, sugar factory employee, Ed Newman, Irene Lafelt (six years old), and Lizzie & Bertha Blend. Clara, Theresa, Minnie and Charles drowned. A year earlier, Charles had saved the parents of Judge Ben Harwood from drowning in a ferry mishap in the same area.
“John-Doe” hanging from pole on