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A Dispute Over A Brand by Frederic Remington from Ranch Life in the Far West 1888 in The Century Magazine Vol 35 No 4 February pg 506

Sam Dillman of Grand Coulee Part 2 of 2by Arlene Spencer with special thanks to Lee Pierce and Brigid Clift, Archivists at Washington State Archives, and to the staff of the Spokane County Clerk’s Office.

By mid-spring 1895, Sam Dillman had lived in Dillman Canyon at the mouth of the Grand Coulee raising stock1, at least six years,2 but possibly longer, making him among the first settlers in Grand Coulee.3

On April 20th, the Weekly Spokesman Review, reported of the Palouse, “Now that crops are nearly all in, Saturday is usually a lively day, the streets being crowded with men and teams coming and going. The season thus far has been unusually dry and rather backward on account of continued cool weather, but all kinds of crops are making a rapid growth and promise excellent yields.”4 The same could have been reported about Grand Coulee on that day, since ruled by the season, the farmer’s or stockman’s activities in the neighboring region would have been similar.

Two days later, on Monday April 22, along the Columbia River, just west of the mouth of the Grand Coulee, probably on or along the Almira-Nespelem stage route5, perhaps while returning from his post office or the ferry at Barry6, Dillman, then about ten miles from home, was alone, driving a bunch of horses down a hill into the Coulee.7

1 1892 Douglas County Census Records. Washington Secretary of State. Washington State Archives. Dillman, JS. Columbia Precinct. Page Number 35, Line Number 16.2 Dillman, John S. 1896. Serial Patent Accession Number WAWAAA 034204. U.S Department of the Interior. Bureau of Land Management. General Land Office Records. Homestead filing. Note: John Sam Dillman’s 1896 Patent’s land description was Township 28 North Range 30 East, the southwest ¼ of Section 12 in Grant County, Washington.3 Evans, Dayma Lange. 1976. “Len Dillman, The Optimist,” From Pioneers to Power Historical Sketches of the Grand Coulee Dam Area. Nespelem, Washington, 355-356.4 “Every Day Brings More Advances”. 1895. Weekly Spokesman Review. April 22, 7.5 Rabideau, Mrs. CJ. “Stage Stops and Old Freighter Roads.” 1976. From Pioneers to Power Historical Sketches of the Grand Coulee Dam Area. Rima Printing and Graphics. Nespelem, Washington, 268.6 Rice, Lois and Mr. and Mrs. Roy Rankin. “Memories of Homestead Days.” 1976. From Pioneers to Power Historical Sketches of the Grand Coulee Dam Area. Rima Printing and Graphics. Nespelem, Washington, 61.7 State of Washington v John S. Dillman. Douglas County, Washington State Case File No. 61, Washington State Archives

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From where Dillman was, across the two worn wagon wheel ruts of the Almira-Nespelem stage track, a half a mile away, down below on the next hill, riders approached. Four men were driving two cows.8 9 Though, he likely saw dust kicking up into the air, he was probably still too far up the hill to see who was riding towards him. Dillman continued down toward the mouth of the Coulee with his horses.

As they drove the two cows up out of the Coulee, it happens that the four riders approaching Dillman: William Stubblefield, W. Loyd McNeil, James Norris, and Jim Sanderson, were just then discussing Sam Dillman and had not seen him yet, either. Two of them were suggesting another man among them, “…Sanderson should go down to Dillman’s and get a gallon of wine.” They would have easily seen Dillman Canyon from where they were. The conversation then turned. One of the riders, McNeil, would recall what happened next. Another among them, William “…Stubblefield says, and direct, ‘you tell him [sic. Dillman] I’m here’ ” (Norris 1895, 74) (McNeil 1895, 40, 41). McNeil would later allege this threat “…was said in a joking manner…” (McNeil 1895, 57).

It probably wasn’t a joke.

Though McNeil would days later testify he did not know that there might be trouble between Stubblefield and Dillman, he also testified, “I think Dillman told me something about a hide. Dillman told me about…the charge Dillman had made in regard to Stubblefield driving off a white steer….I couldn’t tell the number of people who have told me of it. Dillman and Stubblefield both told me of it” (McNeil 1895, 41, 42). It had been local gossip.

In the Big Bend, during these early years of settlement, before barbed wire, cattle were turned out and let loose to roam, feed, and fatten up for months on bunchgrass. “The cattle fed on the table lands in the summer and in the Coulee in winter. In the summer we would round them up 5,000 to 6,000 a day, band the calves, and then turn them lose.”10 To bring each owner’s cattle in, mostly men, but sometimes women11, too, worked together riding and finding cattle on the open land. During livestock round ups, the practice in the Coulee was, “…as the cattle were brought in, the yearlings which weren’t branded were identified by the brand on the sow it was following.” If the mother could not be found, the yearling was put into a pen from which the cowboys would later divvy up and choose calves to keep. These calves were called ‘slick ears’. Frank Sanford recalls an incident, similar to Sam’s, during a roundup in Barker Canyon, but it was a dairy calf that had been stolen. A council was held among the cowboys and it was decided that the Armbruster brothers would teach an unnamed local, who had claimed too many “slick ears” for himself, a lesson by “play[ing] a joke on him”. The brothers took, killed, and ate one of the hoarding culprit’s dairy calves.12 In other incidents, locally, some who committed the same offense received worse. A man discovered to have stolen another person’s cow during a round up in Crab Creek was allegedly sought by the cowboys, corralled, and hanged.13 It was no small thing to simply be accused of having taken another man’s livestock, it having been branded or not.

A year prior, in 1894, Sam Dillman reported probably to Constable Reams or Sheriff Valentine that one of his steers, a white calf, had gone missing, and the hide was seen two days later but the hip had been cut out. The hip was where a brand would have existed. According to McNeil’s and Norris’s testimony, sometime before April 22, 1895 Stubblefield heard Dillman suspected him the culprit (McNeil 1895, 32, 41-44). In 1895, in Washington State, a

8 McNeil, W. Loyd. State of Washington v John S. Dillman. 1895. Douglas County, Washington State Case File No. 61, Washington State Archives, 30, 31, 39.9 Norris, James C. State of Washington v John S. Dillman. 1895. Douglas County, Washington State Case File No. 61, Washington State Archives, 62, 67-68.10 Osborne, Charles. Told by the Pioneers. 1938. F.I. Trotter, F.H. and J.R. Loutzenhiser, Editors. Vol. III: 133.11 Rosencrance, Mary. ‘A Woman Rides the Range’. Told by the Pioneers. 1938. F.I. Trotter, F.H. and J.R. Loutzenhiser, Editors. Vol. III: 135.12 Sanderson, Winnie M. “Alex Sanderson.” 1976. From Pioneers to Power Historical Sketches of the Grand Coulee Dam Area. Rima Printing and Graphics. Nespelem, Washington, 77.13 Steele, Richard F. and Arthur P. Rose. 1904. An Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country Embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin Counties State of Washington. Western Historical Publishing Company, 1010 – 1011.

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single cow was valued at $12.37.14 To a homesteader $12.37 was a lot of money. For example, the fee, in 1895, to file a homestead claim was $14.15

The man who directed Sanderson to tell Dillman ‘you tell him I’m here’, William Stubblefield, was then “…reputed to be the best man, physically…” in the community, “...a powerful man…” (Norris 1895, 74). Described as approximately five foot ten inches, one hundred ninety pounds, about 30 years old, Stubblefield “…had the reputation once in that cruelty of struggle Best All-Comer…in a rough and tumble fight as wrestler” (McNeil 1895, 55). By comparison, in 1895, Sam Dillman was approximately 50 years old.16

Dillman’s defense attorney three days later would ask one of the riders, McNeil, on the witness stand, “A short time before all this…didn’t you tell Mr. Norris, you and he being alone together, that you had told Stubblefield that Dillman’s finger was well?”

“No sir.”

“You are positive of that are you?”

“Yes sir.”

“If you are mistaken about that, you are mistaken about all this testimony. Are you as sure of that as you are of the rest of your testimony?”

“Well yes. I believe I am. I have no recollection of it at all” (McNeil 1895, 39, 40).

“…Stubblefield told you he was going to wallop Dillman…” if he had accused Stubblefield of cutting the brand from the hide.

“No sir.” McNeil replied, “He said he was going to try him armed if Dillman said the hide was cut out that way.”

“Tell me, are you understood as telling this court, after you had talked to Stubblefield and he had told you that…Dillman had told that he had seen this hide and…the hip had been cut away…that he was going to try to wallop him where he met him, that when Stubblefield started towards Dillman that you didn’t have an idea that there was going to be trouble…?”

“No. I did…advise…him not to say nothing more about it. Well I thought maybe they would have a little quarrel. No I did not think they would have a quarrel. Well, I thought they might possibly talk it over. I did not think there would be any trouble” (McNeil 1895, 42-43).

“Mr. McNeil, don’t you remember that Stubblefield told you that he was going to lick Dillman as soon as Dillman’s finger got well?”

McNeil responded, “No sir.”

“He, Stubblefield, never told you that?”

“No sir.”

14 Giles, H.F. 1912. Dairying, Poultry and Stock Raising in Washington. Bureau of Statistics and Immigration, State of Washington. Olympia, Washington, 91.15 ‘Historical Context and Essays’. Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest. https://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/Homesteading/II.html. Last visited May 1, 2020.16 Dillman, John S. Page 7A, Enumeration District 121. Union County, Oregon. 1900 U.S. Census. Roll: T623_1352. U.S. National Archives.

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On April 22nd, along the stage track, before Stubblefield, McNeil, and Norris, started their two cows up the hill; Sanderson had rode away from the group. Still, the three riders continued up the hill.

After they spotted a man driving horses, coming down the hill towards them, they recognized the man half a mile up as Sam Dillman. Then William Stubblefield, said to Loyd McNeil and James Norris, “There he is. I guess I had better go up this way” (Norris 1895, 74). “…he motioned to a trail up the side of the Coulee Wall” and rode “directly” towards Dillman (McNeil 1895, 39) (Norris 1895, 67-68).

Leaving Norris and McNeil behind with the cattle, Stubblefield turned out “…reigning his horse in with the left…” riding “…hurriedly where Mr. Dillman was about 100…feet away.” By the time Stubblefield had ridden about 20 feet up the hill; McNeil turned his horse and followed Stubblefield also riding towards Dillman (McNeil 1895, 43) (Norris 1895, 67).

“Well,…Stubblefield and Dillman met first. I was within 20 steps of them I suppose. And they had a conversation about some horses, friendly conversation I thought it was. I rode up closer there” (McNeil 1895, 31).

Stubblefield…wanted to know something about a report that had been made about a beef hide that Mr. Dillman said the brand had been cut out. [sic. Stubblefield] wanted to know whether Sam Dillman had said the brand had been cut out… And Sam Dillman said he did, and Stubblefield told him if he did, it was a lie. Well, if you want to know the exact language, it was ‘a damn lie’. Dillman told him [sic. Stubblefield] was another damn liar. Dillman told him he understood [sic. that Stubblefield] intended to beat him to minced meat – he had heard the report… (McNeil 1895, 32).

Just then Norris rode up joining Stubblefield, McNeil, and Dillman on the hillside.

“Mr. Dillman said “Yes,” he had said it and that he heard Stubblefield was going to thump him. Stubblefield replied “I never said it.” Mr. Dillman said, ‘you did and I can prove it’…Stubblefield said, I did not say it. But I did say that I would try it and if you’ll get off of your horse I will (Norris 1895, 62-63).

And he got off, both of them got off of their horses, Stubblefield pulled off his vest, his suspenders and spurs. Dillman got off, walked around his horse and throwed his hat off and Stubblefield told him he was ready if he would pull his gun off and lay it to one side. Dillman told him he wouldn’t take his gun off ‘nor [sic. Stubblefield] wasn’t man enough to make him take it off’. Stubblefield told him he wouldn’t fight him with a gun on. Stubblefield picked his suspenders up and as he was getting them on, he told Dillman he was a coward if he did not take his gun off and fight it out (McNeil 1895, 32).

Perhaps eluding to how, as testified, his finger came to be broken, Dillman said to Stubblefield, ‘I don’t want any more fist fighting’ (Norris 1895, 72).

Dillman told him he was a cowardly son of a bitch. Stubblefield says you are another cowardly son of a bitch. Dillman repeated it and dared him to make a step towards him. He repeated it a couple of times. Stubblefield made for him and the shooting commenced. Dillman shot him before he got to him (McNeil 1895, 33).

McNeil first testified that Dillman shot Stubblefield twice but immediately changed his reply to “…three times…” (McNeil 1895, 34). Norris testified he was only sure there had been two shots (Norris 1895, 64).

Stubblefield caught Dillman’s hand that the pistol was in. He caught…Dillman’s right hand with his left hand. Stubblefield threwed Dillman, caught him with his

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other hand and threw him back and struck him a couple of licks in the face after he got him down. Mr. Norris came up and wrestled the pistol out of Dillman’s hand. Stubblefield says, “he has shot me” (McNeil 1895, 34).

1892 Ad for a Smith & Wesson .38 Revolving Pistol

In the following days the prosecutor asked McNeil, “What sized pistol? Describe it.”

“It was a small pocket pistol. Looked like a Smith and Wesson pistol but I could not tell you the name of it.”

“Don’t know the caliber of gun?”

“38 I think. That is what I think it to be” (McNeil 1895, 36).

The prosecutor clarified, “Dillman asked you boys to take [sic. Stubblefield] off, didn’t he?”

“Yes sir. After Stubblefield said he was shot, Dillman said, ‘pull him off me’” (McNeil 1895, 51-52).

“Mr. Norris handed me the pistol after he wrestled it out of Dillman’s hand” (McNeil 1895, 34).

I ran up and took the gun out of Dillman’s hand and Dillman asked me to take him off…I talked to Stubblefield and tried to get him to get up but he sat there a minute and then stepped off on Dillman’s left side. Dillman got up and said, ‘where is my saddle horse?’ Mr. McNeil said, ‘Sam, I guess you’ve killed him’. Dillman said, ‘I expect so. That’s what I shot for’ (Norris 1895, 63-64).

McNeil recalled Dillman responding with the exact same sentence.

The prosecutor asked Norris about Stubblefield, “Did you examine the body after, whether it was, dead or alive, yet?”

“Yes, I held his head on my knee. Yes, he was alive and spoke to me.”

“Did you examine the body of Stubblefield to see whether he was hit. If so describe the body after he was shot.”

“I saw a bullet hole in his front of his shirt and as he turned over on his side there was a spot of blood on the back of his shirt. I didn’t know, as I should have said ‘bullet hole’, it might not have been a bullet hole in his shirt.”

“Did you see any other bullet marks on Stubblefield’s body?”

“I did not. I did not examine it.”

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“What did you do with Stubblefield after that?”

“McNeil, I think, spoke about taking him some place, and Dillman…said to bring him down to [sic. Dillman’s] place…” (Norris 1895, 64-65).

During the cross examination, Dillman’s defense attorney asked Mr. Norris, “After the shooting took place Mr. Dillman suggested that you take Mr. Stubblefield to his house, didn’t he?”

Norris replied, “Either that or to get his wagon and take him some place,” (Norris 1895, 75).

McNeil continued,

I went and Dillman went with me. I caught the horses and brought them back. Dillman caught his horse at the same time…Well, now, he asked me questions going out after the horses – What I thought about the case. I told him I was not up on law and could not express any opinion (McNeil 1895, 35).

Both McNeil and Norris testified that afterward, Dillman, bloody, got on his hack and rode for home (McNeil 1895, 34-35) (Norris 1895, 66). Dillman’s nearest neighbor, William P. Thomson lived a few miles below on the Coulee floor between the hillside where they’d just fought and Dillman’s homestead in Dillman Canyon17. McNeil and Norris took the shot and wounded Stubblefield to Thomson’s homestead (McNeil 1895, 53, 55).

After McNeil confirmed he had spent time in recent days, off and on, with Stubblefield at Thomson’s house, the prosecutor asked McNeil,

“Did you examine his body?”

“I examined his body the next morning when the doctor was there. That is, I saw the examination made.”

“Was there any wounds on it and if so describe them.”

“Yes sir, there was two wounds. There was one wound about two inches above the nipple on the left side. It went through and came out a little below his shoulder blade on his back. The other was about 6 inches lower down on the same side. It struck his suspender button and glanced down, I think. We couldn’t tell which way it went. It started that way but we could not find it by probing.”

“Did you find the bullet that went through his body?”

“Yes sir. It landed between his under and over shirts” (McNeil 1895, 35-36).

Later, Dillman’s defense attorney asked McNeil, “Didn’t Dillman say, ‘Bill you hadn’t a right when you jumped onto me,’ or words in substance the same?”

“No, I did not hear it all.”

“You sure that no such words were said?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

17 Thomson, William P. 1896. Serial Patent Accession Number WAWAAA 034203. U.S Department of the Interior. Bureau of Land Management. General Land Office Records. Homestead filing. Note: Thomson’s Patent’s land description was Township 28 North Range 30 East, the south ½ of the northeast ¼, the northeast ¼ of the southwest ¼, and the northwest ¼ of the southeast ¼ of Section 10 in Grant County, Washington.

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“Stubblefield say anything after he was shot and before…Dillman started down to his house?”

“Now, no. I don’t think he said a word. I don’t remember of his saying anything.”

“Didn’t you hear [sic. Stubblefield] say after he was taken up to Mr. Tompson’s, ‘I don’t want them to arrest Dillman at all.’

“Yes, sir, he said that.”

“What else did he say right then?”

“Well, [sic. Stubblefield] said he was north of dead, once yet, and when he got well he could attend to his own troubles” (McNeil 1895, 53).

As an indication of what a public spectacle this case became, after the press learned of it, on May 4, 1895 it was reported that,

In a fight at a round-up near Coulee City, Sunday, William Stubblefield disarmed and pummeled Sam Dillman, after being shot through the stomach and heart with a 38-caliber revolver. Then he fell over, dead.18

The Salt Lake Tribune, May 4, 1895, page 10

While unusually accurate despite its sensationalism, the news item’s ending was incorrect. Within the days following the shooting, doctors operated on William Stubblefield at Thomson’s house, and he survived (McNeil 1895, 58).

In fact, twenty-one years later, in 1916, William Stubblefield filed on 80 acres in Lincoln County, over 25 miles southeast of Grand Coulee19.

Immediately after the fight, Sam Dillman turned himself in (McNeil 1895, 54). He was arrested for “assault with the intent to commit murder.”20

If Dillman testified on his behalf, during this case, no record of it exists in the court file, today.

Dillman was tried locally, found guilty of murder, appealed to the Superior Court in Waterville, which vacated the lower court’s ruling. After a new trial Dillman was found guilty of the lesser charge of assault, by a jury. He served over a year in the Waterville Jail.21

18 Washington News. 1895. The Salt Lake Tribune. Saturday, May 4: 10.19 Stubblefield, William H. 1916. Serial Patent Accession Number 526126. U.S Department of the Interior. Bureau of Land Management. General Land Office Records. Homestead filing. Note: William H. Stubblefield’s 1916 Patent’s land description was Township 24 North Range 32 East, the southwest ½ of the northwest ¼ of Section 12 in Lincoln County, Washington.20 State of Washington v John S. Dillman. Douglas County, Washington State Case File No. 61, Washington State Archives, 25.

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None of the testimony we have today says anything about where Jim Sanderson, the man urged to steal Dillman’s wine, was during the shooting.

The hill on which McNeil, Norris, and Stubblefield met Dillman may have been one of the many hills along the Columbia, just west of the Coulee’s mouth, that was excavated and levelled in 1946, in preparation for building the Grand Coulee Dam’s feeder canal.

After Sam served his time, he moved away. Dillman Canyon eventually became Davis Canyon for the Davis family who took up Sam Dillman’s homestead. It is now known as Rattlesnake Canyon.22

In the early 1930’s, during construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, Rattlesnake Canyon was chosen as the west side Dam project’s disposal dump. A conveyer belt, over a mile long, was constructed and carried away from the dam site the jackhammered, scraped, and dug refuse of Columbia River riverbed, adjacent Columbia River corridor shoreline dirt and rock, including, on the west side, the portion of the northwest corner of the mouth of Grand Coulee within the project site – where Stubblefield and Dillman’s fight likely took place. The conveyer carried “…millions of yards of overburden from inside the west shore cofferdam” to Rattlesnake Canyon where it was dumped.23 Within Rattlesnake Canyon, Crescent Bay Lake now covers the refuse.

Today's Crescent Bay Lake, located near the town of Grand Coulee and Grand Coulee Dam, was created in 1942. During the 1930s, a long conveyor belt carried overburden excavated during construction of the dam to Rattlesnake Canyon. The canyon was diked in 1942 to prevent raw sewage from Grand Coulee from entering Lake Roosevelt, and this formed Crescent Bay Lake. The depth of fill is over one hundred feet in many parts of the shore lands around Crescent Bay Lake…Because it was polluted by sewage, for many years locals called the body of water "Lake Urine" and "Poop Lagoon." The lake is fed by springs and by discharge from the under-drain system of the feeder canal, and at full pool it is twelve feet higher than Lake Roosevelt.24

Now, not even Rattlesnake Canyon is as it was when Sam Dillman shot William Stubblefield on April 22, 1895.

21 State of Washington v John S. Dillman. Douglas County, Washington State Case File No. 61, Washington State Archives22 Evans, Dayma Lange. 1976. “Len Dillman, The Optimist,” From Pioneers to Power Historical Sketches of the Grand Coulee Dam Area. Nespelem, Washington, 355-356, 359.23 Work at Coulee dam destroys home of rattlesnakes. 1935. Spokane Chronicle. 1935-08-14. 24 Lake Roosevelt. Administrative History. CHAPTER 7: Building and Maintaining the Park: Administrative and Visitor Facilities (continued). South Marina and Crescent Bay, 122. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/laro/adhi/adhi7j.htm. Last visited May 1, 2020.

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Spoil Pile in Rattlesnake Canyon Grand Coulee Dam Project 09-05-1935, ID No. cg040b04v3p161, Source: Washington State University