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“one of the best detectives on the Pacific Coast; prompt, vigilant, and firm; always sober, reticent in his business affairs; knew no fear of danger; confided into the fullest extent of his employers, and generally esteemed by all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance.” that is a description of a man known today as the sherlock holmes of the wild west that man was James Hume.
You can learn a lot about a person, what they did in life, what they liked, and how loved they were by reading an obituary. but I won't read that just yet. James Hume, known as Jim to his friends was a career law and order man. born in 1827 James started life in new york but by his early 20s, he and his brother made their way to California to strike it rich like everybody else, but he didn’t do all that fantastic he ran a small store on the side to make ends meet but continued panning and mining for a few years.
Soon Mr. Hume got a job as a tax collector, he did that for a little bit but soon moved on to be a marshall for the city of Placerville in 1862 he was really good at that so he was then appointed to undersheriff of El Dorado County California.
Now at this point in 1864, I have to pause and tell you about the bullion bend robbery because this was the first of many big moments in Humes' career.
First, some things to know, the civil war is going on, kind of the height of it really. California was designated a free state but that was only to keep the gold mining somewhat fair. California was just as divided over the civil war as the country was, NorCal was pretty much pro-union and SoCal was pretty much pro confederate. In fact, the Democrat who was the governor of California from 1852 to 56 was a Confederate sympathizer. (John Bigler)
Well, a group formed under a man known as Captain Ingram. He was from Missouri, a Confederate captain who was in Mexico heading up to California where he met a farmer from San Jose who was on his way to fight for the Confederates they decided to join up and recruit willing men for the southern cause they organized in Santa Clara getting most of their men from the Knights of the Golden Circle which was similar to the Ku Klux Klan.
Shey started robbing stagecoaches for the money on board to help fund the war moving their way up north to the city of Placerville.
14 miles east of there is where the story continues.
At the end of June late at night 2 stages were heading down the road. They were coming from Virginia City over in Nevada. 6 of the Ingram Rangers stopped the first stage they were all armed and ordered the driver to hand over the treasure box. There wasn’t one so they took the bullion that was in bags instead, then they asked for donations from the passengers for the Confederate cause and then they moved to the next coach, which had a treasure box and some more bags of gold.
Captain Ingram then gave the driver a receipt that said that Wells Fargo had donated the money for the civil war cause.
After this, the men made their way to a place called the Somerset House while the stagecoaches went to Placerville to tell the Sheriff. At this time the Sheriff was William Rogers, and Undersheriff Hume was not in town. So at 2 in the morning, the Sheriff made a posse and headed to find the Ingram rangers. 6 men altogether, doubled as they made their way then the group split 3 men led by Deputy Staples, and then sheriff rogers went different ways. Sheriff Rogers caught 2 men who ended up being innocent
Deputy Staples and his men went to the somerset house splitting once again, sending one off either to get reinforcements or to try a different trail. staples went around back while Constable Ranney went in and saw the Rangers were all there. he played it cool and pretended to not know anything and visited for a while and made his way back, probably figuring that this was too many men for the 2 of them to take on but Staples didn’t think so and ran in yelling
"you are my prisoners, surrender"
As soon as those words were uttered the shots began flying. One man was shot and Staples was gunned down himself.
Constable Ranney got hit also and seeing 5 against one he ran for it. But the Rangers chased after him firing away. He was eventually captured and taken back into the house where they threatened to kill him too.
One bandit spoke up to let him go he was dying from the shot he took to the chest anyway then they robbed him and made their way out the door with the last man kicking Staples' body and spit on his corpse.
He was one of the Ingram Rangers at the Somerset House and was the man that was shot by Deputy Sheriff Staples and then returned fire killing Deputy Staples.
After deciding the leave Constable Ranney to die from his wounds the group left but also left Mr. Poole to die as well from his wounds. But he survived.
The next day, Undersheriff Hume returned to Placerville and heard the news. He grabbed a doctor and went to the somerset house to try and save Constable Ranney. While there he saw that his good friend Deputy Staples had been killed and he made it his mission right then to get the guys responsible.
The bandit who had been shot, left for dead but survived told the Hume that they were going to San Jose. So Hume and Constable Van Eaton left for San Jose.
Before they got there though, the Ingram Rangers had found a new place to hide out. The Hill Ranch but Mr. Hill found out they were planning to rob a quicksilver mine nearby and went to the Sheriff of San Jose Sheriff Adams, soon another shootout would happen, this time no deaths of officers, but Sheriff Adams did get shot in the chest while a deputy was shot in the leg twice. 2 of the Ingram rangers was shot down and killed and another was arrested. Captain Ingram and his farmer friend were able to escape. Never to be seen or heard from again.
Hume and Van Eaton got to San Jose after this and were able to arrest 10 coconspirators, men who were part of the Ingram Rangers. They got put on a riverboat and sent up to Sacramento many of the men got put in jail and that guy who was shot, left for dead, and survived and then arrested, Thomas Poole, well he had a ton of priors and was even the former Undersheriff of Monterey himself so he was sentenced to death.
Well, this was one of the first of many big cases that Hume was a part of.
Soon after this, he was elected sheriff himself a few years later he was mostly known for his involvement in tracking down stagecoach robbers and was hired by Wells Fargo to be the chief special officer since they were getting robbed left and right.
but before he could do that she was sent to go be the acting warden at the Nevada State Prison because there was a riot and escape where the warden almost got killed, while the warden recovered which took about a year, Hume ran the prison.
After that, he went back to Wells Fargo where he worked for them from then on. While working for them he practically invented detective work. He tracked footprints and went to each crime scene to look for clues, until then the thing to do was like I told you earlier, send out a posse and get into a shootout. Mr. Hume was a professional, carrying a mug book that had descriptions of all the known bandits around. then in 1885 he and another guy came out with a book that had all the info and descriptions of 347 stage and train robberies and also 205 convicted bandits. This was a big deal in the law enforcement community.
James Hume is known forever in the city of Placerville as Sheriff Hume, Placerville was his home even when he lived in other places it’s where he got his start, he was a gold miner, a shop owner, a tax collector, a volunteer fireman, a marshall, the chief of police the undersheriff and then the sheriff a warden and chief special officer for Wells Fargo. He caught and helped catch hundreds of bandits even going as far as Chicago.
His main claim to fame though is something I didn’t mention because it deserves its own post.
He was the man who tracked down and eventually caught, Black Bart.
Now like I said you learn a lot in those short obituaries, here’s Sheriff Humes'
On Main Street in Placerville is Miners on Main. Which is a scavenger hunt where at each spot you learn about a person who had some kind of impact on Placerville Sheriff James Hume is one of those on the list.
Snowshoe Thompson and John Studebaker are also on that list you can go check those podcasts too
ep. 8 - Sheriff James Hume - The Sherlock Holmes of the Wild West