The following is a firsthand account of the Bank of San
Miguel Valley robbery as presented by Charles L. Hyde, a bookkeeper and sole
attendant in the bank at the time of the robbery. Many newspapers incorrectly
give him the title of cashier; Charles Painter was the bank manager and
cashier.
This material is maintained by the San Miguel Historical
Society and submitted by Carl Hyde, Charles Hyde’s grandson (Yellow Spring,
Ohio), date unknown.
Later we will delve into Charles Hyde’s details and
personal story.
I transcribed the document and tried to retain all spelling
and punctuation errors.
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A TWENTY
THOUSAND DOLLAR HANDOUT
By Charles L. Hyde
Telluride, Colorado, was a typical mining camp; of the thirty-two
places of business half of them were saloons.
Each of the saloons had gambling facilities in the rear end and none of
them was ever closed to business.
Hundreds of miners earning good wages, provide custom for these
saloons and also for the houses of prostitution which occupied most of one side
of Main Street, one passed on the left the Court House, blacksmith, hardware
store, San Miguel Valley Bank, drugstore, jeweler and assorted saloons and
groceries.
Being a new arrival, I was astonished at the general sense of
security. No house doors were locked, there was no petty thieving. New to the camps and banking, I suggested to
the cashier and manager that really invited a bank hold-up, by taking no
precautions and exposing bank funds carelessly. They replied, “Such things
never occur here.” I was merely a bookkeeper and had no authority to act in the
matter.
One forenoon, it was June 24th, 1889, I was sitting
at the flat desk in front of the safe, reading.
The cashier had gone out with such collections as had come in on the
morning mail. I faced the cashier’s
window and the front door, ready to wait upon possible customers. One came in, leaned on the counter at the
cashiers window and I looked up to see a cowboy pointing a revolver at me and
demanding ‘hands up!’
Assuming it must be a cowboy joke, I took a good look at his
face. That face and his repeated demand,
killed the joke idea and I obeyed.
Instantly two other men rushed in right into the banking room, the
cashier had not shut the gate tight, so it was unlocked and two more revolvers
were pointing at me, only a few inches from my face, and an instant and
emphatic demands for the money with threats of instant death if I were not
quick, left me helpless.
They pointed to the currency in sight in the lower vault and
took that first. ‘Now the gold.’ Which followed suit, packed in their blouses.
“Where is the cash drawer?”
I pointed it out and they stripped of currency ignoring the silver.
“No gun in the bank.”
More liar stuff and threats of death.
“Gentlemen, I said, “you have everything your own way here, you
can see for yourself, there is neither a phone of a gun.”
“Now,” said the one at the window to the bank., “if you give any
alarm for twenty minutes, you’ll be shot.”
Then all four bandits, the fourth had stood outside watching,
mounted their horses, left standing at the walk and rode off firing their guns
over buildings on both sides.
I stepped out as soon as they started and at the same moment the
town marshall stepped out of the drug store next to the bank. I was just recovering from the nightmare and
it was such a relief to unload on an official.
I said to him “Those men have robbed the bank, go for them.” He went down the street to get his horse and
saddled it before even spreading the alarm.
When he came home after actually leading a posse after them he told me
that the robbers were out of range when he knew what had occurred. To me he
said. “if I had fired when you spoke to me, Wouldn’t I have been riddled?”
The alarm was well given by the robbers themselves firing as they
rode out of town. The town acted promptly.
Liveries saddled all the horses they had. Men mounted them as fast as saddled and rode
to the hardware store and was handed a loaded Winchester rifle. If fifteen minutes the town was emptied of
horses and men, who were strung on the road in pursuit of the robbers. They soon to a place the gang had met with
fresh horses and had reloaded their guns.
Further pursuit was senseless, and all returned bring empty revolver
shell to show that they had fired their 45’s.
Some men coming to Telluride had recognized Tom McCarty the
leader and one or two of the others.
Although it was known almost at once, who they were none of them were
found or arrested. All were later killed
later in other hold-ups.
The next bank held up was at Delta and the cashier not as
promptly obedient as I, was shot and killed.
Our bank then had a capital of $50,000 and a surplus of $20,000
and when we took stock of the remaining money, it showed that they had relieved
us of the surplus.
“Did they blame you?” friends asked.
Not seriously. They removed
the cashier and put me in his place, but it never healed the hurt I felt for my
part in the incident.
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Comments
Mr. Hyde reported on four bandits, three in the bank and
one remaining outside. The outlaws
escaped with about $20,000. All outlaws
fired weapons on the gallop when escaping town.
Hyde reports the town “Marshal” (unnamed) was the first notified and
first to act. It took about fifteen
minutes to start the pursuit. Although
Mr. Hyde reports the posse search was short, he makes no mention of how long
they were actually gone. He mentions
that the posse came across a location where the robbers switched horses.
As a note, no mention in papers was made of more than a
single horse being discovered. Several
years later a newspaper reports dead horses believed to be the robbers were
discovered dead tied to a tree.
The only outlaw name mentioned was Tom McCarty.
Charles Hyde claims Charles Painter was fired as cashier
and he replaced him after the robbery.
But Charles Painter was not only the cashier but also the bank’s vice
president. In the American Bankers
Association meeting in 1890, Painter was still cashier. CHarles Painter was a founding father of Columbia and Telluride and a powerful citizen.
As we will note later, Painter also owned the town newspaper at
the time of the robbery and controlled all of the news stories leaving
Telluride by wire.
 |
| Eliese and Charles F Painter |
Lastly, Mr. Hyde
refers to notifying the town marshal and makes no mention of the marshal’s name.
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