Tom Sparks's cattle, the Fleming sheep and a death near Sunbeam

On Sunday, February 12, 1928, the Pocatello Tribune printed the memories of J. R. Munn, who had run cattle for many years on Horse Island, where the Portneuf meets the Snake, until the American Falls reservoir covered it. One part, under the heading "A Loyal Foreman," went back to the years when Arbon Valley, then called Bannock Valley, and Crystal were open cattle range. It ended with a sheepman found shot near Sunbeam creek, on the American Falls side of the mountains.

What Munn remembered

"Tom Sparks of American Falls," Munn said, "was the big cattleman in this district in the old days." He ranged his cattle in the Arbon, Crystal and Rockland valleys and, Munn said, at one time had over 20,000 head. When Sparks died, which Munn put in 1890, his sons took over the estate. Soon afterward, by Munn's account, the brothers Hugh and Pete Fleming brought "a horde of sheep" onto the range, and the Sparks heirs struggled to keep enough feed for their cattle.

The Sparks foreman, Munn said, was Sam Denton, a Texan who had left Texas, it was said, for "certain reasons" and said only that he did not mean to go back. Denton worked hard for the outfit, and when the case seemed to him almost hopeless he became, it was said, moody and silent. Then:

In the spring of 1891 Hugh Fleming was found one day, lying on a knoll near [illegible] of Sunbeam creek, with a bullet through his heart. Sam Denton was arrested on suspicion for this deed, although there were no eye witnesses to the tragedy. He was acquitted, and left the country shortly afterwards and I believe he is still alive and operating a cattle ranch in the vicinity of Great Falls Montana.

Whether it had been a fair fight, Munn said, and whether Denton had anything to do with it, "was a matter of much discussion in the old days."

What other records say

Munn was speaking nearly forty years later, and some of his dates do not fit other records.

Thomas Sparks, born in Mississippi in 1841, was a partner in the American Falls cattle firm of Sparks & Herman, named in Utah papers in 1884. The site's histories credit the firm with the earliest recorded land claims in the valley, in Bull Canyon at Summit in August 1885, and Sparks sat in the territorial council in 1888–89. He did not die in 1890. Find a Grave places his death at Pocatello on January 4, 1892; Utah newspaper reports cited in the site's research put it on the night of January 4–5.

Find a Grave lists Walter Scott Sparks among his sons. A Walter Sparks was still buying cows and steers in the valley in 1903, according to an Arbon column the American Falls Press reprinted in 1919, and in December 1914 Commissioner Walter S. Sparks of Power County was given charge of the road district "comprising Arbon and Crystal." He was probably Tom's son, though no paper we have read says so. In 1919 the Press reported a stolen car found "near the Sparks ranch at Sunbeam."

The Idaho historian Evan E. Filby has told the killing from the Idaho Statesman of 1894 and 1895, with a different date. He writes that riders found the body of the sheepman Hugh Fleming on the range near American Falls on April 2, 1894. Fleming was unarmed and had been shot four times. Suspicion fell on cattlemen who had threatened him and his brother, whom Filby names as John, not Pete. Four cattlemen were jailed and released about a week later, the governor offered a $500 reward, and no one was ever convicted. Filby also writes that the Flemings had sheep on the American Falls range before 1884, years before Tom Sparks died.

This is very probably the killing Munn remembered: the same man, found dead near American Falls, in a quarrel between cattle and sheep. If so, Munn's 1891 is three years early. Utah papers of 1894, cited in the site's research, name the four men held: S. W. Denson, Hugh Denson, S. L. McCulloh and Walter Sparks. A justice discharged them for want of evidence, and in May the grand jury was reported to have ignored the charges; as far as these papers show, none was tried for the killing. In December 1894 "S. W. Denson and son" were named with John Sparks of Reno and Walter Sparks as members of the Sparks Cattle company. If Munn's "Sam Denton" was this S. W. Denson, as seems likely though the papers give only his initials, he was held and released, not acquitted.

Sunbeam creek comes down from the mountains east of American Falls. In 1918 the Press placed a ranch on it "about five miles east of town," and in 1925 it wrote of "the Arbon road over Sunbeam." Hugh Fleming most likely died outside the valley, then, but his death belongs to the history of the range that stretched across it.

What is not known

Nothing has yet been found to check Munn's 20,000 head, his picture of Denton as the loyal foreman, or his belief that Denton later ranched near Great Falls, Montana, and the Idaho Statesman reports Filby used have not been read for this post. In the same years, by the Daniels family's account, a cattle outfit jumped Donum Daniels's claim, a quarrel with a homesteader, not with sheepmen.

On this site: When Bannock Valley was cattle range, 1879–1909; the Saulsberry still at Sunbeam, 1922; and, for the sheep that came later, keeping the sheep out of the canyons, 1920.

The article as printed

Pocatello Tribune, February 12, 1928, page 4. Transcribed from the page scan. One damaged word before "of Sunbeam creek" cannot be read with certainty; it is probably "the mouth." The article's other recollections, of a killing at American Falls and a stage robbery on Raft River, are given as printed in 1928, with the period's language, including its words for the reservation's people.

OLD-TIME COWBOY WAS LOYAL TO HIS EMPLOYER AND BRAND
So States J. R. Munn, a Former Cattleman, Whose Herd Ranged the Bottoms in 1889
"Loyalty to his employe, the ranch brand, and to his fellow-workers, was one of the outstanding characteristics of the old time western cowboy," so states J. R. Munn of 540 South Hayes, who for many years operated a cattle ranch on Horse Island, at the junction of the Portneuf and Snake rivers. Mr. Munn, as well as the other ranchers of Horse Island and the Fort Hall bottoms; was obliged to dispose of his property, when the big American Falls project was inauguarted. The land where his cattle ranged for years is now covered by the waters of the reservoir. In his advancing years he harkens back to the old days when the cattleman was king, undisputed on his own range; demanding, and receiving as a rule, allegiance of the highest order from his cowboy employes.
"I was born in Montpelier, Idaho, in 1868," said Mr. Munn, "and when a lad of 12 I moved to Ogden with my parents. My recollection of Montpelier is somewhat vague. As I recall, the village consisted of four or five log cabins and a store. Montpelier was a station for the freighting outfits that transported supplies from Evanston to the Caribou placer workings. I recall watching the dust clouds made by the caravans, moving slowly and laboriously in the direction of the hazy ranges of the Caribou.
"When still a young lad I entered the employ of Francis Roche and accompanied him to Oregon on a sheep buying trip Baker City and Pendleton were then just clusters of log cabins. There were no railroads and we had to drive the sheep from Oregon to Kaysville, Utah.
Snake River Gold
"I next tried placer mining, and with my two brothers, extracted approximately $20,000 from the sands of Horse Island. I acquired 500 acres of placer ground on the island, which I worked at various times until it was finally covered by the waters of the reservoir The flour gold of the Snake river has been the bugaboo of western mining men as no satisfactory method of making recovery by handling the gravel in large quantities has ever been worked out although I venture to state that gold to the value of hundreds of thousends of dollars was taken out in the vicinity of Horse Island in the early days by means of hand rockers.
"In my opinion there still remains along the Snake river between American Falls and Blackfoot, more gold that was taken out of many of the big Alaska placer districts, although the best ground is now covered by the American Falls reservoir.
A Loyal Foreman
"Tom Sparks of American Falls was the big cattleman in this district in the old days. He ranged his cattle in the Arbon, Crystal and Rockland velleys, and at one time he had over 20,000 head. Mr. Sparks was a 'square shooter' and when he died in 1890 the work of operating his vast estate fell to the lot of his sons. Shortly after Mr. Sparks' death, the cattle range in this district was invaded by Hugh and Pete Fleming, brothers, with a horde of sheep. As every western man is aware, cattle and sheep cannot occupy the same range, and consequently the heirs of Tom Sparks were sorely pressed to maintain the necessary feeding ground for their herds, and ruination stared them in the face.
"Sam Denton, foreman for the Sparks outfit, had drifted here from Texas. Denton left the Lone Star state for 'certain reasons,' it was said, and the only statement he was ever heard to make in this respect, was to the effect that he did not intend to return to Texas.
"Denton had been in the employ of Tom Sparks for a number of years previous to his death, and was intensely loyal at all times, and worked hard to make the ranch earn a profit, and when the Flemings invaded the range with their sheep, he redoubled his efforts. Finally when it appeared to him that the case was almost hopeless, it is said that he became moody and silent. In the spring of 1891 Hugh Fleming was found one day, lying on a knoll near [illegible] of Sunbeam creek, with a bullet through his heart. Sam Denton was arrested on suspicion for this deed, although there were no eye witnesses to the tragedy. He was acquitted, and left the country shortly afterwards and I believe he is still alive and operating a cattle ranch in the vicinity of Great Falls Montana.
"Whether Hugh Fleming came to his death in a fair fight or not, or whether Sam Denton was involved was a matter of much discussion in the old days. Some of the cowboys insisted that the silent, tight lipped Texan would go to almost any extreme to repay a kindness or protect a friend.
"In 1889 I started running a bunch of cattle on the bottoms and I continued in the cattle raising business at this place until I was forced to give up my ranch on account of the American Falls reservoir
Bob Paxton Passes
"I was present in Olivers restaurant at American Falls at the time Bradley Jackson murdered Bob Paxton. They were seated at a table, facing each other; Paxton intoxicated and unarmed, and Jackson, sober, clear-eyed and deadly. It was claimed that Paxon was a cattle rustler, but he was well liked and no one ever questioned his courage, while Jackson is alleged to have been hired by the cattlemen to kill the former. Jackson drew his gun; and said, 'Bob, I guess you have lived long enough,' while Paxton, apparently half sobered by the appearance of the weapon, smiled at Jackson, and continued to smile until a bullet crashed through his heart.
The Holdup
"Bill Johnson, one of the best ropers that ever hit the state of Idaho; said that he was born in South America. He was a college man, never drank anything strong than water, even barring coffee and tea. In fact he was something of a curiosity. However, he was well liked by his fellow cowboys, and often accompanied them to town, but he took no part in their carousals. It was generally assumed that he had no weakness, but he finally fell—with a crash—for a woman, the entertainment of whom required more ready money than Johnson possessed. So Johnson decided to try to 'beat the game' by sending a box by express out of Albion, upon which he placed a fictitious value of $40,000. At a point on Raft river, Johnson held up the stage and removed his box and in due course of time made claim against the express company. But something went wrong with his plans for he was arrested and placed in jail at Blackfoot. He managed to break jail, however, and, stealing an Indian pony, he was beating it back for Raft river, when the red men took his trail. In the vicinity of the "dobies" on the reservation, they approached sufficiently close to put a bullet through his shoulder, and when he was finally rescued by Ross Hansen, foreman for the S bar E outfit, the Indians had placed a rope around his neck and were preparing to send him 'on the long trail.'
"Johnson was sent to the penitentiary at Boise, but was pardoned when he had served a small part of his term. Some time after this I happened to be riding the range on Raft river in company with Johnson, and thinking to give him a thrill I pointed out the place where the stage had been held up three years previously, and I nearly fell off my horse when Johnson calmly admitted that he was the robber in question."