Vigilante Days and Ways

By Nathaniel Pitt Langford

Book Overview

"Vigilante Days and Ways" recounts the experiences of Nathaniel Pitt Langford in the American West during a period of rapid expansion and social upheaval. This firsthand account details the rise of vigilante movements in Montana as a response to rampant lawlessness during the gold rush era. Langford's narrative offers valuable insights into the challenges of establishing order in a frontier society and the motivations behind the formation of extralegal organizations.

The book explores themes of justice, morality, and the complexities of maintaining social stability in the absence of established legal institutions. It provides a compelling glimpse into the lives and actions of individuals who took the law into their own hands, shaping the early history of the American West and contributing to the mythology of the frontier.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1023932210
• ISBN13: 9781023932219
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Hutson Street Press
• Length: 582 Pages
• Weight: 1.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A thrilling primary source!

This account of one of the most fascinating eras and places in Old West history thrills the reader more than fiction could possibly do. I read this book as a kid and it remains one of my all time favorites. (Studying the Old West is my hobby, and I teach high school history.) The characters Mr. Langford presents from his own observations are more colorful than any invented by Zane Gray, for example. I'm surprised that no feature film has be made on Henry Plummer. His duel role as sheriff and bad man has been depicted several times stereotypically in Western movies, but no actual account of his life in the early gold-rush towns of western Montana has yet been done. Dimsdale's "The Vigilantes of Montana" is the most well-known primary source of vigilante action in Montana, but his was written much later after the fact. Mr. Langford's book came fresh from his memory of his own participation in the dealings of vigilante justice to "clean up" the commonplace violence in old Virginia City and Bannock, Montana.

First person account of Vigilante justice in MT.

If you want to read about the rise and demise Henry Plummer and his band of cutthroats, this is the best book I can recommend to you. Langford was the executive secretary of the Virginia City MT vigilence committee and he "tells it like it was". This book's dust jacket says in effect the book's victorian prose is worth wading through to hear a stirring first person account of the MT vigilante's activity - and that comment is nonsense. Langford's tale may ramble on occasion and his prose may be stilted on occasion. However, you will probably feel your sphincter tighten as the good guys start kicking dry goods boxes out from under cutthroats who, unlike today's criminals, knew justice was being served with dispatch. It's history, but a moving story told like no one else could.