Heritage in the Hat: They didn’t get their man
By Medicine Hat News on February 23, 2019.
From reader response, it appears that the previous Heritage in the Hat column, entitled “The Hole Story” wasn’t in fact the whole story. This was not intentional “fake news” but the record needs to be corrected! First, the “hole,” previously the Hitch’n Post and long known as the location of the American Hotel, is owned by the city now, but it is the Orphan Well Association that is responsible to deal with the gas well drilled for the hotel kitchen. Now, back to the first murder. In 1975, I interviewed local “oldtimer” McLaren Ewart. He was then 86 years old, so not yet born at the time of his version of the 1885 shooting at the American Hotel. He would have heard it second-hand, and told me 90 years after the event, and now I remember it 44 years later. Should have been fact-checked. Mea culpa! Here’s the story based on several written accounts: The Casey brothers, Bob and Bill, established the very first hotel in town in 1883, probably a tent hotel between the railroad and future Finlay bridge. Wood-frame hotels followed the same year, including the American, the Lansdowne operated by the Caseys, and the Brunswick at Railway and Third Street built by George Culley. The Caseys were rough characters: Bill was a mule skinner (teamster) and Bob froze his legs while driving a stage coach in Montana. Subsequently amputated and replaced with wooden legs, he “traded on this misfortune and made himself obnoxious to other men” (per Macauley). Charlie Macauley, who came to the Hat in 1883 from Quebec, and colleague Ben Hale worked as cowboys on ranches in the district. On July 9, 1885, they delivered a herd of cattle to Finn’s Lake, northeast of town. On their way back to “Hog” (Orin) Main’s ranch near the forks of the Bow, they stopped for a meal at the Culley ranch and coal mine (west of today’s airport), operated by brothers George, Joseph and William. Bob Casey was also visiting and became embroiled in a drunken argument with Hale about a horse race. Now the versions of what happened next differ. Hale drew a gun on Casey. Macauley says Casey offered to go outside and fight it out with guns but he had only two cartridges while Hale had five. The confident Hale traded guns with Casey, they went outside and stood back to back before pacing off and shooting. When Macauley saw the duel about to happen, he headed back to town for help (so he may not have seen the shot). According to George Culley, Casey told Hale that if he was to be shot, let it at least be on his horse, which he mounted backwards and baring his chest, dared Hale to shoot. Well, bang. Either way, Casey was shot through the chest and carried into Culley’s house. Hale then demonstrated his sharpshooting by knocking the lid off the kettle and drilling the centre of a clock. Saddling up, he warned Culley not to go for help until he was out of sight and headed for the Medicine Line (border). The Mounties couldn’t find him and later heard he was in Fort Benton. Sgt. Jones was sent to arrest him but Sheriff Healy of Fort Benton, who knew where to find Hale, wouldn’t turn him over without a reward. (John Healy and Alfred Hamilton established Fort Whoop-Up 15 years earlier). Sgt. Jones didn’t get his man. Bob Casey died the morning after the shooting and was buried July 11, the first murder in Medicine Hat. Malcolm Sissons is a member of the Heritage Resources Committee of the City of Medicine Hat and this column was prepared with research conducted by committee member Sally Sehn. 9-8
