6/11/1893 - The subjects of the biggest manhunt in California history to the time (a host of dozens of lawmen and over 3000 armed citizens and bounty hunters will scour the San Joaquin Valley and surrounding mountains for almost a year ... so many so that eleven deputies are actually wounded by other deputies during the pursuit), acting on a secret tip, northeast of the town of Visalia, the train robbing team of Chris Evans and John Sontag is ambushed by a small posse of lawmen led by U.S. Marshal George E. Gard at what will be known as the Battle of Stone Corral.
Posse And Mortally Wounded Sontag
Born of a transplanted Irish father and a German mother on February 19, 1847, just outside of Ontario, Canada in the small village of Bells Corner, Roman Catholic Christopher "Chris" Evans spends 16 years with his family (along with his parents, there are seven other siblings in the Evans clan) before going off on his own to make his future in the United States. Enlisting in the Union Army at Buffalo, New York under an assumed name. Instead of battling Confederates, Evans finds himself fighting Sioux warriors in the Kandiyohi country of western Minnesota and leaves the war with the souvenir of three broken ribs from an Indian tomahawk (he kills his attacker and then scalps the corpse). Afterwards, he stays in the army for a time as a well respected scout for the Seventh Calvary and General George Armstrong Custer, before deserting in 1873 (upset with how his commanding officer is being treated by powerful Washington politicians) and making his way into California. Settling near the town of Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley, works as a teamster before marrying Mary Jane "Molly" Byrd (from a respected Virginia family that produces a United States senator and the rear admiral that becomes famous for his explorations of the North and South Poles ... she is fifteen and he is twenty-seven when they marry). A respected member of the early settlers of the valley, before his snap takes place, the 5'8" Evans is happily married husband and father of five children (Eva, Ynez, Louis, Winifred, and Joe) that has a work resume that includes steamboat engineer of the Bessie Brady on Owens Lake, a miner of quick-silver and gold, a wheat harvester, a superintendent of three Bank of California wheat warehouses, railroad worker, construction foreman, and a land owner of twenty acres of beans south of Visalia (the property is now part of Sequoia National Park). It all comes to an end after the Southern Pacific Railroad of Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker make a bean harvest worthless by changing freighting costs and a Evans' new livery stable business in Modesto burns to the ground (in the conflagration, twenty-two horses and a young man named Jacob Claypool die).
Parents - Thomas & Mary Ann Evans
Chris Evans
Records missing, John Sontag is born on May 27, 1861 in either Connecticut, Missouri, or Mankato, Minnesota as John Contant. His father is an immigrant from Holland and his mother a transplant from Germany. When his father dies young of tuberculosis and his mother remarries a German named John Sontag, he takes on that surname, while his brother George will move back and forth between the two monikers as his criminal career begins growing. Not interested in being the priest his mother wants him to be, a wonderful horseman, John leaves home at sixteen and eventually finds his way to California, where as a muscled young adult standing six feet in height, he finds work as a brakeman for the Southern Pacific Railroad ... but not for long. In 1887, an engineer for the railroad makes a mistake while Sontag is uncoupling a train and instead of two cars being separated, they come together and the brakeman has his right lung pierced by the projecting end of one of the iron rails the train is carrying. Spitting up blood from the wound in his back, Sontag will spend two months in a railway hospital in Sacramento and will carry around a fist sized depression in his back for the rest of his life. And for the rest of his life he will also hold close to his heart a raging hatred for the business that gets him hurt, then casts him aside when he can no longer serve as a brakeman. Out of work, he meets Evans in Tulare in 1887 and the men bound over their hatred of the Southern Pacific (Evans is discussing the Mussel Slough Tragedy in which seven men are killed in 1880 when the Southern Pacific takes the disputed lands of a group of California settlers near the town of Hartford, California when the two men initially meet), their passion for the outdoors, and their love for Eva Evans. Hired as a handy man about the Evans' farm, twenty-five-year-old Sontag and eleven-ear-old Eva fall in love with each other at first sight (with her father supervising the courtship, the pair are engaged when Eva is fourteen and plan to be married when she is seventeen). Caught up in Evans' troubles when things turn bleak for the businessman as the 1880s close and the decade of thein 1890s begins, for both money and revenge, the pair decide to start plundering the rail lines of the Southern Pacific.
Molly Evans
The Robberies Begin
On February 22, 1889, the first robbery takes place outside the town of Pixley when two masked men force the engineer, Peter Boelenger, to stop the Southern Pacific #17 as it heads south for Los Angeles, enter the express car by way of a stick of dynamite, take loot valued at over $5,000 from the car, kill railroad employee Henry Gabert with a shotgun blast, severely wound Deputy Sheriff Ed Bentley in the face and hand (the lawman is a passenger on the train) when the lawman investigates the unexpected stop and explosion, and then mount two horses hidden at the site of the robbery and ride off into the night (to their deaths, both Evans and Sontag will deny having ever robbed any Southern Pacific trains). The next robbery takes place on the evening of January 20, 1890 a short distance south of the town of Goshen. Employing the same methods as the Pixley heist on the southbound #19, two men take $20,000 in gold out of the express car (the messenger decides he doesn't want to try dynamite and opens the car's door to the bandits) and then vanish, but not before killing a frightened tramp that tries to run away from the scene of the crime and is shot in the back. Back in action on the night of February 6, 1891, outlaws attack another southbound train just outside the town of Alila. On the Alila robbery however the bandits gallop off without any money after engaging express messenger C. C. Haswell in a brief gun battle that takes the life of the train's fireman. The robbers get back into action on September 3, 1891. Tactics the same as before, two men force the engineer, Andy Neff, to stop the southbound train out of San Francisco (the #19 again) after it let's off passengers at the Ceres depot ... and once more, the outlaws ride off with no loot despite blowing two dynamite holes into the express car (a third charge falls through a hole in the car's floor and explodes harmlessly outside), this time because of the two Wells Fargo agents inside that refuse to surrender (both men will be awarded gold watches from Wells Fargo as a reward) and the resistance of detective passenger Len Harris who fires a borrowed .32 Smith & Wesson revolver at the desperadoes (for his efforts, Harris will be wounded in the neck but survive). The last California robbery takes place on August 3, 1892 and is much more successful for the badmen, who ride away from a robbery of the #17 near the line's Collis station (named in honor of Collis Huntington) with a reported $50,000 in bags weighing almost 200 pounds (an escape buggy and third man are used in the robbery, and the only man injured is expressman George D. Roberts who has his shoes blown off, dislocates a shoulder, and suffers a concussion when the outlaws enter the express car by way of hurled dynamite).
John Sontag
During this period, there are also trips back east by both men that coincide with two men (believed to be John Sontag and his brother George, recently released from the Nebraska State Penitentiary at Omaha where he'd been serving time for robbery), robbing the #3 train out of Chicago at Western Union Junction of $9,800 in assets on the night of November 5, 1891. And on July 1, 1892, there is an evening robbery of the #1 out of Omaha at the railroad's Kasota Junction depot (this time the bandits are believed to be Chis Evans and George Contant) that fails to net the gang any money because express car access gained, one of the robbers can't locate any money inside the car (thought to be George Contant). Thought at first to be the work of the Dalton Brothers (while Grat, Bob, and Emmett are visiting their brother Bill's ranch), the focus of law enforcement eventually sights in on known enemies of the railways of California, John Sontag and Chris Evans, especially after a drunken George Contant will discuss the men's crimes while talking to various bartenders and patrons of Visalia's saloons. Seeking to question John Sontag about the tales his brother has been telling while intoxicated, on August 5, 1892, railroad detective Will Smith and Deputy Sheriff George Witty show up at the ranch of Chris Evans.
George Contant/Sontag
Confronting Eva Evans and then Chris Evans in their home, Smith loses his temper and begins yelling that Evans is a liar for saying John Sontag is not in the house, and the confrontation escalates when John Sontag suddenly appears in the living room holding a shotgun as a panicked Witty snaps off a shot that just misses Eva's head. Flight instinct kicking in, Smith runs outside where he is shot in the rear end by Sontag, while Evans shoots Witty in the shoulder. Lawmen down (and soon removed to local hospitals), Evans and Sontag take the sheriff's buggy and vanish, but return that night for supplies and to say goodbye to family, not knowing a new band of manhunters is hiding out around the barn, awaiting the return of the outlaws. When the men do arrive, gunfire takes place again which kills the two horses pulling the outlaw's stolen wagon and sends posseman Oscar Beaver to the morgue with a bullet in his brain. Suspects to killer outlaws in a matter of seconds, Evans and Sontag flee into the nearby mountains and instigate a manhunt in California that will last for almost a year (with Wells Fargo and the Southern Pacific Railroad jointly offering $10,000 for the arrest of the pair, or $5,000 for each individual that is arrested and brought to trial). Because mail had been tampered with in the train robberies, the crimes are now also considered a federal matter and United States Deputy Marshal Vernon Coke "Vic" Wilson, out of Arizona with two Apache trackers, are brought into the search for the renegades (relishing the task, Wilson will brag about how Evans and Sontag will soon become the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth notches on his gun).
Wanted Poster
Escaping an initial posse of fifty men by pointing a Winchester rifle at the stomach of the group's leader, Sam Ellis, the bandit pair eventually take up residence in cave hidden by a waterfall. Playing a daily and nightly game of hide-and-seek with the authorities, Evans and Sontag mostly move around only at night, getting supplies from friends and family, and news from the residents of Visalia. Gambling with their lives and the lives of those chasing them and those supporting them, the outlaws are eventually discovered by a posse of thirteen men (led by Wilson and his two Apache scouts, Pelon and Cameno Dulce) at a place called Sampson's Flats where Evans maintained a gold claim. On September 13, 1892, making it appear that a casual breakfast of scrambled eggs and fried ham and potatoes is being innocently served to a group of miners at a nearby cabin, the outlaws lull the hungry posse into approaching the cabin, and then, when they are within ten feet of the structure, open fire on the lawmen. Deadly lead flying about, U.S. Deputy Marshal Wilson is mortally wounded in the stomach by double load of buckshot from Chris Evans' shotgun, U.S. Deputy Marshal Andrew W. McGennis is killed by gunfire from both outlaws, railroad detective Alfred Witty is wounded by Evans, the horse of U.S. Deputy Marshal Warren Hill is killed, John Sontag is hit in the right arm, and Evans is concussed by a bullet that clips his skull and tears off the edge of the outlaw's eyebrow. Posse put to flight, the two bandits walk over twelve miles through rough hill country to the Downing Ranch, where they receive food and ten days of nursing for Sontag before the pair vanishes into the mountains again.
Battle Of Sampson's Flat
McGennis
Battle Of Sampson's Flat
Aware that good publicity allowed the James-Younger Gang to operate for years i Missouri, during their flight from the law, the outlaw duo allow themselves to be interviewed by writers Ambrose Bierce, Henry D. Bigelow, and Charles Michelson of William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, cementing the duo's legend of being "social" bandits that the Southern Pacific has forced into a life of crime. They also put together a foolish plan to help George Contant (convicted by his own mouth of the Collis robbery) escape from Folsom Prison using smuggled in weapons that results in the death of convict named Williams, the death of a convict named Dalton, three convicts being wounded, and Contant, the center of the plot, getting shot through his leg and shoulder before being returned to his cell to face even more years behind bars. Trying to set up an ambush of the men, lawman J.S. Black is shot in the thigh near Sequoia Lake. Inevitably betrayed by someone they trust (Evans' brother-in-law, Perry Byrd provides the tip where the outlaws can be found), the outlaw's have their Waterloo against the authorities on June 11, 1893 outside a vacant house twelve miles northeast of Visalia.
Evans Revolver
Tip provided as to where Evans and Sontag can soon be found, a small posse of nine men, led by U.S. Marshal George E. Gard and U.S. Deputy Marshal Hi Rapelje converge on a location known as the Stone Corral outside of Visalia. About twenty minutes before Sunday's sunset, peeking out the back door of the vacant house, Rapelje spots the posse's prey walking down a nearby hill towards the house he is hiding in (Evans wants to fire a couple of shots into the home to stir up anyone hiding inside, but Sontag talks him out of it for fear of accidently hitting an innocent occupant). Stepping out the front door and then circling around to either side, John Sontag starts the party by firing his Winchester at Rapelje, who along with Fresno Deputy Sheriff Fred Jackson opens fire on the outlaw and knocks him off his feet as Evans and the rest of the lawmen begin firing at each other too. Resting on a pile of hay before going into the vacant house, Evans has a groove cut into his back by a bullet, then takes hits from a shotgun blast that wound the bandit in the head (pellets pressed against the membrane surrounding the brain, Evans will suffer from one continuous headache for the rest of his life!) and gouge out his right eyeball. Down but not out, Evans puts a slug in the leg of Jackson when the lawman tries to position himself for a better shot at Evans (the lawman will have the leg amputated below the knee the next day. Taking up positions behind the hay, Sontag is hit in the chest and knocked out of the battle, while Evans keeps firing until the dark of night arrives, suffering more bullet strikes that turn Evans left arm to tatters below his elbow and and also make a mess of the outlaw's right arm, from the wrist to the elbow. Then, accuracy hindered by his wounds, Evans puts three bullets into a light wagon the posse has driven up to the location from the town of Kingsburg, thirty-five miles away. In the initial part of the battle, 40 shots have been fired. Through the evening, over 140 more rounds are sent the bandit's way, with the posse taking return fire at the flashes of its firing. Quietly, sometime in the wee hours before it becomes light, after Evans relates to his friend and partner that he is done, Evans says goodbye to Sontag and crawls away in the darkness.
Layout Of The Engagement
Firing On The Outlaws
Site Of The Battle
At daybreak, the posse slowly creeps forward and discovers Sontag lying among the hay and manure of the stone corral. He is scooped up, placed in a wagon, and taken to a Visalia jail cell, where he dies from his gunshot wounds and the Tetanus they create in his body at the age of thirty-two on July 3rd. His partner, Evans, is soon in the hands of the authorities too. Bleeding profusely, able to see out of only one eye, Evans, banging into trees he can't see, rolling over a mountainside of manzanita bushes, walks over seven miles of mountain trails to reach the Perkins farmhouse in the Elderwood district of Wilcox Canyon (the daughter of Mrs. Perkins is married to the brother of Evans' wife). Destination reached, Evans has his wounds treated as best they can, then sends Elijah Perkins into Visalia to arrange his surrender with the acting sheriff, William Hall. When three different osses show up at the Perkins Ranch, a gun battle almost breaks out over which set of authorities will take possession of Evans (and receive the bounty of rewards offered for his capture. Both shot up outlaws are placed in the Visalia jail, where Evans has his left arm amputated.(and seeing her crippled father and mortally wounded fiance, Eva Evans has a fit of hysteria which lasts roughly thirty-six hours ... recovered, Eva and her mother, Molly, will star as themselves in a quickly written melodrama about the outlaws that provides the money needed to hire legal representation for Evans in the form off attorney S. J. Hinds and state senator G. G. Goucher). Brought to trial in Fresno on November 20, 1893 for murder, it takes nine days to secure a jury from over three hundred individuals interviewed. Jury seated, the prosecution and defense begin a joust for justice lasting fifteen days that includes lawmen testifying to what a dastardly character Evans was, what a wonderful person he was from his daughter Eva, traitorous confessions from John Sontag's brother George, and Evans finally taking the stand in his own defense (in which ever wrong he admits to was first brought on by the Southern Pacific). Found guilty of murder after the jury deliberates for almost seventeen hours, the panel, instead of sentencing the outlaw to death, decides jail for the rest of his life is a better sentence.
Evans At Trial
Of course it is also a sentence that allows Evans to put into effect a plan to escape prison that includes getting most of the men guarding him sent out of town over a friend faked crime (he is helped immensely in setting up his escape by his daughter, Eva). On the evening of December 28, 1893, while his wife is visiting as dinner is served, Evans gains possession of a loaded revolver hidden by a napkin. Hostages taken, Evans and a young prisoner named Edward Morrell make their way outside and down the street looking for horses or a rig to leave Fresno as soon as possible. Discovered by town constable John D. Morgan, Evans shoots the lawman in the shoulder when he fails to follow Evans' orders. Hiding in the mountains once more, the men hit the train station at Fowler, California on January 11, 1894 ... risking their freedom for a measly $60 they pilfer from a local resident and an insurance salesman, a robbery that also results in the wounding of railroad section foreman, Pat Lahey, in the arm, civilian H. A. Mulligan being hit in the shoulder by a bullet, and town constable Charles Ochs taking a round in his hip. Hiding at a site Evans has named Camp Manzanita (used by Sontag and Evans during their sojourn in the California mountains, the hideaway is hidden behind thick manzanita bushes, a huge smooth rock forms the back side of a cabin), the men are discovered by a local posse, but manage to escape when a blizzard hits the area (and another wounded lawman is added to the criminal esume of Evans), Evans, sans his artificial arm. But not for long ... wearied mentally and physically by the rough winter weather, the pair sneak into Visalia to spend secret time with Evans' family (he has been tricked into returning home by stories his son is gravely ill), but the secret gets out. Surrounded, with two caretakers and six Evans children also in the house, the outlaw duo decides to surrender instead of engaging in another bloody gun battle. On February 19, 1894, Evans is back to being a shackled prisoner of the authorities (placed on trial for the escape and latest criminal antics while on the run, Evans receives yet another life sentence). Evans will serve his time walking back and forth in his cell, help run the prison library, work in the Folsom hospital where he will become known as "the Good Samaritan," write a book called "Eurasia," and visit with Collis P. Huntington of the Southern Pacific. On May 1, 1911, with a new governor in office that is an enemy of the Southern Pacific Railroad (Republican Hiram Johnson), and at the behest of his daughter Winifred's petition, after seventeen years behind bars, Evans becomes a free man once more ... free if he stays out of California. Banished to Oregon as part of the terms of his parole (with the exception of court approved visits), Evans lives out his life in Portland, Oregon (where a major portion of his family has transplanted to), surrounded by friends and family, puttering about his garden, taking care of a group of cats he loves, and proclaiming his innocence over the many crimes he is accused of committing). He dies in Portland on February 9, 1917 and goes to his rest at the Mount Calvary Cemetery at the age of 69 (his wife will live out the rest of her life in Laguna Beach, California, where she passes away in 1944).
Folsom Convict
Evans Tombstone
And he goes to his rest, content in knowing many of his enemies have already received the karma they deserved. Railroad detective Will Smith dies of a cancer that eats his face away, ratting out family, snitch Perry Byrd suffers domestic troubles for the rest of his marriage, U.S. Deputy Marshal J.S. Black is murdered in Arizona, George Witty is confronted by embezzlement charges and commits suicide, Luke Hall, in charge of the bloodhounds that pursue the outlaws through the mountains, falls out of his wagon and is killed instantly when it's horses run over him, family traitor George Contant/Sontag spends fifteen years behind bars and then dies of a social disease upon his release from prison, and posse member Al Perkins is crushed by a loose boulder while seeking the mountain retreat of Evans and his confederates. Mostly forgotten now, the murderous outlaw duo of Sontag and Evans is broken up by hot lead on this day and evening in 1893.
Memorial
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