He had murder suspect Berry Way in custody, and now all that was needed was to bring him to The Dalles for trial.

A large group of local Canyon City miners had a different idea, though. Instead of going to all that trouble, with the possibility of Way getting let off by some bleeding-heart big-city judge, why not take care of justice right now, right here in Canyon City, DIY-style?

By the time McDaniels was settled in with his prisoner in one of Canyon City’s saloons, they’d already formed a committee, with a chairman and a secretary. They met in another saloon — apparently a very large one, because there were 460 of them — to get things organized.

Initially, their plan was simply to get hold of Berry Way and fructify the nearest juniper tree with him in classic vigilante style — no muss, no fuss. But Ike Hare gave an impassioned speech, urging the committee to, as it were, be a kinder, gentler lynch mob — and give the accused a full trial before hanging him. That way, it would be legit. Unlike, you know, those other mob killings that sometimes happened in the frontier West.

“Yes, gentlemen,” he concluded to approving cheers in what must have looked disturbingly like a scene from the movie “Paint Your Wagon.” “We will give him a fair and impartial trial. We know him to be guilty, and we will hang him anyhow.” (Canyon City, Grant County; 1863) (For text and pictures, see http://www.offbeatoregon.com/1806a.berry-way-perry-mason-paint-your-wagon-498.html)