"Rugged Men of Great Courage" or The Sharps and Virginia City

From: Heart Throbs of the West by Kate B. Carter, Volume 6, pgs. 436-440, titled “Rugged Men of Great Courage”

Adam Sharp. In 1870 flour was selling Montana for $190.00 per hundred pounds. Adam Sharp ( Uncle Adam to everyone) took fifteen wagons, loaded them with flour, and after a short delay headed north, against the wishes of his brother, Bishop John Sharp, who maintained the flour would be paid for with gold dust and the chances were ten to one the road agents would take this away from him before he arrived home.

My father, John C. Sharp, a young man of twenty, was in charge of the commissary wagon which was loaded with supplies for the round trip and which included food, bedding, ox yokes, staples, chains, shoes for the oxen and all such. One thing father said there was an overabundance of was axle grease in round sort of buckets made of wood. Each held four pounds and there were twelve to a box. Father had to see that the wagons were properly greased, and when a bucket was emptied he had instructions to put the lid back on and the empty bucket in the case, and when that was full to nail the case up.

The fourth day out they camped at a spring just the other side of Brigham City for noon. Two men, riding horseback and leading a pack animal, rode up, watered their horses and rode on. No one said a word to them.

Two days this side of Virginia City, father said there were three bodies handing to a large cottonwood tree right alongside of the road, and on that tree was a notice which read:

WARNING

Road Agents, Horse Thieves, and Such

Can Expect a Similar Fate When Caught.

THE VIGILANTES

Uncle Adam rode into Virginia City and sold his flour to a large wholesale company for $90.00 per hundred, and at that price stood to make a handsome profit. The train lined up alongside the warehouse and the flour was weighed and then Uncle Adam brought forth a whole stack of small buckskin bags, hand-made, and into each bag was weighed $1,000 in dust. Then each sack was tied, the end and the string dipped into red sealing wax, and the letter S stamped in the warm wax in such a manner that no dust could be taken out without breaking this seal.

The train pulled out about two miles from town and camped for the night. Uncle Adam placed the sacks of dust in the commissary wagon and stayed there with the dust all afternoon and night and until mid-morning the following day. His instructions were to keep an armed guard around the wagon and to let no one near and he meant NO ONE.

That evening a few of the men went into the town and when they returned commented on the number of gambling houses and the amount of gold and gold dust that was changing hands.

The next day the men were busy shoeing oxen and repairing wagons most of the day. Uncle Adam came out of the commissary and had a bite to eat. Then he strolled into town and when he returned appeared to be under the influence of liquor. When evening came he and three of his men went back into town. They had supper at a restaurant and then started to see the town, going from one gambling joint to another. Finally about ten o’clock they stopped at a saloon where the stakes were high. Uncle Adam stood behind a chair and watched. The man in front of him got up – broke – and Uncle Adam slid into the chair. He placed a buckskin sack of dust on the table and called for chips. The dust was weighed out and he received $1,000 in chips. The game went on. Apparently he was just drunk enough not to care what happened for his hands were more used to handling a bullwhip than those slick cards.

He won and lost and then finally looked at his cards with his eyes wide open and shoved what chips he had in, approximately $750.00. The dealer stayed. The others dropped out. Uncle Adam dug up another sack and placed it on the table. The gambler did likewise. Then Uncle Adam asked for time to get more dust. It was granted. He arose, took a dirk from his belt, and stuck it through those cards and into the table. The dealer, or gambler, did likewise. Each left a man to see that no cards were changed and then they departed, Uncle Adam to go back to the wagon camp, the gambler to go to the saloon keeper and have him get a number of buckskin sacks of dust that had been left there previously for safekeeping.

How much Uncle Adam received for the sale of that train of flour father did not know but did say, “I never saw so much gold dust at one time before or since as there was while the sacks were being filled.” Uncle Adam and the two men returned and the betting was resumed. Finally a man standing nearby said, “The old freighter has bet every sack we weighed out and filled for him.”

Proudly Uncle Adam drew his dirk out and turned his cards over. He had four queens and an ace. The gambler turned his over and had four kings and a jack. Uncle Adam looked at the cards, arose, and calmly said, as he staggered away, “I’ll go back to that Mormon town and get me another load of flour and bet it all, and next time I’ll win.”

The gambler bought him a gallon of whisky, just to show there were no hard feelings, and while Uncle Adam and his men walked back to camp the gambler gathered up all of those sacks, put them all in a seamless sack, sealed it, took a receipt from the saloon keeper for it, and walked up the street, for well he knew that a man’s life would be worth less if he started to drag that mount of gold dust around in that mining town.

Back at camp, Uncle Adam seemed to be the happiest man of the entire outfit as he crawled into the commissary and went to bed. The others stood around and commented on his loss and it was a mighty forlorn group of men who headed for Salt Lake City the following morning.

The second day out the train was stopped by road agents. There were far more road agents than there were men in the entire train. Their leader asked to see the train boss and was taken to the commissary where apparently Uncle Adam was sleeping off the effects of a protracted drunk with part of that gallon of whiskey beside him. The leader looked at him, called three of his men, and said, “This is that crazy old Scotch-Mormon I was telling you about. Lost upwards of $50,000 on one hand and I admire him for he never let out a whimper. Too bad for us, but we will just appropriate what whisky he has and wish him better luck next time.”

Uncle Adam seemed to get over his drunkenness mighty suddenly after than but the men rarely ever spoke to him. The morning the train pulled into Salt Lake some of the drivers noticed the same two horsemen that had been at the spring up near Brigham City, enter town. Straight to the yard went the train and to the office went the commissary where the extras were checked in. Then it was that those men, father included, received the surprise of their lives for there was Uncle Adam in the commissary wagon carefully removing the lids from some of those empty cases of axle grease. He took up one of those wooden buckets, took the cover off, scraped off about one inch of axle grease and a layer of paper, and then those men saw three sacks of the very gold dust they had seen sealed up when the flour had been paid for. More buckets were opened and more sacks taken out. Those two men rode up and tossed three sacks of dust, some that they had, and when the sacks were counted not a single one was missing. How was it done?

Well, Uncle Adam spent considerable time during the nights before he left, filing up lead bars and mixing those lead filings with sand and weighting same into buckskin bags which he sealed with sealing wax just as he had done up in Virginia City. He placed his sacks in the buckets and took them north just as he brought the gold back. Those two gamblers he had hired, and they showed him how to hold his cards for he had neer played a game of cards in his life. Well, they showed him what to do and all he had to do was to play his hand and when he was dealt four queens, all he had to do was to bet. The sacks that gambler got from the saloon keeper ere some Uncle Adam had made for him and filled with lead and sand and given to him before they left so that saloon keeper un in Virginia City was holding a lot of buckskin bags, sealed up and so forth, thinking they were full of gold dust. That gambler and Uncle Adam each had two sacks of real dust to begin with.

Father said Uncle Adam paid each of those men $500 before they left and they came back with over $6,000 they had won while waiting for the train to come in and after it had left.

Who were they? Father would never tell, but he did say they were prominent members of the Mormon church. Possibly those were the men Brigham Young referred to when he said, “Gamblers in the Mormon Church? Sure we have them, and they are so smooth they can trim the slickest gamblers that the West can produce.”

In conclusion let me state – no general ever planned a battle more carefully than Uncle Adam planned that trip. Now about the liquor, when the last of the axle grease was taken out Bishop John put in an appearance for he had heard the train was in. Adam called the men all together and asked each one if he had seen him take even one swallow of liquor. Not a man had, but some intimated he must have done so – “else he was the best damned actor living.”

Then it was that Adam jokingly demanded a wagon and three yoke of oxen he and the Bishop had wagered before the train left, regarding the drinking of whisky. That bet was paid then and there, for those “rugged men of the West” often bet and when they did their word was as good as their bond. — (James P. Sharp.)

Our family story indicates that Joseph was with Adam and part of the ruse.

Joseph Sharp (1830 - 1864)

[Images of Adam and John Sharp missing, ebf, 2010]

Submitted by Ruth H. Barker, 2010.

In 2004, we took a trip that included a detour to Virginia City. We went on a carriage tour of the town, and the tour guide said that he had seen a rock out on one of his "rides" with the name "Sharp" carved in it. He said next time he was out he'd take a picture and e-mail it to me. I never did get the picture, but if anyone finds a rock near Virginia City with "Sharp" carved in it, it might have something to do with this story. Emily Barker Farrer, 2010.