From the Montana Collection

The Shooting of Sheriff Frank Baney

Frank Baney was the first official Sheriff of Lincoln County. He was appointed to this position in 1910, soon after the county was formed, and when northwest Montana was still very much part of the frontier. He helped maintain law and order in the county until 1947. His reputation as a firm but fair lawman grew over the years to almost legendary proportions. His career is chronicled in Frank Baney : Forty years a Montana Law Enforcer, by Beryl Holgren. The following excerpt relates one of the few incidents in which Mr. Baney had to use his gun in the line of duty. A bit of background : In July of 1920 , Taihl Singh, a Hindu man employed by the railroad as a trackwalker, was murdered in British Columbia. The suspects in the case, a pair known as the Chouinard brothers, had been pursued as far as Montana, where they entered into Mr. Baney's jurisdiction. Sheriff Baney had travelled to Eureka to pick up the trail....

"Baney, probably shooting the breeze with the local cop at the city jail or with some old timer, was told at about nine o'clock in the evening that the suspects had been seen camping near the tracks east of Eureka - a favorite haunt for transients. Baney took two unarmed under-sheriffs with him. It was early September and the night was dark as they stole cautiously down the track beyond town. Baney walked without fear or apprehension, figuring that the two approached by three able lawmen would surrender without a struggle because that was the pattern followed by the professional criminal. While gun play was always a possibility, Baney had no fear of it. He realized that he was up against a pair of hardened desperadoes--but he had been before and they gave up without a struggle. Baney thought, of course, that he was on the trail of the Chouinards.

The three caught the flicker of the campfire in the willow thickets against the background of the wooded hills. They stepped softly to approach the two strangers--one small man stood beside the campfire and a tall, taciturn fellow sat near by on a log. Baney walked up to them without a gun or heroics and spoke quietly but with authority, "I'm the Sheriff--and I'd like to search you fellows. I guess you know why."

The smaller fellow turned angrily and shouted, "We haven't got guns--and you're not going to search me!"

Baney spoke firmly, his gray eyes boring coldly into those of the speaker, "I'm going to search you--that's part of my job."

In the meantime, the tall, sullen fellow leaped from the log, backed off into the willows and cried, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He drew out his .45 and shot Baney through the chest. Immediately Baney drew out his .25 and shot four times at the men, who jumped straight into the brush and were gone. One of the shells, he was positive, had reached home.

In the meantime the under-sheriffs ran to get help.

Baney, with his life's blood spurting from the hole in his chest and shock setting in, managed to stagger as far as the railroad tracks. Holding his head upright between his hands, he walked along the track between the rails for a short distance. Then remembering that it was time for the evening passenger train to come along and, realizing that his strength was fast leaving him, he stepped to the side of the track, where he fell. It was not too long until the under-sheriffs brought help and found him lying unconscious, in a pool of blood."

Holgren, Beryl. Frank Baney : Forty Years a Montana Law Enforcer. Vantage Press, New York. 1965. pp. 107-108

Sheriff Baney recuperated from the shooting and returned to duty, serving another 27 years. His assailants were captured within a few days, and turned out to be not the Chouinard Brothers, but two other fugitives with long criminal records.