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Four Firsts for a Modest Hero
From the Autobiography of Paris Swazy Pfouts (Part 1)
Reid Gardiner, RW Grand Secretary Emeritus

Preface Those who have been permitted to read Pfouts’s manuscript
wish he had been just a little more explicit in dealing with his
Like the placer gold which Nature concealed from the eyes activities as a Vigilante.
of men for so many, many years in Montana’s Alder Gulch,
this unusual story by and about a most unusual man has been However, Pfouts was as circumspect as his contemporaries,
hidden from public appreciation since the year 1938. At that Dimsdale and Langford, whose book, “The Vigilantes of
time it became the property of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Montana,” and “Vigilante Days and Ways,” respectively,
Montana, and the original manuscript is kept in a vault in conceal more than they reveal.
Helena.
And for good reason: When Dimsdale wrote his classic, and
As a relic the manuscript, inscribed in a most readable Langford told in stirring prose of the successful campaign to
hand on the pages of a giant ledger, is esteemed by its end the reign of “The Innocents,” men’s lives were at stake. No
custodian as second only to the Masonic Apron once worn roster of the Vigilantes is known to be in existence; it is quite
by Captain Meriwether Lewis, the leader of the great Voyage possible that none was made, for every Vigilante knew he was
of Exploration which opened the West, even to the Paci c a target for a bullet in the back, or a dirk between the ribs
Ocean, to American development. until the last Innocent had been hanged or chased from the
Territory. Thus Pfouts preserved the shield of secrecy which
Lewis lost his life under mysterious circumstances some veils the membership of the Vigilante organization.
years after his famous journey to the Paci c. He was killed
(some say he ended his own life) at a location known in its Some enthusiasts, writing even in the days when to be
day as Grinder’s Stand, on the Natchez Trace in what now a Vigilante was to court death by violence, coined a saying
is Tennessee. His Apron was removed from his coat pocket which has endured long and which has served to cloud history.
when the body was being wrapped in a blanket for deposit in “Although all Masons (in the Territory) were Vigilantes,” said
a shallow grave. the sages, “not all Vigilantes were Masons.” The e ects of that
cliche can be found today in some books about the “Big Sky
Joseph R. Hopper, Past Grand Master of Montana, obtained Country,” for certain writers are decidedly unfriendly to the
the Apron through Ray V. Denslow, Past Grand Master of Vigilantes of the past and to the Freemasons of the present.
Missouri, from a member of Lewis family, in 1960. In 1961
Hopper presented it to the Grand Lodge of Montana. It was Residents of several States should be much interested in this
specially encased and placed in the Grand Lodge museum in autobiography. Pfouts passed his boyhood in Pennsylvania; he
Helena. The Apron was accompanied by documents attesting was a youth in Ohio; he knew life in Missouri before the days
to its authenticity. of Samuel Langhorne Clemens; he prospected for and almost
starved to death in California; he was a business success in the
The Paris Swazy Phouts manuscript, however, is shown only early days of Denver, Colorado; and his brief stay in Virginia
to researchers. For the purpose of publication, it was typed City, Montana, proved him to be a leader almost without
by Lenore A. Keown, assistant to Lyman E. Smith, Grand equal.
Secretary and o cial custodian of all Grand Lodge property,
and the editor is indebted not only to Mr. Smith but to his able Pfouts writes in a style remarkably like that used by
secretary in helping to prepare the copy for the printer. Benvenuto Cellini, author of the world’s greatest autobiography,
but unlike the Florentine goldsmith, Pfouts does not make
Secular history has overlooked Paris Swazy Pfouts, but he himself the hero of every adventure - and his work is entirely
stands beside Colonel Wilbur Fisk Sanders, rst United States lacking in amorous passages. Instead, Pfouts writes modestly
Senator from Montana; Cornelius Hedges, “Grand Old Man of about his accomplishments. He tells in detail of his human
Montana Journalism”; Lew L. Callaway, once Chief Justice of frailties: His readiness to tip the bottle of fellowship, to sing a
the Montana Supreme Court and noted historian, and Senator few ribald songs with the other boys at the bar; to lay his gold
Joseph M. Dixon who, as Governor, and later as Assistant on the table and draw three cards in a futile e ort to ll an
Secretary of the Interior, wrote his name in capital letters in inside straight.
all walks of life: Editor, executive and legislator par excellence.
He writes factually about his business ventures-those that
Pfouts was associated closely with Colonel Sanders, Professor failed as well as those which netted a pro t. He makes no
Thomas J. Dimsdale, Nathaniel Pitt Langford and those other attempt to excuse himself for his excesses with noggin and
brave men who in 1863, under the title of Vigilantes, rid the cards, but he does emphasize the fact that he always paid his
Territory of a gang of robbers and murderers whose crimes are debts-even if he had to borrow money to do so.
comparable only to those of today’s Ma a.

Montana Freemason Page 31 July 2019 Volume 95 No. 5