An Unsolved Mystery in the Imnaha

Here’s a test of your genealogical research skills. It’s been 90 years since Martin Hibbs was murdered along Granite Creek about a mile above the Snake River. By tracing the lineages of the families mentioned in the story, it’s possible that further hints to the mystery of his death might have been passed on to descendants.

Published in the Enterprise Recorder Chieftain Newspaper, Enterprise, Oregon, dated July 5, 1934, front page.

“Two Victims in River Mystery” “Martin R. Hibbs and Also Unknown Man Found Dead on River”

The body of Martin R. Hibbs, Snake River rancher, was laid to rest Monday afternoon in the Enterprise cemetery. He was a victim in a mysterious Snake River tragedy believed to have been enacted a week before, in which two men lost their lives. The identity of the other victim is not known but it is believed he was Joe Anderson, a prospector who had been staying on the Hibbs ranch a couple of weeks or more.

The ranch is on Granite creek about a mile up from Snake River, on the Idaho side. On Monday, June 18, Mr. Hibbs and his son, Earl, left the ranch to ride the range and brand calves. They rode to the Salmon River country and attended a forest meeting at Riggins. Mr. Anderson, the prospector, stayed at the ranch to feed the chickens and dog and look after things in their absence, and they were to take back some supplies for him.

The father and son parted on top of one of the ridges between the Salmon and Snake rivers, Monday, June 25, a week after they had left home on their ride. The son continued to ride the range a couple of days and then went to Pullman, Wash. Mr. Hibbs turned his horse toward home. Monday noon he had dinner with Fred McGaffey on a ranch 6 miles from his place. That was the last time he was seen alive, so far it has been possible to trace his movements. That he rode down the trail to his home is certain, but there the curtain falls.

Five days later, last Saturday, his daughter, Mrs. Leonora Barton, of upper Imnaha, widow of the late Ralph A. Barton, concluded to ride over the divide to see how her father was getting along. She has more than an ordinary share of pluck and familiar with the mountains and canyons, making nothing of a ride of 20 miles over lonely trails. She passed Pete Wilson’s home on Saddle creek and Allen Wilson went with her to Snake River and ferried her across, swimming her horse. She mounted again and rode to her father’s ranch home.

As she rounded the last turn and looked upon the spot, she was alarmed to see the two-story frame house had vanished. She rode closer and found it had burned to the ground and only the ashes which had been beaten down by recent rains remained. Still advancing in the gathering twilight she saw the body of her father on the ground some 20 feet in front of where the front door of the house had opened. A saddle lay close to him. Mrs. Barton drew a saddle blanket over the prostrate form and, bewildered and hardly knowing what she was doing, made her way back on the trail to the ledge above the river nearly opposite to Saddle Creek, where the Wilson home stands.

By voice and waving of arms she at length attracted the notice of someone there and a boat was brought across the river and the woman was taken to the Wilson home where she received the tenderest care and in time she was taken back to her home on the Imnaha. Word of the tragedy was sent by telephone to the few neighbors in the canyon and then, in the dead of dark night half a dozen men with horses were worked over the river and they rode up to the Hibbs ranch. The alarm also reached the scattered ranches on the Idaho side and was carried on the Riggins, to Whitebird and to Grangeville, county seat of Idaho county.

The sheriff and coroner went from Grangeville, and many men of the district gathered. A jury was emanated and began the investigation Sunday afternoon. By this time some exploration of the ruins of the burned house was made and the partly burned body of a man was found. There was nothing by which he could be identified. The investigators decided the Mr. Hibbs had been shot three times, once in the head and twice in the body. A pistol was found in the ashes near the body of the unknown man in the house, and it held two empty shells. Half a dozen rifles and shot guns were found in the ruins, apparently all of them having belonged to Mr. Hibbs. These disclosures threw no light on the mystery and all the jury could do was to return a verdict of murder at the hands of unknown persons, in the case of Mr. Hibbs, while the cause of the death of the other man could not be stated.

The jury did not finish its investigation until Monday morning, and immediately afterward friends of the Hibbs family started with the body for the upper Imnaha. Pete Wilson, Charles Marks, Cleve Loyd, Dick Fiske and Casey Denny were in the party and their burden was brought over the trail on a packhorse. At Freezeout, on the Imnaha, C.A. Collinsworth and A.P. Wilson were waiting with a light truck in which the body was brought to Joseph. Funeral services were held late in the afternoon at the grave in the Enterprise cemetery with Rev. G.R. Archer of the Joseph Methodist church officiating.

One theory of the mystery is that an old partner of Anderson, the prospector, called at the Hibbs ranch while the owner was away and that the two men quarreled, and the visitor killed Anderson. Then, it is suggested, Mr. Hibbs rode up unexpectedly and unsaddled his horse before the house when the murderer came out of the door and shot him to prevent discovery. Mr. Hibbs horse was found with its bridle on, indicating the man was shot before he finished caring for the animal. Other theories of the murder are also heard.

Martin Riggs Hibbs was born in Springfield, Ill., April 9, 1863, and passed away Monday, June 25, 1934. He was reared in Missouri and came west in 1883. He was married to Ella Frances Smith in 1891 at Joseph. To this union were born six children: Mrs. Leonora Barton, Imnaha; Glenn, deceased; Mrs. Ralph Stickney, Joseph; Milton Hibbs, Dent, Idaho; Earl Hibbs, Lewiston, Idaho; Mrs. Edna Butler, Joseph. Mr. Hibbs was a very intelligent and alert man, an honest and upright citizen and a good friend to all who knew him. He had raised stock for many years and had lived in the canyon more than 30 years.

I see at least 28 different leads one could follow. Comment below if you have clues or details to add to the story!