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Flags in Canceling Devices (1920-1929), The West's Last Great Train Robbery

By Tom Kozicki, 9 E Main Box 881, Centerbury OH 43011

Train Wreck Cover

It is a terrible looking flag canceled cover. The left side is burnt off and the town of origin is unreadable. The right side is scorched and dirty. The back is almost completely gone - - but oh what a story it tells!

The cover is postmarked OCT 10, 1923, and a piece of paper attached by the post office is glued to the front of the cover. The attachment reads, "This mail damaged by fire and dynamite hold-up of Ashland and Gerber Train No. 13, at Siskiyou, Oregon, October 11, 1923."

After matching flag dies I was able to determine the cover was postmarked in Marshfield, Oregon, and was addressed to the California Central Creameries in Eureka, California. Mail to California from Oregon was transported by the Southern Pacific Railroad over the Siskiyou Mountains.

On October 11, 1923, the Shasta Limited, also called the Gold Special, Train #13 hauling 13 cars, including a mail car, pulled up to Tunnel #13 on the route when it stopped to check the brakes. The crew of #13 consisted of an engineer, fireman, and brakeman, all from California. The mail car was manned by Elvyn Daugherty from Ashland, Oregon, an employee of the post office.

When the train stopped, two men jumped on the tender and surprised the engineer and fireman. They made the crew pull the train through the tunnel and knocked on the mail car door.

After the postal clerk refused to open the door, two of the robbers using stolen dynamite, blew the door to the mail car. Unfortunately the men used so much dynamite that the mail car was twisted and set on fire. The mail clerk was incinerated by the blast and burnt or blown all over the tunnel. The locomotive was blown off the tracks.

Unable to pull the mail car out of the tunnel, the robbers shot and killed the engineer, fireman, and brakeman, and escaped without any money or gold. In their haste to get away one of the men left a pair of overalls. In a pocket within the overalls was a registered mail receipt for $50.00 signed by Roy DeAutremont. Roy had two brothers, Charlie and Hugh. The three were who had attempted to rob the train.

What took place next was one of the biggest manhunts in United States history. The DeAutremonts would elude the law for almost five years, until someone recognized one of the brothers from a wanted poster.

All three confessed and received life sentences in the Oregon State Penitentiary. Roy went insane in prison and was transferred to the state mental institute. Hugh was granted parole in 1958, and died three months later. Roy was granted parole in 1961, and worked for the University of Oregon as a custodian. Roy died in 1984.

The robbers had heard rumors that the Gold Special would be carrying a large shipment of gold and money that day. They were wrong! They got nothing except the notoriety of having pulled what now we call the "West's Last Great Train Robbery."

The cancel is an American Machine Company flag cancel. The cancel is listed by the Standard Flag Cancel Encyclopedia as a type A14 1909/1925 from Marshfield, Oregon.

Sources:

Block, Eugene, "Great Train Robberies of the West," Coward-McCann, Inc, New York, 1959.
Chipman, Art, "Tunnel 13," Pine Cone Publishers, Medford, Oregon, 1977.
Green, Fred, "The Great Siskiyou Train Robbery," Dogtown Territorial Quarterly, Paradise, California, 1994.
Langford, Frederick, "Standard Flag Cancel Encyclopedia, Third Edition," Pasadena, California, 1976.
Sturholm, Larry and John Howard, "All for Nothing; The True Story of the Last Great American Train Robbery," B.L.S. Publishing Co., Portland, Oregon, 1976.

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8/29/20, 4:07 PM

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