On May 27, 1867, Robert C. Hayden purchased 160 acres from John Baxter, adjoining Baxter Creek, just east of present day Buntingville. There was a tragedy in the making. On the morning of May 19, 1876, three men were killed in the worst water dispute in the annals of Lassen County history. That morning, Robert C. Hayden, aged 55, went to inspect the west end of his property along the creek. There he found his neighbor, William Leith, his son, William Leith Jr. and John Thayer in the process of constructing an irrigation ditch through his property. The construction of the ditch had been an ongoing quarrel. Hayden hold them to stop digging, but they continued. Hayden warned them he would return with his “crowd.” Hayden came back with his son, Robert D. , aged 32 and Edward Bartlett, aged 67. The elder Hayden was the only one in his party with a musket. All members the Leith party had firearms. Hayden told the Leith party to stop or to shoot to b damned. Leith Sr. fired a shot at the elder Hayden, who fell to the ground and died. The younger Hayden rushed to pick up his father’s musket, charged against the Leith party and was shot by all three pf them, and he too, died on the spot. The elderly Bartlett attempted to defend himself with a grubbing hoe. Bartlett was struck over the head with a rifle, either by one of the Leith’s or Thayer. The record is not clear and Thayer died three days later from fractures to his skull. The thee men were charged with murder, but only Leith Sr. stood trial. He was found guilty and the case was appealed to the California Supreme Court. That court cited problems: confusion as to who actually fired the fatal shots, and also criminal intent. The Supreme Court reversed the guilty verdict and remanded for a new trial. A new trial was never held and the case was closed.

On a final note, in 1904, Leith Sr was deemed insane. The court’s examining physician cited Leith suffered from delusions, proclaiming to have murdered three men! Leith died in 1906, at the age of 79, at the Napa State Asylum for the Insane.

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