Minnie Ensminger never saw 1903.

Minnie, 21, a teacher at Muddy Creek School, was shot by Pleasant Armstrong in the early hours of Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 1902. She died of her injuries on Dec. 27, 1902, and was buried at the Haines Cemetery.

The tragic story of Minnie and Pleasant was recounted on Dec. 10 during the Baker Heritage Museum’s speaker series, which is held on the second Tuesday of each month at the museum, 2480 Grove St.

Diana Brown, a member of the Baker County Museum Commission, led the talk in the museum’s ballroom.

The story starts in 1900.

“Minnie started seeing this drifter, Pleasant Armstrong,” she said.

Two years later, in 1902, Minnie told him she wouldn’t marry him. Her parents, Brown said, told her to call off the engagement.

But their paths crossed on Christmas Eve at the home of Joseph and Mary Henner near Muddy Creek, west of Haines.

Gary Dielman, a local historian, has researched and written about the murder, and his account is available on the Baker County Public Library’s website, bakerlib.org. Find all of his writings under the Archives tab.

Dielman explained that when the party broke up around 1 a.m., Armstrong left first. As Minnie entered the barnyard, Armstrong fired two shots at her, then pointed the gun at his own head.

The crowd rushed to treat Minnie’s wounds.

“One of the gunshots grazed Minnie’s back,” Dielman said. “But the fatal shot, which entered at the point of her left shoulder, continued at a right downward course, penetrated her left lung, and other organs, which the doctor said led to infection and a high fever.”

Armstrong was found unconscious — the bullet had glanced off his forehead.

He was arrested on Christmas morning and taken to the jail in Baker City.

Armstrong was charged with first degree murder, but entered a plea of not guilty on Feb. 28, 1903. His trial was set for March, a delay that caused unrest in the county, Dielman said, and the sheriff moved Armstrong to a jail in Portland due to rumors of a lynching attempt.

Baker County Sheriff Harvey K. Brown brought Armstrong back before his trial date. He was found guilty and, after two appeals, his execution was set for Jan. 22, 1904.

At the talk, Dielman circulated an original invitation to the hanging, set for 7 a.m. It was “Non Transferable” and the holder must “Present this card for admittance.”

Armstrong was buried the same day in an unmarked grave. Nearly 120 years later, in 2023, Dielman paid for a headstone that reads “Samuel Pleasant Armstrong. Hanged for murder at Baker County Courthouse.”

“He deserves a marker on his grave. Everyone deserves one,” Dielman said in May 2023.

Armstrong’s execution was the only legal hanging in Baker County, Dielman said, and one of the last public executions in Oregon.

The Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St. in Baker City, has a history talk on the second Tuesday of each month. The next is Jan. 14. Social hour begins at 6 p.m., followed by the program at 7 p.m.