Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1845-05-01

when il IS known, that bands Of men dis
puised as Indians would sally forth into
the neigaboring district, with the view OF
visiting some obnoxious person with their
vengeance 10 the shape Of robbie.
nv or murder. Returning with great
speed, and driving the valuable stock be.
fore them, till they were among their
friends again, would re band the horses
and mules, resume their usual appearance,
and laugh at retaliation. Even single
men would, n the face Of day, commit
the most daring crimes, trusting to an
escape here for protection. They seem
ed determined at any risk 20 hold the
county good against the encroachment Of
all honest citizens, and it came to be no.
torious, that no man could move among
them with any citizen like and proper mo.
tive, but at the expense OF his personal
safety or conscience the crime OF
refusing 10 take part with them was in it,
self sufficient to subject all new corners to
series of prosecutions, which soon
brought them into terms or resulted IN
their entire determination. We 60 not
wish to be understood thatthe whole po2u-
laiIon OF the county were avowedly horse
thieves and cut-lhroats. There was one
class OF wealthy Planters, another Of the
old stamp OF restless, migrating Hunters,
who first led the tide OF population over
the Alleghanies and are now leading ii
across the Rocky mountains. These two
made some outward ptetensions to out
ward decorum, and in various WAYS acted
as restraints upon the worse disposed !;
while these last, with that utter lntolo-
rance of restraints which SO unbounded
license necessarily engenders, determined
TO submit to no presence which should ~
any way rebuke or embarrass their deeds.
Most of these bad men were a kind Of
small landholders who only cultivated
patches of ground dotting the spaces be-
tween the larger plantations, but they
KEEP, very fine horses, and depended more
upon their speed for acquiring plumber,
than any capacity Of their own for labor.
They were finally wrought up to the last
pitch Of restessness by this closing a.
round of unmanable persons, and organ
lied themselves into band Of Regulators,
as they termed themselves. They pro-
claimed that the county limits needed pu.
rifcation, and that they felt themselves
specially called to the work. According
~ under the lead of a man who was him
self a brutal monster, named Hnch,
they commenced operations. In this
pubic-sprii and praiseworthy underta-
king, they soon managed to reduce the
county TO the subsection OF fear, II not to
an atfectionate recognition Of the prerog-
atves they arrogated to themselves. -
The richer Planters they compelled to
pay heavy Black-mail rent, 10 fee sim.
pie of right to enjoy their own property
and lives, with the farther understanding
that they were to be protected in those
immuntles from all dangers from without
Of a similar kind. The Planters IN re-
turn were to wink upon any deeds, whose
coloring might otherwise chance TO be
offensive to eyes polite.
The other class--a class Of simple
hearted sturdy men-were goaded and
tortured by the most aggravated annoy
auceS, until, driven in despair to some
act Of retaliation, they furnished their
tyrants with the shadow of excuse, which
even they felt to be necessary and were
then either lynched and warned to leave
the county in so many days, or shot II
they persisted in rema ming So relent.
less aud vindictlve did these wre:ches
show themselves in hunting down every
one who dared oppose himself to them in
any way that very soon their ascendency
10 the county was almost without any DIS.
pute. Indeed there we're very lew lett
who from any cause presumed to do IT,
Among them was one Of this last class
OF wandering Hunters, known as Jack
Long. Jack had come Of "wild.turkey
breed" as the phrase is in the west for a
family remarkable for its wandering pro-
penstles. He had already pushed head
of the settlement Of two States and one
Territory, and following the game still
farther towards the south, had been pleas.
ed with the promise Of an abundance Of It
in Shelby county, and stopped there Just
as he would have stopped al the foot OF
the Rocky mountains, had 1t been neces.
sary to 90 as far, without troubling him
self or caring to know who his neighbors
were. He had never thought II at all es
sental to ask leave Of any government
as to how or where he should make him
self at home, or even TO enquire what
particular nation put in its claim to any
region he found suited to his purposes
His heritage had been he young Earth,
with It's skies, its waters and its winds,
its huge primeval forests and plains
throwing out their broad breasts TO the
sun-with all the sights and sounds end
living things that moved and were artlcu-
late beneath Gods eye---and what cared
he for the authority of men! The hrst
indeed that was known or heard OF Jack,
was when he had already built hun a snug
log cabin. on the outskirts OF the county,
near the bank Of a shall stream slowed
away his fair.iaced youag wife and two
children costly into it, TOR "Doh Cupid"
had found Jack out, with all his rruch
shyness, several years before, ami he
was buslly engaged in Staying tie deer
and bear, right and left.
He kept himself so much to himself,
that for a long time little was thought or
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