The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-02-17
From the Toledo Commercial
Execution of Gregory McGregor on
Diamond Hill, Noble Co., Indiana
Great Assassination of the Criminals
and Outlaws of the Northern States.
SOUTHERN MICHIGAN, ]
EoLIoEo

PcD. r. 1000.
ED. CoMMEncIAL:-On the 26th of
Jan, Gregory McGregor, alias Gregor
MeDougal, was hung on Diamond Lake
Hill, near Ligonier, on the Air Liue Road,
in Noble county, Ind, BY the Reformers,
who ave concluded to rid the country of
black-legs in general.
OF course, there is no Law but Lynch
Law which can justify the stripging up of
a fellow being between Heaven aud the
Earth, without trial, but they are palliat-
ing circumstances, which ought to be
known.
1t may not be known, however, to every
person, what a terrible joint stock compa-
ny has for many years been organized
through the Northern part of the United
States, for the commission of crime, and
how utterly poweriSss the law has been
in Furnishing any of its members. 1t
reaches from the Atlantis to the West of
the Mississippi, aud is systenatized and
carried on with the regularity and order
oflan incorporation. 1t has it's Major
Generals, Generals, Colonels, Captians,
aud their bands of privates, all the while
at work, robbing and numbering, stealing
horses, making counterfeit paper and coin,
burning property-in fact, doing any aud
everything that will add to the profits of
the general concern. They are under a
Constitution aud Bylaws, and have
their pass words and grips, and are finally
sworn In an oath of secrecy as terrible as
language can express They have gener-
al depots or rendezvous, from which they
scatter broadcast, aud to which they re
turn their deposit-sueh as VII Jams
county, Ohio, Noble and Porter counties.
II - 1.Ir- no,1e IN The 1thor
States.
In the central points, the fires grow
very hot, sometimes, and thieves and muir
derers get a controlling Influence. They
elect the public officers aud make up q part
of the grand aud petit jurors for fuding
Of indictments, and thetrial of causes, and
have, to my knowledge, in times past, had
some influence on the bench. When this
state of affairs is reached, no man, nor no
mans property is safe. Ii a store is bro
ken open, the sufferer says nothing, for if
he complains, his mill or house goes of
in q fame soon after. and he is ruined
he must submit to those Rob Boys, or
his whole property must 60.
Crime had calamaiated to just about
this point, in Noble, Allen aud Lagrange
counties, Ind, particularly in Nobie.)
% all, dA0 O liz
in each, for selfpreservatiou-for, either
the biack-legs or the henest men Unjust
leave"-it bad come to just that.
Nothing was done for sometime, but to
consult and lay plans. However. a short
time since a rifle was stolen at a shooting
match. and found under a shock of corn
in the field of one of those desperadoos-
The man was taken before the committee,
and was ordered to be sent to thejail in
Noble county, and sub committee under
took to convey bin there. Ga the way,
However, the Committee took into an old
mill, and demanded a confession of all he
knew about black-legs, generally aud spe
cially, under the pain and penalty of be
lug drawn over D beauI, which beam and
a rope TO hang thereon, was hard by and
ready for use. He was twice hung and
partly hoisted the third time, when he
made a full development of every thing,
books, papers, places where stolen proper
~ might be found, a list of black legs,
where the document containing their
names was deposited,--zll of which turned
ont to be true, and which resulted, NOT
only in procuring much property land
among several horses) but in the arrest of
20 r,en up 20 Last accounts, three only of
whom have been released.
Among them. was Gregory MeDougal,
a Scotcbmen, extensively connected about
Canada West, and well known there, as
we'll as here, az Que OF the most cool, blood
ed despersdoes that ever Infested the
aorth west. He broke Jail at Canada
w st, or was let out by a can of Scotch
men wle were his relatives, and fed with
bis mother and brother to Freedom, in
st. Joseph county, the late residence of
VIM. Latta, who was notorious wllsrever
his name was mentioned. Here he went
into the business of making counterfeit
moGey--put a press in his house-and
bad quite a quantity manufactured. A
reward was offered in Canada for his sp-
preheusion, and the officers, in their at
tempt to retake him, found the neat, ar
rested his brother, but he had q lwn.'-
His brother, who WAS used as a witness to
convict Latta, (who was charged with be-
Ing a join. owner in he ress.) declared
that his two other brothers were in pris-
on, and he finally broke Jail himself in St.
Joseph county, aud escaped.
McDougal had long been a scourge and
terror to the land. Since April last, he
confessed that he had stolen 81 horses,
broke 2 jails, robbed a stores, 2 taneries,
2 peddler's carts,- and is clear that
he committed before that three murders.
The Committee, | am informed behaved
very coolly on his trial. There was no
passion, but great determination. He
Was informed the night before, of his sen
tsace, which was Fixed between the hours
of / aud 8 on the next day. His confess
sion vas takeE-his wishes in regard to
his property heard and attended to,-his
wife seen and brouUbt to him the clerpy-
men provided, &C., &c.
On the morning of the 25th, an omni-
bus. cofin, aud Clergyman appeared, and
the members oftbe committee from Alien
and Lagrange counties, " ho had been no.
tilted, began to file into Ligonier, Oh
horseback by hundreds, and at the hour
the procession moved towards Diamond
Lake kHiil, solemn and slow, without a
show of passion or reyslry, deeply con
sc.ous of the awful spectacle presented
- ,l,a,Ns ~ IN &C tho hiuhacf rdspne.