The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1880-01-24
sHEP. TINKEB,s CAREER.
Horse-thief. Counterfeiter, Minister, Poll
fician and Farmer.

SHEfs T1NAERS CAhn1h'
Counterfeiter, Minister, Poll
tician and Farmer.
GAINESVILLE (O.) Cor. n. Y. World.l
Few Ohioans whose memory can cover
the past 20 years have not heard the
stories which tradition has
with Shep. Tinker. Fifteen
years ago the name of Shep. Tinker was
the bugaboo that sent thrills OF terror
through the breasts of refractory chill
dren. Yet though his fame and name
have been for years common house.
word from the Eastern Ohio to beyond
the Mississippi, the real biography OF
this noted hOrse-thief has never been
written. He is perhaps the only nota-
BILE horse-thief who ever retired from his
nefarious calling into the shades OF pri-
vate life and settled quietly down in the
neighborhood of his childhood's home,
where his misdeeds were the common
property of the country gossips.
In the year 1908 old John Tinker, the
worthy sire of the illustrious Shep.,
whose stock of worldly gear was not as
unlimited as his physical energy, took
it into his Yankee head to leave the
New Hampshire hills and "either find
or make his way" West. Unincum-
bered as he was, he found comparative
w no trouble in pushing forward into
Central Ohio. He settled at Putnam,
and his honest face, broad shoulders
and brawny arms proved such a RECON-
mendation that before many days he
found wife in one of Putnam's bellies.
From this marriage, in the year 1910,
Sheppard was born. In the year 1913,
when Shep. was three years old, his
father once more set out on his travels,
and finally settled on q farm in Perry
County, about four miles from the pres
ent town of Chapel Hill, and midway
between Athens and GAINESVILLE. The
distance between these two places is
fifty miles. Here John erected and
opened a tavern for wayfarers which
has been known ever since as Tinker s
Tavern but which long since lost its
hospitable character. thinkers Tav-
ern'' was 1t that time the only building
between Athens and GAINESVILLE. 1t &C.
cupied the summit of one of the innum-
cradle hills that abound in Perry County,
from which I" you could see," as Shep.
saws, " as far as the sky would let YOU y
OF the heyday of Shops youth
the village tradition does not
preserve any record. 1t is only known
that he was accounted bright young
blade, intelligent but uncommonly wild
! Certain it is, however, that he soon be
came the acknowledged leader Of sci
of young rascals who inhabited the
neigkboring hills. This was the nucleu!
around which Shep. formed the celebra
ted Tinker gang of horse-thieyes. Wher
Tinker was twenty years old horse
was stolen from a man named Flowers
at New Lexington, and Shep. was sup
posed to be the thief. No evidence
howeved, could be obtained against hin
until one day while drunk he boosted 0
having stolen the horse. Upon thi
admission he was arrested and sent Il
the penitentiary for six years. 1t after
wards transpired that on the night tn
horse was stolen Shep. had been som,
twenty five miles away and had in real
ity invented the story of the theft. Tn
joke, if joke it was, became seriou
matter before the end. Whel
released from the peniteniary h
: Immediately set to work in earnes
to steal horses. He organized a ban'
of professional horse-thieves, and wa
, ESQ successful that in the year 184O hi
1 name was q terror to the farmers Q
Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Mem
bers of his gang were located in almos
3 every county in this State and in
Q large portion of Indiana. The horse
I. to be stolen were always carefully 81
4 lected. Dark nights were chosen fc
the raids, and the horses were carrie
by nightly stages into the wilderness {
4 Perry County, near :" Shep. g" hom'
: where they were secreted. This countr
: was admirably adapted to the purpos'
being very thinly settled and covered Il
the most part with heavy growth I
timber. The principal hold'' of Il
2 band, however, was patch of Woo
: situated on the county line betwee
Athens and Perry Counties, Gale
! Beech Woods, and which to this ds
= contains four square miles of forest i
= terspersed with ravines and rocl
= places. Sooner or later it occurred
= Shep. that counterfeiting might also
y profitable, and he turned his attentiC
: to that branch of rascality. But befo
A iODS Tue eye Va suSPsS-" "o ~ AAAA
= and one day, having come to Zane
:. vile with saddle-bag full Of spurio
= coin, the Sheriff arrested him and thre
= him into Jail. Shep. was accounted
= very handsome man, and succeeded
- y making an impression on the Sheriff
. servant-girl, who, having stolen the Ike
!. of the jail, released him. Shep. fled al
- - the Sheriff with q posse of 10 men fl
- lowed him for two weeks without 81
. cess. Leaving his Lieutenant, Hen
= Raynor (who, by the way, afterwar
= = signalized himself in the annals of NJ
= York crime by stealing whole herd
= cattle in Orange County,, in charge
= the gang, Tinker set off through t
y u West. The news of his travels frc
~ time to time reached GAINESVILLE. Hew
VI haard ~ No a Mafhodisf minisfnr as