Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-07-21
HORSE THE YES.
A GANG WHICH STRETCHED INTO BUT
Ter co. AND HAS SEVERAL REND-
ZEvoUs IN PENNSYLVANIA.
HARRIsRuRa. July 8. 1880.

i Eh
ZEvOUs IN PENNSYLVANIA.
HARRISBURG, July 8, 1880.
The Board of Pardons had under
consideration at its late meeting case
of peculiar interest William c. SIM
onds had made such revelations 10
Judge Church, OF Crawford comfy,
and an officer of horse-thief detective
association, concerning the operations
of a gang of horse thieves, that they
both addressed letters to the board
recommending the prisoners pardon
Below will be found portions of the
statement made to the detective men
toned. 1t is dated at the Western
Penitentiary, September 2, 1879, and
addressed to rs. S. Mcdowell, Chief
Detective Crawford County" The
letter reads os follows:
AS am fully satisfied you are doing
all you possibly can in regard to the
III. w. NJ. III. r. Il r. G. G. Union,
and therefore working to my best in
terest, L feel it my duty to place the
following statement in your hands to
use in whatever way you think proper
This gang, as I have already shown
you, is the largest, best organized and
most lawIess that have ever been band
ed togetoer in this country, extending
from Augusta, Maine, to central 1ndI-
ana, and spreading out through New
York, Pennsylvania and Ohio to a
breadth of from 90 to $50 miles Their
two main routes through this State
embrace the COMMITTEES of Potter, Clln-
ton, Clearfeld, Jefferson, Armstrong
Butler and Lawrance in their southern
and Mercer, Crawford and Erie, branch
ing into Venango, Forest and Warren,
in their northern.
RENDEZVOUS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
There are three main rendezvous in
Pennsylvania, namely, in Potter, JEFF
ferson and Forest counties. Aside from
those main dens they have transient
stopping places or way stations every
thirty or forty miles, from Maine to In
diana. only speak here of their routes
in this State, although their depreda-
tions are even more numerous in Ohio
and New York, and their routes and
haunts are even better known to me in
those States than in Pennsylvania.
know all their main routes and rendze-
vous, many of their leading men, and
last, but not least, know all their
signs, grips and passwords, without
which no man has or ever can make
much headway in tracing or breaking
them up. There are many men through
out all the above-named counties who
have never been suspected of any crime
that | know to be actual members OF
this organization. / can point out over
thirty men in Jefferson county alone
who are dealers in stolen horses and
other goods, and many others through
Armstrong. Butler, Forest and several
other counties. l have already given
you the names and descriptions of
score or more of men, but these are on
ly very few out of the many that /
know. / merely gave you sufficient to
show you that thoroughly understood
what I was saying and doing.
The writer next says that he does
not consider it wise to go into full par
ticulars until he knows what action the
Board of Pardons viii take. He admits
that his motive may seem selfish but,
he continues, If were free tomorrow
/ should have no peace or safety until
this gang was crushed and broken up.
Therefore / have more at stake than
any one person in the country. For
ten years have endured all manner of
prosecutions and annoyances from them.
There is no manner of threats and in
Limitations that they have not used
against me and twice they have OPEN
ly attempted to take mylife.' Regard
ing the gang the writer says that the
I'll. w. M. H. +. and O. G. Union was
organized in 1867 and is headed and
controlled by the former members of
the old Loomis gang, who were sup
posed to be broken up in 1866, and
more shrewd and daring lot of men it
would be hard to find. He says it may
be thought by some that he is men,
Der of the gang, or how else could he
know tie secrets? He disclaims any
connection with the horse thieves, for
if he was member no torture could
make him reveal the secrets He trusts
Judge Church will make this point
plain.
"You must not play with that little
girl, my dear" said an injudicious pa
rent. "But, ma, I like her; she is .
good little girl, and I am sure she
dresses as pretty as do, and she has
lots of toys" II can not help that,
my DEAR" replied the foolish mother
cher father is shoemaker" "But |
don't play with her father, play with
her: she amt shoemaker
Recently Rhode Island couple
were married after an unbroken court
ship Of thirty-fve years. The "wooing
OF, in his case was, to our thinking,
too long, yet better so than skipping
into the state of matrimony heedlessly
without an idea of the appalling seri-
BUSINESS of the skip. For, brethren,
the state of matrimony is too often
like that North American game, of
which it has been said that it costs
little or nothing to "come in" but
there's no telling what it may cost to
get out. -
Six years ago Charley Ross was
abducted from his home under circum-
stances that ought to have rendered
his trail an easy one to pursue. The
boy was SO distinctly marked physi-
cally that the attention of even a
casual passer-by would have been at
tracted. Moreover, brother old
enough to be observant was with the
abductors long enough to remember
them, even when he saw them in death
mouths afterward. The pursuit of the
missing boy, stimulated By phenome-