The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-01-08
SHEP EPTINKER,S CAREER.


respondent of the New York World, civ.
ing an account of the life of Shep Tinker:
Few Ohioans whose memory can cover
the past twenty years have not heard the
marvellous stories which tradition has con-
nected with Shep Tinker. Fifteen years
ago the name of Shep Tinker was the bug
a-boo that sent thrills of terror through
the breasts of refractory children. Yet
through his fame and name have been for
years a common house word from the eas.
tern Ohio to beyond the Mississippi, the
real biography of this noted horse thief
has never been written. He is perhaps the
only notable horse thief who ever retired
from his nefrrious calling into the shades
of private life and settled quietly down in
the neighboreood 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. Unencumbered as he was he found
comparatively no trouble in pushing for
ward into Central Ohio. He settled at Put
nam, and his honest face; broad shoulders
and brawny arms proved sneh reomen.
dation that before many days he found
wife in one of Putnam's bellies. From
this marriage, in the year 1910, Shepperd
was born. In the year 1918, when Shep was
three year old, his father once more set out
on his travels, and finally settled on
farm in Perry county, about four miles
from the present town Of Chapel Hill,
and midway between Athens and Zanes-
vile. The distance between these two pla-
ces is fifty miles. Here JohA erected and
opened tavern for wayfarers, which has
been known ever since as Thinkers
Tavern" but which long since lost its
hospitable character. "Tinker's Tavern"
was at that time the only building between
Athens and GAINESVILLE. 1t occupies the
summit of one of the innumerable hills
that abound in Perry county, from which
''you could see," as Shep says, Gas far as
the sky would let you." OF the heyday of
Shops youth the village tradition does not
preserve any record. It was only known
that he was accounted bright young
blade, intelliaent but uncommonly wild.
Certain it is, hover that he soon became
the acknowledged leader of a set of young
rascals who inhabited the neighboring
hills. This was the nucleus around which
| they formed the celebrated Tinker gang of
horse thieves. When Tinker was twenty
| a horse was stolen from man named
Flowers, at New Lexington, and Shep
supposed to be the thief. No evidence
however could be obtained against him
until one day while drunk he boasted of
having stolen the horse. Upon this ad-
mission he was arrested and sent to the
penitentiary for six years. 1t afterwards
transpired that ON the night the horse was
stolen Shep had been some twenty Eve
miles away and had in reality invented
the story of the theft. The joke, if joke il
was, became serious matter before the
end. When released from the Penitentia.
~ he Immediately set 10 work in earnest
to steal horses. He organized band Of
professional horse thieves and was 30 sue.
cessful that in the year 1910 his name was
terror to the farmers of Ohio, Indians
and Kentucky. Members of the gang were
located in. almost every county in this
State and in a large portion Indiana. The
horses to be stolen were alwas carefully
selected. Dark nights we're chosen for the
raids, and the horses were carried by
nightly stages into the wilderness of Per
ry county, near Shops home, where they
were secreted. This country was admira
bly, adapted to the purpose, being very
thinly settled and covered for the mos
part with heavy growth of timber. The
principal "hold" of the band, however
J was patch of woods situated on the coun
ty line between Athens and Perry counties
called Beech Woods, and which to this day
, contains four square miles of forest inter
spersed with raviues and rocky places.-
, Sooner or later it occurred to Shep thai
counterfeiting might also be profitable
and he turned his attention to that brancl
of rascality. But before long the eye o
suspicion was on him, and one day, hav
ing come to GAINESVILLE with saddle ba,
full of spurious coin, the Sheriff ARRESTED
him and threw him into Jail. Shep wal
accounted a very handsome man, and sue
ceeded in making an impression on th'
Sheriff's servant girl, who, having stolel
the keys OF the Jail, released him. Shel
fed and the Sheriff with posse Of tel
men, followed him for two weeks withou
: success. Leaving his Lieutenant, Henr,
Raynor (who, by the way, afterward sig
. nalized himself in the annals of Ney
York crime by stealing whole heard O
cattle in Orange county,, in charge of th'
gang, Tinker set of through the West
The news of his travels from time to tim
:. reached GAINESVILLE. He was heard of as
!. Methodist minister, as a political STUN
speaker, and later as q resident of the low
Penitentiary. Still later il was heard b