The bee., 1882-06-10

middle-aged man named Jasper Breed
ing, slept in the store to guard his en-
ployers' property.
Breeding was at his post one night in
the fall of 1877. The hour was late
and he was asleep. A noise in the
store-room aroused him, and he jumped
out of bed to find the store in flames.
Through the curling smoke he saw two
men hastily leaving the building by the
front door, and heard them close and
lock the door behind them. He
realized that escape in that direction
was cut of. Malone & Go. had consid-
cradle ready money on hand, and this
money was in large safe which stood
in the Office. Breeding had the key of
the safe, and opened it to save the
money. The safe was empty. He
picked up a package of bills on the
floor near the safe, which had been
dropped by the thieves in their fight.
There was rear door to the building,
which was secured from the inside bv
means of a box. The smoke was
sitting, and Breeding opened this door
to escape, o1ly to find the doorway
blocked by bales of hay. which had
been rolled mp against the end of the
building. He tried to force q way
through the bsrricade, but failed. The
fire was now at mis- heels, and the
smoke SO dense that he could hardly
breathe. Happily, he called to mind
at this critical moment small window
on the side OF the building. Cropping
his way TO this last loophole of escape,
he forced open the shutters, raised the
tash and leaped out-not O moment too
soon. When he turned to survey the
burning blilding the long roof trem.
bled aud fell in with crash, and the
flames leaped high into the air.
Nothing was saved but the package of
money.
The burning, which was evidently
done to hi ie robbery and ut the same
time commit murder, created consider
able excitement among the better class
OF citizens in Elliott county, and the
next day meeting was called to take
measures to hunt down the criminals.
With a stern sense of retribution this
meeting was held on the charred frsg-
ments of Malone & Co.'s store. Money
was raised on the spot and q detective
was sent for to work up" the case. The
next night a meeting of citizens was
held at Msrtinsburg, the seat of Elliott
county. This meeting was secret, and
Its deliberations were not made public.
The detective went to work on the case
and caused the arrest of three men,
charging them with completely in the
burning. One of the parties arrested
by name John Kimball-was a respec.
tableand comfortably we'll to-do farmer,
who had hitherto borne q good reputa-
tion. His companions, Henry Ormsby
and Bill Mcmillan, were both men of
little character. Ormsby was a Ten
nessean, and had served one term in the
state penitentiary at Nashville. McMil-
Ian ne'er-do. well. who subsistc5 by
hunting, fishing and LOGGING, with an
occasional job at wood-chopping, or
farming ALI three were placed in The
Jail at Martinsburg. Ali three were
friends and psrtisans OF Colonel Living
stonstone, and the latter engaged a
lawyer to defend them and made ar
rangements to bill them out of Jail.
He boasted that money would do any
thing, and with truth, too, for the Judi
ciary was corrupt, and the officers of
the law servile and easily intimidated.
Another secret meeting of citizens was
held and dark mutterings were heard
on every hand.
The detective-whose identity, by
the way, was never discovered, and is
unknown to this day, save by the few
who employed him followed up the
clew which he had unearthed. He
knew.thst he had to deal with desperate
men, who would stoop to any crime to
shield themselves from punishment,
and he went among the suspected
parties thoroughly disguised. Profess
ing to be a farmer "par' of Ormsby's,
anxious to extricate his old partner
from his present difficulty, he gradu-
ally wormed his way into the confidence
of the men whom he suspected of being
concerned in the b1rning, and one night
was admitted into their counsels. What
was his surprise and amazement to find
that the men in Jail were members of a
regularly organized and thoroughly
disciplined gang Of counterfeiters,
house breakers and cattle and horse
thieves, whose chief and moving spirit
was Colonel Peter j. Livingstone. This
gang numbered about three bundled
members, and many of them were men
whose characters had never been attaint
ed even by suspicion.
Jubilant over the success he had
achieved, and confident that he had
evidence enough to cause the convic.
tion of the whole gang, the detective
hastened the next day to Martinsburg
TO secure warrants and posse of arrest.
When he reached the town he found
that one Of the men in Jail (Ormsby)
had confessed to everything, which he
the (detective) had learned the night
before, and that the other two prisoners
Mcmillan and Kendall-had been taken |
from the Jail and hanged by q mob OF
about five hundred masked men,
which had issued proclamation |
justifying the act, and made known for
the first time the existence of the |
Regulators"
The story of this execution, "by COM
msnd of Judge Lynch" is brief one.
The two secret meetings which had been
held by the citizens of Elliott county,
were for the purpose of organizing a
society Of public protection and JUS
tice." One of the most prominet citizens
of the county was at its head. Every man i
Of standing, every man who loved order
and respected the law in the county en-
rolled himself in the new order. Its
spies were more ubiquitous than the
hired detective, and brought to the