Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-02-18
SAVANNAH TENNESSEE THURSDAY FEBRUARY 49, 1886.

Boyd in his shirt-sleeves, about to come
down, and placed him under arrest
He made no resistance, and, with con-
siderable agitation, said: Who are
you?' When l told him he simply said:
Il have heard of you
81 then searched the house, and this
gave me active employment for six
hours. In the room upstairs from
which Boyd had come when | surprised
him found every evidence of the work
of a counterfeiter. There was work.
bench in the room, Uttered with large
number of engravers tools. On the
table was genuine twenty-dollar note
on the National Bank of Dayton, o.
Near this was partly-engraved plate
of it. In another room / found a large
dry-goods box. On emptying it found
nothing but rags, but on tipping the
box about one of the boards dropped
out and revealed mortise, from which
fell IL plate engraved for printing the
centerback of twenty-dollar Nation
al Bank notes. The border or
rim to match this was the unfinished
plate on the workbench. asked Mrs.
Boyd if there was any money in the
house. She reluctantly said there was,
but refused to tell what it was. told
her | would give her half an hour; to
think about it, and then went out and
telegraphed Chief Washburn. While l
was gone Mrs. Boyd offered Mcdonald
one thousand dollars to let her take
what ohio ,uo,tod from, fha houca- and
keep it quiet. Mcdonald told me of
this when | returned. finally found
box in the bedroom, across one end of
which was nailed cleat, presumably
to serve as a handle On breaking the
box to pieces I found that the cleat was
hollow, and in it was good money in
bills to the amount of over seven thou
sand dollars. While l was working on
this box ! noticed Mrs. Boyd adroitly
dropping piece of carpet over small
box. i turned my attention to it, and,
on breaking it into pieces, found the
front and back plates for printing the
800 'greenback'. These plates were
stuck together with putty and covered
with waterprooting.
1.-THE entire party left for Chicago
that night. While on the train Boyd
said to me; 'Tyrrell, you are not long
in the secret service, are youP'
+" | told him was not, and he re-
piled: Il thought if you were an old
member of the service you would take
the property now in your possession
and let me skip out the back door
Boyd and his wife were tried in the
United States Court in Chicago on JAN
uary 10 and 20, 1876, and Boyd got ten
years Imprisonment. His wife was
charged with being his accomplice
but the court discharged her on the
ground that she was Boyd's wife and
it was her duty to obey and protect
him. His imprisonment was heavy
blow to the 'coneymen' in the Yves
and South. To be sure, they coult
still get the queer, but they were NJ
longer next the plate, and the STUFF
they got was poor. And then they had
to do business with middlemen, and tn,
profits were small.
"The most desperate efforts were
made from many quarters to effec
Boyd's release, and one of these effort
was most CHASTITY in its character, anC
occasioned worldwide comment l re
fer to the attempt made in the white
of 1876 to steal the remains of Presi
dent Lincoln. The gang which trie'
to carry out this villainous scheme wa
organized in Lincoln under the leader
ship of ST. Louis counterfeiter Ii
case they succeeded their terms for tn
return of the body were to be two hun
dred thousand dollars in cash and tn
pardon of Ben Boyd. A disreputabl
woman in Springfield learned of tn
job and reported it to the police in tim
to prevent its being carried out. -
Chicago Ne,0s.