The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1889-12-29
GREENWOOD OUTCASTS.
A Strange and Wretched
Colony by the Pictur 4
eSque Border Lake.
"tBg'g HEWITT / IS 10 BLAME.
There Are No Schools, No Morals
and No Prospects Of Reform---
A Horrible Death in
the Woods.

wood Lake is only twenty-five miles
from this city, and it is annually Wis
tied by thousands of people; at the
upper end of the lake there are some
fine hotels patronized by the elite OF
society; along the shores There are
numerous cottages of wealthy people,
and half way up the lake there is an
elegant club house; the club numbers
among its members many men of
prominence. Despite these facts a
community exists at the lake the like
of which it would be difficult to find
anywhere in the boundaries of this
country. Scores of children are grow
ing up who have not the slightest
chance of obtaining an education; the
men and women belonging to this com
munity are disreputable characters en-
gagged in pilfering and immortality; it
is very seldom that any of them do
any work, and we're it not for the
bond Between them, both Of relation
ship and rascality few of them would
escape prison. There are at present q
number of indictments against them
in the Passaic County Courts, but it
is as much as O mans life is worth to
go among them with a warrant AL
though the officers of the law are on
thelookoutfo for them they manage to
elude them; the proximity of the
boundary line between New York and
New Jersey to the settlement is very
convenient for them, as it is an easy
matter to escape from one State into
another
Just across from the depot at
Cooper's Station, the first railroad
station on the lake, is the shanty be-
longing to Jake Ryerson, BLACK
Jake, y as he is generally called on ac-
count of his dark complexion, trace
able to indian blood. Jake is perhaps
the best of very bad lot, but this is
saying very little for him. He is well
acquainted with the inside of the Jail
in Paterson. His shanty, which con-
tains one room, is the headquarters of
as tough gang as infests any part of
the globe. Jake has number of
children, and with him are generally
to be found lin Ryerson and his tribe
of four youngsters, Dave Courier and
his-ten and Frederick Kastell and his
children; Kastell is a. son-in-law of
Jake Ryerson and bears very bad
reputation.
IL Although he has been indicted a
number of times for breaches of the
peace. and. dishonesty he has never got
further than the county Jail. At
times alLthese persons mentioned oc-
cupy the one room of Jake's shanty, the
interior of which may then well be
imagined. Near the shanty is u build
ing called the Sanitarium, it having
once being used for that purpose; for
many years it has been vacant and this
gang frequently seek shelter there but
are invariably y. put out as soon as their
presAnGe IS 4snown. Y
Aff1ficident which occurred to a part
of this crowd last winter throws a light
on their doings. Jake had a daugh
ter named Mary Ann; she was between
fourteen and fifteen years of age but
small for her age she wasFas beauti-
full as an iceal:gss psy5 queen; she had q
dark skin, long flowing black hair and
brilliant black eyes. Visitors at the
lake frequently remarked her beauty
and wondered why she remained at
the lake One day during the last
winter Mary Ann was induced toInake
one of party of foug to go into the
woods; the other three were James
Finnegan, an uncle of Mary AIMS
named Finnegan and William Nor
gafl's wife. s s
Ehese four started for the woods to
q place called Dark Hollow, where
they spent several days; they built
what is called among the natives a
bough house, composed of the boughs
of trees; here they slept during the
night. 1t was very cold at the time.
but the crowd was accustomed to such
excursions in all kinds of weather
They built fire in one corner OF the
bough house; one night the fire
spread to the boughs and Mary Ann
was badly burned. She rushed out
with her clothing on fire, but nothing
could be done TO save her After
great agony she died the following
day. Her family had no clothes in
which to bury her and begged them
from hotel proprietor on the oppo-
site-side,of the lake, rev "a
About a quarter of Il mile from
Black ,Jake's establishment is the
shanty occupied by Bin Morgan,
another noted character Here may
be found almost any day Bill Morgan
and his wife and five children, Dan
Gordon, Jim Fleming, Pete Fleming,
Jim Gordon used to put up there too
but one day last winter he secured Il
bottle of whiskey and fearing that
somebody might call on him to share
the whiskey he left for the woods,
where he was found some days alter
wards frozen to death.
Some of these characters were CON
ccrned in the riots at the lake last
winter when they sac ked the hotel ON
Storms island, chasing tile inmates OF
the hotel out on the ice of the lake
and for some time amusing them
selves. by throwing the stove out OF
the window and back again through
the door. The Grand Jury found a
number of indictments, but noue o.
the accused have ever been appre
hended although they are about the
lake every day; they depend fol
safety onstheir friends and the wild
ness of the region.
Another headquarters for a notori
Gus gang is the log cabin OF Jack Fin
negan, lying short distance from the
lake. Here Joe and Dave Gordon puf
up and indulge in excursions.
There are altogether in these tire,
shanties about forty men and womel
and as many children. The LATTER
never hear Of snch a thing as school