Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-07

The individuals of the Baud.

Ine INDIVIDUALS OF the Baud.
AT this writing the Cooley gang consists
of nine men. They are: Frank Cooley, the
head and front of the organization, "Jack"
Ramsey, "Jim" Hutchinson, "Blll" Mar
tin, 'Ted" Carl, "Sam" Yeager, lisa Tate,
West familiarly known as THAT man from
Montana"
These nine men are ell young, none of
them being over 80, and from a physical
point of view are splendid specimens of
manhood. Living as they do in the mount
aims they are weather proof and are capable
of enduring almost any kind of physical
strain. They are for the most part tenn
perate in their habits and drink compare
lively little liquor. Each one of the nine
numbers among his earthly possessions
Marlin repeating rife of the latest and
most approved pattern, six Smith &
knife and a heavy cartridge belt of the
finest make.
As rule they travel in pairs, but if the
lob" is a big one they work as a unit
They have dozen rendezvous in the ra-
vines of the picturesque Chestnut Ridge, a
spur of the Alleghenies. Their field of
opertions is large one. 1t includes the
villages of Fairchance, Haydontown and
Smithfeld, the fertile valleys In the neigh
located about the head waters Of Georges
creek, York's run and Redstone creek.
The Woman in the Case.
Frank Cooley is the acknowledged leader
and his right hand man is Jack Ramsey.
But most of the head work is done bv a
young and pretty woman named LYDIA Pas
torius She is the mistress of Frank Cooley
and is exceedingly popular with the out
laws She is known through the entire Sec
tion as 'Cooley's Queen" and her influence
with Frank and his associates is simply
marvellous Every outrage perpetrated by
the gang is planned by this woman. But
"CooIey's Queen" is such a very clever
little woman that she has succeeded thus far
in keeping out OF the entanglements of the
law
The Cooley homestead is an age-stained
house of stone still standing in the south
ern corner of Fayette county. Thirty.six
years ago this very month Lutte Cooley
made a dark-eved maid of II his wife and
brought her to this old stone house to live.
The house, the fields around 1t and the
clump of woodland in the rear had belonged
to the Cooley family for more than half a
century. At the time of his marriage Lutte
Cooley was fresh-faced, strong-armed fel-
low Of "a His prospects were roseate. To
be sure but three acres of his land were
capable of yielding crops, but as he was a
shoemaker by trade and owned the only
cobbler's shop in Georges township, the
lack of tillable land did not worry him. He
owned the house and the garden and as his
bride was both pretty and energetic he
tackled the momentous problem of living
with all the ight-heartedness and energy
of youth.
Their Brood of Petty BuIIfes
For year or more all went well. Lutte
put in his days In making and mendinp.the
shoes of his neighbors and his leisure hours
with his young wife. But then children
began to arrive, and with their advent came
the first genuine trouble of the young cob |
bler's life. 1t was not that his children |
were weak or Uniformed, for it is matter |
of record that everyone of the Cooley chll- |
dren were strong and lusty from their very
birth. His daughters, and they numbered |
FIVE in all, were we'll behaved and gave
their parents no trouble, but it was differ |
ent with the IL sons. Strange to relate |
all these youngsters developed at a compar- |
atively early age a penchant for making /
trouble. No matter how hard he tried Lutte /
couldn't make his boys behave, All his |
waking hours he devoted to the thankless |
ia SIX OF keeping the boys in order, but as
each baby grew to boyhood and proved in |
corrigible Lutte became disheartened. Fl: /
uoiiJ hc Sdfo ~ up as d Ddu 1OD, ana, save
Tor an occasional protest, allowed the lads
20 do pretty much as they pleased. He
tried to drown his sorrow in drink, and so |
It came to pass that when his oldest bov had |
his 18th birthday Lutte Cooley /
vas prematurely old and very badly |
broken man. He lost heart in his work, |
he natural beauties Of his arcadian home
10 longer charmed him, and, sad to relate,
lis only happy hours were spent when his |
head was muddled by the product of the
county distilleries.
Kicked Out of the House.
As q natural sequence Lutte Cooley and
us family were in badly demoralized con-
ition in the spring of 81. Those of his
on who were old enough to 90 to school or
York positively refused to do either, the
rade of the little shoeshop down in Fair ]
hanee village had dwind1ed to small pro- I
ortions and there were a thousand and one
ther trials and tribulations for Lu.e Cooley
D endure. One night after an especially
ull day in the shop he went home and held
n exciting interview with his son Frank,
ho was at that time tall, deep-chested
,ripling of IL. Frank had committed some |
ygravating act of devilment, and when his
'ther reproached him he laughed at him.