Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-04-27
CHAPTER L

In the early autumn of is young
man who was registered at the Lexing-
ton (Ky.) military academy as Surden
Bench, aged twenty-five, got up about
three o'clock in the morning and, TAX
ing eight hundred dollars belonging
to the academy and mis- fellow-students,
dec.4nped.
The significance of the circumstance
at the time arose from the discovery of
the deliberate and ingenious method
pursued by Bench to accomplish his
purpose. He had conceived some kind
of town celebration and induced the
young men to write home for funds.
lie also succeeded in getting them to
make him the depository of the money,
which according to the books amount
ed to eight hundred and fifty-four dol
lars. He disappeared from Lexington
and all the efforts of the faculty and
the authorities to trace him failed.
1t is now known that when he left the
academy he struck across country TO
the Salt river, where he had skiR in
hiding and presumably n negro con-
federate. With characteristic Ken
lucky impulse, the young men of the
school held an Indignation meeting
and offered the eight hundred dollars
to anyone who would capture him and
turn him over to the authorities. This
reward put upon his trail several
western deputy sheriffs who tracked
him to Cairo, Ill, where it was sus-
pected that he had changed his boat,
bought ammunition and supplies and
Il MiCCfccirarNf frrunlinn
generally in the night and hiding in
the bayous during the day.
Deputy Sheriff Col. Abner Petingill,
of Frankfort, published in the Louis
vile Journal year later communi-
cation setting forth that his party had
tracked Bench to a bayou, somewhere
between Tiptonville and Fulton, on
the Tennessee shore, where the fugi-
tive had sunk his boat and struck
through the wild tract of country ex-
tending to what is known as the High
land Rim" in Henderson county. This
communication is curious in one state
ment. 1t says: 1--WE discovered, after
much tedious searching, the sunken
boat and then struck his trail in the
woods We had not followed it far be-
fore we came TO the conclusion that he
was accompanied by a woman"
Col. Petingill then states that it was
his belief and the belief of his party
that Bench met with an accident some
where on the Rim, for all traces Of him
disappeared, and after camping out for
two weeks in the wilderness and dis
covering no new trail the party re-
turned.
The fact is Bench had accidentally
discovered the Laran cave.
In his endeavor to escape from mis-
pursuers, he had struck straight up the
rim and in jumping from one Of the
upturned cretaceous strata he had
landed upon a depression which gave
way beneath his weight and he fell
perpendicularly into a crevice twelve
feet deep. This crcvicc has since be-
come famous as the Laran portal.
At its bottom he discovered the de-
scent which led to the arena and hav-
ing exploited the place, he and his
companion lived there until the follow
ing winter AS soon as he felt salts
fed that the search was given over, he
sent the woman out for supplies and
TO conceal IL from the negroes who
brought them game and provisions.
They must have remained in and
about the Laran cave very nearly three
months
In that time Bench made a very
thorough investigation OF IL and pre-
pared maps and typographical dia-
grams OF the surrounding country
Some of these drawings may now be
seen at the Government museum at
Rock Island, and, considering the rudo
means at Bcnch's command, they are
singularly careful and accurate speci-
mems OF cartography.
In those three months Bench had
conceived and worked out one OF the
most astounding and gigantic schemes
with which the history Of audacity and
| indomitablc will makes us acquainted.