The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-01-01
FOR A HUNDRED YEARS
Sam Green C0m3S Honestly By His
IhiaVIlg Propensity
THE LANCASTER OUTLAWS
One Family Has Been Furnishing
Work for the Criminal Courts
OF Chester and Lancaster
Counties 5incs 1879.

In 1856 the district attorney of Lancas-
ter county was trying a man named
Grcere tor burglary, and he stated that
the prisoner belonged TO family that had
been CRIMINALS and law-breakers since the
revolution, and that the records OF the
courts of both Chester and Lancaster
counties show that indictments nad been
found against men OF that family as early
as l719. Ia 1870 the FeHasyLrdRid Gazette
warns travellers on the state road, near
the Gap, IN Lancaster county, that they
are liable to be attacked by "Gree2es
bandItti.n said Greene being n giant ne
gro of the most desperate character
few years after he and his party attacked
some Putsburg wagoners and Greene was
shot, says the Puilsle. phia Times.
TINS weeks Lancaster papers announce
the capture of Sam Greene, one of the
most desperate of the Welsh Mountain
outlaws, who is wanted on numerous
charges of robbery, and who has eiuded
arrest for over year. HIS associates
were taken, and are now in jail serving
| out long terms.
| Hero IS a striking instance of the vital
| ity of crime. For five generations the
| Grecnes have been persistent outlaws,
| living in n wealthy aad thickly-settled
| community. The women and men are
| light in color, all tall, powerful and
! comey in appearance. Something Is duo
! to their surroundings. The mountain
! borders on the Pequea, the most fertile
| valley in the state, and the farmers are
! MennonItes, who are opposed to applying
| to the courts for redress. Perhaps with
more vigorous neIghbors these outlaws
! would have been driven away. The family
has not increased IN numbers within the
last 30 years, but has maintained its ply
slque and savage Independence. In 1880
there were seven of the men anu one
woman in the jails of Lancaster and
Lebanon. With one exception, none OF
them has ever been convicted OF wilful
murder. In ISIS peddler named Aiourty
disappeared in the vicinity OF the Welsh
mountain, and a long time after pile OF
bleached bones found in a revine was
Unidentified as his remains. a round hole
in the skull indicated how he lost his life.
Jim Greene was arrested, but the evil
dence was not sufficient to convict and he
was released.
About 1880 a man named Scott drove
cattle over the pike, mostly from Nir
, ginia. He was n powerful man and reso
Lutte in character. He had sold his cattle
0 | in Philadelphia and was returning TO his
home in Dauphin county, and was halted
4 by a man just at nightfall near New Hol
I | land. lie drew his heavy holster pisto
' and pulled tho trigger. II snapped. tie
( | then struck the robber with the butt
breaking the stock and laying the mar
#, out on tho pike. Scott then rode on
I he robber was Rube Greene. JIM
: brother. HIS skull was fractured, and
he died and was buried on the mountain
j before the oil ers could take him.
: There is not in this state, It IS believed
another instance of a family that ha
: thus for over century deiied the law
:. and public opinion, its members main
tanning in all that tune their existence a
!, outlaws in one loca .ity.