The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-12-28
Protective Associations In Nearby Town.
ships InStark County.
old RENDEZVOUS FOR BANDITS
At BOtzum, on the CuyahOga
RNer-..Jim Browns Counter
felt Money Plentiful.

yet a morse owner s protective dSSoCld-
tion exists in nearly every township in
the vicinity of Canton and Akron. In
most cases these societies are the sue
cessors of those formed years ago, when
a more imperative need for them was
felt. Then telegraph wires had not
been strung up all over the country;
population was not so dense and the
means for the detection of thieves and
the recovery of stolen property were not
SO adequate.
Yellowstone basin, near the present
site of Botzum on the Cuyahoga river
at no great distance from Canton, was
known from Boston to the Rockies half
a century ago as a rendezvous for stolen
horses.
The basin consisted of fertile valley
Ranking the Cuyahoga for more than
a mile and ranging in width from a few
to hundreds of rods. 1t was deeply
gashed by gullies and fringed with deep
gravel hills wooded with white pine.
Into the rendezvous were gathered
horses, stolen from near and distant
places; horses from the east; horses
from the west and blue grass thorough
breds from Kentucky.
THIEVES LIVED IN LOW SHACKS.
The thieves lived in low shacks or
log, or frame houses, squatting about
Yellowstone basin, and from out the old
tavern, still standing. issued at night
the drunken carousings of visiting out
laws. Not unlike the home Of the
Doones, made famous by Blackmores
Lorna Doone," was this haunt of
horse thieves.
The basin gang were for the most
stolen horse exchange a money making
scheme If brilliantly carried on.
Some who had once been re-
spected citizens in near by towns:
other members belonging to places re-
mote. They made good appearance
out in society and had smack of re-
spectability about them that went
long way in the furtherance of their
machinati
The thieves who had procured eastern
horses took back to that section Ken
lucky thorouahbreds from the rendez-
vous. Western horses were sold in the
blue grass state, and eastern horses
were sneaked west for their disposal,
The receipts from the business were di-
vided according to abilities displayed
by the respective members of the gang
in relieving owners of their horses; or
else according to the number Of horses
secured by each outlaw during a speCi-
fed time.
WE'RE BOLD AND CONFIDENT.
So bold and confident did the thieves
wax an outlaw would often hurry back
TO the rendezvous with an eastern horse
exchange II for one taken in Kentucky,
sneak back to the same man from whom
he had previously stolen, and sell him
the Kentucky horse at very low
figure"
Jim Brown, the notorious counterfeit
er, was the leader of the Yellowstone
basin gang. He made the thieves a
medium for the circulation of his
money. When they went out on their
nefarious trips they carried in their
pockets a generous supply of bogus
cash, bought from Brown with good
coin. The smooth chaps paid their
tavern expenses with Browns counter
felt money; always taking care that
the landlords would have to make
change.
The father of ex-State Senator ].
Park Alexander, of Akron, and father
of A. c.. Voris, of Akron, owned the
rare reputation of being honest men
in Yellowstone valley. Alexander was
a large, rugged man, afraid of no one.
To him fiocked men from near and far
for aid in recovering their horses from
the rendezvous. Alexander was often
instrumental In making arrests of
members of the exchange, and occa-
sionally was able to restore horse to
its owner. Both, however. were diii-
cult matters. Much danger was at
tendant upon an opponents tour of the
basin. II worst came to worst, the
gang were ready to shoot a spy upon
short notice. Then, down among the
gulches and pines, horses were clipped
and cropped, dyed as to their names
and tails, fed or starved until a man
was hardly able to recognize his prop
erty, to say nothing of proving his
ownership.
Alexander was dreaded by the horse
thieves. Night after night they sent
representatives with the information
that plot was on foot to kill him
and unless he left the country at
once his life was not worth a picayune.
Alexander simply told the fellows what
he thought of them, and stuck to his
post.
With the exception of Alexander and
Voris, justice loving citizens Of the
surrounding country for the most part
declined any close acquaintance with
the exchange. 1t was not that they
were ignorant of it's doings. Up from
the valley dark tales were continually
creeping and folks watching stealthily
saw things. Ex-State Senator Alexan-
der says that many a night he has laid
among the tall grasses where the
roads cross above the valley, watch
ing rendezvous fellows come in from
every direction with stolen horses.
In the tayerns and by the home
hearth-stones the clever thefts, the
ugly deeds and daredevilishness Of the
Yellowstone basin gang were discussed
And though men might
grumble against the stolen horse. ex-
change. they found it policy never to
strike II. tr