The St. Johns herald., 1901-02-09
ONCE A ROUGH TOWN.
Ava, Ill.,, Was at One Time Over
 run by Desperadoes.
Some Memorable Instances of Thelr Hardin Ood-One of Their Num- Der Who Was <Partieu-
 laRly Bad.

In the early 70's, when the nov hourishing town of Ava was knowr
 by the name of Headquarters" il
 was overrun with rough character.
 and desperadoes of all descriptions
 The place soon acquired such a baC
 reputation that strangers were afraid
 to visit it. 1t was at this time, says
 a special correspondent of the Chi
 cago Inter Ocean, that the Callahan clan was in the height of its power This clan was an organized band of out laws, and it's members raided stores footed residences, made counterfeit money and stole horses. In speaking of the old Headquarters days, one oi Ava's pioneer citizens the other day told of some of his experiences.
 "I was at work on a new building said the old citizen, "when the sher- if requested me to go with him to arrest Bill Kollings, a notorious rob Der. He had another picked man, and we set out. The man we were to ar rest. or kill if necessary, had been To- cated in small log cabin among the hills mile south of town. The coun- try was then in timber and was rough and unbroken. We made our plans as we rode along, and we were deter mined to make the arrest or die in trying it. We knew the character of the man we were after, and we were prepared for business.
 Arriving near the cabin, we dis mounted and crept up as noiselessly as we could. The shanty was sur rounded by 6 stone wall about four feet high. When we had almost reached the place the outlaws dog parked, and the next thing that hap pened the sheriff's hat was knocked off by rife ball, which also took little of his hair. We discovered that the robber was fortified behind the stone wall, and it was quite evident that we were in for a siege, so we stationed ourselves behind some trees and fired a volley at the desperate. We knew we could not hit him, but we wanted to make him thoroughly understand that we were not going to be driven away empty handed. The fellow shot at us every time he got a chance, and we returned his shots.
 After fighting Indian fashion for quite awhile, the sheriff said that something must be done, as his time was valuable. He suggested that we make a charge on the fortif1cation of the enemy. First he tied his hand To h. .of @o 1 behind a tree.
 What do you want, MT. Sheriff2' sang out Bill, the bandit.
 "I want you to surrender said the sheriff.
 "'I ain't going to do it. replied our man, cause I ain't done anything to be arrested for
 The sheriff then gave the word, and away we started. Our sudden move seemed to have caught the robber of his guard, and we were right up to him before he tried to shoot. When we reached him he was chewing to- bacco the fastest ever did see a man chew. He reminded me of a sheep l eating green clover. But he was cool i and collected, just the same. AL though we had him covered with our guns, he jerked his big Colts re- volver from his belt and fired point 1 blank at the sheriff. The ball passed | through the sheriff's arm, making a painful flesh wound. The other dep- lty and myself then jumped on the man and succeeded in putting the rons on him, but he made an ugly ight, and it was all we could do to handle him. He was powerful man. |