The Coconino sun., 1901-01-05
ONCE A ROUGH TOWN.
Ava, Ill.,, Was at One Time Over
 run by Desperadoes.
some Memorable Instanees of Their HardfhOOd-One of Their Num- Der Who Was Partisu-
 lafly Had.

In the early 70's, when the now hourishing town of Ava was known by the name of Headquarters" it was. 'overrun with rough characters and desperadoes of all descriptions The place soon acquired such bad reputation that strangers were afraid to visit it. It was at this time. says a special correspondent of the Chi cago Inter Ocean, that the Callahan elan 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 moLey and stole horses. In speaking of the old Headquarters days, one of Ava's pioneer citizens the other day told of some of his experiences.
 'l 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, 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 a small log cabin among the HlllS H'llt sUulH Ol lONH Ht COuH- 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 stone wall about four feet high. When we had almost reached the place the outlaws dog parked. and the next thi~g that hap pened the sher,ff's hat was knocked off by rifle ball. which also took a 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 siege, so we stationed ourselves behind some trees and fired volley at the desperado. We knew we could not hit him, but we wanted to make him thoroughly understand that we were not going 10 be driven away empty handed. The fellow shot at us every time he got chance, and we returned his shots
 "Aftcr fighting Indian fashion for quite awhile, the sheriff said that something must be done, as his time was valuable. He suggested that we make charge on the fertilization of the enemy. First he tied his hand kerchief to a stick and waved it from behind a tree.
 "'What do you want, MT. Sheriff? 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 off his guard, and we were right up to- him before he tried to shoot. When we reached him he was chewing to- Dacco the fastest I ever did see man ,hew. He reminded me of sheep ,ating green clover. But he was cool md collected. just the same. Al 'hcugh we had him covered with our
 urs he ierked his big Colts re- clver from his belt and fired point blank at the sheriff. The ball passed through the sheriffs arm, making a painful flesh wound. The other dep uty and myself then jumped on the man and succeeded in putting the irons on him, but he made an ugly fight. and it was all we could do to handle him. He was a powerful man, over six feet in height and all muscle.
 We then dressed the sheriff's in uries as best we could and started Iack to town with our prisoner. We