The Red Cloud chief., 1901-02-22
ONCE A ROUGH TOWN.
Ava, ILL.,, Was at One Time Over
run by Desperadoes.
Some Memorable Instances Of Their
Hardin ood-One OF Their NUM-
Der who was partisu-
larly Had.

In the early 70's, when the now
fourisbing town of Ava was known
by the name OF Headquarters" IL
and desperadoes OF all descriptions.
The place soon acquired such n bad
reputation that strangers were Afraid
60 visit IL. IL was at this time, says
n special correspondent of the Chi
cago Inter Ocean, that the Callahan
clan was in the height OF its power.
This clan wnsa an organized band Of out
laws, and its members raided stores,
looted residences, made counterfeit
money 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.
~ was at work on q new building"
said the old citizen, "whcn the sher-
III requested me to 60 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 II necessary, had been To-
Gated In n small log cabin among the
hills n 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 n stone wall about four
feet high When we had almost
reached The place the outlaws dog
barked, and the next thing hat hap
pencd The shcriT's hat was knocked
off 10y a rifle ball, which also took "A
little of his hair. We discovered that
the robber was fortified behind the
stone wall, and IL was quite evident
that we were in for n 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
n 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 n charge on the fertilization Of
the enemy. First he tied his hand
| kerchief to a stick and waved II from
behind n tree.
What do you want, Mr.. Sheriff"
sang out Bill, the bandit.
81 want you to surrender SAID the
sheriff.
"I amt going to do IT, replied u
man. cause ] amt done anvth'"" V"
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 70 shoot. When
we reached him he was chewing to-
bacco the fastest ! ever did see a man
chew. He reminded me Of a sheep
eating green clover. But he was cool
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 fred point
blank at the sheriff. The ball passed
through the sherif's arm, making q
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 II was all va could do TO
handle him. lie was . powerful man.
over six feet In height, and all muscle.
I'VE then dressed the sheriff's in
juries a. best We could and started
back to town with our prisoner. We
got along without any trouble. Short
ly afterward we caught Kouing.'
brother. but that's another story"
The Kollings boys and ten other
men were SEN to prison and served
Is years each. At one time the clan
had a membership of 20. but there
were only ten or ~ who did the rob-
bling. The others assisted in making
the plans and took charge Of the
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