Daily camera., 1901-03-02
ONCE A ROUGH TOWN.
Ava, ILL.,, Was at One Time Over
run by Desperadoes.
Some Memorable Instances of Their
Hard OOd-One of Their Num-
ber Who Was Particu-
larly had.

In the early 7O'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 a bad
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 elan wasan organized band of out
avs, and its members raided stores,
looted residences, made counterfeit
money and stole lorses. In speaking
Of the old Headquarters days, one of
| Ava's pioneer citizens the other day
| told of some of his experiences.
Il was at work on new building"
said the old citizen, when the sher-
fl requested me to go with him to
arrest Bill kcllings, notorious rob-
ber. He had another picked man. and
we set out. The man we were to ar
| rest. or kill If necessary, had been To-
|
hills mile south of town. The coun
| try was then in timber and was rough
and unbruktn. We made our plans
as we rode along, and we were deter
| mined to make the arrest or die in
| irving it. We knew the character of
the man we were after, and we were
| prepared fer 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
barked, and the next thing that hap
penod the sherifT's hat was knocked
off by rifle 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 fer n siege, so we
stationed ourselves behind some trees
and fired 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 lighting 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 fortiieation of
| the enemy. First he tied his hand
kerchief to a stick and waved il from
behind a tree.
What do you want, Mr.. Sheriff?
sang out Bill, the bandit.
"'I want you TO surrender said the
sheriff.
81 amt going to do it, replied our
man, cause | amt 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 efore he tried to shoot. When
we reached him he was chewing to-
bacco the fastest ever did see q man
chew. lie 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-
volvcr from his belt and fired point
blank ut the sheriff. The ball passed
through the sheriff's 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 &c
| handle him. He was powerful. man,
over six feet in height, and all muscle
I'VE then dressed the sheriff's in
juries as best we could and started
back to town with our prisoner. We
got along without any trouble. Short
| ly afterward we caught kolIings
brother, but that's another story
The Kollings boys and ten other
men were sent to prison and served
| Is wears each. At one time the elan
had membership of 26. but there
were only ten or IL who did the rob-
bing. The others assisted in making
the plans and took charge OF the
stolen goods.
Death Rate in the BOer War.