Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-09-10

Il suspicion Of his real yillainy. Some
Odium came upon him when he took
up with Chet Higgins, the cowboy
lawyer" who wanted to be judge, but
by the time public opposition was
aroused in Sandstone Higgins had won
and the Judge and the Sheriff com.
menced to run things with high hand.
Sandstone was the county seat and the
only place in the county in which
Ockerson and Higgins We're fully and
knowingly feared and hated.
The decent cowmen of Green made
up Il minority which the Sheriff and
his side partner, Judge Higgins, quick
ly set about reducing to II powerless
and scattered handful. Men who had
borne good regulations We're made the
scapegoats for the Sherlff's lawless
pets, drunken rufiians shot up the
towns, insulted women and terrified
the townsfolk with impunity. But let
a sheepman, n miner or tenderfoot so
much as invite the suspicion or arouse
the wrath of cattleman, and the
vengeance of 1.-The law" was swift
and sure.
If Ockerson brought in an occasional
horse thief or robber, Judge Higgins
never failed to soften his punishment
or remit his sentence. But if an ac-
cused, suspected or probable" law
breaker was shot down in his tracks
by the unerring weapon of the Sheriff,
1t always transpired that the victim
was either sheepman or one of those
hesitating characters who had failed to
countenance and support the officers
in authority. Meanwhile the good peo-
pie of Sandstone, in abiect terror of
their Sheriff, We're secretly plotting for
his removal. Like most good folks,
they were neither adept nor at ease
with the weapons of the desperate.
The Rev. Throckmorton, brave young
pastor, had dared to arraign both
Sheriff and Judge from his little pulpit
one Sunday, while a squad of bowling
rowdies We're galloping and shooting
through the street. But his frame
church burned down that night and
put an end to the hope of organized
opposition.
Doc JEFF Peterson, the Coroner, had
secretly looked up the records of Ock-
erson and Higgins. He knew that the
Judge had studied law while serving a
long term in the Missouri penitentiary,
and that the Sheriff's picture had orna-
mented the g,llery at Topeka, but be-
yond whispered conferences behind
locked doors with Deacon Lusk and
some Of the leading merchants nothing
came Of the information.
1t was in March that seven steers
We're driven away from the Lynx
River bottoms and Tom Harkness of
Diamond Y outfit came into Sandstone
to get the Sheriff and posse after the
thieves. Harkness was an utter rogue,
but he had seen two men on foot
herding the steers northward, and Ock-
erson, with half dozen picked men of
his own style, set out in pursuit. The
next morning at daybreak while they
were sailing their herd, Henry Etling
and his partner, Dutchman named
Caspar, We're surprised and scared to
They found where the wire had been
cut and mended, and the footprints
of the horse outside where the beef
had been driven into their enclosure
Back Of their shack il a pile near the
fence they found nine fresh hides.
"a stall for cow thievesr said Et.
ling, nervous little sheep man, who
had lost many sheep to the wire cut
ters and knew the Sheriff for what he
was. Lets hike for the bottoms
Caspar. Ockerson will never take us
in alive"
They drove the steer out through the
house corral, and in ten minutes were
Scampering to cover in the cottonwood
thickets of the river bottom. At {
O'Clock the Sheriff and his posse found
the cow and followed its trail to Et
ling's. The hides were picked up as
evidence The officers secured the
neighborhood for the runaways, and
not finding them, burned down the
shack and the feed shelter, cut the wir,
fences and drove back toward tow
with hundred head of mutton. Th,
sheep never reached the pound, how
ever, for Tom Hardness circled then
away from the settlements and headed
them for Lynx River. The recovered
steer was corralled in Ockerson's yard
and charge of cattle stealing fixet
by Judge Higgins against Henry Et
ling and one Caspar, sheep ranchers
in township IL, Green County, etc.
This story soon filtered into Sandstone
and great was the suppressed indigna
tion Which it aroused. Doc Peterson
thought of asking for Federal aid IL
suppressing the twin tyrants of Greer
County, but nobody else seemed to b
able to contrive a measure sufficient.
practical and daring for the task.