The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1910-02-02

of their services and
sufficient to their needs are paid them. |
The doctors of medicine perhaps
have done right by deciding to charge
the fees up to the doctors of divinity,
but they should nov take out full
membership in the Society Of Gospel
Salary Boosters in order to collect the
bill.-Fremont Tribune.
THE PASSING OF A QUAINT
CHARACTER.
With the death Of Judge Gaslin at
Alma last week Nebraska has lost
man who has done no small part to.
ward the making ofthe states history.
Coming to the state at the time the
state was admitted to the Union, he
practiced law in the eastern part of the
state for time and then went to the
Republican valley and took a home
stead and worked it for q time. In
1876 he was elected to the district
bench and held it for sixteen years
until the populists made a great mis-
take by electing someone else to the
position. His district during the ear
lier part of his term comprised the
widest and woOliest part Of the state.
where an organized gang of lawbresk.
ers held sway and it required an up
right man with no small amount Of
nerve to accomplish any good. The
first case which brought him into pro-
minence was the trial of the Olive
gang at Hastings in 1879. "Print"
Olive, a wealthy ranch owner in what
is now Custer county and who also ran
a livery barn at Plum Creek, was hsv-
ing trouble with the homesteaders who
were making homesteads Of the fer
tile lands of Custer against the wishes
Of the cattle men who wanted the land
for grazing purposes and among them
were a couple Of men named Mitchell
and Ketcham, who went there from
Merrick county and the writer met
them when they were building their
sod dobe" on the claim and the walls
we're about breast high at the time.
Their troubles with the cattle men
commenced with their first settlement
and the affair finally led to their shoot
| ing one of them in self defense, after
which they took a quick hike back to
their old home in Merrick. The man
killed was a brother of Print Olive,
though for reasons hest known to him.
self was known as Stevens, and Olive
offered heavy reward for the arrest
of Mitchell and ketcham and their
delivery-not to the proper officers
but into his hands and the sheriff OF
Merrick county received the blood
money and turned the hapless victim:
over to Olive at Kearney and he took
them to Plum Creek, refusing to allow
their attorneys to accompany them
Olive and his gang started with the
prisoners ostensibly for Custer county
and couple of days later they WERE
found hanging over limb still hand
cufied together. their bodies slashed
with knives and burned to death
The gang were arrested and tried be-
fore Gaslin at Hastings and the trial
was one of the most exciting ever held
in the state. Open threats were made
against the Judge and he went heavily
armed and guarded. About the be-
ginning Of the trial there were rumors
Of jurybreaking and Gaslin called q
halt at once and showed the interested
parties that no trifling would he toler'
ated and they didn't try that plan
again. The gang were convicted but
the supreme court allowed new trial
on a technically and before a new trial
could he given them the states witness
es had all been spirited out of the state
and there was nothing left for the dis
trict attorney but to dismiss the case
A few years later. in 1888, a Hastings
business man named Millett was muir.
dered as he was turning from the street
into his yard by three men named
Green, Ingraham and Babcock, who
were soon afterward arrested and one
of them held in the Grand Island jail
and the other two confined in
Hastings. With the memory Of the
Olive case still fresh on their minds
the good people Of Hastings organized
q crowdwho called themselves the "3SsS
ard quietly took the two murderers
to the St. Joe and Grand Island rail-
road bridge a mile north Of town and
| huno thom One Of them Was tied IN