Horse Thieves and Counterfeiters in Potter County.

[deepskyal]

Always had a fascination with Potter county. Been going there since I was in my early teens and I'm now 56. Always stay at the Lindy Motel...gotten to be quite a ...um...well...I won't say. They're cheap...I'll say that.

Anyhow...was just up there and that got me to researching the horse thieves and counterfieters from back in the 1840's thru 1860. I was checking out the stories and comparing them to topos from both "My historic Topos" and "Google Earth".

If you read the history, the same "true" story is repeated by reputable sources and the authors knowledge is certain. The history is written and rewritten from old newspaper accounts so I'm inclined to believe there is some validity to it. I also followed other leads from other searches.

So my question is this..."Why hasn't anyone treked up one of these hollows to find the hideout that the thieves and counterfieters had for 20 years?"

Seriously... check out the maps and then check out the area on google earth.
The quadrant on the My Historic Topos site is abbreviated "gnss37se".

There's only like 3 or 4 major hollows that look like if you hiked up one would maybe take you a few hours. There's a scattered house or two at each hollow, like "Hardscrabble Hollow"...but looks like you can still have access to the hike up the creek. Looking at the map, look at the town of West Pike and follow that road north. Don't go as far as Loukes Mill. If it was closer to that, the article would probably have said south of there.

Put yourself in their place and if you were hauling stolen horses, beef, everything that wasn't nailed down...up a creek. Which Hollow fits the bill?

Read the articles...when they were busted, some stuff was found "burried". The hunk of beef the woman tried to hide up her dress is a different story I suppose.

Am I the only one that suspects there could be more "unfound" stuff burried up that hollow?

These guys were associated with counterfieters and a couple local gangs in the Coudersport area. Twenty years up in that hollow. Was there "Honour among thieves"? Did some bury their stash to keep the others from stealing their share?

I'd certainly think this expedition would be fun. Find the hideout site...gotta be at least some trash from 20 years of living during the 1860"s.

I forgot to add...one of the horse thief gang was also associated with a murder where he stole something like $1500-$2000 of soldiers money.
Al

 

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One Man’s Crusade

Few thieves and even fewer horses were arrested or recovered here, despite the efforts of respected local lawman Orange A. Lewis, who spent years gathering evidence in an attempt to apprehend one notorious band, probably the group that operated out of the West Pike area. Lewis spent a lot of time ostensibly fishing in the Nine Mile area, and would track the stolen horses.

A Lewis descendant later maintained that in 1856, a year that brought increased horse stealing and a political campaign in which Lewis was up for reelectionas associate judge of the county, Lewis received an anonymous letter that threatened him with arrest and exposure for his part in the Underground Railroad, which he helped fugitives slaves travel to freedom.

But Lewis continued his efforts over the next few years and by 1861 had accumulated sufficient evidence to arrest the band.

Then Civil War broke out, and several of the suspected thieves enlisted in the Union Army. Lewis and prominent local attorneys John S. Mann and Isaac Benson decided that no legal action would be taken until after the conflict, and that those accused who were honorably discharged would not face prosecution for their earlier actions. Fate intervened again and the 58-year-old Lewis , who had also enlisted, died in 1862during a Union retreat.

During Lewis’ lengthy investigation, it was suspected that certain prominent individuals whose names have not been recorded by historians were collaborating with the horse thieves.








An inside Job?

In September 1857, a team od oxen was stolen from H.L.Bird of Sweden valley. He followed the thieves to Williamsport and found that his oxen had already been sold to an unsuspecting butcher. One of the animals had already been slaughtered. Bird recovered $75 from the butcher. Eventually, James H.C. Coe was arrested, confined to jail in Coudersport, and convicted of the crime. At his sentence deliberately walked out of the courtroom, unhindered by the sheriff or anyone else- perhaps a sign of that l suspected collusion on the part of some highly-placed official.

It's believed that some of the area outlaws in the post-Civil War era were Members of a notorious group called Widger Gang, led by Captain Willam D. Widger, who was disonorably uncharged from the Union army after serving briefly during the war,

Beer's and Beebe's histories report that upon returning to Potter County Widger and a brother organized a gang with a man named Paul Howard, and Howard's brother. The group stole honey, then sheep and cattle. The meat was sold in are lumber camps or shipped out of the area salted down in barrels. Freshly-washed clothes hanging on lines in people's yards dry good, hardware, cutlery---nothing was immune to the thievery.

Suspicions led to the Widger/Howard Gang, and when McDougall's store at Oswayo was burglarized, a search revealed the stolen goods in a box sunk into the ground at Sheldon Hollow, about three miles from Coudersport.

Beebe related, "Emphriam Bishop discovered a quarter of the mutton stolen by one of the gang, by moving a chair in which the thief's wife sat, much against her will, the mutton dropping from beneath her skirt." Beef was also found buried in the garden of another gang member. A grindstone stole from John S. Mann was also found. One of them turned state's evidence, sending the rest to the penitentiary.

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Unsavory Characters

One of the Widger/Howard gang was also accused of murdering an army chaplain during the war. The chaplin had returned from the front with a considerable amount of money to be given to soldiers' families and was last seen leaving an Olean hotel with a stranger. He was believed to have been murdered near the Five Corners in Hebron Township, and buried in the woods. A young woman reportedly found the grave but was so frightened that she did ot report it until long afterwards.

The horse thieves were also thought to be in collusion with counterfeiters operating in the area. In April 1868, counterfeit money was found by workmen tearing down a wall at D. F. Glassmire's store in Coudersport. The bills had been secreted in the wall, and appeared to have been there for quite some time. Counterfeit money was also found in a house owned by W.B. Gordnier, located east or town. These bills also appeared to have been there for a long time, placed there by John Crittenden, who had once been convicted of counterfeiting several years earlier.

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Justice Not Done?

Mrs. H.D. Graves of Millport became one of the most notorious females of the late 1800s, when she was accused of being an accomplice ill the her husband. George Haynes was convicted of the crime and sentenced to 'life in prison, but Mrs. Graves was acquitted by the court. Many people felt that she was truly the guilty one, plotting the crime coercing Haynes to carryl it out. Few details of the case have been passed down. Beebe's history states, The trial attracted much attention and was filled with nauseous details which do not propose to relate here."' The historian attributed her acquittal to the reluctance of the judge and jury to sentence a woman to death.

Haynes was pardoned in 1888, suffering from tuberculosis. Mrs. Grave's left the county but was suspected in a similar case some years later.

Lonely highways which were little than foot paths were idea spots crime. Frank Welton, driver of the Sinnemahoning stage, was shot by a thief who he was taking to jail. The man escaped but was later apprehended on charges of larceny and burglary in Emporium. Welton recovered but lived the rest of his life with a bullet in his neck.

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Hotbeds of Crime

Pigs' ears, illegal drinking establishments which abounded throughout the county during the period when prohibitory law was in effect, were also hot spots for all kinds of illegal activities, fueled by the patrons' consumption of the beverages offered.

June 1894, Fot Spicer shot Officer James Higgins of Austin when the lawman attempted to arrest him in a pig's ear in Galeton. Spicer was a character who had already served prison terms for larceny and counterfeiting. When Higgins entered the establishment, Spicer recognized himand spoke, but received no response from the officer. He then blurted, "You are Jim Higgins; give me that warrant or I'll blow your brains out."

Higgins answered, I guess not;" Spicer shot him through the neck, Higgins shot Spicer through the heart.

In January 1896,, Julius Zimmerman killed Andrew Stroup in a quarrel over a game of cards in the Crowell House In Coudersport, with only very light consequence.

Arthur Gordnier shot and killed C. Don Banfield in the barroom of John Kelly's hotel in Austin in July 1901. Banfield was drunk, and evidence indicated that Gordnier shot him in self-defense. The only crime Gordnier was convicted of was selling Banfield the liquor that made him drunk.

Blowville, at the forks of Bailey Run, was a short-lived hamlet surrounded by lumber camps. The town consisted of two restuarants, two hotels, two boarding houses, two drug stores, two pigs' ears, one barber shop, a blacksmith shop, two stores, 13 dwellings and a multitude of camps in the surrounding woods. It vanished without a trace, but in the late 1890s, it was known as a famous resort for ruffians. William Ayers, an old man living alone, was murdered in the vicinity in 1898, with robbery as the suspected motive. Several suspects were arrested, but nothing was proven.

Such incidents led to the widely-held and often expressed belief that in Potter County, no case, regardless of the strength of evidence, would result in the penalty of a murderer losing his life. The execution of Charles Brewster, who murdered his stepfather, finally dispelled the myth.

With the advent of the 20th century and the decline of lumbering and tanning, the camps disappeared and the once-thriving hamlets became ghost towns. Prohibition was repealed and liquor flowed flowed freely in most areas of the county, but held less charm to the established residents than it had to the itinerant lumbermen. Horse thieves disappeared as horsless carriages became the transportation of choice. It was an end of a colorful era in the history of Potter County.