USA > Indiana > Noble County > History of the Regulators of northern Indiana > Part 6
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It has been in search of some of these latter that the best detective skill of the West has been at work since that time. Cyrus P. Bradley, of this city, has been in the service of the Regulators, to bring to justice some of the most noted of these men, especially three of them, who were more sought after than any others.
" Bill Hill" is a middle-aged, thorough-paced scoundrel, long known to the police of this region, and in this city, where years ago, as our older residents will remember, he figured in the forged $100 Illinois Canal Serip with Otis Allen, Trowbridge and others. He was living, at the opening of the Regulator era, not far from the Michigan line, a neighbor and chum of the noted Latta, and was widely known to trade in that description of merchandize known as a sure source of the " hard stuff,"-in fact, a regular manufacturer and vender of bogus coin.
Perry Randolph and George Ulmer were not less deeply impli- eated in the paper trade, and in the barn of the latter, in a bin of chaff, was found, after he had taken to a timely flight, a first class press, used in bank-note printing.
There was a desire among our Indiana friends, amounting in- deed to a passion, to gain back to their borders these three men.
Officer Bradley has worked for months at the affair, and on July 9th, arrested at Warren, Ohio, the two men, Randolph and Ulmer, delivering them, two days later, safely into the hands of the Sheriff of Lagrange county, Indiana. Their arrest was kept as private as possible, to prevent its having a bearing upon Hill's case, after whom the quest was dilligently kept up.
" Bill Hill" was arrested a few days since in Upper Missouri, by officers Bradley and Charles E. Smith of this city, and brought hither, being yesterday sent forward to Indiana.
Mr. Bradley has traveled over four thousand miles in search of this Hill, and found him in a sequestered haunt, where after a stout and dangerous tussel, Hill, who had vowed to die rather than be taken, was captured and ironed. In his pockets were
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found slips cut from newspapers, briefly announcing the arrest of Ulmer and Randolph, to which little publicity had been given -- a circumstance that establishes the fact how sharply rogues at large read the newspapers.
Hill was armed, and though past middle life is a desperate and dangerous fellow to deal with. He has a wife and child in Iowa. but his former mistress in Indiana was sharing his Missouri retreat.
These three arrests, though not exactly the last of the counter- feiters that infested our neighboring State, are nevertheless to be characterized as the capture of the last of the more noted of the gang, or rather combinations of gangs.
Mr. Cummings, the Sheriff of Lagrange county, and Mr. Flemming, the Sheriff of Allen county, for their untiring zeal in aiding to ferret out and arrest all who belonged to the in- fernal gang, are deserving of the entire confidence and patro- nage of all good and honest citizens throughout this and adjoining States. And we have no hesitancy in recommending them to any and all who may have business to entrust to their care.
Charles Seeley, of Goshen, United States Deputy Marshal. also deserves the credit of all good citizens, for the very effi- cient manner in which he discharged his duties as an officer.
These men will long be remembered with grateful acknowl- edgements by the people of Noble and adjacent counties, for their activity in the cause of rescuing the land from a banditti of thieves.
Daniel W. Vorhees, Prosecuting Attorney of the United States District Court for the District of Indiana, for the prompt and energetic manner in which he conducted the prosecutions in that Court, has proved himself a man of fine legal abilities. and very honorably vindicated the rights of the people of the North, as also the responsibilities of the high position he occu- pies in one of the Federal Courts of the United States.
We have now ended the history of the Regulators in North- ern Indiana. Many of the confessions, which are vague and indefinite, and which contain matters of little or no interest to the public, have been left out. In giving a history or sketch
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of the blacklegs of this country and their depredations, from its early settlement, we have endeavored to be confined strictly to matters of fact, knowing that a large majority of such as will peruse the pages of this work are those whose minds are only satisfied by the presentation of truth without coloring. We have delineated only such crimes as have either come under our own observation or been committed to us from testimony of unquestionable veracity, and, after all the startling revela- tions contained in the foregoing confessions, it is a truth beyond all doubt that the half has never been told. Unquestionably, there are crimes of the deepest dye, and of the most aggra- vated character, that still lie concealed in the hearts of many of these miscreants, and will so remain until portrayed before them in vivid characters of everlasting condemnation in that day that shall reveal the secrets of all hearts. But the influence of these men in community, and the subtlety with which they have decoyed so many of the young, whom we now find either dragging out a life of misery and wretchedness in the Peni. tentiary, or standing upon the verge of ruin, is a subject that should not be slightly passed over. There are responsibilities connected with the training of sons and daughters to enter upon the drama of life which infinitely transcend all others. Here is implanted in the juvenile mind by the parental govern- ment the germ of all government and all society. It has been quaintly said that "Society is in every case precisely what we have made it." And hence, if we would have good society, good governments and loyal subjects, we should look to the influences that are surrounding the young. And when the arm of the law signally fails to rescue them from the power of these vampires, by tacitly indulging them to roam unmolested, devas- tating every principle of morality inculcated by the parental teaching, there is a law prominently inseribed upon the title page of every man's declaration of rights, an inherent law, a law of his nature, which under such circumstances it becomes his imperitive duty to obey for the safety and welfare of him- self and family. To this as a last resort, as the only remedy -as the life-boat to save society from the dashing waves of the whirlpool of infamy and shame-Northern Indiana has
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been compelled to have recourse for the past year. That time to many will long be remembered. For while the honest and industrious citizens of the country have been earnestly strug- gling, many times under the most perilous circumstances, to rid the community of a banditti of robbers, many companions, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, have drank deep from the cup of sorrow. One scene, which transpired in the jail at -, is but a fair illustration of such as have been of common occurrence during the past year.
A young man of no mean birth, possessed of a bright and promising intellect, and who but about three years before had stood side by side with a fair and amiable young lady at the hymenial altar and pledged his fidelity to her in the most solemn manner, had suffered himself to be led into crime, and was arrested and thrust into the prison on charge of having passed counterfeit money. His wife, as lovely a woman to all appearance as ever was wed to man, came tremblingly to the jail with a babe of about eighteen months in her arms, and with eyes bedewed with the tears of sorrow, and with a coun- tenance that betokened a sad and almost broken heart, she modestly asked the jailor if she could see her husband. " Cer- tainly," said the jailor. Whereupon the man was called to the inner door and allowed to pass out into the entry, where he was still separated from his wife and child by a large cross- barred iron door. Through the open squares between these iron bars for some time a conversation was carried on between the two companions until at last they were admonished by the jailor that they could be allowed to talk no longer. What a scene then met the gaze! First that child, which was an only child and the one in whom was centered all the fond hopes and affections of that once happy pair, was raised by request of the father and his little face kindly placed by the hands of the mother to the open squares of the iron grates, for his father to imprint upon his little cheek a loving kiss. But no fond embraces, such as are common to companions enjoying the blessedness of freedom, could there be taken. Yet, as a last resort, just before parting, the husband placed his face gently at the opening of the iron grates, and that love which invariably
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burns most fervent in the hour of sternest trial in the heart of a loving wife was manifested, by impressing upon the lips of her husband through that cold iron grate a farewell kiss. Every one in the company involuntarily burst into tears. Such a kiss we had never heard or seen before. All affectation, all coquetry, and all the frivolities of youthful love, were lost to sight at once. Here was manifested pure affection and love that casteth out fear.
Such scenes, however heart-rending they may be, are but the natural results of of a just execution of the law in any land, and are by no means peculiar alone to the operations of Regulators.
Wm. D. Hill, a man whose name is known almost through- out the United States, and whose name stands prominent in almost every act of villainy committed in Northern Indiana, has doubtless been the cause of ruining more young men than any other man connected with the gang. Nearly every one whose confessions are here given have attributed their early training in villainy to that notorious scoundrel, and if there is no earthly tribunal before which he can be arraigned where justice may be meeted out to such an one, doubtless that Eye from whose presence no crime hath e'er beer. hid will yet pur- sue the wretch and send him, like Judas, to his own place. Thus, after having passed through a revolutionary contest and struggling for the space of one year in mortal combat to restore our county to an equal dignity with those around us ; after having expended about fifteen thousand dollars in time and money, independent of any assistance rendered by the State, for the capture of the vampires who have by their corrupting influence laid waste the character and hopes of hundreds of the youth of our land, and trampled them like autumn with- ered leaves beneath their feet, then gazed with a contemptuous smile upon the wreck they had made,-we have the gratification of announcing to the world that, although we are in no wise sanguine of having eradicated the last blackleg from the fair face of Northern Indiana-while an opposing power has been at work, deep shrouded under the garb of honesty, with an in- domitable perseverance to thwart every plan of the Regulators 5
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-and while we may have, in some instances, rendered our- selves chargeable in the eyes of a few, -- yet we must think that every honest citizen who has felt the curse of such a state of society, and who speaks the sentiments of a heart imbued with the spirit of fraternal dignity and parental authority, will acquiesce in saying, that the blackleg gang has received a shock, and society an impetus, that will reflect honor upon the rising hopes of Northern Indiana.
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LIST OF COMPANIES.
The following is a list of all the Companies of Regulators in Northern Indiana. The number of members in each we are not able to give. The whole number, however, amounted to about two thousand-all minute men and ready for service at a minute's warning. Other companies were formed in adjoin- ing States and in some instances afforded us much assistance.
NAMES OF COMPANIES AND NUMBER OF MEMBERS.
Angola Regulators. 42
Albion Rangers.
Allen Reconnoiterers 60
Bluffton Regulators.
Cedar Creek Protectors
Dekalb County Horse Thief Detecting Society 40
Eden Police
Eel River Regulators
Fremont Rangers 20
Independent Self-Protectors
24
Jefferson Regulators.
30
Kekioga Guards.
Lisbon Rangers. 81
Lagrange Self-Protecting Association
73
Lagrange Association of Clear Spring
Leesburg Horse Company
51
Lagrange County Rangers
32
Marion Rangers.
Mutual Protection Company 70
Newville Rangers.
Noble County Invincibles
40
Plymouth Regulators
Port Mitchell Regulators. 60
Police Guards
Perry Regulators. 79
Richland Rangers .. 43
Self-Protectors at Flint. 21
Salem Horse Thief Detecting Company. 31 Springfield Spies 80
Self-Protectors of South Milford.
65
Swan Regulators.
Self-Protectors of Springfield. 64
Sparta Guards.
Union Regulators.
61
Wolf Lake Sharpers.
Warsaw Horse Thief Company
Jackson Prairie Horse Thief Deteeting Society 75
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
0 014 754 071 1
M. H. MOTT, ATTORNEY AT LAW & NOTARY PUBLIC, KENDALVILLE, IND.
Prompt attention given to the Collection of Claims at all points in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan.
JAMES M'CONNELL, Real Estate Agent & Notary Public, LIGONIER, NOBLE COUNTY, IND.
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