People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — THE HOOSIER TRAGEDY. [ARTICLE]

THE HOOSIER TRAGEDY.

After Escorting Their Mother and Sister to t Place of Safety, ths Conrad Broth' era Return to the Scene of Saturday Night’s Conflict to Plnd Their Home Burned—They Swear Vengence on Other Members of the Mob of “Night Riders” —Their Fifth Victim Dies of His Wounds —Others Thought to Have Been KiHed. Cobydon, Ind., Aug. 8, 3 a. m.—The white caps of Boone township burned the house of the Conrads during the night Monday three riderless horses owned by three white caps—John Kendel, William Fish and William Hubbel —were found. It is thought that their owners have been killed by the Conrads, who have returned from Kentucky. They say they have three more men to kill. It is thought they are in hiding in the woods. Harrison county is excited as it never was beforq. The murderers are in ambush and everybody is going armed. The Conrads are asking relatives to help them, and a bloody battle is expected. W. May, who was shot by the Conrad brothers during the raid of the white caps against the hunted men early Sunday morning, is dead, making five victims in all. The Conrad boys have not been captured. They left their log hut in the fastness-of the hills at 4 o’clock Sunday afternoon. Each of the brothers carried a shotgun and had two revolvers strapped about their waist. With their old mother and their sister Fanny between them they marched down the road through the woods to the Ohio river in broad daylight. At the mouth of Mosquito creek they found Bill Niel, an old ferryman, and he took the party across to the Kentucky shore. When they reached Kentucky Sam told the boatman he would come back and kill everybody who had a hand in the trial of the brothers for the alleged killing of their father. Neil said Monday:

“I did not know who they were until I reached the Kentucky shore. Then the older man told me they were the Conrad brothers and that they had killed a lot of white caps. ‘One of the neighbors,’ he said to me, ‘told me this after noon that Albert Howe, John Wiseman, John Timberlake, William May and Edward Houston were dead. I think if they look Up In the millet patch they will find another boily. It is there for I saw the man fall, and I know he had a load of buckshot in his head. Altogether we fired thirty-two shots. Five men besides those who were killed were badly hurt. They are all a lot of cowards, anyway, and my brother and I will go back and take care of our farm in spite of them.’ “The two women had to be almost carried Into the boat. Fanny's face was cut and she looked as If the white caps had treated her roughly. The boys asked me to go over and watch their stock, but I told them I was afraid of my life to do it Astor they got out of the boat In Kentucky Bill broke down and cried, but the old woman told him not to be a baby.’ All day through the wild bluff country of Harrison county, untouched by railroads and almost inaccessible by wagons, wild rumors have been afloat. Raw-boned men on lean horses have been galloping to and fro through the woods. They were white caps apparently, but they were not looking for the Conrads. They were trying to find out definitely how many of their number were killed by the men whom they had planned to whip and perhaps lynch. Reports that six more white caps were missing had started them on the search. One prominent farmer, Henry Tinsley, living near Elizabeth, was found to have a serious wound on the chest and may die. All the county turned out to the “burying” Monday of the four dead white caps. The funerals were held from four little churches 8 or 10 miles apart and almost hidden in the depths of the tangled woods. From one to another, up and down the bluffs, the strange crowd of backwoods people journeyed, paying their last tribute to their fellows, for the dead men were all prominent farmers. Adam Anderson, of Laconia, was one of the first to go to the house Sunday morning. He said: “As near as I can learn there were about sixty in the gang of night riders who called on the Conrads Sunday morning. They hitched their horses in the woods on the brow of the hill and started to climb down the bluff into the ravine. The Conrad boy, who was lying out, ran to the house and gave the alarm to his brother. They then took their shotguns and revolvers and hid in the edge of the cornfield which comes within 30 feet of the house. The night riders in their long white cambric masks quietly surrounded the house. Then a dozen of them with a rail and a sledge walked up on the porch and demanded that the door be opened. There was no answer and they struck it with the rail. At the sound the Conrad boys opened fire. Albert Howe and John Wiseman fell dead in their tracks, heavy loads of buckshot striking each of them in the bead. Another volley and Timberlake and Houston had fallen. Their comrades attempted to pick up the bodies, but the Conrads kept firing, and the whole gang of sixty men fled for their lives.” One thing is certain, the Conrads have frightened the white caps of Harrison county, whose strength has been heretofore in numbers, into the palsy. Good citizens are praying that the Conrads have struck the death-blow to the reign of the grim “night riders.” It is plain that the sympathy of the people in general is with the Conrads. The sheriff of Harrison county, it is thought, will make no attempt to arrest them, for, as one old farmer put it, “they have done nothing but defend themselves right smart.” Even men who are known to be themselves white caps dare not defend the action of the night riders.