Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1897 — A Robbery In Wheatfield Township. [ARTICLE]

A Robbery In Wheatfield Township.

Valparaiso Vidette: Rowley Moorehouse, a farmer who keeps a hunter’s resort near the Kankakee river was in town Friday on very pressing business. In one pocket was a loaded revolver of large caliber and he was looking for a tall, well dressed, heavy set young man with half grown beard who had left his premises with other valuables than belonged to him. It was a clever scheme. The Moorehouse place is a favorite resort for Valparaiso sportsmen and it is not an uncommon thing for strangers to harbor there for a night or two while fishing or hunting, On Wednesday night a stranger in question appeared at his door and with a clever story asked for work for the winter and it was given him. The stranger gained the confidence of Rowley to whom he showed a gold watch which cast suspicions and two pairs of trousers were also noticeable.

Mr. Moorehouse thought the stranger’s possessions were stolen and proposed to be on his guard as the stranger went to bed for the night. In the dead of the night Rowley was awakened by a noise and securing a revolver began to investigate. But in the meantime the stranger had opened a door and searched the pockets of all the lodgers for valuables and disappeared. Rowley learned all of this the next morning. He was enraged at being so easy in letting the fellow escape so cleverly before his sight. He hitched up and tracked the fellow mile after mile to thia city whore he searched in vain with some of his iriends for the fellow who so cleverly outwitted him. Many of the stores and barbershops were visited but the stranger cometh not and Moorehouse had to return home without marching a prisoner to Sheriff Green’s domain under the point of a big revolver.