Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1901 — Sid Henderson Turns Cattle Thief. [ARTICLE]

Sid Henderson Turns Cattle Thief.

Rose Lawn has more sensations to the square people than any town bn the line. The latest, in which a former resident of Rensselaer is the principal character, is of sufficient importance to be treated at length in the Chicago papers, and one feature was illustrated in the Evening News, of that city. It seems that Sidney Henderson the one armed man who formerly run an oil wagon in Rensselaer, conceived the idea of raising the wind, and also, as he says, a mortgage on his house at Thayer, by getting away with a bunch of fat steers, and selling them at the stockyards. He persuaded two young boys, Charley Sprague, aged 19 and Mandel Ward, aged 15, to assist him. Together they drove 15 fat steers from the herd of Mrs. J. A. Heckson, near Rose Lawn, and drove them to Chicago, the two boys being on horseback and Henderson on foot. They took them last Friday mornicg, about 5 o’clock out of a herd of 150 or so, and no doubt figured that they would not soon be missed. As it happened, however, the cattle were counted Saturday and the loss discovered. The Chicago police and the stock yards commission men were notified to be on the watch for the cattle. Saturday they reached the city and as they were driving the cattle along toward the stockyards, a commission man who had heard of the theft, met them, and politely asked Henderson to. ride in his buggy. Pretty soon the man asked Henderson if he wasn’t from Rose Lawn Henderson took the tip from that and jumped out and ran. The commission man followed, but Henderson escaped for the time being but was arrested Sunday. In the meantime some police in a patrol wagon got after the two boys on horseback. The boys made a big run for it, and went about 8 miles before they were overhauled. All three were still held in Chicago,at last accounts.