Tjernagel, N

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The Palimpsest

The Last Horse Robbery

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Volume 12 | Number 10 Article 2
10-1-1931
The Last Horse Robbery
N Tjernagel
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Tjernagel, N. "The Last Horse Robbery." The Palimpsest 12 (1931), 373-380.
Available at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/palimpsest/vol12/iss10/2

374 TH E PALIMPSEST
withal to support his own family and stock. They 
were obliged to subsist on corn-meal and wheat coffee 
for long periods, and were happy when they did not 
run out of these poor constituents of a decidedly 
meager diet.
Des Moines was about fifty miles away, the nearest 
town where necessary supplies in any considerable 
quantity were kept in stock. W hen the settlers went 
there it was only for very urgent reasons. They 
greased the wheebhubs on their wagons and fared 
forth on the welhnigh trackless prairie, trusting to a 
kind fate and the stolid endurance of their oxen to 
bring them safely back.
W ith what delight the expectant children hailed the 
coming of papa’s slowly-moving outfit when, after 
many, many long hours of waiting, it was finally seen, 
a tiny speck on the prairie, growing larger and larger, 
homeward bound. W hat we now deem commonplace 
necessities, appeared to them like treasures fetched 
from Aladdin’s cave. One single stick of candy looked 
to them like —  well, it didn’t look like anything else 
at all, because in their estimation there was nothing 
worthy enough to be compared with it. It was kept 
to be gloated over, not eaten, at least for many weeks. 
This was during the early lean years when precious 
little was obtained from the patches of newly-broken 
land. And what other resources had they? As the 
virgin soil came more and more under cultivation and
TH E LAST HORSE ROBBERY 375
horses were introduced to work it, added sustenance 
was wrested from the land and the pinch of poverty 
abated.
The original mooley cow did her best to brighten 
up things from the very start, but she was not always 
in milk and, besides, she needed careful attention and 
plenty of feed during the cold winter weather. The 
ration was often necessarily short, however, which 
caused the milk flow to be correspondingly scanty; and 
with the new calf claiming its natural proprietary 
rights the residue did not reach far. The porker, too, 
wanted milk, and yielded up his flesh only on the con' 
dition that he got his share and plenty of corn, thus 
enabling him to put it on. But as the times grew bet' 
ter the cow could lie down and chew her cud in peace 
and plenty, while the pig snored beside her in supreme 
contentment. Their welhbeing was reflected in the 
added abundance and variety of Aunty Helga's table 
fare.
Anders had lived about five years on the place, 
when my parents and their first'born, my brother 
Lewis, appeared on the scene, having come by team 
across the prairie from Illinois. They were made web 
come until they could establish a home of their own, 
which after a few months they did, locating half a 
mile farther north. There the writer and six other 
children were born.
On coming west across the prairie my father drove
376 TH E PALIM PSEST
a pair of beautiful black geldings which, upon being 
turned loose after the long journey, were as spry as 
on the day they started out a fortnight before. One 
day, about three weeks after their arrival, the horses 
were turned out to grase a little to the south of the 
Hall place, the future site of the home of Jacob Chari' 
son Grove. Toward dusk, when father went to fetch 
them home, their sleek bodies were seen glistening in 
the light of the setting sun. Father noticed particular' 
ly the striking silhouettes of their lithe, muscular forms 
against the darkening sky in the east. Three strange 
horsemen who at that moment rode by, Indian fashion, 
also regarded with keen eyes the details of the scene.
There was a small horse stable on the farm but this 
was only large enough to accommodate the horses of 
the proprietor, of which by this time he had been 
able to secure two. A  primitive shed afforded shelter 
for the other stock. In one corner father had ar' 
ranged a rude enclosure for his team, so as to hinder 
the other animals from being too familiar around them 
and being kicked for their inquisitiveness. No one 
skulking around in the darkness would suspect that in 
this ramshackle structure the pig and the lamb, the 
horse and the cow, with a self-satisfied rooster over' 
head, were wooing Morpheus in silent company.
The darkness, however, proved to be no protection 
for the animals in the stable; it was thoroughly ran' 
sacked that very night. Every one had gone to bed
at the usual hour in the evening with no suspicion of 
impending trouble. A unt Helga had been up with her 
little son Lars at ten o’clock, and had gone outside for 
a moment; but nothing unusual attracted her atten' 
tion. A t eleven my mother was aroused by the loud 
baying of the dog, but later thanked Providence that 
she did not awaken father, for had he gone out he 
would have exposed himself to the murderous weapons 
of the marauders, for at that very moment, no doubt, 
the cowardly thieves were at work.
In the morning Anders found his stable empty, but 
our own beloved Frank and Charley, the chief attrae' 
tion for the barn'breakers, had been overlooked. A  
search in the immediate neighborhood was at once be' 
gun, but it revealed nothing. Father called to mind 
the three riders who had passed by the evening before 
and concluded that they were the fellows who had 
taken the horses. No wonder that in the early days, 
as well as since, horse stealing has been considered a 
monumental crime. It placed the owner in much the 
same predicament as the fisherman whose boat drifted 
seaward and left him destitute of the means of earn' 
ing a livelihood.
Later in the day it was learned that not only had 
the thieves robbed Anders of his team that night, but 
they had also made away with horses belonging to the 
neighbors, Francis W ier and John Pearson Bòrcha. 
Posses were formed which started in pursuit north'
TH E  LA S T HORSE ROBBERY  377
_____
378 TH E PALIMPSEST
ward and westward. Remnants of the raid were found 
on the way in the form of discarded pieces of harness 
which had been flung away in the flight to enable the 
rascally fugitives to accelerate their speed and out' 
distance their pursuers.
Near Lakin’s Grove one of the horses belonging to 
Anders was discovered hobbled and cropping grass. 
It was extremely difficult even for his owner to catch 
him. Evidently the outlaws had hobbled the horses 
and let them loose to graze, but this one had refused 
to be retaken and they had been obliged to leave him 
behind.
About forty miles to the west, on the Des Moines 
River, is the famous McGuire’s Bend, said to have 
been the greatest rendezvous of horse thieves in the 
country during the Civil W ar. The Des Moines 
Valley descends abruptly from the level prairie, and 
the numerous deep ravines therein afforded ideal 
haunts for the outlaws. This may have been the base 
of operations, but the trail of the thieves in question 
seemed to lead northward.
In W right County there still stands an old log cabin 
that in the early days was said to have served as a 
stopping place for thieves and law-breakers. It was 
owned by a foreigner who, to judge from appearances, 
was somewhat of a hermit; but rumor had it that he 
derived rich profit from his dealings with certain clan­
destine callers and was an interested party in the divi­
TH E  LAST HORSE ROBBERY 379
sion of sundry unlawful spoils. The searchers obtained 
a clue to the whereabouts of the robbers from some 
Illinois land prospectors who reported having seen a 
band of questionable characters near this place.
Thither the party quickly made their way and, 
joined by the sheriff, arrived in time to recover some 
of their horses which were quietly grazing not far 
from the cabin. A  few of the best horses had been 
tethered close to the door, and before the would'be 
captors could close in upon them the outlaws, seeing 
their danger, flung themselves upon these horses and 
were away like the wind. A  few shots were ex' 
changed. One member of the posse was killed. He 
was a young man who happened to be at his home in 
Story County on a short furlough from the war. So 
it came about that he laid down his life in the service 
of the government, though not in the national cause.
The skirmish was all over so quickly that the settlers 
rubbed their eyes in surprise and wondered what to 
do next. Anders never saw his best mare again. The 
leader of the gang had selected her as his special prize. 
Neither was the fine Bdrcha team ever recovered. The 
thieves, being thus better mounted than their pur' 
suers, made good their escape. The sheriff and his 
deputies sadly returned with their dead, finding it use' 
less in the circumstances to pursue the fleeing villains.
A protective alliance was formed by the farmers to 
guard against further outlawry, and, whether from the
380 TH E  PALIM PSEST
fear thus inspired in the horse thieves or from some 
other cause, scarcely a horse has since been missed in 
that section of the State. There was a rumor abroad 
that the thieves had been finally apprehended and iim 
prisoned; but during those troublous war times many 
conflicting reports were rife, with little or nothing to 
confirm them.
N. T j e r n a g e l


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