(Click on image to enlarge)
This and all the other horse-thief stories I've posted have me wondering about the precise details of how people their recovered stolen horses. There was no state registration of horses, no VIN numbers on horses, obviously, so — what? surely all horses were not routinely branded with each owner's individual mark?
The report states that "Mr. Rohwedder got busy." I suppose that means he got on the telephone and started calling every likely place in the region where a horse might be kept overnight, or sold. That would keep him quite busy, I imagine. So he describes his horse to the proprietor of each establishment, and if the proprietor says he's got a horse on the premises matching that description, Ed goes out there and examines it. If he says, "Yes, that's my horse," the proprietor just has to take his word for it. If the proprietor won't take his word, I suppose Ed gets his most respectable neighbors to come and swear to it. Or maybe Ed calls the horse's name and the horse comes running; who could argue with that?
Well, however he managed it, Ed got back his horse and rig. The very next week, the News reported that Ed and Marshal Fred Rose had caught this Chatman guy in Hammond and taken him before Judge Reiter, "who gave him an indeterminate sentence of one to 14 years in the penitentiary." Swift justice!
Sources: "Personal and Local Mention." Hobart News 11 Feb. 1915; 18 Feb. 1915.
2 comments:
Thanks for another interesting article about my husband's grandfather!
My pleasure!
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