Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/494



life or property to secure the punishment of all guilty of horse stealing, counterfeiting or murder; and we will be governed by the penal laws of the State so far as it is convenient.

“We further warn all officers that they must not commence proceedings of any kind against those who helped to hang Gifford or Burger, as we believe they should have been hung long before they were.

“We will avenge the unjust death of any member of the Committee at the cost of life or property.

“We will further punish with death any person joining this Committee whom we find has been or is concerned in horse stealing, counterfeiting, robbery or murder, and all spies will share the same fate.”

It was ascertained that not less than seven hundred citizens of the counties of Jackson, Jones, Clinton, Scott, Cedar and Johnson were members of this organization. They were bound together by the most solemn oaths to stand by each other under all circumstances and permit no member to be arrested or subjected to punishment for any acts of the committee.

For fifteen years the law had seemed to be powerless to effectually protect peaceable people in person or property in this region and the most atrocious crimes generally went unpunished. The members of the gang of desperadoes usually lived in sparsely settled sections among the brush and timber lands bordering on the Maquoketa, Wapsipinicon, Cedar and Iowa rivers and their numerous tributaries. Every member knew where the log cabins of their confederates were located, and that they would be sheltered and the stolen property secreted until it could be disposed of at places distant from where it was taken. Thus banded together in the perpetration of crime, with witnesses always ready to prove an alibi, there was small chance of punishment. Early in the “’50’s” there was living on Camp Creek, in Polk County, a man by the name of J. W. Thomas, who was usually called by his neighbors “Comequick.” He was the terror of the entire settlement. He took long trips to the eastern part of the State and often returned with plenty of money and good horses. He never was known to