SR,
Bellefonte, Pa., September 27, 1929.
—————————
P. GRAY MEEK, Editor
=
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FIFTY YEARS AGO
IN CENTRE COUNTY.
Items taken from the Watchman issue of
September 26, 1879.
Andy Schnell was the first “devil”
in the Watchman office; the first
boy who ever “rolled” the pages of
this paper. Andy served only one
week at the business, however, be-
cause the smell of printers ink made
him sick and he concluded to seek
his fortune in another channel. Since
then he has been mayor of Junction
City, Kansas.
A number of men in the employ
of a Mr. Wertz, on Kettle Creek,
Clinton county, came upon a den of
rattlesnakes on September 5. They
killed 106 of the “varmints” and fif-
teen or twenty got away.
The picnic at Unionville last Sat-
urday was a great success. If was
gotten up in the interest of the Bap-
tist Sunday school, which is a small
organization with a lot of energetic
members, such as Messrs. Peters,
Hoover, Eastman and Fleck. The
Bellefonte band was there and in the
evening Henry Hoover treated the
entire organization to a wonderful
supper at his home.
Mrs. Catherine Schnell, wife of
Joseph Schnell, Esq., died at the
family residence on Bishop street,
Friday morning last, the 19th inst.,
in the 64th year of her age.
On the 18th inst.,, by Rev. W. W.
Groh, Mr. Frederick W. Krumrine
and Miss Annie M. Garner, both
from the vicinity of State College,
were married.
Mr. John Bowers, formerly of Buf-
falo Run, this county, the man who
set out the trees in the court house
yard here, died on the 7th inst., at
York Haven, York county, Pa.
On Thursday next, the big day of
the county fair there will be a splen-
did military and civic parade in
Bellefonte. Thirteen bands, all from
Centre county, will be in the line of
march.
At the Milesburg Normal school
Mr. Lou Schaeffer, son of ex-sheriff
Schaeffer, of Nittany, carried off
first honors in mathematics. Lou was
formerly a student at State College
and expects to teach a school in
Walker township this winter.
Mr. Joseph Ross and family, of
Pleasant Gap, left on Friday last
for Jefferson county, to spend a week
or two. They are traveling ina big
family wagon. That's the way to
see the sights and have lots of fun.
John Kidd Shoemaker. who estab-
lished the “Democratic Whig” in
this place in 1840, and edited it for
fifteen years, died at his home on
Spring street, on Friday last, aged
68. He sold the paper to John T.
Johnson, our present post master,
who had been in partnership with
him for about two years:
The new iron bridge over the Bald
Eagle at Milesburg has been opened
for traffic. It is a decidedly hand-
some structure and of great strength.
The Hi Henry minstrel show on
Tuesday night drew an immense
house, but the performance through-
out was somewhat dreary. The min-
strel business is about played out and
people are getting tired of such
coarse extravaganzas.
CONNECTICUT WAGES
FIGHT ON MOSQUITO.
Nearly the entire Connecticut
‘shore from Greenwich to Saybrook
‘has been ditched in the fight of the
State to eliminate the mosquito nui-
sance, according to the state agricul-
ture experiment station which is di-
recting the work. A ditch ten inches
wide and twenty four inches deep,
dug at a cost of twelve dollars an
acre, will remain effective for years
if cleaned once a year, the station
finds.
The inland town of New Canaan has
ridded itself of mosquitoes by spray-
ing oil on the inlets and coves of
Five-Mile river, the one stream in
the town, and then after cleaning
up the stream bed, introduced small
fish. The result was. that the fish
Jie up all the larvae of the mosqui-
oes.
REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS
Clara T. Bateson to Thomas D.
Decker, et ux, tract in State College;
$1.
H. E. Dunlap, sheriff, to Thomas
J. Lee, et al, trustees, tract in Phil-
ipsburg; $10,000.
Marion M. Osman, et bar, to Al-
fred E. McGuire, tract in Taylor
Twp.; $3.500.
Lewis Stein to Mary Stein, tract
in Philipsburg; $1.
Lloyd Stover, et ux, to Bert Poor-
man, et ux, tract in Spring Twp.; $1.
William 8. Gill, et ux, to Jacob
Horwite et ux, tract in Philipsburg;
Beech Creek Bank Robbers
Thrilling Stories as Told by the Men Who Followed the
Bandits and Brought About Their Capture. An Ac-
curate Recital of an Exciting Man Hunt. Shope
and Kline Get 20 to 40 Years and Big Fines
At 11:45 Thursday morning, Sept. 19, bandits held up cashier J. A.
Haugh in the First National bank at Beech Creek and fled with $12,271
in cash. About 1:20 or 1:25 the bandit car was wrecked on a culvert
coping north of Runville. Two of the bandits escaped from the wreck
leaving a companion mortally injured in the car.
At 7:20 William Delaney, the injured bandit died of chest injuries in
the Centre County hospital. a
At 8:20 officer Frank Henderson captured the two who had escaped, in
the railroad yard at Snow Shoe Intersection.
Last week the Watchman was the only county paper to give you the
story of the robbery of the First Nationel bank at Beech Creek. It was
substantially correct in all but two details. We then said that three men
had entered the bank, when as a matter of fact only Kline and Delaney
held up Cashier Haugh and scooped up the cash from the counter and
vault. Shope remained at the steering wheel in the Packard car they had
stolen from Multon Sykes. Our other misinformation was to the effect
that Dr. Tibbens had blocked the road in front of the Furl place with
his car thereby forcing them into a culvert a mile above Runville where
their car was wrecked. Kline and Shope escaping to the woods afoot and
Delaney remaining in the car because of fatal injuries.
It was just 11:45 when the two bandits held up the bank. It was abou
1:20 or 1:25 when their car piled up on the road culvert and it was all
over but the capture of Kline and Shope. This is fixed by the telephone
record of the call which Dr. Tibbens made to Beech Creek from Bennet'’s
store in Runville. The record shows it to have been made at 1:05 and
Frank Williams says it was five or ten minutes after the Doctor had
started to the telephone that the bandits appeared and he shot, causing
the wreck.
The Watchman has interviewed each one of the eye-witnesses and shall
let them tell the story in their own language. In order to make it per-
fectly comprehensible, however, we make the following summary of it.
After the hold-up the bandits fled west on the Bald Eagle valley road.
Just as they were entering Howard, at a spot between the milk station
and the first house in the town, Dr. Tibbens fired on them with a Colt’s
automatic which he had borrowed from a motorist while he waited on the
roadside. He broke the glass in the left rear window and one shot was
fired back at him from the fleeing car. He says he felt and heard the bul-
let go past the point of his nose. The bandit car sped straight through
Howard, where many people were out on the streets because the
news that they were headed that way had been telephoned from Beech
Creek. At the extreme western end of the town Frank Williams, the
man who later caused the wreck of the bandit car, was standing iy
a tree in his own yard. He had a double barreled shot gun loa ol) yo
No. 6 shot but didn’t shoot for reasons told in his own story pu
elsewhere.
After Dr. Tibbens had fired on the car he handed the automatic back
to the stranger who had loaned it to him, jumped into his ow or Dorp
‘ed about and drove into Howard calling for volunteers go Ty
the chase. He procured a double barreled shot gun from Wi ve e 1
had both barrels loaded with bb shells and will gave him five extra ons .
Frank Williams was the only person who said he would go along. C-
+Lrdingly Frank took his gun and. dressed just as he is shown yo ye
picture of him on this page, climbed into the automobile and they head.
ed west.
When they
of Mt. Eagle they were uncera
Tibbens says it was a “hunch”
fey road toward Milesburg. It-was u
er it. East of Milesburg a State p
i forks of the road at the R. R. viaduct east
ae in which way the bandits had gone. Dr.
that led him into going right up the Val-
nder construction but they raved OV-:
atrolman told them the‘ bandits had
not gone that way, but again the Doctor's “hunch” led him on ki Snow
Shoe Intersection and up the road to Snow Shoe, for he felt tha is
prey had turned into the Marsh Creek road at Mt. Eagle they hii
likely come out onto the highway somewhere between Runville sad e
top of the mountain. Knowing that state police were mobilizing om
Snow Shoe, Philipsburg, DuBois and oher points north he thought outle
from the Marsh Creek road up there would be covered, so he and wa
liams stopped at the John Furl place, just nine-tenths of a mile Rorlhe
Bennet’s store at Runville and a little less distance south of wha S
known as the Dim Lantern tea room, now the home of Charley Reese.
Just at the north side of the Furl house the Yarnell road comes down
over a long hill and joins the highway to Snow Shoe.
Tibbens parked his car just north of the intersection of the roads, u
the spot where the car shown in the picture published on this page S
standing. The only people at the Furl place at the time were Mrs. Ton-
er Furl and her babe-in-arms, Alfred Furl, Mr. and Mrs. Milligan Lucas,
of Harrisburg, who were visiting there. and Arthur Furl of about ten
years of age. After they had been there a short time, about ten minutes
according to Williams, Dr. Tibbens asked the boy where there was >
telephone. t there is one in the next farm house be.
Upon being told tha
low he started off down the road afoot, leaving Williams on he watch.
Meanwhile the bandits were racing around on the ridge roads, getting
lost every once in a while. They are said to have asked Mrs. Poorman
at Yarnell the way to Rhoades Station. Rhoades Station is on the Snow
Shoe railroad at the old Reese place.on top of the mountain. They stop-
ped at the John Barnes place at Fetzertown and asked for fnsepons
Again, at the Jos. Sepritz place, on top of “the Divide, they sah)
to have made inquiries. From there they got onto the Yarnell oa an
headed for the Snow Shoe highway, evidently with the inteutios 0 going
south on it for 1% a mile where they would hit the Chostnyt 8 g¥e road
that runs west again, over the hill and down into Bash a
| they could have gotten a frrough 3e Blair Place oa) > : oo Dikgljeae
{ ing from Unionville to the 1 , el a
enteen year old son of Kline, was supposed o be Em
i 1d Studebaker car. He was with them when y !
et Beech Creek on Thursday morning and BE Bis
story he was sent on to “the Rattlesnake” to wait for them y
i lete the get-away
intention being to abandon the stolen Packard and comple g 2
in their own car, the license plates of which had been cocealed while 1
was in the woods where Sykes was tied up.
's place
Shortly after Dr. Tibbens had left Furl's p |
Won took up a position at the corner of the Furl house. (Spos
marked 1 in the picture.) From there he could see up the Yarnell roa
| quite a distance. He thinks he watched about five minutes when he saw
to find a telephone
The Chase and Capture of the|
Dim Lantern tea room.
1) Spot where
(2)
ing where car wrecked.
wrecked car.
Williams
Photograph by Sager of the highway in front of the Furl home.
Place under porch from which Williams fired. 3
(5) Where Shope went down .into the field.
Just between the shadow of the culvert wall on the roadway and spot 3 is where Delaney laid after he
rolled out of the car. Dotted line indicates course of the car coming out of the Yarnell road.
SCENE OF THE TRAGEDY
3)
peeped around the corner of the house and saw bandits
Position of bandit carwhen Williams shot.
Taken from position marked 5 and looking toward
coming down Yarnell road.
(4) End of cop-
(6) Spot from which Dr. Tibbens fired on the
tion of the roads to the culvert is
just 135 ft. The bandits had cover-
ed half of that when Williams fired,
so that it is probable that Shope,
who was driving, was so surprised by
the shot that went so near his head
that he lost control just long enough
to be unable to right his car before
it had run the sixty-seven feet re-
maining between it and the culvert.
When the car struck Kline, who
was sitting in the rear, says he was
pitched headlong out through the
window of the right front door.
Shope stepped out at the left, both
Mrs. Furl and Williams saw him do
that, walked over the culvert and
went into the field. Delaney remain-
ed sitting in the car. Neither Wil-
liams nor Mrs. Furl saw Kline until
they spied him running very fast
across the field. Shope was following
in the woods beyond the railroad
track when Dr. Tibbens and Gordon
Tyson came racing back up the road.
ed car and came to a stop directly
rived on the scene (position 6 in the
picture.) They were in Gordon Ty-
son’s Chevrolet and it was from the
side of it that Dr. Tibbens fired on
car.
From ‘this point we shall let Dr.
Tibbens, Gordon Tyson, Frank Wil-
liams and Schwemmer, the showman,
tell you what happened. Read the
stories as they were told to Watch-
man reporters.
Of course a great many state po-
lice, patrolmen and other officers
were soon on the scene and a chase
for Kline and Shope was organized.
We shall make no comment on its
efficiency other than to say that the
bandits say they spent the whole af-
ternoon sitting in the woods not
more than half a mile away from the
scene.
When darkness came they walked
down toward Snow Shoe Intersec-
tion, crossed over the Snow Shoe
railroad tracks and the highway,
went down through Kohlbecker’s
woods and climbed onto an empty
P. R. R. low steel car attached to ex-
tra 1830 freight west that was then
standing on the eastern siding of the
B. E. V. east of Snow Shoe Intersec-
tion.
R. R. OFFICER FRANK M. HENDER-
SON MAKES THE CAPTURE
Frank M. Henderson, of Osceola
Mills, stationed at Milesburg, and
who has been in the railroad police
service for eight years, was at the
Intersection station going over trains
for hoboes. ‘The flagman on No. 1830
had said something to him about see-
ing a fellow walking along the tracks
who he thought might have gotten
onto the train which was then up
on the western siding west of the
Intersection station.
Henderson started over the train
and when he came to the empty steel
car his flash light revealed two fellows
huddled together down in the corner
of the car. He says they blinked like
owls when he threw the light on
i i he saw going through
| a car coming down which he recognized as the one
i Howard. Then he jumped around to the front of the front porch, which |
| is about four feet off the ground and took a position (No. 2 on the pic- |
ture) slightly under the porch and at the north side of the steps leading '
| up to it. The car camei nto sight, he saw the broken glass in the left |
| |
|
| rear window, two men in the front seat and one in the rear, and knew
| his prey was in range. Just why he didn’t fire then isnot known, for if the |
| bandits had turned north toward Sow ‘Shoe they would have been out of |
sight almost the instant they turned. As it was they turned south and |
| Williams fired one shot just when the car was directly on a line between |
him and the barn. (Position 3 in the picture.) Williams made a good
| shot as is evidenced by the marks on the left front door of the car (see
| picture elsewhere). Someone from the bandit car, probably Kline from
| the rear seat, returned one shot. That bullet broke a glass in an upstairs |
| window of the Furl house, perforated the blind and was later found ly |
{ ing on the bed in the room.
No one seems to know just what happened between the time Williams |
| shot and the bandit car wrecked on the culvert coping. Mr. and Mrs. |
: Milligan Lucas had started walking vp the highway toward the Dim :
: Lantern, the Furl lad had gone into the house and Mrs. Toner Furl was |
| on the back porch between the house and the summer kitchen and it is |
not known just where Alfred Furl was. Accordingly there was no one |
them and were all covered with
“beggar lice” and burdock burrs. He
made them get up and “frisked” them
for guns. Then he took them off the
car and marched them down to the
tower at the Intersection.
On the way Shope said:
wouldn't send us up for this.
“You
We
| were just going up to Tyrone Lo get
a job. We have been up to Runville
visiting an uncle of mine.” He hadn't
an idea who they were and thought
precbably they were just hobo train
riders. However he put them up in
the tower where John Talhelm, the
operator, and his wife were sitting at
the time, sent word in to the sheriff
Dunlap and went back to the foot of
the tower steps to stand guard un-
til the sheriff arrived.
That was about 8:20. In ten min-
utes the sheriff was on the scene and
C. N. Warick to Elizabeth Witmer, | but Williams to report just what did throw the bandits out of control of | it was while he was going over Kline
tract in Potter Twp.; $1.
1
I
their car unless it was the unexpected shot from Williams gun.
| for weapons that he felt something
large in Kline's trouser pocket. When Kline are brothers-in-law, having
he pulled it out and discovered it to married girls by the name of Quick.
be a roll of bank bills, he said: “Hen- He was convicted in Clearfield coun-
derson I guess you've got the men [ty on January 2, 1922, for robbing
we want.”
Then he slipped the the Karthaus bank and sentenced to
“irons” on them and took them into | 7 to 12 years in the western peniten-
the Centre county jail. Kline told
the sheriff, however, that “three dol-
lars of that money belongs to me.”
When they reached the jail the
money was counted and found to to-
tal $275.00. This with the $12,271
found on the person of Delaney at
the wreck made every cent the bank
' claimed to have lost through the rob-
i
i
behind where the Doctor's car had | party: William Delaney,
been standing ever since he first ar- | A. Shope, Hazzard M. Kline and the
\
Delaney who was still sitting in the
bery.
Shope and Kline were turned over
to the sheriff of Clinton county, on
Friday. Just before noon yesterday
Shope and Kline plead guilty before
Judge Baird in Lock Haven and were
sentenced as follows:
Shope got 10 to 20 years and a fine
at a walk and both had disappeared ©f $5,000.00 on each of two counts.
Kline got the same sentence given
Shope. :
They shot right past the wreck- FACTS INCIDENT TO THE TRAGEDY.
There were four in the bandit
Raymond
latter’s 17 year old son, Leo.
The Kline boy is supposed to have
left the party after they held up
Sykes and took his Packard car.
He is said to have driven to “the
Rattlesnake” to wait for the gang
there. Some people out on Marsh
Creek section claim they saw him
driving through that section. His
whereabouts up to the time of our
going to press remain a mystery.
William Delaney was a man of
splendid physique about 5 ft 9 tall
and weighed about 160 lbs. He was
convicted in Clearfield county on
February 13, 1919, of robbery with
weapons and sentenced to a term
of 5 to 8 yearsin the western peni-
tentiary. He served the maximum
sentence and was discharged Feb.
3, 1927. Not much is known of
him. His hands were delicately
formed and indicated that he had
lived indoors and done very little
manual work. In fact some say
that the balls of his thumbs and
fingers where filed off so that fin-
ger prints could not be taken. His
body was turned over to undertaker
Frank Wetzler, but a brother lo-
cated in Beaverdale, Pa., having de-
clined to claim it, it was shipped to
the anatomical society in Philadel-
phia on Tuesday afternoon for dis. °
secting room use.
It was likely Delaney who went
back into the vault of the bank
where most of the money was se-
cured for on him most of it was
found. And he was probably the
master-mind of the enterprise.
Raymond A. Shope is said to be
a son of Daniel Shope and was born
on the Kohlbecker farm near Miles-'
burg. He was once a trolley car
motorman in Philipsburg and also
worked at Beech Creek. He and
broken. : :
tiary. He was paroled from that
institution, January 2, 1929.
So far as is known Kline and his
son have no police records.
The car used by the bandits was
a Packard four passenger coupe
owned by Milton Sykes, of Beech
Creek. It is almost a total Wreck
and it is said the bank will make
an effort to have the company that
insured its money remiburse Sykes
for his loss. In the car, after the
wreck was found a pump shot gun,
an empty half pint whisky bottle, a
quart bottle about 3, full and a
qt. bottle of milk, untouched. The
car was hauled into - Poorman’s
garage in this place Thursday even-
ing. It was while standing there
that William Sager photographed it
for the Watchman.
Two revolvers were found in the:
ditch below the culvert after the
wreck. A .32 and a .38. The small-
er gun had not been discharged. The
latter had two discharged shells.
This probably accounts for the one
shot at Dr. Tibbens below Howard
and the one at Williams at the Furl
place. Delaney and Kline must have
had the guns in hand for Shope was
driving. It is likely that when the
crash came the guns flew out the
car into the ditch. It is possible
that Kline might have had both
guns in his hands and lost grip on
them when he was jolted out the
window, for they were lying just
about where he must have alighted.
The ditch is a dry water course
about 6 ft deep and had the car
gone into it instead of being wedg-
ed against the culvert coping all
might have been killed.
Delaney evidently received the in-
jury that caused his death by being
thrown half-way through the wind-
shield and striking his chest against
the top of the panel board. There was
a mark across his body indicating
this. However, he must have recoiled
from that position because when
Mrs. Furl and Williams next saw
him he was sitting upright in his
seat.
Rear of car at which Dr. Tibbens shot
two loads of bbs. from a distance of ap-
proximately 155 feet. It will be noted that
the glass in the rear of the car is not
Kline
Shope
Officer Henderson
THE BANDITS, AS THEY APPEARED AFTER R. R. OFFICER HENDERSON HAD TAKEN
THEM OFF THE FREIGHT CAR.