6
Cp! A [ }
. - * " ™
\j tf*
STORIES
OF THE
SECRET
SERVICE
BY
Capt. Patrick D. Tyrrell
112
STORY No. 5
The Boscobel
Koniackers
Being an Account of the Capture
and Conviction of the Band of
Counterfeiters Operating in Wiscon
sin in 1878.
By CAPTAIN PATRICK D. TYBRELI
[Copyright. 1905. by Marlon G. Scheltlin.]
The further identification of Conway
was a simple matter. I found he had
affiliated with counterfeiters for many
years, and in 1876 had been arrested
for horse stealing and convicted, car
rying his case to the supreme court.
After securing his freedom on bail he
had disappeared from his Wisconsin
haunts. He had been an associate of
the mysterious "Watson brothers," and
had visited them at their farm at Clear
lake. Further than this he had been
closely connected with a band of "ko
niackers" that made headquarters in
St. Paul. In short, the connection be
tween the "Watsons," Conway, the Bos
cobel gang and the St. Paul counterfeit
ers was found to be very close, al
though the theft of the team of horses
in Watseka county, Minnesota, was the
only' fact discovered that could bo used
against Conway at the forthcoming
trial.
The defense of Conway at the trial
was that "Charles Scott," whom he sub
poenaed, had given him the bill. Scott
tes'.iiied to this fact. Conway admitted
lie had been arrested, and said after his
arrest he had come to Chicago and then
gone to New York, assuming the name
of L. C. Lavaree. He remained in New
York a year, he said, and then returned
to Wisconsin.
His defense availed him nothing and
he was sentenced to serve five years. In
the meantime the case in Parsons,
Kan., had been made and lie served
another five years for that offense.
Subsequently he was given another five
years for horse stealing.
• • *
With Conway "settled" in the peni
tentiary an investigation was made to
determine the identity of the "Wat
!Bons." While it had not been proved,
jthera was little doubt that Conway had
igone east for the purpose of establish
ing a connection with one of the bands
of counterfeiters which Infested the
Atlantic seaboard, that he had formed
euch a connection and that he had un
dertaken to "shove" some of the "co
ney" that was being issued by them.
To a secret service man it was also
clear that such a man as Conway, who
had never been east before his arrest
for horse stealing, could not have
formed such a connection without tak
ing with him first-class references from
counterfeiters in the west who were
well acquainted with the more promi
nent men in that line in the east.
From all that 1 could gather of Con
way's record he had not been asso
ciated before his eastern trip with men
in the weHt who were on close terms
wun the eastern counterfeiting aristo
crats. The high artistic character of
the SIOO bills he had "shoved" iu the
Mississippi valley was indication sufll
clent thut they had come from the
hands of artisans of much skill. In
establishing the identity of ihe "WaU
son" brothers, therefore, we hoped to
to be able to determine who had pla< ed
('on way in touch wtih the eastern coun
terfeiters and eventually to uncover the
makers of the SIOO plate.
To relate the details of this Investi
gation would commons more time and'
space than I liavc at my disposal, and
1 shall, therefore, stale that the "Wat
sons" were found to have been the Bai
lard brothers—Thomas, George and
John. In all the annals ot counterfeit- j
ing in the United States ihe name of'
Thomas Ballard nmst stand out most
prominent, and I shall lake the liberty
of telling enough about this remarka
ble criminal character to give my read
ers some conception of his importance
in "koniactung" history.
FLiSt, let not the members of the
masonic fraternity bo shocked when 1
say that Thomas Ballard, at the sum
mit of his success as a counterfeiter,
was the master of Park lodge, A. F. &
A. M., in New York city. He came of
good family, never smoked a cigar nor
took a drink of intoxicating liquor,
was married to an estimable woman,
and, like many of his kind, was a model
"family man." He was born in New
York state in 1840, and learned the
trade of fancy carriage painting. When
18 years old he went to work for Henry
Hinman, a wealthy carriage builder of
New York city, and related by marriage
to Joshua D. Miner, a prominent New
York politician and city contractor.
Hinman observed the genius of young
Ballard and ipduced him to learn the
trade of banknote engraving, at which
he served four years.
Aided by Miner, Ballard obtained val
uable information from the engraving
department of the government. In 1862
Ballard produced for Miner and Henry
C. Cole a plate of the one dollar United
States treasury. His next was a plate
of the two-dollar bills of the National
Shoe & Leather bank, of New York.
From that he wen* to -$lO counterfeits
of three national banks of Poughkeep
sie, the S2O bill of the Shoe & Leather
bank, and then to the SIOO and SSOO
"old issue" United States treasury
notes.
Ballard had a comfortable residence
at No. 225 West Fifty-third street, and
'''' dovlE
here was supposed to be a painter. He
left home every morning at seven
o'clock togo to the carriage factory,
in which he was interested, but instead
of going there he went to No. 25ti Kiv
ington street, where his brother John
lived, and where the counterfiting
plant was located. The neighbors at
No. 256 Rivington street believed Bal
lard to bt « -pvitchman in the custom
hoase, and he left there regularly in
the evening togo "to work," but in
reality went home. He lived this dual
life without detection for years.
The government at that time had a
contract with the Glenn mills, at West
Chester, Pa., for its entire output of
the celebrated "fiber" paper, the mills
being run under supervision of govern
ment officials to prevent the paper or
the secret of its manufacture being
stolen. Ballard, in addition to being a
high-class engraver, was the only man
in the world who could successfully
make this paper outside of the Glenn
mills. As an engraver, chemist, paper
maker and ink manufacturer. Ballard
was unexcelled. The treasury officials
and money experts generally believed
the "fiber" paper to be a complete
guard against counterfeiting, and they
were amazed at the product of Thomas
Ballard long before such a man was
known to the secret service. The
presses of Hinman, Miner and Ballard
turned out bogus money in such
amounts that the lawful currency be
came disparaged, and the capture of
the makers of the clever counterfeils
became a matter of imperative impor
tance. He was caught in 1871, broke
jail soon afterward, and his subsequent
history would fill a good-sized volume.
Arrested in Buffalo for engraving a
plate of a SSOO treasury note, which
was pronounced superior to the gen
uine, Ballard was sent to Auburn peni
tentiary, from which institution he es
caped. While in Buffalo he had also
worked on a plate with which he said
he was going "to bankrupt Canada,"
and from the perfection of the work he
seemed in fair way to make good his
Intention.
In 1875 he was sentenced to serve 150
years in the penitentiary, aft« r having
been at large atioiit three years with
a standing reward of $."1,000 for Ills cap
ture. In 1878 he ripped open his own
abdomen and severad an intestine in
IrylnK to take his life, but recovered.
A year later he drew a sharp knife
across his throat, severing the wind
pipe and muscles of the neck, and again
recovered.
It was during the wanderings follow
ing Thomas Mallard's first arrest and
while the reward of |S,ooo was hang
ing oVer lilin, that '-tie and his two
brothers came west and took up their
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1906.
residence on 11 form near Clear
la. They assumed the family name of
Watson, and, naturally, fell into asso
ciation with the counterfeiters oper
ating in the northwest. They became!
acquainted with the Boscobel and St. 1
Paul gangs, and with Frank Conway,
1
which fact accounts for the frequency
. with which I encountered the assumed
; family name of the Ballards while try
-1 ing to identify the man who had been
r arrested in Vandalia. The St. Paul con-
I tingent of counterfeiters had in their
i possession, it was afterward found, the
I Poughkeepsie and Peakskill plates that
had been made in the east by Ballard
i and had issued money from them.
. There was no evidence that the Bal
- lards accomplished much in the line of
) producing "coney" while in the west,
r It is only fair that I here call atten
tion to the fact that from this point
s any credit accruing to the secret serv-
I ice for the ultimate discovery of the
engravers and producers of the SIOO
Wilkesbarre, Boston and New Bedford
bills should be bestowed on A. L.
Drummond and other operatives in the
eastern division of the service, in the
west we had first found the bills, de
termined beyond doubt their eastern
origin, showed the connection between
Conway and the Ballards and indicated
that in Conway's associates while in
the east the secret service would prob
ably find the producers of the bills.
As I have pointed out, the Ballards
had given Conway credentials when he
started east which, with his arrest and
conviction for horse stealing, was suf
ficient to satisfy the eastern contingent
that he was a safe man with whom to
"do business." I had carefully pre
served Conway's testimony at his
Springfield trial, in which he told of
his places of residence and some of his
movements in New York, and forwarded
them to headquarters, although Con
way probably had no idea that the in
formation he gave at that time would
be of any value to us. It proved, how
ever, to be of much service to the east
ern operatives in unearthing the crowd
that issued the bills which Conway had
"shoved" in the west.
There were in the United States in the
year 1879 but four men capable of pro
ducing Much high-class plates as th<*se
from which had been printed the SIOO
bills received in Chicago from several
western points. These were Charles F.
Ulrich, Benjamin Boyd, Thomas Bal
lard and Charles H. Smith. EaclT of
these men possessed a distinctive style,
which was familiar to the members of
the secret service who had made these
things the subject of long study. Ul
rich's method was to lay before him a
genuine bill of the issue he intended to
counterfeit and laboriously and as faith
fully as possible copy it on steel.
Boyd was the inventor and sole owner
of a process whereby he transferred by
the use of acids a reproduction of the
genuine bill onto a steel plate, after j
cutting the plate by the lines trans- i
ferred. Italian! used the copying proc- j
ess, but his work was much liner than !
Ulrich's. and had a distinct character
under the microscope. Smith was at
that time an engraver in the employ of
the United Bla ten treasury department,
and his work showed clearly the dis
tinctive character of government en
graving. lioyd was in prison, and the
work on the bills was apparently not
that of Mallard nor Ulrich.
For some time the secret service offi
cers had had pretty accurate informs
tion of the operations of the baud to
which 3mith belonged W. K. iirock
way was the leader of this crowd and
enjoyed the distinction of being the j
first man who us«d the electrotype I
process. 11" svns ulso a fine rhemlst.
but Smith did the engraving. For years
Smith had been employed by the gov
ernment in engraving plates for cur
rency and bonds, and his character was
supposed to be above reproach. I do
not know how he became enlangled
with Brock way. The third principal
member of this crowd was James B.
Doyle, who owned a GOO acre farm n«ar
Bradford, 111. Doyle had a brother-in
law named Thomas Shotwell, who was a
counterfeiter.
Through Shotwell, presumably, Doyle
hail met Dr. Parker, Louis Sleight and
other well-known western counterfeit
ers, and had made a trip to New York,
where he had formed the business con
nection with Brockway and Smith.
When he came west he brought with
him some of the same bills we were try
ing to trace. Doyle's visit to New York
had been reported to headquarters by
the western division, and he was
"piped" in that city by Operative Ken
noch, at the order of Chief Operative
Drummond.
When Doyle left the eastern metropo
lis for Chicago, Kennoch was on the
same train, and Doyle was arrested aa
he stepped from the train in Chicago.
He was tried and convicted. At the time
of his arrest he had in his possession
counterfeit United States bonds repre»
senting $204,000. These also were from
plates made by Smith. They were ab
solutely perfect with the exception of a
slight inaccuracy in the margin on one
corner, and would have made the gov
ernment a lot of trouble if they had not
been confiscated.
Smith worked in the treasury depart
ment engraving room on genuine plates
during the regular working hours, and
on counterfeit plates during the time
he was not working for the government.
At the same time Doyle was arrested in
Chicago, Brockway and Smith were ar
rested in the east. If my memory serves
me right, Smith never turned informer,
but Brockway, seeing that the eastern
secret service officers had unearthed
much accurate information concerning
his operations, told the government
where the SIOO bill plates and the plate 3
from which the bonds were printed
could be found.
He claimed he had thrown the SI,OOO
plate which was much wanted, into East
river some time before when he became
convinced he was being crowded to the
wall by the secret service. This seizure
was most important, as it put a stop to
the issue of currency and bonds which
were so cleverly done that they would
have proved a source of endless trouble.
The sentences of Brockway and Smith
were suspended in reward for their dis
closure of the location of the plates,
this being, I believe the first case under
that administration in which such len
iency was shown, but being justified by
the great value of the plates to the gov
ernment. '
Before closing this narrative I wish
to say that when the Ballards left Clear
Lake, la., to return east they buried ten
sets of plates near the farmhouse they
had occupied. This burial was accord
ing to the ironclad rule of "good" coun
terfeiters never to carry such evidence
with them. Other counterfeiters, how
ever, knew where they were hid, and
five sets found their way into the pos
session of George Woolsey and Samuel
Pizer, of the particular "koniacking"
outfit known as the St. Paul crowd, and
in August, 1875, I had the satisfaction
of arresting these shifty gentlemen and
FOUND THE PRINTING PRESS AND
MATERIAL.
of confiscating these plates, |B,OOO in rep
resentative currency and counterfeiting
press, inks and paper. Id& not know
what became of the other five sets of
plates after the Ballards burled them.
My information concerning the burial
of these plates came to me from a man
who may yet be living. He had my word
that I would never make public the
source of this information, and to re
veal his identity might, even at this re
mote day, result in dire consequences
to him. For be it remembered, there are
some bits of secret service history which
cannot be written without violation of
sacred agreements, even after the lapse
of 30 years. .
THE END.
Myra Kelly as a Car Full.
Miss Myra Kelly, the writer of East
side stories of New York life, relates
this story of a gentleman's politeness
to her:
"The car was entirely empty, with ths
j exception of the one man.and his eon
i dition was exactly the reverse. As I en
tered lie arose, made me an unsteady but
magnificent bow, and said: "Madam,
! please be kind 'nough toasshept thish
piashe." There was nothing else for me
to do, so I thanked him and sat down.
For 20 blocks the Idot hung from a
strap, with not a soul In the car but our
j selves.
"I have been taken for another worn
na, but I never before had anyone think
I I was a car full."—-Huston Herald.
The Limit.
Molly -('holly's a fool!
Dolly What kind of a fool.
Molly The kind thai would say
I "Thank you" for a kiss.—Cleveland
I Loader.
Let Her 00.
"How did Smith's wife tome to lea e
him?"
"It wns all her fault."
"But how?"
"Why she told Smith that If lie .11
not get her the bonnet she had set her
heart on she would go home to her
mother."
"Why did he not get it for her?"
"He would have gotten it for her if
she hadn't made that threat." —Hous-
ton Post.
Friendship's Tribute.
"Didn't the wedding go off nicely!"
exclaimed Miss Sweetun, enthusi
astically.
"Yes," said Miss Tartun, "except
that poor, dear Fan needn't have been
quite so prompt in making her re
sponses. She hadn't the slightest rea
son to fear that Jack would repent
and back out when she had him actu
ally at the altar." —Chicago Tribune.
Another Version.
Jack was just about to build his fa
mous house.
"Why don't you get some men to
help you?" asked a cruious friend.
"No, sir," replied Jack, "they would
call a strike on me before the house
was finished. I'll build it mysel'."
Thus we know why the house was
called "the house that Jack built."—
Chicago Dally News.
Parental Solicitude.
"Maria, who Is that young chap
that's coming to see Bessie?"
"His name is Hankinson. He seems
to be all right." |
"Do you consider him a safe young
man?"
"Bessie does. She says he's in good
circumstances and has been operated
on for appendicitis."—Chicago Tri
bune.
A Confident Forecaster.
"The weather bureau needs jes' one
thing," said the man who walks with
a cane.
"Why they have a wonderfully com
plete scientific equipment."
"Yes. But they ought to have a
man with the rhumatism up there to
tell 'em dead sure when it's going to
rain." —Washington Star.
No Trouble.
"What is the meaning of 'alter
ego?'" asked the teacher of the be
ginners' class in Latin.
"The other I," said the boy with the
curly hair.
"Give a sentence containing tho
phrase."
"He winked his other I." —Chicago
Tribune.
A Premature Discussion.
Miss Flighty—"taave you decided to
take any part in the discussion, "What
will we do in Heaven?"
Good Minister —No, miss. I am at
present much more interested in the
question, "What shall we do to get
there?" —N. Y. Weekly.
The Ratio.
The statesman strives to be exact,
His zeal, he'll ne'er restrain it.
It takes a day to state a fact
And thirty to explain it.
—Washington Star.
MIGHT MEAN WAR.
"I say, old chap, do you think I look
like an Englishman?"
"You do, my boy, but don't tell the
English, I said so."—Rochester Demo
crat-Chronicle.
Expensive.
We call a girl a priceless pearl.
And it is even betting
We do it ere we are aware
How costly is tile setting.
—Puck.
G.SCHMIDT'S, 1
HEADQUARTERS FOR
Is FRESH BREAD,
popular
m CONFECTIONERY
Dally Delivery. Allorderc given prompt and
" •** skillful attention.
WHIN IN DOUBT, TRY Th«>h**««lea4 lh*miol
lA6AINI
Mffori, ISPtll Ik..lifer
aAt «M« Mm All df«i»» »»4 lowa n« tlutktd /J.wiiwlir VilwrUM*
u> frav«'T ">n4. a>« cmMm alln vmln Uua tin Iwuit riawifllMiiDiiA
MaiUS »«l«l t< M' >ia liot-ild !«■>! |uu> J) • i*cut* ai ■•tusSllte
•MStMfaMkMk. A44iws rfcAi MIAIOIStf 6*-. Cl« Sill fc
112 ■siims.Hi
THIS
Windsor
Hotel B
Between 12th and 13th Hta., on Filbert Bt. fl
Philadelphia, Pa. 8
Three minutew WALK from the Reading H
Five minute* f ronl *ke P enn ' a m
European Piun SI.OO per day and upward*.
American Plan $'2.00 per day.
FRANK M. HCHEIBLEY. Manager. Ng
S The Place to Boy Cheap S
) J. F. PARSONS' >
y We promptly obtain U. S. and Foreign (>
piM
J Send model, sketch or photo of invention for»'
112 free report on patentabllltv. For free book, (
< HowtoSecureVn/mC UNDIfQ write*'
112 -i'j n' i I nAUt"lYlAimo <•
linatiainDean's I
I A safe, certain relief for Suppressed ■
■ Menstruation. Never known to fall. Hafe! ■
■ Sure! Speedyl Satisfaction Ouaranteed g
■ or money Refunded. Sent prepaid for g
■ *I.OO per box. Will send them on trial, tog
■ be paid for when relieved. Samples Free. g
g UNITED MtOIOLCO., 80. T4. L««C«»TI» P». g
Sold In Emporium by L. ITaggart an« B.C.
Dodaon.
LADIES
DR. LaFRAHGO'S COMPOUND.
3afe. ipeedy regulator; 25 cents. Drugglati or mall
Booklet, free. DR. LaFUaNCO. Philadelphia, Pa.
ItITT nn A«iragaaranto«dlf 70BOM B
■ PILES I
■ A.MOMmwO p Matt. Thorapeoa, Btipt. H
■ Graded JJrboola, StatMTtllo, K. C , wrltoa : " I can Bay H
■ they *% all YOU elalai for ihm." Dr. B. M. D«ror«, fl
■ Rock. V. Ya., write* : " They fl *t anlrersal eatU- fl
M factiou." Dr. H. D. M-jQiU, Clarksburg Tean., wrltM: fl
H "ID 1 praotlc# of 33 /tart, I bavo fuaad ao rcm«4v 10 fl
■ yoare." Pmica, M Cajrn. Hi tuple* Fraa. Bold fl
BsHRSK!3??BMSBSTS3ffIEEEIHS2!S3JSSHoi
Sold la Emporium by Li Taggozl aud ft- Q
DatwtL
EVERY WOMAN
Sometimes needs a reliable
monthly regulating mediciueb
1 DR. PEAL'S
PENNYROYAL piLLS,
Are prompt, safe and certain in result. The (renu
ine (Dr. I'eal's) never disappoint. 81.00 per boxv.
Sold by R. 0. Dodaon, druggist
For Bill Heads,
Letter Heads,
Fine Commercial
Job Work of All
Kinds,
Get Our Figures.