The Local "Pestiferous gang of horse thieves, barn burners, and counterfeiters" in 1852

For more than 30 years, a "Pestiferous gang of horse thieves, barn burners, and counterfeiters" lived right here in the Susquehanna Valley.  

Horses from all over the state would be ridden to the Limestone Tavern, in Montour County.   From there, they would next stage in the mountains, where they would be "painted, stained, dyed, or cropped" so as not to be recognized by the owners, who were frequently in pursuit.

Why to that specific tavern?  Because the owner, Abe Hause, also ran a counterfeiting ring.  There the horses could be sold for counterfeit money.  Thieves, while selling their horses,  could also exchange $10 of real money for $100 of counterfeit.  

For somewhere between 25 and 30 years, "this old Abe Hause exercised his contaminating vocation".  His tavern at Limestone was "the constant resort of counterfeiters, shovers, and horse thieves" from Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania.  The "Stuff" was brought by, &  "shoved off", on the nearby canal line.

"The location of the gang was well chosen, at a point of Limestone township, Montour County, contiguous to and within a few hundred yards of both Northumberland and Lycoming Counties, leaving access to either county to be ready accomplished in case of surprise.  They had also their mountain and swamp fortresses and spies on every road for miles around."

And they used fear tactics to keep local families from reporting their deeds.  They would burn down the barns of anyone suspected of informing on them.

Abe Hause was "upwards of 60 years" in 1852, and had been "long engaged in this sort of business", according to the Sunbury Gazette.  In the 1830's Hause had been convicted for altering or making counterfeit bills on the Carlisle bank.  He served a number of years at the Eastern Penitentiary, but was pardoned by the Governor a short time before his sentence expired, "through the continued and persevering efforts of his wife".

The criminal enterprise was a full family business, involving Abe's son Louis, his brother in law, two of his son in laws, and, even, at least one of his daughters.

Sometime prior to 1852, a "man" riding a stolen horse was followed by the horses owner.  The horse was ridden to Abe Hause's house, and when the pursuers arrived, it had already been covered in foam (to change it's appearance).  The gray clothes the rider had been wearing were found, but the rider could not be located. The pursuers had been so close behind, they knew there was no chance the thief could have gotten away.  One of Abe's daughters was discovered in a "highly excited and perspiring condition", leaving little doubt that it had been her, riding in the clothing of a man, who had stolen the horse.

Abraham Hause and his son Lewis kept the Limestone Tavern, in Limestone Twp.  James Brass kept the Eagle Tavern, in Muncy.  Manges kept a store on the West Branch Canal, "about a mile and a half below Muncy Dam". James Allen "The Judge", was the engraver, making the counterfeiting plates for the crew. 

By the 1850s, the banks, particularly in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,  were fed up with the influx of counterfeit bills. 

"A regular 'incognito' survey of the whole ground had been made, and maps of the region prepared"  In early August of 1852, after months of planning, several officers arrived in Montour County. 

In August of 1852 Officer Moser, of the city police, arrived undercover at the tavern of Abraham Hause , staying for three days.    He then made an arrangement to purchase a quantity of counterfeit money,  and the gang, believing the officer to be a large buyer, showed him around the entire operation.  He was shown where the money was manufactured, and the various operations of those who were involved in making it.  

Later that week, three additional officers went to the carriage house kept by Hause, on the road leading to Washingtonville, posing as sportsmen.  When they met up with Officer Moser, they all went to the house of Dr Giltner, a short distance from Hause's tavern.   With some of the officers staying back in the woods, Capt. Bennet knocked on the door.   Mrs Giltner answered.  She replied that Dr Giltner was not home, but gave a signal as she attempted to close the door, alerting her husband and the others inside.  Capt Bennett signaled to High Constable Hague, and the two entered the home just in time to hear footsteps and see three men jump out of a window in the rear of the house.  

The two quickly ran downstairs and raised the alarm, but the counterfeiters had cunningly ran in three different directions.  Two of them made it into the woods.  The officers were in a strange country, too unfamiliar with the area to know how to give chase.  

Dr. Giltner, having been warned multiple times, was shot in the shoulder by Officer Moser, and was then captured and taken into custody.  

Upon his arrest,  Giltner asked if Marshal Keyser was one of the officers in the party.  Keyser and Giltner were member of the same Lodge, and Giltner said Keyser would "make it all right".  Officer Hague and Cap Bennet replied that they were also members of the same fraternity, and that Giltner was an unworthy brother.

August 14, 1852

The Giltner home was then searched.  Inside was found a full set of engravers instruments, a printing press, the chemicals and "other preparations" using in making counterfeit money, & $600 in counterfeit Harrisburg bank notes, still wet, having just been printed.  Hidden away in different parts of the house were also found a large number of bills for the Lancaster Bank, Northumberland Bank, York Bank, Bank of Pittsburgh, and the Cape May bank.  The Cape May bank notes were altered from the notes of the exploded Millington Bank. 

The Harrisburg bank plates had been carried off by one of the men who had escaped, but the plates for the Merchants & Manufacturers Ban at Pittsburgh and the Cape May bank plates were found at a house about thirteen miles away, on the road leading to Turbotville.


Dr Giltner was a "skilled and beautiful penman".  He as alleged to be the "masterspirit" of the band of counterfeiters, and he signed all of the bank notes.  

On the  26h of August, two officers returned  to Danville with warrants to take the rest of the gang into custody.  This time warrants for the arrest of all of the gang were provided, and backed by the the authorities of all three counties.

On August 28th, Abe Hause and James Brass were arrested at Danville.  Later that day Lewis Hause was captured, and Dr. Geltner, who had been "liberated from the prison on unsatisfactory bail" was re-arrested.

Although Abe Hause was unable to escape this time, he was able to send off an "express" to warn Manges, who escaped by "swimming the river" and was still eluding capture as of October 1852.  Allen, the engraver, was later arrested in Philadelphia.

During the arrests, a counterfeit plate for Harrisburg, along with $10,000 in notes nearly ready for issue, were recovered.  

Although many of the men involved were arrested, few served any real jail time. Most of the principals received 2 years at most.  Dr Giltner,  moved to Oregon in the 1860s, and The History Of Oregon, Volume III, devotes nearly three pages to singing his praises, with no mention at all of his criminal activities.

Find more local history & stories from the Central Susquehanna Valley here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/history.html

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In October of 1952, Abe & Lewis Hause were in prison at Danville, Brass was out on $3,000 (Roughly the equivalent of $100,000 today) bail until scheduled to appear in court in Sunbury. Mange "has kept himself secreted and is at large."
Hause was held on $7,000 bail, Brass on $3,000.

 

Abraham Hause
Abraham W. Hause was born April 6 1790. He died December 17 1861, and is buried with a large stone at the Union Church Cemetery in Turbotville. His find a grave entry reads: "He was the son of John Haas/Hause and was born in Chester County, PA. His wife was Mary Keeley, daughter of Jacob and Mary (nee Shimer). The known children of Abraham and Mary were Elizbeth, Sophia (m. Tobias Shurtz and moved to Michigan), Mary (m. James Brass), Lewis and Martha Matilda (m. Dr. Jacob S. Giltner and moved to Oregon)."

Manges

Brother in law of Abraham Hause

"Manges kept a store on the West Branch Canal, about a mile and a half below the Muncy Dam"

James Benfield Brass

Son in law of Abraham Hause
1816-1896.  Buried in Muncy Cemetery
Son if Lucas & Elizabeth (Laverty) Brass. 

Married Mary Hause.  Owned the Eagle Tavern in Muncy, Lycoming County
In the 1870s, James Brass still owned his tavern in Muncy, and he was in the news once again, apparently still dealing in stolen horses.
William Muthart, "one of the most desperate horse thieves in the state" was released from jail after a governors pardon in March of 1882. He had been arrested in the early part of 1870, for stealing two horses, two carriages, and a harness.  The stolen property was all found in the possession of James Brass "a tavern keeper in Muncy".

Although consistently referred to as a tavern owner near the Muncy Dam, in the 1850 census he is listed as a tavern keeper in Milton.   In 1860 he's listed as a boatman in Muncy, and in 1870 he's listed as a hotel keeper in Lewis Twp.

Dr Jacob Sidney Giltner

Son in law of Abraham Hause

The Morning Oregonian (Portland, OR)

May 20, 1910 pg. 13

DR. GILTNER DEAD

Famous Pioneer Surgeon of Northwest Passes.

RESIDENT HERE SINCE 1866

Born in 1824 in Pennsylvania, He Married in 1846, Served Through Civil War and Then Came West – Active in Charities.

The funeral of Dr. Jacob S. Giltner, an old-time Oregonian, who died Wednesday night, will be held at the family residence, First and Market streets, Saturday morning at 10 o’clock. Dr. T. H. Walker, pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church, and intimate friend of the dead physician, will officiate. Burial will be in Riverview Cemetery.

Dr. Giltner died at the age of 86. He had lived in Portland since 1866, coming here directly after the Civil War, following his discharge as a surgeon in the Union Army. He had lived at the present family home for 43 years, when it was a suburban residence and Portland had a population of only 7000.

Death came at 10:20 o’clock Wednesday as the result of a stroke of paralysis received May 12. It was the third and proved to be the fatal stroke since 1906, two years after the death of his wife, when he retired from active practice. The second stroke was sustained last year. Up until the last moment Dr. Giltner retained full possession of his mental faculties and looked with understanding on the faces of all his surviving relatives when the final moment came.

For many years Dr. Giltner was the most distinguished surgeon in the Northwest. He was born October 24, 1824, in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. While still young he was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, marrying, in 1846, Miss Martha M. Hause, of Germantown, Pa.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he entered a competitive examination and was appointed to the directorship of the medical corps and the hospital at Nashville, Tenn., of the Army of the Cumberland. It was through the surgical experience obtained in that position that he afterward became famous.

Dr. Giltner was of a charitable nature, although very modest concerning his bequests. According to Dr. Walker, his pastor, he regularly gave one-tenth of his earnings to worthy causes. It was with great reluctance that he abandoned the active practice of his profession in 1904, owing to the illness of his wife, who died soon afterward. He was a close student of literature, history and sociology.

During his last illness Dr. Giltner was attended by Dr. Gustav Baar, who says the aged man was a good patient and survived much longer than a less vigorously constituted person would under similar affectations.

Among his relatives here is B. F. Giltner, a brother 76 years old, whose son, Edmund C. Giltner, is secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. His sons, Rush Giltner, a well-known attorney, and Frank F. Giltner, live in Portland. Mrs. Vincent Cook and Mrs. Emma G. White, of Portland, are his daughters. Mrs. Kate G. Fox, of Ashland, Or., is a sister of Dr. Giltner.

"Dr Geltner had many friends, and received an education fitting him for another and higher sphere, one of usefulness to his fellow men; but he chose to be a law breaker, and now, in bitterness of heart and by sad experience, is realizing the great truth, "the way of the transgressor is hard".
He had attended the University of Pennsylvania

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There is also nearly 3 pages dedicated to Dr Giltner, in The History of Oregon, Volume 3.  Pages 659-661.  Glowing praise, with no mention of his criminal enterprises.

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