Valley Girl Views: When A Local Man Singlehandedly Fought Off A Band Of Burglars

In 1902, a series of increasingly daring robberies were occurring across central Pennsylvania. On October 2, the bandits came to Montoursville. Alem Bly was working the night shift in the trolley powerhouse, when 5 masked bandits broke down the door. Alem got to his gun and was able to kill one of the would be robbers, and wound two others, before running out a back door to the nearby furniture factory to sound the whistle for assistance. Alem had been shot twice himself, and the bullet in his hip would remain there for nine years, causing him constant pain and leaving him lame for the rest of his life.

A Montoursville Trolley Car, Abt 1900
Read more about the Montoursville Passenger Railway (trolleys) here:
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2021/12/when-montoursville-had-trolley.html

Alem Bly, a former Watsontown man, was working the night shift as an engineer at the trolley power house, when he heard a large crash at the door. He ran to his desk for his revolver, just as 5 men with handkerchiefs over their faces battered down the door with a large piece of lumber used as a battering ram.

As the men entered, they saw Bly and began to shoot. Bly shot back, killing the man closest to him in one clean shot. Bly himself was hit twice, once in the thigh, and once in the hip. When his revolver was empty, he slipped out a back door.

As he emerged from the building, Bly was confronted by a sixth member of the gang, who raised his revolver to fire. With a blow of his fist, Bly sent the fellow flying, then leaping over his body, ran to the furniture factory 100 years distant, while the burglars continued to shoot at him.

The sounding of the whistle brought a crowd, and soon armed posses were sent out to scour the neighborhood, but the bandits were not found.

The "powerhouse", which shared a building with the trolley office, where the safe was located. On the right in the map above, the yellow building along the south alley was the "car barn". There was a safe here, and the trolley drivers would come here each evening to turn in their receipts for the day. To the right was the Montoursville Electric Light and Power company. Look to the left on the map, the pink building was the train station, and behind it, the large yellow building, is the furniture factory where Alem ran for help.

The Dead Bandit

The dead man had a scar under his eye, and one on his leg.

The following day, Thomas Higgins (alias John Daley) was arrested on a drunk and disorderly charge. He confessed to being involved in the shoot out the night before, and told authorities that the dead man was Joseph Keiser. He further confessed that he and his accomplices had pulled Keiser from the building to hurriedly cut away Keisers name, which had been tattooed on his arm.

The dead man however, was not Keiser. The body was positively identified by his family members as John Gibbons, who had left Mr Caramel "about the time the strike commenced".

Joseph Keiser and Thomas McHale, both of Shenandoah, were accomplices in the robbery, both fugitives who had been "carrying on their criminal careers for years."

As it was soon learned, the men were part of an organized gang working out of rented rooms in Avondale. They group had been pulling off daring robberies throughout the state for months, and although authorities were beginning to close in on them, it was Alem Bly who brought an end to their criminal enterprise.

The Hero, Alem Bly

Mr Haggerty of Philadelphia, on behalf of the company, presented Bly with a "handsome gold watch, appropriately inscribed."

By December of 1902, Bly was declared by his doctor as unfit to identify his attackers. The constant retelling of his adventure, along with nightmares, had severely effected him, and his nerves were shattered. The doctor expected him to make a full recovery in time, but ordered that he have complete rest and quiet for some time.

The bullet in Bly's thigh would remain for 9 years, before an operation removed it. He spent the rest of his life in constant pain, and according to his obituary, was left lame by the ordeal.

But he returned to work. We know this, because in June of 1906, Alem Bly lost three fingers on his left hand in a buzz planer at the factory where he was employed.

Bly was the son of John Bly of Watsontown. His family owned and operated the Watsontown ferry . Alem and his wife are buried in the Watsontown Cemetery.

The Gang Of Bandits

Nine months prior to the shoot out in Montoursville, five smooth, suave, and gentlemanly appearing young men appeared in Avondale Pa. The men ranged in aged from 25 to 35 years. They were clean cut, and possessed a good education. The men gave the impression of being men of means, who had no object other than to enjoy life. They made their headquarters at the hotel of Mrs Johanna Brennaon on the the public road, renting a number of rooms and stating that their stay would be "indefinite".

The people of the town were at first very suspicious, supposing that the men had been sent by the coal companies, for strike purposes. For weeks, every movement of the men was carefully scrutinized, but there was no hint that they were friendly to the coal barons.

As time passed, it was rumored that the men were secret service men, running down counterfeiters, and that their generosity was only to draw money from peoples pockets to ascertain whether or not it was genuine currency.

The men of Avondale however, were soon won over by the generosity of the strangers. "More than one man in Avondale has boasted that he became drunk three times in one day at the expense of the visitors."

More than once, a man who complained of the hardships caused to their families by the strikes, the young men would carelessly throw a "greenback of no small denomination" their way, with the admonition to go home and buy the necessities of life for their little ones.

Other groups of men would come to the hotel where the men stayed. Often four or five at a time, once there were no less than eleven. Every few weeks one or two of the men would leave, sometimes not returning for weeks. The actions were found to be suspicious, but no one guessed that their little town was hosting a gang of robbers now believed to have commited some of the most daring robberies of 1902.

After the foiled attempt in Montoursville, the visitors of Avondale hastily packed up and left. In all, it's thought that 15 men were in the league of robbers

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