WASECA, Minn. (AP) - Though their days of chasing bandits are long over, members of a Minnesota horse thief detective group continue to meet once a year.
Members of the Waseca County Horse Thief Detectives have an annual Fourth of July picnic where they gather for a potluck, old fashioned games and a brief meeting, the Mankato Free Press (https://bit.ly/2tR9PaR) reported.
This year the group discussed fundraising efforts to support law enforcement, including the option of establishing a college scholarship to help future police officers.
“We’ve kept alive the memory of the past, now we’re looking for ways to impact the future,” said Scott Roemhildt, the group’s president.
The group organized in 1864 to protect themselves from bands of horse thieves, after thieves who’d stolen a valuable pair of horses broke out of jail and disappeared. The group searched for horses or other stolen property valued at more than $50.
Membership in the 19th century was limited to men of “good moral character in Waseca County.” But now there are registered members from 13 countries, Roemhildt said.
“The initial membership list of the association reads like a who’s who of the social and economic elite of the young,” according to Patrick Nolan, who studied and wrote about the group in his doctoral thesis at the University of Minnesota.
The 18 founding members included the first white settler of the county, a physician, veterinarian, the local newspaper editor and the county sheriff.
“A large and influential segment of the population, including the sheriff himself, concluded that the normal forces of law and order were inadequate to contend with the organized bands of horse thieves of the time,” Nolan wrote.
The group’s search for missing horses ended in the 1880s, but they continued to search for other missing items until the 1940s, Roemhildt said.
___
Information from: The Free Press, https://www.mankatofreepress.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.