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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 30 |
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Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: April 1992 Volume 30 Number 2, Pages 63–70 The Tredyffrin Association The Tredyffrin Association, for the Recovery of Stolen Live Stock and the Detection of Burglars and Thieves (hereafter referred to as the Association), was a voluntary mutual assistance organization which flourished in our local agricultural community during the last half of the nineteenth century. Formed in 1848 in Centreville in Tredyffrin Township (later known as New Centreville after the establishment of a post office by that name there in 1857), it served well the need for the protection of the personal property of its members, a self-help solution to horse thievery. Located as it was, astride the eastern end of Chester County's fertile "Great Valley", Tredyffrin's early development was closely linked to the land and farm and agricultural pursuits. The natural advantages of the Valley encouraged settlement very early in the eighteenth century as the frontier pushed westward. The first United States Census, taken in 1790, showed 157 households in Tredyffrin. Most of them were engaged in some way in farming. Although the first settlers had purchased 300 or more acres of land each, by 1790 the average size of the landholding by the third generation of the pioneers was slightly over 80 acres. Thirty years later the number of households had grown to about 230, and the average landholding was 55 acres. Nineteenth century development brought with it the need for new institutions. There was no provision, for example, for the protection of a citizen's property in the sense we know of it today. The sheriff was the local justice official, but he was responsible for law and order in all the 760 square mile area of the county and was not often seen in Tredyffrin. Further, the Lancaster Turnpike on the ridge south of the Valley, and the development of the Schuylkill Canal and the Columbia Railroad on either side, brought strangers to the area and solidified the need for law enforcement. For the residents of the Valley in 1820 the horse was, without doubt, their most valued possession. It was indispensable to the farmers as it provided the power to plow, plant, cultivate and harvest, and at the same time gave mobility to its owner. As a consequence, the horse was much coveted and exposed to theft. Once stolen, the animal itself provided the means for flight and safety from apprehension. Andrew S. Berky, Director of the Schwenkfelder Library in Pennsburg, writing in a publication of the Pennsylvania German Society, noted, "There were stringent laws on the state books designed to curb horse thievery, but there were no comparable law enforcement agencies on a township level. In the end most citizens had to supplement the laws by forming their own protective groups." As an incentive to just that kind of community cooperation, the Pennsylvania General Assembly on March 15, 1821 enacted legislation offering a handsome reward of $20 to any person or group of persons who pursued and apprehended horse thieves. Furthermore, the pursuers were to receive "six cents for every mile necessarily travelled in pursuit of the offender". This action by the state sparked the organization of many so-called "horse companies", formed to protect the farming community against the depradations of criminals. In fact, it is known that a horse company had been formed in Lower Merion by 1818, even before the state legislation offering rewards was placed on the books. The Coventry horse company began its operations in 1821. Activity in East Whiteland is shown by a notice that appeared in the Village Record on January 2, 1822: "The ... Society for the detection of Horse Thieves will meet at the Warren Tavern on 5 January at six o'clock p.m." It is not surprising, then, that a similar organization was called into being in Tredyffrin Township. On the first page of the minute book of the Association (now in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society) is found an undated record of the founding of this organization: "Pursuant to a Notice, the citizens of Tredyffrin Township and vicinity met at the house of Evans Kendall/Centreville ... for the purpose of organizing an association for the recovery of stolen property, &c. The following resolutions were presented and adopted ... "Resolved: That we consider it necessary that an organization should be formed throughout the country for the protection of personal property, believing that in districts where such organizations do exist there is much less thieving than where they do not; therefore the object of this meeting is to organize an association for the recovery of stolen property and detection of thieves. "Resolved: That a committee of three be appointed to draft a constitution and by-laws for said association and report the same at our next meeting. "Resolved: That Stephen Stephens, Samuel Davis and Isaac R. Massey compose that committee. "Resolved that we adjourn to meet at Evan Kendall's on Thursday evening at 6 o'clock." The group met again on Monday evening, January 24, 1848, appointed Samuel H. David, chair, Moses R. Walker, secretary, and Joseph B. Walker, treasurer, to act as provisional officers, and adopted the name "Tredyffrin Association for the recovery of stolen property and for the detection of burglars and thieves". A draft of a constitution and by-laws was also presented, although it was not adopted until October. It is interesting to note that the word "property" was used in the name of the Association; twenty-one years later, in 1869, it was changed to "live stock". The constitution and by-laws of the Association give an insight into the workings of a horse company. The responsibilities of the usual officers were defined, as well as those of an Auditing Committee and, in 1869, an unusual group, a Detective Committee. The duty of this latter committee was to "notify the members of the Association when necessary that property [had] been stolen, to offer a reward for the recovery of the same and for the detection of the thief, and when stolen and not recovered, ... [to] report their investigation to a meeting ... in detail, and if accepted by the Association, an order be granted to the treasurer in favor of the owner, for two-thirds of the valuation". The value of a horse was typically about $100 at that time. In his history of the nineteenth century iron-making community Hopewell Village, located less than thirty miles northwest of the Great Valley, Joseph E. Walker wrote that "the price of horses remained remarkably stable in the first half of the nineteenth century". "A good sound horse in the prime ages," he observed, "was never very far from $100 in price. There were many sales at that exact price and numerous others at a range from $90 to $120 each. Animals lost rapidly in value when they were past their best work years or when they were impaired in some way." Membership in the Association was open to any person (whose application was not rejected) upon signing the constitution and by-laws and paying an entrance fee of one dollar. (By 1869 this fee had increased to $10.) Quarterly contributions to the Association of twenty-five cents (later fifty cents semi-annually) were also required, with a further proviso that if there were insufficient funds in the treasury to meet expenses a tax would be levied on the members. (The balance in the Association's treasury actually increased gradually through the years, to over $1000 in the late 1880s, and it appears that such a tax on the members was never needed.) Members might sell or transfer their membership to any person approved by the Association.
Stated meetings were held quarterly (later semi-annually) on the first Saturday evening of January, April, July, and October at the Centreville Hotel at "7% o'clock", with special meetings, if necessary, at the call of the president. The January meeting was designated as the Annual Meeting. One-third of the membership constituted a quorum. A list of the members, published in 1870, showed 55 members:
At this time, each member was to furnish to the Detective Committee, at the January meeting, a full written description of his horses. This list was kept in the committee's file, with the owner also retaining a copy for himself. (It is interesting to see the term "horses" used here as the listed property when the name of the organization originally referred only to the broader general term "property" and later to "live stock" in general. Through the years claims were, in fact, also paid to members for lost cattle and sheep, but horses were the principal concern.) Procedures for the pursuit and apprehension of thieves by pursuer groups were spelled out in pertinent detail. Members formed themselves into pairs and selected their routes by ballot annually. The minutes for the January 5, 1850 meeting show the routes to be searched as the roads to Allentown, Easton, Mount Holly, Port Deposit, Wilmington, Lancaster, New Hope, Philadelphia, Reading and Trenton. If live stock of a member "to the amount of ten dollars be stolen [the amount was raised to $20 in 1869]", the owner was to notify the president immediately, giving him a written description of same. The president would, in turn, notify the Detective Committee. It would then alert the membership, which would "immediately pursue by the route appointed him, in search of the property and the thief, the first fifty miles [twenty miles after 1869] at his own expense, and if intelligence of either was obtained, continue pursuit at the expense of the Association, while the recovery of property or the apprehension of the thief was probable". On return from the search or pursuit of a thief members were required to report immediately to one of the Detective Committee. A fine of five dollars was assessed on any member who neglected to ride (or send a deputy) upon notice being given him. The officers, including the members of the Detective Committee, however, were exempt from the duty of pursuit. During the early years of the Association's existence no losses of property were reported, and a certain amount of complacency about attendance at meetings developed. In 1859 the secretary was instructed to post notices at four places in the township at least ten days before scheduled meetings: one at Centreville, at the post office; one at the post office in Howellville; one at Dice's Shop (the blacksmith shop of Jesse Dice on Yellow Springs Road); and one at Stephens' Shop (probably the blacksmith shop of Stephen? Stephens on Gulph Road). The 1848 constitution provided that it was the duty of each member to brand his horse or horses with the letters "T.A.", and to keep a written description thereof. The requirement was deleted from the revised 1869 constitution, although such a practice was apparently not an uncommon requirement of the horse companies of the day. Berky noted an advertisement in Upper Milford Township in Lehigh County of a meeting on January 1, 1825, in the afternoon at one o'clock, in which it was announced, "Each member will appear then with his horses, since on the above mentioned date all Society horses will be branded and appraised." Earlier, on April 5, 1822, the Society had paid a local blacksmith one dollar "for making the brand iron which belongs to the Horse Society". Other housekeeping-type regulations provided for exempting property of a member more than 40 miles from home from protection (unless the property belonged to a member in pursuit), for coverage of a member's property after his decease for up to one year, and for a refund by a member who had received compensation for a loss if his stolen property were later recovered. The by-laws provided that the bounty money of $20 which was paid by the state on the conviction of a horse thief was to be paid into the treasury of the Association if the horse stolen was the property of, and the thief was taken by, one or more of the Association's members. At the same time it was further provided that the member or members who detected the thief "shall receive one-fourth of said bounty after it had been paid into the treasury". The by-laws also provided for a fine of twenty-five cents for every member absent at roll call at any regular meeting. Further, there was also a second roll call at the conclusion of the meeting, and leaving without a valid excuse was likewise grounds for a fine. In addition to being viewed as a vehicle for protecting the family and personal property of a farmer-resident of Tredyffrin the meetings of the Association also provided a social outing for the farmer in an era when such social opportunities were not generally available. At the first Annual Meeting in 1849 a committee was appointed "to procure plates and frames with the names of the members thereon", and a year later it was recorded that "the committee on plates reported progress and were continued". Some years later mention was made of the oyster supper anticipated at the Annual Meeting in January 1857, and a meal of oysters or fish appears to have been standard fare at horse company annual meetings in this area. The first occasion on which the Association paid a claim was reported in the minutes for April 3, 1858. There it was recorded that Edward Wilson was paid $20, which was considered one-half of the value of property stolen from him. (There appears to have been some controversy at about that time over whether the payment for losses should be two-thirds of the value, or one-half. The constitution of 1869 called for two-thirds.) John Supplee, a member who owned a farm near the Chester Valley post office in Howellville, and the Association jointly offered a $40 reward in an advertisement in the Jeffersonian of June 5, 1869. Twenty dollars of the reward was offered by the Association, and twenty dollars by Supplee. It seems that one Hiram Fisher, a hired hand who had disappeared about May 8th, was suspected of having stolen $187. There is no report on the outcome of the search for the perpetrator, but the minutes of the June 10 meeting that year report that the claim of John Supplee was settled for $122, the prescribed two-thirds of the value. A success was reported in a case headlined in the Jeffersonian of August 24, 1872 as "A Race after Cattle Thieves". On August 9th, it was reported, nine head of cows and heifers were stolen from the farm of Hugh Steen just south of Paoli. The following morning Mr. Steen, with the aid of several members of the Association, turned out in search of the missing animals, and succeeded in tracking them to the Rose Tree Hotel in Delaware County and from there to the West Philadelphia drove yard. There they were able to establish the identity of the two thieves, one of whom was arrested at his home in Philadelphia. (The full report of the exciting chase which resulted in the capture of the other thief was reproduced in the Quarterly for October 1982 [Vol. XX, No. 4, p. 133].) In the Daily Local News for June 1, 1886 is a report of another successful conclusion to a search. Under the headline "Stolen Horse Recovered" this story appeared: "The bright bay pacing horse stolen from Theodore Beaumont, Easttown, ... has been found. The thief ... rode the horse to the residence of Matthew Barker, Esq., East Whiteland and wished to sell [it] to the 'Squire1, asking $1,000 for it. He then came down to $300, and finally to $40. Mr Barker agreed to take the horse at that price and pay $10 on account. This the thief agreed to and to call the next day for the balance. On Monday the horse was found at Mr Barker's ... Mr Beaumont and the Association are in search of the thief ..." There was much consternation within the Association about Barker, who had served a term as county commissioner from 1873 to 1875, buying an obviously stolen horse, and when the thief was later apprehended Barker did not receive any of the reward, although he was reimbursed for the $10 he was out-of-pocket. When did the Association disappear from the scene? There are records of its existence as late as 1891. The date of its demise is not exactly known, but the advent of the automobile and the accompanying decline in the population of horses in the valley probably worked to dissolve the organization early in the twentieth century. No longer is the horse a necessary accompaniment of every-day life, and law enforcement and the protection of property are now delegated by the state to scores of skilled local professionals. The pleasing countryside and farms surrounding New Centreville have been covered with homes and shopping centers and paved with asphalt. Such is the price of progress, and the end of a colorful and fascinating chapter in the story of the nineteenth century history of Tredyffrin Township. TopReferences Berky, Andrew S., The Schoolhouse Near the Old Spring, Pennsylvania German Society, Norristown, Pa. 1955 Constitution and By-Laws of the Tredyffrin Association for the Recovery of Stolen Live Stock and the Detection of Burglars and Thieves, M. R. Wills, Norristown, Pa. 1870 [in possession of the author] Minute Book : 1848-1890 of the Tredyffrin Association for the Recovery of Stolen Live Stock and the Detection of Burglars and Thieves [in Chester County Historical Society manuscript files, West Chester] Newspaper clippings about Tredyffrin township and surrounding area [in Chester County Historical Society clipping files, West Chester, Pa.] Nugent, John M., "Lower Merion Society for Detection and Prosecution of Horse Thieves and Recovery of Stolen Horses, Part I The Formative - Years", pamphlet 1950 Purdon's Digest : 1700-1853, A Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, 8th Edition, Kay & Brother, Philadelphia 1856 Walker, Joseph E., Hopewell Village, A social and Economic History of a Nineteenth Century Iron-Making Community, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Pa. 1966 |
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