The people of South Richland township were on the alert for the scalp of any suspicious character that may be lurking in that vicinity with no visible means of support and a dirty shirt. Monday evening it became noised about that a battered and seedy looking specimen of humanity had sought refuge from the elements in an old log house on John Ort's farm a short distance east of Defiance.
A courier bestrode a horse and rode from house to house, sounding the alarm and urging the capture of the desperado dead or alive at any cost.
At a late hour the abandoned house was surrounded by about twenty men, all farmers of that section, and they had blood in their eyes.
James Brockelsby and George Bumpus acted as captains of the party and marched their men up to within half a mile of the house where the desperate man was supposed to be ambushed and there halted. The party who had so recklessly taken the law into their own hands were armed to the teeth. Their weapons consisted of muskets, scythes, harrow teeth, axes, pump handles, sled stakes, garden rakes and churn dashes.
After completely surrounding the house the party moved up a few feet and closed in to within 500 feet of the house and began to discharge their muskets, calling upon the turk to surrender.
After the fusillade had been continued for about an hour the inmate of the old house awoke and came out to see what had disturbed his slumbers. He proved to be an old inoffensive tramp about 80 years old, who hadn't eaten any thing but a cold potato for days and was as harmless as a muley cow. The laugh was on the party who returned home covered with mud and chagrin.
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