Location: US 31 & Terrell Road, south of the overspan railroad bridge & W. Morgan, north city limits of Scottsburg. (Scott County, Indiana)
Installed: 2002 Indiana Historical Bureau, Preservation Alliance, Inc., and Scott County Community Foundation
ID# : 72.2002.8
Text
Side one:
One of earliest U.S. train robberies occurred May 22, 1868 at nearby Marshfield, a refueling and watering stop. Engine and express car were detached from Jeffersonville, Madison, and Indianapolis Railroad train and abandoned near Seymour. Notorious Reno Gang took U.S. treasury notes and government bonds from Adams Express Company safes in car.
Side two:
Indiana-based Reno Gang operated after the Civil War during a period of unemployment and lawlessness. Vigilante organizations continued to be active. Pinkerton National Detective Agency investigated Marshfield robbery and apprehended several suspects. Before any were tried, members of Reno Gang were lynched by vigilantes.
Keywords
Transportation
Annotated Text
One of earliest U.S. train robberies(1) occurred May 22, 1868 at nearby Marshfield, a refueling and watering stop. Engine and express car were detached from Jeffersonville, Madison, and Indianapolis Railroad train and abandoned near Seymour.(2) Notorious Reno Gang took U.S. treasury notes and government bonds from Adams Express Company safes in car.(3)
Indiana-based Reno Gang operated after the Civil War during a period of unemployment(4) and lawlessness.(5) Vigilante organizations continued to be active.(6) Pinkerton National Detective Agency investigated Marshfield robbery(7) and apprehended several suspects.(8) Before any were tried, (9) members of Reno Gang were lynched by vigilantes.(10)
Notes:
(1) Dictionary of American History (New York, 1940), 7:97
(2) Edwin J. Boley, The Masked Halters (Seymour, Ind., 1977), 218-23
(3) Boley, 304-5 (Indictments for the assault and robbery)
(4) Boley, 14
(5) Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850-1880 (Indianapolis, 1965), 6-7.
(6) Thornbrough, 6-7, 270.
(7) Alan Pinkerton biography, Columbia Encyclopedia, (New York, 1963), 1668; Boley, 218-23
(8) Boley, 306, 309
(9) Scott County Order Book 9, February 2, 1869; Boley, 32-33
(10) Boley, 373