12 
Indiana University Studies 
punished criminals, but they degenerated into a body of men 
who used their power to further their own selfish aims. People 
of the community, not members of the organization, were kept 
terrorized. They usually knew the perpetrators of the out- 
rages but were unwilling to report them since they would have 
been “white-capped"’ before the courts could have acted. 
People unpopular in the community usually moved at the first 
request accompanied by a bundle of switches ; if not they were 
always ready to leave after the first visit of the band of men 
who beat them with clubs and switches, not heeding the ago- 
nized pleadings of the victim. In some cases the whole family 
was tortured. 
This method came to be used to gain coveted farms. At 
last the county authorities had to act, and after the last out- 
rage the participants were given a long sentence. An indis- 
creet young man in whose home the investigator stayed for 
some time told how the boys of the “best families” were sworn 
into the organization as soon as they were 21 years old. He 
complained that the “trash” of the community was getting 
too “smart” since the courts had unjustly stopped the afore- 
said families from keeping them in order. 
Many other wild things have happened and are still happen- 
ing among these hills. People carry guns and use them most 
unexpectedly. Revenge is easily obtained, and the county is 
full of stories of violence: burned houses, barns, and fences; 
poisoned stock, and cut timber. The same young man who 
deplored the curbing of the White-Cappers about 5 years ago 
wished to court the young lady sent out from town to teach 
the district school. She did not care for his company, and to 
get revenge he waited until one night when her school was 
to give a box supper the proceeds of which were to go to the 
buying of new books for the school library. He collected 4 
other reckless fellows, passed around some whiskey, and went 
to the schoolhouse, which they entered shooting between and 
above people into the ceiling. Everybody fled, spending no 
money, and the young man was avenged. This story sounds 
like a happening out west about 25 years ago, but it really 
happened in County H. of Indiana about 5 years ago, and the 
principal male actor is now (1918) only 27 years old. 
In the northern section of the county there is another large 
group of hills which are even higher than those in the region 
of Township 12, but are fewer in number and their slopes are 
