Bits & Pieces
Held Up, Tied and Left On Rail Bed
Ackley, Jan. 10 - Two highwaymen held up and robbed Clifford Milton of Ackley Thursday evening on the Illinois Central railway track about a mile east of Ackley, and, after binding his legs and arms with a cartridge belt and a strap, left him lying on the track.
He managed to roll off the right of way and tried to work his way to the nearest crossroads, but finding progress almost impossible, lay there for an hour until his cries were heard by a passing farm hand, who released him.
Milton had been hunting. He was returning to Ackley along the tracks. About a mile east of town he stopped to light his pipe and laid his loaded shotgun across the rails during the process. Two men stepped out from beneath a culvert and inquired if he could tell them how soon they could catch a freight at Ackley. He said he did not know and the next minute was looking into the muzzle of a magazine gun. The smaller of the two men went through his clothes. They relieved him of a gold watch and chain, a hunting knife and a silver dollar.
The smaller man then unbuckled a strap with which Milton had a couple of pigeons slung across his shoulder, and fastened his wrists tightly together. A cartridge belt was used to fasten his ankles tightly together. The holdups then tipped him over on his face and told him to lie there until he thought it was safe to turn over.
Two men closely answering the description hung around the tower house at the west end of the Illinois Central yards a large part of the afternoon Thursday. They were seen to start east on the track about 5 o'clock in the evening.
Source: Webster City Freeman, January 13. 1914
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