By JOSEPH I. McCAIN
From page 37 of the July 1977 issue of Lost Treasure magazine.
Copyright ©1977, 1997 Lost Treasure, Inc.
Central Illinois today is an agricultural area, sprinkled here and there
with small peaceful towns. Very few of its citizens know that these same communities were
once terrorized by a vicious outlaw gang. Even fewer are aware that the desperados cached
substantial amounts of their loot in glass bottles sealed with beeswax.
In 1832, John Birch migrated to central Illinois from North Carolina and settled on forty
acres in Clark County. With him came his two sons, Robert and Timothy. Robert Birch was
just twelve years old at that time, but before the next decade had passed, he became the
undisputed leader of one of the most notorious gangs in outlaw history.
It is likely that John Birch (known by the nickname "Old Coon") encouraged his
sons to enter a life of crime. It is a known fact that he kept a rendezvous-hide-out at
the Birch family cabin nine miles southwest of the county seat of Marshall.
This cabin was in a small clearing surrounded by virgin forest. Due to the Birch's
reputation and the formidable countryside, it is small wonder that few dared venture there
without invitation.
By the early 1840's, the activities of the Birch gang had spread over most of Illinois as
well as parts of Iowa, Missouri and Indiana, and included the dubious arts of horse
stealing, counterfeiting, robbery and murder. The scope of the gang's operation, and the
large numbers within its ranks, made it nearly impossible for local law officers to combat
the outlaws. However, in 1845, a crime was committed by the gang that aroused the wrath of
the public to a point where it was decided to bring in outside help to destroy the Birch
gang.
In the northern Illinois community of Rock Island lived an elderly gentleman named Col.
Davenport. The Colonel owned a beautiful home overlooking the Mississippi River, and was
locally popular and well respected. On July 4th of that year, he was attacked in his home
by three men and tortured in a vain attempt to force him to reveal where his money was
hidden. Leaving the old man dying of numerous wounds, the three desperados fled, taking
the colonel's pocket watch, firearms, and a small amount of cash.
Col. Davenport was able to crawl to a window which faced on the river, and his cries for
help soon summoned aid from a boat that was passing below. He lived just long enough to
give descriptions of Robert Birch and two other gang members.
Rock Island law officers subsequently engaged the services of Edward Bonney, already
famous for his detective work, and set him on the trail of the outlaws. Bonney traveled to
Marshall, where he persuaded the sheriff to show him the trail to the Birch homestead.
Within a mile or so of the Old Coon's cabin, the sheriff pointed the direction for Bonney
to take and prudently set off in the opposite one.
Detective Bonney approached the shackled dwelling alone and was met by the Old Coon and
his son, Tim. By carefully dropping a few names and known facts, Bonney was able to
convince the two bandits that he was himself an outlaw, and a friend of Robert Birch.
Thereafter, he was invited to spend the night. And during the evening's conversation, Old
Coon revealed to Bonney that the clerk of the court in Marshall was a friend of the gang
and always warned them in advance of approaching trouble.
Years later, when Bonney recounted his adventures in his book "Banditti of the
Prairies", the enraged citizens of Marshall assumed the unnamed clerk to have been
one Davis Phillips. He and his son, Tom, were seized, roped to trees, and publicly
whipped. As a result the Phillips family left Clark County and moved west.
The next day Old Coon sent Bonney to join another gang member who lived a few miles away.
"Old Grant" Redden kept a tumbledown hideout for gang members at his farm on
Devil's Creek near Montrose, Illinois. Based on Old Coon's recommendation and Bonney's
story, he quickly accepted the detective as a member of the gang.
From this point on, Bonney pretended to join with the outlaws in their deviltries, all the
while learning more and more about the band and its members. This information eventually
helped him break up the Birch Gang, causing some of them to be hanged and sending many of
the others to prison. Robert Birch, when finally arrested by Detective Bonney, still had
Col. Davenport's watch in his possession.
In 1852, an angry posse of Clark County citizens attacked the Birch family cabin and
captured Timothy Birch. The few remaining gang members fled to Missouri and were never
seen in Illinois again.
The extent of the Birch's operations would; of course, indicate that they were able to
accumulate a hoard of stolen valuables. Old Grant Redden confided to Detective Bonney that
large amounts of money had been sealed in glass bottles with beeswax and buried in a wheat
field near the Devil's Creek hideout. In his memoirs, Bonney indicates that this method
was a common practice among gang members who desired, for one reason or another, to cache
their ill-gotten wealth.
There is no record of any of this loot being recovered. Careful research of newspaper
files in areas where the gang operated could provide valuable clues to potential treasure
sites. Robert Birch himself spent a lot of time in the Rock Island area, where he
eventually committed the crime that brought about his downfall. An additional clue is that
he often used aliases. Blecher and Harris were two--Joseph I. McCAIN