Cape County's Anti-Horsethief Association

At the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center, we are on a (probably never-ending) quest to reorganize the stacks. As a result, I'm running across all kinds of bits and pieces of the county's history, in interesting locations. This, for example, is a membership roll of the Cape Girardeau County Anti-Horsethief Association, written onto the back few pages of the circuit court clerk's fee book from the era.

The Anti-Horsethief Association, or the AHA (probably what the members shouted upon discovery of stolen horses), was founded in 1890 by Fred A. Kage. According to a 2014 blog entry from Sharon Sanders -- semissourian.com/blogs/fromthemorgue/entry/57734, Kage owned a livery stable in Cape Girardeau. Sounds like a vested interest to me.

A box dedicated to the Anti-Horsethief Association of Cape Girardeau County was already in place at the Archive Center when the membership roll turned up. One of the volunteers at the Archive had been working to sort out a stack of documents and books shelved with the territorial-era (pre-statehood, so prior to 1821) court records, and one of the many books in this stack was a circuit court clerk fee book from the late 1800s. Obviously, not all of the books and documents in this stack were from the time frame indicated by their placement, so we had set about getting everything situated. The volunteer who had inventoried everything happened to open the back of this fee book. There's a lesson in that, to always open the back of the book too, even if it seems empty.

I took photos of the pages and printed out a copy to add to the Anti-Horsethief Association's box, and while I was at it, I sorted through the rest of the box. Among the treasurer's reports and minutes were correspondence and news articles clipped from the Southeast Missourian, which Sharon referenced in her blog entry.

A printed copy of the group's constitution was also tucked into a folder, still smelling of pipe tobacco. Each member was to pay $1 for annual membership, and another $1 for annual dues, but only if the group's funds were lower than $200 total.

The group's executive committee was authorized to offer a reward of up to $50 for a stolen horse or mule owned by any member, and if the animal was not recovered, to pay 50% of the animal's value.

Some membership information was already among the records of said association, but this membership roll offers a new glimpse into the organization's mechanics.

In all, there are nearly 400 entries on the roll, unfortunately not all dated, but starting in about 1893. Notable entries include William Paar, H.R. English, R. Giboney, August Meyer, Carl Umbeck -- and members of the Goza, Poe, Koehler and McNeely families, among many others.

That this group existed and had such notable members is a testament to the county's sense of community and organization at the turn of the 20th century, and that it disbanded around the time ownership was turning from horses to automobiles is hardly surprising. Still, the more we discover, the more completely we can tell the county's story.