Glenn Young and Belgian Police Dog Capture Eight Army Deserters and Moonshiners in Wilds of Boone Hill Township, August 1919

From the News and Observer, as reprinted in The Franklin Times, Louisburg, N.C., Aug. 23, 1919

Glenn Young Gets Eight Deserters. . . Special Officer Arrests Notorious Gang in Johnston County. . . Banded Together, Making Whiskey

S. Glenn Young and his Belgian police dog are in town and so are eight of the most notorious blockaders and desperadoes of Johnston county. The last will go with the first this morning to Camp Jackson and there answer a charge of desertion from the United States Army in time of war.

Special Officer Young, who is operating from the District Attorney’s office, caught the eight Saturday night on “The Islands,” the No-Man’s Land of Johnston county, and brought them to Raleigh yesterday. Last night they were released by him on their honor and this morning he expects every man to show up for the trip to Jackson.

The eight arrested are: Walter Sassar, Milford Lynch, Jonathan Woodward, Walter Leggins, Benjamin Doughterty, Rayford Brown, Harvey Thornton, and Andrew Eason.

The double quartet was surprised Saturday night, Young catching four at one time, relieving them of their guns and turning them over to his police dog while he went for the others. Five guns, a pistol and four automatic rifles, were taken from the eight deserters.

Several attempts have been made to catch the eight deserters, who had banded together in the wilds of Boone Hill township and were defying all agencies of the law. Not only did they propose to resist arrest on the charge of desertion but, in order to pass the time away, they engaged in manufacturing blockade whiskey.

It was probably the whiskey business that led to their arrest. Local officers, according to reports in the United States Marshal’s office, knew that the eight, with other deserters, were in the county, but were unable, seemingly, to locate them. Young was advised that Alex Cox, a negro under indictment for blockading, knew where they were hiding and would give the information to an officer in the hope of obtaining clemency. The officer conferred with Alex and went after the deserters. He got them, as everyone on Martin street knew yesterday afternoon.

The eight just arrested by Young give him a record of 618 captured in the last 14 months, the majority of them in North Carolina. Just a few days ago, he caught another Mitchell county deserter, Mose Miller, who is in jail waiting to be carried to Camp Jackson.

And Young gets them single handed unless his Belgian dog is counted. The dog will guard any 12 and hold them while his master goes off looking for more. In fact, the dog serves as a temporary jail when the deserters are caught too far to carry in a night.

Of the eight Johnston county men, seven were camp deserters. Andrew Eason deserted from Company C, 119^th Infantry, before it left Goldsboro for Camp Sevier.