Vigilantes: Chelsea Regulators / Niobrara Mutual Protective Association

Governor Thayer

I wanted to write just a bit more about the vigilantes from the early Nebraska days.  In the area of the Niobrara River where Newt Turpin resided, it was well-known that vigilantes existed.  The area included Brown, Rock, Holt, Boyd, and Keya Paha counties.  After doing a little poking around, it seems that the spirit of the vigilantes played an immediate role in the Turpin family’s life in Rock County.   I’d mentioned before that neighbor suspected neighbor sometimes and that law enforcement was a scarce commodity.  In analyzing Louis Goochey’s story that he told to grandchildren, I could see that Goochey was incorporating some facts of local history into his own tale of woe to enhance it and justify what he did.   


So here is a bit of what I discovered.

More on the “shooting affray” from Rich Swearingen

Louis Hiram Goochey

This weekend I had an email from a genealogist related to the Goochey family.  Newt Turpin was shot by Louis Goochey in 1893.  Rich Swearingen wanted to confirm which Louis Goochey was involved in the shooting.  See A Shooting Affray.

Doc Middleton and the Niobrara River Settlers

A follow-up to Susan Ingraham's information:

We know from history that for a number of years Nebraska's Niobrara River area was the home territory for many horse thieves, including the notorious D.C. "Doc" Middleton.  The terrain made the area ideal for hiding.  Vigilante committees were formed to hunt down anyone who seemed even slightly suspicious.  As a result, neighbors sometimes would suspect neighbors and any little action suddenly became the grounds for accusations.

It was said that Newt Turpin, as well as other neighbors, stayed "on friendly terms" with Middleton.  Rock and Brown County were sparsely settled and people had to depend on one another.  If someone wanted to steal your horses, they could.  If they wanted to be good to you, they could.  The law was too far away to act as a referee.  Harold Hutton’s book The Luckiest Outlaw (The Luckiest Outlaw: The Life and Legends of Doc Middleton, Harold Hutton, Lincoln: Bison Books, 1992) explains that the settlers in northern Nebraska were aware that Doc expected friendliness and frequently could be good-hearted in return.  Hutton also described how the Tienken brothers, Holt County’s German settlers, did not have the right attitude and suffered at the hands of Doc and his friends.