Just another New Year's Eve night at the Stone Hotel in Sherwood...lots of merriment, drinks, camaraderie. A poker game was going on in the back room with a group of men, some war veterans. Maybe a little money changed hands. All so innocent... until it wasn't.
"SHERWOOD HOLDUP NEW YEAR MORNING
Poker Joint Revealed and $150 Made Away With at Point of Gun
When eleven men in a poker game were held up in the Stone Hotel about one o'clock New Year's morning and robbed of nearly $150 which lay in a pot on the table, all Sherwood thought the incident a joke.
But today when Levi D. Keegan, proprietor of the Stone Hotel in Sherwood, was called to Defiance and faced the possibility of being bound over to the grand jury on a charge of maintaining a gambling resort, the whole affair took a more serious turn.
Meanwhile, nothing has been heard of Walter Whisant, the eighteen year old orphan boy who made his home in Sherwood for the last year and a half, and whom the players openly assert was the masked bandit who threw open the door of the room in which they were enjoying their New Year's party, and got away with the money while he covered them with a gun.
No action had been taken with Keegan at a late hour this afternoon, although he was in town at the request of the county officers, awaiting arraignment. It is underst0od he would be charged with keeping a gambling resort on the strength of his admission to ex-Sheriff Stailey in Sherwood Saturday afternoon, that a poker game had been in progress when the holdup occurred. In view of this admission, it was thought that he could do little else but enter a plea of guilty. No subpoenas have been issued for the other men who were in the game, but it is understood that a number of prominent Sherwood citizens were ready to file complaints against the Stone Hotel.
several members of the party were anxious not to let any of the details leak out, but some of the party got away before the others and finally the matter was dropped. The results have been that nobody has hesitated to tell the whole thing.
Three members of the party were veterans of the Spanish war, and four others had faced dangers with the American Army overseas, but they were mighty quick throwing up their hands and lining up against the wall when an 18 year old youth thrust the muzzle of a .22 caliber target rifle in their faces. And when he beat a hasty retreat with the pile which one of them was hoping to carry away with a good hand, these late war veterans were apparently too dazed with the whole transaction to even give chase.
It is said that Levi D. Keegan did spend a large part of the following days searching through Paulding County for young Whisant without success...Keegan said, 'Nothing has been heard from the lad and that the boy was running yet.'
He lived with the J. H. Parent family for a couple months and they think he learned to play cards at the Stone House. 'The boy came to Sherwood after the day's work was done and spent evenings with a gang of habitual poker players who are said to have held forth at the Stone House nearly every night. He seldom won anything and, as a rule, lost his entire pay envelope with the result that his room and board often went unpaid at the Parent home.
Thanksgiving night, according to the story told at the Parent home, young Whisant won $50 from the table at the Stone Hotel an then started for his boarding place which is the last house near the north corporation line of the village. As he was passing the cemetery, he was overtaken by an automobile and asked if he didn't want to ride the rest of the way home.
As soon as he had climbed into the machine, he was forced to drink from a bottle. He remembered having driven out of town in the machine, and then his mind went blank until he awakened at 2 o'clock the next afternoon in a haymow in the barn on Harry M. Millan's place at Delaware Bend. He found himself partly covered in hay. His $50 was gone.
On returning home, he is said to have been sick for several days which he said was caused by the forced drink."
Well, Keegan didn't believe that Whisant was ever robbed and felt the kid always had plenty of money. He also said that Whisant was easily recognized even though he wore a mask, as his clothes and voice gave him away. He also carried the same gun that he used for hunting that belonged to his landlord; they used it for rabbit hunting.
The room where the poker game was held was back a middle hallway of the hotel, 10 feet square with a large table and chairs. And old dresser held a partial box of cigars, and on top, a half pint of whiskey and a bottle of heavy, red liquor that Keegan said was cough syrup. (Hmmm...)
Whisant was from North Carolina and was called the Tar Heel by Keegan. Just 18, he knew the gambling had been going on for some time and was, by no means, a one time event.
The poker players - Charles Welker, Dale Welker,
Charles Heller and Charles Brown of Sherwood, Mike Kline, Vernon Randall and Clarence Cole of Mark Center, and Curtis Speaker of Farmer - pled guilty and were fined $10 each with costs, totally about 40.
It could not be found that our thief, Whisant, was ever
found."
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