Redistributing Wealth

Brownsville Persistive Horse Company. List of Members. Doylestown, Pa.: Samuel Fretz, 1842.

Local businessmen and land owners often joined forces to prevent crime, especially in areas too remote for organized police forces. Because horses were such valuable animals, they were frequently stolen, thus necessitating societies to prevent theft of horses. The men went out on regular patrols, and their annual dues helped compensate members for the loss of their horses if they could not be tracked down. This broadside, with a stock cut showing men in hot pursuit of a horse thief, also denotes changes in membership over time.