Banditti of The Prairie - Ogle County

Ogle County

Beginning with the events on March 21, 1841 violence and retribution escalated in the area around the Ogle County city of Oregon. Illinois, still frontier in 1841, was settled by large numbers of migrants after the Black Hawk War. The settlers were followed to the area by a criminal element. The Banditti of the Prairie were part of the crime problem that plagued much of northern Illinois. As such, local citizens eventually took the law into their own hands.