|
Hedehuset og dets beboere
På
Stagsted Hede, ved foden af Jyske Aas, lå i begyndelsen af
1800-tallet et lille hedehus, Asylet, sognets fattiggård. Huset
bestod af 2 rum, i det ene boede Klog-familien og i det andet
Skov-pakket.
Nogle få af beboerne ernærede sig lovligt som handlende
eller tjente på egnens gårde, men hovedparten var tyve og røvere,
som hele egnen frygtede. Sammen med andre lovløse gjorde de egnen
usikker, og kun få turde færdes ude om natten.
Men selv bag lukkede døre og tilskoddede vinduer kunne man ikke
føle sig sikker for man var norden for lov og ret – siden
birkeretten var nedlagt i 1820’erne var der ingen myndigheder
nærmere end Sæby, og de var mere end uvillige til at blande sig i,
hvad der foregik på disse kanter.
Således kunne tyvebanden uforstyrret bryde ind i egnens huse og
stjæle hvad der var af værdi, mens husets beboere rystende lå i
deres senge. Kunne de ikke få døre eller vinduer op, brød de en mur
ned for at komme ind.
Truslen fra Langholt karlene
I
nærheden lå den store gård Langholt, som beskæftigede mange karle
og piger. Nogle af karlene herfra lod ad omveje de lovløse vide, at
de snart kunne forvente sig en ordentlig afklapsning. Men de
lovløse dukkede op på Langholt om natten og lokkede karlene ud en
af gangen, bandt dem og gennempryglede dem – så meget for de
trusler.
Legestuen på Langholt
Lørdag
den 30 oktober 1841 var der legestue (høstfest) på Langholt – med
over 100 deltagere, høstkarle og piger og mange andre fra egnen,
dog var hedehusets beboere ikke velkomne.
De dukkede op alligevel og ingen turde i starten røre dem. Karlene
der havde fået prygl tidligere fik dog i stilhed samlet en flok
solide karle, og nu blev de lovløse gennembanket med knipler
og måtte kravle hjem til hedehuset gennem den sump der skilte det
fra Langholt.
Drabene i Hedehuset
Mandag aften
den 1. november 1841, to dage efter legestuen på Langholt, sidder
husets beboere om aftenen og diskuterer hvad der er foregået på
Langholt.
Som de sidder bedst, høres der listende trin i nærheden af huset.
Der mumles og hviskes uden for vinduerne, og fordægtige ansigter
kommer til syne på ruderne, snart her og snart der.
Pludselig flyver yderdøren op med et vældigt brag og 3-4 maskerede
mænd trænger ind i forstuen, mens 3-4 andre går rundt om huset og
banker på væggene – som for at skræmme beboerne fra at undfly.
Nu begynder de maskerede systematisk at gennembanke beboerne med
knipler og slæber nogle af dem udenfor, hvor de bankes ihjel.
Nogle af beboerne forsøger at gemme sig bag ovnen og på loftet,
men bliver hurtigt fundet og slæbt udenfor.
En enkelt –Skovlars - skånes og slæbes over mod den nærliggende
Stagsted Skov for at vise hvor bandens skat er begravet – men da
der ikke er nogen skat, dræbes han også, og efterlades i en
grøft.
Andre af husets beboere blev skånet - men fik dog alle nogle drøje
hug.
Efterforskning og dommen over
drabsmændene
Gerningsmændene var genkendt af nogle af de
overlevende i huset, og kunne snart anholdes. Det var hovedsageligt
folk fra nabogårdene, Aunkjødt Mølle, Krattet og Østergaard, som
hævdede at de ikke havde haft drab i tankerne da de stormede huset,
men ledte efter stjålet korn.
4 af drabsmændene fik dødsstraf – men blev senere benådet, mens
resten fik varierende fængselsstraffe.
Kommissionen på Voergaard
Sagen førte til at der nedsattes en kommissionsdomstol som skulle
foretage en oprydning i landsdelen. Det blev et omfattende arbejde,
og i alt blev 169 personer dømt og 1 frikendt.
Man var da så nidkære, at et ældre par der havde fundet og beholdt
en gammel jernstang blev dømt for ulovlig omgang med hittegods.
Læs hele historien i Urban Hansen: Tyvebanden på Jyske Aas og Dan
Thustrup: Skovpakket fra hedehuset – de kan begge lånes på
Brønderslev bibliotek.
Hedehuset er for længst borte, nær stedet hvor
det stod er der rejst en mindesten hvis tekst ikke viser megen
sympati for de dræbte. På marken lige nedenfor pløjes der stadig
murbrokker op nu og da.
|
|
Heather house and its
people
On Stagsted Hede, at the
foot of the Jyske Aas ridge , lay in the beginning of the 19'th
century a small cottage, Asylet, the workhouse of the area. The
cottage held only 2 rooms, one inhabited by the Klog-family
(klog=clever) the other by the Skov-pakket (skov=wood).
A few of the poor had legal jobs trading or working on the farms
nearby, but most were thieves and robbers, feared by everyone
in the area. Together with other outlaws, they made the area
unsafe, and only few of the people around dared to walk out at
night.
But even behind locked doors and shuttered windows you could not
feel safe, because you were north of law and order - since the
local court had been laid down in the 1820's there were no local
authority nearer than Sæby, and they were more than unwilling to
interfere in the things going on in this area.
So the gang of thieves would not be interrupted in breaking into
houses and stealing all of value, while the residents of the houses
would lay shivering in their beds. If they were not able to open
doors or windows, they would simply break down a brick wall to get
in.
Threat from Langholt
farm hands
Nearby was the big
farm Langholt, which employed many farmhands and milkmaids. Some of
the farmhands let the outlaws know, that they could soon expect a
severe beating. But the outlaws went to Langholt at night and
tricked the farmhands to come out - one at a time - tied them up
and beat them. So much for those threats !
Harvest fest on
Langholt
Saturday october 30'th 1841 there was a harvest
fest on Langholt - with more than 100 people gathered, farmhands,
milkmaids and neighbours- though the people from the heather house
were not welcome.
They showed up anyway and in the beginning nobody dared to
interfere with them. The farm hands who had had a beating earlier
gathered silently a bunch of solid men, and now the outlaws were
beaten with cudgels and had to crawl home to the heather house
through the swamp that separated it from Langholt.
Killings in
Hedehuset
Monday November 1'ste 1841, 2 days after the
harvest fest on Langholt, the people in the house is sitting
quietly discussing the events that took place on Langholt. As they
sit, soft steps are heard near the house. There's mumbling and
whispering outside the windows, and suspicious faces can be seen in
the windows - now here now there.
Suddenly the door is flung open with a loud noise, and 3-4 masked
men is entering the room, while 3-4 others walk around the house
knocking on the walls - as if to prevent the occupants to try to
escape.
Now the masked men starts a systematic beating of everyone inside
with cudgels - and drags some outside where they are beaten to
death.
Some of the occupants try to hide behind the oven and on the loft,
but they're all found and dragged outside.
A single person - Skovlars - is spared and dragged towards the
nearby wood, Stagsted Skov, to show where the thieves treasury is
buried - but as there is none, he is also killed and left in a
ditch
Others in the house were spared - after receiving severe
beating.
Search for the killers
and the judgement
The killers had been recognized by some
of the survivors from the house, and were soon arrested. They were
mostly people from the surrounding farms, Aunkjødt Mølle, Krattet
and Østergaard, who they claimed that they had had no intension of
killing anybody when they entered the house, but were looking for
stolen grain.
4 of the killers received death sentences - but were later
pardoned, and the rest prison sentences.
Commission on
Voergaard
The incidents brought law and order to this part
of the country, as a commission court were assembled and started
cleaning up. It was a huge work resulting in the conviction of 169
persons and only one set free. The court was so keen, that an
elderly, poor couple who had found an old rusty iron bar on the
road and kept it - were sentenced for illegal handling
of lost property.
You can read the whole story in these two books - though they are
not translated to English:
Urban Hansen: Tyvebanden på Jyske Aas and Dan Thustrup: Skovpakket
fra hedehuset – both can be found at Brønderslev Library.
The heather house is long
gone, today an engraved stone stands near the place where is once
lay. The words on the stone glorifies the killers and show no pity
of the victims. On the field close by is often found bricks from
the house, when ploughing in the spring. |