In April, 1841, the community of Oregon, and Ogle County in general, had reached a boiling point. During that month, a group of citizens, possibly acting under direct counsel from Ford, met at a schoolhouse in White Rock Township, and formed an organization aimed at driving the outlaws out of the county. Membership in the new group grew quickly, soon numbering in the hundreds, and copycat chapters sprang up all over the Rock River Valley. These bands of citizen vigilantes were most often known as "Regulators". They were also called "lynching clubs", and in Lee County, one group was known as the "Associations for the Furtherance of the Cause of Justice".