USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 4
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By the terms of the injunction, the county commissioners were for- bidden to make a levy of the tax for the building. the county clerk was forbidden to extend this levy on the tax books, and the county treasurer was forbidden to collect it. The original petition for a restraining order had been made in the probate court ; but as it had been refused there, by the time the case was decided in the district court, the tax had been levied and extended on the books. J. R. Blair, who was county freas- urer, therefore refused to accept any portion of any tax unless the county high school tax was paid, so that the collection of the money for the building fund went right on, in spite of the injunction. Nor was any at- tempt made to punish Mr. Blair for contempt of court in doing what the law compelled him to do, in making the collection.
While this case was pending, the opponents of the school hoped to elect a board of trustees at the November election who were opposed to the school. The Republican convention, which was held September 18th, renominated Messrs. Dunkin, Hayden and Moore who were friendly to the school, and three more candidates who were thought to be unfriendly. The Populists and Democratic conventions, held September 29th, agreed in conference committee to nominate the old board with the exception of Major Osborne, who positively declined to permit his name to be used. In his place Adam Beatty, of Cherokee township, was named. The elec- tion of either the Republican or the fusion candidates would have insured a majority favorable to the school. So the plan adopted to defeat it was to vote for the three unfavorable candidates on the Republican ticket and the most hike-warm members of the old board. Cirenlars were distributed
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
at most of the polling places advising that this be done. The result was the election of the old board, with Mr. Beatty, by overwhelming major- ities. The totals ranging from 3,459 votes for Thomas Hayden to 2,936 for Revilo Newton while the largest vote cast for an avowedly opposing candidate was 2,622. This vote effectually settled the question as to the feeling of the people, and also as to the possibility of defeating the school by electing an unfriendly board.
On January 11th. 1898. the new board organized by electing William Dunkin secretary and Revilo Newton treasurer. The question how long each trustee should serve was decided by lot. Hayden and Newton draw- ing the three-year term, Punkin and Moore the two-year term and Stevens and Beatty the one-year.
After various postponements and delays the case in the supreme court was decided May 7th, and the judgment of the lower court reversed. This dissolved the injunction and left the trustees free to proceed with the erertion of the building. On June 14th the contract with M. P. T. Ecret was changed so as to include Il. A. Brewster & Co, with him. W. A. My- rick at the same time transferred his contract for plumbing to E. A. Chaney, of Topeka.
Ground was broken for the building Monday, June 20th, 1898; and on June 29th W. Il. Hack was appointed superintendent of construction. From that time the work was pushed rapidly all through the summer and fall, so that by Thanksgiving the walls were up and the work of roofing was in progress.
It was on Monday. November 28th, that a very pleasant impromptu atl'air occured at the building. The tower was already in place, and noth- ing remained to finish it except to paint the tin of the roof. A portion of the scaffolding the builders had used still surrounded this tower. Miss Mena Jones, a young lady of Sycamore township, and a daughter of William Jones, had expressed a willingness to raise the American flag upon a staff at one corner of this tower. She proved her grit and the steadiness of her nerves by climbing the tower, walking ereet and unat- tended along a narrow plank near the top. at the same time waving her hands to acquaintances in the street a hundred feet below. as coolly as if she were standing on the firm earth. She attached the flag to the staff, and it was greeted with a ringing cheer from the group gathered on the roof, followed by another for the plucky girl who had performed the dar- ing feat.
The work of plastering and inside finishing proceeded through the vinter of 1898 99. and by the first of April the building was practically completed. though some minor details prevented its formal acceptance by the trustees at the hands of the contractors until June 6th, 1899. On August 1st. 198. the trustees made an estimate fixing 1% mills as the en cent of tex levy needed to raise a sum sufficient to furnish the build.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
ing, pay for all further improvements, and run the school until the close of 1899.
At the November election of 1898. Adam Beatty was re-elected trus- tee and P. H. Fox, of Fawn Creek township. was elected to take the place of M. 1. Stephens.
March 20th, 1899. the board elected Samuel M. Nees, who had for nine years previous been at the head of the Independence city schools, as principal.
A contract for furniture for the huikling was made with O. C. Clark & Co., of Cleveland, Ohio. on April 11th. This included 500 opera chairs. 300 single desks. 9 teachers' desks, and 1327 feet of solid rock slate for black-boards. The contract price was $1,721.82, and the next highest bid was about $1,200 more.
It was decided on April 25th to elect three gentlemen and two ladies. who, with the principal, should constitute the faculty, at salaries of $750 per annum each, for the former, and $600 for the latter. T. B. Henry, W. E. Ringle, Richard Allen, Georgia Cubine and Lura Bellamy were elected to these positions.
At the meeting on June 6th. after the building had been received from the contractors, a course of study was agreed upon and a set of by- laws for the government of the school adopted.
At the meeting on June 28th the tax levy for 1899 was fixed at 2 mills. Rules and regulations were adopted and a list of text books agreed upon July 18th.
On Monday, September 4th, 1899, the school was opened with very simple ceremonies. After prayer by Rev. S. S. Estey, short addresses were made by President Dollison of the board of trustees, Mr. Estey, Principal Nees, and other members of the faculty. The enrollment of pupils during the first week of school exceeded 200, and the school. which had been so long in preparation and so bitterly fought over. was fairly launebed among the institutions of the state devoted to the higher education.
Classes in the following subjects were organized for the first term : Beginning Latin, Cæsar. Cicero, Algebra, Geometry, Psychology, Greek, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, General History, Bookkeping. Vocal Music, German, Rhetoric. English Literature, Arithmetic and Physical Geog- raphy.
At this point it is fitting to bear testimony to the fidelity and de- votion with which the members of the original board of trustees per- formed their duties, and the intelligence and zeal with which they labored to provide a home for and build up a school which would be a credit not only to all connected with its establishment, but to the county and the state as well. It mattered not at all that some of them had been at first
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
opposed to the undertaking; no sooner did they put their hands to the work than it began to grow broader and higher in their minds, and they became inspired with the ambition to make everything the best. The im- mense possibilities of good, not only for the young people of today, but for the generations to come, loomed up before them as they became inter- ested in the work, and they gave to it time without stint, and their best energies. As a result they could rejoice in having been instrumental in providing for Montgomery county a High School that admittedly ranks at the head of schools of its class in the state, both in its material equip- ment and in the character of the work it is doing.
At the November election of 1899. E. P. Allen and Wilson Kincaid, both business men of Independence. though candidates on opposing tiek- ets, were elected trustees. At the meeting held January 8th, 1900, the new board organized by electing Thomas Hayden, Vice-President; P. H. Fox. Secretary ; and Revilo Newton, Treasurer.
The Dalton Raid at Coffeyville
In all the annals of crime in our country, few if any events have fur- nished more dramatie incidents or created more of a sensation than the raid of the Daltons at Coffeyville, on the morning of Wednesday, October 5th, 1902. There have been other bank robberies where larger amounts of money have been at stake, and some in which better known bandits and outlaws have participated, but in the sanguinary nature of the strug- gle, the number of shots fired, and the victims on both sides, the Coffey- ville affair must stand preeminent.
The "Dalton Gang." whose leaders organized and perpetrated this raid had already acquired an unenviable reputation as outlaws and train robbers, and were ready for any crime if the stakes were large enough. Three of the Dalton brothers, with two ordinary criminals of the sort that could be picked up almost anywhere in the Indian Territory, con- stituted the party. The Dalten family originally consisted of Lewis Dal- ton and his wife, whose maiden name was Adaline Lee Younger, and who was born in Cass county, Missouri, in the neighborhood whence came other Youngers, who achieved notoriety as bank robbers. They were the parents of thirteen children. of whom two died in infancy. The family were not strangers at Coffeyville, having settled in that vicinity in 1882 and remained there until the opening of Oklahoma in 1889. In fact, Lewis Dalton remained in this county until his death, at Dearing, in 1890. The rest of the family went to Oklahoma and took up claims. The old people seem to have been peaceable and law-abiding, but three of the boys became deputy United States marshals in the Indian Territory, one of them also serving for a short time as chief of police of the Osage Na- tion. Familiarity with crime and acquaintance with outlaws in these
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
positions seems to have developed a passion for criminal adventure, which may have been also, to some extent, a matter of heredity on their mother's side. Gratton, Emmet and Robert were the Daltons in the gang, and the two other members of the quintette who raided the Coffeyville banks were known as Bill Powers and Dick Broadwell. Robert, the leader of the gang. was only 22 years of age, while Emmet was a mere boy two years Younger. Gration was 31.
The Daltons are credited with having stolen a herd of cattle in the territory about two years previous to the events to be bere narrated, and so far as know n, they took the first degree in outlawry at that time. In the carly part of 1891, Gratton, William and Emmet Dalton were arrest- ed for train robbery in Tulare county. California. Emmet escaped, Wil- liam was acquitted, and Gratton was convicted and sentenced to twenty vears in the penitentiary. He escaped from the county jail before being taken to Folsom, and there was a standing reward of $6.000 offered for Gratton and Emmet by the Southern Pacific Railway at the time these men met their fate at Coffeyville. In May 1891 there was a train robbery by masked men at Wharton, Indian Territory, on the Santa Fe Railroad; and in July of the same year another at Adair, on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas both of which were credited to the Daltons.
On the morning of the Coffeyville raid, the five men mentioned were seen by several people riding toward that city, and they were taken, in every instance, for a United States Deputy Marshal and his posse. They vame in on the main road from the west, turned south one block from the business part of town and hitched their horses in the alley running back from Slossen's drug store, which has since become famous as "the Alley of Death." They then started down the alley, Gratton, with Pow- ers and Broadwell in front, and Emmet and Bob following. As they crossed the sidewalk, on emerging from the alley, they passed within five feet of a citizen who was acquainted with them well enough to recog. nize them in spite of the disguises they had assumed on coming into a locality where they were so well known. A moment later he saw the three men who were in front enter C. M. Condon & Co.'s bank and present a Winchester at the cashier's counter. He raised the alarm at once.
Meantime the other two had crossed Uniom street and entered the First National bank. They were followed by some citizens who suspected their object and the alarm was speedily raised on the east side of the plaza. also. Inimmediately half a dozen men rushed to the hardware stores of Isham Bros. & Mansur and A. P. Boswell & Co., on the east side of Union street, and proceeded to provide themselves with rifles and annan- nition, determined that the bank robbers should not get away if it was possible to prevent it.
In Condon & Co.'s bank were C. T. Carpenter. one of the proprietors,
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Chas M. Ball, the cashier, and T. C. Babb, the bookkeeper. The leader of the raiders, Grat. Dalton, ordered the men behind the counter to throw up their hands; and on looking up from his work at the desk, Mr. Car- penter saw three Winchesters aimed at his head, and heard such reassur- ing words as these :
"We have got you, G -- d- jon! Hold up your hands "
As soon as Dalton had passed around into the inside of the enclosure at the bank, he ordered Mr. Ball to hold a grain sack he had brought with him, while Carpenter was told to put the money in the canvas sacks in the safe into it. There was $3,000 in silver in the three sacks, and when he had got that Dalton ordered Mr. Ball to open the burglar proof chest in the vault. Ball replied :
"It is not time for it to open."
"What time does it open ?" asked Gratton.
"Half past nine," answered Ball, guessing what o'clock it might be, sparring for time.
"What time is it now ?" queried the bandit.
"Twenty minutes past nine." glibly answered Ball, looking at his watch.
As a matter of fact, it was twenty minutes of ten, but Dalton did not know this and calinly proposed to wait until the chest could be opened. In a moment or two he began to suspect the truth and turned on Ball and enused him and threatened to put a bullet through him. With the money from the counter the robbers now had $4.000, but the firing which had begun from the outside was getting so hot that the robbers ordered the sack carried into the back room, where the currency was sorted out and the silver left. The bankers and two customers who hap- pened to be in when the raid was made, were lying on the floor now to escape the rain of bullets that came crashing through the plate glass. Broadwell had already received a bullet in the arm that disabled hin, and the robbers made haste to get out into the street whence they had
Meanwhile, a good deal had been happening at the First National across the street. Bob Dalton and Emmet entered here about the same time the other three men went into Condon's. They covered the cashier, Thomas G. Ayers, and the teller. W. H. Shepard, with their guns and ordered everyone present to hold up his hands. The men in the bank in front of the counter at the time were J. H. Brewster, the well known con- tractor, who built the county court house. A. W. Knotts, who was after- ward deputy sheriff, and C. L. Hollingsworth. Leaving Emmet on guard in front. Bob went around to the rear and entered the private room, where he found Bert S. Ayres, the bookkeeper, and ordered him to go to the front and get the money on the counter. He then ordered the cashier to
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. KANSAS.
bring him the money that was in the safe, and not satisfied with what he got went into the vault himself and took two packages of currency con- taining five thousand dollars each, and added them to the collection in his sack, which now amounted to $20,000. Ordering the bank force and cus- tomers out before them, the bandits started to go out the front door, but some shots drove them back and they then retreated by a back door.
Right at this time the murderous work began. So far, only two men had been wounded, Broadwell, on the inside of Condon's bank. and Charles T. Gump, who had taken a position outside of the First National with a gun ready to shoot at the robbers when they started out. Bob I alton fired a shot which sruck him in the hand and disabled him. When the two robbers emerged from the rear door of the First National, having the teller, Mr. Shepard with them. they came across Lucius M. Baldwin, a clerk from Reed Brothers' store. He was holding a revolver at his side and coming forward as if to join the others. Both the Daltons leveled their Winchesters at him and commanded him to stop. For some reason he failed to obey and kept moving toward them. Bob remarked. "I'll have to get that man," and pulled the trigger which sent a bullet through Baldwin's breast near the heart. He was only about fifty feet away at the time. He was picked up by friends and carried away but only survived for about three hours.
The Daltons ran north up the alley to Eighth street and turned west when they reached that street. When they got as far as Union street on the east side of the Plaza, they looked down that street to the south and fired a couple of shots, apparently for the purpose of frightening their assailants away. By the time they had reached the middle of the street on their way across to the "Little block" in the center of the Plaza, they discorned George Cubine standing in the doorway of Rammel Brothers' drug store, which adjoined the First National bank building on the north. He had a Winchester in his hand and was looking the other way, toward the door of the bank from which he was expecting to see the outlaws emerge. They each fired twice at him, and as the four shots rang out. he fell to the pavement lifeless, with one bullet through his heart, another through his left thigh and a third through his ankle. The fourth ball went astray and crashed through the plate glass window of the store behind him. Charles Brown, an old man whose place of business was next north of the drug store, rushed out to assist the fallen man ; but see. ing that he was dead, seized the Winchester Cubine had and turned it on his slayers. Four more deadly shots rang out from the bandits' guns, and Brown fell bleeding and dying. He survived three hours in dreadful agony and then passed away.
These three murders had been committed in less time than it has taken to tell it. By this time the Daltons caught sight of another man .
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
who was watching the entrance of the bank, ready to tire when they should emerge. When turned out of the bank at the time the outlaws started to come out the front way, Cashier Ayre s ran into Isham's hard- ware store, just to the south, and procured a Winchester, with which he took a position in the doorway, where he could command the entrance to the bank. As they were stepping up on to the sidewalk on the west side of Union street, and across the street from the Eldridge House, Bob took deliberate aim at Ayres, who was about seventy-five yards distant, and fired a bullet which struck him in the cheek, just below his left eye and came ont at the back of his head near the base of the skull. He fell bleeding and unconscious and for days hung between life and death, but finally recovered.
Just at this time, Gratton and his companions had reached the alley adjoining Slosson's store, up which they had left their horses, and before the prostrate form of Mr. Ayres could be removed they fired nine shots into the front of the building where he lay. Bob and Emmet proceeded west on Eighth street and were not noticed again until they reappeared near the junction of the two alleys, having come down back of Wells Brothers' store. Their escape would have been comparatively easy, had they not returned to that spot, but made a break for the open country and taken the first horse they came across.
As it was, the whole force of the bandit band was now gathered in what has since been known as "the Alley of Death," and there they all fell beneath the bullets of the volunteers for law and order, though not until another good citizen lost his life. For the facts thus far published we are indebted to the painstaking and carefully written work published by Colonel D. Stewart Elliott, of the Coffeyville Journal, entitled: "Last Raid of the Daltons;" and for the story of the coneluding scenes of that raid we can do no better than to reprodnee the chapter of that work on "The Alley of Death" almost verbatim.
When the alarm was first given that the banks were being robbed, Henry H. Isham, the senior member of the firm of Isham Brothers & Mansur, was busy with a customer, as were two clerks in the store, Lewis T. Dietz and T. Arthur Reynolds. This store not only adjoined the First National bank on the south, but from its front a clear view is to be had across the Plaza and up the alley at the west side to which the Daltons first came and to which they finally retreated. Mr. Isham dismissed his customer, closed his safe, and, grasping a Winchester, stationed himself near a steel range in the front of the store where he could see all that was going on in the front part of Condon's bank. Dietz snatched a revolver and stationed himself elose to Isham, while Reynolds, having observed the robbers enter the banks, was so eager to prevent their escape that he seized a Winchester, ran out upon the sidewalk and commenced firing
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
upon the robber who was stationed near the southeastern door of the Condon bank. A shot from the latter's riffe struck some intervening ob- jeet and glanced and hit Reynolds on the right foot at the base of the little top, coming out at the instep. lle was the third man wounded in the store, and was now forced to leave the field. Indeed, with its blood- bespatteded floor, the store now began to look like a slaughter house or a section of a battle field. M. N. Anderson, a carpenter, who had been at work a couple of blocks away, now arrived and took the Winchester Rey- nolds had dropped and stationed himself beside Isham, where he per- formed valiant service until the close of the engagement. Charles K. Smith. a young man from a barber shop near Isham's store, also procured a Winchester and joined the forces in the hardware store in time to help exterminate the gang.
From five to nine shots were fired by each man who handled a Win- chester at this point. The principal credit, however, for the successful and fatal work done at the store was due to Mr. Isham. Cool and col- lected, he gave directions to his companions and at the same time kept his own gun at work.
The moment that Grat. Dalton and his companions, Dick Broadwell and Bill Powers, left the Condon bank after looting it, they came under the guns of the men in Isham's store. Grat. Dalton and Bill Powers each received mortal wounds before they had gone twenty steps. The dust was seen lo Hy from their clothing. and Powers in his desperation at- tempted to take refuge in the doorway of an adjoining store, but the door was locked and no one answered his request to be let in. He kept his feet and clung to his Winchester until he reached his horse, when another ball struck him in the back and he fell dead at its feet. Grat. Dalton, getting under cover of an oil tank which had been driven into the alley just about the time the raid was made, managed to reach the side of a barn on the south side of the alley, about two Intadred feet from Walnut street. The point where he stopped was out of the range of the guns at Isham's on account of an intervening outside stairway. He stood here for a few minutes firing wild shots down the alley toward the Plaza.
About this time JJohn J. Kloehr. a liveryman, Carey Seaman, and the City Marshal. Charles T. Connelly, who were at the south end of the Plaza. near Reeds' store, started up Ninth street so as to intercept the gang before they could reach their horses. Connelly ran across a vacant lot to an opening in the fence at the alley, right at the corner of the barn where Grat. Dalton was still standing. There he sprang into the alles. facing the west where the horses were hitched. This movement brought him with his back toward the murderous Dalton, who was seen to raise his Winchester to his side and, without taking aim, fired a shot into the back of the brave officer. Connelly fell forward on his face, within
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
twenty feet of where his murderer stood. He breathed his last just as the tight ended.
Dick Broadwell. in the meantime, had reached cover in the Long- Bell Lumber Company's yards, where he lay down for a few moments. He was wounded in the back. A lull occurred in the firing after Grat Daltop and Bill Powers had fallen. Broadwell tood advantage of this and crawled out of his hiding place, mounted his horse and rode away. A ball from Klochr's rite, and a load of shot from a gun in the hands of C'arey Seaman, overtook him before he had ridden twenty feet. Bleeding and dying he chung to his horse and passed out of the city over a portion of the road by which the party entered it not more than twenty minutes before. His body was subsequently found by the roadside half a mile west of the city, and his horse with its trappings was captured near where he fell.
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