History of Montgomery County, Kansas, Part 5

Author: Duncan, L. Wallace (Lew Wallace), b. 1861, comp
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Iola, Kan., Press of Iola register
Number of Pages: 1162

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Almost at the same moment that Marshal Connelly went down be- fore the deadly rifle of Grat. Dalton, Bob and Emmet emerged from the alley by which they had left Eighth street in their effort to rejoin the rest of the party where their horses had been left. They had not met with any resistence in passing from where they had shot Cubine, Brown and Avres, as the firing toward the south end of the Plaza had attracted gen- eral attention in another direction. The north and south alley through which they reached "the Alley of Death," has its terminus opposite the rear end of Slosson's store. When they reached the junction of the al- leys, they discovered F. D. Benson climbing through a rear window with a gun in his hand. Divining his object, Bob fired at him point blank, at a distance of not over thirty feet. The shot missed. Bob then stepped into the alley and glanced up at the tops of the buildings as if he suspected the fusilade that was pouring into the alley came from that direction. As he did so, the men at Isham's took deliberate aim from their positions in the store and tired at him. The notorious leader of the Dalton gang evidently received a severe if not fatal wound at this time. He stagger- ed across the alley and sat down on a pile of dressed curbstones near the rity jail. Still irne to his desperate nature, he kept his rifle in action and tired several shots from where he was sitting. His aim, though, was un- steady and the bullets went wild. While sitting on the rocks he espied John Kloehr on the inside of the fence near Slosson's store. He tried to raise his Winchester to his shoulder, but could not, and the shot intended for Kloehr struck the side of an outhouse and failed in its mission. Bob Dalton then made his supreme effort. He arose to his feet and sought refuge alongside of an old barn west of the city jail, and, leatning against the southwest corner of the building he brought his rifle into action again and fred two shots in the direction of his pursuers. They were his last shots A ball from Klochr's ritle struck him full in the breast and he fell

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

over backward among the stones which covered the ground there, and which were reddened with his life blood.

After shooting Marshal Connelly. Grat. Dalton made another at- tempt to reach his horse. He passed by his fallen victim, and had ad- vanced probably twenty feet from where he was standing when he fired the fatal shot; then turning his face to his pursners he again at- tempted to use his Winchester. John Klochr's rifle blazed out again now. and the oldest member of the band dropped with a bullet in his throat and a broken neck. He tell within a few feet of the dying marshal.

Up to this time Emmet Dalton had managed to escape untonched. He kept under shelter after he reached the alley until he attempted to moms his horse. A half dozen rifles were then fired in his direction, as he undertook to get into the saddle. The two intervening horses belong- ing to Bob Dalton and Bill Powers were killed by some of the shots in- tended for Emmet; and the two horses attached to the oil tank-wagon being directly in range received fatal wounds. Emmet succeeded in get- ting into the saddle, but not until he had received a shot through the right arm and another through the left hip and groin. During all this time he had clung to the sack containing the money he had taken from the First National bank. And then. instead of riding off. as he might have done, Emmet boldly and courageously rode back to what he must have known was almost certain death and came up beside where Bob was lying and attempted to lift his dying brother onto the horse with him. "It's no use." faintly whispered the fallen bandit. and just then Carey Seaman fired the contents of both barrels of his shot-gun into Emmet's back, as he was leaning over the prostrate form of his leader and tutor in crime. The youthful desperado dropped from his horse and the last of the Dalton gang was helpless. In falling, the sack containing the twenty thousand dollars he had perilled his soul and body to get went down with him, and he lofnded at the feet of his brother. Bob, who breath- ed his last a moment later.

Citizens who had followed close after the robbers, and some of whom were close at hand when they fell. immediately surrounded their bodies. Emmet responded to the command to hold up his hands by raising his uninjured arm and making a pathetic appeal for mercy. Lynching was suggested, but better councils prevailed and he was taken to the office of a surgeon, who dressed his wounds. He recovered with the quick elasti- city of youth and was taken to the jail at Independence, where, in the following March, he pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree and was sentenced to a ninety-nine years' term in the penitentiary. ten of which he has already served. His aged mother is untiring in her efforts to secure pardon and freedom for her wayward boy, but no

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

governor has yet dared to brave the indignation of the friends of the vic- tims of the raid by granting her prayer.

Less than fifteen minutes had elapsed from the time the raiders en- tered the banks until four of them were dead and the others helpless with wounds. And it was only twelve minutes from the firing of the first shot until the last one sounded the knell of the Dalton gang.

Summarizing the reports, it appears that eighty bullet marks and numerous evidences of the impact of small shot were visible on the south from of Condon's bank when the battle ended. Not more than fifteen guns were actively engaged in the fight on both sides; and yet eight peo- ple were killed and three wounded. While all the citizens who were killed or wounded were armed. George Cubine was the only one of them who had fired a shot before being struck down. Among the scores of by- standers and onlookers about the Plaza, including many girls and little chidren, not one was struck by a short or bullet. It was war, and very sanguinary war, while it lasted, the percentage of victims to combatants being greater than in amy battle that was not a massacre; but no wild shooting was done.

While the people of Coffeyville wiped out the ontlaw gang at a terri- ble cost of valuable lives, they insured their city against any more such visitations during the lifetime of the present generation, and conferred a service upon the state and upon society by demonstrating how risky and unprofitable such raids are likely to prove.

CHAPTER IN. The Press of Montgomery County

BY H. W. YOUNG.

There is a fascination about the newspaper business which even those who have spent their lives in the editor's chair would find it hard to explain. Certainly it must have been this fascination, rather than the pecuniary rewards in sight, which have induced three score and ten men to establish newspapers in nine different localities in Montgomery county. For of all the seventy or more publications which have been started in this county as local newspapers, there is only one which has as yet placed its proprietors in independent circumstances, given them any bank ac- count to speak of, or enabled them to become landowners on any but the most limited scale. And the success which has attended this exceptional venture. is without question, attributable to the public patronage it has enjoyed rather than to profits from the sources of income accessible to all newspapers alike, as the rewards of industry, energy and perseverance.

Before attempting even the briefest mention of the scores of news- papers which have been born and lived their short lives within our bor- ders, it is fitting to refer a little more in detail to the men and the papers

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

which have kept their places longest on the slippery surface where falls have been so frequent.

The only newspaper in the county which has ever reached its ma- jority under the same ownership and management is the one referred to above as the one instance of financial success. The South Kansas Tribune, of Independence, was established in March, 1871, W. T. Yoe, one of the present proprietors, being a half owner, and the other half being the property of the law firm of York & Humphrey ; though Humphrey's name alone appeared as representing this interest and York was a silent partner. This partnership continued only about a year, when George W. Burebard purchased York & Humphrey's interest, and became editor of the paper, with W. T. Yoe as local or associate editor. At this time the Tribune was the best edited paper in the county, and perhaps in this sec- tion of the state. This arrangement continued until 1874, when Mr. Burch- ard's Republicanism became so attenuated that the only way to preserve the political integrity of the paper was to remove him from his position. Mr. Yoe accordingly bought him ont, and his interest was transferred to Charles Yoe who has ever since been associated in its publication. For the twenty-nine years since, this paper has kept the even tenor of its way, as a defender of the Republican faith ; and its unwavering adherence to that organization has made it one of the landmarks of journalism in Southeastern Kansas. Its publishers have become comparatively weal thy ; and while it has never reached the highest levels of journalism. it has never sunk to the lowest depths. It has been careful and conserva- tive, and it is usually found on the popular side of public questions. It has not only enjoyed a lucrative income from the county printing almost uninterruptedly for the past twenty years, but its senior editor has held such paying official positions as member of the State Board of Trustees of Charitable Institutions, and postmaster of the City of Independence, while the junior member was until recently secretary of the same board.

Next to the Yoes, the second oldest editor and publisher, in the time spent on Montgomery county newspapers, is H. W. Young, now of the Kansas Populist, but heretofore publisher of the Coffeyville Star. the In- dependence Star and the Star and Kansan. Mr. Young rekons nineteen years devoted to editorial work in Montgomery county and has held the offices of Receiver of the United States Land Office at Independence and State Senator for the Montgomery county district. By his frequent changes and his impulsive-some would say erratic-methods of con- dneting a newspaper Mr. Young has illustrated the old adage that "a roll- ing stone gathers no moss;" and while friends have often commended his newspaper as "the best in the county." he has never demonstrated any special ability as a money-getter.

T. N. Sickels, of the Daily Reporter, of Independence, comes third

IHISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

in length of service, having become proprietor of that paper in May, 1885, and having published it uninterruptedly since, with the exception of three or four years spent in the pension office at Topeka during Presi- dent Ilarrison's administration, when it was in charge of his son, Walter. Mr. Sickels is one of the few men who have been able to make a local daily self-supporting in towns like Independence, and now rejoices in a subscription and advertising patronage in keeping with the growth of a prosperous city in the gas and oil belt.

C. E. Moore, of the Cherryvale Republican, has also been a long time in the harness, having become connected with the Globe of that city in 1881, and having been engaged in the printing business there for nearly all the time since.

Although Montgomery is a comparatively young county, har- ing been organized in 1869, and is not in the first rank in population, there are only four counties in the state which can boast larger newspa- per graveyards. Untimely deaths of publications which have started out with bright hopes and boundless ambitions have occurred at the rate of about two a year during the thirty-four years of our county's existence, and we now have but twelve living.

When a company of Oswego men in the summer of 1869 determined to locate a county seat on the Verdigris (Ind get in "on the ground floor" in the new county to the west, one of the first things they did was to pro- vide for the publication of a newspaper; and so we find the first paper is- sued in Montgomery county to have been the Independence Pioneer. The first number bore date of September 5th, of that year. It was published by E. R. Trask, of the Oswego Register, and printed at that place until March, 1870, when it was provided with an outfit of its own, and David Steel became its editor. In December, 1870. it was sold to Thos. H. Can- field, who changed its name to the Republican. The paper remained at the county seat for about two years longer, changing proprietors every few months, and in the spring of 1873 again went west "to grow up" with some other county.

The second paper established in the county was the Westralia Vidette. by MeConnell & Mcintyre, in the spring of 1870. It lived only three months and two days, sneenumbing to lack of nourishment. Follow- ing it came the Record. founded by G. D. Baker at the new town of Par- ker. It is said to have been an excellent paper, but when Parker faded away it had to give up the ghost.

The first paper on record as being avowedly in opposition to the dom- inant Republican party in the county was the Kansas Democrat, which the well known Martin Van Buren Bennett removed from Oswego to In- dependence in December. 1870. "Van" is supposed to have intended to use this publication as a lever to boost him into congress ; but his paper

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

was sensational and not as popular as he hoped. and in 1872 he sold it to Peacock & Sons who, a year or two afterward, removed it to the state capital.

In casting about for something to do, after the sands of his official life had run out, ex-United States Senator E. G. Ross concluded to try his fortunes in the new county just opened down on the south line of the state ; and in the fall of 1871 established Ross' Paper at Coffeyville. Mis- fortune still pursued the man who had saved Andy Johnson from im- peachment, however, and in March, 1872, his office was destroyed by a tornado. He did not re-establish it but removed to Lawrence.

Following this came the Circular, by E. W. Perry; alnd in the spring of 1873, the Courier, by Chatham & Sourr. Jim Chatham was one of the best local itemizers who ever struck Montgomery county, but his abilities as a business man were not adequate to the strain, and bad luck compelled him to suspend in July 1875. His office was put on wheels and taken to Independence. where he published the Independence Courier for a time, to be succeeded by the Daily Courier, and the Workingman's Courier, which was published by Frank C. Scott until 1879.

The Independence Kansan was established in the fall of 1875 by W. H. Watkins. The paper was Democratic, though Watkins was known to be a Republican. While the Tribune, started in the spring of 1871, still lives under one of its original publishers, the Kansan has seen changes and vielssltudes without end. Will H. Warner took it off of Watkins' hand in December 1876, and ran it at high pressure for a little more than two years, vastly increasing its subscription hst, getting the county printing, and filling it with live local news; giving, however, too much space io salacious gossip. Finding the income of the paper insufficient to enable him to "sit in" on poker games at Kansas City as frequently as he wished, he sold it in January 1879, to George W. Burchard, the only ma'n in Montgomery county who has edited both the Republican and Demo- eratie organs of the county. In less than a year Burchard disposed of the paper to Frank C. Scott, of the Courier, who merged the two papers into one. Scott sold the Kansan to Il. W. Young of the Star in February 1882, but at the same time transferred the good will and business to A. A. Stewart, who published a new paper with the old name, Independence Kansan until January 1885, when he also sold out to Mr. Young, who has bought more Montgomery county newspapers than any other man living. The Kansan and the Star were then consolidated as the Star and Kansan. The Star was originally established at Coffeyville by Mr. Young in April 1881, as the Coffeyville Star, but was removed to Independence in October of the same year and published as The Star until the merger just mentioned. The Star and Kansan was published by Mr. Young until Inne 1890, when he removed to Colorado, leaving Charles T. Errett in

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

charge of the paper. It was published in Mr. Young's name until Sep- tember 1892, when Errett became proprietor. In January 1893, Mr. Young returned and re-purchased the paper. again becoming its editor and publisher. In November 1896, he sold a half interest to A. T. Cox. but the partnership was uncongenial and lasted not much over a year. Indeed. the partners were unable to even agree as to the method of get- tign unhitched, and the courts had to be resorted to to divorce them. Walter S. Siekles was appointed receiver in January, 1898, and ran the paper until May 1st when it was sold by the sheriff and purchased by Mr. Cox, who has since conducted it. A couple of years later Mr. Cox began the issue of the Daily Evening Star, which he still publishes.

In June 1898. Mr. Young, deciding to continue in the newspaper business in Independence, purchased the name and list of the Kansas Populist from Mr. Ritchie at Cherryvale. He has published the paper since that time. having recently associated his son, H. A. Young, with him in the business, under the firm name of H. W. Young & Son.

The Daily Reporter was established at Independence in August, 1881. by Harper & Wassam. They published it only a year or two, when it was taken in hand by O'Conner & MeCulley, who held claims upon the ma- terial. Subsequently, for a time, it was published by Charles H. Harper, a son of one of the founders, and then in 1885 it was sold to T. N. Sickles, in whose ownership it still remains.

Of short lived papers published at Independence, mention may be made of the following :

The Osage Chief, by Ed. Van Gundy and A. M. Clark, in the spring of 1874.

The Itemizer. tri-weekly, by J. E. Stinson, in 1879.

The Living Age, by P. B. Castle, in 1881.

The Montgomery Monitor by Vick Jennings, in December 1885, and January 1886. Jennings was the only newspaper publisher who has died in the harness in Independence.

The Independence News, daily and weekly, by Cleveland J. Reynolds, in 1886.

The Montgomery Argus. by Sullivan & Levan. in 1886-87.

United Labor, by A. J. Miller, was an Alliance organ established in 1892 and published until 1894. John Callahan, who was then deputy sheriff. christened this sheet "The Dehorner," and it came to be much bet- ter known by that appellation than by the name printed at its head.

The Weekly Call and the Daily Evening Call, by Rev. JJ. A. Smith, in 1896.

Turning again to Coffeyville, we tind that llon. W. A. Poffer, who subsequently became United States Senator, established the Colleyville Journal in the fall of 1875. After four or five years he removed to Topeka

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

and left the paper in the hands of his son. W. A. Peffer. Jr., better known as "Jake," who continued its management until Capt. D. Stewart Elliott assumed control in 1885. Elliott was subsequently elected to the legis- lature, but owing to financial reverses was compelled to sell the paper in 1896, when it went into the hands of a company, with W. G. Weaverling and I. R. Arbogast as editors. They have conducted it very successfully since that date, and have for several years been publishing a daily edition, which is the newsiest paper of the kind now published in the county.

The Gate City Independent was established at Coffeyville in the early nineties, and for the past ten years has been published by C. W. Kent. Sometimes it has been a weekly. but most of the time a twice-a- week ; and often, as now, it has had a daily edition.

In 1895 or 1896, John Vedder established the Montgomery County Democrat. which he published for several years, to be succeeded by J. P. Easterly. Still more recently the paper has had a number of editors and publishers ; but about a year ago its name was changed to the Record, and it has been made a daily by the Coffeyville Publishing Company, with Will Felker as editor.

Another weekly published for about the same length of time is the Coffeyville Gaslight, established in 1898, by W. A. Bradford. It now car- ries the name of Fred R. Howard as editor.

Cherryvale's first paper was the Herald, which was established in 1873, but piued away after a sickly existence of but six weeks. Following it came the Leader, which flourished for a while in 1877. The Cherryvale Globe was established in 1879. the Cherryvale News in 1881 and the Cher- ryvale Torch in 1882. The Globe and News were consolidated in 1882 and the Torch joined the same combination in 1885. The Cherryvale Bulletin, the only Democratie newspaper Cherryvale has ever had, was established by Major E. W. Lyon in 1884 and continued until 1888. The Cherryvale Champion ran from 1887 until 1895. Other short lived Cherry- vale papers are the Southern Kansas Farmer and the Kansas Common- wealth, 1891; the Morning Telegram. 1892; the Cherryvale Republie and the Republican-Plaindealer, 1893.

The Cherryvale Republican was established in 1886 and is still pub- lished by C. E. Moore.

The Kansas Populist was started by J. H. Ritchie in 1894 as a weekly. In connection with it he has published the Daily News, and since 1898 the weekly has also been known as the News. The publishers are J. H. Ritchie & Son.

The Cherryvale Clarion. daily and weekly, was established in 1898, and is now published by L. I. Purcell.

Elk City has had the Times, established in the fall of 1880. which turned up its toes when only ten weeks old ; the Globe, from 1882 to 1887;

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

the Star in 1884-85; the Democrat, 1885-86; the Eagle, 1886-1890; and the Enterprise from 1889 to the present time, with W. E. Wortman as edi- tor and publisher.

Caney has the Chronicle, which was established in 1885, and is still published by larry E. Brighton.

Other papers that have been published there are the Times and the Phonix. The Times was established in 1889 and ran until the later nine- ties, having had Cleveland J. Reynolds, Hon. J. R. Charlton and A. M. Parsons as editors.

Havana has been without a newspaper for the past ten years, but had at various times the Vidette, the Weekly Herald, the Recorder and the Press and Torch, none of which survived to reach the mature age of three years.

Liberty has had the Light. published for a short time in 1886, and the Review from 1887 until 1892.

All sorts of newspapers have been published by all sorts of men in Montgomery county ; but the local conditions have never been favorable for the building up of a great county newspaper of universal circulation. The railroads have not all centered at the county seat, but have run all around the edges of the county. This has resulted in the development of towns at the four corners of the county, two of which have come to be cities rivaling the county's capital. and all of which are newspaper towns. So instead of being concentrated. the newspaper business has been split up, and no newspaper, no matter how well edited, nor how accu- rate and enterprising a purveyor of news, has yet been able to command the patronage that would make it or give it a commanding position, }nor the three or four thousand circulation which is sometimes found in counties the size and population of ours.

CHAPTER IN. Gas and Oil Devlopments in Montgomery County

BY H. W. YOUNG.

Until the later eighties no one suspected the existence of natural gas in Montgomery county in sufficient quantities to be of any use. Indeed, during the early history of the county, and up to 1885, or later, the exis- tence of vast reservoirs of natural gas beneath us was unsuspected and undreamed of. People would have listened to predictions of gold mines to be opened here on the prairies much more readily than to suggestions that the time would come when our fuel would flow out of the earth in iron pipes all ready to burn, and transport itself to our doors. It was different. though, about petroleum. The pioneer settlers in plowing up the sod in some of the ravines near the Verdigris had noticed an oily

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.

seum standing in the furrows if they were left undisturbed for a time. And as long ago as April 28th, 1881, we find the following item in the local columns of the Coffeyville Star:

"Last Friday morning we found a group of men in eager consultation in front of Isham's store. A couple of old tin cans filled with water and covered with a brownish coat. looking a little like varnish, were the centre of attraction. Tested by the nose, there was no doubt that the greasy seum on the water and the coating of the cans was crude petroleum, of the heavy or lubricating grade. They had been filled from the contents of a well that Mr. D. Davis was sinking at his residence on Ninth street ; and the incontestible evidence they afforded that there was a reservoir of kero- sene beneath ns naturally caused considerable interest. It seems that Mr. Davis had struck a vein of fair water previously, but the quantity being deemed insufficient had gone down to the depth of twenty-five feet, where, much to his disgust, he "struck oil." Whether this development indicates the existence of oil in paying quantities in our section, we do not presume to say, though the matter is certainly worthy of further in- vestigation. We learn that oil has heretofore been observed on the surface of the water flowing from springs in this vicinity, and it is possible that we may yet be shipping petroleum, little as such a product would be ex- pected from a country with the physical characteristics of ours."

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History of Montgomery County, Kansas, Part 5

Author: Duncan, L. Wallace (Lew Wallace), b. 1861, comp Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Iola, Kan., Press of Iola register Number of Pages: 1162

Author: Duncan, L. Wallace (Lew Wallace), b. 1861, comp
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Iola, Kan., Press of Iola register
Number of Pages: 1162