The Stevens County War--_The Bloodiest County Seat War of the
West_--_The Personal Narrative of a Man Who Was Shot and Left for
Dead_--_The Most Expensive United States Court Case Ever Tried_.
In the month of May, 1886, the writer was one of a party of
buffalo-hunters bound for the Neutral Strip and the Panhandle of Texas,
where a small number of buffalo still remained at that time. We traveled
across the entire southwestern part of Kansas, below the Santa Fé
railroad, at a time when the great land boom of 1886 and 1887 was at its
height. Town-site schemes in western Kansas were at that time
innumerable, and a steady stream of immigration was pouring westward by
rail and wagon into the high and dry plains of the country, where at
that time farming remained a doubtful experiment. In the course of our
travels, we saw one morning, rising before us in the mirage of the
plains, what seemed to be a series of crenelated turrets, castles peaked
and bastioned. We knew this was but the mirage, and knew that it must
have some physical cause. But what was a town doing in that part of the
world? We drove on and in a few hours found the town--a little, raw boom
town of unpainted boards and tents, which had sprung up almost overnight
in that far-off region. The population was that of the typical frontier
town, and the pronounced belief of all was that this settlement was to
be the commercial metropolis of the Southwest. This little town was
later known as Woodsdale, Kansas. It offered then no hint of the bloody
scenes in which it was soon to figure; but within a few weeks it was so
deeply embroiled in war with the rival town of Hugoton as to make
history notable even on that turbulent frontier.
Mr. Herbert M. Tonney, now a prosperous citizen of Flora, Illinois, was
a resident of that portion of the country in the stirring days of the
land boom, and became involved to an extent beyond his own seeking in
this county seat fight. While serving as an officer of the peace, he was
shot and left for dead. No story can serve so well as his personal
narrative to convey a clear idea of the causes, methods and results of a
typical county seat war in the West. His recountal follows:
"I do not need to swear to the truthfulness of my story, for I have
already done so in many courts and under the cross-examination of some
of the ablest lawyers in the country. I have repeated the story on the
stand in a criminal case which cost the United States government more
money than it has ever expended in any similar trial, unless perhaps
that having to do with the assassination of President Lincoln. I can say
that I know what it is to be murdered.
"In March, 1886, I moved out into southwestern Kansas, in what was later
to be known as Stevens county, then a remote and apparently unattractive
region. In 1885 a syndicate of citizens of McPherson, Kansas, had been
formed for the purpose of starting a new town in southwestern Kansas.
The members were leading bankers, lawyers, and merchants. These sent out
an exploration party, among which were such men as Colonel C. E. Cook,
former postmaster of McPherson; his brother, Orrin Cook, a lawyer; John
Pancoast, J. B. Chamberlain, J. W. Calvert, John Robertson, and others.
They located a section of school lands, in what was later known as
Stevens county, as near the center of the proposed county as the range
of sand dunes along the Cimarron river would permit. Others of the party
located lands as close to the town site as possible. On August 3, 1886,
Governor Martin issued a proclamation for the organization of Stevens
county. It appeared upon the records of the State of Kansas that the new
county had 2,662 _bona-fide_ inhabitants, of whom 868 were householders.
These claimed a taxable property, in excess of legal exemptions,
amounting to $313,035, including railroad property of $140,380. I need
not state that the organization was wholly based upon fraud. An election
was called for September 9, and the town of Hugoton--at first called
Hugo--was chosen.
"There can be competition in the town-site business, however. At Mead
Center, Kansas, there resided an old-time Kansas man, Colonel S. N.
Wood, who also wanted a town site in the new county. Wood's partner,
Captain I. C. Price, went down on July 3 to look over the situation. He
was not known to the Hugoton men, and he was invited by Calvert, the
census taker, to register his name as a citizen. He protested that he
was only a visitor, but was informed that this made no possible
difference; whereupon, Price proceeded to register his own name, that of
his partner, those of many of his friends, and many purely imaginary
persons. He also registered the families of these persons, and
finally--in a burst of good American humor--went so far as to credit
certain single men of his acquaintance with large families, including
twenty or thirty pairs of twins! This cheerful imagination on his part
caused trouble afterwards; but certain it is that these fictitious
names, twins and all, went into the sworn records of Hugoton--an unborn
population of a defunct town, whose own conception was in iniquity!
"Price located a section of government land on the north side of the
sand hills, eight miles from Hugoton, and this was duly platted for a
town site. Corner lots were selling at Hugoton for $1,000 apiece, and
people were flocking to that town. The new town was called Woodsdale,
and Colonel Wood offered lots free to any who would come and build upon
them. Settlers now streamed to Woodsdale. Tents, white-topped wagons and
frail shanties sprung up as though by magic. The Woodsdale boom
attracted even homesteaders who had cast in their lot with Hugoton. Many
of these forgot their oaths in the land office, pulled up and filed on
new quarter sections nearer to Woodsdale. The latter town was jubilant.
Colonel Wood and Captain Price, in the month of August, held a big
ratification meeting, taunting the men of Hugoton with those thirty
pairs of twins that never were on land or sea. A great deal of bad blood
was engendered at this time.
"Soon after this Wood and Price started together for Garden City. They
were followed by a band of Hugoton men and captured in a dugout on the
Cimarron river. Brought back to Hugoton, a mock trial was held upon them
and they were released on a mock bond, being later taken out of town
under guard. A report was printed in the Hugoton paper that certain
gentlemen of that town had gone south with Colonel Wood and Captain
Price, 'for the purpose of a friendly buffalo hunt.' It was the
intention to take these two prisoners into the wild and lawless region
of No Man's Land, or the Panhandle of Texas, there to kill them, and to
bring back the report that they were accidentally killed in the buffalo
chase. This strange hunting party did go south, across No Man's Land
and into the desert region lying around the headwaters of the Beaver.
The prisoners knew what they were to expect, but, as it chanced, their
captors did not dare kill them. Meantime, Woodsdale had organized a
'posse' of twenty-four men, under Captain S. O. Aubrey, the noted
frontier trailer, formerly an Indian scout. This band, taking up the
trail below Hugoton, followed and rescued Wood and Price, and took
prisoners the entire Hugoton 'posse.' The latter were taken to Garden
City, and here the law was in turn set at defiance by the Woodsdale men,
the horses, wagons, arms, etc., of the Hugoton party being put up and
sold in the court to pay the board of the teams, expenses of
publication, etc. Colonel Wood bought these effects in at public
auction.
"By this time, Stevens county had been organized and the Hugoton 'pull'
was in the ascendency. A continuance had been taken at Garden City by
the Hugoton prisoners, who were charged with kidnapping. The papers in
this case were sent down from Finney county to the first session of the
District Court of Stevens county. The result was foregone. Tried by
their friends, the prisoners were promptly discharged.
"The feeling between the two towns was all the time growing more bitter.
Cases had been brought against Calvert, the census-taker, for perjury,
and action was taken looking toward the setting aside of the
organization of the county. The Kansas legislature, however, now met,
and the political 'pull' of Hugoton was still strong enough to secure a
special act legalizing the organization of Stevens county. It was now
the legislature against the Supreme Court; for a little later the
Supreme Court declared that the organization had been made through open
fraud and by means of perjury.
"Naturally, trouble might have been expected at the fall election. There
were two centers of population, two sets of leaders, two clans,
separated by only eight miles of sand hills. There could be but one
county seat and one set of officers. Here Woodsdale began to suffer, for
her forces were divided among themselves.
"Colonel Wood, the leader of this community, had slated John M. Cross as
his candidate for sheriff. A rival for the nomination was Sam Robinson,
who owned the hotel at Woodsdale, and had invested considerable money
there. Robinson was about forty years of age, and was known to be a bad
man, credited with two or three killings elsewhere. Wood had always been
able to flatter him and handle him; but when Cross was declared as the
nominee for sheriff, Robinson became so embittered that he moved over to
Hugoton, where he was later chosen town marshal and township constable.
Hugoton men bought his hotel, leaving Robinson in the position of
holding real estate in Woodsdale without owning the improvements on it.
Hence when the town-site commissioners began to issue deeds, Robinson
was debarred from claiming a deed by reason of the hotel property having
been sold. Bert Nobel, a friend of Robinson's, sold his drug store and
moved over with Robinson to Hugoton. Hugoton bought other property of
Woodsdale malcontents, leaving the buildings standing at Woodsdale and
taking the citizens to themselves. The Hugoton men put up as their
candidate one Dalton, and declared him elected. Wood contested the
election, and finally succeeded in getting his man Cross declared as
sheriff of Stevens county.
"It was now proposed to issue bonds for a double line of railroad
across this county, such bonds amounting to eight thousand dollars per
mile. At this time, the population was largely one of adventurers, and
there was hardly a foot of deeded land in the entire county. In the
discussion over this bond election, Robinson got into trouble with the
new sheriff, in which Robinson was clearly in the wrong, as he had no
county jurisdiction, being at the time of the altercation outside of his
own township and town. Later on, a warrant for Robinson's arrest was
issued and placed in the hands of Ed Short, town marshal of Woodsdale.
Short was known as a killer, and hence as a fit man to go after
Robinson.[I] He went to Hugoton to arrest Robinson, and there was a
shooting affair, in which the citizens of Hugoton protected their man.
The Woodsdale town marshal, however, still retained his warrant and
cherished his purpose of arresting his man.
[Footnote I: This man, Ed. Short, later came to a tragic end. A man of
courage, as has been intimated, he had assisted in the capture of a
member of the famous Dalton gang, one Dave Bryant, who had robbed a Rock
Island express train, and was taking him to Wichita, Kansas, to jail. On
the way Short had occasion to go into the smoker of the train, leaving
the prisoner in charge of the express messenger, whom Short had
furnished with a revolver. By some means Bryant became possessed of this
revolver, held up the messenger, and was in the act of jumping from the
swiftly moving train, when Short came out of the smoker. Catching sight
of Short, Bryant fired and struck him, Short returning the fire, and
both falling from the train together, dead.]
"On July 22 of this year, 1888, Short learned that Sam Robinson, the two
Cooks, and a man by the name of Donald, together with some women and
children, had gone on a picnic down in the Neutral Strip, south of the
Stevens county line. Short raised a 'posse' of four or five men and
started after Robinson, who was surprised in camp near Goff creek. There
was a parley, which resulted in Robinson escaping on a fast horse, which
was tied near the shack where he was stopping with his wife and
children. Short, meantime, had sent back word to Woodsdale, stating that
he needed help to take Robinson. Meantime, also, the Hugoton men,
learning that Short had started down after Robinson, had sent out two
strong parties to rescue the latter. A battle was imminent.
"It was at this time that I myself appeared upon the scene of this
turbulent and lawless drama, although, in my own case, I went as a
somewhat unwilling participant and as a servant of the law, not
anticipating consequences so grave as those which followed.
"The sheriff of the county, John M. Cross, on receiving the message from
Short, called for volunteers, which was equivalent to summoning a
'posse.' He knew there was going to be trouble, and left his money and
watch behind him, stating that he feared for the result of his errand.
His 'posse' was made up of Ted Eaton, Bob Hubbard, Rolland Wilcox, and
myself. At that time I was only a boy, about nineteen years of age.
"We had a long and hard ride to Reed's camp, on Goff creek, whence Short
had sent up his message. Arriving there, we found Reed, who was catching
wild horses, together with a man by the name of Patterson and another
man, but Short was not in sight. From Reed we learned that Robinson had
gotten away from Short, who had started back, leaving word for Mr.
Cross, should he arrive, to return home. A band of men from Hugoton, we
learned later, had overtaken Short and his men and chased them for
twenty-five miles, but the latter reached Springfield, Seward county,
unharmed.
"Robinson, who had made his escape to a cow camp and thence to Hugoton
upon a fresh horse, now met and led down into the Strip one of the first
Hugoton 'posses.' Among them were Orrin Cook, Charles Cook, J. W.
Calvert, J. B. Chamberlain, John Jackson, John A. Rutter, Fred Brewer,
William Clark, and a few others. Robinson was, of course, the leader of
this band.
"After Sheriff Cross asked me to go down with him to see what had become
of Ed Short, I went over and got Wilcox and we rode down to the
settlement of Voorhees. Thence we rode to Goff creek, and all reached
Reed's camp about seven or eight o'clock on Wednesday morning, July 25,
1888. Here we remained until about five o'clock of that afternoon, when
we started for home. Our horses gave out, and we got off and led them
until well on into the night.
"At about moonrise, we came to a place in the Neutral Strip known as the
'Hay Meadows,' where there was a sort of pool of standing water, at
which settlers cut a kind of coarse hay. There was in camp there, making
hay, an old man by the name of A. B. Haas, of Voorhees, and with him
were his sons, C. and Keen Haas, as well as Dave Scott, a Hugoton
partisan. When we met these people here, we concluded to stop for a
while. Eaton and Wilcox got into the wagon-box and lay down. My horse
got loose and I was a few minutes in repicketing him. I had not been
lying down more than twenty minutes, when we were surprised by the
Hugoton 'posse' under Robinson. The latter had left the trail, which
came down from the northeast, and were close upon us. They had evidently
been watching us during the evening with field-glasses, as they seemed
to know where we had stopped, and had completely surrounded us before we
knew of their being near us.
"The first I heard was Cross exclaiming, 'They have got us!' At that
time there was shooting, and Robinson called out, 'Boys, close in!' He
called out to Cross, 'Surrender, and hold up your hands!' Our arms were
mostly against the haystacks. Not one of us fired a shot, or could have
done so at that moment.
"Sheriff Cross, Hubbard, and myself got up and stood together. We held
up our hands. They did not seem to notice Wilcox and Eaton, who were
lying in the wagon. Robinson called out to Cross, 'Give up your arms!'
"'I have no arms,' replied Cross. He explained that his Winchester was
on his saddle and that he had no revolver.
"'I know better than that,' said Robinson. 'Search him!' Some one of the
Hugoton party then went over Cross after weapons, and told Robinson that
he had no arms.
"'I know better,' reiterated Robinson. The others stood free at that
moment, and Robinson exclaimed, 'Sheriff Cross, you are my first man.'
He raised his Winchester and fired at Cross, a distance of a few feet,
and I saw Cross fall dead at my side. It was all a sort of trance or
dream to me. I did not seem to realize what was going on, but knew that
I could make no resistance. My gun was not within reach. I knew that I,
too, would be shot down.
[Illustration: THE McSWEEN STORE AND BANK; PROMINENT IN THE LINCOLN
COUNTY WAR]
"Hubbard had now been disarmed, if indeed he had on any weapon. Robinson
remarked to him, 'I want you, too!' and as he spoke he raised his
Winchester and shot him dead, Hubbard also falling close to where I
stood, his murderer being but a few feet from him.
"I knew that my turn must come pretty soon. It was Chamberlain who was
to be my executioner, J. B. Chamberlain, chairman of the board of county
commissioners of Stevens county, and always prominent in Hugoton
matters. Chamberlain was about eight feet from me, or perhaps less, when
he raised his rifle deliberately to kill me. There were powder burns on
my neck and face from the shot, as the woman who cared for me on the
following day testified in court.
"I saw the rifle leveled, and realized that I was going to be killed.
Instinctively, I flinched to one side of the line of the rifle. That
saved my life. The ball entered the left side of my neck, about
three-quarters of an inch from the carotid artery and about half an inch
above the left clavicle, coming out through the left shoulder. I felt no
pain at the time, and, indeed, did not feel pain until the next day. The
shock of the shot knocked me down and numbed me, and I suppose I lay a
minute or two before I recovered sensation or knew anything about my
condition. It was supposed by all that I was killed, and, in a vague
way, I agreed that I must be killed; that my spirit was simply present
listening and seeing.
"Eaton had now got out of the wagon, and he started to run towards the
horses. Robinson and one or two others now turned and pursued him, and I
heard a shot or so. Robinson came back and I heard him say, 'I have shot
the ---- ---- ---- who drew a gun on me!'
"Then I heard the Hugoton men talking and declaring that they must have
the fifth man of our party, whom they had not yet found. At this time,
old man Haas and his sons came and stood near where I was and saw me
looking up. The former, seeing that I was not dead, asked me where I
had been shot. 'They have shot my arm off,' I answered him. At this
moment I heard the Hugoton men starting toward me, and I dropped back
and feigned death. Haas did not betray me. The Hugoton men now lit
matches and peered into the faces of their victims to see if they were
dead. I kept my eyes shut when the matches were held to my face, and
held my breath.
"They finally found Wilcox, I do not know just where, but they stood him
up within fifteen feet of where I was lying feigning death. They asked
Wilcox what he had been doing there, and he replied that he had just
been down on the Strip looking around.
"'That's a damned lie!' replied Robinson, the head executioner. As he
spoke, he raised his Winchester and fired. Wilcox fell, and as he lay he
moaned a little bit, as I heard:
"'Put the fellow out of his misery,' remarked Robinson, carelessly. Some
one then apparently fired a revolver shot and Wilcox became silent.
"Some one came to me, took hold of my foot, and began to pull me around
to see whether I was dead. Robinson wanted it made sure. Chamberlain, my
executioner, said, 'He's dead; I gave him a center shot. I don't need
shoot a man twice at that distance.' Either Chamberlain or some one else
took me by the legs, dragged me about, and kicked me in the side,
leaving bruises which were visible for many days afterwards. I feigned
death so well that they did not shoot me again. They did shoot a second
time each of the others who lay near me. We found seven cartridges on
the ground near where the killing was done. Eaton was shot at a little
distance from us, and I do not know whether he was shot more than once
or not.
"The haymakers were now in trouble, and said that they could not go on
putting up their hay with the corpses lying around. Robinson told them
to hitch up and follow the Hugoton party away. They did this, and after
a while I was left lying there in the half-moonlight, with the dead
bodies of my friends for company.
"After the party had been gone about twenty minutes, I found I could get
on my feet, although I was very weak. At first, I went and examined
Wilcox, Cross, and Hubbard, and found they were quite dead. Their belts
and guns were gone. Then I went to get my horse. It was hard for me to
get into the saddle, and it has always seemed to me providential that I
could do so at all. My horse was very wild and difficult to mount under
ordinary circumstances. Now, it seemed to me that he knew my plight. It
is certain that at that time and afterwards he was perfectly quiet and
gentle, even when I laboriously tried to get into the saddle.
"At a little distance, there was a buffalo wallow, with some filthy
water in it. I led my horse here, lay down in the water, and drank a
little of it. After that I rode about fifteen or sixteen miles along a
trail, not fully knowing where I was going. In the morning, I met
constable Herman Cann, of Voorhees, who had been told by the Haas party
of the foregoing facts. Of course, we might expect a Hugoton 'posse' at
any time. As a matter of fact, the same crowd who did the killing
(fifteen of them, as I afterwards learned), after taking the haymakers
back toward the State of Kansas, returned on their hunt for one of
Short's men, who they supposed was still in that locality. It was
probably not later than one or two o'clock in the morning when they
found me gone.
"Our butchers now again sat down on the ground near the bodies of their
victims, and they seem to have enjoyed themselves. There was talk that
some beer bottles were emptied and left near the heads of their victims
as markers, but whether this was deliberately done I cannot say.
"Constable Cann later hid me in the middle of a cornfield. This, no
doubt, saved my life, for the Hugoton scouts were soon down there the
next morning, having discovered that one of the victims had come to
life. Woodsdale had sent out two wagons with ice to bring in the bodies
of the dead men, but these Hugoton scouts met them and made them ride
through Hugoton, so that the assembled citizens of that town might see
the corpses. The county attorney, William O'Connor, made a speech,
demanding that Hugoton march on Woodsdale and kill Wood and Ed Short.
"By this time, of course, all Woodsdale was also under arms. My friends
gathered from all over the countryside, a large body of them, heavily
armed. Mr. Cann, the constable, had tried to take me to Liberal, but I
could not stand the ride. I was then taken to the house of a doctor in
the settlement at LaFayette. On the second night after the massacre I
was taken to Woodsdale by about twenty of the Woodsdale boys, who came
after me. We arrived at Woodsdale about daybreak next morning. In our
night trip we could see the skyrocket signals used by the Robinson-Cook
gang.
"After my arrival at Woodsdale, it might have been supposed that all the
country was in a state of war, instead of living in a time of modern
civilization. Entrenchments were thrown up, rifle pits were dug, and
stands established for sharp-shooters. Guards were thrown out all around
the town, and mounted scouts continued to scour the country. Hugoton,
expecting that Woodsdale would make an organized attack in retaliation,
was quite as fully fortified in every way. Had there been a determined
leader, the bloodshed would have been much greater. Of course, the
result of this state of hostilities was that the governor sent out the
militia, and there were investigations, and, later on, arrests and
trials. The two towns literally fought each other to the death.
"The murder of Sheriff Cross occurred in 1888. The militia were
withdrawn within about thirty days thereafter. Both towns continued to
break the law--in short, agreed jointly to break the law. They drew up
a stipulation, it is said, under which Colonel Wood was to have all the
charges against the Hugoton men dismissed. In return, Wood was to have
all the charges against him in Hugoton dismissed, and was to have safe
conduct when he came up to court. Not even this compounding of felony
was kept as a pact between these treacherous communities.
"The trial lagged. Wood was once more under bond to appear at Hugoton,
before the court of his enemy, Judge Botkin, and among many other of his
Hugoton enemies. On the day that Colonel Wood was to go for his trial,
June 23, 1891, he drove up in a buggy. In the vehicle with him were his
wife and a Mrs. Perry Carpenter. Court was held in the Methodist church.
At the time of Wood's arrival, the docket had been called and a number
of cases set for trial, including one against Wood for arson--there was
no crime in the calendar of which one town did not accuse the other,
and, indeed, of which the citizens of either were not guilty.
"Wood left the two ladies sitting in the buggy, near the door, and
stepped up to the clerk's desk to look over some papers. As he went in,
he passed, leaning against the door, one Jim Brennan, a deputy of
Hugoton, who did not seem to notice him. Brennan was a friend of C. E.
Cook, then under conviction for the Hay Meadows massacre. Brennan stood
talking to Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Carpenter, smiling and apparently
pleasant. Colonel Wood turned and came down towards the door, again
passing close to Brennan but not speaking to him. He was almost upon the
point of climbing to his seat in the buggy, when Brennan, without a word
and without any sort of warning, drew a revolver and shot him in the
back. Wood wheeled around, and Brennan shot him the second time, through
the right side. Not a word had been spoken by any one. Wood now started
to run around the corner of the house. His wife, realizing now what was
happening, sprang from the buggy-seat and followed to protect him.
Brennan fired a third time, but missed. Mrs. Wood, reaching her
husband's side, threw her arms around his neck. Brennan coming close up,
fired a fourth shot, this time through Wood's head. The murdered man
fell heavily, literally in his wife's arms, and for the moment it was
thought both were killed. Brennan drew a second revolver, and so stood
over Wood's corpse, refusing to surrender to any one but the sheriff of
Morton county.
"The presiding judge at this trial was Theodosius Botkin, a figure of
peculiar eminence in Kansas at that time. Botkin gave Brennan into the
custody of the sheriff of Morton county. He was removed from the county,
and it need hardly be stated that when he was at last brought back for
trial it was found impossible to empanel a jury, and he was set free. No
one was ever punished for this cold-blooded murder.
"Colonel S. N. Wood was an Ohio man, but moved to Kansas in the early
Free Soil days. He was a friend and champion of old John Brown and a
colonel of volunteers in the civil war. He had served in the legislature
of Kansas, and was a good type of the early and adventurous pioneer.
"Whether or not suspicion attached to Judge Botkin for his conduct in
this matter, he himself seems to have feared revenge, for he held court
with a Winchester at his hand and a brace of revolvers on the desk in
front of him, his court-house always surrounded with an armed guard. He
offended men in Seward county, and there was a plot made to kill him. A
party lay in wait along the road to intercept Botkin on his journey from
his homestead--every one in Kansas at that time had a 'claim'--but
Botkin was warned by some friend. He sent out Sam Dunn, sheriff of
Seward county, to discover the truth of the rumor. Dunn went on down the
trail and, in a rough part of the country, was fired upon and killed,
instead of Botkin. Arrests were made in this matter also, but the sham
trials resulted much as had that of Brennan. The records of these trials
may be seen in Seward county. It was murder for murder, anarchy for
anarchy, evasion for evasion, in this portion of the frontier. Judge
Botkin soon after this resigned his seat upon the bench and went to
lecturing upon the virtues of the Keeley cure. Afterwards he went to the
legislature--the same legislature which had once tried him on charges of
impeachment as a judge!
"These events all became known in time, and lawlessness proved its own
inability to endure. The towns were abandoned. Where in 1889 there were
perhaps 4,000 people, there remained not 100. The best of the farms were
abandoned or sold for taxes, the late inhabitants of the two warring
settlements wandering out over the world. The legislature, hoodwinked or
cajoled heretofore, at length disorganized the county, and anarchy gave
back its own to the wilderness.
"I have indicated that the trial of the men guilty of assassinating my
friends and of attempting to kill myself in the Hay Meadow butchery was
one which reached a considerable importance at the time. The crimes were
committed in that strange portion of the country called No Man's Land or
the Neutral Strip. The accused were tried in the United States court at
Paris, Texas. I myself drew the indictments against them. There were
tried the Cooks, Chamberlain, Robinson and others of the Hugoton party,
and of these six were convicted and sentenced to be hung. These men were
defended by Colonel George R. Peck, later chief counsel of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. With him were associated Judge John F.
Dillon, of New York; W. H. Rossington, of St. Louis; Senator Manderson,
of Nebraska; Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, and others. The Knights of
Pythias raised a fund to defend the prisoners, and spent perhaps a
hundred thousand dollars in all in this undertaking. A vast political
'pull' was exercised at Topeka and Washington. After the sentence had
been passed, the case was taken up to the United States Supreme Court,
on the ground that the Texas court had no jurisdiction in the premises,
and on the further grounds of errors in the trial. The United States
Supreme Court, in 1891, reversed the Texas court, on an error on the
admission of evidence, and remanded the cases. The men were never put on
trial again, except that, in 1898, Sam Robinson, meantime pardoned out
of the penitentiary in Colorado, where he had been sent for robbing the
United States mails at Florissant, Colorado, returned to Texas, and was
arrested on the old charge. The men convicted were C. E. Cook, Orrin
Cook, Cyrus C. Freese, John Lawrence and John Jackson.
"The Illinois legislature petitioned Congress to extend United States
jurisdiction over No Man's Land, and so did the state of Indiana; and it
was attached to the East District of Texas for the purposes of
jurisdiction. Congressman Springer held up this bill for a time, using
it as a club for the passage of a measure of his own upon which he was
intent. Thus, it may be seen that the tawdry little tragedy in that
land which indeed was 'No Man's Land' in time attained a national
prominence.
"The collecting of the witnesses for this trial cost the United States
government over one hundred thousand dollars. The trial was long and
bitterly fought. It resulted, as did every attempt to convict those
concerned in the bloody doings of Stevens county, in an absolute failure
of the ends of justice. Of all the murders committed in that bitter
fighting, not one murderer has ever been punished! Never was greater
political or judicial mockery.
"I had the singular experience, once in my life, of eating dinner at the
same table with the man who brutally shot me down and left me for dead.
J. B. Chamberlain, the man who shot me, and who thought he had killed
me, came in with a friend and sat down at the same table in a
Leavenworth, Kansas, restaurant, where I was eating. My opportunity for
revenge was there. I did not take it. Chamberlain and his friend did not
know who I was. I left the matter to the law, with what results the
records of the law's failure in these matters has shown.
"Of those who were tried for these murders, J. B. Chamberlain is now
dead. C. E. Cook, who was much alarmed lest the cases might be
reinstated in the year 1898, claims Quincy, Illinois, as his home, but
has interests in Florida. O. J. Cook is dead. Jack Lawrence is dead.
John Kelley is dead. Other actors in the drama, unconvicted, are also
dead or nameless wanderers. As the indictments were all quashed in 1898,
Sam Robinson, whose whereabouts is unknown, will never be brought to
trial for his deeds in the Hay Meadow butchery. He was not tried at
Paris, being then in the Colorado penitentiary. His friend and partner,
Bert Nobel, who was sent to the penitentiary for seven years for
participating in the postoffice robbery, was pardoned out, and later
killed a policeman at Trinidad, Colorado. He was tried there and hanged.
So far as I know, this is the only legal punishment ever inflicted upon
any of the Hugoton or Woodsdale men, who outvied each other in a
lawlessness for which anarchy would be a mild name."