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CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
KILLED HIS SWEETHEART BY MISTAKE Last week in a little country churchyard in Cloud County, Western Kansas, old Jack Williams was buried – “Laughin Jack” he was called, though never within the memory of the younger generation had a smile been seen upon his face. In 1867 Jack Williams appeared in the town of Clyde. Soon after reaching Clyde he opened a livery stable and commenced trading horses and freighting. He was a jolly fellow, always joking and nearly always laughing. His laugh was worth coming miles to hear. It had a volume like the roar of a cataract. The claim adjoining Jack’s was held by a German whose family consisted of his wife and a daughter. The girl was about 22 or 23 years old. She was fairly good looking and did a full man’s work on the farm. “Laughin’ Jack” used to curse the “Dutch outfit” for what he termed their harsh treatment of the girl. He was so bitter that it finally dawned upon the rough fellows of the place that he had more of an interest in the girl than he really ever cared to admit. Her parents knew nothing of these facts. Her marriage meant the loss of a man on the farm, and it was taken for granted that they would oppose it. So the couple intended to get married on the quiet. Late one afternoon in the winter of ’69 there came up a terrible blizzard – suddenly as they always come. That afternoon a cow had escaped from the Dutchman’s corral, and it fell to the lot of the girl to find the animal. When the storm burst the German and his wife sat by the fire, reasoning that the girl would come out all right. That evening Jack went to his shack to spend the night, getting there for the worst of the storm. He was preparing to go to bed when his attention was attracted by the actions of his dog. The beast had risen to his feet and appeared to be listening. There came a lull in the storm, the dog gave a yelp and bounding to the door, commenced scratching at it. Jack opened the door and the dog dashed out. The moon was making a feeble attempt to cast light through the clouds, but as nothing could be made out Jack was on the point of closing the door when again the yelp of the hound rang out. Grasping his rifle Jack advanced a few paces from the door. Now he could dimly see on the edge of a ravine near the shack a grayish body moving slowly in the gloom. That it was a coyote there could be no doubt, and throwing up his gun Jack fired. No sound followed the crack of the rifle, but the object disappeared. When jack started for town next morning he walked to the ravine to see how his aim had been. An awful sight met his gaze. Just below the edge of the bank, with pure white snow all about her, ice incrusted in her hair, was the body of the girl he had intended to make his wife – shot through the brain by the rifle which in his hands had a record of seldom missing its mark. The man was nearly crazed with grief and horror, yet he could not be blamed. The girl, numbed by exposure was endeavoring to make her way to his place of shelter, guided by the light in his widow. Under the circumstances it was small cuase for wonder that he was frantic with grief. The father considered that he had a grievance and the day following the funeral he appeared at Jack’s stable. He walked over to where Jack was disconsolately sitting on a goods box, and said that as his daughter had been a great help to him, and as Jack had been the cause of her death, he thought that something should be done to make it right, and suggested that if Jack would surrender his land to him he would call it square. For a minute Jack did not speak, while the loafers in the barn waited with hushed breath. Pale and trembling Jack rose from his seat. Pulling a six-shooter he leveled it at the farmer and in a voice that began with a choke he said: “See here, Dutch! Climb right into that wagon and hit the trail for home, and if you ever mention this matter to me again I swear to God I’ll fill your carcass so full of lead that you can’t be lifted.” What “Laughin Jack” said went; the old man turned and left the place. Jack was never the same after that. He seemed to have lost interest in life, and from that time the old laugh was never heard again. (The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 31, 1899) The Bogus Check Artists Sent Up The Register, yesterday morning, narrated the manner in which Louis Finch, of Kansas, had been fleeced of $35 by the bogus check racket and also mentioned the arrest of a fellow named Webb, who was at once identified by Finch as a man who had talked to him at the depot, Monday, before he was robbed. Yesterday Officer Moran, who had a close description of the man who actually got the money from Finch, arrested a man named Frederick Fleck, at Carter's saloon, on Twentieth street, and took the prisoner to the office of Justice Davis, where Webb had also been taken. There Finch positively identified both men, and pointed out Fleck as the man who got his money. Finch said he was first met by Webb at the "Pewiky" depot and was followed to the B. & O. Then Webb came up to him and asked him a good many questions as to who he was, where he lived, where he was going, etc. Webb then left Finch, and the latter says he afterwards say Webb talking to Fleck, but even when the latter came up and wrung his hand, called him by name asked after the folks in Cloud county, etc., Finch thought nothing of the conversation held under his nose. Fleck then gave Finch the story about the machinery, substantially as stated in yesterday morning's Register, and the matter ended up with the walk to the Reilly building and the transfer of the $35 from the pockets of Finch to that of Fleck. Of course, both Fleck and Webb denied ever having seen Finch before, but they admitted they knew each other. Fleck said he had been in Wheeling about three months, and during that time he had worked at tending bar about three weeks; he had been sleeping at Carter's saloon, letters found on him showed he has a sister living in Pittsburg, from whom he has been securing money. He has a wife and family in Pittsburg also. He is wanted it is said, at Mannington, Marion county. Both men were held in $1,000 for the grand jury and in default were committed to jail. (Wheeling Sunday Register, August 14, 1890) Kansas Family Victims of Mysterious Crime CONDORDIA, KAS., April 5---Thoedore Tremblay, 18, a farm boy, was slain with an ax, and three younger brothers and the father, L. J. Tremblay, a trustee of Shirley township, were injured by unknown assailants in their home near here late last night. The three younger boys are near death, their heads crushed. The elder Tremblay was found unconscious on his porch this morning, his head injured and his feet bound with wire. Theodore's body was in the barn with the head crushed and the body badly burned. The other boys were found in the house. JIG HAGAMAN SAYS GOLD AT NAPE NOME DISTRICT FAKE Old Jig Hagaman of Concordia, who listened to the story of golden wealth told concerning the Cape Nome district, says that in the opinion of the men who made the trip there it is the greatest fake known in the history of mining. Old Jim says it was graft worked for all there was in it by the transportation companies and that they realized handsome returns at the expense of thousands who made the trip and lost all they had. (Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital, February 22, 1901, page 4) The recent ghost scare near Jamestown recalled to C. H. French, Clyde, a similar occasion that happened near Agenda about 1878. He says, "The Ghost appeared in the form of a woman dressed in a long white flowing gown with her hair hanging down her back. She was seen standing at times in a certain barn door and on several occasions moved from place to place. "This had happened several evenings when four Clyde men went in a lumber wagon to investigate the unusual spectacle. Their trip was repeated without results. When they remained away the ghost was on the scene. "It was finally discovered that a farmer living
near the present site of Agenda owned a good tract of land which a neighbor desired to buy, but the owner wouldn't
sell. The prospective purchaser rigged up some kind of a device with a strong light that would reflect the form
of a woman in and about the barn. The trick was later exposed and the excitement died down." THE TERBUSH SENSATION RECALLED Concordia, Kan., April 5 - The public mind has been aroused again to a high pitch in the Terbush murder case, by the arrest of one H. H. Haines for the murder of young Terbush last Juy, in the eastern suburbs of the city. The coroner's inquest, which was held on the morning of the murder, developed no clue. The trial of Mollie Davis, as an accomplice in the murder of this young man, the latter part of February, was a flat failure, and the officers now admit they were entirely on the wrong track. The cause of the arrest of Haines was on the complaint of one Joseph Dikes, was living in the city at the time and who when his story is told will cause a sensation of the genuine stamp. The facts he is in possession of are clinchers and seem to be corrobrated by solid and connecting circumstantial evidence. As to the facts he will testify to, the officers are not at liberty to state, as the publicity of them now would doubtless defeat the ends of justice, as they state the case is not fully worked up yet. This murder was committed only a few rods east of the place Haines was living at the time. Haines is not a man who has borne the best of character and has been noted for his quarrelsome disposition. He had trouble with all the members of the family, and at times even threatened shooting some of them and that he might have shot the man through mistake, thinking it was his son. Be this as it may, the particulars which will come in Justice Miserez's court at 9 o'clock Saturday wil settle the whole matter. The officers from the start have been confident that some party saw the killing. The missing link or rather man has been found and will set the minds of the public at rest on a matter that has been a perplexed mystery for many a year to this whole section. Haines when arrested about 7 o'clock this morning was at the river looking after his trout line and was armed with his breech-loading shot gun which he has carried for several weeks. From his conversation with four or five parties he seems to have been on the alert. If not guilty of something, he hs acted very strange at times. He offered no resistance to the officers and was promptly lodged in jail. His wife visited the jail and was almost frantic in her endeavors to see him, but was sternly refused admittance. (Wichita Eagle, April 6, 1888) Two Lonesome Maiden Ladies Drown Themselves in a Pond CONCORDIA, Kan., March 13---News has reached this city that Misses Adele and Hannah Poore, sisters, who live alone on their farm four miles northwest of this city, had committed suicide by drowning and the bodies had been found last night almost side by side in Lake Sibley, a small piece of water lying about two and a half miles northwest of town and about a mile from their place of residence. No cause is assigned for the suicides, as they were comfortably fixed, and despondency is the generally accepted excuse for the rash act. They had few acquaintances and few associates. They had one brother, who lives near them, to whom when he was visiting them shortly before the suicides they gave a locked trunk with instructions to keep until called for. He suspected nothing and took the trunk home. It now transpires that the trunk contained all their jewelry, fine clothes, etc. Immediately after their brother's departure the
two women went to the lake and deliberately jumped in. They were aged thirty-three and thirty-five years respectively.
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