Newspaper Articles for Rawlins County, Kansas

RAWLINS COUNTY, KANSAS

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

A KANSAS DUEL
Kansas City, Sept. 11 - A special from Achilles, Rawlins County, Kansas, says: At Alliance last night, Charles Peoples and Henry Hall fought a duel with revolvers, in an attempt to settle a feud for years' standing. Both were mortally wounded. (Grand Forks Herald, September 12, 1897, page 8)

KANSAS CATTLEMEN IN COURT

Seventeen Rawlins County Citizens Want to Get Free From the Sheriff

Topeka, June 16 - Application was made in the supreme court today under habeas corpus proceedings for the release of seventeen men from the custody of the sheriff of Rawlins County. This litigation involves a large number of cattlemen. The court granted the application and will hear the case July 5. The bond of each of the plaintiffs was fixed at $300.

Some weeks ago, F. B. Glover, representing a Kansas City live stock firm, rented the Oak ranch of 10,000 acres in Rawlins county. When he attempted to take possession of the property his rights were questioned, and a force of fifteen men under the direction of C. P. Dewey of Chicago, who claims a prior right to the property tried to run Glover and his 1,000 head of cattle off the ranch. There was much excitement and a generous display of firearms, but up to date no blood has been shed. The first conflict ended unsuccessfully for the Deweys, but the cattle owned by Glover were later stampeded and driven from the pasture. This is charged to Dewey. Glover secured a temporary injunction May 31 against the Dewey forces and against Mr. Dewey himself. However, the injunction was ignored and 800 head of cattle have been driven on the ranch. Judge A. T. C. Geiger cited the Deweys for contempt. They were brought before the court, but pending trial have instituted habeas corpus proceedings. The men arrested for contempt and who now seek release from the custody of the sheriff are Dempters Hoptt, H. J. Harnhouser, W. J. Ratcliff, Charles Kendall, Charles Boott, Joseph Yates, Walter Wallace, Chauncy Dewey, Albert Winchip, William Brewer, Harry March, G. J. Martin, E. C. McNemar, John Johnson, D. C. Roberison and Albert Long. The attorneys for the plaintiffs in the habeas corpus proceedings are Samuel Kimball of Manhattan, Bertram & Wilson of Oberlin and Howell Jones of Topeka. (Kansas City Star, June 16, 1899, page 2)

A CURIOUS CHARGE

A Rawlins County Man Accused of Stealing a House

A Western Kansas Incident as Unique as It Is Interesting - A Court Will Decide It

Atwood, Kan., Aug. 24 - C. M. Eggleston, a farmer living southwest of this city, is under arrest on a charge of stealing a house from the land of J. R. Collier, and has been bound over to the district court.

The house which led to the trouble was built in 1884, in the early days of Rawlins county, and was the first frame house built in that part of the county. Located away out on the high divide, on a piece of school land, it was a land-mark and could be seen for twenty miles. At one time it was christened "The Angels Rest," but later the neighbors dubbed it "Buzzard's Rest."

A few years ago Collier moved to Nebraska and left no one to care for the house. The winds soon loosened the boards and shingles and tore them loose from the building and whirled some of them away across the level prairies. Some were picked up by travelers and passers by. Then there came an exceedingly heavy wind and blew the old rickety house over. After this the boards were rapidly torn loose by the winds and scattered in every direction.
Men who had been neighbors of Collier when he lived in the house met and looked the house over and thought something should be done. The house was disappearing and they thought the best method to save something for Collier, would be to appraise the lumber, which they did and sold it. Eggleston acting for the neighbors in the sale.

Immediately afterward Collier came out and was not satisfied with what the neighbors had done, and thought that it was none of their business what became of his house and that they should have let it alone. He demanded four times as much for the house as the lumber was sold for, and upon Eggleston refusing to give him more than was realized from the sale of the lumber, Collier came here and had Eggleston arrested.

No one thinks for a moment that Eggleston at any time intended to steal the money or wrong Collier, but how does he stand in the light of the law? As stated, Eggleston has been bound over to the district court. (Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital, August 26, 1898, page 6)

EMULATORS OF THE BENDERS

Several Persons Believed To Have Been Murdered and Thrown in a Well on a Kansas Farm

HEAD FOUND TEN FEET FROM THE BODY

Two Toughs in Jail on Suspicion of Being County Treasurer Caddall's Murderers and in Danger of Lynching

A SPRING OF DRINKING WATER POISONED

KANSAS CITY, MO., April 2, 1890 -- About four miles northwest of Atwood, the county seat of Rawlins county, Kan., is what is known as the "old Horn farm." On this farm is an old well. In 1879, the farm was occupied by a man named Swift, who lived with his daughter, a young woman aged about twenty years. It began to be whispered that all was not well at the farm and Swift was arrested and convicted of a grievous crime. When he was lying in a jail, a party of men pretending to be his friends took him off ostensibly to release him, but he was never heard of since, and it is supposed that his pretended friends murdered him and threw his body into the old well and robbed him of $900.

On an adjoining farm, lived a man with his family named Chlebeard. One day Mrs. Chlebeard died very suddenly, and although it was thought that she had been poisoned by her husband, there was no proof and the authorties never took action in the matter. Shortly after the man mysteriously disappeared and the eldest son gave it out that he had gone temporarily to Germany, but as he never returned it is thought his body also lies at the bottom of the old Horn well.

Soon after a brother going to school disappeared, and the eldest brother said he had gone to Nebraska. He, too, is supposed to be resting at the bottom of the well.

Last December the third brother came home from school in the best of health and was given apple by the elder brother. In fifteen minutes he was in convulsions, and in three hours was dead. Shortly after the boy was taken with the convulsions, his brother threw the body over his shoulder and started toward the "old Horn farm." Meeting a man, he told him he was taking his brother to a neighbor's while he went after a doctor. The boy died.

There was no farm within four miles in the direction in which the man was going with the boy, while there was one within a half mile in another direction. An investigaiton followed and there was found a large quantity of strychnine in the boy's stomach.

Chlebeard and his wife are now in jail on the charge of murder and the well will be examined, and it is expected that a sensation will be revealed which will rival the crimes of the Bender family
(New York Herald ~ April 3, 1890)

AN AWFUL RECORD

A Kansas Murderer Gets a Life Sentence for One of Many Crimes

ATWOOD, KAN., April 4---Judge Bertram yesterday sentenced Gracian Chleborad to 50 years in the penitentiary for murder. Chlebeard is about 80 years old. The crime of which he was convicted was poisoning his younger brother, Joseph, last December. Strange to say although there was proof positive of strychnine in the dead man's stomach, and every circumstances pointed to Gracian as the murderer, the jury returned a verdict of murder in the second degree, acquitting Mrs. Chleborad, Gracians wife, who was indicted with him. The judge, however, made amends for the jury's notion by pronouncing a sentence that virtually amounts to life imprisonment. If the evidence of Chleborad's neighbors is to be believed, the poisoning of Joseph Chleborad was the last of a series of murders that if investigated will prove as horrible as the infamous Bender crimes that were exposed in Sabetha, Kansas, in 1878. The Chleborads lived on a cabin that was originally settled by Mr. Shaw who mysteriously disappeared. Evidence indicated that he was murdered for his money and his body thrown into an abandoned well on the "divide" not far from the Shaw dug-out. After the Chleborad's, consisting of a man and his wife and three sons, of which Gracian was the oldest, took the claim. In the course of this, Mrs. Chleborad died mysteriously and her place of burial was never known. The event occasioned comment, but the people seemed to be afraid of the Chleborad's and it was never investigated. It was generally belloyed however, that she was murdered and her body thrown into the well. Later the old man died suddenly and the neighbors again suspected poisoning. This was followed by a fresh burial in the well. This crime was charged to Grecian Chleborad and his wife, May. A few months later one of the brothers disappeared and Gracian said that he had gone to Nebraska, but the boy never came back, and it is supposed the well received another victim. Last December young Joseph was poisoned and the murderer was decided by a party of neighbors, who met Gracian with the body of the boy on his shoulder, making straight for the old well. He was arrested and the murder pinned. An effort has been made to have the County Commissioners dig out the old well now nearly filled up when proof of all those horrors is likely to appear.
(Boston Journal ~ April 5, 1890)

ROBERT READ LYNCHING

A mob of 200 Kansas farmers took Robert Read, 53 years old, from a jail at St. Francis. He had kidnapped and killed after brutally maltreating her, a girl 8 years old. The farmers did not care to wait for slow justice and it is difficult to blame them.

The man lynched made no complaint. Standing under a tree with a rope around his neck, he said: "You are lynching the right man. I was drunk at the time." (Steubenville Herald-Star, April 20, 1932, page 1)