History of Atchison County, Kansas. Sheffield Ingalls

them was Sterling, the fiddler and pianist of the bagnio. Other arrests followed until five were in durance. Then ensued probably the most extraordinary proceeding known to the annals of Judge Lynch. The mob took possession of the jail and the court house and for a week held them. The prisoners were tried one by one. Sterling was convicted and executed. An elm tree, standing on the banks of White Clay creek, in the southwest quarter of the town, was admirably suited to the purpose. When the wagon, bearing Sterling to his doom reached the ground the whole town was in attendance. A range of hills to the south swarmed with women. Asa Barnes, a prominent farmer, a man of iron resolution and unswerving honesty, was the leader of the mob. With clinched teeth and blanched face he ordered Sterling to take his place on the seat of the wagon, and, while the desperado was as game as a peacock, he promptly obeyed. Standing on the wagon seat Sterling took off his hat, banged it down and placing his foot on it, shook his clenched hand at the sea of upturned faces, and with a volley of imprecations, said: ‘I am the best d—d man that ever walked the earth and if you will drop me down and give me a gun, I will fight any ten of you.’ Sandy Corbin, a great bluffer, who bore but little better reputation than the man with the noose on his neck, pretended that he wanted to fight Sterling single-handed. Nobody else paid any attention to Sterling’s ravings, and in a twinkling he was swung into eternity. The next day two others, a man named Brewer, a soldier at home on a furlough, and a young fellow known as Pony, met the same fate. There was much sympathy for Pony. He was a drunkard and all his delinquencies were attributed to this weakness. Just as they were ready to swing him up, two or three members of the mob told him that if he would give information as to others implicated, but who had not been arrested, they would save him. His reply was: ‘I went into this thing as a man and I will die as a man.’ There was a stir among those nearest the wagon and it was discovered that an effort was being made to save the boy from death. The traces were cut and the horses led away. The effort failed. Fifty men seized the wagon and dragged it away. The fourth to suffer the vengeance of the mob was an old gray-haired man named Moody. At the trial he strongly protested his innocence, and promised, if given a respite of twenty-four hours, he would prove an alibi. This was granted, but the witnesses were not forthcoming and the next day the old man was put to death. A priest visited him in jail, which was constantly surrounded day and night, and when he came out after administering the rights of the church to the doomed man, it was remarked by those who saw him that the priest was as pale as a ghost. The report gained currency that when asked if Moody was innocent, he refused to answer yea or nay, and, although it had not then developed that Moody could not produce the witnesses he promised, the conduct of the priest was taken as proof that Moody was guilty. During the week in which these extraordinary proceedings took place, the mob was in undisputed control of the court house and jail. Judge Lynch was perched upon the wool sack and a jury of twelve men, who had qualified under oath, in the usual form, occupied the jury box. Not the slightest effort at concealment was made by those who led or those who followed. In my judgment no other course was left open to the community.

      “Not less than 500 men were driven out of Kansas on the charge of disloyalty in 1861 and 1862, with the approval of men of excellent character, by thugs and scoundrels, who made no concealment of the fact that they lived by horse stealing and house breaking. From the beginning of the Civil war until peace was declared, the Kansas border from the Nebraska State line to the Indian Territory, was a scene of lawlessness and disorder. In the earlier years of the war, thieves regularly organized into companies, with captains whose authority was recognized by the rank and file, with headquarters in the towns and cities of eastern Kansas, masqueraded as saviors of the Union, and upon the pretense that they were serving the cause, thrived amazingly by pillaging the farm houses and barns of neighboring counties in Missouri. Atchison was the headquarters of the Cleveland gang—the most active and the boldest of the banditti. The gang did not hesitate to cross over to Missouri and steal horses, and returning to Atchison sell them in broad daylight. Usually these raids were made at night, but there was no concealment of the business they were engaged in, nor of the fact that hundreds of the horses sold by them were stolen from farmers of Buchanan, Platte and Clinton counties. In the capacity of saviors of the Union, they took upon themselves the task of driving all persons suspected of sympathy for ‘the lost cause’ out of Kansas. P. T. Abell, J. T. Hereford, Headley & Carr, prominent lawyers, were notified to leave or they would be killed. They departed. Headley, Carr and Hereford served in the Confederate army. Abell lived in exile until after the war was over, and then returned to Atchison. He was one of the founders of the town, and before the war was the partner of Gen. B. F. Stringfellow. Tom Ray, proprietor of an extensive blacksmithing and wagon shop, was banished. In a month or two he returned, but not until after he had halted at Winthrop, a village opposite Atchison and opened up negotiations which resulted in a grant of permission to remain in Atchison long enough to settle up his business and collect considerable sums due from his customers. He registered at the old Massasoit House, but did not tarry long. Maj. R. H. Weightman, an early settler, who left Atchison in 1861, and accepted a colonel’s commission in the Confederate army, had been killed at Wilson’s Creek. While sitting in the Massasoit House barroom, Ray was approached by Sandy Corbin, a somewhat notorious character, who handled most of the horses stolen by Cleveland’s thieves. Corbin mentioned Weightman’s death, expressing satisfaction at his untimely end, and applying all the epithets known to the abandoned, to the dead man. Ray expostulated, and finally warned Corbin to desist or expect a thrashing. Corbin rushed to his room and returned with two revolvers, so adjusted upon his belt that Ray could not help seeing them. Ray, who was a giant in size, seized Corbin, threw him face downward upon a billiard table, and with a blacksmith’s hand as large as a ham, spanked him until he was almost insensible. Then he hurriedly boarded the ferry boat, crossed the river and made his way to Montana, where he lived until his death, twenty years ago.

      “Cleveland’s lieutenant, a fellow named Hartman, was the worst of the gang, and was guilty of so many and such flagrant outrages upon the prominent citizens that in sheer desperation, four men, all of whom are now dead, met and drew straws to see who would kill Hartman—(1) Jesse C. Crall, during his life prominent in politics and business; (2) George T. Challiss, for thirty years a deacon in the Baptist church and a prominent wholesale merchant and identified prominently with Atchison affairs; (3) James McEwen, a cattle buyer and butcher; (4) The fourth man was a prominent physician. Each of these had suffered intolerable outrages at the hands of Hartman. He had visited their houses and terrified their wives by notifying them that unless their husbands left Atchison within a specified period they would be mobbed. Even the children of two of the victims of persecution had been abused. They met at the physician’s office, and after a prolonged conference, at which it was agreed that neither would leave until Hartman had been killed, proceeded to draw straws to see which would undertake the work. Crall held the straws, McEwen drew the short straw and the job fell to his lot. Atchison is bisected by two or three brooks, one of which traverses the northwest section of the town and runs into White Clay creek. This ravine has very precipitous banks, and was crossed by several foot bridges. At the east approach of the bridge was a tall elm tree. McEwen took his position under this tree, and awaited the appearance of Hartman, who necessarily passed that way in going home at night. When Hartman was half-way across the bridge, McEwen stepped out, dropped to his knee, leveled a double-barreled shotgun and turned loose. He filled Hartman with buckshot from his head to his heels, but strange to say, the fellow did not die for months afterward. Had either of the others drawn the fatal straw, no doubt Hartman would have been killed in broad daylight, on the streets, but McEwen concluded to give the fellow no chance for his life.”

      The First Kansas volunteer cavalry was the first regiment to be raised under the call of President Lincoln May 8, 1861. It was mustered into the service at Ft. Leavenworth June 3, 1861. George W. Deitzler, of Lawrence, was colonel, and the following men from Atchison were officers: George H. Faicheled, captain, Company C; Camille Aguiel, first lieutenant: Rinaldo A. Barker, second lieutenant; James W. Martin, second lieutenant of Company B. Within ten days of the date this regiment was mustered in, they received orders for active service. The regiment joined the army of General Lyon at Grand River, Mo., and on July 10 arrived at Springfield, where the force of General Sigel was gathered. The united forces of the rebels, under Price and McCullouch, was concentrated at Wilson’s Creek, twelve miles from Springfield, and was strongly entrenched there, where the initial engagement of the First Kansas regiment took place. This regiment went into the