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. _ e €siabtishmentof 
 U^au)and Ovdevon 
 
 meWestevn^lmns 
 
 WM.DEVENy 
 
 Author and Publisher 
 Portland, Oregon. 
 
oirn 
 
The Establishment 
 of Law and Order 
 on Western Plains 
 
 By WILLIAM DE VENY 
 Portland, Oregon 
 
 1915 
 
 Optimist Print, The Dalles, Oregon 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 When I began to write this little book 
 I did so with the intention of having about 
 one hundred copies printed to be used by 
 my family and myself for gifts to a few 
 personal friends. As the book grew and I 
 went over the old scenes with my wife and 
 children we began to feel a tingling in our 
 veins — the return of the wanderlust fever. 
 As the weeks lengthened into months and 
 the springtime came on, a time of year 
 when the great outdoors calls to us one and 
 all, my wife said to me one day, "Let's go.'' 
 
 lip to that time I had said nothing to 
 any member of the family about "going," 
 none of them had said anything to me ; and 
 yet I soon found that we had all been laying 
 plans towards again taking to the road. 
 Yes, the old fever of wanderlust, handed 
 down from our forefathers, is not to be 
 kept down by such sordid things as busi- 
 ness and convenience. 
 
 Had we been less fortunately situated 
 here in Oregon I might not be about to start 
 upon the trip we have planned. Bi^ a kind 
 
 A4nil47 W-O-^l 
 
 MAY 27 1915 
 
providence has guided all of our actions 
 since we came to Portland on a beautiful 
 June day in 1893, when the roses were in 
 bloom and the whole city looked to us like 
 a fairyland. I thought that day that it was 
 the most beautiful place I had ever seen; I 
 now know it is not only such but one of the 
 loveliest cities in this country. When my 
 family .and myself arrived here twenty-two 
 years ago the city had a population of 
 46,000 people ; at the time this book is going 
 to press we have almost 800,000. In June, 
 1893, the state of Oregon contained 317,000 
 people ; now we have 750,000. 
 
 I have resided in many places in many 
 states, as a perusal of this book will shovv% 
 but this Oregon country beats any place I 
 ever saw. I do not say this simply because 
 my family and I have here accumulated a 
 goodly share of worldly goods since we 
 came here — I say it because I see on every 
 hand people who came here a few years ago 
 with nothing in the way of capital and are 
 today independent. 
 
 I am now speaking of Oregon as a 
 whole; and Oregon is an empire in extent. 
 It is twice as large as the state of New 
 York, twelve times as large as Massachu- 
 setts and 88 times as large as Rhode Island. 
 We have one county, Harney, which has 
 practically the same area as the two latter 
 states combined. For the size of the state 
 
 3 
 
our population is very small, but it must be 
 remembered that the great Mississippi and 
 Missouri valleys, the eastern slope of the 
 Rockv Mountains and the fine states of 
 Montana, Utah and Idaho to the east of us, 
 and the states of Arizona and New Mexico 
 to the south-east, have been calling as loud- 
 ly for settlers as have we. Then Califor- 
 nia, bordering us on the south, and Wash- 
 ington on the north — those two states have 
 been fortunate in being cobwebbed with 
 railroads and have taken population that 
 would have normally come to Oregon. 
 
 Remember I came here the year prior 
 to the 1894 panic. For the three following 
 years Portland, like the balance of the 
 country, practically stood still. So I began 
 here under very unfavorable auspices ; one 
 can come here now and start in almost any 
 sort of business or take part in any occupa- 
 tion suitable and do better than I have done 
 in the same length of time. From all over 
 the state the cry comes for more people on 
 the land, and it is people to go on the land 
 that we hope for from the crowded states 
 of the East. 
 
 If Oregon was populated as densely as 
 New York we would have 18,250,000 souls 
 in our state ; if we had as many people to 
 the square miles as Massachusetts has we 
 would have a population of 40,000,000! 
 And with the population of 509 per square 
 
 i 
 
mile that Rhode Island has we would have 
 48,385,896 inhabitants! Just think of it! 
 And our soil is capable of maintaining five 
 people where the Massachusetts or Rhode 
 Island soil would not sustain more than 
 one! Why, dear reader, there is no such 
 land, no such seasons for crop growing east 
 of the Rockies as in Oregon. Our Willam- 
 ette Valley alone will one day produce more 
 crop values each year than all of New Eng- 
 land and New York combined. 
 
 Oregon ought to be and will some day 
 be the wealthiest state per capita in the 
 Union. We have more latent advantages 
 than the Middle West. We have one river 
 that could furnish more power than all of 
 the streams in New England and the 
 Southern states combined. This is the Des- 
 chutes, which flows into the mighty Colum- 
 bia, the grandest river in the United States. 
 We have seven rivers about the size of the 
 Hudson River that rise in our state and 
 discharge their waters either into the Co- 
 lumbia or the Pacific Ocean, not a drop of 
 the water arising in nor passing into 
 another state. 
 
 We raise the finest fruit in the world — 
 and our growers have taught the apple 
 growers of the United States how to plant, 
 cultivate and prune orchards and how to 
 grade and pack the fruit. Our Spitzen- 
 berg, Newtown Pippins and many other 
 
varieties of apples are sold in every civil- 
 ized nation on earth, and bring the highest 
 prices. For dairying Oregon offers better 
 inducements than any other part of the 
 country, for we have green feed, all-winter 
 pasture, for our herds in over half of the 
 state. That is why two of the largest milk 
 condenseries in the world have within re- 
 cent years, one of which is now doubling 
 its capacity, located here. 
 
 We have more different kinds of cli- 
 mate than any other state. We have snow 
 capped mountains where the thermometer 
 may register 25 below zero in June ; a short 
 walk down will bring you to as lovely roses 
 as v/ere ever plucked; down a little farther 
 you will find the temperature in the 80's. 
 We have places where the rainfall reaches 
 as high as 100 inches a year — and in those 
 neighborhoods are our most prosperous 
 dairies, in many of which the cows each net 
 their owners $125 per year. Then in the 
 irrigated sections there are places where 
 the precipitation sometimes falls as low as 
 six inches per annum; but with irrigation 
 the landowners there get from three to five 
 cuttings of alfalfa a year, and these arid 
 sections are now becoming famous for all 
 sorts of small fruits, as well as for all ani- 
 mal industries and dairying. 
 
 All over the state there are openings 
 for the intelligent, the thrifty, the honest 
 
and the industrious man or woman who 
 wants a home, and particularly the married 
 man or woman who is looking for a place to 
 educate the little ones. For we have one 
 of the finest school systems in the country. 
 And the whole state is dotted over with 
 churches, every demonination being repre- 
 sented in almost every county. 
 
 When I think of these things, and 
 think of what I am about to do — pack up 
 with a part of my family and leave — I won- 
 der what sort of a creature I am, and hark 
 back to my great-grandfather Pierre as he 
 tramped towards France from Poland 
 through the snows with the remnants of 
 Napoleon's army and imagine that there 
 was some sort of an attraction in that 
 journey that left its virus in his veins, to 
 be handed down to his descendants. 
 
 But I am not leaving here for good. 
 No, I never will forsake Oregon. I am 
 leaving my property behind and two of my 
 children to run our business and look after 
 our affairs until our return. Soon my 
 wife, our daughter Estella and our son 
 Dewain, together with your humble ser- 
 vant will hit the trail for a journey of sev- 
 eral thousand miles to cover a period of 
 several months. 
 
 Perhaps on this trip we can do some 
 good for our adopted state, our dear Ore- 
 gon, by inducing now and then a settler to 
 
come and become one of us. Which would 
 not only benefit Oregon but the persons 
 that came to join us. The time to come is 
 right now, while land values are low and 
 opportunities great. 
 
 Very truly, 
 Willian Deveney. 
 150 East 80th St. North, 
 Portland, Oregon. 
 April, 1915. 
 
 8 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS book might bet- 
 ter, perhaps, ^ have 
 been given the title of 
 "A Child of the Wan- 
 derlust," for it deals 
 with my life, which 
 has been an eventful 
 one from the time I 
 was fifteen years of 
 age up to the present; 
 and I intend that it 
 shall so continue for I expect to die with 
 my boots on. I came naturally by my no- 
 madic traits, I inherited them from my 
 forefathers and no doubt the actions of 
 those known to me were but a repetition of 
 the acts of their forefathers. 
 
 In tracing my genealogy back through 
 my ancestors I have never been able to go 
 farther than the rise of Napoleon, owing' 
 principally to the difference in names. For 
 I find that the cognomens Deveney, Devin- 
 
 9 
 
ny, Devmne, Devney and DeVeney, as well 
 as Devenny and even de Veney, are prac- 
 tically interchangeable and signify the one 
 lamily. Just which is the proper name I 
 do not know further than that we read 
 there were three brothers of the name of 
 DeVeney with Napoleon in his campaign 
 against Russia. One of these was an 
 omcer of the line and must have been 
 rather close to the Little Corporal for I find 
 that on the retreat from Moscow, when the 
 Napoleonic sun was setting, one Pierre 
 DeVeney was decorated with the cross of 
 the Legion of Honor and his two brothers 
 mentioned for bravery on that terrible 
 march, which cost Napoleon almost five- 
 sixths of his army. 
 
 This Pierre DeVeney later went to 
 inlanders and while there the change in 
 spelling of his name to Devenev occurred 
 perhaps by design, perhaps by accident! 
 i5ut I have been able to find that he was an 
 honorable man who was somewhat of a 
 rover, for later he went to England and 
 nnally to Scotland, where he was married 
 to an old sweetheart from his beloved 
 1< ranee, for that he was a native of France 
 ^"a that his birth occurred in the year of 
 
 I uJ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ *^ *^^c^ beyond a 
 doubt. As to the younger brothers of 
 Pierre who were with him on the retreat, 
 1 have been unable to discover what became 
 
 10 
 
of them ; that they and my paternal ances- 
 tor parted company soon after the return 
 of the Legion seems undoubtedly true. 
 
 This Pierre Deveney was my great- 
 grandfather. He was not married until 
 late in life and died in Pennsylvania in 
 1828, having come to this country soon 
 after his marriage. My grandfather and 
 father were born in Pennsylvania, the lat- 
 ter in 1818. My father was married in that 
 state in 1845. Soon after his marriage he 
 removed to Henry County, Illinois, where I 
 was born on December 18, 1852. 
 
 In reading of my ancestors I find that, 
 while they were not great men, they always 
 stood on the side of law and order and 
 never were in any sort of trouble arising 
 from disobeying the laws of the land where 
 they resided. That they never accumulat- 
 ed any great amount of property is true, 
 perhaps for the reason that they never re- 
 mained long enough in one place to do so; 
 and yet they were far from paupers and 
 probably enjoyed life more than many of 
 their neighbors who had more money. 
 
 I was unfortunate enough to lose my 
 mother when I was only nine years old. 
 Up to that time I had been happier than 
 the usual run of children for my mother 
 was a woman of great charm and I was like 
 the apple of her eye. I had three brothers 
 and one sister and after the death of my 
 
 11 
 
mother my father found it difficult to man- 
 age the family, so a year or so after her 
 death he married a widow who had quite 
 a family of children. 
 
 I am not going to say a word against 
 my stepmother for the chances are that the 
 reason I did not get along with her was due 
 as much or more to me than to her. But I 
 remember very distinctly that we did not 
 get along peaceably and that before I was 
 ten years old I was sent out to sort of hustle 
 for myself. But I must not permit myself 
 to pass over this period of my life without 
 saying something more about my mother, 
 who was, I have always felt sure, the sweet- 
 est, dearest, most patient and charming 
 woman on earth. Even though I was only 
 nine years old when she died it seems now, 
 as I look back, that I must have been a good 
 deal of a man, at least in her eyes, for I re- 
 member very distinctly how she would 
 very often take me in her arms, cuddle 
 up on a sofa or in a chair, and talk to 
 me like a sister or a dear friend and advise 
 with me as to my future and tell me how it 
 would not only be the best and wisest thing 
 to always be honorable and truthful but it 
 would bring me the most happiness. And 
 when I was put in my little crib at night 
 and the bedding tucked in around me, and 
 after my little prayer was said, she would 
 kiss me and call me mother^s little man 
 
 12 
 
and say she knew I was going to be a great 
 comfort to her all of her life. At such 
 times I remember w^e both shed many tears, 
 tears which I believe cleansed both of our 
 hearts. 
 
 My stepmother was, no doubt, a very 
 good woman and wanted to do her whole 
 duty to my father and his children, but 
 having children of her own, whom she 
 loved perhaps as my own mother loved me, 
 she found it difficult, even impossible to 
 treat us all on an equality. At least it 
 seemed so to me and my home life became 
 unbearable, boy that I was, and I left home 
 for good and all. I tell you it is a terrible 
 thing for a boy or girl to lose his or her 
 mother. I suppose it is worse for a girl 
 than a boy, but it is the greatest blow that 
 can befall either. Many boys and girls do 
 not realize this fact and do not treat their 
 mothers as they ought to be treated. I can 
 only say to such young people that for 
 every harsh or cruel or unkind word a boy 
 or girl says to his or her mother there is a 
 day of reckoning coming and a punishment 
 will surely be meted out to pay for it. It 
 may not come for many years, it may not 
 be recognized when it does come; but just 
 as sure as there is a God in Heaven the 
 First Commandment means as much if not 
 more than any of the other nine and the 
 first six words of that commandment are 
 
 18 
 
Honor thy father and thy mother. While 
 the commandment must be taken as it 
 stands, meaning that both parents must be 
 honored, it has seemed to me that the hon- 
 oring of the mother is of more importance 
 than obeying the father, not, of course, rec- 
 ognizing any cause save absolute dishonor 
 for swerving one iota from the whole com- 
 mandment. 
 
 A boy without a father to guide him is 
 like a ship without a captain; a boy without 
 a mother to love, counsel and advise him is 
 like a ship without a rudder. And I surely 
 have seen this exemplified many, many 
 times during my life and in my own case 
 it was literally true. Young as I was when 
 my mother died I know now that I became 
 a changed boy almost at once, certainly as 
 soon as my new mother, as I was told she 
 was to be to me, made her appearance in 
 our home. Assuredly some step-mothers 
 have the faculty of taking their step-chil- 
 dren right to their hearts and making them 
 feel that the real mother's place is to be 
 completely taken and the measure of the 
 real mother's love to be more than filled. 
 Yes, there are such women, God bless them. 
 I have seen them, have known them, and if 
 there is a chosen spot in heaven reserved 
 for the best beloved of Jehovah then surely 
 many of these proxy mothers will sit there 
 close to the Savior. 
 
 14 
 
When I left home I went to work doing 
 chores for my keep and schooling with a 
 farmer by the name of Morse, and remain- 
 ed with him until I was nearly twelve years 
 old ; then the real wanderlust struck me and 
 I began my Nomadic career which lasted — 
 we will see later how long. From the time 
 I was twelve until I was nineteen years old 
 I had almost as many occupations as I lived 
 months. I was some of the time working 
 on a farm for my "board and keep" and a 
 little schooling during the winter. Then I 
 went with a circus and did about every- 
 thing that a lad of my age could do. This 
 was a rough life among rough people, a life 
 that every young fellow should try and 
 steer clear of. From the circus and its side 
 show I drifted into a minstrel company, a 
 set of barnstormers, and this was about on 
 a par with the circus. With both of these 
 companies I filled about every position that 
 a boy could be expected to fill, aside from 
 being a professional performer. 
 
 Let me say right here that in this 
 career, which lasted seven years, and car- 
 ried me all through the eastern, southern 
 and middle western states, I kept honest 
 and sober. And those good habits kept me 
 from getting into trouble, with also the re- 
 membrance of the teachings of my mother. 
 But even with her words ringing in my 
 ears, and with all the stamina I possessed, 
 
 15 
 
I am sure I never could have kept myself 
 as morally clean as I did had I not from the 
 very first fought shy of evil companions. 
 In all of my life I have made it a rule to 
 " flock by myself" unless I could find good 
 company to flock with. One boy, one young 
 man, one man of scarcely any age, very 
 rarely commits a crime entirely unaided; 
 nine times out of ten the start in crime is 
 rnade jointly by one or two young fellows 
 aided by an evil companion who started his 
 career in the same way. I always knew 
 this I guess. Perhaps my mother taught 
 it to me, surely she taught me the principles 
 that led to my resolve. 
 
 Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times 
 when I was wandering over the country, 
 often not well clothed or well fed, many 
 times hungry and footsore, the temptation 
 has been strong to join with others in some 
 alluring enterprise by which we could make 
 a ''bundle'' of "easy money.'' But the ways 
 to this "easy money" I always found were 
 very crooked, and I wanted to keep 
 straight. When I was very young, at my 
 mother's knee perhaps, I had this thought, 
 founded upon some words from Epicticus, 
 impressed upon me, never to be forgotten: 
 "When a thing is straight it is straight; 
 there are no degrees of straightness ; but a 
 thing can be crooked in as many ways as 
 there are stars in the heavens." 
 
 16 
 
So I always resolved that I would be 
 straight and to best keep myself so I knew 
 the easiest way was to associate with 
 straight people. Or, to take the matter up 
 from the other angle, I knew, I seem always 
 to have known, that the surest and quickest 
 way to get crooked was to associate with 
 those who either were themselves crooked 
 or were associating with others who were. 
 And I have kept straight. It has well paid 
 me, so well that I would say to all boys and 
 young men that nothing in the world pays 
 as big interest or as heavy dividends as 
 being straight. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 When I had reached my nineteenth 
 year, which was six years after the close of 
 the civil war, or about 1871, 1 found myself 
 back in the neighborhood of my old home. 
 One of my uncles and his family were con- 
 templating a removal to central Nebraska, 
 there being then quite an exodus going on 
 from the valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi 
 and even the Missouri, to the plains states, 
 such as Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and 
 eastern Colorado. So I decided to go with 
 my uncle's outfit. But affairs turn out 
 different in this world from what we ex- 
 pect, and a word lightly spoken by one of 
 my cousins caused me to change my plans 
 and strike out by myself. 
 
 17 
 
I bought a ticket over the Union Pacific 
 railroad to Omaha, where I had to change 
 cars to get to the new town of Hastings, in 
 Adams County. I went to a hotel and ask- 
 ed for a room for the night. I was sent to 
 one with three beds in it. I objected and 
 asked for a single room, but none was va- 
 cant, the landlord saying he more than like- 
 ly would not have to put anybody in with 
 me. Anyhow I thought I was pretty well 
 fixed for any wild west troubles that might 
 come up, having a terrible weapon of de- 
 fense and offense in the shape of a .22, 
 which I carefully loaded and placed under 
 my pillow. I soon dropped off to sleep and 
 was in the throes of a terrible dream. I 
 thought I was on a field of battle awaiting 
 a terrific onslaught from the enemy which 
 was sure to come off the next day. So I 
 was taking a little rest trying to sleep on 
 the ground with a cannon under my head 
 as a pillow — when I awoke with a start to 
 find myself grasping my .22 and the land- 
 lord ushering in two strangers, both of 
 them pretty full of booze. As soon as the 
 landlord left they began to undress, mean- 
 time talking about some terrible shooting 
 scrape they had been mixed up in that 
 night. I was taking it all in and wonder- 
 ing what they had been shooting with when 
 presently each one of them unbuckled a 
 belt from about his waist and in each belt 
 
 18 
 
were two .45's which compared with my .22 
 about as a war ship of the Dreadnaught 
 class compares wath a Missouri River cat- 
 fish boat. 
 
 Say! I immediately lost confidence in 
 that .22 and in myself and a cold sweat 
 broke out all over me. I was sure I was to 
 be murdered before morning. But noth- 
 ing happened, the greatest disturbance 
 coming from the beating of my heart which 
 was making so much noise I was sure it 
 would awaken everybody in the hotel. 
 After awhile both of the strangers fell 
 asleep and pretty soon I got up as quietly 
 as a mouse, dressed myself full as quietly, 
 and was soon out on the street with my 
 gripsack — and my .22, in which I had lost 
 all confidence. 
 
 I tell of this event not because it was 
 anything out of the ordinarj^ in any way 
 whatever but just to show how awful, 
 awful green I was. I had come from a 
 neighborhood where only the very toughest 
 rowdies carried a "gun^^ as we called the 
 little .22s like the one I h?.d. I surely never 
 thought of carrying one or even owning 
 one. But when I started for the ^'wild and 
 woolly west," where it was supposed by my 
 neighbors every man went armed to the 
 teeth, why I just had to have a "gun'' for 
 the protection of my life and property. So 
 after much cogitation and shopping I 
 
 19 
 
bought a second hand .22, and two boxes of 
 cartridges. I tell you the first time I load- 
 ed that weapon, placed it in my hip pocket 
 and went out on the street, laying myself 
 liable to arrest at any moment of the day 
 or night for carrying concealed weapons — 
 I can tell you I felt like a bad, bad man. I 
 remember as I walked along the streets and 
 passed now and then an officer how I 
 laughed to myself to think what a chump 
 he was, how little he knew — and wondered 
 what he would think if Fd unlimber my 
 gun and commence shooting up the town. 
 And sometimes, as I felt back in the pocket 
 to see if the precious gun was safe, I felt 
 that I just must begin shooting at some- 
 thing just to show the people of the town 
 what a bad, bad man they had among them. 
 This story will be read no doubt by 
 many young men who are just about as 
 green as I was and who are "packing a 
 gun" as the saying is, most likely an inno- 
 cent little .22. Let me say to any who are 
 committing such folly that the idea of keep- 
 ing out of trouble by carrying a shooting 
 iron of any caliber is all nonsense. Revol- 
 vers have caused more trouble to those who 
 owned them than to anyone else. You can 
 take it from me, and I have been in many a 
 tight place in my life, that the less you have 
 to do with pistols of all descriptions the 
 better. 
 
 20 
 
Leaving Omaha I made my way to the 
 little town of Hastings, on the Burlington 
 railroad. It was a typical western fron- 
 tier "city/' consisting of a sort of hotel, a 
 post office, blacksmith shop, "store" and 
 three or four saloons. Like every other 
 place along the road Hastings was a "city 
 of destiny,'^ bound to become a metropolis 
 within a very few months. Speculators 
 were busy staking off town lots and selling 
 them, with a sort of guarantee, but not 
 quite a legal one, that for every dollar in- 
 vested the purchaser would receive any- 
 where from one hundred to five hundred 
 within thirty days, three months at the 
 farthest. 
 
 I remained in Hastings, doing such odd 
 jobs as I could find to do, until my uncle and 
 his family arrived. After looking over 
 various sections near by my uncle took a 
 homestead on the Little Blue river. I was 
 not old enough to take up government land, 
 so I alternately visited and worked until 
 the following spring when I went into the 
 locating business, the inrush of settlers be- 
 ing considerable. I had learned much 
 about the country during my short stay and 
 made pretty good money from the start, 
 and as soon as I was old enough took up a 
 claim of 160 acres on Crooked Creek, in 
 the same neighborhood. About this time 
 I met a gentleman who had a recipe for a 
 
 21 
 
corn remedy and I began experimenting 
 with it the result that I soon became more 
 expert chiropody than anybody in those 
 parts. Then I began to take trips to Oma- 
 ha, St. Joe and other cities nearby, mean- 
 time going on with m.y experiments as a 
 chiropodist, an occupation I now determin- 
 ed to follow and a profession in w^hich I 
 made up my mind to excel all others. 
 
 I visited laboratories, consulted chem- 
 ists and physicians, studied anatomy and 
 medicine, put in practically all of my time 
 for two years endeavoring to formulate a 
 way of removing corns instantly, painless- 
 ly and permanently. 
 
 I must digress here for a few para- 
 graphs to show that in my labors in my pro- 
 fession I have met with greater success 
 than any person I know of, and my two 
 daughters, a son and myself have built up 
 the largest business in our line in the West. 
 Our offices are in the Gerlinger Building, 
 in Portland, Oregon, where we have an 
 elegant suite of rooms, which are practic- 
 ally filled by patients from nine o'clock in 
 the morning until six o'clock at night, and 
 in addition I fill an average of twenty out- 
 side appointments every day. 
 
 For several years I alternately worked 
 at my profession, traveling around among 
 the cities of Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas 
 and Iowa, and living on my homestead. In 
 
 22 
 
the late fall of 1878, when I was 26 years of 
 age, I was married to Miss Martha R. Ellis, 
 who had come to Nebraska a few years be- 
 fore with her parents from Illinois. They 
 had settled in Clay County, Nebraska, 
 where Martha had taken up a homestead 
 close to that of her parents. To get the 
 marriage license I had either to make a trip 
 of 25 miles to the county seat of Clay 
 County, or of ten miles to Hastings; but 
 having secured the license in Clay County 
 it was a long distance to get to the 
 preacher's. So Martha agreed to meet me 
 on the county line where I had the preacher 
 and some witnesses. Although the day was 
 bitterly cold, the thermometer standing 20 
 degrees below zero, Martha met me as per 
 arrangement and choosing a place along- 
 side the road just inside the line of Adams 
 County we were married, the minister cut- 
 ting the ceremony mighty short owing to 
 the extreme cold. 
 
 Some time before this I had begun to 
 take a good deal of interest in the political 
 doings of our county and was pretty well 
 informed on county affairs. Juniatta was 
 the county seat, had been since the organi- 
 zation of the county years before, long be- 
 fore the advent of the railroads. Now 
 Hastings had grown to be a much larger 
 place than the old county seat and the 
 voters became mixed up in a fight as to the 
 
 23 
 
removal of the capital from Juniatta to 
 Hastings, and this had been going on in a 
 mild form for five or six years. We 
 thought we were having a jim dandy of a 
 scrap and that we were something fierce as 
 fighters, while we were willing to admit 
 that the Juniattans were no amateurs at 
 the game. 
 
 The only real trouble we had, and the 
 loss in that was merely a black eye, occur- 
 red at the final election. We sent a com- 
 mittee of six citizens from Hastings to 
 \vatch the Juniatta polls during the elec- 
 tion, and they had a like committee at our 
 polling place. All went well until the bal- 
 lots were being counted when a little breeze 
 of a row was started over a disputed ballot 
 and our committeemen were hauled bodily 
 out into the street, during which fracas one 
 of our boys was knocked down and his eye 
 discolored. 
 
 Then, according to agreement, a blind 
 telegram was sent us to ''ship six carloads 
 of corn to Carney, Nebraska." We under- 
 stood and soon had loaded up six wagon- 
 loads of citizens and they made the six 
 miles to Juniatta in a hurry. We w^ere 
 then in such force that we could command 
 and enforce a square deal, which we got 
 without any serious trouble. 
 
 Among our adversaries in this fight 
 was Senator James Laird, who for several 
 
 24 
 
years was one of the leading citizens of 
 Nebraska. While he was usually called 
 senator he never succeeded in being elected 
 to the upper house of Congress. He did, 
 however, serve three full terms in the 
 House of Representatives, and died, in 
 1889, while serving his fourth term. At 
 the conclusion of the counting of the ballots 
 in the county seat contest a number of the 
 citizens of Hastings "induced" Senator 
 Laird to come over to our town and make a 
 speech. Upon his arrival we started a 
 huge bonfire, put the senator upon a large 
 goods box and he whooped it up for Hast- 
 ings, of which city he soon became a citizen 
 and resided there until his death. 
 
 At about the same time as our Juniat- 
 ta-Hastings fight there was also going on a 
 scrap in Clay County, the contesting towns 
 being Clay Center and Sutton. The latter 
 town was situated away off on one side of 
 the county while Clay Center was, as the 
 name indicates, in the geographical center 
 of the county. So there was not much to 
 this fight save speechifying and fireworks. 
 There was no blood shed, not even as much 
 as a black eye, on either side. 
 
 While I was more or less mixed up m 
 both of these fights, and took a particularly 
 active part on the side of Hastings, because 
 my interests centered there, but I did not 
 enter fully into the hilarity of the affairs. 
 
 25 
 
I suppose they were so tame that my fight- 
 ing blood was not fully aroused. I certain- 
 ly did not realize that in the near future I 
 was to enter into contests of the kind 
 where the weapons would be something 
 more than wind and the damage a great 
 deal more than a black eye. But such 
 turned out to be the case, although I never 
 acted save on the side of law and order. 
 
 And as this book will deal largely with 
 county seat contests it may be well to say 
 before going further that a county seat 
 fight is about the strangest sort of a scrap 
 that can be imagined. In the first place 
 such a contest as a rule works up more ill 
 will, destroys more friendships, makes 
 more enemies, breaks up more families 
 and produces more pure cussedness than 
 any other sort of a political contest ever 
 fought. 
 
 As a rule the stake is next to nothing. 
 I have known of contests being waged with 
 the greatest bitterness where there was not 
 over 800 people involved and where the tax- 
 able property in the entire county did not 
 amount to $10,000. So it can be seen that 
 there would not, legitimately, be taxes 
 enough collected to pay the collection fees, 
 while for the salaries of the officials there 
 would be nothing in sight, surely nothing 
 worth fighting over. 
 
 It is true there might be certain sales 
 
 26 
 
of town lots in the town fortunate enough 
 to win the contest. But as a rule the own- 
 ers of the townsite had to put up more 
 money to carry on the fight than the lots 
 would sell for after the affair was settled. 
 That is in the winning town; in the losing 
 town there would be no value whatever to 
 the lots. Of course I am speaking now of 
 the original scraps among towns in newly 
 organized counties. Once in a while we 
 hear of a county seat contest in an old set- 
 tled county, perhaps where one town has 
 held the court house as an asset for a gen- 
 eration or more. Then by some freak of 
 changing conditions another and perhaps 
 a larger town springs up and an effort is 
 made to remove the county seat. Perhaps 
 such contests get into the courts and out 
 again, receive legislative action, are fought 
 over and over. 
 
 I might call attention to a contest that 
 has come up periodically every ten or a 
 dozen years for almost a century; to an- 
 other where for half that time the court 
 house might just as well have been on 
 wheels, so uncertain was its tenure. These 
 scraps of course create and foster feuds, 
 lead to almost endless litigation and cause 
 financial disaster to many people. But it 
 must be remembered that in these scraps 
 there is a stake considered worth scrap- 
 ping over, the towns in the cases I have 
 
 27 
 
mentioned having each a population of sev- 
 eral thousand people. One can understand 
 why in cases of that kind every argument 
 and every legal tangle should be resorted 
 to. But where there is nothing but the 
 name at stake one is at a loss to understand 
 why men become in many cases thieves, 
 outlaws and murderers, as has often been 
 the case under my observation, simply for 
 the "honor" of making a certain town the 
 county seat. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 During the closing years of the Clay 
 County fight I had been taking instructions 
 from my wife in the art of photography, 
 she being an expert in all branches of that 
 business. We established a gallery at a 
 little town called Glenville, in Clay County, 
 not far from my wife's claim, where we had 
 built up quite a nice business. I had ac- 
 quired an interest in property in Arkansas 
 and soon after the county seat matter was 
 settled I went down there to look the mat- 
 ter over. I was very much taken with the 
 mild climate of that state and upon my re- 
 turn I induced my wife to agree to a move. 
 In the meantime our oldest child, Maude, 
 was born in the little sod house on my 
 wife's claim. 
 
 As soon as we succeeded in finding 
 good renters for our claims we fitted up a 
 
 28 
 
wagon as a photograph gallery and travel- 
 ing conveyance and with our household 
 goods and our little daughter we journey- 
 ed to the southland. I wish I could set 
 forth fully and understandingly to the 
 reader the delights of this trip. But no per- 
 son who has not fared forth, young, con- 
 tented, care-free, with a good outfit, enough 
 property and income in the old home to in- 
 sure against the "rainy day," a loving wife 
 as a companion and a sweet baby girl as an 
 incentive to action — no millionaire can en- 
 joy any act of his life more than we enjoy- 
 ed that trip from Nebraska to Arkansas. 
 
 It had but one drawback — its end! It 
 was far too short and we were sorely 
 tempted when we reached our destination 
 to journey on and on and on, no matter in 
 what direction, no matter where — simply 
 journey on and on as wanderers and pil- 
 grims in search of something we knew we 
 never could attain, an idyllic elysia, a place 
 that exists only in the imagination. 
 
 Arriving at the end of our journey, in 
 the little town of Judsonia, in White Coun- 
 ty, I set up in business as a photographer. 
 There was no great rush of business so I 
 soon hung out my shingle as a real estate 
 agent. A man by the name of Barker was 
 the agent in the town for the lands of the 
 Iron Mountain Railroad Company, and he 
 was doing a good business; I called myself 
 
 29 
 
the Peoples' Land Agent and Barker rather 
 resented the reflection upon himself as a 
 corporation representative. So we had a 
 little feeling against each other from the 
 start. 
 
 I knew Barker was taking advantage 
 of his customers, which he did in this way: 
 When he would find one of his purchasers 
 was making good in the way of improve- 
 ments Barker would go to him and pay him 
 a lot of compliments and then tell him to 
 just go ahead and never mind his pay- 
 ments; what the railroad company wanted 
 was men who would stay on the land and 
 do things for the benefit of themselves, the 
 community and the company. 
 
 Usually at the end of three years the 
 settler would have his place well fixed but 
 was without money. Then Barker, repre- 
 senting the railroad company, would swoop 
 down on him for the back payments — you 
 can see the result. For in the meantime 
 the contract of sale had been canceled and 
 the settler was out his time and his im- 
 provements, to the great advantage of 
 Barker. 
 
 I determined to break up this "indus- 
 try" and began to gather evidence of ac- 
 tual transactions, with the idea of taking 
 them to the New York Trust Company 
 which held the title to the lands. The 
 secret of my investigations leaked out and 
 
 30 
 
Barker's friends rallied around him and 
 then came to me and asked me to desist as 
 such an exposure would be of great dam- 
 age to their town and county. I told them 
 the onl}^ thing that would tempt me to quit 
 was to find a sale for my business. If this 
 could be assured I would pack up my wagon 
 and move on. Anyhow the memories of 
 our joyous trip of three years before still 
 sweetly lingered with me and I was eager 
 to pack up and be moving, and within a 
 few days, with a finer outfit than before, 
 another child 2 years old, little Estella 
 May, and a good fat bank roll, we turned 
 our horses' heads towards the setting sun, 
 as joyous a quartet of travelers as ever 
 slept under the shining stars or drank 
 from a bubbling brook. 
 
 We headed for Wichita, Kansas, which 
 was then the craziest boom city in the 
 United States. As the reader probably 
 knows, this town is situated in the south- 
 central part of Kansas, being the capital of 
 Sedgwick County, one of the finest wheat- 
 producing counties in the entire United 
 States. When we reached Wichita, after 
 a most pleasant journey through Arkan- 
 sas, Missouri and Kansas, it was early in 
 May, 1886. What I had heard about booms 
 before reaching there were all eclipsed by 
 what I saw after I arrived. The people 
 generally expected, or so they claimed, that 
 
 31 
 
their town would be anyhow a second 
 Chicago, perhaps a second London, and the 
 speculative prices of real estate were based 
 upon that hypothesis. 
 
 When I arrived the Wichita people 
 claimed the town had 50,000 people and was 
 growing at the rate of from 1500 to 2000 a 
 month. The census of 1880 had given the 
 place a population of about 7500 people and 
 m 1886, when I reached there, there w^ere 
 probably double that number of permanent 
 residents, most of whom were permanent 
 only because they had to be. By the cen- 
 sus of 1890, four years after I arrived there, 
 the population amounted to 23,853. But 
 during the next decade the town suffered 
 so severely from its great boom in the 90s 
 that it only had 24,671. 
 
 As to location for an inland city there 
 is no place that can beat Wichita. It lies 
 in the center of as fine an agricultural sec- 
 tion as there is in the world, it has a great 
 many railroads touching it, is admirably 
 situated to handle a big jobbing trade for 
 a large section of Kansas and much of the 
 Indian Territory, Oklahoma and northern 
 Texas. And it is in a fair way to become 
 a big city for the boomers have either died, 
 removed or reformed and the ways of the 
 real estaters there situated are now nearly 
 normal. The place had a splendid growth 
 during the decade between 1900, and 1910 
 
and at the census in the latter year showed 
 an increase in population of 112.6 per cent, 
 having reached 52,450, being the second 
 city in the state, Kansas City being first 
 with 82,331. The former metropolises of 
 Leavenworth and Topeka had dropped 
 down to about half the population of 
 Wichita. 
 
 Of course the moment I got to Wichita 
 the real estaters got after me and my little 
 money, but I did not get excited. I^ found 
 their game too swift for me and within a 
 fortnight after my arrival I packed up and 
 headed my team for the west. Dodge City 
 being my objective point. On the day I 
 left Wichita it was said a lot on the main 
 business street sold for $50,000, or one 
 thousand dollars a front foot, about what 
 such a lot ought to be worth at that time 
 in a city of ten times the size of that city. 
 
 Perhaps from the day that Dodge City 
 first began to attract attention, along in the 
 middle 70s, up to the time of my visit and 
 a few years later, it was the most famous 
 city in its way on the American continent. 
 Oh, there were lots of "bad'' towns in the 
 West. There was Leadville, Cheyenne, 
 Tombstone, and several other places that 
 attracted world-wide attention. But v/hen 
 Dodge City once took the center of the 
 stage the spot light never touched any of 
 the other places ; she held it alone, supreme, 
 
 38 
 
undisputed as the great sensational city of 
 the country. 
 
 Long before leaving Arkansas I had 
 heard about Dodge City and her wicked- 
 ness. I had many and many a time heard 
 it was the worst and wickedest city on 
 earth, that a man even to pass through 
 there had to take his life in his hand, and 
 probably would never get through alive. 
 So you may imagine I approached the city 
 with fear and trembling on account of hav- 
 ing my wife and my two small girls with 
 me. As for myself, had I been alone, I 
 would not have batted an eye had all of the 
 bad men in Dodge interviewed me. But 
 with a family with me I confess I was some- 
 what timid. 
 
 I knew quite a lot about Dodge before 
 I went there, I learned a lot while there 
 and much more after I left. What I am 
 going to say about the place is authentic, 
 actually true, as any old resident of Dodge 
 will tell you. (Note that I call it simply 
 Dodge, while the real name was Dodge 
 City. "Dodge,'^ or Fort Dodge, was sit- 
 uated about four miles east of Dodge City, 
 on the Arkansas River, where an army 
 post was established during the Indian 
 fighting days of 1863. It usually contain- 
 ed about a regiment of troops. 
 
 When the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
 Fe Railroad was completed as far as the 
 
 34 
 
100th meridian, a townsite was established 
 and laid out by the townsite company com- 
 posed of the officials of the railroad com- 
 pany. This happened to be 300 miles west 
 from the Missouri River, one hundred and 
 fifty miles south from the Nebraska line, 
 fifty miles north from the Indian Territory 
 line and fifty miles east from the Colorado 
 line. 
 
 The townsite was platted in 1872 and 
 at once becam.e a station of great import- 
 ance, which it held for many years, still 
 holds to a certain extent, for today Dodge 
 is the metropolis of that one-fourth of Kan- 
 sas. In the early days great trading teams 
 came from as far away as 250 miles to the 
 south-west. All of the trade from over 
 one-half of what was then the Neutral Strip 
 and Indian Territory, some of which is now 
 Oklahoma, all of the Panhandle of Texas, 
 much of Eastern Colorado and all of South- 
 western Kansas then paid tribute to Dodge 
 City, which was usually spoken of; as it 
 still is, as Dodge. In the ^few years be- 
 tween 1872 and 1880 more buffalo m.eat and 
 more buffalo hides were shipped from 
 Dodge than from any other half dozen 
 points in the country — actually the ship- 
 ments were made by trainloads. As to 
 buffalo bones, which went to the great 
 sugar refineries of the East, it was nothing 
 unusual in '79 and '80 to see three of four 
 
 35 
 
hundred carloads of them piled up near 
 Dodge — also shipped by the trainload. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 I am not going to trace the history of 
 Dodge, though such a story, though often 
 told, might be very interesting. But I 
 want brifley to give you an idea of the town 
 and its people. It has been said by many 
 that Dodge was the wickedest city in the 
 world. Perhaps you have heard that said 
 very frequently. You have also heard, 
 which follows as a natural sequence, that 
 Dodge had the toughest class of citizens 
 in the world. 
 
 I am free to admit that about all of the 
 man-killers of the West congregated at one 
 time or another between 1872 and 1885 in 
 Dodge; but I wish also to state that at the 
 same time, contemporaneous with the resi- 
 dence of these man-killers, Dodge always 
 had a few score of as fine and brave men as 
 ever wore shoeleather, and many as splen- 
 did women as any town ever possessed. I 
 am going to run over a few of the names of 
 the men of whom any city might today or 
 any other day well feel proud. Many of 
 these men, most of them, I knew, the others 
 have been vouched for by their old com- 
 rades. Look at the list; Bob Wright, (Hon. 
 R. M. Wright, lately deceased. As fine a 
 man as ever lived.) Judge Beverly, part- 
 
 36 
 
ner in Bob's in the great firm of Wright, 
 Beverly & Co.,; Herman J. Fringer, for 
 many years postmaster ; D. M. Frost, of the 
 Dodge^ City Globe; Sam Gallagher, drug- 
 gist ; Mike Sutton, a famous attorney ; Fred 
 T. Winne, real estate and insurance ; Lloyd 
 Shinn, partner of Frost's, later postmaster ; 
 Larrv Deger, agent of Wells, Fargo & Co. ; 
 Dick' Evans, banker ; Dr. McCarty, physi- 
 cian and druggist; Cox and Boyd, of the 
 Dodge House; Sam Marshall, Insurance 
 broker; Doc Galland, of the Galland Hotel; 
 the Kollars, merchants; George S. Emer- 
 son, merchant; Louie Mclntyre, merchant; 
 Eddie Coffee, merchant; P. G. Reynolds, 
 mail contractor — and scores of others. 
 
 On the other hand there were many 
 famous men there who were engaged in a 
 business that is not looked upon as legiti- 
 mate, but I will set them down as typical 
 of a certain class of Dodge society ; Prairie 
 Dog Dave; Bat Masterson; Bill Harris; 
 Chalk Beeson; Tom Nixon; Bill Tilghman; 
 Mayor "Dog" Kelly; Luke Short; Colonel 
 McClure; Wyatt Earp; Fred Singer; Dave 
 Mather— and a few score others. 
 
 In the old days the gamblers ruled 
 Dodge and the gambling dens and dance 
 halls were practically on the street. That 
 is, the monte and other games were carried 
 on to a certain extent in the front of the 
 bar rooms just inside the open doors on the 
 
 37 
 
street, with almost as many lewd women 
 onlookers and players as men. In those 
 days the chief revenue of the city came 
 from a fine of five dollars a week levied 
 upon the women of the underworld, of 
 which class there were from 80 to 150, ac- 
 cording to the season of the year. Of 
 these "Dutch Jake'' was the '^dean,'' and 
 she v/as a noted character. First, for her 
 sobriety and her thrift. She never drank 
 but always appeared on the street smoking 
 a long black cigar, dressed in faultless 
 clothing but wearing a huge Mexican som- 
 brero or man's hat on her head. It is said 
 that "Jake" hearing that a Dodge business 
 concern was short of money walked in and 
 called the senior partner aside and told him 
 she had twenty-five thousand dollars lying 
 useless in a Kansas City bank, any part of 
 which the firm could have instanter if they 
 wished it. 
 
 Dodge was bad simply in this way — 
 you could find all the trouble you wanted 
 whenever you cared to go looking for it. 
 On the other hand I don't believe there was 
 ever a decent man in Dodge euchred out of 
 a cent, or in any other way mistreated, if he 
 kept away from the places and persons of 
 the sharks whose business it was to fleece 
 suckers and sports. By day and by night 
 a woman could walk the streets without the 
 least fear of molestation. Indeed, if a man 
 
 38 
 
wanted to commit involuntary suicide in 
 Dodge even in her wide-open days, about 
 the surest way would be to make a slight- 
 ing or insinuating remark about one of the 
 good women of the town as she passed 
 along the street Twenty gunmen and tin 
 horns would be on such a man in a moment. 
 In all the history of Dodge there never was 
 a respectable woman insulted on the 
 streets. And many, very many, "good'' 
 towns can't say as much. 
 
 The fellow in the most danger in 
 Dodge was the "smart Aleck" who came 
 there from some town or city where he was 
 noted as the "bad man" of the community. 
 Such chaps usually came dressed in chaps, 
 sombreros and high topped, long heeled 
 boots, with a blue flannel shirt open at the 
 neck and a red, blue or green silk handker- 
 chief tied, or more properly hung loosely 
 around the neck. Then, of course, there 
 was the belt with a hundred or so cartridg- 
 es and a navy revolver in a holster on each 
 side. Now, these would-be and had-been- 
 at-home toughs, met their first surprise 
 when an officer stepped up and told them 
 to take the belt, ammunition and guns 
 down to the proper place and deposit them 
 until he got ready to depart. For nobody 
 but the officers of the law were allowed to 
 carry weapons of warfare that were in 
 sight. Of course the gamblers and gun- 
 
 39 
 
men of Dodge, as well as many visitors who 
 were wise, carried shooting irons in the hip 
 pocket, under the vest or in the boot leg, 
 which was permissible. But in the latter 
 days no visible arms could be carried on 
 the Dodge streets. 
 
 Most of the visitors to Dodge were men 
 from the cattle ranches to the south and 
 southwest, and the means of conveyance 
 was by wagon or on horseback, nine out '>.f 
 ten coming by the latter method. For 
 these visitors to get into the town the 
 bridge over the Arkansas River had to be 
 crossed just in the south edge of town, and 
 when they reached the Dodge end of this 
 bridge their weapons had to be deposited. 
 Woe to the man who disregarded this rule ! 
 Before he had fairly reached the main 
 street he was pounced upon by an officer, 
 haled before Judge "Gulliver" Cook, his 
 arms and ammunition taken for safe keep- 
 ing and a fine imposed, the latter ranging 
 from five to twenty-five dollars, according 
 to the decency or the uncivility of the new- 
 comer. If the visitor desired he could un- 
 limber his artillery (most of the visitors 
 had a Winchester as well as a brace of 
 navies), at the end of the bridge and carry 
 it over his arm up to one of the business 
 houses where he could leave it for safe 
 keeping. 
 
 Dodge had made this arrangement in 
 
 40 
 
the early days, but only after having the 
 town "shot up" by the cowboys. Many 
 times a dozen or more, or maybe only two 
 or three — in extreme cases a single indi- 
 vidual — would get loaded with bad whisky, 
 mount his horse and go racing up and down 
 the street shooting off guns and yelling like 
 a Comanche. Now, there never was a 
 marshal of Dodge who cared to take human 
 life unnecessarily, so the lone trouble maker 
 was soon headed for the open country or 
 his horse roped and the rider thrown into 
 the calaboose ; if there were several of these 
 marauders one or more of them was liable 
 to get a shot from the marshal's navy. 
 These little pleasantries got onto the 
 nerves of the Dodge folk and a summary 
 end was put to such frolics. 
 
 But it was these incursions of the cow-- 
 boys that had much to do with populating 
 ''Boot Hill," the cemetery just west of 
 town, where only men killed with their 
 boots on and such others as had no known 
 home — in many cases no name known in 
 Dodge — passed away, usually by violent 
 deaths, were buried. Yes, and unknown 
 women of the underworld. "Boot Hill" 
 held quite a large population, and many, 
 many secrets. On many of the wooden 
 slabs posted at the heads of graves could 
 be noted such names as Ivy, Myrtle, Lily — 
 nothing more. And what visions one could 
 
 41 
 
lure up by conjecturing the homes and 
 mothers left and bereft by these frail 
 women, the only consolation being that per- 
 haps the mothers mourned them simply as 
 dead or wandering, and not as outcasts who 
 had died in their sins. 
 
 Aye, many a father and many a mother 
 is today waiting and will be tonight pray- 
 ing for a son or daughter who lies under 
 the weeds in an unknown grave in "Boot 
 HilV and perhaps in more cases than one 
 these fathers and mothers are still hoping 
 to see their offspring again, even though 
 the years have been long and the sorrows 
 many since last the wandering boy or girl 
 was heard from. It is well that "Boot Hill" 
 can keep inviolate its secrets. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 I was kept pretty busy in Dodge while 
 there and did a good paying business. In- 
 deed, for so small a place I never saw a 
 better business town. At that time Dodge 
 did not have over 1500 people, perhaps a 
 couple of hundred under that number. 
 But no town that I was ever in had more 
 money per capita in circulation than had 
 Dodge — and this money changed hands 
 mighty often I can tell you. 
 
 With my bankroll pretty well fattened 
 up we started our outfit for the west, our 
 objective point being Ulysses, a brand new 
 
 42 
 
town in a brand new country about 80 miles 
 to the southwest. Before giving my rea- 
 sons for heading in that direction I will 
 take the reader back a few years and try 
 and give a better insight into conditions. 
 
 The first great inrush of settlers that 
 ever came into the Dodge territory took 
 place in the spring of 1879, the first arrivals 
 coming in February. As these newcomers 
 arrived they mostly went to the south, 
 down in what was tJfien and is now Meade 
 County — although quite a sprinkling of 
 them went to the north, into Hodgman and 
 Ness counties. Of course all who could get 
 claims along the Arkansas River near 
 Dodge settled there. 
 
 But the Crooked Creek section of 
 Meade County, about 30 miles to the south, 
 was the Mecca towards which most of them 
 went. When the first settlers went down 
 there that spring they found but a single 
 house in the county, which contained 1008 
 miles, being about the size of the state of 
 Rhode Island. Meade was considered to 
 have as good land as any portion of south- 
 west Kansas, and it had. Besides, it was 
 pretty well watered, there being many 
 springs and several creeks throughout its 
 area, though most of the streams went dry 
 in the summer months. 
 
 At that time a person could take a 
 quarter section of land under the home- 
 
 43 
 
stead or pre-emp-act, as the entrant de- 
 sired, and a quarter section under the tim- 
 ber culture act. But there were three 
 times as much land susceptible of entry 
 under the former acts as under the latter, 
 the law providing that only one claim, not 
 exceeding 160 acres, could be taken in each 
 section as a tree claim as these claims were 
 usually spoken of. 
 
 The land office was at that time at 
 Larned, but the land district was divided in 
 1882 and the western portion of it, from the 
 100th meridian west, had its office located 
 at Garden City, Finney County (formerly 
 Sequoyah County.) I mention these facts 
 to show that when the first great rush of 
 landseekers came into the Dodge territory 
 they were pretty badly hampered by the 
 great distance to the land office from their 
 claims — some of them 75 miles, an average 
 of about 80 miles. 
 
 The entire country south-west of 
 Dodge was at that time a vast cattle range, 
 used very largely as the holding grounds 
 where the cattle driven up from Texas to 
 be sold at Dodge or shipped from there, or 
 possibly to be driven on to the Wyoming, 
 Nebraska or Montana ranges, were grazed 
 while the selling or shipping arrangements 
 were being conducted. 
 
 At that time — the early spring of 1879 
 — when these first settlers went into the 
 
 44 
 
Crooked Creek section, the entire valley 
 was covered with about as many cattle as 
 could find good grazing. In addition to the 
 cattle and the ponies of the cattlemen, there 
 were many large bands of wild horses 
 ranging in that section, also vast herds of 
 antelope. At any time of the day one 
 could get up on a convenient object fifteen 
 feet from the ground and see, near or far, 
 several hundred antelope, maybe several 
 thousand, and perhaps several hundred 
 wild horses. 
 
 But the settlers flowed in like herds of 
 sheep and the wild horses got wilder (and 
 a wild horse is the shyest "critter'' in the 
 country.) The herds of antelope split up 
 and scattered also, but they were very 
 plentiful for a couple of years. When the 
 first settlers took up their claims in 1879 
 they expected the spring rains soon to come 
 along. Those who did not succeed in get- 
 ting a location near a spring found, as a 
 rule, some water, enough for a short time, 
 in the little draws and buffalo wallows, for 
 there had been some snow in January. 
 
 The inrush of settlers continued until 
 well along in June — but no rain came, not 
 a drop. 
 
 By the middle of June several of the 
 "leading citizens" thought steps ought to 
 be taken to organize the county, it being in- 
 convenient to have the laws administered 
 
 45 
 
by the Ford County officials, Meade being 
 attached to Ford for judicial purposes, and 
 Dodge, county seat of Ford, was from 30 to 
 75 miles distant. It took at that time, un- 
 der the laws of Kansas, 1500 people to or- 
 ganize a county. So a few people took it 
 upon themselves to make a sort of census 
 to see if there were that many people in 
 Meade. This was completed about the 25th 
 of June (1879) and it was found there were 
 about 1800 residents in the county. 
 
 Not a drop of rain had yet fallen, the 
 prairies were turning brown, the ground 
 was so parched and dry that it was difficult 
 to plow it to get sod for building the sod 
 houses, not a thing that had been planted 
 was growing. It sure looked pretty blue. 
 On the 28th of June a man by the name of 
 Howard Lowry, packed up his wife and 
 children and what little plunder he had in 
 the way of furniture and household uten- 
 sils, and headed his team of Texas ponies 
 to the eastward. Only the day before 
 Lowry had been heard to declare that he 
 was one of those who was going to "stick.'' 
 During the night he changed his mind and 
 was away before noon. A day or two later 
 another family left— within a week the 
 road leading to Dodge (and to "God's 
 country" as the refugees called their old 
 home sections), was lined with the return- 
 ing homesteaders, pre-emptors and their 
 
 46 
 
families and goods, or such goods as they 
 could get away with. The rest they sold, 
 bartered, gave away or abandoned. Many 
 lumber shacks, perhaps with shingle roofs, 
 were left to be torn and hauled away by 
 those left behind — perhaps the man who 
 appropriated it would himself abandon it 
 as well as his own dwelling place before a 
 week elapsed. So it went on throughout 
 July, August and September — still not a 
 drop of rain. 
 
 During the fall months conditions did 
 not change, except that the cavalcade of re- 
 turning settlers was greatly diminished, 
 the number of actual bona fide residents by 
 the first of January having dwindled to a 
 scant 100. In a few words the history of 
 Meade for 1879 can be written— not a drop 
 of rain. Indeed from late in the fall of 
 1878 to July 4th, 1880, there was no rainfall 
 worthy the mention in that whole section 
 betv/een the Colorado line and the eastern 
 boundary of Ford County. In 1880 the 
 buffalo grass remained perfectly brown 
 until this downpour in July came. I am 
 stating these facts to show the reader just 
 how rapidly a section can fill up and how 
 rapidly it can "empty out." About the 
 craziest people I ever saw were landseekers 
 in various parts of the West — but when 
 they took a notion to quit they were just as 
 crazy. 
 
 47 
 
When south-western Kansas was di- 
 vided into counties after the formation of 
 the state, the divisions were practically the 
 same as they are today. They remained so 
 up until the famine years of 1878-9-80. 
 Soon after that the legislature cut the ter- 
 ritory now comprising the nineteen coun- 
 ties into three counties, calling them Ford, 
 Finney and Hamilton, and of this territory 
 Dodge was the capital city, all being at- 
 tached to Ford for judicial purposes. 
 
 In 1881 there were no incoming settlers 
 worth mentioning, none in 1882, though 
 everybody was sure there would be a rush 
 the latter year. On October first, 1882, the 
 Lamed land district was divided and the 
 western office located at Garden City. But 
 at this office less than two dozen entries 
 were made between October 1, 1882 and 
 March 20, 1883. On the latter day, and it 
 was raining very hard, six claims were en- 
 tered by three people, each taking a home- 
 stead and timber claim. The following day 
 there were a few more — in a week the 
 landseekers were pouring in like sheep, 
 within a month the incoming trains from 
 the east practically unloaded at Garden 
 City and there was a line sometimes three 
 or four blocks long of men and women 
 awaiting their turn to get into the land 
 office. 
 
 These settlers began to take up the 
 
 49 
 
claims in Meade County, those that had 
 been abandoned. The timber claims and 
 homesteads they had to contest, the pre- 
 emtion claims they simply took possession 
 of and then filed their papers. Like a 
 prairie fire reaching from the Arkansas 
 River south to the present Oklahoma line 
 these settlers swept westward — and also 
 north of the river through two tiers of 
 counties — about every claim worth having 
 was filed on as the army moved to the 
 west. Sometimes the land office would not 
 open for a week at a time, sometimes it 
 would be open only an hour a day, some- 
 times two hours, not having clerks enough 
 to do the business. 
 
 Remember now that this section of 
 south-western Kansas was at that time 
 composed of three counties, but these three 
 were made up of what had been nineteen. 
 You must remember this to get an insight 
 of the stakes in sight in the territory com- 
 prising these former counties — provided 
 the old lines could be re-established. These 
 "stakes^^ were the county seats. In 1884 
 the old county lines had been restored, as 
 well as the old names in most cases, and as 
 the counties filled up with settlers there 
 were at least a dozen county seat fights im- 
 minent at the time I write of, and some of 
 them were already on. 
 
 50 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 In looking over the field to the west and 
 south-west and north-west of Dodge, only 
 in which localities I could get a pre-emption 
 claim, I finally decided to cast my lot with 
 Ulysses and the Grant County people, 
 Grant County being about 25 miles east of 
 the Colorado line, the same distance north 
 of the Neutral Strip now Oklahoma) line, 
 and thus only the distance diagonally 
 across Stanton County from the south-west 
 corner of the state. 
 
 So packing up my goods, loading up my 
 family and chattels in my wagons and with 
 a good fat bankroll, I made my way to 
 Ulysses, which was then a little town of 
 three or four hundred people, but a hum- 
 dinger of a little place. In fact Ulysses 
 had a good many things to recommend it. 
 In the first place it was the only county in 
 the country, so far as I can discover whose 
 first building was a newspaper office and 
 that issued a newspaper before there was 
 any other place of business in the county — 
 and less than twenty people in the county. 
 I was also impressed with the character of 
 the men who owned the Ulysses townsite 
 and had platted the town, started a bank, 
 (which is still running), and erected a fine 
 hotel. 
 
 I soon found a good claim upon which 
 
 51 
 
I placed a pre-emption filing and began to 
 make a home. This quarter section was 
 situated near the little town of Conductor, 
 about a dozen miles due east of Ulysses. 
 Having secured my claim I erected a com- 
 fortable house thereon, my next move was 
 to put up a building for a photograph 
 gallery in Ulysses, the townsite people hav- 
 ing given me a lot. Thus I became a resi- 
 dent of Grant County and a business citizen 
 of Ulysses and had cast my lot with the 
 Ulysses people for the county seat as 
 against Surprise, a town which lay four 
 miles to the north-west, on section sixteen, 
 Ulysses being on section 36 of the same 
 township, in the geographical center of the 
 county. 
 
 In establishing sites for county seats 
 in those days the quickest and safest and 
 cheapest way was to get title to a piece of 
 school land, all school lands belonging to 
 the state. There were two school sections 
 in each township, sixteen and 36, a town- 
 ship consisting of 36 sections, being six 
 miles square. Several of the counties in 
 south-western Kansas, Grant among them, 
 had sixteen townships, being twenty-four 
 miles square. 
 
 These school lands were set aside for 
 the state by the general government when 
 the state was admitted to the Union, ,as in 
 the case of all the far western states, and 
 
 52 
 
the proceeds derived from their sale were 
 to belong to the state's irreducible school 
 fund, one proviso of the law being that 
 they should not sell for less than three 
 dollars an acre. One could settle, more 
 properly ''squat,'' on a quarter section of 
 this land, make some $50 worth of improve- 
 ments, have the improvements appraised, 
 then the land advertised for sale for five 
 consecutive weeks. Then it would be sold 
 by the county treasurer to the highest 
 bidder — but the settler had the prior right 
 to take it at the highest bid; if sold to an- 
 other the settler was paid for his improve- 
 ments. 
 
 Under that law most of the county seat 
 sites were secured, usually at three dollars 
 and five cents an acre. It was so in the 
 case of Ulysses. Sometimes the townsite 
 managers w^ould take but a quarter sec- 
 tion; the Ulysses people took the entire 
 section, paid out on it in full and got the 
 patent. 
 
 When the Ulysses promoters first set 
 out to operate in Grant County they sent 
 me one of their number down there v/ith 
 two teams and wagons, three men and a 
 lot of supplies in the way of food, several 
 reels of wire, some fence posts, four tents, 
 a plow, harrow, picks and shovels — all that 
 was needed to make a settlement and begin 
 improvements. These four men went into 
 
 53 
 
the exact center of the section and fenced 
 twenty acres, being five acres on each 
 quarter. Then the land was plowed and 
 planted, the tents put up, and the teams 
 sent back to the railroad for lumber. This 
 arriving the printing office was put up and 
 the printing outfit ordered from Kansas 
 City. By the time the newspaper office 
 was erected the appraisers came along and 
 did their duty — and the "settlers" returned 
 to their homes — which was all strictly legal. 
 When the sale was held the representative 
 of the company bid in his own quarter, the 
 other three bid in theirs, all received re- 
 ceipts and in another hour the county 
 treasurer had been paid and issued his re- 
 ceipt, the three outsiders deeded their land 
 to the company — and the Ulysses Townsite 
 Company was the owner of one real town- 
 site, containing 640 acres. 
 
 At that time, as said, there were no 
 people worth mentioning in Grant County. 
 But the wave of settlement and the army 
 of settlers, almost like locusts, was march- 
 ing along from the east, and mighty soon, 
 within weeks, there was a sort of hotel, a 
 store, a saloon and several shacks in the 
 place — and don't forget the newspaper was 
 being issued every week. 
 
 Thus the Ulysses people had secured 
 their land without trouble and had what 
 looked like a "lead pipe cinch'' on the 
 
 54 
 
county seat, being in the exact center of 
 the county. But they had only won by a 
 single day, and by a mistake of others. 
 When the four members of the party men- 
 tioned went there to take the section and 
 began running the lines, under the direc- 
 tions of C. 0. Chapman, of Lakin, Kansas, 
 one of the members of the townsite com- 
 pany, they found a little frame shack 
 standing close to the east line of section 
 36. But by running the line carefully this 
 shack was found to be on section 31 in the 
 township just to the east by 20 feet. In a 
 closer examination it was found that this 
 shack had been located by amateurs who 
 had mistaken a quarter corner for a sec- 
 tion corner, and had not found the town- 
 ship corner at the south-east corner of the 
 section. This was discovered by marks 
 they had made along the section line. 
 
 So it was evident that these parties 
 were in the townsite business and had set 
 their eyes on Grant County ; but they lack- 
 ed the services of a surveyor. A few dol- 
 lars paid to one would have resulted in giv- 
 ing them one of the quarter sections — and 
 a sort of underhold on the county seat. 
 These parties came back with a load of 
 plunder the very day after Mr. Chapman's 
 party had made their location. When they 
 saw the Chapman party's improvements 
 they came over and were soon convinced of 
 
 55 
 
their error. Then they put skids under 
 their shack and moved up to section sixteen 
 in the same township and started Surprise 
 as a rival town and a rival candidate for 
 county seat honors. 
 
 These people came from Hutchinson, a 
 town on the Santa Fe, R. R., the county 
 seat of Reno County. For botching mat- 
 ters they were the master hands. First 
 they had bungled and lost the central loca- 
 tion. Going up to their town called Sur- 
 prise they only purchased three of the four 
 quarter sections in the section, but laid 
 their town out in the center of the section. 
 So they did not own the land to the west 
 of their main business street running north 
 and south, nor to the south of the main 
 street running east and west — any old time 
 would do to take that in ! But by a device 
 it was brought up for sale, advertised 
 properly and sold — for three dollars and 
 five cents an acre to a member of the Ulys- 
 ses Townsite Company. They offered the 
 Ulysses people $16,000 for this quarter 
 within a few weeks after it was acquired. 
 
 This mistake was made because the 
 Surprise people, knowing that the sale was 
 to take place in the treasurer's office at 
 Garden City at 10 o'clock of a certain day, 
 thought they would be in ample time by 
 coming on the train that arrived at 10:10. 
 They got in on time all right, but the land 
 
 56 
 
had been sold, the cash paid and the re- 
 ceipt issued during those ten minutes. 
 
 That was the main reason that along 
 in the summer of 1886 there was a terrible 
 commotion in the Surprise neighborhood 
 one night, more properly about 2 o'clock 
 one morning. The manager of the Ulysses 
 townsite was soundly sleeping in his bed- 
 room back of his office when the proprietor 
 of the livery stable, who had been aroused 
 by a horse breaking loose in the stable, 
 awakened the manager and said, "There 
 are about a million lights up on the hill 
 towards Surprise.'' Almost intuitively the 
 manager knew they were moving their 
 town. He had known, as the Surprise peo- 
 ple knew, that with that deeded quarter of 
 their townsite the Ulysses people wouldn't 
 from a money standpoint, give a whoop if 
 Surprise did win the county seat — for they 
 would have practically a quarter of it free 
 and clear — while the Surprise people would 
 have but few business lots left. Thus the 
 Ulysses people would bag the most of the 
 profits. 
 
 The manager also knew that two miles 
 due west of Ulysses and the same distance 
 south of Surprise there were two quarter 
 sections belonging to a Surprise partisan, 
 or rather he had a homestead filing on one 
 and a timber culture filing on the other. 
 Instantly the manager divined that the 
 
 57 
 
town was being moved to these quarter 
 sections or one of them, where the land 
 would be scripped or what is known as a 
 government townsite establishedo The 
 quarters could be scripped and title secured 
 then at about $1500 each — if a government 
 townsite was established there would be no 
 money in it for the townsite people, title 
 passing from the government to the indi- 
 vidual settlers on the lots — but by making 
 it a government townsite it would raise 
 Ned with Ulysses. 
 
 Within a quarter of an hour the mana- 
 ger was in the saddle and soon was circling 
 around but out of sight of the moving 
 throng. Sure enough they were moving 
 to the claims as supposed and apparently 
 taking both of them. It was a wild sight. 
 Every vehicle that could be secured in their 
 town or from their partisans to the west 
 were on the ground and every building was 
 either moved, being moved or being placed 
 in readiness for removal. The two miles 
 of road between the two places was alight 
 with bonfires, lanterns and any old sort of 
 light — but the town was sure moving. 
 
 The Ulysses manager knew his men, 
 knew their lack of knowledge of the land 
 laws and their two-cent policy of never buy- 
 ing advice. They were always looking for 
 free counsel. So he concluded at once that 
 they had purchased the relinquishments to 
 
 58 
 
those claims but more than likely had not 
 placed them on record at the land office. 
 So he put his pony into a gallop, covered 
 the twenty miles to the railroad in record 
 time and before 7 o'clock in the morning he 
 was in Garden City. He went to the chief 
 clerk of the land office and for a considera- 
 tion got a peep at the records before the 
 office opened. Sure enough — no relin- 
 quishment had been filed. 
 
 The first papers filed in on the land 
 office that morning were two contests, ac- 
 companied by homestead entries, on the 
 two quarters, the contests being brought 
 on the allegation that the relinquishments 
 to said claims had been sold, and the case 
 was set well ahead for hearing and the ad- 
 vertisement of the case ordered. Now it 
 is one thing to allege and another thing to 
 prove — but perhaps the bunglers would 
 come in with the relinquishment and admit 
 they were going to start a government 
 townsite and had bought the settler out for 
 that purpose ; and two days later the "legal 
 adviser" of the old Surprise, but now of 
 the Cincinnati people, that being the name 
 of the new town, came sauntering in with 
 the relinquishments and a filing for a gov- 
 ernment townsite. And sure enough he 
 admitted to the register, who happened to 
 be a stockholder in the Ulysses Townsite 
 
 59 
 
Company, that he had purchased the re- 
 linquishments. 
 
 Then this ''expert'' was told that the 
 relinquishments could be filed all right and 
 the entries canceled. But in such case the 
 homestead entries filed by the contestants 
 would be immediately allowed. Then the 
 expert went and hired an attorney — only 
 to be told that he had better tear the re- 
 linquishments up and return home — and 
 move back to land they had title to. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Well, I plunged into the county seat 
 fight, became a partisan on the Ulysses 
 side from the jump. My photograph gal- 
 lery was doing a fairly good business and 
 I was getting along fine, while at home we 
 had a brand new baby girl, to whom we 
 gave the name of Flossie Etta. Her birth 
 occurred on the 16th day of July, 1886. 
 
 At this time there were county seat 
 contests going on all around us, while some, 
 notably the one in Meade County, had been 
 amicably settled, but some of those raging 
 were becoming rather fierce, particularly 
 in Wichita and Greeley counties to the 
 north and in the five counties of Stanton, 
 Morton, Stevens, Seward and Haskell, 
 which counties bordered on Grant, Stanton 
 being to the west, Morton cornering on 
 Grant to the south-west, Stevens lying to 
 
 60 
 
the south, Seward to the south-east and 
 Haskell to the east. 
 
 So we were only about 25 miles from 
 ten would-be county seats and each with a 
 vicious fight on. But there always must be 
 a census taken of the population, and an 
 appraisement of the property values must 
 be made before there can be a real fight on. 
 The Kansas laws at that time provided that 
 a county might be organized when its pop- 
 ulation reached 1500 and its taxable prop- 
 erty amounted to a half million dollars. 
 When the residents of a county suspected 
 there was a chance to show that many peo- 
 ple and that much taxable property to an 
 easily-convinced enumerator, a petition 
 was sent to the governor and he appointed 
 such an official, who had to be a resident of 
 some other county. As a rule this was a 
 plum handed out to some political hack 
 from the eastern part of the state, and 
 some of these fellows were about as crook- 
 ed as any officials that ever lived. 
 
 Coming into the county after his ap- 
 pointment apparently as a stranger the 
 chances were ten to one that he had been 
 interviewed by at least one of the parties 
 in the county seat fight — usually he had 
 been "seen'^ by representatives from both 
 sides. As a rule the enumerator made his 
 headquarters at one of the aspirant towns, 
 which of itself gave that place an advant- 
 
 61 
 
age. Once getting into the field he began 
 his duties of counting noses and taking an 
 account of improvements. As there were 
 only a few quarter sections of deeded land 
 in any of these counties at that time, and 
 as improvements on undeeded land could 
 not be taken into account, about the only 
 property of a taxable nature to be found 
 was the small stocks of merchandise and 
 the improvements in the town and the 
 livestock owned by the ^^farmers.'' 
 
 The first duty, as I understand it, and 
 as it always worked out, was for the enu- 
 merator to find the 1500 noses — which he 
 always did. I never heard of a case in 
 Kansas, and I have taken up the facts in at 
 least twenty county seat contests — 1 never 
 heard of a single case where the enumera- 
 tor was unsuccessful in finding the requir- 
 ed 1500 people, the usual number being 
 about 1523. And the half million of prop- 
 erty values was about the same. At the 
 time I am writing about a half million 
 dollars would have bought out everything 
 in the way of buildings, merchandise, live- 
 stock and everything else of a taxable na- 
 ture in the six counties in south-western 
 Kansas. I mean a half million dollars in 
 real money. 
 
 With the population it was just the 
 same. I had about this time an offer made 
 to me to leave Grant and go into another 
 
 62 
 
county, in which county an enumerator 
 had just begun his work, while in Grant we 
 had not advanced that far. The contract 
 offered me called for the instant deeding 
 to me of a dozen residence lots and two 
 business lots in the would-be county seat, 
 the erection of a small photograph gallery 
 for me, $100 in cash the day I moved in and 
 the promise of being appointed county- 
 treasurer. I concluded the office proposi- 
 tion was of no value as I did not want a 
 dinky little position of that kind. Anyhow 
 there would be a dozen candidates and 
 more than likely the town company's mana- 
 ger had promised his support to each of the 
 dozen. In fact it was customary, as I very 
 well knew, for the town company to prom- 
 ise some office to every man in the county, 
 no matter whether he could or could not 
 read or write. 
 
 On the other hand I was dissatisfied in 
 Grant. The manager of the town com- 
 pany there had failed to comiC through with 
 the deed to my lots, leaving me in the un- 
 enviable condition of having a building, 
 which I had bought and paid for, on lots not 
 belonging legally to me. So the town com- 
 pany could step in and take my building. 
 I did not like to be in such a fix as that. The 
 manager assured me it was all right, that 
 my deeds would be along in "a few days." 
 But these "few days'' had elapsed a couple 
 
 63 
 
of dozen times and I was getting sore. 
 
 So I concluded I would go and look the 
 other county over and see if there was any 
 sort of a chance for me to better my condi- 
 tion by moving. First I wanted to see if 
 there were people enough in the county to 
 get the organization through. So I spent 
 three days in driving and riding over the 
 county, covering every portion of it and 
 seeing every dwelling place of every sort in 
 it. At that time there were not over ten 
 miles of fencing in the county, just a few 
 quarter sections being enclosed. So the 
 "road'' was anywhere you wished to travel, 
 so you did not injure a settler's crops (!) 
 or ride over any of his property. Hence 
 I was able to go from house to house across 
 and up and down throughout the county, 
 which was only 36 miles square. 
 
 Then I visited the rival towns and 
 quietly but pretty accurately counted noses 
 and estimated values. After completing 
 my labors and jotting everything down in 
 a note book I went home to foot the figures 
 up. I found there were between 680 and 
 710 inhabitants — men, women and children, 
 and that for $100,000 I could depopulate 
 the entire county by buying every bit of 
 property of every settler and business man 
 in it. So I decided to stick to Grant for a 
 while longer and keep hot on the trail of 
 the manager for my deeds. And it was 
 
 64 
 
mighty well that I did for had I gone into 
 this other county God knows I might have 
 got mixed up somehow in one of the most 
 atrocious crimes ever committed in a 
 county seat fight, or any other sort of fight, 
 in this country. 
 
 There were down in the Neutral Strip, 
 to the south, along the Cimarron River and 
 Beaver Creek, an abundance of wild plums, 
 which were now in good condition for can- 
 ning and making into pies, jams, etc. As 
 there was no other sort of fruit in that 
 whole section these bitter, almost uneatable 
 plums, were considered quite a luxury, so 
 many little picnic parties were formed to 
 go down and make a holiday of it and 
 bring home a few bushels of plums. 
 
 One such party, consisting of seven 
 men and a boy, went down from the county 
 mentioned one fine day. They had picked 
 fruit all the forenoon and had nearly a 
 wagon load of it. Then they had gone to 
 a spring and got a bucket of water and 
 were sitting down in the shade of a hay- 
 stack, near their teams and wagons, eating 
 their lunch. Then up rode a party of arm- 
 ed men, all citizens of the rival town, and 
 shot down the entire eight like dogs — then 
 rode away leaving the dead bodies to the 
 mercy of the ravens. 
 
 However they were not all dead — the 
 little boy had fallen when shot and soon 
 
 65 
 
the man standing practically over him was 
 also shot and fell on the little fellow. When 
 the murderers got off their horses and look- 
 ed the corpses over they forgot about the 
 boy. The little fellow soon recovered from 
 his superficial wound and had sense enough 
 to wait for night, when he was successful 
 in catching one of the horses and rode home 
 to tell of the dreadful deed — and give the 
 name of every participant. 
 
 The seven were all soon arrested by the 
 United States authorities and taken down 
 to the nearest jail in Texas, it being un- 
 derstood that this Neutral Strip was in the 
 judicial territory of the Northern District 
 of Texas. The friends of the murderers 
 were able to secure the services of some of 
 the best attorneys both of Texas and Kan- 
 sas; the government was also represented 
 by lawyers of ability. Then began a legal 
 battle that lasted for several years and was 
 twice passed upon by the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. Twice the murder- 
 ers were tried, convicted of murder in the 
 first degree and sentenced to be hanged, 
 but the question of jurisdiction was a viinl 
 one and finally they were set free. How- 
 ever, they were broken in fortune, their 
 families were scattered and there was but 
 little left for them to live for. 
 
 66 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 About this time something, and some- 
 thing very trivial, happened in my life that 
 gave m.e a reputation I was not entitled to. 
 In my wanderings I had become a slave to 
 the habit of carrying, wherever permitted, 
 a pair of .45 navies, hanging m holsters at- 
 tached to a belt. In the belt I also carried 
 a few dozen loaded shells. One day I was 
 going towards Ulvsses from my home near 
 Conductor on foot, my horses being busy. 
 Anyhow I knew a neighbor was going in 
 that day and I would catch a ride. Sure 
 enough the neighbor came along and invit- 
 ed me to a seat in his wagon. After we had 
 gone a couple of miles we came to the house 
 of a settler whose wife was trying to catch 
 a chicken she wished to cook for dmner. 
 I remarked that as the fowl was so wild the 
 best way would be to shoot its head off. 
 "But," she replied, "I have no gun. Well, 
 said I, "I have a reliable .45 here and I think 
 maybe I can hit it if it will stand still. 
 Just then her little boy came chasing the 
 fowl past us, about twenty yards away. 
 It was going pretty fast, but I determined 
 to risk a shot— and I shot its head off as 
 slick as if it had been cut off with a sharp 
 
 ^^' I made light of the matter, saying that 
 was nothing out of the ordinary and that 
 
 67 
 
if a man could not hit as big an object as a 
 chicken at close range he had better throw 
 his gun away. After the neighbor and I 
 had driven on about a half mile towards 
 Ulysses we came to a place where there was 
 a prairie dog village and near one of the 
 mounds beside a hole sat a mother owl with 
 her four little baby owls near her. "There," 
 said the friend with whom I was riding, "is 
 a pretty good mark ; suppose you see if you 
 can shoot the old owl's head off.'' She was 
 just about 30 yards away, just about the 
 right distance for me, but I tell you I was 
 afraid my reputation acquired by behead- 
 ing the chicken would be lost if I failed to 
 hit the owl. So I demurred by arguing 
 that it would be too bad to make orphans 
 of the little owls, that it would be pure 
 wantonness as these owls were no damage 
 but a blessing to the country by killing so 
 many gophers and eating so many grass- 
 hoppers, the country being overrun with 
 the latter. 
 
 But he insisted that I was afraid I 
 couldn't hit her, so I finally gritted my 
 teeth and determined to call him. I just 
 reached down, drew my .45, raised it slowly 
 and as the sight covered the owl I pulled the 
 trigger and shaved the head off slick and 
 clean. When the neighbor began to com- 
 pliment me and ask questions about my 
 markmanship I simply said, "Oh, shucks; 
 
 68 
 
what do you suppose a fellow carries a navy 
 for if he can't hit the side of a barn when 
 he wants to ? That was no shot for a man 
 who knows anything about shooting." 
 
 He went and got the dead owl and 
 threw it into his wagon and we drove on 
 into town. I went to work in my gallery, 
 being pretty busy at the time, and he went 
 into the hotel. But you may rest assured 
 he told a number about my shooting and 
 showed the headless body of the owl. A 
 few days later the woman's husband came 
 in ,referring to the chicken shot, and told 
 corroborated the story about my shooting 
 the head off of a chicken running at the 
 rate of about twenty miles an hour — and it 
 soon became noised all over that part of 
 Kansas that "Buffalo Bill" Deveney was 
 the best shot in Kansas. 
 
 I rather egged the reputation on, sort 
 of shoved it along, as it were, by quietly, 
 here and there telling this one or that one 
 about some (purely imaginary) occasion 
 when such a county seat scrap was on I had 
 "buffaloed" the fellows opposed to me by 
 plugging six ten cent pieces at twenty paces 
 in six seconds, never taking the gun down, 
 just throwing the hammer with my gun- 
 hand thumb. 
 
 Pretty soon emissaries began coming 
 to me from the near-by counties making me 
 offers to join their parties in this or that 
 
 69 
 
contest. Some of these offers sounded 
 pretty tempting, but I knew they wanted 
 me to be on hand if there was any gun fight- 
 ing to be done ; in fact my duties would be 
 to do such killing as I was ordered to do. 
 I never had shed an ounce of human blood 
 since I was a boy when I bloodied now and 
 then a nose in a scrap at school. The only 
 time since when I had drawn blood w^as by 
 hitting a gambler, who attempted to cheat 
 me in a little game, over the head with my 
 .45. That was no scrap worth mentioning 
 for that was both the beginning and the 
 end of it. 
 
 You can rest assured I did not care to 
 risk my life in any county seat scrap, or 
 any other sort of a scrap, for that matter. 
 I had a fine wife, three lovely children, a 
 happy home, was doing a good business — 
 your Uncle Fuller was well enough off with- 
 out hiring out as a man-killer. 
 
 During this time it must be remem- 
 bered Kansas was a "dry'^ state, the prohi- 
 bition law having passed by a tremendous 
 majority in 1880. But the dryness was only 
 in spots — it sure did not reach Ulysses or 
 any of the other towns in the far south- 
 western part of the state. Even in Dodge 
 there was more liquor sold at the time I was 
 there than ever before. In Garden City the 
 saloon was closed a couple of years or so 
 after the state went dry — there had never 
 
 70 
 
been but the one saloon there. It was kept 
 by George Henkle, who had at one time 
 been the sheriff of Ford County, in which 
 Dodge is situated. He usually sold about 
 six barrels, 36 dozen bottles, of bottle beer 
 a week. At the same time there were two 
 drugstores there then and neither of them 
 sold any liquor to amount to anything, nor 
 did either of them sell beer. After the 
 "clean-up" by the state authorities, after 
 the town was "closed" by law, there sprang 
 up eleven drug stores and the consumption 
 of beer ran up to two carloads, or 50,000 
 bottles a week. (I understand Kansas is 
 very dry now, the same as Oregon soon will 
 be. I am sure it makes mighty little diffen- 
 ence to me personally one w^ay or the other. 
 But I do know that Kansas went through 
 almost a hell in geting down to the dry con- 
 dition.) 
 
 In every little town aspiring to become 
 a county seat, which meant at least two in 
 each county, gambling and drinking was 
 carried on practically day and night, and 
 lewd women were to be found running their 
 houses wide open in little towns of 200 or 
 800 people. Of course they did not adver- 
 tise in the town newspapers, but everybody 
 in town knew where these houses were — 
 and the inmates brazenly paraded the 
 streets with their painted and powdered 
 faces by day and by night. 
 
 71 
 
From every quarter came gamblers, 
 card sharps, gun fighters, rowdies, loafers 
 — anything to swell the population. "We 
 must have that fifteen hundred" was the 
 slogan, and devil the bit did the townsite 
 managers seem to care how tough the in- 
 coming dweller might be. I am sure nine 
 managers out of ten would have "shed" 
 more smiles over the advent in their town 
 of two card sharps or two lewd women than 
 they would over the incoming of a decent 
 mechanic, merchant or settler. It was 
 numbers and not character they wanted — 
 that they must have. 
 
 So you may imagine the orgies going 
 on in the various towns. Take it in Ulys- 
 ses, where the management was superior 
 to the most of the places. Gun fights were 
 going on more than frequently. By some 
 sort of good luck there was only one killing 
 and that was only in "fun." A gambler 
 was dancing and making a monkey of him- 
 self in a saloon and another gambler, an 
 enemy of his, undertook to shoot the hat 
 off of the dancer. At least that is what he 
 said after the dancer fell dead with a bullet 
 hole through his brain — and he came 
 awful near, within five dollars, of making 
 his statement stick, five dollars being the 
 fine imposed upon him by the justice of the 
 peace for "packing a gun;" and everybody 
 in the court room, even the J. P. himself, 
 
 72 
 
had at least one gun on, most of them two. 
 
 I tell you the virus of the fights began 
 to get into my veins as well as into the 
 others. Most of the citizens of the county 
 had nothing to do. Nothing that was 
 planted would grow. Corn placed in the 
 ground in the spring might sprout, might 
 grow up and bear perhaps a nubbin on now 
 and then a stalk. Potatoes if planted would 
 practically rot in the ground. If they did 
 come up most likely some sort of a bug 
 would come along and eat the sprouts off 
 clear down into the ground. Some said the 
 long black beetles followed the vines down 
 and ate what was left of the potato — then 
 hibernated and hatched out a few hundred 
 more beetles. 
 
 There were three or four kinds of these 
 beetles and often you would go to bed at 
 night without a sign of one of any variety 
 on your place; in the morning they would 
 be there by the billion. If it wasn't beetles 
 it was grasshoppers, if the grasshoppers 
 missed anything green, along came a hot 
 wind, like a blast from a furnace, and it 
 would shrivel up any vegetation within a 
 couple of hours. I have seen rather decent 
 looking half-grown corn that was almost 
 ready to tassel — a hot wind would come up 
 from towards the gulf of Mexico and with- 
 in an hour or two the leaves would be only 
 fit for cigarette papers and the stalks two 
 
 78 
 
hours later would make fine kindling wood. 
 It was a beautiful country to look at 
 and will one day be a prosperous section. 
 Perhaps it is now, for great changes have 
 taken place in Kansas, Nebraska and all of 
 the states on the eastern slope of the 
 Rockies. The rainfall is greater, the hot 
 winds come no more — at least so I have 
 been told, and as a rule fair crops are rais- 
 ed without irrigation nearly as far west as 
 Denver. What I have said about western 
 Kansas applies to that section almost 30 
 years ago. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 About this time there came to me an 
 offer to go up into one of the counties north 
 of the Santa Fe railroad and take an inter- 
 est in a prospective county seat, the little 
 town having a population of about 300 peo- 
 ple. The proprietors owned a half section 
 of land, which was very near the center of 
 the county, there was plenty of water in 
 the town well, there were, so the emissary 
 sent to see me said, at least 1800 people in 
 the county and an enumerator v/as soon to 
 be appointed by the governor. Rut best of 
 all the opposing town had mighty poor 
 backing, its promoters being amateurs at 
 the game and without capital. 
 
 All of this and much more the man sent 
 to see me told me and I soon found he was 
 
 74 
 
one of the five owners of the townsite and 
 had been sent down to secure my services. 
 The offer made to me was a one-sixth in- 
 terest in the townsite company — each of 
 the five to chip in a fifth of his stock, $250 
 in cash, the use of a building for my pho- 
 tograph gallery, $50 a week for my ser- 
 vices up to the day the governor appointed 
 the officials for the county, four business 
 and six residence lots in the town — I forget 
 what else! 
 
 Now I found this man had come after 
 me on account of my record as a gun play- 
 er, a reputation built pure and simple on 
 the incidents I have mentioned and one 
 little scrap in Dodge where I happened to 
 get into a little game of cards one night, 
 rather about two o'clock one morning, 
 while waiting for a train. The game was 
 but a trifling one, there not being over 
 fifty dollars at stake. I had sat in merely 
 for pastime, the game being vantoom, or, 
 as usually called — twenty-one. The fellow^ 
 dealing was a ''bad man" as I well knew — 
 and of course I knew the other fellow play- 
 ing was a "capper'' for the house. 
 
 Well we were running along about 
 neck and neck when I discovered the dealer 
 rather bungling slip a card on me — quicker 
 than a wink I grabbed my .45 and slammed 
 him over the head with it, appropriated 
 what money was in sight, sorted out the 
 
 75 
 
fifty belonging to me, left the balance on 
 the table and walked out, a .45 in each hand, 
 while the two boobs stood looking at me. 
 
 News of scraps like that travel fast 
 and travel far in any country — and gain in 
 every way imaginable as they travel. For 
 instance, it was said in Grant County that 
 I had several notches on my gun and each 
 notch stood for a killing. That I was the 
 best shot in Arkansas while I lived there 
 was conceded — that I had rapped a gambler 
 over the head in Dodge, taken away from 
 him the bank roll, walked out unconcerned- 
 ly while the six inmates of the place looked 
 on but did not dare to touch me — -oh, the 
 reports were running all over south- 
 western Kansas that ''Buffalo Bill" De- 
 veney, that long haired chap, was a bad, 
 bad man from Badville and was the best 
 shot that ever came down the pike. Of 
 course these reports got to my ears and I 
 did not think it necessary to enter any de- 
 nials. I just let them run and run. 
 
 This "fine" record of mine, built en- 
 tirely upon a couple of lucky shots, had 
 been the means of bringing this offer dowri 
 from the northern county. They had a 
 nasty scrap on up there and the owners 
 wanted a man to take hold and, if neces- 
 sary, do what gun work had to be done. 
 That is what was meant when the man sent 
 down said that I would be expected to re- 
 
 76 
 
main in the town and manage the affairs 
 of the town until the county was organi- 
 zed. The other owners all had very im- 
 portant business elsewhere and would be 
 gone some considerable time — until the 
 county seat question was settled I imagin- 
 ed. 
 
 I concluded I would go up and look the 
 matter over on the ground. So I told the 
 fellow that if he would pay me for two 
 weeks' work I would go up and make my 
 decision while in the town — but I must have 
 the hundred in advance. He paid it to me 
 and we rode north headed for Lakin, from 
 which town we struck north to our destina- 
 tion. Arriving there I was hailed as a 
 sort of Joshua. I was wined and dined, 
 feasted and fawned upon. I was dressed 
 in my "Buffalo Bill" suit of buckskin, I had 
 a buckskin colored horse that was soine 
 saddle horse I can tell you, my spurs were 
 of the Mexican variety and my hat ! Why 
 I wore a Spanish Sombrero that cost me 
 $25, and it had a gold cord and tassel on it 
 worth as much more. I sure cut some ice 
 in the new town. 
 
 When I came to look the matter over 
 carefully I found that the offer made me 
 might and might not be based on a sound 
 basis. For instance, I found that the town 
 company could not make a valid deed to 
 the lots for the reason that the land was not 
 
 77 
 
entirely paid for. "Why not paid for?" 
 was the question I asked of myself. I came 
 to the conclusion that they did not have the 
 money. 
 
 Before I had had time to study the 
 question thoroughly, in fact the third night 
 after my arrival, while I was sitting in a 
 chair at the ''hotel," which was a mere 
 shack with mostly canvas partitions, there 
 was all at once a terrible commotion in the 
 saloon and gambling house next door. I 
 rushed out and before I could get to the 
 door of the place three or four shots rang 
 out and half a dozen or more people came 
 rolling out the door end over end. 
 
 I jumped over these as best I could and 
 upon entering the room there stood two 
 fellows, each with an ordinary little revol- 
 ver, pegging away at each other, each tak- 
 ing a shot just as I entered. I drew my 
 .45s, one in each hand, and before those fel- 
 lows knew I was there I had ''cuffed" each 
 along the side of the head with a gun, had 
 grabbed each by the collar as he fell and 
 taking them to the door I threw them out 
 into the street — then I quietly walked back 
 and took the chair I had vacated three 
 minutes before — and the row was all over. 
 
 The following night a "banquet" was 
 given to me, the place being in a new build- 
 ing just being erected for a store. Nearly 
 everybody in town was there as a host, I 
 
 78 
 
was the only guest! I felt a little out of 
 place, but I tried to carry myself as if such 
 things as banquets were an everyday affair 
 to me. I was toasted several times, and 
 and listened to large — and long — chunks of 
 oratory before I deigned to speak. Then I 
 complimented the town and the people and 
 the country, not forgetting to pull a few 
 tailfeathers out of the American eagle in 
 setting forth the claims of Kansas, blessed 
 Kansas! I also reached up into the 
 heavens and plucked a star or two when I 
 came to ''my country," the land of the 
 brave and the home of the free. 
 
 Of course I made no mention of the 
 scrap of the evening before — I had done the 
 same all day. Whenever anybody v/ould 
 bring it up I would say, "Oh, those boys 
 were just fooling; it was all a joke — noth- 
 ing to it, sir, nothing whatever I do as- 
 sure you, just the boys and I having a little 
 frolic.'' Of course the bullets from the 
 "young" revolvers had pierced the boards 
 — in one case the ceiling and in one case the 
 floor — of the saloon, and these were held as 
 precious souvenirs. But I made light of 
 the entire affair. 
 
 I had to make a decision pretty quick, 
 so I asked for a week in which to give an 
 answ^er and returned to my home in Grant. 
 Less than a week I learned that on the third 
 day after I had left the town to the north a 
 
 79 
 
wagon had come into the place in the after- 
 noon, an ordinary farm wagon but with a 
 high box. Some loose hay was seen to be 
 in the wagon box as it was driven down the 
 street slowly, but one man, the driver, in 
 sight. Suddenly this driver pulled a gun 
 and fired five shots rapidly in the air. In- 
 stantly he dropped down into the wagon 
 box, at the same time everybody near came 
 rushing from the buildings onto the street 
 — at the right moment eight men, four on 
 each side, arose from under the hay in the 
 wagon, each with a Winchester in his 
 hands, and began shooting at the citizens, 
 meantime the driver from his hiding place 
 guiding the team, now at a dead run, down 
 the street, thence out into the country. 
 
 The result of the fusilade, some forty 
 shots having been fired from the wagon and 
 a half dozen from the street — the result 
 was four dead men and two badly wound- 
 ed. The wagon party were disguised so 
 that not one of them could be recognized 
 and the townspeople were so badly rattled 
 that it was over an hour before a party was 
 organized to pursue them. By that time it 
 was near dark — never was any trace — any 
 legal evidence — discovered as to their per- 
 sonnel. 
 
 Less than a week later I received an 
 anonymous letter, postmarked at Garden 
 City, saying "if you had showed your head 
 
 80 
 
on the street at (blank) yesterday after- 
 noon we would have filled your dammed 
 carcas full of lead — you are the s — of a 
 
 b- we were after." Now do you know 
 
 that letter came mighty near causing me 
 to go back and get into that fight for fair? 
 Well, it did. But not for the reason some 
 of my readers may think. I will tell you; 
 it showed me that the fellows who made 
 that sortie, and would perhaps stoop to 
 lower deeds, were just silly boobs and could 
 be easily outwitted. I was not a bit scared 
 — but I had received an answer to a letter 
 I had written to the bank in Kansas City, 
 at least to the bank through one of its good 
 customers who was a friend of mine, and 
 this letter, signed by the president of the 
 Kansas City bank, said that the townsite 
 company of (blank) was in very deep 
 water and it was not safe to extend them 
 any credit. 
 
 If that was the case thus early in the 
 game what chance was there for them^ to 
 "entertain" the enumerator when appoint- 
 ed, how were they going to pay the other 
 expenses — I had made a study of the mat- 
 ter and had come to the conclusion that I 
 could not make a successful campaign, one 
 bound to win, for less than $30,000— how 
 could I win for a concern that had no 
 credit and maybe no money worth men- 
 tioning? 
 
 81 
 
Aside from that part of the question I 
 had concluded that from almost every 
 standpoint the rival town had the best of 
 the fight. So I came to the conclusion that 
 I would keep out of all such matters until 
 som^ething to my liking turned up. Any- 
 how I was doing pretty well as it was. My 
 business was fairly prosperous and my ex- 
 penses were mighty light. Taking it all 
 around I was having a pretty good time 
 and was saving up a little money — which 
 only about half a dozen men in the county 
 could say at that time. But I had no con- 
 fidence in that entire section for the fu- 
 ture — at least I did not see how any man 
 could make a living there in any other busi- 
 ness aside from raising livestock, and in 
 that business it would be absurd to think 
 of making any money on less than a sec- 
 tion, 640 acres. As there v/ere less than 
 600 sections in the county, and one quarter 
 in practically every section was a timber 
 claim, I could not figure out a future popu- 
 lation of more than a thousand people in 
 the county. I knew no town could prosper 
 on as small a population ; and here, all told, 
 were five or six little towns, each selling 
 goods and cutting into the trade. 
 
 As for Grant ever being a farming 
 section — or any other portion of the ex- 
 treme south-western part of Kansas — I had 
 no hope. The rainfall was too little and 
 
 82 
 
there was no water for irrigation purposes. 
 Another drawback was the depth one had 
 to go to get well water. I spent $450 on a 
 well and then got but an insufficient flow 
 — I could pump it dry in fifteen minutes. 
 My neighbors came for two or three miles 
 from all around me and hauled it away a 
 barrel at a time, as I would allov/ no one to 
 take more than that at one time. There 
 was a constant line awaiting their turn 
 from daylight in the morning until after 
 dark at night, often making it difficult for 
 me to get what I needed for the use of the 
 house and for watering a few cow^s and 
 horses. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 About this time there began some op- 
 erations in the various counties all over 
 western Kansas that brought about an era 
 of unexpected prosperity — rather of seem- 
 ing prosperity. That was the advent of 
 the loan companies. Up to that time none 
 of the large mortgage companies of New 
 York or Boston, nor any of the foreign 
 companies, would loan a dollar on an 
 ordinarily improved quarter section of 
 "farm'^ land in that whole area of about 
 one-eighth of the state. But now a New 
 York Company cam.e in and began to loan 
 $500 on any ordinary claim that a man or 
 family was making a home on, and advanc- 
 
 83 
 
ing the money, about $225, to prove up on. 
 So the settler would file his application to 
 make final proof and within about six 
 weeks he and his three witnesses would go 
 to the land office and before the register or 
 receiver show his good faith and continued 
 residence on the tract, and detail the im- 
 provements. 
 
 Usually a group of five or six would go 
 on the same day and act as witnesses for 
 each other, which lowered the expenses 
 very materially. As soon as the papers 
 were filled out and sworn to and the $200 
 paid over to the government the receiver 
 issued his receipt. Then the claimant went 
 before a notary public and signed the 
 mortgage which had been prepared, the re- 
 ceipt and mortgage were placed on file and 
 the agent of the mortgage company handed 
 over the balance due, close to $300. 
 
 Very soon, however, other companies 
 came into the field and before long they be- 
 gan to bid against each other, running the 
 regular price up to about $750 a quarter 
 section, in many cases to five dollars an 
 acre, $800 per quarter, and in cases where 
 the improvements were extra good, mostly 
 in the way of permanent fencing, and *^a 
 well with water in it" was shown to be on 
 the claim, as much as a thousand could be 
 raised — in some isolated cases $1200 was 
 paid by the mortgage company. 
 
 84 
 
Not one of these mortgage companies 
 ever received any interest on these loans, 
 let alone principal. Well, that is going 
 pretty strong for now and then a man had 
 the good sense to go into the stock business 
 and maybe had a little money to buy up a 
 few of the equities at from ten to $50 each, 
 thus getting maybe range enough for a 
 hundred cattle. Such men came through 
 all right. But these were as one in 50. 
 So in place of saying no interest or princi- 
 pal was ever paid I will say that less than 
 two per cent was paid. However, it did 
 not make much difference to the mortgage 
 companies for every last one of them went 
 broke before the game ended. In fact the 
 collapsing of these mortgage companies — 
 four or five of them had their headquarters 
 on Wall Street, in New York — had a good 
 deal to do with bringing about the panic 
 which followed a few years later. 
 
 I knew as well as I ever knew anything 
 that no section of country could long pros- 
 per in any such way. Money became very 
 plentiful for when these men, many of 
 whom had scarcely had a square meal for 
 a year, got this "easy money" in their 
 pockets they did not know how to make 
 sensible use of it. Some of them packed up 
 at once and left. But not many — they were 
 interested in the county seat fights and had 
 more than likely a few lots in the coming 
 
 85 
 
metropolis— more likely they had, as I had, 
 the promise of these lots. ^ Anyhow they 
 wanted to see the fight out, then sell their 
 lots and light out for ''God's country," 
 which might be any old place outside of 
 Kansas. 
 
 With nearly a quarter of million dol- 
 lars pouring into Grant in less than a j^ear, 
 and the same amount or more in the ad- 
 jacent and adjoining counties, things were 
 running at a high pressure. Having seen 
 booms of various kinds before I was not 
 fooled much by the excitement and laid my 
 plans to get from under before the bubble 
 burst. I knew that lots that would sell for 
 maybe $200 at the time would not sell for 
 four bits after the county seat was located, 
 knew that the time to sell was before, not 
 after, the election. I had seen about the 
 same excitement in railroad booms, where 
 a new railroad was building towards a 
 town — the time to sell town lots was before 
 the first train got within a couple of miles 
 of the place. 
 
 So I first mortgaged my claim for every 
 dollar I could get for it, about $800, then 
 sold my equity for $25 more. Then I went 
 to the manager of the Ulysses town com- 
 pany and demanded my deeds. Of course 
 I did not get them. It was pretty well un- 
 derstood that no deeds would be given until 
 the county seat election was over with. It 
 
 86 
 
then looked like a cinch that Ulysses would 
 win — but I wanted the deeds so I could sell 
 while there were buyers. But I could not 
 get them peaceably — and I was not going 
 to fight for them. 
 
 One day as I was sitting in my gallery 
 reading a newspaper a fellow came in who 
 introduced himself as one of the owners of 
 a townsite and prospective county seat to 
 the west of us. He said that the company 
 had held a meeting the evening before and 
 had sent him over to make me a proposi- 
 tion to move over into their county and 
 take charge of their affairs as manager of 
 the company and as a sort of commander- 
 in-chief of the county seat campaign. 
 
 He unfolded the plans of the company, 
 told me all about their holdings and the 
 titles to their property and finally made me 
 a proposition like this ; I was to remove my 
 gallery and other moveable lares and 
 penates to their town. When once there I 
 was to take up my duties as manager of the 
 campaign. That I was to be paid a salary 
 in cash of $50 a month during the carn- 
 paign and if the election went in their 
 favor I was to receive title to a 40 acre tract 
 of land adjoining the townsite and $2000 
 in cash. 
 
 It will be noted that the future pay- 
 ments looked good — but how about that 
 $50 a month? The offer plainly showed 
 
 87 
 
that the company was up against it for 
 ready money and was depending upon sales 
 to be made after the election — and I knew 
 mighty well there would be no such sales. 
 However, I told the emissary that if he 
 would put up $50 I would go and look the 
 place over and make up my mind within a 
 week and that the $50 would pay for my 
 services for that length of time. 
 
 Well, I went over and first began to 
 get what facts I could about the financial 
 standing of the company. I could get but 
 little satisfaction from any of its members 
 — there were six owners, three of w^hom 
 lived there. I finally ran across a fellow 
 who had been a clerk in the local bank and 
 he told me that they were practically 
 '^busted'* and were trying in every way to 
 borrow a thousand dollars to tide them 
 over the election. I knev/ mighty well they 
 couldn^t afford to pay me anything like 
 what Fd want, so I told them it was no go, 
 I would not accept the position. We were 
 in the company office at the time, the three 
 owners and myself. As we were arguing, 
 after my refusal, I noticed out of the tail 
 of my eye, one of them turn the key in the 
 door lock and then put the key in his 
 pocket. There was an old Winchester rifle 
 hanging on the wall and this fellow sat 
 down on a chair within easy reach of it. 
 Another was within close touch with a 
 
 88 
 
heavy metal seal that stood on a table some- 
 what behind me — and I was arguing w^ith 
 the other fellow. 
 
 Finally this fellow said, "Well, there's 
 no use arguing. You don't want the job 
 and we don't want you ; just cough up that 
 fifty dollars and then get to hell out of 
 here." As he gave this defi I could see the 
 others nail their weapons and the spokes- 
 man reached inside his shirt for his navy. 
 But they never made connection. Before 
 they knew I was "on" I had all three of 
 them standing in a corner, one of them 
 with a lump on his cranium about the size 
 of a goose eggy caused by a slight jolt from 
 my navy. I then took the Winchester and 
 smashed the lock and bent the barrel, took 
 the navy out ofthe other fellow's shirt and 
 broke the hammer off — and threw the seal 
 into the fire ; then I walked out, telling them 
 I was going over to the hotel for dinner and 
 would be there a couple of hours, that if 
 they wanted me they could find me await- 
 ing them there. But I never saw one of 
 them afterwards. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A few days after this a man came 
 down from Cincinnati and said the people 
 up there wished to see me. So I made ar- 
 rangements to go up the following day. 
 Meantime I again went to the Ulysses 
 
 89 
 
townsite office and made a final demand 
 for my deeds. I was pretty anxious for I 
 had an offer for one of the business lots. 
 But I was only wasting time, no deeds 
 would be given to any one. 
 
 When I went to Cincinnati the follow- 
 ing day I did so more out of curiosity than 
 anything else. In riding over I had made 
 up my mind that I would pack up and get 
 out of the country within the next week and 
 let the lots slide. I had done pretty well 
 anyhow and had a nice balance in a Kansas 
 City bank and a few hundred dollars in the 
 Ulysses bank. And as the weather was 
 fine the old wanderlust fever had struck 
 me and we had discussed the matter at 
 home and had decided that we would fix up 
 our road outfit in first-class shape and 
 strike out towards the north-west. 
 
 When I got to Cincinnati I was sur- 
 rounded by the best citizens of the place 
 and we had quite a jollification for a time. 
 Then I was taken into the backroom of a 
 real estate office for a secret meeting with 
 the five leaders of the county seat fight. 
 Now, as said before, I had no faith in the 
 ability of these Cincinnati fellows. They 
 had botched up everything from the day 
 they located their little shanty within less 
 than 30 feet of the section they wanted it 
 on and expected it was on. Thus they had 
 lost the pivotal location — the geographical 
 
 90 
 
center of the county. Next, they had 
 bungled in getting title to section sixteen 
 and had allowed the Ulysses townsite com- 
 pany to get the best quarter of the section 
 — all of this pertaining to Surprise. 
 
 Finally they had made the egregious 
 blunder of pocketing the relinquishments 
 of the claims upon which they had removed 
 from Surprise. That was the greatest 
 blunder of all and showed a lack of brains 
 that was past my understanding in peo- 
 ple who had the reputation of being good 
 business men. But these people were 
 pretty well fixed and were hanging on, I 
 think, more for the fun of beating Ulysses 
 than with the expectation of making a 
 dollar. Indeed, the only profit for any per- 
 son in the Cincinnati townsite would be the 
 profit on two lots, one for business and one 
 for a residence site — and these he would 
 have to occupy. 
 
 These fellows were game, however, and 
 they put up a fine fight. The business they 
 had with me convinced me that they were 
 dead in earnest, that they were going to 
 carry the fight through to the end — and 
 they had a few thousand dollars in sight — 
 with as much more as they chose to use 
 within easy reach. They were fools as to 
 the land laws but otherwise shrewd busi- 
 ness men, men I liked to talk to. I had 
 known none of them more than casually 
 
 91 
 
heretofore but I was greatly impressed 
 with them in every way. 
 
 I am not going to give the details of the 
 deal I made with them; but I went home 
 with so much money that my wife thought 
 I had robbed a bank. I soon parted with it 
 by sending it off to swell my Kansas City 
 account. I did not dare ship it from 
 Ulysses, so I sent my wife up to Garden 
 City where such a shipment would not be 
 noticed. 
 
 The following day I went to the Ulys- 
 ses townsite manager and told him I was 
 going to move my gallery and other goods 
 and chattels over to Cincinnati the second 
 morning following, as I had made a deal to 
 stand with them through the county seat 
 fight. He told me I had another think 
 coming as I would not be allowed to haul 
 the building from a lot to which they held 
 title. I retorted that I might not be allow- 
 ed to do it but I was going to do it just the 
 same. In conclusion I said, "I am going to 
 pack my stuff in that building, put skids 
 under it and get it all ready tomorrow ; the 
 next morning at 8 o'clock I am going to 
 hitch my team to it, "all alone by myself," 
 and haul it over to my future home in Cin- 
 cinnati." 
 
 To this he made no retort. I made no 
 threats as to what I would or would not do 
 if interfered with. But I knew mighty 
 
 92 
 
well there would be no trouble. So the 
 next day we abandoned the claim which 
 we had sold and brought our stuff in and 
 put it in the gallery building and my wife, 
 my children and myself spent the next 
 night there. 
 
 On the following morning I was up 
 early and noticed a good deal of a stir in 
 town, but I paid no attention to anybody, 
 just kept busy with my moving arrange- 
 ments. I noticed by looking up the road 
 that quite a large party of Cincinnati peo- 
 ple were lined up just outside the Ulysses 
 town limits; but I had told them that un- 
 der no circumstances must one of them 
 come into the town to assist me in any way. 
 
 As the hour of 8 approached the Ulys- 
 ses people began to gather around my place, 
 but I paid no attention to them. Some of 
 the boys were on horseback and occasion- 
 ally a party of six to a dozen would go 
 whooping and racing up or down the street, 
 shouting and shooting off their guns. 
 Sometimes such a party would start at top 
 speed towards Cincinnati; but they would 
 stop short inside the Ulysses limits. 
 
 At 8 o'clock to the minute I said "gid- 
 dap" to my team and my building slid si- 
 lently off of its old location and into the 
 street. My wife and children were inside 
 looking out the windows, 1 was astride the 
 nigh wheelhorse, as I had six horses in my 
 
 93 
 
team. As we moved on the people began 
 to circle around in front of us, hooting and 
 yelling and firing their guns and the horse- 
 men went rushing up the road as if they in- 
 tended to charge the Cincinnati contingent. 
 But they stopped short before getting very 
 close; while the Cincinnati fellows quietly 
 stood their ground. 
 
 Quietly, slowly, without a spoken v/ord 
 from any member of my family or myself, 
 we moved on and on until we finally came 
 to the town limits. As the nose of the lead 
 horse got to the line the Cincinnati party, 
 now swelled to about 150 mounted men, 
 began to move towards me; but I halted 
 them quickly and ordered them to stand 
 still until my "wagon" was for sure on 
 alien land — and not another movement was 
 made until I was about half way through 
 the line of horsemen. There I halted and 
 yanking out my navy I fired a salute, the 
 forerunner of such a fusilade from the 
 firearms of my friends as I had never heard 
 before in my life. 
 
 Almost instantly a dozen American 
 flags were raised, the one I had flying from 
 the peak of the gallery was seized by a 
 man (how he ever got up there I never 
 could tell) and he sat down astride the roof 
 as a color bearer — a drum gave the signal, 
 the band struck up "Lo, the conquering 
 hero comes,'' my wife, the children and I 
 
 94 
 
were picked up and placed upon a sort of 
 platform borne by four horses — and soon 
 we made our triumphal entry into the 
 ''city" of Cincinnati, where we were feast- 
 ed and feted as if we were of royal blood. 
 
 Then came speechmaking, during 
 which my building was safely placed upon 
 a foundation on one of the best lots in town 
 and soon my wife was busy taking pictures 
 of some of the scenes. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Nothing breeds trouble oftener than 
 idleness and this was proven all through- 
 out Western Kansas at the time I am writ- 
 ing of. There was very little work to do 
 on the claims, "farms'' many called them. 
 Nothing that was planted grew. The only 
 work usually of the claim holders was the 
 chores where stock was kept but this stock 
 usually consisted of a pair of pelter ponies, 
 called by courtesy horses. The only occu- 
 pation pursued steadily was gambling, 
 which was carried on in several places in 
 every town day and night. 
 
 The people from the country therefore 
 spent the most of their time in town, whei'e 
 they were joined by the gamblers and other 
 hangers-on who usually followed the gam- 
 blers and sporting women. So every town 
 looked busy and prosperous when a stran- 
 ger drove into the place. The streets were 
 
 95 
 
well lined with people, the merchants seem- 
 ed to be busy, the cry of the game keepers 
 could be heard from the gambling houses 
 by day and night, and from early evening 
 until daylight the call of the dancing leader 
 and the music from the cracked piano or 
 the notes from the two-dollar "fiddle" made 
 night hideous — and the call after each "set'^ 
 on the dancing floor — "Gents will escort 
 their ^pardners' to the bar," — could be 
 heard above the din every few minutes. 
 
 But at times these sports became too 
 tame and a lot of the boys, and perhaps 
 some of the other sex, by courtesy called 
 "girls," would mount their own or hired or 
 borrowed ponies and seek excitement in 
 neighboring towns where they would ride 
 swiftly through the streets, yelling like 
 Comanches and shooting off their guns, 
 making all the noise they could. This was 
 called "shooting up the town," and was 
 considered great fun and a great act of 
 bravado or courage. 
 
 On one occasion shortly after my re- 
 moval to Cincinnati a bunch of the boys at 
 the old town of Surprise concluded they 
 would "shoot up" our town. So they went 
 to a hardware store and bought all the 
 cartridges in stock. They were none too 
 sober and were getting a little more mud- 
 dled all the time from frequent quaffs from 
 their bottles. There were about 30 in the 
 
 96 
 
party and they started hell bent for Cin- 
 cinnati. I heard from a distance what was 
 going on and decided to stop it if I could. 
 So I gathered up my camera, mounted a 
 swift horse and met the crowd about half 
 a mile above town. I halted them and told 
 them I wanted them to stop just a moment 
 while I took a picture of the party. After 
 a little parleying I got them to line up and 
 I took as much time as I dared in posing 
 them. It took some time and the devil- 
 ment spirit was fast dying out. 
 
 After taking the negative I invited 
 them to go with me down to the gallery and 
 wait while I developed the negatives, prom- 
 ising each one a picture. They followed 
 me quietly down to the gallery, patiently 
 waited for me until I had the prints ready. 
 I passed along the line and gave each of 
 them a copy, thanked them for what they 
 had done — and they departed peacefully. 
 I thus undoubtedly saved a lot of trouble, 
 perhaps saved more than one from getting 
 hurt — but I had taken a long chance. The 
 wonder is that they ever stopped to parley 
 with me, that they did not anyhow shoot 
 my horse when I halted them. Our news- 
 paper gave me a long notice and called it 
 an act of bravery. It was not bravery — 
 just good, sound judgment. 
 
 The time now was sort of between hay 
 and grass, so far as county organization 
 
 97 
 
was concerned.. We were awaiting the 
 governor's action in appointing an enumer- 
 ator. A petition had been sent to him 
 signed by a large number of people asking 
 this and we knew action would soon be 
 taken. At this time there were three 
 towns contesting for the county seat, Ulys- 
 ses, Cincinnati and Shockeyville. The 
 latter town was off to the west and had no 
 chance, so we did not take them seriously. 
 However there was a chance that the vote 
 might be split up quite evenly between the 
 two principal towns and thus let Shockey- 
 ville slip in by getting a large majority of 
 the country votes. 
 
 To circumvent this the two townsite 
 companies were giving away lots right and 
 left. Our trouble in Cincinnati was a lack 
 of title. The Ulysses people had a good 
 title all right but they were giving prom- 
 ises and not deeds. Nearly every voter in 
 the county had thus become the owner of 
 from one to a half dozen town lots — in 
 promises. If we could have realized some 
 cash from these promises it would have 
 suited the most of us pretty well. So far 
 as I was personally concerned I did not care 
 a whoop. I was pretty well hooked up 
 financially, had a good balance in a bank in 
 Kansas City and another in Garden City, 
 and was taking in enough to live on and 
 more right along. But you can bet nobody 
 
 98 
 
but my family knew I had any money any- 
 where to my credit. 
 
 Quite soon after I arrived in Cincin- 
 nati one of the members of the city council 
 resigned at the request of a number of the 
 leading citizens and I was elected in his 
 place. Then the mayor wanted to resign 
 so that I might become mayor. I would 
 not consent to this. I was willing to act 
 as leader but did not wish to be the legal 
 head of the city affairs. But almost from 
 the first I had to shoulder about all of the 
 responsibility. 
 
 For a time things became very quiet, 
 so I thought I would go over into one of the 
 counties to the north and see how they 
 were getting along, thinking perhaps I 
 might pick up a piece of money — anyway I 
 knew by taking my camera along I could 
 more than pay expenses, while my wife 
 could run the gallery at home. I arrived 
 at the town just a few days before the elec- 
 tion for county seat and county officials 
 was to come off, as the enumeration had 
 been made and the preliminary officials ap- 
 pointed. I went to the town that had been 
 designated as the temporary county seat. 
 
 The morning following my arrival as 
 I sat at the breakfast table in the hotel I 
 heard a distant roar of firearms and knew 
 in a moment that a crowd from the rival 
 town was swooping down on us. Every- 
 
 99 
 
body in our dining room had been disarmed 
 as we entered, that being a rule of the 
 house as expressed on a showcard — "All 
 guests must check their firearms as they 
 enter the dining room/' But it did not 
 take us long to get our "guns" and make 
 for the street — as quick as we were we 
 were too late to see just what had happen- 
 ed or how it had happened, but there rush- 
 ing like mad up and down the street were 
 seven riderless horses and scattered along 
 the street were seven dead bodies. 
 
 As I did not have any interest in the 
 matter and did not wish to be detained as a 
 witness and sent to the county seat of the 
 nearest organized county, where the trials 
 would be held, I quietly mounted my horse 
 and rode for home. I had not made any 
 money but I had learned another lesson in 
 the history of county seat fights. 
 
 A day or two after my return I was 
 sitting in a law office looking over some 
 papers and occasionally looking out on the 
 street. Just opposite was a saloon and I 
 could see the proprietor and his bartender 
 were taking the shells from their guns. 
 Pretty soon they strapped their guns on 
 and started out. I went down to see what 
 their little game was. They went into a 
 rival thirst emporium and throwing their 
 guns down on the barkeep they ordered 
 him to set out the bottle. They drank 
 
 100 
 
what they wanted and threw the bottle on 
 the floor. Then the operation was repeated 
 and another bottle smashed — and a third 
 and fourth and several more. 
 
 After they had taken all they wanted 
 they showed the barkeep that their guns 
 were minus cartridges. ''Well/' said the 
 barkeep, "when those guns looked me in 
 the face I did not take the trouble to see if 
 they were loaded, I didn't inspect them for 
 bullets; I just came across as ordered." 
 The tw^o then returned to their own saloon. 
 There was a "tender-foot" sitting on a keg 
 in the back of the barroom. He had on a 
 broad-brimmed hat, trying to put on a cow- 
 boy appearance, but he lacked the ear 
 marks. The bartender went over to him 
 and took his hat and put it on his own 
 head, he then walked back to the rear 
 and sat down and ordered the proprietor 
 to shoot a few holes in it. The proprietor 
 leveled his gun and pulled the trigger but 
 the shot was too low and went crashing 
 through the bartender's skull, killing him, 
 or rather he died the following morning, 
 having never regained consciousness. I 
 went to the shooter and got his guns and 
 took him in charge until the arrival of the 
 sheriff, just as the man was breathing his 
 last the following morning, and turned him 
 over to the sheriff. The man died, the 
 shooter had a preliminary examination and 
 
 101 
 
was fined five dollars — and the incident 
 was closed! 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Killings, in "fun" and by accident, oc- 
 curred so often that the governor was pe- 
 titioned to send a company of militia out 
 from Topeka to disarm us and close the 
 saloons. They came and we surrendered 
 our arms, each giving up any old gun he 
 could find but hiding the good ones. I 
 gave up one worth about fifteen cents, the 
 others did about the same. Finally we 
 were all disarmed and the "soldiers" de- 
 parted for their homes feeling good over a 
 duty well performed, not saying a word 
 about the open saloons or the gambling 
 houses. Then we got out our real firearms 
 and buckled them on and the militia inci- 
 dent was closed. 
 
 About this time a young lawyer from 
 "back east" came to our town, following the 
 advice of Horace Greeley to "go west." 
 He stopped at the hotel, and the first night 
 he found the vermin called bedbugs pretty 
 fierce. So he came to me with his com- 
 plaint and I told him he could fix up a bunk 
 on the floor of my gallery. He did so. 
 Just across the street was a large saloon 
 and about midnight the lawyer was awak- 
 ened by a fire of artillery in the saloon 
 and soon the door burst open and the gang 
 
 102 
 
rushed out onto the street, shooting and 
 yelling and making all the noise they could. 
 Then they crossed the street and went 
 shooting and yelling around the gallery. 
 Some of them fired in under the floor 
 where the lawyer was asleep. That was 
 too much for him so he got up and dressed 
 himself and as soon as the gang left he 
 sneaked out into the night and disappeared 
 forever from "our midst." 
 
 I was kept tolerable busy all this time 
 with my photographic work and what pro- 
 fessional business there was in the way of 
 relieving the sufferers from corns and 
 bunions — scooping in a few dollars here 
 and there, about the only one in town 
 making and saving any "dough.'' One day 
 I had a call to go out to a big ranch and 
 take some pictures of buildings and stock. 
 At the ranch they had a case of Dr. Bar- 
 ter's Bitters, which, next to Hostetter's 
 Bitters and Jamaica ginger, was the fav- 
 orite drink of the "prohibitionists." They 
 were all pretty full when I arrived. I got 
 there too late to do anything the first day. 
 The next morning a fellow arrived who was 
 looking for a claim. He had a boy with 
 him, both were pretty green. We worked 
 at the pictures during the day and when 
 night came the tenderfoot, the boy and my- 
 self turned in on the floor, using blankets 
 for our bedding. There was a tame coyote 
 
 103 
 
staked outside. About midnight the cry 
 went up from a lot of the cowboys that the 
 coyote had got loose and was in the house 
 and somebody would be killed. Then the 
 guns began to bark, the boys began to yell 
 and in the darkness the tenderfoot and his 
 boy slipped out and left for parts unknown. 
 Like the lawyer, they found western life 
 too strenuous. 
 
 Just to the east of us a fight was going 
 on that was pretty strenuous, there being 
 two pretty good towns and each backed by 
 men of some means. I was sent for to go 
 over and help them out and as election day 
 came I was selected to take charge of one 
 of the polling places. Another man from 
 our town was there and he was given a 
 little money and was stationed near the 
 voting place to purchase votes, with a 
 friend to see if the voters stayed bought, 
 and voted right. I did not get onto the 
 whole game until several men were march- 
 ed up with a gun close behind them; then 
 I quit the job, went and collected my fees 
 for a day's work and looked on at the 
 alleged election for the balance of the day. 
 For I never allowed myself to do any such 
 crooked work. Of course I took big 
 chances in being "a quitter," but the sooner 
 one quits when he finds the game crooked 
 the better it is for him. 
 
 On our way home one of our boys got 
 
 104 
 
pretty hilarious over a few bottles of bit- 
 ters and went into a chicken coop by the 
 roadside and stole a rooster. This bird de- 
 veloped a peculiarity. The new "owner'' 
 would place him on his, the "owner's" head, 
 and by shaking him up a little he would 
 crow. When a crowd was met coming 
 from the rival town we were asked which 
 town won. The rooster, we told them, 
 could answer. So he was placed on his 
 possessor's head and the name of the other 
 town given, the question asked being "Did 
 (blank) win the county seat?" The roos- 
 ter was not shaken so did not crow. Then 
 he was asked if the other town won and 
 being shaken up a trifle he answered with 
 a good loud crow. 
 
 When we got back home the next night 
 there was a big crowd awaiting us for the 
 news. We were escorted to the big hotel 
 and I was made custodian of the rooster 
 and placing me on a billiard table, with the 
 wonderful rooster on my head. Then the 
 questions were asked — and at the psycho- 
 logical shake of my head the old bird let 
 out a lusty crow — which called for another 
 round of drinks. And pretty soon the 
 room was a bedlam with myself about the 
 only sober man there. 
 
 And right here let me say that I never 
 have been a prohibitionist nor yet a drink- 
 ing man. I have from the time I was a 
 
 105 
 
young man taken a drink whenever I felt 
 like it and could get it, but never in my life 
 have I taken enough to become fuddled in 
 mind or nerve or muscle. Booze is a bad 
 thing, the booze habit a mighty bad habit. 
 If I had to live my life over again I would 
 cut it out entirely and I would advise all 
 young men to do the same — and old ones 
 too who cannot do as I can, drink or leave it 
 alone. I mean drink in moderation. Many 
 a time I have gone for a year or two with- 
 out tasting liquor, yet passing saloons 
 every day. Then sometimes maybe a 
 drink once a month. But never, never to 
 excess. Soon the liquor question will be 
 settled and settled right, not alone in this 
 country but the world over. Old John 
 Barleycorn has had his day and the time is 
 close at hand when the whole world will be 
 "dry.'' And nobody will rejoice over the 
 fact more than I. 
 
 But to get back to the ''gang" and the 
 rooster. When I found the boys were get- 
 ting too hilarious I made an effort to get 
 away. That did not please the boys a little 
 bit. Finally some of them resorted to 
 threats. I never was much of a hand to 
 take threats. So I just threw the rooster 
 aside and pulling my gun I yelled to the 
 crowd, "Deveney is going home, is going 
 home right now; stand aside and make 
 room for him to pass out." And I went 
 
 106 
 
quietly and peaceably. No resistance 
 whatever was manifested — and I know 
 every mother's son of them respected me 
 for my actions. 
 
 Not a quarter of an hour after my de- 
 parture by some mischance one of my best 
 friends was shot through the calf of the 
 leg, a mere flesh wound. He came over to 
 my place and I took him home and dress- 
 ed the wound the best I could, there being 
 no surgeon at hand. One did come, how- 
 ever, later that night and dressed the 
 wound again. The next morning I was 
 summoned away and left early, with my 
 friend apparently all right — in three days 
 I came back to find him dying. I sat at his 
 bedside and he told me he had a good 
 mother living back in Missouri and he 
 wanted her notified and his property pro- 
 tected until she could arrive. So he ^dic- 
 tated a dispatch and almost with the last 
 words of his life he sent a message to the 
 mother who had not heard from her wan- 
 dering boy for a dozen years. He was not 
 a bad fellow. Indeed he was one of our 
 best and straightest and most prosperous 
 citizens. But with the wild surroundings 
 he had neglected his mother, thinking, 
 always thinking, that he would wait until 
 he had a fortune and he could go home and 
 be a pride to that dear old mother. 
 
 Boys, don't act like that. Why that 
 
 107 
 
dear old mother would have welcomed, 
 doubly welcomed, that son had he returned 
 in rags. I met her when she came to our 
 little town a week after her son's death to 
 take the body home and see that someone 
 was selected to take charge of the prop- 
 erty. I tried to comfort her, tried to as- 
 sure her that Sam had been a good boy, a 
 fine citizen — tried to make her feel proud 
 of her son. So did many others of the 
 townsmen. But her grief was something 
 terrible. She was a fine woman, pure, 
 sweet, lovely and lovable.. As she left on 
 the stage, riding in the same conveyance 
 as casket containing the body of her be- 
 loved son, I sat beside her for a few mo- 
 ments and tried to again give her words of 
 comfort. Soon our tears mingled and she 
 sobbed out simply the words, "My son, my 
 son." Those words are ringing in my ears 
 to this day. 
 
 Shortly after this trouble arose be- 
 tween two of the leading citizens of Cin- 
 cinnati, one our postmaster the other the 
 would-be boss of the tov/n, who was the 
 leading merchant of the place. The trouble 
 arose over one of them taking a little too 
 great an interest in the domestic affairs of 
 the other. So the merchant strapped on 
 his guns and started out after the post- 
 master. I met him and he told me he was 
 going gunning for the p. m. So I told the 
 
 108 
 
latter that he had better look out He re- 
 plied that he would be ready in a moment. 
 Pretty quick he stepped out just as the 
 merchant came up and they drew their 
 guns and there seemed to be but one re- 
 port as both were fired. The postmaster 
 dropped but the merchant was not hurt. 
 We carried the p. m. in and found he had 
 been creased just at the top of his fore- 
 head and was senseless. We washed him 
 and sewed up the wound before he regain- 
 ed consciousness. As soon as he was con- 
 valescent he wound up his affairs, resigned 
 from his office and left. The life was too 
 strenuous for him. 
 
 From the day of my arrival in Cin- 
 cinnati I had been engaged, clandestinely, 
 in trying to have the people get title to the 
 land. I finally succeeded in having the 
 contestants withdraw and dismiss their 
 suits and we made a filing on the land un- 
 der the government townsite laws. This 
 was a great coup for Cincinnati, and I had 
 accomplished it without spending any 
 money or antagonizing anybody. Of 
 course it cut out the speculators, left no 
 profit only to the holders of lots. But it 
 gave the town a standing in the final coun- 
 ty seat contest, placed us on a solid basis 
 and there was a small chance that we might 
 win out on the final election. 
 
 The matter of titles soon cropped out 
 
 109 
 
for every lot holder wanted a patent to his 
 particular holding. These matters came 
 before the city council and were adjusted 
 satisfactorily except in three cases. In the 
 meantime our terms expired, the election 
 came on and I refused to run for any office. 
 But when the election came off my name 
 was written on enough ballots to elect me 
 by the highest vote cast. So I accepted 
 and took my seat with the rest of them. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 There came before us at once one of 
 these vexed questions, and one of the con- 
 testants was a particular personal friend 
 of mine. I could see that a job had been 
 put up on him and that the other contest- 
 ant, a doctor, would get the lots, although 
 his claim was absolutely unjust. I told my 
 friend there was a plot against him but he 
 could not believe it. Everybody in town 
 knew where I stood on the question, knew 
 that I was bound to see fair play. But 
 about that time I was taken slightly sick 
 and sent for the doctor — and he doctored 
 me good and plenty. I never knew what 
 he gave me but pretty soon I was helpless. 
 While I was ill our little girl was taken 
 sick — soon the doctor had her in the same 
 helpless condition as I was "enjoying." 
 The fellow was simply poisoning both of 
 us. One day he came and I openly accus- 
 
 110 
 
ed him of "doping" me and he could scarce- 
 ly deny it. He flippantly said, "You must 
 think I am Jesus Christ to cure you so 
 quickly." The tone in which he said it 
 angered me and I tried to get my wife to 
 fetch my gun, for I had just about 
 strength enough left in my arms to use a 
 gun. But he got away and I stopped tak- 
 ing his medicine, as did also my daughter, 
 and in a couple of weeks I was well and 
 attending to business. 
 
 I had intimated to some that there was 
 a settlement due between the doctor and 
 myself and that I would bring it off just as 
 soon as I had regained my strength. Hear- 
 ing of this the doctor withdrew rather 
 suddenly — so suddenly that he left some of 
 his personal property behind which he 
 never came back to claim. 
 
 While things were running along 
 rather smoothly in Cincinnati and many of 
 our citizens were felicitating themselves 
 that now, since the settling of the titles to 
 our loss, we were sure to have our town 
 selected as the permanent county seat. 
 The election was coming on apace. The 
 temporary appointees were candidates for 
 re-election and Cincinnati had candidates 
 for nearly all the offices. I was importun- 
 ed to allow the use of my name for county 
 sheriff, about the best office in the county 
 —even some of the leading men of Ulysses 
 
 113 
 
said they would support me and get me a 
 good vote i^ their town if I would run. 
 But I refused. I did not want any little 
 county office in a county where the fees 
 would not keep my family in flour, or my- 
 self in cigars. So I stubbornly refused. 
 
 As to hopes of Cincinnati becoming the 
 county seat— I knew there was no chance 
 of that coming to pass, not a ghost of a 
 chance. It is funny how people will allow 
 themselves to think the impossible will hap- 
 pen. Anybody with a grain of sense in the 
 county could plainly see that we would be 
 beaten two to one. When things were in 
 that condition, about a couple of months 
 before the election was to be held, a com- 
 mittee awaited on me one day and told me 
 there was to be a meeting held about three 
 o'clock the following morning in a back 
 room of one of the citizens who approach- 
 ed me. He gave me the names of those 
 who would be present and they were all 
 friends of mine, so I had no fear of a trap. 
 
 I was there at the appointed time and 
 soon found that there were three stran- 
 gers also present, one of whom I recogniz- 
 ed as a thug from Dodge City. These 
 three "gentlemen'^ had not shown up in 
 town the day before so it was evident they 
 had slipped in during the early morning 
 hours. Sure enough, it soon developed 
 that they got there about two o'clock, while 
 
 114 
 
our meeting was fixed for an hour later. 
 
 The windows to the room were cover- 
 ed over with blankets, no light was visible 
 from the outside and we were cautioned 
 to talk in low tones. Then the one acting 
 as chairman spoke up and said a plan had 
 developed among some of them to capture 
 the county seat for sure and that these 
 three men had been selected to carry out 
 the details; that if they did so they were 
 to receive $1000, which fund each one pres- 
 ent was supposed to contribute to the 
 amount of $100. I was asked to put my 
 name down with the others, but I told 
 them I would not until I knew what the 
 plan was. After endeavoring to get me 
 to sign blindly and failing they hinted that 
 three of the leaders of the other side were 
 to be inveigled to attend a meeting in the 
 back room of the Ulysses bank a night or 
 two later and that while there the three 
 thugs present were to pounce in upon them 
 and knock them senseless, then gag them, 
 then rob the bank and flee, with their pris- 
 oners, down into the Neutral Strip, now 
 Oklahoma.. 
 
 I at once and mighty firmly declined 
 to have anything to do with any such a 
 game. I was mad clear through. I told 
 them it was the craziest scheme I had ever 
 heard of, that there wasn't a chance in a 
 thousand for it to succeed — if it did it 
 
 115 
 
would cut no part in the result of the elec- 
 tion, that we were bound to lose anyhow. 
 
 Then I attempted to leave but one of 
 the thugs beat me to the door and drawing 
 a knife said he would carve the heart out 
 of me or any other traitor who took my 
 part. I had two guns with me, two 45s and 
 both fully loaded ; but they were of no use. 
 I knew mighty well that I must win by 
 bluff and nerve if I expected to get out of 
 there alive. 
 
 So I said, in a calm, firm voice, some- 
 thing like this; "You fellows must think I 
 am a dammed fool to run into a trap set 
 for me like this — but I am in no trap, you 
 are the guys that are trapped, you Cin- 
 cinnatians and these thugs from Dodge, 
 these man killers who never killed any- 
 body but cripples, children and women — 
 and shot or stabbed them in the back. 
 Why, I knew when you bums left Dodge, 
 I can tell the hour you left the railroad to 
 come down here, I know where your rig is 
 hitched this minute. And — and you want 
 to listen to this, listen to it closely ; I stand 
 here with my back to the wall, as you see. 
 I am facing every one of you. I have my 
 hand on my gun, but I am not going to use 
 it. But at the sound of the first discharge 
 of a gun in this room a dozen friends, arm- 
 ed to the teeth, will rush to that door and 
 batter it down — and may God have mercy 
 
 116 
 
on your souls for not one of you will get 
 away for the boys are armed with shot 
 guns loaded with buckshot; shall I give the 
 signal?" 
 
 There was no answer for a moment. 
 Then I turned loose and called them all of 
 the curs and cowards I could think of. I 
 finally said, "I will make just one con- 
 cession to you scalawags, and I do that to 
 save a semblance of a name for the town. 
 You ship these bums back to Dodge, ship 
 them at once, right now. Then we citizens 
 of Cincinnati will go to our homes, I will 
 call off my waiting army and tell them it 
 was a false alarm — and then not a word 
 must be said about this meeting to a living 
 soul in the town — not a word; is it a bar- 
 gain?" 
 
 And it was. I was allowed to go and 
 within a half hour I saw, as I watched 
 through a window, the Dodge thugs sneak- 
 ing out of town. And then I began to get 
 scared. A cold sweat broke out all over 
 me, my legs refused to hold me up and I 
 settled down all in a heap, to remain un- 
 conscious until long after daylight. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 I can tell you that incident set me to 
 thinking whether the game I was playing 
 was worth the candle that I might gain. 
 I knew that the days of prosperity were 
 
 117 
 
about over for Grant County until the old 
 settlers had left and new ones would come 
 in. And that would take years and years. 
 (It took nearly 30). The mortgage com- 
 panies were no longer loaning money, 
 practically everybody was broke. I believe 
 I was better fixed than any man in the 
 county except about half a dozen cattle 
 owners. 
 
 What sort of a life were we living? 
 Just a dog's life. The town was filled with 
 thugs and gamblers, the saloons were run- 
 ning night and day, shooting scrapes were 
 of daily or nightly occurrence, painted 
 women ogled children and decent women 
 on the streets and made their brags that 
 this and that woman's husband thought 
 more of them than of his wife. 
 
 What was the use of living in such so- 
 ciety under such conditions? Then again 
 I would say to myself, "Deveney, you must 
 remain until law and order is established, 
 you must remain until this county seat 
 question is settled — then you can go. 
 After talking it over with my wife I de- 
 cided that it would be best to remain until 
 after the electijion. But about then the 
 poison that doctor had got into my system 
 began to work on my nerves and I got 
 weak and almost a wreck. But I hung on, 
 getting thinner, weaker and weaker. 
 
 Then the election came oflf and we were 
 
 118 
 
beaten four to one, four to one. No soon- 
 er had the polls closed than I went to a few 
 of my best friends and said to them. 
 "Now look here — we are beaten, we are 
 beaten, we are down and out for good and 
 for fair. Ulysses has won, has won honest. 
 Let us bury the hatchet and go over and 
 tell them of it, go over in a body with white 
 flags, flags of surrender, flying and tell 
 them from this day on we are with them 
 for the upbuilding of the county. 
 
 And we did. We moreover told them 
 that the best thing that could happen 
 would be for the newly elected officers to 
 rigidly enforce the law against selling 
 liquor, against gambling, against all forms 
 of vice. And within a month the rowdies, 
 both male and female, had all departed, and 
 feeling that my work was done I collapsed, 
 went all to pieces. 
 
 Then we got out the old wagon, hitch- 
 ed four good horses to it and I was placed 
 upon a bed inside. For two months, while 
 we were traveling from 20 to 25 miles a 
 day, I lay there, just a living skeleton, some 
 of the time unconscious, some of the time 
 raving. 
 
 We wended our way back to our old 
 neighborhood near Hastings, Nebraska. 
 As soon as I got quieted down and got a 
 good physician I began to mend and within 
 
 119 
 
three or four months I had my health fully 
 restored. 
 
 Then we again hitched up, loaded the 
 family and a little personal property in the 
 wagon and set out for the Pacific Coast 
 In the spring of 1893 we arrived in Port- 
 land, Oregon, and that will be my home as 
 long as I live — but when the old wanderlust 
 fever comes on I will have to do as I am 
 doing now — take a little journey of a few 
 thousand miles. 
 
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 120 
 
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