The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-05-23

. Nm. BENDER,
according TO the opinion of his
, neighbors, is upwards of sixty
years old. He is, when erect, rath.
er above the medium height, thin
yellow-faced, and nearly always
keeps his head hung down as
though he feared the moose of the
hangman. He is a German by
birth, and is thought by some to
speak French as well as German,
, but very little English. The old
est murderess is presumed TO he
about fifty-fiye.
KATE BENDER
is about twenty-three, and one of
the most internal hags of the whole
nest. Her conduct, as related by
some of her neighbors, is too OBJ
scene and terrible to mention.
JOHN BENDER,
as distinction. may be called
bible reader. At least the neigh
bors say he was in the habit of
sitting all day long apparently OBJ
sorbed in Gods Holy Word. 1t is
more likely he was on guard watch
ing the approach of victims or to
| give warning TO the other butchers
while they were engaged in their
horrible work.
| They came to Kansas about
Christmas, 1870, and moved into
the slaughter Pen" in February,
1871. They kept very small and
general assortment of groceries,
-four and liquors. The goods
were kept almost exclusively for
the purpose of decoying travellers.
Few of the neighbors were
ever allowed to enter the house.
One man said his wife went for
some milk one day and was met
by the old bag and required to
keep some distance from the house
while she went for the milk.
About forty feet from the house
is q
STABLE,
the north ana west walls Of which
are of stone about eight feet high.
Another old house stands on the
prairie, northwest of the dwelling
house. This contained about two
hundred bushels of corn, but ow-
ing to the vast multitude of peo-
pie stopping there to feed since
the discovery ofthe butehery, it has
all been used up. There are half a |
dozen other residences in sight of
the Bender house, some of them
in full view Six or eight bibles
were found in the room, besides
prayer books, etc. We give below
a translation of what was written
in German in one of these bibles,
with lead pencil:
John Bender, born July. 1913.
Nineteenth Of January is sldgh
day.
Fourteen of July fine day.
Twenty-second of January,IS73.
He'll went OFF.
Third of February, Ella went
away.
Sixth of October our Henry |
was born in Havre. He died 4th /
of December, 1860.
The soil in the orchard where |
the bodies were exhumed is the
richest we have ever seen in the
State, and well adapted for digging
hurried graves. The whole matter
shows the greatest possible delib /
Grafton and clooness in the plan
and execution of detail. The !
(Qpen, beautiful prairie, the poor,
| MISREPRESENTATION grocery" the
''honest old dutchman, the las
civious young daughter, the pious,
bible reading son, the abundance |
of corn, nearness to the road, the
overlooking neighbors, the decep- /
tiv counter, the curtain partition,
the trap door, the pit, the outside t
entrance, the orchard, all combin-
ed to facilitate the easy and sue /
cessfull workings of this mon
strous machinery of death.
In spite OF all the horror, Il
smoothly-dressed board was erect
ed while the bodies were still !
strewn around, containing the fol- !
lowing inscription in lead peneil:
THIS CLAIM TAKEN.
May 9th, 1873,
II. ELDER.
A. w. Cook,
T. w. Strung,
W. G. Barrett Witnesses.
j. b. Swardt,
\. b. Yeager,
B. w. Finley,
We presume Mr.. Elder is man
of nerve and knows what he is
about, but most persons would re-
gard the claim above mentioned |
as undesirable.
THOUSANDS
of people daily visit the ground. |
The roads are continually filed
with teams going and coming in
every direction. Last Sunday it
is estimated there were 5000 peo-
pie on the ground at one time!
This is no doubt highly exaggera-
ted. A. l. Sherwood thinks l, 500
were all that were there at any one
time.
THOMAS TYACK
lives in sight of the Blenders. one
and q half miles north and q little
east. Tyack is a native of Corn
wall, England, and came to the
United States from Wellington
county, Canada. He lived at diff
fcrent times at Romeo, Michigan,
Ottawa, Illinois, and at Blackhawk
county, Iowa. He a fine looking
and ard-working man. Never
theless, he was arrested and first
brought to Thayer and thence
taken to Parsons, thence to Oswe-
go, in Labette county. He was
very much frightened, and at first
denied that he had ever been in
the house of the Benders, but af-
forwards admitted that he had
been. His wife is, as she calls
herself,
''1IAGNErIc HEALER"
She acknowledged having attend
ed two 'tcircles" at the Bender
ranch last summer. There we're
present at these circles the two
Tyacks and the Bender family.
Mrs. Tyack said:
II went to 4 circle at Bender's
last summer. There were present
my husband, myself, John and
Katie and the two old Benders.
There was no timepiece there, but
1 think We were there about an
hour or an honr and . half Had ]
known there were trap doors in the
house, and such hellish doings GO
ing on, I would not hare gone there
We just sat around with our hands
on the table The old man Bender
had his hands on the table. My