The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-06-15
=. c. Fraker Captured.
Wichita Eagle.

The curtain rolls up in another act
of exciting scenes in the life OF one
who a few short months ago stood Sec
ond to none in our city. United States
Deputy Marshal Charles B. Jones re-
turned home on Sunday and rom him
we gather several matters OF interest
touching the flight and life and subse-
quent arrest of James G.. Fraker, the
laIe President of the First National
Bank of Wichita.
In December last after it became ev-
ident that he would have to undergo
the ordeal of a criminal prosecution,
s. G. FTaker was missing. Outside of
ordinary comment his departure crea-
ted but little feeling. Early in Janua-
~ Charley Jones undertook the diff
cult task of finding the fugitive, and
within very few days got on bis track
which he successfully followed to Las
Animas, Pueblo and Fort Garland in
Colorado, and from there to Taos and
Santa Fe, New Mexico, at which latter
point he lost all trace of him until the
development of q scheme which Mr..
Jones will not yet make public, he dis
covered about the first of April that
Fraker was in that portion of Texas
lying between the Rio PecOs and Rio
Grande rivers, embracing a couHtry
south of New Mexico, some two hum
dred miles square, of rugged Apache
mountains and desert chaparral and
cactus, and virtually uninhabited. 1t
all goes under the head of FL Paso
county with the little town of Ysleta,
on the Rio Grande as county seat, full
seven hundred miles from Austin, the
nearest railroad point. There are not
over twenty-five white men in the
whole district, and they have Mexican
wives. AS soon as Charley learned of
his probable whereabouts he wrote to
the sheriff sending him a photograph
OF Fraker, and giving him a descrip-
ton of his personal appearance, and
instucting him if successful to tele-
graph the single word "come." Fra
ker had reached Ysleta two days be-
fore giving his name as James Franks,
and announced that he desired to pur-
chase a rancho. The telegram was
sent, but having seven hundred miles
of staging it was nine days reaching
Wichita. There being no United
States Commissioner nearer than six
or eight hundred miles, Sheriff Kerber,
as that is his name. deemed iG best not
to arrest him, knowing that he would in
all probability be released by habeas
corpus before Charley could get there.
|
quaintance, by driving him all about
the country to view desirable tracts of
land, all the time he having Fraker's
picture in his pocket.
In few days thereafter Fraker join
ed McBride's train for Fort Davis, 220
miles southeast. Three days thereaf-
ter, or on the 9th of April, Sheriff Ker-
Der received two more kilograms from
Charley Jones, one dated Wichita and
the other Denison, Texas, instructing
him 20 arrest and hold Fraker, as he
had all the necessary papers. With
two other men, Kerber started in pur-
suit, and after run of sixty miles they
came upon the train about daylight.
Fraker, taking in the situation, broke
for the chaparrel followed by his pur-
suers, who tracked him thirty-five
miles, overtaking him within five
miles of Fort Quitman, having in the
meantime sent word to Jones to look
out at Eagle Springs. Of the three Of
ficers in pursuit, two first came upon
him, one on either side. Fraker ran
about a hundred yards or two, when
he pulled his revolver and discharged
its whole contents at Benejo Alderata,
a Mexican deputy sheriff. Alderata
returned five shots for the six sent, but
both being poor marksmen neither
was hurt, when Fraker, discovering
the second man, made no further resis-
lance. Returning to Ysleta Charley
Jones met, took charge of and ironed
his prisoner.
Fraker seemed glad to see somebody
he had known and took Charley's hand
and eagerly shaking it, enquiring after
his wife and children with warmth
and earnestness. After being ironed
he would sit with his head supported
by bis hands, and his eyes fixed steadi-
ly on the ground.
Jones was gone five weeks from the
time he left Wichita until he got back.
1t took him sixteen days steady travel
ing to return. His prisoner gave him
no trouble and no incident worthy
of note happened in the homeward
journey. The tedious hours were
whiled away by Fraker's giving a
full account of his dreary winter,
which was at times enlivened by adj
ventures and escapes. He told Charley
that he had left Santa Fe only two
days before he Zones! arrived there
last winter, and that the way he left
no trace there was by stopping at a
small adobe shanty on the out skirts of
Chetown and leaving the second day
without venturing into the city. He
was very hard up, but at Las Crusus
he received 800 from his friends
in Michigan. Through Colorado and
from one end of Mexico to the other,
hundreds of miles through a dreary
waste, in mid winter, he had Travelled
alone and on foot. On reaching Old
Mexico he had $54 left, thirty of
which he invested in a revolver, the
other being taken from him by the
Mexican deputy sheriff who refused
to give it up.
His bail was fixed at $4,000 and I'M
less the bond is met he will remain
where he now is, in the LeavenwortlI
jail, until the October term OF the
United States court.
Too much credit cannot be given
Charles b. Jones as an officer who, in
wonderfully successful manner,
traced up the whole matter and Sc
cured the arrest of Fraker. Beyond
the confines of civilization, almost,
in an unknown quarter of the country,
hundred of miles away from railroads
and teIegh raphs, across a desert plain
where the traveller must carry his
drinking water, within three or four
hundreds miles of the Pacific coast,
Fraker had chosen one of the safest
hiding places on the continent, and
with no communication or letters eyer
going to him direct, we say therefore
that in the tracing up, apprehension
and successful returning of the prison
er, Jones has shown himself an officer
of no ordinary sagacity and courage.
Ninety-nine men in { hundred would
have absolutely failed in even discoV-
ering the route taken by Fraker.
Jones knew within forty-eight hours
of the time of his reaching a point
fifteen hundred miles distant, overland.
Cattle In Colorado.
The rapid growth of the live stock
business in Colorado may be under
stood from the following statement