The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-03-04
TRIAL SIZE 5 CENTS. ALL DRUGGISTS

Der but I recall that he was one of
several men that the special cores
pOndentS of that period out there, of
whom was one, had spotted for being
in that land business. Young Quantrill
always bore me a deadly grudge for
that and other matters of exposure.
The man who reaped the benefit of the
false swearing tried to cheat the boy
a yoke of oxen, but was captured and
taken back to PaOla, where he was
turned loose again, but without his pay.
He was not seen in Kansas again till
the summer of 1859.
I learned at Salt Lake City that he
Joined as teamster or rider the military
expedition under Albert Sidney John
ston, sent by President Buchanan to
bring the MormOns into submission. In
1859 there was q man known as Chas.
Hart employed as a clerk by the Mis-
SOur1an then serving as United States
agent to the Delawares. The agency
was at the Delaware Crossing on the
Kansas river. half way between its
mouth and the town of Lawrence. There
were a small number of restless spirits
at that place who were not content with
helping fugitive slaves out of Kansas
and off to the North Star" which then
meant western Iowa to the fugitives.
Sometimes they ventured over the line
into Missouri to facilitate the escape of
a slave. On the other hand there was
in Missouri an active gang of kidnapers
who were continually entering Kansas
and stealing colored men and women
who Venture0 to live in the Territory.
I was not regular in my residence at
Lawrence, as 1 was constantly on the
move in my newspaper work, but when
ever there I was made acquainted with
the dOingS of the underground railroad
men. On one of these occasions it was
decided to make an effort to find out the
Kansas members of the kidnapping
gang. We drove one out of Lawrence
and discovered another who lived near
Lecompton. We got hot on the trail
of a third, supposed to live at Delaware
Crossing, and Hart was the only one
there under suspicion. But he got away.
He had pretended to be a Boston print
er who went with me to Kansas from
Massachusetts early in 1856. AS that
Charles Hart was then living in New
York, and still is, I believe, 1 knew
the agents clerk was a fraud. The
matter was dropped, however, and it
was not until after John Brown was
hanged in Virginia and one of his par
ty, Barclay Coppoc, had gone to Kan
sas to live, that heard any more about
Hart. Coppoc and a cousin had gone to
Kansas from Iowa, and in the early
fall of 1860 were living at or near Law
renee. The COppocS were trapped into
entering Jackson county, Mo, for the
purpose of helping off a fugitive slave
who, it was said, was to be sold. His
wife was a fugitive, and was then
servant in Lawrence, and the boys feel
ings were worked upon have forgot
ten how Barclay COppoc escaped. to
be killed as soldier early IN the war
by Missouri guerillas on the Hannibal
& ST. Joseph railroad, but his cousin
and another young man were trapped
and shot to death at the farm to which
Charley Hart piloted them for the al
legged purpose of rescuing the slave. 1
arrived in Kansas from the east short
ly after the killing, and had the whole
story told me. From it 1 learned that
Hart was again employed at the Indian
agency, or made that place his head
quarters. He won the confidence of the
anti-slavery men and planned the am
buscade, himself shooting young Cop
poe. An ambrotype of Hart was obtain
ed somehow, and from it 1 recognized
the boy that ran the oxen off at Paola
and the quartermaster's teamster at
Salt Lake City, in other words, Charles
William Quantrin.
All the rest of the story about Lanes
Jayhawkers and QuantrilI's brothers
death is an unadulterated falsehood.
Lane never had any regiment. Hart was
never a lieutenant: his brother was not
shot. I never heard of his having one
in Kansas. Quantril1 had not the slight
est reason for hating the Free-State
people, and he was without a motive
other than the unadulterated spirit of a
desperate and assassin.
RICHARD J. HINTON,
Author of"John Brown and His Men"
Brooklyn, Feb. 81.