The Portland daily press., 1900-03-02

que1 10 a Bank Robbery.
"Did ever tell you about the time we
had the big funeral in the Lodge-six
men dead, and all died with their boots
on?" The speaker was an old cattleman
| who knew the range from the days when
| Abilene was the cattle market OF the
great west down to the present time.
"When / first went west, in 1880" he
said, II had no experience with the
range, and there were many new things
for me TO learn. / bought bunch Of cat
tie on the Panhandle and trailed them
through to Barber county. | and my
cowboys squattcd on some vacant quar-
| ters of land In the brakes west of the
Medicine river. We were In the rough
country several miles west OF Medicine
| Lodge.
"Medicine Lodge Is an old town as
towns go in Kansas. Away back in ear
Iy days the Indians gave the stream that
runs through the town the name of Medi-
/ cine river. 1t has peculiar properties and
| really served them as medicine. The
| Lodge got its name because 1t was a
camping place for sick Indians, and they
would come two days ride on their po-
nies across the ranges to get the water.
Later the government made some treaties
at the Lodge that made 1t headquarters,
and trading post sprang up. By the
time located in the brakes to the west
the Lodge was right smart Of place.
| II had a faro bank and a dance hall and
plenty Of saloons and n bank of deposit
| for the cattlemen. The town is just east
of a country Of peculiar formation. The
! prairie Is cut up with great canyons.
some Of them 100 feet deep. Part OF
them are great sinks, with sloping banks.
but most of them have banks with very
steep sides. They just break square of,
and a bunch of cattle that gets stamped
ed will tumble into these canyons and
break their necks.
But I'm on the wrong trail. You
wanted to know about that promiscuous
funeral affair. 1t was the first day OF
May, 1884, and we had had big doings in
town the day before. told you we had
bank there then. The saloons had de-
generated into joints under prohibition,
and the town was getting mighty civil
lized by that time.
wiley Payne was president OF the
bank, and young fellow named Gebhart
I was cashier. Gebhart had been down
east and had just got back that morning.
| He and Payne came down early and
usual was on the way to the bank
myself and was about a block away
( when | saw four men ride up and tie
/ their horses. Three went into the bank.
/ There was an old woman crossing the
street, and all OF sudden she yelled,
| Bank robbersr at the top of her voice
| and began TO run. With that the shoot
! ing began in the bank. Both the presi-
/ dent and cashier were shot to death by
| the robbers. Every man in town who
| had gun, and we all carried 'em, got
ready TO shoot. There was a lot OF cow
boys at the hotel and in the joints. They
had rode theU horses into town and left
'em in the livery stable with saddles on.
| When the shooting began to get hot. the
robbers ran for their horses. climbed on
/ and started up Medicine creek. The
cowboys were right behind 'em, riding
and shooting. They couldn't get in range.
so it would be convenient to drop,
so they quit shooting and made the bron-
chos climb. They never once lost sight
of them robbers. I don't know whether
4 they'd have caught 'em very soon IL the
robbers hadn't made n blunder.
| Harry Brown, the city marshal OF
Caldwell, and Ben Wheeler. his deputy,
were the head robbers. Ben was a big
/ fsllow, more than six feet high, and
weighed 225. He was too heavy for his
horse, and the horse was losing his wind.
( so what does they do but turns up into
one of the deep canyons, thinking they
could hide somewhere. | reckon. Any
how, they started up the canyon, with
the cowboys after 'em. II was a deep
one, without any outlet at the upper end.
First thing they knew we had 'em PEN
ned in by the steep banks of the canyon
on three sides and the cowboys on the
other. 1t was a tight place, | want to
| tell you, and it did not take 'em long TO
agree TO surrender and so back to jail.
! guess we did promise 'em protection;
leastwise we said il they would go back
with us we wouldn't hang 'em on the
way to jail But we declined to be re-
sponsible for accidents. That's natural
enough. How could We help 1t IL some
thing did happen to 'em after they got
back to jail?
Course something did happen. They
knew and we knew that it was going to-
| They had been caught in the act of kill
ing respectable citizens, and they had
nothing else to expect. We put 'em in
jail safe enough and put handouts on
'em. Along toward evening the boys be-
gan to ride in from all over the county.
They had heard about the killing. and
after mature deliberation 1t was decided
that the Jail was no safe place nohow
and the state had expenses enough of its
own. So, for the good of the community,
1t was thought best to make short, sure
| Job OF 'em and relieve ourselves from fur
ther anxiety.
| "Along in the evening some of the
boys went up to the Jail to see how the
prisoners was. AS told you, they was
all in irons when we left 'em in the morn
ing. but when we went up there that
night they had got the irons off. How
they done 1t never did know, and they
didn't have time to explain. When the
door was opened. they broke for to get
away. Brown got such a start that it
was necessary to perforate him then and
there. He died without kick. He was
pretty game fellow and was town mar
shal of Caldwell at that time, as ! have
already remarked. His deputy, Ben
| Wheeler, the big fellow, had to be wing