The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-03-28
SIX DIED IN ONE DAY.
AND ALL OF THEM FACED DEATH IN
| THEIR BOOTS.

the biggest Day In the Old Tim,
History OF Medicine Lodge-The Sc
quel to . Bank Robbery.
"Did ever tell you about the time W.
had the big funeral In the Lodgc-sil
men dead, and all died with their boot.
ONT? The speaker was an old cattlemar
who knew the range from the days wher
Abilene was the cattle market of the
great west down to the present time.
"When l first went west, in $780," he
said. 81 had no experience with the
range, and there were many new things
| for me to learn. bought a bunch of cat.
tie on the Panhandle and trailed them
through to Barber county. l and my
cowboys squatted on some vacant quar-
tiers 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 20 in Kansas. Away back in ear
ly 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-
MES across the ranges to get the water.
Later the government made some treaties
at the Lodge that made it headquarters,
and trading post sprang up. BY the
time l located In the brakes to the west
the Lodge was right smart Of a place.
1t had faro bank and dance hall and
plenty of saloons and bank Of deposit
for the cattlemen. The town Is just east
Of 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 off,
and 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 dongs 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
liked by that time.
"Wiley Payne was president of the
bank, and young fellow named Gebhart
was cashier. Gebhart had been down
east and had just got back that morning.
He and Payne came down early and
opened the bank little earlier than
usual. l was on the way to the bank
myself and was about a block away
when ! saw four men ride up and tic
their horses. Three went into the bank.
There was an old woman crossing the
street, and all of sudden she yelled.
Bank robbers! 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 q gun, and we all carried 'em, got
ready to shoot. There was lot of cow
boys at the hotel and in the joints. They
had rode their 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. don't know whether
they'd have caught 'em very soon il the
robbers hadn't made blunder.
Harry Brown, the city marshal Of
Caldwell, and Ben Wheeler, his deputy,
were the head robbers. Ben was big
fellow, more than six feet high, and
weighed 225. He was too neavy 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 'cm. It was 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 tight place, want to
tell you, and 1t did not take EN- long to
agree to surrender and 60 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 it if some
thing did happen to 'em after they got
back to Jail?
"Course something did happen. They
knew and we knew that 1t 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
EN-. 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
md the state had expenses enough of its
own. So. for the good Of the community,
It was thought best to make a short. sure
job Of 'em and relieve ourselves from fur
Their 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 EN- In the morn
Ing, but when we went up there that
night they had got the irons off. How
they done II never did know, and they
1idn't have time to explain. When the
loor was opened, they broke for to get
away. Brown got such stsrt that it
vas necessary to perforate him then and
here. He died without q kick. He was
/ pretty game fellow and was town mar
'hal Of Caldwell at that time as l have
llready remarked. His deputy. Ben
Wheeler, the big fellow, had tU be wing
ID. They shot him so he couldn't run
and held him for the final ceremonies.
The other two robbers. Billy Smith and
John Wesley, wa, cowboys: but. being
,oor runners md having been previously
'elieved Of their Winchesters and side
rms. they were easy to handle. Besides,
he boys knew EN- and did not want to
|isfgure EN-. They rounded up the pris-
'ners and took 'em to lone tree handy
o town and near the river.
"Then the three was strung up on the