The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-08-18
PRISONER SHOOTS
Mob Seeking to Lynch Prls-
oners Put to ROut.
HARDEN DEFENDS HIMSELF
Crowd Returns Home with One
Member Dead.
Harden DEFENDS HIMSELF

Fredonia, Kan, Aug. 1.-THE Fredonia
Citizen gives the following account of
an exciting scene which transpired with
in its borders last week:
A crowd of men. presumably from Ne
odesha and -Talleyrand-tps. in the neigh
borhood where the Hardens killed Chas.
Conner few weeks ago. came to Fredo-
MIA on horseback and in a couple of
wagons, with the intention of taking Jack
and w. h. Harden from the county Jail
and hanging them. AS near as can be
judged from the various estimates there
were 80 or so i the party. They went
straight TO the jail, surrounding it and
placing sentinels or guards to all the APP
proaches. The Jail consists OF three rooms
in a row, two Of which are cells, separated
by a grating or iron door. The other is a
guard room. and in the west end of this
room is the only door admitting one to
the building. The prisoners were in the
cell at the east end of the Jail, and the
iron bars between their cell and the mid
die room was up and locked. Two guards,
VIM. Mayes and Alex Forgey, were in the
other room at the time the men rode up.
The outer door, which is simply a rough
pine door with strap hinges, was locked
on the inside. The party who were after
the Hardens, finding the door locked, got
a piece of timber, and a number OF them
taking hold. surged against the door three
or four times, and battered it down, and
in they went. Just before they got the
door open, Mayes, seeing that he and
Forgey would be empowered handed his
revolver to one of the prisoners and told
him TO defend himself AS soon as an
entrance was effected. the guards were
told TO throw up their hands, which they
did. Mayes tried to tell them not to go
any further or they would be hurt, but
the warning was unheard or unheeded.
In they pressed. demanding the keys, but
Mayes had taken the precaution to throw
them out of the window.
Bring the crowbar!" some one cred,
and it was handed in, but before it could
be applied one of the Hardens fired the
revoier he had and a panic ensued. The
prisoners are armed, some one cried, and
they retreated from the jaail, carrying
out a wounded man. who groaned loudly
and terribly at every breath. AS the
guards had been searched and a revolver
found on Forgey but none on Mayes. the
mob knew that the latter must be the
one who had supplied Harden with the
weapon, and a number undertook to hang
him. In the mean time some had been
looking for the keys and made Mayes
help them He found them, but said
nothing. When they called for the rope,
he thought il time to leave. and jumping
up he ran south, going under one fence
and over another and running through
the picket line.
Shoot him. cried a number and sew
eral guns were pointed at him, but none
were fired. He made for Burgess yard,
where he hid in the grass and weeds till
the affair was over. In the meantime
things were not quiet at the Jail. Several
cried: Burn the jailr and efforts were
made to fire the building, but they did
not succeed. Some of the mob wanted TO
hang Mr. Forgey, and one held the rope
over his head while some one said hang
him and others said no" Just then the
command was given: ITO the wagon"
and the party started off to where the
wagon was, in which the wounded man
had been placed. They chen rode off in
groups of four to six.
When the mob first approached the Jail
one of the guards in the building fired
two shots to alarm the citizens and the
noise made in breaking down the Jail door
awakened many in the neighborhood.
Men came running from various parts of
the town to see what was the matter, but
no one got very close to the scene without
one very promptly obeyed the command.
A dozen or more citizens were around as
near as it was safe TO be within a few
minutes from the time the mob reached
the Jail. and some one went down the
street, crying fire" A few moments
later some men rang the church bell,
and scores of citizens came running with
the impression that there was a fire in
town. AS the party went out of town
scarcely a sound was heard except the
groans Of the man who had been shot.
The revolver which re prisoner Harden
had used was A central fire six-shooter,
carryin ga long 44-calibre cartridge The
ball was found n the door and il was the
belief that it passed through the mans
body. Sheriff Baughman started out with
several men to see II anything could be
learned OF the party or the man who was
shot. He found John Huffman. a bach
elor. about 20 or IL years old. lying at
death door. at the house OF John Conner.
in Taileyrand-tp., with a bullet hole
through his body. Huffman died at about
10 o clock Sunday morning. and was un-
doubtedly the man who was shot in the
jail. He was a well-to-do farmer and
generally respected.