The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-02-02

CONTINUED from First Page.1
the country was not large enough for
them. This eliminated on June 8 of
last year Chauncey Dewey had pur-
chased a small watering tank which
had been seized by the sheriff to satisfy
a debt against the Berrys. 1t was
claimed subsequently by the Deweys
that they had received specific author
ization from Daniel P. Berry to come
and get the iron tank, and that the
Berrys planned the affair as an ambus-
cade.
Each of the men on the Dewey. side
was armed. Roy, Beach and Burchard
Berry are said to have been armed,
while their father and the two other
Berry boys had no weapons. The
stories of the shooting vary at the i'm
portant points. The Berry side is that
D. P. and Alpheus Berry were engaged
in helping load the tank into a. wagon,
no i'll will being manifested, when the
other three boys rode up. They claim
that Chauncey Dewey stepped into the
open and deliberately fired his revolver
at Roy Berry as he was tying his horse.
The firing at once became general and
the two unarmed men were killed. In
the local newspaper accounts OF the
shooting Chauncey Dewey is painted as
a blood thirsty marauder at the mead
of a band of paid cut threats. He IS
credited with a moral code that would
do credit to a pirate.
But the Chauncey Dewey who spent
three weeks in the Shawnee county
Jail pending the disposal of the aDpli-
cation for writ of habeaS cornuss
under which he secured bond for him
self and men, was an affable, courte-
Gus and very ikeable person. The ac-
counts given by his men in the depo-
sitions presented to the Supreme court
of Kansas during the proceedings here
tell different story from that given
by the ST Francis Eagle the local
V6o T0ar SGT thew
have been at all times peaceable and
neighborly, but that they have been
annoyed on frequent occasions by the
shooting of their cattle by adjoining
ranchmen. who cut their line fences
and damaged buildings and wells on
property which belonged to the Dewey
ranch. They say that prominent among
those who have committed depredations
have been members of the Berry fam
lily. The account of the trip after the
Berry water tank tallies with that of
the Berry boys uD to the time of the
arrival of the Dewey riders in the
Wilson and Mcbride join in the depo-
sition. in which it is stated that when
they approached the watering tank the
entire five of the Berrys were assem-
bled. fully armed and as if prepared Tor
trouble. at the house of Beach Berry.
a mile and a half distant from the
A]pheus Berry ranch house where the
fight occurred.
Berry place, and arrived soon after the
Deweys did, opening fire Immediately
upon their arrival. The Deweys claim
that they did not draw a pistol until
after the first shots had been fired on the
Berry side, and that it was only through
their good fortune that they all escaped
uninjured.
But for the excessive malice borne
through many months by one side toward
the other, it would be impossible to
count for such wholesale shooting over
an apparently trivial matter. When the
actual threshing out of the truth is I'M
dertaken each side will be well supplied
with legal counsel. County Attorney L.
D. Hotchkiss was at first assisted by
Attorney General Q. c. Coleman and will
be assisted in the trial of the case by ad-
ditional counsel. The Deweys have be
sides their regular legal representative,
John E. Hessin, of Manhattan, ]. G..
Waters of Topeka and A E. Harvey of
Lincoln. Neb.