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


Chicago, John r. Mulyane and Joab
Mulvar1e of Topeka.
Daniel P. Berry and his two sons,
Alpheus w. Berry and Burchard B.
Berry, were killed in an encounter with
the three men named above. In the
same fight Roy Berry, a nephew of
Daniel P. Berry, was badly wounded
while B. D. Berry, a third son of d.
P. Berry, was shot in the hip but not
seriously injured. The fight occurred
on Wednesday afternoon, June 3, on
the Berry ranch. The three Deweys
tensible purpose of taking away a
metal watering tank, for stock, which
Chauncey Dewey had purchased through
a representative at sherif's sale on the
day previous. For two years previous
all the parties had been going armed
and there was. known hostility between
the Dewey and the Berry ranchmen.
Two sides of the story have been told
at considerable length apart from each
other Not until the murder case is
concluded in Norton county or some
other court will the actual facts be de-
Quoted from the examination of OppoS-
ing witnesses. In the seven months
that have elapsed since the murder the
sharp edge of the antagonism felt tow
ard the Dewey ranchmen by their
neighbors in Rawlins and Cheyenne
counties has not dulled much.
The feud was too deep seated to ever
be wholly eradicated without the re-
nOval of all of one faction or of the
other from the cattle land in conquest.
c. P. Dewey of Chicago has invested
thousands of dollars in cattle land in
the extreme northwest corner of the
state He is said to be ambitious to
own ranch fifty miles in length, reach
ing from Rawlins county to the Colo
RADIO line. In his course of acquisition
Chauncey Dewey. who represents his
father in the ranching business almost
vii. .cix 1oc 10
Among them have been small land hold
ers, larger ranchmen and cattle kings
like Frank Rockefeller. Not more re-
Gently than a year ago Rockefeller pre-
sented Governor W. J. Bailey with
number of depositions made by his en-
ployes and others to the effect that the
Dewey riders, under the personal di-
rection of Chauncey Dewey, were re-
peatedly cutting fences belonging to
other ranchers and otherwise annoying
the owners of property adjoining the
Dewey ranch with the purpose of COM
pelling them to vacate it. AS the mat
ter was one in which there was no scope
for executive action, Governor Bailey
advised Rockefeller to take his troubles
into court, but so far nothing has come
of them in the shape of litigation.
EVidencing the hostile feeling toward
the Deweys was the action of the small
land owners of the vicinity of st. Fran
els during the time that the Deweys
were incarcerated awaiting preliminary
examination last June These people
overran the Dewey ranch, cutting
fences, injuring buildings and wells and
harassing the cattle. During the time
the three men were in jail at st. Fran
els the place was filed with ranchmen
and there was imminent danger of mob
violence. The prisoners were finally put
under guard of armed state militia.
Not for months after they were released
on bond did the men venture back to
their ranch.
The active enmity of the small land
owners is due to the fact that many OF
them have been elected by legal pro-
ceedings from land which was bought
up under mortgage sale by the Deweys.
Living south of the Dewey ranch,
some fifteen miles from st. Francis was
the Berry family. For two years there
have been threats of harm on either
side. The immediate cause Of trouble
has been the encroachment of cattle
belonging to either ranch upon the
lands of the other. There have been
charges of wire cutting and the shoot
ing of cattle on both sides. The real
cause of the hostility has supposedly
been the knowledge of the Berrys that
the Dewey Tanchmen wanted their land
and the feeling on the part of both that
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