Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-07-29
HOW Persisted THE
KANSAS Blenders
STORY is NOW TOLD BY A MEM
Der or THE VIelLANTs
COMMITTEE.
WHO TELLS THE TALE, THINK
ling THAT He is ON HIS
DEATH5ED.
KATE BENDER THE 6oLDEsT
AND cRUELEST or The
WHOLE GANG.

DoWner, who founded the settlement
IN 1888, has told the story OF the man,
aer in which the famous Bender lam
lily or murderers was put out of ex
lstence in Kansas. He fully believes
he is on his death bed and that it is
his duty to publish the truth 10 the
world. A compact entered into by the
E--4nbers of the vigilance committee
at the time had kept his lips sealed
all these years, but realization that
If he did not speak the truth might
never be known, induced him to tell
how he assisted in the determination
of the fiendish famil,
TO ms Site he has told the story
hundreds of times since their mar.
riage twenty-five years ago, and it
was understood that she. who knew
the story by heart, should give ii to
the world after his death.
But for many months he has been
lying on sick bed waiting for the
end and brooding over his wild west.
ern life in the COS and early 70s.
We GIT OF his secret has been an even
greater burden to him, and at last he
expressed the desire to have the
matter settled before his death
After this decision he became rap
idly weaker and when the time came
to take down the story it was pos
sibIe only for his wife to tell it in his
presence, in his words as she remem-
bered them, with occasional corree-
tons and additions BY the dying man.
His eldest son, Pierce Downer, sat
beside him assisting in the accurate
transcription OF the oft told tale. His
wife, his children, and a few old
friends had been taken into his con
hdencc under pleoges of secre ~, but
except 10 these the fate of the Bend.
ers was an appparntly unfathomable
mystery
Missing His Org is Supplied.
The story as he tells it, partly
through his wife and partly in faint
Sssps from the sickbed, is as follows:
after the war / stayed around
home for a time, but the desire for
adventure was so strong in me that
I soon broke away and wandered out
to that part of Kansas near the bor-
ders of the Cherokee nation, now, of
course, a part of Oklahoma. | settled
IN Independence, and took up land,
and lived by working for the ranch
men. There was not much law in the
land and claims We're kept, life pro-
tected, and cattled thieves punished
by vigilance committees
81 was young at the time, but was
an active member of these organiza-
tions of the law and order element
for some years prior to the time of
the Bender crimes. had had consid-
cradle success in ferreting out Grim
inals, and when people began to dis
appear mysteriously on the road from
Usage Mission to independence I felt
a great desire to get to the bottom
OF the matter. This desire was in
creased by the disappearance of one
OF the best known citizens of that
part Of the country, DR.. William H.
York of independence, a brother of
Senator a. NJ. York. The senator in
stituted a search, the governor offer
ed reward of $500 and l, with many
Others, set myself to find out the muir
derer.
Woman Gives FRS clew.
1t was at this time that a friend
OF mine, lawyer. called him into his
Office in Independence to listen to
the story of woman canvass2r. The
woman. who was tall and good look
ing, wanted 10 know how she could
recover possession of some goods
that she had left in the house of the
Blenders. She said she had reached
their house in the afternoon and had
tried to sell them some of her goods.
Kate Bender had bought, but had
urged her 50 cordially to stay with
them through the heat of the day that
she could not refuse She could not see
why they should be SO insistent on
her staying and felt uneasy all after
noon. At supper she caught meaning
smiles between Kate and her brother
John that terrified her, and 10 cap it
all after supper they insisted that she
stay all night. That people living in a
little one room shanty should ask a
chance passerby to stop overnight
struck her as unusual, but she did not
Aave the courage to deny them.
After she had consented Kate went
behind the light cloth partition that
divided the cabin into two rooms 20
wash the supper dishes, and John.
the brother came in with big knife
and began to sharpen it to a feather
edge
Finds Refuge in a Creek.
Reused by this sight to desperate
action, she made an excuse to leave
the house Il was now dark and she
instantly fed for the creek. which
flowed near by. She ran until she no
tced AZ the ouse,and then waded out
feed at the house, and then waded out
T. the creek up to her neck. She
stayed there for hours while the
Blenders searched for her. They at
last gave up the hunt and she emery.
ed from her watery hiding place wet
from head to foot and without hat or
shoes. both having been left at the
Beuders.' She ran all the way to
Cbsrryville, I'VE miles distant, ar
riy ~ In a sta-s of collapse.
The LAWYER only laughed at the
SOW seeing nothing IN Il but the