The Topeka state journal., 1916-09-21
SILENT MASKED MOB HANGS
MURDERER OF AGED COUPLE
TO POLE IN 0LATHE TODAY
FIRST LYNCHING
IN TEN YEARS IN
STATE OF KANSAS

The lynching of Bert Dudley at
Olathe, Kan, early today is the first
that has occurred in. Kansas in ten
years. Only once in the past decade
has it been necessary to call out the
National Guard to protect a prisoner.
According to state records that the
last previous lynching occurred in
Jackson county in 1902. when man
mob at Holton. Sanderson killed
girl when he shot at his sweetheart
who had refused to marry him. The
sweetheart was uninjured. He escaped
arrest bEt was later captured on the
Pottawatomie Indian reservation,
brought back to Holton that night
and hanged from a bridge south of
the town.
Fred Alexander. a negro, suspected
of the murder of Miss Pearl Forbes,
worth by a mob in 1901. He had been
identified as the man who had at
tempted to attack many Leavenworth
young women. He was dragged
| from the county jail late in the after
noon and the father of the murdered
girl chained the negro to the stake
and lighted the fire with his own
hands. Eight thousand persons wit
messed the burning.
The records show that other
lynchings occurred at Fort Scott and
Sharon Springs as well as the activi-
ties of the vigilance committees
when the state was young.
Nat Oliphant, alleged murderer of
A T. Rodgers. at Topeka was lynched
on the night of June 5, 1889. How
many more have been lynched, than
the records show, cannot be estimated,
! but early accounts of the activities of
the "vigilantes' in the state indicate
that there probably have been more.
The lynching at Topeka stirred the
entire state. More than $1,000 persons,
of xxifnaGSn6
work of the Topeka mob, which was
carried out on Kansas avenue in the
glare of a street light.
Just the day before the Iynching in
Topeka, June 4, 1889, Pat Cleary was
hanged to a bridge at Lincoln, Kan,
by mob, according to newspaper ac-
counts in the library. Cleary was con-
victed of the murder of Jesse Turner
on January 8, 1888. He tried to escape
from Jail and was shot before being
| hanged. ...-..
other accounts at the State Histor-
ical society show that in 1888 three
men were hanged from the same tree
| at the outskirts of Medicine Lodge.
| These men robbed the Medicine Lodge
! bank. Henry Brown. who the ac-
! counts say was the leader, was shot
while trying to escape, and his pals,
named Smith, Wheeler and Wesley,
| were hanged from the same tree at
! the same time.
In 1871 a triple lynching was held
| near Wellington, where Charley
Smith, Bill Brooks and Charles Has
! brook, supposed to have been horse
thieves, were hung by a mob, accounts
show. Smith was positively indenti-
fled as Sewen Ford, said to be the son
of Ex-Governor Ford, Of Illinois, at
that time, according to accounts. The
newspaper story also says that Sewe1l
Ford's brother also was hanged later
Probably the most intense scene
that ever surrounded lynchings in the
state was at Atchison in 1863, library
data show. For an entire week a mot
of farmers took charge of the Jail and
tried five men for a series of crimes
and murders. AS each man was tried
by the mob court and convicted, he
was taken out and hanged. Four o1
the five were killed in this manner
the reports show.
The earliest lynching on record a
|, the historical library was at Holton
Kan, in 1865, where Carl Eden wa.
hanged from the limb of tree. EdeT
was a Confederate, and he kiIleC
Charles Russell, Union man, follow.
l ing an alteration, the accounts show