The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-07-29
OUTLAW STORIES
ARE PLAIN BUNK
Former Marshal Tells of
Past of Hunnewell, Old .
Cow Town.

~
-
South Haven, Kan.-Persons in
southern Kansas have the. notion Hun
newell, a little town four miles south
OF here, just a half-mile from the
Oklahoma line, was a bad place In
the early days. But 'Miny" Edwards |
says that's mosly bunk.
"Miny," whose initials are 7. NJ. and
whose nickname is pronounced with
a long Il" was there when Hunnewell
arrived on a Santa Fe freight train
n sunny June day back in 1880. |
and he has been there ever since.
Moreover, he was marshal of the
town in the days when it was re-
puted to be a trife rough. So when
"Miny" Edwards says the lurid sto-
ries folks tell about Hunnewell are
mostly bunk, n must lend a believ-
ing ear.
Romance Blasted High.
The debunking Of Hunnewell's his
tory occurred the other afternoon on
the shady side of the street here.
"Miny" sat on a bench on the curb.
gazing out at the prairies that he has
e change from the open cattle
range of 80 years ago to yellow wheat
fields. A newspaper man, "Miny's"
audience, sat on the fender Of a truck
and listened sadly while the romance
of the cow country was blasted kite
high.
you ear hear some Of these
younger fellows tell about the way
the cowpunchers used to kill each
other off down at Hunnewer," the
early day marshal expostulated. "But
there's nothing to It."
"Oh, sure, the boys used to shoot
up the town every little while, but
they didn't mean anything by it."
You know, / sort of kept track Of the
folks shot to death in Hunnewell, and
as near as 1 can count, there were
only Is. Others got injured, but only
Ii were actually killed"
After this declaration about the
peace and quiet in Hunnewell back in
the unrOmantic SOS, the old marshal
and cattle man lasped into silence.
His audience ventured to tell a story
he had heard about a shooting scrape
In the big old hotel that still stands
by the Santa Fe tracks in Hnnnewell,
a w~eatherbeaten old ghost of the
boom days. But "Miny" said briefly
the yarn couldn't be true, and again
lapsed into sp-eechlessness. Obviously
if there were only Is persons slain in
early-day Hunnewell, you couldn't
have a dozen or so getting killed in
n evenings jOllifcatiOn.
Presently the early-day marshal be-
came more %lOquaciOus. He told about
a great open cattle range that
stretched mile after dreary mile down
through the Indian country, the land
that is now Oklahoma, on through
the ranges Of Texas to Old Mexico
and the gulf. Edwards used to ride
those ranges and he knows the rigOrs
Of the old cattle trail from Texas to
the rail points in Kansas.
Saloons Were Plentiful.
In the spring of 1880 the Santa Fe
railroad pushed its line down as far
as Hunnewell. Freight trains puffed
in, bringing the town. Overnight a
city Of tents sprang up and every
other tent was a saloon or a gam
bling joint. Within a few days the
freight cars began to unload timber,
and frame buildings arose. Within
two weeks a town Of 500 population
with several rather substantial frame
buildings had risen where before there
was nothing but the bare sweep Of
the buffalo grass.
Up the long, dusty trail from the
Indian country and Texas came the
believing herds of longhorns to bt
loaded onto the cars at Hunnewell
And with them came the singing
shOOtin', happy-gO-lucky punchers.
Edwards ran the stock yards a
Hunnewell a time, back in the day
when there were Is loading chutes
when the old hotel was full of punch
ers day and night
Then in 1883 he became the marshal
But he didn't have a particularly ba,
time, he says. 'Miny" would havl
the world know that the law was en-
forced then just as well as--perhap
better than now.
"What did you do when a bunch o
punchers started shooting up tn
town.
ARRESTED them, Of course" "Miny
Edwards is a small man, but he has
way about him even now, nearly
half century after those stirring day
'The thing that made Hunnewe
BOOM" said Edwards, was the shiI
ping Of cattle. And when the whes
came and the cattle went, Hunnewell
best days were over" 'Miny" II
sisted upon discussing prOsaic thing
"Were there many outlaws at this
time down in the country that is no
Oklahoma?" The newspaper man We
thinking Of the many h~air-raisin
yarns that he had understood centere
about Hunnewell.