Year: 1877

Some four years ago Il very Golgotha
was unearthed in Kansas prairie. In
that thinly inhabited region there are no
hotels, and the solitary horseman pulled
his rein as night came on and stopped ut
the first farmhouse he could reach. Many
persons were " lost on the trail from
Fort Scott to Independence, but emigrants
90 on toward the setting sun without being
expected to come back, and strangers who
disappear behind the last dip in the horizon
are no more thought of. People mourned
somewhere, but there was no trace of the
lost ones, and no organized search to find
the place of their disappearance. Finally.
one DR.. York, u well-known physician of
Independence, and brother of the State
Senator associated with the defeat of Sem
ntor Pomeroy. rode out alone from Fort
Scott toward his home, and was "lost
His brother, man of great energy, and
familiar with frontier life, organized II
party and started on the trail of the miss
ing man. Inquiries were made along the
route, and at Il lonely white house in a dip
of the prairie the inmates, German fam
lily named Bender, appeared somewhat dis
concerted, although they protested that
they had seen no such man. The party
went on, but the traces ended at the house
just before that Of the Benders, and they
returned there. But night had interven-
ed; the house was empty and the family
gone, the trail of their departure being
designated by peculiar mark on wheel
of the wagon in the soft earth Of the prai-
rie. The house was searched and stick
which was thrust into the soft earth of the
cellar revealed new y-made grave.
Bodies were dug out of the cellar; the gar
den was prodded and more were found
there, and the whole truth of the dreadful
place was revealed. The ready western
populace armed and mounted and started
in pursuit, to which the wagon trail gave
a perfect trail leading toward the Indian
Territory. They returned without the
murdererS, who consisted of an old man
and woman and II son and daughter, Just
of age Since that time the Benders have
been the ighaS fatuj of the western coun-
try, as Charlie Ross of the east. Parties
have been arrested in Texas, in the pine
woods of Oregon, in Mexico and Missouri,
and transported hither and thither to be
Identified" which always resulted in
showing that they were not the Benders.
This time, after journeyings which must
have discouraged the Wandering Jew,
they have been arrested in Arkansas, but
we are afraid they will prove rs illusory
as the others. A small party of rapid
horsemen outstripped the others in the
pursuit of the Benders after the murders
were discovered, and after crossing the
line into the Indian Territory returned
with the news that the trail was lost.


From the fact that it was almost impoS-
sible to lose such trail, and that the in
tensity of feeling among the party would
have led them to New Mexico before
abandoning the pursuit, and several other
things, there has grown up the belief in
the immediate vicinity Of the home of the
Benders, that they were "lost" in the
usual Western euphcmism for being
lynched, and that the buzzards had Il feast
ut about that time on the green prairie of
Verdigris. The fact that there were wo-
men in the family might have lead the
lynchers to the usual course Of silence
about their exploit At any rate such is
the suspicion in Southern Kansas. 1t is
not our belief that the Bender family will
ever be found alive --PrOujdence Journal.