Presenting the money with a flourish, the volunteer deacons bowed the parson out graciously with a request that he return sometime for another meeting.īernard Warkentin, a descendant of the group of German Mennonites who migrated to Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great, was one of the first of his faith to reach Kansas. As he intoned the final Amen, two cowboys swept off their Stetsons and, with six-shooters in hand, took a collection. "Go ahead, parson," the loungers assented, "a little of the Word of God won't hurt us none." Thus prompted, Haun held services behind an untapped keg of beer. Haun, a fearless Methodist missionary, stalked into the Gold Room Saloon and announced that he intended to conduct a religious meeting. The Tuttle Dance Hall Massacre aroused the "better element" to reform Newton. Tom Carson, the new marshal, organized a posse to search for the youth, but he was never seen again. Jim Wilkerson was fatally shot, two of the cowboys were dead, Garret, Kearnes, and Anderson were wounded. When he ceased firing, Anderson and five of his henchmen lay bleeding on the floor. Snatching a pair of pistols from his ragged clothing, he began pumping lead. McCluskie spun around and dropped, mortally wounded. McCluskie leaped to his feet and reached for his gun. The click of poker chips stilled and the roulette wheels slowed to a stop. The door burst open and Hugh Anderson, Garret, Kearnes, Wilkerson, and several cowpunchers strode into the room. Although warned that Anderson and his friends had chosen this night to avenge Bailey's death, McCluskie lingered at the gaming tables. On the night of August 19, 1871, McCluskie sauntered into the gaming room of the Tuttle Dance Hall, accompanied by Riley, a thin tubercular youth of eighteen, who worshiped the gunman and followed him around like a faithful dog. He was backed by Jim Wilkerson, a sure-shot Kentuckian, and two fellow Texans, Will Garret and Henry Kearnes. Hugh Anderson, a friend of Bailey's who had driven a herd of longhorns to Newton from his father's ranch in Texas, swore to kill McCluskie on sight. McCluskie shot and killed William Bailey, a Texas gambler. Most fearless of the gunmen in the booming settlement was Art Delaney, better known as Mike McCluskie, a railroad agent hired as marshal by local saloonkeepers and gambling house proprietors. Although this phase of Newton's growth only lasted until January 1873, when the railroad was extended to Wichita, fifty persons are estimated to have met sudden death in its saloons and dancehalls. Saloons, dancehalls, and gambling houses for pleasure starved cowboys sprouted from the plain. The cattle trade turned Newton into a "cowtown" overnight. In July 1871 the Santa Fe Railway extended its line to the settlement which thereby succeeded Abilene as the terminus of the Chisholm Trail. Within a few months Horner moved his 2O-by-60-feet dwelling from Brookville to Florence, to Newton, to Hutchinson, winning in turn the lots offered by each town's promoters for the first dwelling. Horner built it in order to win a town lot offered by the promoters of Brookville for the first house erected there. Horner in Brookville, Kan., in the early 1870's was the first dwelling in Newton. Of the 23 churches in the community, the largest congregations are the Methodists and the Mennonites.Ī house built by A. Some of them have renounced their traditional vocation of farming to enter business there is a Mennonite Mutual Fire Insurance Company and Bethel College is Mennonite. Labor Day is an important annual festival celebrated with parades, oratory, fireworks, and brass bands.įive per cent of the population is Mennonite. Railroad news often crowds politics and information of world import onto the second page of the local papers. Almost a thousand inhabitants are employed in the shops, offices, and rail mill of the Santa Fe. Local economy is governed to a large extent by the activities of agriculture and the Santa Fe Ry., particularly the latter. About twenty-five passenger trains, including sleek streamliners, halt daily at the Main Street Depot. Main Street is bisected by tracks down which rattle endless freight trains carrying oil and grain to the east, merchandise and farm machinery to the west. Newton is the seat of Harvey County, is a trading center for the surrounding wheat country, and a main division point of the Santa Fe Railway.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |