While I have lived in Texas for nearly 50 years, I was born and grew to an adult in Kansas. When I tell someone of my origins, they almost always respond in one of two ways: “I have been there but I don’t remember much about it” or “that 400 mile drive across the state on Interstate 70 is really boring.” There is more to the state than that. The wheat grown there feeds the world, and the people are nice, but I will focus on the sometimes lawless history of the state.
Kansas achieved statehood in 1861, but it was far from civilized. From 1850 until 1900 the region was a frontier, and at the center of important events in US history: there was the westward movement of pioneers from Europe and the eastern US and the subsequent conflicts with Native Americans; the Santa Fe Trail crossed the state and the Pony Express and the Oregon Trail passed through a corner; there was a border war because Kansas was a free state and a center of the abolitionist movement, whereas neighboring Missouri was a slave state; and finally the several new railroads were extending westward into hostile territory and furthermore some of the railheads were the destinations of cattle drives from Texas. Each trackable in this series of metal travel bugs is named for towns with interesting histories (at least to me), some of which have connections to my youth.
Fort Hays, originally named Fort Fletcher, was a United States Army fort near Hays, Kansas. Active from 1865 to 1889, it was an important frontier post during the American Indian Wars of the late 19th century.
Like other forts on the Great Plains, it was not a true fortification but appeared to be more like a frontier settlement. There was no wall around the post, and the only defensive structure was a blockhouse. The post was designed as a base for supplies and troops who could be dispatched into the field to protect vulnerable people and places when conflict with Plains Indians broke out.
Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, supported by Lt. Col. George Custer and the 7th Cavalry Regiment, used it as his headquarters during his 1868-1869 campaign against the Cheyenne and the Kiowa. Both Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok served as Army scouts at Fort Hays at points during this period. Custer and the 7th Cavalry continued to operate from the fort when Col. Nelson Miles assumed command in April 1869. Miles led the 5th Infantry Regiment, assigned to protect the railroad as its construction extended west into Colorado Territory. Throughout this period, elements of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, known as “Buffalo Soldiers”, and the 38th Infantry Regiment were also stationed at the fort.
Hays, like Junction City and Great Bend, was never a major cattle market, but did receive some business due its location on the railroad line and the ready market at Fort Hays. The combination of railroad workers, freighters, buffalo hunters, and soldiers, plus occasional cowboys, made it a very rough town for a number of years, at one time sporting 37 saloons and dance halls. William F. Cody, who acquired his nickname of Buffalo Bill by furnishing buffalo to feed the railroad workers in Hays.
Hays City was not an exception to other frontier towns that sprung into existence as the railway stretched westward, but the sheer numbers of disreputable characters that came to the city was, for a time, a curse to the place. The early history of Hays City is one of bloodshed and the class of desperados that the place was infested with, placed but very little value on human life.
The town was the scene of many exploits of Wild Bill Hickok. He served as a “Special Marshal.” from 1867 to 1869. Hickok's reputation for recklessness and accuracy with a handgun made him the dread of others equally bad and reckless. Believing that such a man was the best person to protect the law-abiding people against the thugs, the citizens employed him to help clear the town. While he was employed, he killed two soldiers, two citizens, and wounded several others. After killing the soldiers, he fled to evade military authorities and was next heard of at Abilene.
Hickok was far from the worst character who found his way to Hays. Jim Curry was one of the most depraved specimens that ever visited the western country. He was without a single redeeming quality. No person was safe against his attacks. During his short stay in the city, he killed several black men, some of whom he threw into a dry well and he killed a man named Brady by cutting his throat, after which he threw him into an empty box car. Another time he was going up the street, and meeting a quiet, inoffensive youth, named Estes, who was about 18 years old, told him to throw up his hands. The youth begged not to be killed, but Curry placed a revolver to the boy's breast, shot him, stepped over his dead body and walked away.
This cowardly act aroused the citizens, and they then determined to protect themselves, dealing out vigilante style punishment upon all offenders against life and property. This action had the effect of driving many of the evil-doers away but a great deal had to be accomplished before the town would be tamed.
Not the least of those transactions which darken the pages of this city’s history was an event which occurred in 1869.
he stepped across the street to Tommy Drumm's saloon to see what time it was at about midnight.
Three black soldiers belonged to the Thirty-eighth Infantry, had come to town evening and became intoxicated. While drunk they went to a brothel but were refused admission. They then went to a barber's shop, where they smashed things up, causing the black barber to flee for safety. They loudly resolved to go out and kill the first man they met, which they did—a young man who was just entering the saloon to check the time. The next morning the barber reported the incident to the sheriff and what he had heard the soldiers say. The sheriff took the barber with him to the garrison to identify the soldiers. The troops were drawn up in line, the three soldiers identified and arrested. The murderers were locked in a cellar in Hays City to await further investigation. However, that evening they were taken from the cellar by vigilantes who hanged them from a railroad trestle.
On a spring evening in 1872, a dispute occurred in Kelly's Saloon on North Main Street. Peter Lanahan was the County Sheriff and on hearing of of the dispute, he went down to quell the disturbance. Pistols were being fired and when the sheriff approached the saloon, Charles Harris, a bartender for Thomas Dunn, fired at Lanahan, hitting the lawman in the abdomen. With the sheriff shot and wounded, Em Bowen, the proprietress of a noted brothel, delivered two revolvers to Sheriff Lanahan. The lawman then immediately commenced firing, killing Harris instantly. Though mortally wounded, Lanahan then went into the Kelly’s Saloon where there was still gunfire.
Another man named Kelly was a participant and when the sheriff fired on him, this younger Kelly crept under a table. Lanahan reached over and fired four shots at him but the lawman was weak and unsteady from his wound and Kelly escaped unhurt. Lanahan sank to the floor and was then carried into Em Bowen’s brothel, where he was made comfortable. Meanwhile the Kelly who had escaped from Kelly's Saloon, returned with a rifle and began shooting at the brothel where Lanahan lay dying, wounding an innocent party. The sheriff was then carried to the courthouse where he died the following day.
Like Dodge City, Hays a "Boot Hill." This was the burial place for those who died violent death, in gunfights or other aggressive manners. These parties were buried without ceremony, with their boots on. There are 45 such graves.
Five years after the murder of John Hays and the hangings of the three black soldiers, an outbreak among the black soldiers stationed at Fort Hays occurred in 1874. At that time, the fort was garrisoned by the Ninth Regiment of Colored Cavalry, who sought to revenge the hangings of the three soldiers who had killed John Hays. A party of the Ninth went to town prepared to "clean it out," as they expressed it. The people hearing of this armed themselves to resist. The black cavalry came to town armed and a fight began immediately. In the end six of the soldiers were killed, their bodies afterwards thrown into a dry well. From that time, on the residents of Hays City were determined that law and order should rule.
By the mid 1870's the railroad had extended its tracks farther west and with it went the teamsters, railroad workers, soldiers and famous characters of the day. Hays City gradually quieted down and began serving as a point of arrival for immigrants, most notably a group of ethnic Germans from the Volga region of Russia.
In the early part of 1889, it became known that Fort Hays would be abandoned and it closed on June 1st. In March, 1900, the Kansas delegation in Congress managed to secure the land and buildings for educational purposes. In 1901 the legislature passed legislation establishing the Fort Hays Experiment Station (part of Kansas State University) and set apart about 4,000 acres for the Western Branch State Normal School. The latter, after several name changes, became Fort Hays State University, where I obtained two degrees.