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ALLEN COUNTY, KANSAS NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
W. T. Barnett Writes Of His Experiences As Prisoner of War Mrs. McDowell's article in the September 14 issue of the Iola Register brought to my mind my experiences in the Rebel prison, and at the request of some of the members of the W.R.C. and the G.A.R. I shall write these few incidents. Our regiment, the 26th In., and the 19th Iowa were captured by the Rebels September 29, 1863, after a hard fought battle lasting about three hours. We were taken by surprise and from the start we
fought with both bullets and bayonets. our small supply of ammunition was soon exhausted after which we battled
with our bayonets and the butts of our guns. Our men numbered about five hundred and after we surrendered we found
we had been fighting General Green's army of about 10,000 men. We expected reinforcements at any time and our commander
ordered us The Rebel Calvary came upon us, dismounted and
went through us like holdups taking the contents of our pockets, our hats,coats, shoes and The dead and most seriously wounded were left on the field. All who could walk were lined up and the march into the Confederacy began. I had been shot in the right cheek, my teeth being knocked out, and I had three bayonet or saber wounds in my right hip. Many others were wounded but all who could had to walk had to go and without any medical treatment of any kind. We went into prison destitute of food, clothing and bedding. We had no bedding of any kind while we were prisoners. No barracks, no shelter excepting the poor temporary things we could fix ourselves. We were taken to Tyler, Texas, the first prisoners who were ever there excepting a few officers. They built a stockade around us sixteen feet high. We were under command of Col.. Allen, a mean deceitful man with a bushman grin. Allen was fully as wicked a man as Wirz but lacked the nerve Wirz possessed. Allen come into the camp near Christmas at our roll call and told us he was going to parole us and we could go home. It turned very cold and probably half of our squad was barefoot. We marched from Tyler, Texas, to Shreveport, La., about 125 miles in three days hoping to see God's country. Capt. Alfred, a Confederate Soldier, and Lieut. Haines were in command. A Frenchman in our crowd gave out and Capt. Alfred struck him on the side of the head with his sword, went on and left him lying there which was the last we ever saw of the Frenchman. Orlando Troutman, a sick member of my company,
fell in the road. We wanted to take care of him but they cursed us and drove us on, saying We were not paroled but moved back to Tyler and put in the stockade. One day the Rebels fired into a bunch of us who were standing together, hitting two of my regiment. One man( named Moorehead I think) was shot in the abdomen. He lived about a day. The other man, Joe Beech was shot in the arm but lived to get out of prison. They received no medical treatment. Another man of the 19th Iowa was sitting beside a stump talking to his comrades of his sick family when he was shot through the body and killed. My cousin, Alfred Hikes, of Stewartsville, Mo., was sick and unable to walk. He was crawling to get a drink when a Rebel guard shot him through the body killing him. All names mentioned in this article may be found in the Adjutant General's report of the state from which these men enlisted. We didn't always get our rations but when we did our allowance was one pint of unsifted meal to each man every day. Sometimes a little salt and sometimes a little beef. A Southern man named Massey, who a few years ago lived at 311 Burleson street, San Antonio, Texas told me he was often in the prison at Tyler and saw what we had to eat. He said our meal was ground from weevil corn which the Rebels considered unfit for any but prisoners to eat, and our meat from crippled cattle. I met a great many Ex-Confederates in San Antonio and all those who expressed an opinion agreed with Mr. Massey that the Rebels badly mistreated their prisoners. Mr. Massey said the Rebels treated their prisoners much worse than they did their animals. I was a national delegate a number of times to
the Ex-Prisoner of War Association and met men who had been prisoners in Belle Isle, Libby, WILLIAM T. BARNETT The very many friends of Charley Watts, formerly
of Aurora, lately of Humboldt, Kansas, will be pained to learn of his death by suicide last week. Charley ad a
host of friends and schoolmates near here. ARREST IN IOLA MURDER MYSTERY AFTER 2-1/2 YEARS Wife of Young Farmer Shot and Killed as Sher Drove Car Containing Husband and Sister IOLA, KAS., March 8---Roy Ard of Elsmore, whose wife was murdered mysteriously here November 11, 1914, today was charged formally with the killing before Justice G. M. Nelson here and was held under $10,000 bond. Ard refused to discuss the case. Mrs. Viola Ard, 26 years old, a bride of a few months, was killed early in the morning of November 11, 1914. Ard, his wife and her sister, Miss Latimer, had been visiting at the home of Mrs. Mary Trummell, north of Ellsmore. The party started on the return trip home with Mrs. Ard driving the motor car. Within a quarter of a mile of the Roy Ard farm, two and one-half miles north of Elsmore, there is a small bridge, and on either side a row of hedge. As the car passed over the bridge, its speed was checked. Barely had the car again struck the road when a rifle was fired. The bullet struck Mrs. Ard under the left shoulder, entering her heart and killing her. Ard had been sitting in the rear sear of the car, leaning over with his head between the two women, talking. He caught the body of his wife and stopped the motor car. The body of Mrs. Ard was taken to the Ard Farm and a call for officers sent in. The Ard family is one of the oldest in the county
and founded the town of Elsmore. Roy Ard was married to Miss Viola Latimer about a year before the tragedy. Since
that time, it was said by friends of the couple, they had lived in fear of their lives. At least four different
attempts on the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Ard were made within a few weeks, according to credible sources of information. Jury in the Iola Murder Case Was Out Less Than Four Hours IOLA, KAS., May 19---Roy Ard of Elsmore, charged with the murder of hi wife here November 11, 1914, was acquitted by a jury 11:40 o'clock tonight. The jury was out about four hours. There was no demonstration i the courtroom. Almost all those present when the case was given to the jury had gone to their homes. The acquittal of Ard ends though it does not clear up one phase of a series of mysterious attempts on the lives of several members of the Ard family. Mrs. Viola Ard, 26 years old, a bride of a few months, was shot as she and her husband and sister, Miss Katie Latimer, were returning in a motor car from a visit to a friend north of Elsmore. The bullet struck Mrs. Ard, who was driving, in the back and entered her heart. It was not until two and a half year had elapsed
that Ard was charged with the murder. There were no powder burns on the clothing of his wife. The testimony of
the dead woman's sister, Katie Latimer, also was regarded as favorable to Ard. A Motor Accident Sent Kansas Officer to a Hospital OLATHE, KAS., Dec. 30---John W. Breyfogle of this city has received a letter from Lieut. Col. Frank Travis of the Kansas Ammunition Train, Rainbow Division, announcing that Colonel Travis is now confined in Base Hospital No. 43, France, on account of serious injuries received in a motor car accident, December 1. Colonel Travis had expected to arrive home at Iola, Kas., about February 1 to assume the duties of state superintendent of insurance, to which office he was elected last November, while he was at the front with his division. The letter to Mr. Breyfogle today, however, states that the time of his arrival home is indefinite. Colonel Travis said he was under the care of Dr.
W. W. Duke of Kansas City. IOLA, Jan. 12, 1890---Six farmers, of more or prominence, were arrested here today for the murder in August, 1888, of Columbus Carter. The prisoners are accused of being members of a band of regulators, known as the "Land Leaguers." Carter was arrested for a brutal crime, but was
acquitted. Upon his release from the custody of the officers of the law he was met on his way home by the "Land
Leaguers," who shot him to death. The six farmers arrested today are charged with being implicated in the
crime. If someone would put Andrew Carnegie on to the fact that Iola has erected six schoolhouses in the past six years he might come down with that library without any further chewing concerning the population of the town. A record like that ought to have a better reward than the satisfaction which comes as the result of the consciousness of good work well done. (Kansas Semi Weekly Capital, February 22, 1901, page 4) AN APPRENTICE WHIPPED TO DEATH -- THE MURDER HANGED BY CITIZENS From the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal, June 20 A gentleman who came from Iola, yesterday morning,
gave us the particulars of a most astrocious murder that was committed by a farmer living near Humboldt, and the
summary hanging of the murderer by citizens of the locality. The particulars, as they were narrated to us, are
about these: There was a farmer named Dosen, who for several years had been living with his family on a farm near
Humboldt. He had a boy some 12 or 14 years of age living with him, that had been bound to him for a term of years.
It seems that he had been in the habit of cruelly whipping this boy, and the lad had been frequently heard by the
neighbors to cry murder when being punished, but took no special notice of it, as they thought the boy yelled to
make Dosen cease whipping him. About two months ago, this monster again whipped the boy most unmercifully. Throwing
the lad down, he put his foot upon his neck, beating him all the time. Soon after this the boy disappeared, and
the brute told the people in the neighborhood that since the last whipping he had run away. Not thinking of such
a thing as that a murder had been committed, the neighbors gave it not much attention, under the impression that
the boy would return again. The boy did not return, however, and Dosen after a while commenced to fill up the well
that was in his yard. A murmur of suspicion began to run through the neighborhood, and these suspicions were discussed.
Two months passed away; the boy did not return; the well in the meantime had been filled up, and this monster of
cruelty no doubt breathed freer, and he fancied that he had destroyed all traces of his damning crime. He was questioned
by the citizens, and gave some paltry excuse for filling the well, persisting that the boy had absconded. This
did not satisfy them. There is something that always seems to speak silently to a people, and tells them when a
great crime has been committed in their midst, and this same silent something would not permit the people of that
locality to rest easy until they had learned all. Keeping a close watch upon the movements of Dosen, they commenced
the work of reopening the well. This done, the mystery was soon solved. At the bottom of the well was the mutilated
body of the murdered boy, the marks of the lash yet visible upon his lifeless form. Dosen was immediately taken
into custody. He finally confessed his guilt, from which it appears that this monster in human form, this fiend
who worse the guise of humanity, had been in the habit of cruelly beating the poor and friendless boy who had been
bound to him and to whom he had pledged himself to be a protector. The last time he flogged him the boy was thrown
to the ground, and the wretch held him to the earth with his boot heel while he whipped him to death, after which
the body was thrown into the well. Dosen was taken to Iola and lodged in jail. Before daylight Monday morning,
or rather between midnight and daylight, the jailor was aroused by a party who said they had a horse thief whom
they wished to deliver to the jailor. That officer went to the door, when a crowd rushed upon him and commenced
to ask and search for Dosen. He was found and hurried off from the jail to Elm Creek, some four or file miles from
Iola. Here the miserable culprit was hanged, and his body left swinging in the air. Our informant states that it
was hangingn there Tuesday morning. Lynch law is to be deprecated where the crime committed is the most aggravated
and astrocious, but it does seem if ever there was a case where Judge Lynch was justified in dealing summarily
with a murderer, this was one. A Kansas Woman's Death From an "Unloaded Revolver" IOLA, KAS., Jan. 25 --- Mrs. John C. Crowley, 19 years old, of La Harpe, died Saturday night of a bullet wound in one of her temples. She shot herself while playfully handling a revolver. The weapon belonged to Allen Bryan, who was with her at the time. He believed he had drawn the shells before he let her have the pistol. She first pointed it at her mother and then snapped it at her own head. A shell exploded and she lived only twenty minutes. She denied that she did it intentionally. She leaves a small child and had a divorce suit pending in court. She had been married twice. (Kansas City Star ~ January 25, 1904 ~ Submitted by Lori DeWinkler) A HEART AILMENT - IOLA PAINTER IS FOUND DEAD BY SON RETURNING FROM WORK Ralph W. Thrasher, automobile painter and one-time chief of the Iola fire department, was found dead in his home about 7 p.m. yesterday by his son Edwin, and Coroner Ira Kerwood attributed the death, which occurred probably the previous night, to a heart ailment. The funeral will be held in the Sleeper service rooms conducted by the Rev. Troy Warner, and burial will be made in the Iola cemetery. The service will be held tomorrow at 2 p.m. Edwin (Mick) Thrasher and his father had been living alone in their home at 315 West Jackson. The son sometimes arose earlier than his father and if his father were still sleeping, would get his breakfast and leave for his work without awakening the elder man. At other times they would eat together or converse as they prepared to leave the house. Yesterday morning was one during which the Thrashers did not converse. Mick prepared his breakfast and went to work without see or talking to his father, although about midnight Monday, returned from a business trip to Chanute, Mick had discussed business matters with his father. Yesterday evening, returning from work, the younger Thrasher called his father by telephone about 6:45, He could get no answer. Hurrying home, he found the elder man dead. The end, the coroner said, had come probably early Tuesday morning. Ralph Thrasher had lived in Iola all his 66 years, and virtually all his adult life had been spent as a painter. He first was a carriage painter and with the advent of automobiles he set up an automobile paint shop. He also was a sign painter. Virtually the only time he ever left his profession occurred in 1931 when he accepted an appointment as chief of the Iola Fire Department. Mr. Thrasher, a widower, leaves only his son and two sister, Mrs. Kate Cooper, of Iola and Mrs. Jack Schall, Dodge City. ( Iola Newspaper 3-31-1936) Submitted by Kyle M. Condon Whitlow Wrote
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