Butler County’s Eighty Years  ~  1855-1935

by Jessie Perry Stratford

A History of Butler County Biographical Sketches and Portraits with Foreword by Rolla A. Clymer

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criminal prosecutions have attracted wide interest. They will be briefly reviewed.

The case of the State versus McKinney, was tried in the supreme court of Kansas at the January term in 1884. The defendant, Clark W. McKinney had been found guilty of murder in the first degree, in the homicide of William H. Reeder, near Augusta, when the case was tried in the local district court. The opinion of the Supreme Court was written by David J. Brewer, the Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, later one of America’s greatest jurists, and a member of the United States Supreme Court. He affirmed the decision. McKinney was defended by A. L. Redden, T. O. Shinn, D. McKinney and J. D. Snoddy. The prosecution was handled by George Gardner and C. N. Sterry, of Emporia.

STATE VERSUS JESSIE MORRISON

The first trial of Jessie Morrison, charged with the murder of Clara Wiley Castle, was held in November of 1900, and resulted in a hung jury. In the second trial, in June of 1901, a conviction of manslaughter was returned, and an appeal taken to the Supreme Court. In the Kansas reports appearances are noted in the Supreme Court as follows: A. A. Goddard, attorney general; J. S. West, W. N. Rees, A. L. L. Hamilton, B. R. Leydig, E. N. Smith and E. B. Brumback for the state and A. L. Redden, T. A. Kramer, H. W. Schumacher and V. P. Mooney for the defense.

The facts were summarized by Judge William A. Johnston, of the Kansas Supreme Court. On June 22, 1900, Jessie Morrison cut the throat of Clara Wiley Castle with a razor, from the effects of which Mrs. Castle died. Ten days before the tragedy on June 13, 1900, Clara Wiley was married to Olin Castle, of El Dorado, and it was claimed that Jessie Morrison had been corresponding with him and was greatly attached to him, and had been led by jealousy to attack and kill her successful rival. Jessie Morrison denied that she was moved by such a motive. She claimed she inflicted the wounds upon Mrs. Castle in self-defense, after being called into the home as she was passing the house. About twenty cuts and gashes were made on Mrs. Castle, mostly upon or near the throat. Although Mrs. Castle lived until July 10, 1900, she was unable to speak and could communicate to others only by writing. The case was reversed on the grounds that juror who had an opinion was permitted to serve, but who, upon his examination, stated that he was not qualified to serve. The case was tried for the third time in the Butler County District Court, and again appealed to the Supreme Court, after the verdict of murder in the second degree. In the January 1903 term of the Supreme Court of Kansas, the case was again tried, with the same El Dorado attorneys appearing and C. C. Coleman, attorney-general, for the state and the same El Dorado attorneys for the defense as had previously appeared. This time the judgment for conviction was affirmed. Jessie Morrison was sentenced by Judge G. P. Aikman to serve twenty-five years in the state penitentiary. She was pardoned by Walter Roscoe Stubbs, when he was governor of Kansas. She now lives in Los Angeles.

STATE VERSUS OWEN OBERST

The case of the state versus Owen Oberst, with the exception of the Morrision case, was the most widely discussed action ever filed in the Butler County district court.

On the night of April 20, 1928, the farm home of William Oberst, in Clifford Township, burned to the ground. In the ruins were found the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. William Oberst aged 45 and 41, respectively, and their five children, Dorothy, 16; Ralph, 14; Hugh 10; Edith, 8; and Herbert, 6. When discovered, the fire was confined to the kitchen, in the southeast corner of the house. It was a still, foggy evening. Neighbors who made an unsuccessful attempt to put out the fire, believe the family was away. A pile of human bodies, found in the embers, swept aside this belief. Owen Oberst, eldest son and only surviving member of the family, returned home in the family car about midnight.

Investigation was made by Butler County officers for two weeks, following which Owen confessed that he had murdered his family; that the crime had been committed with a small rifle. He waived his preliminary and was bound over to the district court for trial. On May 16, 1928, he appeared in the district court and entered a plea of guilty. On June 1, 1928, a motion to set aside the judgment

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of the court, was overruled and the defendant committed to the penitentiary. Error was claimed, in that the defendant had entered a plea of guilty to murder without advice of counsel. Owen was 17 years old. In the January 1929 term of the Supreme Court, the matter was heard upon appeal. Appearances on behalf of the prosecution were: William A. Smith, attorney-general; Leon W. Lundblade, assistant attorney-general; Stanley Taylor, county attorney, and W. N. Calkins, assistant county attorney. The judgment of the lower court was reversed and the case remanded for trial. The majority opinion of the court held that it was error to accept the plea of the defendant without advice of counsel. John Madden, Jr., L. C. Gabbert of Wichita; Fred Ice, Peabody and Ezra and Alden Branine of Newton appeared for the defendant. When the case came back for trial in Butler County, Owen was placed upon trial upon the express charge of the murder of his father. The state was represented in local court by County Attorney Stanley Taylor, W. N. Calkins and R. T. McCluggage and the defense by Gabbert & Madden and C. L. Aikman.

The first trial resulted in a disagreement by the jury; the second trial resulted in another disagreement. The case was tried a third time, and for the third time the jury failed to agree. The venire was practically exhausted and R. C. Woodward, county attorney, after being unsuccessful in securing a change of venue to another county, dismissed the case, thus ending one of the strangest cases in the history of the criminal jurisprudence in America.

FIRST WOMAN’S JURY

The first all-woman jury to sit on a district court case in Kansas, served in El Dorado. Women serve on Kansas juries as a matter-of-course now, but the first woman jury in the state was an event of national interest. This is how it came about:

The late Judge G. P. Aikman, of El Dorado, had little more than a month to serve in office after equal suffrage was victorious in Kansas in the election of 1912. “Women became qualified to act as jurors when the new constitutional amendment made them electors,” the judge said, “and I desire the honor of presiding over the first trial in which their new rights are exercised.”

Consequently when the case of H. H. Boeck vs. Carrie M. Schreiber et al, came up for trial November 27, 1912, a jury of men having disagreed over the issues a year previously, Judge Aikman appointed as the first woman bailiff in Kansas – Mrs. Eva Rider, and instructed her to assemble a panel of women. The bailiff and all the jurors were El Dorado women. The case was intricate, dealing not with romance, or millinery or dressmaking bills upon which the women might have qualified as experts, but upon the valuation of real estate. Boeck a bachelor alleged that in a transaction with Mrs. Schreiber, a quarter-section of land in Grove County, which he had bought, had been misrepresented. Mrs. Schreiber having died, the widower, Henry Schreiber became the defendant.

Mrs. Rider notified, first as a juror, Mrs. Hattie E. Riley, Woman’s Relief Corps president, stately white-haired wife of a Civil War veteran who later celebrated her golden wedding anniversary, became a widow, re-married and celebrated the tenth anniversary of her marriage to a second husband, J. F. Richerdson, in September. She became fore-woman of the jury. Then were assembled Mrs. Maggie Clark, Mrs. Anna Ruddick, Mrs. Clara Willis, all W. C. T. U. workers; Mrs. Geneva Selig, bride; Mrs. Frances Boston, Mrs. Blanche Cron, and Mrs. Genevieve Munson, Mrs. Rachel Stewart, leader Women’s Rights Congress; Mrs. Esther Kirkpatrick, now Vice President General, N. S., D. A. R. from Kansas, and Mrs. Agnes Foulks, Mrs. Nannie Elson, and Miss Edna Smith. The first-named twelve served; Miss Smith (now Mrs. J. Melson Jones, of St. Joseph, Mo.) gave as a reason for seeking release from jury service, that she did not believe in woman’s suffrage, did not believe women should vote and did not approve of their acting on juries; the judge excused her.

The first ace of the woman jury on entering the box was to ask for removal of the cuspidors with which their male predecessors had solaced themselves during judicial ruminations. After two days of testimony and arguments, the case was given to the jury at 7:30 o’clock the night of November 29. Before beginning delib-

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erations, one of the members offered a prayer for divine guidance. Only four ballots were taken; the first vote was 9 to 3 for the plaintiff, second the same, third 11 to 1 and the fourth unanimous. At 11 p.m. the jury gave its verdict – a judgment of $1,200 for the bachelor plaintiff. After dismissal, each juror was given a warrant for $4 and informed if the jury had stayed out one hour longer, each would have received an additional $2. “We knew that,” said one, “but we were not in it for the money.”

“No jury ever showed keener appreciation of its responsibility,” Judge Aikman said, and the court stenographer, J. F. Darby, said the women followed the evidence with closer interest than any jury of men he had ever observed.

Editorials about the woman jury appeared in newspapers all over the United States.

(Insert first women jury)

This First Woman’s Jury of Kansas composed entirely of El Dorado women, served in the District Court of Butler

County, in November, 1912. The jurors, reading from left to right – Mrs. Hattie Riley Ritcherdson, Mrs. Maggie

Clark, Mrs. Geneva Selig, Mrs. Agnes Foulks, Mrs. Frances Boston, Mrs. Genevieve Munson, Mrs. Rachel

Stewart, Mrs. Anna Ruddick, Mrs. Esther Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Blanche Cron, Mrs. Nannie Elson, and Mrs. Clara

Willis, Mrs. Foulks, Mrs. Boston, Mrs. Munson, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Cron and Mrs. Elson still live in El Dorado,

as does Mrs. Eva Rider, whose picture is not included in this group, but who was appointed by the presiding

judge as the first woman bailiff in Kansas – in the United States, in fact.

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SCHOOLS OF BUTLER COUNTY – 1860-1935

The first school in Butler County was a private subscription school of fifteen pupils taught by Miss Sarah Satchell, at Chelsea, in 1860.

In 1872 there were twenty-eight log and five brick and stone school buildings in the county. Sixty-two years later (1934) Butler has one hundred sixty-four buildings devoted to educational purposes.

Courses of study were provided by the state in the early seventies, but actually there were no grade schools such as are known today. By 1874, El Dorado and Augusta had more than one department and a consequent separation of pupils according to age.

Gradually the two-teacher schools began to follow courses of study specified by the state department of education, but not until 1911, with the adoption of a uniform series of text books and the lengthening of the school term from three months to seven, were the rural schools placed on a grade basis. Now the law insists upon a minimum term of eight months.

Since 1879, full reports have been made and the growth of Butler County’s present fine school system through its early development may be traced with the following summaries: School districts in 1879, 125; in 1880, 130; in 1881, 138; 1882, 143. School population between ages of five and twenty-one; 1879, 6,056; 1880, 6,397; 1881, 6,546; 1882, 6,861. Enrollment in 1879, 4,590; 1880, 4,356; 1881, 5,228; in 1882, 5,303. Total school expendiutures, 1879, $34,962.76. By 1882 this amount had increased to $53,328.09.

Oil Hill, or District 36, has a teaching staff of eleven members, headed by F. W. Bigler, and has outstanding achievements in scholarship and athletics. Bloomington schoolhouse burned in 1932 but has been replaced. It is a two-teacher school with Willis E. McAllister as principal. The school system at Augusta is similar to that of El Dorado. The grade schools and high school are of the finest modern type. Many Augusta High School graduates attend El Dorado Junior College. J. W. Murphy is superintendent.

There are three rural high schools in the county: Leon, Cassoday, and Latham. Butler County School Directory of 1933-34 lists 114 one-teacher schools and twenty grade schools, having two or more teachers. The 1933-34 enrollment for Butler County, exclusive of incorporated city schools, was 4,644 pupils.

Philip Higdon is county superintendent of schools. Hobart M. Thompson is deputy. During the depression of the past four years, retrenchment has been necessary, teaching staffs and teachers’ salaries have been reduced, but all the schools have been maintained.

BUTLER COUNTY SCHOOL DIRECTORY

School Year 1934-1935

Mildred Stark, Happy Valley; Orpah Greer, Webster; Marlene Peebler, Ellet; Alta Houston, District 9; Viva Ray, Chelsea; Geraldine Green, Morgan; Gyneth Cron, White Station; Mildred Thomas, Science Hall; Lois Corbin, Silverton; Amy Lee Garrison, Green; Frances Gibson, Union; Irma Britting, Walnut City; Dorothy Hagan, Blue Mound; Golda Kennell, Brownlow; Marion Danner, Fairmount; Alice Gfeller, Murdock; Vera Cooley, Rose; Werner Studer, Whitewater; Edith Vogelman, Springdale; Nemoa Lackey, Mount Tabor; Mrs. Luella Harris, Lone Star; Bernice Hunn, Rock Hill; Idamae Buchanan, Elm Creek; Dora Ray, Snow; Marion Sutter, Wing; Pauline Carter, Quito; Eunice Tinkler, District 45; Geneva Seglen, Logan Center; Mildred Van Bibber, Brown; Juanita Bolinger, Four Mile; Warren Morgan, Union, Maurcie Millikin, Indianola; Iris Lemly, Star; Vivan Woody, Victory; Josephine Fillmore, Hillside; Ralph O. Hammer, Whitewater, Pauline Craig, Superior; Erma Skaer, Rogers; Marie Hilda Janzen, Pleasant Hill, Ethel Gamble, Claypool; Audine Kelly, Bogle; Frances Doornbos, Economy; Henrietta Roach, Hunter; Lee R. Horst, Lone Star; Margaret Oliver, Pontiac; Margaret Boucher, Farmers Point.

Beulah Cooley, Muddy Creek; Helen Handle, Grant; Ruth Frost, Tadlock; Edith Marshall, Dover; Leon Broyles, Prospect; Vernille Mitchel, Maple Creek;

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Marian L. Ratts, Bryant; Gerthal Miller, Stone Chapel; Marie Dyck, District 85; Cleta Doornbos, Turkey Creek; Eudene Crabtree, Golden Gates; Cecile Wakefield, Hilton; Hazel Hyde, Lorena; Helen Fast, Teter; Walton Beaman, Cave Springs; Amy Adams, Washington; Genelle Blayney, District 101; Juanita Rutherford, District 102; Verdele Hughes, Pleasant Valley; Opal Locke, Harmony; Helen Louise Long, Brown; Ruth Kerlin, Gray; Luida Hughes, Waverly; Vernon Zieman, Pleasant Center; Mary Markley, Centennial; Francis Albright, Logan; Thelma Rhoads, Rose Hill; Winona Walworth, Center; Lockie Branum, Banner; Ada Guy, Holt; Rowena Miller, Zion; Reta Turney, Sunnyside; Theodore Regier, Plum Grove; Agatha Vestring, Oak Dale; Maxine Thompson, Tony; Beulah Clark, Independence; Beulah Grace Walz, Tolle; Frances Votaw, Satchell Creek; Nina Harader, Durachen; Helen Case, Red Top; Frankie Smith, Welcome; Beulah McKim, Lone Elm; Joyce Gibson, Lost; Fern Benson, Hickory Center; Erma Barnhill, Enterprise; Virgil Simpson, Pleasant Ridge; Elizabeth Glaze, Prairie Queen; Velma LeSuer, Lily Lake; Helen Bradley, Foster; Helen Graves, Pleasant Ridge; Althea Matthew, Rock Vale; Marie Peterson, Gordon; Mrs. Lura Kerr, Surprise: Opal Fowler, West Point; Dorothy Lou Dickson, Lone Tree; Grace Sunbarer, Benson; Doris Ann Garrison, Victor; Ruth Lindley, Pleasant Center; Irene Meyersick, Grand View; Berdine Guggisberg. Prairie View; Esther Ellis, Prairie Dale; Dorothy Buffum, Enterprise; Vaunda Phares, Long; Grace Coulter, Brickley; Lucile Ballinger, Magna City.

GRADE SCHOOLS WITH TWO OR MORE TEACHERS

Vanora – J. W. James and Mrs. J. W. James; West Branch – Robert Briggs and Ernestine Kistler; Friendship – Fred Rhine Jr., Melva Miler, Inez Millikin; Brainerd – Dorothy Franzen and Elfriede Regier; Oil Hill – F. W. Bigler, superintendent; W. J. Griffith, Louise Dutcher, Elizabeth Clancy, Grace Haggard, Frances Cleaver, Mira Haggard, Pauline Claypool, Elsie Wilson, Ruth Hentz, Eurdean Hobbs; Latham grade – Virgil T. Knox, Josephine Peebler, Madaline Ellis, Audrey Bird, Elizabeth Everly; Leon grade – Jean McKaig, Merle Parks, Vivian Cruthird, Aileen Albright, Lillian Green; Wilcox – L. Ulverton West, Mrs. L. U. West; Van Huss – Fern DeArmond, Aletha Beadles; Bloomington – Willis McAllister, LaVonne Leedom; Cole Creek – Clara Belle Davis, Golda Ramsey; Richland Consolidated – Oscar Carr, Frieda Wiebe; Edna Watt; Haverhill Consolidated – V. E. Semisch, Pearl Wakefield, Edna Marshall; Floral – Frances V. Jones, Wilbur Stone; Cassoday grade – Herbert Conyers, Avis Coulter, Ruth Smith; Keighley – Merl Barnhil, Ila Butts; Beaumont – Bertha Wilson, Rena Logsdon; Elcoln – Lynn B. Hicks, Martell Doyle, Vivian Gordon; DeGraff – Harold L. Smith, Bessie Kesterson; Elbing – Victor Zuercher and Eileen Scott.

DISTRICTS MAINTAINING HIGH SCHOOL AND GRADES

Towanda – Carl Igel, superintendent; Helen Scott, Emmett Breen, Evelyn Pierce, Ethel Overman; grade faculty – R. Laurence Wright, Elma Baker, Nelle Keen, Frances Ralston; Douglass –Newton E. Terrill, superintendent; Wilbur Ehrsam, principal; James Newton, Charle sSchraeder, Milo Durrett, Gladys Harter, Faye Dennis, Gladys Elder, Daniel B. Pease; Junior High faculty – Robert Price and Esther Myers; grade faculty – Inez Weakly, Lois Catlin, Dorothy Guyot, Leota Sallee, Venita Jones, Kathryn Upham.

Rosalis – C. A. James, superintendent; Milton Whitson, Pauline Stanley, Irene Johnston; grade faculty – Lucile Pendergrass, Myrtle Correll, Sadie Piper; Midian – F. W. Briner, superintendent; Dora Booth, Audine Smith, G. A. Ediger, Luella Reeve, Sibyl Sneed; grade faculty – Willard Leatherman, Dicy Feller, Helen Lietzke, Gertrude Flowers; Benton –N. G. Gray, superintendent; Majel Cooprider, Irma Bengston; grade faculty – Floyd Wanamaker, Estella Burbank, Elsie Thacker, Bama Brand; Whitewater – Walter Woods, superintendent; Cecil Pankratz, Lillian Sandy, Norma VanGorder, Florence Watkins, Nelle Hill, Bernice Davidson, Eleanore Hobson; Junior High faculty – Myrl D. Long, Anne Klassen; grade faculty – Zelma Moore, Letha Hughes, Gladys Claypool; Potwin – Luke B. Headrick, superintendent; Enda Mertz, Ernest Wild, Ruth Turkle, Wara Paul; grade faculty – Harry Cameron, Hester Snyder, Claribel Houston, Elsie Higdon; Rose Hill – J. A. Jeffries Jr., superintendent; Ellis G. Carr, Virgil Bottom, Jennie McCluggage, Louise Chalfant; grade faculty – Manda Davis, Ruth Yeager, Neva Adams, Vinita Smith, Myron Hull; Andover – W. H. McCaffery, superintendent; Lorene Anderson, Evelyn Braden,

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