Lyon County, Kansas
Olpe Women Threaten To Smash Joints---Meeting in Emporia
Emporia, Kan., Feb. 15---The salon smashing delegations have started to work in this part of the state.
Today at Olpe a company of women headed by the ministers of the town went in a body to the joints of H. Baker and R. O'Meara and demanded that they close at once. If not the women threatened to use hatchets on the liquors and fixtures. The jointkeepers at once closed their places. They were given until Monday to vacate the building they occupied under penalty of hatchet action.
At Cottonwood Falls a delegation of citizens went to Sheriff Will Beach and demanded that he close the saloons of the town. He did so and is now with the assistance of the committee gathering evidence to be used for prosecution should the saloons open within.
At Emporia last night a meeting was held in the Methodist
church and a movement started to close the few joints now running. Ten of the principal men of each church in town
will be called as a committee to see that the joints are closed. A temperance revival will be started here in two
weeks.
(The Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital ~ 29 Feb 1901)
Two Masked Men Held Up an Olpe Crowd
EVERYTHING THEIR WAY
They searched One Outfit and Marched Them to Another Place---John Wheeler Arrested on Suspicion by Sheriff
Emporia, Kan., March 8---One of the boldest robberies ever committed in this county and a description of which reads like Nick Carter's novels, occurred at Olpe, 12 miles south of here, last night.
Two masked men entered the town and went to the Young & Diebolt hardware store and with Winchesters covered the six men in the store. One man kept the crowd covered while the other went through the party. They secured about $25 in money, some jewelry and two shotguns.
They they compelled the men to walk to the store of A.A. Stoburg & Co., where they held up the proprietors and J.J. Kontz who was in the store. At this place the robbers secured about $40 in money, some checks and some clothing. They marched the party of nine men west to a bridge where they gave them warning not to follow them.
The robbers then started west on foot. One man is described as being very tell and of a dark complexion and the other man short. Both wore masks.
Sheriff O'Connor went to Olpe at an early hour this morning and has made on arrest, returning this afternoon with John Wheeler. Wheeler came to Olpe about a week ago and said he would start a photograph gallery. Mr. Young and Mr. Dieboldt came to Emporia with Sheriff O'Connor and filed a complaint against the men.
Each of the six men held up in the first store claim
that Wheeler is one of the men who committed the robbery.
(The Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital ~ 12 March 1901)
Emporia Poet Writes Christmas Cards for Lyon County Boys
Emporia, Kan., Dec. 25---Walt Mason wrote a Christmas greeting to the 600 Lyon County boys, to go with the Christmas boxes sent out by the Emporia Red Cross. The greeting is printed in green and red on a card with appropriate Christmas decorations. The greeting follows:
The folks at home are thinking about the Soldier
Lad,
And earnestly they're hoping this Christmas may be glad.
Their love is all around him, though he is far away,
His face is ever with them, this happy Christmas day.
The folks at home will follow, wherever he may go,
They'll follow him in spirit, with him they'll face the foe.
The love will still enshroud him, on land or ocean
foam,
And they'll be here to greet him, when Soldier Lad comes home.
(Kansas City Star ~ 26 Dec 1917)
Emporia, Kans., Aug. 5---Sheriff Tom O'Connor and
two deputies raided the restaurant of M. Steffes at Olpe and at the Steffes's home last night. In the restaurant
they found eight barrels of beer, two barrels of empty bottles and three or four gallons of whisky. The liquor
was confiscated. At the Steffes's house five men were drinking beer in the yard. Steffes was released on a $250
bond.
(The Kansas City Star ~ 6 Aug 1911)
BURGLARS IN RAID AT OLPE, KAS.
Emporia, Kas., June 27---Robbers last night looted
the post office, Olpe Hardware Company store, and the Standard Oil Company storage house at Olpe, ten miles south
of Emporia. Two shotguns were stolen from the hardware store, and twenty gallons of gasoline and two 5 gallon canns
were taken from the oil station. About $2 in money and fifty stamped envelopes were stolen from the post office.
(The Kansas City Star ~ 27 June 1922)
The Residents of Olpe Left the Safe Blowers Severely Alone
Emporia, Kas., Nov. 30---Robbers entered the State
Bank at Olpe, ten miles south of Emporia, between 1 and 2 o'clock this morning, blew open the safe and got away
with $2,000 in cash. The robbers entered the bank by opening the front door with a skeleton key. They used seven
charges of nitroglycerin to blow open the big safe. Many persons heard the explosions, and some men across the
street, playing cards, saw three men heavily armed on guard at the front door, but decided not to interfere.
(Kansas City Times ~ 30 Nov 1908)
A Sand is Reported to Have Been Found at Twelve Hundred Feet
Emporia, Kas., Feb. 11--A showing of oil at 1,200
feet has been found in the well of Alexander and Sheedy at Olpe, Lyon County, Kansas, according to reports received
here. The well is twelve miles south of the Jones well in which a showing was found several weeks ago. There is
no indication of the productivity of the sand reported to have been foudn in the Olpe well.
(Kansas City Star ~ 15 Feb 1917)
Kansas Woman Trains Flock to Rescue Drowning Chicks
OLPE, Kan., Aug. 10---A woman farmer living near Olpe has not lost a chicken in all the high water this year, although her neighbors have suffered great losses. She has a flock of trained ducks who dash into water at the first cackle for help and bring out the drowning chickens by the scruff of the neck.
She says the ducks took to the rescue work in ten
days, but only last week did she succeed in getting them to apply the rules of "how to resuscitate a drowned
chicken" successfully.
(Morning Oregonian ~ 15 Aug 1915)
One Dead and Three Dying of a Party That Attended a Kansas Dance
Emporia, Kas., July 15---Early this morning Arthur Denham, John Owens, Miss Pearl Miller and Miss Mirth Miller, sisters, all of Emporia, were returning from Olpe, twelve miles south of here, on a handcar. When about five miles south of town the handcar collided with a "double-header" train. John Owens was killed. The other three are in a critcal condition. There is little hope that any of them will survive.
The legs of one girl were cut off. The back of the other was broken. Denham has not regained consciousness. Owens and Denham are young men about 25 years old. They were employed in the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe roundhouse here. The party went to Olpe last night and attended a dance. Each young man leaves a widowed mother. The train that struck the handcar passed by without stopping. Evidently the engineer did not know of the accident. The four lay by the track two hours. Another train discovered them.
The Misses Miller are daughters of Charles F. Miller,
a harness maker, 218 Sylvan street. One is 22 and the other 23 years old.
(Kansas City Star ~ 15 July 1904)
WOMAN FLYER, MOTOR FLAMING, FORCED TO LAND, BUT UNDAUNTED SHE PLANS TO CONTINUE IN DERBY
OLPE, Kan., Aug. 23---Marjorie Doig, Coast-to-Chicago air derby flyer, landed her plane with a flaming motor to the ground here Saturday. Undaunted, she prepared during the evening to continue in the race.
As she raced with five other women competitors in the dash from Wichita to Kansas City in the afternoon, flames spurted from the plane's carburetor, enveloped the motor and threatened to fire the ship.
The young women pilot immediately "winged over," tilted her plane to keep the flames from the cockpit, and headed to a safe landing on a farm.
The flyer noticed the flames as she passed west of here over hilly pastures and corn fields which mark this portion of East Central Kansas, half way on the airline between Wichita and Kansas City.
She dived for the nearest level field. According to John Smith, farmer, who witnessed her descent near Flint, west of here, the plane "dropped to earth like a ball of fire."
Its plight, however, was not as the witness imagined. The pilot managed to extinguish the blaze before it damaged the craft. She was forced to phone to Wichita for a new motor. A relief ship was dispatched to speed the repair.
She announced she would attempt to join her co-pilots
in the final lap of the race from Kansas City to Chicago.
(Dallas Morning News ~ 24 Aug 1930)
FOUR STILLS, 700 GALLONS OF LIQUOR SEIZED, SEVEN ARRESTED
One Man Resists Arrest and is Wounded, Bullet Also Hitting His Brother, a Policeman-Descend on Olpe, Too
Emporia, Kas., Oct. 20---Three raiding parties of federal officers swooped down on Lyon County late yesterday, seized 700 gallons of wine and whisky, four stills, and arrested seven men, charging them with violation of the prohibitory law. Three of the prisoners were arrested at Olpe, where a raiding party found 210 gallons of wine and five gallons of whisky in a hotel.
The other four were arrested in Emporia. Two were taxi drivers.
The federal officers formed three raiding parties, and each brought in prisoners. They are continuing their investigation today, and expect to make additional arrests before noon.
When William Perkins was stopped by a federal officer last night he refused to submit to a search and was taken to custody by his brother, Al Perkins, a policeman. In an argument with the prohibition officer, Perkins is said to have run toward the officer, who shot in self-defense. A bullet entered William Perkin's arm, shattering the bone below the elbow, and, passing through the arm, wounded Al Perkins in the left arm. William Perkins is in the jail today.
The raid at Olpe yesterday brought in the most liquor.
Olpe is a small town south of Emporia, settled by Germans, and it had been rumored large quantities of "hootch"
had been made in the town and vicinity. The officers seized a large quantity of wine made from the new crop of
grapes. county officers assisted in the raids.
(The Kansas City Star ~ 20 Oct 1922)
Copyright © 2008 to Kansas Genealogy
Trails' Lyon County host & all Contributors
All rights reserved