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Emporia, Kas., Nov. 16---Charles S. Cross, one of the best-known bankers in Kansas, shot and killed himself on his Sunny Slope farm, three miles from here, today, just an hour after a notice was posted on the door of the First National, of which he was president, declaring that the institution was in the hands of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Cross left the bank 10 minutes before it closed, waving his hand pleasantly to all his associates. He went immediately to Sunny Slope farm, and, speaking pleasantly to the employes, passed into the south bedroom of the manager's house, and when he did not come out immediately Manager Evans went in and found him lying in a pool of blood with a pistol in his hand. The shot went through the bank of his head. Death must have been instantaneous. The news of it was on the streets of Emporia a few minutes after the white card appeared upon the door of the bank.

Mr. Cross leaves a wife, a daughter and a widowed mother. He was custodian of his father's estate, and those who know say he left his affairs in very bad shape. It is believed that his private fortune went down with the bank.

To the majority of the people of the town the Comptroller's card o the door of the bank came as a complete surprise, but in financial circles, both here and in the State, the result has been anticipated for six months. The statement published quarterly by the bank has been growing very bad, and last May the bank had only one-half per cent of its deposits more cash on hand than the law required.

Since then examiners and special examiners have been in and out of the bank and the statement published in midsummer was a little better on the face of it, but not much. The full statement did not materially improve. The talk in the town spread quietly and there has been a small withdrawal of deposits, but most of the business men in town did not believe the rumors, and heavy deposits were made up to 10 o'clock this morning. The bank has half a million dollars on deposit, but its assets are hard to determine. For a week Charles Jobes, the bank examiner, has been wrestling with the problem of the assets, and it is authentically reported that he has found them badly shrunken. The loans and discounts are now about $40,000, the capitalization $100,000, and the surplus about the same. The officers of the bank were Charles Cross, president; William Martindale, vice president; D. M. Davis, cashier. Cross and Martindale were popularly supposed to be worth the amount of the deficit liabilities, but each was a heavy borrower at the bank.

The following is a statement of the condition of the bank made to the Comptroller of the Currency, under call of September 20, 1898:

Liabilities--Capital, $100,000; surplus and profits, $101,289.53, due to depositors, banks and bankers, $513,599.42, circulation, $22,500. Total resources, $737,388.95.

"While I do not know exactly what the outcome of this matter may be, still I think I am justified in saying that the depositors will not suffer seriously. Yet, when a thing like this occurs it tops off 25 per cent of the assets of the bank at one blow."

Among the heavy losers by the bank failure are Lyon County and the city of Emporia. All the city and county funds were deposited there.

The father of C. S. Cross, president of the bank, was one of the bank's organizers in 1871. Mr. Cross came to Emporia with his parents in 1865. He had been employed in the bank since boyhood and at his father's death succeeded to its management. He was 39 years old. Thirteen years ago he became interested in stock raising and in 1892 began his importation of Hereford cattle, for which his farm is known all over the country. Since his father's death Cross has spent most of his time managing his stock farm. The farm has been a large borrower at the bank, and as Mr. Cross was preparing for a big sale at the Kansas City Stock Yards soon, it is believed he was preparing to turn the farm into cash to relieve the bank.

"Sunny Slope," Mr. Cross' famous farm, is three miles north of Emporia. The farm consists of 2,250 acres. Twelve men are required most of the time to care for the stock. In the Hereford herd are over 435 registered animals, worth from $300 to $1,000 each. It is said that Mr. Cross has sold calves sired by Wild Tom, his prize-winning Hereford, for $75,000. At the auction sale at "Sunny Slope" in March 150 head were sold at an average price of $407.

The raising of Herefords was the hobby of Mr. Cross. Sunny Slope Farm was his pride.

Charles S. Cross was one of the young men of Kansas upon whom fortune was believed to have showered special gifts. He was the only child of Colonel Harrison C. Cross, who died suddenly of heart disease at Mackinaw a few years ago, and who was believed to have been worth at the time of his death several hundred thousand dollars. A considerable portion of this fortune was accumulated by the elder Cross while he was acting as receiver of the M. K. & T. Railway.

The younger Cross was a graduate of the Kansas State University at Lawrence, and while there became engaged to Miss Kate Smeed, the daughter of the president of the Union Pacific Railway Company. They were married late in the seventies, but were divorced after living together about 15 years. Mrs. Cross went to live with relatives near Altoona, Pa., and her husband kept the only child of their union, a little daughter. Some years later Cross married a Miss Wilder of Lawrence, who was a cousin of his divorced wife. The marriage proved entirely happy. They dwelt in a beautiful home, by the side of a fine mansion which was owned and occupied by Cross' mother, and everything apparently contributed to their peace and contentment. Cross was a man who made friends with the greatest ease. His nature was gentle and his manner thoroughly engaging. He was fond of books, and was refined in his tastes. He was an affectionate and dutiful son, and after his second marriage was devoted to his home. The cause of the difference between himself and his divorced wife was the extreme fondness of the latter for society and gayety, a taste which her husband did not share.

TOPEKA, KAS., NOV. 16---As a result of the failure of the First National Bank at Emporia, State Bank Commissioner Breidenthal tonight directed the State Bank at Madison, Kas., to suspend business. According to its last report the Madison bank had $39,000 in the First National at Emporia. It is not thought that any other banks will be involved.
(St. Louis Republican ~ November 17, 1898)

Miss Myrtle Blakely, a teacher in Emerson school here last year, was drowned near Emporia, Kan., July 27, her sister said upon her return a few days ago from Madison, Wis., where she attended the funeral.

According to reports reaching here, Miss Blakely had gone with friends to Cottonwood river, near Emporia, to go in bathing. It is thought that her heart failed her as she was a good swimmer and was rescused soon after going down. All efforts to resuscitate her failed.

Miss Blakely was attending the Kansas state Normal school at Emporia at the time of her death. She held a life teacher's diploma and a B.A. degree from the Kansas state normal. She had taught six years besides doing two years government work at Washington, D.C.

She leaves, besides a mother, Mrs. M. Blakely of Madison, Wis., two brothers, Frank and Almer Blakely and three sisters, Mrs. Fred Pees all of Madison, Wis., and Mrs. Ella Kaser of Carlsbad, N. M. and Mrs. W. M. Price of 513 South Troost avenue, Tulsa.
(Tulsa World ~ August 7, 1921)

Seven Emporia Grocers Arrested

Seven Emporia grocerymen were arrested on warrants sworn out by the Kansas board or health. They are charged with taking foodstuff from one package and transferring It to a package of some other brand. (Alma, Wabaunsee County, Kansas, October 23, 1908, page 3, submitted by Barbara Ziegenmeyer)

LAST EMPORIA FOUNDER GONE

Dr. George W. Brown Died Friday at His Home In Rockford, Illinois---Member of Emporia Town Company

Dr. George W. Brown, who for many years had been the only surviving member of the town company that founded Emporia, died Friday at his home in Rockford, Ill. Doctor Brown was a prominent figure in the early days of Kansas. He founded the Herald of Freedom, in Lawrence, in 1854, and February 17, 1857. In company with Preston B. Plumb, George W. Dietzler, Lyman Allen and Columbus Hornsby, located the town site of Emporia. The town was chartered by the territorial legislature February 20. Doctor Brown was president of the company, and General Dietzler was secretary. They rode horseback from Lawrence, by way of Council Grove, after having decided by studying the map of the territory, that a point above the junction of the Neosho and Cottonwood Rivers was a likely location for a town. Doctor Brown never lived in Emporia, and left the state permanently in 1865, but he never ceased to be interested in the town he helped to found, and when Emporia celebrated her fiftieth birthday, in 1907, he was the town's guest of honor. This celebration was a double one, the anniversary being observed on the 3rd of July, the national holiday on the 4th. Doctor Brown gave addresses on both days, and enjoyed the occasion more, perhaps, than anyone else. Tall and commanding in appearance, he wore his Prince Albert coat through all the heat of those July days, and his tall silk hat was a fitting accomplishment. His dress and manner, elegant and dignified, were of that older school with which few present-day Kansans are familiar. He was 87 years old at that time, and carried his years as easily as do most men of 60.

Doctor Brown's Herald of Freedom was the first free-state paper published in Kansas, and great were the trials of its editor. In the spring of 1856, Doctor Brown was sent from Lawrence to Chicago, to meet a group of business men, asking that a steamboat line he established from some place in Illinois to Kansas. The most important part of the establishment of such a line, apparently, was to avoid localities where the passage of boats might be interfered with by pro-slavery people. On the way home, at Kansas City, Doctor Brown was captured by a pro-slavery mob. For days, he expected at any moment to be shot. He was charged with and indicted for high treason, and was held a prisoner for four months. At one time a mob from Missouri entered the Herald of Freedom office, and with sledge hammers broke the presses to pieces. They dumped the type into the Kaw River, chopped to pieces a large stock of paper, which had just been received, and carried off the doctor's library on the points of their muskets. They came again, a guerilla hand, and finished with bullets and fire the work of destruction.

Doctor Brown died at the age of 95. For many years, he wrote for Chicago newspapers, and was actively interested in world happenings till the day of his death. He was one of the men who helped to build straight and deep and strong the foundations of Kansas.
(Emporia Gazette ~ February 8, 1915)

ABOUT SUSANNA S. RUGGLES

No other woman in Lyon county had more friends among the old settlers than Mrs. Susanna Spencer Ruggles who died recently in Oklahoma. Therefore this obituary tribute will be read with interest. It was written by a relative:

Susanna Spencer Ruggles, whose life was so tragically ended, was one of rare excellence of character; shining out and doing good wherever she went. From early life she was a student of nature. Born in 1831, of Quaker parentage, reared at the foothills of the Alleghanies in Pennsylvania, the forest seemed an open book for her researches. Being one of the eldest of a family of twelve, she had many duties upon her as a helper in rearing this large family. In the fields, in the woods, the birds and the flowers, and it was here she found companionship. God reveiled himself to her and led her to wider usefulness. Age the age of 17 she went to Sharon boarding school, near Philadelphia, where she was an untiring student for two years, after which she filled her place as a teacher for some years. She came with her parents and family Winnebago, county, Ill., in 1854. Her parental training was of such pronounced character, that from earliest infancy, it had been instilled into her mind and soul the evils of slavery, in the traffic of black men and the enslavement of humanity by drink. She was ever ready by voice and pen to trample upon that which was causing so many millions to mourn. This spirit of love for all God's children induced her to come to the new territory of Kansas, when it was being opened to slavery in 1856. To come and help in the struggle for freedom was her one wish, and no obstacle daunted her determination. Alone she started on her long journey, coming to Lawrence, the seat of battle, where she became an employe in the office of the Herald of Freedom. Here she found contentment, disseminating her anti-slavery principles fearlessly, until the hordes of ruffians destroyed the press by throwing it into the river.

Her attention was then particularly attracted to the great cargoes of whisky which were being hauled to that town, making demons of men and boys. Twice she led a brigade of women to the place where the barrels of this dreadful intoxicant had been uploaded. The women grew fearful of the task and wished to turn back, but Susanna Spencer urged them on; with an ax she burst the first barrel while the contents flowed into the stream, and the women followed suit until many barrels had been emptied of their contents. The women then turned homeward feeling they had done a good night's work, and the mourning breathed consternation to the many who viewed the work of those brave women. She lived to see the cause of temperance as well as that of freedom triumph in her own beloved state of Kansas. In her was the beacon light which so ably assisted her father in piloting his large family to their home on the farm north of Emporia.

She was married in 1865 to R. M. Rugges, a young lawyer of now mean promise, and who for years was the master senior member of the able law firm of Ruggles & Plumb. Together they walked their brief and loving journey of wedlock; until that fatal day when he was brought home with a shattered limb, and looking up into that buoyant face exclaimed, "Susan be not afraid. It is I," and with democratic frankness remarked: "We will have to travel life's road on three feet." So valiantly has she borne her share of burden along life's rugged pathway since he left her side, we all so well know.

Two sons were born to this union, William Spencer Ruggles of Arkansas City and Robert M. Ruggles, deceased. Both were graduated from the Kansas State Normal. The untiring efforts of Mrs. Ruggles for the able launching of her sons into the fields of usefulness, have in a great measure been rewarded. yet the sphere of her magnanimous and philanthropic nature was not confined to her own home. Her heart and hand reached out to the aid and encouragement of all youth--in the case of education, and many of her nieces and nephews and other youth, can give to her memory the honor for having cited them to the paths of usefulness, and the pleasures and the far exceeding joys of the higher life.

Mrs. Ruggles united with the Christion church of Emporia, soon after the death of her husband in 1879. She lived a consistent Christian life, with her hope placed upon the joys awaiting her in another and better world to which she has been called to reap a harvest withheld from her here, and which this world can never give.

Blessed of women, come to her reward; crowned with the love and honor of the meek and lowly--the good and the great.
(Emporia Gazette ~ August 18, 1906)

DAMAGE SUIT AGAINST CITY

Mrs. Hallie Wilson, colored, is asking for $3,000 damages and the payment of $50 costs in a suit filed in district court today against the City of Emporia, E. C. Ballweg & Company, and J. R. Ramsey. In the petition, Mrs. Wilson alleges that she drove into a gravel pile, which was not properly safe-guarded with lights, on Second Avenue, east of Merchant Street, the night of September 27, 1913. Mrs. Wilson's 11-year-old daughter and her baby were in the buggy at the time, and when the vehicle was overturned, were entangled in the wreck. Mrs. Wilson alleges a badly sprained ankle and several bruises which developed into running sores as the effects of the accident, and says that she had to walk on crutches for eight weeks. Carl Judd is Mrs. Wilson's attorney.
(Emporia Gazette ~ May 15, 1914)

PUNISHED FOR MURDER

A Woman Sentenced to Be Hanged in Kansas for Poisoning a Neighbor

EMPORIA, Dec. 30, 1882---Mary Isabella Martin, who was tried in the District Court of this county in November for the murder by poison of Mrs. Loraine M. Kuger and who has been feigning insanity since the verdict of guilty was rendered, has been pronounced sane by a competent board of physicians, and was yesterday sentenced by Judge Graves to be hanged according to the laws of Kansas after one year's confinement at hard labor in the Penitentiary. The crime was committed for the purpose of obtaining $5,000 insurance upon the life of the deceased woman, the policy having been taken out a few weeks previous to her death and made payable to the son of Mrs. Martin, who is still in jail and will be tried as an accomplice in February.
(New York Herald ~ December 31, 1882)

PECULIAR ACCIDENT

Piece of Waste Paper Causes the Death of a Child in Emporia

Emporia, Kan., Nov. 1---At the home of Olaf Johnson, a piece of waste paper blew through an open window and on to a lighted gas stove and then, in flames, was blown from the stove until it lit on the clothing of little Carl, a 2-year-old child. The little one's clothing took fire. The mother was not in the room. The child ran to an open window and waved its hands. It did not scream. The father, however, was approaching home and noticed the child at the window seemingly a mass of fire. He rushed in, grabbed up a quilt, rolled the child on the floor and put out the fire, but when he unrolled the quilt the child was so badly burned that it shortly afterwards died.
(Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital ~ November 4, 1898)

You have been told by the doctors that biscuits are unhealthy. Jesse Powell is an old soldier whose home is in Emporia . A few days ago he and his wife celebrated their 49th marriage anniversary. Ever since the war Mr. Powell says his wife has made biscuits every day. According to his figures she has, during that period made 191,625 biscuits and he believes he has eaten half of them. Mr. Powell derives great comfort from stating to the confusion of his physicians that he attributes his health and his 200 pounds to the lifelong practice of a daily feed. (Kansas Semi Weekly Capital, February 22, 1901, page 4)

W. A. White agrees to furnish the tar if Emporia will get Carrie Nation to come to town and put the feathers on a professional quail hunter and some fish dynamiters. As she is situated now Mrs. Nation is unable to see an open date ahead for some little time and Mr. White will probably have to give up little scheme for promoting the general welfare. (Kansas Semi Weekly Capital, February 22, 1901, page 4)

Mrs. C. S. Cross, according to Lyon county stock gossip, has purchased 40 acres of land near Sunny Slope, and intends to go into the cattle business. (Kansas Semi Weekly Capital, December 12, 1900, Page 4)

BOY BURNED TO DEATH

Emporia, Kan., Dec. 28 - Hugh Williams, a boy 11 years old was burned to death last night at his home nine miles south of Emporia. He played with fire and his clothes caught. In attempting to save his son, Mr. Williams was himself so terribly burned that at last accounts his life was despaired of. (Augusta Gazette, Friday, January 4, 1895, front page)

Highs to Play Yates Center.

The High School basket ball team will play the Yates Center five tomorrow night on the High School floor. The game will start at 8 o'clock. A class game between the subfreshmen and the freshmen basket ball teams will be played as a curtain raiser for the Yates Center - Emporia game.

The High School five was defeated last night by the 'varsity freshman squad of the Normal five over the High School squad. The game with Yates Center five tomorrow night is expected to be a hard one for the High School five. The Yates Center team is coached by "Tiny" Hendrickson, former Normal basket ball guard. (Emporia Gazette, February 2, 1917 ~ Transcribed by Dawn Old)

Yates Center Visitors

The Yates Center Boosters, who made a business extension trip today among the towns in its vicinity, ran on to Emporia from Hartford for a neighborly visit. Of course, Yates Center does not expect to take trade away from Emporia merchants and wouldn't if it could, but that is neither here nor there. The Boosters - 160 of them in forty automobiles - dropped in for a little chat and the Emporians made them feel at home. A welcome party in the Morse, Wayman and C. H. Newman cars met the visitors three miles east of town and piloted them into Emporia. With red and white banners flying from their cars and flanked by a motorcycle brigade, the visiting motorists made as pretty an automobile parade as Emporia has had for many a day. With the Morse car leading the way, the big party entered town over South Commerical Street, went west at Sixth Avenue to Rural Street and paid a flying visit to the Country Club. Returning, the visitors were given a squint at the fine big plant of the State Normal, and piloted to the center of town by way of Exchange Street. It was an asphalt trip most of the way, and a splendid advertisement for the town - all except that Twelfth Avenue car track. Every visiting car bumped its occupants a couple of feet in the air when it passed over that ragged and unsightly bit of public work, and Emporians, busy bragging about their town, had to stop talking or call the visitors' attention to something else.

The Yates Center crowd - dusty and hungry - was taken to the Mit-Way for dinner. The cars were parked in the five hundred block on Commercial Street while the occupants refreshed themselves. After dinner, the Yates Center band played a few selections, and H.T. Laidlow, formerly state representative, brought neighborly greetings to Emporia in a pleasant speech. The party left town at 2:30 o'clock, going by way of Olpe, Madison and Gridley, and making stops at each of these three places.

The party made excellent time on its trip to Emporia. It pulled out of Yates Center half an hour late this morning, but made time to such advantage that it was nearly thirty minutes ahead of its schedule when it rounded into Emporia. Mayor G. E. Bowen, who drove the pilot car for the party, said that good roads had been encountered most of the way and that there had been remarkable freedom from accidents to machines. "The roads between Hartford and Emporia were the best we have had on the trip," said the mayor to a reporter for the Gazette. "They are fine, I tell you."

The visitors each wore a white ribbon on his hat or coat, with the legend, "Yates Center Boosters." The cars were decorated with red and white pennants and white banners. The size of the delegation was considered remorkable by the Emporia hosts.

Among those in the party were: Mayor G. E. Bowen, former Representative H. T. Laidlow, fomer Senator J. L. Martin, R. L. Bedford, Walter Depew, C. E. Liptrap, J. J. Kline, Asa Miller, Melvin Miller, W. J. McDonnell, Ed Light, Howard Mertz, Wiltz Naylor, Harry Morris, T. W. Hurst, Ernest Gault, Tom Phelps, Henry Wachtman, Glen Barbee, Tom Fry, Lester Schenk, B. P. Baker, H. S. Johnson, Bert Wilkinson, Clark Singleton, W. T. Matthews, J. C. Stewart, B. E. Thompson, Ed Kimball, Grant Naylor, Charles Stokebrand, Henry Krueger, J. R. Robertson, C. A. Trueblood, Dr. C. B. Burnett, Prentiss Martin, Rev. Kohl, G. W. Morris, C. J. Ricker, Frank Hogueland, J. T. Bradley, D. C. Lamb, Walter Prutzman, W. H. Faulconer, William O'Hare, L. R. Wallace, J. J. Allen, J. W. Crosby, Q. Singleton, Paul Laidlow, William Kildow, N. A. Shedd, M. N. Smith, C. A. Cramer, A. B. Kildow, Walter Spencer, C. E. Simpson, Scott Spencer, Chris Shuster, Merl Campbell, Joe, Charles and Carson Lamhorn, W. C. Mills, B. B. Purcell, Lee Underwood, Charles Kaltenbach, F. H. Harder, Fred Opperman, George Gregory, Errett Lamb, William Frost, Fred Sonthard, Joe and Vessie Cantrell, E. T. Patterson, William Patterson, Fred Tannehill, Stanley Cantrell, Alva Parrish, John Snell, William Reedy, F. M. Patterson, James Snell, William Stang, G. W. Kildow and A. J. Jones. (Emporia Gazette, Emporia, Kansas; June 10, 1913; pg. 1 & 6 ~ Transcribed by Dawn Old)

CHILDREN'S ORCHESTRA HERE FRIDAY

The Children's orchestra from the Kansas Masonic home, Wichita, which will give a free public concert in the Lowther Junior High school Friday evening, is expected to arrive in Emporia Friday afternoon. They will be accomopanied by Ralph C. Cotton, superintendent of the home, who was an appointee of Ferris Hill, of Emporia, when Hill was grand master of the Grand lodge.

Included in the orchestra are two Emporia children, Robert and Albert Hill, who are the children of the late Sumner Hill. The boys' sister, Joyce, also of the home, is expected to come with the orchestra. The orchestra's leaders is John Covley, a youth of 17.

In addition to the orchestra, the home is sending several girl and boy singers who will give variation to the program. The Council Grove men's glee club also will sing. The program is being sponsored by all the Masonic bodies and everyone is invited.
(The Emporia Daily Gazette ~ Thursday ~ April 13, 1933)

KANSAS BOY, 12; KILLED IN ACCIDENT

READING, KAS., Dec. 24 --- Porter, the 12-year-old son of L. D. Hyde and grandson of J. E. Hyde, a banker of Reading, Kas., was accidentally shot by his brother while skating and hunting. The boy attended the St. John Military school at Salina, Kas., and had just come home to spend Christmas holidays with the family. He lived but a few minutes.
(Kansas City Star ~ December 25, 1920 ~ Submitted by Lori DeWinkler)
NOTE: Porter is buried in Reading Cemetery.