Newspaper Tidbits for Rice, Kansas Genealogy Trails

STERLING, KAN., JUNE 22---A horrible case of child murder and suicide occurred here at an early hour this morning or late last night. Mr. O. B. Beckham went to Hutchinson yesterday on business, and returning late in the evening, he retired without disturbing his wife, whom he supposed had retired, and who had on former occasions asked him not to disturb her when he came home late. Mr. Beckham is not a sound sleeper, but this morning he overslept himself, and, on going to hi wife's room, he tried to open the door for the purpose of calling her, but found it locked. He called her by name several times, but receiving no answer he broke open the door. The first sight that met his gaze was his little 2-year-old daughter lying across the foot of the bed, cold in death, and his wife lying on the floor in the agonies of death, with a frightful wound in her right temple and a 32-caliber revolver lying beside her. Medical aid was summoned but the victim was beyond medical skill and breathed her last about 12 o'clock. In the case of the child the Coroner's jury found that she came to her death at the hands of her mother by poison or smothering. In the case of the mother it found that she came to her death by a pistol shot fired by her own hand and that she was at the time laboring under a fit of temporary insanity. Mrs. Beckham left the following letter:

"My Dear Husband---These are the last lines I will ever write to you. May God in Heaven forgive me for what I am about to do, for life has become intolerable to me on account of ill-health. I have not seen a well day since Bessie was born, and I can no longer bear with the burden of lfie. Let those live who enjoy life and feel that life is a blessing and worth living for. I thank you for your invariable kindness to me and may heaven's choicest blessing rest on you. I can't bear to leave little Bessie without the care of a mother, so I will take her with me. Be good to Anna, and try to find her a good home.
Lovingly. ALICE BECKHAM"

The bodies were shipped to Canal Dover, Ohio, for interment, where the parents of the unfortunate woman reside.
(Daily Inter Ocean ~ June 23, 1889)

STERLING, KAN., May 14---A cyclone passed five miles north of here in the vicinity of Cow Creek, coming from the southwest and demolishing almost everything in its past. Three persons are reported slightly injured.
(Aberdeen Daily News ~ May 14, 1896)

Chicago, Jan. 14 - Adolph Campbell of Mitchell, Rice County, Kansas, attempted to drown himself at the foot of Dock street yesterday. (Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital, January 18, 1898, page 2, transcribed by Peggy Thompson)

Robert Reynolds, of Rice county, fought the Mexicans fifty years ago and, although he is 82 now, he would like, he says, to take a swipe at Spain. The climate of Kansas has a remarkably preserving influence on military enthusiasm. (Fair Play, May 13, 1898, page 2)

The young man in Rice County, Crytus Taylor, who wrote all his friends good-bye, attempted suicide and failed, must feel several degrees cheaper than silver. (Sedan Lance, March 30, 1899, page 6)

Lyons - An alleged fugitive who earlier in the day was reported to have threatened Ellsworth and Dickinson county officers with a sawed-off shot gun was captured eight miles north of here late yesterday by Sheriff Claude Suttle and Deputy Merle Timbers.

Warned by the Ellsworth officers the man was armed, Suttle took no chances when he stopped a car in which he saw the butt of a gun.

"Don't reach for that gun unless you want me to blow your brains out," shouted the Sheriff.

The arrested man was said by Suttle to be Harlan Smith, 21, Brookville, wanted for investigation regarding a burglary at Abilene Wednesday night.

The fugitive was said by the sheriff to have caught the Ellsworth officers unawares and kept them covered with the shot gun while he made his get away in a borrowed car.

Smith was taken to Ellsworth by Sheriff Suttle. (Hutchinson News Herald, May 1, 1938, page 1)

Lyons, Kan., March 26 – At one of the salt mines in this city yesterday four men were in the act of descending into the shaft, 500 feet, in a bucket above. The bucket was on a heavy oak beam, weighing over 600 pounds. Just as the bucket began to descend the traveler became loosened and the bucket shot down the shaft like an arrow, closely followed by the traveler.

The names of the killed are: Thomas Beach, married; Nels Van Brochlin, married; Thomas McCandles, single, and Fred A. Miller, single. (Vernon Courier (Lamar County, AL), April 2, 1891, submitted by FOFG)