OLD RESIDENTS GROW REMINISCENT

["Ottawa Weekly Herald," 14 Sep 1899]

In the year 1865, the country at large was chiefly interested in the gladsome spectacle of Johnny coming marching home again from the war of the rebellion. Ottawa, Franklin county, Kansas, was not particularly prominent in the public eye in those days for various reasons. The town was chiefly great in her possibilities, as the real estate agents no doubt explained. In other words, her future was all before here. The town was started in the spring of '64 on territory surrounded on all sides by the reservation of the Ottawa Indians. To the west lay the lands of the Chippewas and farther still was the territory of the Sac and Foxes. A narrow strip of land on the north, east and south sides of the county was alone open to settlement.

In '65, Ottawa was basking in the sunlight of her newly acquired county seat dignity. Minneola and Ohio City - now flourishing corn fields - had successively possessed the honor, and Peoria had come in for a turn at it, but the fates, or something more potent, landed the county seat in Ottawa, at an election held in August, '64. The offices were moved up from Ohio City the first of September and Sheriff C. L. Robbins and Register H. F. Sheldon came along to see that the governmental wheels ran smoothly.

Along with her other acquirements, Ottawa had a justice court, and therein did Justice John C. Richmond sit in judgment on the transgressions and shortcomings of his fellow pioneers. As a matter of strict fact, however, the justice did not sit in any specific place, but dealt out justice wherever room for action could be found. The court record - the first ever used in the city of Ottawa - is still retained in Justice Robbins' court.

A number of old timers were gathered in the chamber of justice the other day, and as a reporter brushed away the accumulations of dust from the book's covers and turned the leaves upon whose edges the passing years have left a very perceptible reminder of the book's antiquity, the fellows who helped make the town's history, told interesting stories of the cases recorded in the book.

The first case on record is that of the state of Kansas - then a four-year-old institution - against Edmund Haggard, of Centropolis, who, it appears, had trafficked in that which makes men forget their troubles and the demands of civilization. In those days, the county commissioners issued license to liquor sellers. Prosecuting Attorney H. P. Welsh secured a conviction. Within a few days afterward Mr. Brave Wolf braved the cup which maddens and was called to account for having displayed a good healthy jag upon the streets. Then followed the preliminary hearing of William Stroup and son and of five men named Van, for murder. Judge Robbins grew reminiscent as he read the record.

"William Stroup," said he, "was a prosperous farmer and trader at Lane. The Vans were colored men. Stroup rented land to a colony of negroes and was continually quarrelling with them. Finally, on election day, in '65, a wholesale fight occurred. Stroup and his sons killed a colored man and the Vans killed one of the Stroups. Then they sent a runner after me. I got there the next morning and found that everybody was under arms. They offered no resistence to me, however, except that each party had to go to a funeral that afternoon and I had to wait the conclusion of the ceremonies. The next day, however, I herded the seven together and brought them 'cross country to Ottawa. Then there was a difficulty. There was no jail in the country nearer than Leavenworth and we couldn't get them there. Finally, Stroup gave bond, the negroes gave 'straw' bonds and all of them showed up for trial. P. P. Elder, attorney, secured the acquittal of the negroes. Stroup paid $800 for man slaughter.

"Was there any trouble in being sheriff those days?" Continued the judge. "Well, some; people would steal horses and hide out among the Indians and nobody could get yes or no out of an Indian. But it wasn't bad, after all. I knew where everybody lived and would always travel horseback, making for the nearest ford across the streams; never had any bother with fields or fences."

The infancy of the best city in Kansas was full of interesting incident. The HERALD will have further stories to tell of the happenings of pioneer days.