The Cherry Vale, Kansas, tragedy... The Bender family...
Item # 202224
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NEVADA DAILY TRANSCRIPT, Nevada City, California, May 23, 1873. Page two contains a fine report concerning the infamous "Cherry Vale Tragedy" in this article headed: "The Cherry Vale, Kansas, Horror". This report contains various details and mentions the Bender family. Complete in four pages and in very nice condition.
To provide some background, here is the history of this tragedy:
"According to published records, the Benders operated this lonely little inn and store, surrounded by wide-open prairie land, between the winter of 1871 and spring of 1873. It was located along the well-traveled trail that came from Fort Scott through the Osage Mission via Saint Paul, down through the mounds to Cherryvale and on to Independence. This trail was sometimes referred to as the Osage Mission-Fort Scott Road. It was the only road open for travel at that time. Many weary cross-country travelers would buy provisions and/or stop for a meal. Sometimes they would bed down for a safe overnight stay. Feed was also provided for the traveler's horses. During this period, lone travelers mostly from the east, were traced as far as Big Hill Country and then just disappeared. In the late spring of 1873, much bitterness was directed to this area and a meeting was called to see what should be done. About 75 people from surrounding areas come to the meeting at the Harmony Grove school house in District No. 30. Indignation was running high because of the slanderous insinuations that had been circulated by the neighboring communities against the Osage township due to the supposed disappearance of travelers in that area. Tension at the meeting reached the breaking point when the widely-known physician named Dr. William H. York was reported to have disappeared on the Osage Trail while returning from a trip to Fort Scott in April, 1873. A decision was made to search, under the sanction of a search warrant, every farmstead in the area between the headwaters of Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek. Old man Bender and young John were at this meeting. Three days after the meeting, Billy Tole was driving his cows past the Bender Inn when he noticed the starving condition of the farm animals roaming about the promises and discovered a starved calf in the pen. Upon further investigation, he found the inn was abandoned. He reported the news, which quickly spread.
Several days elapsed, because of fowl weather, before a search party directed by LeRoy Dick, the elected township officer, was fully organized with men coming from Montgomery and Labette counties. With spades, shovels and plows, they descended onto the Bender property and found the place deserted and the Benders food, clothing and possessions greatly disturbed or removed. Upon entering the cabin, Mr. Dick was met by a sickening stench. A trap door, nailed shut, was discovered in the floor of the cabin. Pried open and lifted by its leather hinges, it was learned that it covered a hole or cellar that was filled with clotted blood which produced the odor. In desperation, the cabin was completely lifted and moved aside. A search was made under the house, but nothing was found. The search was about to be called off when Dr. William Yorks brother, Colonel Ed York, seating in his buggy, saw against the sun, the outline of a strange depression. Silently, digging began and Dr.Yorks body was found buried, head downward, his feet scarcely covered. His skull had been bludgeoned from behind with a hammer and his throat had been cut. The next day, the search revealed ten other bodies with smashed skulls and slit throats. One man and his little daughter were found buried together in one grave. It was determined that the child had apparently been buried alive for no marks of violence were found on her body. One of the men that day christened the orchard "Hell's Half-Acre." Another of Dr. Yorks brothers, Alexander M. York, a lawyer and State Senator residing in Independence, offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to Benders arrest. On May 17, Gov Thomas Osborn put up a $2,000 reward for the apprehension of all four. No one ever stepped forward to collected the reward offered." (courtesy LeatherockHotel.com)
was found buried, Another of Dr. Yorks brothers, Alexander M. York, a lawyer and State Senator residing in Independence, offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to Benders arrest. On May 17, Gov Thomas Osborn put up a $2,000 reward for the apprehension of all four. N
Category: Post-Civil War
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