The Gray County Seat War; 4; The Battle of Cimarron

The Grey County Seat War was written and produced by Brandon Merrick Lynch. Principal funding for this program was provided by the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural organization encouraging the appreciation of history, heritage, and values. This program was produced in conjunction with High Plains Public Radio with support from listeners like you. Last time on the Grey County Seat War, a county-seat election in Grey County had simmer on the winner by a 43-vote margin, but election fraud on both sides left the issue open to question. Meanwhile, the booming land and town lot business that was driving growth on the High Plains collapsed, making the county-seat designation even more important to both towns. Here's Brendan Lynch. As the economy shrank in 1888, the location of the Grey County Seat remained undecided, with Simuron's suspicious election victory under a close scrutiny by the Kansas Supreme Court. Compounding the problem, both Ingalls and Simuron claimed victory in subsequent elections and various court rulings. Confusion ruled the day. County meetings were held in both

Ingalls and Simuron, depending on the sympathy of various county officers. And at times, it seemed that there were two county seats in Grey County, but near the end of 1888, the Kansas Supreme Court powerfully signaled that it would decide the case in favor of Ingalls. It named AzaSool's associate, Newt Watson, the county clerk of Grey County. As clerk, Watson was entitled to take possession of the county records and seals from Simuron and remove them to Ingalls. Simuron was crushed fallen. Simuron's attorneys dutifully advised, Jake Shoop, Mayor Parlin, my ancestor, F. Amluther, and other Simuron leaders to surrender the precious county records. Faithfully, these young men decided to resist removal of the records instead and filed a long-shot court appeal. Meanwhile, they put out word to the rest of Simuron to keep their Winchester's close at hand should trouble come. These leading citizens let it be known that they would refuse to turn over the county records to any Ingalls Kerr representing Sool.

Instead, they would quote, fight the devil with fire. Kathleen Holt and Marshall Allen Bailey give the Simuron perspective. Simuron refused to turn over the records. Yes, because I believe the Ingalls decided the only way they were going to get the records was just to take them. AzaSool hired Bill Tillman and some other gunfighters to come to Simuron. In the meantime, Simuron had already been aware that that might happen. And so, lookouts were posted supposedly on the roof of the hotel. For one thing, it was no secret that the citizens of Simuron had already touted it around that if anybody came and tried to remove the records, they'd be killed. I mean, that wasn't any secret. F. Amluther was appointed to negotiate a peaceful resolution to this new impasse over the county records with a group from Ingalls. But the negotiations did not go well. Although F. Amluther was a family man and only five foot seven, he was also a bit of a hothead and a pro Simuron hardliner

known to engage in street fights over things like the county seat location. Perhaps that's why my great-great-grandfather was chosen as the town's negotiator. F. Amluther wrote his horse over six miles of no man's land between Simuron and Ingalls and met with leading Ingallsites and stool operatives. However, in the midst of a tense negotiation, my ancestor got threatened with hanging by one of the Ingalls group, a man named Johnny Harper. F. Amluther was forced to pull a derringer and beat a retreat back to Simuron. He wasn't amused by the ambush and back in Simuron, the town readyed itself for a war with its neighbor. My mother, Nancy Miller, explains the prevailing mindset in Simuron, one that was probably common in many rival Kansas communities as the high plains boom ended in a hail of gunfire. The real fights, fights over, you know, your future, where you're going to live, where you're going to raise your kids, and these people were fighting

for their very lives and their very existence. And you can be pretty damned stubborn and as a matter of fact, you can pretty much do whatever you need to do when you have everything to lose. It's sort of the David and Goliath thing, you know, I don't care how big you are. No, we're not afraid of you and we're going to take our best shot and that's just the way it is. And as I said, every once in a while, you hit. Perhaps the new economic tribulation in Western Kansas was even gripping A's a stool whose millions in patent medicine profits were now sunk into the region's future, or maybe his unsteady health was beginning to fail, but A's a stool could wait no more to secure the county seat for Ingalls. Soule rushed to use the latest controversy as a chance to act boldly and get Ingalls the county seat. Soule had it in mind to remove the county records to Ingalls by force. A's a stool assembled and paid a dream team of seasoned Dodge City Lawmen to lead an armed raid on Simmeron. Many of these ex-martials were well-known members of the fearsome Dodge City

Peace Commission and Soule hoped they would strike terror in the hearts of Simmeronites without firing a shot. The plan was for Mr. Soule's force to accompany the new Ingalls clerk, Newt Watson, and remove the records from Simmeron's courthouse at gunpoint if need be. They planned a sneak attack for the following Saturday morning, January 12, 1889, when Simmeron would be hopefully caught unaware. Perhaps Soule was inspired by what was happening in other county seat wars in the sunflower state. Professor Jim Schellenberg points to the bizarre fact that violent raids on courthouses and controversies over housing public county records were routine in the county seat wars. A thing that was very common was the idea of using force to get the records where they belonged and the capital the the courthouse was oftentimes a very small building in those days or very temporary building. Naomi Batman is the granddaughter of one of great counties very

first and most famous settlers, Doc Barton. Doc Barton started the first cattle ranching operation in the territory outside Ingalls. Anger, Ingalls, Simmeron, this is mine. You took this away from me like little kids and they were adults. They wanted to win. Just so you had a county seat and you know there's so much of it that is true and there's a lot of it that isn't. In Gray County, Asa Soule's elite squad of Dodge City marshals made plans to take the records from Simmeron by surprise assault. The crew was led by the famed Lawman Bill Tillman and included Jim Masterson, Ben Daniels, Neil Brown and others. Several of these men had helped create Dodge City's fearsome reputation as a frontier Babylon. Marshall Allen Bailey. The fella that ran the dance hall, his name was Ben Daniels and he was a former Marshall in Dodge City. Stuck his head in the door, told the other guy to bring his gun out in the street. They were

going to fight it out. Then he stood beside the door, shot him through the head as he stepped through the door and shot him four more times on the boardwalk. Make sure he was dead. They arrested him, took him down to the courthouse where Batman Masterson him and the county attorney had a little hearing and decided to sense that other fella had threatened him at one time or other. He pretty much had it coming and they turned him loose. Now that was one example of Law and Fort. That's the way things work. Marshall Allen Bailey gives a roll call of Soule's men and see all these guys, they were heavy duty law enforcement officers. I mean they got together in this region, which happened to be Dodd City. The best law they could possibly have, and I think the idea, more than anything else was to intimidate the citizens of similar and do thinking that they were going to give up these records without a fight. That's my personal final. Didn't work. The Marshall says the nature of law enforcement has changed since the 1890s.

You just were empowered by the city to carry a badge and you pretty much had your way with whatever you wanted to do in order to carry out whatever assignment was ahead of you. They were probably paid a fair amount to come and do this. I don't have any idea. That's another thing you get into because anybody that has looked at this county seat war, even as a cursory examination, found out that ACT Soule poured a lot of money into this thing. Bill Tillman was an upright man. He is the one that was in charge of this act. I think that probably Bill in his mind was gathering the best guys he could possibly gather to come and do this. It was a strong arm thing. Basically, I mean, the law had the authority to disarm the citizens, so to speak, where they

needed disarm and rightly so. But at the same time, they also had the authority to use deadly force in any situation, almost with no questions asked. Kathleen Holt. Asa Soule hired Bill Tillman and some other gunfighters to come to Simran. In the meantime, Simran had already been aware that that might happen. So, lookouts were posted supposedly on the roof of the hotel. What is now a building in the middle of the first block south of the main intersection that is Simran Highway 50 and Highway 23? But it's a brick front building, same era as the hotel with the, ornate, the metalwork around the top of it was the building that was the county seat at that time. And in fact, today, when you drive there and look up, you can see

the actual bullet holes that still exist in the front of the building. To my knowledge, Bill Tillman and the Ingalls people came with a wagon prepared to take the records. There were people working in the courthouse, or it wasn't really actually a courthouse. It was an office where the records were kept. And an alarm was sounded that Ingalls was on its way to take the records. Again, Marshall Ellen Bailey. No, it was like a SWAT team. It kind of surprises me that it was a daylight raid. I mean, I figured they'd probably come in in the middle of the night. But whatever the case, you're right, they did come in here like gangbusters. And the citizens had enough time to gather enough people to start, start in the war. The citizens of Simran had made it plain that that was

the action they were going to take. They were going to kill whoever tried to come in. Sewell's men snuck into Simran on the cold, clear morning of Saturday, January 12, 1889. They huddled in the bottom of a drain wagon drawn by a two-horse team driven by an Ingalls man named Charlie Wikelduffer. Sewell's men hid in back until Wikelduffer reached the merchant's hotel building on Main Street, which acted as Simran's courthouse. Suddenly, Sewell's mercenaries from Dodge City and Ingalls, with Winchester's and six shooters gleaming, left into action. Bill Tillman and Jim Masterson rushed upstairs to confront Simran's acting clerk, AT Riley, at gunpoint. Ingalls clerk, Newt Watson, demanded the great

county records in the name of Ingalls Kansas saying, quote, I want my office. Simran's AT Riley begged for time, as he, unfortunately, had brought his two young children to work that day. After arguing, the Raiders allowed Riley a minute to get his two kids out of the building safely. This small kindness in the midst of their invasion may have been the critical error made by Sewell's men. To the citizens of Simran, they weren't all that impressed with that these guys were marshals from Dodge City, Kansas. They could care less. They knew who these Yeh who's were when they pulled into town in the wagon. I mean, they didn't have a sign on the front, said, you know, we're federal marshals and we're here to do what we're going to do. They knew who they were. And the town was prepared for a battle. The departure of Riley's children allowed most of the men of Simran, and maybe some of the women too, time to load their Winchester rifles and head into the street. These Simranites took up a lively fire upon Sewell's party as they loaded heavy

county records into their drain wagon. Some later estimated as many as 300 town citizens took their rifles into the street to defend their town, Marshall Bailey. An outside force come into a town and say, you just stand aside by God and we're just going to do this. We're going to do that. People nowadays probably say, well, you know, okay, whatever. I mean, you know, even even if it means losing our town as a county seat, well, you know, well, that's just way things go. I mean, I can't imagine the people of today's society going against the grain, but they did. I mean, Supreme Court be damned. It didn't make any difference to the citizens of Simran. In a way, you could almost say that this town was acting

as an outlaw town at that very moment that they were rising up against what was they were told was the law. Absolutely. You're 100% correct. I mean, they were a force of defiance against the United States government. That's a fact. Prominent in the firefight on the side of Simran, where Drew and Bill Evans, who owned the hardware store on the first floor of the Merchants Hotel building, shoot and Riley and JW English all participated. My ancestor FM Luther helped clear main street of unarmed civilians and then took up a position across the street from the Merchants Hotel with his rifle, Marshall Allen Bailey. The records were about a third to half loaded into the wagon when the shooting began. Hotel owner Kathleen Holt. A gunfight ensued and shots were fired and Ingalls was not able to get the records. Sools rating party returned gunfire upon townspeople from the broken windows of the Merchants Hotel. One of Sools men, George Bulls, later remembered

that there were so many armed Simran citizens, it would have taken an expert shot to miss them. But the gang from Ingalls also took casualties and was split into two groups under the heavy fuselage from the Simran side. The fellows that were down the street in the wagon headed up north up Main Street, up to where the hotel was and turned along what would be Suley's ditch and headed for English. The wagon being pretty well riddled. Some of the guys being pretty seriously wounded. Well you know this is this is something kind of interesting too you know. Those people that were doing the shooting and stuff they were not clowning around on both sides they were trying to kill people. The other half of the gang led by Jim Masterson and Neil Brown found themselves trapped on the second floor. Will Jim Masterson, Neil Brown and other members of the Ingalls rating party escaped Simran with their lives? When the dust clears how many people will have died in the fight

over the county seat? And will the violence make any difference to the final decision of the court on whether Ingalls or Simran should become the permanent county seat? Tune in tomorrow for the final installment of the Grey County Seat War here on High Plains Public Radio. Meanwhile photography, documentary transcripts, audio, research links and an essay by Brendan Merrick Lynch are all available on the Grey County Seat War website. You can reach the site through the High Plains Public Radio website at www.hppr.org. Principal funding for this program was provided by the Kansas Humanities Council, a non-profit cultural organization encouraging the appreciation of history, heritage and values.