News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

January 2, 1910

TRAINS CHANGE TIME.

First 1910 Union Depot Time Card

Is Issued.

The first 1910 Union depot time card was issued yesterday afternoon and took effect at 12:01 this morning. Three of the roads, the Burlington, Rock Island and Frisco, have made changes, effective at once.

Burlington No. 6 to Chillicothe and Brookfield, leaves at 5 p. m., instead of 6:03 p. m.

Rock Island No. 2, Chicago fast mail, changes to 3 a. m., instead of 8:15 a. m. No 37, the new El Paso and California special, leaves at 10:10 p. m., instead of 10 p. m. No. 25 arrives from Chicago at 7:43 p. m. No 28, the new east bound train, arrives at 6 p. m.

Frisco No. 107 to Springfield and Joplin leaves at 7 a. m., instead of 8:20 a. m. No. 109, "The Meteor," leaves at 7 p. m. instead of 7:30 p. m. No. 101 leaves at 11 a. m., instead of 12:15 p. m. No 110 arrives at 8:05 a. m., changing from 7:55 a. m. No 1316, from Springfield via Clinton, arrives at 4:35 p. m., instead of 4:30.

Labels: Frisco, railroad, Union depot

December 8, 1909

TRAINS 1 TO 15 HOURS LATE.

General Snowstorm Indefinitely

Delays Traffic.

At the Union depot last night trains from all directions were from one to fifteen hours late because of the general snow storm.

The Missouri Pacific train from Salina, due here at 1:30 p. m., was stuck in the drifts and indefinitely delayed. The Frisco, due at 5 p. m., late 5 hours. The Santa Fe 116 from the West was delayed 2 hours, and the Santa Fe, second 6, six hours late.

The Rock Island from the South, late 15 hours. It was due at 7 a. m. and arrived at 11 o'clock last night.

Labels: Frisco, Union depot, weather

June 3, 1909

SOUTHERN COLLEGE GIRLS

MAKING A TOUR OF WEST.

President of Nashville Institution

Makes Yearly Trip Educa-

tional Feature.

Kansas City underwent an invasion of college girls yesterday. They are from Radnor college, in the suburbs of Nashville, Tenn., and are on a tour through the West, personally conducted by President A. N. Esham, head of the institution, who has made these educational trips a yearly feature of the curriculum.

The special train with 210 girls aboard came in over the Missouri Pacific at 7 o'clock yesterday morning and was here until 10 o'clock when it left for the Pacific coast over the Santa Fe. Three Metropolitan cars were chartered and a trolley trip was taken through Kansas City. thee cars went out Independence avenue and returning, went south over the Troost line to Forty-seventh street, thence back to the Union depot by way of the Rockhill line.

From Kansas City the route lies over the Santa Fe to Los Angeles, thence over the Southern Pacific through San Francisco to Salt Lake, from Salt Lake to Denver over the Denver & Rio Grande and Colorado Midland and from Denver back to Kansas City over the Union Pacific. The return to Nashvilile from Kansas City will be made via the Frisco to Memphis and from there over the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis to Nashvile. The excursionists will be in Kansas City again June 16.

President Eshain gave a check for $12,000 to W. M. Hunt, railroad agent in Nashville, in payment for tickets and sleepers for the excursionists. This was the largest sum ever paid for private passage in Nashville. Only the government has paid more, for the transportation of troops.

Labels: California, Frisco, railroad, streetcar, visitors

May 22, 1909

CARE FOR DELIRIOUS BOY.

Odd Fellows and Rebeccas Find Ap-

pendicitis Sufferer on Train.

When returning Odd Fellows and Rebeccas boarded a Frisco train Thursday night on their way from a g rand lodge meeting at Springfield, Mo., they found an unconscious boy, John E. Lee, prostrate in his seat. Several doctors on the train cared for the lad, who was about 16 years old, and it was found that he had succumbed to a serious attack of appendicitis.

All the way to Fort Scott, where he was sent to a hospital, he was delirious, but it was learned that he was on his way from his home in Chattanooga, Tenn., to the home of his uncle at Emporia, Kas. Only a few cents were in his pockets, and a collection of $14 was taken up for him and turned over to the Fort Scott Odd Fellows.

Labels: children, Frisco, illness, Odd Fellows, railroad

December 11, 1908

'ADAM' SHARP IS

TAKEN IN KANSAS.

JOHNSON COUNTY SHERIFF CAP-

TURES RELIGIOUS FANATIC.

IS WOUNDED IN BOTH HANDS.

BROUGHT TO KANSAS CITY AND

LOCKED IN HOLDOVER.

Offers No Resistance and Declares

He's Glad That His Fight Is

Over -- Abjures His "Faith."

City Hall Guarded.

JAMES SHARP,
Religious Fanatic Who Styles Himself "Adam God."

After fifty hours' search by the local police and officers of nearby towns, James Sharp, who styles himself "Adam" and "King David," was captured three miles south of Zarah, Johnson county, Kas., yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock. It was James Sharp who started a riot at Fourth and Main streets Tuesday afternoon, resulting in the death of Patrolmen A. O. Dalbow and Michael Mullane; bystander A. J. Selsor; and Louis Pratt, one of the religious band, and his 14-year-old daughter, Lulu.

News of Sharp's arrest reached police yesterday afternoon about 5 o'clock and Chief of Police Daniel Ahern sent Captain Walter Whitsett and Inspector Charles Ryan to Olathe, Kas., after the prisoner.

A farmer named W. C. Brown living eight miles northwest of Olathe telephoned to J. S. Steed, sheriff of Johnson county, about 11 o'clock yesterday morning that a man resembling the description of the fanatic, James Sharp, had been seen in that neighborhood Wednesday night and yesterday morning. He said that the suspect had spent the night at the home of Joseph Beaver, a farmer living about two miles from him. Beaver, he said, was in Olathe and the sheriff could talk to him and get a good description of the man.

Sheriff Steed found Beaver and after having him describe the stranger who had stayed at his home decide that the man was Sharp and drove to the Brown farm, leaving Olathe about 1 o'clock yesterday. When he reached the Brown farm he deputized a young man who worked on a nearby farm, and the two men started a search for the mysterious stranger.

ASLEEP IN STRAW STACK.

A large wood pasture was first gone over, and then the officers separated and searched the ravines for several miles. A straw stack in the middle of an old wheat field was seen by the sheriff's deputy and, going around it, he found a man sleeping under the straw.

When Sheriff Steed reached the straw stack the man was called and told to come out. As he rolled from under the stack the men noticed he kept his hands in his pockets, and when they made him take them out they saw that he was wounded in both hands. After being searched by the sheriff, Sharp was placed in a buggy without being handcuffed and driven to Olathe.

Sharp told his captors that he was praying and contemplating while he was in the haystack as to what he should do. Weary with the long tramp from Kansas City and exhausted for the want of food, Sharp welcomed arrest and surrendered without any show of making a fight.

He was taken into the office of the county jail and his wounds, which had not been treated, were washed and bandaged by Sheriff Steed. He was then given a supper, which he devoured with eagerness.

ANXIOUS TO GO BACK.

While he was eating his meal the police officers from Kansas City arrived. Sharp greeted them and said he was anxious to go back with them. After finishing eating he told of his trip from Kansas City to the place of his capture.

"I shot five times at the police and when I had emptied my revolver I went into the saloon there on the corner and gave my pistol to the bartender. I told him that I was through, that I was not sure of the Lord, and asked him to take me to a policeman.. The man seemed to be frightened and did not move. I then tried to load the gun, but my two hands were wounded, so I could not do it. The cylinder would not turn. I was going to put the barrel in my mouth and blow off the top of my head."

Sharp said he then walked outside and stood in the crowd and watched the police and citizens gathering around Pratt across the street. Continuing Sharp said, "God then directed my steps south on Main street to Fifth street, and west up Fifth street. I went on down Fifth street to the bottoms. When I reached a barber shop I went in and had my hair clipped. I told the barber that my hands were frozen. Leaving the shop the Lord's will seemed to take me farther away from the shooting scene and I walked and walked.

"I WAS LOSING FAITH."

"I was losing faith in my religion because things had not come about as the revelation made it out. I continued walking all that night. In the morning I slept in the woods. That evening I went to a house and asked for something to eat and a place to sleep. The people gave me my supper, but said they did not have any place to put me for the night. They directed me to a house about 300 yards distant, to a cousin's. I stayed there all night and had my breakfast there.

"I could not use my hands and the man fed me. They asked me what was wrong with my hands, and I told them that I was paralyzed. I told them I was a peddler and that my partner had left me. I was afraid they would suspect that I was wanted in Kansas City and left as early in the morning as possible.

"After leaving that house, which was the Beaver farm, I went to that straw stack and hid. At first my only intention was to get away, to escape. Then I began to fear that I had done wrong and was debating whether I should go to some farmer and pay him to take me to a town and give me up. I had money to pay the man for my trouble.

"When the officer arrested me it seemed like I was going to heaven. I was so worried and had lost such a quantity of blood. I told the sheriff that I was glad he had me and the j ail would not be a bad place for me."

HAD PLENTY OF MONEY.

When the officers searched Sharp he had a number of cartridges in his pocket and a large knife, which he carried in his left hand and cut Sergeant Patrick Clark in the eye with. A large roll of bills containing $105 and a purse with $4.92 in it was also found in his pockets.

A large crowd of persons gathered in the jail yard at Olathe, and attempted to get into the room where the prisoner was. Everybody in the city wanted to see the man that caused so much grief by inciting his followers to murder and riot.

Captain Whitsett and Inspector Charles Ryan left Olathe and Sharp at 9 o'clock last night over the Frisco railroad, and arrived in Kansas City at 10 o'clock. The officers with their prisoner left the train at Rosedale and took a street car to Fourth and Wyandotte streets. They were afraid that friends of the dead and wounded officers who might have heard of Sharp's capture would attempt a demonstration against the prisoner. When the officers and prisoner got off the car he was placed between the two and hurried to police headquarters, where a large force of policemen and detectives were inside the station and also guarded the doors.

Labels: Adam God sect, buggy, Captain Whitsett, farmers, Fourth street, Frisco, guns, jail, Johnson county, ministers, murder, Olathe, Police Chief Ahern, Rosedale, Sheriff Steed, Wyandotte street

October 23, 1908

ROBBED A MOVING TRAIN.

Desperadoes Bound Conductor and

Brakeman in Frisco Caboose.

E. G. Butcher and William Smith, conductor and brakeman, respectively on one of the Frisco system's fright trains, while reposing in the caboose of their train between Olathe and Rosedale, Kas., at 8 o'clock last night suddenly were told to throw up their hands by two men, both of whom pointed revolvers. The men lost no time complying with the command, after which they were tied to benches and relieved of watches and other valuables by a boy who accompanied the desperados. All three made their escape at Rosedale.

Neither Butcher nor Smith had time to realize what had taken place before they found themselves securely fastened to benches with stout ropes which evidently had been taken along for the purpose. The older members of the trio stood aside, each covering his man with a revolver, while the boy, whose age was about 14 years, went through the trainmen's pockets, taking everything of value that could be found.

It was not until after the train began to slow up at Rosedale that the robbers jumped off, immediately after which the imprisoned men began efforts to get out of their uncomfortable positions. The authorities at Rosedale and Olathe were notified, but at an early morning hour no trace had been found of the men.

Labels: children, crime, Frisco, guns, Olathe, railroad, Rosedale

August 27, 1907

TAFT HERE TODAY.

WAR SECRETARY TO ARRIVE

FROM OLATHE AT 5:32 P. M.

PLANS OF ENTERTAINMENT.

NO SPEECHES TO BE MADE DUR-
ING HIS BRIEF STAY HERE.

He Will Be Taken for a Drive Over

the Boulevards -- Public Recep-

tion to Be Held at the Ho-

tel Baltimore in the

Evening.

Secretary of War Taft will arrive in Kansas City at 5:32 o'clock this afternoon over the Frisco from Olathe, Kas. He will be met at Olathe by Mayor Beardsley, E. L. Winn, T. R. Marks, W. C. Michaels, R. B. Middlebrook and J. A. Harzfeld. In the party will also be Senator Warner, who ment with the secretary at Springfield yesterday.

The secretary will make no speeches while in Kansas City. A public reception will be held in the parlors of the Baltimore hotel at 8:30 o'clock tonight.

The general reception committee will go to the depot in twelve automobiles, graciously loaned by private citizens. These will meet at the Grand avenue entrance to the Midland hotel at 4:45 o'clock this afternon, starting for the depot at 5:15. The secretary wil be taken for a drive over the boulevards and then to the Baltimore for dinner. Breakfast will be served in the secretary's room tomorrow morning. He will tehn be entertained by R. B. Middleton, a member of the reception committee and a classmate of Taft's.

William Clough and W. B. C. Brown will have charge of the automobiles to be used for the boulevards drive.

Labels: automobiles, Frisco, Grand avenue, Hotel Baltimore, hotels, Mayor Beardsley, Midland, visitors

June 20, 1907

THE CONDUCTOR TOLD THIS.

Young Man Mistook Chair Car for

Barber Shop.

A Frisco passenger conductor tells a story on a farmer who, he says, boarded his train at Lacygne, Kas., yesterday.

According to the conductor's story, the young man entered a chair car for the first time in his life. He was obviously ill at ease, and failed to sit down. After the train had proceeded several miles the conductor, passing through, noticed the embarrassment of the passenger and asked him to take a seat.

The other looked timidly at the comfortable, linen-covered reclining chairs, then replied:

"No, I guess not. Pa always cuts my hair and I usually shave myself."

Labels: Frisco, railroad

March 19, 1907

WALLACE PRATT IS DEAD

FOR 38 YEARS HE HAD BEEN A

KANSAS CITY ATTORNEY.

Prominent in Early Enterprises of the City,
Espcially in Railways--Had
Been Ill About Four Years.

Wallace Pratt, Prominent Kansas City Railway Attorney

THE LATE WALLACE PRATT.

Wallace Pratt, for 38 years one of Kansas City's prominent attorneys, died yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock at his residence, 213 West Armour boulevard. A stroke of paralysis four years ago and a relapse last December brought on a weakened condition, and for three weeks Mr. Pratt had been confined to his bed. For a week his life has been despaired of. Until the last two days, however, he conversed occasionally and recognized friends. Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock at Grace Episcopal church.

Mr. Pratt was one of the most prominent railway lawyers in Missouri and for many yars was legal adviser of some of the railroads entering Kansas City. It was principally through the efforts of George H. Nettleton, at one time president of the old Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis railway, and Mr. Pratt, general attorney for the road, that that line reached the proportions it did before being taken over by the Frisco. At the death of Mr. Nettleton, Mr. Pratt was appointed to the presidency of the road, but declined it, stating that he would rather remain as the road's legal counselor. He was general attorney for the St. Louis & San Francisco road, and for many years the firm of Pratt, Dana & Black, with which he was last associated,was employed to look after the legal affairs of the Union Depot Company. Mr. Pratt was at one time general atorney for the Metropolitan Street Railway Company. During the last two years, however, he had not been actively engaged in the practice of law.

The age of Mr. Pratt was 76 years. He came to Kansas City in 1869, and associated himself with W. S. Rockwell and Watson J. Ferry in the law firm of Pratt, Watson & Ferry. In 1872, Mr. Rockwell withdrew, the other partners continuing as Pratt & Ferry. In 1875, Judge Jefferson Brumback was admitted to the firm, which then became Pratt, Brumback & Ferry. Within two years Judge Brumback retired, and was succeeded by George W. McCrary, ex-secretary of war and a former United States circuit judge. Frank Hagerman became a member of the firm in 1887, and in 1890 Mr. McCrary died, the remaining partners continuing their association until 1890. Later Mr. Pratt associated himself with I. P. Dana and James Black, and the firm devoted its practice almost exclusively to corporation law.

Mr. Pratt was instrumental in forwarding various enterprises important to the commercial development of Kansas City, among them the Union Transit Company, now the Kansas City Belt Railway Company, of which he was a director, and for which he was counsel up to the time of his retirement.

He was born in Georgia, Vt., and later moved to Canton, N. Y., with his parents, where he received his early education. When he was 14 years old he entered Union college, and was graduated four years later. He at once entered the study of law under the tutelage of Henry J. Knowles, at Potsdam, N. Y. In 1852 he went to Chicago, where he was admitted to the bar, and a year later went to Milwaukee.

He was married in 1855 to Miss Adeline A. Russell, of Canton, N. Y. In 1874 his wife died, and ten years later he married Mrs. Caroline Dudley, of Buffalo, who died shortly before her husband's stroke of paralysis.

Mr. Pratt leaves four children, Mrs. Hermann Brumback and Wallace Pratt, Jr., of Kansas City, and Mrs. Elwood H. Alcott, of Pasadena, Cal., and Wesley R. Pratt, of Buffalo.

Labels: churches, death, Frisco, Metropolitan Street Railway Company, railroad, Union depot

March 3, 1907

HALF CAR OF BERRIES "OILED".

Food Inspector Uses Kerosene on a
Shipment from Texas

Food inspector Cutler anointed 262 crates of Texas strawberries yesterday with coal oil, to give them that rich, nutty flavor that is so unpopular with hasheries. Reading in the nespapers that the inspector was in wait for a car load of moldy berries, htere was a crowd in the Frisco yards yesterday when Dr. Cutler hove on the scene. They expected he would dump the berries on the ground, and they were ready with their pans and their boxes to sort the rejected fruit and effect some salvage.

Instead of that, Dr. Cutler kept the berries in their crates, and gave the owner of the car till noon to sell the moldy berries, 262 crates out of a shipment of 440 crates, to some vinegar factory. When noon arrived and no sale had been made, the coal oil cans were brought into play.

Although berries are seling from $3.50 to $5 per crate, and there were 200 good crates in the car, the consignee got stampede and sold the lot for $60, not quite half of what the freight on the shipment was.

"Moldy berries are highly dangerous," explained the food inspector after the seizure, "although, it is the mold which makes viengar, and as vinegar the berries would have been all right. However, as fresh berries they would have been good for orders for several physicians and maybe an undertaker or two."

Labels: Dr. W. P. Cutler, food, Frisco, health, Texas

February 6, 1907

FINDS A WITNESS.

STATE'S CASE IS STRENGTHENED

AGAINST ALBERT CRONE.

FIREMAN YOWELL SAW HIM.

ON KERSEY COATES TERRACE NIGHT OF MURDER.

After Telling His Story, He Disappeared, but He Is Now Ready to Go on the Stand --

Taking of Testimony Begins This Morning.

After a search covering several weeks a most important witness for the state in the Crone murder trial, which begins today, has been found. Rather, he was found several days ago, but the announcement was made only last evening.

He is the man who swore so positively a few days after the murder that he saw Albert Crone on the Kersey Coates terrace at about 8:50 o'clock on the evening of Thursday, July 19, the time at which the officers say the murder must have been committed. Bertha Bowlink, the murdered girl, and Frank Kern, who was assaulted at the same time, went out for a walk that evening about 8:30 o'clock. A young woman in the neighborhood says she heard groans coming from the direction of the spot where the girl's body was found, about 10 o'clock that night. Thus the police declare the killing must have been done between those two hours.

The witness who has been missing for so long and who has now been found, is Roy M. Yowell, a Frisco fireman. He swore positively to seeing Crone on the terrace at the time stated and later identified Crone at the county jail. Before he saw him, however, he described Crone accurately and added that he had on a "lead-colored hat." Crone had at that time a United States infantry campaign hat which is of a dark gray, or lead color.

Yowell went to police headquarters early this morning with Marshal Francis, of Emporia, having arrived here from that city shortly after midnight. He was taken to a hotel and a policeman assigned to stay in his vicinity for the night.

Yowell's statement to the prosecutor the day after Crone's arrest was as follows:

"I left a restaurant at 915 West Twelfth street about 8:35. I started to
my room at 1121 West Seventeenth street by the Kersey Coates driveway.
About half way between Twelfth and Seventeenth streets I came upon a man and a
woman sitting on a catch basin, which is about two feet above the present
grade. The girl was bareheaded and wore a dark dress. It may
have been blue. The man with her sat with his elbows on his knees
and only glanced up as I passed. He was a large man, weighing probably 190
or 200 pounds.
"There are breaks in the bluff along there, where the light from the electric lights above shines through. As I passed the pair I looked at my watch. It was 8:40 o'clock. About 150
to 200 yards to the south of the couple, I came upon a man carrying his coat under his arm and with what I took to be a short cane in his hand. It was about three feet long. The man passed to the right of me toward the edge of the road. I started to speak to him, as I thought him a friend. Seeing that he was not, I scrutinized him closely as he came between me and the light in the bottoms."

Here he described Crone, even to the campaign hat he wore:

"I saw and recognized this same man in a cell at police headquarters at 11:30 Friday night. In spite of all the alibis he may have, I am willing to go on the stand and swear that he is the man I saw there.

"The man I passed on the driveway had his hat pulled down and walked around me as if he wanted to avoid meeting anyone. Nevertheless, I got a good look at him. Crone is that man. Just as I got to the end of the driveway and came to the walk leading up Seventeenth street, another man,
who was walking leisurely along, stepped from the sidewalk and started on down the driveway toward where the couple sat. Both the men I passed were going in that direction. I have seen Charles Henry, who is arrested with Crone. He does not fit the description of the second man I saw."

Crone's alibi consists of a statement that at the time the killing must have taken place he was in a card game in the Tralle saloon at 1125 Grand avenue. He has five witnesses who are expected to swear that they were in the card room with him at that time.

The taking of the testimony in the case will begin at 9 o'clock this morning before Special Judge Casteel, of St. Joseph, in the criminal court.

Labels: courtroom, crime, criminal court, Frisco, Grand avenue, jail, Kersey Coates, murder, police headquarters, St.Joseph, streetcar, Terrace street, Twelfth street