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September 9, 1908

IMAGINARY TROUBLE MADE

TWO GIRLS TRY SUICIDE.

One Was Out of Work, the Other

Feared She'd Be Docked for

Being Late.

Valna Walker, 17 years old, and Sylvia Miles, 18 years old, inhaled chloroform at the home of the latter, 1507 Washington street, yesterday morning. Miss Walter lives at 10 Rosedale avenue, Rosedale, Kas., but had remained all night with Miss Miles. They were found about 10 o'clock yesterday morning by inmates of the house. Dr. W. L. Gist was called with an ambulance from the emergency hospital and revived them. They were left at 1507 Washington street.

As a reason for the attempt on her life, Valna Waller said that she had recently lost her job at the Metropolitan Cleaners and Dyers, 4637 Troost avenue. Both the girls were out late Monday night at a party and, as a consequence, slept late yesterday morning. Sylvia Miles, who works for the Jones Dry Goods Company, said she feared to be docked for being late, or that she might lose her job altogether, therefore, death was considered the only way to settle her "troubles" for all time to come. Dr. Gist gave the girls a good lecture and showed them how foolish their attempt had been.

"As we didn't succeed," one of them told the doctor, "we have concluded to have nothing published about it."

"Your cases will be placed on record with others," was all the consolation they got.

Labels: doctors, Jones Dry Goods, Rosedale, Suicide, Troost avenue, Washington avenue, women

August 11, 1908

"BLACK HAND" IN ROSEDALE.

Christopher Egers Gets Skull and

Cross Bones Messages.

There is an active "Black Hand" organization in Rosedale, according to Christopher Egers, a druggist of the west end of Kansas City avenue, Rosedale. He complained to County Attorney Joseph Taggart yesterday that warnings had been pinned on his door.

He said that on several occasions he had found notices left on his premises during the night, previous, threatening his life and supplemented by a fairly well drawn skull and crossbones.

"I have no enemies in town that I know of," said Egers . "I do not suspect anyone and the only reason I can guess why anyone should want to frighten me is to obtain money."

Labels: black hand, County Attorney Taggart, Rosedale

May 17, 1908

HIS CHILDREN SAW HIM DROWN.

Hector Bonne, a Belgian Gardner,

Lost His Life in the Blue.

In the presence of his family of four children, Hector Bonne, a Rosedale gardener, was drowned while fishing in the Blue just south of Dodson last evening about 7 o'clock. He had taken his children for a day's visit at an uncle's, Charles Cula, near the Harrisonville bridge, not far from where the accident occurred.

Several men were fishing there and some were intoxicated. Bonne waded into the water banteringly with his clothes on, and all seemed to think when he dropped out of sight that he was making fun for the children. But he had stepped off a ledge and was drowned without coming up. In a few minutes the dead body was recovered by R. H. Hopkins, a farmer, who was there fishing. Bonne was a Belgian. Deputy Coroner O. H. Parker sent R. V. Lindsay, a Westport undertaker, for the body. With his wife and children, Bonne lived just beyond the end of the Rosedale car line.

Labels: Blue river, children, Deputy Coroner Parker, Dodson, drowning, fishing, immigrants, Rosedale, undertakers

October 10, 1907

HONEYMOON WAS SHORT.

Mrs. Coppinger Declares the Man

She Married Is a Bigamist.

"I want a warrant for the arrest of my husband, Ambrose Coppinger. He is a bigamist. We were married last April and the following month he deserted me and since then I have learned he has another wife living in Oklahoma from whom he has never been divorced. I have communicated with her and we both want him arrested."

The above information was imparted to Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Higgins in Kansas City, Kas., yesterday by Mrs. Mary Coppinger of Rosedale. She stated that Coppinger is 52 years old and was married to his Oklahoma wife in 1875 and lived with her until a year ago.

"Where is Coppinger now?" inquired Prosecutor Higgins.

"I don't know. I only wish I did. I was only acquainted with him a short time before we were married, but our honeymoon was of even less duration."

Mrs. Coppinger was told that until information leading to his present whereabouts was obtained it would be useless to issue a warrant. She promised to try and locate Coppinger.

Labels: marriage, oklahoma, Rosedale

October 3, 1907

WOMEN HURT IN RACE.

Mrs. C. B. Stevens and Mrs. R. S. Fis-

ette Drive Into Rosedale Car.

An impromptu driving race in Roanoke boulevard last night resulted in a collision with a Rosedale car at Southwest boulevard and Genesee street, and two women were severely injured. Mrs. C. B. Stevens, the owner of the horse and buggy, was taken to her home at 1180 Kansas avenue, in an undertaker's ambulance. Her companion, Mrs. R. S. Fisette, residing at 1621 Kansas avenue, was taken to the Eleanor Taylor Bell Memorial hospital in Rosedale. Both suffered severe bruises about the head, shoulders and back.

The street car crew, J. H. Drilling, motorman, and William Jordan, conductor, was arrested by Patrolman Todd, but released on bond by the commanding officer at No. 3 police station. The men will appear today before the county prosecutor.

Mrs. Stevens and Mrs. Fisette, driving on Roanoke boulevard, refused to allow two young men in another buggy to pass them. The two parties raced until the men turned west as they neared the Southwest boulevard. The women kept on their way and attempted to turn east onto the boulevard when the buggy struck the fender of the car. A buggy wheel went off on the fender, left the car and the women were thrown to the pavement.

Labels: accident, Genessee street, hospitals, Kansas avenue, No 3 police station, Roanoke boulevard, Rosedale, Southwest boulevard, streetcar

July 18, 1907

HUSBAND FINDS HER DEAD.

Emma Woolf Had Vial in One Hand

and Revolver in Other.

Emma Woolf, 206 College avenue, Rosedale, committed suicide early yesterday morning by drinking carbolic acid. When found by her husband, Benjamin Woolf, when he returned from work in the Frisco yards at 6:30 o'clock last night, she was lying on the floor with a small vial in her right hand and whthin easy reach of her left lay a loaded 32-caliber revolver. She had evidently contemplated using the latter in case the poison failed to do its work.

Woolf noticed Coroner J. A. Davis, of Wyandotte county, who ordered the body to the Eylar undertaking rooms, Fifteenth and Main streets. Coroner Davis said last night that the body had probably lain since early morning.

Labels: College avenue, Fifteenth street, Rosedale, Suicide, undertakers

June 4, 1907

FAINTS, GETS A NEW JURY.

Judge Goodrich Believes Nerves

Might Influence in Damage Case.

A few minutes after Rose Stauffer, of Moberly, Mo., took the witness chair in Judge J. E. Goodrich's division of the circuit court yesterday afternoon to testify regarding how she had been injured in a street car accident in Rosedale two years and a half ago she went into hysterics and fainted. Dr. E. L. Mathias, who was attending juvenile court, across the hall, was summoned and succeeded in restoring the woman to consciousness.

Inasmuch as the plaintiff alleges that one permanent result of the injury, because of which she wants $20,000 damages, is that her nerves are affected. Judge Goodrich thinks that her fainting may prejudice the jury. He adjourned the case until this morning, when a new jury will be secured.

Labels: circuit court, courtroom, doctors, Judge Goodrich, Judges, Lawsuit, Rosedale, streetcar

April 24, 1907

GET WARRANT FOR DAUGHTER.

Father Swears She Was Married

When Only 17 Years Old.

"I want to know whether or not Coleman Blanks and Beulah Cannon were ever married in this court?" inquired an angry looking individual of Probate Judge Prather as he entered the latter's office in Kansas City, Kas., yesterday afternoon. The judge made a search of his records and found the couple in question was married on March 30, last.

"How in the name of Sam Tar can a girl get married when she is only 17 years old. She run away to marry this fellow Blanks, and since their marriage they have been living in hiding from me. I am informed that they are living in Rosedale, and I want a warrant issued for the arrest of both of them."

Judge Prather informed the irate father that his daughter had taken an oath that she was 18 years old, and he proceeded to show him his daughter's signature on the license affidavit. He identified the signature as that of his daughter's and announced as he left the office that he would consult a lawyer and then cause a warrant to be issued for both his daughter and son-in-law. Later in the afternoon he appeared with an attorney at the office of the county prosecutor and swore a complaint charging them with perjury.

He gave his name as Rufus Cannon, of 1410 Pacific street, Kansas City, Mo., and declares there is a scheme on foot to get him out of the way in order that his property can be enjoyed by his relatives.

Labels: Judge Prather, Kansas City Kas, Pacific street, romance, Rosedale

April 19, 1907

FROM ROSEDALE, NOT SEDALIA.

Police Cast Doubt Upon Mrs.

Henderson's Story of Hardships

The police and the authorities at the Helping Hand institute have grave doubts of the story told by Mrs. Mable Henderson, who, with her blind baby, insists that she walked all the way from Sedalia, Mo., to this city, a distance of ninety miles, in three days. She says that she left there at sunup Monday morning , and arrived here at about 5:30 o'clock Wednesday evening, having had only 25 cents for expenses.

Mrs. Henderson was found by the police in the bottoms late Wednesday night, and sent to headquarters and then to the Helping Hand. She said she was not tired when she came in, refused food, saying she was not hungry, and neither her dress nor shoes were at all worn as they would have been from such a long tramp.

Early yesterday morning a man called Captain Weber at police headquarters and said: "I know the Mrs. Henderson with the blind baby mentioned in the papers this morning. She has lived with several others in a tent on the outskirts of Rosedale all winter. The men named in the paper as brothers-in-law, for whom she is now looking, lived there also. They all left recently and I don't know where they went."

The man refused to give his name. An official from the Helping Hand went to Rosedale and found the report to be true. He was also informed that Mrs. Henderson has two other children somewhere else. This she denied later. The investigation will be carried on further today.
"We have had at least twenty-five calls today offering to take both the woman and her baby," said Superintendent E. T. Bringham. "Several called in person and offered to assist in any manner desired. She was being cared for, however, and a specialist was secured for the baby, so all was being done what was necessary. The eye specialist, after a close examination, said that there was no hope for the baby ever regaining its sight, it having been blind from birth."

Mrs. Henderson said that she could get no place to work on account of her blind baby, the mother herself being blind in one eye. On this account it was said yesterday that an effort would be made to take the blind baby from its mother and place it in a blind institute, where it could be educated with others similarly afflicted. Left as it is, it would have little chance to make a living. The mother, when placing the child even in the nursery was mentioned, objected strenuously, and said that wherever the baby went she would go also.

"The woman is known to the Associated Charities," said Colonel Greenman, Humane agent, "and has been for some time. Agents from there are investigation the case now. Mrs. Henderson weighs only ninety pounds and her baby seventeen pounds. To reach here in three days she would have to walk at least thirty miles a day. That seems an impossible task for one so frail as she appears to be."

Labels: Associated Charities, charity, children, Col. J. C. Greenman, con artist, Helping Hand, police headquarters, Rosedale, Sedalia

April 12, 1907

NEGRO AS K. U. DEBATER.

Boycott Placed on Baker Debate by

Kansas Students.

As a result of the selection of a negro for the Kansas university debating team, which meets Baker today, only a score of students will accompany the team to Baldwin tomorrow. Woodie Jacobs, a fullblood negro from Rosedale, entered the competitive preliminary debates two months ago, and on account of his experience easily won a place on the team. The other men on the team -- Sanders Vigg, from Alva, O. T., and Clyde Commons, from Fort Scott -- made no protest, and after a few vain attempts to have the preliminaries tried over by some of the members of the debating council who opposed the negro, Jacobs was assured a place on the team. Nothing was heard of the matter until this week, when the debating council tried to arrange an excursion to Baldwin. In former years, 500 or 600 students attended the debates and chartered special trains, but this year only sixteen Kansas University students bought tickets.

The novelty of having a negro on the team is increased all the more by the fact that the question for the debate is the repeal of the fifteenth amendment, involving the taking away of the right of suffrage from the negro. Jacobs, for Kansas university, defends the negro side of the question.

Labels: race, Rosedale, universities

February 26, 1907

BY A LAWYER'S AID.

ATTORNEY HELPED MRS. ROBINSON

KIDNAP HER CHILD.

AN OLD MYSTERY CLEARED UP.

CHILD WAS TAKEN FROM CHACE

SCHOOL LAST JUNE.

Mother and Father Had Separated and Courts Had Awarded HimCustody of Gertrude, 7 Years Old--Humane Officer Suspected.

When little Gertrude Robinson, 7 years old, was kidnaped from the basement of the Chace school by her mother on June 1 last year many persons, especially Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Weaver, 1404 Troost avenue, who were keeping the child, believed that Colonel J. C. Greenman, Humane agent, had aided Mrs. Robinson. A woman, well known as a local temperance worker, appeared at Colonel Greenman's office yesterday afternoon, however, and admitted that she and a lawyer had planned the whole thing. Mrs. Robinson, she said, came on here from Chicago and stopped at her home. The lawyer was called in and the three planned the kidnaping, which was successful.

Just after little Gertrude entered the basement steps at the school the morning of Friday, June 1, 1906, a woman was standing in the shadow. "Hello, Gertrude," she said. "Why, hello, mamma," replied the child. The mother threw a black cloak over her child and ran to where a carriage was standing on the Paseo. With mother and child the carriage was driven rapidly south to Fifteenth street and west. Then it was seen no more.

It was believed that Mrs. Robinson had stolen her own child, but this could not be proved. Woman-like, however, she had to tell it. Two days later a Frisco conductor came in from his run and reported that a woman with a little girl, described as the missing one, had boarded his train in Rosedale. He paid no attention to her, but she had told the train butcher her story. She said that after getting possession of Gertrude the hack had driven to the Southwest Boulevard and Wyandotte street. All that had been planned out beforehand. There she left the vehicle and boarded a Rosedale car, getting out there just in time to meet the ongoing Frisco passenger for Springfield, Mo. She left Springfield for St. Louis and went from there to Chicago, getting home the next day.

The child was not missed by the Weavers until noon. Then they instituted a search on their own accord, and the kidnaping was not reported to the police until 2 p.m., five hours after it occurred. All of the outgoing trains were watched by detectives, but the shrewd little mother with her babe was many, many miles from Kansas City railway stations. She knew they would be watched, that is, she, her woman friend and the lawyer.

Little Gertrude was the daughter of Harry G. Robinson. He secured a divorce from his wife by default, the notice of the suit having been printed in an Independence paper, which the wife never saw in her Chicago home. When she heard of it she came here and tried to get the decree set aside, but failed. The court had given the custody of the child to Robinson. Colonel Greenman had advised the woman in both suits and that was how he came to be suspected of advising the kidnaping.

The mother came here once," said the colonel yesterday, "and visited with her child at the Weaver's for a week. I suspected something wrong at the time and went so far as to make Mrs. Robinson leave her return ticket and all her money, but a small amount, with me, and saw her to the train when she left. She had visited at my house then and I knew if she got away with her baby I would have to bear the blame. When she did come here and succeed in kidnaping it I had no idea she was out of Chicago -- but I got the blame nevertheless of advising her to take it in the manner in which she did. I wouldn't use my office for breaking the law and am glad that Mrs. Blank has set me right."

The woman who helped to plan the kidnaping said she was going to tell the Weavers how it was all done -- some day, when she got a chance.

Labels: butchers, Col. J. C. Greenman, crime, custody, Divorce, kidnapping, Paseo, Rosedale, schools, St Louis, Troost avenue

January 29, 1907

BEAT HER MOTHER.

INSANE DAUGHTER VICOUSLY

ATTACKS MRS. MURLEY

INJURIES MAY CAUSE DEATH.

FOR YEARS AGED WOMAN LIVED
ALONE WITH DAUGHTER
Always Protested Against Sending
Her to Asylum -- Miss Murley's Hallucination
of Marriage ith Man Whose Name She Conceals

The muffled scrams of a woman attracted some attention in the vicinity of Forty-sixth and Bell streets late Sunday night, but, as they finally died down, little attention was paid to the incident. Early yesterday Mrs. Nancy Murley, 72 years old, both eyes blackened, her head cut and her body beaten black and blue, left her home at 4604 Bell street and made her way to a neighbor's house. Having been a cripple for many years, Mrs. Murley walked with a cane.

"I have done my best to protect my daughter for the last nineteen years," the aged woman told the neighbor, "but now she has beaten me nearly to death and threatens to kill me. She is locked in the house there and I had a hard time getting out without being seen."

Police station No. 5 in Westport was at once notified and Mrs. Murley was cared for. Sergeant Dillingham, accompanied by H. D. Greenman, a son of Humane agent Greenman, went to the house, which they found closed, all doors being tightly bolted or locked. Miss Fannie Murley, the woman hwo had so cruelly beaten her mother, was finally prevailed upon to admit them. She was sent to police headquarters and later in the day transferred to the general hospital, where she will remain until the county court passes on her case. She probably will be sent ot an asylum.

Beaten With a Board.

Miss Murley never missed going to both Sunday school and church. When she returned home Sunday night and her mother admitted her she said:

"I am going to put a stop to you and Bessie (a cousin) talking about me. I am going to beat you to death, or burn your limbs off so you can't go out and then I shall go and kill her."

Mrs. Murley had seen her daughter in a tantrum often before and thought by letting her alone she would become quited. Instead, however, the woman, who is 32 years old, fiercely attacked her aged mother with her fists, beating her severly about the face and head. Then she got a piece of board or bed slat and beat her mother over the back and shoulders. Mrs. Murley is now in a dangerous condition, on account of her age, and may die from the injuries. Dr. T. H. Smith, Forty-third and Bell streets, is attending Mrs. Murley.

J. W. Davis, 405 Freeman avenue, Rosedale, a motorman, is a cousin by marriage of the woman. It was his wife, Bessie, whom Miss Murley had also threatened to kill. From him it was learned that Miss Murley had had typhoid fever when 13 years old and from that time had been slightly demented.

Devotion of the Mother.

"Only two weeks ago," said Davis, "the girl beat her mother so that she was compelled to leave home and come to my house for a few days. The girl has always been dangerous, but her mother, hoping against hope, lived there alone with her. We probably never willknow what the aged woman has endured in all these nineteen years. Now, however, she sees the utter futility of trying to keep her at home adn will endeavor to send her to an asylum. She was not able to leave her bed today, though, and may never be again."

Davis said that Miss Murley has often disappeared from the home. She would put on a hat and leave when her mother was not watching her and, in a week or ten days, return in the same mysterious manner. She was never able, however, to tell where she had been or what she did. On one occasion when she had been gone for two weeks, and the police had searched for her all over town, she returned late one evening. She was wet and cold., for it was in the fall of the year, and her shoes were worn through to her blistered feet. When asked where she had been all she would say was, "I rode on a hand carl>"

Another time Miss Murley was found wandering in the woods near here. Believeing that she would like a trip to the country she was sent to relatives on a farm, but all to no avail. The police at the Westport station have record of many times where Miss Murley disappeared, but she always returned home, when she became more reational, without their ever having had a single trace of her.

Doctor Calls Her Dangerous

Dr. St. Elmo Sanders, city physician, examined Miss Murley in a cell at police headquarters yesterday afternoon. She told him that she never struck her mother in her life, but suspected that neighbors were "annoying her." She said that she got up early to make a fire and her mother began to scream, "a habit she has had for a long time," she added. The woman is believed to have attacked her mother with an iron stove poker just before Mrs. Murley succeeded in making her escape from the house.

Miss Murley also said that she was married two months ago to a gospel singer. "He was here two weeks ago," she said, "but had to go away again. We were married in an East side Christian Church." Further than that she refused to state. Davis, her cousin, said Miss Murley had never been married, but had often written love letters to men with whom she had been acquainted or had only seen. She took her pencil to jail with her.

Thomas Bell, a farmer of Shelby county, Mo., brother of Mrs. Murley, was notified by Davis of her condition. He will probably arrive here today. Mrs. Murley wil be removed to a hospital where she can be more properly cared for. The neighbors have been caring for her since she was attacked so brutally. Since the death of Daniel Murley, an old soldier and husband of Mrs. Murley, she and her daughter have lived at 4604 Bell street. She bought a little home there five months ago.

"Miss Murley, though a small woman," said Dr. Sanders, after the examination, "is one of the most dangerous patients I have seen in years. She is suffering from chronic melancholia, and would kill another perosn or herself just as soon as the notion struck her. She must be closely guarded. I am not surprised at what she had done, or that she denies it. She should have been incarcerated years ago."

Labels: abuse, Bell street, Col. J. C. Greenman, general hospital, mental health, police headquarters, Rosedale, Seniors, Westport