Newspaper Tidbit

[Ms Bear]

What did the Benders do?  I noticed someone mentioned them earlier but can't remember reading anything about them.

[sixdogsmom]

Google The Bloody Benders of Cherryvale Kansas, Ms Bear. They were some bad actors!

[W. Gray]

There is a lot of conflicting information on the Benders. So someone may disagree on the following.

The Benders were actually not from Cherryvale, although there is a museum there. And, Cherryvale was the point of origin for an investigation by law enforcement authorities. That investigation started with a mass meeting of Montgomery, Labette, and Neosho County residents in Cherryvale to discuss the fact that so many people went missing on a main road out of Cherryvale. The main road was between Cherryvale and Osage Mission.

The Benders actually had their wayside inn way out in the middle of nowhere somewhere around Thayer and Galesburg in Neosho County, around seventeen miles from Cherryvale.

They had a very small “Inn” in which they kept overnight visitors. There was a mother, father, daughter, and son team. The youngest female would distract a visitor and then one of the men would whack him on the back of the head with a sledge hammer. They cut his throat, if necessary, took his valuables, and then dumped him down a trapdoor leading to a cellar.

If no one else showed up they would retrieve the body and bury it at night somewhere on their 160 acre claim.

One victim was killed and subsequently thrown into a grave. Supposedly, they threw his nine-year old daughter, still alive, in on top of him and buried them both.

There were eleven victims dug up but there was general consensus there were more victims whose burial sites were never found.

The Benders were in attendance at that meeting in Cherryvale and after wards drove to Thayer, boarded a train, and were never seen again.

[Ms Bear]

Thanks for site information.  It was interesting reading and am going to go back to it.  How far is Cherryvale from Howard?  I am learning so much about Elk County from this forum.  I will have to go back to visit again but will have to have more time than the first time I was there.

[Mom70x7]

Cherryvale's on the other side of Independence. It's about an hour's drive east from Howard.

[flintauqua]

There used to be a Kansas Historical Marker about the Benders 3.75 miles east of US 169 on what used to be US 160.  This was just a half mile from "Bender Mounds" (N 37.33956 W 95.47548).

Since they built US 400, and relocated US 160 to the south along old K96, they moved the historical marker to the rest area just north of the US 400/US 169 interchange.  The beginning paragraph is on the KSHS site:  http://www.kshs.org/tourists/markers.htm#56

54. THE BLOODY BENDERS
Near here are the Bender Mounds, named for the infamous Bender family--John, his wife, son and daughter Kate who settled here in 1871. Kate soon gained notoriety as a self-proclaimed healer and spiritualist. Secretly, the four made a living through murder and robbery.

US-400 and US-169 interchange, Montgomery County
Rest area, north of Cherryvale

Charles

[Ms Bear]

Thanks, I could have looked at a map but then I can't really tell how far it is from one place to another.  What would have been the nearest large town back then?

[flintauqua]

The text of the original marker is located here:  http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-kansas/BenderHistoricalMarker.jpg 
The site says it's the one at the jct, but it's actually the original one.

This site has a pretty good synopsis of the Bloody Benders:  http://www.legendsofamerica.com/OZ-Benders.html

Waldo, why did you have to start this tangent.   Now I can't seem to quit.   Maybe it's time for your vacation.

Charles

[W. Gray]

Fredonia Wilson County Citizen, June 26, 1874.

“SAD ACCIDENT.—A son of M. W. Hanson, residing in Longton, fell out of a Mulberry tree some time since and broke an arm, and his father to humor him gave him a revolver to play with. Thursday night, the father, being annoyed by the howling of dogs loaded two of the chambers in the pistol, went out and discharged one of them at the dogs. He returned into the house and placed the pistol above the door where he thought it would be out of reach of the boy. While the father and mother were out of the room, and an older brother was making a fire in the stove, the younger one put a chair against the door and got the pistol down. He pulled the hammer back, and raised the weapon to see if he could take accurate aim at his brother’s head. Accidentally the trigger was touched, the ball entering the brain at the superior anterior angle of the right parietal bone, ranging downwards, striking some portion of the optical nerve, and probably lodging in the base of the brain. His life is despaired of.”

[W. Gray]

Independence South Kansas Tribune, February 10, 1875, quoting from the Elk Falls Howard County Ledger,

“A fellow by the name of Burris, in the south part of the county, went and drew a lot of flour for his starving wife and children, and as he went home sold it for a plow.”