Memory's Storehouse Unlocked, True Stories: Pioneer Days In Wetmore and Northeast Kansas
John Locke · en
At one of their meetings, it appears, the vigilantes decided to hang
Manley and Brown. One member who lived close to Brown pleaded for
the life of his neighbor. Brown had a family of small children. The
discussion waxed hot — and there was a great rift in the personnel of
the organization. They did not agree in the matter. The determined ones,
however, went ahead with their plans for the hanging. And on the night
of the execution some of the vigilantes, not in accord with the
plan, spent the night at the homes of their neighbors so as to clear
themselves of suspected participation in the hanging.
Charley Manley was arrested at Netawaka and was to have been given a
preliminary trial in Justice H. J. Crist’s court at Granada. He was
brought to Wetmore early the day of his execution and held under
guard in the office of the old Wetmore House until evening. The delay
supposedly was occasioned in order to bring Joe Brown to the bar of
“justice” at the same time. Later it appeared the proceedings had been
delayed, waiting for nightfall.
Robert Sewell, constable, liveryman, ex-stage driver and Indian fighter,
was the arresting officer. On the plains, and here, he was known as “Bob
Ridley.” George G. Gill was deputized as assistant constable. Dr. J.
W. Graham, a Justice of the Peace in Wetmore at the time, was appointed
special prosecutor by County Attorney Simon Conwell. Sewell, Gill, and
Graham, with Manley, drove to Granada in a spring wagon.
On the way to Granada, all unconscious of what was in the air, Dr.
Graham, seeing a tree by the roadside with a large overhanging limb,
jokingly said, “Whoa, stop the team, Bob—-we might just as well hang
Charley right here.” Manley laughed and said, “Oh, no—let’s all have a
drink.” He passed his bottle.
Court was to have been held in the Hudson hotel at Granada. But before
proceedings had started, the vigilantes, in black-face, with coats
turned insideout, appeared upon the scene and began shooting up the
place — with blanks. They seized Manley and rushed him away—to his
doom. Pandemonium reigned, and in the excitement the president of the
vigilante committee, it is said, raised a window and told Brown to “beat
it.” So, it would seem, the neighbor’s plea for Brown’s life, while very
costly to himself, as you shall see later, had made its impression.
Earlier in the evening, one high up in vigilantic officialdom, had
taken the precaution to relieve the three constables and the prosecuting
attorney of their revolvers—borrowed them “for a few minutes.” Dr.
Graham says he never did get his back.
Charley Manley was taken to a big tree down on the creek west of
Granada, and strung up. The tree was on the old Terrill place, now owned
by the Achtens. Monoah H. Terrill, a store-keeper at Granada, was a
brother-in-law of Manley. Terrill had died a long time before the Manley
hanging.