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$50 REWARD for the ARREST of JAMES F. YOUNG
By Jim Potter
To enlarge the REWARD postcard, click on the following link REWARD PC James F. Young, Salina, KS (2)
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Here’s another REWARD or WANTED postcard from my collection. This one’s from 1909 announcing that James F. Young, 23, is wanted by Saline County, KS, Sheriff L. P. Heck for burglary and grand larceny.
The card details Young’s physical attributes and informs the reader that he may be found visiting sporting houses, drinking, gambling, and in fast company. It also warns that Young may claim to be a detective or officer.
In my historical research I learned why Young might have claimed to be a law enforcement officer. At the time of the alleged crime, he was a deputy for the Saline County (KS) Sheriff’s Office.
The 1904 Salina City Directory lists Young as a farmer, and in the 1909 directory as a deputy. At the time of the alleged crime Young was working for Sheriff L. P. (Lot Pearcy) Heck (1876-1911), a Democrat, who had been elected Saline County Sheriff in 1908.
Heck was a native of West Virgina, coming to Kansas with his parents in 1888. They were successful farmers and cattle feeders. Lot received his education in the public schools of Gypsum City, and in the state normal school at Salina. After schooling, he taught for two terms in Gypsum Township. Then he engaged in farming with his father until he was appointed undersheriff of Saline County in 1905. L. P. married Mrs. Roberta (Graham) Huber, a widow, in 1908. (Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, counties, towns, prominent persons, etc., VIII, p745-747, Standard Pub. Co.: Chicago, copyright 1912)
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James F. Young was suspected of stealing $267 from the office of the John Ritchie paving company in Salina. Circumstantial evidence included Young skipping town the day after the crime when he hired an auto driver to take him to Hutchinson.
Two months after Young’s disappearance, Sheriff Heck captured the ex-deputy in Salt Lake City, Utah. On their return trip to Salina, Young was cooperative until their train stopped in Ellsworth. That’s when Young jumped out the train’s bathroom window and vanished.
I’ve found no record of Young ever being recaptured. Despite losing a prisoner, Sheriff L. P. Heck had an excellent reputation. He was re-elected in 1910. While living in Salina with his wife, Roberta, he died from diabetes on August 30, 1911. He was only 35 years old.
After her husband’s death, Roberta was left the task of raising two children, the youngest a daughter, Mellie (or Nellie), one-and-a-half years old, and a son by an earlier marriage, Arthur Huber, 14 years old.
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About two years after James F. Young disappeared, Lottie Young was granted a divorce on the grounds of abandonment, gross neglect of duty, and extreme cruelty. Lottie was about 31 years old.
Salina City Directories from 1911 and 1913 show Lottie employed at the Salina Candy Company, first as a helper, later as a packer. In 1914 she married (George) Edward Graham in Ohio.
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Roberta Heck, the widow of L. P., appeared in numerous newspaper articles following her husband’s death. In 1912 she ran unsuccessfully for the Saline County Register of Deeds. In 1913 she was severely injured in an auto-train accident in Salina. Apparently, she never fully recovered from two broken legs. She sued the Union Pacific Railway, and later, her local doctors.
Roberta died in the state of Washington in 1948 at age 73. Her husband, (George) Ed Richards, survived her.
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It’s extremely unlikely that we’ll ever learn what happened to fugitive James F. Young. Wherever he settled, he would have been living under an alias. I wonder if he ever robbed a bank, became a deputy sheriff . . . again, or kept a copy of his reward postcard.
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Until next time, happy writing,
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