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Reno County: Saloons in Hutchinson

June 30, 2021 by Jim Potter 6 Comments

http://jimpotterauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Reno-County-Saloons-in-Hutchinson-online-audio-converter.com_.mp3

Saloons in Hutchinson

•

Reno County Courthouse, SE corner of Main St. & Ave B, Hutchinson, KS, opened May 1901. Offices of the sheriff, county attorney, & district court (plus court room) were on the 2nd floor. The building to the immediate left (east) in the photo is the Reno County Jail & jailer’s/sheriff’s residence. Postcard published by Marion W. Bailey. Author’s collection.

It’s Monday, May 27, 1907, in Hutchinson, Kansas. Florence Tharp Duckworth is visiting her husband, Sheriff George “Came” Duckworth, in his office on the second floor of the Reno County Courthouse at Avenue B and Main Street.

*

“How was court?” asked Florence.

“Tim Casey didn’t show up,” answered George. “Judge Galle rendered a summary judgement against Casey, declaring the $500 bond he had given forfeited, and ordered the clerk of the court to immediately issue an alias warrant for him.”

The Midland Hotel, NW corner of Second Ave. & Main St. opened in 1888. It was three stories high and a half-block long. Postcard published by photographer Marion W. Bailey. Author’s collection.

“I’ll bet Tim’s in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, and won’t return,” said Florence. “When he recently sold the Midland Hotel and talked of trading his cement blocks factory, I guess we knew he wasn’t going to stick around to serve several months in jail.”

“He had everything going for him, but liquor became the center of his life,” said George.

“He’s been going downhill for a long time,” said Florence. “Remember last year when he ripped the telephone off the wall of the hotel and threw it in the street?”

“When he sobered up and cooled down, it occurred to him that he needed to be nice in order to get telephone service back,” said George.

“I’ve heard that his wife, Mary, is getting tired of him returning home drunk and being unfaithful to her,” said Florence.

Advertisement in the 1906 R. L. Polk’s Hutchinson City Directory.

“It looks like Mayor Harsha didn’t try to interfere with the ruling,” said George. “I’ll bet he’s already had the chief of police talk to the new owner of the Midland Hotel about fines for selling liquor.”

“It’s funny how we choose certain words to explain our actions,” said Florence. “When the mayor receives money from the saloonists or jointists to help with the city budget, he calls it a fine. When the chief of police collects the money to keep the police department self-sustaining, he explains that the money has been forfeited. But, from the perspective of the liquor interests, when they pay $100 a month to the authorities, they call it a license and expect to be left alone to do business.

George laughed. “You nailed it. There are opposing, powerful forces. The wets and the drys don’t agree on much. Mayor Harsha sees it as a way to reduce taxes; Charlie Oswald sees it as breaking the state law passed in 1880.”

“It doesn’t much matter what Oswald thinks now that he’s lost the election for mayor,” said Florence. “The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) wasn’t as organized as Harsha’s forces. We’ll have more of the same for the next two years.”

George McCammy “Came” Duckworth (1867-1954), Reno County Sheriff 1907-1911. Photo from Hutchinson: The Salt City (1910).

“But there’s hope” said George, “Wichita has elected a new mayor who has appointed a new chief of police, and his force will close the joints. I wonder if any of the closed saloons will choose Hutchinson as a more welcoming destination?

“Tim Casey had to leave town,” said Florence. “He’s an example that there can be real consequences for breaking the law. Even if he never spends another night in our jail, he knows he can’t return to Hutchinson or you’ll lock him up. He’s also lost a lot of business by running away to Missouri.”

“Some people would rather the jointists be ignored so that taxes won’t increase,” said George, “I just don’t like it that the city gives protection for unlawful business. If the city police would cooperate with my office and the county attorney, we could close down the liquor trade.”

“Hutchinson doesn’t need another jointist, gambler, or a keeper of fake rooming houses,” said Florence. “If liquor wasn’t sold openly in Hutchinson, there would be other businesses prospering. Women and children would be better clothed with shoes to wear. Liquor leads to more criminals, the insane, and paupers.”

“We still have to contend with the drug stores that sell liquor and call it medicinal,” said George. “The other day in police court, there were two men arrested for being drunk and begging on the streets. Each of them claimed they only had one drink and they had taken it to cure their rheumatism.”

“What did the judge do?” asked Florence.

“The drunks said they’d get out of town if the judge released them,” answered George. “He let them go with a warning.”

“It’s complicated,” said Florence. “If we lock up everyone who has been drinking, then our jail is overflowing while we have to feed them and supply enough beds. On the other hand, if the city allows the jointists to supply intoxicating liquor to anyone, it encourages more drinking and more arrests.

The Smasher’s Mail was a newspaper published in 1901 (Topeka, KS) by Carrie A. Nation (1846-1911). It was devoted to the temperance and prohibition cause.

“Maybe we should invite Carrie Nation to Hutch,” continued Florence, watching George for a predictable reaction. “She’d be able to draw a crowd to organize against the saloonists.”

George raised an eyebrow. “You know that I’m against the open saloons, there must be fifteen, twenty of them in town, but Carrie Nation has gone too far in her crusade against liquor. Even the WCTU hesitates to endorse her anymore. She’s changed from her days in Medicine Lodge when her members would assemble outside saloons to sing hymns and to pray loudly.”

“I know she’s radical,” said Florence, “and she’s been arrested many times for disturbing the peace. When she destroys saloons with her hatchet, she goes to jail; when the city police allow saloons to stay in business, they’re rewarded.”

“If Carrie Nation, the saloon smasher, destroyed property here, I’d take her to jail myself,” said George.

“But,” said Florence, “if you arrested her, I’d volunteer to help sell her hatchet pins in order to raise her bond money. Those pins are in high demand.”

George was a smart sheriff but a smarter husband. He picked up the newspaper from his desk, turned a page, and double-checked Sunday’s baseball score.  Hutchinson had defeated Joplin 4-2.

*

Until next time, happy writing and reading.

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Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: Carrie A. Nation, Charles Oswald, Charlie Oswald, Florence Tharp Duckworth, Hutchinson Kansas, Hutchinson News, Jim Potter, Judge Galle, Kansas Authors Club, Marion W. Bailey, Mayor Harsha, Midland Hotel, Reno County Sheriff, saloons in Hutchinson, Sheriff George McCammy Duckworth, Sheriffs of Reno County, The Smasher's Mail, Tim Casey, Timothy Casey, WCTU, Women's Christian Temperance Union

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alex says

    June 30, 2021 at 10:54 am

    Ha!
    Didn’t know that about Carrie Nation’s connection to Medicine Lodge.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      June 30, 2021 at 11:58 am

      Yes, she started a chapter of the WCTU in Medicine Lodge. Eventually, she was too radical for the organization.

      Reply
  2. Marilyn Bolton says

    July 2, 2021 at 9:48 am

    Interesting episode, including the good-humored exchange between George and Florence re the conduct of Carrie Nation–but they agreed on the cause!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      July 2, 2021 at 4:40 pm

      On Facebook, I had a question I answered about Carrie Nation. This was the question: “Was Carrie Nation a criminal?” What’s your response?

      Reply
      • Marilyn Bolton says

        July 3, 2021 at 3:40 pm

        Well, it’s civil disobedience in what she considered righteousness–and when we consider civil rights protests and similar events, having charges filed is a price she and others are willing to pay. I personally cannot attach the tag “criminal” to her conduct. Rosa Parks & MLK were willing to pay, as many others have done over time. That kind of civil disobedience has highlighted just causes in compelling ways.

        Reply
        • Jim Potter says

          July 3, 2021 at 4:33 pm

          Exactly. The law is interesting. I guess Larry already knows that. Thanks for your perfect response.

          Reply

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Denise Low, author of Jackalope (Red Mountain Press)

Jim Potter is a cop, retired, but he brings deep understanding of this job to his novel Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery. This layered novel has literary dimensions as characters explore crisis situations. Congratulations to this fine writer for his debut novel.

Rebecca from Proud Police Wife

Taking Back the Bullet is an emotional, yet captivating novel. Jim Potter does a superb job of intertwining each character and putting their individual identities on display. All law enforcement storylines are a true reflection of Potter’s years as a police officer because they are realistic and relatable. This is a book I highly recommend.

Dennis Perrin, educator

Masterful storytelling, exquisite character development, so real as to HURT and HOPE, a real page turner. Begs for stage, screenwriters, and visual episodic development a.k.a. TV series . . . Thanks Jim Potter for telling it like it is AND providing us visions of how it could be. Well done!

Rebecca Schillaci

As a former law enforcement officer, I found the story very relatable as it details the life of a law enforcement officer and the struggles some face throughout their careers. . . Taking Back the Bullet is a journey of understanding, respect, and forgiveness . . .

Sheryl Remar

I enjoyed the different stories of this book because Tom, James, and Suanna, the three main characters, represent in their own way the different struggles with themselves and society’s idea of what is normal.

John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement

I enjoyed your book. When I am looking for a new read, I always read the first page, last page and choose a random page somewhere in the middle before I decide to buy it. You had me on all three pages. I also like reading a book where you can relate to the characters and the settings in which they live and work. It makes a story more realistic if you can say, I am familiar with the area; I know where that town is or I have traveled that street. It was easy to relate to the characters. In one way or another, I have met them all somewhere in my journeys.

Judy Hawk

. . . I was impressed with the Native American information as well as the depth of character development . . . .

Wynona Winn, PhD, retired school superintendent

Three main characters walk different paths but with the same destination – each coping with his or her self-discovery, self-identity, and self-realization. Much like their earlier counterparts – Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield – their journeys are often joyous, often tedious and often tragic.

Diana Dester

Good story line, building the characters along the way. Great job!

Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist

Jim Potter has done it again! After his book, Cop in the Classroom: Lessons I’ve Learned, Tales I’ve Told, Jim has written another great work. In Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, Jim Potter takes us on an insightful journey into the lives and relationships of numerous characters. Jim is such a talented storyteller that the reader quickly becomes immersed and has a ‘bonding experience’ with each of the characters, feeling their joy, fear, passion and pain. Jim’s novel speaks to the empowerment of persistence with the characters as they work through their trials. As a therapist, I appreciated the heartfelt struggles from each of the characters and their diversity. I also found value in the novel’s understanding of society’s misunderstanding of both mental health and other conditions in which people struggle. The novel contains rich exposure to various realities that many of us do not know about . . . but should. When I finished this captivating novel, I was wanting to read the sequel! It was an honor and a wonderful, mesmerizing experience reading this book. Congratulations, Jim!

Jane Holzrichter

I finished it last night around midnight. What a great piece of work. It kept me intrigued all the way to the end.

Sean McArdle, Winchester, England

Retired police officer Potter’s novel centres on very disparate characters and through the tried and tested means of gradually introducing each one, builds a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen to them. This often used methodology is not easy to do well but is superbly handled by Potter who knows how to give enough detail to bring the characters to life, yet not too much so as to slow down the pace of the developing story. A climactic event affects the main characters and it is at this point Potter’s deep knowledge of people and police procedures really hits home; page by page we read how a seemingly simple, though terrible occurrence, can have huge consequences. To Potter’s credit the story does not have a completely conclusive or simplistic ending. Instead it leaves the reader thinking about how the events of a single minute can affect lives forever. I would whole heartedly recommend this book not as a crime novel or even as a novel about crime but as a beautiful and positive affirmation about what it is to be human and how ultimately it is relationships which matter more than events.

Morgan Penner

Taking Back the Bullet is a novel that provides the reader with a window into the world of law enforcement. As the novel unfolds, the reader is able to see how split-second decisions alter the lives of the main characters in the story. Taking Back the Bullet also explores how humanity is impacted by mental illness. One of my favorite quotes from Taking Back the Bullet is “We’re all just a critical moment from being disabled or mentally ill, and we don’t want to think about it.” The novel also provides the reader an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how mental illness impacts the individuals, their family, friends, and society. Taking Back the Bullet is a story of forgiveness and overcoming life’s struggles and tragedies.

Steve Becker

I’m impressed. It was an excellent read. . . . I hope you continue with more projects in the future.

Larry Kruckman, anthropologist

Jim Potter displays ethnographic skills in Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, creating vivid scenes and fascinating characters. The Greeks had a word for subcultures and people’s behavior: ‘ethos,’ or ‘ways of being.’ In colorful, sometimes marvelous detail, this novel captures various people and settings . . . the ethos of rural Kansas: a jail, art fair, powwow, rehab center, courtroom, albinos, and even someone in the throes of postpartum depression. So detailed are the descriptions that they must be drawn from the author’s personal experience. Besides the artfully created characters such as the struggling jailer and husband Tom Jennings, local artist Jesse Thomas, and Native American Joe Morningcloud, there is a tight story line that grabs your attention and won’t let go. Human tensions, love, conflict, joys and sorrows are all there. Magically, all the many pieces come together in a final crescendo, giving hope that even when we find ourselves in big trouble we can survive. This is a novel I highly recommend!

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Karleen Wilson-Moon

Terrific story relevant to today’s social issues . . . well written . . . likable characters . . . insightful perspective from an insider in law enforcement.

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