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Sheriffs of Reno County: Henry Hartford

September 16, 2020 by Jim Potter 4 Comments

https://jimpotterauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sheriffs-of-Reno-County-2-Henry-Hartford-online-audio-converter.com_.mp3

· Henry Hartford (1837-1919)

Sheriff 1874-1876

Photograph from History of Reno County, Kansas: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Vol. 2, by Sheridan Ploughe (B. F. Bowen & Co., 1917)·
Lt. Col. Henry Hartford, 8th New Jersey Volunteers, c1865. Photographer Kennedy & Schenck, Newark, NJ.

Houston Whiteside, 81, sips his coffee and looks out the front window of the mayor’s Oxford Café, Hutchinson, Kansas. His wife, Julia Clementine Latimer, 59, is talking about being a judge for an upcoming radio contest. It’s Saturday, October 8, 1927.

*

Houston Whiteside watched as a police officer hung a green ticket on an automobile parked too long on Main Street. In his head, the retired attorney-at-law, and former Reno County Attorney, contrasted the early days of Hutchinson to the present. What a difference a half-century could make!

In the earliest of days, the founder of Hutchinson, C. C. Hutchinson, had given away lots to encourage the growth of the town. Now, Police Chief George Duckworth—a former Reno County Sheriff—at the direction of the city council, especially the mayor, said the two-hour parking tickets were necessary to discourage local citizens from parking in front of local businesses all day. The establishments wanted to cater to their out-of-town customers and make it easy for them to load their cars with merchandise.

Whiteside, who had his 81st birthday a day earlier, had recently been thinking about Henry Harford who died at the same age in 1919. In the early years of Reno County, Hartford, who lived in Medora Township—and was the county’s second sheriff—had appreciated the businesses that offered enough hitching rails for their customers.

The State of NJ first honored its Civil War veterans with a commemorative medal in 1901. It was called the “First Defenders’ Medal” and given to honorably discharged officers & men from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th regiments of the “New Jersey brigade-militia” who mustered in at Trenton on May 1, 1861 to serve for three months. The medal in this photo belonged to either Henry or his brother, William Hartford.
Lynne Hartford Collection

Hartford was a leader of men, and had risen from private to colonel during the Civil War. He first enlisted for 90-days, but after three months—and the war not over yet—mustered into the Eighth New Jersey Volunteers, Union Army, until the war ended. Eventually, he led the regiment, and commanded a brigade, in some of the hardest fighting in the Richmond Campaign. During numerous, fierce, military engagements, he showed his gallantry and was highly decorated. He was seriously wounded five times.

In his early teens, Whiteside was severely injured as a member of a patrol guard in his home country, Bedford County, Tennessee.

After a few years of school teaching and learning law, Whiteside migrated from Tennessee to Kansas, with plans to put his attorney-at-law degree to good use.

Hartford, a native of Londonderry County, Ireland, born February 8, 1837, crossed the Atlantic Ocean at age 18 in 1855, on one of the first steamships to make the journey. He settled in New York City with the help of his brother, William, who had arrived before him. Their widowed mother and sisters joined them later.

In 1867, the Hartford family located to Leavenworth, Kansas, where Henry and his brother worked in the commission business. The Hartford’s moved to Reno County in 1872, filing a homestead claim in the Medora area that became a 1,000 acre ranch engaged in farming and stock raising, known as the Hillsview Stock Farm.

Colonel Hartford, a Republican, was elected to the position of Reno County sheriff on November 3, 1873, and served one, two-year term. In the 1875 election for sheriff, he was defeated by John M. Hedrick, another Union veteran.

“What are you daydreaming about?” asked Julia of her husband.

“Oh, I was thinking about Henry Hartford,” answered Houston.

“He was a good citizen. He took an active part in the community. He had a great interest in developing the farming and stock interests in the county, and was a promoter of the fair association here, and one of the officials of the fair for a long time.”

Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument

“The last time I remember seeing Alice and Henry together,” said Julia, “was at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ monument dedication. Both of them were active with the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic). Alice, bless her heart, is still involved with the Women’s Relief Club to support the veterans and their widows.”

“It was Flag Day,” said Houston.

“What?” asked Julia.

“The dedication of the monument at First Avenue and Walnut was on Flag Day in 1919. Henry died the same year . . . in the Fall,” said Houston.

“He was born in Ireland, survived the Civil War, and served a term as sheriff during dark economic times, a drought, and a devastating grasshopper invasion; yet, his life was just getting started. Within a couple of years of serving as sheriff, he became a naturalized citizen, with all its rights and privileges, and then he married his neighbor, Alice Elizabeth Thomas. She came to Little River Township from Indiana with her parents about the time the Hartford’s arrived. Her family, going back a couple of generations, were from Ireland.”

“I remember Alice telling me that she was a school teacher before she married,” said Julia. “I know she taught at Obee School.”

“Two of her children have taken after her, that’s for sure,” said Houston.

“Yes, I believe Etta and May are still teaching in the Hutchinson schools,” said Julia.

“I haven’t seen Alice for a long time,” said Houston, “but she’s always had a great deal of character and clarity in her vision. As a pioneer woman, she understood about hard living in a new country. During the grasshopper invasion in 1874, after they ravaged the fields and trees, the creatures even ate the laundry off clotheslines and food from inside our homes. And while the chickens ate the hungry pests, this caused the chickens to taste so bad, people wouldn’t eat the chickens!

Eastside             Cemetery
Hutchinson, Kansas

“A lot of the settlers gave up and returned east,” continued Houston, “but not the Hartfords. It rained on March 14 and never rained again until August 1. The wind blew every day and it was often a hot wind. There were no crops, the grasshopper raid in July had destroyed and eaten up everything that grew.”

“Enough people had faith in the future to stay,” said Julia, “but I’m glad I missed those hardships.”

“Henry used to say, ‘the locusts ate everything but the mortgage,’” commented Houston.

“That reminds me,” said Julia, “I need to get in touch with Alice. She invited me to be her guest at the next Women’s Relief Club meeting.”

“Even at her age,” said Houston, “she’s still involved with the First Christian Church and raising funds for the care of Civil War veterans and their widows.”

“Alice has a big heart,” said Julia. “Henry also cared deeply for others, and he had a contagious sense of humor.”

“He was always telling jokes,” agreed Houston. “Do you remember this one? ‘Why did the Irishman wear red suspenders?’”

Julia smiled and nodded, then quickly replied, “To keep his pants up.”

*

Until next time, happy writing and reading.

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Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: 8th New Jersey Volunteers, Alice Elizabeth Thomas Hartford, C. C. Hutchinson, Chief George Duckworth, First Call Medal, First Defenders' Medal, Henry Hartford, Houston Whiteside, Hutchinson Kansas, Jim Potter, Julia Clementine Latimer Whiteside, Kansas Authors Club, Leavenworth Kansas, Reno County Sheriff, Sheriff Fay Brown's Badge, Sheriff Henry Hartford, Sheriffs of Reno County, William Hartford, Women's Relief Corps

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alex says

    September 16, 2020 at 7:53 am

    Fantastic research!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      September 16, 2020 at 8:17 am

      Yes, research is a delightful rabbit hole!

      Reply
  2. Pat Bussen says

    September 23, 2020 at 10:32 am

    “The locusts ate everything but the mortgage.” I gotta remember that one! 😄

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      September 23, 2020 at 10:42 am

      Thanks for reading, Pat! It’s difficult to imagine how bad it was. Consider this: “Reliable reports of an immense swarm in 1875 revealed a ‘stream’ of locusts 110 miles wide moving northward over the Midwest continuously for five days.”

      Reply

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What People Are Saying

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!

Larry Kruckman
Anthropologist
Karleen Wilson-Moon

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

Karleen Wilson-Moon

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