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Sheriffs of Reno County: Tom McGinn

December 9, 2020 by Jim Potter 3 Comments

https://jimpotterauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sheriffs-of-Reno-County-15-Tom-McGinn.mp3

· Tom McGinn (1883-1956)

Sheriff, December 31, 1916 – January 4, 1917

·

Tom McGinn. All photographs compliments of Frank Niemeir, unless identified otherwise.
Ethel Rose Sames McGinn. Photographer: Electric Studios, El Dorado, Kansas.

It’s late Friday afternoon, October 21, 1927, in Hutchinson, Kansas. Julia, 59, and Houston Whiteside, 81, are sitting at their dining room table when Julia stops talking, turns her head to the southeast, and announces, “The reformatory siren is going off.”

 

“I wonder who escaped,” said Houston.

*

“Which Reno County sheriff was never elected, but he served in that position for four days?” asked Julia.

“As a retired attorney,” said Houston, “I suppose Under Sheriff Tom McGinn became the official sheriff for the period of time between the death of Tom Jennings and the day Governor Capper appointed Scott Sprout the new sheriff, whether there was a swearing-in ceremony or not.

“I believe the statute stated that in the absence of the sheriff the under sheriff shall carry out the duties of the office,” Houston continued.

“It may not matter to anyone else,” said Julia, “but it might matter to Tom McGinn. Being sheriff was an ambition he held for many years, but obviously, he didn’t want it due to Tom’s death.”

“Earlier, we were talking about Deputy Don Jennings not being appointed sheriff when the governor chose Republican Scott Sprout to replace Tom Jennings after his fatal car crash,” said Houston.

“Yes,” said Julia, “politics.”

“In my mind,” said Houston, “there’s no question that Tom McGinn, an experienced lawman, was better prepared than Deputy Don Jennings or farmer Scott Sprout.”

Reno County Under Sheriff Tom McGinn, 1911-1916

“Tom had been under sheriff for two terms with Koon Beck and one term for Tom Jennings,” said Julia. “He was ready.”

“At least Sprout had worked towards becoming sheriff while he was on the campaign trail,” said Houston. “I thought it was magnanimous of Sprout to offer Tom McGinn and Don Jennings positions in his new administration.”

“Neither one of them could accept his offer,” said Julia. “Within a few days of the governor’s appointment, they were both hired by the Hutchinson police force.

“I remember how generous Tom McGinn was to the Jennings family after Tom’s fatal car wreck,” continued Julia. “Even though he was ambitious to be promoted, he offered to be Don’s under sheriff if the governor appointed Don as the new sheriff.”

“That act of generosity to the Jennings family proved to me that McGinn had the integrity to be anyone’s boss,” concluded Houston.

“Maybe someday he’ll be a chief or a sheriff,” said Julia. “He’s continued his law enforcement career, first by solving crimes on the Hutchinson police force, and then in Butler County at El Dorado and Oil City.

*

“Tom and Ethel McGinn have also shown their generosity and character by raising Dorothy Sames, their niece, as though she was their own child,” said Julia. “She must be 15 years old now.”

“I wonder if Dorothy is musically inclined like the rest of the Sames family,” continued Julia.

“The Sames ladies play the piano and sing, but not as well as you, dear,” said Houston.

*

The talented Sames family had gathered two months earlier for a family celebration at the Charles and Effie Chandler home in Hutchinson, Kansas.

*

Dorothy Sames in the El Dorado High School yearbook, El Doradoan, covering school year 1927-28.

“Are you sure Clara will be at the family reunion today?” asked Dorothy, 15, of her aunt and uncle, Ethel and Tom McGinn, who were raising her.

“Of course she’ll be there,” answered Ethel, “it’s at her house. You two can sit together, but remember the party is in honor of my sister, Mattie. It’s her 40th birthday. She won’t be here very long before returning to LA.”

As Tom drove the car, he recalled his youth as an only child. After his father’s death, it was just he and his mother, Emma, a family of two.

Over the years, since Thomas and Ethel Rose were married in 1911, they had attended a good many family functions.  Ethel was one of seven children. Tom always enjoyed any get together, especially if Effie Kate Sames Chandler, Ethel’s twin, was there. Tom liked to observe the two of them as they aged.

Tom remembered 1912. That year, the twins, age 27, were each expecting a baby. Effie and her husband, Charles Chandler, named their baby girl, Clara Belle.

Unfortunately, the Christmas baby Ethel and Tom expected, was born and died the same day.

Mattie Gertrude Sames Bixler, 1927

Mattie Gertrude Sames, the youngest sibling of Ethel and Effie, also gave birth in 1912. Mattie and husband, John Bixler, Sr., welcomed Helen Margaret (their fourth of seven surviving children).

Ethel, Effie, and Mattie, had one brother, William Frances Sames. He and his wife, Addie Bell, also had a child in 1912. They named her Dorothy.

L-R: Ethel Rose Sames McGinn, Effie Kate Sames Chandler, Clara Belle Chandler, & Dorothy B. Sames, at family celebration, August 10, 1927. Frank Niemeir Photograph Collection

It was Dorothy, niece of Tom and Ethel, who was welcomed into their home after the absence of her parents. William’s death in 1920, after a lingering illness due to the flu epidemic, started the collapse. Ultimately, Dorothy left Shawnee, Oklahoma, for a new, supportive family in El Dorado, Kansas.

*

“Will Uncle John and Uncle Thurman be there?” asked Dorothy.

“We’ll see,” said Ethel.

“The photograph we have at home with the airplane, is that of Uncle John or Uncle TJ?” asked Dorothy. Click to see photo: T. J. Bixler with airplane in 1904

“That’s TJ,” answered Ethel, “but both of them were aviators and assembled their plane together. John studied with the Wright brothers in Dayton, Ohio, and holds an international pilot license from the Aero Club of America.”

“My favorite photograph of them is the one with the four boys in their band uniforms,” said Dorothy.” Click to see photo: Bixler Boys Band

“Yes, that’s my favorite too,” answered Ethel. “They were cute boys, but so was Tom, when he was younger.”

“What do you mean when I was younger?” asked Tom of Ethel, as he opened his mouth in an exaggerated expression. Click to see photo: Thomas McGinn

Clara Chandler. Senior class photograph in Hutchinson High School’s 1929-30 Allagaroo Yearbook. Collection at Hutchinson Public Library’s Kansas Room. Compliments of Reference Services.
Dorothy Sames. Senior class photograph in Hutchinson High School’s 1929-30 Allagaroo Yearbook. Hutchinson Public Library’s Kansas Room Collection. Also, Mike Ford Collection

“There’s Clara!” shouted Dorothy, as Uncle Tom slowed and parked the automobile.

“I’m so excited to get an opportunity to see Mattie again!” said Ethel.

As Tom turned off the engine, he added, “I sure hope they have cherry pie with ice cream.”

*

Until next time, happy writing and reading.

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Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: Addie Bell Sames, Charles Chandler, Clara Belle Chandler, Clara Chandler, Conard-Harmon Collection, Don Jennings, Dorothy Sames, Effie Kate Sames Chandler, El Dorado High School, El Doradoan, Electric Studio, Ethel Rose Sames McGinn, Frank Niemeir, Governor Arthur Capper, Houston Whiteside, Hutchinson Kansas, Hutchinson News, Hutchinson Public Library, Jim Potter, John Albert Bixler Sr., Julia Clementine Latimer Whiteside, Kansas Authors Club, Mattie Gertrude Sames Bixler, McInturff Studio, Mike Ford, Reno County, Reno County Sheriff, Reno County Sheriff Tom Jennings, Scott Sprout, Sheriff Konrad Beck, Sheriff Scott Sprout, Sheriff Tom Jennings, Sheriff Tom McGinn, Sheriffs of Reno County, Steve Harmon, Thomas McGinn, Thurman Bixler, Tom Jennings, Tom McGinn, Under Sheriff Tom McGinn, William Frances Sames

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Comments

  1. Nancy Julien Kopp says

    December 9, 2020 at 11:50 am

    I wonder how many people realize how much research you have done to produce these wonderful pieces of history. Well done, Jim.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      December 9, 2020 at 12:06 pm

      Nancy,
      Yes, very few people have any idea the research that goes into historical non-fiction.
      Thanks for knowing.
      Jim

      Reply
  2. Jim Potter says

    July 17, 2021 at 5:15 pm

    Dorothy Sames graduated from Hutchinson High School in 1930. In the year book, Allagaroo, she was described this way: “The friendly, smiling, good-natured blonde. Syn: Affable.”

    Reply

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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 . . .

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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

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