In May of 1868 the Kansas Pacific Railway had yet to reach the border with Colorado. The frontier towns of Ellsworth and Hays City drew rough crowds of men and women with little regard for law and order.

The Junction City Weekly Union printed a Hays City eyewitness account that noted that, “shooting at each other is the standard amusement of the lively population, four persons having been shot in a single week, recently; might is right, and the revolver is the court of first and last appeal.”

All was quiet in Kansas with the plains tribes due to the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty the previous fall of 1867. Even so, residents of Hays City and Ellsworth were calling for Gov. Crawford to raise an Indian fighting militia to support the limited force of soldiers at frontier military posts.

In the midst of the wild atmosphere in the towns and camps on the Kansas frontier, citizens were regularly troubled by horse thieves. Gangs of thieves were known to inhabit the isolated unsettled regions where they could operate to a great extent beyond the law.

The editor of the Hays City Railway Advance noted that the country was “infested by a band of renegade white men and Indians, who plunder and murder all who are unfortunate enough to fall into their clutches.” There are many

There are many accounts relating to the theft of horses. The May 20, 1868, Lawrence Daily Kansas Tribune chronicled an interesting story in their “State News” column.

The story began with a report of the theft of “two valuable horses” owned by Mr. John E. Green, a few miles west of Salina, Kansas, on May 6, 1868. The thieves stopped to help themselves to some food in the kitchen before taking the horses that had been left tied to a stand near the house.

Two more horses were stolen from Evander Light the next night. Light lived five miles west of Salina where he maintained, among his many business ventures, a timber business cutting ties from stands of timber for railroad construction.

Constable E. H. Eames had received intelligence that the thieves were traveling north toward Ottawa County the following week. On Thursday, May 14, he set out in that direction raising a posse from the settlers as he went.

Early the morning of the 15th the posse caught up to Charles Smith in Lincoln County. Smith claimed to be out hunting buffalo. Unfortunately for Smith, the bay horse he was riding was one of those stolen the week before. Smith was released but the horse was taken by the constable and his posse.

Continuing the pursuit two riders were spotted and identified as James King and Charles Demorest. Having a head start on the posse the outlaws gave the posse a lively 15-mile chase. King and Demorest, known as notorious horse thieves, had the advantage with fresh horses. The posse exchanged shots with the outlaws, but having covered many miles that morning the posse’s horses soon fell behind.

The shots were over-heard by a passing band of Arapahos led by Greywolf, who maintained friendly relations on the frontier. They approached just as the posse had given up the chase. When informed of the situation, three of the Arapahos started after the thieves.

The Salina Herald reported that the Indians rode good horses, and “it is supposed they caught up with and killed the thieves” as there was no further communication with the Arapahos. The thefts in Ellsworth, Lincoln, Ottawa, and Saline counties were well organized, suggesting that a syndicate of thieves were operating in the area. The editor of the Herald called for the organization of a vigilance committee to deal with the thieves.

As for the fate of King and Demorest, we learned that they apparently survived the Arapahos. In September James King was sentenced to four years in the penitentiary for grand larceny and another year for “breaking jail and escape.” King was raised at Emporia and had been in trouble since he stole a pony “as a mere youth.”

James King may have thought he was down on his luck at the time. Hopefully, he learned his lesson while being stowed away behind bars. The vigilante justice that the editor of the Herald called for became the standard remedy to the loss of horses across the state of Kansas. The desperate life of stealing horses very often led to a short life. Many of King’s saddle pals literally came to the end of their rope following their chosen profession on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.