Ellsworth, Kan., was established on the edge of the Kansas frontier in the spring of 1867.

The first railroad across Kansas was building westward across the state. Ellsworth served as the end-of-track supply post for several months. Even as the track approached Hays City, Ellsworth remained one of the wildest towns on the line.

The Civil War had ended just two years before and violence reigned supreme in what then was known as “the border towns.”

The town had just overcome a cholera epidemic that saw men dying in the streets and gravediggers working around the clock. Meanwhile, Ellsworth found itself knee-deep in the primal ritual of masculine blood-letting. In the month of September Kansas newspapers were filled with tales of reverie and chaos.

The denizens of Ellsworth were keeping U. S. Marshal Charles C. Whiting busy, according to several newspaper accounts. The Sept. 5 Topeka Weekly Leader noted that Marshal Whiting had passed through Topeka on the train with two government prisoners charged with stealing mules.

Two weeks before the marshal had escorted three prisoners to Leavenworth. One man had robbed the United States mail at Fort Harker. The other two were mule thieves. But Marshal Whiting’s exploits were tame compared to the everyday happenings in Ellsworth.

Irene Irving, formerly of Lawrence, Kan. had recently returned to Lawrence, although not of her own accord. The Lawrence Tribune related that on Tuesday, Sept. 3, she had killed a man. She was “Lodged in jail for safe keeping,” from the good citizens of Ellsworth, who called for a lynching. They were thwarted from doing so when she unexpectedly escaped custody. However, she was eventually re-arrested and sent out of town by train to save her life.

Rail service to Ellsworth had begun in July. Regular service had only been in place the past few weeks.

The Union Pacific was rapidly laying track to the west of town, piercing the very heart of the prime hunting lands of the Cheyenne and Sioux, among many other plains tribes. That fact was confirmed in a Leavenworth Times notice, published in its Sept. 6 edition. “Buffalos have been seen in large droves near Ellsworth.”

Fort Harker was four miles east of Ellsworth, making for an interesting mix of soldiers, gamblers, horse thieves, prostitutes, railroad men, bullwhackers, saloon men, and adventurers of every sort; all of them dangerous. Fort Harker sat at the fork of trails that led west to Fort Hays and southwest to Forts Zarah and Larned.

In a letter to the Pottawatomie Gazette, dated Sept. 10, 1867, R. A. Wilson wrote that scouts had seen 900 Indians between Fort Larned and Fort Hays. Two wagon trains had been attacked, wagons burned, and men killed.

Troops and government supply trains were constantly traveling the connecting trails and were regularly subject to surprise attack on the vast open prairie. Railroad workers left the job for fear of attack.

In Ellsworth, madness seemed the order of the day. On Monday morning, Sept. 9, a man by the name of Ladd confronted a crew of men unloading a box car for the United States Express Company. According to the Leavenworth Daily Commercial, “After two or three invitations to leave, without heeding them, one of the Express men hit him, knocking him off the platform on to the track. Ladd being a powerful man ... immediately got upon the platform again, when a general pitched battle between him and his friends, and the Express agent and his friends ensued. The Ladd party were finally defeated and left, with bruised limbs, mashed heads and bloody noses.”

Several papers gave differing accounts of the wild shootout that occurred Wednesday night Sept. 11. Apparently, a man by the name of John Hancock argued with Frank Johnson in Clara (or Cora) Grant’s brothel. Pistols flashed. Hancock was backed by the Farrell brothers, flourishing their own shootin’ irons. When the smoke cleared Hancock was dead, Johnson was dying, and several bystanders were wounded. The Farrell brothers slipped out of town. Lawmen arrested them at Fort Harker on Sept. 20.

The body of John Essman, a liquor merchant from Leavenworth, was found on the prairie near Ellsworth on the 23rd. The following Thursday, Sept. 26, “One-Eyed” Charlie Blunt and a friend walked into Paddy Welch’s barroom. Following “a tirade of abuse and oaths,” Blunt raised his pistol and announced, “I’m going to shoot you!” Welch reached under the bar for his “navy” pistol. The muzzles of both pistols collided as shots were fired, causing each shot to go astray. Blunt hesitated before his second shot. Welch did not. With a lead ball in his chest, Blunt ran outside, collapsed and died. Welch was acquitted of any charges the same night.

The Commercial of the 29th noted that, “Our Recorder should hereafter sentence Vagrants to go to Ellsworth. Once there they’ll never get back.” End of track Ellsworth was unfortunately the end of the line for many a traveler 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.