The morning of June 9, 1867, Michael O’Marrah was found “in a dying condition” on a north Wyandotte street.

Doctors were called, but O’Marrah died the following day without speaking a word. His skull had been fractured in several places.

O’Marrah was described as “ a quiet, sober and industrious farmer, living west of town.” He had little money, if any, on his person. However, Undersheriff Silas Armstrong was able to identify the goods that O’Marrah had purchased the evening before, including a bucket and a piece of soap.

The bucket and soap were found in the possession of Mrs. Matilda Webster. A. J. Chrysler, who had sold the items to O’Marrah, positively identified them. Upon that identification, Mrs.

Webster was arrested and confined to jail.

When pressed by Undersheriff Armstrong, Mrs. Webster, a woman of color, said that she had seen two white men attack O’Marrah. One of the men knocked O’Marrah down using a club with a crook in it while the other jumped on his chest and choked him. When the murderers saw her, they “told her to go home and hold her tongue...” They added that they would kill her if she said anything about it. Then she was given O’Marrah’s bucket and soap and sent away.

While Mrs. Webster was jailed, unnamed visitors pressed her to implicate Daniel Webster, along with Tom Vanburen. Mr. Webster just happened to be her husband. Facing multiple threats of death, she changed her story saying that her husband and Vanburen were the murderers. The two were charged on June 11 and confined to jail.

In court the next day, John Buckley testified that Daniel Webster was working at his place 5 miles west of town. He ate supper at Buckley’s house before going home the night of the attack.

The next morning he was back at Buckley’s for breakfast. Buckley described Webster as a quiet man.

Under promised protection from Sheriff Ferguson, Mrs. Webster testified that her husband had indeed eaten supper at the Buckley’s; she was with him. After returning home they sang and prayed and went to bed. Mrs.

Webster was in the habit of getting up several times in the night to smoke. Webster was in bed each time she got up. Both Mr. and Mrs.

Smock testified that Tom Vanburen boarded at their house, a 20 feet by 18 feet box house with one room and two beds.

The Smocks slept in one bed and Vanburen in the other. Mrs. Smock did not go to bed until long after both men had retired. She stated that, “Tom could not have gone out while I was awake without my knowing it ... I got up first in the morning and found Tom in bed as usual.”

That evening, July 12, two men lectured on the steps of the courthouse in favor of granting Black men the right to vote.

The orators were Black abolitionist Charles Henry Langston and Daniel B. Hadley. Langston’s forthcoming grandson would be poet and activist Langston Hughes. It was reported that the words of Langston and Hadley inflamed the crowd, but an eyewitness declared that nothing of the kind had happened.

It was evident that Webster and Vanburen were innocent. However, a certain faction of citizens were determined to make the prisoners pay for O’Marrah’s murder. Someone calling himself “X” wrote in the Kansas Journal that the details of the “‘humiliating transaction” should never see the light of day. However, the Wyandotte Commercial Gazette published a letter from John M. Reichneker describing the scene witnessed from his brother’s home near the jail.

In the early morning hours of June 13, 1867, Reichneker was awakened by screams. He could hear the jail door being broken down. Webster was dragged outside with a rope around his neck. At the porch of the court house the rope was thrown over a beam and “the poor unfortunate man was drawn up.”

He was left hanging for about 15 minutes before being taken down. To everyone’s surprise, Webster drew a breath. Reichneker noted, “All terror seemed to have left him, for he seemed perfectly resigned to his fate and said that he was going home.” Suddenly one of the mob placed a revolver against Webster’s chest and fired.

Reichneker then heard “telling blows dealt right and left” as Tom Vanburen fought for his life. He broke free against 10 or 12 assailants before someone cried out, “Shoot him, shoot him!” A shot rang out and Vanburen fell upon his face. One of the men stepped forward and shot Vanburen with a musket. He then walked to Webster’s body and shot him once more.

The catastrophe of that evening was labeled the Wyandotte Tragedy. Mr. “X” wrote, “...a sense of justice compels me to say that in all human probability, the two colored men were as innocent of the crime charged against them as you and I...”

Four months later, Mrs. Webster had become “a raving maniac.” Authorities pronounced her insane, and her six children were thrown upon the charities of the world without the care of a natural protector to make it as best they could in an uncertain province on The Way West.

“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@