BJ Alderman is a native of Kansas and has spent the past five years researching the life and times of Sheriff Jim and Kate Weakley. Articles written by BJ have appeared in the November 2002 and March 2003 issues of the Chronicle of The Old West and the Winter issue of Cumberland County History of Carlisle, PA.

Readers may also enjoy articles by this author in other fine Old West publications. Her most current article appears in the May/June issue of Kansas Cowboy.

Recently, BJ also received the Tihen Research Grant for 2003-2004 from the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka.

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Part 2

When last we visited Russell City, Kansas, the year was 1876 and The Centennial Hotel had just opened. Our readers will remember that The Centennial had suffered total destruction during the July tornado while it underwent construction. Just before Christmas, the townspeople had donned their formal apparel and enjoyed themselves at the Ball held to inaugurate the new hotel. The sense of community, strengthened as a result of pulling together to put the town to rights after the cyclone, continued into 1877. As a result, a good time was had by all and the Ball was a rousing success.

The restaurant associated with The Centennial Hotel became a favorite dining spot, especially for local businessmen and their families. It was only in Winter that the business owners enjoyed any leisure time before Spring brought hordes of perspective settlers among them. Russell City experienced waves of potential new citizens - 60 to 75 alighted from the train each week - as those in the East sought to move West.
The town also fed and re-supplied the growing number of emigrants traveling through by covered wagon. Once replaced by rail travel, the oxen-powered covered wagon enjoyed a resurgence of popularity at this time. It was slower but cheaper to move West via your own set of wheels.

For all of the restaurant patronage that January, the mortgage on the hotel had to be paid and the 1877 emigrants were two or three months away. Then there were the local businesses that had supplied lumber and other building materials, provided all that a hotel needed in order to accommodate guests and feed the public, and all of those carpenters and contractors to be paid for their mighty effort to complete The Centennial by Christmas. The local folks were very understanding and willing to wait until Spring, right up until the situation began to fall apart.

Elias and Addie Helm had gone over to the bank in November of 1876 and talked things over with Mr. Ackerman and Mr. Copeland. Their money had all been spent to rebuild the hotel and there were bills to be paid but little hope of many paying guests until Spring. A loan was arranged, to be paid back on the installment plan with the first payment due in January. With the wisdom of hindsight, it seems an unrealistic plan to expect first payment during the dead of winter, given the lack of hotel guests coming through until March or April, but such were the terms of the note signed by the Helms. Unfortunately, Elias and Addie could not pay come January. Elias left town to line up an investor or two, and Addie agreed to run the hotel and restaurant.
It isnt clear exactly what precipitated that which came next, but one can surmise that Addie grew tired of having to run the entire endeavor alone and fend off creditors. Perhaps she got word from Elias that he was having no luck at finding investors.

For whatever reason, on February 2, 1877, the Russell Record reported that last week Mrs. Helm, of the Centennial Hotel, got up and dusted in a rather mysterious manner, and the creditors closed in to take possession. At present Ackerman & Copeland are running the Hotel, and we understand the various claims are being adjusted according to law. This notice marked the start of the myriad lawsuits that pitted businessman against businessman, businessman against sheriff, constable against judge, judge against judge, and threatened the newfound harmony of the four year old county.

When Elias went one direction and Addie the other, not only was their loan unpaid, but there were no Helms with whom to confer - a situation that always makes creditors anxious. Ackerman and Copeland took steps to foreclose and stepped in to run the hotel as best they could. However, in doing so, they opened the proverbial can of worms.

Creditors emerged from everywhere with their hands out. Hanging like a thunderstorm over the county was the question: Why should Ackerman and Copeland be the sole beneficiary of the hotels continued operations when everyone was owed money?

So it came to pass that the local lawyers enjoyed a prosperous 1877. Here are the particulars in order of occurrence:
Back in December, Thomas Gruver quietly filed a lien for construction work valued at $105.
Ackerman & Copeland wanted their $463.84 plus interest (+int) for the loan.
Gruvers claim against Helm was paid off by GA Hart, who then requested that the hotel be sold at Sheriffs Sale and the money applied to the lien hed just purchased from Gruver, since the original lien was filed before Ackerman and Copeland took action.
Menoah Miles put in for $19.85 (+int) for construction materials.
WC Hobbs wanted $795.95 (+int) for lumber and construction materials.
Mr. Arbuckle asked for $727.26 (+int) for goods and materials for the hotel.
GA Hart required $147.25 (+int) from Helm but his name began appearing alongside Helms on other lawsuits.
Hiram Wentworth was owed $127.26 (+int) for construction materials.
Stephen B. Andrews, a new emigrant and contractor, applied for $152.50 (+int) for the work hed been promised $2.50/hr to finish.

By late February, the District Court awarded the hotel to Ackerman and Copeland in spite of Harts claim of prior lien due to paying off Gruver. Thomas Gruver, it turned out, was the only creditor who made out well in the early days of 1877.

Sheriff Weakley served the District Court summons on Elias and Addie Helm by tacking it to the front door of the Helms residence as no one was home to accept it. This piece of paper was joined by another shortly thereafter as Mr. Hobbs sued Elias Helm too.

In early March, the suits above were joined by a case brought by Hobbs vs. Elias Helm, Addie Helm, Ackerman & Copeland, GA Hart, and poor Stephen Andrews, who must have wondered why he ever brought his family to this quagmire of a county. The filing of this last case forced the Court to order all cases be consolidated into something manageable. The Court declared that Elias and Addie Helm defaulted on their payments to everyone and ordered the Sheriff to sell their home and hotel to the highest bidders at Sheriffs Sales.

Not one to stand idly by even at this late date, Elias Helm appeared out of the blue, pockets empty, and sued the Sheriff for unlawfully taking his property. Not the hotel itself, but the following contents: 9 counterpanes, 9 pair of white blankets, 5 colored blankets, 9 bed comforts, 2 pillow cases, 3 red table spreads, 16 towels, 7 lamps, 4 wash basins, 3 wash tubs, 3 wooden pails, 7 tin dishes, 1 coffee mill, 1 clock, 2 one-gallon jugs all of which he claimed were valued at $98.20 and supposedly exempt, according to Elias, from being included with the hotel when the Federal District Court ordered the Sheriff to impound everything. After Elias stated his case to Judge Perce, a Justice of the Peace, Perce ordered the Constable to summon Sheriff Weakley to his office to answer Helms charges. At the same time, Constable Kraus was ordered by Judge Perce to take into custody all of the items the Sheriff had taken from the hotel. Constable Kraus was also ordered to return all items promptly to Elias Helm.

This last order put Kraus in a predicament as the Sheriff had not been given a hearing at this point, yet the Judge appeared to have determined that the Sheriff was in the wrong. Constable Kraus responded to his orders by serving Perces summons on Sheriff Weakley, collected all of the goods in question as instructed, and promptly handed them back to the Sheriff.

Helm had also gone to Perce with his complaint against Ackerman and Copeland for taking a cook stove and vessels consisting of 2 spiders, 2 pots, 1 iron tea kettle, 1 copper wash boiler, 2 dripping pans, 2 cake griddles, 1 coffee boiler, 1 steamer, 1 iron heater, a set of muffin molds plus 1 dipper, a wash board, six milk pans, a square table, 3 one-gallon crocks, a husk mattress, 2 glass lamps, 1 globe lantern, six stool bottom chairs, 3 different stool bottom chairs, a rocking chair with a cane seat, two table cloths, a mincing knife, 2 large meat dishes, 4 small bowls, a large water pitcher, and oil can, 6 sheets, four feather pillows, 13 large plates, 6 tea cups and saucers, 6 knives and forks, a butcher knife, a set of 6 silver tea spoons, 4 plated table spoons, 36 yards of rag carpet, 3 bed ticks, a stone china washer bowl and pitcher, 4 cake pans, 3 three-pint tin basins, 1 looking glass, a pair of bedsteads all of which were valued at $98.65. Judge Perce ordered Constable Kraus to serve a summons on Ackerman and Copeland to appear in Perces office to answer the charge, take all of the items in question into custody, and return them to Helm. Kraus repeated his previous actions taken at the Sheriffs office by serving the summons, collecting the goods, and returning all of them to Ackerman and Copeland instead of Elias Helm.

On the appointed day for his hearing before Justice of the Peace Perce, Sheriff Weakley arrived in the company of the County Attorney and Judge Asa Kinney of the Federal District Court. The County Attorney informed Judge Perce that Helms suit must be dropped for several reasons, the most important being that Perce had no jurisdiction in such a case since it was the District Court that had ordered the defendant in this case to seize the hotel and its chattel. He went on to delineate several additional facts such as the Justice of the Peace has no jurisdiction over Sheriff Weakley; there were insufficient affidavits; et cetera for a total of six separate reasons.

Then Judge Kinney rose from his chair, strode forward and stood like God before Judge Perce. Kinney confirmed the truth of what the County Attorney had just pronounced. He then gave Judge Perce a lecture about how the courts in this country were arranged in a hierarchy and Perce knew better than to take on the Federal District Court. Perce had no option but to dismiss the case. Perce struck the block with his gavel and declared the case dismissed and then charged Helm $6.20 in court costs.

Not prone to take no for an answer, a week later Helm decided to appeal Perces decision that his court had no jurisdiction over Sheriff Weakley. He talked GA Hart and Benjamin Moon into putting up $50 to cover court costs if Helm lost his appeal. He lost.

The first Sheriffs Sale, for the Helms house, proceeded as planned in late April. Hiram Wentworth outbid everyone for the Helms residence and paid $25 for the title. He turned a tidy profit a short while later when he sold the house to a new settler.

While awaiting the Courts decision about whether he would get his $160 plus interest, new Russell County citizen Stephen B. Andrews suffered another setback. A prairie fire started out past his place and spread toward his home and outbuildings. Several members of the family rushed to fight the blaze, but they were inexperienced with the terrible ways of prairie fires. Old Mr. Andrews tried to return to the house but being feeble, was overcome by the heat and smoke. He fell. The family found him later, burned to death. His neighbors wondered if Stephen would continue in Russell County after all he hed gone through.

By the end of May, the next chapter in the Helm saga unfolded at the Sheriffs Sale of the hotel. Ackerman and Copeland, the high bidders, bought the building for $900. While the partners continued to narrow a list of potential managers to run The Centennial, they continued to run the hotel well into the summer. Elias Helm tried to sue the Sheriff for accepting too low a price for the hotel, but that didnt fly. The legal system in Russell County had grown a bit tired of Elias Helm by that time. Just after the first anniversary of the Centennial Cyclone, the Centennial Hotel cyclone whimpered to a close. Eventually all creditors were reimbursed for their time and materials.

Elias Helm stayed on in Russell City, showing up in the 1880 census as a blacksmith. Addie Helm, on the other hand, remained a former resident of Russell City and was never heard from again. As Russell County continued to grow, there were other ups and downs as time went on.

Around the turn of the century, a family named Dole took up a section of land near that owned by Sheriff Weakleys sister-in-law, but they couldnt make a go of it. The Doles moved into Russell City, which was known as plain old Russell by then. Mr. Doles grandson joined the legal profession, the oldest profession in the county, and eventually went into politics. Senator Bob Dole is Russells favorite son.

Copyright © 2003  BJ Alderman. No unauthorized reproduction or transmission by any means whatsoever permitted under federal criminal law.