CA459

Wichita County Beginnings (Kelly, Louise, 1982)
(C. Avis Catalog entry #459)

For other assorted references to the Avis family see Transcript

p. 43, 44, 45  

CITY NATIONAL BANK ROBBERY
February 25, 1896

The robbing of the City National Bank and the capture and hanging of the robbers has been told many times by many people, some who knew bits of it, some by hearsay. John Gould, columnist on the Times for many years, researched and wrote the most accurate account, publishing it in the paper in four parts in 1951. However, I feel that Gould relies too much on the autobiography of Bill McDonald, who, after all, was not present during the real action (nor was W.J.L. Sullivan) and, as Gould says, neither gave himself the worst of any situation. I have used individual interviews and memoirs of people who participated, or who had good reason to know, and some additional records. Some things cannot be resolved: who fired the first shot and which one shot which bank member (except for Dorsey). Several people claimed to have shot one of the escapees’ horses. Hardesty seems to be the one since he without question received the returned shot.  No one really knows what the men said at the lynching —no one put it on record.

Rumors of a robbery had been current for some time. Because northwest Texas had a poor record of law enforcement and was so near the Indian Territory, a hideout for the lawless, Mr. Kemp was able to persuade Governor Culberson to send five Rangers to protect the bank. It was a dull duty and they left.

On the morning of February 25, 1896, Mrs. J.A. Kemp called Frank Dorsey for coffee and told him that Clabe Burnett had called with more definite information. (Mr. Kemp was out of town.) This information Dorsey relayed to Wiley Robertson before Robertson left the bank to help at Kemp’s store. Dorsey said that he feared for his life.

The City National Bank was in a three-story brick building on the southeast corner of Seventh and Ohio, across an alley from the St. James Hotel and with two outside entrances, one at the rear of the bank on Seventh and the other at the corner on Ohio. In the bank around two-thirty, when the robbers entered, were only four men: Frank Dorsey, cashier; Dr. O.J. Kendall, vice president and a director, who was reporting to Dorsey on some ranch land he had checked for the bank; P. P. Langford, bookkeeper; and John L. Nickles, the only one not hurt. Friends said he was so thin that he took refuge in an ink bottle. The president, J. A. Kemp, was on a trip with the Katy railroad president; Wiley Robertson, assistant cashier, was on his way to the bank with $400 from Mr. Kemp’s store; S. E. Can- non, bank runner, was at the courthouse on an errand. There were no customers. — Chief source: [Memoirs and interviews with Mrs. Kemp and Robertson.]

There is a divergence of opinions as to which robber shot first. There is no question but that Lewis shot Dorsey at close range when Dorsey reached for his gun below the cash drawer. Dorsey fell to the floor with his unfired gun, shot through the shoulder and head. Lewis aimed for Kendall’s heart but hit his pocket in which he was carrying his hypodermic case; he was stunned and fell to the floor feigning death. P. P. Lang- ford, slow to raise his hands, was hit on the head with a gun. When he crawled to the back door, he was shot in the fleshy rear but got to the street and gave the alarm.

The bank vault was not locked, but the latch gave trouble and the robbers abandoned it, scooping up the contents of the cash drawer (about $410) into a paper sack but overlooking the next drawer which contained about $1,000.

As the robbers dashed out the back door of the bank, they pushed aside unarmed J. D. Avis and went into the alley by the St. James Hotel where their stolen horses were waiting. As they passed the vacant lot next to the bank, Frank Hardesty, deputy sheriff, fired, severely wounding Lewis’ horse. Crawford fired back but the bullet became embedded in Hardesty’s watch. The two robbers rode double to Eighth Street and east to Holliday Creek. Twice during their ride to the Thornberry area they changed horses. The first time horses were taken from William Neal, a truck farmer who was driving with his wife to Wichita Falls. Fred Crane, a railroad man, witnessed this exchange. Then the two worn-out horses were exchanged for some farm animals. J. F. Keller had a high-powered rifle, but people on the street were in the way and he got no shot off.

The story of the pursuit by about a hundred men on horseback and afoot is confused, largely because the men were confused and Sheriff C. M. Moses was out of town. Then, of course, each one wanted to show himself in a good light. Will Skeen was in the office of the Wichita Weekly Times working on an editorial, ““The Peaceful Wichita Valley,” when he heard the commotion. He thought it was a fire and sent six pistol shots from his upstairs window, hurried down, talked to Ed Cannon, and dashed into a gun store for cartridges. “Mother” Young told him the directions the robbers had taken; Sid Pitzer let him have his horse, the fleetest steed in Wichita Falls; and T. B. Noble contributed a Winchester rifle and rounds of ammunition. Though he fired several times, he missed. Mage Davis followed close behind until they reached the Thornberry thicket when the crowd caught up and surrounded the place where the robbers had taken refuge. It was dusk but later a full moon came up and the crowd feared to go in. The robbers refused to surrender to the crowd but said they would surrender to the Rangers.

The Rangers had left on the noon train for Fort Worth, but a Western Union dispatch caught them at Bellevue and they returned by a special car attached to an engine, arriving around five o'clock. Soule had horses waiting for them. They were having a chicken supper at Barger’s, a mile away. When they arrived the full moon helped the Rangers spot the robbers and their horses and McDonald took them and the money with no trouble.

After being fed at the Mart Boger Ranch (Clay County) the robbers were put in a wagon in chains and covered with quilts. John Hester, foreman of a Clay County ranch, drove the wagon with deputized Tony Thornberry beside him. Two other men rode in the rear of the wagon. They reached the jail about two o’clock a.m. and the robbers were placed in the women’s part of the jail as Mrs. Hardesty only had the keys to that part of the cells. Hardesty and the posse had not re- turned. The Rangers slept in the jail that night but left on the early afternoon train. Some say they sensed a possible lynching. The robbers gave Hardesty their watches, one a lady’s, the other one stolen. Many people visited the jail to see the robbers. J. R. Bachman, then a schoolboy, said practically all the school children and teachers visited.

Mob spirit built gradually during the day of the 26th, especially as the funeral of Dorsey brought out practically the entire population. Small groups met in offices to discuss lynching. Hardesty moved his wife and children from the jail to the house of a friend. District Judge George R. Miller pled for moderation; Judge Huff spoke to the gathering group about having murder on their consciences for the rest of their lives. Hardesty said he was ready to defend the prisoners in the jail. The crowd, summoned by the fire bell, listened respectfully and was remarkably orderly but deter- mined; none was masked or disguised. For light, a bon- fire was built at Seventh and Ohio. Stories vary as to how the prisoners were taken from the jail, but all agree that the door was battered down and that Hardesty gave only token resistance. Awaiting them was a rope thrown over an arm of the pole at the corner entrance to the bank, with some boxes beneath. Crawford snarled; he asked for Burke Burnett, for whiskey, offered to lead them to hidden money, and then collapsed. At a prearranged signal, someone gave a pull on the rope and kicked the boxes out. The crowd was gone in an hour.

Before dawn Tom Pickett and Nat Henderson (his story) cut the hanged men down and took the bodies to the undertaker’s (J. Seelinger) porch at Ninth and Scott. The father of Lewis wired authority for a casket, but later refused to pay for it. Lewis was buried in the casket, Crawford in the box the casket came in, and both were buried in the same grave in the pauper section of Riverside Cemetery. There have been three different markers, the first of wood and the latest placed in 1958. Mrs. Dean Howard for years put flowers on the grave, the person doing so being unknown until after her death. One loop of the noose was given to Seth Mayfield, who sent it to Mrs. A. H. Carrigan for the local museum. She promptly gave it to Lester Jones in January, 1935. The pole stayed on the corner until it was taken down in late June, 1909.

The two robbers were well known in the area as restless cowboys who worked for Burke Burnett. Crawford, as early as 1888, and ‘‘Kid’’ Lewis only a year after, caused trouble in Wichita Falls. Both wore boots from Clapp of Wichita Falls. Foster Crawford was thirty-five, and from a good family in McLennan County. His mother and two sisters came later to see his grave. He had a few likable qualities and he liked expensive clothes, boots, and gear. He was a good worker but often got drunk and fought anyone handy. Will Taylor recalled that he was once ‘‘laid out by John Foster, a dairyman.’’ He died hard, cursing.

Elmer ‘‘Kid’’ Lewis, the other robber, was an eighteen-year-old kid from Neosho, Missouri, out for excitement and fleeing from trouble in Montana. He hatched trouble and followed easily. Lewis had been in the county about a year, and was hanged first, jeering at the crowd.

Of the $2,000 reward offered by the two banks, $800 went to the Rangers; the rest went to the posse members, most of whom gave their portion to Mrs. Dorsey, who bought a home on the Charlie Road. At the insistence of Judge George Miller the grand jury met in April, 1896, and indicted five more men for murder (lynching), no-billed four or five, including Hardesty, and heard twenty-six witnesses. When the five came up for a preliminary hearing, Judge Miller was told his wife had been in an accident in Graham. While he was away, the lawyers selected a temporary judge, C. M. Sherrod, and had four of the cases transferred to Wilbarger County and one to Cooke County. No record has been found of any trial being held.

Members of the grand jury were J.C. Hunt (foreman), F.M. Avis, S.M. Butcher, A. A. Honaker, W.C. Heath, F.D. Kildow, R.O.C. Lynch, John Meyers, E.A. McCleskey, D.M. Smith, Andrew Weeth, and T. P. Roberts.

Bailiffs were I. Knight, J. F. White, R.T. Pickett, and A.C. Bragg.

Other Sources: 

- In this Western Country, a series published in the Times in March, April, and August 1950.

- O.E. Cannon, Record News, March 21, 1944, various Times clips.

- Memoirs and interviews: Wiley Robertson, Mrs. J.A. Kemp, T.T. Reese, Nat Henderson, Jerome Stone, and many others who were here in 1896.

C.M. Sherrod was the justice of the peace who held inquests on all three.