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Show HISTORIC TOUT HATS NOTED SPOT WHERE THRILLING THRILL-ING INCIDENTS OCCURRED. It Has Late'-v Been Abandoned An Educational Institution to Be Built on Its Site TUe Forerunner of Hays City. (Special Latter.) Cne of the noted military posts ot the country was Fort Hays, Kan. In 1S38 Fort Fletcher was built at tie junction of the North Fork and Big creek. In 1S67 a flood destroyed it, drowned several soldiers, and sweot away mules, wagons, tents and barracks. bar-racks. Then Gee. I-hll Sheridan chose a higher site, and Major GUIs of tho Seventh United States cavalry directed the building of the new fort, whica was begun at once. It was named Hays in honor of Gsn. Alexander Kays, who commanded a division under un-der Hancock in the Civil war, and was killed In the Wilderness campaign. Many noted officers have been stationed sta-tioned at Fort Hoys. Gen. Phil Sheridan Sheri-dan was in command in 1S68, and previous pre-vious to that date General Hancock directed di-rected military affairs in that department. depart-ment. General Custer made many o.' his remarkable Indian campaigns from there. From '67 to '71 his command was there. Custer was succeeded in '71 by Colonel Oakes with the Sixth cavalry. The last offlcer' In command ' at the post before its abandonment w.is Maj. John R. Yard of the Eigateentn infantry. Many years before he had been there with the Tenth (colored) cavalry. . in connection with Custer, it may be ! noted that the last survivor of the 1 memorable massacre on the Little Big 1 Horn in 1S76 died 'last April in Chey-I Chey-I enne, Wyo., when "Billy," the gensr-al's gensr-al's old war horse, died. "Billy was found wandering about on the battle-i battle-i field, passed into the possession of Mr. Thomas F. Talbot of Cheyenne, was 1 kindly cared for, and his body lies buried in the garden of the Talbot I residence, the. place being marked by stone slab. J After the fort had been built, Hays City sprang up around it, and in early years it was an open question whethir Hays City or Dodge City was the j "tougher" place. In 1870 the little place had thirty-seven saloons, every I one a gambling place, most of them dance halls. Tue cowooy aau uie uiuc-coat uiuc-coat made things lively in these resorts, re-sorts, for there was no .love lost between be-tween them. One-night the cowboys lynched three colored soldiers. They were hung from the railroad bridge west of town, and their dead bodies j were found dangling there the next day. For years the place was the cow-' cow-' boys' trading point. The surrounding j country was a vast cattle range. ,On Aug. 23, 1SG9, Wild Bill (William Hickock) was elected marshal, and while he was in command he killed four men. One of them was a soldier of Custer's Seventh regiment, and Mr. A VIEW OF FORT HAYS. Hickock deemed it Judicious to leave town before the expiration of his term of office, he saying that he had no contract to whip the whole armyj In August, 1872, Pony Donovan was arrested ar-rested on a charge of horse stealing, and was confined in the jail in the basement of the court house. One night some one shot him dead there, and fired the court house. . It burned down and all the county records were destroyed. The new court house likewise like-wise burned down. . Then another was built, that yet stands. A "place with a history" is a small tract of land northwest of Hays City. It contains the graves of forty-five persons, many of them unknown, who met Violent deaths in various affrays or by assassination. assas-sination. "Boot Hill" is the name of this neglected place, chosen because most of the corpses were buried with their boots on. ' But in 1876 Hays City began to improve. im-prove. Indians occasionally came to town, got drunk, and engaged in rows with citizens or soldiers, but nothing serious resulted. In 1889 the old fort was abandoned, and Hays City has developed into one of the most thriving thriv-ing little towns of the west, surrounded surround-ed by vast wheat fields, the tentantleas buildings of the fort alone reminding the visitor of the stormy days of the past And even they will soon be but I a memory, for an agricultural and nor- ' mal college is to be established at the old fort, and the reservation lands are about to be turned into a public park. |