Yesterday (Christmas Day 2019) was unusually warm in the Ozarks. I think the high here in the Joplin area was 70 degrees, give or take a degree or so. It felt more like mid-autumn than winter. I happened to be perusing some old Springfield newspapers yesterday and saw a story in a December 26, 1907, issue talking about how warm it had been the day before. So, I guess warm weather on Christmas Day is not a recent or a particularly rare phenomenon, although I should add that the temperatures we experienced yesterday were warmer than those Springfield and the Ozarks saw in 1907.
The headline in the Springfield Republican the day after Christmas in 1907 proclaimed, "LIKE A SPRING DAY: Weather That Prevailed Here on Christmas Day Would Be Hard to Beat." The story went on to say, "Reports were heard on every hand yesterday about what a fine day it was and what a warm Christmas the people of the Ozarks were enjoying." Some people compared the pleasant weather to balmy spring days, while others "went them one better" and said that the weather the previous day reminded them of "the good old summer time."
Men strolled upon the streets of Springfield without overcoats, and women went about "without their furs and great coats....All day the sun poured forth his warm rays in the Ozarks, and the thermometer, at his bidding, went tearing up around the sixty mark." Even at five o''clock, as the sun was starting to set, the temperature continued to hover around the fifty degree mark.
So, not quite as warm as we experienced yesterday, but still a nice, pleasant Christmas Day in 1907.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Butterfield Bank Robbery
A few weeks ago, I remarked that Barry County, Missouri, experienced five bank robberies within the space of two years (actually 25 months) from the late 1910s to the early 1920s. I've written about all five of those bank robberies on this blog. However, I later discovered that there were actually six bank robberies in Barry County during the designated time period. The one that I initially overlooked was the robbery of the Farmer's Bank of Butterfield. Occurring in February 1921, it was third in chronological order of the six bank robberies.
About 1:00 or 1:30 in the afternoon of February 4, a lone bandit entered the Farmer's Bank and flourished a revolver, backing cashier Cass Jeffries and his 17-year-old daughter, Allene, against a wall with their hands up. The local railway station agent walked past the bank during the holdup, and Allene waved at him and pointed to the robber. Taking the cue, the agent hurried to a nearby hardware store and asked the loan of a revolver because the bank was being held up. The store employees didn't believe him and refused to lend him a weapon.
Meanwhile, inside the bank, the bandit ordered Cashier Jeffries to open the money tills, and Jeffries replied that he couldn't do so with his hands in the air. The robber told him he could lower one hand as long as he kept the other one up. Jeffries then lowered one of his hands and opened up the tills. The bandit began gathering up all the currency and silver he could lay his hands on and stuffing it in his pockets. When there was just some small change left, the cashier asked the bandit the leave the rest of the money so that he could use it to finish the day's business, and the robber complied with the request. He then ordered Jeffries and his daughter into the vault, slammed the door, and made his getaway.
However, he had neglected to lock the vault, and the two captives quickly made their escape and gave an alarm. Jeffries said that, even though the robber had his face covered, he recognized him as Homer Bayless, a young man who lived south of Butterfield in the Antioch neighborhood. A posse quickly organized and was soon on the trail of the bandit. The lawmen followed the fugitive to some woods at the edge of Butterfield and found that he had made his getaway in a hack he'd left hidden there.
The robber made his way to Cassville, where, it was later discovered, he used some of the ill-gotten loot to get a haircut and to pay off a debt. He then started toward Exeter and was overtaken and arrested on the road by three lawmen who had been on his trail since the robbery. The bandit proved to be Homer Bayless, just as the cashier had said. The son of well-known farmer A.P. Bayless, Homer was twenty-three years old, married, and had three little kids. He admitted that he'd planned to rob the Butterfield bank a couple of weeks earlier but had gotten cold feet. He said he robbed the bank because he was desperate for money to provide for his family. He said he owed money to the Exeter Bank and they were pressing him for payment. He was on his way there to pay the debt, he said, when he was arrested.
Later the same evening after his arrest, Bayless was released on bond put up by his father and other friends. According to the Cassville Republican, "the crime was a shock to the entire community for Homer was a young man well liked and he comes of one of the old and highly respected families."
When his case came up in Barry County Circuit Court in late March, Bayless pleaded guilty, was sentenced to fifteen years in the state penitentiary, and was promptly forwarded to the Jeff City facility. However, Governor Arthur Hyde commuted his sentence in the spring of 1924, and he was released after serving only slightly over three years of his assessed fifteen years. In 1930, Bayless was back living in Barry County with his wife and several more kids in addition to the three he had at the time of the Farmer's bank robbery. The family later moved to Idaho, where they lived at the time of the 1940 census. Homer's occupation was listed as a carpenter. He died in Idaho in 1982 at the age of 84, apparently having lived the life of a law-abiding citizen after his release from the Missouri State Prison.
About 1:00 or 1:30 in the afternoon of February 4, a lone bandit entered the Farmer's Bank and flourished a revolver, backing cashier Cass Jeffries and his 17-year-old daughter, Allene, against a wall with their hands up. The local railway station agent walked past the bank during the holdup, and Allene waved at him and pointed to the robber. Taking the cue, the agent hurried to a nearby hardware store and asked the loan of a revolver because the bank was being held up. The store employees didn't believe him and refused to lend him a weapon.
Meanwhile, inside the bank, the bandit ordered Cashier Jeffries to open the money tills, and Jeffries replied that he couldn't do so with his hands in the air. The robber told him he could lower one hand as long as he kept the other one up. Jeffries then lowered one of his hands and opened up the tills. The bandit began gathering up all the currency and silver he could lay his hands on and stuffing it in his pockets. When there was just some small change left, the cashier asked the bandit the leave the rest of the money so that he could use it to finish the day's business, and the robber complied with the request. He then ordered Jeffries and his daughter into the vault, slammed the door, and made his getaway.
However, he had neglected to lock the vault, and the two captives quickly made their escape and gave an alarm. Jeffries said that, even though the robber had his face covered, he recognized him as Homer Bayless, a young man who lived south of Butterfield in the Antioch neighborhood. A posse quickly organized and was soon on the trail of the bandit. The lawmen followed the fugitive to some woods at the edge of Butterfield and found that he had made his getaway in a hack he'd left hidden there.
The robber made his way to Cassville, where, it was later discovered, he used some of the ill-gotten loot to get a haircut and to pay off a debt. He then started toward Exeter and was overtaken and arrested on the road by three lawmen who had been on his trail since the robbery. The bandit proved to be Homer Bayless, just as the cashier had said. The son of well-known farmer A.P. Bayless, Homer was twenty-three years old, married, and had three little kids. He admitted that he'd planned to rob the Butterfield bank a couple of weeks earlier but had gotten cold feet. He said he robbed the bank because he was desperate for money to provide for his family. He said he owed money to the Exeter Bank and they were pressing him for payment. He was on his way there to pay the debt, he said, when he was arrested.
Later the same evening after his arrest, Bayless was released on bond put up by his father and other friends. According to the Cassville Republican, "the crime was a shock to the entire community for Homer was a young man well liked and he comes of one of the old and highly respected families."
When his case came up in Barry County Circuit Court in late March, Bayless pleaded guilty, was sentenced to fifteen years in the state penitentiary, and was promptly forwarded to the Jeff City facility. However, Governor Arthur Hyde commuted his sentence in the spring of 1924, and he was released after serving only slightly over three years of his assessed fifteen years. In 1930, Bayless was back living in Barry County with his wife and several more kids in addition to the three he had at the time of the Farmer's bank robbery. The family later moved to Idaho, where they lived at the time of the 1940 census. Homer's occupation was listed as a carpenter. He died in Idaho in 1982 at the age of 84, apparently having lived the life of a law-abiding citizen after his release from the Missouri State Prison.
Friday, December 13, 2019
Bank of Barry County Burglarized
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that there were five bank heists in Barry County, Missouri, within the space of about two years from the late nineteen teens to the early nineteen twenties. Actually I've since discovered that there were six, but that's a subject for next week's post. For this week, I want to talk about the the robbery that I thought was the fifth of five but was actually the sixth of six. It happened in Cassville in early January 1922 and was not really a robbery but instead a burglary.
In the wee hours of the morning on January 5, an unknown number of burglars tunneled through a brick wall at the rear of the Bank of Barry County in Cassville, gaining access to the vault. The place where they tunneled through was the only spot in the vault weak enough that explosives were not needed to make a hole. The rest of the vault was steel reinforced, and the thieves could not have gotten through it except by use of explosives. This led investigators to speculate that at least one of the thieves knew the layout of the bank very well.
The burglars took twenty deposit boxes containing an undetermined amount of money, bonds, and other valuables, although one box alone was known to have contained over $700 in bonds. A number of other boxes containing a large amount of money were left alone.
The theft was discovered later the same morning, and a posse picked up the trail of the bandits north and northwest of Cassville in the direction of Pierce City, where several of the stolen deposit boxes were found empty and discarded along the road. As of late January, however, no arrests had been made in the case, and, as far as I've been able to determine, none were ever made.
In the wee hours of the morning on January 5, an unknown number of burglars tunneled through a brick wall at the rear of the Bank of Barry County in Cassville, gaining access to the vault. The place where they tunneled through was the only spot in the vault weak enough that explosives were not needed to make a hole. The rest of the vault was steel reinforced, and the thieves could not have gotten through it except by use of explosives. This led investigators to speculate that at least one of the thieves knew the layout of the bank very well.
The burglars took twenty deposit boxes containing an undetermined amount of money, bonds, and other valuables, although one box alone was known to have contained over $700 in bonds. A number of other boxes containing a large amount of money were left alone.
The theft was discovered later the same morning, and a posse picked up the trail of the bandits north and northwest of Cassville in the direction of Pierce City, where several of the stolen deposit boxes were found empty and discarded along the road. As of late January, however, no arrests had been made in the case, and, as far as I've been able to determine, none were ever made.
Friday, December 6, 2019
Bank of Washburn 's Second Robbery
About noon on October 17, 1921, three young men, who were unmasked, wearing overalls, and otherwise "roughly attired," approached the Bank of Washburn (Mo.) on foot. One of them stood guard outside while the other two entered the bank and covered assistant cashier Graley Wines with revolvers. They rifled through the tills, the vault, and the safe, taking about $1,900 in cash and currency. (This was the second time the Bank of Washburn had been robbed in less than two years. See last week's blog entry.)
Just as they were getting ready to herd Wines into the vault, cashier Walter Jones returned from lunch. The guard spotted Jones as he started to enter the bank and fired a shot at him. Jones hurried into the bank, where he was met by the other two bandits, and both Jones and Wines were quickly forced into the vault. The robbers closed the door on the two bank employees and made their escape.
One of the captives sounded an alarm that was located inside the vault, and townspeople promptly arrived to set the two men free. A posse formed and pursued the three bandits, as they fled on foot. At a thicket of woods about two miles west of town, the posse briefly made contact with the robbers, and Bob Wines (father of the assistant cashier) fired his shotgun at the fugitives as they climbed over a fence. The robbers returned fire as they ducked into the woods. More men gathered to surround the woods, but when the posse advanced to try to flush the bandits out of the woods, they were nowhere to be found, having already somehow made their escape. It was thought they had split up, as a young man who was thought to be one of the robbers was spotted by a witness not far from the scene.
In the aftermath of the robbery, it was revealed that the three robbers had been hanging around Washburn for several days before the crime and had camped just outside town. One man who happened on the camp while squirrel hunting a day or two before the robbery reported that the three young men had ordered him to "move on." Also, during their flight, the robbers had been forced to abandon some of their gear, including some shoes and hats, and part of the stuff was identified as having been stolen from a store in Exeter the previous week.
Rewards totaling about $1950 were raised for the capture of the robbers, but they were not immediately apprehended. A man was killed in early December during a bank robbery attempt at Cardin, Oklahoma, and he was tentatively identified as one of the Washburn robbers, since he closely matched the description. Another suspect was taken into custody near Rogers, Arkansas, in mid-December. He was identified as Brownie Long (aka Elmer Brown), but he was released in early January 1922 for lack of evidence. As far as I've been able to ascertain, no one else was arrested in connection with the second Washburn bank robbery, at least not during the first few months after the crime.
Just as they were getting ready to herd Wines into the vault, cashier Walter Jones returned from lunch. The guard spotted Jones as he started to enter the bank and fired a shot at him. Jones hurried into the bank, where he was met by the other two bandits, and both Jones and Wines were quickly forced into the vault. The robbers closed the door on the two bank employees and made their escape.
One of the captives sounded an alarm that was located inside the vault, and townspeople promptly arrived to set the two men free. A posse formed and pursued the three bandits, as they fled on foot. At a thicket of woods about two miles west of town, the posse briefly made contact with the robbers, and Bob Wines (father of the assistant cashier) fired his shotgun at the fugitives as they climbed over a fence. The robbers returned fire as they ducked into the woods. More men gathered to surround the woods, but when the posse advanced to try to flush the bandits out of the woods, they were nowhere to be found, having already somehow made their escape. It was thought they had split up, as a young man who was thought to be one of the robbers was spotted by a witness not far from the scene.
In the aftermath of the robbery, it was revealed that the three robbers had been hanging around Washburn for several days before the crime and had camped just outside town. One man who happened on the camp while squirrel hunting a day or two before the robbery reported that the three young men had ordered him to "move on." Also, during their flight, the robbers had been forced to abandon some of their gear, including some shoes and hats, and part of the stuff was identified as having been stolen from a store in Exeter the previous week.
Rewards totaling about $1950 were raised for the capture of the robbers, but they were not immediately apprehended. A man was killed in early December during a bank robbery attempt at Cardin, Oklahoma, and he was tentatively identified as one of the Washburn robbers, since he closely matched the description. Another suspect was taken into custody near Rogers, Arkansas, in mid-December. He was identified as Brownie Long (aka Elmer Brown), but he was released in early January 1922 for lack of evidence. As far as I've been able to ascertain, no one else was arrested in connection with the second Washburn bank robbery, at least not during the first few months after the crime.
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