Covert, Kansas - a murder story

This is the story of Covert, Kansas  and its murder story. Pictured below is the barn that Fred Kaser shot himself before going on trial for the murder of his brother, his brother's wife and the couple's six children. To read more about Covert, check out other entries in this blog.

It was nearly 11 p.m. when H. A. Moore and Ray Cronk – returning home to Covert from Osborne – noticed a blaze of orange coming from the Albert Kaser farm. The mass of flames had engulfed the entire residence and the two began to notify residents in town with a call sent out on rural telephone line that summoned the entire neighborhood.

Water, however, was limited. The school had a water tower, but that was more than a mile away. Past control to even fight, residents watched the fire eventual burn out and began sifting through the ruins. There, they found the body of Albert near the front door of the home. His wife, Nellie Kaser, 30, along with their children, Raymond, 12; Alberta, 10; Iona, 8; Margarete, 6; Alvin, 4; and Katie Lee, 2, were all in what remained of their beds.

Someone found empty revolver shells outside the house, but no significance was attached to the discovery. They took the bodies to Fred Kaser’s home to examine. But murder wasn’t immediate on the minds of residents. They buried the family, blaming the horrific deaths to the tragic fire caused from a oil stove that the family left burning, causing a gas that overcame the family before the house caught fire.

But folks began talking soon after the funerals, Kennedy said. Some had witnessed a quarrel between the brothers just a few weeks before in the Covert general store.

The state fire marshal got involved and the bodies were exhumed. Albert Kaser was shot in the chest, is wife in the abdomen. The children had not been shot. Law enforcement found Fred had a gun using bullets similar to those found in the bodies.

Evidence was circumstantial, but they put the bullets in the Covert bank vault and the sheriff arrested Fred for murder. They planned to bring him to trial. Fred’s father, David, posted his bond.

Hundreds packed the tiny Osborne County courtroom to hear the preliminary hearings of the case that August. Throughout the hearings, Fred maintained his innocence.

“I’ve never seen a guilty man who talked so straight,” the judge later said. “He looked me straight in the eyes and said he was innocent. I did not want to him to talk with me about the case, but he insisted on it.”

His trial date was set for Oct. 24., 1928.

Within a few weeks of the trial, Fred’s attorney quit because Fred’s father, a well-to-do farmer, refused to bear the expense of the case. Maybe Fred had taken everything to heart as he wrote a last note to his wife and five children and to his father.

“Dear Wife and Children: I love you with all my heart, but this is more of a burden than I can stand, when I never had nothing to do with it. But forget me and enjoy life.

“P.E. – Dear Father, will you please give my share of the money to Vera (Kaser’s wife) to keep the children with. You would not help me, but please help them. Your son, Fred Kaser.

“… I am in the barn, call help before you come to the barn.”

Information taken from The Hutchinson News between June 1 and Oct. 24, 1928.Covert is a dead town in Osborne County. The ghost town's last post mark was in 1966. Today, not much is left of Covert.

Saxman, a town in Rice County

Former Saxman church. Local man Dale Hoover has been restoring it.

Abandoned house

Inside the church

Saxman tracks went through here

Dale walks down the church steps

I've been meaning to post these photos from my trip to Saxman, a small hamlet in Rice County. Phil Mathews of Hutchinson stopped by a while back to show me the historical documents his mother left him, which included many photos of Saxman, along with documents detailing the history.

A few of nuggets:

Saxman as born in 1888 when the Frisco Railroad pushed through the area. It was named after the man who owned the quarter section of ground where the town site was platted. The first store was built by George DeWeese - "a tiny one-room affair with limited stock, but drew trade for a good many miles," according to a 1922 issue of the Lyons Republican.

Joe Bleger was one of the early promoters. He served as a Frisco agent for 19 years and was the postmaster for nearly as long. As a merchant, he helped start the first lumberyard and kept the elevator in operation.

There were church services, however. According to the Lyons Republican, the first worship service in Saxman was in the driveway of the elevator. Seats were improvised by laying bricks across nail kegs. The sermon, however, was so disturbed by rats "that the feminine contingent in the congregation spent as much of the time shooing at the rodents as they did listening to the sermon." Parishioners finally began meeting in Woodman Hall, which was a dance hall on Fridays and a church on Sundays. "Saints and sinners frequented the building without any detrimental results to either," The News reported in 1952. The United Presbyterian Church was built in 1906, according to the Lyons newspaper.

In 1907, the town's 35-piece band was invited to Hutchinson to play a concert for a future president, William Howard Taft, who was then Secretary of War under President Teddy Roosevelt. The Lyons article reported the town had the best band in their section of Kansas, attributing its founding to a grain buyer who was an old bandleader. The man wanted to develop a brass band for the town but there was no place to practice. He was able to secure the depot baggage room.

One of the biggest demises of the town came on July 1, 1952, when Mrs. Paul Dinsmore, the postmistress, stamped 350 envelopes for stamp collectors who wanted the Saxman postmark, then closed the doors of the old state bank building, which was serving as the post office, according to The News.

She moved away, too.

Saxman's old school is a bunch of junk and weeds.

Midway, Kansas a little spot in Harper County and many others.

There were at least 10 Midways in Kansas, typically the midpoint between one place and another. Here's a sign erected in June 2011 of Harper County's Midway. Midway here was located halfway between Kiowa and Anthony. The sign was a project of the Harper County Preservation and Tourism Alliance, funded through the Harper County Community Foundation.

Other Midways:
Crawford
Miami
Dickinson
Johnson
Jewell
Ellsworth
Kingman
Rawlins

By the way, there are 212 Midways in the United States, which makes it the most popular place name.

Old buildings near Jetmore

I received this from a reader who tells me the story of the old buildings near Jetmore.

Hi Amy, your assumption was correct in that the old buildings south of Jetmore were moved into the pasture.  The old depots were formerly located in Hanston and Jetmore and perhaps even one from Dighton, I think that for some reason--maybe that's the one sitting behind the larger one you couldn't see.  The old country school house used to sit on a corner of US 283 and was attended until about 1971 when the area country schools all finally closed down.  

Jack Warner moved the buildings onto the Warner Ranch and for a time he lived in one of the old depots.  He was the Libertarian congressional candidate from Ford County who threw his hat into the ring every few years but never was elected, he passed away in 2011.  He was rather eccentric and after the depot he was residing in caught fire, he kind of let everything go to disarray.  The country school has been kept up better than the old depots.  It was exciting to see the Warners utilize the old buildings at first and try to save them on their land, but the task must of been a bit daunting and whatever great ideas Mr. Warner had for the buildings never seemed to pan out.

One of Jack Warner's aunts, Kate Warner Krumrey, wrote two pretty interesting books years ago that were published and told the story of settling in Ford and Hodgeman County .  "Saga of Sawlog" and a sequel aptly titled "Sequel to Saga." They are scarce & sell for a pretty penny online, but we have copies in our library and I'm sure there are others around. 

The photo you took of Backtrail Road and the bridge running north and south on 283 goes over the  "Sawlog Creek." The Warner's Ranch is sometimes called the Black and White Ranch because they only raised Morgan horses and Black Angus cattle, and painted the farm buildings and fence white.The Warners often rode in parades and such and were quite a handsome presentation in their black jeans and white shirts on their black mounts. Up until a few years ago they hosted a successful bluegrass festival in the "Warner Grove," an heavily wooded and lush area down the road from the home place.  Down inside 'the grove' it was easy to forget you were in the flatlands surrounded by trees and shade and cool breezes along the creek.

Bloom, Kansas - A Ford County town that bloomed and died

I went to Bloom this June 2012 during the Kansas wheat harvest. I wasn't sure what I'd find. I met a guy named Ben Holt who told me to find Sam Scott, whose grandparents started the town. It turned out to be quite an interesting story.

I guess every town really does have a story.

Short excerpt:

The town of Bloom was started in 1887 when the Rock Island was built through southwestern Kansas. It soon became an important town with grain elevators, hotels and many business establishments.

But, with progress, Bloom died. By 1894 the town was off the map. The last building moved from the townsite was the post office, which was hauled away in the fall of 1894. Today, little is left. The grain elevator remains in business for the local farm economy.

Bloom school property.
The old gym now serves as Lighthouse Baptist Church. The church is actually built inside the WPA structure because the roof kept blowing off.

A cross in the weeds advertises the church.

An old fuel stop.

The pillars of the Bloom School. It's all that is left of the actual school.

Buildings south of Jetmore

I saw these buildings, south of Jetmore a few weeks ago. I'm not sure that it was a town, but I found it interesting that they were all so close together. Maybe someone moved them in to serve as a farm shed or something. One is a schoolhouse. Another looks like a depot. There is a couple old houses, as well.

If anyone knows anything about them, send me a note at abickel@hutchnews.com

It almost looks like a depot. I could be wrong.

What appears to be an old schoolhouse. It was south of Jetmore.

An old home, I believe. There is also something behind it, but I couldn't tell what it was.

All of the structures were within a half mile of Backtrail Road.

Windthorst, Kansas - A Ford County dead town.

Out of the Kansas prairie

Far removed from a town

Stands a lofty pinnacled structure

Well worthy of renown

For it speaks of the hopes of people

Unswerving, devoted and true;

The spirit to live, to toil, to give

And a faith all needs to renew.

Once lately, I stood near its portal,

Admiring it from the street

When a snowy dove alighted

ON the stand at the Virgin’s feet

At the base of the white marble statue

It rested as though to give

A message of peace to a tired heart,

An ideal for which to live.

- Charlotte Mofatt-Kinsley,

Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish – Windthorst, Kansas centennial book, 1978.

A few weeks ago, I visited the old town of Windthorst - which wasn't ever much of a town, but it has the coolest church. Built in 1913 - Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish closed as a parish in 1997. However, locals are supportive of the building and have been caring for it ever since. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places and it is open daily for tours.

Windthorst is in Ford County.

Beautiful windows! The Windthorst Heritage group is raising funds to repair them. The windows were installed in 1916. Work is planned for this summer. Project cost is around $105,000.

WINDTHORST - There are no stores and only a few homes along the wide main street.

Windthorst never had much of a business district. The post office closed at the turn of the 20th century. The old school, which closed as a high school in 1970, burned about a decade ago, and the gymnasium - where standout athletes took to the hardwood - was torn down in recent years.

Yet, from several miles away, a steeple of a church emerges on the nearly treeless prairie - one of just a few vestiges of a town centered on the Catholic faith.

It hasn't been a parish church since 1997 - when the Catholic Diocese of Dodge City closed it largely because of a shortage of priests. But folks here don't want to forget their past, nor do they want to see the nearly 100-year-old church, crumble away.

"It's one of a kind," said retired farmer Bob Hattrup, whose farmstead is not far from the townsite.

Hattrup talks lovingly about the prairie church - the pillar that has long held the community together - even after the parish closure.

"We've always been a pretty close-knit community," he said.
To read more on this community, click here