Hatter, Andrew: Petition For Re-Enslavement, Albemarle County
1863

Anderson Hatter sometimes called Andrew Hatter a free person of color,
supposed to be some thirty two or thirty three years of age, personally appeared
in court and made application to the court to select Benjamin F Abell
of the County of Albemarle, as his master, and to become a slave of the said Abell: and the court
having examined the said Hatter, and the said Abell separately, and such other
testimony as was introduced before it, in the presence of the attorney for the Commonwealth,
and being satisfied upon said examination, that no injustice was
done to the applicant, the said Hatter; that there has been no fraud or collusion
between the parties, and that there is no good reason to the contrary, and
that the said Benjamin F Abell is a person of good character, doth grant the
application of the said Hatter, and doth hereby order and direct that the property in
the said Anderson or Andrew Hatter shall, from this day, vest in the said
Benjamin F. Abell, and that the rights and liabilities and condition of the said
Hatter shall henceforth in all respects be the same as though said Hatter had
been a slave.

Know all men to these presents that we Benjamin F. Abell and
John Burch are held and firmly bound unto the Commonwealth
of Virginia in the just and full sum of Two Thousand Dollars
to the payment whereof well and truly to be made we bind ourselves jointly
and severally, our joint and several heirs, executors and administrators
firmly by these presents. Sealed with our seals and dated this twelfth
day of May in the year, 1863.
The condition of the above obligation is such that whereas Anderson
Hatter alias Andrew Hatter a free man of color has this
day made application to the Circuit Court of Albemarle county to select a
master and become a slave: And whereas the said Anderson alias Andrew
Hatter has chosen the said Benjamin F. Abell as his master, and the said
Court has satisfied and approved said selection: Now therefore if the said Anderson
alias Andrew Hatter shall not hereafter become chargeable to any
county or corporation in this Commonwealth, and the said Benjamin F. Abell
shall pay the debts and liabilities of said Anderson alias Andrew Hatter
existing prior to this date, then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to
remain in full force and virtue.
Benja [Benjamin] F Abell (Seal)
John Burch (Seal)
Witness Ira Garrett

Reference: Hatter, Andrew: Petition For Re-Enslavement, Albemarle County
1863 American Narrative Digital Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

We are six women with roots in Jefferson County, WV who embarked on separate journeys into the world of our ancestors, leading us to each other and bringing us a fresh understanding of the community in which they lived.

This time we sought to share our research and findings with a great turn out of interested folks.

Shelley said:

Let me introduce you to the Jefferson County, VA/WV fabulous genealogy researchers, (L-R) Kate Brown, me, Monique Crippen-Hopkins, Joyceann Gray, Sarah Brown and Marsha Smith. We were in Charles Town, Jefferson County, WV, on the 13th sharing our stories of what happens when we come together with our research. All of our lines connect. We are descendants of the Enslaver, and Free/Enslaved African Americans. Thanks for hosting us at Fisherman’s Hall. Folks get a genealogy group together and see what happens.

Sarah said:

A fabulous day with a terrific group! On April 13th, in Charles Town WV (site of my ancestors’ plantation) we gathered to present our work on uncovering shared roots within our separate family histories. L to R: my sis Kate Brown;Shelley Murphy; Monique Crippen-Hopkins;Joyceann Gray; me; Marsha Smith. These wonderful, dedicated women have kept me afloat during my research, offering insight and support I would have been lost without. 
It’s a long story – too long to tell here – but a good one. You can read more about it on my Sarah Brown’s Blue Bridges page.

Laurie Potteiger

April 13 at 8:15 PM · 

Fantastic, compelling, informative and inspiring workshop. Thank you so much for all your work, and for sharing it with us!

Claudia Elferdink Truly amazing! Good to see you there Kate!

Sarah Brown it was a truly great experience! Thank you so much to my dear ‘cousins’. Every presentation was interesting and well delivered, each connected to the others in intriguing ways. Only one thing missing – our dear cousin Nikki! Get well soon!

Monique Crippen-Hopkins I had a great time!! Thanks to everyone involved and for letting me be part of this fabulous group.

More to come……..

https://katebrownpottery.com/?fbclid=IwAR2lBHjawF6ApRmfuihFKXji9IzxIsOkEher36jVN98yPvZXktnY7uUhzuU

I am sharing Kate Brown’s collection that is for sale. It’s a fundraiser to put up a tribute plaque to those who were enslaved by her Washington family. Check out her website which is her name and she is from New Mexico. The pieces in this Cousins collection of Kate’s pottery will be on display in the case at the Charles Town West Virginia public library in the month of May 2019.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS WORTHY CAUSE!

History of the Melungeons

Abe Lincoln, Elvis Presley?

LATER 17TH CENTURY FAMILIES ASSOCIATED WITH FREE AFRICAN AMERICANS

1670’s: Anderson, Atkins, Barton, Boarman, Bowser, Brown, Bunch, Buss, Butcher, Butler, Carney, Case, Church, Combess, Combs, Consellor, Day, Farrell/Ferrell, Fountain, Game, Gibson/Gipson, Gregory, Grimes, Grinnage, Hobson, Howell, Jeffries, Lee, Manuel, Morris, Mullakin, Nelson, Osborne, Pendarvis, Quander, Redman, Reed, Rhoads, Rustin, Skipper, Sparrow, Stephens, Stinger, Swann, Waters, Wilson.

1680’s: Artis, Booth, Britt, Brooks, Bryant, Burkett, Cambridge, Cassidy, Collins, Copes, Cox, Dogan, Donathan, Forten/Fortune, Gwinn, Hilliard, Hubbard, Impey, Ivey, Jackson, MacDonald, MacGee, Mahoney, Mallory, Okey, Oliver, Penny, Plowman, Press/Priss, Price, Proctor, Robins, Salmons/Sammons, Shoecraft, Walden, Walker, Wiggins, Wilkens, Williams

1690’s: Annis, Banneker, Bazmore, Beddo, Bond, Cannedy/Kennedy, Chambers, Conner, Cuffee, Dawson, Durham, Ford, Gannon, Gates, Graham, Hall, Harrison, Hawkins, Heath, Holt, Horner, Knight, Lansford, Lewis, Malavery, Nichols, Norman, Oxendine, Plummer, Pratt, Prichard, Rawlinson, Ray, Ridley, Roberts, Russell, Sample, Savoy, Shaw, Smith, Stewart, Taylor, Thompson, Toney, Turner, Weaver, Welsh, Whistler, Willis, Young

These African-American families appeared in the southern tidewater colonies when evidence indicates that most all of the blacks coming to America, were Angolan by birth.

THE EARLIEST MELUNGEON CLANS IN SOUTHERN TIDEWATER COLONIES

The following are some of the first black, white, Indian and mixed families who began intermarrying in the 1600s in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the Carolinas to produce the people who became known as “Melungeons”.

The African who became known as John Gowen of Virginia, was born about 1615. Before 1775, his descendants had married into the black, white, Indian and mixed families of Ailstock, Bass, Chavis, Corn, Cumbo, Dungill, Findley, Hill, Jones,Locklear, Lucas, Matthews, Mason, Miner, Mills, Patterson, Pompey, Stewart, Simmons, Singleton, Tyre, Webb, and Wilson; many of whom can also be traced to the 17th century.

Thomas Chivers/Chavis was born in 1630. Before 1775, his descendants had married into the mixed families of Bass, Locklear, Singleton, Stewart, Cumbo, Matthews, and Wilson as had descendants of John Gowen. In addition the Chivers/Chavis group intermarried with Bird, Blair, Blythe, Brandon, Bunch, Cannady, Carter, Cypress, Drew, Earl, Evans, Francis, Gibson, Gillet,Haithcock, Harris, Hawley, Hull, Kersey, Lowry, Manly, Manning, Mitchell, McLin, Scott, Silvey, Smith, Snelling, Silver, Sweat, Thaxton, Tyner, Thomerson, Taborn, Valentine, Watts, and Walden; many of whom were 17th century Africans in the British-American colonies.

The family of Eleanor Evans, born in 1660, shares with the Gowen and Chavis families the following names: Bird, Brandon, Chavis, Dunghill, Harris, Kersey, McLinn, Mitchell, Snelling, Scott, Stewart, Sweat, Taborn, and Walden. In addition, the Evans were early related to the families of Anderson, Boyd, Bee, Blundon, Doyal, Green, Hudnall, Hunt, Jeffries, Jones, Lantern, Ledbetter, Penn,Pettiford, Redcross, Richardson, Rowe, Sorrell, Spriddle,Tate, Thomas, Toney, and Young.

The Gibson/Gipson family which descended from Elizabeth Chavis, born in 1672, also shares with the 17th century Gowen, Chavis, and Evans families, the surnames of Bass, Bunch, Chavis, Cumbo, and Sweat. They add Driggers, Deas, Collins, and Ridley.

The family of the Angolan named Emmanuel Driggers, [Rodriggus] born in 1620, also has several families in common with the Gowen, Chavis, Evans and Gibson clans: namely Carter, Collins, Sweat, Gibson, and Mitchell. In addition, the Driggers intermarried with Beckett, Beavens, Bingham, Bruinton, Copes, Fernando, Francisco, George, Gussal, Harman, Hodgkins, Jeffrey, Johnson, King, Kelly Lindsey, Landrum, Liverpool, Moore, Payne, Reed, and Sample.

From Margarett Cornish, born about 1610, comes the Cornish family with ties to Gowen and Sweat in addition to Shaw and Thorn.

With the Cumbo family dating back to 1644, we have links to Gibson, Gowen, Jeffries, Matthews, Newsom, Wilson and Young in addition to Hammond, Maskill, Potter, and Skipper.

The Bass family originates in 1638 America and shares several connections from an early period with Gowen, Chavis, Evans, Cornish, Driggers, Cumbos and Gibsons which are: Anderson, Byrd, Bunch, Cannady, Chavis, Day, Mitchell, Gowen, Pettiford, Richardson, Snelling, Valentine and Walden. In addition, they are related to the mixed families of Farmer, Hall, Lovina, Nickens, Perkins, Pone, Price, Roe, and Roberts.

If given the space, we could present complex scores of intermarriages of Melungeon and other mixed surnames beginning in the 1600s of colonial America. These common kinships of cousins show the Melungeon society was becoming cohesive and distinctively apart in colonial America at least 100 years before the American Revolution. The Melungeon community began before 1700.

For example: The Banks family originates in 1665 colonial America with related families of Adam, Brown, Day, Howell, Isaacs, Johnson, Lynch, Martin, Walden, Wilson, and Valentine along with several Melungeon surnames.

The Archer family begins in 1647 America with related families; Archie, Bass, Bunch, Heathcock, Manly, Murray, Milton, Newsom, Roberts, and Weaver.

The Bunch clan traces back to 1675 colonial America with kinship to: Bass, Chavis,Chavers, Collins, Gibson, Griffin, Hammons, Pritchard, and Summerlin.

The Beckett family of 1655 ties to Bibbins, Beavens, Collins, Driggers, Drighouse, Liverpool, Mongon, Morris, Moses, Nutt, Stevens, and Thompson.

The family of Carter begins in 1620 America with the related families of: Best, Blizzard, Braveboy, Bush, Cane, Copes, Dove, Driggus, Fernando, Fenner, Godett, George, Harmon, Howard, Jacobs, Jones, Kelly, Lowery, Moore, Norwood, Nicken, Perkins, Rawlinson, and Spellman.

Mixed red, white, and black Melungeons can be found in Virginia and Maryland within one and two generations of the first Mbundu-Angolan appearance in Jamestown in 1619. The general Melungeon community is more than 350 years old in North America.

All of these families descended from, or intermarried with, 17th century Angolans of Virginia. They began building the Melungeon community more than a century before they appeared in Tennessee.

Delbert DeWitty, a descendant of Miles DeWitty, (the firest Postmaster of the longest lasting African American settlement in the State of Nebraska) gave an excellent presentation in Lincoln, Nebraska. Check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/ddewitty/videos/10212997888725538/

What a wonderful Summer day, a little rain, a bit of sun, lots of laughter and hugs and a fabulous array of food to share. We had a great afternoon!

So far we’ve only missed one year but promise to try to not let that happen again.

Warmest of thanks to Walter for opening his home and the Samuel Walter Washington House to us once again! Our Sarah, dear Sarah Brown (bass player, songwriter and Washington descendant) has traveled so far to be with us with her husband published author John Hubner coming in town just in time to be wowed by our teenagers’ brilliance.  We look toward the future without kids providing Olympic passes and a number of college graduation celebrations.    The rest of us nibbled on the delightful spread and compared notes of how our independent research was coming along. We chatted about a  possible Marker in remembrance of the enslaved that lived and worked at Harewood. Marsha and Nikki got into a deep DNA discussion and Sarah and I laugh because that wave went way over our heads. Sarah announces she was close to finishing her database of folks who were enslaved by the Washington families and which plantation that they worked.

Missing from the photo but not from our hearts is Shelley Murphy, Lei Bennifield, Monique Crippen-Hopkins.

We call ourselves the Charles Town Researchers.

My cousin hit me up on Facebook and steered my reading for tonite towards a blog about her Grandfather/our Uncle;  William (Bill) Page

I’ve copied the main portion here about Bill Page but if you care to read the entire blog please click here

Prohibition Blues: The Life and Times of Bill Page

“In Wabaunsee County, the most notorious of all of the sellers of illegal alcoholic beverages was Bill Page of Eskridge. Bill Page was born in 1867 at Fairmount in Leavenworth County, Kansas where he spent his childhood, and his family moved to Eskridge shortly after the town was established in 1880. Bill Page and his wife, Mollie, raised four children, Gertie, Herbert, Winona, and Oneal. Page listed his occupation in early census records as a Laborer, but during the 1920s, after the family moved to Topeka, he and his oldest son, Herbert, listed their occupations as Teamster.

While Page was often referred to as a bootlegger in the local press, he was not a moonshiner or manufacturer of alcoholic beverages, but instead, Page was a beer distributor, purchasing products from Kansas City breweries and reselling them at his establishment in Eskridge. Page also operated a liquid refreshment catering business for picnics, ballgames, and other outdoor events. In Eskridge his business was known as “The Lunch Room”, and some members of the press alleged that in addition to providing beer to his customers, Page “ran a crap game” at his establishment, and it was claimed that men could often be found playing cards there. Page operated his Lunch Room for about twenty years between 1895 and 1915, during a time when alcohol sales were illegal in Kansas, but not in Missouri.

Bill Page’s “trouble” with the law began in the late 1890s. The first charge of violation of the prohibitory law filed against Page resulted in an acquittal in District Court in February 1897. During the same term of the court, fellow Eskridge bootlegger John Lloyd and Alma’s John McMahan were tried for violating the liquor laws. Lloyd was convicted and paid a $100 fine, while the trial against “Johnnie-Mac” resulted in a hung jury, and the charges were not refiled.

A year later, in May 1898, the County Attorney made a decision to punish three particular bootleggers, John Lloyd, Bill Page, and his cousin Joe Page, all of Eskridge. A curiosity in these three prosecutions was that the liquor sales in question all took place in either 1896 and 1897 and the County Attorney had waited a considerable time to file any charges. Lloyd faced two charges of selling alcohol in August of 1896, while Bill Page faced nine counts for sales made in the months of May, July, and August of 1897. Joe Page was charged with taking a wagon load of beer to Keene for a scheduled baseball game between Keene and Auburn. When the men went to trial in October of 1898, Bill Page was convicted of six counts and acquitted of three and was fined $600 and sentenced to six months in jail. The jury deliberated all night before delivering their verdict, which was characterized as a “tough sentence” by The Alma Signal. The County Attorney dropped all charges against John Lloyd.

As December arrived the county faced the reality that they would have to heat the jail for their only prisoner, Bill Page. They advised the prisoner that he could go home for Christmas and that if he didn’t commit any more crimes, he could remain free.

Freedom was short-lived for Bill Page. He had hosted a New Year’s Eve celebration at The Lunch Room, and on January 2^nd Sheriff Treu arrested Page and his “club manager” James Powers for sales of beer at his New Year’s Eve party. Page was sentenced to 240 days in jail and fined $800, and Powers was given 60 days in jail and a $200 fine. It was reported in The Enterprise that the County Attorney claimed that he had “125 witnesses against them.”

Page had served his six months in jail, but he had no money to pay the $800 fine and $186.65 in court costs. Finally, he was released from jail only when he would sign a statement saying, “I, Wm. Page, do hereby agree to pay $8 a month until all my costs and fines are paid…” At that rate of repayment, Page would have been obligated to make a monthly payment to the county for the next ten years. And, of course, Bill Page’s only source of livelihood was in the operation of The Lunch Room and his catering business. So, he returned to work immediately upon his release.

Bill provided refreshments for a big dance held in Alma in April 1900, and sales were brisk. Unfortunately, as the night wore on, a fight erupted, and the only man arrested was Bill Page. After Bill Page spent a few days in jail, the County Attorney discovered that his witnesses in the alleged assault would not testify, and Page was released.

It was back to work for Bill, and he landed a gig to cater a picnic at a Sunday School picnic at Chief Stahl’s grove near Auburn, Kansas. Bill Page had left the picnic in a hurry, and the Shawnee County Sheriff issued a warrant for Page’s arrest that he sent to the Wabaunsee County Sheriff for service. On July 23^rd, Under-sheriff Clayton arrested Bill Page in Eskridge. Three Eskridge men, J. Y. Waugh, C. L. Campbell, and William Henderson posted $100 each to bail Page out of jail. The trial was scheduled for November 26^th, but unfortunately, Bill had worked late and missed the train for Topeka, missing his trial and forfeiting the bond. Then, he was taken into custody, and his trial was held on December 13^thbefore a twelve-man jury. It took the jury two days to find Bill Page guilty of violating the prohibitory law, and he was fined $100 and court costs. Again, Bill had to return to work at The Lunch Room to support his family and pay his fines and legal costs.

Business returned to normal for Bill Page at Eskridge. In fact, business was better than ever. The summer of 1901 was a lively one, and the saloon business was good. On October 4, 1901, County Attorney Fred Seaman announced that the saloons in Wabaunsee County were closing for good. Apparently, numerous citizens across the county who had not appreciated the summer’s levity had written the Attorney General, demanding that the joints be closed. The Enterprise noted in a story headlined, Saloons are Closed, saying, “Mr. Seaman says the Attorney General forced him to take this step in response to the agitation that has carried on in this county since last spring.”

Bill Page and John Lloyd were arrested in early 1902 and promptly convicted and sentenced to six months, but in July of 1902 they were offered a parole from jail if they would sign an agreement “to quit the booze business for good.” The men were threatened if they violated this pledge, they would be jailed and “the Commissioners will provide a rock pile for their entertainment.”

With his pardon in hand, Page returned to Eskridge to The Lunch Room. He still needed to make a living. In November 1902 F. M. Hartman swore a complaint against Bill Page, alleging that Page had threatened to kill him and had assaulted him with the intent to kill. Bond was set at $10,000. The newspapers of the day speculated that Bill Page had been stopped, once and for all, and that “he would be going to Lansing soon.”

Page hired Alma attorney C. E. Carroll who filed a Habeas Corpus motion in District Court, challenging the exorbitant bond. After some argument by Carroll and County Attorney Seaman, Judge Spielman reduced Bill Page’s bond to $1,500. Page’s father, Bill’s brother, Wesley Page, and Robert Sharp posted Page’s bond and he was released for trial. By the time the trial date arrived, Hartman, himself, had been arrested and charges against Page were dropped. Bill Page returned to Eskridge to work, and business was great. Summer was always such a good season in the drinking business.

In August 1903, the Prohibitionist supporters were increasing the pressure to close Bill Page’s Lunch Room. They were now demanding that the Eskridge City Council force the County to close the business and put Page in jail. August 28, 1903, issue of The Alma Signal reported, “It is known to everyone that there is a joint running in Eskridge, and it is being run by a paroled prisoner of the county. He receives large consignments of beer under the name “Grant Reed” and other fictitious names, besides having wagon loads of it hauled into town at different times. For the city council to keep silent on this question not only gives him leave to continue in this business, but it is an inducement for others to engage in it. All the city council needs to do is to place an affidavit in the hands of the county attorney that “one William Page is engaged in the liquor business in this town,” and he will go back to jail…Who will be the first to speak?”  The City Council spoke to the complaints, and Bill Page’s parole was revoked and he was placed in jail in Alma, again. After spending a couple of months in jail, the County tired of his company and set him free again.  He returned to Eskridge, going to work the next day.

In April 1905, the Wabaunsee County Commissioners established a new practice in social reform and rehabilitation of county prisoners. They created a rock pile where prisoners would swing a sledgehammer breaking large chunks of rocks into gravel. Various newspaper articles of the day indicated that the value of the rock pile seemed to be in its role as a deterrent to crime.  There was little evidence that it was successful in that respect. The Alma Enterprise of April 14, 1905, noted, “The Commissioners done the right thing when they established a rock pile last week. The only criticism that could be made is on its location. It would have been much better in the opinion of many to have put it in one of the rear corners of the yard or on the city lot, instead of connecting it with the courthouse.”

The creation of the rock pile was an extraordinary failure as a tool of rehabilitation or punishment. The first problem was that “time on the rock pile” was generally more pleasant for the prisoner than occupying a cell in the jail. The men were less supervised inside the rock pile enclosure, they could enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, and above all, the rock pile was an easy enclosure from which to escape. At least five prisoners escaped the rock pile during its few years of existence on the courthouse lawn. Additionally, the creation of the rock pile enclosure, its maintenance, and the cost of policing the enclosure far exceeded the value of the gravel produced by the prisoners. One final observation concerning the rock pile in Wabaunsee County is that its use was exclusively set aside for African-American prisoners.  Likewise, imprisonment for violation of prohibitory laws was reserved exclusively for black bootleggers, while Caucasian alcohol dealers paid their fines and continued their business.

By May 1905 Bill Page’s business at Eskridge was doing well. One night a group of ladies from the W. C. T. U. went to Page’s house and began praying for him on his front porch. Angry that they had come to his home, Bill grabbed a driving whip and struck some of the women, chasing them from his porch. The temperance ladies fled, and reported the indiscretion to their husbands. Soon, a mob formed, intending to do Bill Page bodily harm. Sheriff Frey interceded and arrested Page, taking him to Alma for safe keeping.  He was later fined $100 and sent to jail for 30 days. When he had been arrested at his home, a couple of barrels of beer were found on the premises, and Page was arrested for another liquor violation. It was Bill Page’s first opportunity to break rocks for the County.

Page was technically being held in jail on a violation of his written promise to the County Commissioners dated 1899, vowing to give up the liquor business. Page’s attorney, C. E. Carroll filed a writ of Habeas Corpus, and the Court released Page after only a week in jail.

Summer was always a good season in the beverage business, and the summer of 1905 was no exception for Bill Page. On July 3^rd, Sheriff Ericsson executed a warrant for Bill Page’s arrest charging him with 21 sales of intoxicant liquors during the years of 1904 and 1905, while maintaining a common nuisance. Page’s bond was set at $2,200.  To make matters worse, Page had a stock of beer at his home in anticipation of a 4^th of July event which he was catering, and officers seized the beer and charged Page’s wife, Mollie with violating the prohibitory law.

The Pages faced the potential that both Bill and Mollie might face a jail term from the July arrests. Their attorney, C. E. Carroll explained that the County Commissioners just wanted the Pages out of the county permanently and that he could get the charges dropped if they would leave. When the Pages’ trial began in the October 1905 term of the District Court, Carroll explained to the judge that the Pages had moved to Osage County where Bill had found employment with the railroad. Charges against both of the Pages were dismissed, but an injunction was placed against their property in Eskridge, banning the reopening of The Lunch Room, and a $100 lien was levied against their property for “attorney fees”.

Bill and Mollie Page and their children spent most of 1906 in Osage County; however, by the end of that year, the Pages had returned to Eskridge. All of their family, Page’s father, brothers, sisters, and other relatives lived in Eskridge, and there was a substantial African-American community in the town.  The Pages had returned to Wabaunsee County by Christmas of 1906, and within a month, Page was arrested on charges of violation of the prohibitory law and jailed. Bill Page faced trial in February of 1907, however, the charge was based on a two-year-old affidavit and the original complainant could not be located, leading the judge to dismiss the charges against Page.

On July 5, 1907, a Santa Fe boxcar containing barrels of “two percent” beer was burglarized and several barrels of beer were stolen. ATSF detectives traced the beer to Bill Page’s home in Eskridge where several barrels of beer were discovered, and Page was taken to jail in Alma. Page faced trial in August, but the State was unable to prove that the beer found in Page’s home was the same product as that stolen from the boxcar, and when the trial was over, Page was acquitted and released from jail. Just two months later, Page became involved in an altercation between a friend of his and Eskridge’s Marshal Berry. A fight ensued and Page punched the Marshal, knocking him to the ground. Page was arrested, and when his house was searched after the arrest, beer was found on the premises, and charges of violations of the prohibitory laws were added to the counts against Bill Page. Page was sentenced to six months in jail for fighting.

In December 1907, Sheriff Frank Schmidt was given the duty of jailing A. W. Rout, a Civil War veteran who was residing at the County Poor Farm. Rout was in desperate need of care, and he had allegedly become insane, requiring confinement and commitment. In a sworn statement given later, Schmidt recalled, “This man (Rout) was a county charge at the poor farm and who for some reason lost his mind and they were unable to care for him at the farm. There was a warrant in lunacy issued out of the Probate Court, then in due time a commitment to the jail. Now, this man should not have been put in jail. He should have been taken to some hospital and taken care of, but there was no way. He was the dirtiest piece of humanity that I ever seen and I could get no one to take care of him, so we made William Page do it, and in return, we promised him that the county would pay him for it, and we think it right that they should.” Page cared for the elderly man, day and night, for twenty-five days.  When Rout was finally transferred to a state institution, Page submitted his bill to the county for $1,250.

County officials were outraged and amused and offered payment of $8.42 for Page’s twenty-five days of work, and they withheld payment, crediting the amount against Page’s outstanding fines from his many past arrests. In the end, the County paid nothing to Page.  Page, still in jail awaiting trial on another beer possession charge, hired C. E. Carroll to sue the County and Sheriff Schmidt for the unpaid bill. Carroll filed the suit in a municipal court that had a limit of $300 in damages, the amount which Page demanded in payment. The trial was held before Judge John Keagy on November 16, 1908, who rendered a judgment in favor of Page of $75 which the County paid.

During the first week of February in 1909, the newly elected Sheriff Ericsson raided Page’s house in Eskridge, having received a tip that the bootlegger had recently received several cases of “wet goods”. Sheriff Ericsson and his Deputies West and Tooker arrested Bill Page, returning him to the County Jail. Bill stood trial and was sentenced to 60-days in jail.

In March 1909, Mollie Page left Eskridge, moving to Alma into the former home of William Moore. By the time Bill Page was released from jail in early April, the Pages had moved to Alma. Bill Page enjoyed less than a month of freedom before he was arrested on yet another charge of possession of beer and thrown in jail, again. In early August of 1909, Bill Page was “put on the rock pile” again. As the day was unusually hot and shade and water were running short, Bill Page escaped the rock pile yard and found a nice shade tree on the courthouse grounds under which he reclined, waiting for the Sheriff’s return. The Alma Signal of August 13, 1909, reported on the escape, noting, “Willie Page whom the county is entertaining for a couple hundred of days on a bootlegging count, made his get-away from the rock pile Tuesday morning. Just to show that his heart was free from evil intent—that he walked out merely to show that he could—Willie lingered near the jail and was soon picked up by Sheriff Ericsson, who rewards Willie’s joke with ten days on bread and water. Bill Page has spent probably half of the last fifteen years in jail, which probably has something to do with the sheriff’s refusal to regard this break as a joke.”

In the fall of 1909 Sheriff Ericsson executed a warrant for the arrest of John “Joker” Horne on violation of the prohibitory laws; however, Horne tipped of his impending arrest, fled to Kansas City and then to California to avoid prosecution. The September 24, 1909, issue of The Alma Enterprise reported, “The sheriff locked up the old Froshien Hall Tuesday that had been run by John Horne for some time as a pool room.”  With the 1902 death of “Johnnie-Mac” McMahan and the departure of Joker Horne from Alma in 1909, Alma was becoming dryer by the day, making for a good market for Bill Page.

New Year’s Eve had always been a big night of business for Bill Page, and 1909 was no exception. On December 31, 1909, Page was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and once again placed in the Wabaunsee County Jail.

Page spent the 1910s skirting the law with a spate of arrests for fighting or disturbing the peace being his primary offenses until 1914 when Page was arrested twice for possession of beer and being a nuisance. Page pled guilty in both cases and sentenced to six months in jail and fined $100 for each arrest. In 1917 and again in 1919 Page was charged with possession of beer and was convicted in the first case and acquitted by a jury in the second. In the spring of 1921, the Pages left Alma, moving to a farm near Bradford in Wilmington Township. By 1925 the Pages left Wabaunsee County for good, moving to Topeka where Bill Page and his son, Herbert, both found work as teamsters. The Pages remained in Topeka after Bill Page’s death in that city in the 1930s.

During the 70 years or so of Prohibition in Wabaunsee County, no single individual felt the wrath of the prohibitory laws more than Bill Page. The great disparity in judicial punishment given to black and white bootleggers in the early 20^th century in Wabaunsee County was shocking in its overt application.”

Hoots, G. (2017, November 05). Prohibition Blues: The Life and Times of Bill Page. Retrieved January 31, 2018, from https://wabaunseecomuseum.org/2017/06/22/prohibition-blues-the-life-and-times-of-bill-page/comment-page-1/#comment-1547