The family offered tired travelers a long rest!
Shortly after the Civil War, the United States government moved the Osage Indians southwest from Labette County, Kansas, into the new Indian Territory making new lands available for homesteading. This newly opened section in Labette County was settled by earnest, hard-working men and women who were trying to wrest a living from the droughty, windswept plain. The constant struggle, the fierce contest with the land to obtain food and shelter dulled their interest and curiosity concerning the world at large and even their own local vicinity. They accepted all newcomers at their face value. In 1870, five families of spiritualists settled in Labette County just north and east of what later became the township of Cherryvale (originally named Cherry Vale). Spiritualists were unknown in the Old West at that time and their presence caused no alarm among the hard working settlers. The Benders were members of that cult. After a few months of life on the prairie with its high temperatures, hot winds and hardships, two of the families moved away. But the Bender family had other plans then just farming the land.
In late 1870, John Bender, Sr. and his alleged son, John, Jr., traveled along the Osage Trail. Tying their horses at Ern Brockman Trading Post, they spent the night. The next morning Ern took them to see the claims available on this treeless and wind-swept prairie and by night fall they had chosen and filed for their land. Platting records show that the two settled on the western slopes of the mounds that have come to bear their infamous name. Pa, as the senior Bender was called, chose the usual 160 acres in the north-east quarter of Section 13, Township 31, Range 17, in the Osage township. The Brockmann claim was the South-west quarter of Section 13 and touched John, Sr. claim at the corners. That made them near neighbors. (Click on map for enlarged view). His “son” chose a long narrow piece of ground just north of his "Pa" on the South-east quarter of Section 12, in the same Township and Range, which would keep other settlers from being very close to them. John, Jr. did not live on his claim nor make any improvement upon it. The location was in the western part of Labette County, east of Montgomery and south of the Neosho County lines. The only water supply was Big Hill Creek, two miles or so away. They bought a load of rocks from neighbor Mr. Hieronymus, including a huge rock seven feet square and three inches thick. This slab was to be used for the floor of the planned cellar under the house. They brought hay from another neighbor to thatch their shed-like barn. Lumber was brought from Fort Scott, 78-miles northeast, for a framed one-room cabin. Hard workers, they shortly had built the 16 x 24 foot shell of the cabin, a three-sided stone and sod barn with a corral from sapling poles, and dug the first of two wells. In fall of 1871, when the house was about finished, word was sent to Ma Bender and Kate to come to Ottawa by train, 108-miles north of their new homestead. In Ottawa, household furniture and supplies were purchased and loaded into their heavy Army surplus lumber wagon for the return trip. After they settled in, a wagon-cover canvas partition, tightly drawn over upright scantlings, was erected dividing the house into two rooms. The smaller divided area concealed the Bender's living quarters in the rear half of the Inn. Kate placed a crudely lettered sign “Groceries” above the front door. Just north of the house, Kate and Ma planted a combined garden and fruit trees in what was to be an orchard. It was carefully cultivated furnishing an excuse for constant harrowing and digging. The prairie Bender "store" was said to be only 100 yards south of the Osage Trail. That location also made the homestead a good overnight resting spot for travelers.
According to published records, the Benders operated this lonely little inn and store, surrounded by wide-open prairie land, between the winter of 1871 and spring of 1873. The well-traveled Osage Trail came from Fort Scott through the Osage Mission via Saint Paul (12-miles west of the "Bender flats"), down through the mounds to Cherryvale (7-miles north-east), and on to Independence. Thayer was 10-miles north of the Inn. This trail was sometimes referred to as the Osage Mission-Fort Scott Road. It was the only road open for travel at that time. Many weary cross-country travelers would buy provisions and/or stop for a meal. Sometimes they would bed down for a "safe" overnight stay. Feed was also provided for the traveler's horses. During this period, lone travelers mostly from the east, were traced as far as Big Hill Country and then just disappeared along with their horses, wagons and personal property. Many of these men, as they were going with the intention of settling, of buying machinery, cattle and horses, frequently carried large sums of money upon their persons. Other would-be settlers traded horses as part payment for their claims. As most of the travelers were going to a new and far-away country or county to settle, it was an easy matter to cover their disappearance. Mails at that time were uncertain and infrequent.
As time passed, reports of lost persons became more frequent. In the late spring of 1873, much bitterness was directed to this southeast Kansas area. The Osage township called a meeting to see what should be done. About 75 people from surrounding areas come to the meeting at the Harmony Grove school house in District No. 30. Indignation was running high because of the slanderous insinuations that had been circulated by the neighboring communities against this township due to the supposed disappearance of travelers in that area. Tension at the meeting reached the breaking point when the widely-known Independence physician named Dr. William H. York was reported to have disappeared on the Osage Trail in their area while returning from a trip to Fort Scott. A decision was made to search, under the sanction of a search warrant, every farmstead in the area between the headwaters of Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek. Old man Bender and young John were at this meeting. Three days after the meeting, neighbor Billy Tole was driving his cows past the Bender Inn when he noticed the starving condition of the farm animals roaming about the promises and discovered a starved calf in the pen. Upon further investigation, he found the inn was abandoned. He reported the news, which quickly spread.
Several days elapsed, because of fowl weather, before a search party directed by LeRoy Dick, the elected township officer, was fully organized with men coming from Montgomery and Labette counties. They descended onto the Bender property and found the place was deserted and the Benders’ food, clothing and possessions greatly disturbed or removed. Upon entering the cabin, Mr. Dick was met by a sickening stench. A trap door, nailed shut, was discovered in the floor of the cabin. Pried open and lifted by its leather hinges, it was learned that it covered a hole or cellar that was filled with clotted blood which produced the horrid odor. In desperation, the cabin was completely lifted and moved aside. A search was made under the house, but nothing was found. The search was about to be called off when Dr. William York’s brother, Colonel Ed York, seating in his buggy, saw against the setting sun, the outline of a strange depression. Silently, digging began and Dr. York’s body was found buried, head downward, his feet scarcely covered. His skull had been bludgeoned from behind with a hammer and his throat had been cut. The next day, with spades, shovels and plows, the search revealed nine other bodies with smashed skulls and slit throats along with dismembered parts of other bodies. One man and his little daughter were found buried together in one grave. It was determined that the child had apparently been buried alive for no marks of violence were found on her body. One of the men that day christened the orchard "Hell's Half-Acre." Another of Dr. York’s brothers, Alexander M. York, a lawyer and State Senator residing in Independence, offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the ghastly family's arrest. On May 17, Gov Thomas Osborn put up a $2,000 reward for the apprehension of all four. No one ever stepped forward to collected the reward offered.
MORE, HERE........
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:R1YBUyAnRnIJ:www.leatherockhotel.com/BloodyBenders.htm+Bender+Family&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&client=firefox-a
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