Dewey-Berry Feud

Season 9 Episode 5 | 24m 59sVideo has Closed Captions

In this episode we dig into the details of one of the bloodiest feuds in the state’s history.

10/18/2026

Cottonwood Connection

Dewey-Berry Feud

Season 9 Episode 5 | 24m 59sVideo has Closed Captions

In this episode we dig into the details of one of the bloodiest feuds in the state’s history.

It reads like the script of an old western movie. Homesteaders. A land baron. A face off on the plains. In this episode we dig into the details of one of the bloodiest feuds in the state’s history.

10/18/2026

Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback

Cottonwood Connection is a local public television program presented by Smoky Hills PBS

Cottonwood Connection

Dewey-Berry Feud

Season 9 Episode 5 | 24m 59sVideo has Closed Captions

It reads like the script of an old western movie. Homesteaders. A land baron. A face off on the plains. In this episode we dig into the details of one of the bloodiest feuds in the state’s history.

10/18/2026

Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback

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[music] It reads like the script of a Hollywood Western. Wealthy cattle baron wanting an open range. Scrappy homesteaders fencing their property. Tensions that escalate into a deadly gun battle that becomes the stuff of High Plains legend. [music] [music] We're at the Hardt Art Gallery in St.

Francis, Kansas, in Cheyenne County, which is in Northwestern, most county in Kansas. So today we're privileged to having, as our guest on here, Penny Raile. St.

Francis native has done a lot of Western history in the 19th century, specifically with the Dewey Berry feud. And we see all on the movies and television and stuff. There's these range wars are everywhere, they weren't. But this was a shooting range war. And surprisingly, it was later than most people would realize. It was in 1903. But people were still homesteading in Western Kansas in the 19 teens and even later. So this was kind of a new country. It hadn't been developed yet. So today, what can you tell us about the Dewey's and the Berry's and the Dewey Berry feud that happened in 1903? Well, you mentioned the range war and that was very much part of it. And it was kind of the transition period from homesteading and those farmers putting up fences and the cattlemen who cattle ranchers who had been here for quite a while. And they didn't like the fact that there were all these fences going up. We're standing here at one of the Dewey headquarters. When the Dewey's first came here, this was open land, no fences, and this is a great place for cattlemen to have large herds of cattle. There's different accounts of how many acres they had. It was anywhere from 10,000, maybe even up to 200,000, but it was all in different locations. It wasn't in one spot. Probably the late 1800s, trouble had started already. And it wasn't just with the Dewey's and the Berry's. Dewey was not well regarded by a lot of the farmers or the homesteaders. Dewey, Chauncey Dewey, was from Chicago and he came from Money. I would say the first confrontation was with the Berry's and it was when Dewey had some of his cowboys. And when I say cowboys, he had a lot of cowboys. He had like probably at least 20 at a time. But he instructed some of the cowboys to cut down one of the Berry fences so the cattle could go in there. The Berry's had like three, there were three brothers, actually there were four brothers, but three brothers and the father, they all had their own homesteads, but they were all very close. And they were also very close to the Dewey Ranch. The son, Elpheus was his name. It was on his farm. He was raising sorghum and cattle like sorghum, I guess. And they were trying to get in there anyway so they just cut the fence. So the fence came down, the cattle went in, ate the sorghum and at this point Elpheus said, "I've had it.

" And so he filed a lawsuit against him for damages and lost crops. 1901 is when that happened because Dewey had lots of money. He fought it and he put it off and he put it off and he put it off until 1903 when the Berry's were shot. So that lawsuit never was settled. That's really where it festered at that point was long before the actual feud. And there was problems with some of the other neighbors. The homesteaders, a lot of them at that time were losing their homestead and they were moving on. So then Dewey would come in and take that land or he would intimidate them to sell. So he was not well liked in the area. You mentioned you had a lot of cowboys and that's what I remember of reading about it. And allegedly a lot of the cowboys were veterans of the Spanish-American War. and knew how to handle a gun. They really weren't cowboys, but they were kind of armed guards. Which is probably why Dewey hired them. I think that's what he wanted. And also another thing to say about the cowboys is that they were young. Chauncey himself was young. His father had sent him from Chicago down to manage the ranch. But it's hard to imagine a 21-year-old managing a ranch and all these cowboys and stuff. So there was a little bit of ego. What was interesting that I read is that this place became like almost a little town. It had its own PO box, it had its own schools. Some of the cowboys' families lived here. I just kind of imagine when I come out here how much more activity there was than what we're seeing today. What was Chauncey's father's? Charles C. N. Dewey, Inc. Charles Dewey had a lot of political ties in Chicago before they came out here. And the first Dewey ranch that I knew of was where the Konza Prairie is now. Is this one that's over by Manhattan? Yes, and it was a large ranch. And what I'd always heard, Chauncey's dad, he got the contract to sell all the corn to Fort Riley. And he got that contract by whom he knew. So they had probably money from Chicago, money from the Dewey Ranch in Southern Riley County. And so they had this empire idea in mind. One of the things I learned, and I need to back up, the Berrys weren't so great themselves. They were a little on the rough side. Yeah, they did not like each other. And I think the Berrys also antagonized the Dewey's and the Cowboys. But let's go to the actual feud that happened in 1903. The Berrys, there was a foreclosure, not on the farms, but some unpaid bills. So there was a sheriff's sale. People came out and bid on various things, equipment that was on the farm. Two of them was a windmill and a water tank. Two of the Cowboys just happened to be going by on the day of the sale and they stopped and they decided they needed that water tank. And they paid $5 for it. And they said, "We're gonna come back tomorrow to get it.

" Well, they came back, but they came back with 12 heavily armed Cowboys. They all had Winchester's. And I just read they even had bayonets. I believe there was 12 Cowboys, including Chauncey, that this was on Alpheus' farm. And I think that they were anticipating problems. The shots almost happened immediately. Of course, the Dewey's are saying that the Berrys shot first. But it's kind of hard to believe that when one of them was shot in the back, or actually, I think in the back of the head, Roy was shot through the jawbone. I'm trying to remember, but one of them, one of the Berrys was shooting at Chauncey, but they hit the horse and the horse died. So anyway, so it happened. I'm sure the Cowboys and Chauncey went immediately back to their ranch. I think they left the water tank. And in fact, I think the water tank had a few holes in it too. Do you have a photo of the bodies? Yeah, there's a great total. Okay, but that was a made up thing, didn't they? Yeah, so. Was those in there or so afterwards? There is a reenactment of this. Shortly after the shooting, there was these shows, they called them Magic Lantern shows. They would take pictures like this, dead bodies on the ground, and then take them and show them at these Magic Lantern. So people would have read about them in the newspapers, but here was an actual picture of it. What I remember about this, and I like horses kind of, is in one picture. They had the dead horse in it. Yeah. How did they manage that? And this is the actual site. I mean, this is the house. Yeah, we're gonna see these guys out here, but there's no blood anywhere. No. No, the same way with the horse. How did they get that horse to lie down and act it? To tie it down. Oh, okay. So during the shooting, how many people were actually killed and or wounded? We talked about the horse that Chauncey was riding. And that's the casualty. Yes, now, so the Berry father who was in his 60s was killed and two of his sons, which was Burch and Alphaeus. His other son, Beech, was there. And there was a cousin named Roy, and he's the one who got shot through the jaw and miraculously lived to a very old age. Harriet, the wife of Daniel, I think was also in the house, and then Alphaeus' wife, Viola. I think there was a child also. What I read was, you know, as soon as the shooting happened, of course, they all just hit the floor, but there were several bullet holes found in the house. So it was a really kind of a big in a shootout. Yeah, bullets were flying. Yes, that's a good way to say it. One of the boys that was still alive was sent to McDonald because they did not have a telephone. This was 1903. And so they went to McDonald, which was the closest telephone, and called the sheriff. Now the shooting happened in Cheyenne County, McDonald is in Rawlins County. So you have to imagine all of this happened like right on the border between Cheyenne County and Rawlins County. They called the sheriff in Cheyenne County because the shooting happened in Cheyenne County and they had jurisdiction. Now the Dewey's, as you said earlier, had a lot of political connections. Chauncey somehow got hold of the governor and said that they're fearing for their life, that the neighbors are threatening to lynch them, and they needed protection. The governor immediately sent out the militia, and which that in itself, if you imagine 1903, the militia was over by Topeka. So they got on a train. I was under the impression the militia took the train to Coby, and then they walked the rest of the distance to the Dewey house, and then they went on to St.

Francis. But at the last minute, I found at least two or three sources that said, no, the sheriff had taken the three prisoners that were at the Dewey Ranch and took them to Colby and met the militia there, and then surrendered the prisoners then to the militia. And then they walked to St.

Francis. What was interesting were some of the headlines. Some of them were quite sensational. This one in particular says, sheriff's spirits Dewey away from ranch with a mob in close pursuit, race to jail to save human life. This was pretty typical at the first because the reason why the militia was called in was because there was a fear that the neighbors and the locals were going to lynch Dewey, because that's kind of what they did back then, frontier justice. But as it turns out, the rage that is mentioned in this headline wasn't quite as bad as it turned out to be. I think the neighbors were just glad that the Dewey's were taken to jail. But this is one of a really interesting picture of this is the militia and the prisoners as they're headed to the courthouse. And that's unique to have part of the action with the soldiers marching. Yes, I mean, when I found that. Just been silhouetted up there, that's a work of art. I mean, I was just thrilled when I saw that because that really paints the picture of what it was like. Now, the courthouse was built in the late 1800s. They had a jail, but they didn't have a jail for three people. And so the prisoners, the three of them were kept in one jail cell. There was Chauncey and McBride was Chauncey's kind of right hand man. And Wilson, Clyde Wilson was one of the main cowboys. Now there were a lot of other cowboys. This is from the Justice Docket Journal. And this is one of the very first documents when somebody is arrested. And along with the three that were charged with murder, there were, I don't know, I think seven to eight other cowboys who were on the scene, who had guns and may have even shot their guns. And so they were each arrested, but eventually they were let go. They did have a preliminary hearing pretty quick, a few days. And I was able to find the court records for that. Roy, I mean, it was just a few days after the shooting and he was shot through the jaw. But he was a witness and they brought him in on a stretcher with band-aids around him. Usually preliminary hearing can happen a lot faster because they just have to determine, yes, there's enough evidence, we can hold them. But of course Dewey had his attorneys there and was trying everything he could to get them bail and released and all that. So it went into two days. Then there was the problem of, well, we can't keep these prisoners here. This is not adequate that we have here. So they first suggested, well, let's move them to Goodland, Kansas to their jail. And immediately the sheriff over there said, no, because their jail was actually worse than Cheyenne County's jail. The three were ultimately moved to the Topeka area and granted bail until their eventual trial in Norton, Kansas. They spent a year before their main trial happened, which happened in 1904. Yeah, and I remember reading, which impressed me a lot, that Shawn's dad either leased or rented at least one whole hotel in Norton just for the attorney. Oh, yeah. It took, they had that many. Oh, yeah, Plathrow. They demanded a change of venue because they didn't think they could get a fair trial either in Sherman County or Cheyenne County. Now, the trial was only for Burch. There was three murder charges, but they were gonna do one trial at a time. And it went on more than days. It probably went on for weeks. Yes, I think it did. Yeah, so, and then the jury went out to discuss and they, I think they were probably in there only two days or a day and a half, I believe. And they came back with a not guilty and it just shocked everybody. Immediately, somebody or people hung the jury in effigy in front of the courthouse. I mean, the town was upset. The whole Northwest Kansas was upset by that. That was a shock. Then they had to decide, well, what are we gonna do? I mean, Chauncey and McBride and Wilson were still being held for murdering the other two. At that point, they decided to let them, they put them on bail and they went back to Manhattan where the other Dewey Ranch was. And that they were gonna be held, not held, confined to that area. Finally, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that they were just gonna let them go. Well, do you know anything about the Kansas Supreme Court? Why did they let them go? Was there insufficient evidence or? It was basically if they couldn't be held liable for Burch's murder, then the likelihood of convicting the other two was in light. But again, I think that was because of Daddy Dewey. He was able to, you know, because he knew the politicians, he knew the governor. He was able to probably push that through. Yeah, he could. And that's what's the litigation he could hire. I mean, they were high priced attorneys. Oh, yeah. So yeah, lots of money, lots of influence. Lots of money, lots of cost. Yeah, right. So that basically kind of ends the feud, but it doesn't end the story. The really wealthy people like Charles Dewey and a lot from the East Coast, it was a hobby to come out, you know, because they had all this money. John Rockefeller had a brother named Franklin Rockefeller. And Franklin Rockefeller had a ranch someplace else in Kansas. And then he came out and he started a ranch in northwest Kansas, and it was right next to the Dewey Ranch. Roy and one of the, and Beech, the surviving brother, were accused of stealing Rockefeller's cattle and taking them to Colorado. And Roy, and this is like the same year. This is still 1903. Art of the tour. And then he was held in a jail in Colorado. He never got convicted of it. He was let go. They just said they couldn't prove it because they were able to, Rockefeller's brand on the cattle, the Berrys, they could just fake it and make it. Yeah, they called running a brand. Is that what it is, okay. And they run a brand to change the existing brand and register under their own name. Yeah. So it kind of continued on. And I guess the backwash of the feud just went on through because I'd also heard that Chauncey Dewey basically had a bodyguard for almost the rest of his life. Well, and even Roy, I read, he feared for his life and he wouldn't let his wife live in the house on the farm. I would say the final chapter in this feud is when the Berry family, mainly Harriet, which was Father Daniel Berry's wife, brought a civil suit against him and for damages. And Chauncey, again, hired the very, very best lawyers. But in the end, the damages that he had to pay was $13,700. So that basically ends the saga of the Dewey Berry feud. I either heard or read sometime. Finally, one of the berries and he went fishing together. But that might be folklore. I think it's folklore, because I really did. That was a peace treaty. Yes, that they somehow, you know, that Roy and him met, I don't know, on the sidewalk or street and they talked. And Roy admitted that they really were the ones who shot first. And I guess all was forgiven. And Roy said he only had one wish and that was to go fishing in Dewey Lake. And so supposedly they went to this lake and they were fishing and, you know, like far away were spectators watching this. I just can't believe that. Even in the newspaper articles, there was some skepticism that probably wasn't really true, but that was a story. Yeah. Yeah. But what's hard when you're researching and doing a book like this is you can't believe everything that you read.

That's right. You can believe nothing. Especially the newspapers from back then, you know, the more sensational, the more papers they saw. Right. The whole story was never told. I mean, with the letting the Dewey's go and nobody was found guilty and stuff. So I think that keeps the interest. And we know that historians always reinterpret something because other information and things go through, but we can't relive what really happened. So when I first learned about the Dewey, very few, I was looking at old newspapers, 1903, which I do, and there was this huge headline, "Three Murdered.

" And the newspapers back then didn't have big headlines. It was just text and stuff. So that kind of stood out. I asked my mother about it and she, because my grandparents lived during that time, they were in Bird City. And my mother said, "Oh yeah, I remember my mother "and dad talking about that.

" And they took the side of the Berrys and it was quite a bit. So she learned about it. And then I work up at the Cheyenne History Museum and there are people who come in and just ask about that too. It's amazing. But I think it's because we are so small. So the contrast, you know, we always say there's nothing going on here, but to have something that was a national interest actually happened here and it was local people and there's still connections. It is interesting that it's lasted, but it's a pretty amazing story. (gentle music)