The juryʼs finding was manslaughter

The two principals in this tale of early Jewell County, were homesteaders in Odessa Township. Their names are Patrick Carrigan and Benjamin F. Hall. 

Carrigan, an Irishman, was born somewhere in Ireland, perhaps Kilkenny, in about 1810. When he came to the United States is not certain, but he married Ellen Ferne in Adams County, Illinois, on Jan. 20, 1847. Ellen, 20 years his junior, was also Irish. 

The family, which eventually included 11 children, lived in Illinois until the early 1870s.  Patrick and Ellen, with nine of their children, are found in the 1875 Kansas Census in Ionia Township. Patrick and Ellen, plus their two oldest sons, Edward and Daniel, claimed real estate with a combined value of $1,300.   

The 1880 U.S. Census enumerates the Carrigans, again in Ionia Township, with three children and one granddaughter. The 1884 Jewell County Atlas shows Pat Carrigan with two quarter sections of land. One in Section 29 and the other, his homestead, in Section 32 of Odessa Township. The patent for the homestead was granted on Feb. 2, 1882. This land is located on the north side of the road at the end of H Road between 30 Road and 20 Road.   

In the 1885 Kansas State Census, the Carrigans are living in Odessa Township.  Patrick and Ellen are found with two of their younger children. 

Then there is Benjamin Hall, Benjamin Franklin Hall. He was born in Virginia, likely Culpepper, on Jan. 12, 1850. Hall was married to 16-year-old Louisa Emmeline Leavitt on Sept. 8 1874, in Newton, Indiana. 

The Halls had three children, though there is a family story about twins who died in infancy and are buried in Odessa Cemetery. The family came to Jewell County in the mid-1870s. Their second child, daughter Albert Gertrude Hall, was born in Esbon on Nov. 6 1876.   

The 1880 U. S. Census shows Benjamin and Louisa, with their three children, living in Mankato.  Benjamin’s occupation is listed as “Pool Hall.” He was the proprietor of the Jewell Centre Pool Rooms beginning in early September, 1879. (Mankato, was at that time, Jewell Centre.)  They moved their business to Jewell City in December of 1880. (Dec. 2,1880, Jewell County Monitor) 

The Hall Homestead was the SW 1⁄4 of Section 17 of Odessa Township.  The patent was granted to Louisa E. Hall-Louisa E. Rowe on May 11, 1884. This was after altercations between Carrigan and Hall and the eventual death of Benjamin Hall in 1882. 

Setting the stage for the 1882 altercations we find both Hall and Carrigan came to Jewell County about the same time. Hall was 40 years Carrigan’s junior. Carrigan, at 72 years of age, was described by the Nov. 25, 1880, Jewell County Review as “of Ionia Township, one of the prominent farmers of the west part of the county.” Then he was noted by the June 1, 1882, Kirwin Chief as “an old resident of Kansas and a well-to-do farmer and stock raiser.” 

Hall’s children were five, four and three years of age. He and Louisa had been married just less than eight years. Carrigan’s children were older and nine were no longer living under his roof. His two youngest were 16 and ten. He and Ellen had been married 33 years.   

Though Carrigan had previously lived in Ionia Township, there is no land in his name in Ionia Township in the 1884 atlas. Hall had managed pool halls in Jewell Centre and Jewell City. 

In May of 1882, when newspapers began reporting the disputes between the two, Hall was living on a homestead, “proving up” on it. He filed the homestead papers and had taken possession of the land. The land is located a mile and half north of Carrigan’s homestead. Carrigan’s land patent had already been granted in February of 1882. 

Carrigan had tried to file a Timber Claim on the land in question but there had been an another person making a claim to it. That person was unnamed and left the county before the case was heard. Carrigan, however, did not legally establish his claim before Hall filed his documents. (June 2, 1882, Jewell County Republican) 

A Hall family story tells of Hall living on and improving the claim. The story also notes that Carrigan thought he had a prior claim to be property but had not made any improvements on the quarter. Hall made the necessary improvements, he had a home on the land.  But, Carrigan believed his prior claim was valid and thus the dispute between the two men. 

Carrigan already had a homestead, but it was not illegal to have two homesteads. However, living on the homestead and making improvements was required for the second as well as a first homestead. Carrigan was not living on the land in Section 17, but Hall and his family were. 

Some of the first newspaper evidence of the conflict is found in the May 25, 1882, Jewell County Monitor. The paper reported that Patrick Carrigan, his son Edward Carrigan and his daughter, Catherine “Katy” McGinn were tried in Mankato before Squire Thompson.   

The trial was on a Tuesday and Wednesday. The charge was “setting fire to B. F. Hall’s house, in Odessa Township, on last Friday evening.” The result “Edward Carrigan and Katy McGinn were discharged, and Patrick Carrigan was bound over in the sum of $600 for his appearance at the next term of court.” 

Other information is found in the May 25, 1882, Cawker City Ledger. The article states Hall discovered his home in flames when he returned on Friday night from a neighbor’s. The house was saved but “considerable damage done to bedding, clothing, etc.” By midnight” a warrant had been issued. 

When the officer arrived to serve the warrant, he found Carrigan a “belligerent sort of animal” and “was made to beat a hasty retreat by having a double barreled shotgun placed at his head.” The next day Carrigan was traced to Cawker City where two constables arrested him. 

This was not the end of the dispute. Several newspaper articles from late June and early July describe the altercation which led to Hall’s death. 

Summarizing the information in the several articles, it seems Carrigan went to the quarter where the Halls lived. One article indicates his daughter, Kate, was going to dig a cellar on the land for the house she intended to build. The articles agree that Hall told them, on the advice of the county attorney, to leave as he considered them trespassing.   

There were words exchanged between Hall and Carrigan. Carrigan drew his revolver and, according to one article, fired three shots. One shot hit Hall in the chest and he died nearly instantly. However, Hall did get one shot off, striking Carrigan above the knee. 

Hall was standing beside a horse when shot. When the horse spooked and ran, a small boy tumbled off.  Louisa Hall went first to her son then her husband. In that instant, she became a widow with three small children. 

Carrigan went to Cawker City to get help for his leg. He was arrested there. An uproar ensued in Jewell County, with the threat of mob violence. Two articles indicate Carrigan was taken east, perhaps to Emporia, by train. 

The preliminary trial was scheduled for July 10, 1882. Carrigan waived examination and was confined to jail to await his trial. (July 14, 1882, Jewell County Republican) There was not enough evidence to bring David Carrigan, Edward Carrigan or Katy McGinn to trial so they were released. (July 18, 1882, Atchinson Daily Companion) 

The trial was scheduled for the latter part of September. Eighty- two witnesses were to be examined according to the Sept. 20, 1882, Kansas Jewellite.  The Sept. 20, Jewell County Monitor reported it was with “considerable difficulty” a jury was obtained for the trial.  

A total of seven lawyers were working on the case. Four, Decker, Holt, Fowler and Patterson, represented the State of Kansas and Kelly, Angevine and Hanley were representing Carrigan.  According to the Sept. 27, 1882, Kansas Jewellite, the trial was the longest ever held in Jewell County. The Oct. 4, 1882, Kansas Jewellite reported the Carrigan Trial cost about $1,500. 

The jury found Carrigan guilty of manslaughter and in October he was sentenced to two years at hard labor in the penitentiary.  There was no motion for another trial. (Oct. 27, 1882, Jewell County Republican)  

By the 1885 Kansas Census, Carrigan had served his sentence and was back in Odessa Township. Patrick and Ellen Carrigan were living in the same household with their two youngest children. However, both Patrick and Ellen were listed as single. 

A “Final Redemption List” in the June 30, 1886, Jewell County Monitor lists both of Patrick Carrigan’s properties as being sold for back taxes. Around this time, the Carrigans moved to Washington state.  After their move, little is known about them. 

One paper, the Vancouver Weekly Columbian (Vancouver, Washington) listed Patrick Carrigan as selling property to his daughter, Maggie Claver, in its Nov. 29, 1895, issue. Another bit of information about Carrigan is found in the May 26, 1899, issue of the paper. There we learn details about Carrigan land being sold for back taxes. Nothing has been found about when or where Patrick Carrigan died though he was noted as being “very weak” in the Jan. 24, 1901, Vancouver Weekly Columbian. 

According to her death certificate, Ellen Carrigan died on Sept. 14, 1913, in Vancouver, Clark County, Washington. She is buried in the Mother Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Vancouver but has no tombstone. 

Louisa Hall was not well after her husband’s death. The July 6, 1882, Cawker City Public Record reported her as “very low.” The Nov. 1, 1882, Kansas Jewellite reported her as having bought a house in Burr Oak with plans to move “soon.” 

In 1884, she married Jewell Countian, Strawder Rowe. The couple lived in Russell, Kansas, and Pawnee, Oklahoma, before her death on Nov. 3, 1904. She was only 46 years old and had been in poor health for some time.  Her “dieing (sic) request” was to be buried beside her former husband, B. F. Hall. Her body was returned to Jewell County and she is buried beside Benjamin F. Hall in the Odessa Cemetery. The cemetery is about a mile from the Hall homestead where Benjamin Hall was murdered. 

The “Hall family stories” referred to in this article were told to this writer by Ruth Hall Nelson of Hastings, Nebraska. She is a great-granddaughter of Benjamin and Louisa Hall.