View source for Hay Meadow massacre

{{No footnotes|date=November 2021}}
{{Use American English|date = January 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = January 2020}}
{{Infobox historical event
  |Event_Name     = Hay Meadow massacre
  |Image_Name     = Haymeadow massacre.png
  |Imagesize      = 300px
  |Image_Alt      = 
  |Image_Caption  = The site of the massacre
  |Thumb_Time     = 
  |AKA            = 
  |Participants   = 
  |Location       = [[Wild Horse Lake (Oklahoma)|Wild Horse Lake]], [[Oklahoma]], [[United States|USA]]
  |Date           = July 25, 1888
  |nongregorian   = 
  |Deaths        = 4
  |Result         = 
  |URL            = 
}}

The '''Hay Meadow massacre''' occurred on July 25, 1888, and was the most violent event of the [[Stevens County, Kansas#History|Stevens County War]] in [[Kansas]].

In July 1888, Sam Robinson, the [[Marshal#Law enforcement|marshal]] of [[Hugoton, Kansas|Hugoton]], and a group of men supporting Hugoton for the county seat planned an outing in [[Neutral Strip (Oklahoma)|No Man's Land]] just south of the county. Ed Short, the marshal of [[Woodsdale, Kansas|Woodsdale]] and a Woodsdale supporter, learned of the outing and gathered some men of the opposing faction. They caught up with Robinson, but he escaped. Short, feeling they needed more help, sent for reinforcements. Sheriff John M. Cross, also a Woodsdale booster, and four others headed out to search for the Hugoton party. Not finding them, they camped for the night on a hay meadow at [[Wild Horse Lake (Oklahoma)|Wild Horse Lake]], just across the border in the present-day [[Oklahoma]].

Meanwhile, Robinson's friends had organized a group of Hugoton supporters with the intentions of rescuing him. They met Robinson and returned to the strip. Locating the Woodsdale camp at the hay meadow, they surrounded the Sheriff's party, killed four members, and injured the fifth. The Hugoton party, believing they had killed all of the Woodsdale group, returned, saying that they had killed the party in a shootout. However, the surviving member and a group of haymakers who witnessed the event stated that the Woodsdale party had been captured, disarmed, and then executed.

The state militia was called out and the Hugoton men arrested, but it was soon determined that no court had jurisdiction in [[No man's land|No Man's Land]]. Eventually, the case was tried before the United States Court for the Eastern District of Texas, at [[Paris, Texas|Paris]] (''United States v. C. E. Cook. Orin Cook, Capt. C.E. Frease, Johnnie Jackson, Ed Boudin, John Colbert, et al.''). [[Samuel Newitt Wood]] was the lead prosecutor. Seven men were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. On appeal, however, the Supreme Court held that the Paris court had no jurisdiction, and no sentence was carried out.

==See also==
{{Portal|Oklahoma|Kansas}}

* [[County seat war]]
* [[American Frontier]]

==Sources==
*Butler, Ken. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090419075715/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/stevens/haymeadow.html ''Kansas Blood Spilled Into Oklahoma'']. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060820035651/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/kansas/index.html Blue Skyways] (retrieved August 19, 2006)
*Mason, Henry F. [https://web.archive.org/web/20021116124120/http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1933/33_1_mason.htm "County Seat Controversies in Southwestern Kansas"] ''The Kansas Historical Quarterly'' 2:1 (February 1933) 45-65. (retrieved from [https://web.archive.org/web/20020705155911/http://www.kancoll.org/ ''The Kansas Collection''] August 19, 2006)
*Williams, Robert L. [http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v018/v018p003.html "Judge Jesse James Dunn 1867-1926"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902072241/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v018/v018p003.html |date=September 2, 2006 }}, ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'' 18:1 (March 1940) 3-11 (retrieved August 19, 2006)

{{Gunfights and feuds in the Old West}}

[[Category:History of Kansas]]
[[Category:American frontier]]
[[Category:Stevens County, Kansas]]
[[Category:Texas County, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:1888 in Indian Territory]]
[[Category:Mass murder in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:19th-century mass murder in the United States]]
[[Category:County Seat Wars]]
[[Category:July 1888]]
[[Category:History of Indian Territory]]
[[Category:1888 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1888]]