Coffeyville History

Early Day History

As early as 1803 the present site of Coffeyville was occupied by the Black Dog band of Osage Indians who crossed back and forth to the west plains to hunt buffalo. In the early 1880’s, Coffeyville was known as Cow Town due to the numbers of cattle grazing the open range and the fact that it was a shipping point for cattle herds.

Coffeyville was settled in 1869 and originally was an Indian trading post. At that time, what  is now the state of Oklahoma, was the Indian Territory. Several trading posts were located just across the northern border of the Indian Territory in Kansas. One was located at "old Parker" a little South and east of the present day Coffeyville. Colonel James A. Coffey relocated here from Humboldt, Kansas, to what is now South Walnut and established a trading post to trade such things as lumber, building materials and other supplies with the Indians. The news of his arrival traveled rapidly throughout the trails of the Osage and Cherokee nations, the business thrived and soon a town was laid out around Coffey’s trading post which was named Coffeyville in his honor.

In 1871, there was a three-way railroad race to secure a right-of-way into the rich Indian lands. The race was won by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, which crossed the lines at Chetopa. Immediately one of the other railroads, the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston, changed its route so as to pass through the new trading post. The promoters of this railroad laid out the townsite of Coffeyville and essentially the entire settlement of Old Parker moved to the new location.

Coffeyville began as a trading and commercial city and through the years it has never lost that character. it was incorporated in March, 1872, but the corporation was found to be illegal and it was again incorporated in March, 1873. During the last thirty years of the 19th Century, it steadily grew and flourished as a trading center of a rich and prosperous farming region. Moreover, it came to be known as one of the most important grain and flour milling points to the Central West.

About 1900, the progressive businessmen of Coffeyville recognized the possibilities of the proximity of deposits of clay, sand and shale, together with natural gas as a fuel. Within the next few years their efforts brought to Coffeyville eight glass factories and five brick and tile plants. The result was rapid expansion into an industrial city. In 1901, as a trading city, Coffeyville had a population of 5,000. By 1910, as an industrial city as well as a trading city, its population had increased and continued to increase for the next five years to 18,500. By 1916, the glass factories had closed their doors. At that time Coffeyville did, however, have a number of industries that are still active today: Rea Patterson Flour Mill (Bartlett Flour Mill), Sherwin Williams and the National refinery (Farmland Industries).

The Dalton Raid Story

Three Daltons, Bob, Grat and Emmet, Dick Broadwell and Bill Powers wanted to do what no one had ever done before - rob two banks at the same time. After camping on Onion Creek, west of Coffeyville, they rode into town on horseback heading east on Eighth Street early on the morning of October 5, 1892. The Dalton brothers, being former residents of Coffeyville, wore disguises. They had planned to tie their horses between the two banks, but because Eighth Street was torn up, they tied them in the alley close to the jail. That was their first mistake.

Three of the bandits - Grat Dalton, Bill Powers and Dick Broadwell - went into the Condon Bank; Bob and Emmet entered the First National. When the gang demanded money from the safe at the Condon, the quick thinking bank employee told him that the safe would not open until 9:30 a.m. It was twenty past nine at the time. Grat said, "I’ll wait," which was their second mistake. That ten minutes (the vault did not have a time lock on it) gave the townspeople the time they needed to get to Isham Hardware, grab some guns and ammunition and begin defending the town. When the raid was over, which lasted 12 minutes, four of the Dalton gang were dead and four of Coffeyville’s citizens were killed.  Three of the citizens - George Cubine, Charles Brown and Lucius Baldwin - were killed near Isham Hardware, Marshall Connelly died in what is today known as Death Alley.  Bob and Grat Dalton and Bill Powers were killed in Death Alley and are buried in Coffeyville’s Elmwood Cemetery. Dick Broadwell escaped the on horseback and died about a half mile from the downtown. He was buried at Hutchinson.

The Daltons were "laid out" in the city jail following their death prior to burial. There were souvenir hunters even in the Dalton’s days. Portions of the manes and tails of the Dalton’s horses were cut off and all the strings from the saddles. In addition, pieces of clothing from the gang members were cut off.

Emmet Dalton, the youngest of the Daltons, survived the Raid but received 23 gunshot wounds. These were removed, he was given a life sentence in the Kansas penitentiary at Lansing and pardoned after 14 years. He moved to California and became a real estate agent, author and actor, dying at the age of 66.

The banks were robbed of approximately $25,000. After the day’s banking business was completed and the books were balanced, the Condon came up $20 short and First National was $1.98 over, so fortunately for the banks most of the money was recovered.

Coffeyville Bricks

Due to an abundance of natural resources - large deposits of shale, limestone and building stone - Coffeyville had a number of brick plants in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s - the Standard Brick Company, Vitrified Brick Company, Yoke Brick Company.

When the plants were running at full speed, some 765,500 bricks were manufactured every day and shipped all over the world. Today, Coffeyville bricks can be found the world over.