The Gambling Men
In July 1889 nine Kearney
men were arrested for gambling. Who were they? Were they Kearney business
owners/operators or someone passing through?
A. The Judge
udge William Learn was the police judge
working out of city hall. When these men were arrested for gambling, he was
the judge who heard their cases.
The cases were heard
within a couple of hours of their arrests and were based entirely on the
testimonies of the arresting officers. The gamblers did not have legal
representation as would be the case today.
The judge was a
comparatively young man, only 35 at this time. He had been living in Kearney
for over three years. Marriage records in our archives show that he had
married Emma Sweley here in Kearney in April 1886.
During that summer of 1889
the judge heard a variety of interesting cases, but that is the topic for
another program.
B. The Gamblers
Of the nine men arrested in those two raids,
for seven I found little to no information
A C Stevens
– Arrested in the first raid, no information found
A J Woolie – Arrested in the
second raid, no information found
B. A. Frick
– Arrested in the first raid
Bert A
Frick was 25 and living with his parents in Gibbon in 1885
Four
years later, in 1889, this could have been the B. A. Frick who was arrested
in Kearney
M. M. Riley – Arrested in the
first raid
During the summer of 1889 Matt Riley (also named as M. O. Riley) entered his
horses in the trotting races at the fairgrounds. Don’t know if this same
person or not
J C Currie, Jr. – Arrested in the
second raid
Curie was apparently a tennis player, coming in second in a Kearney tennis
tournament in early June before this gambling arrest at the end of July
There is information about
J C Curie being a real estate and fire insurance agent in Kearney but it is
unclear whether this Junior or Senior.
J A Martin
– Arrested in the second raid
He apparently liked to hunt. In early October that
year he went on a hunting trip along the Loup with three other Kearney men.
They got “a large quantity of ducks and quail.”
1890 Business Gazetteer
lists him as being in real estate. There is also a listing of Henry Martin &
Son, real estate
Other items refer to a Dr. J.A. Martin of Minden
and a Rev. J. A. Martin who served in Methodist churches at Newark and Funk
in the 19-teens
W A Mollring – Arrested in the
second raid
Mollring was a salesman for the Kearney Canning and Pickling company during
the summer of 1889. He possibly was from Broken Bow. He went there to attend
his brother’s wedding. Then in August he went to Broken Bow to take charge
of a dry goods store.
The last two men proved to be much more
interesting
Both were arrested in the first raid, both
early residents of Kearney, probably friends.
C. J.
Burke
Born in Sweden in 1852, he had come to the US as a
child.
By 1880, now 28, he was married and living in
Kearney, working as a clerk in a store.
This was possibly a
hardware store because by 1885 he was a hardware merchant. Three years
later, about 1888, he sold his hardware business to another hardware store
owner.
Then he got into the water pump and well drilling
business.
In September, two months after the gambling
incident, he displayed pumps at county fair
By June the following year
(1890) Burke was also selling water tanks to farmers and ranchers
He tried to drill a well
on Industrial School grounds but abandoned the project after going down 400
feet without striking water.
In November (1890) he was
again arrested for gambling with five other men in a room over a meat market
[none of these men had been arrested with him on the same charge in July the
year before]
He continued to drill wells and install windmills
all over the county
He had an accident while handling wind mills and pumps and clipped off the
end of a finger on his right hand
In January 1896 – A civil
engineer from Nebaska was heading up a study of the flow of water in western
Nebraska streams for the US government geological survey. Burke was awarded
a contract to put down 13 wells in a line from the Wood River to the south
side of the Platte to study underflow
October 1, 1901 – Put in a
windmill and tank on the County Poor Farm. He also put a water tank in the
house on the 3rd floor for household use and fire protection.
A successful business,
Burke sold 93 windmills in 1903
Janury 3, 1905 – "Makes
Collection Under Difficulties
Debtor Attempts Gun Play But Finally Pays Up"
Burke
had put in a pump in the vicinity of 2nd and 36th St. which the man had not
paid for.
So he went to the
place along with 3 of his men, either get payment pull the pump.
The man refused to pay although Mr. Burke knew that the man had the money.
So Burkee set his men to
remove the pump.
The
wife of the man who owned the place, threw her arms around the pump and put
her feet on the bolts which
held it to the platform, and refused to allow the men to remove them.
A few gentle taps on her toes with the wrenches of the workmen, caused her
to hop around but she held on to
the pump.
The
husband disappeared into the house but reappeared with a shot gun.
Pointing his weapon at the pump men, he commanded them to line up and not
move.
Of course they had to obey as none of them was armed with anything more
deadly than a monkey wrench.
They
were held in a line and not allowed to move for what seemed to be an
interminable time.
It was
cold (January); one of the men finally got away and ran to the house of a
neighbor where he borrowed
a
gun.
Upon
his return, the other man laid down his shotgun and said he would pay. He
wanted to keep the pump.
But then the property owner became angry again, and grabbing up the gun
which the pump man had laid aside,
was about to point it at them again.
But he
was too slow, was quickly seized and disarmed.
Finally the man agreed to give a check for the pump and his wife went into
the house and got the check book.
He filled out the blank for the amount due and the men drove away.
For many years the
Burkes lived on the corner of 23rd and Avenue C. Their home was the scene of
frequent Methodist social gatherings and ice cream socials on the lawn. Then
in the fall of 1907 they had a house built 2310 6th Avenue near the John
Dryden residence.
The Burke’s had six children; the older three
lived to adulthood. Both daughters lived at home and never married.
One
was a secretary in the county clerk’s office, the other a teacher.
Their son, Milton, had gone to Lincoln where he worked in a bank in
University Place.
In 1908 Milton moved back to Kearney and went into
partnership with his father.
The business was then advertised as C. J.
Burke and Son.
By this time he had expanded into laying sewer lines and the following year
they purchased another plumbing business in Kearney.
So the business name
changed again to C. J. Burke & Son, Plumbing and; still drilling wells and
installing windmills but also installing sanitary plumbing and heating
appliances in homes.
About this time Burke had a close call when he was
completely covered when a sewer excavation caved in on him. Fortunately his
son and a couple other men were there to dig him out. He was not injured but
was very weak and took several days to completely recover.
June 1911 – Milton died of
appendicitis. He left a wife and a son age 2
October 5, 1920 – C. J.
Burke died at his home of stomach cancer. He had been ailing for some time
and had recently consulted a specialist in Omaha who told him treatment was
hopeless. His funeral held at the Methodist church.
[Next month we
will hear about the other of these two interesting gambling men.]
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