William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

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Chapter 26: Cherokee feuds.

“what is about to happen?” we enquire of a settler at Olathe, a city with six log shanties, a church, a school, a drinking bar, and a fringe of maize. Olathe is suffering from a scare.

Three weeks ago, five men with masked faces, stopped the train running from Fort Scott to Kansas City, in open day. Two of the five men kept guard, their rifles cocked, while their pals entered the cars, and rifled the express of thirty thousand dollars. No one interfered, for who could tell how many passengers were members of the gang? Why should a man expose himself to fire and steel? The thieves got off. But that affair is three weeks old; the present scare arises from events to come.

“A gang of Cherokees, under Billy Ross, their savage chief, are coming up the country, ”