A Fortune Forced Upon Him: Dr. Simeon Bell’s Escape from the Border Wars

By Diane Euston

  It seemed as if the whole world was collapsing during the Border Wars. They all came for the same purpose – for cheap land and a better life – but that didn’t mean that they weren’t divided by issues that would eventually tear the country apart. So many settlers of Kansas Territory came to simply forge a better life.

  When Dr. Simeon Bishop Bell set up shop in the hamlet of Aubry in current-day Johnson County, Kan., he did it with the intention of making a better life for himself and his family. Regardless, the political tensions were so violent that he wouldn’t come out unscathed.

  Dr. Simeon Bell was a country doctor, but just a few decades later, this man would drastically shift the trajectory of healthcare for generations to come. He single-handedly founded the Eleanor Taylor Bell Hospital that would morph into today’s KU Medical Center.

  But his story is way more than a simple stethoscope or the willingness to introduce proper medical care to the citizens of Kansas City. This man beat all the odds decades before he chose philanthropy when a band of bushwhackers beat him up on one occasion and almost burned him alive on another.

  Life is fleeting, and Dr. Simeon Bell’s choices throughout his 92 years have shaped today’s Kansas City in more ways than one.

Developing a Doctor

  Simeon Bishop Bell was born May 30, 1820 in Sussex County, N.J. to Jabez Bell (1783-1851) and Gertrude Nicols (1785-1859). He was one of 15 children.

  In 1832, the family relocated to Richland County, Ohio where his father, a Whig, was “active in community affairs.” Young Simeon was educated in county schools, and to earn extra money, he carried mail on horseback throughout the western portion of the state.

  At 16 years old, Simeon and his large family moved to Wood County, Ohio. His father, a millwright and joiner by trade, was a “fat and jolly farmer” who became popular in their rural neighborhood. He made coffins, doors, looms, furniture and other items that led to their home being known as “the principal stopping place for travelers” and Jabez Bell as “the principal arbitrator in neighborhood misunderstandings.”

  In 1841, Simeon decided to attend Norwalk Seminary in Norwalk, Ohio, where the young man became a member of the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Society – an organization that called for abstinence from alcohol. 

  Simeon’s time in the Methodist seminary didn’t result in a full career in religious studies, and in 1846, he married Richland County, Ohio-born Mary Eleanor Taylor (b. 1826), daughter of John Taylor (1789-1828) and Elizabeth “Betsy” Ayers (1802-1875). When her father passed away when he was just two years old, her mother remarried a man named Ambrose Baldwin (1811-1891).

  Shortly after their wedding, Simeon turned his energy toward medicine and entered Starling Medical College in Columbus. He graduated in 1852, and turned toward his career as a doctor in Mansfield, Ohio. There, “he built up a large and lucrative patronage” of patients. 

  But life certainly wasn’t always easy for the young couple. They lost their first four children, Elizabeth (1847-1848), Gertrude (1848-1854), John (1850-1854) and Columbus (1852-1855). 

  The couple welcomed two more children, Fredrica (b. 1854) and Mary Jane (b. 1856) before they made a major decision for their small family.

  Land was cheap and opportunities were endless in newly-settled Kansas Territory. After a brief stop in Iowa, the Bells, along with Simeon’s youngest sister, Hulda (b. 1831) and her husband, John Beeson (b. 1818) opted to uproot and move to Johnson County, Kan. in 1857.

Tumultuous Times in Kansas

  There was perhaps no more turbulent time of constant worry and violence than the period surrounding the Border Wars and Civil War along the western border. Beginning in 1855, when Indian Territory became Kansas Territory and opened its lands to legal settlement, the border erupted in acts of violence. Numerous accounts describe the violence that plagued the western border throughout the 1850s and into the Civil War. The center of this conflict was the issue of slavery.

  Hundreds of people lost their lives as border ruffians swept through the countryside and towns. Driven by the belief in “an eye for an eye,” these men were willing to answer violence with their own form of vigilante justice.

  During the Civil War, some Southern sympathizers did not simply “fall” into the Confederate ranks. Their ideals, ethics, and morals were often shaped by something far more complicated. In the southern Jackson County area, many families became increasingly connected to a much deeper cause—one that grew under the influence of a notorious leader named William Clarke Quantrill (1837–1865).

  Free-state supporters who crossed Quantrill’s path rarely escaped without some type of loss. Some lost their livestock and homes to the torch, while many others lost their lives. 

  In the spring of 1857, the Bells and the Beesons settled near one another in Aubry Township near current-day Stillwell. It was certainly isolated and sparsely settled; there were only five voters in the area (only men could vote). Dr. Bell didn’t shy away from his political stance. He was “a staunch supporter of the Republican Party.”

  This certainly wasn’t a welcome development for those pro-slavery bushwhackers living steps away in Missouri.

  Shortly after arriving, the town of Aubry was organized in March 1858. It sat just to the west of  current-day 199th and Metcalf Avenue, and some of the original town lots are still present today. 

A frame-building, 20×24, was built in the summer of 1858 and functioned as the area school. 

  As families began to trickle into the area, Dr. Bell’s medical services were needed. In 1859, Eleanor and Simeon welcomed a son they named Charles and the family commenced farming near current-day 199th and Mission Road. Shortly after, Dr. Bell bought Block 42 in the town of Aubry and constructed a mercantile store. Sitting facing current-day Metcalf Avenue at 198th Terrace, the family likely lived on the upper floor. 

  Dr. Bell practiced medicine and ran the store to support his family. 

  He also wasn’t quiet about his own political stance. He later recalled, “It was like dropping into a hornets’ nest. I fell into the thickest of the border troubles. I was a free state man, and a member of the militia, and had about all I could attend to. The dangers from guerrilla warfare and bushwhackers from both sides were still very great along the Kansas-Missouri border.”

    According to the Atlas Map of Johnson County, Kansas from 1874, “It was equally unsafe to express an opinion on either side. If a citizen was outspoken in favor of the Union, only two or three hours’ time was required for a squad of bushwhackers from across the line to drop in upon him for investigating purposes.”

  Shortly after the Civil War commenced, Dr. Bell was a common target for Quantrill’s band of bushwhackers. The area, too, was crawling with Jayhawkers – Union soldiers who oftentimes didn’t follow the rules of war and pillaged farms in Missouri.

  One night, Jayhawkers posing as Missouri bushwhackers went down the Missouri line and “robbed several persons who were obnoxious to them.” 

  Dr. Bell had sensed earlier that he was going to be a target of the bushwhackers, so he and his family went to his brother-in-law, John Beeson’s farm a mile or two away to stay the night.

  Those Jayhawkers dressed as bushwhackers opted to visit Beeson’s farm on their way back. They “surrounded the house. Bell was in bed upstairs and was awakened by the noise they made.” 

  Dr. Bell heard someone outside the door say, “Don’t open that door or I’ll blow you to hell!” He thought they were bushwhackers, so he sprang from bed, grabbed his gun and tried to get out the back door. 

  A man pushed open the door and Dr. Bell fired his weapon at him.

  Dr. Bell ran away from his brother-in-law’s home and went back to Aubry thinking he’d killed a bushwhacker.

  It turned out he’d killed a Union man by accident.

  On March 7, 1862, Quantrill and his men surrounded the town of Aubry and killed three men. Quantrill himself shot Abraham Ellis (1815-1885) directly in the forehead, but the man miraculously survived.

  On that fateful raid at Aubry, Dr. Bell’s home was surrounded but he was able to escape into a cornfield. Quantrill’s men captured him and beat him severely. One account later stated, “Bell managed to ward the blows off with his hands to keep his skull from being crushed, but in less time than it takes to tell [the story], his head, face and arms were badly mangled.”

  After the raid was over, Quantrill ordered the badly beaten doctor to tend to the wounded. His store was looted and goods were stolen from him.

  The town of Aubry was traumatized by this event, and after much pressure, the Union army put soldiers from the 11th Kansas in charge of guarding the small town. A guardhouse was built, and in August 1863, Captain Joshua Pike was in charge.

  He watched on the afternoon of August 20, 1863 as hundreds of bushwhackers led by Quantrill passed a few miles from Aubry. He didn’t report it.

  That decision proved to be fateful, as the next morning, Lawrence, Kan. was stormed by Quantrill’s guerrillas, and approximately 190 men and boys were murdered.

A Fateful Decision

  Dr. Simeon Bell avoided death on several occasions, and his luck didn’t run out there. On January 30, 1865, the climax of troubles unfolded in the town of Aubry.

  Dan Vaughn, a violent bushwhacker, rode into town with seven men.

  Dan Vaughn (1839-1913) grew up on his family’s farm in Jackson County, Mo. in between present-day Grandview and Martin City on Arrington Road. 

  In 1861, he served in the Missouri State Guard before joining Quantrill’s guerrillas. By 1863, Vaughn had become a commander closely associated with Quantrill and participated in violent raids across the Missouri–Kansas border, including the Lawrence Massacre.

  Dr. Simeon Bell was quietly working in his store on that January day. No one else was in town; they’d traveled together to a government land sale in Kansas City.

  The bell jingled on the door as a rush of cold air entered Dr. Bell’s store. A 34-year-old traveler named Norman Sampson, dressed in a Union coat, entered the space. He’d tied up his pony in the front of the store and explained to Dr. Bell that he was from Fort Scott and inquired about the best route to Oxford. 

  He exchanged pleasantries with the doctor and fed his pony before departing.

  He’d been traveling with Fred Wellhouse (1829-1911), a farmer from Leavenworth County but rode a distance in front of him. By the time Fred arrived at Dr. Bell’s store, Norman Sampson had already left.

  Dr. Bell and Fred Wellhouse heard the noises of men on horseback approaching at about four in the afternoon. According to Dr. Bell’s account, the group of about seven men wore Union jackets “and came in [the store] leisurely, occasioning no suspicion.” 

  But the peace didn’t remain for long. 

  Dan Vaughn, the leader of this group of guerrillas, approached Dr. Bell and demanded $1,000. When Bell said he didn’t have it, he then demanded $500 while the guerrillas cocked revolvers and placed them at each man’s temple. Dr. Bell handed over the $100 he did have.

  Fred Wellhouse, trembling, handed over $6 he had in his pocketbook – but he had $50 hidden in his vest. He lied to Dan Vaughn and said he had no more money.

  They violently searched Wellhouse again and found the hidden money. This sent Dan Vaughn into a tailspin. He ordered everyone but Dr. Bell leave the store at once. He was convinced Dr. Bell was hiding more money.

  On his way out, Dan Vaughn took a rope outside with him saying they “would have use for it soon.” 

  Dr. Bell recalled, “The goods were broken on the floor, boxes broken open and their contents scattered about.” The bushwhackers lit matches and applied the flames to items scattered on the floor.

  He was all alone inside a burning building. Dan Vaughn warned Dr. Bell to not leave the store or he’d be riddled with bullets.

  Wellhouse begged the bushwhackers to let Dr. Bell out, and Dan Vaughn screamed at him to shut up. The store was completely engulfed in flames. The doctor would never live through such a fire.

  Dan yelled, “Come out if you’re alive!”

  Amazingly, Dr. Bell came barreling out the door of the engulfed store.

  It turns out Dr. Bell was a witty man; he put his mouth up to a knothole in the wall inside the store and was breathing as much fresh air as he could while flames roared around him.

  The danger was far from over. Dan decided to take Dr. Bell with them to hang him, and “one of the men struck Dr. Bell on the head, inflicting a wound which later was closed with a silver plate.”

  Fred tried to hide between two horses, and as Dan raised his gun to fire, a woman in the neighborhood screamed and begged him not to shoot him. Dan knew the woman and obliged.

  They mounted horses, taking both Dr. Bell and Fred Wellhouse with them. 

  They burned down John Luscher’s home in Aubry as they left. Mrs. Luscher begged the men to let her save a cabinet full of her china. Dan said he would, but as the bushwhackers carried the cabinet outside, they “pitched it out on the ground upside down . . . Of course every dish in it was smashed.”

  They headed toward Missouri, and near the Blue River, the men escorted Dr. Bell into the woods. 

  Dan Vaughn let Fred Wellhouse go, but it certainly appeared that Dr. Bell wasn’t going to be as lucky. Dan told Dr. Bell that Union soldiers had been burning buildings in Missouri, so “now we commence here. They have killed no citizens; but if they do, for every one of ours killed we will kill two of yours.”

  Dr. Bell remained silent, content that he was about to lose his life. Dan Vaughn looked up at Dr. Bell and calmly asked if he’d like to return to his family.

  Dr. Bell said, with no fear, “Certainly.”

  And that was it. Dan Vaughn told him to turn around and go home.

  The next morning, Dr. Bell organized a group of 10 men to try to locate Nathan Sampson. About one mile north of Aubry, they found his pony. 

  Dr. Bell wrote a letter to Nathan’s wife. In part, it read, “I found him after a half day’s search. . . He had been robbed, his socks were found about 100 yards from him, his boots we could not find. We brought him to my house yesterday, and to-day we buried him.”

Rebuilding in Rosedale

  The violence and near-death experiences of Dr. Bell finally were enough to convince him to move. He later said, “When they burned my store, there was nothing left for me to do but go somewhere else and start again.” All of his medical books and his diploma had burned up in the fire, and this was enough for him to retire from medicine altogether. 

  In 1866, he bought 160 acres of land in Wyandotte County in the Rosedale area, and three decades later, Dr. Bell made a fateful decision that would change his legacy – and Kansas City’s prominence as home of one of the best hospitals in the country. 

  The stories associated with the bushwhackers – such a prominent part of Dr. Bell’s early years in Kansas – were thankfully overshadowed by his incredible generosity in his later years when he scratched out a large area of his land to be used by the University of Kansas as a teaching hospital.

  Fred Wellhouse was there on the day Dr. Bell almost lost his life in 1865. He would later recall the story of how that event with bushwhacker Dan Vaughn cured him of lying, and the decision to let Dr. Simeon Bishop Bell go directly impacted so many people. It forced him to reconsider his life and uproot his family. 

  That decision would prove to be financially beneficial to the doctor, and it created the right variables for Dr. Bell to donate his land for a hospital we value to this day.

  Fred Wellhouse said, “I often used to say that Bell had a fortune forced upon him by the bushwhackers.”

In the next issue of the Telegraph, Diane will dive into Dr. Bell’s life in Rosedale and his tenacious fight to ensure the creation of a teaching hospital, the precursor of KU Medical Center, on his land.