Biography of Samuel Lappin Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912. submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist ----------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SAMUEL LAPPIN was born near Cumberland, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, January 4, 1831. He was the son of Finley Lappin, and his family was a wife, two daughters, Ella and Jessie, and son, Grover. He came to Kansas from Louisiana in the winter of 1856-'57, settling first at White Cloud, but moved to Seneca in the autumn of 1857, being one of the town incorporators. He was elected justice of the peace, May 5, 1858, and commissioned on May 26. He was elected register of deeds for Nemaha county November 8, 1859, serving to 1861; a member of the senate in the first state legislature, and again in 1862, and served in the house of 1869. He was a director and president of the "Northern Kansas Railroad and Telegraph Company" (the St. Joseph & Grand Island). In a list of Kansas post offices 1876, a town by the name of Lappin appears. located in Nemaha county, east of Seneca and about the present situation of Oneida. Sol Miller said that when he landed in White Cloud, March, 1857, Lappin was a stockholder in the town company and had a claim near; that Scrafford and Lappin had a sawmill, and had come in 1856, but went to Seneca. They named the town for Seneca county, Ohio. Mr. Miller bought Lappin's land in 1862. On November 26, 1862, Lappin was commissioned by the President assistant quartermaster general, with rank of captain, and mustered out September 20, 1865. He was elected slate treasurer in Novemher, 1874, serving from January to December 20, 1875, when his resignation was demanded by Governor Osborn. On December 9 the school-fund commissioners discovered that forged school bonds of Jewell, Mitchell and Republic counties had been bought with money from the state treasury, funds being sent to Richard Milner, S. Whitcomb and Thomas Manford, supposed to be of St. Joseph and Kansas City. Upon investigation by two members of the commission in Kansas City, they were convinced that Lappin was the forger of the bonds and the recipient of the money, and on December 11 so notified the governor, who instructed the attorney-general to bring the guilty parties to justice. Detectives were employed and evidence was completed before December 20, when the governor instructed the attorney-general to begin proceedings against Lappin and his securities for recovery of the funds taken, which was $19,050. Peck & Ryan, of Topeka, were employed to assist in the prosecution. The governor wrote a two-page letter to Lappin requesting his resignation, which was at once tendered and accepted. Lappin employed A. H. Horton and the firm of Guthrie & Brown to defend him. The governor appointed John Francis as treasurer. Thus was Mr. Francis called upon the second time to fill vacancies caused by defaulting treasurers, the first being Josiah E. Hayes in 1874. Each time he restored order and public confidence, as was attested by his nomination by acclamation in the Republican convention of August, 1876, and his election for three successive terms, serving until January, 1883. Mr. Francis had been a candidate for the nomination in the convention of August 26, 1874, against Lappin, who received the nomination. A bolting faction of this convention tendered to Mr. Francis the nomination as treasurer on a reform ticket, which he declined. December 30 the treasury was turned over to Mr. Francis. Civil and criminal suits were begun, charging Lappin with forgery, counterfeiting and embezzlement. On December 31 he was allowed to go to Seneca, in charge of a deputy, to arrange for bond. Jacob Smith went on his bond, and then Lappin left for Chicago. In the meantime he was found to be short $830 in his cash account, and the governor ordered his arrest, which was made by sheriff E. S. W. Drought, of Wyandotte county, in Chicago, January 13. They arrived in Topeka January 13, and Lappin was lodged in jail January 18, with bond placed at $15,000, which he could not secure. His accomplice. Charles G. Scrafford, of Seneca, who was his brother-in-law and business partner, left December 13 and fled to Peru. Their conspiracy to defraud the state dated from about August 1, 1875. Lappin attempted to escape from jail on the night of June 10, 1876, through the aid of an ex-prisoner, Bob Odell, but was caught in the act of crawling through a hole in the floor of his cell-a difficult feat considering his weight, which was 235 pounds. On July 11 he succeeded in escaping through the window, again assisted by Odell and another colored man. "Filibuster" Stanley, whom Lappin had employed as a treasury guard, was waiting with a two-horse team and spring wagon. They traveled by night until in Nebraska, part of the time Lappin lying on the bed of the wagon covered by a tarpaulin. This Walter Stanley had been in the United States army in 1856, and a captain in Walker's filibustering expedition in Nicaragua, thus earning his nickname. He had also served in the Civil War. The route taken by the fugitives was through Nebraska to Sioux City, Iowa ; then to Duluth, where they took boat for Sarnia, Canada ; then to Quebec. and from there to Portland, Me., by rail. From Portland they took steamer to New York, where they sailed for Aspinwall, August 14, 1876. They were joined at Callao, Peru, by Scrafford, who had earned his passage from New York to South America, working as a stoker, starting with only eighty cents in his pocket. Later Lappin and Scrafford quarreled and did not speak for several years. Lappin, escaping arrest with Scrafford at Callao in 1877, went to Central America, and to Brazil in 1879. He arrived in Boston January 3, 1880, where he took an agency to sell books and maps in southern slates. Then he sold rubber goods for a Philadelphia house, traveling about on foot and in ill health. He had been in nearly every state, and attended the Cincinnati Exposition in 1882. He had seen many Kansans who recognized him. In South America he met General Caldwell, United States minister to Argentine Republic. He visited his two daughters in Chicago, but he had not seen his wife since his escape from the state, and much of the time had not known where she was. (Eugene Ware said that Mrs. Lappin had sold most of their belongings to raise money to send him, and that she lived in poverty in Chicago, supporting herself and one child with her needle and a washtub.) The other daughter, Ella, was employed in the mailing department of the Commonwealth. The son, Grover, had left home soon after the father's disgrace, drifting from bad to worse, and at the time of Lappin's return was in the penitentiary, sent from Emporia for robbery of a post office. From Chicago Lappin went to Texas, then to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Victoria and Tacoma, where he met Jacob Wiesbach, a Kansan, who informed upon him. He had been selling books and magazines under the name of S. J. Campbell. He was brought back by the sheriff of Tacoma, arriving in Topeka October 23, 1884, and was lodged in jail. Governor Glick employed Thomas P. Fenlon to assist Attorney-general Bradford in the prosecution. Mr. Fenlon's charge for services was $1000. To provide for payment of this and other expenses of procuring evidence, the governor applied to the ways and means committee of the legislature of 1885 for an appropriation of $2000, which was not made, discussion indicating that the committee believed the case could not be continued. So when Lappin appeared in court December 23, 1885, Attorney-general Bradford entered a nolle prosequi on the grounds that the forged bonds were missing, witnesses scattered, some of them dead; that the state had been fully reimbursed for the loss; that there was no chance for conviction, and that Lappin had been sufficiently punished. The case was dismissed December 24, 1885. Lappin returned to Seneca, where he was joined by his wife. There he was loaned about $1000 by Scrafford and other friends, also given letters of credit, enabling him to open a store in Lenora, Norton county, in 1886. He proved unfaithful to his friends, putting all business in his wife's name. They compelled him to sign notes to protect them, which he did by forging his wife's name. The store was burned and creditors sued for the insurance money. Eugene F. Ware was attorney in the case of German Fire Insurance v. T. B, Bullene et al., and characterized Lappin as a Kansas derelict. According to the attorney-general, Lappin had the following aliases: S. Whitcomb, Thomas Manford, Mrs. Thomas Manford, Richard Milner, J. S. Kirby, and David J. Parkhurst. His next venture was at La Centre, Wash., where he conducted a business in the name of a son-in-law, at whose house he died, August 4, 1892, aged sixty-one, his death being caused by hemorrhage of the lungs. In the archives department of the State Historical Society is a most interesting file of original and copied executive correspondence, December 11, 1875, to December 24, 1885, which includes the blue-ribboned letters of Win. H. Evarts, State Department, Washington; the United States Minister to Peru, Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Governors Osborn. Anthony, St. John, Glick and Martin; five attorneys-general, from A, M. F. Randolph to S. B. Bradford; the Kansas congressional delegation; lawyers, detectives and informers; a petition from Nemaha county friends of Scrafford, asking the governor not to issue a requisition, which was followed by a letter from Edwin Knowles, of Seneca, who declared "the petition did not reflect the views of Nemaha county. This county furnished the state with a thief for treasurer and a brother-in-law to assist him in his dishonesty, and this is enough without our now trying to screen them from punishment." The file also includes a letter from the city marshal of Evansville, Ind., dated December 18, 1877, saying he had in custody Robert Odell, who wanted to return to Kansas and give evidence about Lappin who, he affirmed, was helped to escape through friends who were well paid for it, and with full knowledge of the sheriff. The marshal asked if there was a bounty for the return of Odell, The reply to him from the governor's secretary is quoted: "In answer to your letter about Odell, I have to say; that he is not wanted in Kansas; no bounty is offered for him; nobody has a desire to offer a bounty for him. Keep him on the rock pile; keep him from Kansas, Do what you will with him, but protect us from his presence if possible." One S. C. Gregory wrote from Callao to the governor May 20, 1877, that Lappin and Scrafford were there under assumed names, and desired to be commissioned to arrest them, asking about the reward. The governor informed him that the reward was $1000 for arrest and delivery of both at Topeka, or $500 for either; or $500 for arrest and delivery of both to the United States consul at Callao, or $250 for either. The governor forwarded to the State Department all the papers required for extradition, but before they reached Callao the men had fled. Lappin escaped, but Scrafford was arrested in the north of Peru by Gregory, who had trailed him across the Andes with a guide to talk to the natives, and landed him in jail at Callao, October, 1877, after a hand-to-hand scuffle in which Scrafford pushed Gregory overboard from a Pacific steamer. Gregory came to Washington and to Kansas to claim his reward, June 1, 1878. The vice consul of the United States at Callao was about to return home, and in his custody Scrafford was started back in handcuffs, but at Panama was released by that government on a claim that person could not be held under arrest whilst in transit between two countries in an intervening one having no treaty obligations with the others to surrender fugitives. The United States protested against this meddling, demanding rearrest, but Scrafford, finding himself free, voluntarily returned home. He had been provided at Callao, by order of the United States consul, with warm clothing and extra food, as he was in almost a starving condition. The vice consul presented a bill to the state of $1022 for his services, but was allowed $518, deduction being made for his own passage and expenses, on the ground that he was making the voyage home anyway. There are also letters from Scrafford, in jail at Callao, to the United States minister, complaining of ill treatment (1877), and from St. Louis to the governor, dated July 27, 1878, saying he would return to Topeka July 30 to meet all charges, expecting Nemaha county friends to sign his bond, and hoped for a speedy trial, adding that he was tired of bearing other men's sins. He returned July 30, surrendered to the sheriff, and was released on bond given by Nemaha men and others, including Sol Miller. On November 22, 1878, the sale of the property of Lappin and Scrafford yielded about $20,300, or more than enough to satisfy the state's claim. On December 19, 1878, Scrafford's trial was called. It lasted seventeen days, when a verdict of guilty was returned. He was granted a new trial, which began July 11, 1879, and on July 25 he was acquitted. He returned to Seneca, where his subsequent career justified the trust placed in him by his friends. (Included with the article, "A History of the Kansas School Fund.", page 210-212)