Lafe Pence

                                                 Attorney. Winfield, Kansas.
Winfield Directory 1880.
Pence, Lafe, lawyer, Winfield Bank building, room same.
Winfield 1880: Lafe Pence, 22.
                                               FROM THE NEWSPAPERS.
Winfield Courier, December 18, 1879.
Mr. W. N. Harding, of the firm of Harding & Pence, went back last week to his home in Indianapolis. We are sorry to know that Mr. Harding will not return to Winfield.
Winfield Courier, February 5, 1880.
Our young friend, Lafe Pence, has recently “settled down” in his new quarters in the Winfield Bank building. Mr. Pence is one of our brightest young lawyers, and will make his mark in the profession. We are glad to see him prospering.
Winfield Courier, March 11, 1880.
Lafe Pence starts for Indiana in a few days on a visit to his old home.
Winfield Courier, April 1, 1880.
Lafe Pence returned from the East Saturday evening.
Winfield Courier, April 22, 1880.
A Seymour and Hendricks base ball club is to be organized here, whose business it will be to wipe out any Republican club which has the audacity to show its head in this locality. We suppose Lafe Pence and Charlie Black will be “in at the bornin’.”
[COMMENTS: ARKANSAS VALLEY PRESS ASSN. MEETING.]
Winfield Courier, April 29, 1880.
About forty members were present at the Arkansas Valley Press Association meeting held in Winfield April 17th along with a large number of visitors from different parts of the state.
GOLDEN GATE, NEWTON, KANSAS.
“The A. V. E. A. held at Winfield on Saturday last proved, as a social gathering, a grand success, the enjoyable features of which far exceeded any former meeting of the association; as a business meeting, it was—well, yes, it was—very pleasant.
“Through the courtesy of the officers of the Santa Fe road, a special train of three coaches, under the charge of Major Tom Anderson, and Ass’t Supt. of Newton, was placed at the disposal of ye editors and invited guests.

“Leaving Newton at eight a.m. with the genial Geo. Manches­ter at the helm, we were soon speeding southward, our engineer throwing gravel in the prairie chickens’ faces at a lively rate. A special committee of three, consisting of State Supt. Lemmon, Maj. McDermott, and Lafe Pence, Esq., came up from Winfield on the morning train, and were soon circulating through our train, distributing badges to the fraternity, together with ‘bus tickets and hotel and private house billets. All were full of mirth and jollity, and all “went merry as a marriage bell” until we came within about six miles of Wichita, when snap went our bell cord, and looking out, our engine was seen flying down the track envel­oped in a dense cloud of steam and fast widening the distance between it and our train. Coming to a halt, it backed slowly up and we found that an engine flue was burst and the boiler was empty. Taking in the situation at a glance, Maj. Anderson started for a farm house, and securing the services of a bareback rider, dispatched an order to Wichita for another ‘motor.’  While waiting, Dickey undertook the task of supplying the ladies with a yaller nosegay. After securing THREE, begged off on the ground that long understanding and a crick in the back interfered with graceful stooping, and he was excused. After a delay of an hour and a half, we were again in motion, and excepting a ‘hot box’ and the loss of the train chest, no further accident occurred.
Winfield Courier, May 27, 1880.
Mr. Lafe Pence left for Topeka and the east Monday morning. At Topeka he will attend the Democratic State Convention, of which he is a delegate from Cowley, after which he goes to Indiana, where he has been chosen to deliver an address and the diplomas to the graduating members of the Literary society of Hanover college. This is an honor not often conferred upon so young a man and we heartily congratulate Lafe upon his preferment. Mr. Pence graduated at Hanover in 1877.
Winfield Courier, June 3, 1880.
At Topeka the other day the young Democrats of the state organized a Young Men’s Democratic Club. Lafe Pence, of Winfield, was elected its president, a compliment to him and Winfield, which is well merited, for Lafe is an active and energetic young gentleman.
Winfield Courier, July 22, 1880.
Lafe Pence returned from his wanderings Saturday. He was in at the naming of the next President at Chicago, went from there to Cincinnati, took a pull at Hancock’s corset strings, and did various other things of national importance.
Winfield Courier, July 29, 1880.
Lafe Pence made a speech accepting the nomination of the Democratic convention for County Attorney, which is said to have electrified the convention. Lafe has many characteristics of a Voltaic battery, and might have made the fossils there assembled squirm around considerably.
Winfield Courier, August 5, 1880.
There has been some complaint by some of the parties who go out serenading occasionally, about the ladies not acknowledging their efforts on their behalf. The parties who were out last Monday evening surely have no cause to complain. They started out, and stopping at the residence of one of our most popular ladies, sang their prettiest, and waited to be acknowledged, quite forgetting that it was the evening of Emancipation day. The lady, remembering the day, supposed it was some of her colored friends and sent out a generous donation in money. It is needless to say that the party made off as quickly as possible without waiting for further acknowledgment. We hope Messrs. Clayton, Roland, Pence, and the rest of them will not be discour­aged however.
Winfield Courier, August 19, 1880.

One of Lafe Pence’s old Democratic friends brought him yesterday a big watermelon, two feet long. Lafe left it on the table in his office and went out to invite his friends to a treat. Jennings and other rats about the building got the melon, cleaned out the inside, and then fastened it together again, so it looked as good as new. Lafe returned with his friends, and with his big knife slashed open the melon, when lo! it was as vacant as Allison’s skull. The friends did not like the joke, so they stood Lafe on his head and poured ice water down his
trousers.
Winfield Courier, September 16, 1880.
Lafe Pence has been confined to his bed with malarial or political fever. He is better now, but will be sicker than ever November 2nd.
Winfield Courier, October 28, 1880.
Mr. Charley Pence, brother of orator Pence, is here; and he intends to remain.
[PAYMENT OF ELECTION WAGERS.]
Winfield Courier, November 11, 1880.
The most fantastic and humorous performance that this city has ever witnessed took place last Saturday, at 2 o’clock p.m. The crowd of people assembled on the sidewalks, in the streets, in the windows of adjacent buildings, and on the awnings, was simply immense and the enthusiasm displayed was indescribable.
The procession was formed at the Brettun house in the following order:
1st. The Winfield Cornet Band.
2nd. The St. John Battery.
3rd. Hon. O. M. Seward, Chairman of the Republican Commit­tee, on a fiery steed that looked as though he had just had a race of a hundred miles and distanced his competitor, bearing the legend:  “This is the Maud S. that won the race;” and Hon. S. L. Gilbert, chair-man of the Democratic Committee, on a used up mule labeled, “This is the mule that beat us.”
4th. Hon. J. B. Lynn, Mayor of Winfield, bare-headed, in overalls and flannel shirt, wheeling a large load of rock.
5th. Hon. C. C. Black, editor of the Telegram, wheeling the editor of the COURIER.
6th. The working men on the Brettun House building, forty strong, with their trowels, hammers, saws, hods, and other implements of labor.
7th. The COURIER force with plug hats and canes, headed by Ed. P. Greer, each bearing an appropriate motto.
8th. Charles Kelly, representing the postal service, with the motto:  “A clean sweep. No post-offices for rent.”
9th. The Telegram force, mounted on a huge dray with a large job press printing Telegram extras and passing them out to the crowd.
Arriving at the COURIER office, the procession halted, and D. A. Millington mounted the chair on the wheelbarrow and ad­dressed the crowd and prolonged cheers as follows.
MR. MILLINGTON’S ADDRESS.
Ladies and Gentlemen:  I usually shrink from a position too conspicuous before my fellow citizens, but at present there are two of my friends even more conspicuous than myself, and I will try to stand it. This is the first time I ever figured in a circus, but I have reason to be proud of my surroundings. I see around me the representative talent and gaiety of my city and county.
I am escorted by the Cornet Band, the pride of Winfield; the chairmen of the committees of two great parties; the repre­senta­tives of the artisans who have built the proud structures around me, and the representatives of the press, the bulwark of liberty.

I am following the first officer of our grand, young city, one of the merchant princes of Kansas, one who has done much to make our city what it is and whose fame for enterprise and honor is widely known.
My propelling power is the editor and proprietor of the best and neatest daily published in any Kansas city of the size of this, of the largest, most ably edited and most widely circulated weekly Democratic newspaper in the state, a man who has built the finest printing building and is every inch a man and a gentleman.
I have been told that if one does not “toot his own horn, it will not be tooted,” so I will add that I represent the WINFIELD COURIER, the newspaper which has the largest local circulation in the state, and is the best patronized by the people of its county and especially by the businessmen of its city. This fact is the evidence that it is appreciated. For all this I thank you, my fellow citizens.
We claim that the two papers represented here today are the leading county papers of their respective parties in the state. They have by their enterprise beat all other papers in the state in collecting and announcing the returns of the late election. The full returns of Cowley County sent by these were the first to be received at Topeka. They united in the expense of having messengers at every poll in the county, who brought the returns to them as quickly as horse-flesh could carry them after the count was completed. They united in the expense of telegraph returns from all parts of the nation, and each kept bulletin boards to display the news to the anxious, surging crowds of citizens. And now they unite both the victor and the vanquished in pleasant, jolly humor in this celebration.
Charles C. Black then mounted the chair and addressed the people as follows.
MR. BLACK’S ADDRESS.
Friends, countrymen, and lovers:  I came not here to talk. Ye know too well the story of our thraldom. I came with these brown arms and brawny hands to wheel 5,000 pounds (for I believe Mr. Millington weighs 5,000) of editorial wisdom and ability down Main street for your entertainment. I came in a spirit of conciliation. Many hard things have been said during the cam­paign, now closed. I came in a spirit of forgiveness. I forgive Bro. Millington for all the hard things I have said about him. I forgive him for putting this yoke upon me today. I even forgive him for compelling me to wear this thing (holding up a new silk hat) at my own expense.
I hope today’s celebration will heal all the animosities growing out of the late political campaign in the county. Let us have peace. I am glad to see so many present today, helping us ratify. I congratulate everybody upon the general good feeling which prevails, and now, in the language of 20,000 or more orators and candidates, spoken four or five hundred thousand times during the last thirty days, “Thanking you for your kind attendance and attention,” I will now step down and out.
The procession then moved on to the Williams House, halted, and Mr. Lafe Pence delivered a short and patriotic address, which we presume was on behalf of Mayor Lynn; after which the proces­sion moved forward another block, counter marched, and dispersed.
[THE MONITOR’S LOCALS.]
Winfield Courier, January 13, 1881.

The lawyers are doing what the bachelors ought to do, that is double up. The latest combination is that of M. G. Troup and Lafe Pence. It makes a strong team and is well balanced politi­cally. Success and long life to the combination.
[THE MONITOR’S LOCALS.]
Winfield Courier, February 3, 1881.
Lafe Pence is looking after the boys at Topeka.
Winfield Courier, March 17, 1881.
A party of Winfieldites left for New Mexico on a prospecting tour Tuesday. The party consisted of Lafe Pence, Will Stivers, Lee Beckett, and Vinnie Beckett, of Norton.
Winfield Courier, April 14, 1881.
We learn that Lafe Pence has located permanently at Chico [Rico], Colorado, and has formed a law partnership. Charley will leave for the west next week.
[PUBLICATION NOTICE: WASHINGTON COUNTY ORGANIZATION.]
Winfield Courier, April 14, 1881.
                  Before the Board of County Commissioners of Cowley County, Kansas.
In the matter of the organization of Washington township.
Notice is hereby given to all persons interested that a petition signed by Daniel Zerger and forty-nine other qualified electors residing on the territory hereinafter described, will on the 4th day of October, A. D., 1881, be presented to the board of county commissioners of Cowley County, Kansas, asking said board to set off and organize a new township, bounded as follows, to wit:
Commencing at the northeast corner of section one (1), in township thirty-one (31), south of range seven (7) east; running thence south along the section line to the southwest corner of section thirteen (13), in township thirty-two (32), south of range seven (7) east; thence east on the section line to the east line of Cowley County; thence north along the east line of said county to the township line between townships thirty (30) and thirty-one (31), and thence west along said township line to the place of beginning; said new township to be called Washington, and to be formed wholly out of territory now being a part of Windsor township.
TROUP & PENCE, Atty’s for Petitioners. Winfield, Kas., April 1, 1881.
[WINFIELD ABROAD.]
Winfield Courier, August 25, 1881.
Lafe and Charlie Pence are temporarily at Rico, Colorado.
Cowley County Courant, December 29, 1881.
Lafe Pence and bride arrived in this city Monday on the noon train. Rooms at the Brettun were prepared for them, where friends can visit the happy couple. Mrs. Pence is a niece of Prof. Story, at whose residence they spent most of the afternoon.
Winfield Courier, December 15, 1881.
The lady who will share the joys and sorrows of our friend, Lafe Pence, is Miss Clara Vawter, of Franklin, Indiana, a rela­tive of Prof. Story. The ceremony will take place Thursday afternoon, December 22nd, at three o’clock. Lafe Pence will be married at his old home in Indiana to his old girl.
Winfield Courier, December 29, 1881.

Lafe Pence and his bride came in Monday and took rooms at the Brettun House. During the afternoon Lafe took a run around town and had a general hand shaking with the boys, and in the evening a large number of friends called on them at their rooms. They took the Tuesday train for their home in Rico, Colorado. We wish them many happy years.