Kit Carson County, Colorado
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Kit Carson County Pioneers:
Richard R. Read, 7 South 45 West
In 1900 Thomas County, Kansas, Pleasant R. Reed born Jan 1879 in Iowa, is with Jacob Read 49
and Mary E. 48. Sarah L. is 20,
born in Iowa, Attie M. 18, John J. 16,
Tim J. 15, Villia B. 12, Joe G. 8,
Edna E. 6, and George W. 3, all born in Kansas.
Richard was in Rexford Kansas, probably living with his parents.
February 1907 
August 1911 
July 1912 
Richard claimed a quarter in section 24, 7S 45W in 1912.
In 1925 and 1930 Richard is living with his parents in Thomas County.
"T. R. Read pleaded guilty in Burlington
April 18, 1916 to a charge of having assaulted
15-year-old Pauline Weissharr. Read, who testified
at the time he was 37 years old, was sentenced to
serve an indeterminate sentence in the Colorado
penitentiary.
Read was described as a man of peculiar appearance, at least 6 feet tall, stooped and with arms so unusually long as to attract attention.
"
Richard registered for WWI, permanent home address of Rexford, Kansas, born January 30, 1879, working on the State Road Camp Nepesta, Pueblo, Colorado,
reference Mrs. J. H. Read of Rexford, Kansas.
April 21, 1932 "RICHARD READ HUNG BY KANSAS MOB
An infuriate mob of western Kansas farmers lynched Richard
Read confessed abductor and killer of Dororthy Hunter,
8 year old girl, early Monday morning. The mob of 200 men
went to the St. Francis jail early Monday morning,
overpowered Sheriff Bacon of Cheyenne county, seized Read
in his jail cell and took him to an isolated rural spot
near Atwood where they hanged Read to a tree. Read is said
to have told the mob they had the right man. He also stated
that he was intoxicated when he kidnaped, assaulted and
killed little Dorothy Hunter of Seldon, Kansas a few days
ago. Read had served a term in the Colorado penitentiary
for assaulting a girl at Burlington some years ago.
He was 53 years old. It was the first time the lynch
law had been resorted to in many years in that section
of the country. The parents of Read reside at or
near Rexford, Kansas. The entire community was
infuriated by the crime and it is said that men for
more than 100 miles distant from the scene of the
crime joined the mob. Sheriff Bacon automatically
lost his job when he permitted a prisoner to escape
but a petition is being presented to Governor
Woodring to have Bacon reinstated.
Governor Woodring was in a hotel at Atwood when
the mob hanged Read."
Steamboat Springs "Miss Gertrude Poppen was teacher
of Dorothy Hunter, the 8-year-old girl who was
brutally assaulted and murdered in Kansas recently
by Richard Read. Miss Poppen ls well known in
Steamboat Springs where she has visited her uncle,
A. H. Poppen. She is very much distressed at the
occurrence which has cast a gloom over the fellow
pupils of Dorothy, whose vacant desk is a mute
reminder of her terrible fate. In a letter to Mr.
and Mrs. Poppen, the teacher urged that people
of Colorado exert their efforts to secure more
drastic punishment for offenders of
the type of Richard Read, who had previously
been a Colorado convict for assault of a
15-year-old girl. He was released from the
penitentiary after serving six years. Miss Poppen
said the man's own parents regretted his release
because they feared that he might commit a similar
crime again. There was a feeling of general relief
in the Kansas community at the action of the mob
in lynching Read, she said, because in Kansas there
is no capital punishment and the man would have
received a life sentence to the penitentiary with
always the uncertainty of his being again turned
loose."
Pleasant R. Read 1879-1932 is buried in Decatur County, Kansas # 16916018.
Richard's sister Sarah Warner
is in Kit Carson County in 1910,
30, born in Iowa, married to Arthur Warner 29 born in Missouri. Werden 6, Loelma 5, and Lela 1 wee born in Kansas.
All five are still farming in
Kit Carson County in 1920 and 1930.
Arthur 1880-1934 is buried in Burlington # 89717348.
In 1940 Kit Carson County, Sarah
Warner is widowed, 60, running a general store, with daughter Elma 28.
Sarah is buried in Burlington 1880-1968 # 89717494.
Another sister, Villa B., was in Kit Carson County in 1920, 30, married to Claud Brantley 36 bonrn in Kentucky. Vada E. 11 and Lidia 9 were born in Kanss, William J. 7 and Mona B. 5 in Oklahoma.
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