A Baptist, a Bicycle and a Bootlegger and Possibly a Vindictive Wife

    In June 1911, a 30-something Baptist preacher blew into Topeka on a reputation as an orator, [oddly considering it was based on his finishing 6th in an oratory contest with 12 contestants] For nearly the first year of his tenure at the First Baptist Church, he showed a progressive bent i.e. support for women's right to vote and was in the forefront of the Men and Religion Forward Movement, an attempt to address society's ills through Christianity.

     But then came a morning in late April 1912. The Rev. Robert Gordon describes it:

The bright sunshine of this morning was doubly delightful after a gloomy Sunday and I rolled along, on a round of duties, in unusually exalted spirits all unconscious of the dark impending future . . ..

From the east I came up on the north side of Eighth and wishing to proceed southward on Kansas made for the west side of the street. Having learned in the geometry long ago that the sum of any two sides of triangle is always greater than the other side, I was following the diagonal when startled by a raucous shout. Someone seemed to be in serious distress--drowning or burning up. Looking around I saw a tall. .policemen in the middle of the street, swinging a billy and shouting.

I stopped to inquire into the occasion of his excitement when metaphorically speaking he ‘put me into the box.’ Solemnly he asked name and address and put that data down in a book, telling me I was to appear before the police judge at three o’clock. A crowd on the sidewalk seemed to be enjoying life immensely.

At court this afternoon, I found myself charged with ‘cutting corners’ and paid a fine of two dollars. I tried to pay by check that I might have the instrument framed to pass on to my progeny as a proof positive of the fact that law is law in Topeka. But the official wouldn’t accept a check. I asked for a receipt thinking that would be a curiosity, but the man in blue and shining buttons wouldn’t grant that request. He said ‘You are the receipt. If you didn't pay you wouldn’t get out.’ I guess he was right on that. You may say that on Sunday night I expect to speak on Law Enforcement in Topeka.

   You might say that the Reverend didn't take it well, felt particularly embarrassed and ridiculed. And then began a nearly eight-year off and on fight with the police and city officials.

    The Reverend had a tradition of giving a sermon on Sunday night and on May 5, the Sunday after his ticketing he gave one listing the various sins of the city police department and the mayor. Starting with what I would say was sarcasm, he complimented the department on their enforcement of the jay-driving ordinance, but then the screed began:

According to the Capital,  Rev. Gordon flayed these same officers of the law for alleged indifference to lawlessness which he declared was flourishing in the city. The Rev. Mr. Gordon in his sermon at the First Baptist church, on “Law Enforcement in Topeka,” claimed that hoodlumism, neglect of duty the the officers, gambling, cigarette smoking, and the social evil [prostitution] are rampant. He read a list of names which he termed “undesirable citizens,” who are holding federal licenses for wholesale or retail of liquor.

    On the list of undesirables was one Fred T. Walker, Edna's older brother, third child of Betsy and Edward. He was actually on the list twice - because he had a permit for both wholesale and retail sale of liquor. Kansas had always tried to regulate liquor, but up until 1909, pharmacists were allowed to sell it to persons presenting prescriptions. But in 1909 the law was tightened because there was a belief that pharmacists were far too gullible and filled prescriptions even if the person came in with a new one every day. So this is where it gets a bit cloudy because apparently someone like Fred could get a federal permit, but the sale was still illegal.

Fred, standing, Percy seated holding Bud and
to the right of Bud are Pearle and Lucille

    As one might imagine city officials didn't take kindly to the Reverend's sermon especially since one young officer lay dying while the Reverend gave his harangue. The officer had tried to arrest someone at the Union Pacific depot and in the struggle he was shot.

     The mayor stated to the Capital that he found the Reverend's words unfortunate. But Gordon was not apologetic. Mayor Billard believed the reverend's remarks were made in very bad grace. . . .The charges made by the reverend gentlemen really are not worth answering. They are absurd. For instance, he gives a list of names of what he calls “undesirable citizens” who really are good, honest druggists in this city.. . . Because the police arrested and fined a minister it is no attack on the churches in Topeka.

Continuing the confrontation, the Reverend replied in kind, speaking of the mayor's choice for police chief who was involved in the melee where the young officer was wounded. He had courage you say. You ought to remember there is a clear line of demarcation between physical courage and moral courage. It wasn’t necessary for him to capture a  boy murderer to convince us he had nerve. Any man who, with his record, would accept that office, certainly has nerve.

     Fred, having made the list of undesirables, became the only one to have his drugstore raided. On Thursday, May 16, 1912, the police searched his drugstore and confiscated 7 half pints and ten pints of whiskey, three quarts and two pints of wine, and 20 bottles of beer.Liquor Is Secured in Drug Store Raid The question becomes why was his drug store raided? And the answer may lie in the following want ad that Fred ran in the Capital in early April 1912:

From the April 3, 1912 Topeka Daily Capital

    There is no evidence that I've found that says this is why he was raided, but there seem to have been no other raids carried out. Fred and Pearle's marriage continued for another ten years after this. Fred also continued to own and operate his drug store so I'm not sure that he was, eventually, even fined.

      As to the Revered he continued his criticism of the city officials of Topeka. By the spring of 1918 according to then mayor Jay E. House, the city of Topeka was tired of the Reverend. Mayor House in the March 3rd Daily Capital wrote:

From left to right: Bill Smith, best man; Delphia Burkhardt, Edgar, Rev. Thayer, Edna, Jennie Thayer Walker, Bud Walker, Ada, Betsy Walker, Grace Walker Bale, George Bale, Eula Walker Faust, Frank Faust, and the bootlegger, Fred. There is a woman  who is hard to see behind Betsy and perhaps that's Pearle. The two daisy chain girls in the front are on the left Lucille Walker and the right, Dorothy Leib,

In a way, the Rev. Mr. Gordon interests us. But we hold, and have always held, that he is much more to be pitied than censured. Outside a certain small circle in and out of his own church, the Rev. Mr. Gordon has no standing and no influence. He has talked himself off the map of this town. His public utterances inspire either contemptuous jeers or ribald laughter, We know of no other citizen of Topeka who is so thoroughly discredited in the public mind. We can conceive of nothing more humiliating to the Rev. Mr. Gordon than the position in which he finds himself.

 

        The Walkers didn't run from Fred and a mere 13 months later, he walked Edna down the aisle for her wedding to Edgar Burkhardt, June 18, 1913.