COFFEYVILLE — A century-old Coffeyville home has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.

The Kansas State Historical Society’s Historic Sites Board of Review on Saturday voted to forward the nomination of the Charles M. Ball House at 702 Spruce for inclusion on the national register

Now owned by Walt and Virginia Miller, the Ball house was built between 1906 and 1908. The structure combines the irregular Queen Anne house form with Classical Revival stylistic features and captures an important transitional period in architecture when the two styles were commonly blended.
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BY ANDY TAYLOR

Sixty-seven years of uncertainty come to an emotional close two weeks ago for the family of a Montgomery County native whose body was recovered amid decades of dense growth in a South Pacific jungle.

Full military burial honors were provided to Staff Sgt. Claude “Bud” Ray of Coffeyville on Oct. 27 — exactly 67 years to the day when the B-24D Liberator that carried he and 11 others crashed into a jungle mountain on the South Pacific island of Papua New Guinea. Ray, a tail gunner on that B-24D Liberator, was buried at a national cemetery in Riverside, Calif.

Ray’s body was positively identified two months ago after several years of analysis at a military forensics laboratory in Hawaii. The body of Ray and the other crew members on the B-24D Liberator were found in 2003 by a native of Papua New Guinea. It’s believed the airplane crashed in cloudy weather while performing a reconnaisance mission for the U.S. military.

Ray was on the verge of returning home to Coffeyville in 1943 after completing his 25th and final mission for the U.S. Army Air Force. However, he volunteered for one last trip, which was considered a non-combat bombing mission.

More details about Ray’s burial can be found in a story “Home: The Final Mission” in the Nov. 11 edition of the Montgomery County Chronicle.

Coffeyville Police Department is looking for a black male who is a suspect in the armed robbery of the Casey’s General Store at 104 N. Cline on Monday night.
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COFFEYVILLE —  The tombstone that was stolen from the gravesite of several Dalton gang robbers in early October has been recovered.

Commander Mike Brown of the Coffeyville Police Department said the tombstone was found by an employee of the Watco, Inc., while the employee was checking on rail cars north of Coffeyville near the intersection of county road 5100, or Sunflower Road. The tombstone was found near a creek.

The Watco employee recognized the tombstone as the one that sat on the grave of outlaws Bob Dalton, Gratton Dalton and Bill Power at Elmwood Cemertery. The tombstone was reported missing from the gravesite in late October.
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BY ANDY TAYLOR

COFFEYVILLE — A pair of physical teachers from Community Elementary School in Coffeyville will be recognized by their peers at the annual convention of the Kansas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (KAHPERD).

Physical education teachers Carla Thurman and Beau Eden will be the recipients of the statewide Heart Award, which goes to teachers who have a devotion to the Jump Rope For Heart and Hoops For Heart events. The two annual events raise money for the American Heart Association.

And, even though the amount of money raised through the two events is not among the criteria for the award, the Coffeyville teacher duo have raised several thousand dollars in funds for the American Heart Association in the past several years.
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COFFEYVILLE — One of Montgomery County’s most notable historic events will be recreated this weekened when Coffeyville celebrates Dalton Defenders Days: Friday, Oct. 1 and Saturday, Oct. 2.

The event is held annually in honor of the Coffeyville citizens who defended the community from the Dalton brothers and fellow outlaws, who attempted to rob two downtown Coffeyville banks simultaneously on the morning of Oct. 5, 1892. What resulted was a bloody shootout between the citizen defenders and the outlaws. In the end, eight people were killed, including four defenders, with three people suffering injuries.
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COFFEYVILLE — The tombstone of outlaws Bill Dalton, Gratton Dalton and Bill Power was reported stolen after a tourist noticed its absence from Elmwood Cemetery in Coffeyville earlier in the week.

Coffeyville Police Department said an investigation into the theft of the tombstone continues. A Montgomery County Chronicle staffer visited the gravesite on Thursday and noticed the tombstone was taken from atop its granite stone. There were no visible signs of damage to the granite stone except for a deep gash on one side of the stone.

The tombstone was placed on the gravesite in 1931 at the request of Emmett Dalton, who was the lone survivor of the Daltons gang’s failed bank robbery of two Coffeyville banks on Oct. 5, 1892. Three of the four bank robbers were buried in Elmwood Cemetery while fellow outlaw Dick Broadwell was buried elsewhere.

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COFFEYVILLE — Dr. Don Woodburn, who has served as Coffeyville Community College president since August 2004, was relieved of his duties Monday based on a split vote of the CCC trustees.

The decision to suspend came after the board met in executive session, which is closed to the press and public. After the closed-door meeting, trustees Blake Allen, Sheri Melander and Buck Walton voted to suspend Woodburn while trustees Lue Barndollar and Becky Medley voted against the measure.

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WICHITA — Coffeyville Resources Refining and Marketing, LLC, has settled a federal lawsuit filed by seven Coffeyville-area property owners who claimed their properties were contaminated with crude oil from the Coffeyville-based refinery complex during the July 2007 flood.

Settlement papers were signed Friday, Aug. 27, in federal district court in Wichita by attorneys representing the property owners and Coffeyville Resources.
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