Obituary:

W. H. BRETCHES DIES TODAY

Stricken With Heart Attack While Walking

Wiliam Henry Bretches, 78, a resident of Route 3, Independence, died suddendly of a heart attack at 11:30 A. M. today. He was stricken while walking along a road not far from his home.

The body has been taken to the Redrick Funeral home and funeral arrangements has not been made today.

Besides his wife Jennie, he leaves three daughters, Mrs. Maude Seyhold, Route 3, Elk City; Mrs. Mary Silcott, Oswage and Mrs. Ellen Crowder, Clearfield and two sons, Irvin Bretches, Route 1, Independence and Jacob Bretches of Dennis. Two children are dec eased. He also leaves five brothers, Charles, Fall City, Nebraska; Ed of Orgeon; Milton of Salins, Oklahoma, Richard of Independence and Homer Bretches, Route 4, Independence. Two brothers and six sisters preceeded him in death.

He was born April 4, 1865 in shelby County, Ohio and came to Kansas with his parents while he was a child. He had spent most of his life in Montgomery County. His marriage to Missd Jennie Heaton took place January 6, 1896, near LeHunt.

Mr. Bretches was a member of the Church of Goid.
INDEPENDENCE DAILY REPORTER, Indedpendence, Kansas February 29, 1944, page 2, researched by Phyllis (Bretches) Buchanan, Witchita, Kansas


William "Bill" Bretches married Jennie Heaton on January 6, 1895, at Radical City, Montgomery County, Kansas, where they lived at times. These were my grandparents. They had seven children, two born in Scaymore and the other five in Elk City. Their names were Maude (Seybold), Irvin, Lillie (McClain-Agusto), Mary (Solcott), Ellen (Crowder), Jacob "Jake" and Joseph "Joe".
The three brothers worked at the Cement Plant in Independence in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Irvin and a cousin, Guy Bretches, continued to work there for a long after. Joe and Lillie passed away from tuberculosis in the late 1930's.
Mary married Claude Silcott and lived in Labette County. they had one son.
Ellen became a nurse and married Henry Crowder. They lived in Seattle, Washington. They had one daughter.
Jake married Bernadene Vandermark on April 9, 1935, Independence. They then moved to Neosho County, Kansas. They had four daughters, three of them being born at Bernadene's parents home in LeHunt, District #113 in Montgomery County. Her parents were T. E. and Clara (Shearhart) Vandermark. The daughters names are Charlene, Marilyn, Sandra and Sharon Kay.
Joe had married and had two children, Donna Jean and Billie Joe, before he passed away.
WRITTEN BY SHARON KAY (BRETCHES) BARNES

The following was recorded on Tuesday, July 29, 1997 at the home of Edna (Bretches) Parker:

Norman: "I want to hear about the haunted house down where you grew up".

Richard: "Uncle Bill's house".

Edna: "Oh, the haunted house. Uncle Bill's and Aunt Jenny's. They lived about a quarter of a mile from our place. I was a little girl. They lived there when I was born. I think that's where Dad and Mon sent all the kids. Anyways, it was an old house when they brought it. An old, rundown deteriorating farm. By the time I could remember Uncle Bill had moved back to Independence (Kansas). The story went around that someone had been killed in the house. In the old house, they had a stairways that went upstairs like our basement. Was enclosed and a door at the top of the steps. Someone had been murdered and when you open the upstairs door, their head fell out on the floor. So, this got statred and Uncle Bill keep it going. I don't know how true it was but he claimed certain times the door would fly open and something flopped down the floor. Then something hit each step. Bump! Bump! Anyways, it got the repution of being a haunted house. Uncle Bill added to it. And they moved away and by the time I was big enough to remember, it was a neighborhood fixture.

Lloyd (Enda's brother) had a friend by the name of Vernie Sights. Dad and Mom believe in ghosts. Dad like to tease and Vernie had an old car. He was about sixteen and he would come down to see Lloyd. I was thirteen. Dad would invariably get started about that haunted house because Vernie had to pass the house on the way home. Dad had Vernie really going by the time for him to go home. Cars didn't run very fast in those days but Vernine would start out. He had quite a lot of speed by the time he got to the mailbox. The haunted house was just beyond the mailbox. By the time he went by that old house, the car was really traveling. Dad would be sitting out in the yard laughing hos head off. but as long as the house stood there, they considered it a haunted house. Folks wouldn't let us kids go up there and play. They wouldn't let us up and play around the house. It was more fun to listen to that old car. On a still summer night in the country, you could hear a car for ten miles. And Vernie would really be traveling by the time he went by that old house".

Larry (Norman Jean's husband): "Had that old thing pumped up".

Edna: "Dad would pull that on Vernie time after time after time".



KILLS RELATIVE

FRANK MCCLAIN SHOT BY W. H. BRETCHES

RESULT OF FAMILY ROW

MURDER ENDED OVER A YEAR OF TROUBLE BETWEEN RELATI ES

BRETCHES' BOY ALSO FIRED

MCCLAIN KILLED WHEN HE WENT TO BRETCHES HOUSE TO TAKE HIS WIFE BACK TO HER HOME

Frank McClain, a young farmer living a half mile west of Sycamore, was shot and killed by his father-in-law, W. H. Bretches and his brother-in-law, Ivan Bretches at the Bretches house, two miles northwest of Sycamore this morning about 9 o'clock. McClain died almost instantly.

Like A Kentucky Feud

The McClains have been having considerable family trouble lately and this morning while McClain was in Sycamore after provisions, W. H. Bretches took Mrs. McClain home with him. When McClain came home and found his wife gone, he drove immediately to the Bretches house. Upon his arrival there, he drove within twenty or thirty feet of the east side of the house and found Mr. Bretches standing in the window with his shotgun. McClain had a .38 revolver and accordingly to the story of Bretches; started to fire. Ivan Bretches was on the west side of the house with an automatic revolver and when his father fired, he too fired.

MCCLAIN RAN 150 FEET

The horse became frightened here and broke loose from the buggy. After the second shot was fired, McClain jumped from the buggy and started to run with the two Bretches after him, still firing. McClain run for about 150 feet before falling.

McClain returned the fire of the two men at some time during the shooting as one bullet went through an upstairs' window. Three empty cartridges were in McClain's gun.

The body was brought to this city, where a corner's jury composed of Ed Hindiburg, J. W. McDowell, J. Fitz, J. C. Smith, Leo Laney and Steve Pierce, viewed it this afternoon. It was decided then to have the corners' inquest Monday morning at nine o'clock

BRETCHES USED BUCK SHOT

McClain was shot pretty bad in the face with buck shot and has bullet holes behind his left ear and in his back and right shoulder.

Sheriff Backens was called to Sycamore after the shooting where he arrested the Bretches. He brought them to Independence and they are now in the county jail.

The tragedy today was the direct result of a family quarrel which has been brewing almost from the day when McClain married the Bretches girl at Claremore, Oklahoma, March 12, 1918. One child was born to them which is nearly a year old. After the end of the war, it seems that McClain began to try to get rid of his wife. It is also charged that when her parents offered opposition to his tactics, that he wrote them a letter in which he would kill all of them. It was said the letter would be produced at the trail.
INDEPENDENCE DAILY REPORTER, Independence, Montgomery County, Kansas Saturday, July 19, 1919, page: 1, researched by Richard Parker



BRETCHES CASE ENDS IN QUICK ACQUITTAL

Jury in Murder Trail was out Less than Three Hours

SELF-DEFENSE THE PEA

Evidence Showing McClain Had Threatened to Kill Bretches Resulted in the Acquittal

William Bretches and his son, Ivan Bretches, tried jointly for the murder of Fran McClain, their son-in-law, were acquittal by a jury in the district court at 9:15 last night. The jury's verdict was brought in within three hours and twenty minutes from the time it received the case. It was given the case at 5:55 I was said that one ballot was taken , and that it stood eleven for acquittal to one for conviction. The was then brought into the court room and was to be dismissed for the night. Some of jurors then asked that as night session be held, which indicated that I would not be long in reaching at a decision. The court granted this request with the result of the verdict's being reached at 9:15.

Self Defense the Case

The evidence of several of the witnesses, showed that the morning of the shooting, which was on July 19, 1919, McClain had come to the Bretches home with a revolver in his hand and seemed to be ready for using it. A number of other witnesses testified that McClain and told them than he was "to get the Bretches family" and also that this country was too small for the two families to live in. It was upon this evidence that the jury acquittal the defendants as it showed that they acted in self defense.

A Divorce in the Case

Another thing brought out in the evidence was that McClain had been married previous to his marriage to the Bretches girl and he had only been divorced from his former wife one month when he married Miss Bretches.
INDEPENDENCE DAILY REPORTER, Independence, Montgomery County, Kansas, July 1920. page: 1, researched by Richard Parker