F.M. Kimmell, McCook's Keeper of the Morals

F.M. Kimmell

McCook's first newspaper, The Tribune, was published in June of 1880, less than a month after the first lots were sold for the city of McCook.

The original owner and editor was J.P. Israel, who also had a paper at Culbertson at the time. Mr. Israel was very optimistic about the prospects of the new City of McCook.

In the June 15, 1882, edition he warned readers, "insure your lives before you come to McCook as the rush is so great you may get crushed."

For the Fourth of July celebration that year, there were orations, patriotic songs and a grand feast. In the evening there was a fireworks display followed by not one, but two grand balls. Yet Mr. Israel thought the event did not bring as many people as was first supposed. He wrote of the celebration in the Tribune "… the youthful, thriving city had slight time for preparations."

In 1883 F.M. Kimmell and his brother, E.M. Kimmell became the editors of the Tribune, which they continued to publish into the 1920s. The Kimmells were natives of Pennsylvania, where F.M. had worked for four years on a paper there and for two years on the staff of the Democrat at Columbus before coming to McCook.

His brother, E.M. Kimmell, was an ordained minister, but worked in the Tribune office in a number of capacities for many years. It was often not clear just which brother had written the Tribune editorials, which usually centered on behavioral issues of some sort.

In 1883 the Tribune reported "Barrette's son kicked a football through the large window of Dr. Green's drug store." The Trib quoted a local banker as saying, "(before the boy went off to college) My son didn't look like a fool. He didn't wear a monkey-tailed coat, skin-tight pants, toothpick shoes, nor did he suck cane handles."

That same year the Trib reported "several railroad men became tired of the audacious manner of several cowboys." So the railroaders took the cowboys' revolvers away and "compelled them to give an exhibition of dancing and then vamoose."

In an 1884 edition, "An intoxicated individual from Kansas made the boys, who sleep at Russell's livery barn, dance at the point of a revolver." During the shooting siege one of the gunshots passed within a foot of the head of Russell's wife, who was in bed on the second floor of the livery barn.

F.M. and E.M. Kimmell were appalled in 1885 about "an epidemic indulgence in gambling, prostitution and drinking in the community". After a Madame gave a "dizzy blonde" a black eye and a broken nose in a brawl, they editorialized, "This issue is but an outgrowth of the disgraceful condition of affairs which exists not only in that locality (South McCook) but in other parts of the city. Be it said to our shame, that gambling and intoxication are holding high carnival in our midst, and none dare to molest. Apartments are being fitted up with gambling paraphernalia. Tin horn gamblers try to take suckers' money with three card monte, chuck-luck, faro, and poker". Later, to compound gambling problems, they reported that betting was permitted at the community's "Horse Fair", with the "strongest field of horses ever assembled in the state".

Almost every week, in the early years, one or the other of the brothers was lecturing the Tribune's readers about some concern that they felt should be brought to the reader's attention to make the community a better place to live.

In 1883 the Tribune commended Mayor Berger who, contrary to the usual practice in the town, started "burning all his paper in the rear of his store" (at a time when most merchants swept all trash and paper into the street). Another time Kimmell lashed out at one of McCook's "sad deprivations", saying that comfortable living would be impossible in McCook until steps were taken to eliminate "the grunts of scores of fat hogs which meander through our thoroughfares…The American hog must go!" Another story concluded, "McCook would smell far sweeter if a few stench-emitting and disease-producing carcasses were removed from the streets."

"Ladies of the night" or "Fallen Doves", as they were sometimes referred to, were a problem in McCook, as they were in all frontier towns. The Tribune told of a woman who was on McCook streets "begging for money to get to Denver…I think she's a little cracked---or else she's the worst stamp of female".

After lashing out at the evils of liquor, gambling, and prostitution almost continually in the early years, Frank Kimmell found out that city officials were taking kickbacks from that element and the city itself was using "fines" as a means of keeping taxes low. The practice was well known and the public didn't seem to mind. In 1887 Kimmell finally admitted, "To eradicate demimonde (women of doubtful reputation), tinhorns and hoodlums utterly is impossible. To reduce their numbers and influence is attainable. But a radical change in public feeling must occur before this improvement in moral conduct shall come to pass." Thereafter, the Tribune editors chose their battles selectively, and concentrated only on those things that they had a chance of changing.

In 1909 a young man, still a teenager, named Harry Strunk, went to work at the Tribune as a printer, and quickly was made shop foreman of the paper. In 1911, at the age of 19, he left the Tribune, and started the Red Willow County Gazette. Frank Kimmell considered the move an act of disloyalty and never forgave Strunk. Thereafter, until his death in the late 20s, Kimmell carried on a running battle with Strunk in the pages of the Tribune.

Kimmell continually referred to Strunk as "Rastus Ramrod" (in reference to Strunk's slender frame), or "The Boy Editor" (in reference to Strunk's youth), both titles meant as snide remarks. Strunk gave as good as he got and at times the exchanges got quite heated, in spite of attempts by civic leaders, the caliber of A. Barnett, to get the two to cool their rhetoric and work together for the good of McCook.

One of the bitter battles fought by the competing papers was over an accusation by Kimmell that Strunk had stolen $200 from the County and refused to put it back. Kimmell referred to Strunk as "Rastus Ramrod (who hasn't put it back)". The issue arose when Strunk's Gazette bid for publication of the county tax delinquency list at a figure $200 below the rate established by law, and thus beat out the Tribune for the business.

Later in the year Strunk found himself in financial trouble and requested that the County pay him the extra $200, a figure that the law allowed. The County agreed, but for the next year Kimmell blasted "Strunk (who hasn't put it back)" in the pages of the weekly Tribune, even though County officials agreed that Strunk's deal for the extra $200 was legal. Kimmell maintained that the deal was immoral if not illegal.

After Frank Kimmell's death the Tribune lost its heart and its lively crusading manner. His widow attempted to operate the Tribune for a while, but the paper was eventually sold to the Gazette in 1936, thus ending a run in McCook of some 54 years.

Sources: McCook Centennial Edition, 1882-1982 and McCook's First 100 Years, by Gene O. Morris