The juryʼs finding was manslaughter

The two principals in this tale of early Jewell County, were homesteaders in Odessa Township. Their names are Patrick Carrigan and Benjamin F. Hall.

Carrigan, an Irishman, was born somewhere in Ireland, perhaps Kilkenny, in about 1810. When he came to the United States is not certain, but he married Ellen Ferne in Adams County, Illinois, on Jan. 20, 1847. Ellen, 20 years his junior, was also Irish.

The family, which eventually included 11 children, lived in Illinois until the early 1870s. Patrick and Ellen, with nine of their children, are found in the 1875 Kansas Census in Ionia Township. Pat...