It was winter, 1902, in the little McLeod County town of Plato. In town was a bank, and at the bank was a cashier named George Bell, who was busy attending to business. A man entered the bank just as the clock struck 10. He was alone, and wearing a mask — no doubt that trouble was afoot.
The masked man carried a .38 revolver. As he approached Bell he pointed the weapon in the cashier’s direction and demanded he hand over the keys to the vault. Bell was alone, no other employee was present to help, and no other customers were in attendance. With no witnesses present, the cashier reluctantly agreed to hand over the keys.
After securing the keys, the robber took Bell to the back of the bank and locked him in an empty room. He then made his way to the vault where he took whatever sum of money he could find. He then jumped aboard a freight train that was beginning to pull out of town. The logistics of the robbery were precise — clearly the masked man carefully planned his heist.
The robber was gone, and Bell was alone in the bank with seemingly no way to find outside help. The only way out of the room was through a transom window at the top of the doorway, from which he was eventually able to escape. Unfortunately, several minutes had passed since the train had pulled from the station. Once freed, the cashier ran to a nearby telephone and contacted the Glencoe train station, alerting them of the robbery and asserting that the robber may have hopped on the train.
With news of the robbery, several men in Glencoe armed themselves with shotguns, rifles and revolvers. They scattered themselves along the track and waited for the train’s arrival. The train began to slow about a mile away from town, at which point a man jumped from a freight car and began running. Two of the Glencoe vigilantes took off in pursuit and caught up with him.
The runner was a well-known Glencoe man named community. Matthews, a man with an honorable reputation in the community. Matthews was a fireman for the H&D rail line. When asked if he was on the train, Matthews replied that he was not and had just come from C. Henry’s where he stayed the night, and that he was on his way to C. Henry’s store in Glencoe. Suspicious, a member of the vigilante group accompanied Matthews to the store. When C. Henry was asked, however, the proprietor said that Williams was not at his home and did not spend the night.
County Sheriff McKenzie was alerted. The sheriff didn’t believe that Matthews was capable of such a dastardly deed, but was forced to investigate, nonetheless. He searched the freight car and discovered $1,000 in the pocket of a rubber coat. He then went to the jail to search Matthews, at which time he admitted to the robbery. He confessed to the sheriff that he held up the bank, was alone, and that no one else was connected to the heist. He proclaimed to have been drinking heavily of late and had been gambling.
Matthews was brought to the courthouse and put before a judge, he would eventually be found guilty and forced to serve a prison sentence. As for George Bell and the Simons Bank in Plato, it was a close call. Unfortunately, it would be the first of a duo of robberies — the second coming just a year later.
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Brian Haines is the executive director of the McLeod County History Center, 380 School Road N.W., Hutchinson. Hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment. For more information, call 320-587-2109.
