BOXING IN SOUTHEAST KANSAS AT TURN OF CENTURY
by Bryce Martin

On April 1, 1898, James “Rube” Ferns, a future world welterweight boxing champion, knocked out Frank “Dutch” Neal in the sixth round in a match held in Galena, Kansas. Ferns fought twice more in Galena before the year was out. The “Kansas Rube,” who was born 25 miles from Galena in Pittsburg in 1874, again knocked out Neal, this time in seven rounds, on June 8, and on November 9 he floored Paddy Purtell.

Ferns won the world welterweight title in 1900, lost it and won it again in 1901.

In a manner of speaking, the first Ferns-Neal encounter in Galena was barely legal.

New York in 1896 was the first state to make professional boxing legal. Most all other states fell in line shortly thereafter, freeing the sport from the primarily free-for-all, no-holds barred spectacle it was, although on occasion bouts were fought as close as possible under the Marquess of Queensbury Rules established in 1867.

Boxing matches, though considered low-brow on the meager entertainment scale of the times, was welcome entertainment to the working men of southeast Kansas and nearby environs. Ferns came from the coal camps of Crawford County. Galena was more noted for its lead and zinc industry. As rough as it was in the boxing ring, life in the numerous mining camps in Cherokee and Crawford counties was even rougher. Brawls were a dime a dozen and killings were commonplace. When the official name for the city street with the most activity is dubbed Red Hot Street, as it was in Galena, the word is out.

It may even have been safer in the ring.

Ferns died in 1952 in his hometown of Pittsburg at the ripe old age of 78. His brother, Owen, however, was shot and killed in 1905 in Harry Wilson’s chili parlor near Galena in Scammon over an argument. He was 24 years of age. He was shot by a coal boss who had received a black eye in a skirmish the night before. When Owen Ferns remarked that another black eye would constitute a match, the coal man took extreme exception.

A look at history reveals that the first true sports star in America was John L. Sullivan, the great bare-knuckle blaster who blazed his way to a heavyweight title in 1888 and nationwide and even international glory. Old-timers in the 1950s still talked glowingly of Sullivan. My Cherokee County Kansas lead-mining grandfather knew the story well and related it fondly in his latter years how Sullivan offered anyone – anyone at all -- $500 if they could stay on their feet against him for just one round. That was in 1879, the year my grandfather was born. Sullivan was still repeating the offer nine years later when my grandfather was a tad, and at a time when $500 was still a good amount of money, and tempting to the tough of mind and body who inhabited the various mining camps and towns.

Note: Purtell, who was once based in Kansas City, Kansas, fought regularly in Leadville, Colorado. He died there at age 30 on June 9, 1901, after being thrown to the floor in an altercation.

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