FLORENCE, KAN – The discovery of a skeleton on a Main street lot yesterday by workmen while excavating set all the old settlers speculating as to whether it was a relic of a crime. One theory was that it was the remains of a cowboy found dead on the prairie some ten years ago and brought to town for burial. Another was that it was the skeleton of a jeweler named Kirkland, who disappeared one night in 1887, and who had never been heard of since. The decayed boot found on the left leg of the skeleton tended to sustain the latter theory. The Evening Kansan, Newton, Kansas. Saturday, April 14, 1888. Page 4. (c) Darren McMannis for Prairie Wind Publications.
