TUSooner
6/8/2009, 02:02 PM
As promised, here's a a couple of pics of the Ben Kiehn monument in Bessie, OK, just off Hwy 183, south of Clinton.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6770/benkiehn1.jpg (http://img193.imageshack.us/my.php?image=benkiehn1.jpg)
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4687/benkiehn2.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=benkiehn2.jpg)
Unfortunately, the pics were taken with my ultra-crappy cel phone, so you can't read the inscription. Basically, the photographed inscription says that the OK Bankers' Assn. honors it member Benjamin Kiehn for sacrificing his life on 24 JAN 1928 "to protect that which was entrusted to him" (or something similar). The other 3 sides have similar inscriptions from the citizens of Bessie, the Masons, and Kiehn's fellow WWI veterans ("He did his bit.").
Kiehn - a "big ol' German" - was the banker and leading citizen of Bessie in that day, when it was a small but bustling town. He was killed during a bank robbery during which he fatally wounded one of the robbers. The other robber evidently got away, but I don't really know. It's a pretty nice monument, and the guy must have been well loved and respected for the folks to go to such trouble.
EDIT: The inscription, from
http://www.blogoklahoma.us/Marker.asp?id=392
"Erected by the Oklahoma state bankers association as an expression of their regard for their fellow member as a man of honor and integrity. On Jan 24, 1928 he gave his life to the cause of law and order, in defending that which was intrusted to his care against armed bandits."
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6770/benkiehn1.jpg (http://img193.imageshack.us/my.php?image=benkiehn1.jpg)
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4687/benkiehn2.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=benkiehn2.jpg)
Unfortunately, the pics were taken with my ultra-crappy cel phone, so you can't read the inscription. Basically, the photographed inscription says that the OK Bankers' Assn. honors it member Benjamin Kiehn for sacrificing his life on 24 JAN 1928 "to protect that which was entrusted to him" (or something similar). The other 3 sides have similar inscriptions from the citizens of Bessie, the Masons, and Kiehn's fellow WWI veterans ("He did his bit.").
Kiehn - a "big ol' German" - was the banker and leading citizen of Bessie in that day, when it was a small but bustling town. He was killed during a bank robbery during which he fatally wounded one of the robbers. The other robber evidently got away, but I don't really know. It's a pretty nice monument, and the guy must have been well loved and respected for the folks to go to such trouble.
EDIT: The inscription, from
http://www.blogoklahoma.us/Marker.asp?id=392
"Erected by the Oklahoma state bankers association as an expression of their regard for their fellow member as a man of honor and integrity. On Jan 24, 1928 he gave his life to the cause of law and order, in defending that which was intrusted to his care against armed bandits."