Building From Old Abram Site Razed in 1917
Lincoln Republican, 10 May 1917
George Cullum dismantled the oldest building in Lincoln early this week. It is the building recently occupied by F.W. Dill’s shoe-shop and Ashton’s shooting gallery. This building is a relic of the early days, when strife and bloodshed was common, and it was not without its own tragedy. The building was first erected at Abram, which was the first county seat of Lincoln county. In 1872 the county seat was moved to Lincoln, and this building was also moved to this townsite. One day shortly before the moving of the building, Ezra Hubbard got into some trouble with John Healy, a neighbor, over some logs that had been carried by the high water from Hubbard’s place, and had lodged on the Healy place. In the altercation that followed, Hubbard shot and killed Healy. The next night as Hubbard sat near a window in the building which is the subject of this sketch, a shot was fired from the outside, the load lodging in his neck. He was not killed outright, and was carried to an upstairs room. Some time in the night those who were bent on putting his light out managed to effect an entrance to the room where the wounded man lay, and finished the job with a mallet or club. The murderer was not apprehended, though an arrest was made in the case. Yet there are several men living today who have always felt that they know who did it, but it could never be proven. Hezekiah Graham, the man who built this house on the townsite of Abram, died about two months ago, at Abilene, Kan.