USA > Kansas > Marshall County > History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions > Part 9
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In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska bill was presented and for four months the provisions of the bill were subjects of debate in Congress and aroused the open hostility of the anti-slavery men of the North and the ardent sup- port of the then secretly-forming adherents of the Southern confederacy.
The contest ended May 27, 1854, and the bill was signed by President Pierce on May 30, 1854.
PRELUDE TO CIVIL WAR.
The provisions concerning slavery were fraught with deep meaning. The bill foreshadowed the last victory and final destruction of the slave power. It meant civil strife, murder and rapine as the price of freedom in Kansas. It meant two million men in arms and half a million sleeping in soldiers' graves.
In the final analysis it gave this country the great Republican party as one of its enduring institutions. It made Abraham Lincoln President of the United States and it gave to history a story of the greatest conflict ever fought in the interests of human freedom, and a list of generals whose fame reached the uttermost parts of the earth.
And on each recurring 30th of May, thousands of loyal citizens of our common country dedicate with flowers, flags and tears, the graves of those who fell as a result of the infamous measure signed on that fateful 30th of May. 1854.
MISSIONS ESTABLISHED.
Prior to and at the time of its organization as a territory, Kansas was not devoid of inhabitants. Devout Christian people of different denomina- tions had established missions for the education of the Indians and such white children as were here.
Among others were, Shawnee, of the Methodist Episcopal church, south ; Shawnee mission maintained by the Baptist church: the Friends school; the American Baptist Mission. St. Mary's Mission was the nearest to Marys-
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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.
ville and both Mrs. Marshal! and her sister, Mrs. Watson, attended the school at St. Mary's. There were also the Baptist Mission and Labor school: a Catholic Osage Mission at Neosho. and the Jowa Mission in Doniphan coanty. These schools were all supplied with resident teachers and ministers.
A number of trading posts were stationed along the trail. The Chouteau Post about six miles west of Kansas City: two further along the trail, and Uniontown in Shawnee county were the largest. There were fifty houses in Uniontown and Indian annuities were paid from there.
There were two hundred and eighty soldiers stationed at Ft. Leaven- worth, an equal number at Ft. Riley and about one hundred and fifty at Walnut creek, and army supply wagons, emigrant trains, buffalo hunters. adventurers, and some inen following the star of empire westward. hoping in a new and unbroken land to find a permanent abiding place.
The lure of new fields is always enticing to the restless mind, and so the great American desert was peopled with a throng, each filled with hope and pressing onward through difficulties to the golden West.
LOCATION OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
Marshall county is bounded on the north by Gage and Pawnee counties, Nebraska, on the south by Pottawatomie and Riley, on the east by Nemaha and the west by Washington counties, Kansas. It is the fourth county west of the Missouri river in the northern tier. It retains the original dimension, thirty miles square, divided into twenty-five congressional and political town- ships.
The Kansas-Vel raska act passed by Congress in 1854 created the terri- tories of Kansas and Nebraska out of territory taken from the Utah or Indian territory. Andrew II. Reeder was appointed first governor of the territory of Kansas, and he ordered an election of delegates to form a territorial Legis- lature, and designated "Pawnee," which was a new town built in 1854 by officers ( mostly Free State men) at Ft. Riley, as the seat of government and place of meeting, just east of the Ft. Riley military reservation. Congress had appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars for a territorial building in Kansas, and Governor Reeder had erected at Pawnee the two-story stone building, the walls of which are still standing on the south side of the Union Pacific railroad tracks. When Jeff Davis, then secretary of war, found that the citizens of Pawnee were Free State men, he promptly enlarged the mili- tary reservation so as to "take in" Pawnee.
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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.
MANY-SIDED MARSHALL.
Frank J. Marshall, a merchant, ferryman and postmaster at Marysville on the Big Blue river, was elected a member of the council of this first terri- torial Legislature, which met pursuant to call on July 2, 1855, at Pawnee. On July 6, this Legislature adjourned to Shawnee Mission on the extreme eastern boundary of the territory, where it had located the seat of govern- ment.
This Legislature passed three acts relative to the establishment of counties.
The first act created and established the boundaries and names of thirty- three counties, some of which have since been renamed and relocated. Mar- shall county was one of the original thirty-three, being named for Frank J. Marshall, who also had his home town, Marysville. designated as the county seat, and himself created a brigadier-general.
At this time Marshall was the most western county on the northern tier of what is now the state of Kansas, but the territory of Kansas extended west as far as the summit of the Rocky mountains, and that part of the terri- tory which lies between the present western boundary of Kansas and the summit of the Rocky mountains, was named Arapahoe county, Kansas terri- tory.
This Legislature attached all of the territory lying west of Marshall county and east of Arapahoe county to Marshall county, and by another act attached Arapahoe county to Marshall county, for civil and military purposes.
DIMENSIONS OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
This gave Marshall county jurisdiction over a strip of territory thirty miles wide, clear to the western boundary of the present Kansas, and all of that part of the present state of Colorado which lies between the state of Kansas and the summit of the Rocky mountains.
Beyond the Rocky mountains was Utah territory; Colorado was not known until Kansas was admitted as a state.
This enormous Marshall county lasted only until the next Legislature made other decrees and confined us to our present lines.
In this first Legislature Frank J. Marshall had this county named for himself, he had Marysville (which he had named for his wife, Mary Will- iams), designated as the county seat and had himself created a brigadier- general, showing that he must have been a man of strong influence.
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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS,
On November 11, 1854. Marysville had been made a postoffice with Frank J. Marshall as postmaster. And here be it understood, and the state- ment admits of no contradiction, that Marysville was the first postoffice estab- lished in Kansas.
Vol. 7. Kansas Historical Collections, page 442 (footnote) reads as follows: "William H. Smith, president, Kansas State Historical Society, emphasizes the fact that Marysville was the first postoffice established in Kan- sas, the cantonments, Leavenworth and Fort Scott, having been established before lines were known and accredited to Platte and Bates counties, Mis- souri. Mr. Smith served as postmaster at Marysville from 1868 to 1885."
In the spring of 1854 there was a general movement towards the new territory of Kansas. The laws of "squatter sovereignty", and "pre-emption". attracted men who desired to find homes for their growing families in an agricultural region. Horace Greeley's New York Tribune and the New England and Ohio papers were filled with glowing accounts of the fertility of the soil and wonderful climate of the new territory.
GRADUAL INCREASE IN POPULATION.
Soon a tide of emigration set in and the people who came to Kansas in 1854 and after that date had two strong and steadfast purposes in view- the prevention of the extension of slavery and the building up of permanent homes. Some came alone, others came with the different colonies, but as soon as the population became steadfast the state began to improve both materially and morally.
Marshall county received its share of the strong men and women who came with a fixed purpose. and very soon their influence was felt. The growth, development and prosperity of the county are due solely to the thrift, industry and honesty of the pioneer men and women who endured every hardship, even death itself, to build up a law-abiding community. In less than ten years the sentiment of the county had changed from the reck- less, happy-go-lucky frontier manner to that of earnest effort in building up a strong and forceful community. The county has grown in wealth and prospered until it now ranks sixth in the state. But its greatest growth has been along educational, moral and religious lines, and its greatest wealth today is its splendid citizenship.
It is a far cry from the row of log cabins near the ferry, the bad man shooting in the street, the Indian brave with his greasy squaw and filthy papoose, to the columns of fine, manly young boys, sons of Marshall county.
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marching on March 4, 1917, under the leadership of Hervey Smith, over the old Overland trail to the Community House and Y. M. C. A. rooms, there to plan for a still brighter future for our county.
MARYSVILLE SELECTED AS COUNTY SEAT.
During the summer of 1871 a movement was started in the south half of the county to re-locate the county seat. On October 2, 1871, the county commissioners, ordered a special election for that purpose. On October 9th the following notice was given:
"It is hereby given that on the 14th day of October, 1871, a special elec- tion will be held at the several voting precincts in Marshall county, Kansas, for the re-location of the county seat of said county, in accordance with the provisions of the foregoing order and general election law.
"FRANK GERATY, "Sheriff, Marshall County, Kansas."
HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT.
From the Waterville Telegraph, November 17, 1871 :
"On the 2nd day of October last a petition was presented to the board of county commissioners asking for an order for the re-location of the county seat. The petition was signed by more than three-fifths of the voters. "Some dissatisfaction had often been expressed that the city of Marys- ville had no public buildings; the court room was inadequate and the citi- zens of Marysville were said to oppose appropriations for public buildings. "Meetings were held at Blue Rapids and Irving at which were present representative men from all the townships on the Central Branch railroad. At these meetings the movement was agreed upon with unanimity, it being clearly the sentiment of all that the balance of population and taxable prop- erty of the county being in the southern half, the county seat ought to be located at some business point of the Central Branch road. At these meet- ings pledges were made by the delegates from every township to go in earn- estly for placing the county seat in the south half."
THE RESULT OF ELECTION.
The vote on October 14th stood as follows : Waterville, 371; Bhie Rapids, 485; Center, 72; Frankfort, 576; Marysville, 802.
The two places receiving the highest number of votes were Frankfort
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and Marysville, and according to the law these towns became the candidates at an election which would be held on October 28.
The proper notice was given and the result of the election on October 28 was as follows: Marysville, 1631: Frankfort. 1078.
The Waterville Telegraph of December 1, 1871, has this to say of the election :
"The astounding fraud committed by Marysville is plain and apparent. Not a man in the county but knows that four hundred fraudulent votes were polled at Marysville last Tuesday. How much they repeated, we do not know. That special trains were run on the St. Jo. & Denver road to bring voters from other counties, and from St. Joseph and Nebraska, is asserted by persons who were at Marysville that day. At any rate a systematic scheme was made and carried out to defraud the will of the people of Mar- shall county in the location of the county seat. Will the people of the county submit to such a wholesale plunder of their rights? Will they sub- mit to the expenditure of their money in the erection of county buildings in a town whose very atmosphere smells of the rottenness of fraud and corruption ? What say those honest voters of Waterville township and of Irving township, who voted for Marysville-their sympathies aroused for Marysville, under the impression that she was honest and deserving, and their prejudices fanned against Frankfort under false and specious pleas ? We do not believe that the honest voters of Marshall county will submit to the permanent location of the county seat under circumstances of so much fraud.
COUNTY SENT.
The county commissioners issued the following proclamation :
"Office of County Clerk, "Marysville, Dec. 2, 1871.
"The Board of Commissioners having completed the canvass of the votes cast at the election Nov. 28, 1871, made the following certificate and proclamation :
"We do hereby certify that at said election Marysville received One Thousand Six Hundred and Thirty-one votes for County Seat. and Frank- fort received One Thousand and Seventy-eight votes, for County Seat.
"And Marysville is hereby proclaimed the County Seat of Marshall County, having received a majority of all the votes cast at said election. [Signed] "JACOB MOHRBACHER, Chairman,
"ROBERT OSBORN, Commissioner.
"Attest : JAMES SMITH. County Clerk."
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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.
MARYSVILLE CHARGED WITHI FRAUD.
The editor of the Waterville Telegraph, Hon. F. G. Adams, no doubt felt justified in calling attention to the methods employed to retain the county seat at Marysville. It was evident that the fight between Marysville and Frankfort would be hot and more a battle of wit than of actual honest voting.
After the election, Marysville was charged with fraud, and perhaps justly so, but the following. story is vouched for by Hon. W. H. Smith of Marysville, who was one of the strong Marysville men.
It was firmly fixed in the minds of the contestants that the opposition would bear watching and for that reason each of the contestants had com- mittees at each voting place in the county to watch and report irregularities. J. S. Magill. W. H. Smith and Frank Linn were the committee from Marys- ville sent to watch at Frankfort, where they arrived the day before the elec- tion in a light wagon with a good team of horses.
ELECTION BOARD STARTS WORK AT THREE A. M.
At the suggestion of Magill, all three arose at three o'clock a. m., on the morning of election day, to make sure that they should not be caught napping. After a short search they discovered a light in a small building in the rear of a lumberyard, where they found the election board already at work. The clerks were registering names on the poll books, which names were read from a prepared list by Frank Love. Noticing that no ballots were being deposited, the Marysville committee concluded that the ballots had been previously placed in the box and promptly insisted that no more names be registered unless a ballot was furnished by an actual voter. After this the Marysville committee kept at least one man at these polls during the whole time of voting to see that there was no fraud.
When the counting of votes drew to a close, Linn was ordered to get the team and wagon ready for a run to Marysville on short notice. Magill and Smith were in the room where the votes were being counted. After the list of names on the poll books had been exhausted there remained a great number of ballots for which there were no names on the poll books. One of the judges, Jacob Weisbach, asked the board what should be done with the ballots for which there were no names. W. H. Smith instantly picked up the ballots saying "I will take care of them," hurried from the room and with Magill and Linn got into their wagon and made a quick run to Marys-
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ville, arriving there in time for breakfast with a posse from Frankfort in pursuit. Magill was a lawyer and on the way home had planned what to do with the ballots. They were taken to C. F. Koester, notary public ; affidavits were made as to the manner in which the ballots were obtained, then bal- lots and affidavits were sealed and deposited in the safety vault of the Exchange Bank.
After Marysville had been declared the elected county seat by the county commissioners, Frankfort attempted to get redress in court, but being unable to enter court with "clean hands." her suit was not accepted and Marysville has remained the county seat since.
After the election of 1871, court was held in the Waterson hall until 1874, when in February of that year a contract was let to George F. Hamil- ton by the township of Marysville, for the erection of a new court house. The building was a two-story brick, fifty by sixty-five feet, and cost fifteen thousand dollars. On the first floor were a large corridor and six offices occu- pied by county officials. The upper floor was occupied by the court room, four offices and jury room. This court house served the county until the night of December 31, 1890, when it was totally destroyed by what has always been believed to have been an incendiary fire.
COUNTY SENT FIGHT REOPENED.
This fauned the embers of the old county-seat fight and plans were made, before the smoke had cleared, at Frankfort and Blue Rapids to unseat Marysville.
A plan was formed by Blue Rapids to redistrict the county, taking the entire northwestern tier of townships and adding them to Washington county. Blue Rapids would have been more centrally located and Marysville would have been pushed to the extreme western boundary. It was said that the ever fertile and resourceful mind of Jason Yurann devised the scheme, but however that may be, the plan met with no encouragement in the Legislature and died in infancy.
It is certain there was enough activity in the south half to arouse the people of Marysville and the city agreed to build the court house. Fifteen thousand dollars was raised by subscription and bonds to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars were voted and the splendid court house which now stands on the site of the building destroyed by fire was erected in 1891 and donated by the city of Marysville to the county of Marshall.
On July 23, 1891, the corner stone was laid with imposing ceremonies,
SPORTING GOODS
CUNGWITH
Marshall county's first court house, as it appeared just before it was torn down in 1911. At the right of the picture stands R. Y. Shibley, who sawed and furnished the lumber for this building in IN60, and who is the last living member of the original Pal- metto town company. Mr. Shibley still resides on the exact site where Frank Marshall built bis first log cabins in 1852, which constituted the town of Marysville. Men in the door from right to left are Guy Rice, owner of the building. Earl Scott and Frank Schu- macher, carpenters who tore it down. In front of large window from right to left are August Leifheit and Frank Wagner, who once kept saloon in the building.
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Old Barrett Hotel, Marysville, built in 1859 by A. G. Barrett and for many years the Inest and most noted hotel on the Overland stage route. Site now occupied by White Brothers' brick block, corner of Eighth and Broadway.
MARSHALL COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MARYSVILLE.
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Hon. Lew Hanback delivered the address. The Masons of Marysville served a three-course luncheon to all visitors in Turner hall garden on that day, of which more than five hundred people partook.
All the feuds and animosities created by the county-seat fight belong to a past generation. It is doubtful if the location of the county seat brought as much prestige to Marysville as its partisans hoped, or that the loss of it worked any material hardship to the south half. Certainly, one good gyp- sum mill at Blue Rapids repaid the loss and the splendid business city of Frankfort has long since forgotten that the "pot used to call the kettle black."
COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
Marshall county had no court house prior to August, 1862. County officers either carried on the business of their respective offices in their own private offices or at some other available place in Marysville.
In 1860 the Southern Methodists built a church on the corner of Fifth and Laramie streets on lots 7 and 8, block 43, donated by the Palmetto Town Company, R. Y. Shibley furnishing all of the building material from his saw- mill. Services were held in this church a number of times by itinerant preach- ers and for a time a Sunday school was conducted. When the war broke out the congregation scattered, leaving no one in charge of the church and no one to pay Mr. Shibley for his lumber.
During the winter of 1861-62 some parties desecrated this church by using it for a horse stable. This was too much for Mr. Shibley and he fore- closed a lien on the building, hitched a few yoke of cattle to it and hauled it to what is now S10 Broadway.
BRICK BUILDING ERECTED.
In the summer of 1862 Mr. Shibley sold the building to Marshall county for its first real court house. It was used as such until 1874, when Marys- ville township presented the county with the new two-story brick building located on lots donated by T. W. Waterson on north half of block 13, Bal- lard and Morrall's addition to Marysville.
Even before this time the little frame building proved too small for the purpose and court was held in Waterson's new hall after it was built in 1870. and some county offices were located at various places in town.
The little church passed into other hands and was used for a saloon. dwelling, butcher shop, shoe shop, barber shop. bakerv. Chinese laundry.
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millinery store, restaurant, music store, cleaning and dyeing shop, gunshop- everything imaginable, but for the purpose for which it was built.
In the summer of 1911 the little "old court house," was torn down to make room for C. W. Rice's three-story brick furniture store. Thus passed, without ceremony of farewell, one of the first and without question the best known of the original buildings in Marysville. Within its walls were heard the voices of men who later became prominent in the affairs of state and nation.
Among lawyers who argued cases in that court room were John J. Ingalls, Nathan Price, W. W. Guthrie, Albert H. Horton, Alfred G. Otis and many others. What mighty arguments were made and legal precedents established, "deponent sayeth not," but certain it is that whenever mention is made of the courts held in that building to an old settler, he will smile and shake his head. One important civil suit was decided by the jury by the turning of a "jack," in the game of seven up. AAll this is now of the past and is as "a tale that is told."
During the night of December 31, 1890, the second court house was destroyed by incendiary fire and this time the city of Marysville donated to the county commissioners forty thousand dollars, with which to build the modern fire-proof structure which stands today.
THIE OLD STONE JAIL.
The old stone jail located on block 28, Ballard & Morrall's addition, was built in 1876 at a cost of five thousand dollars. Following the completion of the new court house in 1891. a new jail was built in the same block, within a few steps of the court house. It is built of brick, of the most approved modern type and was supposed to be escape proof, but on the night of Octo- ber 1, 1911, Neil Mulcahy and Dan Carney, who were confined in the jail awaiting the order of court to be taken to the Kansas penitentiary to serve sentences for burglarizing the banks of Waterville and Beattie, sawed their way to liberty. The criminals selected an auspicious night for their escape. A storm broke over the city on Saturday evening and there was a heavy rain until after midnight, continuing at intervals throughout the night. Sheriff Sullivan made a tour of the jail at two-thirty o'clock Sunday morning and found the prisoners in bed. In the morning the "birds had flown." Saws had been provided, with which they cut the rods of the cell. Deputy Sheriff Nestor was out of town and an extra guard was on, but the prisoners worked silently, and noise being covered by the storm and the guard knew nothing of what was going on.
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