USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 8
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The year 1880 will forever remain memorable in the history of Kan- sas as the one in which the prohibition amendment was adopted. Mont- gomery county gave it a good majority, every precinct contributing to it with the single exception of West Cherry, where the vote stood 59 for to 69 against. On the presidential ticket, the Republicans carried the coun- ty, but they lacked a good deal of having a majority over both the oppos- ing parties. Garfield had 1,774 votes, Hancock 1,295, and Weaver 694. No wonder fusion should be resorted to by the members of opposing parties in later years! Indeed, this year, the Republicans lost only the two places where the opponents had united on one candidate. This let A. P. Boswell in again as commissioner in the third dis- triet and helped J. P. Rood to knock Senator Peffer out as a candidate for Representative in the same southern district. For Peffer this was the "unkindest out of all," and he soon shook the dust of Montgomery county from his feet, to return no more, as he later, deserted the state when the Populists refused to re-elect him as United States Senator in 1897. Harry H. Dodd was elected for the third time as clerk of the district court. getting a longer incumbency of this office than any other clerk. Ebeneezer Herring won his fifth and last race for the probate judgeship. Ed. VanGundy. a young lawyer, who had been a printer and newspaper publisher in the early days, was made county attorney. and given the first opportunity to run up against that pitfall for such officials -- the prohibition law. C. T. Beach also won a third race for school superintendent, the "unwritten law" which forbids a Republican official in Montgomery county to be a candidate for a third
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term not having been enacted until Glick defeated St. John in 1882. For the Senate A. B. Clark made a successful race-his last one in the county -- though he tried to get into the game time and again afterward. The Re- publican legislative candidates, J. H. Morris and Alexander Moore, were successful in the two northern districts.
Though the opposition united on candidates for every office except sheriff and commissioner in 1881, they failed to score and the Republi- cans swept the platter of everything in sight. Tom Mitchell, marshal of Independence, thought he was running for sheriff against Lafe Shad- lex until the returns came in. Wylie, on the Greenback ticket, knew he had never been in it. The Democratic campaign was managed by Judge Mel'ue, and he made the mistake of supposing that the fewer Democratic candidates there were on the ticket the more chance there would be of electing those. So when, on the eve of election, J. M. Nevins withdrew as a candidate for clerk, he was sure Tom, on whom his hopes had been set. would win. Shadley had 506 majority, however. E. E. Wilson, who had been deputy treasurer for two terms, was promoted to the head place bs a vote of 2,257 against 642 for his Greenback opponent, Gilbert Dominey. Ed. 1. Foster got there as register of deeds, Ernest Way was re-elected (Jerk. and G. B. Leslie surveyor, while Dr. B. F. Masterman, the Repub- lican chairman, won whatever honor there was in the coroner's place. That hitherto successful politician, Henry Mounger, at last went to the wall as a candidate for re-election as commissioner, and Will S. Hays, the most fearless and independent commissioner the county has ever had. took his place.
When 1882 came around the Prohibition law was in working order in Kansas, and a good many people did not find it all they had hoped. The result was that George W. Glick, the first Democratic governor Kansas has over had, was elected over JJohn P. St. John, who was the third term Republican candidate. And yet, today, you will find Glick and St. John lying happily in the same political bed. Montgomery county went back on her Republican record and gave Glick 310 majority. George Chandler. of Independence, received the entire vote of the county, 3553, as a candi- date for judge of the district court, and was elected. For the county offices the race was very close, only two of the candidates receiving over a hundred majority. Nelson F. Acres, the Democratic candidate for Con- gress, carried the county by ten votes over the popular Dudley C. Haskell. For probate judge, Thomas Harrison, one of the oldest settlers, beat Thos. G. Ayres, a Coffeyville attorney, only 15 votes. J. D. Hinkle got into the race again as a candidate for county attorney, but was beaten out of sight by .l. D. McCue, who got the largest majority given in the county that year, 354. S. V. Matthews landed for district clerk by 49, and G. B. Lestie, for re-election as county superintendent, by 28. Honors were easy in the representative distriets, A. A. Stewart, of the Kansan.
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being elected in the western. and Daniel McTaggart in the eastern. This was the beginning of the latter's protracted legislative career, which in- cluded three terms in the House and two in the Senate. and gave him a long lead over any other Montgomery county lawmaker. In the Indepen- dence district, Gen. Brown was knocked off the perch as commissioner by Wilson Kineaid, which gave the Republicans the control of the board for the first time since the pioneer days. The county printing went to the Star another year, but at ruinously low rates. And that was the last year in which an opposition newspaper has ever had it in the county.
The proposition to build a new court house, submitted to the voters at this election. was defeated by 203 votes. Only 29 votes were cast against it in the city of Independence. and only 9 in its favor in Parker township, which included the city of Coffeyville. At Cherryvale, and in Cherry township only about half the voters took the trouble to express them- selves on the proposition, but those who did voted four to one against it. Only four of the townships- Caney, Rutland. Drum Creek, and Indepen- de nec, gave majorities for the proposition.
Although 1883 was another "off year" in politics, the opposition to the Republican party profited little by that fact, all they succeeded in do- ing being to re-elect A. P. Boswell, from the southern district, for a third term as commissioner. Boswell was a thorough-going business man. and it was during his incumbency that county warrants were paid on presentation. for the only time in the history of the county, though as much credit must be given to Will S. Hays, the Republican commissioner from the first district from 1881 to 1883, as to any one for that result. J. T. Brock made his third race for sheriff this year and was beaten out of sight by Joseph MeCreary. a popular but peculiarly excitable citizen of Coffeyville, who later continued the enjoyment of office-holding by be- coming postmaster at Coffeyville. E. E. Wilson, one of the pioneer settlers, and perhaps the first historian of Montgomery county, was again elected county treasurer. Thomas R. Pittman, of Havana, a former county commissioner, and for years one of the Democratic wheelhorses of the county, had the pleasure of making the race against Wilson. H. W. Conrad. who is now. at the expiration of his term in the state Senate. serving as deputy in that office, was elected county clerk. J. F. Nolte. then a Retland township farmer, but now a rice planter in Texas, got the position of register of deeds. W. B. Rushmore was elected surveyor alnd ES. A. Osborn. coroner. This year the Greenback party again had a ticket in the field, but it mustered only a corporal's guard of voters. H. Presten leading the ticket with 39 votes for surveyor. Owing to irreg- ularities in the office. Ernest Way had resigned the position of counts clerk this year. and for the short term of three months his father, J. S. Way. was elected to fill the vacancy.
In the Presidential year. 1884, the Democrats won in the nation, but
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
in our county the Republicans not only elected every candidate on their ticket. but rolled up a greater average majority than ever before. Blaine, for president, had $56 to the good, and Perkins, for Congress, 856, the latter being then at the zenith of his popularity. Humphrey was again pitted against Dr. MeCulley, this time for the state Senate, which proved for him the stepping stone to the governorship. J. A. Burdick and Daniel MkTaggart were elected Representatives, the latter for his second term in the House. Sammel C. Elliott defeated J. D. Meene as a candidate for comty attorney, his majority of 148 being the smallest for any candi- date. Elliett is credited with having enforced the prohibition law more vigorously and favored the liquor sellers less than any other county at- torney since the law went into effect. He lost his health in the early nineties, and died in the insane asylum at Osawatomie. Matthews was re-elected district clerk over A. A. Stewart, of the Kansan; and G. B. Leslie beat Mrs. E. C. Nevins, the Democratic candidate for superinten- dent of schools, and the first woman to run for office on the county ticket of any party. lohn Castillo, a Republican, who afterward became iden- titied with the Populist party, was chosen commissioner from the first district. The question of issning bonds for the building of a court house was again submitted to the voters, and this time the proposition carried by a majority of 31. The opposition appealed to the courts and delayed the building for a year or more, but the corner stone was laid Novem- ber 30th, 1886.
After the defeat of St. John as the Republican candidate for govern- or in 1882-that defeat being erroneously attributed to the fact that he was then a candidate for the third term-it became the unwritten law that no Republican candidate in Montgomery county should be exposed to defeat by a third nomination, and the only exception made to the rule since that time was in the case of S. L. Hibbard, who was named as a candidate for surveyor, in 1885, and duly elected, as were all the Re- publican candidates that year, and who has held the office ever since, be- ing re-nominated and re-elected as often as his term drew to a close. That year was not an exciting one politically. McCreary and Conrad got their second terms. Millard F. Wood was chosen county treasurer, and John L. Griffin, register of deeds. Dr. Mytulley, who never refused to lead a forlorn hope, was defeated by 1. B. Wallace as a candidate for coroner. T. M. Bailey was chosen commissioner from the Independence district. Altogether it was a Republican crowd, the opposition being completely "whitewashed."
In November, 1886, although there were a governor and state officers to eleet, it was a foregone conclusion that the Republicans would win; and Colonel Tom Moonlight's campaign for governor against Colonel lolin A. Martin, who was out for a second term, was rather a perfunctory one. This year the Republican majority in the county was 440. In the
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
fight over the local offices, the battle waged fiercest about the probate judgeship. For this place General W. R. Brown, who had not only com- manded President Hayes' regiment in the civil war, but who had been county commissioner for two terms here, was the Democratic candidate for that office and Colonel A. P. Forsythe, who had at one time been elected to congress by a Greenback-Republican combination, in Illinois, was his opponent. Brown won by 223 votes. The rest of the ticket the Republicans elected, J. B. Ziegler and Captain Daniel McTaggart going to the Legislature; J. W. Simpson being made district clerk; D. W. Kingsley, superintendent of schools; and Sam Elliott getting a second term as county attorney. George Foster was elected commissioner from the Coffeyville district, A. P. Boswell at last going down in defeat. It was thought that he would be re-elected as long as he lived, but having been made one of the appraisers for the right of way for the D. M. & A. Railroad across the south side of the county, he failed to please all the men who wanted big damages and lost his popularity to a degree that insured his defeat.
This year George Chandler, of Independence, was the Republican candidate for re-election to the office of district judge and there was no organized opposition to his candidacy in the distriet. In fact, as in 1882. he received the entire vote of the electors of Montgomery county for that high office. 4.765 of them recording their ballots in his favor and none against. Chandler made a fine reputation as an upright judge, but was noted for being especially harsh and severe with applicants for divorce. having no patience with men and women who had found their matrimon- ial bonds irksome, and were endeavoring to sever them. Ilis incisive questions going down to the most sacred privacies of the marriage re- lation and his bullying manner came to be dreaded by all such unfortun- ates, and the procuring of divorces grew unpopular. Probably there were far fewer divorces in the district during his term on the bench on account of this idiosyneracy of his. When Harrison became President in March, 1889, Judge Chandler was tendered the position of Assistant Secretary of the Interior, which he accepted, resigning the judgship to do so. After some years in Washington his family returned to Indepen- dence, but he still remained there, having formed a law partnership with Ex-Senator Perkins, when the latter's term expired. Subsequently, in the year 1895, Mr. Chandler became the defendant in a suit for divorce brought by the mother of his children. He did not contest this suit and consented to a decree by which his property in this county was settled upon his wife. Subsequently came the news that he had married a woman who had been a stenographer or typewriter in his office while he was still living with his family at the national capital. In view of these occur- rences many people thought it a great pity that he could not himself have
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
profiled by the lectures on conjugal constancy that he had been so free to give those who came to his court asking for divorces.
The fall of 1887 witnessed another perfunctory political canvass in which the Republican ticket was elected by default, the only contest worth the name being over the sheriff's office, where John C. Hester, of Fawn Creek, beat John J. Anderson, the best known auctioneer Mont- gomery county has ever had, by 249 votes. Wood. Griffin, Hibbard and Wallace were re-elected by majorities between 700 and 1.000. and George W. Fuhner became county clerk. Noah E. Bouton got the commissiener's place in the first district.
Republican pluralities in this county reached another high water mark in 1888 when Benjamin Harrison led Grover Cleveland 1.054 votes, and B. W. Perkins, for Congress, had 1.584 better than his Democratic competitor, John A. Eaton. There were three tickets in the field. so far as state and national candidates were concerned, but the opposition to the Republicans nited on several of the county candidates, and we saw the first beginnings of the fusion that was going to play such havoe with Republican hopes a few years later. For state Senator there was a tri- angular contest of great bitterness. Daniel McTaggart was the Repub- lican nominee, Wiu. Dunkin, the Democratic, and Adam Beatty, the Union Labor. A good deal of opposition to MeTaggart developed in the Repub- lican ranks, so much, in fact, that he ran more than 300 votes behind his ticket, but in the three-cornered fight he pulled through by the safe plus- rality of 347 over his Democratie opponent. J. B. Zeigler was re-elected Representative in the western district, and Captain D. Stewart Elliott was successful in the eastern. Such a contingency as the latter's death from a Philippine bullet in the island of Luzon was then as remote from his thoughts as anything in the future can possibly be from the readers today. For probate judge General Brown was defeated for re-election by Charles H. Hogan, a Republican then. but since a Populist. who made one of the most efficient officials the county ever had in that position. Simp- son and Kingsley got their second terms, and O. P. Ergenbright was elected county attorney. P. S. Moore, who had been defeated in 1879 as a candidate for county commissioner, won out this time and began his nine years' term in that position.
When the office of judge of the district court for the eleventh district became vacant by the resignation of George Chandler, the governor ap- pointed John N. Ritter, of Cherokee county, to fill the vacancy until an election could be held. Against Judge Ritter as a candidate on the Re- publican ticket in November. 1889, the Democrats ran JJ. D. MeCue, of Independence, in many respects one of the finest jurists the state has produced. Although Ritter carried Montgomery county by 150. MeQue was elected for the remaining year of the Chandler term.
For the county offices at stake that fall the Republicans did not
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
make an entirely clean sweep, T. F. Callahan getting the sheriff's office away from John C. Hester, who was a candidate for re-election, but who had proved an unpopular official. The Union Labor party had a full tick- et in the field this fall, and so did the Democrats. except for the office of county clerk. For this position George W. Fulmer was re-elected by a majority of 1,681, which is the largest thus far recorded in the county where there was any contest at all. Thomas H. Earnest, now postmaster at Cherryvale, was successful by only 74 over his Democratie competitor, George B. Thompson, for register of deeds. Mark Tulley got the prize of the county treasury, which then paid a salary of $4,000 a year; and S. Tillman, a colored barber at Independence, was made coroner. W. N. Smith was the new commissioner chosen in the southern district this fall. He is now a member of the city council of Independence.
The "Alliance year" is what 1890 has come to be termed in the polit- ical annals of Kansas, and the wave swept over Montgomery engulfing the entire Republican ticket, with two exceptions. The Democratic and Peoples' parties did not unite on the state ticket, and with two candi- dates to divide the opposition vote Humphrey got through with a plu- rality of 411 for governor in the county. On the local ticket, however, there was complete fusion. For district judge. MeCue ran against A. B. Clark, a popular Republiesto, and led him by 736. Ben. Clover beat the hitherto invincible Perkins for Congress and left him over three hundred votes in the shade. Samuel Henry and A. L. Scott, the fusion candidates, were elected to the legislature. Daniel Cline became probate judge : J. H. Norris, district clerk ; and J. R. Charlton, county attorney. The successful Republicans were Alexander Nash for superintendent of schools, and Noah Bouton, who got through for re-election as commis- sioner by the narrow margain of four votes, over John Hook. For a sec- ond time the opposition to the Republican party had broken over the fence and got into the pasture. Although a popular favorite, Mr. Nash, one of the Republicans referred to, long afterward made a record that is unenviable by deserting his wife at Coffeyville while their child lay dead in the house. Since that time his whereabouts have been known to none of his friends in Montgomery county.
It took the Republicans but a short time to get their "second wind" in the county and make a successful fight against the combination that had downed them. In 1891 they were confronted by a united opposition, but easily elected their entire ticket, with the exception of the candidate for sheriff. In this office Tom Callahan had rendered himself very popu- lar, and was besides an excellent politician and a good campaigner. Still he pulled through with the beggarly majority of 26, only. George H. Evans, jr., became county clerk ; and Tulley, Earnest, Hibbard, Tillman and Moore were re-elected. The "Alliance" wave had evidently spent its force.
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In 1892 the Democrats of Kansas supported General Weaver and the Populist electors for Cleveland's sake, but this county gave the Harrison electors 193 majority, and two more for Ex-Governor Anthony for Con- gressman-at-Large. Humphrey made his last political race as a candidate for Representative in Congress from the Third district. and while he was defeated and retired to private life at the expiration of his termasgovern- or in the following January, he ran about a hundred votes ahead of his ticket in his home county. McTaggart was re-elected as state Senator by the straight party vote. The county had been unjustly deprived of half its representation in the House, and A. L. Scott was the fusion candidate. Against him was pitted F. M. Benefiel, of Coffeyville, a man who played a conspicious part in the politics of the county for several years, and who was capable of making a very taking stump speech. The old member fared worse than most of the other candidates. Nash was re-elected sup- erintendent of schools by an overwhelming vote. and Norris was defeated for re-election as distriet clerk by W. C. Foreman. W. E. Ziegler won the prize of the county attorney's office, and W. N. Smith was re-elected as commissioner from the southern district. In fact the only thing the opposition to the Republican party saved out of the wreck was the pro- bate judgeship, which went to Daniel Cline, a Populist, by the narrow margin of eleven votes.
The fall of 1893 witnessed another triangular fight for the offices, the Democrats and Populists running separate tickets. The latter polled about twice as many votes as the former, but their combined vote barely equalled the Republican strength. The pendulum had swung clear over again and the opposition did not elect a man. Frank C. Moses became sheriff, and served the full limit of four years. The office-holding habit still clung to him, however, and he is just finishing his second term ats mayor of Indpendence. J. R. Blair came up from Caney to become treas- urer, defeating two Confederate veterans, E. T. Lewis and J. M. Altaffer. John W. Glass, of Coffeyville, was made county clerk; J. T. Stewart, of Sycamore, got the position of register of deeds ; Dr. R. F. O'Rear replaced the colored barber as coroner; and N. F. Veeder, of Cherryvale, the most corrupt, probably, of all Montgomery county's corrupt politicians, got into the board of county commissioners.
Low water mark for the Democrats of Montgomery county came with the election of 1894, when their candidate for governor, the brilliant, but shifty, Overmeyer, received but 429 votes to 2,064 east for L. D. Lewelling as a candidate for re-election. And there was no single attri- bute of manhood in which Overmeyer, with all his faults, real and al- leged, did not tower high above the first Populist governor of Kansas. Morrill, the Republican candidate, bad a clear majority of 142 over both. Many Democrats undoubtedly voted for Lewelling as the only way to beat the common enemy; and the Populist never had such a lead as the
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figures above given would indicate. MeQue was again a candidate for district judge, but failing to get the opposition parties to unite on his candidacy, ran as an independent, his name appearing in a column all by itself. He was opposed by A. R. Skidmore, of Columbus, a man hitherto unknown in politics outside of his own county. To tell the whole story of the fight made against Judge MeChe by ex-Commissioner Will S. Hays, who went over the district charging him with venality and with subser- vieney to corporations, and convincing the voters that he was lacking in integrity, would require a volume in itself. So confident was MeCue of election during the early days of the canvas that he used to introduce his opponent to voters, and then egotistically remark to his friends what a poor show the Cherokee county man made beside him. Skidmore, how- ever, beat him 850 in this county and some thousands in the district, and McC'ne's political career was ended.
Benefiel was elected again as Representative over S. M. Dixon, an- other good talker, who soon found he preferred other fields when office was denied him here. And Benefiel was the man, who, during the next session of the legislature, was credited with having killed the bill to re- duce charges at the stock yards, for a consideration. N. E. Bouton, the out-going commissioner, became probate judge, defeating H. D. Farrel, who was subsequently to fill the office for two terms, and J. J. Mull. It was a three-cornered centest all the way through on the county ticket, except the county superintendeney, and there Miss Anna Keller, the first woman over elected to office in the county, defeated M. C. Handley by 265 votes. W. E. Ziegler was elected county attorney over two leading at- torneys at the Independence bar at this time-Thos. H. Stanford and F. J. Fritch. W. C. Foreman beat John T. Caldwell and Tom Harrison for district clerk. James Thompson, an utterly illiterate Coffeyville ne- gro, became coroner. P. S. Moore was re-elected commissioner from the first district. It was again a Republican year.
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