USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 9
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At this election the woman's suffrage amendment to the constitution was voted on and there was a majority of 256 against it in the county. Cherryvale, Louisburg, Rutland and Parker, alone gave majorities for the proposition. A proposition to make an appropriation if $8,000 to buy a county poor farm carried by a vote of 2,708 to 1,321.
The last triangular contest that has occurred in the county took place in 1895. Frank Moses was re-elected as sheriff over Revilo Newton and J. B. Sewell. 1. R. Blair got a second term as treasurer, distancing Ben. Ernest and Daniel Cline. John W. Glass came up from Coffeyville to take the county clerkship, numing in between B. F. Devore and Jos- eph 11. Norris. J. T. Stewart became register of deeds, defeating E. B. Skinner and JJ. W. Reeves. Hibbard, of course, succeeded himself as surveyor. and so did Thompson as coroner. D. A. Cline, one of the most forceful of our county commissioners, made his appearance on the field
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of county polities as the new member from the Coffeyville district, de- feating J. P. Etchen and Joseph Lenhart.
After so long a series of unbroken successes, the Republicans nat- nrally and reasonably expected to elect their entire ticket in the presi- dential year, 1896. The promulgation of the gold-standard platform at the St. Louis convention was a solar plexus blow to those hopes, however. So general alnd so earnest was the protest against this change of base on the part of the Montgomery county Republicans, that it is a conservative estimate to say that a thousand of them, or one-third of the total strength of the party in the county, were outside of the breastworks when the June roses were blooming. Every device known to the most astute poli- ticians was employed to bring them back into the party ranks during that summer and fall, however, and day by day the recalcitrants were being whipped into line. When election came in November, probably not more than 250 of those June bolters were still bolting. But that was enough. The deeisive day approached with each side confident of victory. When the votes had been canvassed it was found that the fusion ticket nominated by the Populists, Democrats and Silver Republicans, and supported by all the Bryan men, had been elected from top to bottom. It was the most sweeping politieal vietory ever won in the county. extending to the town- ship offices, as well as those higher up. Indeed it was facetiously said that only a single road overseer had been saved ont of the wreck. This was a slight exaggeration, but the usnal dominant party had failed to carry a single township, though having a majority in all the cities, and had but one township trustee to its credit-the Cherry township candi- date having scratched through.
Bryan led MeKinley 434, while the Gold Democrats counted 27 votes and the middle-of-the-road Populists. 29. Ridgley had 398 over Kirkpat- rick for congress ; H. W. Young, a Populist editor, was elected state Sen- ator over George W. Fulmer, who made that record-breaking race for county clerk in 1889, by 346; Isaac B. Fulton, an old Greenback war- horse, was made Representative by a majority of 332 over the Republican candidate. J. F. Guilkey: Il. D. Ferrell turned the tables on Noah E. Bouton, and got the probate judgeship by 209; II. M. Levan, the first Silver Republican to be elected in the county-and the only one-had 359 over A. R. Slocum: John Callahan, for county attorney, "led" the ticket with a majority of 548 over W. N. Banks; J. N. Dollison, for county superintendent, came next with 437 more votes than Miss Keller; in the first district John Givens got in over Veeder by the narrow mar- gain of 10 votes. It was the first clean sweep the opposition to the Re- publican party had ever made in the county, and to the present writing they have never made another.
According to precedent. a reaction from the free silver victory of 1896, and a swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction, was to have
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
been expected in 1897. It was omly partially realized, though, and the fusionists succeeded in bagging the best of the game. The Populist Leg- islature had passed an act at the Legislative session of that year estab- lishing a county high school at Independence. This act had caused a great deal of criticism in some portions of the county. Notably, this fire burned brightly wherever there was an aspirant for Legislative honors, who had failed of nomination or election in the recent past. The Popu- list members of the Legislature were denounced without stint for their share in the passage of the measure, and many Republican politicians seemed to be of the opinion that the anti-high school sentiment alone needed to be appealed to in order to insure the success of their ticket. Accordingly Independence Republicans were turned down hard when the nominating conventions were held. and a ticket, that was, on the whole, a weak one. was placed in the field. The fusionists were afraid of the same issue and also tabooed Independence aspirants. except for commis- sioner, where llenry Baden was induced to accept a nomination in order to prevent both Populist and Democratie candidates from going on the ballot. The contest was a close one, and it required the official count to decide who had been elected treasurer. E. B. Skinner, a Democrat, of Caney, won the place by only fifteen votes, over J. A. Palmer. S. B. Squires, the defeated Greenback candidate of '79 got his inning at last, with a majority of 237 over T. C. Harbourt. D. S. James, another Pop- ulist, got in as county clerk by 66 votes over R. B. Handley. And the same figure told T. F. Burke's Republican majority for register of deeds, M. D. Wright being his "Silver Republican" opponent. Dr. Rader was re-elected coroner, and Hibbard pulled through once more for surveyor, with, for him, the meagre majority of 127. F. E. Taylor left Baden just 51 votes behind in the race for commissioner, thus obtaining a Ropubli- can majority in the board.
This year the first election of a board of county high school trustees occurred, and the opponents of the school made a strong effort to secure the election of the candidates known tobeopposed to the school. The coun- seat took care of its own in this matter, and the three candidates who were fought because friendly to the school won by over 900 majority. The board as elected consisted of Wm. Dunkin, Thomas Hayden. J. A. Moore, M. L. Stephens. Rovilo Newton and Adam Beatty. Except the last named. they were the same as the appointees by the commissioners the previous spring. Mr. Beatty was chosen in place of E. A. Osborne, who had declined a nomination.
In 1898 the Republican reaction, which was so pronounced in the state, barely gave that party a lead in the county, which Stanley carried over Leedy for governor by 27. For Congress the fnsiom candidate, Ridgley. won by 40. For the county offices the fusion candidates who had been elected in 1896 were all again candidates and were every one re-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
elected. By virtue of his office County Superintendent Dollison was president of the board of trustees of the county high school, and as bit- terly as he was fought on that account in some of the townships, no less ardently was he supported by his townsmen regardless of party. But for the fight made on Independence and Independence candidates by the anti-high school party, it is hardly probable the fusion ticket would have been again elected. As it was the Republican candidates for Represen- tative. H. W. Conrad, in the western district and F. M. Benefiel in the eastern, were both successful, as was also D. A. Cline for re-election as commissioner in the Coffeyville district. Skidmore carried the county again for judge by a majority of 593 over Thos. 11. Stanford, of Indepen- dence. the fusion candidate.
The incumbents of the county offices were all candidates for a second term in 1899. with the exception of Commissioner Givens, and they were all successful. Squires had only 57 for sheriff and James but 55 for county clerk. The former ran against Paxton, who is now a deputy in the office, and the latter against MeMurtry who won the clerkship at the next election for that office. Perseverance in office-seeking, as in everything else, counts in the long run. Skinner had Palmer for an op- ponent again for the treasury, but it didn't require the official count this time to settle the matter, his majority being 242. Burke, the only Repub- lican in the crowd, ran against P. S. Brunk and had the largest majority -353. For commissioner in the northern district, N. F. Veeder made his third race and won his second election, defeating M. L. MeCollum by 150. Wilson Kincaid. on the Republican ticket, and E. P. Allen, on the fusion, were elected high school trustees, both being Independence men. At this time there can be no question that the county had a normal Repub- lican majority, but the attempt of the Republicans to make political rap- ital against the fusionists over the high school issue was still resented. and the small vote the Republican candidates received at the county seat was responsible for their defeat. The commissioners submitted at this election a proposition to appropriate $5.000 for the erection of addition- al buildings at the county poor farm, which was overwhelmingly defeat- ed, receiving but 1.294 votes to 2.169 cast against it.
By the time the Presidential election of 1900 rolled around, the Re- publicans had regained their hold on Montgomery county, and elected their full ticket for the first time since 1895. The majorities were not large. but ample. McKinley had 218 over Bryan; Wooley, the Prohi- bition candidate, received 31 votes; the Socialists appeared for the first time in the county returns, Eugene V. Dehs getting 19. votes ; while Whar- ton Barker, as a middle-of-the-road Populist, had one lone supporter, Henry W. Conrad. one of the pioneer settlers, who came to the county in 1868, was elected state Senator by 297 votes over .I. Il. Wilcox. the fusion candidate. H. C. Dooley was elected representative in the eastern dis-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
triet, getting 1,802 votes to 1,698 cast for G. W. Wingate. In the west- ern district J. O. Whistler won, with 1,511 10 1.431 for T. W. Truskett. N. B. Soule, a Cherryvale attorney, was elected probate judge by 180, over E. T. Lewis. L. D. Winters beat B. E. Cole 326 votes for district clerk. 1. N. Dollison ran for the third time as the fusion candidate for superintendent of schools and was beaten 130 votes by Sullivan Lomax. J. Il. Dana and Mayo Thomas were pitted against each other for county attorney, and Dana got 90 votes the most. Henry Norton, the fusion can- didate fo rcommissioner, came within four votes of landing. but F. E. Taylor was re-elected. J. M. Courtney and E. D. Leasure were elected high school trustees.
The constitutional amendment increasing the number of judges of the supreme court from three to seven received a majority of 1,579 in the county.
The year 1901 saw less politics in the county than any other in its entire history. The legislature had enacted a law doing away with elections for county officers, as far as possible. in the odd-numbered years, and there were only two county high school trustees and a com- missioner in the southern district to eleet. A very light vote was cast. but Abner Green and P. I. Fox, the Republican candidates, were elected high school trustees, and D. A. Cline was made commissioner for the third time.
When 1902 came around there was, of course, a full complement of county officials to elect. Meanwhile the sheriff, treasurer, county clerk and register of deeds had held over for an additional year, making a live- year term for each of them. This year Republican majorities begam to ap- proach high water mark again. the influx of population resulting from the establishment of many manufacturing industries in the cities, having very evidently inured to the benefit of that party. W. J. Bailey, the Re- publican candidate for governor, came out 586 votes ahead. For con- gressman. P. P. Campbell, the candidate of that party. led Jackson, the Democratic incumbent. 665 votes. The majority for judge was even greater. For this office 7. 4. Flannelly, who had been serving by appoint- ment since the creation of a new district composed of Montgomery and Labotte conneies, was the Republican candidate. Against him was pit- ted Captain Howard A. Scott, a veteran of the Twentieth Kansas, who had served in the Philippines. Flannelly's majority was 616. Soule was re-elected probate judge by a majority of 613 votes over G. R. Snelling, the fusion candidate. Winters succeeded himself as district clerk, beat- ing Roy Baker &10 votes and leading the ticket. Lomax for county sup- erintendent. got a second term, running 690 ahead of I. O. Ferguson, his Democratie competitor. For sheriff. Andy Pruitt beat Squire's deputy, A. W. Knotts, 272. J. W. Howe was elected treasurer over Charles Todd by 469 majority. S. MeMurtry ran again for county clerk and led Arley
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Riggs, his Democratic competitor, 791 votes. For register of deeds an- other Philippine soldier. T. J. Straub, and the first to get office in the county, won over George Hill, his Democratie competitor, by a majority of 374. Hibbard and Rader, for surveyor and coroner, went in along with the rest. For representative in the western district, J. O. Whistler was re-elected by 228 over J. A. Wylie. In the eastern district, J. H. Keith, a Coffeyville Democrat, won by 26 over Dr. T. F. Andress, his Republican opponent. The hardest fight was over the office of county attorney, for which Dana and Thomas, the candidates of two years previous, were both in the race again. Dama had failed so utterly to enforce the prohibition law, or to even make any attempt to do so, and it was so generally under- stood that he was in the pay of the violaters of the law, that he ran some hundreds behind his ticket, and lost out by just eight votes. For com- missioner in the first district. Veeder was a candidate for the fouth time and for a third term, but he lost by 16 votes to John Givens, who had defeated him by a still smaller majority in 1896. This could hardly be counted a Republican defeat, however, as there were localities in the dis- triet where more Republicans voted for Givens than for Veeder, whose record as a bridge builder and a friend of the contractors who had bribes to distribute, had turned many of the best mon in his own party against him.
Such in brief is the record of the political history of Montgomery county. The catalogue of the men who have held office or been candidates in the county is a long one, but the list of men who have been enriched financially or laid the foundations of a comfortable competency from savings out of official salaries is so small that it can be checked off on the fingers of one hand. The time, the money and the energy that have been devoted to office-seeking here in the past third of a century would cer- tainly have told for more in almost any other line of business.
CHAPTER VI. Towns of Montgomery County
BY II. W. YOUNG.
Lost Towns
Among the historic towns of Montgomery county which no longer have an abiding place on the earth, nor a location on the map, the first to be mentioned must be Verdigris City, which was laid out by Captain Daniel McTaggart, and others, in May, 1869. Its location was about two and a half miles west and half a mile north of the present town of Liberty. The farm of Senator H. W. Conrad now occupies the site of this city that was to be, which was the first county seat of Montgomery coun- ty. It had. perhaps, a dozen honses and forty or fifty inhabitants in the
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
heyday of its prosperity, but it was greater in expectations than in any- thing else.
Montgomery City comes next in order. It was founded near the month of Drum Creek by R. W. Dunlap, who was an Indian frader there and the first postmaster commissioned in the county. It was in this neighborhood that the treaty for the cession of the Osage lands, which opened the county to white settlement, was ratified on the 10th of Sep- tember, 1870. This embryo city also had county seat aspirations; but it early became evident to the founders of the towns east of the river that to divide their forces was to lose the fight. So the two cities which have been mentioned were abandoned while too young to shift for themselves. and the partisans of both united in locating "Old Liberty" on the hill about a quarter of a mile to the east of McTaggart's dam and mill on the Verdigris, and just across the road to the east of the residence so long occupied by Senator MeTaggart, and on whose porch he breathed his last.
The contest for the location of the county seat was a short one, and when Independence won in the district court in May, 1870, Goodell Fos- ter, who had been he wheel horse in the fight for Liberty, accepted the sit- nation among the first and moved to Independence. A few months later he traded his corner lots in what was to have been the metropolis of Montgomery county, to a Liberty merchant, for four hats of medium quality. When the railroad was built down the east side of the county, Liberty was moved, houses, name and everything, to the railroad three miles to the southeast, where the present city of Liberty is located.
As mentioned elsewhere in this volinne, when the founders of lude- pendence reached that place they found the town of Colfax already laid out by George A. Brown, a mile and a half to the northwest. That site was at once abandoned in favor of Independence. The only other com- petitor Independence ever had on the west side of the river was the wholly mythical town of Samaria. which was supposed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of Walker Mound, and which received the honor of a vote at one of the elections as a candidate for county seat.
Then there was the city of Morgantown. located two and a half miles northeast of Independence, about where the school house now stands in district No. 36, which is known as the "Morgantown" school house. Here Morgan Brothers had a very extensive general store in which they had almost everything for sale that could he needed in a pioneer com- unity, and there was a blacksmith shop and several houses. Charles Morgan, who has been so long since a prominent character at Indopen- dence. and who is now city marshal there, was one of the firm that gave name to this embryo city. Competition with Independence proved too strong for the young town. however, and its business was gradually ab- sorbed by its rival across the Verdigris.
As a connecting link between the dead and the living towns of the
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
county Radical City, six miles northwest of Independence and half a mile north of Elk river, must be mentioned. It was founded in 1869 by Colonel Sanmel Young, but it never flourished, and at the best made but a rural hamlet. When the Missouri Pacific railroad was built in 1886, the station of Larimer was established a little more than a mile to the mnortheast, across Sycamore creek, and the postoffice removed to that point. Since then Radical City has been fading away.
Villages and Postoffices of the County
Tyro
Among the villages of the county, Tyro occupies a front rank, with a hundred buildings of all kinds and about two hundred people. It was laid out in the fall of 1886, when the Denver, Memphis & Atlantic rail- road was built through the south part of the county, and has been a sta- tion on that line ever since. JJoseph Lenhart was the founder of the town and laid it out. He and William Chambers moved in the spring of 1887 on the town site from a quarter of a mile south. Lenhart estab- lishing a general store near the depot, and Chambers locating his hotel in the same vicinity. Lenhart's store has ever since been the largest mer- cantile establishment of the place. There are now four other stores, a lumber yard, meat market, barber shop, restaurant, feed mill, livery stable and three blacksmith shops. There are also two physicians, three or four grain buyers, carpenters, painters and other mechanics.
The question of a hall for public entertainments and religious meet- ings early agitated the people and it was solved by the donation of a site by Mr. and Mrs. Lenhart in the following unique document : To all whom it may concern :
Know all men by these presents that we, Joseph Lenhart and S. D. Lenhart, husband and wife, do covenant and agree with the people of Tyro and vicinity, in the county of Montgomery, and state of Kansas, that lots Nos. 22, 23 and 24, in block 42 in the village of Tyro, county and state aforesaid, as per recorded plat thereof, shall forever (or so long as it may be used for such purposes) be for the use and services of the said people of Tyro and vicinity: together with the buildings thereon ; for the pur- pose of holding public meetings, either moral, social, religions, scien- tific or political ; we only reserving control and alloting to each a time of service ; pledging ourselves to maintain equal and exact justice to all re- gardless of creeds or beliefs. in accordance with our best judgment.
Signed :- JOSEPH LENHART, S. D. LENHART.
The funds for a building were raised by public subscriptions, and among the novel methods employed was a quilt scheme which brought in $116 for names worked on it, and $186 more when it was sold. The cor- ner stone was laid June 27th, 1894, and the dedieatory services were con- ducted by the Masonic lodge of Caney, Kansas, This hall is used by all
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
the religions societies and other organizations of the village, to the num- ber of seven.
Tyro is principally famous for its excellent soft water, its supply being thought superior to that of any other locality in Kansas. This water is found in abundance at a depth of from six to ten feet in the high- er part of town, and from twenty to twenty-five feet in the lower.
Jefferson
.Jefferson on the Missouri Pacific railroad midway between Indepen- dence and Coffeyville, has a population of sixty-five. It was laid ont when the Verdigris Valley, Independence & Western railway was built in 1886, on ground owned by Albert Jefferson Broadbent, who donated the right of way to the railway on condition that a station be maintained there. The place was named Jefferson in honor of Mr. Broadbent. The land on which the town is built was originally a part of a claim settled on by E. M. Wheeler in 1869. He built a hewed log house on it, and had lumber for feneing sixty acres of land piled near the honse and on March 1st following the survey, he moved in and began to make a home. That night a rival claimant, who had been surveyed in the same section, set fire to Wheeler's log cabin, thinking to get possession of the tract in that way. It happened that Mr. Wheeler and his brother. George R., were in the house at the time, though the incendiary did not know it. They es- caped with only one pair of trousers for the two, and the former went across the prairie with no clothing but a shirt, falling into a mud hole by the way. Wheeler later traded the land to C. C. Wheeler, of Troy, Kan- sas, who, in 1883, sold it to Mr. Broadbent.
The town was surveyed and platted by B. W. DeCourcey. The first store was opened by Fletcher & Stentz. The first church was built by the Methodists in 1885, and is now credited with a membership of 113. The Christian church was built in 1894 and has a membership of 40. The school house was built in 1900, at a cost of $2,500. and is a modern build- ing heated with gas and capable of accomodating 100 pupils. Two teach- ers are employed. The M. E. parsonage for the Jefferson circuit is located here.
There are two general stores, a hotel, a blacksmith, a resident physi- cian, a grain buyer : And a stock shipper. There is neither saloon nor drug store. The railroad station was burned in 1902. and a new and well equipped one has just been completed in its place, with telegraph opera- tor for the first time in the history of the village.
Mr. Wheeler, who is mentioned above as the pioneer settler, now lives across the railroad to the east of the village where he is growing the finest and biggest red strawberries to be found in the county.
Bolton
Bolton is a place of some twenty dwellings and about a hundred in- habitants, located on the Independence & Southwestern line of the Santa
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Fe railroad, eight miles southwest of the county seat. It was laid out when the railroad was built in 1886, by the Arkamsas Valley Land and Town Company, There are two churches, three stores, a blacksmith shop. a wagon shop, and a resident physician. Bolton is central to the great- est oil and gas field yet discovered in Montgomery county, and the work of drilling is being prosecuted more vigorously there than at any other point in the county. Six gas wells, not one of them of less than ten mill- ion cubic feet daily capacity, were opened there in 1902 and 1903, and all of them give indications of oil as well as gas.
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