USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Vol I > Part 14
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the regular Democratic candidate. At this time the Democrats saw that the Populist party was not long-lived and there arose an element that wanted to keep up the party organization, knowing that in the break-up of politics. the majority of the Populist party would return to the Democratic party rather than go into the Republican party. In this election Mckinstry's per- sonal popularity with the Democrats got him enough votes in addition to the Populist votes to elect him. He received 3.037 votes. J. W. Jones, the Republican candidate, got 3.031 and James Hettinger, the Democratic nomi- nee, got 204 votes.
In 1894 there were two candidates. L. M. Fall, the Republican candi- date, got 3,063 votes and Williams, 2,075 votes. In this election Mr. Williams ran more than 700 votes ahead of his ticket. Party lines were settling down and under ordinary circumstances Fall should have received a thousand majority over his opponent, but Mr. Williams was regarded as a far supe- rior lawyer to his opponent and cut his majority very much.
In 1896 Fall had another close race with H. Fierce, he receiving 3,213 votes and Fierce, 3.137 votes. Shortly after his term of office expired Fall moved to California.
In 1898 the contest for this office was between Carr W. Taylor and Willis E. Vincent. Taylor received 3,008 votes and Vincent 2,450 votes. Taylor was re-elected in 1900. W. M. Whitelaw was his Democratic oppo- nent, receiving 2,877 votes while Taylor's vote was 3,655.
In 1002 there were four candidates for county attorney, J. U. Brown. Republican, polling 3.325 votes : James Mckinstry, 1,800 votes; G. W. Mor- gan, Prohibitionist, 73 votes, and Frank Hogan, Socialist, 129 votes. In 1904 Mr. Brown was re-elected, receiving 3.342 votes against 2,473 for .1. W. Tyler, and for A. C. Humphries, 192 votes.
In 1906 W. H. Lewis was the Republican candidate and Willis E. Vincent, the Democratic nominee. Lewis receiving 3.027 votes and Vin- cent 2,677 votes. In 1908 Mr. Lewis was a candidate again, but was defeated by James Hettinger, who received 4,210 votes, while Lewis polled 3.430 votes.
In the election in 1910 Walter F. Jones was the Republican candidate. The Democratic candidate was Ed T. Foote. Jones received 3,370 votes and the successful candidate got 3.410 votes. Mr. Foote was re-elected in 1912. Ilis Republican opponent was R. B. P. Wilson, Foote polled 4,518 votes and Wilson 2.885 votes. The election of 1914 for county attorney was another three-cornered fight. Warren I. White was the "Bull Moose" candidate : Herbert Ramsey, the Democratic representative and Eustace Smith,
.
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the Republican nominee. Ramsey won, receiving 5.059 votes. Smith was second, with 4.160 votes, and White received 2,526 votes. This was an exceedingly interesting race. It indicates the comparative strength of the political parties of that year. The candidates were all young men, clean and capable, and each pulled the full strength of his organization. In 1916 Mr. Ramsey was re-elected, receiving 7.326 votes and his Republican oppo- nent. C. G. Deming, polled 6,003 votes.
VOTE INDICATES GROWTH OF COUNTY.
Of the fourteen men who have represented Reno county in legal matters. eight of them are still living in this city at the time of the writing of this history in 1916. They are H. Whiteside, W. HI. Lewis, R. A. Campbell, C. W. Williams, C. W Taylor, James Hettinger, E. T. Foote, and Herbert Ramsey. Four are dead. L. Honk, Z. L. Wise. James Mckinstry and J. C. Brown. D. Kirkling left this county shortly after his term of office expired and L. M. Fall lives in California. The average length of service of these men has been three years and three months. W. H. Lewis has served the county the longest time-ten years, and C. M. Williams the shortest time, serving but one year of the term for which he was elected, and resign- ing at the end of one year. The number of votes cast in the various years accurately indicates the growth of the county. In 1874 there were 643 votes cast, and every effort was made in the early days to get out as large a vote as possible. Party lines were more strictly drawn than they are now and an additional effort was made to get out all of the votes possible in order to make as big a showing as possible. At some of the early elections it is recorded that the judges and clerks left the polls in order to go out in the town and townships to get the voters to get out and vote.
In 1884 the number of votes had increased the 2,224 votes in the county. During the later years a Presidential year brought out a larger vote than the "off" years. In 1894 the vote had more than doubled-increasing to 5.768. Ten years later, in 1904, that being a year when only local matters were up for consideration, there was only a slightly larger vote than in the ten-years-previous year, which was a year when Presidential candi- dates were voted on. In 1914 the vote cast amounted to 11,745. The women voting added to the vote very largely, as they cast almost as large a vote, proportionately, as the men. The vote in 1916 totaled 14.018 on county attorney. It was the largest vote ever cast in the county, a Presidential election calling out a large per cent. of the voting population of the county.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE REGISTER OF DEEDS.
Reno county has had twelve different men in charge of the office of regis- ter of deeds of the county in the forty-five years of its existence. Nine of these have held the office for two consecutive terms. One had it two terms but another held for two years intervening between the first and second terms. One held it for three years, and one for one term of two years.
The first register of deeds of Reno county was S. H. Hammond, who was appointed to the office by Governor Harvey when the county was organ- ized in 1872. He was a candidate in 1873, but his election was contested, and Hammond held the office during the time the election was in the courts. the decision on the election being announced on February 5, 1875. In the election of 1875 Hammond was a candidate. S. A. Atwood was also a candidate, as was T. A. Ijams. In this election the contest was a bitter one. The court proceedings had intensified the feeling against Hammond, who insisted on holding on to the office until a final decision in the Supreme Court was rend- ered. In the election of 1875 Atwood polled 706 votes for register of deeds : Hammond only got 197. and Ijams. 160. Atwood was a candidate for re-elec- tion in 1877. His Democratic opponent was J. M. Beam. Atwood received 1,012 votes and Beam 322 votes.
In 1879 John Paine was the leading candidate. He had two opponents. Pat Holland and W. H. Jordan. No record of the vote any of the candidates received can be found. And the only record showing that Paine was the successful candidate is that his name is signed to the records of the register of deeds during the term for which he was a candidate. Paine received the nom- ination and election in 1881. The records show that he received 1,243 votes : T. J. McMurray, 440 votes, and Simeon Cooper, another competitor, TIO.
In 1883. J. S. May was the Republican nominee for this office. E. Blan- pied was his Democratic opponent in this race, and he was also Mr. May's competitor in the race for the second term. In the first race. May polled 1.391 votes, and Blanpied, 973. In 1885 in the election May increased his vote to 1.733 votes, while Blanpied's votes fell off to 962.
In 188 ;. T. N. Woodell was the Republican nominee for register of deeds.
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Hle received 1,979 votes, while his Democratic competitor, J. L. Reger, polled 1,815. Woodell was renominated and was re-elected in 1889, but there is no record of who was his competitor, nor of the number of votes either candi- date received.
Woodell was succeeded in this office in 1896 by H. C. Barrett, who polled 2,469 votes, while his Democratic opponent, L. D. Pollock, received 2,083 votes, and D. W. Stull, a third candidate, polled 443 votes. The Republican candidate that year failed to poll a majority of all the votes cast, partly because of Barrett's lack of popularity, and partly because his Democratic opponent, Pollock, was a very popular man, and good vote-getter. In his second race Barrett did better than he did in the first race, receiving a majority of 489 votes over Hugh N. Johnson, his Democratic competitor, Barrett receiving 2,589 votes, and Johnson, 2,100.
In 1895 B. J. Ragland was the Republican nominee and the successful candidate at the election. He was opposed by Fay Smith and J. E. Wood. Ragland received 2,484 votes : Smith, 2,231, and Wood, 179. Ragland was renominated and was re-elected in 1897. The Democratic nominee against him in this race was Sam S. Graybill. Ragland received 2,645 votes in this election, and Graybill, 2,430.
In 1899 Fred S. Scoresby was the Republican candidate for register of deeds. He had three opponents, Joseph Hawes, T. B. Lehman and O. C. Miner. Scoresby polled 3,227 votes : Hawes, 1,516: Lehman, 67, and Miner, 135. Scoresby was re-elected in 1902, but no record of the vote of this elec- tion is on file. In 1904 J. G. Lamont was the successful candidate on the Republican ticket. He was elected, but the records fail to show who his opponent was, or the vote cast for either of them.
In 1906 Lamont was renominated by the Republican party and was re-elected, receiving 3, 110 votes, while his Democratic opponent, Sam Gallup. polled 2,602 votes. In 1908, Charles W. Ragland was elected register of deeds over W. L. Stroup, he receiving 4.422 votes, and Stroup. 3.295 votes. Rag- land's case was one of the two cases in Reno county of the son succeeding to the office his father had held. The other instance was in the office of county commissioner, where William Astle, the father, held the office of county com- missioner in the early days of the county, and forty years later his son, Harry Astle, was chosen for the same office. Charles Ragland was given a second term in 1910.
In 1912 there were two candidates, Mary B. Parks and J. A. Schardein. Miss Parks received 3,242 votes, and her opponent polled 4.050 votes. In
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1914, Schardein was renominated, but was defeated by E. M. Garman, who polled 5.772 votes, while Schardein received 5.507 votes. Schardein was renominated in 1916, as was also Garman. In this latter race, Schardein was successful, polling 6,578 votes, while Garman received 6,455, and F. O. Swan- $01. 704.
IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS OF THE OFFICE.
The work of the register of deeds has grown from a few instruments filed in the course of a day to many hundred instruments of various nature. In the early days of the county the register of deeds had but little business to transact, as there was not much property being sold. As the county developed, subdivisions of land were made, and the business greatly increased, especially during the boom period of Hutchinson's growth, as there were many new addi- tions to the city platted and the lots sold. Likewise in the days of "hard times" there were a great many chattel mortgages filed. But at the present time the number of releases, both of chattel and real-estate mortgages, average about the same. Some seasons of the year there will be more mortgages recorded than released. but when the crops have been harvested and marketed, the release will greatly exceed the new instruments filed : but throughout the year, the average will be about the same for new mortgages filed and old mortgages released, they having been paid off.
This office is an important one, as the title to every piece of property has to be recorded here. The men who have held the office have been careful in the discharge of their duties, and no instance has ever come to light where the negligence of any register of deeds has caused a loss to any patron of the office of the twelve men who have held this office. Half of them are living and half of them are dead, Hammond. Atwood, Paine, May. Woodell and Barrett being dead, while B. J. Ragland, Scoresby, Lamont, Charles W. Rag- land, Schardein and Garman are living. It is unusual for such a large per cent. of the men who have held this office, running back almost half a century, to be still living. All but one of those living are residents of Reno county-that one is Fred S. Scoresby, who lives in Rice county, Kansas.
In the early days of the county there were more instruments filed than there were releases. This was especially true of mortgages, on real estate, as well as chattels. The times of the year of the filing of the largest number of mortgages vary-in the spring there are more chattel mortgages, and in the fall and winter, more real-estate mortgages. The reason for this difference is that in the spring and summer money is borrowed on chattels to conduct the business of the year-among farmers to get the immediate money to carry
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on the farming until they can sell some of their crops,-but the largest loans are the ones made in the handling of real estate, and a large per cent. of real- estate mortgages are made in the fall and winter.
The deed records will run about two volumes a year, or about thirteen hundred deeds filed annually.
As a sample of the amount of business done in this office, which is a record of the activities of this line in the county: In 1916 there were filed on an average one hundred and twenty deeds a month : one hundred mortgages a month ; one hundred and fifty chattel mortgages a month, and one hundred and fifty releases a month, there being but little variation in the number of mortgages and releases, both running about the same number, also about eighteen assignments a month. There are likewise about one-third more mortgages filed during the year than there are deeds filed.
CHAPTER XX.
SURVEYORS AND CORONERS.
There can be no reason given for grouping two county offices such as surveyors and coroners in one chapter in a history of the county, except that one of the offices has not been of enough importance to make a chapter of itself and there never was much reason for the existence of the other office. The surveyor's office was always one of the last offices to be filled by a nominating convention, when that system was in use for placing men as candidates for office. There never were more than two or three men in the county that were qualified to fill the office, men who had the techni- cal knowledge required. This, however, was not always recognized by the convention that made up the party ticket. There was one convention in the latter days of the convention system of nomination that was stampeded. The convention had hung on all afternoon: bitter contests arose over each office, and when the office of county surveyor was reached half the delegates had gone home. Fred Carpenter had been the county surveyor for years. He was a man of experience and ability and made a very competent county surveyor. but he had been surveyor for several terms and some young men from one of the wards of Hutchinson concluded to make a change in that office. As soon as Mr. Carpenter had been nominated the name of another was sprung in the convention by a group of band boys of Hutchinson. The man they wanted could toot a horn and had made a living by running a news- paper in a small town in the southwestern part of the county, but the few- ness of the delegates and the anti-fourth-term sentiment resulted in the nomi- nation of T. G. Elbury. Being on the Republican ticket he was elected, and Reno county and Hutchinson today have the "errors of Elbury" to contend with in his surveys.
There was no surveyor elected at the organization of the county. _ 1 surveyor by the name of D. M. Lewis was appointed by the board of com- missioners to do some of the early surveying. The first election for sur- veyor was in the fall of 1873. There were two candidates, E. A. Smith and Sam Slack. In the election Smith received 238 votes and Slack. 102 votes. The same men were candidates two years later. At this time Smith's vote increased to 538 and Slack's vote increased in proportion, he receiving 402
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votes. In 1879 J. M. Harsha, Sam Slack and E. Pratt were candidates for sheriff. Harsha was elected, receiving 127 votes, Slack polling 439 and Pratt, 223 votes. In 188t there was but one candidate, J. M. Harsha, who received 1,025 votes.
In 1883 a change was made in county surveyors. W. H. Dunkin became a candidate against Harsha, who had held the office for three consecutive terms. As a result of the election Dunkin polled 1,215 votes and Harsha. I. 161 votes. In 1885 Fred Carpenter became county surveyor. He had grad- uated from the State University, was a thoroughly competent man and gave the county fine service. His opponent in 1885 was the man who held the office at that time, W. H. Dunkin. Carpenter polled 1,648 votes and Dunkin, 1,040 votes. In 1887 Carpenter was again a candidate. J. M. Talbott was his opponent. Carpenter received 2,376 votes and Talbott, 1,512 votes. There is no record of the election of 1889, the minutes of the county com- missioners for that year merely showing the list of the successful candi- dates. It was the custom of all the preceding county clerks to record the votes for each candidate as well as those county clerks who succeeded. S. J. Morris, the county clerk of that time, and to place in the book in which the commissioners' proceedings are recorded the list of the votes by townships for each candidate. The record for this year simply records the success- ful candidates, among shown was Fred Carpenter, who was elected sur- veyor, and refers to the abstract of this election on file for "further informa- tion", and the county commissioners solemnly certify, and have it recorded in their journal, that "they have canvassed the vote and found the result recorded herewith to be correct". Whatever became of the abstract, if it were ever prepared, can not now be known. A search in the court house. in office filing-cases, in the vault where records are kept and even in the basement, where valuable records are "dumped" because of lack of place for them in the vault, fails to show any trace of this abstract.
In 1891 there were three candidates for county surveyor, Fred Car- penter, W. H. Dunkin and T. H. Robbins. " Carpenter received 2,390 votes : Dunkin, 2,176 votes and Robbins, 447 votes. In 1893 there were two candi dates for surveyor, Fred Carpenter and E. M. Garrett. Carpenter received 2,661 votes and Garrett 994 votes.
STAMPEDED THE CONVENTION.
It was the convention of 1894 that was referred to in the early part of this chapter, when the convention was stampeded for T. G. Elbury against
(II)
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Fred Carpenter. In the Republican convention that nominated Elbury no one knew him, but he received the nomination over Fred Carpenter. In the election Elbury received 2,588 votes and Carpenter, 2,220 votes. Elbury was nominated again in 1897 by the Republicans. The democrats nomi- nated E. L. Allen. Elbury polled 2,690 votes and Allen 2,311 votes. In 1899 Elbury ran again. His opponent was Alva O'Hara. Elbury polled 3.011 votes and O'Hara 2,752. Elbury was chosen for the fourth term in 1901. He had two opponents, Alva O'Hara and Frank Lang. Elbury received 3,278 votes in the election, O'Hara 1,868 votes and Lang 131 votes.
In 1903 there was a complete change in candidates for this office. G. L. McLane and C. P. Rathburn were the candidates. McLane is a high- grade civil engineer and his work has been eminently satisfactory. In this election he received 4,070 votes and Rathburn 272 votes. In 1906 McLane was renominated and was elected without opposition, receiving 3.586 votes at this election. In 1908 McLane was a candidate again and the opponent was W. H. Dunkin. McLane polled 4,178 votes and Dunkin, 3,395 votes. In 1910 the same candidates were before the people. McLane received in this election 3,600 votes and Dunkin, 2.985 votes. In 1912 McLane had no opposition, polling 3.836 votes, and by successive re-elections is still serving as county surveyor.
In this forty-five years of the organization of Reno county there have been but six men who have held the office of county surveyor. G. L. McLane has held the office for seven terms, or fourteen years: T. G. Elbury. four terms. or eight years: Fred Carpenter, five terms, or ten years: J. M. Harsha, three terms, or six years; E. A. Smith, two terms, or four years, and W. H. Dunkin, one term, or two years. Of these, W. H. Dunkin. Fred Carpenter and G. L. McLane still live in Reno county. Mr. Carpenter is roadmaster on the Santa Fe railroad: Mr. McLane is a member of Company G of the National Guard, in the service of the country, and W. Il. Dunkin has retired from active business because of his age.
CORONERS OF RENO COUNTY.
If one were looking for an anatomical analysis of the county offices, if he were seeking to locate in the "body politic" the various offices of the county, he would have no trouble in properly placing the office of coroner. It is the vermiform appendix of the political body. It has but little use. In cases of persons found dead the coroner "sits" on the corpse to ascer- tain whether the deceased came to his death from natural causes or whether
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his death was caused by the act of some other person and, if so, who the person was, if there is any evidence to disclose the identity of such a person, or whether the death was accidental or not. He has but little authority and the courts act entirely independently of the findings of a coroner's jury. The coroner's office has one dignity attached to it: That official becomes sheriff of the county where there shall be no sheriff in the county or where the sheriff for any cause shall be committed to the jail of the county of which he is sheriff. This dignity has never yet come to any coroner of Reno county. However, Reno county has always elected a coroner, and a history of this county would be incomplete if it did not mention this consti- tntional office.
The first coroner was elected in 1873. A. Diffenbaugh and A. R. Blodgett were the candidates. Diffenbaugh polled 311 votes and Blodgett, 246 votes. In 1875 there was but one candidate, Dr. A. W. Mckinney, who received 865 votes. In 1877 there were two candidates, C. L. Eggert and Dr. N. T. P. Robertson. Eggert polled 1,044 votes and Robertson, 279 votes. Doctor Robertson was one of the best known of the early doctors, tall, thin and awkward. He was always smooth shaven, even in those days when beards were popular. Doctor Robertson never was able to poll many votes for coroner. He was a candidate, perhaps against his will; his name put on to fill up the ticket, but he never was able to com- mand many votes. This, coupled with the fact that he was a Democrat, the kind of a Democrat that always asserted his Democracy. perhaps accounted for his light vote.
In 1879 A. H. Moffat, W. L. Ross and L. Diffenbaugh were. candi- dates for coroner. Moffat was at that time agent for the Santa Fe railroad in Hutchinson. He afterwards became one of the road's general passenger agents. In this election he polled 1,272 votes. Rose received 439 votes and Diffenbaugh. 223 votes. It is said that this election for the office of coroner was very much like the contest sometimes conducted to find out who is the most popular lady in the city. Moffat's friends got him on the ticket as a joke, but he did not want any candidate on his ticket to get more votes in the election, so he stirred up his friends to see if he could not "lead" the ticket and he did it. But, having received the prize. Moffat declined this honor, never qualified and Reno county was without a coroner for one year. In 1880 there were two candidates to fill the vacancy of one year, Dr. A. W. Mckinney and D. D. Olmstead. Mckinney got 353 votes and Olmstead 222. In 1881 there were three candidates for coroner. O. S. Jenks, Dr. N. P. T. Robertson and John Payne. Payne won, receiv-
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ing 878 votes; Robertson ran second, polling 690 votes, while Jenks polled 138 votes. In 1883 S. H. Parks and Dr. A. W. Mckinney were candidates for this office. Parks polled 1,305 votes and Mckinney 1,266 votes. In 1885 the contest was between two doctors, Dr. A. W. Mckinney and Dr. N. T. P. Robertson. Mckinney won, polling 1,752 votes, and Robertson, 938 votes. The same candidate, with J. Hanan, made the race in 1887. Mckinney polled 2,333 votes; Robertson, 1,425 votes and Hanan, 187 votes.
Because of the failure of S. J. Morris, county clerk, to keep the result of the vote, there is no record of the election of 1889, except that "A. W. Mckinney was elected coroner". In 1891 A. W. Mckinney, R. B. Wil- son and John Parke were candidates for this office. Mckinney polled 2,409 votes, Wilson, 2,183 votes and Parke, 428 votes. In 1893 there were two candidates, Dr. S. M. Colladay and J. C. Stratton. Colladay polled 2,555 votes and Stratton, 960 votes.
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