USA > Kansas > Sedgwick County > History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas, past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county, Vol. II > Part 6
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After Judge Dale came Judge Thomas C. Wilson, the present incumbent. Judge Wilson came to the bench after a wide experi- ence at the bar and in the office of city attorney, and also after considerable service as probate judge of Sedgwick county. No district judge since the formation of the county has given better satisfaction to the bar, litigants and people than Judge Wilson. To his experience as a lawyer he adds a fine line of legal scholar- ship and a desire to be absolutely fair and just under all cir- cumstances. His uniform courtesy and kindness to the members of the bar, to litigants, jurors and all who have business in his court have made the present incumbent a most popular judge. He never forgets that he was at one time a lawyer, and he is especially painstaking to accommodate the members of the bar.
His administration of this now difficult position has been marked by great fairness and striking ability. If he has any faults it is that he inclines to clemency, and if he errs it is always on the side of mercy.
SESSIONS OF THE U. S. COURT ARE CONVENED IN WICHITA.
The entire third floor of the massive federal building in Wichita is equipped for the use of the United States district court and the United States circuit court. The large room where the sessions of the courts are held is one of the finest of its kind in the state of Kansas, and offices for the court officials are
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provided on the same floor of the building. These federal courts are important institutions for this part of the state. The dis- trict in which Wichita is located includes the entire state of Kansas, but the docket presented to the court at its sittings here is made up of cases arising in the southern and western parts of Kansas, which are organized into what is termed the second division of the Kansas district. The federal courts for the other two Kansas divisions are held at Kansas City and Ft. Scott, but the second division is much the largest of the three.
Both the district and circuit courts here are presided over by Judge John C. Pollock, who has acquired great prominence in the federal judiciary. The clerk of the district for the Kansas division is Morton Albaugh, and John F. Sharritt is clerk of the circuit court. The deputy clerk of both these courts for the second division is J. F. Shearman, who is in charge of the clerk's office in Wichita. W. H. Mackey, Jr., is marshal for both the United States courts in this district and his deputy for the second division is C. F. Biddle. The regular sessions of both the district and circuit courts in the Wichita division begin on the second Monday of March and September of each year.
THE COURTS OF SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS.
District Court.
Meets second Monday in January, first Monday in April and October.
Judge-Thomas C. Wilson.
Clerk-R. L. Taylor.
Attorney-W. A. Ayres.
Sheriff-Richard Cogdell.
Probate Court.
Terms begin on first Monday of each month. Judge-O. D. Kirk.
Deputy-D. A. McCanless.
Juvenile Court.
Judge-O. D. Kirk.
Probation Officer-A. E. Jacques.
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City Court.
Court House-Sessions daily except Sunday.
Judge-J. L. Dyer.
Clerk-S. L. Barrett.
Marshal-C. W. Root.
United States District and Circuit Courts.
Federal Building-Sessions for 1909, second Monday in March and September.
Judge-J. C. Pollock, Topeka.
Referee in Bankruptcy-C. V. Ferguson.
Attorney-H. J. Bone, Topeka.
Marshal-W. H. Mackey, Jr., Junction City.
Deputy Marshal-C. F. Biddle, Wichita.
Clerk District Court-Morton Albaugh, Topeka.
Clerk Circuit Court-G. F. Sharritt, Topeka.
Deputy Clerk and U. S. Commissioner-J. F. Shearman, Wichita.
THE SEDGWICK COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
No county in Kansas has a more imposing court house than Sedgwick county. It is located in a fine square bounded on the north by Elm street, on the south by Central avenue, on the east by Market street, and on the west by Main street. This is the old Court House square as originally laid out by the early fathers of the town. The court house with its furniture cost the sum of $220,000. Instead of paying for this court house in cash or by levying a tax and creating a sinking fund and then build- ing the court house, Wichita apparently could not wait, but rushed in and built this court house and issued bonds to pay for the same. At the end of twenty years, when the last of the court house debt was wiped out, it was discovered that the county had paid as much interest as the principal amounted to. This was figured out by some conservative men, good business men of Sedgwick county, who never were accused of running their own business in this way. It was also pointed out by these same business men that Harvey, Kingman, Butler, Reno and others of the surrounding counties built their court houses and paid for them and in no instance issued bonds to pay interest upon.
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Thereupon the conservative business men aforesaid were denomi- nated as "knockers" and were at once silenced by the boomers, who said that Sedgwick county was not to be mentioned in the same day with the counties named. This may be so. However, Sedgwick county is justly proud of its court house, and while its district court room, on the south, and its court room on the north, now occupied by the city court, a court having the juris- diction of a justice of the peace, would make four court rooms each for the city of Chicago, we still shut our eyes and say that we are proud of the Sedgwick county court house. The first courts were held on Main street, in an old wooden building, later on in Eagle Hall, later in the Artificial Stone building on North Main street, then at the corner of Main and First streets, and now in the imposing court house of Sedgwick county.
THE COURT HOUSE.
By ROY BUCKINGHAM.
The affairs of Sedgwick county, the most prosperous county in the state, are taken care of by three men, S. B. Kernan, C. V. Bradberry, chairman, and Garrison Scott. This board is known as the board of county commissioners and its office in the county court house is always a busy one. When one of the board was asked the duties of the board he smiled and said that it trans- acted the business of Sedgwick county from A to izzard. That fitly expresses the duties of these men. All road work, bridges, county bonding, tax levying, district lines, county charges and county buildings are under the supervision of these men.
The oldest record of a meeting of the commission board of Sedgwick county is found in a large red book in the county clerk's office. The first entry deals with a meeting in 1870. The members of the board were N. A. English, T. S. Floyd and Alex Mc Williams. The board met in the old county building at First and Main streets.
If the present board would handle the same conditions that the first board did, the county would seem pretty funny. One of the entries of 1870 speaks of a petition of Sedgwick county farmers for the passing of a herd law. This was evidently before
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the era of fences and the cattle were allowed to wander about at will. This was detrimental to growing crops, so that farmers asked that the herds be kept in one place.
Another queer transaction was the apportioning of ferry boat rates. Shades of Charon-a ferry boat? Yes, Mr. Twentieth Century Reader, there was a ferry boat doing much traffic across the Arkansas river. But the river at that time was a very wide stream. The board decided that it was worth 20 cents to haul a man across and $5 to carry across a freighter's outfit. With these exorbitant ( ?) rates there were several fords doing duty.
There wasn't any such a thing as a saloon in those days. In the good old New England style it was termed a dram shop, and it is recorded that a certain man was given a license to run one provided he planked down $500. Wow!
The first jury was empanelled in 1871. Most of the names in the list have been forgotten or can be found graven in granite or marble in some city of the departed. The first board of com- missioners were great scribes, for almost the first appropriation made was $750 for books and stationery. The first county clerk was J. M. Steele. The second was Fred Sowers.
The first tax levy was made in 1871. It was 21/4 per cent. J. L. Leland, present county clerk, said that he supposed it meant that every man had to pay 21/2 cents of every dollar he owned. This was necessary, for the valuation was almost nil. It seemed as though the railroad came in for special notice then, because there was a special assessor known as the railroad assessor. The commissioners evidently were afraid that the railroads would slip one over on them and they took unusual precaution.
Prisoners broke leash the same then as Nestor does quite occasionally, although there is no record that three was one in durance vile who could hold a candlestick to this son of the wind. The only record there is of any prisoners giving the sleuths of the plains the slip is the sum of eight dollars which was paid to Mr. Harris for "catching prisoners," as the record has it.
The first board didn't have anything to do with motor car roads, but it was kept busy opening freighter roads and keeping the farm lines straight. From the number of times surveying is mentioned, Sedgwick county must have been the paradise of civil engineers.
The busiest place in the court house is the basement, where,
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strange to say, the abstractors hold forth-but without any abstraction from business.
These offices are going at full tilt all of the time. The copying bench in the register of deed's room is filled every day with abstractor's assistants making copies of deeds, mortgages, etc. The number of abstracts which are turned out every year by these offices indicate that there is nothing slow about the real estate business of Wichita. The five abstract firms in Wichita are said to be the busiest in the state.
If you are looking for large figures it isn't necessary for you to go to the county treasurer's office. Stroll into the office and ask "Major" Bristow, county assessor, for the assessment rolls. He will hand out numerous bulky records that will teach you many interesting things about Sedgwick county.
You will learn that the 1910 valuation of real estate in the county was $80,193,096. If you are a resident of Wichita you will be glad to know that city real estate valuations footed up to $48,310,060. It says also that there are 27,061 improved lots in Wichita.
Statistics concerning that much abused animal of the field, the horse, are at hand in large numbers. The county contains, according to assessors, 21,128 horses, valued at $1.876,870. Now advocates of the passing of the horse sit up and take notice. There were 498 motor cars assessed in Sedgwick county and their value was placed at $342,050.
Another interesting fact disclosed by the rolls was the num- ber of goats living in Wichita. There are eighteen of these head-strong animals in Wichita. In the county there are 275.
The 1910 returns showed also that there are 2,809 pianos in Wichita, while the county total is 3,371. No wonder Wichita is a musical center.
The wheat assessed by the men amounted to 192,039 bushels. The number of typewriters in Wichita is 683.
The county assessor has a busy job, like all of the other county officers. Mr. Bristow said that it keeps him and his helpers on the jump to get the assessment report ready to send to the board between May 10, when the assessment is supposed to close, and June 7, when the state board meets. The county assessment was taken care of this year by twelve men. Part of this number was active assessors, while the others acted as members of board of review.
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The assessing was unusually difficult this year, as all the real estate in the county had to be taken care of. The real estate values are assessed every even year.
The assessors have many trips to make and most of the travel- ing is done with horse and buggy. Two of this year's assessors were fortunate enough to possess motor cars. They were Erna Huff, of Salem township, and H. I. Smyser, of Delano.
Douglas V. Donnelly, who runs the cigar and pop emporium in the court house, may appear, to the average observer, rather listless, but mention baseball and you will see a remarkable change. He is an old-time ball player and was a member of one of the first baseball teams ever organized in the United States. True to the thinkers of the old school of baseball, he thinks that the present game is about 100 per cent poorer than the game he used to play. He was in a talkative mood the other day and had the following to say about baseball :
"In those days we had men that hit the ball. They didn't fan. And gloves to catch the ball-why, we didn't know what it was to wear one. Unless a fellow could show some knotty fingers which had been knocked out of shape by the ball he wasn't con- sidered any ball player. It was a gentleman's game then and you never heard improper language on the diamond. There were no salaries and the men played to win. Baseball was a real game in those days and umpires were treated like gentlemen. An umpire today has a mighty hard time to even keep the respect of his relatives. The baseball today is filled with too many gim cracks and more attention is paid to the check, by the players, that is issued at the end of each month than to the scores."
If anyone thinks that the county clerk has a sinecure . let him step up some fall afternoon and see the work that is being done in this office. Besides the clerk, five other persons make their pens scratch and splutter every day. The treasury depart- ment keeps the clerk and force busy.
Of course the clerk and his office make a specialty of keep- ing all of the records clear, of the moneys expended and of the real estate plats, etc. They do this well, for they certainly have practice in Sedgwick county which does enough business to keep forty clerks busy.
But the hunters' license business. There's where the clerk and his retinue make a big hit. Ever since the state officials
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said that every nimrod should pay the state officer $1 for the opportunity of spending his week's wages for shells and car- tridges, the county clerk has been the big gun around "these diggin 's."
This law went into effect five years ago. Since then 5,000 licenses have been taken out-and yet the game hasn't disap- peared. The first license was issued July 1, 1905, and L. M. Cox, of Wichita, was the man to plank down his one dollar Willie. So far this year 276 have secured licenses and the big rush is yet to come. J. L. Leland, county clerk, says that 1907 the run on licenses was the greatest, more than 1,200 being given out. He expects the total this year to foot up close to that mark.
Besides being a hive of business the clerk's rooms serve as a repository for the minutes of the former boards of commis- sioners and other ancient history. If you want to find who owns a certain piece of property you can do so by investigating through the canvas and board bound records which lie in state in the north end of the county clerk's office.
It's a busy place and a pile of work is done. No information would be given out as to the gallons of ink and numbers of pens which had been used since the office has existed.
I'd think that the treasurer's office would be a dry, uninter- esting, smelling of old books place, but it isn't. Not a bit of it. It is one of the most pleasing offices in the county building, for it is a cheerful place, because those piles and piles of books establish the truth of Sedgwick county being one of the richest and best counties in the state of Kansas. During tax paying time it is unsually busy and the dollars make merry music.
The county treasurer and his assistants form an office per- sonnel that is never idle. If it isn't busy collecting taxes, the books require its attention. The members of this office are: O. W. Jones, treasurer; E. Webb, deputy treasurer; Carl E. Heller, assistant deputy, and Mary Z. Wallon, bookkeeper.
The tax rolls in the treasurer's office go back to the year 1887. A complete account of all the taxes levied since that time are on hand in the treasurer's office and the county's progress can be better estimated by the increase of the levy than anything else.
The amount of the 1909 tax collected amounts to $1,289,- 193.77. About $30,000 is yet to be collected. Prior to 1907 the county held the redemption and assignment taxes in trust and prorated the interests accruing from these to the different funds
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of the county. In 1907 the board of county commissioners selected a new plan of taking care of the redemption and assign- ment taxes. Instead of holding the sales in trust for the county, the commissioners decided it would be better for the county to buy them up. This has been done since 1907 and is working out nicely. Besides doing away with extra work it is much more remunerative. This plan is followed in another county, Reno, and is working out as successfully there as it is in Sedgwick county.
Out of the 185 "school marms" and "masters" in Sedgwick county, outside of Wichita, how many do you suppose put a "Mr." before their names? Twenty-four. Sedgwick county, with a school population outside of Wichita of more than 6,000 boys and girls, has so turned the business of educating its rising generation over to the women that two dozen stand round and look sheepish when school teacher is mentioned.
J. W. Swaney is county superintendent and his efforts and labors are greater than those of a bachelor left at home with his sister's rising family. He has to keep in mind the ten thou- sand and one things which are continually going to happen in the schools of his county. He makes all sorts of trips and must examine carefully every school and see that the right course is being taught and that suitable progress is being made.
In his office in the county court house there hangs a large wall map showing Sedgwick county and the number of schools in it. Call out a number on that map and he can tell you in a moment the name of its teacher. That's the sort of a man the school work of Sedgwick county takes. In itself it is so broad and compre- hensive that it requires a man of similar caliber to run it.
All the school buildings in the county are up-to-date. The most common type is the one-room frame one-story building which you see whenever you go for a motor car ride or a trip on the railway. The towns outside of Wichita have nice school build- ings. Clearwater has just finished a $12,000 two-story brick structure. On August 30 Maize voted bonds to the value of $6,000 for the erection of a new school building. Sedgwick, Mt. Hope, Cheney, Peck, Goddard, Valley Center and Derby have handsome school buildings.
The Barnes high school law, according to Mr. Swaney, is responsible to a large degree for the excellence of the schools. After a school has shown that it can maintain itself for one year
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it becomes a high school under the Barnes law and is supported by state money. The schools working under this law and their principals and number of teachers are as follows: Clearwater, three teachers, Prof. R. M. Crum; Cheney, four teachers, Prof. Bailey; Valley Center, three teachers, J. S. Carson; Mount Hope, three teachers, W. L. Baker; Derby, two teachers, Ray Braden ; Garden Plain, two teachers, Byron Wilson. The joint Barnes high schools are in Sedgwick City and Rose Hill. The above high schools have a complete four-year course and are fully accredited by the Kansas State University. Viola and Goddard have dem- onstrated that they can take care of two years of the high school so well that they are taking up the third year. Their principals are, respectively, Prof. Kaufman and C. M. Fifer. If it is a suc- cess the fourth year will be added in 1911.
The length of the school terms vary from six months to nine. Complete courses are taught and the scholars are gradually be- coming higher grade and the scholarship is becoming much better. The school entrance age is placed at any place between five and twenty-one years, but a majority of the teachers say that seven years is the average entrance age.
Every year the eighth grade graduate from the country schools who has the highest average is given free tuition to some educational institution in the county. This year it was given to Clyde Basore, of Bentley, who made an average of 96.9 per cent in the county examinations. He has selected Friends university as his alma mater.
It takes a mint of money to run the schools of Sedgwick county, but so many wise people are being turned out through the educational mills situated in it that taxpayers think they are getting more than value received from the money invested in the proposition.
The names of the school teachers in Sedgwick county, outside of Wichita, who claim to be the sons of Adam, are: R. M. Crum, Ray Braden, Thomas Kaufman, Ralph Stinson, J. S. Carson, W. L. Baker, C. M. Fifer, Byron Wilson, R. O. Caldwell, Minor Hickman, James Guisendorf, A. B. Callaway, Charles Gibson, Fred Jacques, J. R. Fitzgerald, Prof. Morrison, Stanley Riggs, Delbert Means, R. E. Sechrist, C. V. Fellerrolf, Will Ransome, Girhard Harmes.
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CHAPTER XL. A DYING RIVER.
By
JAMES R. MEAD.
The Arkansas is the largest river in the state of Kansas and was considered a navigable river to the mouth of the Little Arkansas by the United States Government. When the county was surveyed its banks were meandered, leaving a river bed of 800 or 1,200 feet in width as the property of the general govern- ment, and to some extent the river was used in Kansas as a highway of travel and traffic until the coming of the white man, who robbed it of its water and exterminated the millions of bison and other forms of animal life which once grazed on the bordering luxuriant meadows and quenched their thirst in its rippling waters. The writer's observation of the rivers of Kan- sas only extends back to 1859. At that time, and until some years after the settlement of the country, the Arkansas was a river in fact as well as in name, usually flowing from bank to bank. From Mr. William Mathewson, a noted plainsman, I learn that as early as 1852 boats were built at Pueblo, Colo., in which mountain traders and trappers, sometimes in parties of fifteen or twenty in one boat, with their effects, floated down the swift current of the river to Arkansas, and from 1870 to 1880 boats were built at Wichita to descend the river, some propelled by steam. In one instance two young men built a boat at Wichita and navigated river and gulf to Florida.
At that time the river had apparently pursued its accustomed way unchanged for centuries. It had well defined banks, with a width of 800 to 1,200 feet, the river very seldom overflowing the valleys, but a few feet higher than its level. From the state line up to the present county of Reno heavy timber fringed its banks. Occasionally the river was a dry bed of sand above the mouth of the overflowing Little Arkansas for a couple of months in the fall. The country adjacent to the Arkansas on
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either side for many miles is underlaid by a bed of sand in which the waters of the river disappear in a season of drouth, except in deep holes which were below the level of the under- flow. Fish gathered in these holes in great numbers, and herds of buffalo traveled up and down the sandy bed hunting for water. Suddenly the sandy bed would again become a river, the rushing water coming down with a front of foam two or three feet deep. The river was dry in the falls of 1863 and 1865. In 1867 came a great flood; the river was bank full all the season and overflowing the adjoining low valleys. Indians crossed their families in tubs made of a single buffalo hide, and swam their horses, and the writer saw a four-mule team and heavy freight wagon swept away by the swift current. But little sediment was deposited on the overflowed lands, but the boiling, rushing water was constantly moving the sandy river bed towards the Gulf. There was no opportunity for the formation of islands; the sand bars were constantly changing and moving down stream.
Before the settlement of the country the bordering plains were tramped hard and beaten bare by innumerable buffalo, allowing the rainfall to speedily flow into the ravines and creeks, thence to the river as from a roof. The breaking up of the soil consequent upon the settlement of the country allowed the rain- fall to soak into the ground, and the river soon ceased to carry its usual volume of water, not noticeable until about 1880. In addition to this, numerous irrigating ditches were dug in west- ern Kansas and in Colorado, sufficient at the present time to divert the entire water of the river to the thirsty plains. Thus for the past ten or fifteen years we have observed the evolution of a great river into a sandy waste or insignificant stream. Nature has undertaken to accommodate itself to the changed conditions. The once moving sandbars become fixed, and are speedily covered with young cottonwoods and willows from seed sown by the wind. They grow rapidly, binding the soil with their roots. When a freshet occurs, it is not of sufficient dura- tion to undermine and wash away the embryo island, but de- posits several inches of mud and sand among the young trees. These thrive and grow rapidly. The wind blowing the sand from the dry river bed aids in building up the island. By the time another freshet comes down the islands are firmly established, soon become groves of timber, gaining in elevation and solidity each year. In time the upper end of the islands become con-
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