USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 32
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1908-George R. Allen, John B. Hutchinson and J. L. Landrey.
1910-George R. Allen, W. B. Thomas and J. O. Emerson.
COUNTY OFFICERS IN FIFTY-TWO YEARS.
In the fifty-two years since Wyandotte county was organized under the act of the territorial legislature the following have held county offices, many of them serving several terms:
County Attorneys-W. L. MeMath, S. M. Emerson, Thomas P. Fenlon (District Attorney), Moses B. Newman, Charles S. Glick, Jolm B. Seroggs, Henry W. Cook, Henry L. Alden, James S. Gibson, Nathan Cree, Winfield Freeman, Alfred H. Cobb, Henry McGrew, Samuel C. Miller, Thomas A. Pollock, E. A. Enright, James Meek and Joseph Taggert.
Sheriffs-Samuel E. Forsythe, Luther H. Wood, Silas Armstrong, Edward Riter, ITarvey Horstman, E. S. W. Drought, William H. Ryns, Thomas B. Bowling, James Ferguson, Samuel S. Peterson, A. W. Peck, Jacob W. Longfellow, Harry A. Mendenhall, Alexander Gunning, James E. Porter and Albert Beeker.
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County Treasurers-Robert Robetaille, Byron Judd, John M. Funk, Joseph C. Welsh, Nicholas MeAlpine, E. S. W. Drought, William Al- bright, Benjamin Schnierle, Martin Stewart, M. George MeLean, Wil- liam H. Bridgens, D. E. Cornell, John Spaeth and Samnel Stewart.
Registers of Deeds-Vincent J. Lane, James A. Cruise, Allison Crockett, J. S. Clark, William II. Bridgens, Almus A. Lovelace, C. S. McGonigal, O. W. Shepherd, Albert C. Cooke, Ed. F. Blum, Thomas Sontherland and William Beggs.
County Clerks-M. A. Garrett, Moses B. Newman, James A. Cruise, Jesse J. Keplinger, Patrick Kelly, Andrew B. Ilovey, David R. Emmons, William E. Connelley, Frank Mapes, Charles E. Bruce, Leonard Daniels and Frank M. Holcomb.
Probate Judges-Jacques M. Johnson, Barzillai Gray, Isaac B. Sharp, William B. Bowman, David R. Churchill, R. E. Cable, R. P. Clark, George Monahan, H. M. Herr, J. P. Angle, K. P. Snyder, Winfield Freeman, Van B. Prather and John T. Sims.
Judges District Court-O. L. Miller, H. L. Alden, E. L. Fischer and McCabe Moore.
Judges Common Pleas Court-T. P. Anderson, W. G. Holt, L. C. True, Richard Higgins and H. J. Smith.
Judges Circuit Court-F. D. Hutchings (1908) and W. M. Whitelaw.
Judges Second Division District Court-L. C. True, F. D. Huteli- ings.
Clerks District Court-James A. Cruise, (1862) and George W. Betts, L. C. Trickey, John Warren, E. W. Towner, William Needles, Alexander Gunning, August Anderson, F. T. Hoffman, J. Will Thomas and Robert McFarland.
Clerks Common Pleas Court-C. S. McGonigal, J. W. Howlett, C. W. Litchfield, George H. Jenkins, James Beggs, Frank L. Kenney and E. F. Blum.
Clerks Circuit Court-E. R. Callender (1908) and Roman Kramer.
Coroners-Dr. G. B. Wood, Peter Julian, Charles Morasch, Charles HI. N. Moore, Thomas W. Noland, Bryant Grafton, David R. MeCable, William G. Scott, L. T. Holland, G. W. Neville, T. C. Baird, A. H. Vail, George M. Gray, HI. M. Downs, Russell Hill, J. O. Millner, V. S. Todd, D. M. Shively, A. H. Stephens, Frank M. Tracy, J. A. Davis and E. R. Tenney.
County Surveyors-Cyrus L. Gorton, D. C. Boggs, John A. J. Chap- man, Rynear Morgan, Samuel Parsons, Samuel F. Bigham, Robert A. Ela, Francis House, Walter Hale, J. H. Lasley, Park Williamson, William Barclay and J. Milton Lindsay.
County Superintendents of Public Instruction-J. B. Welborn, Fred Speck, Michael Hummer, Benjamin F. Mudge, Emanuel F. Heisler, William W. Dickinson, L. C. Trickey, H. C. Whitlock, D. B. Hiatt, C. J.
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Smith, Frank M. Slosson, E. F. Taylor, Mrs. Fannie Reid Slusser, Miss Melinda Clark, Ilenry Mead, Charles E. Thompson, H. G. Randall and George W. Phillips.
THE COUNTY SEAT AT WYANDOTTE.
By vote of the people at the November clection in 1859 Wyandotte was made the permanent county seat. On July 11, 1860, a proposition
WYANDOTTE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, ERECTED IN 1882.
was submitted by Isaiah Walker to sell to the county lot 46, in bloek 93, on Nebraska avenue, in the eity of Wyandotte, "with the frame building thereon" for a court house site. For this the county paid $50 in scrip
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and $1,750 in bonds to run ten years at ten per cent interest. The proposition was accepted and the land then purchased was used for the first Wyandotte county court house and jail.
At the meeting of July 11, 1860, it was ordered that the register of deeds be authorized to record the plat of the Wyandotte lands, and the description of the allotment of the same, from the copies thereof in the office of the county clerk and $25 was appropriated for such use. The demand of William McKay for the use of the court room for the May (1860) term of the district court was allowed. The amount was $20. The matter of a new county jail was considered, and, there being neither plans nor propositions on hand satisfactory to the board, it was ordered that the clerk post up notices in not less than three conspicuous places in the county, calling for further plans and proposals for a county jail to be presented to the board May 30, 1860, at which time it was decided to further consider the matter.
THE FIRST COURT HOUSE.
It was further ordered that the notices above referred to should also invite proposals for removing the court house to the front part of the court house lot. At the appointed time, a plan proposed by J. R. Parr, to build the jail of planks laid and spiked together, was adopted by the board. The structure was to be twenty feet square, each story to be eight feet in the clear. The first story was to be divided centrally by a four-foot passage, and into five cells-three on one side of the passage, two on the other. The upper story was to be divided into three rooms, approached by an outside stairway. The bid of J. L. Hall, being the best and lowest, to complete the jail for $2,000, was accepted, and the chairman of the board was authorized to enter into a contract with him on that basis, and also to contract for the removal of the court house.
On January 8, 1861, in the matter of the report of the grand jury, made to the last October term of the district court, recommending certain improvements in the county jail, it was ordered by the board that the county clerk advertise proposals to be received, for considera- tion at the April term of the board, to erect a plank fence around the jail, to underpin the jail with stone, and fill underneath its floors with broken stone.
FIRST TAXES LEVIED.
The first levy of taxes in Wyandotte county was ordered by the board of supervisors September 2, 1859. The rate thus fixed was one and one-fourth per cent of the assessed value of taxable property, real and personal. The board at the same meeting appropriated $1,500 for roads and bridges from Quindaro to the Wyandotte bridge.
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At a meeting of the board, October 2, 1860, the amount of taxes to be levied for county and other purposes for the current fiscal year was considered. It was determined that, for the purpose of redeeming the outstanding orders on the treasurer of the county and to meet the ordi- nary current county expenses, $15,000 would be required. The county clerk was authorized to make a levy of taxes on the total amount of tax- able property on the assessment roll of that year, at such a rate, in mills on the dollar, as would produce most nearly such an amount. The further amount of $2,500 was required to pay the interest on bonds issued by the county and to redeem such bonds as would become due within the coming year, and an additional levy was ordered to meet this demand.
It may also be recorded here that the taxes levied in Wyandotte county were contested. At a meeting of the first board the county at- torney was authorized to draw up papers stating an agreement of facts and enter into the same, on behalf of the county with the Wyandotte Indians, for the purpose of testing the legality of taxes assessed on the lands in the county allotted to that tribe.
COMMISSIONER DISTRICTS ESTABLISHED.
A board of county commissioners composed of William McKay, J. E. Bennett and Samuel Forsythe was elected on the first Monday in March, 1860. At the same election Benjamin W. Hartley was chosen assessor. The new board organized Monday, April 2, 1860.
The division of the county into three commissioner districts, on which the first board of supervisors failed to agree, was accomplished by the new board. It was ordered that all that part of the city of Wyandotte south of the center of Kansas avenue and all that portion of Wyandotte township sonth of the section line dividing sections 5 and 6 from 7 and 8, in township 11 sonth, range 25 east, and east of the town- ship line dividing ranges 24 and 25 east, be erected into district No. 1. All of the remainder of Wyandotte township and Wyandotte city was erected into distriet No. 2, and all of Quindaro township formed dis- triet No. 3.
Byron Judd was the first trustee of Wyandotte township and V. J. Lane was the first trustee of Quindaro township. The following town- ship officers were chosen by election in March, 1862: Wyandotte town- ship-Byron Judd, trustee : II. W. MeKay, P. S. Ferguson, John Kane. constables ; Gottleib Kneipfer and J. M. Barber, overseers of highways. Quindaro township-E. L. Brown, trustee; Arad Tuttle, justice of the peace; E. O. Zane and J. Leonard, constables ; Charles Morash, J. Leon- ard and John Freeman, overseers.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.
Previous to 1869 all of Wyandotte county was embraced in two townships, Wyandotte and Quindaro. The settlement of the outlying districts had been so rapid that it became necessary to organize smaller townships, which the county board proceeded to do.
On January 4, 1869, J. M. Michael appeared before the board and presented a petition signed by himself and fifty-two other persons, pray- ing that the board set off and organize a new township to be composed of the following described territory : "Commencing at the Kansas river at a point where the east line of township 11, range 23 east of the sixth principal meridian in Kansas, intersects the same; thence north on said line to the second standard parallel; thence west on the said stan- dard parallel to the northwest corner of said township 11, range 23; thence south to the Kansas river; thence along said river to the point of beginning." After due consideration thereof the board found that said petition was signed by fifty electors, resident therein, and that the territory proposed by said petition to be organized into a township was a part of the territory embraced in the township of Wyandotte; that said proposed township contained an area of at least thirty square miles of territory and that the territory so proposed to be organized into a township contained the number of electors and inhabitants required by law. It was therefore ordered by the board, that the territory as above described "be and is hereby organized into a township to be known and designated by the name of Delaware township, and that the first election for town officers in said Delaware township be held at the Peter Barnett store-room, in Edwardsville, so called, on the first Tuesday in April, 1869. It is further ordered by the board, that J. J. Keplinger, the county clerk of the county, make out a plat of said Delaware town- ship and place the same on sale in his office, and that he deliver to the proper township officers a certified copy of said plat and record. It is further ordered by the board, that the county clerk make out and transmit to the secretary of state the name and boundary of Delaware township, and the boundary of Wyandotte township, as it now remains except for portions on the east annexed to Kansas City, Kansas."
Prairie township was organized March 8, 1869, upon the following petition describing its boundaries : "We, the undersigned petitioners, would respectfully pray your honorable body to establish a new town- ship out of the following territory, towit: All that portion of township N. 10, range 23, in said county, said township to be known as Prairie township. We would further represent that the territory described contains an area of at least thirty square miles and has a population of two hundred inhabitants, and would further ask that the first election for township officers be held on the first Tuesdy in April, at the Prairie and Connor precinct."
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The petition was signed by S. S. Kessler, Henry H. Evarts and sixty-two others. The territory described was formerly embraced in the township of Quindaro. It was ordered that "the first eleetion be held at Connor's station and at the school house near the John Connor plaee, the place where the fall elections were held in Prairie precinct, on the first Tuesday in April, A. D., 1869."
Quindaro township was re-established April 5, 1869, upon a peti- tion then presented to the board praying that the boundary of Quindaro township be established as follows : "All that portion of township No. 10, ranges 24 and 25, in Wyandotte county." This petition was signed by fifty residents of the proposed township. After due considera- tion the board found that the petition was signed by the number of electors and residents required by law; that the territory proposed to be erected into a township comprised in part the territory then embraced in the township of Wyandotte and all the territory therefore contained in Quindaro township after Prairie township had been organized from its territory ; and that the proposed township would contain the area required by law and the requisite population and number of voters; and it was ordered by the board, that the territory, as above described, be organized into a township to be known and designated by the name of Quindaro township, and that the first election for township officers be held at the usual place of holding eleetions in Quindaro precinct and Six-mile precinet on the first Tuesday in April, 1869.
The record of the establishment of Shawnee township, also on April 5, 1869, is as follows: "And now, on this day, a petition was presented to the board, signed by John M. Ainsworth and seventy other persons residents of Wyandotte township and county, south of the Kansas river, praying that all that portion of Wyandotte county lying south of the Kansas river, and not included in the corporate limits of Wyandotte City, be set off and organized into a new township, to be known and designated as Shawnee township. After due consideration thereof, the board do find that said petition is signed by the number of electors and residents therein required by law; that the territory proposed by said petition to be erected into a new township is a part of the territory now embraced in the township of Wyandotte; that said proposed township contains the territory requisite to form a township, according to an act of the legislature of the state of Kansas, approved 1869, and the territory so proposed to be organized into a new township contains the number of electors and inhabitants required by law. It is, therefore, ordered by the board that the territory above deseribed be and is hereby organized into a township, to be known and designated by the name of Shawnee township, and that the first election of township officers in said Shawnee township be held at the junction of the Wyandotte and Shaw- nee road with the Shawnee and Kansas City road, on the first Tuesday in April, 1869."
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WYANDOTTE COUNTY STATISTICS.
Since the organization of Wyandotte county there has been a growth of population, slow at times, rapid at others, but always a growth. The United States census bureau's figures for the six decades follow: In 1860, 2,607; in 1870, 10,015; in 1880, 21,342; in 1890, 54,407; in 1900, 73,237 ; and in 1910, 100,068.
The assessed value of all property subject to taxation in Wyandotte county for 1910, based on what is supposed to be its full cash value, was $100,848,560. The total assessed value of the railroad properties, fixed by the state board, was $10,876,482, and of other public utility corpora- tions $5,027,035.
Wyandotte county now has fifty-six miles of macadam roads out of a total mileage of one hundred and sixty-five miles of all roads. Under a law enacted fifteen years ago, permitting a tax levy of two mills on the dollar under the old plan of assessment on all taxable property in the county, this system of roads has been built. The main roads lead- ing out from the cities through the county which, in recent years, have been macadamized are : Leavenworth, Parallel, Reidy, Kansas avenue and Turner boulevard, out of Kansas City, Kansas, and the Shawnee road and Southwest boulevard, from Rosedale. Under the system, from five to ten miles of macadamized road are added each year.
Spanning the Kansas river, in Wyandotte county, are twenty bridges, costing from $40,000 to $500,000 each. Of these, nine are county bridges erected at a cost of $900,000, a portion of which was paid by the street railway companies for joint use of four of them. The other bridges are owned by the railway companies, except the Inter- city viaduct bridge which is owned by the viaduct corporation. In the flood in the Kansas river, in 1903 every bridge over the river in Wyan- dotte county except the Missouri Pacific railway bridge was wrecked. They have all since been rebuilt.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE BENCH AND BAR.
AN EXECUTION IN WYANDOTTE-THREE JUDICIAL DISTRICTS-COLO- RADO IN THE WYANDOTTE DISTRICTS-SECOND AND THIRD DISTRICTS- COURTS UNDER STATEHOOD-THE FIRST TERM-AN EARLY DAY COURT SCENE-DRAMSHOP CASES-EARLY MEMBERS OF THE BAR-A JUDGE WHO PLAYED POKER-THE COURT HOUSE BLOWN DOWN-THE JUDGES W110 FOLLOWED-THE GROWTH OF LITIGATION-THE DISTRICT COURT JUDGES -LAWYERS OF THE EARLY DAYS.
The first territorial courts of Kansas were organized in June, 1854, when Franklin Pierce, then president of the United States, ap- pointed Samnel D. Lecompte, of Maryland and John Pettit, of Indiana, as chief justices. Sannders W. Johnston of Ohio, Rush Elmore of Ala- bama, Jeremiah M. Burrill of Pennsylvania, Sterling G. Cato of Ala- bama, Thomas Cunningham of Pennsylvania, and Joseph Williams of Iowa, were associate justices. When Kansas became a state, the court consisted of Judges Pettit, Elmore and Williams. Israel B. Donalson of Illinois was the first United States marshal; Andrew Jackson Isaeks of Louisiana was the first United States district attorney, and James Findlay of Pennsylvania was appointed elerk.
Previous to that time justice was administered by the Wyandot Indians as leaders of the Confederacy. They had brought with them from Ohio, in 1843, a constitution and a code of civil and criminal laws that was put into operation and under it the Wyandots ruled the "In- dian country," as it was known, wisely and well.
AN EXECUTION IN WYANDOTTE.
It was under this form of government that all differences between the Indians, or matters of dispute, were adjusted according to civil laws; and it was under this government and its code of criminal laws that offenses were punished.
The first and one of the very few executions in Kansas was in the village of Wyandotte. The victim was a young Indian, John Coon, who had killed Curtis Punch in a drunken brawl. Governor Walker was prosecuting attorney for the Wyandot Nation, and the defendant
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had for his counsel, Silas Armstrong. Governor Walker insisted that the defendant should only have been convicted of manslaughter, but the Head Chief let the verdiet of murder stand. The defendant was taken to the Missouri river bottoms a short distance above where Jersey creek enters the valley and was shot on January 18, 1853.
THREE JUDICIAL DISTRICTS.
On February 26, 1855, Governor Reeder divided the territory into three judicial districts. The first was assigned to Chief Justice Le- compte, the court to be held at Leavenworth; the second, to Judge Elmore, with court at Tecumseh; the third, to JJudge Johnston, with court at Pawnee. On August 31, 1855, Charles H. Grover, H. A. Ilutchinson and John T. Brady were commissioned as district attorneys, respectively, for the First, Second and Third districts. In 1858 Alson C. Davis of Wyandotte. became United States district attorney; E. S. Dennis, Isaac Winston, Philip T. Colby and William P. Fain were United States marshals. Andrew J. Rodigne, E. Noel Eccleston, James R. Whitehead and Laomi MeArthur were among the last of the elerks of the territorial courts. Marcus J. Parrott, Thomas B. Sykes and John Martin held the position of reporters of the court. The first attorneys admitted to practice in the territorial court were Edmund Byerly, James Christian, Marcus J. Parritt and Richard R. Rees. P. Sidney Post of Wyandotte and Riehard Henry Weightman of Atchison were appointed United States commissioners under the provisions of the fugitive slave act of 1850.
COLORADO IN THE WYANDOTTE DISTRICT.
By an aet of the territorial legislature, approved February 27, 1860, there were three judicial districts defined, with the times and places for holding therein the several courts. The division of the territory into districts and the judges for the courts are presented in the follow- ing: The counties of Doniphan, Atchison, Jefferson, Leavenworth, Wyandotte and Arapahoe constituted the First distriet, to which Chief Justice John Pettit was assigned. Section 10 of said aet reads as follows : "The whole of the Delaware Indian reservation is hereby attached to the First judicial district for judicial purposes, as well as all the Indian territory lying and being within the border of Arapahoe county."
The county of Arapahoe was attached to the county of Leavenworth for judicial purposes, except that in the county of Arapahoe the process of subpæna issning from Leavenworth county, should have no force or effect if served in said Arapahoe county. This county embraced the Pike's Peak region, which became the prominent portion of Colorado, with Denver as an objective point.
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SECOND AND THIRD DISTRICTS.
Excepting nine counties in the eastern tiers, the remaining portion of the territory was in the Second district, to which Rush Elmore, asso- ciate justice of the supreme court, was assigned. Provisions were made for holding courts at Burlington, Emporia, Council Grove, Junction City, Marysville, Hiawatha, Holton, Topeka and Lawrence. The coun- ties of Osage, Woodson, Wilson, Greenwood, Godfrey (now Elk and Chautauqua), Butler, Hunter (now Cowley), Chase, Marion, Saline, Dickinson, Clay, Washington, Riley, Wabaunsee, Pottawatomie and Nemaha were attached to their adjoining most contiguous counties for judicial purposes. The Pottawatomie, Kaw, Otoe, Chippewa and Ottawa, and Sae and Fox and Kickapoo Indian reservations were at- tached to this judicial district.
The counties of Johnson, Miami, Linn, Bourbon, Cherokee, Neosho, Allen, Anderson and Franklin constituted the Third district, and Asso- ciate Justice, Joseph Williams, was assigned to it. For judicial purposes Cherokee county was attached to Bourbon; Dorn to Allen, and the New Fork Indian reservation was attached to this district for judicial pur- poses. In section 9 of this act, it was provided "Where a county is attached to another for judicial purposes, the jurisdiction of the county to which it is attached shall be as if it formed a part thereof, unless the county attached has its own organization and officers."
COURTS UNDER STATEHOOD.
When Kansas donned the robes of statehood, its constitution or- dained, as now, that the judicial power should be vested in the supreme court, district courts, probate courts, justice's courts, and such other courts inferior to the supreme court as might be provided by law. The supreme court consisted then, as now, of one chief justice and two associate justices, whose term of office after the first was six years.
At the election of the state officers, held December 6, 1859, under the Wyandotte Constitution, the supreme judges chosen were as follows : Thomas Ewing, Jr., chief justice, term six years; Samuel A. Kingman, associate justice, four years; Lawrence D. Bailey, associate justice, two vears.
Under the Wyandotte constitution, five judicial districts were formed, and at the first election under it, December 6, 1859, judges were chosen. Wyandotte, Leavenworth, Jefferson and Jackson counties con- stituted the First district, and William C. McDowell was elected judge. The counties of the Second judicial district were Atchison, Doniphan, Brown, Nemaha, Marshall and Washington. The counties of Washing- ton. Republie and Shirley (now Cloud) were attached to Marshall for judicial purposes. Albert J. Lee was the first judge. The counties of
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Shawnce, Waubaunsee, Pottawatomie, Riley, Davis, Dickinson and Clay constituted the Third district. Clay, Diekinson, Ottawa and Saline were attached to Davis for judicial purposes. Jacob Safford was the first judge. Douglas, Johnson, Lykins (now Miami), Franklin, Ander- son, Linn, Bourbon, and Allen counties made the original territory of the Fourth district. Solon O. Thacher was the first judge of the dis- triet. The original territory of the Fifth district comprised the coun- ties of Osage, Breckenridge, Morris, Chase, Madison, Coffey, Woodson, Greenwood, Butler and Ilunter, and the unorganized counties in the "southwest." E. O. Leonard was the first judge.
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