USA > Kansas > Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence, Voilume I > Part 55
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The charter of every private corporation, after the payment of the fees provided by law has been endorsed thereon by the secretary of state, is filed in the office of that official, who records the same at length in a book kept for that purpose and retains the original on file in his- office, giving a certified copy of it to the incorporators. A copy of the charter or of the record thereof, duly certified by the secretary of state under the seal of his office, is evidence of the creation of the corporation. The existence of a private corporation begins on the day the charter is filed in the office of the secretary of state and continues for a period of fifty years. The certificate of the secretary of state under the seal of his office is evidence of the time of such filing, but no corporation for profit, excepting railroad corporations, banking corporations and build- ing and loan associations, can commence business until there is filed with the secretary of state an affidavit, made by its president or secretary, setting forth that not less than 20 per cent. of its authorized capital has been paid in actual cash or in property equivalent thereto. A schedule of such property must in such case accompany the affidavit.
Any corporation organized or existing may amend its charter by the
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affirmative vote of two-thirds of the shares of the stock of such cor- poration, at a meeting of the stockholders called for the purpose, in con- formity with the by-laws thereof. When a corporation amends any of the provisions of its charter, a copy of such amendment, certified by the president and secretary of the corporation, must be submitted to. the state charter board, and, when approved by such board, shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state, along with the original char- ter of the corporation. Such amendments take effect and are in force- from and after the date of filing the certificate of amendment.
When the name of a corporation has been changed, or where the capital has been decreased, or when the location of the principal office- or place of business has been changed, notice of such change of name, decrease of capital stock, or change of location, must immediately there- after be published once each week for four consecutive weeks in a newspaper printed and published in the county where the principal office- of the corporation is located. If there be no newspaper printed or pub- lished in such county, then in some newspaper having a general circula- tion therein. Any corporation organized under the laws of this state- may increase its capital to any amount not exceeding three times that of its authorized capital by vote of the stockholders, or such corporation. may increase its capital to any amount by vote, provided there be an actual, bona fide, additional paid-up subscription thereto equal to the amount of such increase; and such increase must become a part of the capital of the corporation from and after the date of filing the certificate of such amendment in the office of the secretary of state.
Each application to the charter board for permission to organize a domestic corporation, or to engage in business in this state as a foreign corporation, must be accomplished by a fee of $25, which is known as an application fee; but corporations organized for religious, educational or charitable purposes, having no capital stock, are not required to pay such fee. Every corporation for profit organized in this state must pay to the secretary of state, at the time of filing its articles of incorporation, a fee known as a capitalization fee, based upon the amount of the authorized capital of the corporation: For a corporation having an authorized capital of $100,000 or less, the fee is one-tenth of one per cent. of the amount, but the minimum capitalization fee paid by any corpora- tion is $10. For a corporation having an authorized capital greater than $100,000, the capitalization fee is $100, and, in addition thereto, one- twentieth of one per cent. of the amount of such capital over or in excess- of $100,000.
Corwin, a village of Blaine township, Harper county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 17 miles southwest of Anthony, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express offices,. telephone connections, a hotel, a good local trade, and in 1910 reported a population of 125. It is the principal shipping point for the south- western part of the county.
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Costello, a discontinued postoffice in Montgomery county, is a station on the Missouri Pacific R. R. 15 miles northwest of Independence, the county seat, and 6 miles north of Elk City, from which place it receives daily mail.
Cotton .- The cotton of commerce, now so widely used throughout the civilized world in the manufacture of textile fabrics, is the product of several varieties of plants belonging to the genus gossypium, natural order malaceæ, of which the best known species is the gossypium bar- badense, the cotton that is cultivated so extensively in the United States. Of this plant there are two varieties-the long staple, or sea-island cot- ton, which is grown exclusively upon the islands along the coast and in a few places on the mainland in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, and the short staple, or upland cotton, which is successfully grown everywhere in the Union south of the 35th parallel. A small quantity is raised north of that line, but is usually of an inferior quality.
India is the oldest cotton producing country in the world. In the early part of the seventh century the manufacture of cotton cloth was introduced into Spain by the Mohammedans, and in course of time it spread to all the European countries. In 1721 the first cotton was planted in Virginia, and eleven or twelve years later it was introduced in Georgia and South Carolina. The cotton crop of the colonies in 1790 was a little less than 9,000 bales. Three years later the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney, and in 1800 the crop was nearly 180,000 bales, much of the increase being due to Whitney's invention. By 1860 the production reached to over 5,000,000 bales, with an average weight of 445 pounds. Then came the great Civil war, during which the Southern ports were in a state of blockade, so that the cotton could not find an outlet to market, and the production practically ceased.
It was in this period that the experiment of raising cotton in the North- ern states was tried. Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Nevada, Utah, California and Kansas all joined the ranks of the cotton growing states, and while the amount raised was not sufficient to supply the demand, and the quality was not as good as that of the cotton grown farther south, at the close of the war these states were producing annually some- thing like 300,000 pounds of cotton.
The experiment was tried in practically every county of Kansas, but it was found that only the southern portion of the state was adapted to the cultivation of cotton. After the war came the reconstruction period, during which the industries of the South were almost completely para- lyzed, so that it was several years before the cotton growing states were able to produce anything like a normal crop. As late as 1878 cotton was grown in 22 counties of Kansas, the report of the state board of agri- culture for that year showing that there were 508 acres planted in cotton, and the value of the crop was $8,523.70. More than one-half the entire amount was raised in Crawford county, where there were 333 acres of cotton fields and the value of the product was $5,833.50. From that time cotton growing in the state gradually declined, owing to the fact that the
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Southern states were increasing their production, and the cost of labor in those states made it impossible for the Kansas cotton planter to com- pete with them. The report of the state board of agriculture for 1910 shows that cotton was raised in but two counties of the state-10 acres in Cowley county and 24 acres in Montgomery-and the value of the entire crop was but $790.
Cottonwood Falls, the judicial seat and largest town of Chase county, is located in the central part of the county on the Cottonwood river, at the junction of two lines of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. It is a well built little city with good appearing business houses, some of them elegantly constructed with plate glass windows, etc. There are 2 banks, 2 weekly newspapers (the Chase County Leader and the Cur- rant and Reveille). It is also an important market for farm produce. A fine quality of limestone is quarried near by and shipped from this point, and brick for building and walks is manufactured in considerable quan- tities. The town is supplied with telegraph and express offices and had an international money order postoffice with one rural route. The popu- lation according to the census of 1910 was 899.
Cottonwood Falls was made the temporary county seat upon the organization of the county in 1859. In 1862, having received a majority of the votes for the permanent county seat, it was declared such. The town became a city of the third class in 1872. The first officers were : Mayor, W. S. Smith; city clerk, M. C. Newton ; marshal, C. C. Whitson ; police judge, J. S. Doolittle ; councilmen, George W. Williams, A. S. Howard and a number of others.
As early as May, 1859, a newspaper was started by S. N. Wood called the Kansas Press. It was moved to Council Grove later and in 1866 Mr. Wood started the Chase County Banner. The earliest paper to sur- vive was the Chase County Leader, established in 1871 by William A. Morgan. The first bank was the Chase County National, established in 1882. The first churches were built about the year 1870.
Cottonwood Falls is on the south side of the river and Strong City, the railroad station, is on the north side. The two are a mile and a half apart and are connected by street cars.
Cottonwood River, one of the principal tributaries of the Neosho, is formed by the union of two branches known as the north and south forks. The north fork rises near the west line of Marion county, in township 30 south, range I east. It first flows southeast, crossing the east line of Marion county about 12 miles north of the southeast corner, and thence northeast to Cottonwood Falls, Chase county. The south fork rises in the northwest corner of Greenwood county and flows north- ward until it joins the north fork a short distance below Cottonwood Falls. The main stream then follows an easterly course until it falls into the Neosho a few miles east of Emporia.
Council Grove, the county seat of Morris county and one of the his- toric towns of Kansas, is pleasantly situated in the eastern part of the county, on the Neosho river at an altitude of 1,234 feet, and at the junc-
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tion of the Missouri Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas rail- roads. It has I national and I state bank, an international money order postoffice with five rural routes, express and telegraph offices, a tele- phone exchange, an electric lighting plant and waterworks, both of which are owned by the city, grain elevators, three newspapers (the Re- publican, the Guard, and the Morris County Advance), an opera-house, good hotels, a public library, an excellent public school system, churches of the leading denominations, marble and granite works, and a number of well appointed mercantile establishments. The population in 1910 was 2,545.
The first settler at Council Grove was Seth M. Hays, who established a trading post there in 1847, in a log cabin a few rods west of the Neosho river on the north side of the old Santa Fe trail. The next year a man named Mitchell came to Council Grove as a government black- smith, bringing with him his wife, who was the first white woman in Morris county. The Kaw mission was established in 1850, and in May, 1851, T. S. Huffaker opened a school, which was one of the first schools attended by white children in Kansas. Other early settlers were the Chouteau brothers, the Columbia brothers and C. H. Withington, who came as traders, and during the early '5os their establishments formed "the last chance for supplies" for travelers bound for the Great West. In Oct., 1854, Gov. Reeder visited Council Grove, with a view to making it the territorial capital, but the land was at that time an Indian posses- sion. A man named Gilkey opened the first hotel in 1856, and in 1858 the.town was incorporated, the incorporators being T. S. Huffaker, Seth M. Hays, Hiram Northrup and Christopher Columbia.
The place where Council Grove now stands was mentioned by trav- elers as early as 1820, and in 1825 the treaty was here negotiated with the Osage Indians for the right of way for the government road known as the Santa Fe trail, a portion of which now forms the main street of the city. There has been considerable speculation, and various reports have been circulated, as to how the place received the name of Council Grove. Cutler's History of Kansas says it originated from the fact that emigrant trains were accustomed to assemble there, and the leaders of those trains would hold a "council" to determine means of safety while passing through the Indian country farther west. Gregg, in his Com- merce of the Prairies, says :
"Frequent attempts have been made by travelers to invest Council Grove with a romantic sort of interest, of which the following fabulous vagary, which I find in a letter that went the rounds of our journals is an amusing example: 'Here the Pawnee, Arapahoe, Comanche, Loup and Eutaw Indians, all of whom were at war with each other, meet and smoke the pipe once a year.' Now it is more than probable that not a soul of most of the tribes mentioned above ever saw the Council Grove. The facts connected with the designation of this spot are sim- ply thèse. Messrs. Reeves, Sibley and Mathers, having been commis- sioned by the United States in 1825, to mark a road from the confines
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of Missouri to Santa Fe, met on this spot with some bands of Osages, with whom they concluded a treaty. The commissioners on this occa- sion gave to the place the name of "Council Grove.'"
Under the tree known as the "Council Oak" stands a granite marker, five feet in height, on one side of which is the inscription: "On this spot, Aug. 10, 1825, the treaty was made with the Osage Indians for the right of way for the Santa Fe trail." The inscription on the other side reads: "Santa Fe Trail, 1822-1872. Marked by the D. A. R. and the State of Kansas, 1906."
There are a number of places and objects of his- toric interest about Council Grove. The most important of these are the Council Oak, the Custer Elm, Fre- mont Park, Belfry Hill, Sun- rise Rock, the Hermit's Cave and the Padilla Monument.
COUNCIL OAK AT COUNCIL GROVE.
Courtland, one of the principal towns in the western part of Republic county, is located in the township of the same name, at the junction of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, which makes it one of the best shipping points for that section of the county. Courtland was settled in 1885 and was incor- porated in 1892. The population in 1910 was 454. It is provided with an international money order postoffice with three rural routes, express and telegraph offices, 2 weekly newspapers-the Comet and the Register- an opera house, good banking facilities, hotels, churches of various denominations, and in the summer of 1910 a $10,000 school building was erected.
Courts .- The tribunals of Kansas consist of a United States circuit court, a United States district court, a state supreme court, thirty-eight district courts, municipal courts in certain cities, and at least one jus- tice of the peace in each civil township. The United States circuit court, William C. Hook, judge, meets at Topeka on the fourth Monday in November, at Leavenworth on the first Monday in June, at Fort Scott
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on the first Monday in May and the second Monday in November, and at Wichita on the second Monday in March and September. The United States district court, John C. Pollock, judge, meets at Topeka on the second Monday in April, at Leavenworth on the second Mon- day in October, and at Fort Scott and Wichita at the same times as the circuit court.
Originally the state supreme court consisted of three justices, but by a constitutional amendment, ratified at the general election of 1900, the number of justices was increased to seven. (See Constitutional Amendments.) In 1911 the court was composed as follows: Chief Jus- tice, William A. Johnston; associate justices, Rousseau A. Burch, Henry F. Mason, Clark A. Smith, Silas Porter, Charles B. Graves and Alfred W. Benson. The clerk of the court at that time was D. A. Valentine, and the reporter was L. J. Graham. (See also Judiciary.)
Covert, a village of Osborne county, is located on a creek of the same name about 15 miles southwest of Osborne, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice with one rural route, a daily mail hack running to Osborne, and is a trading center for the neighborhood. The popula- tion was 75 in 1910.
Covode Investigation .- On March 5, 1860, John Covode, a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, introduced the following resolution in the national house of representatives: "Resolved, That a committee of five members be appointed by the speaker, for the purpose of investi- gating whether the president of the United States, or any other officer of the government, has, by money, patronage, or other improper means, sought to influence the action of Congress, or any committee thereof, for or against the passage of any law appertaining to the rights of any state or territory; also, to inquire into and investigate whether any officer or officers of the government have, by combination or otherwise, prevented or defeated, or attempted to prevent or defeat, the execution of any law or laws now upon the statute book, and whether the President has failed or refused to compel the execution of any law thereof; and that said committee shall investigate and inquire into the abuses at the Chicago or other postoffices, and at the Philadelphia and other navy yards, and into any abuses in connection with the public buildings and other public works of the United States.
"And resolved further: That as the President, in his letter to the Pittsburgh centenary celebration of Nov. 25. 1858, speaks of the em- ployment of money to coerce elections, said committee shall inquire into and ascertain the amount so used in Pennsylvania, and any other state or states, in what districts it was expended, and by whom, and by whose authority it was done, and from what source the money was derived, and to report the names of the parties implicated; and that for the purpose aforesaid, said committee shall have power to send the persons and papers, and to report at any time."
The resolution was adopted by a vote of 117 to 45, and the speaker appointed on the committee John Covode of Pennsylvania, Abram B.
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Olin of New York, Charles R. Train of Massachusetts, Warren Wins- low of North Carolina, and James C. Robinson of Illinois. The resolu- tion, as will be seen at a glance, was wide in its scope, and, even if somewhat vague in its charges as intimated by its opponents, was sweeping in its provisions. The committee organized at once and held daily sessions until June 16, when it submitted its report, which was published as Document No. 648, Thirty-sixth Congress, First ses- sion, a volume of nearly 1,100 pages.
Only the first part of the resolution related to Kansas-that is, that portion as to whether the president or any officer of the government had exercised an undue influence to prevent the passage of any law affecting the right of any state or territory. On this subject the major- ity report of the committee says: "Your committee first direct atten- tion of the house to that portion of the testimony which relates to the Kansas' policy of the present administration of the government. The patriot will mourn, the historian will pause with astonishment over this shameless record. Accustomed as the American people are to the errors and crimes of those in power, they will read this exposure with feelings of unmingled indignation. The facts revealed by the testi- mony prove conclusively-
"I-The emphatic and unmistakable pledges of the president, as well before as after his election, and the pledges of all his cabinet to the doctrine of leaving the people of Kansas 'perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way.'
"2-The deliberate violation of this pledge, and the attempt to con- vert Kansas into a slave state by means of forgeries, frauds, and force.
"3-The removal of, and the attempt to disgrace, the sworn agents of the administration who refused to violate this pledge:
"4-The open employment of money in the passage of the Lecomp- ton Constitution and English bills through the Congress of the United States.
"5-The admission of the parties engaged in the work of election- eering those schemes that they received enormous sums for this pur- pose, and proof in the checks upon which they were paid by an agent of the administration.
"6-The offer to purchase newspapers and newspaper editors by offers of extravagant sums of money.
"7-And finally the proscription of Democrats of high standing who would not support the Lecompton Constitution and English bills."
Among the witnesses examined by the committee concerning the Kansas policy of the administration were ex-Gov. Robert J. Walker, ex-Gov. Samuel Medary, A. J. Isaacs, M. P. Bean, Henry Wilson, Ellis B. Schnabel, Thomas C. McDowell, and a number of members of Con- gress who testified to having received, or having been offered money to support the Lecompton Constitution bill. With regard to the testi- mony of ex-Gov. Walker the report says: "The evidence of Hon.
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Robert J. Walker is conclusive as to the first of these facts; and it is so compact and clear as to require no comment. The treat- ment which Gov. Walker received evinces a depth of ingratitude unusual among politicians. It shows how, even in our happy country, power may not only be used to destroy an honest citizen, but also may be wielded to overthrow the vital elements of constitutional liberty."
The majority report closes by stating: "The testimony is now in possession of the house, and your committee have no further sugges- tions to offer." This report was signed by Covode, Olin and Train, and a minority report was submitted by Mr. Winslow. After going into details regarding the testimony-details that grow tiresome to the reader-he closes his report as follows: "As the majority of the committee has not thought proper to introduce articles of impeach- ment or censure, the undersigned is strengthened in the opinion that the whole intent of the resolution was to manufacture an electioneer- ing document. At all events, the failure to take such action is a clear indication on the part of the majority that none was justified by the evidence, in which opinion the undersigned fully concurs."
Cowboys .- The name "Cowboys" was first applied to a band of Tories which was organized in Westchester county, N. Y., at the time of the American Revolution for the purpose of harassing the Whigs and colonists who were fighting for freedom from British oppression, their specialty being that of driving off or stealing cattle. In later days the term came into use to designate the men who had charge of the herds of cattle on the large ranges in the western part of the United States. The cowboy of modern times has been eulogized in song and story, and numerous dramas have been presented on the American stage, in which he has figured as a hero or a villain, according to the idea of the playwright. At the time of the Spanish-American war a large number of cowboys enlisted in the volunteer cavalry of the United States, under the name of "Rough Riders," and were active in the campaign against Santiago, Cuba. Opinions differ as to the character and merits of the western cowboy. William D. Street, in an address before the Kansas Historical Society on Dec. 6, 1904, said :
"The cowboy, who stood the brunt of the battle and acted as a buffer between civilization and barbarism, was here in all his pristine glory. They, as a class, have been much abused. But few toughs were to be found among the genuine cowboys of the West. They were generally a genteel set of men, in many instances well educated, always generous, some possessing excellent business qualifications. There was, however, a class who hung out at the shipping points, who did not belong to the cowboys, but lived off of them. They generally created most of the disturbances, shot up the towns, did the fighting and kill- ing. This class were the gamblers and saloon keepers; most of them, it is true, 'came up the trail,' and when they went broke turned to the range to raise a stake as cowboys. This disreputable class caused the rows, and the cowboy was given the credit (or discredit) for the
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