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, Volume II > Part 3
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The close proximity of Johnson county to Missouri caused it to share the disaster and distress arising from the early political difficulties. The first election held in the territory was in the fall of 1853 before the organization of the county. At this election, Rev. Thomas Johnson of the Shawnee Mission was elected delegate to Congress to urge the organization of the territory. Being chosen without the authority of the law he was not admitted to a seat as a delegate. At the election of March 20, 1855, for members of the territorial legislature, Mr. John- son was elected to the council and made its president. One of the first acts of that legislature was the organization of the settled portions of the territory into counties. Isaac Parish was appointed sheriff of the county and William Fisher, Jr., probate judge. At this session the road passing from Kansas City, Mo., west to Santa Fe, N. M., through the center of the county was declared a territorial road; a road was located through the northern part of the county to Lawrence, Lecompton and Fort Riley, and another along the eastern line of the county from West- port, Mo., to Fort Scott.
From the beginning Johnson county was the scene of many conflicts between the free-state and pro-slavery parties. The first ones were slight and unimportant owing to the fact the land was not open to settlement and the few early residents were practically of one mind. As the controversy waxed more intense, the conflicts became more cruel and insolent. The elections held were farces and were for the greater part managed by pro-slavery men. The methods used is evidenced by the election of October 5, 1857, for members of the legislature. (See Walker's Administration.) The continuous interference of Missouri border ruffians in Kansas affairs on the eastern tier of counties aroused the greatest feeling of animosity among the free-state men which re- sulted in the border wars, of varying degrees of importance. A battle growing out of politics was that called by some "the first battle of Bull Run," because it was fought on Bull creek, in the year 1858, when Gen. Lane, commander of the free-state men, met the pro-slavery forces of Gen. Reid. A few shots were excanged and Reid retreated into Mis- souri. No blood was shed.
On Sept. 6, 1862, Quantrill made his well known raid upon Olathe, (II-3)
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which was in a defenseless condition. With a band of about 140 men he entered the town, invaded and plundered houses and stores, and corralled the citizens in the public square. Hiram Blanchard of Spring Hill, Philip Wiggins and Josiah Skinner were killed in an effort to protect property. (See Guerrillas.)
In Johnson county 500 men were enrolled in the Thirteenth regiment, of which Thomas M. Bowen was commissioned colonel ; J. B. Wheeler, lieutenant-colonel; William Roy, adjutant, and during the four years of war Johnson county furnished its full share of soldiers. In about three weeks after the first call for troops, a company of 50 men enlisted and organized, with S. F. Hill captain. This company was assigned to the Second Kansas infantry as Company C. Upon the second call for volun- teers a second company was organized with J. E. Hayes as captain.
For some time this company belonged to the Fourth regiment but in the spring of 1862 it became Company A of the Tenth regiment. Nearly an entire company was raised in the county for the Eighth Kansas in- fantry, and was assigned as Company F of that regiment, with J. M. Hadley as second lieutenant. In the late summer of 1862, William Pellet of Olathe was commissioned to raise another company of infantry. As Company H of the Twelfth regiment it performed garrison duty at Forts Leavenworth, Riley and Larned. Also for the Twelfth regiment a company was raised in the vicinity of Gardner and Spring Hill, with John T. Gordon as captain. After the Lawrence massacre, the Fifteenth regiment of cavalry was raised. Johnson county furnished one entire company. This regiment distinguished itself in 1864, fighting Gen. Price's army on its notorious raid.
The county was organized in 1855 but there was not a full corps of officers until March, 1857, when Gov. Walker appointed the following: Commissioners, John P. Ector, John Evans and William Fisher, Jr .; probate judge, John B. Campbell; treasurer, John T. Barton; sheriff, Pat Cosgrove. In March, 1858, the first county election was held with the following results: Commissioners, John P. Ector, John J. Evans and William Fisher, Jr .; register of deeds, J. B. Blake ; clerk of the board of commissioners, James Rich; sheriff, Pat Cosgrove; county attorney, Jonathan Gore.
On Nov. 7, 1865, an election was held on the question of issuing $100,000 in bonds to the Kansas City & Neosho Valley railroad. The bonds were voted, the road was commenced in the summer of 1867, completed to Olathe on Nov. 19, and to the south line of the county in 1869. On April 6, 1869, another election was held on the question of issuing $100,000 in bonds as aid for each of two railroads-the St. Louis, Lawrence and Denver, and the Kansas City & Santa Fe. The bonds were voted. The Kansas City & Santa Fe was completed to Ottawa in 1870 and the St. Louis, Lawrence & Denver was built from Law- rence to Pleasant Hill in 1871. In 1910 a line from Holliday southwest through Olathe into Franklin county crossed the extreme northern part east and west along the Kansas river; a line of the St. Louis & San
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Francisco enters in the extreme northeast, crosses southwest to Olathe, thence south into Miami county; another line of the same road crosses from the eastern border to Olathe; the Missouri, Kansas & Texas operates its trains from Kansas City over the tracks of the St. Louis & San Francisco through the county, and a line of the Missouri Pacific crosses the southeastern corner. There are 93.75 miles of rail- road, main track, in the county.
At the organization of the county, the county seat was located where Shawnee now stands, which place was then called Gum Springs. Early in the summer of 1858 parties interested in the development of Olathe had an election held to change the county seat to that town. Under the territorial laws both elections had to be ordered by the governor, who had not heard of the desire to change the county seat, hence the election was illegal. Gov. Denver ordered it back to Gum Springs but in October of the same year at another election Olathe became the county seat.
The first school in Johnson county was the Shawnee mission school, I mile from the Missouri line and 7 miles south of Kansas City. Con- nected with the mission was a carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, shoe- . maker's shop, a steam grist mill and a saw mill. In 1834 the Friends established a mission on the Shawnee reservation. The few white chil- dren of the communities attended the Indian schools. The first schools for white children were established in 1857. The schools of Johnson county have developed into thoroughly equipped institutions of learn- ing. In 1907 there were 95 organized school districts and a school population of 5,428. The first churches for Johnson county were the mission meeting houses. Churches for white people were organized from 1859 to 1870. The first newspaper published was the Olathe Herald, the first issue of which appeared Aug. 29, 1859.
Johnson, Thomas, a Methodist minister and member of the first terri- torial legislature of Kansas, was born in the State of Virginia on July II, 1802. His parents were poor people and he was thrown on his own resources almost from boyhood. At a comparatively early age he went to Missouri, where he prepared himself for the Methodist ministry and filled a number of charges under the auspices of the Missouri conference. In 1829 he established the first mission school among the Shawnee Indians in what is now Johnson county, Kan., where he continued his labors for some ten or twelve years, when failing health caused him to resign. He then went to Cincinnati, Ohio, for medical treatment, after which he lived near Fayette, Mo., until his health was fully regained. In the fall of 1847 he again entered upon his work at the mission and remained there until after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. On March 30, 1855, he was elected a member of the territorial council from the First district. He was a pronounced pro-slavery man and is credited. with having brought the first negro slaves to Kansas. In 1858 he retired from mission work and bought a home about 2 miles from Westport, Mo. Notwithstanding his views on the slavery question, when the Civil
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war broke out he stood by the Union. This caused him to become a marked man by the guerrillas and bushwhackers, and on the night of Jan. 2, 1865, he was killed by a gang of armed men at his home, the bullet that ended his life passing through the door while he was in the act of fastening it to keep out the maurauders. In 1829, about the time he first came to Kansas, he married Miss Sarah T. Davis of Clarksville, Mo., who survived him for some time.
Johnston, William Agnew, chief justice of the Kansas supreme court, was born at Oxford, Ontario, Canada, July 24, 1848. Matthew John- ston, his father, was a Scotch-Irishman, the old home of the Johnston family being near Edinburgh, Scotland, and a brother of Matthew was a judge of the courts of that city. Judge Johnston's mother, whose maiden name was Jane Agnew, was a native of Belfast, Ireland. He was educated in the common schools until he was sixteen, when he came to the United States and studied in an Illinois academy. He then went to. Missouri and taught school for three years, studying law in the meantime as opportunity afforded. Mr. Johnston was admitted to the bar in 1872, and selected Minneapolis, Kan., as a location for the prac- tice of his profession. He entered actively into local politics, and in 1876 was elected to the upper branch of the state legislature. He was a member of the state senate in the sessions of 1877 and 1879. In 1880 he served as assistant United States district attorney and the same year was nominated for attorney-general of Kansas by the Republican party and elected. He was reelected in 1882 and two years later was appointed associate justice to fill the unexpired term of Judge Brewer. In 1888 he was elected associate justice ; was reëlected in 1894 and again in 1900 and on Jan. 10, 1903, became chief justice by seniority, which position he still holds. No one has ever contested an election with Judge John- ston since his first term, and in 1900 he was renominated by acclama- tion. Naturally possessed of a judicial mind, he has served with uprightness and honesty during the twenty-six years he has occupied a seat on the supreme bench.
Johnstown, a hamlet of McPherson county, is a station on the Salina & McPherson branch of the Union Pacific R. R. 8 miles north of McPherson, the county seat, and 6 miles south of Lindsborg, the nearest important town, from which Johnstown receives mail by rural delivery.
Jonah, a discontinued postoffice in Washington county, is 8 miles southeast of Washington, the county seat, and 5 miles from Greenleaf, the nearest shipping point and the postoffice from which its mail is distributed.
Jones, Amanda T., author, was born at East Bloomfield, N. Y., Oct. 19, 1835, a daughter of Henry and Mary A. (Mott) Jones. She gradu- ated in the normal course in the Aurora Academy, and from girlhood has been fond of good literature. She has contributed to some of the leading magazines of the country, including Steam Engineering, Scrib- ner's, the Century, the Youth's Companion and the Methodist Ladies' Repository, and to Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper. Her principal
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published works are Ulah, and Other Poems; A Prairie Idyl; Flowers and a Weed; Atlantis, and Other Poems, and in 1910 she published A Psychic Autobiography. In addition to her literary work, Miss Jones has invented a number of devices and processes relating to do- mestic economy and the home, the most noted of which was perhaps her vacuum preserving process, canning fruits and vegetables without cooking. She has served as president of the National Pure Food Pre- serving company, and although past her three score and ten years still takes an active interest in current affairs.
Jones, Samuel J., a notorious character during the early border troubles and the first sheriff of Douglas county, was a native of Vir- ginia. In the fall of 1854 he arrived at Westport Landing (now Kansas City, Mo.) on the steamboat F. X. Aubrey, accompanied by his wife and two young children. After making a trip through Kansas, he took charge of the postoffice at Westport, Mo. On March 30, 1855, he led the pro-slavery mob that destroyed the ballot box at Bloomington, and as a reward for his activity he was appointed sheriff of Douglas county, receiving his commission from acting Gov. Woodson on Aug. 27, 1855. He was also one of the contractors for the erection of the territorial capitol at Lecompton. As sheriff he arrested Jacob Branson in Nov., 1855, which started the "Wakarusa war." The following April he attempted to arrest Samuel N. Wood, and about that time was shot and wounded by some unknown person. This no doubt made him more bitter toward the free-state advocates, and on May 21, 1856, he led the so-called posse which practically destroyed the town of Lawrence. On Jan. 7, 1857, he resigned the office of sheriff because the governor would not furnish him with balls and chains for certain free-state prisoners. Subsequently he removed to New Mexico, where he was visited in the summer of 1879 by Col. William A. Phillips, who found him suffering from the effects of a stroke of paralysis that affected his speech. He died in New Mexico.
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Jonesburg, an inland hamlet of Chautauqua county, is located 8 miles southeast of Sedan, the county seat, and about 6 miles south of Peru, the nearest railroad station, whence it receives mail by rural route.
Judgments .- A judgment is the final determination of the rights of the parties in an action. It may be given for or against one or more of several plaintiffs, or for or against one or more of several defendants. It may determine the ultimate rights of the parties on either side, as between themselves, and it may grant to the defendant any affirmative relief to which he may be entitled. In an action against several defendants, the court may, in its discretion, render judgment against one or more of them, leaving the action to proceed against the others, when- ever a several judgment is proper. The court may also dismiss the petition with costs, in favor of one or more defendants in case of unreasonable neglect on the part of the plaintiff to serve the summons on other defendants, or proceed in the cause against the defendant or defendants served.
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In actions to enforce a mortgage, deed or trust, or other lien or charge, a personal judgment is rendered for the amount due, as well to the plaintiff as other parties to the action having liens upon the mort- gaged premises with interest thereon, and an order issued for the sale of the property and the application of the proceeds, or such application may be reserved for the further order of the court. The court taxes the costs and expenses which may accrue in the action, apportions the same among the parties according to their respective interests, to be collected on the execution of the order of sale. No real estate can be sold for the payment of any money, or the performance of any contract or agreement in writing, in security for which it may have been pledged or assigned, except in pursuance of a judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction ordering such sale. Any person indebted, or against whom a cause of action exists, may personally appear in a court of competent jurisdiction and, with the assent of the creditor or person having such cause of action, confess judgment therefor; whereupon judgment is entered accordingly.
All judgments and orders must be entered on the journal of the court, and specify clearly the relief granted or order made in the action. The clerk makes a complete record of every cause as soon as it is finally determined, whenever such record is ordered by the court. No judg- ment on which execution is not taken out and levied before the expira- tion of one year next after its rendition, operates as a lien on the estate of any debtor, to the prejudice of any other judgment creditor. Judgments are liens on the real estate of the debtor within the county in which the judgment is rendered. By an act approved March 5, 1873, · all "judgments and evidences of debt secured by mortgage upon real estate, as well as such mortgages," were made exempt from taxes and taxation, but the statute was repealed by an act approved Jan. 26, 1874. Foreign judgments may be sued on and judgments recovered on them in any of the district courts of the state.
Judicial Association .- On Jan. 10, 1876, the judges of the several judicial districts met at the Tefft House in Topeka for the purpose of organizing a state judicial association. The justices of the supreme court were invited to take part in the proceedings, and accepted the invitation. The principal objects of the association were to secure an impartial enforcement of the laws and to elevate the standard of the legal profession. To this end a rule was adopted that "All applicants for admission to the practice of law must produce satisfactory evidence of their statutory qualifications, and pass an examination in open court, which examination must be satisfactory to the court, and to a com- mittee of three practicing attorneys, appointed by the court to aid in such examination."
Owen A. Bassett was elected president of the permanent organiza- tion, and Samuel R. Peters, secretary. At the second meeting, which was held at the same place on Jan. 9, 1877, Samuel A. Kingman was elected president, Mr. Peters being reëlected to the office of secretary.
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The third and last meeting was held on Jan. 8, 1878, at the Tefft House. Papers were read by Judges A. G. Otis and A. S. Wilson. The records do not show why the association was discontinued.
Judiciary, State .- Under the constitution (Art. III, Sec. I) the judicial power of the state is vested "in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts, justices of the peace, and such other courts, inferior to the supreme court, as may be provided by law," and all judicial officers are elected by the people. The supreme court consists of seven judges; the judges of the district courts are elected for four years, in districts arranged by the legislature; there is a probate court in each county, with a judge whose term of office is two years, and who holds his court at such times and receives for his compensation such fees or salary as may be prescribed by law; there is a clerk for the district court in each county; "two justices of the peace shall be elected in each township, whose term of office shall be two years, and whose powers and duties shall be prescribed by law," and the number in each township may be increased by law. There is an attorney-general of the state and district attorneys.
The constitution divided the state into five districts, to be increased in number by the legislature as necessary, and the district judges chosen at the first election were: William C. McDowell, A. L. Lee, Jacob Safford, Solon O. Thatcher and O. E. Learnard. The judges of the district courts in 1910 were as follows: First district, William Dill, Leavenworth; Second, William A. Jackson, Atchison; Third, Alston W. Dana, Topeka; Fourth, Charles A. Smart, Ottawa; Fifth, Frederick A. Meckel, Cottonwood Falls; Sixth, John C. Cannon, Mound City ; Seventh, James W. Finley, Chanute; Eighth, Roswell L. King, Marion ; Ninth, Charles E. Branine, Newton; Tenth, Jabez O. Rankin, Paola ; Eleventh, Corb A. McNeill, Columbus; Twelfth, William T. Dillon, Belleville; Thirteenth, Granville P. Aikman, El Dorado; Fourteenth, Thomas J. Flannelly, Independence; Fifteenth, Richard M. Pickler, Smith Center; Sixteenth, Elmer C. Clark, Oswego; Seventeenth, Wil- liam H. Pratt, Philipsburg; Eighteenth, Thomas C. Wilson, Wichita; Nineteenth, Carroll L. Swarts, Winfield; Twentieth, Jermain W. Brinckerhoff, Lyons; Twenty-first, Sam Kimble, Manhattan; Twenty- second, William I. Stuart, Troy; Twenty-third, Jacob C. Ruppenthal, Russell; Twenty-fourth, Preston B. Gillett, Kingman; Twenty-ninth, Edward L. Fischer and Lewis C. True, Kansas City; Thirtieth, Rollin R. Rees, Minneapolis; Thirty-first, Gordon L. Finley, Dodge City ; Thirty-second, William H. Thompson, Garden City; Thirty-third, Charles E. Lobdell, Larned; Thirty-fourth, Charles W. Smith, Stock- ton; Thirty-fifth, Robert C. Heizer, Osage City; Thirty-sixth, Oscar Raines, Oskaloosa; Thirty-seventh, Oscar Foust, Iola; Thirty-eighth, Arthur Fuller, Pittsburg.
In addition to these district courts, Wyandotte county has a court of common pleas, the judge of whom in 1910 was Hugh J. Smith, of Argentine. The jurisdiction, powers and duties of justices of the peace
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are such as are prescribed by law. In civil cases it is coextensive within the county where they reside. A justice of the peace may render judg- ment for any balance found due in a matter of controversy, not ex- ceeding $300, and in actions founded upon an undertaking in any civil proceeding he has jurisdiction when the sum due or demanded does not exceed $500, and in actions for trespass upon real estate, when damages demanded do not exceed $100.
The legislature of 1895 passed a law creating a court of appeals, con- sisting of six judges and divided into northern and southern divisions. This court remained in existence until the second Monday in Jan., 1901. when it expired by reason of the limitation contained in the act creat- ing it, and all cases then pending and undetermined therein were certi- fied to the supreme court.
Judiciary, Territorial .- Under the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the funda- mental act of the organization of Kansas Territory, the president appointed three judges to constitute the highest court of the territory. The first judges appointed by President Franklin Pierce were: Samuel D. Lecompte of Maryland, chief justice ; Saunders W. Johnston of Ohio, and Rush Elmore of Alabama, associate justices. About Jan. 1, 1855, the territory was divided into three judicial districts and a justice was assigned to each. Lecompte had jurisdiction over the northeastern portion, Elmore the southeastern, and Johnston the remaining portion of the territory. In the meantime justices of the peace had been appointed in various localities, before whom differences could be adjusted, criminals arraigned and bound over to the higher court. The act of organization provided that the judicial power of the territory should be vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts, and in justices of the peace, the jurisdiction of each court, both appel- late and original, to be as limited by law, the supreme and district courts possessing chancery as well as common law jurisdiction.
The first legislature of the territory, in session at the Shawnee Mis- sion, greatly facilitated the work of enacting laws for Kansas by adopt- ing transcripts of the Missouri code. Says Holloway, in his "History of Kansas" (p. 165): "With the exception of some oppressive laws of their own manufacture they enacted the best code of laws the territory or state ever enjoyed."
One of the most remarkable features about these legislative enact- ments was that all officers in the territory-legislative, executive and judicial-were to be appointed by the legislature, or by some officer that had been appointed by it, and these appointments were to continue until after the general election in Oct., 1857. Thus the people could have no control over the legislative, executive or judicial affairs of the territory until by the natural progress of population the government thus inaugurated should be superseded by that of a state government. Being solicitous about the legality of their proceedings, they were referred to the supreme court, and in a lengthy document a majority of the judges sustained the legislature in its course of action and highly
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.complimented the talents and character of its members. One of the- judges, S. W. Johnston, refused to have anything to do with the matter. During the tumult and excitement of the ensuing years the judiciary of the territory was of secondary importance, and their tribunals proved. to be anything but "havens of refuge" while the partisan storm was raging. The district court for the second district was organized at Tecumseh, with Rush Elmore as judge, on April 30, 1855, and the third judicial district was organized at Pawnee on July 2 of the same year, with Saunders W. Johnston presiding. On July 30, 1855, the first ses- sion of the supreme court was held at the Shawnee Manual Labor School, in Johnson county, with all three of the territorial judges. present.
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