County Seat Elections

Old Settler’s Corner 

by A.G. Patrick, the Oskaloosa Times, Fri., June 13, 1902

In the early elections of the county we failed to mention our county seat contests, of which we have had five, and all exciting, and fought bitterly to the finish.

First cabin at Osawkee

Ozawkie* was the first county seat, being located by act of the first territorial legislature, and the officers all appointed by the governor. During the land sales of the summer of 1857 Ozawkie was the liveliest town in the county and many buildings were put up, including a large two story hotel, besides a number of business houses and private residences. It was the oldest town in the county, and being the county seat, the town grew rapidly, and town lots went at a round figure, many being sold at auction at the time of the land sales.

The first free state territorial legislature in the winter of 1858, enacted a law giving the voters of Jefferson county an opportunity to vote on the county seat question. The bill was framed in the interest of Valley Falls under the impression she could cast a larger vote for herself than any town in the county, and if so, would become the seat of justice. The election came off sometime in the spring of 1858. The county commissioners at Ozawkie made no record of the event, and we give the result only from memory. There were five competing points, and the following is the vote of each precinct: Oskaloosa, 177; Grasshopper [Valley] Falls, 173; Ozawkie, 94; Hickory Point, 50; Fairfield, 10. Grasshopper Falls was over confident of winning and failed to make a proper effort. Seven or eight of her citizens did not vote, whereas Oskaloosa made a desperate fight, and spent some money, winning by a close shave of 4 votes. But that was enough, and the citizens fairly run wild, and when it come to a removal from Ozawkie to Oskaloosa, “Uncle” Jesse Newell was on hand with a cart and two yoke of oxen, to render service in hauling the county seat over, and actually had Joe Speer and Judge J.W. Day as passengers, and the three made the welcome ring, “Uncle” Jess forcibly shouting out his favorite “world’s without end!”

Grasshopper Falls

The writer of these lines was a member of the territorial council, and as many were not satisfied with the result, a petition was gotten up for a new vote, so the next winter, that of 1859, we opened up the county seat question anew, but this time requiring a majority of all the votes cast to elect, and in the event [of] no place receiving a majority of all the votes, a second election to be held one month thereafter, confining the vote to the two places having the largest vote. This election came off early in the spring of 1859. There was no choice at the first election, and the conflict was now between Grasshopper Falls and Oskaloosa. Each town had money to spend, and emissaries with plenty of the needful were sent to every precinct in the county. The writer of this and John Beland, in the interest of the Falls, were at Rising Sun, opposite Lecompton, and with the assistance of Louis Lutt and his partner, we got 40 odd votes. “Uncle Billie” Meredith and Henry Owens was there to combat us, and whisky was free on either side, and by the time we left in order to go home and vote, we thought everyone had as much as their hides could hold. Joe Cody and Bob Shanklin represented the Falls at Kaw City, and they had a little wagon loaded with tobacco and whisky, and came home empty. Phillip Allen was sent to Oskaloosa to watch how things were carried on, and just got home in time enough to vote, but as full as a tick, and we could get nothing out of him, but he persisted in singing a song about a Frenchman on his road from Paris to Paradise, who promised to take a black mare to some woman’s first husband way up in the skies, but the woman’s second husband soon got after him and meeting a boy, made inquiry. But the little fellow was bribed to tell the Frenchman and the mare went right straight up into the air and claiming he could see him yet cantering in the clouds. The Frenchman’s song was made applicable to our case at the Falls, and we could deeply sympathize with the second husband in the loss of the black mare, for we had not only lost the county seat but four hundred dollars in borrowed money.

Phillip Allen and the boys put in a full night of it, singing about the old black mare cantering through the air, occasionally throwing in the old bacchanalian rhyme:

He who goes to bed sober

Dies like the leaves in October,

But he who goes to bed mellow

Lives a long, jolly life,

And dies an honest fellow.

Oskaloosa won the county seat by 40 votes.

Courthouse, Oskaloosa, Kansas, 1868-1960

We had two elections after this. The legislature of 1864 authorized another vote, the provisions of the bill being the same as the last, to hold the county seat required a majority of all the votes. No point had a majority at the first election, but at the second it stood again between the Falls and Oskaloosa, the latter receiving 579 votes to 335 for the Falls.

*Ozawkie was the first county seat in Kansas Territorial days. After several elections, the vote placed the county seat at Oskaloosa. The records were removed by force from “Osawkee.” That formed a story line for a ’50s movie, “The Second Greatest Sex,” starring Jeanne Crain. ("The Second Greatest Sex" is also available on YouTube.) Parts of it were filmed in the old town of Ozawkie.

This story appeared in “Yesteryears” in April 1988.

Lesson from History

Pandemic, 1918

The 1918 pandemic “Spanish” influenza originated in Kansas. In March 1918, the first cases were reported at Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas. By fall 1918, the virus had mutated and returned to Kansas. In early October, Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine, secretary of the Kansas State Board of Health, advised the governor to issue a proclamation closing schools, churches, theaters, dances and public meetings, and limiting the number of people allowed in stores at one time. 

Emergency influenza hospital at Camp Funston, 1918

The closing order was originally scheduled to last until mid-October, but in many places it was extended until the middle of November. Schools posted homework assignments in post offices and published them in local papers. Ministers published their Sunday sermons in newspapers instead of delivering them from the pulpit. The ban disrupted elections on Nov. 4, 1918. 

When the state ban was lifted, some areas decided to lift local bans. Almost at once, the number of influenza cases began to rise, especially in rural areas. In states where no closings occurred, infection rates were higher than in Kansas. 

Dr. Crumbine was known as a pioneer of public health, sponsoring campaigns to “swat the fly,” to ban public drinking cups and roller towels, and to convince brick makers to imprint his anti-tuberculosis slogan on their bricks: “Don’t spit on the sidewalk.” 

Sources:

Johnson, Judith R., “Kansas in the Grippe,” Kansas History, Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring 1992

Kansas Historical Society, Kansapedia

(Research for an article for the April 2020 issue of “Yesteryears”)

Street Lights: Coal Oil to Electricity

The Old Lamp Lighter

From the Oskaloosa Independent, Mar. 29, 1962

Electric lights came to Oskaloosa in 1902 through formation of a local group headed by Jay S. Buck. Prior to that time the only street lighting was a number of oil lamps supported on wooden posts placed around the square. The death last month of Tom Shaw of Topeka recalls to some of us older citizens the fact that Tom’s father, who was also “Tom Shaw,” was the city lamp lighter at the turn of the century. He carried fuel (coal oil), extra globes, cleaning and trimming supplies in a small cart, together with a short ladder upon which he climbed, in late afternoons, to the posts to light the lamps . . .

Electric Lights Planned for Oskaloosa, 1899

From the Oskaloosa Times, Jan. 20, 1899

Mr. Parker, representing the Oskaloosa Light, Power, Heat and Telephone Co., who has been in town for some time, informs us that he is in a fair way to make a success of the enterprise. The company wants him to secure the guarantee of 420 16-candle power incandescent lights before it starts to put in the plant. At present there are about that many promised, but not more than 25 per cent are guaranteed. Mr. Parker assures us that his company has plenty of cash to carry the enterprise to a successful finish, provided the citizens will take the lights. An electric plant would be an excellent thing for our town, as well as for the users of light, and there is no reason why the town should not put in quite a number of street lights.

Jay Buck’s Electric Light Machine, 1902

From the Oskaloosa Times, Aug. 22, 1902

Jay Buck’s electric light machine is doing very good work. He lighted the park Tuesday night for the Methodist ladies who gave an ice cream social there. It was not a fair test, however, because of the fact of the lack of the right kind of wire. Mr. Buck was unable to turn on the full volt power. Jay is receiving much encouragement from the people of Oskaloosa and he says the plant is a sure go. He has received orders for 200 lights with fair prospects of getting 300. The city will take forty 32-candle power lights to be placed where the street lamps are now. Jay also had an electric fan in operation at McCreight’s drugstore this week and it worked to perfection. Saturday night he will try his luck with a 1,000 candle-power arc light. He will place it on the corner of the square.

These stories appeared in “Yesteryears” in October 1981, October 2007, and April 1988.

History of Winchester

(Its 150^th year in 2007) 

Raymond Riley

In Memory of Raymond Riley (1932-2020)

From the Winchester Star, Dec. 29, 1950

The following article was sent to us by Mrs. Cora Charles, Berkeley, Calif., which she had received from the Kansas State Historical Soc. She wonders why not a centennial celebration in 1957? This is the only town in Jefferson Township, and is situated on the line of the Kansas Central Railroad. It is one of the oldest towns of the county, pleasantly located and is a thriving business point, with a population numbering about six hundred. Scattered over a large area, with large residence and business lots, ornamented with shade and fruit trees, and with a staid and moral population this is one of the neatest, quietest and most attractive villages of the county.

The history of the town begins with the date of June 19, 1854, when William M. Gardiner made a land claim there. He drove his stake near the present Winchester Hotel, then returned East. He returned with his family in March 1855, and built a cabin on his claim on Walnut Creek. He, on his prairie claim fenced a one-quarter section of land, about where the Academy addition to the town now is, and planted a few acres of corn, of which he received an abundant crop yield. After the government land survey he sold his claim to Joseph Best, who continued opening out the claim. He soon built a cabin, and not long after another was built and they were joined together and occupied as a hotel. It will be remembered that the location was on the line of the old military freight road. For this reason the hotel did a thriving business. Best’s first cabin was built of rough logs, and except for a few nails, it cost nothing but his own labor.

Central Hotel (Forsyth)

Though quite a large settlement has been formed in the vicinity, no move was made to lay off a town until early in the year 1857. About this time the project was taken under serious consideration. There was a question as to where the site should be located. The place first chosen was at the big spring, about one and one half miles further west, and it was to be named Savannah. But Alvin Best, who had formerly lived at Winchester, Va., chose the present location, and gave it the name of Winchester. He being the oldest man in the settlement, his wishes were cheerfully acceded to by the others.

A town site was at once surveyed, which was the northeast quarter of Section 26, Town 8, Range 19 east. Since that time several additions have been made to the original town. They are, Trower’s, Dodd’s, Marlett’s, Academy and Hinchman’s. As soon as the town was laid out, William Reboe located there, built a small frame building not far from what is now known as the “Old Stone Store,” and opened a store with a stock of dry goods and groceries.

During the summer of 1857, Reboe built the “Stone Store,” which is a small building, still standing, near the Winchester Hotel. For several years this was the big store of the village, though it changed owners several times. About the time the town was surveyed, Best sold his claim to Jess Yokum, and built a frame building a short distance east of where the hotel now is.

In 1857, Joseph Head opened a grocery and whisky shop, near the same store. He soon sold out and built a larger house. After a few months he sold to William M. Gardiner, who continued the grocery business until 1858, when he sold to D.H. Wright, who died the following year.

3rd Street, looking north

The village increased in population and business but slowly until the advent of the Kansas Central Railroad, in 1872. But during that and the succeeding year it grew rapidly, since which time it has grown steadily but slowly until the present time. It is a quiet and home-like village, with little transpiring out of the usual order of events. The first physician who located there was Dr. A.R. Cantwell in 1858; first child, Ella Simmons (daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alpha Simmons) born June 19, 1855; first minister to the gospel, Stephens Stiers; first school teacher, D.H. Wright; Christian Church, 1869, Jefferson Lodge No. 84, A.F.&A.M organized in 1869; The Winchester Argus was established in 1877 by Thomas W. Gardiner.

Other churches established here in the early days were the Methodist in 1863 and the Reformed Presbyterian in 1868.

Reformed Presbyterian Church (Forsyth)

By Prof. Blackman:

From the Statutes of the Territory of Kansas, 1855, Chapter 30, Sec. 29.

That the county of Jefferson shall be bounded as follows: Beginning at the north-west corner of the county of Leavenworth; thence west to the south-west corner of Atchison county, thence north to the south-east corner of Browne county; thence west along the said county of Browne, opposite a point twenty-two (22) miles west from the western boundary line of the county of Leavenworth; thence south to the main channel of the Kaw or Kansas river; thence down said channel to the south-west corner of the county of Leavenworth; thence north to the place of beginning.

This story appeared in “Yesteryears” in October 2007.

Motorcar Regulations

Regulating Speed and Operation of Automobiles

From the Oskaloosa Independent, May 6, 1910

The Legislature of 1903 passed a law regulating the speed, operation and equipment of automobiles, but the law is not generally observed. Some persons drive their cars as suits their pleasure or convenience, with little regard for the rights of others. The greatest danger from reckless driving is to small children who wander out into the streets, and are unable to appreciate the danger.

The law provides that every automobile shall be equipped with bell or horn and lights, and that these lights burn from one hour after sunset until one hour before sunrise. No automobile shall be run at a speed exceeding 20 miles per hour outside the limits of the thickly settled or business part of any city or town, and not exceeding 10 miles per hour within the thickly settled or business part of any city or town. In meeting or passing teams, if they should appear frightened, the driver shall reduce the speed, and if signaled by the driver of the team, proceed no farther, but remain stationary as long as necessary to allow the team to pass. Upon approaching crossings the driver of the automobile shall run at a rate of speed less than that specified and not greater than is reasonable, having regard to the traffic and use of the intersecting ways.

Cities have power to regulate and control speed and use of automobiles by ordinance.

Persons violating this law shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not exceeding $100.

This story appeared in “Yesteryears” in April 1983.

Signal Code

From the Nortonville News, September 10, 1915

A “sane signal code” has been adopted by a number of automobile clubs in the East and already the attention of Kansas motorists has been directed toward it. The code, motorists believe, will revolutionize traffic. The code provides one blast of a motor horn or signal by the motorists for “straight ahead,” two for a stop, three for a turn to the right and four for a turn to the left. The plan is designated to become general thru-out the country so motorists away from home may not be annoyed by unfamiliar traffic signals and regulations. All police, pedestrians and motorists would then understand the simple code.

This story appeared in “Yesteryears” in October 2007.

Probate Court Item

From the Valley Falls New Era, June 15, 1916 (copied by Jeff Laird)

City Marshall Sturgeon of Oskaloosa, made quite an array of arrests last Monday evening. All told five parties, including one young lady, were arrested for running their cars without tail lights. Tuesday morning they appeared before police judge Leach, assessed a fine of $1 each, with no costs. This being their first offense he was somewhat lenient with them. The people are beginning to realize that Mr. Sturgeon means to enforce the city ordinance governing the running of cars within the city limits and those who have been of a different opinion had better change their minds mighty quick.

This story appeared in “Yesteryears” in October