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.

Elizabeth Slade Knew Our Old Courthouse as a Place of Many Community Gatherings

By John Wilkins Roberts

From the Oskaloosa Independent, August 25, 1960

Elizabeth B. Slade brought to the Old Settlers reunion a well-organized account of her recollections of social events which were held in the courthouse during the ’seventies and ’eighties before Oskaloosa could boast another gathering place of equal size. Within two months of her 92^nd birthday Mrs. Slade retains in a remarkable degree her exceptional ability to speak from a public platform.

At a shady spot in the park Saturday, Aug. 13, she addressed an audience of fewer than a dozen persons with stories of the courthouse when it was new.

Jefferson County courthouse, 1870s.

Banquets were held in the long corridor of the first floor, the banqueters being served from adjoining offices. Upper floor was all one big room, it was provided with a stage and there were held political conventions, public addresses of many kinds, dramatic performances, costume parties, public dances. This last-named item had to be discontinued when it was found the building would be damaged.

Related in detail was Mrs. Slade’s recollection of the dramatized version of “Ten Nights in a Barroom” in which she played the part of “Little Angel” when she was about eight years of age. So successful was this tear-jerking drammer that it had to be repeated to satisfy public demand.

Mrs. Slade was fourth child and elder daughter of William and Martha Chandler Blevins. He was born in Ireland; at Ft. Leavenworth in 1854 became master of a wagon train whose crew went to build Fort Riley; later was with troops sent to quell a Mormon uprising; became a trail scout whose function was to “direct traffic” of the wagon trains across the prairie-Indian country. At Plum Grove he made his headquarters with J.H.C. Hopewell, a settler of 1854; met the daughter of a Hickory Point neighbor, Richard Chandler. At the Osawkee sales of Delaware lands in 1857, Blevins bought the acreage adjoining the new town of Oskaloosa which was to become the Blevins family home. That home, often remodeled and beautified, yet stands. A portion of the original house built on this Blevins estate yet remains in 1960, particularly the small window frames of the old kitchen. Here William and Martha went to housekeeping in 1860. Came William N., James, C and John M., then Elizabeth and Sara Esther (Hannsen).

Oskaloosa Grade School, District No., 29, 1922-23, First- and Second Grades

Teacher: Mrs. Elizabeth Blevins Slade

Girls: Violet Thompson, Leona Grant, Martha Brown, Helen May, Juanita Duffield, Doris Ratliff, Louis Shaw, Agnes Guest, Sylviamae Rice, Pauline Laster, _____ _____, Marie Stevens, Mrs. Slade with hands on Mabel Brown and Alice Daniels, Ida English, Leopa Gaines, Emma Lou Todd, Clasteen Holland, Roxie Lee Nichols

Boys kneeling: John Rice, Robert Barr, Roger Simon, Frankie Daniels

Boys seated: James Brown, Marvin Icks, Joe Godwin, Blair Howard, Lewis Metzger, Funston Inverarity, Richard Sutton, William Leech, Philip Inverarity, Harlan Brown, Jim Cotton, Edward Bell, Ben English

Elizabeth tells this of her own schooling: A year or two at the school on Herkimer street, then at the township school and the Marvin College preparatory department (on Madison west of Liberty), a year in Julius Cook’s upper class at the frame schoolhouse (north of Leavenworth and east of Union), thence to Sisters of Bethany, the Episcopalian college at Topeka, where she graduated. In California, seeking employment after the tragic death of her husband by drowning, Elizabeth Slade secured a California certificate, taught at Santa Maria. Returning to Jefferson County she began that long term of teaching in Oskaloosa public school which lasted more than 30 years and during which she started on their academic way scores and scores of children who yet remember her with deep affection.

But beside Elizabeth’s class room work she had the imagination, the energy and willingness to work to do many kinds of creative undertakings. These paragraphs will mention only her relation to Old Settlers reunions.

The Jefferson County courthouse was destroyed in a tornado, May 19, 1960.

The Old Settlers reunions began with the first year of the century, August 1901, and have continued with only two interruptions due to stringencies of the war years, so that the reunion just completed [in 1960] was the 58^th in series.

Old Settlers' parade, circa 1900.

In 1904, the “Old Settlers Central Union” was organized with an established membership, fees and dues; a leather-bound volume having 360 pages 12 x 18 in size was printed with suitable form for record of visitors. First entries following “Constitution and By-laws” are names of 156 registrants at the “4^th Annual” old settlers, Aug. 1904. First name in the list is that of James C. Blevins. Elizabeth was not old enough to “belong” (at the outset forty years was the minimum) but it is likely she was there, helping with one of the elaborate parades of those early years which involved nearly the entire community, both old and young. For many years thereafter, Elizabeth did creative work, both in the parades and the platform programs, usually by way of presenting groups of school pupils in some unique manner.

From the Oskaloosa Independent, May 26, 1960

This bound record of old settler visitors has been kept in the vault of clerk of district court. When that vault was cleared on permanent records after the tornado [May 1960], Mrs. Myrtle Kimmel “rescued” the old settler record and it is yet in her possession in her temporary office at the Ratliff building. Since the 40^th reunion, registration has been made on 5 x 8 cards, which are kept a the Independent office.

This story appeared in “Yesteryears” in October 1986.