The Political History of Montgomery County

This extended text chronicles the intricate and often turbulent political history of Montgomery County, Kansas, from its organization in 1869 through the turn of the 20th century. It highlights the early conflicts over county seat location, the emergence of prominent political figures, and the frequent shifts in power between the Republican party and various opposition movements, including Democrats, Greenbackers, Populists, and fusion tickets. The narrative details numerous elections, contentious political battles, and the impact of state and national issues on local politics, also noting the financial sacrifices made by many involved in public service.

By H. W. Young

All human actions are subject to the limitations of time and space. Subject only to those limitations, Kansas stands unrivaled in her political development. For her area and the time she has been doing business as a commonwealth, she doesn’t take a back seat for any state or any people. That her citizens have taken more interest in public affairs and studied matters of government more than those of other states and sections is not to their discredit. It testifies to their intelligence, their public spirit, and their mental activity. If “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” our people will be the last on earth to be reduced to slavery. In a market where that sort of coin is current, they will be able to outbid all competitors.

Although Kansas was eight years old when the bars were let down and the Osage Diminished Reserve, of which Montgomery county forms a part, was opened to white settlement, her citizens have been hustling ever since to make up for that lost time; and no one would now accuse the Montgomery county politicians of lagging in the rear of the procession, or failing to furnish their share of representatives at the pie counter. Of men who have been for a longer or shorter time residents of this county, two have been United States Senators, one has been governor of the state, two have held the office of lieutenant governor, one has been assistant secretary of the interior, and two have been judges of the district court. While no citizen of the county is on record as having been a representative in Congress, or head of a department at the state capital, there are certainly few counties which have struck more of the high places in the political world than our own. And when it comes to the honorable position of representative in Congress, it will be entirely safe to assert that no other county which has never seen one of her sons answering the roll call at the south end of the national capital, has ever had more who indicated that they wanted to.

Early Organization and the County Seat War

In passing, it may be noted that of the Congressmen elected from within the boundaries of the present Third Congressional District, Cowley county has had two, Wilson two, Crawford two, Labette one; and none of the other five has been favored—so that Montgomery does not stand alone in being “whitewashed.”

The first political question that confronted the voters of Montgomery county was the same that has always proved such a bone of contention in every new state and section—the location of a county seat. National political issues were for the time allowed to fall into the background, while cities were being located on paper, and every settler was interested either to have the county’s capital as near his claim as possible, or at least to keep it on the same side of the Verdigris river, which bisects the county from north to south and which was, of course, much more of a barrier before any bridges had been built than it is now.

Montgomery county was organized by proclamation of Governor Harvey on the 3d day of June, 1869. It was named for General Richard Montgomery, the hero of the battle of Quebec, who shed his heart’s blood for his country on the Heights of Abraham. There has been some question whether the person intended to be honored when the county was christened was not Colonel James Montgomery, of Linn county, rather than the “French and Indian” warrior. In the Independence Kansan of July 7th, 1876, is published a very strong argument to show that it was the Civil War soldier for whom the county was named, but an examination of the proceedings of the legislature at the time leaves no room for doubt on the question; the concurrent resolution stating distinctly and unequivocally that General Richard Montgomery gave name to Montgomery county.

In his proclamation Governor Harvey appointed H. C. Crawford, H. A. Bethuran and R. L. Walker special commissioners, and E. C. Kimball special clerk, and designated Verdigris City as the temporary county seat. Verdigris City was located east of the Verdigris river, about one mile southeast of what is now known as “Brown’s Ford,” and on the west half of the northeast quarter of section 22, township 33 south, range 16 east. The land on which the town was laid out is now a part of the farm of Senator H. W. Conrad. Walker has since been prominent in state politics, and died early in 1903.

On the 11th of June 1869, the board met at the county seat and qualified before Capt. W. S. McFeeters, notary public. The Captain was perhaps the first notary commissioned in the county. He was a lawyer by profession, and was the first to locate at the county seat, having his office in the log court house. Not relying alone on the slow and precarious rewards of the legal profession in a new country, he was the following winter convicted of horse stealing at Girard, Kansas, and sentenced to a term in the penitentiary.

The board organized by the election of H. C. Crawford as chairman. It divided the county into three townships, each about nine miles in width, extending across the county east and west. Beginning at the north they were named Drum Creek, Verdigris and Westralia, with voting places at Fitch’s Store, Verdigris City and Westralia. At a meeting on August 27th, Captain Daniel McTaggart was appointed county treasurer, E. K. Kountz, probate judge; and S. D. Moorehouse, justice of the peace.

From this time until the date of the election, on November 5th, little was talked of except the county seat question. Verdigris City, the provisional capital, had a rival on the east side in Montgomery City, near the mouth of Drum creek, but as a division of the east side forces would be ruinous, they met midway on the hill above McTaggart’s mill, and located the city of Liberty, across the street to the east of the McTaggart homestead. The west siders were a unit for Independence, though someone tried to butt into the game with a city in the air called Samaria, which was supposed to be located somewhere in the neighborhood of Walker’s mound.

The story of how the Independence people started out to steal a march on the Liberty partisans and get control of the election board at Verdigris City, has been often told. Notwithstanding their daylight start, they were discovered just after crossing the river and only succeeded in getting Adam Camp on as a matter of courtesy. He did his whole duty, though, challenging all voters from the east side of the county.

When the commissioners came to count the votes they did the only possible thing that would give Liberty a majority, by throwing out the entire vote of Drum Creek, on the pretext that the returns were not the originals but a certified copy. This gave Liberty 162 votes to 103 for Independence. At the same time the whole east side ticket for county officers was elected as follows: Representative, John E. Adams; County Clerk, T. M. Noble; Sheriff, Daniel Bruner; Probate Judge, E. K. Kountz; Coroner, Sidney Allen; Register of Deeds, Gusso Chouteau, a half-breed Indian; County Surveyor, Edwin Foster; District Clerk, Z. R. Overman; County Attorney, Goodell Foster; Superintendent of Schools, J. A. Helphingstine; Treasurer, J. A. Jones; Assessor, W. N. Cotton; Commissioners, T. J. McWhinney, J. S. Garrett and W. Allen.

Thirteen of the defeated candidates on the west side ticket at once instituted a contest in the probate court of Wilson county. C. M. Ralstin, of Independence, the defeated candidate for county attorney, and F. A. Bettis, of Oswego, representing the contestors. Goodell Foster and John A. Helphingstine, of Liberty, appeared for the contestees. The prize of the seat of government of the new county hung in the balance, and so strenuous was the contest that L. T. Stephenson, of Independence, carried the Oswego attorney, Bettis, on horseback sixty-five miles to Fredonia, arriving in a driving snow storm at 3 A. M., on the day set for the trial, December 23rd.

The decision was that there had been no legal election—and so everybody was defeated. The old board of commissioners appointed by the governor held over and moved the log court house and the county clerk’s office from Verdigris City to Liberty. They also called a special election for the 3rd of May to select county officers. Full tickets were placed in the field, and the historians of the early times tell us that the canvass was the most exciting ever held in the county. The candidates who were successful in this election never held office by virtue of the votes they received, though two of the commissioners and the county clerk got in by appointment. The vote for commissioner was as follows: T. J. McWhinney, 429; Thomas Brock, 350; W. W. Graham, 354; Thomas Hanson, 276; John Klappel, 262; S. B. Moorehouse, 247. The first three comprised the Independence ticket and the last three the Liberty ticket. J. M. Scudder got 409 votes for probate judge, to 266 for L. O. Judson. J. A. Helphingstine, in the language of the day “ran like a scared wolf” for county clerk, receiving 490 votes to 181 for E. C. Kimball, the incumbent. A. J. Busby had it unanimously for treasurer with 670 votes. A. A. Hillis had 461 for clerk of the district court, to 209 for J. K. Snyder. C. H. Wycoff for county attorney had no opposition and received 665 votes. The same was true of J. C. Price with 650 for coroner, and John Russel with 665 for register of deeds. Edwin Foster got 448 for county surveyor to 224 for J. L. Scott. E. D. Grabill beat A. H. McCormick for superintendent of schools, 396 to 280.

A few days before this election the Independence party had sent Charles White to Topeka with a certified copy of the record in the contest case before the Wilson county probate court. He returned on the evening of election day with the appointments of a new set of commissioners by the governor, which also rendered the last election ineffective. Two of the successful candidates and one of the minority party had been appointed, the new board, which was the fourth in chronological order, but the second to serve, consisting of W. W. Graham, Thomas Brock and S. B. Moorehouse. Charles White and L. T. Stephenson lost no time in carting this board down to the site of Verdigris City, which really seems to have been entirely deserted, where, sitting in a wagon on May 5th, 1870, it was organized by the election of Mr. Graham as chairman. The board then appointed John A. Helphingstine county clerk, Samuel Van Gundy, county treasurer; B. R. Cunningham, superintendent of schools; and J. K. Snyder, register of deeds. Not only this, but they made thorough work of it while they had their hands in by naming the Independence Pioneer as the official county paper, and ordering the district court which was to convene on May 9th, to meet at Independence, to which place the county offices were also temporarily transferred, there being no accommodation for them at Verdigris City. On the 13th of May an action brought in the district court to compel the removal of the county offices to Liberty was dismissed at plaintiff’s cost. This practically settled the county seat war, though it was not until the following November that the matter was formally ratified by a vote which stood 839 for Independence to 560 for Liberty.

Establishment of Townships and Early Governance

On petition, the commissioners, on June 4th, 1870, divided the county into nine townships making the boundaries about as they are today, except that the three east side townships were, later, each split into two. The names of the townships, the voting places and the first trustees, who were appointed at the same time are here given:

The trustees for Cherry, Verdigris and Caney never qualified and W. P. Brewer, J. Nelson Harris and John West were appointed to fill the vacancies.

Elections came thick and fast in those early days, and on June 21st, of the same year the question whether to issue $200,000 to aid in the construction of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston railroad was submitted to a vote, which resulted according to the returns, 1,340 for and 826 against the proposition. On the 24th the vote was canvassed and the bonds issued. That the vote was fraudulent, and that the bonds ought never to have been issued was subsequently demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt, but after a long legal contest and the payment of some $30,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses, a compromise was finally made with the “innocent purchasers” of these bonds at about 65 cents on the dollar, and we are still paying this debt.

At the election held in November 1870, W. W. Graham, H. D. Grant and John McDonald were chosen commissioners. Seth M. Beardsley, clerk; Frank Willis, county attorney; Charles White, sheriff; Samuel Van Gundy, treasurer; W. H. Watkins, probate judge; L. T. Stephenson, district clerk; W. S. Mills, register of deeds; Nathan Bass, superintendent of schools; and M. L. Ashmore, coroner. Thos. L. Bond and W. A. Allison were elected representatives.

The commissioners got in a wrangle with Willis and employed E. W. Fay, an attorney located in Peru, in Howard county, to attend to all the county business. They also came to a disagreement with Stephenson, the district clerk, and on his refusal to furnish the additional bond they required, they declared his office vacant. Not to be outdone in that sort of business, Stephenson issued his proclamation, which he published in the official county paper over the seal of the court, declaring the commissioners’ offices vacant. Stephenson was a man of tall and commanding appearance, and prominent in public affairs for many years. He at one time owned a large tract of land adjoining and near Independence on the southeast, but his speculations did not always “pan out,” and in the early nineties he was convicted of cattle stealing in the district court and sentenced to a term in the penitentiary. There was always some doubt as to his guilt, however, and when his application for pardon was pending, he appeared before Governor Morrill and the Board of Pardons and made a convincing argument in his own behalf, they meanwhile supposing him to be an attorney for the convict, and having no suspicion that he was arguing his own case.

Post-County Seat War Politics (1870s)

The year 1871 found the people of Montgomery county in the full tide of prosperity, due to the rush of settlers and the rapid appreciation of land values, and the county having gotten over the teething stage of its county seat fight, settled down to a contest for the offices on straight political lines. The results of the election, however, were a good deal mixed. In general the Republican ticket was successful, but both the Democratic candidates for representative were elected. L. U. Humphrey, who must be counted the most successful politician Montgomery county has ever had, made his maiden race as a candidate for the lower house, and was defeated by B. F. Devore by a majority of 48. In the southern district, Capt. W. J. Harrod, the Republican candidate, fared even worse. Dr. Dunwell receiving 539 votes to his 301. The commissioners, as elected, were J. C. Frazier, William J. May and W. S. Kentfro. For sheriff, Capt. J. E. Stone was elected, receiving 641 votes to 680 for his Democratic competitor, Capt. J. B. Rowley, who subsequently became editor of the Kansan. Charles White made the race for the same office on an independent ticket and fared about as well as independents usually do, getting only 280 votes. Dr. A. J. Busby led J. B. Craig just one vote as a candidate for treasurer; Helphingstine got in again, as clerk with 105 to the good over Cavanaugh; Norman Ives, afterward postmaster at Independence, beat Ashbaugh 135. Of these candidates Devore, as well as Ives, afterward became postmaster at Independence, and Capt. J. E. Stone is now serving in the same capacity at Caney. The office-holding habit, once contracted, is apt to retain a strong grip on its victims.

The following year, 1872, was the one of the Grant-Greeley campaign, and the Republicans regained all they had lost in the county. Devore and Dunwell both went down to defeat. M. S. Bell and Maj. T. B. Eldridge carrying off the honors in the representative contests. A. B. Clark, who had been Coffeyville’s first mayor, became county attorney; E. Herring began his long incumbency of the office of probate judge; and Nathan Bass was elected superintendent of schools. The Democratic candidates for these offices were C. J. Peckham for probate judge; J. D. Gamble for county attorney and Daniel Woodson for superintendent. A fight was made on W. J. Harrod, the Republican candidate for district clerk, on account of his connection with the railroad, which was then becoming very unpopular because of the bond business, and he was defeated by his Democratic competitor, T. O. Ford, who, like Peckham, was named as a liberal or Greeley Republican. The candidates for state Senator were A. M. York, who was destined to achieve a wide notoriety in the near future, in connection with his exposure of Pomeroy’s attempt to bribe him in the senatorial election the succeeding January, and Frank Willis, the former county attorney, as his Democratic competitor. J. D. McCue made his debut in the politics of Montgomery county at this time as an unsuccessful aspirant for the Democratic nomination for county attorney.

The Senator York Bribe Scandal (1873)

Unquestionably the political sensation of the year 1873, so far as our state was concerned, was furnished by Senator York, of Montgomery county. When Kansas was admitted to the Union in 1861, Samuel C. Pomeroy was named as one of her first United States Senators. Six years later he was re-elected; and now after twelve years service in the American “house of Lords,” he was back at Topeka determined to secure a third term, if money without stint would do it. He had made the Senator business so profitable financially that it was understood that he could and would spend $100,000 rather than be defeated. He had, of course, acquired the reputation of a boodler and a purchaser of legislative goods that were in a damaged condition, and there was a strong sentiment against him when the legislature met. An organization of the Anti-Pomeroy members was formed and of this our senator York was made secretary. To make sure of Pomeroy’s defeat it was determined to entrap him into giving a bribe to some member who would afterward expose him on the floor of the joint convention. James Simpson, afterward secretary of state under Governor Humphrey’s administration, and a prominent political wire-puller in the Republican ranks for many years, is credited with devising this scheme. York had had some previous dealings with Pomeroy when he was sent to Washington the previous winter to get the land office removed to Independence, and he was hit upon as the most available man to touch Pomeroy for his roll.

Everything worked as planned. York not only got Pomeroy to promise him $8,000 for his vote and a speech stating that after investigation he was convinced that the charges against Pomeroy were groundless, but he secured $7,000 in advance. The legislature being almost unanimously Republican, no caucus was held. On Tuesday, January 28th, the two houses balloted in separate session, and Pomeroy received 50 votes, the rest being scattering. It was reported and believed that he had 70 members pledged, 67 being sufficient to elect. Only 60 were standing out against him, and his election seemed inevitable. And yet after the Montgomery county senator had made his talk in the joint convention the next day Pomeroy did not receive a single vote.

There have been many dramatic incidents in the legislative annals of Kansas, but no other ever equalled in intensity of interest and unexpectedness that climax of Col. York’s speech when he advanced to the clerk’s desk and laid down the two packages, one of them open and containing $2,000, and the other, a brown paper parcel, tied with twine, which, when opened, was found to contain $5,000 more. Pomeroy’s friends suggested an adjournment that he might have an opportunity to be heard in his own defence, but the mine had been sprung and the legislators were in no mood for temporizing. When the roll was called John J. Ingalls had received 115 votes — all but 12 — and was declared elected, although in the two houses on the previous day he had but a single vote. Of the 12 scattering, two were cast for Alexander M. York, and in view of the way he had upset all the calculations of the politicians it seems a wonder that he did not fall heir to Pomeroy’s seat.

For a time after York had thus exposed Pomeroy and secured the overthrow of that rotten old rascal it seemed as if the sun rose and set about the Montgomery county senator, and there was nothing in the way of political preferment he might not seek and find. The press of the state and nation rung with laudations of his course. His speech on the floor of the joint convention was pronounced unequalled since Cicero uttered that awful philippic against Cataline. A magnificent reception was tendered him when he returned to his home at Independence, and men of all parties united to do him homage. The name of York became a household word, and he would have been deemed a pitiable croaker who would have even suggested the possibility that higher honors would not, in the future, be bestowed upon the incorruptible statesman from the banks of the Verdigris by an admiring and grateful people. After some time was past, however, the effervescence of hysterical sentiment passed off, and York dropped into such obscurity as has fallen to the lot of but few other men in public life anywhere—certainly to none in Kansas.

When it became known that York had not only solicited a bribe, but that he had done it as the culmination of a plot laid by Pomeroy’s enemies to insure his downfall; when York’s own testimony convicted him of being a blackmailer, in the interest of his town though it was, the Montgomery county martyr found how fickle was public favor and his fall was as sudden and unpitied as his rise had been unexpected and meteoric. To-day there can be no question, that if York had put that $7,000 in his pocket and walked off with it, instead of laying it on the table at the capitol, the people of Kansas would have more respect for him than they now do. For say what you will, it does not pay to fight the devil with fire, and of those who do evil that good may come, it shall be said forever and aye that “their damnation is just.”

Politics in the Years After the Scandal

Although 1873 was an “off” year politically, 2,816 votes were cast, which was doing very well for a county that had been an Indian reservation only four years previous. At this time the entire board of commissioners was chosen, and there was a new deal all around, George Hurst, W. J. Wilkins and I. H. Rudd being elected. B. W. Perkins appears on the scene as a candidate for district judge—perhaps, even then hoping he would be Congressman and Senator hereafter. He carried the county by 1,108 votes to 1,067 for J. M. Scudder, his Democratic opponent. The candidates for representative in the 65th district were A. A. Stewart and J. S. Russum. Stewart was elected by 68 majority. He served another term later, published the Kansan, deserted his wife and left the county to settle in Washington state where he has since died. Russum has been leasing lands here for gas and oil for some years past. In the 65th district the returns show that John Boyd received 570 votes to C. S. Brown’s 567, but Brown got the office. J. E. Stone was re-elected sheriff and John A. Helphingstine, clerk. Cary Oakes got the treasury and George S. Beard, the lone Democrat elected, became register of deeds. Edwin Foster again became county surveyor and J. H. Kington, coroner.

In 1874, the Republicans bagged most of the game. L. A. Walker, one of the most far-sighted men Montgomery county has ever numbered among her citizens, was elected representative in the Independence district, over Ben M. Armstrong, the Republican candidate, and Ex-Mayor James DeLong. T. O. Ford secured a re-election as district clerk, leading C. T. Beach 44 votes. The old party had the rest; Wm. Huston, that uncompromising Scotch-Irish prohibitionist, as representative from the eastern district; E. Herring, again for probate judge, defeating J. W. Hodges, of Caney; B. B. Cunningham again for superintendent of schools; and A. B. Clark for county attorney, his Democratic competitor being Wm. Dunkin. B. W. Perkins again carried the county for district judge, J. D. McCue being his Democratic competitor this time.

Results were somewhat mixed in 1875. The Democrats got the offices of sheriff and register of deeds—the former for the first time—J. T. Brock securing that position and George S. Beard being re-elected in the latter. Brock has been in evidence in Montgomery county politics almost ever since, in one way or another, and is now doing business at Cherryvale as a real estate and insurance agent. Beard was, later, in the drug business with Thomas Calk in the Opera House Pharmacy, but went to Texas and located at San Antonio. The Republicans got E. T. Mears in as county clerk, re-elected Cary Oakes as treasurer, and made B. E. Cunningham county surveyor and W. M. Robinson, coroner. Mears is still doing an abstract and real estate business in Independence, but has been, for years, allied, politically, with the Prohibitionists. In the district, Wm. Stewart was elected representative over Geo. W. Burchard, by a majority of one vote. Burchard began his public career in the county as the editor of the Tribune, but got out when he had to be dumped to keep it from straying from the straight and narrow path of Republicanism. He, later, became the editor and publisher of the Kansan. In the Coffeyville district the Republicans were likewise successful, J. M. Heddens being sent to Topeka over W. H. Bell. The three commissioners elected were J. E. Cole, over D. C. Krone; W. H. Harter, over J. S. Cotton; and T. R. Pittman, over J. F. Outt. This made a Democratic board, Harter being the only Republican elected. It divided the county printing, giving it half and half to the Tribune and Kansan.

The Hayes-Tilden contest was on in 1876, and not a solitary opposition candidate was allowed to slip in, the Republicans cleaning up the platter, as they have almost always done in Presidential years. Colonel Daniel Grass, whose preaching along some lines was so much better than his practice, and who did yeoman service on the stump for the Prohibition amendment four years later, was elected to the state Senate over B. F. Devore, the Democratic candidate. For this office there was also another Richmond in the field in the person of ex-Senator A. M. York, who had, by this time, severed his connection with the Republican party and was making his canvass on the Greenback ticket. As this was his farewell appearance in Montgomery county politics, and he had up to this time played the most conspicuous part of any citizen of the county in the drama of state politics, it must be noted that he polled 619 votes out of a total of 3,329, and led his ticket a long way. For Representative O. F. Carson defeated Capt. J. B. Rowley, of the Kansan, in the first district. In the second L. U. Humphrey was again a candidate, and this time won over Dr. McCulley, against whom he was later to be pitted as a candidate for the Senate, and made his entrance into the field of state politics. In the lower district, W. C. Martin beat Levi Gladfelter, who, in after years, became postmaster at Caney, and J. P. Rood, who was later a successful candidate for the same legislative office. H. H. Dodd got the district clerkship; John D. Hinkle, who is now judge of the city court of Spokane, Washington, became county attorney; Herring went in again as probate judge; and Chas. T. Beach was made superintendent of schools. This year the Greenback party had a full ticket in the field and polled an average of nearly four hundred votes. That well-known citizen, George T. Anthony, was being voted for as a candidate for governor, and M. J. Salter, who subsequently became a resident of Independence, as Register of the U. S. Land Office there, was elected lieutenant governor.

In February, 1877, considerable excitement was occasioned when it was learned that County Treasurer Oakes had $39,343 of the county funds, which were by law required to be kept in the safe in his office, on deposit in Turner & Otis’ bank, and the board of county commissioners took action on the 15th of that month, censuring him for that act and demanding that he replace the funds in the safe in compliance with the law.

This year a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor was occasioned by Mr. Salter’s acceptance of the land office appointment, and L. V. Humphrey became the Republican candidate for that office and was elected. He carried Montgomery county by a majority of 278, but at the same time A. H. Horton, who was also running to fill a vacancy, on account of the resignation of Chief Justice Kingman, lost the county by 307.

On the county ticket in 1877 the Democrats came nearer making a clean sweep than on any other occasion in its history. J. T. Brock was re-elected sheriff; John McCullagh got the county clerk’s place over Mears, who was a candidate for re-election; Joseph Barricklow, an old Indian trader at Coffeyville, beat E. E. Wilson 33 votes for treasurer; and E. P. Allen became register of deeds. The same party got all the commissioners, Henry Mounger in the first, General W. E. Brown in the second and A. P. Boswell in the third. It only lost the coroner’s and surveyor’s places, which went to W. M. Robinson and A. G. Savage.

Over the result of this election the Kansan, the Democratic organ of the county, made merry with all the pictures at its command, and harrowed up the feelings of the Republicans by ridicule and sarcasm to such an extent that when the next year rolled around they were all lined up for the straight party ticket. The only county office that got away was that of commissioner in the first district, where “that sly old fox,” as Henry Mounger was termed, easily won out again. For governor, John P. St. John, whose name, later, became so much of a household word in the state and the nation, carried the county by 233; while Humphrey had nearly twice that majority for re-election as lieutenant governor. For the district judgeship, J. T. Broadhead, of Independence, was pitted against Judge Perkins, but the latter was in the heyday of his popularity, and had a plurality of 1,650 in the county. Harry Dodd was re-elected as district clerk; Judge Herring to the probate office; John D. Hinkle as county attorney; and C. T. Beach as school superintendent. In the representative districts the opposition got two of the three; C. J. Corbin winning in the 47th and J. P. Rood in the 49th. The 48th was carried by A. B. Clark over three well known citizens, Abe Canary, M. S. Stahl, so long the landlord at the Main Street hotel, and ex-Mayor James DeLong. This year was high water mark for the Greenback party, which polled more votes than the Democrats did for some of the offices, John S. Cotton receiving 1,050 for probate judge and Geo. W. Clemmer 887 for district clerk on that ticket. This was Clemmer’s second race in the county, and he soon afterward went back to Indiana where he succeeded better as a candidate for county office.

When the smoke cleared away after the political battle of 1879, the Republican organ rejoiced that Montgomery county had been “redeemed” again. For sheriff, Lafayette Shadley had 148 majority over his Democratic opponent, Ellis. The third man in the race was the Greenbacker, S. B. Squires, who was to be a successful aspirant for the same office eighteen years later, and hold it longer than any other incumbent ever has or ever will again unless our constitution is changed. Shadley, after two terms as sheriff in the nineties, became a member of the U.S. Indian police down in the Osage Nation, and was killed in a fight with outlaws there — it being supposed that the notorious Bill Dalton fired the fatal shot. There were three complete tickets in the field this year, and the Greenback party proved a formidable competitor to the old parties, polling about 750 votes to the Republicans’ 1,300 and the Democrats’ 1,200. Barricklow was defeated for re-election as treasurer, Col. F. S. Palmer winning that prize. The same fate befell John McCullagh, the clerk’s office going to Ernest A. Way, a bright young school teacher whose undoing it proved. E. P. Allen was the only one of the old set to pull through, aside from the commissioner, as he was also one of the few office holders who were able to save money from their incomes. He subsequently went into the loan business and became president of the First National Bank, a position he still holds. G. B. Leslie was elected surveyor and Josiah Coleman, coroner. For commissioner, Gen. W. R. Brown, of the second district, pulled through by the narrow margin of two votes, beating P. S. Moore, who was subsequently to hold that office for three terms. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” seems to have been the latter’s motto.

Politics in the 1880s

The year 1880 will forever remain memorable in the history of Kansas as the one in which the prohibition amendment was adopted. Montgomery county gave it a good majority, every precinct contributing to it with the single exception of West Cherry, where the vote stood 59 for to 69 against. On the presidential ticket, the Republicans carried the county, but they lacked a good deal of having a majority over both the opposing parties. Garfield had 1,774 votes, Hancock 1,205, and Weaver 694. No wonder fusion should be resorted to by the members of opposing parties in later years! Indeed, this year, the Republicans lost only the two places where the opponents had united on one candidate. This let A. P. Boswell in again as commissioner in the third district and helped J. P. Rood to knock Senator Peffer out as a candidate for Representative in the same southern district. For Peffer this was the “unkindest cut of all,” and he soon shook the dust of Montgomery county from his feet, to return no more, as he later deserted the state when the Populists refused to re-elect him as United States Senator in 1897. Harry H. Dodd was elected for the third time as clerk of the district court, getting a longer incumbency of this office than any other clerk. Ebenezer Herring won his fifth and last race for the probate judgeship. Ed. VanGundy, a young lawyer, who had been a printer and newspaper publisher in the early days, was made county attorney, and given the first opportunity to run up against that pitfall for such officials — the prohibition law. C. T. Beach also won a third race for school superintendent, the “unwritten law” which forbids a Republican official in Montgomery county to be a candidate for a third term not having been enacted until Glick defeated St. John in 1882. For the Senate A. B. Clark made a successful race — his last one in the county — though he tried to get into the game time and again afterward. The Republican legislative candidates, J. H. Morris and Alexander Moore, were successful in the two northern districts.

Though the opposition united on candidates for every office except sheriff and commissioner in 1881, they failed to score and the Republicans swept the platter of everything in sight. Tom Mitchell, marshal of Independence, thought he was running for sheriff against Lafe Shadley until the returns came in. Wylie, on the Greenback ticket, knew he had never been in it. The Democratic campaign was managed by Judge McCue, and he made the mistake of supposing that the fewer Democratic candidates there were on the ticket the more chance there would be of electing those. So when, on the eve of election, J. M. Nevins withdrew as a candidate for clerk, he was sure Tom, on whom his hopes had been set, would win. Shadley had 506 majority, however. E. E. Wilson, who had been deputy treasurer for two terms, was promoted to the head place by a vote of 2,257 against 642 for his Greenback opponent, Gilbert Dominey. Ed. L. Foster got there as register of deeds, Ernest Way was re-elected clerk, and G. B. Leslie surveyor, while Dr. B. F. Masterman, the Republican chairman, won whatever honor there was in the coroner’s place. That hitherto successful politician, Henry Mounger, at last went to the wall as a candidate for re-election as commissioner, and Will S. Hays, the most fearless and independent commissioner the county has ever had, took his place.

When 1882 came around the Prohibition law was in working order in Kansas, and a good many people did not find it all they had hoped. The result was that George W. Glick, the first Democratic governor Kansas has ever had, was elected over John P. St. John, who was the third term Republican candidate. And yet, today, you will find Glick and St. John lying happily in the same political bed. Montgomery county went back on her Republican record and gave Glick 310 majority. George Chandler, of Independence, received the entire vote of the county, 3553, as a candidate for judge of the district court, and was elected. For the county offices the race was very close, only two of the candidates receiving over a hundred majority. Nelson F. Acres, the Democratic candidate for Congress, carried the county by ten votes over the popular Dudley C. Haskell. For probate judge, Thomas Harrison, one of the oldest settlers, beat Thos. G. Ayres, a Coffeyville attorney, only 15 votes. J. D. Hinkle got into the race again as a candidate for county attorney, but was beaten out of sight by J. D. McCue, who got the largest majority given in the county that year, 354. S. V. Matthews landed for district clerk by 49, and G. B. Leslie, for re-election as county superintendent, by 28. Honors were easy in the representative districts, A. A. Stewart, of the Kansan, being elected in the western, and Daniel McTaggart in the eastern. This was the beginning of the latter’s protracted legislative career, which included three terms in the House and two in the Senate, and gave him a long lead over any other Montgomery county lawmaker. In the Independence district, Gen. Brown was knocked off the perch as commissioner by Wilson Kincaid, which gave the Republicans the control of the board for the first time since the pioneer days. The county printing went to the Star another year, but at ruinously low rates. And that was the last year in which an opposition newspaper has ever had it in the county.

The proposition to build a new court house, submitted to the voters at this election, was defeated by 203 votes. Only 29 votes were cast against it in the city of Independence, and only 9 in its favor in Parker township, which included the city of Coffeyville. At Cherryvale, and in Cherry township only about half the voters took the trouble to express themselves on the proposition, but those who did voted four to one against it. Only four of the townships—Caney, Rutland, Drum Creek, and Independence, gave majorities for the proposition.

Although 1883 was another “off year” in politics, the opposition to the Republican party profited little by that fact, all they succeeded in doing being to re-elect A. P. Boswell, from the southern district, for a third term as commissioner. Boswell was a thorough-going business man, and it was during his incumbency that county warrants were paid on presentation, for the only time in the history of the county, though as much credit must be given to Will S. Hays, the Republican commissioner from the first district from 1881 to 1883, as to any one for that result. J. T. Brock made his third race for sheriff this year and was beaten out of sight by Joseph McCreary, a popular but peculiarly excitable citizen of Coffeyville, who later continued the enjoyment of office-holding by becoming postmaster at Coffeyville. E. E. Wilson, one of the pioneer settlers, and perhaps the first historian of Montgomery county, was again elected county treasurer. Thomas R. Pittman, of Havana, a former county commissioner, and for years one of the Democratic wheelhorses of the county, had the pleasure of making the race against Wilson. H. W. Conrad, who is now, at the expiration of his term in the state Senate, serving as deputy in that office, was elected county clerk. J. F. Nolte, then a Rutland township farmer, but now a rice planter in Texas, got the position of register of deeds. W. B. Rushmore was elected surveyor and E. A. Osborn, coroner. This year the Greenback party again had a ticket in the field, but it mustered only a corporal’s guard of voters. H. Preston leading the ticket with 39 votes for surveyor. Owing to irregularities in the office, Ernest Way had resigned the position of county clerk this year, and for the short term of three months his father, J. S. Way, was elected to fill the vacancy.

In the Presidential year, 1884, the Democrats won in the nation, but in our county the Republicans not only elected every candidate on their ticket, but rolled up a greater average majority than ever before. Blaine, for president, had 866 to the good, and Perkins, for Congress, 856, the latter being then at the zenith of his popularity. Humphrey was again pitted against Dr. McCulley, this time for the state senate, which proved for him the stepping stone to the governorship. J. A. Burdick and Daniel McTaggart were elected Representatives, the latter for his second term in the House. Samuel C. Elliott defeated J. D. McCue as a candidate for county attorney, his majority of 148 being the smallest for any candidate. Elliott is credited with having enforced the prohibition law more vigorously and favored the liquor sellers less than any other county attorney since the law went into effect. He lost his health in the early nineties, and died in the insane asylum at Osawatomie. Matthews was re-elected district clerk over A. A. Stewart, of the Kansan; and G. B. Leslie beat Mrs. E. C. Nevins, the Democratic candidate for superintendent of schools, and the first woman to run for office on the county ticket of any party. John Castillo, a Republican, who afterward became identified with the Populist party, was chosen commissioner from the first district. The question of issuing bonds for the building of a court house was again submitted to the voters, and this time the proposition carried by a majority of 31. The opposition appealed to the courts and delayed the building for a year or more, but the cornerstone was laid November 30th, 1886.

After the defeat of St. John as the Republican candidate for governor in 1882—that defeat being erroneously attributed to the fact that he was then a candidate for the third term—it became the unwritten law that no Republican candidate in Montgomery county should be exposed to defeat by a third nomination, and the only exception made to the rule since that time was in the case of S. L. Hibbard, who was named as a candidate for surveyor, in 1885, and duly elected, as were all the Republican candidates that year, and who has held the office ever since, being re-nominated and re-elected as often as his term drew to a close. That year was not an exciting one politically. McCreary and Conrad got their second terms. Millard F. Wood was chosen county treasurer, and John L. Griffin, register of deeds. Dr. McCulley, who never refused to lead a forlorn hope, was defeated by I. B. Wallace as a candidate for coroner. T. M. Bailey was chosen commissioner from the Independence district. Altogether it was a Republican crowd, the opposition being completely “whitewashed.”

In November, 1886, although there were a governor and state officers to elect, it was a foregone conclusion that the Republicans would win; and Colonel Tom Moonlight’s campaign for governor against Colonel John A. Martin, who was out for a second term, was rather a perfunctory one. This year the Republican majority in the county was 410. In the fight over the local offices, the battle waged fiercest about the probate judgeship. For this place General W. R. Brown, who had not only commanded President Hayes’ regiment in the Civil War, but who had been county commissioner for two terms here, was the Democratic candidate for that office and Colonel A. P. Forsythe, who had at one time been elected to congress by a Greenback-Republican combination, in Illinois, was his opponent. Brown won by 223 votes. The rest of the ticket the Republicans elected, J. B. Ziegler and Captain Daniel McTaggart going to the Legislature; J. W. Simpson being made district clerk; D. W. Kingsley, superintendent of schools; and Sam Elliott getting a second term as county attorney. George Foster was elected commissioner from the Coffeyville district, A. P. Boswell at last going down in defeat. It was thought that he would be re-elected as long as he lived, but having been made one of the appraisers for the right of way for the D. M. & A. Railroad across the south side of the county, he failed to please all the men who wanted big damages and lost his popularity to a degree that insured his defeat.

This year George Chandler, of Independence, was the Republican candidate for re-election to the office of district judge and there was no organized opposition to his candidacy in the district. In fact, as in 1882, he received the entire vote of the electors of Montgomery county for that high office, 4,765 of them recording their ballots in his favor and none against. Chandler made a fine reputation as an upright judge, but was noted for being especially harsh and severe with applicants for divorce, having no patience with men and women who had found their matrimonial bonds irksome, and were endeavoring to sever them. His incisive questions going down to the most sacred privacies of the marriage relation and his bullying manner came to be dreaded by all such unfortunates, and the procuring of divorces grew unpopular. Probably there were far fewer divorces in the district during his term on the bench on account of this idiosyncrasy of his. When Harrison became President in March, 1889, Judge Chandler was tendered the position of Assistant Secretary of the Interior, which he accepted, resigning the judgeship to do so. After some years in Washington his family returned to Independence, but he still remained there, having formed a law partnership with Ex-Senator Perkins, when the latter’s term expired. Subsequently, in the year 1895, Mr. Chandler became the defendant in a suit for divorce brought by the mother of his children. He did not contest this suit and consented to a decree by which his property in this county was settled upon his wife. Subsequently came the news that he had married a woman who had been a stenographer or typewriter in his office while he was still living with his family at the national capital. In view of these occurrences many people thought it a great pity that he could not himself have profited by the lectures on conjugal constancy that he had been so free to give those who came to his court asking for divorces.

The fall of 1887 witnessed another perfunctory political canvass in which the Republican ticket was elected by default, the only contest worth the name being over the sheriff’s office, where John C. Hester, of Fawn Creek, beat John J. Anderson, the best known auctioneer Montgomery county has ever had, by 249 votes. Wood, Griffin, Hibbard and Wallace were re-elected by majorities between 700 and 1,000, and George W. Fulmer became county clerk. Noah E. Bouton got the commissioner’s place in the first district.

Republican pluralities in this county reached another high water mark in 1888 when Benjamin Harrison led Grover Cleveland 1,054 votes, and B. W. Perkins, for Congress, had 1,584 better than his Democratic competitor, John A. Eaton. There were three tickets in the field, so far as state and national candidates were concerned, but the opposition to the Republicans united on several of the county candidates, and we saw the first beginnings of the fusion that was going to play such havoc with Republican hopes a few years later. For state senator there was a triangular contest of great bitterness. Daniel McTaggart was the Republican nominee, Wm. Dunkin, the Democratic, and Adam Beatty, the Union Labor. A good deal of opposition to McTaggart developed in the Republican ranks, so much, in fact, that he ran more than 300 votes behind his ticket, but in the three-cornered fight he pulled through by the safe plurality of 347 over his Democratic opponent. J. B. Zeigler was re-elected Representative in the western district, and Captain D. Stewart Elliott was successful in the eastern. Such a contingency as the latter’s death from a Philippine bullet in the island of Luzon was then as remote from his thoughts as anything in the future can possibly be from the readers today. For probate judge General Brown was defeated for re-election by Charles H. Hogan, a Republican then, but since a Populist, who made one of the most efficient officials the county ever had in that position. Simpson and Kingsley got their second terms, and O. P. Ergenbright was elected county attorney. P. S. Moore, who had been defeated in 1879 as a candidate for county commissioner, won out this time and began his nine years’ term in that position.

When the office of judge of the district court for the eleventh district became vacant by the resignation of George Chandler, the governor appointed John N. Ritter, of Cherokee county, to fill the vacancy until an election could be held. Against Judge Ritter as a candidate on the Republican ticket in November, 1889, the Democrats ran J. D. McCue, of Independence, in many respects one of the finest jurists the state has produced. Although Ritter carried Montgomery county by 150, McCue was elected for the remaining year of the Chandler term.

For the county offices at stake that fall the Republicans did not make an entirely clean sweep, T. F. Callahan getting the sheriff’s office away from John C. Hester, who was a candidate for re-election, but who had proved an unpopular official. The Union Labor party had a full ticket in the field this fall, and so did the Democrats, except for the office of county clerk. For this position George W. Fulmer was re-elected by a majority of 1,681, which is the largest thus far recorded in the county where there was any contest at all. Thomas H. Earnest, now postmaster at Cherryvale, was successful by only 74 over his Democratic competitor, George B. Thompson, for register of deeds. Mark Tulley got the prize of the county treasury, which then paid a salary of $4,000 a year; and S. Tillman, a colored barber at Independence, was made coroner. W. N. Smith was the new commissioner chosen in the southern district this fall. He is now a member of the city council of Independence.

The Alliance and Populist Era (1890s)

The “Alliance year” is what 1890 has come to be termed in the political annals of Kansas, and the wave swept over Montgomery engulfing the entire Republican ticket, with two exceptions. The Democratic and Peoples’ parties did not unite on the state ticket, and with two candidates to divide the opposition vote Humphrey got through with a plurality of 411 for governor in the county. On the local ticket, however, there was complete fusion. For district judge, McCue ran against A. B. Clark, a popular Republican, and led him by 736. Ben. Clover beat the hitherto invincible Perkins for Congress and left him over three hundred votes in the shade. Samuel Henry and A. L. Scott, the fusion candidates, were elected to the legislature. Daniel Cline became probate judge; J. H. Norris, district clerk; and J. R. Charlton, county attorney. The successful Republicans were Alexander Nash for superintendent of schools, and Noah Bouton, who got through for re-election as commissioner by the narrow margin of four votes, over John Hook. For a second time the opposition to the Republican party had broken over the fence and got into the pasture. Although a popular favorite, Mr. Nash, one of the Republicans referred to, long afterward made a record that is unenviable by deserting his wife at Coffeyville while their child lay dead in the house. Since that time his whereabouts have been known to none of his friends in Montgomery county.

It took the Republicans but a short time to get their “second wind” in the county and make a successful fight against the combination that had downed them. In 1891 they were confronted by a united opposition, but easily elected their entire ticket, with the exception of the candidate for sheriff. In this office Tom Callahan had rendered himself very popular, and was besides an excellent politician and a good campaigner. Still he pulled through with the beggarly majority of 26, only. George H. Evans, Jr., became county clerk; and Tulley, Earnest, Hibbard, Tillman and Moore were re-elected. The “Alliance” wave had evidently spent its force.

In 1892 the Democrats of Kansas supported General Weaver and the Populist electors for Cleveland’s sake, but this county gave the Harrison electors 193 majority, and two more for Ex-Governor Anthony for Congressman-at-Large. Humphrey made his last political race as a candidate for Representative in Congress from the Third district, and while he was defeated and retired to private life at the expiration of his term as governor in the following January, he ran about a hundred votes ahead of his ticket in his home county. McTaggart was re-elected as state senator by the straight party vote. The county had been unjustly deprived of half its representation in the House, and A. L. Scott was the fusion candidate. Against him was pitted F. M. Benefiel, of Coffeyville, a man who played a conspicuous part in the politics of the county for several years, and who was capable of making a very taking stump speech. The old member fared worse than most of the other candidates. Nash was re-elected superintendent of schools by an overwhelming vote, and Norris was defeated for re-election as district clerk by W. C. Foreman. W. E. Ziegler won the prize of the county attorney’s office, and W. N. Smith was re-elected as commissioner from the southern district. In fact the only thing the opposition to the Republican party saved out of the wreck was the probate judgeship, which went to Daniel Cline, a Populist, by the narrow margin of eleven votes.

The fall of 1893 witnessed another triangular fight for the offices, the Democrats and Populists running separate tickets. The latter polled about twice as many votes as the former, but their combined vote barely equalled the Republican strength. The pendulum had swung clear over again and the opposition did not elect a man. Frank C. Moses became sheriff, and served the full limit of four years. The office-holding habit still clung to him, however, and he is just finishing his second term as mayor of Independence. J. R. Blair came up from Caney to become treasurer, defeating two Confederate veterans, E. T. Lewis and J. M. Altaffer. John W. Glass, of Coffeyville, was made county clerk; J. T. Stewart, of Sycamore, got the position of register of deeds; Dr. R. F. O’Rear replaced the colored barber as coroner; and N. F. Veeder, of Cherryvale, the most corrupt, probably, of all Montgomery county’s corrupt politicians, got into the board of county commissioners.

Low water mark for the Democrats of Montgomery county came with the election of 1894, when their candidate for governor, the brilliant, but shifty, Overmeyer, received but 429 votes to 2,061 cast for L. D. Lewelling as a candidate for re-election. And there was no single attribute of manhood in which Overmeyer, with all his faults, real and alleged, did not tower high above the first Populist governor of Kansas. Morrill, the Republican candidate, had a clear majority of 112 over both. Many Democrats undoubtedly voted for Lewelling as the only way to beat the common enemy; and the Populist never had such a lead as the figures above given would indicate. McCue was again a candidate for district judge, but failing to get the opposition parties to unite on his candidacy, ran as an independent, his name appearing in a column all by itself. He was opposed by A. R. Skidmore, of Columbus, a man hitherto unknown in politics outside of his own county. To tell the whole story of the fight made against Judge McCue by ex-Commissioner Will S. Hays, who went over the district charging him with venality and with subserviency to corporations, and convincing the voters that he was lacking in integrity, would require a volume in itself. So confident was McCue of election during the early days of the canvas that he used to introduce his opponent to voters, and then egotistically remark to his friends what a poor show the Cherokee county man made beside him. Skidmore, however, beat him 850 in this county and some thousands in the district, and McCue’s political career was ended.

Benefiel was elected again as Representative over S. M. Dixon, another good talker, who soon found he preferred other fields when office was denied him here. And Benefiel was the man, who, during the next session of the legislature, was credited with having killed the bill to reduce charges at the stock yards, for a consideration. N. E. Bouton, the outgoing commissioner, became probate judge, defeating H. D. Farrel, who was subsequently to fill the office for two terms, and J. J. Mull. It was a three-cornered contest all the way through on the county ticket, except the county superintendency, and there Miss Anna Keller, the first woman ever elected to office in the county, defeated M. C. Handley by 265 votes. W. E. Ziegler was elected county attorney over two leading attorneys at the Independence bar at this time—Thos. H. Stamford and F. J. Fritch. W. C. Foreman beat John T. Caldwell and Tom Harrison for district clerk. James Thompson, an utterly illiterate Coffeyville negro, became coroner. P. S. Moore was re-elected commissioner from the first district. It was again a Republican year.

At this election the woman’s suffrage amendment to the constitution was voted on and there was a majority of 256 against it in the county. Cherryvale, Louisburg, Rutland and Parker alone gave majorities for the proposition. A proposition to make an appropriation of $8,000 to buy a county poor farm carried by a vote of 2,708 to 1,321.

The last triangular contest that has occurred in the county took place in 1895. Frank Moses was re-elected as sheriff over Revilo Newton and J. B. Sewell. J. R. Blair got a second term as treasurer, distancing Ben. Ernest and Daniel Cline. John W. Glass came up from Coffeyville to take the county clerkship, running in between B. F. Devore and Joseph H. Norris. J. T. Stewart became register of deeds, defeating E. B. Skinner and J. W. Reeves. Hibbard, of course, succeeded himself as surveyor, and so did Thompson as coroner. D. A. Cline, one of the most forceful of our county commissioners, made his appearance on the field of county politics as the new member from the Coffeyville district, defeating J. P. Etchen and Joseph Lenhart.

After so long a series of unbroken successes, the Republicans naturally and reasonably expected to elect their entire ticket in the presidential year, 1896. The promulgation of the gold-standard platform at the St. Louis convention was a solar plexus blow to those hopes, however. So general and so earnest was the protest against this change of base on the part of the Montgomery county Republicans, that it is a conservative estimate to say that a thousand of them, or one-third of the total strength of the party in the county, were outside of the breastworks when the June roses were blooming. Every device known to the most astute politicians was employed to bring them back into the party ranks during that summer and fall, however, and day by day the recalcitrants were being whipped into line. When election came in November, probably not more than 250 of those June bolters were still bolting. But that was enough. The decisive day approached with each side confident of victory. When the votes had been canvassed it was found that the fusion ticket nominated by the Populists, Democrats and Silver Republicans, and supported by all the Bryan men, had been elected from top to bottom. It was the most sweeping political victory ever won in the county, extending to the township offices, as well as those higher up. Indeed it was facetiously said that only a single road overseer had been saved out of the wreck. This was a slight exaggeration, but the usual dominant party had failed to carry a single township, though having a majority in all the cities, and had but one township trustee to its credit—the Cherry township candidate having scratched through.

Bryan led McKinley 434, while the Gold Democrats counted 27 votes and the middle-of-the-road Populists, 29. Ridgley had 398 over Kirkpatrick for Congress; H. W. Young, a Populist editor, was elected State Senator over George W. Fulmer, who made that record-breaking race for county clerk in 1889, by 346; Isaac B. Fulton, an old Greenback war-horse, was made Representative by a majority of 332 over the Republican candidate, J. F. Guilkey; H. D. Ferrell turned the tables on Noah E. Bouton, and got the probate judgeship by 209; H. M. Levan, the first Silver Republican to be elected in the county—and the only one—had 859 over A. R. Slocum; John Callahan, for county attorney, “led” the ticket with a majority of 548 over W. N. Banks; J. N. Dollison, for county superintendent, came next with 437 more votes than Miss Keller; in the first district John Givens got in over Veeder by the narrow margin of 10 votes. It was the first clean sweep the opposition to the Republican party had ever made in the county, and to the present writing they have never made another.

According to precedent, a reaction from the free silver victory of 1896, and a swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction, was to have been expected in 1897. It was only partially realized, though, and the fusionists succeeded in bagging the best of the game. The Populist Legislature had passed an act at the Legislative session of that year establishing a county high school at Independence. This act had caused a great deal of criticism in some portions of the county. Notably, this fire burned brightly wherever there was an aspirant for Legislative honors, who had failed of nomination or election in the recent past. The Populist members of the Legislature were denounced without stint for their share in the passage of the measure, and many Republican politicians seemed to be of the opinion that the anti-high school sentiment alone needed to be appealed to in order to insure the success of their ticket. Accordingly Independence Republicans were turned down hard when the nominating conventions were held, and a ticket, that was, on the whole, a weak one, was placed in the field. The fusionists were afraid of the same issue and also tabooed Independence aspirants, except for commissioner, where Henry Baden was induced to accept a nomination in order to prevent both Populist and Democratic candidates from going on the ballot. The contest was a close one, and it required the official count to decide who had been elected treasurer. E. B. Skinner, a Democrat, of Caney, won the place by only fifteen votes, over J. A. Palmer. S. B. Squires, the defeated Greenback candidate of ’79, got his inning at last, with a majority of 237 over T. C. Harbourt. D. S. James, another Populist, got in as county clerk by 66 votes over R. B. Handley. And the same figure told T. F. Burke’s Republican majority for register of deeds, M. D. Wright being his “Silver Republican” opponent. Dr. Rader was re-elected coroner, and Hibbard pulled through once more for surveyor, with, for him, the meagre majority of 127. F. E. Taylor left Baden just 51 votes behind in the race for commissioner, thus obtaining a Republican majority in the board.

This year the first election of a board of county high school trustees occurred, and the opponents of the school made a strong effort to secure the election of the candidates known to be opposed to the school. The county-seat took care of its own in this matter, and the three candidates who were fought because friendly to the school won by over 900 majority. The board as elected consisted of Wm. Dunkin, Thomas Hayden, J. A. Moore, M. L. Stephens, Revilo Newton and Adam Beatty. Except the last named, they were the same as the appointees by the commissioners the previous spring. Mr. Beatty was chosen in place of E. A. Osborne, who had declined a nomination.

In 1898 the Republican reaction, which was so pronounced in the state, barely gave that party a lead in the county, which Stanley carried over Leedy for governor by 27. For Congress the fusion candidate, Ridgley, won by 40. For the county offices the fusion candidates who had been elected in 1896 were all again candidates and were every one re-elected. By virtue of his office County Superintendent Dollison was president of the board of trustees of the county high school, and as bitterly as he was fought on that account in some of the townships, no less ardently was he supported by his townsmen regardless of party. But for the fight made on Independence and Independence candidates by the anti-high school party, it is hardly probable the fusion ticket would have been again elected. As it was the Republican candidates for Representative, H. W. Conrad, in the western district and F. M. Benefiel in the eastern, were both successful, as was also D. A. Cline for re-election as commissioner in the Coffeyville district. Skidmore carried the county again for judge by a majority of 593 over Thos. H. Stanford, of Independence, the fusion candidate.

The incumbents of the county offices were all candidates for a second term in 1899, with the exception of Commissioner Givens, and they were all successful. Squires had only 57 for sheriff and James but 55 for county clerk. The former ran against Paxton, who is now a deputy in the office, and the latter against McMurtry who won the clerkship at the next election for that office. Perseverance in office-seeking, as in everything else, counts in the long run. Skinner had Palmer for an opponent again for the treasury, but it didn’t require the official count this time to settle the matter, his majority being 242. Burke, the only Republican in the crowd, ran against P. S. Brunk and had the largest majority—358. For commissioner in the northern district, N. F. Veeder made his third race and won his second election, defeating M. L. McCollum by 150. Wilson Kincaid, on the Republican ticket, and E. P. Allen, on the fusion, were elected high school trustees, both being Independence men. At this time there can be no question that the county had a normal Republican majority, but the attempt of the Republicans to make political capital against the fusionists over the high school issue was still resented, and the small vote the Republican candidates received at the county seat was responsible for their defeat. The commissioners submitted at this election a proposition to appropriate $5,000 for the erection of additional buildings at the county poor farm, which was overwhelmingly defeated, receiving but 1,291 votes to 2,169 cast against it.

Republican Resurgence (Early 1900s)

By the time the Presidential election of 1900 rolled around, the Republicans had regained their hold on Montgomery county, and elected their full ticket for the first time since 1895. The majorities were not large, but ample. McKinley had 218 over Bryan; Wooley, the Prohibition candidate, received 31 votes; the Socialists appeared for the first time in the county returns, Eugene V. Debs getting 19 votes; while Wharton Barker, as a middle-of-the-road Populist, had one lone supporter. Henry W. Conrad, one of the pioneer settlers, who came to the county in 1868, was elected State Senator by 297 votes over J. H. Wilcox, the fusion candidate. H. C. Dooley was elected Representative in the eastern district, getting 1,802 votes to 1,698 cast for G. W. Wingate. In the western district J. O. Whistler won, with 1,511 to 1,431 for T. W. Truskett. M. B. Soule, a Cherryvale attorney, was elected probate judge by 180 over E. T. Lewis. L. D. Winters beat B. E. Cole 326 votes for district clerk. J. N. Dollison ran for the third time as the fusion candidate for superintendent of schools and was beaten 130 votes by Sullivan Lomax. J. H. Dana and Mayo Thomas were pitted against each other for county attorney, and Dana got 90 votes the most. Henry Norton, the fusion candidate for commissioner, came within four votes of landing, but F. E. Taylor was re-elected. J. M. Courtney and E. D. Leasure were elected high school trustees.

The constitutional amendment increasing the number of judges of the supreme court from three to seven received a majority of 1,579 in the county.

The year 1901 saw less politics in the county than any other in its entire history. The legislature had enacted a law doing away with elections for county officers, as far as possible, in the odd-numbered years, and there were only two county high school trustees and a commissioner in the southern district to elect. A very light vote was cast, but Abner Green and P. H. Fox, the Republican candidates, were elected high school trustees, and D. A. Cline was made commissioner for the third time.

When 1902 came around there was, of course, a full complement of county officials to elect. Meanwhile the sheriff, treasurer, county clerk and register of deeds had held over for an additional year, making a five-year term for each of them. This year Republican majorities began to approach high water mark again, the influx of population resulting from the establishment of many manufacturing industries in the cities, having very evidently inured to the benefit of that party. W. J. Bailey, the Republican candidate for governor, came out 586 votes ahead. For congressman, P. P. Campbell, the candidate of that party, led Jackson, the Democratic incumbent, 665 votes. The majority for judge was even greater. For this office T. J. Flannelly, who had been serving by appointment since the creation of a new district composed of Montgomery and Labette counties, was the Republican candidate. Against him was pitted Captain Howard A. Scott, a veteran of the Twentieth Kansas, who had served in the Philippines. Flannelly’s majority was 696. Soule was re-elected probate judge by a majority of 613 votes over G. R. Snelling, the fusion candidate. Winters succeeded himself as district clerk, beating Roy Baker 810 votes and leading the ticket. Lomax for county superintendent, got a second term, running 690 ahead of J. O. Ferguson, his Democratic competitor. For sheriff, Andy Pruitt beat Squires’s deputy, A. W. Knotts, 272. J. W. Howe was elected treasurer over Charles Todd by 469 majority. S. McMurtry ran again for county clerk and led Arley Riggs, his Democratic competitor, 791 votes. For register of deeds another Philippine soldier, T. J. Straub, and the first to get office in the county, won over George Hill, his Democratic competitor, by a majority of 374. Hibbard and Rader, for surveyor and coroner, went in along with the rest. For representative in the western district, J. O. Whistler was re-elected by 228 over J. A. Wylie. In the eastern district, J. H. Keith, a Coffeyville Democrat, won by 20 over Dr. T. F. Andress, his Republican opponent. The hardest fight was over the office of county attorney, for which Dana and Thomas, the candidates of two years previous, were both in the race again. Dana had failed so utterly to enforce the prohibition law, or to even make any attempt to do so, and it was so generally understood that he was in the pay of the violators of the law, that he ran some hundreds behind his ticket, and lost out by just eight votes. For commissioner in the first district, Veeder was a candidate for the fourth time and for a third term, but he lost by 16 votes to John Givens, who had defeated him by a still smaller majority in 1896. This could hardly be counted a Republican defeat, however, as there were localities in the district where more Republicans voted for Givens than for Veeder, whose record as a bridge builder and a friend of the contractors who had bribes to distribute, had turned many of the best men in his own party against him.

Such in brief is the record of the political history of Montgomery county. The catalogue of the men who have held office or been candidates in the county is a long one, but the list of men who have been enriched financially or laid the foundations of a comfortable competency from savings out of official salaries is so small that it can be checked off on the fingers of one hand. The time, the money and the energy that have been devoted to office-seeking here in the past third of a century would certainly have told for more in almost any other line of business.