Gove County KS Archives History - Books .....The "New Court House" Fight 1930
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Book Title: History Of Gove County, Kansas, Part II

CHAPTER IX
THE "NEW COURT HOUSE" FIGHT

  This may be a tale of a tempest in a tea pot,—but it is a story of a feud
which raged at the firesides and the cross roads, and before the Supreme Court
of the state and at the polling places; and it will explain why our county has
never had a new court house and why the county business has always been
transacted in the same building which was set aside for that purpose when the
county was organized forty four years ago.

  One thing we have always prided ourselves on, that Gove county has never had
any bonded debt. Some Kansas counties as soon, as organized proceeded to go into
debt and issue bonds, to build a new court house or for other purposes, or to
pay current expenses. In some cases the county debt had its accompaniment of
fraud and scandal. At any rate, a county debt was a handicap, and we prided
ourselves on the fact that we could hold up our heads and tell the world that
our county had no debt and that our taxes were low. (Speaking personally, I
recall that it was this distinction which first attracted my attention to Gove
county and caused me to select it as a home instead of some other western
county.) As one of the inducements to get the county seat located at their town
the Gove City Town Company had offered the county the free use of their building
for a term of ten years, with the option of buying/ it at the end of that time
for a thousand dollars. The offer was accepted, and for twenty years the court
house problem was solved and settled.

  The building was a substantial two story structure, about 32 by 32 feet, and
had been used at first as a hotel. The name and date, "Benson House," and "1885"
were carved in stone on the front. Years afterward, when a new roof was put on
and some other alterations made, the name was taken down, but the date remains.
In its time the old court house was considered quite good enough. The county
officials occupied the ground floor and a part of the up-stairs; and the balance
of the second floor was occupied by the court room, which was large enough for
the semi-annual sessions of the district court and for political conventions and
other public meetings (and for the Gove City literary society.)

  Then without warning, out of a clear sky as it were, came the news that we
were to have a new court house at Gove City. I will let those who sponsored the
scheme tell the story, if they wish, of how the plan was hatched and put over—I
know nothing about it. There had been no public discussion of or agitation for a
new court house. The bill providing for the new court house was passed by the
legislature of 1905, sometime in its session from January to March, but was
published for the first time in the Statute Book, which did not make its
appearance till July.

  The law is too long to be given here in full. It conferred authority upon the
board of county commissioners of Gove County to build a new court house at Gove
City "on the tract of land now owned by the said county and known as the public
square in Gove City." (This is the square on the hillside three blocks north of
the court house). The cost of the court house was not to exceed sixteen thousand
dollars. The commissioners could levy an annual tax of not to exceed three mills
on the dollar to build the court house. (At that time a three mill tax would
have brought in about $5,000 a year.) The board of commissioners was further
authorized to draw on the general fund of the county for "such sums as they may
deem necessary" to complete the building, and were permitted to start
construction at any time after the first day of July, 1905.

  As has been said, the news burst upon us as out of a clear sky. The Act was
published in July. But the Statute Book has a very limited circulation, only a
few copies of it found their way to Gove county, communication was much slower
in those days before automobiles and good roads and telephones, and most of the
people of the county knew nothing of the law and the new court house and the new
tax burden till the Board of Commissioners met at the regular time on the first
Monday in August and levied a tax of three mills to build the new court house.

  Then as the poet wrote about a famous battle, there was a call To Arms! and a
hurrying to and fro. I think that the first one who told me about it was John
Hopkins. "Hop" was mad. Next I ran across Squire Sutcliffe who was spreading the
news and asking everybody what they thought about it. My opinion agreed with his
exactly. Then came Col. Reynolds, like Paul Revere riding the country and
broadcasting the news. I think it was my own suggestion to have the meeting at
Grainfield. It takes a little time to spread the alarm and work up sentiment.
There was danger that the attendance at the meeting might be small and thus
bring ridicule upon the movement. But Grainfield was to hold a "Street Fair,"
which was an institution popular in those days, and if we would wait till that
time there would be a crowd in town anyway. So the call was issued for a Tax
Payers meeting at the opera house in Grainfield on September 23.

  Now for a moment, before we plunge into the thick of the fight, let's laugh.
Funny, isn't it, how some people's minds react to a situation. The hardest
boiled old scrappers in the county were out in force at our meeting; and before
the fight was over we had all the kickers in Gove county working together—
something which will not happen more than once in a lifetime. One of our
foremost agitators was in town that day but would not attend the meeting—he had
political ambitions and feared the effect if he were caught in such a crowd.
Another one of our agitators got cold feet, and would not enter the hall till he
glanced through the door and counted about sixty there, all mad,—then he became
bold as a lion. Col. Reynolds called the meeting to order and asked for
nominations for chairman. Jacob Tustin was elected chairman and the writer and
John Norton secretaries. I had feared that the enemy would try to prejudice the
movement by calling it a Grainfield scheme to take the county seat away from
Gove City to Grainfield; it would not do to have a Grainfield man for chairman;
I looked the crowd over swiftly and nominated Mr. Tustin. He was an old timer, a
leading citizen whom everybody knew and respected, and he lived in Gove
township. Nobody could say now that it was a Grainfield move. But you cannot
watch all the corners at once—it so happened that Tustin, Norton and myself had
all been Populists when that party was in existence some years before. (John
will put in a denial here, for he was a Democrat; but he was a good Democrat,
who worked in harmony with the Populists, and we were quite willing to accept
him). So now the enemy turned on us and called it a "Populist move." The
Populist party was dead, but evidently its memory still lingered. Thus, in
getting out of one difficulty we had gotten into another.

  Speeches were made. But if the meeting were to end in talk it would be "mere
sound and fury, signifying nothing"; something definite must be accomplished.
The writer of this history had prepared a statement for publication, and this
was now read to the meeting. It didn't quite suit, so a committee was appointed,
consisting of S. S. Reynolds, R. H. Samson and the writer, to take the statement
out and work it over again; some minor changes were made, and the address was
then adopted in the following form:

  "To the Tax Payers of Gove County:

  By secret and underhand methods a special tax has been imposed upon us for the
erection of a new court house at Gove City. The law was put through the
legislature by the representative of this county without the knowledge or
consent of the people of the county and without any discussion of the matter,
and the levy has been made by a majority of the board of county commissioners.
The Tax Payers meeting held this day at the city of Grainfield wishes to record
its emphatic opposition to this scheme, for the following reasons:

  In the first place, there is no pressing need for a new court house, and we
can get along with the old one for the present.

  Secondly, Gove City is not the proper place for a permanent county seat. The
permanent seat should be located in a railroad town somewhere near the center of
the county. There is no railroad now in the center of the county, but it is
almost a certainty that one will be built through there in a few years. Our two
lines of railroad are forty miles apart, the Union Pacific at the north line and
the Missouri Pacific near the south line of the county, and a new road must be
built through the center of the county, to develop a territory which neither of
the other roads can reach. When this road is built it will be time to locate a
permanent county stat and build a new court house. If the road comes to Gove
City, well and good, it will be time to build the new court house there then.
But the Gove City crowd evidently believes the road will not come to their town,
hence their haste to get a new court house and try to keep the county seat
anyhow. We hold that no new court house should be built till the situation
clears up and we know where we want to build it.

  Thirdly, when the new court house is built we want it built properly and
legally. The General Statutes of Kansas, chapter 27, paragraph 50, says: "No
Board of County Commissioners shall proceed to build any permanent county
buildings and assess any tax for that purpose without first submitting the
question to a vote of the electors of the county." We see no reason for
departing from this principle, and we believe that this attempt to build a court
house without taking a vote of the people is not only against good public
policy, but that the tax is illegal and will be so declared by the courts.

  Pending a decision of this matter by the courts, we advise every one to pay
this tax, at the same time filing a written protest against it with the county
treasurer, to insure that the money thus illegally collected shall be returned
to them when the tax has been declared void; and we call on the voters of Gove
county to so use their ballots at the next election that no one shall be elected
Representative or Commissioner who is not known to be opposed to building a new
court house, unless the same is first approved by a vote of the people, special
acts of the legislature notwithstanding."

  The hat was passed and a few dollars in small change collected for printer's
bills and other expenses. Then came the question, When shall we meet again? And
then John Hopkins made the motion that our next meeting be two weeks hence, in
Gove City! This was carrying the war into the enemy's country, with a vengeance.
I will admit that the audacity of the proposition fairly took my breath away;
but it suited the humor of the crowd, and the motion carried with a whoop.

  The meeting at Gove City, Oct. 7, had its thrills. The court room was more
than filled. The court house crowd was out in force and tried to argue the case
and convince our crowd of the error of its way. The three who were brave enough
to argue were O. B. Jones. John L. Cook, and J. F. Mendenhall, but they had
little luck, opposition only made our crowd more determined. Petitions had been
circulated, asking the commissioners to reconsider their action in levying the
court house tax. Commissioner Rundberg had voted against the levy; the other two
commissioners would not come to our meeting. Some of the petitions had not been
turned in yet, so we stand adjourned till two weeks later, October 21st, at Gove
City again.

  The court house crowd did not attend the meeting of the 21st. One of the
unfriendly commissioners was present, having been waited upon by a special
committee with a polite invitation. Petitions were laid before him showing that,
with some townships missing or incomplete, five hundred voters had asked to have
the levy reconsidered—of whom 238 were from his own commissioner district. This
showing had no effect. Evidently the time for petitioning was past. So the
meeting proceeded to adopt a resolution, "That we bring an injunction suit to
restrain the county from collecting the special court house tax; that an
executive committee of five be elected to bring the suit, and a committee of one
from each township be appointed to solicit funds to defray the costs; that the
executive committee have full charge of conducting the suit and three members of
the committee constitute a quorum." The committee selected was S. S. Reynolds,
R. H. Samson, J. M. Sturman, M. E. Wilkinson and W. P. Harrington. Reynolds was
made chairman of the committee, Harrington secretary and Samson treasurer. This
was the last of the mass meetings; the scene now shifts to the courts.

  The county attorney was on our side, so the Board of Commissioners (Rundberg
dissenting) retained O. B. Jones of Gove City to represent the county and
instructed him "to employ such counsel as he thinks .best in the matter." He
selected as his assistant J. S. West of Topeka. The county had the bill to pay.
Our committee employed Lee Monroe of Topeka (former district judge) and Chambers
& Chambers of Hoxie. To put an end to the charge that this was a "Populist move"
the injunction suit was brought in the name of Alex Haney and several other good
Republicans. (Mr. Haney was at this time the Republican county chairman.)

  The case was tried before Judge Reeder at Hays, Dec. 19. (The writer was
shucking corn that day and did not go to Hays. Have always regretted it. Those
who were there told me I missed something.) The papers said that about twenty
five were down from Gove county to hear the trial.

  Now here is another laugh. The court house crowd felt sure of Judge Reeder. It
came out later that Judge Reeder had himself suggested that Gove county needed a
new court house and had himself drawn the bill. But when the case came before
him for trial Judge Reeder found that the laws and the precedents were all on
the side of our Tax Payers organization, so he decided in our favor. No wonder
the court house crowd was sore. They took it out on Judge Reeder in the next
campaign, and defeated him for reelection.

  The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which in April 1906 handed down a
decision sustaining Judge Reeder. This was the end of the trial, so far as the
legal aspect was concerned. The courts had probably never read the manifesto
which we had delivered at Grainfield; but they found objections to the law which
we had never thought of, and declared it unconstitutional because it directly
violated a provision of the state constitution. The opinion of the court of last
resort may be found in full in Volume 73, Supreme Court Reports. Boiled down,
the decision is:

  "This law is to be interpreted as authorizing the commissioners of Gove county
to use a part of the general revenue fund for the building of a new court house.

  Such provision violates section 4 of article 14 of the state constitution,
forbidding the diversion of a tax from the object for which it is levied, and is
therefore void.

  Such provision is so related to the other provisions of the act that the
entire act must be held void."

  The fight on the court house was financed by voluntary contributions, which
were small in amount but large in number. There was no single contribution
larger than $10. After the case was finished the Tax Payers committee published
a statement:

  "In prosecuting the suit against the court house tax the sum of $337 was
collected and $311.75 was expended, leaving $25.25 balance on hand.

  If this is pro-rated back to the contributors as was at first proposed, each
contributor will receive about 7 per cent of what he paid in.

  As a promise was made in the beginning to pro rate we feel under obligations
to make this promise good to all parties who wish to avail themselves of it.

  For the next thirty days R. H. Samson, treasurer, will repay to all who ask
for it seven per cent of their contribution. After thirty days whatever balance
is left will be donated to some public or charitable purpose."

  In the end, the balance was turned into the fund which was being raised to
fight the Gove County High School. The high school fight and the court house
fight were two separate and distinct affairs, but three members of our committee
of five were also interested in the fight on the high school; they wanted to use
our balance in the other case, and they had their way.

  The suit having been decided, the Board of Commissioners ordered the tax
refunded which had already been collected toward the construction of the new
court house, and most of it was so returned to those who had paid it. But
between eight and nine hundred dollars of it was never claimed. Most of this,
perhaps all of it, was paid in by non-resident land owners who probably never
heard of the court house tax and the conflict which raged around it, or knew
that they had a rebate coming. After lying unclaimed in the treasury for several
years this balance in the "County Building Fund" was turned into the general
fund of the county. And so the treasury of Gove county profited several hundred
dollars by this tax levy, even though the levy had been declared invalid by the
courts.

  Of course, the fight had to be carried into politics before it could finally
be settled. (The writer of this sketch had small hand in this part of the war,
and could view it as an interested outsider.) The Democrats nominated an
anti-court house county ticket, and hoped that the court house crowd would be
able to control the Republican organization—but it wasn't. That Republican
convention at Gove City would make a good story in itself, if we had time and
space to tell it. The court house crowd had the delegates from Gove and Grinnell
townships, and the antis had the rest of them, though some of the delegates were
a trifle shaky. The antis held a caucus of their delegates the night before the
convention at a farm house a few miles out of town, put a guard over the place
to keep visitors away, made up a slate of candidates and marched the delegates
to the convention next day in a body. A lot of swapping had to be done, some
candidates who had announced themselves for one place were switched to another,
some officials who were asking for a second term were ruthlessly turned down. In
the convention the court house crowd filibustered and laughed and enjoyed
themselves but could accomplish nothing, and the slate went through without a
break. At the election the results were mixed, some Republicans and some
Democrats were elected, but they were all anties. Not a single county official
or candidate who had favored the new court house was successful. The rout of the
courthouse crowd was complete.

  Years later, after the court house fight had been fought out and had become
but a memory, the writer met a man in the East who told this story: "I went to
your county once to make a land trade. My purchaser was with me, all ready to
sign the papers and complete the deal. We got off the train at Grainfield, and
while waiting for the hack to take us down to Gove City we picked up on the
street a paper which proved to be a remonstrance against building a new court
house. We hunted up the man who had lost the paper and turned it over to him,
but my land deal was off. My man declared he would never buy land in a county
which had a county seat fight; so there was nothing left for us to do but wait
for the next train and come home." That man had heard about county seat fights
long ago in western Kansas or somewhere, and imagined: that civil war was raging
in Gove county and murder about to be committed. Imagine it! I have called it a
"fight," but it never reached the stage of hostilities—we never even quit
speaking to each other.

  The amount of business necessarily transacted by the county officials has
increased greatly in recent years, and so has the revenue of the county; and the
law relating to the building of court houses has been changed. Some six years
ago the Board of County Commissioners enlarged and remodeled the old court house
till it doesn't seem like the same place, at a cost of about $20,000, and paid
cash for it—and there was no grumbling. A new generation has grown up in Gove
county, which looks at things differently, and which will probably read with
astonishment this story of how a quarter of a century ago our county was all
worked up over an attempt to build a new court house.




Additional Comments:
History of Gove County, Kansas
by W. P. Harrington

Gove City, Kan.	1930

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