Gove County KS Archives History - Books .....Politics In Gove County 1930
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Book Title: History Of Gove County, Kansas, Part II

CHAPTER IV
POLITICS IN GOVE COUNTY

  One election night the crowd was gathered at the county seat to hear the
election returns. Every precinct had reported except Jerome, far out in the
country, the roads were bad and there was no telephone connection. The election
had been very close in spots, and the result hinged on the vote of this one
country precinct. At last the expected messenger arrived, and the crowd quieted
down and gathered around to hear his report. He started at the top, with the
vote for president,—"Roosevelt 48, Parker 12, Debs 6." Nobody said anything, no
one appeared particularly interested, and the messenger inquired, "What do you
fellows want first?" And some one spoke up, "How is the vote for sheriff?"

  This little incident well illustrates the character of Gove county politics.
Everybody wanted to know the vote for county officials, but the vote for
president and for state officers could wait. When the campaign grows warm and
voters get excited, the battle rages not about who shall be elected to the
highest offices in the land but who shall fill the places in the court house.
The voters dearly Jove to argue about, and vote upon, some "local issue"; and
when veteran politicians get reminiscent about past political battles, it is not
to tell of what we did for our candidate for president or governor, but of how
we brought about the downfall of some local politician or helped to put some
friend into an office in the court house.

  Perhaps we have overdone it. It is a noteworthy fact that never in all our
history has a Gove county man been a party nominee for any state or district
office. This may be because we have exhausted our energies in local political
contests. (There is one exception—the Socialist party nominated a Gove county
man as their candidate for state senator in 1904.)

  Gove county has always been Republican on state and national issues; but even
this rule has its exceptions. Woodrow Wilson carried the county for president in
1912 and in 1916, and the county has on more than one occasion given a majority
for the Democratic candidate for Congress or for judge of the district court.

  It is worth noting that this county gave a majority for the prohibition
amendment to the state constitution in 1880—when the county was as yet
unorganized—and for the woman suffrage amendment in 1912.

  In the early Nineties the Farmers Alliance and Populist party swept most of
our neighboring counties and kept political control of them for several years,
but it was never strong enough in Gove county to command a majority. In its
first campaign, in 1890, the party selected its nominees for county office in
the regulation Farmers Alliance style, by secret ballot in the sub-alliances,
and the result of the ballot was not known till later when the county alliance
met to canvass the vote and announce the result. None of the Populist nominees
of that year were successful; but in later elections a number of Populists were
elected, by fusion with the Democrats. The Populist party made no more
nominations after 1900.

  After the Populist party was gone the Socialist party effected a county
organization and for several successive elections nominated candidates for
county offices. The party never became strong, its highest vote for president
being fifty-five. Its highest vote for any county office was 65, and it elected
a justice of the peace in Jerome township. The Socialist nominee for state
senator in 1904 still remembers that he received 49 votes in Gove county,
nineteen of them in his own precinct.
   
The events of the World War ruined the Socialist party in Gove county and
destroyed its organization, though it still has a scattering vote at each election.

  Since 190S the law has required all party nominations to be made at a
"primary" held in August preceding the election. But for a dozen years previous
to the passage of the state primary law the Republican party in Gove county had
been in the habit of having a county primary, with an occasional delegate
convention instead. The Populists and Democrats made their nominations usually
in mass convention, though sometimes a delegate convention was called instead.

  County officials are sometimes elected to a second term, but not to a third.
During war time this rule was broken, and some of the officials were given a
third term. At that time there was but little politics, everybody was thinking
about the war or trying to raise some of that $2.40 wheat; but no candidate for
a third term has gotten anywhere since the war came to an end and the country
returned to normalcy.

  The first representatives of Gove county in the legislature were in the same
position as the representative of a territory in the congress of the United
States—they had a seat on the floor and the privilege of debate, but no vote.
The older counties of the state were very reluctant to give the voting privilege
to the newly settled western counties. It was the Farmers Alliance legislature
of 1891 which redistricted the state and put Gove and eighteen other western
counties on an equal footing with the older counties in every respect.

  The rest of this chapter is a catalog of names. Herewith we give the names of
those who have held the offices since the county was organized. Those marked
with a star (*) were elected as Populists or Democrats; the others are Republican.

  Representative—J. K. Wickizer, C. H. Towsley, John W. Campbell*, J. B.
McClanahan, I. T. Purcell, R. D. Anderson, John L. Cook, A. J. Sprague*, John
Heckman, James M. Sutcliffe, E. C. Prather*, John F. Jones, George D. Royer, D.
M. Dennis, W. J. Davenport*, George P. Crippen, E. D. Samson, W. P. Harrington*,
A. Yale, Cecil Calvert*.

  County Clerk—D. A. Borah, W. H. Wigington*, W. J. Heiney, C. P. Munns, I. N.
Carver*, T. L. Sturman, C. R. Summers, George H. Thomas*, S. A. Mitchell, E. E.
Baker, Christian L. Ikenberry, W. P. Harrington*, J. L. Mendenhall.

  County Treasurer—F. F. Wright, George S. Dryer*, C. J. Ellithorpe, George S.
Dryer*, A. J. Mitchell, J. F. Mendenhall, J. E. Smith, T. P. McQueen, C. C.
Spiher*, Alex Haney, A. M. Weir, Lloyd J. Tustin*, F. A. Lewis.

  Register of Deeds—L. F. Jones, C. E. Peirce, F. B. Strong, H. A. Spiher*, W.
G. Jones, Martin Sutcliffe, J. M. Denning*, A. E. Osborn*, L. O. Maxwell, J. L.
Mendenhall, E. H. Brown.

  County Superintendent—G. G. Lehmer, D. J. Coy, C. H. Cole, Isaac Smith, W. S.
Kriegh, Ruth Benson, E. L. Wickizer, C. H. Cole, Stella Mather*, J. R. Mohler,
Mrs. Emma C. Sites, Charles D. Wilson*, B. B. Bacon, John F. Lindquist, Ralph C.
Eller, Fred M. Crippen.

  Probate Judge—J. H, Jones, C. E. Hebbard*, A. C. Hennesey*, J. W. Benson,
Jesse Royer, J. M. Tyler, T. U. Moller, John L. Cook, I. B. Peck*, J. N. Turman,
Gus Peterson*, W. T. Snowden, J. H. Orten, L. F. Thomas, Charles Swenson, George
F. Turner*.

  Clerk of the Court—Wm. Murphy, U. W. Oblinger, O. B. Jones, M. A. Lohr, John
L. Cook, James P. Knight, J. A. Wilson,* Jennie E. Benson, E. E. Baker, A. J.
Wiles*, Floyd B. Hazelwood. T. A. Evans, George F. Turner*, C. F. Cook, R. B.
McNay.

  Sheriff—John W. Hopkins, R. C. Bohn, N. E. Terrill, D. C. Blackwill, Gust
Anderson, I. L. Longwell, W. T. McDonald, E. T. Lewis, H. A. Cook, W. T.
McDonald, F. E. Batman*.

  County Attorney—P. J. Cavanaugh, R. C. Jones, J. F. Todd, I. T. Purcell, O. B.
Jones, L. O. Maxwell*. John R. Parsons, E. L. Tustin*, R. H. Thompson, E. F.
Beckner*, R. H. Thompson, J. H. Jenson, R. H. Thompson.

  Coroner—W. H. Crater, D. C. Blackwill, N. F. Davis, John W. Hopkins, J. H.
Fosdick, James M. Sutcliffe, M. B. Smith, J. E. Vanderpool, E. N. Wert, George
Birrer*, N. E. Terrill, O. J. Benson, C. S. Wall, A. M. Weir, George Birrer*, J.
H. Rinehart, C. O. Hoover*, W. H. Reckling. Benj. H. Morris, C. O. Hoover*.

  County Surveyor—F. B. Cope, A. P. Duryea, F. B. Coy, R. H. Samson, L. O.
Maxwell, J. W. Whitmer, J. J. Wolfe, J. H. Sprenger, N. C. Lewis*, A. R.
Livingston, M. A. Lohr, C. W. Brown, W. W. Roberts.

  County Commissioners—J. B. McClanahan, Lyman Raymond, T. M. Stokes, John W.
Campbell*, James Hamilton*, Gus Peterson*, W. J. Heiney, J. H. Redifer, James
Mather, J. S. Muchmore, Alex Haney, J. B. Wertz*, J. W. Wolfe, W. H. Leach, Ben
Jones, M. E. Wilkinson*, George T. Brown, J. W. Purdum*, L. M. Baker, John
Soderstrom, R. H. Holmes, C. G. Crippen, John Rundberg, L. H. Livingston, Alex
Haney, J. F. Harper*, H. W. Gee*, B. L. Tustin*, Hiram Richardson, N. C. Lewis*,
J. W. Butler*, I. N. Carver*, C. C. Morgan*, T. F. Poole, George F. Wilson, T.
H. Simmons, W. F. Bowman, J. H. Flora, W. E. Roesch, J. H. Mather*, J. H. Flora,
R. S. Ikenberry*. T. F. Poole, Carl Knudsen.

  County High School Trustees, 1903 to 1909—George D. Royer, J. M. Sturman, M.
E. Wilkinson*, Hiram Richardson, A. A. Madden, E. C. Prather*, W. E. Bentley, B.
B. Bacon, George F. Wilson, Nels Nordell, Mack White, H. A. Spiher*, H. W. Gee*.


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

Gove City, Kan.	1930

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