Arthur County NeArchives History .....Organization Of County Attacked September 16, 1913
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Debra Crosby http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00010.html#0002467 April 29, 2018, 7:16 pm

The Lincoln Star Tues Sep 16, 1913

      ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY ATTACKED

    McPherson County Questions Right of
         Arthur to Organize

Claims Election of 1901 Merged it --Suit is
                Brought

   Quo warranto suit to determine whether Arthur 
county was legally detached from McPherson county 
and organized under a separate government, under
and act passed by the legislature of 1913, has
been started in the supreme court by Attorney
General Martin. The proceedings were begun at the
instance of W. V. Hoagland of North Platte, state
senator from Lincoln county, as attorney for 
citizens of McPherson county, who object to the
separation of Arthur county therefrom and the
consequent loss of tax revenue by the former.
   The defendants in the case are the officers
recently elected in Arthur at the time the new
government was organized there. They are J. R.
Hawkins, Fred Heath, M. G. Twidwell, George
Cullinan, A. J. Staples O.D. Williams, Theron
Hecht, Kinnie Krause, C. H. Collins and E. F.
Stoddard.
   These officers will be called upon to show
in the supreme court by what legal authority Arthur
county was organized and they were elected. They
have consented to the filing of the quo warranto
proceedings in the name of the attorney general,
as that was the only way the case could be started
in the supreme court. All of the interested parties
are anxious to get a decision as soon as possible on
the status of Arthur county.
      Consolidated by Popular Vote.
  It is the claim of the McPhersn county citizens
that in 1891 the people of that county and of Arthur
county voted to consolidate the two under the name
of the former. Their theory is that the total area
of the two counties thus became merged in one, and
that McPherson county as it has since existed could 
not be divided in two except by a vote of the 
people of the whole county, which has not been had.
  The bill passed by the legislature providing for
a separate government in Arthur county was enacted
on the recommendation of the code commision. The
commission treated the area within the boundaries
of Arthur couonty as unorganized territory, where-
as, according to the objectors, that territory
belonged to McPherson county and could not be
legally separated therefrom by legislative act.
   Arthur county separatists contend that there
were irregularities in the 1893 election which
rendered the consolidation void. The other side
claims that inasmuch as nobody disputed the
validity of the election during a period of twenty
years it should be held as of full force and effect.
   Charles E. Foster, secretary of an association
formed in McPherson county to resist the cutting
off of  Arthur county, was instrumental in having
the suit brought.

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