The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1882-03-29
Meagher's County Seat.


Editors of the River, Press:
The news came in last evening from
the White Sulphur Springs, our county seat,
that we are going to have court house forty
by sixty feet and two stories high, to be fin
ished and completed by the first day of next
October This afforded us quite surprise;
and furnished topic for discussion throu5h-
out the valley.
1t is true that at our last election majori-
ty of the legal voters of this county express
ed their wish, by their votes, that they want
ed their court house and other county build
ings to be built at the Springs. We expressed
our opinion at the same time by vote of
four hundred and twenty-one- five
hundred and sixty-two--that the removal of
the county seat was premature. More than
q year has passed away and we believe that
. majority of the voters of the county have
come over to our way of thinking, and the
petition that we spoke of in our last letter
was only circulated around few days be-
fore the meeting of the board of comfy
commissioners.
1t was found, when the names on the diff
erent petitions we're counted, that the number
reached the exact amount of six hundred and
seventeen, which is majority of all the
votes cast a. our last election The official
count of votes cast for Delegate the Cad day
of November, 1880, was one thousand and
one.
am satisfied that had this petition been
circulated two weeks sooner two hundred
more names could have been added to this
list. But. the Commissioners barely spent
time to count the names and pass their judg-
ment upon them as fraud-so il is reported.
1t there was an attempt at fraud as stated
we know that to obtain names without coz
sent is forgery. But If such was the case
the honors are easy. About the time this
petition was put in circulation there appear
ed somewhere notice stating that sealed
proposals would be received to build court
house until March 7th
A very few if any OF the gentlemen VITO
signed the petition ever saw the advertise
ment until after the petitions had all been
mailed, about the first Of March Hat they
seen the notice, and that notice authorized by
| the Board to be published, why the matter
| would have been dropped at once.
| But at no meeting of the Board WAS any
such notice authorized to be published, ana
it did not appear so in the notice. One OF
Board told the writer, before and since the
meeting of the Board, that he knew nor
heard nothing about the notice until he was
shown the notice as pulished Again, in Sep
tember. 1880, petition was circulated which
received something over three hundred sigma
lures, asking the county commissioners 10
call an election for the removal OF the coun-
ty seat from Diamond City to the White Sui
phur Springs They succeeded in getting
barely Il majority of the votes rs polied at
the general election in 1878, although it was
known there WAS thousand votes in the
county of Meagher.
The law requires that petition shall be
presented at least sixty days before the gen.
eral election, when there were but hfty-six
days from the first day of the meeting of
the Board and election day, the BUD day
|
this list just the same a. they appeared on the
, last petition. 1t is strange that no fraud has
, ever been found in Meagher county until
, within a month ago.
r During court week at Radersburg the Dep
, uty Sheriff of jefferson county made sever
5 al trips over here in our valley sumnonins
Witnesses We are first pulled one way and
s then the other. Perhaps when the now sub
] stantial bridge gives way in theriver we will
: know where we belong, as the county line
will be more visible. Some of these queer
happenings are about as legal as the other,
MIR. Tai. Reed, a Deputy Sheriff OF
Meagher county, is paving our valley an
official visit, summoning jurors for the next
Springs on April 4th, next.
There was quite an exciting time here yes
terday at the races. Four horses was entered
tor the six hundred yard race, for u purse of
punched up as it were, Mr.. Birch's horse
winning the race by five feet.
The social hop given by the dancing club
on the night of the nth, at Tlerney's Hall,
was pleasant social affair. The hall is
forty by forty-six feet in the clear and
pleasantly situated. The travelling public
or visitors will always find as good accom-
mediation at Canton as anywhere in the Ter
itory. r.