Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-11-07
A Question of County Boundaries.

departure from the Democratic faitl.
A Question of County Boundaries.
Inasmuch as there is dispute over
the boundary line between Iron and
Crawford counties, perhaps it would be
well just here to endeavor to explain
the matter fully, though briefly. In
1856 the Missouri legislature passed an
act forming new county to be known
as Iron county. This act defined the
boundary line so as to include sections
%, %, "a, 25, 26, q, "a, S5 and Sc OF
township thirty-five (35), range two
~ west in the new county. The Re-
vised Statutes of 1865, IN defining the
boundary lines of counties, gives the
aforesaid sections to Crawford county
and also to Iron county.
This is the first conflict of statutes.
Now in 1869 the legislature passed an
act changing the northern boundary
lines of Crawford county, and in defin-
ing the other boundary lines of that
county, the line was so changed as to
throw these same sections into Craw-
ford county, and the concluding words
of this 1869 act are as follows: "All
acts or parts of acts inconsistent with
this act are hereby repealed" This
gives Crawford every advantage, be-
cause the last act (that of 1857 gives
the disputed territory to that county
and repeats all former acts. However,
IN the Revised Statutes of 1879, we find
that these nine sections of land are
given to both counties again. Very
few persons in Crawford and no one in
Iron county knew of this conflict of
statutes until last winter, when the
Representative from Crawford intro
duced in the Legislature a bill, defining
the county boundary lines. SO as to in
clude this disputed territory within the
limits of his county. Iron county's
Representative was summoned to ap-
pear before the County Boundary Com
mittee in behalf of his county, and he
ct once offered his objections to the bill
OCCau5C IL was Ill AiACSs NlolotAoh Va
section 4, article TX Constitution Of
Missouri, which reads as follows: mo
part of the territory of any county shall
be stricken eff and added to an adj
question to the qualified voters of the
counties Immediately interested"
Crawford county then claimed
that, under this same section of the
constitution, the legislature of 1879 had
no right 70 give this territory to Iron
county, for the act of 1859 gave it to
Crawford and repealed all former acts
hence that county made its claim
under the 1869 act. The legislature of
1879 was working under our present
constitution, and, therefore, had no
right, as is claimed by Crawf ford coun-
ty, to give the territory to Iron county;
but the legislature of 1869 was work
ing under the old constitution, that OF
1866, which gave that body the power
to change county boundary lines with
out the consent of the people of the
counties concerned.
Iron county then offered further OBJ
jections to the bill by claiming that the
law of 1869 was unconstitutional, for
the reason that clause of the constitu-
ton IF 1865 reads as follows: mo bill
\ shall contain more than one
subject, which shall be clearly express
ed in the title"
On examining this act of 1869 we
find the title of the bill to have been
almost as follows: "An act to change
the northern boundary of Crawford
county by taking a strip from Gas
conade county and adding it to Craw-
ford county," In the title of this bill
there is nothing said about the line be-
tween Crawford and Iron, yet the act
changed the line. gave the nine Sec
tions to Crawford and repealed allform-
er acts.
Notwithstanding all these argu-
ments, the committee reported favor
ably, and the bill was printed. When
it was called up for final passage the
Representative from Iron made a brief
statement, holding that this was strict
ly q judicial question to be decided by
the courts, and one with which the
legislature had no right to interfere, as
the constitutionality of the law was
brought into question.
He furthermore stated that the resi-
dents of these disputed sections had re-
corded deeds, voted and paid taxes in
Iron county since 1856, and that much
trouble might arise if the change should
be made. When the vote was taken,
the bill was defeated, and the matter
now stands just as it was. The new
statutes of 1889 will give this disputed
territory to both counties, but Iron
county exercises jurisdiction over it,.
We presume an effort will be made In
the next legislature to secure this for
Crawford county, but in our opinion it
must go into the courts before 1t is set
tied.
For SAIE-900 Acres land 1v;th H..