Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-05-09
Graphical Centers.

Fold your map of the United States
from top to bottom and then across, and
the intersection of the creases thus
made will mark the spot where, on q
gentle eminence overlooking the placid
Republican River, with the great mill
tary post of Fort Riley to the left and
the spires of Junction City, Kan,
peeping above the distant tree tops to
the right, stands the simple shaft erected
to the memory of Major E. A. Ogden,
the hero of the cholera plague in 1866.
Here, also, according to the govern
ment surveys, is the geographical center
OF the Union. Though the government
has fixed it, and correctly, there. this
same geographical center seems pos
sessed of the instability ofthe legendary
Irishman's flea, and manipulated by
enterprising boomers, hops from one
locality to another with surprising
ease.
No sooner does a settlement fancy it.
self stricken with the symptoms of q
coming boom than it begins to examine
itself for the attributes of greatness.
Prospects for securing a railroad: or the
county seat, indications of petroleum in
the creek or of coal underlying the
town, the expected visit of some bar
gain-hungry capitalists, exemp ions
from cyclones, water nasty tasting
enough to be suspected of medicinal
properties-all these are looked for,
and in many cases, failing to find them.
the settlement straightway proudly an
nounce that it is the geographical
center of the United States.
The latest center is located at Cos
mopolis, Oklahoma. The discovery of
its proximity was made by Col. Fergu-
son Pride, the enterprising real estate
dealer, and was announced by him in a
stirring speech in Hooks general store.
It mattered little to him that several
other settlements in Oklahoma, includ-
ing New Jerusalem, farther up the
creek, also proudly boosted of being
that same center, as had, at different
times, about every ambitious settlement
in eastern Kansas and southern Ne
braska.
The center in question would strike
exactly on Col. Pride's lot, corner of
Broadway and Shinnewampus avenue,
if the eastern half Of Maine and the
greater part of the Michigan peninsula
were pared off from the map. They
could be we'll spared, for, as far as the
Colonel could learn, the first produced
only Goldfish or something and the latter
little but copper. Cottonwood sawdust
would do as we'll as cod in fsh-balls and
no sel~f-respecting citizen ever used cop
per bullets, at least Col. Pride had
snever heard of any,"
Other arguments, equally as convinc-
ing, were advanced by the speaker, and,
with one exception, all present we're
unanimous in allowing that the Colonel
was correct. The single objector, a
gentleman from New Jerusalem, was
convinced by the arguments as far as
they applied to Oklahoma in general,
but vas of the opinion that they clearly
showed that New Jerusalem and not
Cosmopolis was the geographical center.
Objection and objector withdrawn at
the same time, leaving the center of the
Union behind.
At last accounts it was still at Cos.
mopolis, thoughthe celestial city proud,
boosted of having one just as good
But, filled with the faith that will move
mountains, the enterprising boomers o
some other locality will soon move tn
geographical center of the Union some
where else.-Tom p. Morgan. IN Nes
York Meyc2LTU.