The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-03-15
state which does not render unto
Caesar the things which be Caesars"
Moaunn.uTs Co. E.rsas Col dfars

state which does not render unto
Caesar the things which be Caesars"
Monuments for Kansas Soldiers
By an act of congress approved Au-
gust 10, 1890, provision was made for
the purchase of 1000 acres of land in
Tennessee and Georgia, to be known as
the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Ma
tional Military park for the purpose of
preserving and suitably marking, for
historic and professional military
study, of the fields of some of the most
remarkable maneuvers and most bril-
liant fighting in the war of the rebel
lion, in which Kansas troops won dis
tinguished honors. The same act pro-
vides that the authorities of any
state having troops engaged either at
Chattanooga or Chickamauga may
mark the lines of battle of
troops engaged therein by monuments
or tablets, or any way the state may
desire.
By the provisions of house bill No.
pol, the Kansas legislature appro-
priated 5000 for the erection of monu-
ments in memory of the Kansas sol
diers engaged in these two battles
The Eighth Kansas, especially, made
F., themselves famous at Chickamauga,
losing more than any other regiment
engaged in the fight. The bill appro-
priating the money for monuments,
also provides for a commission to su-
perintend the erection of the same. and
provided that the commission should
consist of three Kansas soldiers who
took part in the battles. Gov. Morrill,
appointed as the commissioners: Col
J. L. Alternately, Leavenworth; Maj.
Sol X. Washer, htchison; Hon. G. w.
johnson, Seneca; Leonard Aker,
Liberal; J. +. Starns, Sabetha.
Hon. G. w. johnson, of Seneca, and
Leonard Aker. of Liberal. are members
of the house of representatives.
| Kansas Irrigation.
The matter of irrigation will not be
mere theory in Kansas any longer.
1t will be a matter of actual expert
ment, during the coming year, or so
much of an experiment as $4,000 will
provide for This is the amount APP
propriated by the legislature for irriga-
ton purposes. The law making the
appropriation provides for a commits
sion of five Kansans. The governor
appoints three of this commission and
the law appoints the president of the
state agricultural college-Prof. Fair
child-and Prof. Haworth, the professor
of geology at the Kansas state uni
versity. The law also provides that
the commissioners shall receive from
the state their actual expenses while
engaged in the work Of superintending
the irrigation experiments. The money
appropriated is to be expended by the
commissioners in obtaining geo.
logical surveys of the western
part of the state, in making
maps of the same, and establishing eX-
detrimental stations and sinking not
less than twenty wells at different
points in the irrigation district. The
state senate at first appropriated SlO,-
600 for irrigation, and the lower house
appropriated $4,000. The two houses
were not able to agree-through their
conference committees-until near the
compromise was agreed upon and
passed both branches without opposi-
ton. 1t is believed that the commits
sioners will sink the twenty wells, or
the majority of them at least, in the
twenty extreme western counties. The
friends of the irrigation theory are
anxious that more than twenty wells
shall be sunk, and if the appropriation
warrants it, the commissioners will
make the number fifty.
Historical Townslte Vacated.
BY act of this session of the legisla-
ture one of the most interesting his
torical townsites in Kansas was de-
clared vacated, and during the coming
summer Kansas corn and Kansas sun
flowers will wave upon the spot where
once one of the most notorious Kansas
politicians lost his life and from whence
one of the most famous political
scandals of the states history orig
mated. This is the old townsite of
-WOodsdale, in Stevens county. About
six years ago a bitter rivalry
sprung up between the citizens
of Woodsdale and Hugoton, in
Stevens county, each of them
flourishing little towns, for the loca-
ton of the county seat. Hon. Samuel
n. Wood, who had been prominent in
Kansas politics for years, was the
founder of Woodsdale, and the leader
of the Woodsdale faction. In the sum-
mer of 1891 he was shot down in cold
blood at the courthouse door after a
quarrel resulting from this county seat
fight. Out of the same quarrel arose
the Impeachment proceedings against
Judge Theo. Botkin, who was tried by
the Kansas senate, but was acquitted.
This trial and the murder of Wood
marks famous epoch in the history
of Kansas politics. House bill 1876,
which became a law, vacates the town
site of Woodsdale, and its name will
only remain in the memory of Kansans
from the public records of the state,
which tells the story of its brief but
tragical existence.
Judicial Districts Abolished.
The judicial apportionment bill, in
troduced and championed by Hon. II.
J. Bone, of the lower house, became a
law after long discussion, passing the
senate by close vote in the closing
hours of the session. The bill does not
materially alter the judicial districts
in the eastern part of the state, as they
have existed under the old law. In
the western part of the state, however,
the boundary line of nearly every dis
trict was changed, and six judicial dis
tricts were abolished entirely. This
reduction is in line of Gov. Nor
rilrs recommendation in his message.
These districts were created at a time
rhnn Kansas ,raS in the r,nidSt a ho,-