The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-09
How Kansas Towns Will Move
Bodily in One Day.
All Plan to Live on New Line OF
Santa Fe in West.
PRINT PAPER ENROUTE
One Editor VIII Issue Edition
on Flat Wagon.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

1.-THE first Mondays in May, June
July and August. 1912, will be NOV
ing days in southwest Kansas. On
these four days county seat towns will
be packed up on rollers and hauled to
new locations on a Santa Fe line now
building between Dodge City and Col
mar, n. NJ
Former Lieutenant Governor w. J.
FTtzgerald, who has obtained the right
of way for this line through the rail-
roadless counties of southwestern Kan
sas, and which is to be as straight as
a rule for more than 200 miles. was
telling the Santa Fe officials of the
plans now under way for the moving
of four county seats to new sites on
the railroad.
The line is to be completed from
Dodge City to the Colorado-Kansas
line. at the extreme southwest corner
of this state, by October L, next, be-
fore which time the four towns, with
their court houses, jails, churches,
hanks newspaper offices, business
houses and residences are to ne moved
to new locations.
santa Fe, the county seat Of Haskell
county, will move six miles to the
south on the first Monday in May.
one month later New Ulysses, county
seat of Grant county, in one great
procession Will move rs miles TO the
new railroad.
Then in July Hugoton. the county
seat of Stevens county, Will use the
same big moving wagons and tractlon
engines in moving to new ste ~
miles distant In August, Rlchnelo'
county seat of Morton county, the ex-
treme southwest corner county in
Kansas will load it's business houses
and homes onto the big moving out
fits and move eight miles to the rail-
road.
Kansas is as level as a floor, and for
more than loo miles the new cut-on
will be straight as an arrow. IL VIII
be the main line for all through ousl-
ness between Chicago and the Paclhc
coast. and will shorten the present
route nearly 80 miles
1t was a case of two extremes meet
ing when Governor Fitzgerald met
and chatted about moving bodily TOUR
Kansas county seat towns
ct won't be much of a job to do
the moving once the buildings are
packed up and on Wheels Fitzgerald
said.
how to take care of the county bust
ness while the procession is moving !
You know there are lots of things
which the law says must be done at /
the county seat. Lawyers contend that
there is doubt about the legality or
business which would be transacted IN |
the court house while it is on wheels |
and moving
And when the town is moved to the |
new townsite, though it is in the same |
old town. with the same old buildings, |
the same old name and same old peo-
pie, it won't be the same townsite and |
/ don't know whether it can be legal /
county seat until the people take a
vote on it
Notwithstanding these possible legal
complications, the people of Santa re
hac Ia
the new railroad on the first Monday /
in May and the other three county |
seat towns will follow in their turn t
one month later.
ing day a great holiday There VIII be
assembled enough traction engines in
that great prairie section to pull the
buildings of the town all at the same
time Editor ]. F. Pierce. of the Santa
Fe Republican, announces that he Will
print a special edition of his paper on
his old Washington hand press on the
way over to the new location A plat
form will be constructed on wheels, on
which will be installed his entire out
santa Fe has a court house, a town
hall, two newspapers, a school house.
a church. a bank and a dozen good
business houses and probably 30 or
more cottage homes. 1t is the plan
to have every building on wheels ready
for moving, and then to take the whole
town over at the same time, in one
long, spectacular procession, headed
very properly by the town church,
Methodist edifice, the pastor riding in
front.
The two printing offices, the bank,
the town drug store, the other bust
ness houses, and last but not least,
the town garage, would come III order
And trailing along at the end would be
Sheriff Bill Lucas with his empty jail
The moving problem is not disturb
ing New Ulysses, in Grant county Tor
that town is ready for the skids and
rollers and can start the procession
for the new site % miles away on "a
hours notice. Five years ago Ulysses
stood on a site that was heavily mort
gagged to New York and Philadelphia
bondholders. There were less than l.
600 people living in the county, and this
debt of more than 5000 GOO was a
burden the poor settlers could not pay
One night an outfit for moving houses
was landed in Ulysses from Garden