Baxter Springs news., 1918-08-09

lizing 1t, began in the summer Of 1866
Indians had transferred the CherOke,
d States, as noted in a former chapter
boundary Of the county had been de
tently into this country that something
organization. In 1862 the Legislature
'ganization of new counties, where con-
but, on account Of the trouble between
ames F. Joy pertaining to land titles,
eR DELAYED
w. Wallace, U. G. Ragsdale and B. F.
Norton; Probate Judge D. c. Finn;
Sheriff, H. B. Brown; district clerk,
F. NJ. Logan; county superintendent,
Sidney S. Smith; county attorney, j.
A. Smith; coroner, ]. Miller; county
surveyor, C. w. Jewell. II will be seen
from this list of officers elected that
| d. C. Finn was elected both as Pro-
bate Judge and as representative of
the county, in the state Legislature. 1t
will also be seen that i. NJ. Logan
was elected both as district clerk and
as register of deeGs. At that time the
election law did not require that tick
cts be printed at public expense, and
anyone could write or print his ticket.
Candidates were voted for without
much preference for their nominal
tions; often they We're not nominated
ut all; whoever received the highest
number Of votes for any office, wheth-
er nominated for that office or not
was duly elected to the same; and at
that time when the population of the
county was sparce, and the duties Of
the offices light, one person was al
lowed to hold two offices, if elected
to both. The whole number of votes
cast ut the election that year (1S66)
was 321.
OF the county officers elected at the
general election of 1866, as far as !
know, d. C. Finn, William Little and
J. A. Smith are the only ones living.
Finn and Little live in Columbus,
while Smith lives at Girard, Crawford
county, Kansas. The whereabouts of
all the others cannot be learned; It
is certain that none of them are liv-
ing in the county if living at all.
Among the record of the proceed
ings of the county commissioners at
their July session, 1867, may be found
the following account of William Ma
theny, "for assisting the county attor-
ney in the prosecution of jeff Davis,
$25." William Matheny is remember
ed by many of the old settlers. He
was perhaps the first lawyer that set
tied at Baxter Springs and he repre-
sented the county in the state senate
early in its history. The record also
shows that the fee-bill covering the
services of the grand jury, "at the last
session of the court" was allowed
$77.60. ]. A. Smith was then the
county attorney, and at that session
of the commissioners he was allowed
$75 for prosecuting jeff Davis. Who
Davis was, and the crime for which
he was prosecuted, will appear when
we come to chapters covering matters
of that kind.
,hical history OF Cherokee county.
reek and Fly Creek are the principal
osho river on the west, while Cow
rush Creek flow into Spring river on
eastern parts of the county there are
ter. Before leaving this part of the
of the soils of the county
owing of small fruits of all kinds, in
soils are of various depths, varying
the higher ridges to the dark sandy
bottoms. In the eastern part Of the
Of the red clay soils Of Southwestern
to the growing of apples, pears and
prairie of the county. Like almost
E county has some sections much rich
arly true that there is not a district
ltly non-productive the soil, but what
the slightest efforts to increase the