The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-05-13
BY HARRY ROOT.

1t was a stubborn fight between At
wood and Brakeman who would win
out in the county seat fight in the
early days of Rawlins county. Some
ancient history of that memorial bic
contest was editorially printed in the
New York Tribune at the time Now
many of the old pioneers nave
passed on who took an active part
in that county seat struggle, IN
which the 3. & NJ railroad and the
Lincoln. Neb.. Land company took
sides with the Brakeman people Your
correspondent visited Atwood several
times during the county seat fight,
and can truthfLny say not = gun was
fired during The struggle. Atwood
won the victory and Brakeman strug-
gled on for a while. and finally went
back to the farm The Tribune was
printing a series of humorous articles
about western Kansas nor did the
writer forget Rawlins county He
wrote his conclusions after reading
Kansas dispa tch printed that day in
his paper about the rival towns of
Atwood and Brakeman That paper
says;
These conclusions are arrived at
from the rea ding of a Kansas dispatch
printed in the Tribune a day or two
ago. 1t seems from this that it is
Rawlins county. in the northwestern
part OF the state. that IS taking the
lead in the new way of settling county
seat difficulties IN LIG county VI
Rawlins there are two enterprising
toTns-Atwood and Brakeman Each
is DESTROYS of being the county capital
Now. the people of Atwood are not
in good financial condition, but, tho
poor in the purse. they are rich IN
heavy repeating rifles and shoot with
great accuracy. and il occurred to the
Brakeman folks that there might be
serious difficulty in settling the coun-
ty-seat question with those poor but
4 ha M ATruon7ffae n Z h
old fashioned Kansas way. They had
also read somewhere that discretion
is the better part of valOr. so they de-
cided on a plan which. as they had
plenty of money seemed to be the best
that could be devised. 1t was nothing
less than to buy all the houses in AT
wood and move them over to Blake
man. They argued that a town with
only name and without a local habi-
tatiOn would have no chance for the
county seat in the approaching cleo
ton Accordingly they raised a pur-
chasing fund by popular subscription.
and began operations The first
building bought was the spaciOu5 resi-
dence of the mayor of Atwood, on Mob
Hill. This cost 5000, and was trotted
across the prairie. with the aid of
twelve mules. in two hours. the mayor
of Brakeman handling the reins from
a chamber window. while the prin-
cipal of the, city schools. a very con-
sentative man. sat astride the ridge
board and blew a large tin horn. Sew
eral other residences were then pur-
chased and moved over. when they
turned their attention for a few days
TO the business houses and public
buildings. The high school was the
first. taken at $3.50. The First Ma
tional bank building was then pur-
chased for SIS. and moved. the Grand
Occidental hotel was hitched behind
Monday morning the postoffice build
ing was taken over. and the same
teams went back and got the leading
dry goods store in the afternoon. We'd
nesday. whiic taking over the Episco-
pal church, l slight delay was caused
by a balky mule, which kicked out
one of the stained glass windows. but
order was restored. and the church
landed in town in time for the mid
week service The next day while
taking over the Baptist church, the
principal of the schools, who was on
the steeple with his horn was nearly
thrown off ly one of the wheels drop
ping into u rut in the road but he
chung to the weather-vane and es-
capped serious injury. The Grand opera
house cat a cost of 5000 was taken
Wednesday afternoon without inter-
fering with the Christmas matinee of
the Garrick,s Uncle Toms Cabin com
pany. two Evas and the Justly famous
quartette of Smith Brothers as Uncle
Tom In short, not to weary the read
er with details. about two-thirds of
the city of Atwood has at the present
writing been transferred to Brakeman
and most of the remaining buildings
have been purchased. There are two
men. however, who may vet defeat