Division Talk

[W. Gray]

From the Elk Falls Howard County Ledger, May 6, 1875, talking about the upcoming June 1, 1875, division of Howard County:

The [Howard City] Censorial of last week calls the attention of its readers to the near approach of the time when "the county officers will remove to Howard City," and says:

"At present there is no building or buildings in the town, suitable for that business that can be secured; and it is a plain fact, there will have to be some built between this and the first day of June—and who is going to do it?"

Our advice is that the people of Howard need not hurry very much in this matter. According to the terms of the law, (so called,) by which you expect to get the county seat, the new county of Elk will only have three or four officers and they will hold simply honorary positions, as they will not have a solitary book, paper, or piece of furniture. Chautauqua takes everything and leaves the people of Elk with nothing in the world but a lot of delinquent taxes.

However, Bro. Doud [Censorial Editor], stir up the people "of the new county seat," and get them to build all the houses possible—you may need them. Besides it makes things lovely while the work of building is in progress.





In one respect, the Elk Falls editor is unhappy that Howard City is looking to be the new county seat of the new county of Elk, transferring that title from Elk Falls to Howard City. On the other hand, he is sarcastic because he "knows" the Kansas Supreme Court will overturn the division legislation as many people in the legal profession also believed. In September 1875, an ex-Kansas State Attorney General and an ex-Kansas Territorial Governor argued at the Kansas Supreme Court that the legislature's division of Howard County was unconstitutional. They lost.

The Elk Falls editor moved his newspaper to Howard City at the end of the following year. He eventually merged into the Howard Courant.