From the Walnut Valley Times, January 19, 1872.
"A new Judicial District, composed of the counties of Greenwood, Howard, Butler, Cowley, Sedgwick, and Sumner, is talked of."
Howard County was in the Eleventh Judicial District at the 1870 organization with the district court at Elk Falls and then at Peru after the county seat changed.
Judge Webb of that court was later indicted for bribery.
The Thirteenth Judicial District came on board three months after the Times observation, convening at Peru and then at Elk Falls after the county seat changed.
Judge Campbell of that court was later forced to withdraw from running for reelection because of general crookedness including, according to Thomas E. Thompson, taking bribes at Elk Falls.
In another case at Elk Falls, he was lenient against a man accused of attempted murder and wound up owning the man's farm.
The Thirteenth District, today, covers Butler, Greenwood, and Elk.