Governor Osborn and Howard County

[W. Gray]

Kansas City Journal, February 5, 1898, concerning Thomas A. Osborn former governor of Kansas who was also a U.S. ambassador to Chile and to Brazil. Osborn died suddenly the day previous at age 61 in Pennsylvania, where he had gone to visit relatives in his hometown. His body was returned to Topeka for burial.




This is the first I have heard that the county records were also in Sumner County although it seems logical. The records were kept on the move by a Boston lawyer and some other Bostonians in the Flint Hills, particularly in Cowley and Butler counties. Camping from place to place, they advised anyone who inquired that they were looking at unclaimed land for which they could file. A young Thomas E. Thompson was one of the Boston citizens who voluntarily resupplied the group on a weekly basis.

The records were not stolen at night as mentioned but were taken in a broad daylight raid around 10 am on a Tuesday morning.

After several attempts were made to get the county property back including visits to the county by the Kansas attorney general and adjutant general, the conclusion was that only state force would end the problem.

Osborn requested and received $5,000 from the legislature to call up the state militia for a march on Boston. He went to Elk Falls to observe and oversee the fighting, but Boston gave in to the show of force.

Boston then went to the courts and lost there, also. In 1879, the Boston post office moved to Moline.

[upoladeb]

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