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Winfield Controversies
The settlement of Cowley County commenced in 1869 before the treaty for the removal of the Indians was made and before there was any survey of the lands or any steps taken to open these lands up for settlement. Settlers coming in made claims of 160 acres each and improved them. These claims were afterward secured to these settlers by law.
The survey of Cowley County was completed by U. S. Deputy Surveyors O. F. Short and Angell in January 1871.
The first claimant to land that later became Winfield, Kansas was E. C. Manning, who came to Marysville, Kansas, as a printer in 1859. He returned in 1861 to Marysville with his family, where he served as postmaster and Colonel of a militia regiment for frontier protection. He served one term in 1863 as a state senator from Marysville, moving in 1863 to Manhattan, Kansas, where he published a newspaper for two years. In 1868 he was appointed as a secretary of the Kansas Senate. In 1869 he became a partner of T. H. Baker, a politician from Augusta, Butler County, Kansas. The Baker-Manning partnership secured a trading license enabling them to trade with the Osage Indians and settlers; as a result, they wrested control from C. M. Wood, unaware of the need to secure a license. In 1869 Baker paid Wood to build a log cabin in which E. C. Manning became the resident trader for the Baker-Manning partnership.
Upon the arrival of Col. Manning in December 1869, Mr. A. A. Jackson, who came with him, proceeded at once to claim 160 acres in the northeast quarter of section 28.
In January 1870 E. C. Manning built a balloon framed structure at the corner of Manning and 8th, and was joined by his family on March 10, 1870. What afterwards became the Winfield town site was then known as his claim. The survey showed that E. C. Manning’s claim was the northwest quarter of section 28, township 32, south of range 4 east.
A. Menor and H. C. Loomis laid claims on the south half of the same section; C. M. Wood and W. W. Andrews claimed the half section next north.
Each of these claimants proceeded to occupy and improve his claim, and had as good a right to his claim as any man had on this reserve. Each had the undisputed right to prove up and enter his claim when the land should be ready to be offered.
Winfield Town Company.
About January 10, 1870, these several parties and others formed the project of making a town site. A town company was formed and Manning was to give the town company a certain 40 acres of his claim when he had entered it, for which the company was to pay one-half of the expense of building the old log store. Jackson, Wood, Andrews, Loomis, and Menor were all to sell portions of their claims to the town company at about seven dollars per acre, so that in the aggregate the town site would be 160 acres.
In February 1870 T. H. Baker moved from Douglass to Augusta, Butler, County, Kansas, making that the headquarters of the Baker-Manning partnership.
In August 1870 D. A. Millington and J. C. Fuller came to Winfield. According to Mr. Millington, A. A. Jackson was then “off the track,” denying having agreed to sell any part of his claim, stating that he never would sell any of it to the Winfield Town Company. The matter was settled by Millington and Fuller paying Jackson $1,000 in cash for his claim. The Winfield Town Company held a claim of forty acres in the northeast quarter of Manning’s claim. A town site wholly controlled by them made it a different ownership. This made it necessary to create a new corporation.
Winfield Town Association.
E. C. Manning, J. C. Fuller, and D. A. Millington formed themselves with J. M. Alexander of Leavenworth, T. H. Johnson, the first attorney in Cowley County, T. H. Baker of Augusta, and some others into another company, called the “Winfield Town Association,” and joined another 40 acres in the southeast quarter of Manning’s claim with the west 80 acres (half of Fuller’s claim), as the property of the association. This land, added to the Winfield Town Company’s 40 acres, made a town site of 160 acres, in square form, and D. A. Millington, who was then the only surveyor and engineer settled in the county, surveyed this town site off into blocks and lots, streets and alleys.
Winfield Town Site Controversy.
On October 24, 1878, in refuting statements that the Winfield town site had been stolen by Manning and others, D. A. Millington stated the following: “The two companies proceeded to give away lots to persons who would improve and occupy them, to other persons who would work for the benefit of the town in any way, and for other purposes to benefit the town. More than one-third, and nearly one-half of the lots in value, were given to occupants, to stage companies to induce stage service to Winfield, for services in and outside of Winfield, for churches, schools, courthouse and jail, and for other public purposes. The two companies paid out in the aggregate more than five thousand dollars in cash for the general benefit of the town site in various ways, aside from buildings for personal use.
“The plan that had been adopted to secure the erection of buildings in Winfield was to contract to give a deed of the lot built upon free, and the adjoining lot at value, when the said Manning and Fuller should be able to enter their claims at the U. S. land office. It was intended and expected that when the land office should be opened, Manning and Fuller should each enter his entire claim, and then deed the 40 acres of town site to the town company, and the 120 acres to the town association, and these corporations should then deed the improved lots to the owners of the improvements, and sell them the adjoining lots at value. Such entries and dispositions had been made in the cases of the town sites of Wichita and Augusta, and it was considered the true way in such cases.
“In nearly all the other town sites of the state made before entry, the original claimants entered the land and then deeded to the occupants, town companies, and others, according to previous agreement, and that was originally the intention with regard to this town site, but the commissioner of the general land office had made a ruling in the case of this reserve, that the claimant must, before entering, subscribe an oath, that he had not sold or agreed to sell or otherwise dispose of, any part of the claim he proposed to enter, and though this ruling was clearly outside of law and the oath if taken would not be an oath at all in fact (as afterwards decided by the courts) yet Manning and Fuller did not like to conform to it as others were doing. They, therefore, procured the probate judge of the county to enter the town site under the town site laws, and then each entered the other 80 acres of his claim in his own name.”
During the spring of 1871, new buildings continued to be built on the town site, stores and shops were filled, and dwellings occupied. During this time the occupants of the town site began to get restless, and demanded that the companies should give them more lots free. Some urged that the companies had no more right to the town site than anyone else, and that all the unimproved lots legally belonged to the owners of the improved lots, to be divided pro rata. These disaffected parties became so numerous as to embrace a great portion of the seventy-two owners of buildings on the town site.
They procured the service of a great land lawyer of Columbus, Amos Sanford, made an assessment, and collected money to carry out their measures. They held meetings in which exciting speeches were made against the two corporations, and were prepared, at a moments notice, when the land office was open, to rush in and enter the town site, through the Probate Judge, who should distribute the lots to the inhabitants, according to their theory. Thus commenced the famous Winfield town site controversy.
“Long Ears.”
Long after the crucial date of July 10, 1871, when the U. S. Land Office at Augusta, Kansas, opened for land claimants in Cowley County, E. C. Manning wrote the following.
“It took a long time to plat the surveys, send them to Washington for approval, and return the copies to the local land office at Augusta in Butler County, thirty-two miles distant. But the Winfield Town Company had long ears, and one of those ears was laying very close to the Land office building in Augusta on July 9, 1871, when the plats arrived.”
The “long ears” mentioned probably refers to Manning’s old partner, T. H. Baker, who became the duly-elected Representative from Butler County on February 9, 1871, after a contested case between Baker and L. S. Friend. This case was mentioned numerous times in the Walnut Valley Times, a newspaper printed at Eldorado [later El Dorado], Kansas. On February 17, 1871, Editor T. B. Murdock wrote the following.
“On last Thursday, February 9th, the House of Representatives declared that L. S. Friend, after having served as Representative from this County for thirty days, was not entitled to the seat on account of fraudulent voting and drunkenness of judges of the Eldorado precinct at the election on the 8th of November, and that T. H. Baker was the duly-elected Representative from this county. Our readers are all aware that this contest case was a one-sided affair throughout, and that no attempt was made to prove that illegal votes were cast at any but the Eldorado precinct. We do not object to the proceedings of the House with the testimony before it, but we claim that a committee should have been granted Mr. Friend, with power to investigate the whole affair and find out if any frauds and corruption were practiced at other voting precincts in the County.”
Probate Judge Ross.
In 1871 Thomas Benton Ross, a Methodist minister, was the Probate Judge in Cowley County, having been elected on November 8, 1870. Millington, Fuller, and Manning informed Judge Ross that they wanted him to leave with them on Sunday afternoon in order to be in Augusta early Monday morning, July 10, 1871, when the land became subject to entry at the land office at Augusta. Judge Ross refused, but told them to drive to his claim three miles northwest of Winfield, where he would leave with them one minute after twelve o’clock. They arrived at Augusta early Monday morning, ahead of the Arkansas City delegation, and had Winfield declared the temporary county seat. The Winfield town site was the first entry in Cowley County. They then entered the other 80 acres of their own claim and returned to Winfield. During the next night a group of dissatisfied citizens went up in considerable force to enter the town site and learned that they were too late.
After the Land Entry.
After the land entry, Judge Ross appointed W. W. Andrews, H. C. Loomis and L. M. Kennedy as Commissioners, under the law, to set off to the occupants of the Winfield town site the lots to which they were entitled, according to their respective interests.
The time of the meeting was advertised, and all parties met on September 20, 1871. The two town companies presented to the Commissioners a list of the lots, showing what lots were improved, and who were entitled to them, and showing that the vacant lots were the property of the two companies respectively. The citizens spoke only through their lawyer, Amos Sanford, and demanded that the vacant lots should be divided up among the occupants in proportion to the value of their buildings. After a full hearing, the three Commissioners decided according to the schedule of the two town companies, and Judge Ross immediately executed deeds accordingly.
This decision was accepted by a large part of the citizens, who, to prevent further trouble, executed quit claim deeds of all the vacant lots to the two town companies.
A New Entity Under an Old Name.
On January 13, 1872, another “Winfield Town Company” was organized with E. C. Manning, president; W. W. Andrews, vice president; C. M. Wood, treasurer; W. G. Graham, secretary; E. C. Manning, J. H. Land, A. A. Jackson, W. G. Graham, and J. C. Monforte, directors, and the foregoing named persons with T. H. Baker, S. S. Prouty, Thos. Moonlight, and H. C. Loomis, corporators; and that the object of this corporation was “to lay out a town site on the rolling prairie east of the Walnut River and south of Dutch Creek, the same being in Cowley County and embracing the particular forty acres of land on which the residence of E. C. Manning is situated, with the privilege of increasing the area of the town site as soon as practicable.”
Suit: Enoch Maris et al, Plaintiffs, Versus Winfield Town Co., Defendants.
W. H. H. Maris became a partner of Frank A. Hunt (first hardware dealer and first Sheriff of Cowley County) in October 1870 in erecting a dry goods store located on Broadway, three doors north of Hunt’s hardware store. By May 1871 F. A. Hunt and W. H. H. Maris dissolved their partnership. W. H. H. Maris and his brother, Enoch Maris, started a new business, Maris & Co., which handled groceries and provisions on the corner of Main Street and 8th Avenue. The Maris & Co. wholesale and retail house started advertising in July 1871 that their address was No. 171 Main Street in Winfield, Kansas.
The partnership of Enoch and W. H. H. Maris in the firm of Maris & Co. was dissolved on September 20, 1872, W. H. H. Maris continuing the business at the old stand. This was brought about by Enoch Maris, A. A. Jackson, and others commencing a suit in the district court of Cowley County through their lawyer, Amos Sanford, to set aside the deeds from the Probate Judge to the two Winfield companies as void.
The civil action brought by Enoch Maris and others was at first thrown out of court on demurrer by Judge Webb. It was tried again on demurrer before Judge W. P. Campbell of the 13th Judicial Court, who overruled the demurrer, and promptly rendered judgment for the plaintiffs. The case was carried to the Supreme Court of Kansas and was heard by the Supreme Court of Kansas at the January term in 1873, which reversed the judgment of the court below and remanded the suit for further proceedings. On April 9, 1873, the Supreme Court of Kansas ruled that the judgment of the court below should be reversed with cost, and commanded that the judgment of the Supreme Court should be executed according to law the said petition in error to the contrary notwithstanding.
Many of the newspapers in Kansas misunderstood the Supreme Court ruling on the Winfield Town Company issue and thought that the plaintiffs had won. On Saturday, May 14, 1873, the Topeka newspaper, The Commonwealth, stated: “The decision of the supreme court in the Cowley County case reached here last night, and threw the whole town into consternation, as this decision makes the deed of the mayor to the town company illegal and void, and of course all deeds of the town company are also void. This will, however, be an advantage to the town, as the people here will take it into their own hands, and people will get lots much cheaper, and those here will quit paying money to a town company that never had any title to the lots or town.”
On August 7, 1873, a suit by Enoch Maris et al versus the Winfield Town Company was dismissed. Another case was commenced by ten of those who had quit-claimed, ran the course of the courts, and failed in the end.
Enoch Maris was one of people in Winfield who organized Adelphi Lodge, A. F. and A. M., on October 1870, and was an officer for many years. He served on the first board of trustees of the Presbyterian Church in Winfield, which was organized on January 19, 1873. Enoch was a veteran who served with Company F, 4 U. S. Cavalry. He assisted in organizing the Cowley County Soldiers’ Association. He also entered into business with others in building a drug store in Winfield. Mr. Maris departed from Winfield in August 1875 and started a lumberyard in El Dorado, Kansas.
It is interesting to note all the changes that took place in one part of the central district of Winfield. At the beginning of 1873 W. H. H. Maris was the owner of a dry goods store, situated on the southwest corner of Main Street and 8th Avenue. In February 1877 Maris began constructing a stone building, two stories high, 25 by 100 feet in size, to replace his old wooden structure. J. B. Lynn and Warren Gillelen, partners, moved into the Maris’ building in September 1877. Chas. C. Black purchased the building from Mr. Maris in January 1880.
North of the Maris’ dry goods store was a lot containing the old Winfield Town Company building. J. C. Fuller removed this building in April 1873. On this lot a building was constructed in April 1876 that became the butcher shop of Gragg & Searl. In April 1877 James Allen was in charge of the Peoples’ Meat Market. In February 1879 Lofland & Gale were in charge of the “Black Front Cash Grocery” north of Maris’ dry goods store.
On the lot north of the Lofland & Gale grocery was a drug store owned by A. H. Green, a Winfield attorney. Green began to tear out the old front of his building in January 1873 when Enoch Maris and Dr. W. G. Graham secured it. [The next steps taken by Enoch Maris, reported by the Winfield Courier, are hard to follow as no mention of Dr. Graham is made. On February 15, 1873, the paper reported that Maris and Blandin had just opened a stock of drugs and toilet articles. This was followed by an article on March 13, 1873, that referred to Maris & Baldwin at the new drug store.] When the building of the drug store was completed in October 1873, there were three partners: Enoch Maris, of Winfield; B. F. Baldwin and O. F. Carson, both of Cherryvale. Mr. Carson departed in November 1874, moving back to Cherryvale, Kansas, where he was nominated in 1876 for Representative of the 47th district in Montgomery, Kansas. Mr. Baldwin became sole owner of the drug store on August 5, 1875, when Enoch Maris departed for El Dorado, Kansas.
B. Frank Baldwin.
B. F. Baldwin, from Illinois, was twenty-four years of age when he departed with his goods in a wagon from Cherryvale to Winfield in 1873. Besides running his drug store, he served as city clerk, school board clerk, and township treasurer. His younger brother, George Albert, came to Winfield on December 16, 1875, and helped him at the drug store, living at the Central Hotel, until he died at the age of sixteen on January 12, 1877, from pneumonia.
Mr. B. Frank Baldwin became a charter member and treasurer of the Winfield lodge of the “Knights of Honor,” established on February 20, 1877. The Winfield lodge was the first one started in Kansas. A secret society, it promoted the interests and welfare of its members, establishing a widows’ and orphans’ benefit fund that paid $2,000 on the death of a member.
In March 1878 Mr. Baldwin became quite ill and began to experience health problems that persisted. In June he sold his drug store to Messrs. Henry Brown and Quincy A. Glass.
Mr. Baldwin went to Texas with C. M. Scott and began to get better. In October 1878 he became cashier for the Citizens’ Bank at Winfield. In November that year he again became very ill. In April 1879 Baldwin became the vice president of the Winfield Bank after it consolidated with the Citizens’ Bank and assisted with plans to erect a brick building on the lot occupied by the Winfield Bank.
Plagued with continued bad health, Mr. Baldwin began to travel to different places in hopes of getting better. In May 1880 he journeyed to Colorado. He sent for his wife in August 1880 after settling for some time in Colorado Springs. They later moved to Silver Cliff, Colorado, where Mr. Baldwin began to experience good health and purchased a cattle ranch, which he rented for nearly $2,000 a year. He became involved in civic duties and in 1882 was elected as a representative from Custer County, Colorado.
Henry Brown and Quincy A. Glass.
Henry Brown and Quincy A. Glass came from different backgrounds. Henry Brown was a survivor of the Quantrill raid of Lawrence due to the inventiveness of some women who hid him from view. After living at Lawrence for seventeen years, Henry Brown moved to Pueblo, Colorado. He was about forty-eight years of age when he moved to Winfield with his wife, Charlotte, and son, Lewis. Mr. Quincy A. Glass, about twenty-nine years of age, was an experienced druggist who lived in Chicago, Illinois, before coming to Winfield with his wife, Mary. The Brown-Glass partnership, started in June 1878, dissolved in January 1880. Glass started another drug store in the south part of Winfield.
In March 1880 Henry Brown sold his residence on 10th Avenue to the school board, which erected the second ward schoolhouse on the quarter block owned by Mr. Brown.
In April 1881 Henry Brown and his son, Lewis, owners of Brown & Son drug store, purchased the property north of their drug store from Mrs. Whitehead, who was running a boarding house. They removed the frame house and proceeded to erect a two-story building with basement that was 23 feet by 77 feet. It was announced that Winfield stone would be used with a brick front, iron columns, and plate glass. Before the building was finished at 805 Main Street, Winfield, Kansas, part of which was maintained as the family residence, Brown & Son paid around $4,000. In January 1873 S. H. Myton operated a hardware store at this location on the west side of Main Street, two doors north of the Log Store in Winfield.
D. F. Best moved his stock of sewing machines into the building formerly occupied by Brown & Son in September 1881 after the Brown family moved into their new quarters.
Winfield Incorporated Into a City of the Third Class.
In the matter of the application of the majority of the electors of the unincorporated town of Winfield, in the county of Cowley, and state of Kansas, to be incorporated into a city of the third class, under the laws in such case made and provided.
Whereas, a petition to me presented, duly signed by a majority of the electors of said town of Winfield, setting forth:
1. The metes and bounds of said town to be as follows, to-wit: Beginning at a point 80 rods east of the n w corner of the n w qr of sec 23 t 32, south of r 4 east, thence s to the n line of the s w qr of said sec, thence s 1 deg, e 1900 feet, thence e 1309 ft. to the centre line, thence n on said center line 1884 feet to the n e corner of the s w qr of said section, thence e 80 rods, thence n to the n line of said qr, to a point 1 chain and 10½ links e of the n w cor of said qr, thence n 1 deg w 19 chs, thence w 1 ch and 21 links, thence s along the line between s e and s w qr sections of 21, 19 chs to the s e corner of the s e qr of sec 21, thence w 80 rods to the place of beginning.
2. That said town contains a population of about six hundred inhabitants.
3. That said petition contains a prayer to be incorporated as a city of the third class. And, if appearing to my satisfaction that a majority of the taxable inhabitants of said town are in favor of such incorporation, and that the number of the inhabitants of said town exceeds two hundred and fifty, and does not exceed two thousand, therefore:—
I, W. P. Campbell, Judge of the 13th Judicial District of the State of Kansas, being further satisfied that the prayer of the petitioners, in said petition, is reasonable, do hereby order and declare said town incorporated as a City of the Third Class, by the name and style of THE CITY OF WINFIELD, according to the metes and bounds aforesaid, and according to the law in such case made and provided:
And it is by me further ordered that, the first election in said City, for City officers, shall be held at the LAW OFFICE OF SUITS & WOOD, in said City, on the 7th day of March, A. D., 1873. And I hereby designate W. M. Boyer, D. A. Millington, and J. P. Short, to act as judges of said election, and J. W. Curns and J. M. Dever to act as Clerks of said election, and also, A. A. Jackson, A. T. Stewart, and O. F. Boyle to act as a Board of Canvassers.
It is further by me ordered, that the Clerk of the District Court in the county of Cowley, in said Judicial District, shall forthwith enter this order at length on the journal of proceedings of the District Court of said county of Cowley, and shall make publication of the same in some newspaper published in said City, at least one week before the said City election.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand at Eldorado, Kansas, in chambers this 22nd day of February, A. D. 1873. S/ W. P. CAMPBELL, Judge.
First Election at the City of Winfield.
The first city election was held March 7, 1873, at which W. H. Maris was elected Mayor; A. A. Jackson, police judge; and O. F. Boyle, C. A. Bliss, J. D. Cochran, H. S. Silver, and S. C. Smith as councilmen.
Winfield Made a City of the Second Class.
On February 16, 1879, the City Council met at Winfield. The city attorney presented a resolution to the organization of a city of the second class, accompanying which was the proper survey of limits by John Hoenscheidt. The resolution was adopted.
On March 17, 1879, the City Council met with C. M. Wood, President of the Council, in the chair. Councilmen Gully, Jochems, Manning, and Robinson were present along with J. P. Short, city clerk, and N. C. Coldwell, city attorney.
The Governor’s proclamation making Winfield a city of the second class was then read, after which a petition of some ninety citizens in opposition to changing the class of the city was read; and Mr. E. C. Manning moved that the prayer of the petitioners be granted. The matter was discussed by Councilman Manning and H. E. Asp and J. E. Allen, citizens, for, and N. C. Coldwell, Col. J. M. Alexander, and M. G. Troup, against. The roll being called the vote stood as follows: Yes—Jochems and Manning. Nay—Gully, Robinson, and Wood.
On motion of Robinson, the clerk was instructed to spread the Governor’s proclamation on the Record. Ordinance No. 84, dividing the city into two wards, was then passed.
PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, It appears from a certificate of the Mayor and Council of the city of Winfield, in the county of Cowley, and State of Kansas, duly authenticated by the clerk of said city under the seal thereof, and bearing date February 19th, 1879, which has been duly filed in this Department, that the said city of Winfield, in the said county of Cowley, and State of Kansas, has attained a population of over two thousand and not exceeding fifteen thousand; and
Whereas, the Mayor and Council of said city of Winfield, have duly made out and transmitted to the undersigned an accurate description by metes and bounds of all the lands included within the limits of said city and the additions thereto;
Now, therefore, I, John P. St. John, Governor of the State of Kansas, in pursuance of the statute in such case made and provided, do hereby declare and proclaim said city of Winfield, in said county of Cowley, and State of Kansas, subject to the provisions of an act entitled “An act to incorporate cities of the second class and to repeal former acts,” approved February 28th, 1872.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused to be affixed the great seal of the State.
[SEAL] Done at the Executive Department, Topeka, Kansas, this 27th day of February, 1879. By the Governor: JOHN P. ST. JOHN.
JAMES SMITH, Secretary of State.
That portion of Winfield east of Main Street became the First Ward; that portion of Winfield west of Main Street became the Second Ward.
Original Claim Turned Into Six Blocks Along Main Street.
In the course of four months after the agreement made on January 13, 1870, Manning and the town company surveyed 20 acres of “the particular 40 acres” of his claim into six blocks along Main street from 5th to 9th avenues, and built the “Old Log Store” in Winfield.
The first political gathering held in the county took place at the log raising of the Old Log Store on April 1, 1870. It was called a Citizen’s Meeting to nominate candidates for the county officers to be elected May 2nd, 1870. It was the only full ticket voted for at that election, and of course all the nominees were elected. There were a few scattering votes cast for other individuals.
In April 1870 Manning with stock from the Manning-Baker partnership took up most of the first floor of the two-story log store; Dr. W. Q. Mansfield started a small drug store in one corner of the building, sleeping on the floor at night until he could get a small abode built. In May 1871 the partnership of J. A. Myton and Hiram Brotherton started a business in the Old Log Store, providing clothing, boots and shoes, mirrors, blankets, comforters, etc. They were replaced by Van Hillis in November 1872, who was followed by Robinson & Co. This company was followed by McMillen & Shields, general dealers in merchandise, dry goods, and groceries, which started in January 1873. Mr. McMillen did the buying for this partnership in St. Louis and Chicago. In May 1874 they moved their goods into a former drug store run by A. H. Green, and were replaced by the grocery store of I. F. Newland in July 1874. Newland closed out at auction and was replaced by J. C. Weathers and J. M. Dever, who handled groceries, queensware, and provisions under the name of J. C. Weathers & Co. This business closed on February 1875.
The second floor of the Old Log Store was used at first as a courtroom and county offices. The Courier office took over much of this space in April 1873.
The first floor of this structure became the post office sometime in 1875.
Winfield Town Site Controversy.
On October 24, 1878, editor Millington of the Winfield Courier refuted statements that the Winfield town site had been stolen by Manning and others.
“The two companies proceeded to give away lots to persons who would improve and occupy them, to other persons who would work for the benefit of the town in any way, and for other purposes to benefit the town. More than one-third, and nearly one-half of the lots in value, were given to occupants, to stage companies to induce stage service to Winfield, for services in and outside of Winfield, for churches, schools, courthouse and jail, and for other public purposes. The two companies paid out in the aggregate more than five thousand dollars in cash for the general benefit of the town site in various ways, aside from buildings for personal use.
“The plan that had been adopted to secure the erection of buildings in Winfield was to contract to give a deed of the lot built upon free, and the adjoining lot at value, when the said Manning and Fuller should be able to enter their claims at the U. S. land office. It was intended and expected that when the land office should be opened, Manning and Fuller should each enter his entire claim, and then deed the 40 acres of town site to the town company, and the 120 acres to the town association, and these corporations should then deed the improved lots to the owners of the improvements, and sell them the adjoining lots at value. Such entries and dispositions had been made in the cases of the town sites of Wichita and Augusta, and it was considered the true way in such cases.
“In nearly all the other town sites of the state made before entry, the original claimants entered the land and then deeded to the occupants, town companies, and others, according to previous agreement, and that was originally the intention with regard to this town site, but the commissioner of the general land office had made a ruling in the case of this reserve, that the claimant must, before entering, subscribe an oath, that he had not sold or agreed to sell or otherwise dispose of, any part of the claim he proposed to enter, and though this ruling was clearly outside of law and the oath if taken would not be an oath at all in fact (as afterwards decided by the courts) yet Manning and Fuller did not like to conform to it as others were doing. They, therefore, procured the probate judge of the county to enter the town site under the town site laws, and then each entered the other 80 acres of his claim in his own name.”
