THE ENGLISH WESTERNERS' SOCIETY
DECEMBER 2009 BOOK REVIEW
This review first appeared in the Tally Sheet (Autumn 2007, Volume 54, Number 1)
BALLOTS AND BULLETS: THE BLOODY COUNTY SEAT WARS OF KANSAS
By Robert K. DeArment. Foreword by Richard Maxwell Brown. Published by University of Oklahoma Press 2006. xi + 266pp. Map, Notes, Bibliography, Index. ISBN 0 8061 3784 3. Hardback $29.95
Robert DeArment has written many books devoted to such topics as Bat Masterson, George Scarborough, Frank Canton, John Larn and Western Gamblers. All have been well received and he has now turned his attention to the little known County Seat Wars of Kansas.
From its earliest days as a territory of the United States Kansas had a reputation for violence, starting with that strange anti-slavery fanatic John Brown, through the sack of Lawrence by Quantrill in 1863, Indian raids and the rise of Abilene, Wichita, Newton, Ellsworth and Dodge City as cow towns. By 1880 the Indians had been defeated, cow towns were almost a thing of the past and it appeared that the epithet 'Bleeding Kansas' was no longer applicable. Then the County Seat Wars erupted. Kansas was not the only State to suffer from such conflicts, many others suffered from similar battles, but few had such violent and often bloody conflicts as Kansas. During the seven years from 1885 until 1892 almost a dozen men were killed in the western counties and many others were wounded. On at least six occasions the National Guard had to restore order in these counties. The main cause of these conflicts, as DeArment points out was sheer greed. Potential profits were enormous, land could be bought cheaply and profiteers soon saw that the outlay of a few thousand dollars could, if conditions were right and the railroads could be attracted they could make a profit of perhaps half a million dollars. The result was that all manner of legal and illegal deals were made. The history of these 'wars' has never been told before and it is a fascinating story.
To briefly take just one example of the many discussed by DeArment - the Hay Meadows Massacre of Stevens County. Stevens County lies in the south of western Kansas and the chief town today is Hugoton with a population of less than 4,000. In 1888 however Woodsdale and Hugoton were both trying to become the county seat. The National Guard moved into the county and camped between the two towns and later that year it was decided that the rail line would pass through Hugoton. In July a party from Hugoton was followed by a posse from Woodsdale. One thing led to another and eventually a gunfight ensued in which five men were killed. A murder trial followed which eventually led to three men being sentenced to death and hanged. This, in turn, led to further trials in which six more men were sentenced to death before being released on bond. The net result of this particular 'war' was that today nothing remains of Woodsdale apart from a few cellar excavations and some grave markers. The railway did not arrive until the turn of the century and the position of Hugoton was moved to a new site and eventually achieved prosperity when the largest natural gas field in the world was discovered in the area.
Not all the county seat wars were as violent as that of Stevens County but Robert DeArment relates them all in his usual lucid and thought provoking style and this book is highly recommended to any Westerner interested in the history of Kansas or in the West in general.
Tom Wanless
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