Page:Kansas A Cyclopedia of State History vol 1.djvu/61

 In 1858 the town of Iola was started and the greater part of the town of Cofachique was moved to Iola, while the old site of Cofachique became farm land. Several reasons may be given for the failure of the town. Being on hilly ground it was difficult of access and the water supply was limited; it had been built by pro-slavery men and during the political troubles a feeling of enmity had grown up against the town, hence it was not long before it was depopulated. Humboldt, in the southwest part of the county and Geneva in the northwest part were founded by free-state men and both became flourishing communities. Up to this time settlement had been exclusively confined to the timbered valleys of the larger streams, but the new settlers began opening farms upon the prairies and the population became generally distributed over the county, especially the western half.

A census of Kansas was taken in April, 1857, in preparation for an apportionment of delegates to the Lecompton constitutional convention. By this census Bourbon, Dorn, McGee and Allen countries had a population of 2,622, of whom 645 were legal voters. This gave the district which these counties comprised four delegates in the convention, and at the election held in June, 1857, H. T. Wilson, Blake Little, Miles Greenwood and G. P. H. Hamilton were elected.

In the legislative apportionment of July, 1857, eighteen counties, including Allen were allowed two members in the council and nineteen counties, including Allen, were allowed three representatives. The election was called for Oct. 5, 1857, and under the assurance of the governor that it should be free and fair, the free-state men determined to muster their strength for the first time at the ballot box. At the election Samuel J. Stewart was elected a representative for the district and was the first citizen from Allen county to occupy a seat in the territorial legislature.

Immigration continued during the year 1858. The Carlyle colony from Indiana selected 320 acres of land in the northwest part of the county, north of Deer creek, for a town site, but found many difficulties in the way of making a prosperous town and abandoned the project. Later the site was cut up into farms. In the course of time a postoffice was established, a store followed and Carlyle became a thriving village in the center of a splendid farming district. About the time that the Carlyle colony arrived another town was projected, called Florence, located north of Deer creek and east of Carlyle. It was expected that in time a railroad would be built, but it was not and the town was a failure.

Upon the organization of the county in 1855, Cofachique was designated as the county seat, and as it was centrally located no strife was stirred up until Humboldt was located in 1859 by the free-state men who went before the state legislature early in 1858 and secured an act locating the county seat there. The first meeting of the county board at Humboldt, of which there is a record, was on Feb. 8, 1859, but little business was transacted, and they adjourned to meet at Cofachique,