Page:Kansas A Cyclopedia of State History vol 1.djvu/71

 for its organization and the election of county officers. In joint session the legislature elected George Wilson probate judge and commissioned him on Aug. 27, 1855, for a term of two years. He was the first commissioned officer and immediately after qualifying set out for the county. On Sept. 10, he arrived at Henry Sherman's house, where he remained until the 15th, when he went to the house of Francis Meyer near the present site of the town of Greeley. Judge Wilson had designated Meyer's house as the temporary seat of justice and notified William R. True and John C. Clark, who had been appointed county commissioners and A. V. Cummings, who had been appointed sheriff, to meet him there on the 15th to complete the county organization. But all three refused to accept the appointment, although Judge Wilson attempted several times to make them qualify. Cummings was a resident of Bourbon county. Wilson at last appealed to the governor for assistance to organize the county and Acting Gov. Shannon commissioned Francis Meyer and F. P. Brown commissioners and Henderson Rice sheriff, but Brown and Rice would not accept the commissions. The probate judge and Francis Meyer organized the countv on Jan. 7, 1856. Five days later the second session of the probate judge and commissioners' court was held at Meyer's house and David McCammon was appointed sheriff. He gave bond and qualified on Jan. 18, on which date the court held its third session and J. S. Waitman was appointed commissioner. This was the first time that a full board of commissioners had existed. At this time C. H. Price was appointed justice of the peace for the county and commissioned by Judge Wilson. Price qualified on March 5, 1856, and the same day was appointed treasurer of the county. On Feb. 4, 1856, Thomas Totton was appointed clerk of the county, and on March 9 a petition for the location of a road from Henry Sherman's house to Cofachique, the county seat of Allen county, was considered. David McCammon, James Townsley and Samuel Mack were appointed commissioners to open the road, which was to be 70 feet wide. This was the first road in the county.

On Feb. 18, 1856, a petition was presented to the commissioners, signed by A. McConnell and fifteen others, requesting a permanent location of the county seat, and David McCammon, James Townsley and Thomas Totton were appointed to select the site, provided it should be located within three miles of the geographical center of the county. The commissioners selected a place and called it Shannon, where the county business was transacted until April 5, 1859. The first term of the district court was held on the fourth Monday in April, 1856; Sterling Cato, one of the territorial judges presiding. It convened at the house of Francis Meyer and was in session an entire week but the records of the proceedings have disappeared.

At the election of delegates to the Topeka constitutional convention, 49 votes were polled at the Pottawatomie precinct, by free-state voters and at the election for the adoption or rejection 14 persons from Anderson county voted. 