On Tuesday, November 8th, 1910, the citizens of Marshall County went to the voting booth to cast their ballots for one side or the other in the continued dispute between Madill and Kingston.
Because of the short time between the petition being accepted by the Marshall County Commissioners and electionday,thecountynewspapers had little time to write many articles for or against the bond issue. But, in the runup to election day, the Kingston Messenger issued a series of short articles about the fifth election on the courthouse issue. In the October 2, 1913, issue of the paper, the editor wrote: “Last shot-swat the courthouse bonds. Look at your tax receipt and see if you want the rate advanced. True, the records of the county ought to be protected, but it will not take a $75,000 courthouse to do it. Do you want to add $125,000 to the indebtedness of the county? It means increased taxation if you do. Be careful how you vote.”
“A $75,000 courthouse may be a 'thing of beauty and a joy forever' to a few individuals, but how about the men who foot the bills who are gazing upon oneroom shacks, and eking out a bare existence, working their women and children in the fields that they may be able to meet their part of the payment for this luxury for others. We need country roads more than any other one thing than a courthouse.”
“Marshall County is going some on the courthouse and jail question. Although (four times) voted down, the proposition is coming up again through another election call, and what's more, the bull-headed propose to keep calling elections until the thing carries. Naturally, folks for and against are righteouslyindignant,andan old-fashioned hair-pulling is on, so to speak. Yea, verily, there is an outcome coming, and it is going to be a more emphatic one than has yet been registered, and then if the thing is still persisted in, there will be some more outcome, and it will not put a good taste in the mouth of those ‘bull-headed ones,’ either.”
TheMessengerthenprinted a very sarcastic piece that, in some respects, was sacrilegious and offensive. It was written to appear to have come from someone in Madill. That article was entitled “The Courthouse Prayer.” It stated: “While sitting in our chair with our mind busy with preparing work for the coming day, the following prayer was wafted to us on the still midnight air by wireless telegraphy, from the north, and we give it to our readers.”
“O Thou Most Mighty and all Powerful God of Politics: We come to thee in this our hour of deep distress and anxiety and ask of thee that thou wouldst smile upon us, andbythymightypowerhelp us that we may be successful in our great desire to override the will of our fellows, and accomplishthatforwhichour hearts have so long yearned. We know that we have not always conducted ourselves in a righteous manner, and we acknowledge that at heart, we are sinful and desperately wicked and are not deserving of thy favor; we know that we have at divers and sundry times committed political sins that are unsavory in the eyes of honorable men; that we have caused the adding machine to count wrongfully in order to thwart the will of the people. We make humble confession of all these things, and beseech thee that at this one time, thou wouldst see through a glass darkly and come to our relief. We have no other source from which we may get it, for the despised Socialists are on our trail and threaten us with dire destruction, and the unterrified Democrats have refused to hear our cry and will not rally to our aid in our hour of trouble and even the Republicans and sinners will not heed the call of the Bull Moose and let us throw sand in their eyes. Except thou dost hear our cry we must indeed be swallowed up in the angry waves of a people's indignation; we have gone to the extent of our own means. We have tried automobiles, we have fixed an unfavorable day, we have 'doctored' the list of election officials and have tried every stunningly devised plan that we could contemplate to accomplish our purpose, but we fear to no avail.”
“We can see the handwriting of disfavor on the wall, and we come to thee to help us to escape. If we cannot get our grip on this courthouse at this time, those hated Kingstonites will swipe our county seat from under us and we will fall to the ground with a fearful crash. Help us then, we beseech thee in this our day of trouble. Turn not thy face away from us. These blessings we ask in the name of the conscienceless gang that has no sense of justice or right when we want to carry our own point.’ Just here the wireless connection was broken and we failed to get any more of this remarkable petition.”
Then, just days before the election, the Madill Times, in a piece that seemed to strike a conciliatory tone, wrote, “HOW WE STAND On next Monday,September29th,the voters of Marshall County will again go to the polls for purpose of voting on the courthouse and bridge questions. It is useless to suggest the need of either of these. It is generally conceded that Marshall County needs a courthouse, but the wisdom of voting these bonds at the present time is the foremost question in the minds of our citizens. While it is true that a great many people have voted persistently against the bonds on account of a personal grudge against Madill or a few individuals who unfortunately live in our city and serve as county parasites, yet a majority of those who voted against the bonds in the last election did so because of high taxes. It seems absurd to the laboring man when he is already overburdened with taxes to ask him to vote an increase in taxes on his own property.”
We would like the best kind to see more bridges and a courthouse that would be a credit to our county; and, while we have every time voted for the issued and expect to this time, yet we do not feel that it is our duty to urge upon the voter to cast a vote in conflict with his sentiment. There are not many in the county who would be prouder of a beautiful courthouse, whichwecouldcallour own, than we would be, and if our say so had anything to do with it, Marshall County would be extravagant in spending the people's money for county improvements. If you are in favor of county improvements, and if you are for better government, we believe it would be to your future good to vote for these issues.”
Election day for the courthouse bond issue came for the fifth time on September 29, 1913, and it finally exceeded the 60 percent threshold necessary for passage. The proposition to build a courthouse received a majority of 29 votes over the 60 percent required for passage. However, the companion bridge bond issue failed. The vote on the bridge bonds was 1106 for the bonds and 955 against, with four precincts, Willis, Simpson, McMillan and Kinlock, not making returns on this proposition. The returns canvassed show that the bridge bonds were 130 votes short of the 60 percent required.
In response to the election outcome, the Marshall County News-Democrat extolled, “At last the courthouse bonds have been voted. After going down in defeat on four separate occasions, each defeat being by a lessened majority, the tide of victory turned at last and in the fifth great battle the required sixty percent, with half a hundred votes to spare, was rolled up.”
“Yes, on Monday, September 29th, the friends of the bonds, over sixty percent of the qualified voters of Marshall County, marched up to the polls and voted aye on the courthouse proposition. And now Marshall County, the 'Pearl of Southern Oklahoma,' the wealthiest agricultural county in the state, will have a county house in whichtotransactthecounty's business, a place in which to keep the county's records.”
To those who supported the bonds issue in the last great struggle, as well as on all prior occasions, the News-Democrat wishes to extend its heartiest congratulations now that success has been theirs. To those who opposed theissuetheNews-Democrat feels the sincerest respect, knowing and realizing that they voted their convictions just as honestly as did the most ardent bond supporters.”
“In all the bonds issue fights, the newspapers of MarshallCountyhaveplayed a most conspicuous part. In the last fight, the News-Democrat stood by its colors and worked hard and faithfully and well for the bonds without promise or expectation of pecuniary reward. It worked for the bond issue because it firmly believed, as it believes today, that the courthouse is a necessity in Marshall County, and the management believes that it contributed no little to the victory on the 29th of September. The Socialist Herald also did well in the last great fight. Its editor fearlessly espoused the cause of the bonds and published truth and facts on the question clear through the campaign. Of the other papers in Marshall County the Woodville Banner remained comparatively neutral, although the editor, Ben Bell, was individually for the bonds.Whilenottakingan aggressive campaign for the bonds, Editor Bell said many good things about the courthouse through the columns of his splendid little paper.”
“The Kingston Messenger was opposed to the bonds. Living in a city where the sentiment was strongly anticourthouse Editor Grant, of the Messenger, took up cudgels against the bonds issue and worked and fought and did all in his power to encompass their defeat. For the Kingston Messenger and itseditortheNews-Democrat entertains that feeling of respect one always entertains for the one who has been loyal and true to his constituency. And through the subsiding dust of the last great battle we would reach forth the hand of good-fellowship and would say to the citizenship of Kingston in general and to her businessmen in particular that they should feel proud of their editor who remained on the firing line until the last gun of the anti-courthouse faction had been spiked.”
And now that the fight is settled, every newspaper in Marshall County that is worthy of the name of 'newspaper' and every editor in the county who is worthy of the name should come out on the broad and liberal platform of ‘Oklahoma and Marshall County-first, last and all the time.’” “Now that the clouds of battle have blown away, no one can say 'Madill has the courthouse,' but everybody can say ‘Marshall county has a courthouse.’ Yes, Marshall County, the wealthiest county in Southern Oklahoma, the agricultural gem of all Oklahoma, at last, will have a courthouse, a courthouse which, when completed, will be owned in a joint co-partnership byeveryman,woman and child in the county.”
However, following the election, a strange thing happened that led to conspiracy theories and the continuation of the courthouse fight. Unlike in the county seat election and the previous four courthouse bond elections, the county commissioners did not release the detailed precinct vote totals, and none of the newspapers published the detailed election results by precinct. The only thing released was the total of yes and no votes. This seemed to some to signal possible vote fraud. In response, the Kingston Messenger seized on this issue. On October 11, 1913, the editor wrote, “Strange, but not a single paperatMadillhaspublished a detailed report of the vote in the recent bond election, not even the vote of their own town. Is there a reason?”
“The last gun of the Anti-CourtHousefactionhasbyno means been spiked. If there ever was such a thing they are now loaded and ready for action. It is not an issue of a courthouse, but it is whether the people of the county shall have a say in their affairs or whether it shall be run by a corrupt political gang at the county seat” “The News-Democrat's appeal was ‘For God's sake, be fair.’ Does it consider the tactics used to carry the bond election ‘fair?’ Does it consider it 'fair' to hire men to beat up those who opposed the bond and illegal voting, and then make up money to pay the fine of the one who did it? Does it consider the stealing of votes from the various precincts ‘fair?’ That kind of fairness is a stench in the nostrils of all honest men in Marshall County, and some of them live at Madill, too.”
“Inasmuch as the matter of the courthouse bond election is being investigated, anditisgenerallyunderstood that the matter will be taken to court for settlement, the Messenger does not expect to discuss the result any further.Webelievethatfraud andcorruptionenoughwillbe developed to vitiate the election and forever brand the parties who brought it about with the rankest kind of corruption. Pending this result, let the people get together and lay their plan to put this gang out of political business in Marshall County.”
Interestingly, the election fraud argument extended beyond the boundaries of Marshall County and spread throughout the region. The Daily Ardmoreite even commented on the issue. The Ardmoreite wrote, “A new brand of politician has been discovered in Marshall County. It is alleged that a member of a certain political party in that county declined to accept an automobile in exchange for a few days work for the proposed courthouse bond issue in that county. Yet, another one refused the offer of the nomination for sheriff if he would do the same kind of work.”
The Kingston Messenger then published a very strange letter from a resident of Powell that mimicked the sarcastic prayer article previously published by the Messenger before the election. This letter made more allegations of election fraud in a sacrilegious and sardonic way. Theletter stated,“From a Magician of Spirits. As I was consulting with one forked-tailed demon from the lower regions, the following petition was committed to me, which was made to the Gods of political caucus:” “In thy august presence, we humbly offer this petition to thee and all of thy holy followers. Thou knewest that with thy holy powers we have gained one of the greatest victories known in the history of thy deeds and acts toward us, thy people, and if we have done anything wrong,pleaseremitthesame, for we know that we are fallible beings and may have had some short-comings, and if so we ask in the name of Peter and all of the ring to overshadow and hide the sin that doth so easily beset us, under the hollow of thy hand. We know Lord, that we tried to win these bonds but failed in the first main fight, with our most gifted silver-tongued orators and all of our powers combined were of no avail, and that one Blue Johez from the south caused our defeat.”
“And oh, father, we called the sinners and the republicans and all of the demagogs together in our great city, which is clothed with the power to take and concoct and devise and set in motion a scheme that defeated him and his most detestable political gang and we glorified thy name as the most high God, and gave honor to thee and drank to thy name. Then Lord we came and cast our spoils before thy throne and ask thee in the name of the holy apostle and of thy followers and all of thy combined powers to give us the bonds for a courthouse again and we was defeated by the same detestable gang, the sore heads, and sinners and socialists.”
“Then Lord of the most high we came to thee and ask that thou gather all the powers together again for the final and last time to devise a plan by which thou couldst win those blessed bonds that would enrich and enlarge our values and add to thy name glory and honor and oh father of honor and glory and power, you called the schemers and politicians, and called on sinners to call the righteous torepentandhelpinthegreat fight and thou didst gather them around thy throne and fixedaschemeandaplanthat done the work and delivered to goods and carried the great bond question, and we thank thee for thy work and power and wisdom in this great scheme.”
“And Lord, if we have done amiss, forgive us, for we know that an open confession is good for the soul. Lord, we did stuff some ballot boxes, and especially at Lone Elm and Powell and Lebanon and McMillan and some other boxes. But oh, Lord, we did win, and we thy co-workers carried out thy instructions. But there is one sin we know that will be hard for thee to pass and that is the toiling masses will have the burden to bear and pay the bond debt with their sweat, and Lord, we see little children dragging a cotton sack to help poor father keep off the wolf that ought to be in school and then, Lord, to put an extra tax on the poor renter and the small landowner.”
“Now, Lord, right here is the crucial point. Now, Father, we shifted all this on the producer and consumer for us landlords and bankers and all money sharks will make the toiling masses pay it. Now, Father, if this is the unpardonable sin, don't let us see poor women and children toiling to pay this bond debt, as we know it would be a canker on our soul.”
Have I ever written how adversarial the dispute betweenMadillandKingston was? I think I have. But with each article, I marvel at how much more vitriolic the fight became. One could not be ridiculed for believing the two towns could never bury the hatchet and get along. It seems the dispute had driven a wedge that might never be loosed.
Following these new allegations of fraud, ballot box stuffing, vote buying and fraud in counting votes, citizens of Kingston filed a protest challenging the election results. The State Supreme Court appointed Judge Jesse Hatchett of Durant to hear the protest, and the matter was set for hearing.
Following this development, the News-Democrat wrote: “Court House Matter to Be Heard in November. Judge Jesse Hatchett, of Durant has called a special term of the Marshall County District Court to meet the tenth of the ensuing month, at which time the courthouse election contest matter will be taken up. The matter was originally to have been heard in chambers at Durant and called for a hearing on the question of granting a temporaryinjunctionagainst the issueing of the bonds. Judge Hatchett, however, decided to carry the matter over until the date named above, at which time all the evidence in the case will be heard by way of contest and final decision will be rendered astowhetherornotthebonds issue was regularly and truly carried.”
Thefightwasnotover. The dispute would now head to court, where the courthouse issue would be decided in the rented courtroom in the Lazarus Building. It seems poetic that the ultimate decisiononwhetherMarshall County would get an actual courthouse would be decided in a makeshift courtroom in a rented building.