Volume 9 , Issue 33

An OkieLegacy Centennial Moment

This article appeared in The Oklahoman, 2/4/1904, pg 2, under the headlines of Woods County Division To Be Taken To Next legislature & Question of Making Two Counties Has Been Agitated Since the Country Was Opened In 1893 & Better That Politicians Not be Consulted in the Matter.

Seems to me the politicians in Woods county still bicker back and forth. What if "M" (Woods) county had NOT been divide? What would it have been like then and now?

Guthrie, Okla., Feb. 3, 1904 -- "One of the biggest questions, effecting Northern Oklahoma is the old division fight in Woods county, which has agitated the people there since the country was opened in 1893. As intended by congress and the interior department this should have been two counties, described on the maps, from the interior department, as M and P counties, but for some reason the two were united as Woods county and the fight has been hot as blazes ever since. Although the county is good for a republican majority of anywhere from seven hundred to one thousand, yet it continues to go democratic and populistic for territorial and county offices, although it is always carried by the republican nominee for congress.

"The fight will be brought into the next legislature and there may be some sort of a settlement. The county seat, Alva, is in the northern part of the county, at least seventy-five miles from towns in the southern part of the county, al of which distance the people have to travel to get to the county seat. It is a fact that people in the northern part of the county can get to Guthrie, the territorial capital, across two counties with greater ease than in going to their county capital."

"It is stated that there is such a map, as drawn showing the original intention of M & P counties, in the possession of ex-Delegate Dennis T. Flynn, the map as alleged having been drawn at his request by Fred L. Wenner, now secretary of the school land board, and adopted by the interior department.

"When Ezra hartshorn, as a member of the territorial council, introduced a bill, dividing the county east and west, along the old lines laid down by the interior department, the bill passed both houses and was vetoed by Governor C. M. Barnes upon the advice of Assistant Attorney General Fred Elkins, who stated that such action upon the part of the governor was correct under the territorial laws.

"Every effort was brought to bear upon the last board that redistricted the territory into representative and senatorial districts, to divide Woods county east and west into representative district, but the advice was not heeded and the republican split in Woods county was made wider.

"It is stated that the only way to put a stop to the bickering and fighting in Woods county, is for the legislature to take the bull by the horns and divide the county into two counties, without asking the politicians of that county their opinion in the matter."
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