that it must
have some physical cause. But what was a town doing in that part of the
world? We drove on and in a few hours found the town--a little, raw boom
town of unpainted boards and tents, which had sprung up almost overnight
in that far-off region. The population was that of the typical frontier
town, and the pronounced belief of all was that this settlement was to
be the commercial metropolis of the Southwest. This little town was
later known as Woodsdale, Kansas. It offered then no hint of the bloody
scenes in which it was soon to figure; but within a few weeks it was so
deeply embroiled in war with the rival town of Hugoton as to make
history notable even on that turbulent frontier.

Mr. Herbert M. Tonney, now a prosperous citizen of Flora, Illinois, was
a resident of that portion of the country in the stirring days of the
land boom, and became involved to an extent beyond his own seeking in
this county seat fight. While serving as an officer of the peace, he was
shot and left for dead. No story can serve so well as his personal
narrative to convey a clear idea of the causes, methods and results of a
typical county seat war in the West. His recountal follows:

"I do not need to swear to the truthfulness of my story, for I have
already done so in many courts and under the cross-examination of some
of the ablest lawyers in the country. I have repeated the story on the
stand in a criminal case which cost the United States government more
money than it has ever expended in any similar trial, unless perhaps
that having to do with the assassination of President Lincoln. I can say
that I know what it is to be murdered.

"In March, 1886, I moved out into southwestern Kansas, in what was later
to be known as Stevens county, then a remote and apparently unattractive
region. In 1885 a syndicate of citizens of McPherson, Kansas, had been
formed for the purpose of starting a new town in southwestern Kansas.
The members were leading bankers, lawyers, and merchants. These sent out
an exploration party, among which were such men as Colonel C. E. Cook,
former postmaster of McPherson; his brother, Orrin Cook, a lawyer; John
Pancoast, J. B. Chamberlain, J. W. Calvert, John Robertson, and others.
They located a section of school lands, in what was later known as
Stevens county, as near the center of the proposed county as the range
of sand dunes along the Cimarron river would permit. Others of the party
located lands as close to