Grove Beginnings...Part 12

Election Coming


By Rose Stauber

The serious stuff that would lead to Oklahoma actually becoming a
state and stop being two territories began in 1906. Congress had passed a law
stating what had to be done before statehood. The key element was that the
state had to have a constitution written by elected delegates of the people.

Nominees for the delegates to the constitutional convention were made
on party lines, Democratic and Republican, just like now. The election of
delegates was held Nov. 4, 1906, falling right into the big gap in the
surviving copies of the Grove Sun so we have no reporting on local
events.
For whatever reason, the administration in Washington at the time was
Republican, or just the way it was, the elected delegates included 99
Democrats, 12 Republicans, and one Democrat elected as an Independent.

The Constitutional Convention convened Nov. 20, 1906, and worked for
months. The delegates eventually came out with a preliminary report.
This called for an election to be set for Sept. 17, 1907, at which voters
would face four matters:

1. For or against state-wide prohibition, meaning yes or no on
liquor.
2. For or against adoption of the constitution.
3. Vote on state, district, and county officers.
4. Vote on township officers and representatives to Congress.

The local parties went into high gear. Both Democrats and Republicans

organized and elected precinct members, and delegates to their party's
state
conventions. The July 12, 1907, Grove Sun is full of the goings-on.
Note
that these activities were carried on using the boundaries of what
would be Delaware County.

This might be a good time to explain the political townships in
Delaware County. Political townships have nothing to do with geographic
townships which are laid out by the U.S. Geographical Survey. All counties have
townships, except Louisiana which has parishes, which are political
subdivisions and generally speaking, these townships are named, such as

Prairie Township, etc. Not in Delaware County. The political
townships are numbered, always have been. Take an outline of Delaware County, draw a line straight down the middle. Now draw two east-west lines dividing the
area into six about equal parts. Beginning at the southwest corner of the
county, number the townships beginning with 1 and 2 in the south, 3 and
4 in the middle, and 5 and 6 in the north. Grove sits on the western edge
of Twp. 6. and is mostly located in geographic Twp. 24 Range 24. Each
political township in Delaware County has about four geographic
townships.

Just to throw in a bit more of what happened during the process. As
first laid out, all of the four townships 25 across the top of the county
were in Delaware County. Ottawa County apparently raised enough ruckus that
the top row of sections in those townships were taken from Delaware County and
assigned to Ottawa County. Officers to be elected in each township
included a trustee, a clerk, treasurer, justices of the peace, and constables.

The Grove Sun of July 12, 1907, carries the ticket for the Democrats
elected at the primary June 8, 1907. The nominees were: for U.S.
Senator, Col. Robert L. Owen and T.P. Gore: for Governor, C.N. Haskell; for
State Senator, W.H. Doherty; Judge First District, John N. Pitchford; Justice
Supreme Court, John B. Turner; Congress Third District, Jas. S.
Davenport; Railway and Corporation Commissioner, JJ. McAlester; Representative,
Delaware County, Capt. L. B. Smith; County Judge, Wilson N. Smith;
County Attorney, Ad V. Coppedge; Clerk District Court, Geo. A. Cox; County
Clerk, Ed West; County Treasurer, T.J. Williams; County Sheriff, G. W. Hogan;

County Surveyor, D.A. Smith; County Commissioner, No. 3, T.T. Rogers;
Trustee, No. 3, C.W. Foley; Constable, Twp. 24-24, C.L. Merrill.

The county Republicans met with James P. Butler as chairman and
proceeded to elect delegates to the Republican state and congressional
conventions. T.S. Remsen was the Grove delegate to the state convention.

Capt. L. B. Smith, Democratic nominee for state representative, lived
on the Line Road, the road out on Cowskin Prairie that separated Missouri
from the Territory. He had served from Georgia in the Civil War, and
probably the title, "Captain," was no more correct that when applied to T.S.
Remsen. L.B. Smith may have served as a lieutenant. Retired soldiers seemed
to acquire these honorary titles. However, L.B. Smith was another leader.
A white, he married Florence Perry, a Cherokee, and they came west soon
after the Civil War with both his and her parents. He taught school in
Southwest City for a time, then went into farming, and later established
Fairland. He was elected to the Cherokee Nation Council before becoming the first
representative from Delaware County to the Oklahoma legislature.

The next step in this process will be the state-wide election Sept.
17. Watch this space for full information on election results.

Meanwhile, a few notes of interest:

"The new circle seats for the M.E. Church of this city, were received
Monday and duly installed during the week. The ladies of that place of
worship united and put in the day Monday cleaning the interior part of
the church, and from now on it will be a $5 fine for anyone to spit upon
the floor."

"I. Goodwin, the contractor, has completed concrete walk in front of
Forbes Med. Co., and we confess that is the hot stuff. The appearance
of that corner now looms up like a morning star, and we are anxious to see
more of these concrete walks constructed in this city."

"The dog owners of Grove are hereby notified that the dog tax is past
due."


Copyright ©1907 Rose Stauber