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Tho Two County Seats.Keokuk Gate City.Ft. Madison and Keokuk are each county seats for the part of Leo county adjacent to them. This is the best and only ar rangement possible owing to the peculiar geographical conformation of the county. In the early history of the county it was taken for granted that there w»« to be but one county seat. The result was a most bitter and continuous county seat fight. The county seat was located at Fort Madison, Franklin, West Point, Nashville, Fort Madison again and after years of the bitterest and meanest strife that wasacontin uous hurt to the county the people made the present arrangement as the best and only practicable one. There are some inconveniences about it, just as in most human affairs, but there would be so many more inconveuiences if it were changed that they would be far worse and iutolera ble. It is absurd to talk of dragging the people of Fort Madison and the northern part of the county down to Keokuk as the only county seat, and absurd to talk of dragging tbe people of Keokuk and tins part of the county up to Fort Madison Those citizens who signed Mr. Ilatfner’s petition aiming to have but one county seat do not seem to remember that they themselves pay but a small part of the taxes of Lee county The people of Keo Kuk pay nearly forty-five per cent of all tho county taxes. The people of Keokuk and Fort Madison together pay from fifty five to sixty per cent of all the county taxes. Suppose it is somewhat expensive to maintain two county seats—we do not think the two cost more than one would—but suppose they do: it is a necessity as a public convenience, because of the configuration of tbe county; and as the pen-pie of Keokuk and Fort Madison pay the bill it isn’t for anybody else to grumble. Tnerc will be no county seat wrangle in Lee county. We bad in “the forties” all of that necessary for a hundred years If the county is g *ographieally the same as now’ a hundred years from now then the cmnty seats will b? at Port Madison and Keokuk as now. If at any time there was any change from this the people wouldcome back to it because public conveu.-ience forces it. There can be no county seat quarrel unless Keokuk and Fort Mad ison join in to make it. The people of those cities have too much good sense to do that. Both hope that this is to be a prosperous year; that each is going to add to its population and wealth People everywhere hate a county seat quarrel like they do a plague aDd if there were one in Lee county they would not move into a county cursed with that sort of a war. Neither Keokuk nor Fort Madison either 1 now or hereafter can afford to let it come. We are not begging any favors for either Keokuk or Fort Madison; we merely demand what each has a right to ask. Sup pose it does cost four or five thousanddollars to give each the convenience of a county seat. They jmv the taxes for it and they have a right to the public convenience that their taxes pay tor.1Lg'otisclt;tommC(siHicihlt;svCllittVop
Newspaper Details
Fort Madison Daily Democrat
Fort Madison, Iowa, US
Wed, Feb 08, 1888
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Musser P.
IA, USA 10 Feb 2018
Other Publications Near Fort Madison, Iowa
Fort Madison Weekly Democrat
Fort Madison Daily Democrat
Fort Madison News
Standard Atlas of Lee County Iowa
An Illustrated Historical Atlas of Lee County Iowa
