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.5 .1 , on, ,hn ............Vo ndrerll.log .diet. win ba Wted with the now,MISSED BEISO STATE CAPITALA staff writer In the Des Moines Register recently devoted some time to aged residents of Polk City, near Dos Moines, who say that town missed being the state capital of Iowa by only one vote.The oldsters loll It like this: Hack In 1865 when Des Moines was Fort Des Moines, and Polk City boasted a flour mill, five shoe shops, three general stores and five saloons, the Iowa State Legislature from Iowa City appointed a commission to Investigate the advisability of moving the cnpitol to a more central location in the slate.The story runs that the committee visited both Polk City and Fort Des Moines and except for some skulduggery Polk City would have won. As It was, Fort Des Moines had two votes and Polk City one.Polk City is fifteen miles north of Des Moines.It Is impossible to verify the words of the oldsters but history records that there was a spirited battle in those days, and the Polk county seat was the object of a real rumpus.It was selected In 1813 by a committee of three, During the fight It was disclosed that Polk City had the most residents und was equally well located, but the Fort Des Moines politicians wero a little too shrewd or unscrupulous for the Polk City boys. *They won by swinging a deal with Warren county cfor a tier of townships that were later ceded back but whose residents voted for Des Moines and t won the location of the county seat. sThe tale brings back stories of this section of aIowa when Bhrewd or unscrupulous politicians enrv- red up the counties to suit their fancy or conveni- t:ences, the abbreviated south end of Humboldt coun- Pty standing In mute testimony. v,The story runs that Webster county was having wa red-hot county-seat fight and that Lehigh or osome other town In a more central location In that cicounty stood to win, when Fort Dodge politicians dipromoted a deal with Humboldt county whereby atlt;ts (Humboldt's) lower tier of townships were traded «|to Webster county temporarily and solely to vote ttfor Fort Dodge for the county seat, and then were to be ceded back to Humboldt county. But alack and yialas, Fort Dodge politicians were not so scrupulous ccas they might have been, and after they won the aicounty seat probably felt that they could uBe the cltier of townships they were supposed to cede back, w so double-crossed their neighbor on the north. Such Othings have been done. .. jv jeAs the story runs, the deal was handled In a armanner to make repudiation more than the public thwould stomach, so a little slelght-of-hand was In- m:dulgcd in. A bill was presented to the legislature ncfor the transfer of the tier back to Humboldt county and paseed that body all right. The Joker lay HiIn the fact that the engrossing clerk Inserted the miword not” In the wording and where the act stat- Ined that the territory should be Ceded back to Hum- th.boldt county, it read instead that it should not be Hiceded back.Of course, this did not come out until nftcr theloCvla 1(1 t UVn li r .1 . Jl... . .
Newspaper Details
Humboldt Independent
Humboldt, Iowa, US
Tue, Sep 10, 1940
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
IA, USA 12 Jan 2017
Other Publications Near Humboldt, Iowa
Humboldt Kosmos
Humboldt Daily Republican
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