January 12, 1889 was the date of the Cimarron-Ingalls County seat fight, in which a Cimarron man was killed and several from both towns were wounded.

When Gray County was organized in 1 887, Cimarron, then a town of 1500, won the election for a temporary county seat from its nearest rival, Montezuma, in the south part of the county. However, in the early eighties, Asa T. Soule, a patent medicine millionaire from Rochester, N. Y., set out to create an empire in the west and built a town on the Santa Fe Railroad six miles west of Cimarron, which he named Ingalls in honor of the Kansas author-senator, John J. Ingalls.

To bring water to the thirsty countryside, he organized a company in 1883 to construct the Eureka Irrigating Canal, known as the “Soule ditch,” which was intended to take water from the Arkansas River west of Ingalls 96 miles across Gray and Ford counties, emptying into Coon Creek in Edwards County. (The small regular mounds mostly north of U. S. 50 through Gray County mark the course of his canal.) As an irrigation project, it was not a success because many similar projects upstream took much of the water from the river, but some water continued to flow in the upper reaches of the ditch, including that in Cimarron until a flood filled the intake pool with sand. In the thirties, the ditch, a block north of the highway in Cimarron, was filled in and called Canal Street.

Soule wanted the county seat for Ingalls and spent money freely to get it. To gain support from the south part of the county, he built a railroad from Dodge City through Ensign to Montezuma, and, also, promised Ensign a sugar mill to process cane, and other projects, and to Montezuma, a large city hall, two roundhouses, and jobs for leading citizens. In Dodge City, he set up a bank and built Soule College.

The election for the permanent county seat was set for October 31, 1887. Cimarron adherents charged flagrant vote-buying by Soule’s lieutenants over the County, and themselves dealt with the Foote Township Equalization Society, also called the Dark Lantern Society. In the darkest secrecy, seventy-two farmers in that township had met and figured their combined vote was worth $10,000. On receipt of a bond for that amount signed by fifteen prominent Cimarron men, seventy-one votes were delivered. But the bond was a forgery, each man had signed the name of another of the group, and the Foote Township farmers received nothing.

Soule’s gunmen, including the Gilbert Brothers, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman, Eat- em-up Jake and Ben Daniels of Dodge City, held forth at the Merchant’s Hotel in Cimarron on election day. At the same time, Drew and Will Evans went over to Logan Township precinct, in the enemy’s territory, to look after Cimarron interests. There they kept guns handy, and as they drove away in the evening, Drew sat facing the polling place with a gun in each hand. in the enemy’s territory, to look after Cimarron’s interests.

Thus, the election was held, with accompanying gunplay and ballot-box stuffing. When the votes were counted, Cimarron had won, but Ingalls charged fraud. For months, attempts were made to settle the argument through the courts and the location of the county seat seemed to depend mostly on the sympathies of the county officers. In the summer of 1888, however, the county commissioners appointed A. T. Riley of Cimarron, clerk pro tem, and with a writ from the Supreme Court, he secured the records and brought them to Cimarron. The courthouse offices were upstairs in the buildings now occupied by the Western Auto Store and Dr. V. C. Penner.

In the election of Nov. 8, 1888, both towns claimed victory for their candidates. The Supreme Court, in spite of a dissenting opinion by Chief Justice Horton, then ruled that N. F. Watson, county clerk, and J. H. Reynolds, sheriff, both from Ingalls, were elected. The county commissioners claimed Watson’s election to be a fraud, and, it is believed, planned to bring proceedings against him to prevent his taking office. Ingalls partisans thought that Cimarron intended to keep the records regardless of the election of Watson, and made plans to take them by force.

On the morning of January 12, 1889, Fred Singer, one of the most famous of the Dodge City gunmen, lounged into Cimarron. He called at the courthouse but the safe was closed. Later he called again. About eleven o’clock, the clerk opened the safe. Mr. Singer went downstairs and signaled with a handkerchief. A friend on the edge of town hung a saddle blanket on the clothesline. Out on the prairie, a watcher relayed the signal. About eleven-thirty, a lumber wagon drove in on the Ingalls road, which at that time was just north of the Cimarron Hotel. Concealed behind the wagon’s high box were several men, including several Dodge City gunmen deputized by Sheriff-elect Reynolds, not present because he had been wounded while chasing rustlers. They unloaded quickly in front of the courthouse, and four went upstairs to get the records. The rest stayed on the street below with weapons ready.

Upstairs, Watson and the others drew guns and demanded the records. Riley asked for time to let his two children reach safety. They had come to the office that day as they sometimes did, to stay till their father went home to dinner. The children left, then Riley asked for a receipt before giving up the books. This refused, Riley delayed further by saying he had some private papers to sort out. The Ingalls men started carrying the records downstairs. In the meantime, news of the raid swept through town. As the last of the books were being loaded, Cimarron men had arrived and taken cover inside and behind buildings, and bullets began to fly from both sides of the street. Who fired the first shot was a matter of dispute. J. W. English of Cimarron was killed instantly, and Jack Bliss and Ed Fairhurst were wounded. After the fray was over, F. M. Luther discovered that a bullet had gone through his derby hat and clipped off a lock of hair.

Of the Ingalls crowd, Ed Brooks of Dodge City, and George Bolds, and Charley Reicheideffer, owner and driver of the wagon were wounded. The Ingalls men withdrew to the bridge over the ditch, picked up their wounded, and left with Cimarron riders in pursuit. The pursuers were forced to stop by fire from rifles and a buffalo gun.

Three Ingalls men, unable to reach the wagon, retreated upstairs to the clerk’s office. Shots were fired at them through the floor from the grocery store below. Late in the afternoon, after waving a white flag from the window, the marooned men were found perched on the large iron safe to escape the bullets. Escorted under guard to the train, the prisoners were returned to Ingalls, where Sheriff Reynolds promptly turned them loose.

On request from the Sheriff, who reported that 200 armed men threatened to invade Ingalls, two companies of state militia entrained that night from Larned for Cimarron where they stayed till January 25.

The county seat remained at Ingalls until, in a special election in February 1893, Cimarron received a majority of votes, and it was returned to Cimarron.

Cimarron is the county seat of Gray County, named for Alfred Gray, the first secretary of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture. Main farm products are wheat, grain sorghums, corn, and beef cattle.

Source:

City of Cimarron. Cimarron: Crossroad of the West. Cimarron, KS. n.d.

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