After the General Election of 1912 failed in securing the removal of the county seat from Fairfax, the newspapers were silent on the issue for about thirteen months.  During that time area newspapers did not contain any headlines which indicated the plans of communities to remove the county seat from Fairfax.

On January 29, 1914, The Mitchell Capital reported:  “The first rumors of county seat contests for this year come from Gregory and Stanley counties, where the movement is already under way with possibilities in Perkins and Lyman counties ready for development at any time.”

The contest in Gregory County had been a long drawn out event which was under way at every opportunity since the county expanded its boundaries.  As new towns were established west of the river, they became new challengers for the county seat.

It was thought that the act of the 1911 legislature, which was approved by the people in the General Election of 1912, would settle the issue.  It would eliminate the towns with the smallest vote in the Primary Election.  That law provided for only the two communities receiving the most votes to be listed on the November General Election ballot.

That was not what happened!  Community organizers and influential leaders began contacting prominent lawyers and the legal fight was about to begin in earnest.  It was sometimes difficult for the citizens in the county to understand what was happening and how it would affect their future.

In early February of 1914, the Supreme Court was the scene of a contest between Fairfax, Burke, and Herrick. The Fairfax position was that they wanted the court to prevent a vote on the removal of the county seat.  Burke and Herrick asked that an elimination vote be taken at the March Primary under the provisions of the 1911 law.

Near the end of February, the Supreme Court declared the county seat law passed by the 1911 legislature as unconstitutional.  This was a decision which almost no one anticipated.  That law was expected to bring about a settlement of the county seat contest by the process of elimination.  Fairfax was given another temporary lease on keeping the county seat.

The decision came about because of a court case from Gregory County for which the law was especially designed.   The court held that any town could be a candidate for county seat and invalidated the settlement plan of having only the two towns getting the largest vote at the primary to be listed on the November ballot.

If there were more than two towns listed on the ballot, past elections in several South Dakota counties revealed that it was almost impossible to get a majority of all votes cast.  With the need for the winning town to get a majority of the votes cast, it was practically impossible to move even a temporary county seat.

On March 5, 1914, the Pierre Weekly Free Press contained this headline:  “County Seat Decision Has Been Misconstrued.”  According to the Pierre paper:

“The recent decision of the supreme court in the Gregory county seat case has been misconstrued.  The point involved was not the constitutionality of the county seat elimination act, but whether in a county organized since adoption of the constitution the question of the location of the county seat can be submitted only once every four years.  Since the question in Gregory County had been submitted in 1912, the court holds it cannot again be submitted until 1916.”

From the early part of March in 1914 until August 8, 1916, South Dakota and Nebraska newspapers did not contain any Gregory County court house relocation stories.  One can only wonder how community leaders were utilizing these almost eighteen months to plan their next move.  Many of them had been involved in this fight for so long, it is difficult to believe that they were not making plans for the future.  Legal tactics were surely on their agenda as there would be many legal challenges in the future.

Although the frustrations and tensions were just below the surface, it must have been somewhat comforting for many to not be regularly reminded of the conflict.  It had now been going on for at least fourteen years and four months.  In Chapter Three of Ecclesiastes we read:  “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven . . . a time to be silent and a time to speak.”

“County Seat Fight Will Be Conducted by Dakota Cities — Gregory County to Be Scene of Struggle — Herrick and Burke in Lead” was the headline at the top of page two of the Forest City Press on August 2, 1916.  The story began with this strong statement:    “Gregory County during the fall months will be the scene of one of the hottest county seat fights ever staged in South Dakota.”

When the August 2nd newspaper story was published, it had been years since the folks in Gregory County first became involved in the struggle to move the county seat.  By this time, many of the citizens had become tired, weary, and exhausted from the emotional atmosphere which permeated the county.  For them, these were difficult and tense years.  Thankfully, the physical actions were controlled and kept to a minimum.  Talk, scheming, political game plans, and legal maneuvers were the favorite tactics used by friends and neighbors who often cooperated on other mutual interests.

This battle for the location of the county seat in Gregory County still had many “twists and turns” to make before it would finally come to a conclusion in 1917.

 

Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory-Times Advocate on February 10, 2021