FROM RICHARDS TO BROOKS
| State Capitol | Cheyenne | $295,649.59 |
| State University | Laramie | 80,753.95 |
| Insane Asylum | Evanston | 66,667.66 | Poor Farm | Lander | 5,053.39 |
| Deaf, Dumb and Blind Asylum | Cheyenne | 7,919.30 |
| Penitentiary | Rawlins | 56,875.35 |
| Penitentiary | Laramie | 2,170.49 |
| Fish Hatchery | Laramie | 7,279.90 |
| Miners' Hospital | Rock Springs | 24,267.58 |
| Total | $546,637.21 |
On February 14, 1895, Governor Richards approved the act accepting the conditions imposed by the act of Congress, approved on August 18, 1894, granting large tracts of arid lands to the states, with the stipulation that they be irrigated by the states. The act of Congress is known as the "Carey Act," its author having been Senator Joseph M. Carey, of Wyoming. (See chapter on Irrigation, etc.)
Another act of the third Legislature was the one dividing the counties of the state into four classes. All having an assessment of $5,000,000 or over were designated counties of the first class, those having a valuation of from $2,000,000 to $5,000,000 constituted the second class; the third class were composed of the counties having an assessed valuation of from $1,100,000 to $2,000,000, and all in which the valuation of property was less than $1,100,000 were designated as fourth class counties. In all except the first class the offices of county clerk and clerk of the courts were consolidated, and the county treasurer was also made the county assessor.
An act fixing the fees and salaries of county officers was passed at this session, and also one providing that all state officers should be paid monthly. Other acts of the session provided for the recording of live stock brands: for the organization of the Wyoming National Guard; to prevent the killing of buffalo within the state limits ; authorizing the payment of one dollar bounty on each coyote killed in the state and three dollars for each gray or black wolf, and appropriating $25,000, "or so much thereof as might be necessary" for the payment of said bounties; enlarging the powers of incorporated towns by authorizing them to grant franchises and make contracts for telephone service, lighting the streets with gas or electricity, and to grant franchises for street railways operated by horse, cable or electric power.
Legislature of 1899 as the "Revised Statutes of Wyoming," the first revised laws ever published by authority of the state.
Another memorial asked Congress to set apart a region included in a certain number of townships within ranges 113 to 119, as a national park. The district embraced within those boundaries includes the upper waters of the Snake River, the Teton Mountains and Jackson Lake, in what is now the northern part of Lincoln County. Congress failed-to grant the request, however, chiefly for the reason that the proposed park would be too close to the Yellowstone National Park already established.
Memorials asking for the acquisition of a tract twenty miles square from the Wind River reservation, to include the Big Llorn Hot Springs; for the passage of an act by Congress submitting to the states a constitutional amendment providing for the election of United States senators by popular vote; for the restriction of foreign immigration, and to permit the State of Wyoming to sell the lands granted by the act of admission for less than ten dollars per acre, were also adopted by the Legislature, approved by the governor and forwarded to Congress.
The deadlock in the election of United States senator in 1893 left Wyoming with but one senator, and as Joseph M. Carey's term expired on March 4, 1895, the Legislature of that year was called upon to elect two senators. The choice fell upon Francis E. Warren and Clarence D. Clark, who took office upon March 4, 1895.
In Wyoming the two state conventions indorsed the action of the national conventions. The republicans nominated H. V. S. Groesbeck, former chief justice, for justice of the Supreme Court and Frank W. Mondell was renominated for Congress. The democratic state convention named Samuel T. Corn for justice of the Supreme Court and ex-Governor John E. Osborne for representative in Congress. The people's party made no nomination for Supreme Court justice but William Brown was the candidate of that party for Congress.
At the election on November 3, 1896, the democratic presidential electors–John A. Martin. Patrick J. Ouealy and Daniel L. Van Meter–carried the state by a plurality of 303 ; Samuel T. Corn received 10,461 votes for justice of the Supreme Court to 9,985 for Judge Groesbeck; and John E. Osborne defeated Frank W. Mondell for Congress by a vote of 10,310 to 10,044. William Brown, the populist candidate for Congress, received 628 votes in the state. Although the democrats elected the state officers, the Legislature elected in 1896 was composed of thirty-seven republicans and twenty democrats on joint ballot.
On the subject of irrigation of state lands he said: "The most important measure enacted by the third State Legislature was the law providing for the reclamation and settlement of the land granted the state under the Carey Act. As Wyoming was the first state to accept the trust, and is the only state where lands have been segregated and contracts made for their reclamation, it is the only state where the success or failure of state control can be studied."
He announced that during the year 1896 a total of 482 irrigating ditches had been surveyed, and that the average length of these ditches was about one mile, or a total of 480 miles, and predicted an era of prosperity for Wyoming when her irrigating systems should be completed.
The Wyoming General Hospital, located at Rock Springs, was seriously damaged by fire on January 4, 1897, and on February 8th Governor Richards approved an act of the Legislature appropriating all the money received as indemnity from insurance companies (not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars) for rebuilding the institution. An appropriation was also made for completing the penitentiary at Rawlins.
To encourage the production of sugar beets and the manufacture of beet sugar in the state, an act was passed at this session exempting from taxation for a period of ten years all property employed in the production of sugar.
By the act of February 24, 1897, the state accepted the grant of one mile square of land in the northeastern part of the Shoshone Indian reservation, upon which are located the Big Horn Hot Springs, with all the conditions imposed by the act of Congress granting the said land to the State of Wyoming.
That resolution was the first move toward the exposition that was held in Omaha from June to November, 1898. During the month of February, 1897, the department of promotion sent excursions to the capital cities of several of the Trans-Mississippi states to present the matter of the exposition project to the state officials and such state legislatures as might then be in session. One of these excursions visited various cities in Wyoming and the adjacent states. The Wyoming Legislature of that year adjourned without making any appropriation for an exhibit of the state's products at the fair. An attempt was made to raise a fund of $7,000 by asking each county in the state to appropriate its part in proportion to the assessed valuation of the property of the county. This plan failed and a committee, composed of Elwood Mead, state engineer, Frank P. Graves of the State University, and Governor Richards, was chosen to solicit and receive private donations to a fund for an exhibit at Omaha.
This committee went to Omaha and selected space for an exhibit and the railroad companies operating in Wyoming agreed to transport all the articles of the display free of charge. Several thousand dollars were contributed by the citizens of the state, several of whom also had private exhibits of their products at the exposition. Dr. David T. Day, director of the Government mining exhibit, Prof. W. C. Knight and J. T. Crawford, state land appraiser, arranged the Wyoming exhibit, which was in charge of Mr. Crawford, who received nothing for his services except his actual expenses. Although the display was not as complete as the one made at the Columbian Exposition five years before, Wyoming took two gold medals, five silver medals and one bronze medal upon the mineral and agricultural products exhibited. The actual expense (not including the cost of the floor space and the expenses of Mr. Crawford) was less than one thousand dollars.
The democratic candidates were: Horace C. Alger, governor; David Miller, secretary of state; Charles H. Priest, auditor of state; Luke Voorhees. treasurer of state; Jerome F. Brown, superintendent of public instruction; Charles E. Blydenburgh, justice of the Supreme Court; Constantine P. Arnold, representative in Congress.
E. B. Viall was nominated for governor by the people's party: Shakespeare E. Seeley, for secretary of state: J. F. Pierce, for auditor of state; John M. Rouser, for treasurer of state; Mrs. M. A. Stocks, for superintendent of public instruction; William Brown, for representative in Congress. No nomination was made by this party for justice of the Supreme Court.
The election was held on Tuesday. November 8. 1898, and it resulted in a victory for the entire republican ticket. Governor Richards' plurality was 1,394. and the other republican candidates were elected by substantially the same vote.
The message prepared by the retiring governor was replete with information regarding the finances and institutions of Wyoming. It gave detailed accounts of the rebuilding of the General Hospital at Rock Springs, the Fort McKinney reservation, which was given to the state by act of Congress in 1895, the part taken by Wyoming in the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha in 1898 and the awards taken'by the state, complete information as to the part taken by the state in the Spanish-American war up to that time, and announced that the state treasury showed a balance on hand of $103,785.69 at the conclusion of the year 1897.
By the act of February 17, 1899, the Big Horn Hot Springs, which had previously been granted to Wyoming by act of Congress, were "placed under the control of the state board of charities and reform and forever set aside for the treatment and care of diseases for sanitary and charitable purposes." The board was authorized by the act to lease the lands and water privileges, with the stipulation that all buildings erected upon the reservation should be according to plans furnished or approved by the board. It was further provided that gambling and the sale of liquor should be strictly prohibited, and the board was required to appoint a superintendent to see that the provisions of the act were carried out and the regulations of the board properly observed.
Among the appropriations made by this Legislature was one of $789.15 to reimburse ex-Gov. William A. Richards for money advanced on account of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha in 1898, and one of $1,000 for the purpose of establishing a branch of the state fish hatchery at Sundance, Crook County.
One important act of the fifth Legislature was that declaring county commissioners to be a county board of health, the mayor and council in incorporated cities, and the president and trustees in incorporated towns to be boards of health in their respective munici]i;ilities. Each of these local boards of health was authorized to appoint a health officer, who should be a regularly licensed and practicing physician, to act as an adviser to the board. The county and municipal board of health were empowered to adopt and promulgate rules and regulations to be observed in times of epidemic of contagious diseases; to provide for quarantine and the isolation of persons affected by such epidemic; to adopt such means as they might deem necessary for the abatement of nuisances, the cleaning up of unsanitary premises, etc., in the interest of the general health and comfort of the community.
About the same time the governor of Utah called upon Governor Richards to aid in the capture of some bandits who had killed some of the officials of that state who were trying to arrest them. The governor directed Sheriff Swanson, of Sweetwater County, to organize a posse and render what assistance he could in arresting the bandits. Although no funds were available for such purposes. Sheriff' Swanson raised a posse and at the commencement of the next session Governor Richards recommended an appropriation to reimburse that official. "It gives me pleasure," said the governor in his message, "to report that organized outlawry' has ceased to exist in this state and that the notorious 'Hole-in-the-Wall gang' and kindred organizations have been practically broken up. The state is undoubtedly more free from the depredations of such criminals than ever before in its history.
By an act passed at this session, the governor was authorized to appoint three persons, one of whom should be a physician, as a state board of health, the physician to be the secretary of the board. The state board of health thus created was given power to investigate the pollution of streams, to obtain analyses of the water used for domestic purposes by incorporated towns and cities and to recommend improvement of waterworks systems, to cooperate with the local boards of health, to have the management or oversight of hospitals, to examine public buildings and report upon their sanitary condition, and to make quarantine regulations for the suppression of epidemics of infectious diseases.
The question of the permanent location of the seat of government, the state university, the insane asylum and the state penitentiary was ordered "to be submitted to and determined by the qualified electors of the state at the general election to be held on Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in the year 1904." The act also provided that every city, town and village should be eligible, that said towns, cities and villages should be nominated in the same manner as that provided by law for the nomination of candidates by petition and the names of cities, towns and villages should be printed on the ballots. Each voter could vote for one place for the location of each'of the institutions named in the act.
By an act approved by Governor Richards on February 14, 1901, the name of the Stinking Water River, in Bighorn County, was changed to the Shoshone River, and it was directed that the latter name be used by all state officials and employees when referring to the stream.
Shortly after the adjournment of the Legislature, the capitol commission purchased a site on the corner of Twenty-first and House streets for $3,000 and as soon as the fund resulting from the tax levied was sufficient, work was commenced on the building. The first governor to occupy the residence was Bryant B. Brooks, who in his message to the Legislature on January 11, 1905, announced the completion of the building and gave the cost to the state as follows:
| Site | $3,000.00 |
| Building | 23,717.29 |
| Furniture | 4,500.00 |
| Improving the grounds | 2,036.00 |
| Total | $33,253.29 |
This session of the Legislature appropriated $100,000 to the state board of charities and reform, for the support and maintenance of the penitentiary, the insane asylum, the Wyoming General Hospital, the deaf, dumb and blind asylum, etc. The board, by another act, was required to establish a home for soldiers and sailors on the old Fort McKinney reservation in Johnson County and an appropriation of $2,500 was made for putting the buildings in repair and removing the soldiers in the temporary home at Cheyenne to their new quarters.
On February 21, 1903, the governor approved the act to tax gifts, legacies and inheritances. By the provision of this act all inheritances descending to parents, husband, wife, children, brothers and sisters, amounting to ten thousand dollars or more, are taxed two per cent. To all other beneficiaries, five per cent.
Tax levies were ordered for building an addition to the penitentiary at Rawlins, and for the establishment of a branch of the Wyoming General Hospital at Sheridan. For the latter institution the proceeds derived from the tax levy to an amount not exceeding twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars were placed at the disposal of the state board of charities and reform, which was authorized to obtain a suitable site, by donation of otherwise, and to superintend the erection of the buildings.
Other acts passed at this session were those appropriating the sum of $3,000 for a branch fish hatchery at Saratoga; requiring the school trustees in the various school districts of the state to cause the American flag to be displayed upon each school house, flagstaff or tower during the hours school is in session; throwing open mineral lands to exploration, occupation or purchase under the same rules governing the location of mining claims; providing for the sale of pure and unadulterated foods and appointing a state chemist: and authorizing county commissioners to offer bounties for the destruction of predatory wild animals.
The commissioners met at the state capitol on March 20, 1903. and organized by the election of Robert B. Homer, president; Bryant B. Brooks, vice president; William C. Deming, secretary. Mr. Homer resigned soon after his election and Mr. Brooks was elected in his place. J. L. Baird was appointed to the vacancy on the board caused by the resignation of Mr. Homer, and W. H. Holliday was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles A. Badgette.
The agricultural exhibit was prepared under the direction of Prof. B. C, Buffum, of the State L'niversity : John H. Gordon, of Cheyenne, was employed to prepare for exhibition a collection of Wyoming woods and such minerals as might be available in the state museum; State Geologist H. C. Beeler gave valuable assistance in the arrangement of the mineral display; and the educational exhibit was prepared under the supervision of Thomas T. Tynan, superintendent of public instruction. As far as it was practicable, the commission tried to show not only the raw material, but also some finished article manufactured from it. The railroad companies operating in the state agreed to transport materials for the various exhibits free of charge. Through this generous cooperation and the energy of the commission, Wyoming was one of the comparatively few states that had its entire display in place on the opening day of the fair.
Monday, July 11. 1904, was "Wyoming Day" at the exposition. On that day Acting-Governor Chatterton and his staff were present and a large number of Wyoming people were in attendance to celebrate in a proper manner the fourteenth anniversary of the state's admission into the Union. The exercises were held in the Hall of Congresses. Music was furnished by a band belonging to a regiment of the Illinois National Guard and the Indian band from the Indian school in Wyoming. David R. Francis, president of the exposition commission, delivered an address of welcome and the response was made by Bryant B. Brooks, president of the Wyoming commission. Addresses were made by Samuel T. Corn of the Wyoming Supreme Court, Joseph M. Carey and Henry A. Coffeen.
Wyoming took 124 prizes upon the state's displays and private exhibits. These awards consisted of four grand prizes, thirty-three gold medals, forty-seven silver medals and forty bronze medals. Over hfty thousand pamphlets giving information concerning the resources of Wyoming. Two thousand Wyoming people visited the exposition while it was in progress, and at the close the state commission turned back into the treasury $5,658.23 as an unexpended balance of the original appropriation of $25.000.
Fenimore Chatterton was born in Oswego, New York, July 21, 1860. While he was still in his childhood his parents removed to Washington, D. C, where he attended Columbiana College and studied law. In 1878 he came to Wyoming as a clerk in the post store at Fort Steele, of which he later became the proprietor. I'his store he sold in 1888, when he was elected treasurer of Carbon County and probate judge. Two years later he was elected to the first state senate of Wyoming and was twice reelected, serving three consecutive terms. In 1892 he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he graduated the next year and began practice at Rawlins. In 1894 and again in 1896 he was elected county attorney of Carbon County and in 1898 was elected secretary of state. At the close of his first term in this office he was again elected and upon the death of Governor Richards became acting-governor. From 1894 to 1896 he was grand master of the Wyoming Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, in which order he has received the thirty-second degree, and in 1900 he was one of the organizers of the Kurtz & Chatterton Mining Company. When Bryant B. Brooks was elected governor in 1904, for the unexpired term of Governor Richards, Mr. Chatterton continued as secretary of state until succeeded in January, 1907, by W. R. Schnitger.
The republican candidates for presidential electors in Wyoming were: Ora Haley, James M. Wilson and Atwood C. Thomas. The democrats nominated George T. Beck, A. L. Murray and A. V. Ouinn, and the people's party, Peter Esperson, John Gaiselman and William W. Paterson. These were the three leading political organizations in the state at that time.
Vacancies were to be filled in the offices of governor and treasurer of state, due to the death of Gov. De Forest Richards and the resignation of Henry G. Hay. The republicans nominated the following ticket: For governor, Bryant B. Brooks; treasurer of state, William C. Irvine; justice of the Supreme Court. Cyrus Beard; representative in Congress, Frank W. Mondell.
The democratic candidates were: John E. Osborne, for governor: H. C. Alger, for treasurer of state; Samuel T. Corn, for justice of the Supreme Court; T..S. Taliaferro, Jr., for representative in Congress.
James W. Gates was the candidate of the people's party for governor; Frank Ketchum, for treasurer of state; Herman V. S. Groesbeck, for justice of the Supreme Court; and William Brown, for representative in Congress. The socialists made no nomination for justice of the Supreme Court, but named George W. Blain for governor; David Gordon for treasurer of state, and Lemuel L. Laughlin for representative in Congress.
The election was held on Xovember 8, 1904. The republican presidential electors carried the state by a plurality of 11,559, having a clear majority over all the electors nominated by the other parties. For governor. Brooks received 17.765 votes to 12,137 cast for Osborne, and for representative in Congress, Mondell defeated Taliaferro by a vote of 19,862 to 9,803.
It will be remembered that the Legislature of 1901 provided for submitting to the voters at the general election of 1904 the question of permanently locating the seat of government, the State University, the insane asylum and the penitentiary. For the seat of government Cheyenne received 11,781 votes; Lander, 8,667; and Casper, 3,610, with a scattering vote given in small numbers to several other cities and towns. The State University was located at Laramie, which city received 12,697 votes. Evanston received 12,593 votes as the site of the insane asylum, and the penitentiary was located at Rawlins by a vote of 12,042.
One of the principal laws enacted at this session is that known as the "Negotiable Instrument Act," the main purpose of which was to establish a law in uniformity with the laws of other states on that subject. The act contains 198 sections, being one of the longest ever passed by a Wyoming Legislature, and covers every form of negotiable instrument.
The State Board of Horticulture was created bv the eighth Legislature. The act creating it provides that the governor of the state, the professor of botany and the professor of zoology in the State University shall be ex-officio members, and the other four members to be appointed by the governor, one from each of the four water districts of the state. The duties of the board were defined to be as follows. To collect and disseminate infomiation on the subject of horticulture, especially the diseases of fruit trees and the manner of getting rid of insect pests, and to report biennially on the work done and the results accomplished.
On February 16, 1903, two days before the final adjournment, a joint session of the two houses was convened "for the consideration of resolutions commemorative of the distinguished public services, life and character of the late De Forest Richards, former governor of Wyoming." Short addresses were made by Governor Brooks, Secretary of State Chatterton, Speaker Cooper, and others and the resolutions adopted were ordered to be recorded in the journals of the Senate and House.
The act creating the commission appropriated $10,000 in addition to the unexpended balance of $5,658.23 of the appropriation made for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of the preceding year, making a total appropriation of $15,658.23 for the Lewis and Clark Exposition. The board organized on March 7, 1905, by the election of Governor Brooks as president; George E. Pexton, vice president; William C. Deming, secretary. The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company made a donation of $2,500 and the Union Pacific Railroad Company furnished free transportation of the exhibits to and from the exposition.
A large part of the exhibit from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was taken to Portland. In their final report the commissioners say: "In the Mines Building Wyoming occupied 3,000 square feet of floor space and 1,700 feet of wall space. While very compact, Wyoming's exhibit in the Mines Building was varied and attractive. * * * The agricultural exhibit was equally complete. In this building Wyoming was in competition with some of the greatest agricultural states in the Union, and the large number of awards received proves very conclusively that our state did not suffer by comparison. In this handsome building Wyoming occupied 3,200 square feet of floor space and 2,250 square feet of wall space. This exhibit was installed under the personal direction of Professor Bufifum and consisted of about twelve hundred classified exhibits.
Among the minerals shown were oil, soda, copper, iron, coal, gold, building stone, onyx, clays, asbestos, fossil fish, moss agates, petrified woods, stalactites and a large number of semi-precious stones, making one of the most varied and extensive exhibits of this class at the exposition.
July 10, 1905, was Wyoming Day. Governor Brooks and his staff, the members of the commission and a large number of Wyoming people were present at the exercises, which were held in the great Auditorium. The program included music by the exposition band; an address of welcome by H. W. Goode, president of the exposition; response by Clarence B. Richardson, Wyoming's commissioner-in-chief ; the song "Wyoming" by a quartet (the words of this song were by C. E. Winter and the music by E. A. Clemmons); and addresses by Harry Lane, mayor of Portland, Governor Brooks and Judge J. A. Van Orsdel.
The exhibits of the state and individual exhibitors were awarded 146 medals–83 gold, 31 silver and 32 bronze–and twenty-six other individual exhibits received honorable mention. At the conclusion of the exposition the commissioners reported a balance of $6,306.80, with a few unpaid bills still outstanding, which would reduce the balance to $5,500.
The democratic state convention nominated for governor, Stephen A. D. Keister; for secretary of state, Daniel W. Gill; for auditor of state, Thomas J. Dayton; for treasurer of state. James M. Labban; for superintendent of public instruction, May Hamilton; for justice of the Supreme Court, H. V. S. Groesbeck: for representative in Congress, John C. Hamm.
William L. O'Neill was the candidate of the people's party for governor; William W. Paterson, secretary of state; Albert J. Vagner, auditor of state; M. O. Kangas, treasurer of state; C. E. Cronk, superintendent of public instruction ; William Brown, representative in Congress. No nomination was made by this party for justice of the Supreme Court.
The vote for governor on November 6, 1906, was 16,396 for Brooks, 9,483 for Keister, 1,310 for O'Neill, and 140 for George W. Blain, the candidate of the socialist party. All the candidates upon the republican ticket were elected by approximately the same plurality as the governor.