Governace of Early Catherine

One major restriction to this project is that early town records do not exist anymore.  Without records like that, it is very hard to get a picture of what political issues plagued the early settlers.  What we do have are deed records and secondary written accounts.  From those sources, we can get a small glimpse into how Catherine was governed.

Catherine did not have an a democratically elected city council.  The men of the town set up a corporation.   This corporation divided the land and settled any land disagreements amongst the settlers.  Here are the basics of how the land was divided, sorry if this gets into the weeds too much.  Catherine includes 640 acres of land which was purchased for $4,635.48.  50 acres was appropriated for the village and each family received 6-38 acres of land with 5 acres for pasture.  Furthermore, each family received 88 by 140 feet of land to build a house. 

The original name for the corporation was called the Catherine Land Company, although it was not officially charted by the state.  In April 12, 1893, the St. Catherine Town and Grazing Company became the official charted name of the company, since the state of Kansas forced them to charter.  The charter lasted for 50 years, even though the corporation did not last that long.  The corporation had a governing structure with a president, secretary, and a treasurer.  There were five directors of the board that elected these individuals.  Certain rules were set by the corporation on how to use the land, such as no chopping wood by the creek banks and renting or selling of the land had to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the corporation. 

What can we get out of this structure?  First, the system was semi-democratic, but was more representative than direct.  Second, setting up this corporation meant the settlers were most interested in farming regulations rather than setting up general town rules.  Finally, the town was very mathematically proportioned and divided pretty fairly amongst the different families.  They also thought ahead by setting enough spaces for pasture, a cemetary, and a church, despite those structures being built later.

More information on this subject (instead of notes) since this information is pretty scattered:

[1] Albert Jepmond, German-Russian Catholic Colonization in Western, Kansas: A Settlement Geography (n.p.: Louisana State University, 1970), pageNr.
[2] Francis Laing, German-Russian Settlers in Ellis County, Kansas (Topeka, Kansas: Kansas State Historical Society, 1910), 489-528.
[3] Mary Eloise Johannes, A Study of the Russian-German Settlemtns in Ellis County, Kansas (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1946), pageNr.
[4] Ellis County Deeds Office