All I know is his book was published in 1908 and to my knowlege very few copies survived and none are known to be on the market today. His work was re-written in 1929 and there are copies of that book around.
I doubt that many have read it and I only quote Capt. Elkins. From my undertanding he made a distinction between established as Coleman County and when it was officially sanctioned as a county. He noted that the Governor made the appoinments.
I agree that this was during reconstruction and must have been an issue regarding it's officialism! Elkins did not mention any prior officials, bonified or otherwise.