Pictures Lecompton 2

Me
Midway
Spoon Collection
Lecompton exhibit .The desk is from the hall 2 blocks awat, In the plastic slips above the desk are copies of speeches given in Congress .
RR tracks Lecompton

Pictures Lecompton 1

Parade
Parade
Constitution Hall exhibit
The room where Pro Slavery Legislator met

Lecompton Territorial Days

Today we took a drive about 21 miles east on 6th in Topeka which turned into US-40 into Douglas County and then at the Historical Marker turned North 3 miles on E 600 Rd into Lecompton,Kansas. As so much in this part of the State, It has Bleeding Kansas ties and one of the reasons I wanted to go on this day.

The town population is 608 (2000 census), actually I know the population is at least 609, a co worker gave birth to a baby in December and lives in Lecompton, so I will record that one addition even if the Census Bureau doesn't pick it up until 2010.Probably more, but I can verify the 1 addition. The significant to Bleeding Kansas is a white building that sits on 3rd and Elmore Street. It is I believe the 3rd Territorial Capital of Kansas.

The story goes that in 1854,as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act,the fate of whether Kansas would be Free or Slave was left to the Voters, thousands pured in on both sides of the issue.The elections were rifewith fraud and intimidation and eventually the Pro Slave forced won the day.The issue was hardly settled ,violence followed as 1858 brought a Slave Constitution which was never approved, the building later hosted a Free Convention and eventual Statehood in 1861. The actions of the Pro Slave Government led to National Debate particularly in a Senate Election in Illinois between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln.

We arrived in the quiet town and found parking and followed the crowd. A city park seemed to be the focus of most people so we claimed our spot and watched the parade.It had almost everything 4H,old cars, those tiny Shriner cars,politicians with volunteers handing out flyers, kids got candy.

The main of the town was the site of the midway with Rides,Toss a ball and win a prize, several food vendors and people selling jewelry and baseball cards. I was drawn to pictures painted on saws, these included landscapes and pictures of cows and windmills. I got to a Bision Burger, It's a little dry but good and since Buffalos aren't bred with steroids ,are a lot better than Hamburgers.

Another Museums advertises itself as the Territorial Museum and part of one room does deal with Bleeding Kansas, an exhibit has a desk from Constitution Hall that was used in the 1850's. One of things I am finding so charming about these small Museums is how people just donation things like spoon collections and plates from the Bicentinental. The Museum is in one of the 2 building left from Lane University which existed from 1865 to 1902.

Upstairs in the Chapel is a little bit of Dwight Eisenhower history as his parents were married there. We got to see History Re enactors present "Bleeding Kansas" which recreated a Town Hall meeting,Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', a seminal event in the end of slavery was represented, as was James H Lane. The Slave cause was represented by Rev. Thomas Johnson,Mahala Doyle, a Tennessee settler who was made a widower at the hands of John Brown and the Sheriff of Douglas County at the time Samuel Jones. The last speaker was John Brown , the actor walked out of the auditorium in the pose of the John Stuart Curry Mural that is in the Capitol Building in Topeka. It was brilliant, well acted and very moving.

Before the start of the program the auditorium was divided in two, this side Pro Slavery, that side Free State, we were encouraged to Boo ,Heckel and really involve ourselves in the presentation. I think it was hard for the Pro Slave side of the room to get involved, but we Free Staters got very involved in Booing, as the same went on a number of people heckled and cheering.

The events will go on into the night, a band, ice cream social,softball tournament, 3 legged race and on and on.

As always ,next up is some pictures

What starts in Kansas ends as History

We are in Topeka tonight, home. According to a radio interview I heard today there are 20 attractions in Topeka, ranging from a cemetery with a Vice President and one of the founders of the Atchison,Topeka and Santa Fe railroad to the State Capital, something called Prairie Town and several stops on the Underground Radio.

Tonight we are at the Corner on 5th and Topeka, In 1854 the civil war almost started here , that the west side of the street, on the east, the former home of the US District court, a decision was made on the 2nd floor that was appealed to the Supreme Court as part of the Brown v. Board of Education.

History is made on the lowest margin of error possible. D-Day in 1944 would only have happened if the weather was right, the Germans were totally convinced Patton in Northern England would lead the invasion , the intell the Germans had suggested strong 2 other landing points which may have been better spots , the German command at Normandy has to be on it's way to Paris for a party and several other margins. If any of those happened history would have been very,very different.

So a readers digest version of Bleeding Kansas. The Kansas -Nebraska Act left the issue of whether Kansas would come into the Union Free or Slave.Thousands on both sides of the issue moved to the state.Several state Constitutions were made, voted on, votes invalidated, It was a bloody, tension filled mess by July 4, 1856.
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/020203/our_consthall.shtml
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jul/05/topeka_incident_built_freestate_support/?print
a more detailed description of the events of July 4,1856
http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/terrhist/terrhist-p38.html

The slightest margin of error comes in the fact, if the Federal had followed through when Cannons, had the convention not broken up, the Civil War may well have started out at the corner. The Federal coming into the war on the side of Slavery. Some of idea discussed that day made into the State Constitution and Kansas was admitted to the Union as Free State in January of 1861,Lincoln takes office in March of 1861, the shots at Fort Sumpter were fired in April of 1861 and the rest is history. But the events at 427-429 Kansas Avenue played a central role in what was to come.

Across the street is the current Post Office and former US Federal Court building, the early Brown Cases were argued there. William Allen White spoke the words in the title of this entry before he died in 1944, the words rang true in 1954 with the Brown decision.

I had written this entry about a week ago by me,I thought since the events of Kansas occured on the 4th of July, I'd save the entry for that day.But a suprise opprotunity happened and now is as good as time as any to tell this story.

A history professor from the University of New Mexico ,Durwood Ball was in town. He is working on a biography of Col. Sumner,the man faced with the task of telling the gathering in Topeka to go home that July 4th morning.A reception was held at a Microbrew and we loaded onto a bus for a "Hertiage Tour" sponsored by Ghost Tours of Kansas, a Bank, and a society to restore the hall,with hopes of turning it into a museum. Ball described the actions of that day along with several local historians.Afterwards I sat and had a beer with the group where talk turned to a city councilman and crime and whatever else is going on in the city today, not 152 years ago. It was a great evening.

The picture is of a mural at the site. Some information learned:
-while the troops stood outside the hall ready to level it by Cannon fire if the convention did not break up, John Brown was in the woods waiting to join the action. He left disappointed.
-among the crowd gathered watching was a 10 years boy named William Cody, better known years later as Buffalo Bill Cody.
-In Brown news, It had never occurred to me, the school Brown wanted to attend was named for Charles Sumner , one of the more vocal abolitionist in Congress in the 1850's.An irony exists that a school named after Sumner would be all white and deny an African American attendance,forcing her to attend school on the other side of town.
-I had know this but before but sitting at the corner and having it explained was exciting. President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and as Topeka named the streets after the Presidents, Pierce was skipped in favor naming a street after Henry Clay.The bus stopped on the street not named for Franklin Pierce.

It really was a special evening. There is a small but determined group committed to bringing this history to life.One of the more interesting moments was when someone asked how well known the events of Bleeding Kansas were.Local Author Deb Goodrich said she and her husband were researching at the Library of Congress and came across the London Times in 1856 with the headline "War in Kansas", which lends credence to the William Allen White quote that titles this entry.

This was a chance to see living history, the bus took us to the back of the building where delegates to the convention jumped out of the window and ran into the woods. When the story was first told to me some years ago, the encampment of troops was placed across the river to the North. That story was corrected to the Train tracks and creek near 11th and Kansas. The army of 250 marched west and then North down Kansas Avenue to the Hall.

July 4, 2008 postscript:

We know the troops arrived at 10 am and Col. Sumner gave a 2 hour deadline. We know a couple hundred familys gathered around to celebrate the fourth.I came home from a parade on his July 4th and couldn't resist the temptation to visit the mural, I drove north down Kansas Avenue, which of course is different, shops,businesses, resturants and bars line the street. Being the business district on a holiday morning it was empty, unlike 152 years ago. My ears still ringing from the marching band of the parade,It was easy to imagine a drum and buggle corp accompanying the troops on the 7 block walk they took that day.

The weather was different, It was a cool morning today, hot,sticky humid then.The empty streets of today left the tension of that day too the imagination.But there I was ,looking and hoping to feel the ghosts of that day.Opening this building up and telling the story, this chapter of bleeding Kansas seems to important, though the woods have been replaced with I-70,It possible to imagine John Brown and his blood thristy followers lurking over there NW of the Law enforecement center ready for action.

Had shots been fired, what would have happened. The Nation would have been outraged, the Union would have come into the conflict on the side of Pro Slavery movement, would the North have left the union to the Pro Slavery adminstration of Franklin Pierce.What would Edwin Sumners place in history be ? a man with strong feeling against Slavery,carrying out orders to squash an illegal Free State meeting. Interesting questions to ponder.

Roadside Markers-Bleeding Kansas

Even though the classic Bleeding Kansas stories take place 50 miles plus away in Lawrence,Lecompton,Topeka,Osawatomie.

Between Holton and the Sac and Fox Casino lays one of those History Markers where you learn so much.

The Text reads "Battle of the Spurs:

Just before Christmas 1858, John Brown "liberated" eleven slaves in Missouri. He hid them in a covered wagon and circled north on the underground railway toward Nebraska and freedom. En route a Negro baby was born. Late in January they reached Albert Fuller's cabin on Straight creek a mile and a half south of this marker. Here a Federal posse barred their way. Both sides sent for reinforcements. Help for Brown arrived first, Topeka abolitionists leaving in the midst of Sunday church.
Declaring he would not be turned "from the path of the Lord," Brown, though still outnumbered, crossed the creek in spite of high water and the enemy entrenched on the other side. Demoralized by his audacity, the posse mounted and spurred away–thus giving a name to the bloodless battle. This was Brown's exit from Kansas. In December, 1859, he was hanged for his treasonable attack at Harper's Ferry.
This sign marks the site of Eureka, a trading center on the Parallel Road which ran from Atchison to the Pike's Peak gold fields. "

Thus ends the adventures in Kansas for June 21,2008. Till next time ......

Hiawatha Pic Page 2

Hiwatha pics page 1

The City of Beautiful Maples-Stop 2 6/21/08

I wish I could tell you Hiawatha meant "The City of Beautiful Maples" in some Sac or Iowa Indian Language but I can't. Oh well.

Again the Courthouse sits in the middle of the town square, a coffee shop, a signature clock tower,built in 1891 on the bank. The picture to the left is the Veterans Memorial, the statue of the helmet,rifle and boots is a tribute to a citizen of Brown County who died in Afghanistan,2006. The bricks around it have the names of the fallen in other wars.It's a powerful site. Each town and city do in their own way, but this one tugged at me.

To the west is the Brown County Historical Society and Musuem. Now everything on the internet told me it's not open on Weekends. I saw some cars on the street and knocked on the door, and got the tour.

The buiding is amazing,it used to be the Memorial Auditorium. The literature talks about the lower level seating and serving 600 people and the home of dances,commencement exercises,dinners and meetings. The Auditorium with balcony sets 1,200 people and has hosts theatre companies, Opera diva Madame Schumann-Heink and William Jennings Bryan.In the 20's it showed silent movies and later talkies.In 1975 a referendum authorized 1.25 million to restore it. So the building is amazing, but what's inside it:

A General store,the bedroom of a newspaper publisher, Wedding gowns dating back to 1860, a school room, a western union station, a soda fountain from the 50's (unfortunatly not working,but I've craved a Root Beer Float all day),a dentist office ,doctors eqiupment and a military room with arm bands from Nazi Germany.People donated pop bottle collections,tons of peroid dresses ,banners from state winning basketball teams,band uniforms ,victorlas the list is endless and the highlight of the day as the picture page will show.

what I really came to see is the Sarah Davis memorial. A state wide contest a few years ago named it one of the 8 wonders of Kansas.The link here reprints the brouchure and tells the story better than I:
http://www.cityofhiawatha.org/visitors/what-to-see-do/davis-memorial

I like the last line why ?

Hiwatha with population of 3,147 in 2000 also hosts one of the longest running night time Halloween parades in the country.

Pictures of Holton 6/21/08

Cannon on Holton Courthouse square
Court house
Jackson County Museum
Telephone Operators desk

6/21/08 Stop 1 The Holton Recorder

My travels today

took me North 60 miles or so and another 10 miles east into Jackson County (Holton) and Brown County (Hiawatha). about 150 miles through smally populated farm country. The destinations revealed themselves for the most part with water towers that could be since 5 or 6 before reaching the towns.

For a state with significant Oil reserves in the South,Cattle ranches population the whole state, this could be considered the money belt of the state and I passed by 3 Indian Casinos before reaching my destination. I also drove through 1 Indian Reservation and skirted the borders of another. Hard core smokers for years have gone to the reservations for years to buy cheap off brand cigarettes. I was curious about the cost of gas on the reservations as they didn't have to deal with the state taxes. It was high $3.94 a gallon, I got gas on the way home of my 150 mile sojourn for $3.85 off the reservation. The view from the road was farm land,farm land and more farm land. A driving hazard can be getting stuck behind slow moving farm equipment on the highway where it's just impossible to pass. I was lucky today.

Holton, the county seat of Jackson County sits right on US -75. Burger King,multiple gas opportunities and Wal Mart line the road , a sign announces this stretch of highway through town is a Memorial Highway for a Purple Heart winner 1970.One disappointment is a restaurant advertised "The Biggest Cinnamon Rolls in Kansas" and "Home of the 150 Cinnamon Roll". It was closed , looked like it had been for years.

The court house sits on the town square and had a small farmers market in the corner of the square. Antique shops,barber shops ,auto stores surround the Court house that was built in the 20's. Across the street and I almost missed the sign was the Jackson County museum .The museums sits off the square in a red brick building,the museum opened for about 4 hours a day on weekends is 2 storefronts long and is filled with WPA Dolls,military uniforms,old school desks and a telephone operators station.

The joy of Holton came from the 75 cents I paid for the newspaper, It's published Semi weekly and sure there is the top of the fold story on whether to have a .05% sales tax increase for a community center and the letter to the editor from a former sheriff's deputy responding to an article about the Sheriffs department being investigated as a hostile work environment.

The true charm of this county wide newspaper was an 8 paragraph article on the big baseball game between Sabetha and Holton versus Legion Post 44,The Post team lost 15-9 and it sounds like it was an epic struggle. Sports page also contained pictures of girls summer volleyball league and scores . The editor wrote an article about how great Tiger Woods was in winning the US Open earlier in the week.

The paper serves Circleville,Delia,Denison,Effingham,Goff,Havensville,Holton,Hoyt,Larkinburg,Mayetta,Muscotah,Netawaka,Solider,Wetmore and Whiting. Populations by 2004 estimates are:

Holton, 3,345 (county seat) Hoyt, 587 Mayetta, 342Denison, 227 Whiting, 211 Delia, 184Circleville, 183 Netawaka, 169 Soldier, 123

To a person who grew up in a town of 125,000, these towns seem more like places that have names to the area than towns. But they have identities through schools,churches and if you think I just made a negative comment about small town America. They are places people call home and I think that is an important thing.

According to the paper in Whiting

"Abbey Bray spent one day last week at Grandma Brey's.They made sugar cookies and had lots of fun."

"Adam Bray hit the winning ball to the send the Whiting Boys over Wetmore last week."

"Gay Schumaker and Kallie Schumaker went to Topeka ib June 13 to attend the retirement of Debbie Schumaker from the Kansas Highway Patrol.She served the State of Kansas for 33 years.Happy Retirement Debbie."

If you don't think that type of news is important, I'd be willing to bet those notices and the notices about the White family going to Banner Lake for Father's day were probably clipped out of the paper by at least one person and given to the Brey,Schumaker and White's.

All that was missing was a whimsical,melancholy monologue from Garrison Keillor or playing a John Mellencamp CD while reading. And yes, un important stuff was covered, a editorial from Iola about how the Republicans voted for Big Oil Companies last week (and this is Red State American here) and Kansas ranks 10th in child care. I liked the paper a lot.

Last stop of the day. Emporia Kansas

6 Presidents sat at this table.

In a quiet tree lined neighborhood of Emporia, not far from the campus of Emporia State University is the home of one of the important figures of late 19th and early 20th century. William Allen White, publisher of the Emporia Gazette.

A couple of Biographies:

http://www.emporia.com/waw/williamawhite.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Allen_White

I'd like to show you a nice outside picture of the house ,but can't, the batteries started going down on the camera.I can't show you the bed the 3 Presidents who spent the night in the house slept in,notably Theodore Roosevelt. Or the cheetah skin that Roosevelt gave White.That was on the second floor. The camera gave out on the first, oh well, It was the last stop of the day anyway.

It was a good start to my personal Kansas Tour. Next stop in a week or two. I did do a couple of dry runs I guess you'd say around town. The visits to the Train station and the Combat Air Museum are part of what gave me the seed for doing this, I'll cover those stops later. But it begins

Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve -Pic page 3

There really can only be one caption for these pictures. The Park ranger turned around to us on the bus before letting us out and said " How do like my office ?"

Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve Pics 2- The Bus Tour,1

Left to Right: 1. Stone Fence 2.It rained earlier in the week

Tall Grass National Preserve Photos 1-Ranch House

Top Left to Right
1. Barn and Visitors Center 2. Ranch House

Middle Left to Right
3. View from the Front Porch 4. Root Cellar
Bottom
5. Your Blogger

6/14/08 Stop 3: Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve

Tall Grass is a joint public/private partnership between the National Park Service,The Nature Conservancy and Kansas Park Trust. 10,894 acres of Park land have been preserved. The Park area includes a Ranch house ,built out of Limestone in 1880. The guide speaks of 450 species of Plants,150 kinds of birds,39 types of reptiles and 31 species of mammals. Several hiking trails are available to those who get permits.





At 12:30 we waited on the front porch of the ranch house.The front door opened and we were greeted a tour guide from The National Park Service complete with the Smokey the Bear hat. She gave a tour of the 11 Room Ranch hour. It was build by a Cattle Rancher named Stephen F Jones.The most interesting part was the Root cellar and several of the underground rooms.





Afterwards we took a bus tour of the Prairie , we went about 7 miles into the pastures of the Preserve. We saw cattle and several of the plants and birds mentioned above. The tour guide I think knew all of them and then some. The bus stopped twice, one at a field of limestone where we saw a bird that flew onto a plant and stayed around, not bothered by the company at all.I must have heard the names of a hundred flowers,weeds,grass types. Most of it went right over my head.

The second stop the bus made was up a hill, with a few 18 miles in any direction. The amazing thing about the view was you could see no modern conviences in any direction. No Highway, no elecritcal poles, no phone poles, nothing except the bus. The amazing thing about the view is had been unchanged since stone fences had been built in the 1880's. It was easy to imagine 40 years before that the land would have been filled with hordes of Bison Buffalos roaming the Priairie, the view Kansa Indian must have seen or people in wagon trains of the Santa Fe Trial. Simply stunning and so hard to leave.

2 Reasons to return
-To see the Tall Grass in the Fall
-The Bison maybe in 2009 will return, plans to introduce Bisons to the Prairie (or Re-introduce).They will start with 25 and watch it grow through the years.

As always National Parks are national treasures. For anyone who thinks all government is bad, visit a national park.

Next few posts will be pictures

6/14/08 Stop 2: Cottonwood Falls

One of the most amazing things to this city boy about these small towns is the serenity.When we got out of the car the only noise was the wind blowing and the sound of an auctioneer about a block away. The serenity was repeated in Cottonwood Falls only with someone playing Rock and Roll.

Cottonwood Falls is the county seat of Chase County, known for a Limestone Court house built in the 1870's.Were it not be restored it would be oldest courthouse still in use west of Mississippi.The back of the post card I bought says "It was built in 1871-73 in the renaissance style of the Louis XIII period. The 113 foot tall,three story structure is of native limestone, with mansard roof and native walnut spiral staircase and balustrade."It sits on the town square with a brick road leading up to it past another downtown ,this one filled with restaurants,antique stores,art galleries and the Chase County Museum. We were able to peek in the window and see the staircase, I put the camera to the door but the picture didn't work out, unlike the train depot. The Museum wasn't open until 1 and we had places to be so we missed it.

On the court house square was a cannon, a memorial to those who had died in World War 1,World War 2 and Vietnam.On the right corner was an abandoned gas station, we'd see these old gas stations a lot on our journey.

We ate at a restaurant/souvenir store. The menu was written on a dry chalk board it read ham and croissant, Turkey and croissant or Roast beef and croissant with salad bar $7.95.Water was served in a Mason jar. a couple of tourist came in as did a local who only wanted Coffee and a Cinnamon roll.The roll was huge,defiantly a meal in and of itself.

The Front Porch of the Flint Hills- 6/14/08 part 1

Trip Date: June 14, 2008

Emporia is 50 miles south and west on Turnpike from Topeka, Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve is maybe 20 miles west on Hwy 50 to k-177 and maybe 2 or 3 miles North. The Preserve is part of the National Park System. The purpose of these journeys is to get there eventually but we have a few stops to make before we get there.

On a technical note this is the first time I've played around trying to put pictures , I'll work on it, so the blog may look clunky until I figure it out. I took 87 pictures yesterday in 4 places, learned if you are going to take about 30 the night before at an indoor football game and 87 the next day it's going to drain the batteries and a a set of batteries will be as necessary as a good map.

Before you turn to K177, you can turn south and enter the town of Strong City, Kansas.Just before the turn is a dinner with a sign painted in the window reading "Good Eats and Ice".Sorry to say we passed that up, I love Good Eats.

The road that cuts through Strong City and eventually takes you to Cottonwood Falls is flag lined, a church and some of the houses are limstone , one of the real attractions of the region is the limestone buildings. You'll see these in the Chase County Courthouse in the Cottonwood Falls entry and the Jones Ranch house in the Tall grass entry.

Downtown Strong City as a website dares calls it, is 2 blocks long and contains at least 2 bars, for a population of 581. The polls in the street all have flags, not a holiday, I image those flags are there everyday. It's what we do in fly over country, not a something that was discovered on 9/11.You'll find a bit of romantic about my home state. The state motto is "Ad Astra per aspera " a Latin phrase:Through the Stars with hardship. Yes we do bake in the summer,blow away in the spring and freeze in the winters .And our history...... William Allen White said "Things that begin in Kansas,finish in History books." So I found it somewhat comforting to drive down this main street and American flags on the street lights.

Our mission in Strong City was to see the Santa Fe Train Depot, we found it behind a caboose and a gravel parking lot. A red bricked building with several windows boarded up, we could peak in one some of the windows and see the wooden benches. Money is being raised to restore the building.

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/StrongCity/depot.html

Cottonwood Falls is a couple miles down the road,but first we had to wait for the train.