Christmas on Prairie 12/06/08

I've always thought when Garrison Keillor ends his Lake Wobegon monologues by describing the town as place time forgot and decades can not improve he must have been talking about Abilene,Kansas.Located off I-70 about 100 miles west of Topeka,It can seem like a town wonderfully and blissfully lost in time, stuck somewhere in it's most famous residents President Dwight David Eisenhowers era of the 50's. Taking the turnoff and heading south you pass ALCo department stores,a Sinclare gas station with the big green dinosaur on the roof,a Victorian Mansion offering tours, the Eisenhower center with it's Museum,Library and final resting place of the General and President, just to the south is a wax museum of WW2 generals,the international Greyhound museum and a cow town celebrating the wild west and the Chisholm trail which ended in Abilene. And that's just on the main drag.

The population of the town in 2000 was listed as 6,543.To get off the main drag you find a Musuem of Telephones,2 more Victorian Mansions and a resturant called the Brookville Hotel that is so renowned for it's Chicken dinners that if you tell someone you ate somewhere else you'll get frowns of disappointment. There is too much to do in 1 day in this little town, too much history to take in a day. I've been to Abilene many times before and will go back.

In 1900 the population was listed in the 3,000 range. In the 1860's the population of cattle could be listed in hundreds of thousands as the cattle drives from Texas ended at the stockyards before they were loaded on the trains to points across the globe. See the wonderful movie John Wayne movie "Red River". In the 1870's Wild Bill Hickok worked briefly in Abilene as did John Wesley Hardin.

On to this visit, In was a beautiful slightly chilly,partly cloudly Saturday afternoon in December. We found out we had arrived in town the same weekend of the Holiday Festival with included a festival of homes, tree lighting at one of the train depots. The resturant we were planning eating at had a tea party which seemed to have brought in an invasion of the Red Hat society. We ate a local Pizzaria instead.

First stop was the Lebold Mansion, this from the Chamber of Commerce website gives a brief history of the Mansion:

"Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, this Italianate Victorian mansion was built in 1880 by Conrad H. Lebold, one of the early founders of the city of Abilene. He was also a banker, land agent, mayor, politician and entrepreneur.

This 23-room mansion built to showcase Lebold’s success, has been completely restored and furnished with period antiques typical of the late Victorian era. The interiors are a showcase of the Victorian decorative arts and your tour guild will explain the history of the mansion and the many unique artifacts essential to the Victorian lifestyle.

See Timothy Hersey’s dugout, the first home in Abilene, located on the first floor of the mansion, below the tower. From this location, Mrs. Hersey served the last “square” meal to the passengers of the Butterfield Stage Coach Lines and the Overland Freight Company as they traveled west.

The museum collection displays furnishings, textiles, artwork, silver, mechanical automations, pianos, organs, melodeon, victrola, period lighting, and much more. "

Almost every room had a Christmas tree and it was just a stunning place to visit, especially during the holidays. What I love about guided tours of house is how people join the tour they progress, we started in the 3rd Room, a group of Red Hat Ladies joined us the basement and a couple joined us somewhere upstairs.And the tour guide working through 23 Rooms managed to keep track of who joined when and where. Pictures to follow in separate posts.

After lunch we went to the Eisenhower center which is built around the small childhood home that stands 5 feet on the "wrong side of the tracks" a distance away from the "right" side of the tracks and stately Victorian Mansions of Bankers and Cattle Barons of the 1880's. The Eisenhower family is truly one of the most amazing in Kansas. The little 2 story house was home to a successful pharmacist,a banker and a college University President. That's not even talking about Dwight David Eisenhower ,West Point Graduate,Supreme Allied Commander of World War 2,President of Columbia University and President of the United States.It says something about the wrong side of the tracks.

The Center includes a Visitor Center,Childhood home,Museum,Library,Statue in the middle of the grounds and Place of Mediation with Eisenhower ,his wife and young child are buried.

I can count 5 times that I had been there, as child, the 9th Grade class of Eisenhower Middle School,the 50th Anniversary of D-Day where I attended events moderated by Eisenhower Biographer Stephen Ambrose and the grandson of either Churchill or Montgomery. A Scot who played the bagpipes while wading through the water at Normady also spoke as did a German Panzer Commander Col. Hans Von Luck, who wrote one of the best war books I've ever read,a most read for anyone interested in Military History

http://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Hans/dp/0440208025

My fault with the Museum is it really doesn't cover enough of Ike's Presidency. He was President during one of the most amazing times in our History. The 50's were the seed of the Civil Rights Movement,The age of Television,suburbia,fast food,the construction of I-70, the space age and a wide range of social,economic and personal change that the country had never really seen. Those topics are covered to be sure.A telegram from Arkansas Governor Orville Fabus arguing against sending in the National Guard to Little Rock is included in the collection.

Highlights of the collection include:

The Note Eisenhower wrote and was prepared to deliver if D-Day had failed

Planning for the secret service for a visit to a Major League Baseball game by the President

The pen General Smith used to sign the Unconditional surrender of Germany.

My Favorite is a Telephone Book from SHAFE headquarters with a stamp declassifying the document in the mid 1970's.

The Generals Staff car

and a collection of plates from George Washingtons Bicentennial that he gave to his parents.

on to the pictures.