April 25, 2017
This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.
It seemed
almost incredible to a Middleton, Pennsylvania firm that a car load of flour
and a railroad car could disappear from the face of the earth leaving
absolutely no trace behind. However, it
appeared that was what happened. S.W.
Maples & Company had ordered the carload of flour several months earlier
from the Hogan Milling Co. of Junction City.
In due time the shipping bills came through and the firm anxiously
awaited the flour. Days passed and all
inquiries at the freight house brought forth the reply that the load had not
arrived. Communications passed back and
forth between the two companies, and a small fortune was said to have been spent
on postage stamps for written correspondence. Tracers were sent out for the
car. It was known to have gotten half
way from Kansas to New York, then it completely disappeared. Beyond a certain
point, railroad men completely denied having seen the car. Switches and sidetracks were diligently
searched and records of wrecks that occurred along the route were looked up,
but to no avail. The railroad, which
owned the car ordered a search made on every railroad in the country. Dozens of
men were sent out and still could not solve the mystery. Then by chance, one of the tracers happened
to pick up an old newspaper and read that some months prior a fire in a
railroad yard had completely destroyed all of the cars. These cars had all been accounted for in the
records, but after the fire a mass of what appeared to be flour had been found
in the debris and its presence was not accounted for. Thus, the mystery of carload of flour that
had disappeared after having left Junction City was found.
That’s todays story on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary
County Historical Society.
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