Our Past Is Present July 16, 2018

July 16, 2018

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            Today’s story comes from an article written and is published in the book Set In Stone, which is available at our Museum at a discounted price for members of our Society.  The article was written by Gaylynn Childs, retired Executive Director of the Geary County Historical Society.

She wrote that Washington Street in Junction City reflected the diversity of our town from the beginning.

            The first structure built in this town when it was new was the “Claim House."  It was built in the summer of 1848 on the southwest corner of Seventh and Washington Streets where the George Smith Public Library was before it closed and has since become the George Smith Reception Hall.  It was built by a young Scottish immigrant soldier who was an apprentice carpenter.  Edmund McFarland was paid $50.00 to erect this first business in Junction City.

            The influx of early merchants and their hastily built places of business was common along the western frontier.  What was unique was the great diversity of people who could be found here in those early days. 

            New Englanders and Pennsylvanians were prominent among the city’s founders.  Most were strong Free-states or Abolitionists, who came to assure that Kansas would not enter the Union as a “slave” state. 

            The end of the Civil War brought a new influx of settlers to this area.  The arrival of the railroad in 1866 brought crews that were mostly Irish and German. By the end of the 19^th Century Italians and Mexicans were also represented. 

            The homesteaders and farmers who settled the rural regions of Geary County were predominantly German and Swiss immigrants.  The build-up of Fort Riley in the latter part of the 18^th century brought in a colony of Swedish and Norwegian settlers, skilled in the stonemason’s trade.  When Fort Riley became the home of the 9^th and 10^th Cavalry for a brief time in 1867 and again in the 1880’s, the black “Buffalo Soldiers” settled their wives and families in Junction City.

            When the United States began to send its armies abroad at the beginning of the 20^th century, Junction City’s population and business district reflected the places our Fort Riley troops served.  Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese have all now become second and third generation Junction Citians. 

            Many of us often comment about how cosmopolitan our community is and how much we appreciate the diversity even today that is our town in the Flint Hills of Kansas.

            Well… thanks for reading today to “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.