Our Past is Present February 21, 2017

February 21, 2017

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

Today’s story is titled “Stranded On A Train That Got Stuck In A Snow Drift”.

 Fifteen passengers on a snow bound MK&T railroad train had to be rescued late on the afternoon of February 27th, 1912 and were brought to Junction City on a work train. Of the fifteen, eight were local residents and they had interesting stories to share about their experience. Mr. and Mrs. Will Waters and Mr. And Mrs. L.A. Wennerstein had spent the day on Sunday in White City then boarded the train to come back to Junction City that evening. The train plowed through the snow drifts until the train engine shoved into a five foot snow drift two miles north of Skiddy and got stuck there.

When the train stopped earlier at Skiddy, it had been agreed with the personnel there that if the train got stuck, the engineer would blow the train whistle as a distress sign and a group of men would be sent out to assist. A nearby farmer heard the calls and went to investigate. Upon seeing the stuck train, he returned to his home and was soon returned with a big batch of biscuits, eggs and coffee. The mail clerk turned his car over to the ladies and Mrs. Waters and Mrs. Wennerstein were placed in charge of serving the food to the other passengers.

The engine on the train died after the hard coal for the coach heaters was exhausted and the train became quite chilly. The men passengers rose to the occasion and gave their overcoats to the women. The men retired to the smoker coach where they spent the night playing cards and smoking. The following morning the conductor managed to get into Skiddy and returned with a large quantity of provisions purchased from the Maloney Store. That evening a work train from Junction City got within two miles of the train and the passengers transferred to it. Two of the ladies fainted upon reaching the rescue train. Eventually all of the passengers were safely returned to Junction City and they were thankful!!! 

Our Past is Present February 20, 2017

February 20, 2017  

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

The biggest sale in the history of Fort Riley and one of the largest ever ordered by the War Department, took place on February 23, 1922. The entire facilities at Camp Funston, which was the largest training center during WW I, was to be sold for salvage. There was a 64 page catalog published by Samuel L. Winternitz and Company of Chicago, which contained the items to be sold. The Winternitz Company was to be the auctioneer for the sale. The items for sale included general supplies, clothing, motors and vehicles, leather and harness, machinery and engineering supplies.  

Prospective buyers were required to have a paddle number before the sale began and all bidders were to be recognized by their number during the auction. The numbers were obtained from the clerk after the prospective bidder deposited $200.00. If no purchase was made, the deposit was returned at the end of the sale.   

Twenty percent of all bids were to be paid in cash or certified check at the time of the sale and the balance was required within ten days. No delivery was permitted until all goods were paid in full. Some of the articles up for bid were 11,250 shaving brushes; 14,042 toothbrushes; 80,000 undershirts and 66,000 cans of meat. The sale was expected to attract buyers from all over the country.  

By 1925 even the frame buildings completed with plumbing and heating fixtures had been sold and demolished from scrap to contractors and entrepreneurs, which left nothing but a barren flat where 80,000 “doughboys” had lived and trained. 

Our Past is Present February 16, 2017

February 16, 2007

This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society. Since before the turn of the 20th century, clearance sales have brought excitement in the dreary days of winter for Junction City shoppers, and 1949 was no exception. 67 years ago the newspapers were filled with ads proclaiming the bargains to be found in our town during the first weeks of February. You may be surprised at some of the prices of items, which could have been purchased in 1949. Here are some examples:

Waters Appliance department was featuring a Maytag Chieftain washer for $124.95 and Durland Furniture advertised occasional rockers for $16.66 and genuine walnut lamp tables for $8.66.

The clothing stores' ads were really enticing. Hood and Spencer was offering men’s dress suits for $21.95 to $42.95, leather jackets from $5.95 to $15.00, neckties were 3 for $1.00 and socks were 2 pair for 29 cents. The ladies also found bargains such as - Wash Dresses at Townsend’s from $1.88 to $5.88 while Cole’s offered a Justin-McCarty polka dot rayon crepe from $22.50.

LaShelle’s Shoes was promoting a new mid-high heel in blue or green calf for $10.95. Used car prices ranged from $200.00 for a 1936 Pontiac to $1,625.00 for a 1948 Ford while a new Hudson, “The only car you step down into, was advertised for $2,402.83.

A large ad introducing a new flour, “Silver Mist” manufactured for Shellaberger’s of Salina covered half a page in the newspaper. This new “Silver Mist” flour was bleached, enriched with phosphate, and in a convenient shelf-rite box and the advertisement listed 22 local grocery stores carrying the product. 

Our Past is Present February 15, 2017

February 15, 2017  

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

Sixty-seven years ago this month, the “Junction City Daily Union” headlines read: “Katherine Ritter Wins First Place in the State With Article”.  

Mary Katherine Ritter, a 16 year old sophomore in the Junction City High School, had been declared the first place winner in the state-wide essay contest sponsored by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas. Mary Katherine’s prize, which was awarded by Beechcraft of Wichita, was a engraved pen and pencil set.  

Kansas firms presented prizes to the high school writers of the best essays covering nine different topics dealing with Kansas industries, resources and ideas. Mary’s essay, “Wings Over Kansas” was the state winner on that topic. Other papers were written about salt, poultry, oil, livestock, manufacturing, Americanism and safety. A sweepstakes winner was declared from the nine state winners at the annual Kansas Day Celebration in Topeka.  

Mary Katherine was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Emil Ritter of Route 3 in Junction City.  Her interest in “Wings Over Kansas” stemmed from the fact that she had flown light aircraft from the Ritter Field, which was located on her grandfather’s farm. His name was Fred Ritter.  According to the article, this was Mary Katherine’s second experience as a contest winner. She had also won first prize in a contest sponsored by the Junction City Chamber of Commerce on the topic of fire prevention.  

Our Past is Present February 14, 2017

February 14, 2017

You are reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society. Today’s story is about a “Valentine’s Day Wedding." One of Geary County’s earliest love stories began during the turbulent days of July 1855, when the first territorial legislature met in the little town of Pawnee, which no longer exists. That area is now a part of the Fort Riley reservation. New settlers were pouring into the new town every day. A 16 year old girl by the name of Ruth Barry, had come from Pennsylvania with her brother-in-law and his family. Arriving at the same time as the delegates to the legislature, the Barry family was recruited to assist with the efforts to feed the delegates, even before they had found lodging or shelter for themselves. Young Ruth was put to work making over 70 pies under the most primitive conditions.

Among the dignitaries was Governor Andrew Reeder and a young man by the name of Gabert Fischer Gordon. Gabert was placed at the Governor’s table that night when Ruth served pieces of the pies she had made. According to family accounts, it was love at first sight. Even though Mr. Gordon was considerably older than Ruth he courted her persistently during the cholera epidemic and destruction of the town of Pawnee and… he eventually won her hand.

 On a February night in 1856, Ruth and her sister crossed the frozen Kansas River in an ox-drawn sleigh made from a converted lumber wagon. Their destination was the former Territorial Capitol building which had become the quarters of the Post Chaplain and his family. It was in that building and on Valentine’s Day 1856 where she and Gabert Gordon were married. The wedding took place in the same room where just months before the issues of slavery, freedom and the future of Kansas had been debated.

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Geary County Historical Society.

Our Past is Present February 13, 2017

February 13, 2017

This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society. During the fall and winter of 1871 and 1872, there was a great interest throughout Kansas in the visit of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. The purpose for the visit to this section of the country was for a hunting trip. He passed through Junction City on his special train and was received by Governor James Harvey at Topeka. The “Junction City Union” was no exception and in February of 1872, several weeks after the royal guest had departed Kansas, the following observations were printed:

“In the grand buffalo hunt upon the Republican River, where the Russian Prince proved himself a gallant Nimrod (or hunter), the honors really must be awarded to the muscular prowess of the Indian warriors who took part in the chase. It is easy enough, with repeated shots from the rifle to bring down the stoutest buffalo, but to “go through” the animal with an arrow is an exploit which indicates a prodigious strength of arm and chest. This is what the Indians in the party did to the great astonishment of the young Russian. He saw the shafts speed from the bows in their hands, enter at one side of the huge beats and whiz to a distance of several yards out the other side. The physical strength that can achieve such a result, must indeed be extraordinary and the sight undoubtedly left a lasting impression on the royal visitor.”

Remember to take a few minutes or a few hours to visit our Museum at the corner of Sixth and Adams Streets in Junction City. We have artifacts donated by citizens of Geary County on display with helpful written narrations for making your visit meaningful. The Museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1 until 4. We hope to see YOU at the Museum.

Our Past is Present February 10, 2017

February 10, 2017

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

On December 1st, 1859, a tall gangly traveler got off a riverboat in the little Kansas town of Elwood, which is just across the Missouri River from St. Joseph, Missouri. The traveler was identified the next day in the Elwood “Free Press” as the honorable Abraham Lincoln, who according to the report “kindly consented to make a speech here although he was somewhat under the weather and fatigued with the journey.” During the following week, Lincoln visited the few towns and settlement eastern part of the strife-torn Kansas territory. He had come to see for himself the situation and the territory.

Albert Richards was amongst a crowd of forty people who gathered to hear Lincoln speak in the little town of Troy in Doniphan County. Mr. Richards recorded the following about the future President:

“There was none of the magnetism of a multitude to inspire the long angular, ungainly orator, who rose up behind a rough table. In a conversational tone he argued the question of slavery in the territories in the language of an average Ohio or New York farmer. I thought, if the Illinoisans consider this a great man, their ideas must be very peculiar. But in 10 or 15 minutes I was unconsciously drawn by the clearness and logic of his argument. His fairness and candor were very noticeable. He ridiculed nothing, and misrepresented nothing.”

The address lasted three quarters of an hour and when Lincoln concluded his remarks an older man originally from Kentucky, the heaviest slaveholder in the area, was asked to respond. He began with this honest comment: “I have heard, during my life all the ablest public speakers, all the eminent statesmen of the past and the present generation and candor compels me to say - that this is the most logical speech I ever listened to.” In March of 1861, just 16 months after his visit to Kansas, Lincoln would become our 16th President until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln’s birthday was February 12th, 1809. With the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971, Lincoln and George Washington’s birthdays are included for recognition on that day. However, President’s Day is not a federal holiday. States are permitted to make their own decision about closing offices and schools. 

Our Past is Present February 9, 2017

February 9, 2017

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

On February 9, 1859, Junction City was incorporated as a First City by an act of the Territorial Legislature. In 1909, the city marked the 50th Anniversary of its founding with an “Old Home Week” celebration. A special feature of this commemoration was the unveiling of a collection of photographs of the pioneers of Davis County, which later became Geary County. Tintypes and photos of early settlers who came to this area between 1852 and 1870 were gathered and shared. They were copied in uniform sizes by Junction City photographer Louis Teitzel and labeled with each person’s name and the year of their arrival in Davis County.

Ten years later, in May 1920, a forerunner of today’s Historical Society was organized in Junction City and this collection of photographs was donated to the group by James B. Henderson, who had spearheaded the collection effort. This first Historical Society was short- lived, however, and a museum was never established.

For over thirty years the photo collection, which originally numbered over 400 images, hung in the corridors of the Geary County Courthouse. But in the 1950’s, it was diminished considerably when citizens were told they could take the photos of their ancestors for their family records from the collection. Today, only about 230 of the original photographs remain. They are now part of the collections of the Geary County Historical Society and hang in the hallway on the first floor of the Museum at the corner of Sixth and Adams Streets in Junction City. Stop by and see these photos and other artifacts donated by Geary County residents and

see the new exhibits about “Life on the Homefront” as we celebrate “The Year of the Soldier.”

Our Museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1 until 4. We hope to see YOU at the Museum. You have been listening to “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

Our Past is Present February 8, 2017

February 8, 2017

You are reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

A large stone, which was sitting outside the Aurora Theater on Junction City’s Washington Street in February of 1908, caused many people to inquire about it. Why was it there? What would such a large stone be doing just outside the theater? Who left it there? And many other questions.

Some thought it was only one of many others which would have been used for building purposes and was left there without construction personnel noticing it. Others suggested the theater manager was going to start an amateur rock pile.

However it turned out that none of them were right. The rock belonged to “Kelly and Kelly”. They were an act that had been performing at the theater that week and used the rock in the act. Kelly and Kelly were a husband and wife act that performed to show physical strength. The husband had advertised that the stone would be broken during the first performance of the evening. He would lie down on the stage floor with nothing but his heels and the back of his head touching the set of boards. The rock, which weighed at least a couple of hundred pounds would be placed on his stomach and pounded to pieces with a 17 pound sledgehammer. A large crowed turned out on a rainy evening to witness the event. It apparently took quite an effort from the gentleman wielding the hammer, but the rock did break as promised. However, the condition of Mr. Kelly’s stomach or any other parts of his body, were not reported as a result of this act.

The things people do to entertain others and earn a living at the same time can sometimes be amazing.

Thanks for reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

Our Past is Present February 7, 2017

February 7, 2017  

You are reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.  

You may be interested to know that the first industry in Junction City was born out of necessity. That was the building industry. Although there was a plentiful supply of building stone in the immediate area, it was by-passed as a building material in the beginning because of the speed with which logs or native lumber could be made into a dwelling or a business building.

Much of the lumber used for the first buildings in Junction City came from a saw mill erected in 1859 near the town of Batcheller, which later became Milford. The first dwellings in the immediate area were constructed of logs, cut on the site, or in a near-by creek bottom. One of Junction City’s founders, J.R. McClure, gave an excellent description of the log cabin he erected on his claim at the mouth of the Lyons Creek in 1855. He wrote: “It was built of rough logs and covered with clapboards, but had no floor or chimney. It consisted of one room, about fourteen by sixteen feet and appeared to be a very undesirable place to bring my wife and children.”  

The Junction City Sawed Stone Company opened the first quarry here in 1865. This business was started by Army Major O. J. Hopkins, who recognized the potential of the abundant supply of native limestone. The material began to be used and is still used for buildings throughout the county.  Here’s a bit of trivia about Geary County history: The stone used in the construction of the east wing of the Statehouse in Topeka was quarried locally by the Junction City Sawed Stone Company. 

Our Past is Present February 6, 2017

February 6, 2017

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

Mr. Jess Wingfield was one of Geary County’s prominent citizens in 1908. In February of that year, he met with death in an usual way. Mr. Wingfield woke from his night’s sleep in a fit of coughing. He unfortunately had swallowed his upper set of false teeth, which had lodged in his throat and could not be removed. A physician was called to do what he could, but by the time the doctor arrived the false teeth had gone even further down Mr. Wingfield’s throat and there was no way to reach the plate. Mr. Wingfield was taken to a Topeka hospital where an operation was performed the following day, but still the teeth could not be located and the patient began to quickly weaken and eventually he died. Jess Wingfield had been one of the first white person’s born in Geary County. He was a prominent and respected citizen, who lived all of his life on Humbolt Creek Road. With his passing, he left behind a widow and six children, whose descendants reside throughout Geary this area even to this day.

We have had many new visitors to our Museum lately and want to encourage all of our listeners to stop by at the corner of Sixth and Adams Streets Tuesday through Saturdays from one until four in the afternoon. There are many new displays to see and our Gift Shop has some unique items - just for you.

A Memoir of Mary Ann Wade Arkell: Part 2

Jennifer Dixon

January 26, 2017

Mary Anne Wade Arkell: Part 2

            We are visiting with Mary Ann Wade Arkell through the memoir of her granddaughter, Gertrude Hollingsworth.  Last week we learned about Mary Ann’s journey to Junction City, Kansas, in 1871.  Today we’ll explore who Mary Ann was through her physical description, and her strong feelings about proper dress and conduct, and her relationships with her granddaughter Gertrude and her own children.   

            “I Remember Grandma” by Gertrude Hollingsworth:

            “When I was a small child, an only child, alone on old farm – Grandma was my pal.  And for a while she seemed to me the nicest person in the world.  (For one thing, Mama spanked; Grandma didn’t)  Later I decided my mother was the nicest, and I remember quite well when I made that decision.  I had come to realize that I needed to mind and that Mama and Papa were often very busy, but Grandma had time.  (Still later I realized I liked them all, but each in a different way.)

I remember very well just how Grandma looked.  I don’t remember her laughing or even smiling much.  Yet she wasn’t sad, just serious.  She wore her pure white hair slicked back tight and pinned in a little knot at the back of her head.  (Curls were sinful, Grandma said)  She was quite obese but she wasn’t worrying about it at all.  (Certainly her overweight didn’t cause her to die young)  Some of us may have inherited her ‘hippiness.’  But hips then and now are a different thing.  Then she hid her hips as did everyone else then, under long full gathered skirts.  She not only hid her hips, but also, her knees and her ankles.  If I hadn’t seen black stockings flapping on the clothesline, I’d scarcely have known what kind of hose she wore.  She wore shoes and her dress was kept pulled down modestly below the shoe tops.

Her dresses were made in two pieces – a close fitting high necked blouse with many buttons holding it tight shut down the front, and tight at the waist…She carried peppermints in her apron pockets—big round white peppermints, and sometimes she gave me one, or lemon drops which I liked better.

            I remember her especially when she dressed up.  Her dress up clothes were worn mostly to church.  These Sunday clothes always were black, and there were a number of reasons for this.  First, black ‘didn’t get dirty.’  Second, she was a widow and widows wore black all the rest of their lives.  Too, she was an old woman and old women (meaning then anyone over fifty years of age) were supposed to wear black.  Most of all, bright colors, or even light colors, were sinful even for everyday – or so she said.  Even her wedding dress was brown.  Though it was a nice warm shade of brown.

But I’ve gone a bit afield.  When Grandma dressed up for church she always wore a bonnet.  (Old ladies, she said, always wore bonnets)....”

Mary Ann and her
daughter, Eliza

            Gertrude believed that Grandma Mary Ann did not enjoy being a mother and pioneer in 1870s-era Kansas. Gertrude knew that Mary Ann loved her children, who included Gertrude’s father and her aunt Eliza, but she understood the difficulties involved in raising a young family as a settler on the plains:

            “Grandma didn’t want her children.  I often thought, both then and now, ‘Can you blame her?’  For times, then (especially after they came to America) were indeed hard.  I wasn’t supposed to understand things which were said.  But I did, and I won’t put it all down here.  But if Grandpa was frequently cross with Grandma she was also cross with him.  It, however, was a silent crossness, for I never knew her to say anything cross to anyone.  In those days, men were responsible for their own children from A to Z.  They got the blame; but Mothers, I thought even as a child, got most of the credit.

            Grandma did not have ten days in bed or even much rest, after her babies were born.  She said she always got up on the third day and did her washing.  She lost several babies in those early years in Kansas.  It is recorded that she lost three little girls.  But I only remember her speaking of losing two.  One of these, born after my father, was still born.  She often told how she had not wanted this baby (or my father) yet, how wrong she had been.  For my father was a great joy to her, and everything a son ought to be.  Her other sons were thus also – but were never as close as my father, her youngest one who lived.  And she wondered and remarked, ‘what would a younger daughter have been like?’  At the time she hadn’t cared.

            Grandma was frequently misunderstood because she was outspoken and sometimes tactless.  She admonished children, little and grown, if she thought they erred.  But we, who knew her best, understood that she didn’t mean this just to be unkind.  (I don’t believe that she ever in her life, intentionally, did a mean or an unkind thing)…We who are her grandchildren, her great grandchildren, her great great, or ever so great grandchildren (without being completely Victorian) can be proud to follow her example.”

A Memoir of Mary Ann Wade Arkell: Part 1

This photo shows
Mary Ann Wade Arkell
and baby Gertrude Hollingsworth

            Last week I wrote an article describing pioneer women’s thoughts about the movement westward.  In my research, I discovered a memoir written by Gertrude Hollingsworth about her paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Wade Arkell.  Mary Ann Wade married John Arkell in 1865 and they came to America from England in 1871.  Gertrude writes with an honesty that is frank and, at times, humorous.  This is part one of three about the Arkells.  We’ll begin with their settlement to Kansas.

            “I Remember Grandma” by Gertrude Hollingsworth:

Coming to America was Grandpa’s idea.  He had been over to New York State in about 1860 and stayed a few years with some cousins who had settled there.  (I do not find the exact date recorded)  He returned to England, it was said, because in America he had learned that a married man could do much better on a homestead than a single man.  (And taking up a homestead is what he had planned to do)….

            Grandpa and Grandma had few possessions when they came to America.  Grandpa John had a large chest which contained most of his belongings.  It was like a cedar chest but was made of some golden material possibly oak or pine.  Grandma also had a chest or box made of pine which contained her things that she brought from England….She gave this chest to me, and for years I kept my things in it.  (By then she had Grandpa John’s chest for her own use) I have had this chest all these years and only now have given it to a granddaughter who treasures antiques.

            They, Grandpa, Grandma, and their three little children, came, of course, by boat to America, then by train as far as the railroad was built.  I think that was as far as Missouri.  From there they came by ox team to Junction City, Kansas.  At Wakefield, near Junction City, Grandpa picked out a homestead and built a dugout on it.  To file on this homestead he then had to go to Concordia, Kansas.  As he had no other way to go, he walked, and overnight he stayed with a family in Cloud County.  There they told him that he could take up 160 acres of land there in place of the 80 acres in Cloud County and sent someone for his family in Junction City.  On the Cloud County homestead Grandpa built a frame house (Today we might call it a shack or cabin).  It was one room with a loft above and a cellar below.  Grandma didn’t like it.  Mostly this was what she said, because she had no place to put things up.  (Certainly it was better than the dugout, and though I don’t remember her telling of her own home in England, keeping the house in this shack obviously was different than keeping house in the Duke’s home)  She tells how happy she was when finally she got a “safe” to put her dishes in.  (We’d call it a dish cupboard)  We may note that even cardboard boxes so common today hadn’t yet come into existence.

            Various things happened in that one room house.  Children were born there, and twice lightning struck it.  Grandma often told us of the time she was in the cellar skimming milk when lightning hit the stove pipe which went up through the roof.  Lightning came down the pipe through the cook stove and right on down into the cellar hitting her on the head and knocking her down.  The lightning, strangely, made a hole in every section of stove pip as it came down.  Grandma after that was always deathly afraid of lightning.  (Who wouldn’t be?  I thought.)

            My father was born the “Grasshopper Year”, when grasshoppers came by the millions and ate everything.  “Even,” Grandma told us, “The green window shades.”  (Shades on windows--?  “Why shades?”, we asked.  When they were so far from neighbors and so short of space and money to ship things.  But Grandma answered, “Oh! You must have shades!  In the old country of you didn’t have your shades pulled down as soon as the lamps were lit, the police would come and tell you.”)

            The first year on their homestead Grandpa was able to raise little.  He only succeeded in raising a little rye which he took to a mill and had ground into flour.  That, and an occasional prairie chicken that Grandpa might shoot was the only food they had to eat that year.  Grandma said she cried because she couldn’t make good bread of the coarse rye flour, and how happy she was when finally she could buy refined white flour and make nice light bread.  That year she lost one baby and she told us that her feet had swelled so badly that when she ironed, she had to take her shoes off.

            Those were bad times indeed but the next things we heard of them they had bought the Say place on Grand View Hill and had moved back to Junction City.  Too, in 1879 Grandma and Tom, then five years old, had gone back to England for a visit.

            Where do they get the money to do these things?”

Pioneering: A Woman's Perspective

            The first time I came to Kansas was in 2006.  My husband, three children, and one cat traveled almost 900 miles across parts of the U.S. in a minivan.  I was also in my third trimester of pregnancy, but because the baby was number 4 I was less anxious about traveling and knew there were hospitals along our route.  Our household goods traveled independently from us in a moving truck.  Every nook and cranny of our house was packed into that truck with items ranging from necessities such as pots and pans, to a collection of school artwork and a scattering of window coverings for each house we’d lived in. 

Pioneers emigrating to Kansas in the 1800s painted a very different picture of cross-country travel.

            A trickle of pioneers began settling in Kansas in 1830, but it wasn’t until 1854, when Kansas became an organized territory of the United States, that emigrants began relocating in larger numbers.  Passed a year after Kansas entered the Union as a free state, the Homestead Act of 1862 inspired thousands of Americans to move to the area from the east.  The largest groups of emigrants were people of European ancestry, in particular Swedish and German-speaking people, who came to claim their free or inexpensive land. 

            Many young families had the confidence to relocate, and they had their own motivations for doing so. Some saw it as an adventure to discover new lands.  The promise of independence and a new start enthused families, especially husbands, wives, uncles, brothers, and cousins to make the journey.  Diary entries collected in Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel indicate that mothers were concerned with relational values, disease and family matters, and wanted to preserve their families by staying together. 

In 1844, a young 13-year-old named Martha Ann Morrison wrote her observations that “The men had a great deal of anxiety and all the care of their families, but still the mothers had the families directly in their hands and were with them all the time, especially during sickness.  Some of the women I saw on the road went through a great deal of suffering and trial.  I remember distinctly one girl in particular about my own age that died and was buried on the road.  Her mother had a great deal of trouble and suffering.  It strikes me as I think of it now that Mothers on the road had to undergo more trial and suffering than anybody else.”  The grandmother of General George S. Patton, Margaret Hereford Wilson, described her feelings during her journey, saying, “Dr. Wilson has determined to go…I am going with him, as there is no alternative…Oh, my dear mother…I thought that I felt bad when I wrote you…from Independence, but it was nothing like this.”  Many women found it their Christian duty to be strong and traveled West in order to stay together as a family and support their husbands’ efforts to better their family’s future.

            Pioneer families carefully considered what would be taken in their wagons for their trip due to necessity and the space available.  Wagons first had to be built and were typically a flat bed and 10 feet wide and carried about 2,500 pounds.  Wagons like the iconic Conestoga wagon were covered with canvas cloth treated with oil to make it water resistant for protection from harsh weather conditions.  Families filled the wagon with food and dry goods, clothing, kitchen tools, animals, furniture, and rifles and ammunition.   Nancy Wilson described her wagon train as having 25 wagons “nearly all of them ox teams of five yoke…our wagons were big and strong, and had good, stout bows, covered in thick, white drilling so there was a nice room in each wagon, as everything was clean and fresh and new.”  Another woman, Helen Marnie Stewart, describes the mass number of emigrants heading on their journey saying, “All around us on each side of the river were sheep, cattle, horses, wagons, men, women and children – more cattle and sheep than I ever saw before in my life; drove after drove, thousands, yes, thousands…It is astonishing to see what a multitude is moving on.”          

            One of the early settlers in Geary County was Herman Oesterrich.  He traveled from Wisconsin to Kansas Territory and claimed land on Lyons Creek in 1856.  He returned home in 1859 and married Albertina Frederika Timm with the intention of moving back to Lyons Creek. A  1995 Junction City Union article describes the Oesterriches’ trip as a family affair, saying, “Albertina and Herman started back to the Lyons Creek claim and along with the newlyweds came her parents and their seven children, Charles Brehmer and his wife, and two bachelors, Ed Bruntrock and a Mr. Merman.” The article goes on to say “12 children were born to Albertina and Herman…People outside the family would come to Albertina for ‘mothering advice.’”  

            Childbirth on the trail was rarely spoken or written about in diaries until a baby was born.  Daughters give written accounts of being surprised by the arrival of babies.  Families would stop for half a day or a full day to allow the mother to recover and then continue their journey.  Mrs. Francis Sawyer describes childbirth on the trail perfectly when she wrote in her diary “I saw a lady where we nooned today who had a fine son three days old…The lady was…in good spirits.  I have heard of several children being born on the plains though it is not a pleasant place for the little fellows to see the light of day.”  While there were many births, there were also many deaths.  Life as an emigrant saw many diseases and dangers: cholera, smallpox, typhoid, measles, dysentery, snakebites, malaria, scurvy, scarlet fever, accidents, Indian attacks, and more.  Some diarists recorded the number of graves they passed each day, humans and animals, as there was great loss on the way.

            Mrs. Amelia Stewart Knight emigrated from Iowa to Oregon with seven children and one on the way.  Her diary tells of the reality of her travels, but she does not complain.  Her last journal entry and conclusion to her travels ended with these simple comments, “A few days later my eighth child was born.  After this we picked up and ferried across the Columbia River, utilizing skiff, canoes and flatboat to get across, taking three days to complete.  Here my husband traded two yoke of oxen for a half section of land with one-half acre planted to potatoes and a small log cabin and lean-to with no windows.  This is the journey’s end.”