Month: August 2024

Images of a gun-slinging, rough-riding bandit generally come to mind when hearing the name “Jesse James,” but Kearny County’s Jessee was a kind neighbor and devoted father. The son of a Civil War doctor, he was married to his father’s younger half-sister according to Ancestry.com and Find a Grave records.

Jessee was born in 1860 to William “Doc Billy” and Phoebe (Perkins) James at Van Buren, Arkansas. At Fredonia, KS in 1881, he married Nancy Ann Priscilla James, the daughter of Jesse Ballard James and his second wife, Elizabeth Campbell. Jessee and Nancy’s first child, a daughter named Della, died two days after her birth in Bourbon County, Ks. Son Homer was born in Kingman County in 1884, and daughter Maybelle was born about 18 months later in Edwards County.

After hearing stories of how one could file on a homestead and tree claim, prove up, and gain ownership to several acres of land Out West, the James family decided to try their luck at a new location. In early March of 1886, they loaded their belongings into, on and around the sides of their prairie schooner, and Jessee, Nancy, Homer and baby Maybelle made their way to the north flats of Kearny County. They settled on the southwest quarter section of 12-22-36 with their two mules, two cows, a calf that was born on the journey west, 12 pigeons and their shepherd dog, Tige. The wagon was unloaded, and the wagon box with its bows and cover was set on the ground to serve as a hut for the family to stay in until a small home could be built. Instead of being covered with grass, the prairie was burned off black, supposedly by cattlemen trying to dissuade settlers. One of the first tasks at hands, besides building a dwelling, was to dig a well.

Sons Thurlow and Roscoe were added to the family in 1887 and 1890, respectively. Then, in 1893, the family moved to Jessee’s tree claim on the northeast quarter section of 4-22-36 so that the children could attend Columbian (later Columbia) School. Not yet five years old, Thurlow died in 1902 and baby Sula was born four months later. Water was hard to come by on the flats, and pioneer life was riddled with trials. The James’s saw many of their neighbors leave the area, but they pressed on. Jessee provided for his family by raising stock and farming. He also did occasional teamwork for neighbors who didn’t have the means to come to town and pick up necessities for themselves. Jessee served on the District 7 school board for 11 years and was serving on the Hibbard Township board at the time of his death in February of 1904. He had come to Lakin a few days earlier to secure necessary supplies for two of his children who were seriously ill, caught a cold and died of pneumonia at the family home.

After Jessee’s death, Nancy James homesteaded the northeast quarter section of 9-22-36. In 1905, she moved with her children to this land where the family could have an abundance of water without having to haul it. Nancy never remarried and died in 1946.

Homer and Maybelle filed on nearby homesteads when they reached the eligible age. Homer married Stella Hutton in 1910, and during 1911 and 1912, he worked in Wyoming as a cowboy on the TE Ranch  which belonged to Buffalo Bill Cody. Later the family moved to New Mexico and then to Colorado where Homer succumbed to the Spanish flu in 1918. Stella returned to Lakin with the couple’s two children, Gaylord and Della (later Mrs. Glenn Anschutz). Two-year-old daughter Lena had died in 1914.

Roscoe James married Frances Wilkinson in 1910, and they lived for a time at Winfield, Kansas before moving to Colorado in 1923. The couple had 12 children, two of whom died in infancy. A retired carpenter, Roscoe was living at Pueblo when he died in 1963.

Maybelle became a teacher and lived for many years on her homestead just three miles west of her childhood home in Hibbard Township. She was married to Rudolph Gropp in 1911, and they moved into Lakin just a few years prior to Rudy’s death in 1969. Maybelle remained in Lakin until the mid-1980s when she went to live with her daughter, Elizabeth, in West Fork, Arkansas. Maybelle died in 1989 at the age of 103. She and Rudy’s son, Jesse Samuel, was living in California at the time of his mother’s death.

Sula James, also a teacher, married Arthur Mace of Wichita County in 1928. They started a sheep operation and moved in 1952 to Colorado where the water supply was better. After Arthur’s death in 1970, Sula returned to Lakin and made her home with Maybelle in a modest bungalow on Hamilton Street. She lived there until entering High Plains Retirement Village in 1990 and died at the age of 88 in 1991. Sula and Arthur’s only child, a daughter by the name of Nancy Ellen, died in infancy.

The story of Jessee James and his family is not unlike those of the other pioneers who ventured west and lived lives of hard work, courage, tribulation, and perseverance. None of Jessee’s descendants remain in Kearny County; nonetheless, the family is important to our history. Maybelle and her husband were charter members of the Kearny County Historical Society, and Maybelle recorded and shared a great deal of local history with the society. The Columbia Schoolhouse on Museum grounds was a gift from her to our entire community.

To know Maybelle and Sula was a gift in itself. As a little girl who lived just two doors away, this writer spent many a Saturday morning at their home hearing stories of their life on the Kansas plains and songs of old while watching the sisters tat, bead, crochet and more. They were fascinating, kind and joyful women who helped fuel the love of local history that courses through my veins.

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vol. 1; Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; Find a Grave; Ancestry.com; Museum archives and archives of the Lakin Independent and Advocate.

 

Built in simpler times, rural one-room schoolhouses once dotted the Kearny County landscape. These quaint and often crowded schools served the families who lived too far out in the country to attend school in town, and a single teacher taught grades first through eighth. These school buildings were often moved as populations shifted.

Columbia School was one of these schools. Now on the Kearny County Museum grounds, the school house was built north of Lakin in 1893 on the southwest corner of section 34-22-36. It was the first school built in what was then known as District 7, and Willard Miller was hired as the first teacher.  Miller suggested the name “Columbian” as that was the year of the Columbian Exposition, the world’s fair held in Chicago which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage to America.

Columbian would go through a succession of teachers as well as students in the coming years as families moved in and out of the neighborhood. There was no school taught there during some terms, and other terms were shortened to as little as four months. According to former student and teacher Maybelle James Gropp, the schoolhouse was moved about 1912 to the NE quarter section of 9-22-36 to accommodate the shifting population, and the “n” was dropped from the name. One-room schools were also often referred to by the surname of the family whose ground the school was located on or by the families whose children made up the majority of the attendance. Columbia was known at times as the James and Bruner school as well as the Greeson school.

Church services, Sunday School, revivals and social programs were also held in the little school building. Pie socials and other fundraisers helped with purchasing supplies and equipment for the school, and books were regularly exchanged with other rural schools to provide pupils with a variety of reading materials. After receiving their eighth-grade education, students took the rural school examination in Lakin. Some went on to attend high school after that while others joined the work force. A few, like Maybelle, returned to teach at Columbia.

Mildred Linder taught at Columbia during the 1930s and recalled how a blizzard made it impossible for parents to pick up their children from school that awful winter day. Students stayed all night in the school house, and to keep everyone warm, Lindner had to make several trips throughout the night to retrieve coal from the outside coal shed. “We weathered the storm, and the children didn’t cause any trouble, but we were glad when the roads were opened about 10 a.m. and their parents came to take them home.”

In 1951, Columbia was consolidated into District 23. A new school building, North Kearny School, opened in January of 1952 to accommodate District 23 students. Columbia went up on the auction block that year, and Maybelle and her husband, Rudy Gropp, purchased the building. Maybelle would later transfer ownership to the Kearny County Historical Society for the whole sum of $1.

Columbia was moved from its location about 15 miles north of Lakin to the museum grounds in 1977, and Lynn Cannon and Harold P. Walker, both long-time Kearny County residents, donated considerable time and labor to restore the building both inside and out. Several others also helped with the repairs and with furnishing the one-room school, and many donated graciously to the project. A grand opening was held May 10, 1980, along with an open house for the Kearny County Museum’s main building. Maybelle was no longer living in Lakin at that time so her sister, Sula James Mace, cut the ribbon to the school. Sula too had not only attended but taught at Columbia. Since that celebratory day in 1980, school children and museum visitors have delighted in learning lessons “of old” while visiting this preserved classroom of the pioneers.

 

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vol. I & II; Museum archives; and archives of the Advocate, Lakin Independent, and Garden City Telegram.

The sign in the window of the building at 109 N. Main Street announced “Rotary meets on Monday night at Scotty’s.” I don’t know why I mention the street address because no one knew what it was nor did they pay any attention. The building is currently the location of Golden Plains Credit Union.

Before I get too far, let me introduce myself. My name is Arnold Kash and I was raised on a farm 12 miles west of Lakin. My first contact with the Davis family was when I entered high school in 1946. There I encountered the eldest Davis daughter, the cute and clever Barbara. I was smitten.

Scotty’s Café opened for business in 1947 as a partnership between Glenn and Della Anschutz and Leon (Scotty) and Leona Davis. The Davis’s were the operating partners and the Anschutz’s, who operated Glenn’s Grocery, obviously had visions of the joint venture consuming large amounts of groceries. The café was conveniently and strategically located directly across the street from Rosel’s Recreation (pool hall). The restaurant building had earlier been occupied by the Nash & Davis Hardware & Furniture Store. (On a personal note, while I was gathering information, I learned that this building had even earlier served as a movie house where my parents, Clarence Kash and Viola Miller, first met during Christmas vacation in 1929).

The restaurant served a lot of what today would be termed “comfort food.” Menu staples were meat loaf with potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, roast beef and trimmings, chicken fried steak, pork chops and, of course, cheeseburgers and fries. Every meal came complete with a salad, dessert and a beverage.  Lunch prices were $1.50 or thereabouts. One of the main things that kept customers coming back was Linda McCort’s mastery in the kitchen. Linda could turn out homemade yeast dinner rolls that knew no equal. The rolls were served with most meals, except when Linda wasn’t in the mood to make them, and contributed to many a bloated midsection of the town.

Scotty and Leona were well suited for the rigors of operating the café. Both were in their early 40s at the time and were active contributors to the community. Scotty was a humorous and very likeable man who was the operating partner in the Nash & Davis Funeral Home concurrently while owning the café. Scotty was averse to stressful situations and such matters were routine in the operation of a restaurant. When things got hot at the café, Scotty usually sought the peace and quiet and on occasion, has been known to create it. Leona was an energetic and enthusiastic woman with a talent for organizing and getting things done.

The secret weapon of the restaurant business was four teen-age children – Barbara, Richard, John and Diana, ages 17, 16, 15 and 14 (true Irish quadruplets) and a built-in labor pool. The nubile Barbara waited tables and ran the register. Richard bussed dishes and washed them, later claiming that he washed enough dishes at “Scotty’s” to last a lifetime. John was also pressed into service doing pots and pans, mopping floors and stacking chairs. Diana’s specialty was running the register and chatting up the customers. Another source of conscripted labor was any high school friend of the family who was caught hanging around. You might be there with social matters in mind and soon find yourself with a mop in your hands.

The following is John Davis’s remembrances of the restaurant years. John was around the café longer than any of the others…

“After a year of eating restaurant meals, I really looked forward to the Saturday evening meal. A home cooked meal – regardless of what was placed on the table – to me it was a gastronomical delight! Thanks, Mom, for being such a good homestyle cook.

“One of my staple menu items during the café years was grilled chicken fried steaks. Alas too much of a good thing can have long-term adverse consequences. I apparently used up my lifetime allotment for enjoying chicken fried steaks during the café years.  I attempted to eat no more than three chicken fried steaks in the intervening years. As I recall in all three instances, after one or two bites I regretted my entrée selection.

“Saturday mornings were the bane of my week. My chore – a thorough mopping of the restaurant floor. Stack the chairs, move the tables to one end of the floor, soapy water generously applied to floor, clean water rinsing until all the streaks were eliminated, allow to dry, move chairs to other end of floor and repeat the sequence on the still dirty half of the floor.  My Dad helped me get started but soon found some other high priority chore to occupy his time.

“My Sunday chore was only slightly better than the Saturday chore because it only took about an hour and one-half each week. First challenge, wrestle the dirty commercial –sized pots and pans without getting the front of my clothes wet. The next challenge was to unload the dirty dish containers, scrape the debris into the garbage disposal, pre-rinse the china, glasses and plate ware. I would place the items in soapy water, dive in and grab an item, give a swipe or two with the dishcloth, place item in hot rinse bath, rescue the item without sustaining a burn injury, then place the item in the drying rack. I would then sort/stack the clean dishes, sort glasses, separate the plate ware into four or five groups, deliver items to their assigned places in the kitchen or serving room and with luck get released from assignment before the next group of dirty pans showed up.

“The one positive aspect to that time of my life involves the café employees. To this day I carry a huge number of pleasant memories regarding those individuals. They must have spoiled me as I cannot recall any one of them I don’t think the world of even to this day.

“Life has its advantages to being restaurant dependent for meals. When I got hungry, I ate, and I was hungry a couple of times during the afternoon. Like most children, I had this thing about cheeseburgers, but I wouldn’t slight hot roast beef sandwiches. I got to eat all the French fries I wanted plus fill up on ice cream – make that pie ala mode. Oh yes – pop was always available. Occasionally a steak would show up that was too small to serve to a customer, so I would be offered the opportunity to taste that steak on my taste buds.”

All in all, the restaurant was a cheerful place that became a community gathering spot during the time it was in operation. There were few Kearny County residents who didn’t enjoy a working day lunch, family supper, or Sunday dinner. And it all came from hard work and good eats.

Mike Weber had a serious and somber demeanor and was not known to smile much. Yet, the brother-in-law of Lakin’s founding father was one of the most esteemed citizens in Kearny County. Michael A. Weber was born in Pennsylvania in 1856. He came west to Kansas in June of 1885, settling on a claim near Lakin. In 1895, he married Jennie Farrell at the home of Jennie’s older sister and husband, Mary and John O’Loughlin.

After five years of serving as bookkeeper and clerk at O’Loughlin’s store, Mike went into partnership with John in 1890. All of Lakin was pleased to learn that Mike had become a proprietor of the business. “We feel assured that if the experience and fair dealing are any advantage to purchasers, the new firm  will continue to maintain the old prestige of reliability so carefully built up by John O’Loughlin.” Weber remained in partnership with his brother-in-law for 20 years.

In 1910, Mike had a two-story, 100’ long building built at 109 N. Main, and on Dec. 30^th of that year, The Lakin Investigator announced that Weber was going into business for himself with the dissolvement of O’Loughlin and Weber. Weber’s shelves were stocked with groceries, dry goods, dishes, clothing, shoes and more. While he did a profitable business for himself, Mike sold out his stock of goods in 1916 and retired from the mercantile business.

Known for his honesty, politeness and conscientiousness, Mike Weber served on the school board, as city treasurer, and was involved with the Kearny County Bank as a stockholder, director and president. Influential in the formation of the Catholic Church here, Mike was one of its most faithful congregants. Jennie was active in the church throughout her life and was a charter member of the Altar Society. Mike and Jennie lived a block away from the church, and they were in charge of ringing the church’s bell three times a day.

Mike passed away in 1929, and Jennie died in 1948. They were survived by two children, Frank Weber and Katherine McBee. Their three other children had died either in infancy or early childhood.

After Mike’s closing-out sale, the interior of his mercantile building was remodeled. A five-foot incline and opera chairs were installed, a new piano was purchased, and a machine booth was ordered to make a first-class picture show. A stage and dressing room were also incorporated to accommodate vaudeville acts, wrestlers, and other live performers. Balcony seats were installed in the facility the following year. The Electric Theatre was in operation by July 4, 1916 and operated by the Weber’s son.

In the beginning, silent moving pictures flickered while Miss Nina Yohn sat at the piano providing background music. With a five-cent admission, the Electric was advertised as the “home of the best pictures” and gave four entertainments per week. In 1924, a fire occurred in the room where the picture machine was situated. Started by an oil heater that was used to warm the room, the blaze was quickly exterminated. Though not much damage was done to the building, the picture machine sustained damage and was replaced with another. By 1931, movie-loving people could take in the best “talkie” pictures, but the theatre ceased to operate year-round, and ads stopped appearing in the local papers. The theatre was still operating at the end of 1932, but we could not conclusively determine when it closed its doors. The Lakin Independent reported that the building was sold for unpaid taxes at a sheriff’s sale in 1940 after standing idle for a good time. Leon Davis was the lucky bidder, acquiring the building for $525. J.J. Nash and Davis moved their hardware/furniture business into the building after the upper story was taken off, the roof lowered, and upstairs windows removed and filled in with brick.

In 1947, Mr. and Mrs. Leon Davis and the Glenn Anschutzs opened Scotty’s Café in the building, but then Leon moved his furniture store back into the building in 1956 after the café closed down. After a bond issue to build a new library failed in 1964, the building was rented to house the county library and museum. In the summer of 1979, Carol Cramer and DiAnne Jaeger opened The County Emporium featuring home furnishings and decorations. It became home to Wheatbelt Credit Union in 1983 and has been a branch office for Golden Plains Credit Union since 1992.

 

 

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vol. 1; Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; Museum archives; and archives of the Lakin Investigator, Advocate and Independent.