Museum Staff

Mary Campbell Thornbrough, Lakin’s First Lady of Scouting

Kearny County Museum takes this opportunity during Women’s History Month to recognize Mary Campbell Thornbrough for her tenaciousness, generosity, and commitment to the Lakin community.

Always a loyal booster and supporter of the Boy Scout movement, Mary Thornbrough was presented the “Guardian of Scouting” award in a special ceremony in May of 1957. The long-deserved tribute honored Mary who gave thousands of dollars to benefit scouting, including more than $5,000 to build the Boy Scout cabin in Lakin’s City Park. Mary’s generous donations to the building fund were made in memory of Lt. Wayne Thornbrough, her youngest son who lost his life in service to his country during World War II. In 1945, Mary and Wayne’s widow donated two bonds totaling $1,500 to the Southwest Kansas Boy Scout Council to be used for camping equipment. A scouting hut, originally donated to the Lakin troop by Miss Sue Tate and the Tate family, was put up for auction in 1948 with the monies to be used to fix club meeting rooms above the Lakin Implement Co. Mary purchased the hut for $25 and then turned it back to the Scouts to be sold a second time. She again bought the structure, later resold it for $200, and handed that money over to the troop.

Richard H. Heitsmith, who organized the first scout troop in Lakin in 1933, said Mary aided the scouting program financially time and time again and “was always such an inspiration when I needed advice.”

Interesting enough, both of Mary’s sons, Albert and Wayne, wanted to be Boy Scouts, but there was no scouting program in Lakin when they were of scouting age. Through the Boy Scouts of America correspondence course, the Thornbrough boys became “Lone Scouts.”

Mary Thornbrough receiving the “Guardian of Scouting” commemorative plaque from Scoutmaster Bert McCue in May of 1957.

Mary Edith Campbell Thornbrough was born January 28, 1890, in Scott County, Mo., the third child of A.G. and Sarah (Mudd) Campbell. The family came to Kearny County in 1902. Mary was an outstanding student at Lakin High School from where she graduated in 1908. She then furthered her education at Emporia College.

Mary Campbell Thornbrough is on the front end of the donkey and Ida Piper is on the back in this picture from 1907. The house in the background is currently the Speer home on the southeast corner of Lincoln and Garfield.

In 1910 in the home of her parents on the southwest corner of Lincoln and Garfield, she married businessman Roy Thornbrough. The couple made their home at Holly, Colorado for a while but returned to Kearny County and lived at Deerfield where Roy was assigned duties in 1917 as an Army recruiter. Roy and Mary later divorced. She and her sons lived with her parents prior to moving in to a home which was built for them next door at 107 N. Garfield. That house still stands, and some may remember it as the home of Jack and Leona Randolph.

According to her great nephew Earle Dean Rice, Mary and her sons spent weekends homesteading land in the sandhills south of Lakin where a house was built for them. The house apparently was once blue because it was called the Blue House, and her family used that name as the name of their trust, The Blue House Family Trust. Mary would later acquire the original townsite of Hartland.

Ms. Thornbrough worked for Campbell-Loucks Realty, Campbell Mercantile and as a stenographer in various private offices. She substituted in various offices in the court house and served as deputy county treasurer prior to being elected treasurer in 1936. She became a licensed and bonded abstractor, and construction began in June of 1948 on her own business building. This structure at 117 N. Main is currently the business location for Matthew Medill, CPA. Always self-reliant, Ms. Thornbrough did her work with great care.

Mary was the first treasurer of the American Legion Auxiliary at Lakin, a charter member of the Lakin Book Club, and as a member of the Kearny County Historical Society, contributed to Volume I of the History of Kearny County. She also held membership in the Order of Eastern Star, Auxiliary of the American Red Cross, and United Presbyterian Church.

In addition to the Boy Scouts, Mary gave liberally to the all-faith Memorial Chapel at Kansas State University at Manhattan which both of her sons graduated from. She also gave to the local hospital, her church and many other civic causes.

Interested in history and genealogy, Mary researched the Campbell and Mudd family histories and contributed significantly to the book, “The History of the Mudd Family in the United States of America.” The genealogy was of one of the oldest families in the United States. Mary’s mother was a first cousin three times removed of President Abraham Lincoln. She was also related to Dr. Samuel Mudd who treated the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth and was sentenced to life imprisonment when a military commission found Mudd guilty of aiding and conspiring in Lincoln’s murder. President Andrew Johnson later released Mudd from prison, but the doctor’s conviction was never overturned despite repeated attempts by family members and others to have it expunged.

Mary Campbell Thornbrough died February 28, 1962 at Lakin. In 1965, her surviving son, Albert, donated all of block four of the Thornbrough Subdivision to the City of Lakin for a ball park and place of recreation. The donation was a visible expression of the love and affection Albert bore toward his beloved mother and his brother, Wayne.

SOURCES: Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; History of Kearny County Vols. I and II; Ancestry.com; Wikipedia; archives of The Manhattan, Kansas Mercury, The Wichita Beacon, Lakin Investigator, Advocate and Lakin Independent; Museum archives and information provided by Earle D. Rice.

Mary Blanche Waterman Sanford, M.D.

Mary Blanche Waterman was only four years old when her family moved to Lakin in December of 1880. Her father, James Waterman, had accepted the position as agent for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. The family of four, which included Blanche’s two-year-old brother, boarded with the Boylan family until the new railroad section house was completed in 1881. Then they made their home there. There were few houses in Lakin at the time and even fewer playmates for the little girl. The vast and rambling landscape was quite different than what Blanche was used to in Worchester, N.Y. where she was born. In her own words, her back yard, “reached north to where the sky met the earth.”

Blanche was given strict limits to just how far she was allowed to roam in that expansive back yard. Three boys built a playhouse from a big wooden packing box and other smaller boxes, and the house was just big enough for those three youngsters to squeeze in. After they drifted off to other adventures, the playhouse became a delightful refuge for little Blanche and her dolls. When indoors, the young girl listened intently to her mama’s stories. “Our treeless, hill-less, stoneless and usually snowless prairie made a large screen on which these word pictures were painted.”

When Blanche grew older, she frequently volunteered at the town’s social events. She belonged to the Lakin Literary Society and was known for giving excellent recitations. Miss Waterman attended Lakin schools, and when the spring semester ended in 1893, she moved temporarily to Wichita to take classes at the short-lived Garfield College. When she returned to start her senior year at Lakin High School, the practical-minded, respected and highly responsible Blanche was elected school librarian.

Inspired by Doc Lovin who cared for the sick and had a drug store here, she left the plains of Kansas after her graduation for Chicago where she earned her medical degree in 1899 from Northwestern University. She interned at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital before being appointed as the college physician at Blue Mountain Female Institute in Tippah County, Mississippi. “Dr. Waterman, the lady physician at the college is an expert in her profession and is rapidly making friends. . . as an expert surgeon she has already gained an enviable reputation and received many flattering offers from different state and local institutions where lady physicians are required,” raved a Tippah County newspaper. Dr. Sanford worked at Blue Mountain for three years. In 1903, she joined the Salvation Army and was placed in charge of a maternity hospital in Tappan, N.Y.

The good doctor never forgot her Lakin roots and spent many summers and vacations here, often having charge of the practice of local physician Dr. George Johnston in his absence. When Mrs. Ross Elvin and her seven children were struck by a train at the railroad crossing east of Lakin in 1919, it was Dr. Sanford with the assistance of Dr. Lena June Madison Hull who set the bones and cared for the five surviving children until Dr. Johnston’s return.

Dressed modestly in her blue Salvation Army suit and carrying a spray of lilies of the valley, the good doctor married Ensign Hobart Sanford on September 1, 1908. Blanche was a captain in the Salvation Army by that time and the head of a rescue mission in Buffalo, New York, and her husband had been in the Salvation Army since 1901. It was a mutual interest in the organization’s work that led to their courtship and eventual marriage.

Hobart’s service with the Salvation Army led the couple to various cities along the eastern seaboard, but they made their home at Mount Vernon, New York for around 20 years. Hobart retired as a commanding brigadier after dedicating over 40 years of service to the Salvation Army. After his retirement, the Sanfords moved to Methuen, Massachusetts, but retirement did not rest easy for Hobart. A year and a half later, he was back with the Salvation Army in Cleveland, OH. When Dr. Sanford retired from active service with the Salvation Army, she accepted an appointment as resident physician at Mahoning County Tuberculosis Hospital in Youngstown, OH, where she worked for three and a half years.

In 1966, Dr. Sanford died at Orlando, Florida where she was spending the winter. She was 89 years old. Brig. Sanford died at the age of 97 at Asbury Park, New Jersey nine years later. They were the parents of one son and three daughters. Their son was a career serviceman with the U.S. Air Corps and daughter Ruth, like her parents, made her career in the Salvation Army.

During Women’s History Month, we honor Dr. Mary Blanche Sanford for her compassion, bravery, service and selflessness. She is but one example of the many fine women who grew up in Kearny County and made significant contributions to society.

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vols. I and II; Ancestry.com; Findagrave; Museum archives and archives of the Franklin Repository, Mount Vernon Argus, Allegheny Mail, Orlando Sentinel, Asbury Park Press, Kearny County Advocate, Lakin Index, and Lakin Pioneer Democrat.

Pioneer Girl’s Night Ride

On a bitter cold night, January 16, 1912, the operator of the Santa Fe station at Lakin hurried into a restaurant with a telegram in his hand. The restaurant was the only place in the town still open, and a number of men lingered there.

The operator told the men that the envelope had to be delivered to the Isaac Hoffman ranch that night, 35 miles south of Lakin. It was from Otto Lewis to his nephew, John Lewis, working at the Ike Hoffman ranch, and said Lewis must come at once to Hutchinson, for his father lay dying in a hospital there.

In addition to the men in the restaurant was Mrs. McRae, who ran it, and her 17-year-old daughter, Agnes.

One by one, the men in the restaurant made excuses why they could not take to the message to John Lewis – especially on such a cold and nasty night. The operator, in despair, was about to go when Agnes spoke up from behind the counter and said she would take the telegram to the ranch.

Her mother, surprised, told the girl she would do no such thing, but the daughter replied, “How would you feel if you were out on our ranch and such a message should come for you, telling you that father had died?”

She asked the liveryman to saddle her pony, Button, and kissing her mother, rode out into the cold with the letter.

It was a half mile to the long bridge across the Arkansas River. Already the lights of the town had given way to the black of a winter night. The pony’s hooves struck the planks of the bridge, and the clatter echoed up and down the valley in the brittle air. At Alvin Beaty’s ranch, near the bridge, peafowl were disturbed by the noise and set up a clamor.

As soon as the bridge was crossed, Button, who had been snorting in protest at being led from a warm barn into the cold night, settled down to a steady gait.

The horse and rider passed the Billy Stutzman, Nathan Fulmer, George Bahntge, and Thomas Gibson ranches and galloped on into the sandhills. Halfway through the hills they passed the Frank McAlister ranch where no one stayed at night. Twenty miles south of Lakin they reached the Charles Hoffman ranch.

Agnes woke the Hoffmans and told them her story. Charles Hoffman took Button into the barn, and throwing the saddle on Chinook, his own saddle horse, sent the girl on her way with a fresh mount.

At about one o’clock in the morning she arrived at Ike Hoffman’s ranch, southeast of Ulysses, delivered her message and started on her return.

Through the sandhills, going south and coming back north again, every bush cast a menacing shadow in the cold night. The crusted snowbanks dotted the hills like ghosts. Wild-eyed cattle would start up at sight of the horse and rider, then race off in a wild stampede. Wire fences had to be crossed, and Agnes crossed them by stepping on the wire while the horse passed over them.

When she reached the Charles Hoffman ranch again, Mrs. Hoffman had prepared coffee and a lunch which the girl ate with relish. The saddle was put back on Button again, and the girl started for home.

As dawn began to streak the eastern horizon, Agnes reached home again. She had ridden 70 miles through a winter night – a little over a third of it through the trackless sandhills of Kearny County. And all this on an errand of mercy.

March is Women’s History Month and an opportune time to share this story which appeared in Volume I of the History of Kearny County and was written by the Rev. F.F. Thomas, subject of last week’s article. The eldest daughter of Billie and Josephine McRae, Agnes was born on the McRae’s Bear Creek ranch in the sandhills south of Lakin. As she grew up, she showed an unusual ability to handle horses and often joined her father on the range. When she was 12 years old, she helped in the cattle roundups doing just as good a job as many of the ranch hands. At 15, Agnes was not only an expert rider, but she was also more skillful with a rope than her father. Mr. McRae stayed on the ranch during the winter, but Mrs. McRae moved to Lakin so their children could attend school. She ran the restaurant as a way of helping out with expenses. While Agnes knew the sandhills well from childhood, still the ride across them in the cold and dark against unknown dangers was one that made grown men hesitate to undertake it. The fact that she made the ride is another feather in the cap of pioneer womanhood. In 1913, Agnes married Everett Kemper whose family resided on the South Side. They made their home at Lakin until 1942 when they moved to Dodge City where she died in 1963.

The Reverend F.F. Thomas

The Westward Expansion was in full swing by the 1880s, and as American settlement pushed west, a shortage of clergyman led to the common practice of circuit preaching. Traveling by horseback or horse-and-buggy over the open frontier, ministers covered rural circuits that included several communities. Reverend Franklin Forrester Thomas was one such minister.

The reverend had attended Hedding College at Abington, Illinois where he was born in 1855. After completing his studies at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., Thomas went on to teach for a few years, but then he attended a school of theology and entered the Methodist ministry. In 1883, during the early settlement of Furnas County, Nebraska, Rev. Thomas was assigned to preach a circuit and pastor the Methodist church at Beaver City. It was here that he married Ella Francis Gilmore in 1884. Born at Greencastle, Indiana in 1858, Ella had been educated at Asbury University, now known as DePauw University. Her father had moved to Furnas County in 1878 and was joined by Ella and the rest of the family in 1880.

During Franklin and Ella’s time in Nebraska, a son and daughter were born to the couple, Forrest Lemon and Mable Clare. Rev. Thomas also became a trustee of Mallalieu University at Bartley, a church-affiliated institution of higher education that opened in 1886 and was named for Methodist Episcopal Bishop W.F. Mallalieu.

By 1888, Rev. Thomas and his family were in Colorado, and as a circuit preacher, he ministered the Burlington, Claremont and Lansing circuits. Two more sons, Frederick Gilmore and Frank Fleetwood, were born here. In 1891, Rev. Thomas accepted the call to the Methodist Episcopal church at Steele City, Nebraska, but he was back in Illinois serving the congregation at Ustick by 1896. He became identified with the Presbyterian Church, and in 1901, he left his charge at the Greenup, Ill. church for Kansas. His first assignment in the Sunflower State was pastoring the Presbyterian church at Neosho Falls. He would take turns at churches in Colony, Gallia and LeRoy before making his way to Lakin, accepting the call to the pastorate of the Lakin Presbyterian Church in the fall of 1907. While here, he and his family helped build the first Presbyterian manse, and the reverend also preached at the rural school in Fairview in the extreme northern part of Kearny County.

In 1910, Rev. Thomas gave up the pastorate at Lakin when he was appointed superintendent of missions for southwestern Kansas with headquarters at Garden City. In 1913, he was appointed by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions to lead the mission work among Mexicans at Taos, New Mexico. A man of strong conviction and always ready to help the needy, Rev. Thomas was greatly admired by the congregations he served and highly favored whether he was behind the pulpit delivering a sermon or bellowing out a favorite hymn.

Rev. F.F. Thomas and his wife, Ella, at Taos, N.M.

Rev. F.F. Thomas in 1920 with his son Franklin Fleetwood Thomas’s two oldest children. Jim Thomas, sitting on his grandfather’s lap, gives his full attention to the camera while his older brother, Frank, is spellbound by the flower garden in front of them.

The reverend passed away at Taos on July 4, 1921, and was buried in the historic Kit Carson Cemetery, a national historical site. This cemetery was established in 1847 as El Cemeterio Militar for the burial of American soldiers and civilians killed during the Taos Rebellion. By 1852, it was known as the American Cemetery and was then the only burial ground at Taos for non-Catholics. The cemetery became known as the Kit Carson Cemetery in May, 1869 when the bodies of Kit Carson and his wife were buried there.

After her husband’s passing, Ella Thomas returned to Lakin to be near family. She died September 6, 1929, and was buried in the Lakin Cemetery. According to a family member, an attempt was made to have Rev. Thomas’s grave removed to Kansas and buried beside Ella’s, but because the cemetery he is buried in is a historic site, the request was denied. Several generations of Reverend Thomas’s family have made Lakin their home.

SOURCES: “The History of the House of Ochiltrees” by Clementine Brown Railey; Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; mynehistory.com; Ancestry.com; Wikipedia; HMdb.org; archives of The Scott Republican, Kearny County Advocate, Yates Center News, The Neosho Falls Post, Garden City News, Lakin Independent, LeRoy Reporter, Woodson County Advocate, The Daily Republican, The Times-Tribune, Phillips County Herald, The Lamar Register, Larimer County Independent, Cheyenne County Rustler, Beaver Valley Tribune, and Sterling Gazette; and Museum archives. Special thanks to Donna Neff.

Presbyterians’ church was the first in Lakin

Lakin’s Presbyterian congregation was officially organized with 16 charter members on May 6, 1887, at the home of D.C. Hawthorne. The Rev. David Kingery, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Garden City, served as moderator, and according to the Lakin Pioneer Democrat, $300 had already been donated to build a Presbyterian church at Lakin. The financial backing came from Senator F.J. Pringle, J.M. Jones and Dr. J.H. Rodgers, all of Springfield, Ohio. “Each of the gentlemen have large landed interests near here and are ready to work for the upbuilding of Lakin, and to secure the county seat for this place.”

In April of 1888, fundraising efforts began in earnest when Hawthorne and Jones began circulating a subscription paper, and on June 2, the Advocate announced that Jones had selected a lot for the new church. The church was to be constructed of brick and stone for around $3,000. A tin box filled with relics of value, church records and other important papers was placed in the cornerstone which was laid in front of a large congregation on July 22, and the following week, the Advocate reported that the material was “mostly on the ground, the foundation is done and the workmen are erecting the building according to plans and specifications adopted.”

Notices began running in the paper asking subscribers of the church fund to pay their first and second installments. “Please pay promptly that work may go forward rapidly.” The Sept. 8, 1888 Advocate printed a letter from Jones who was back in Ohio at that time. “I hope, as soon as possible, to be with my friends in building the church at Lakin,” and that was the last mention of the building that could be found in the local papers. Where the church was being erected and what happened with the project is not known.

The Presbyterians used the 1886 school for services, taking turns with Methodists and other denominations until 1895. In February of 1895, word broke that the Presbyterians were considering purchasing an abandoned church building near Kinsley and having it moved to Lakin. The Lakin Index voiced its support of the Presbyterians’ project, “We sincerely hope they will consummate the deal, as we are badly in need of a church building. It is an improvement which should receive the hearty support of every citizen of Lakin.”

The Kinsley church was purchased and torn down, and the lumber was transported to Lakin where a force of men went to work immediately rebuilding the church at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Western Street on land donated by L.I. Purcell. In late May, the Advocate reported that the tin-box and its contents which had been placed in the cornerstone of the Presbyterian church in 1888 were transferred to the cornerstone of the new church. By mid-June, the church was under roof, and later that month, many strong and willing arms hoisted a large bell to its position in the church’s belfry.

Dr. Browning of Garden City delivered a stirring sermon at the first services in the church on Thursday, July 11, 1895. This was the first segment of a four-day grand dedication service which included sermons by C.E. Williams, pastor of the local Methodist congregation, and ministers from Wichita and Hutchinson. On Sunday, July 14, the church building was crowded to full capacity with many friends from Hartland and Deerfield in attendance. Dr. S.B. Fleming of Wichita surprised the crowd when he announced that $450 was to be raised before the dedication exercises could be completed. In less than 30 minutes, $460 had been given either in cash or by promise.

“The Presbyterian folks are to be congratulated on their success in erecting so beautiful a church free of debt. It is the finest church building in this part of the state, and is a credit to the Presbyterians and an ornament to the city,” proclaimed the Index.

When the church was first opened, local Methodists were invited to use the facility. While a number of them accepted the invite, others opted to continue using the school house. Eventually, the church was used by all denominations for services, funerals, school and other community affairs. Often there was ‘standing room only’ for the evening services and special occasions in the church. When the Presbyterian primary department decided to raise funds for a Sunday School room of their own, practically everyone in town, regardless of creed, contributed. A 12×26 building was erected for this purpose and opened in March of 1904.

The church’s manse sat to the east of the church and was built with a great deal of donated labor from members of the congregation as well as the Rev. F.F. Thomas family. “Rev. Thomas is as happy as a little boy with a new wagon, and well he may be, for after so long a time of working and waiting he has realized his long-cherished dreams of a manse. The family took possession of the new home this week,” revealed the Aug. 6, 1908 Advocate. The manse opened to the public the following month.

The old wooden church served the congregation until 1950 when a new $65,000 church was dedicated free of debt on Sept. 24, 1950. Morning services started in the old church which had been moved to the back of the lot, and following weekly announcements and instructions, a prayer was given by pastor W.E. Dysart. “Onward Christian Soldiers” was sung as the congregation marched from the old to the new church where the remainder of the dedication services were held. The 1895 building was sold to the Community Church at Holcomb and moved there.

In July of 1961, a contract was awarded to Lee and Woolman Construction Company of Garden City to construct a new educational wing on the 1950 building. The church observed its diamond anniversary on Feb. 4, 1962, by dedicating the church’s new facilities which included six classrooms, expanded kitchen facilities, a women’s parlor, storage facilities, two rest rooms and the remodeled chancel which expanded the choir and added a study and choir room. The old manse was purchased by Maxine Campbell and moved in 1967 to 115 N. Campbell Street where it is still used as a residence, and the brick home located at 406 W. Washington was purchased the following year to serve as manse. In 1988, after a severe thunderstorm had caused considerable damage, the flat roof on the north wing of the church was remodeled into a pitch roof, and in 2022, a new shake metal roof was installed by Lianro Construction.

During a severe thunder storm in the summer of 1896, the entire front of the church’s bell tower was downed by lightning and laid flat on the ground. It was picked up and replaced practically unscathed.

The manse which sat east of the church was moved in 1967 to 115 N. Campbell where it is still stands today.

A new $65,000 church was dedicated free of debt on Sept. 24, 1950.

SOURCES: Special thanks to Donna and Martin Neff; archives of the Finney County Democrat, Lakin Pioneer Democrat, Index, Advocate, Lakin Pioneer and Lakin Independent; information provided by the late Olivia Tate Ramsey for History of Kearny County, Vol. 1, and Museum archives.

Harry and Maria Browne, Kearny County Pioneers

David Harold Browne came to Kearny County to work as a clerk in the railroad eating house. The oldest of three boys born to Charles Browne and Helen Potter Browne, Harry was born at Cowansville, Canada on April 18, 1859. While growing up, he spent much of his leisure time ice-skating and attending “sugar-off” parties, a French-Canadian tradition that brought friends and families together to enjoy the sugar high that comes from boiling maple sap into taffy. Harry’s father was a doctor, and Harry often helped in his office and rode with him to visit patients and help with emergencies. The knowledge of medicine which Harry gained in this way was most useful to him in later years as a pioneer in Western Kansas.

His father died five days before Harry’s seventeenth birthday, and his mother moved the family to Chicago, Illinois where her people lived. Harry had to quit school and go to work to help support his mother and brothers. His first position was as a clerk for a packing company, and in 1880, Harry joined his maternal uncle, Guy Potter, who was managing the eating house here. Shortly after Fred Harvey became the proprietor of the dining hall/hotel, the building was moved to Coolidge which became the division point of the Santa Fe Railroad. Harry remained here, and for a time, he joined Alonzo Boylan and Rolla Walter in catching and taming wild horses which they sold to cowboys and horse traders. After a time, Harry took a clerk position at John O’Loughlin’s general store.

While working for O’Loughlin, Harry met Maria Dillon, one of Lakin’s most popular young women. Born in New York City on June 17, 1866, Maria lost her mother as a small child and was educated in a convent in Montreal, Canada. She came to Kearny County in 1879 with her father, step-mother and younger siblings, and she made a name for herself as one of the best compositors in Kansas while working at the Lakin Herald where her father served as editor. Wearing a blue silk taffeta dress fashioned with a fitted basque and pleated bustle, Maria married Harry in an evening ceremony on April 7, 1886, at the dugout home of her brother in-law and sister, Alexander and Annie Cross. Three children were born to Harry and Maria: Helen Florence (Mr. J.H. Rardon), Charles Harold, and Hazel Louise (Mrs. F. Ivor Williams).

Harry was the first elected county clerk of Kearny County, and the Browne family moved eventually to Hartland and then back to Lakin when Lakin won the 1894 election. Harry recalled that one of the most dramatic events in his life was counting votes for the location of the county seat. Each town that had entered the race had the privilege of sending men to see that the votes were properly counted. Barney O’Connor was Lakin’s representative and stood over the election judges with six-shooter in hand, and Harry said he never expected to get out of the building without someone being killed. He was re-elected to the county clerk position several times, serving until 1896, and also worked as assistant cashier in the Kearny County Bank.

When Harry’s health failed, his doctor recommended a change of climate. Harry decided to buy a team and wagon and go overland to Colorado Springs, taking his herd of purebred jersey cattle and selling them along the way. One fine June morning in 1896, the Browne family stored all their worldly possessions in a covered wagon and started to Colorado. First was Maria with one of the girls in a top buggy drawn by a blaze-faced bay horse named Bally, then came the wagon to which were hitched two large gray mares with Harry as driver, and then the herd of cattle urged on by Doc Miller, the hired hand. Except for being awakened one night by water flooding their campground, the trip was uneventful. It took about a month to complete the journey and dispose of the cattle. At Colorado Springs, Harry engaged in the coal business with his friend, Frank Kelly, whom he had made acquaintances with earlier in life.

After three years and the death of Ben Bacon who was the cashier at Kearny County Bank, Harry was beckoned back to Lakin to fill Bacon’s shoes. Harry was always interested in everything for the advancement of his town and county and gave generously of his time to that end serving as a member of the board of education and on the city council. He was an ardent fisherman and lover of nature, and when worries and pressures of business weighed heavily upon him, he would spend the day fishing at Lake McKinney. Harry always came back with a cleared mind and refreshed body. He had the gift of being a good listener and gave to others a feeling of strength and confidence.

Harry maintained his position at the bank until his death on March 8, 1931. He had been in failing health for some time, but the trooper that he was, Harry continued working until three days before his death. He was loved and respected by all who knew him, and all the banks and business houses in Lakin closed during his funeral. Known as Gippy to his grandchildren, his granddaughter, Cora Rardon Holt, wrote of him, “I shall always remember his long fingered, iron strong hands. They revealed his character and always gave me a sense of comfort and security.”

Maria, or Gammy as she was known to her grandchildren, died on Oct. 18, 1948, as a result of shock caused by burns she received earlier that day. It was thought that her robe may have caught on fire as all three burners of her oil stove were lit, and coffee was boiling on the middle burner. Maria also was very much loved in the community, and she was remembered for the sunny disposition that characterized her her entire life. She had been a lifelong caregiver; first to her younger siblings, then to her own children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Left to right: Charles, Hazel and Helen, the children of Harry and Maria Browne. 1892.

The home of Harry and Maria Browne stood near the corner of Campbell Street and Smith Avenue in Lakin but was later moved west on the river road. The house later became the home of Otis and Shirley Jennings and stood next to the Jennings Indoor Arena.

SOURCES: Information provided by the late Hazel Browne Williams and Charles R. Browne, great grandson of D.H. and Maria Browne; History of Kearny County Vol. 1; Ancestry.com; museum archives, and archives of The Advocate and Lakin Independent.

Happy Birthday, Kansas!

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to admit Kansas as a state in April of 1860, but the Senate was under the influence of pro-slavery leaders and refused. The failure to admit Kansas became a national political issue. At the Republican’s national convention the following month, Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate for president. A strong proponent for Kansas, Honest Abe had visited the territory and spoke at several sites in December of 1859. When he won the presidency, news of his election caused 11 southern states to withdraw from the Union and set up a separate government. As each state withdrew, their senators and representatives resigned their seats in Congress, vastly reducing the number of those in the Senate who opposed Kansas’s admission. The Senate passed the Kansas Bill, and President Buchanan signed the bill officially admitting Kansas to the Union on January 29, 1861. While on his way to Washington for his inauguration in 1861, President-elect Lincoln had a stop off at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall where he hoisted the first United States flag bearing the Kansas star on February 22 (George Washington’s birthday).

The difficulties that Kansas faced in gaining statehood led John J. Ingalls, secretary of the first Kansas state senate, to suggest the state motto of “Ad Astra per Aspera” which is Latin for “To the Stars Through Difficulties.” The motto was placed at the top of the state seal, and below it 34 stars, representing Kansas as the 34^th state to join the union, are boldly arranged. Pictured in the right-hand corner of the seal is a rising sun for the east. Commerce is represented on the seal by a river and a steamboat, and agriculture as the basis of Kansas’s future prosperity is represented by a settler’s cabin and a man plowing with a team of horses. Also depicted are a wagon headed west and pulled by oxen, as well as a herd of retreating buffalo being pursued by two Native Americans on horseback.

In 1903, the sunflower was adopted as the state flower by the Kansas Legislature, and on Kansas Day in 1925, the western meadowlark was announced as the state bird of Kansas. In an election coordinated by the Kansas Audubon Society, nearly 50,000 of 121,000 votes were cast by Kansas school children for the meadowlark; however, the Kansas Legislature did not officially make it the state bird until 1937. Adopted in 1927, the Kansas state flag was designed by Lincoln, Kansas seamstress Hazel Avery. The flag was modified in 1961 by adding the word, “Kansas,” in gold block letters below the seal.

The cottonwood was adopted as the state tree in 1937, and in 1947, “Home on the Range” became the official state song.” In his cabin on Beaver Creek near Smith Center in 1871 or 1872, Dr. Brewster Higley wrote the lyrics to the song which was originally entitled, “My Western Home.” Druggist Dan Kelly composed the music. In 1955, the American buffalo was named as the state animal, and the honey bee was adopted as the state insect in 1976. It was not until 1986 that the ornate box turtle was established as the state reptile. These are but a few of Kansas’s more well-known state symbols, but did you know that our state soil, established in 1990, is harney loam silt, , and the barred tiger salamander was named state amphibian in 1994? In 2010, little bluestem was named the state grass, and the tylosaurus and pteranodon became the state fossils in 2014. In 2018, limestone was established as the state rock, galena the state mineral, jelinite the state gemstone, and channel catfish the state fish. In 2019, chambourcin was named the state’s red wine grape while vignoles, the state white wine grape. In 2022, the sandhill plum was recognized as the state fruit, and silvisarus condravi, the woodland lizard that lived from the Early to Late Cretaceous Period, has been the state land fossil since 2023.

Alexander Le Grande Copley, a teacher in the Paola school system, is credited with the origination of Kansas Day. On January 29, 1877 after spending two weeks gathering information on the geography, history and resources of Kansas, Copley’s students presented their maps, drawings, songs and speeches to their community. The event was so well attended that there was not room for everyone in the small school. Copley later became the superintendent of Wichita schools and implemented Kansas Day there. Copley attended county teachers’ institutes and state teachers’ association meetings where he encouraged teachers to celebrate Kansas Day. In 1882, at the first meeting of the Northwestern Teachers Association, a decision was made to publish a small pamphlet which included information about Kansas, its songs and sample speeches suitable for the observance of Kansas Day. The 32-page booklet was simply called, “Kansas Day.” At the next State Teachers Association meeting in Topeka, every teacher took home one or more copies. For a short time, the booklet was used as a textbook in the state normal school at Emporia.

The popularity of Kansas Day continued to grow and is celebrated by teachers and students across the state. For the past several years, Lakin Grade School students have enjoyed Kansas Day tours at the museum where they learn about Kansas, the Santa Fe Trail, one-room schools, pioneer life and local history. Today, January 29, we welcome Lakin’s third graders and celebrate the 164^th birthday of our grand state. Happy Birthday, Kansas!

Jim Woodrow gives a tour of the depot to Mrs. Miller’s second graders in 2016.

Third graders get the opportunity to feel a buffalo hide at the Museum in 2023.

KANSAS

Not for what she hath done for me,

Though it be great,

For what she is, her majesty,

I love my State.

Thomas Emmet Dewey

SOURCES: Sunflowers, A Book of Kansas Poems; The Story of Kansas by Bliss Isely and W.M. Richards; Kansas … Our State by Goebel, Heffelfinger and Gammon; Kansas State Historical Society, and Museum archives.

The illustrious Barney O’Connor

Barney O’Connor was quite the character. The Canadian-born Irishman had already lived a colorful life before his arrival in Kearny County. One of 10 children, he moved with his family from Canada to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1870, and soon found his way to Kansas where he secured work as a cowboy. He was the first boy to ride horseback between Wichita and Medicine Lodge, accomplishing the difficult and dangerous feat in 1871 at the tender age of 14. That same year, O’Connor went to Matagorda, Texas, and drove a herd of cattle back to Newton which was at that time the terminus of the Santa Fe Railroad.

Barney eventually hired on as a pony express rider on the old Hutchinson-Medicine Lodge trail, and in 1874, he played a major role in one of the last Indian battles of Kansas. He started out early one morning on his regular route but had travelled only a few miles when he sighted a large war party of Indians camped on Sand Creek. Barney raced to Medicine Lodge to give warning then led a troop of 35 mounted soldiers back to where he had spotted the encampment.

In the spring of 1884, O’Connor organized a posse of men to chase down four men who had attempted to rob the Medicine Lodge bank and killed the bank president and cashier in the process. The gang of criminals was led by the very jaded Henry Brown, city marshal of Caldwell, Kansas, and his deputy, Ben Webster. With Barney at the helm, the posse pursued the gang with shots flying all the while until they cornered the would-be robbers in a canyon about eight miles west of Medicine Lodge. The gang was taken to the jail at Medicine Lodge, but an angry mob broke them out of jail and hung them, including Marshal Brown who was killed while trying to run away. As a memento of the escapade, O’Connor took a time piece from one of the assailants and a Winchester rifle from another. The watch, which did not belong to the criminal who was wearing it, led to Barney being arrested about 11 years later when it was spied upon his wrist.

The Medicine Lodge Posse. This group of men were responsible for capturing marshal Henry Newton Brown of Caldwell, Kansas, and the would be robbers of the Medicine Valley Bank. Barney O’ Connor is standing second from the left on the back row.

Later in 1884, O’Connor proved up a claim north of Lakin where he engaged in cattle raising and farming. He and Frank McAlister, a pal from the Medicine Lodge area, established Parlor Livery Feed and Sale Stable, and many of their horses were used for the mail hacks in an area of Western Kansas from Wallace to Hugoton which was known as Hugo at the time. O’Connor was also president of the Northwestern Stage line.

Soon, Barney was appointed as Undersheriff of Kearny Township of Finney County. In January of 1886, he was shot while helping a deputy United States marshal bring in a suspected horse thief by the name of Al McClure. McClure was wanted in Montana Territory and was working on a ranch on Bear Creek when O’Connor and the marshal went to bring him in. O’Connor knew McClure and thought he could be trusted so he didn’t handcuff the suspect. All three men were in a buggy riding back to town when McClure grabbed O’Connor’s revolver from his hip pocket and aimed it at the marshal’s head. Barney sprung into action, and the bullet intended for the marshal hit O’Connor’s left arm just above the elbow. A scuffle ensued, but McClure was finally secured and brought to Lakin without further ado. In December of 1886, Barney received the appointment as Deputy United States Marshall.

O’Connor also took a prominent part in the Kearny County seat battle after Hartland cowboys stole the records from Lakin, strapping on his guns and riding to Hartland with Tommy Morgan to retrieve the county books. Six-shooter in hand, O’Connor stood over the election judges while votes were counted in February of 1889.

In the spring of 1889, Barney and his family left for Hutchinson, but the nomadic Irishman was not one to let the grass grow beneath his feet. Eventually, the O’Connor family relocated near Boise, Idaho. In 1892, a herd of 4,000 steers were shipped from Flagstaff, Arizona to Wyoming where Barney took over and drove the cattle overland more than 800 miles to Saskatchewan, Canada. By the mid 1890’s, O’Connor was back in central Kansas but became entrenched in legal woes for peddling liquor. Next, he made his way to Kansas City, Missouri where he operated a livery stable, but O’Connor returned to Lakin in 1904 and located in the sandhills. In 1909, he moved to Garden City. In 1911, Barney purchased the 1,700-acre Pig Pen Ranch on the Cimarron River in northeast Grant County which had been originally established by fellow Irishman and Lakin’s founding father, John O’Loughlin. O’Connor’s holdings grew to more than 6,000 acres.

Barney O’Connor at Pig Pen Ranch in Grant County.

In 1924, Barney suffered a stroke which left him almost helpless, and nine years later he died at his Garden City home on the corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets. The Lakin Independent wrote that “O’Connor’s life was filled with experiences that would have filled many a Wild West novel, and which would have eclipsed those of many a frontiersman who was less reticent about his experiences.” It was said that Barney traveled all over the country from Old Mexico to Canada on horseback with nothing but a gun and a pair of boots.

Bernard H. O’Connor was buried at Valley View Cemetery in Garden City, and beside him rest the remains of three young sons. Daniel died at the age of 18 months and was Barney’s firstborn with first wife, Mercy Catherine Young. Bernard Young, also born of his marriage with Mercy, was struck and killed by a train at Walla Walla, Washington when he was 11. Bernard Keroher O’Connor, the first child of Barney and his second wife, Dove Agnes Keroher, died at 5 months of age. Barney had four other sons: Patrick, Michael and James with his first wife, and Collins with his second. The large yellow house on the corner of Kansas Street and Russell Road in Lakin was originally the O’Connor home.

Barney O’Connor with his second wife, Dove, and their son, Collins.

SOURCES: Conquest of Southwest Kansas by Leola Howard Blanchard; History of Kearny County Vol. 1; Find a Grave; Ancestry.com; and archives of The Helena Star, Wichita Star, Wichita Daily Eagle, Garden City Irrigator, Kearny County Advocate, The Lakin Investigator, Pioneer Democrat, and Lakin Independent.

Lawman John Henry Carter

When Mike Fontenot takes the oath of office as the new Kearny County Sheriff on January 13, he will become the latest in a long and storied list of local lawmen dating back to the 1800s. John Henry Carter was the first man charged with keeping the peace in our area. He was appointed undersheriff of Kearny Township in 1879 when what is now Kearny County was part of Ford County. Southwest Kansas was considered part of the wild, wild west at that time, and Carter’s heroics are well documented.

In 1882, a lucrative reward was offered for the capture and conviction of Thomas Wooten (sp.) and James McCullom who had robbed and murdered a railroad section foreman near WaKeeney. After hearing that the fugitives had been seen in our neck of the woods, Carter guessed the duo was headed to Point of Rocks Ranch in the extreme southwest corner of the state. Carter secured a good horse and reached the area about nightfall but learned that no strangers had been seen there. He cautioned the ranch’s owner and cowboys to show no surprise nor suspicion if the men arrived later. After everyone had gone to their bunks, two men rode up on worn-out horses and asked to spend the night. They were given coffee and food and allowed to sleep in their blankets on the kitchen floor which was next to where Carter was to sleep. But Carter saw no sleep that night, remaining constantly alert for any movements from the suspected men.

At dawn, lawman Carter slipped his rifle over the kitchen window sill and made his way out of the house, walking through the area where the desperadoes were still wrapped in their blankets. Carter secured his rifle and went to a deep buffalo wallow between the house and where Wooten and McCollom’s horses were tied. The wallow afforded partial concealment to John. Wooten came out of the house and started for the horses, and when he was about 50 feet away, Carter shouted, “hands up.” Wooten swiftly pulled two revolvers out and sent bullets flying in Carter’s direction. Carter returned fire, missing with his first shot but hitting Wooten with his second which left a silver-dollar-sized hole in the man’s shoulder.

McCullom reached the scene, and seeing his compadre lying on the ground in great agony, fired several bullets at Carter. The shots missed the lawman but raised a cloud of dust. McCullom then rushed towards Carter before firing his last charge. Carter waited until McCollom was within such close range that his vision was clear, took aim and killed McCollom with one shot. Carter brought Wooten to Lakin where the killer’s wound was dressed. Trego County undersheriff Joseph Lucas came to Lakin and took custody of the prisoner, but Lucas was later assaulted at WaKeeney by a masked angry mob who took Wooten. Some accounts say the mob hung Wooten while others say he escaped; regardless, Carter was deprived of the very handsome reward despite a concerted effort to secure a special $1,000 appropriation from the Legislature for his bravery. One account claimed that Carter did receive $300 for his efforts.

In August of 1887 when talk was circulating in the area about the Governor appointing a temporary sheriff here, both Chantilly and Hartland endorsed Carter for the position. Nearly 500 voters signed a petition asking the Governor for Carter’s appointment. “If Governor Martin should see fit to appoint John H. Carter to this office the people will secure a careful, honest and courageous Sheriff, and one whom the lawless element yet remaining in the county have a wholesome fear,” decreed The Hartland Times.

“That gentleman has lived on his present farm ten years, and has succeeded, by careful management and industry, in making himself comfortable well off. During that time he has seen the country grow from a border territory, ruled by the cowboy, and occupied only by cattle and their owners, to its present thriving condition of handsome towns, farm homes, school houses and other evidences of advanced civilization. But such changes were not made without trouble, and though he himself engaged in cattle raising, John Carter was always in the front, protecting the rights of the weak settler . . . he has done the state signal service in arresting murderers and other desperate criminals, always at the risk of his life, and sometimes when human life had to be taken in order to protect law abiding citizens.”

This was a time of rampant hijinks and game play between towns vying for county seat and some shady characters vying for offices. Governor Martin appointed R.F. Thorne, not Carter, as the first Kearny County sheriff, but John Carter’s public service did not end there. He served multiple terms as a county commissioner, as an officer with the Hartland Republicans, school director for the Hartland school district, was undersheriff again in the 1890s, and was a member of the GAR, having served during the Civil War.

Born in 1844 at Collinsville, Illinois, John arrived in the Hartland area eight years before the town was platted. He built a homestead and filed a timber claim on his property which was adjacent to the townsite near Indian Mound and the famed Chouteau Island. Carter’s was the first timber claim proved up in the county, and the grove was a popular venue for early-day celebrations. Carter also ran a butcher shop and farmed. He and his first wife, Mary Penn Carter, had four children: Amy, Ezra, Hattie, and Alice who was the first girl born in this county. John Carter died at the age of 80 at San Diego, California in 1924.

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vol. 1; Southwest History Corner by India Simmons; Buffalo Jones’ Forty Years of Adventure by Charles Jesse Jones; archives of The Hartland Times, Lakin Pioneer Democrat, Lakin Herald, Lakin Index, Western Kansas World and Topeka Daily Capital; Museum archives; and Ancestry.com. Special thanks to Charlotte Carter Isaacs, great-great granddaughter of John H. Carter.

Talking Turkey

As if the Dust Bowl didn’t make matters difficult enough, a deluge of grasshoppers made the bleak farming situation of the 1930s even more complicated. To battle the pests and ultimately save his alfalfa crop, Orlie White began raising turkeys on his Kearny County farm located on the north shore of Lake McKinney. According to a story written by his wife, Prudence, “Turkeys were the best grasshopper catchers in the world.”

Orlie had a dealership with Red Wing Hatcheries in California for ‘broad-breasted turkeys,’ an improved meat bird. The poults arrived by freight train, and each was taught to drink water and then put in a heated brooder house for the first few months. White built three brooder houses to house 1,000 poults the first year. These structures were on skids so they could be pulled by horse or tractor to fresh ground and a new supply of grasshoppers, sometimes as often as every two to three days. These moves were also made to lessen the threat of a disease called blackhead to which the turkeys were very susceptible. In making these moves, the feeders and roosts were pulled slowly a quarter to one-half mile to the new location. Sometimes the turkeys would follow, but more often than not, they had to be driven.

“If a few managed to get away through the line of drovers, the whole flock would suddenly turn, and half-flying, stampede back to the old location,” wrote Prudence. Drovers would have to protect themselves as best they could from the onslaught of “hurtling birds, flapping wings and choking dust.”

Later, the Whites added three more houses, and increased the number of poults to 2,100. In summer, portable roosts were built as turkeys “have a yen” to be put out in the open at night. To keep coyotes, coons and other predators at bay, lighted lanterns and sometimes even flares were put around the turkeys and someone slept near the turkeys each night.

Severe dust storms could also prove fatal to young birds. A particularly severe dust storm hit April 9, 1935 and was still raging two days later. Because of the storm, the White’s telephone was not working, and it became necessary for Orlie to ride a horse into Lakin and send a telegram to Red Wing asking them not to send the poults until further notice. When the dust storms died down about two weeks later, the Whites ordered the turkeys again.

Quite a bit of work had to be done before receiving the poults. Boiling hot water was used to scrub the fourteen feeders and water fountains. The brooder stoves were checked out to make sure they were working perfectly, and litter was spread on the floor of the brooder houses. As turkeys tend to crowd into corners and trample or smother one another, the Whites rounded the corners in the brooder houses with wire netting.

On April 29, 1935, Orlie met the early morning train and soon returned with 17 boxes of poults, each box containing 60 poults. Each was given a drink before being set loose in the brooder houses, and in a week’s time, “the little gobblers were strutting.” On May 27, a haziness appeared in the sky, and Prudence drove the little birds from their pen enclosures into their houses. She was not a moment too soon as the storm came fast and she had barely enough time to get them all inside.

“A cloud of darkness settled over us and stayed that way about 20 minutes. Then it began to rain, hail and blew so hard that large branches were broken off the trees. Eventually, the clouds broke, and we could see the Amazon ditch overflowing its banks, and deep water swept through the recently evacuated turkey yards. I shall always recall my good fortune in that I went to check on the small turkeys before lying down with the baby,” Prudence recalled.

Pilots from the Garden City Army base often flew overhead and would dip low enough to see the turkeys which caused the birds to panic. The pilots didn’t realize how much trouble they caused.

“In fact, a hawk flying overhead could cause a like disturbance. Any unusual noise in the middle of the night could send all of them into flight. . . Turkeys could think up the most novel ways to commit suicide, sometimes by hanging themselves on a piece of machinery.”

Because the gobblers required constant watching, the White family was closely confined at home when raising turkeys. They enlisted men to help with the operation, but the World War II draft resulted in a shortage of hired help. Two of their men, James D. Porter and Lawrence Epperson, were called into the service, and both gave their lives for the cause.

White’s turkey business ended by 1942. In addition to saving their alfalfa, the venture also ended up being very profitable for Orlie and Prudence who marketed their birds for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons at the Swift plant in Garden City. “We always figured we made at least a dollar per head on every poult we bought.” By 1938, the White’s home had let so much dust in that they had a new one built. According to Prudence, the completed house and furnishings in pre-war 1938 cost $11,000 and was paid for with “turkey money.”

Orlie and Prudence were not the first large-scale poultry producers in Kearny County. According to the Nov. 19, 1904 Investigator, Barney O’Connor was the first poultry dealer here to ship carloads of turkeys out by train. O’Connor loaded his first car on November 15, 1904, and approximately 850 fine gobblers made their way across Kansas and to the Kansas City market courtesy of O’Connor and the Santa Fe Railroad.

Here’s wishing all of our followers and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving!

May your turkey be tasty! The Museum will be closed Thursday and Friday.

Orlie and Prudence White with their three children. Jimmy is seated beside his mother. Standing left to right are daughters Lois (Creveling) and Shirley (Henderson).

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vols. I & II; archives of the Investigator and Museum archives.