While sorting through our files to write the history of the Kearny County Historical Society and Museum, I came across this gem of a story written by the late Dick Crump. Crump was elected KCHS president in 1976.
When Naomi Burrows asked me if I would serve as president of the historical society (if duly elected), she told me that it wouldn’t be very busy. There would probably need to be quarterly meetings, but there wasn’t much going on. We got off to a great start at the annual meeting when several folks commented that it was good to have someone so young in charge! And, of course, I ate that up!
The first meeting I conducted was in the former Scotty’s Café building, where the museum was located at that time. There were about eight people present with about ten different ideas on how we should build a museum! The problem was that most weren’t legal. As a tax entity of Kearny County, we couldn’t borrow money or commit the county to anything we didn’t have the money to pay for. That was the last quarterly meeting we had! At our next meeting, I asked county attorney Bob Frederick to join us and explain our rules and options. After lots of interruptions and protests, we knew what we had to do. But there wasn’t any question about the intent of that board. They wanted to build a museum! Although we were short of money, we weren’t short of dedication!
Jennie Rose O’Loughlin had given us the O’Loughlin house along with a complete half a block of property. The house had great potential but lots of problems. The roof leaked! The front porch wasn’t safe to walk on! Most of the woodwork was original, but it was covered with about 17 coats of paint. Lucile Dienst and Ella Maune volunteered to begin work on the house. Most of us buy paint remover a pint at a time, but we bought it in case lots in gallons! The first thing we had to do was put on a new roof! We barely had enough money to buy the shingles.
Things were so different then. The state of Kansas had a surplus! The state would return money to the county to be used on some ongoing project. When we found out about this, Della Enslow (society treasurer) took the bill for the shingles to the county commissioners. And they paid it! We used this program a lot the next couple of years. We began to build a museum. I remember thinking it was so big it would be quite a while before we had it anywhere near full! We decided on a cinder block building, partly because we could stop and start building. We would build as much each year as we had money to do so. We bought supplies as we could afford. When we learned the commissioners had X number of dollars, we had enough going on that we could present a bill for that same X number of dollars! We bought cinder blocks, roof supports – whatever we needed. Della made quite a number of trips to the commissioners’ office. We had also asked for and received an increase in mill levy! We had expected it to take several years to build the museum, but each time we were able to get something paid for, we made more progress. We had such great cooperation. A limestone barn was torn down in Kendall, and we were offered the stone. All we had to do was haul it to our site and clean the Kendall site. We had plenty of trucks and helpers to do the job one Saturday. Of course, it made the front of the museum so much more attractive!
It was decided that we needed a “date stone” to dress up the stone front which was coming along quite nicely. Farmers Co-op loaned us Jack Pepper and the big tire repair truck with a hydraulic hoist to haul such a stone. Jack knew of one possibility located with a rock pile just to the south of the Kendall cemetery. Jack and I took off about 2:00 one afternoon to first measure and ‘eyeball’ that stone. We found that it would do the job well. But Jack and I both wanted to make sure we found the best slab of stone we could find. So, we headed south and west of Kendall to examine some areas we had been told had some possibilities. We found some nice stones, but nothing better than the one on Kendall hill. We went to a spot somewhere south of Syracuse! I remember telling Jack he sure had me lost and I was depending on him to get me back to Lakin! We were looking along a draw that had some fine rocks, when suddenly the truck went “whump” and stopped! Our left real dual had fallen into a hole, and the back of the truck was on the ground! There were plenty of rocks around. We decided to jack up the truck and fill the hole with rocks. No problem, just a slight delay. While Jack jacked I carried rocks, and we put them under the wheels. But much to our surprise when Jack released the jack, the truck settled right back down! Four times we jacked that truck up and filled the hole with rocks, and each time it would return to its original position! It was also getting farther to get rocks of any size. We decided we needed a tractor. Our first problem was that it was at least three miles to any road. I hadn’t seen a farmhouse in hours. Jack assured me there was a farm building with a telephone, but he didn’t admit how far away it was. Of course, it was getting dark. We finally made it to the road and began walking toward ‘this building’. We had walked quite a ways when a pickup came our way. Jack and I were not shy about making sure we were seen, waving like a couple of idiots who were beginning to feel just a little desperate. There were two young ladies and two kids in the pickup, but we all crowded in. We hadn’t gone a half mile when Jack began to admonish the driver about the dangers of picking up a couple of guys in the dark! I told him, “hush, she is a nice lady who has saved at least one life.” She assured Jack she had recognized him, in spite of all the jumping around. As I remember, it was at least five miles to the building Jack had told me “was just a ways!” The ladies waited while Jack called the owner of the building and arranged for him to come pull us out. We made it back to Lakin by 11:30 PM but without our stone! Jack brought it in a day or two later! I suppose that stone will always have a special meaning for me, and I hope it does for Jack!
One day a trucker called me. He was delivering supplies for the museum (the roof supports, I think) and wanted me to be present to show where they should be put and to sign his invoice. I drove to town, but he wasn’t there yet. So I decided to pass the time with the ladies working in the house. They didn’t approve of me leaning against the wall talking. “You might as well be taking 3-4 coats of paint off that door while you wait.” So, I went to work! I scraped for about an hour and a half before I realized I was getting a blister from the scraper! I wasn’t smart enough to keep still, but instead showed Ella how hard I’d been working. “You big baby” was her reply! She and Lucile really poured it on for my being so tender. I really began watching for the truck and was quite happy when it arrived. I still don’t think I was a whimp, although compared to those two gals, I perhaps was. They worked at least five days a week, and blisters had long ago given away to callouses! By the way, I believe we did get the state to pay for the supports!
Maybelle Gropp gave us Columbia schoolhouse if we wanted to move it. We were so involved with the house and museum that I, in all my wisdom, wanted to wait until we got some more done on those two projects before taking on another. At our next meeting, there wasn’t a question raised about moving it, just where it should be located. We did want the O’Loughlin house to be the focal point for anyone approaching from the north. It is a bit hard for a president’s vote to break a tie when it is unanimous. In their enthusiasm, I don’t even think they were aware I was dragging my feet! What a leader! There was already a crew ready to fix it up as soon as it arrived! When we did move it, we found the north wall was rotting and any delay would have caused problems. The wall was fixed as well as some siding, and it looks great! I had attended Columbia School the 4th through 8th grades and to have my old school become a history item was special. Shortly after the schoolhouse was moved, I took two granddaughters to see it. I tried to impress upon them how amazing it was for something that I was involved with as a child to become a special history item. They didn’t see the connection. “Well, you’re old too, Papa,” Crickett said.
“Some day there will be a half block of history,” I promised at an annual meeting. I don’t’ believe we had the schoolhouse yet, and of course, I had no idea of an annex or Santa Fe depot, let alone all that is across the street! Even with Jennie Rose’s fantastic gift, I am not sure as much could be accomplished today. Can’t you see us sending Della with a bill for shingles to the state of Kansas today? Our timing was great, our cooperation greater! The state’s extra help was very valuable. Kearny County was also in great shape financially. As president, I tried to attend as many annual meetings of the counties around us as possible. They simply couldn’t make such use of the state’s rebate money, theirs went for repairs and salaries. I always came away from their meetings with a sense of gratitude for what we had. The cooperation we received from the county commissioners was fantastic, and we also had great support from the citizens of Kearny County. The historical society’s board was great – I just had to keep them legal and hang on for the ride!
I remember very well watching Jennie Rose, with Gary Hayzlett’s help, cutting the ribbon to open the museum. I am very grateful that Jennie Rose got to see the progress we had made. George Matthews had the lawn looking great! Not only had we built a museum, but we had done it in about half the time most of us expected! And, we had an office! We had left the office for last as we thought we could do it whenever we could scrape up the money. I will always marvel at the job Lucile and Ella did! They really changed that old house in a year. I am sure it was at least 30 miles in and 30 miles back home each day Ella worked. I don’t’ remember either one of them muttering a discouraged word. I still feel a huge sense of pride being a part of that group!
