Category: News & Events

There had been numerous floods in the Ark River Valley before 1965, but the flood that ravaged Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico in June of that year was labeled a 100-year-flood or a once-in-a-lifetime flood. The catastrophic event was the by-product of torrential rains that began on the eastern slope of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains on Monday, June 14 and continued for three days. Many of Colorado’s streams began to flood, including East Plum Creek which joined the equally swollen Plum Creek at Sedalia about 20 miles south of Denver. Their combined waters demolished bridges and swept houses off their foundations. Floodwaters reached the South Platte River then began spreading over open farmland. The Clay, Bijou, Fountain and Purgatory creeks and flooding Platte all rushed towards the Arkansas River, and on the 17th, a 15-foot flood crest struck Pueblo. Gates at John Martin Dam were closed to trap waters in the early morning hours of June 17, and the reservoir held nearly the entire volume of flood run-off. Still, many of the streams that were flooding were east of the big dam.

Flood waters inundated Holly, Colorado where more than six inches of rain fell overnight and caused the raging river to expand even more as it headed further east. Granada also sustained heavy damage. The flood crossed into Kansas early on June 17, and more heavy rain exacerbated the issue. Water from six to eight feet deep filled homes south of the Santa Fe Railroad tracks at Coolidge. The flood stretched more than 1.5 miles across by the time it reached Syracuse where one home was moved a half-mile from its foundation, four others were destroyed and a total of 100 were affected in varying degrees.

The turbulent tides raced towards Kendall, and the rain just kept falling. Residents there were spared the damage because the water never crossed the protective railroad dike at the south boundary of the berg. Miraculously, the approaches to the Kendall bridge were not cut out, but nearby rural residents were not as fortunate. Whole herds of cattle were carried away, and numerous farm homes fell victim. The normally dry Bear Creek also went on a rampage, and the water soon spilled out of the hills into farmland west of K-25. Several sections of roads and highways in Kearny, Grant and Hamilton counties were washed out by Bear Creek water.

In the early morning hours on June 18th, 45-year-old Emanuel “Bud” Weldon, a ranch hand at the Bar-HK Ranch five miles southwest of Lakin, drowned in the high waters. Bud and five others were attempting to flee the area in a pickup after doing what they could to get livestock to higher ground, but the rapidly rising water engulfed the truck. The men clung to a 25-gallon gas tank that was in the back of the truck and floated until reaching a large tree where three took refuge. One man made it to another tree, and another clung to a gatepost. The men had hold of Bud at first, but the force of the water and his weight made him slip from their grasp. Weldon’s body was recovered two days later by helicopter, and the others in his party were eventually rescued via boat and helicopter.

The waters edged into the south side of Lakin around 6:30 a.m. Thursday. Volunteers from all over the community joined forces with city and county employees, the fire department and civil defense to build a dike on the south side of Avenue C. They came with shovels to fill sandbags and with trucks to haul material or do whatever was necessary. As building of the dike progressed, the flood waters were forced to flow east away from town. On the other side of the dike, flood water raced over HWY 25 to a depth of 22 inches. It soon became evident that the highway was acting as a dam. About the time the dike was completed, with permission of the State Highway Department, Gene Hornbaker maneuvered his backhoe around the dike and cut a gash across the road about a quarter of a mile south of the dike which allowed the water to escape on east.

Elderly patients at Lakin’s Sabo manor were evacuated to the Memorial Building in busses, cars and ambulances. Property damage was minimal as most residents who lived south of the tracks had sandbagged around their basement windows. As soon as the dike was completed, county road crews moved their equipment to Deerfield and did revetment work to protect the town. There was no flooding in Deerfield as the water only came up to the railroad tracks, but the south approaches to the river bridges at both Lakin and Deerfield sustained damage. Water poured into Lake McKinney via the Amazon ditch, and the intake at the headgates was badly damaged. State and county health officials ordered the lake closed for all recreational purposes until the first part of July.

The flood waters had taken on a large amount of debris and dead livestock by the time they reached Finney County. By mid-afternoon on Friday, the swirling waters were seen under the Holcomb bridge, and a few minutes later the bridge was cut off and water was spreading out from the edge of the small community south into the sandhills. On higher ground than the river valley, Holcomb was virtually unharmed. At Garden City, famers trucked loads of dirt and sand to build a 25-block long dike which stood six feet high in some places. Three hundred families were evacuated from the south part of the city where the water reached a depth of 16 feet, and most of the animals at Lee Richardson Zoo were relocated. Flood water backed up through storm sewers, causing serious flooding along Fulton and Chestnut, and some basements north of the tracks filled up. Over $1 million in damage occurred at Garden City, and 24-year-old Jerry Morris drowned when he was swept away as he scrambled toward a tree for refuge south of the Garden City airport.

Pierceville residents were evacuated, and the water rose 15 feet and grew to a mile width in half an hour at Ingalls. Cimarron homes and businesses south of the railroad tracks received extensive damage. A 1/2-mile wide sheet of water rose from 3.8 to 17.2 feet in 15 minutes at Dodge City Saturday morning, and about 1,500 residents in south Dodge left their homes. Boats and helicopters were kept busy in rescue and supply operations. The following day, six feet of water was coursing through some of the homes, and 615 residences and 155 businesses at Dodge City and Wilroads Gardens were damaged. The flood waters reached Kinsley June 21 where highways from three directions were blocked by gushing waters of the Arkansas River and Coon Creek. Dikes at Larned and Great Bend prevented serious damage in those communities, but the surrounding rural area looked like a swamp.

The Department of the interior reported 14 drownings and at least two other deaths resulting from the storms and activities related to what many consider the worst flood in Kansas history. Millions of dollars of damage was done in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico, and the laborious task of cleaning up began as soon as the waters started to recede.

SOURCES: U.S. Dept. of Interior; National Weather Service; History of Kearny County Vol. II; archives of the Lakin Independent, Hutchinson News, Garden City Telegram, and Wichita Eagle; and museum archives.

One of the oldest houses in Lakin has graced the northwest corner of Waterman Avenue and Kansas Street since its completion in 1900. Originally the home of Daniel Patrick Kearny, the structure’s historical charm is undeniable.

Born in 1846 in Brooklyn, N.Y., D.P. Kearny moved with his parents at an early age to Racine, WI where he grew to manhood. He married Eliza McKenna in 1868, and their family moved to several different states before coming to Kansas and settling on a claim 20 miles north of Syracuse in 1887. Mrs. Kearny died in 1889, leaving behind D.P. and their three children: Edward, 23; Evelyn, 12, and William, 10. Kearny then moved his family to Hartland where he operated a blacksmith and wagon shop on the west side of Hartland’s Main Street.

In November of 1893, Kearny relocated again, this time to Lakin. He purchased a residence and blacksmith shop on East Waterman Avenue, and by December of 1894, his business had become so successful that he was building an addition to the shop. Soon he was selling carriages, buggies, plows and other implements. By 1899, Kearny had expanded into the hardware trade, and customers could purchase stoves, tinware, windmills, and more at D.P. Kearny & Co.

In 1899, work began on Kearny’s new residence which sat just to the east of his booming hardware business. The Oct. 18, 1899 Investigator reported that Kearny was “sparing no pains to make his new dwelling elegant and comfortable, Mr. Kearny is one of Lakin’s most successful business men.” By the end of January 1900, the fine residence was near completion. “He has been careful to have all the work done in first class style, and this has taken a little longer than was at first expected.” The cottage was eye-catching with its gingerbread trim, tin roofing and cupola. In 1906, Kearny constructed a three-room addition “to his already extensive and handsome mansion.” D.P. spared no money when it came to his lawn either. He recruited expert floriculturists from Topeka and Manhattan to lay out flower beds and plant flowers.

In October of 1903, the beautiful residence was the scene of Kearny’s wedding to Florence Amelia Caton who was 34 years his junior. In February of 1904, daughter Evelyn married John J. (Jack) Nash at the Kearny home. “The house was handsomely decorated with carnations and roses, which were sent by friends from Hutchinson, and the most beautiful the florists of that city could provide.”

In November of 1904, P.D. and Florence joyfully welcomed a daughter they named Mary Frances. A few months later, D.P. received word that his eldest son had died in the Philippines where he had been sent in 1898 to fight in the Philippine-American War. Daniel Patrick Kearny died February 14, 1910 at his East Waterman residence. At the time of his death, his youngest son had not been heard from since 1894 and was presumed dead; however, it was later learned that William died in Montana in 1930.

D.P.’s widow and young daughter continued to live in the Kearny house, and it was the site of yet another pretty wedding when Florence remarried in February of 1914. Her second husband, Homer Allyn, hailed from Washington State, and the couple soon moved to the west coast where Homer raised Mary Frances as his own. The Allyns also had a son, but he died in infancy. Mr. Allyn died in 1938, and Florence married again in 1944 to Ora Penning. She died in 1962 at Centralia, Washington. Mary Frances was 24 when she married Dayton Van Vactor. The couple had one son, and Mary Frances died in 1995 at Portland, Oregon.

After Homer and Florence Allyn went west with Mary Frances, the Kearny home was utilized as a boarding house/hotel. In 1919, Joseph and Martha Dunkle purchased the home and ran it as the Dunkle House. In 1922, Orren and Lydia Francis began running the Francis Hotel out of the building, and they resided there until the 1940s. About 1947, Arthur “Pete” and Gladys Marx began operating it as the Marx Hotel, but many Lakinites will remember it as the home of their son Vernon “Dutch” Marx, his wife, Vicki, and their two children, Marc and Kathy. The home remains in the Marx family.

SOURCES: “Diggin’ Up Bones” by Betty Barnes; Ancestry.com; Archives of Lakin Investigator, Kearny County Advocate, Lakin Independent and Garden City Telegram; and Museum archives. Special thanks to the Kearny County Appraiser’s Office.

Over a two-week period in November of 1900, the Revs. E.M. Carr and R.H. Tanksley conducted a series of meetings in Kearny County in the interest of the Christian Church. Carr, of Dodge City, was the president of the Eighth District, and Tanksley had recently been appointed to serve Syracuse and Lakin. The Nov. 29, 1900 Advocate reported, “Rev. Carr immersed four converts to the Christian church, in the Day pond,” while “Rev. Tanksley immersed seven converts of the Christian faith in Fulmer’s pond in Southside township.” This was the beginning of Lakin’s First Christian Church. In January, the Kansas Messenger reported that 14 had been baptized in Kearny County during this time. Among the charter members were Mr. and Mrs. Harmon Tipton, Mary Tipton, Hanna Neely, Lottie Neely, Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Cochran, and Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Fulmer.

The members met in the Presbyterian Church at first, but later the congregation began meeting in the courtroom of the old courthouse that was located on the southeast corner of Main and Waterman. In late June of 1907, the congregation assembled at Mr. Tipton’s home and elected him, Fulmer, Cochran, Thomas Gibson, Charles Bastion and N.C. Walls to serve on a building committee for a new church with Rev. J.R. Robertson serving as chairman.  A lot at the corner of Buffalo Street and Lincoln Avenue was purchased from A.G. Campbell for $190, and excavation work for the foundation, heater and coal bin were nearly finished by mid-September with most of the labor being performed by Tipton, Cochran and Fulmer. The cement block walls started going up in November. The roof was in place and the church fully enclosed by mid-March. The edifice of the church was designed in a square to “enable the audience generally to get nearer to the preacher than in a church of ordinary shape.”

Dedication services took place on June 14, 1908. The church had a “splendid seating capacity” but was filled to the doors to hear the sermon of Dr. W.L. Harris of Washington, D.C. Over $1,100 was raised in less than half an hour, and the church was dedicated clear of debt. There were no services at the other local churches that day as Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist ministers were present and took part in the services. “The Christian people are to be commended and congratulated on their liberality in building this beautiful church home,” praised the Lakin Investigator.

In 1909, the Advocate reported that the Christian Church had put in “a baptistry just back of their meeting house.” The baptistry and classrooms were added inside the church in the late 1940s. In February 1951, Brother and Sister Robert E. Larson came. The church had been working on a parsonage, but it was only partly completed. Thanks to the willing and able hands of Brother Larson, the five-room, one-bathroom parsonage was completed. New stained glass windows were also put in the church and floors were refinished. Over the years, other remodeling projects were completed such as the installation of a bathroom, a handicap ramp on the west side of the church and a paved parking lot to the south.

The church had many good ministers, but there were also times when a minister couldn’t be found, and the pulpit was filled with lay people or ministers from other denominations here in Lakin and Christian churches in nearby communities. The first minister after moving into the new church was Bro. C.F. Bastion. The church had 94 members and gained some during his pastorate. By 1931, the membership was 65, but many members left the community during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. The members who were left were so nearly stranded financially that it seemed it would be necessary to close the doors, but the few faithful ones still carried on.

The ups and downs in membership continued through the years, but no matter the size of the congregation, there were always enough dedicated members to keep the church going . . . until there wasn’t. In November 2014, the church, parsonage and other miscellaneous property were auctioned off due to declining membership. Serving the church as chairman, treasurer and secretary respectively at that time were Raymond Kitten, Cary Henderson and Curtis Young who worked unselfishly and tirelessly until the doors were closed. Two pews and the church bell were donated to the Kearny County Museum, and the church building now houses the congregation of IGLESIA APOSTOLES Y PROFETAS.

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vols. I & II; museum archives; and archives of The Kansas Messenger, Dodge City Globe, Kearny County Advocate, Lakin Investigator, and Lakin Independent.

We are recognizing Mother’s Day and Lakin High School’s upcoming commencement with a history lesson about a local matriarch who was also the first graduate at Lakin. Lenora (Lena) Boylan was born in June of 1872 at Belle Plaine, Minnesota and moved to Lakin in 1875. The Boylan clan consisting of Lena, her parents, A.B. and Castella Boylan, and her younger brother, Bradner, was the second family of permanent settlers in the community. An older sibling, Hannah, had died at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1873 after being struck by a wheel that came off a passing train. The three-year-old was standing on a railroad platform when the tragedy occurred.

The Boylans were the first to live in the large white house which is now part of the Kearny County Museum complex. One of the first memories that Lena had about their new home was her father waking her up at dawn one morning so that she might see a buffalo eating from the haystack in their back yard. It was in that same back yard, while sitting on railroad ties that had been placed on end to form a fence, that she and her brother watched one of the first cattle roundups. The cattle, eight and ten abreast, started coming by in a steady stream during the early afternoon hours. By 10:30 that night, all the cattle had been driven across the river where they were cut out of the herd by their various owners.

Lena spent most of her childhood following her father around on horseback. An expert horseman, A.B. had come to Lakin as railroad agent but later took up farming, ranching, and the capturing and training of wild horses. One evening when father and daughter were in a spring wagon returning to Lakin from a day’s work north of town, they came across a buffalo on the trail. With patience and careful handling of the horses, they were able to drive the animal into town. A favorite past time of Lena’s was to pack a lunch, saddle her horse and ride out to a draw about 12 or 13 miles west of Lakin. She would sit there under two little trees to eat her lunch and then return home.

Lena’s formal education began when her mother purchased an empty store building for a school, and Amy Loucks began teaching a small group of local children there. When the 1886 school was built, A.B. Boylan was the first director of the school board. Lena completed the required two-year course for the high school and became the first ever graduate and only graduate in 1890. On Decoration Day, a starched and ruffled Lena delivered her commencement address on “National Cemeteries,” and she attended every alumni banquet until her health prevented her from doing so.

In June of 1891, Lena, her mother and brother left Lakin for Nepesta, Colorado where A.B. Boylan was employed as a Santa Fe agent, and in 1894, Lena married George Tate Jr. at Monument.  Familiarly known as Harry, Tate had come to Lakin in the spring of 1885 with his father, George H. Tate Sr., who established a general hardware and mercantile business here. The newlyweds returned to Lakin, and Harry eventually took over managing his father’s store and was involved with other business ventures as well as the development of the community. About 1916, work was begun on a fine home on the northwest end of Lakin’s Main Street for Harry, Lena and their five children – James Noell, Victor, Cecil, Roland and Susannah (Florence Fletcher). This is now the residence of Lena and Harry’s great granddaughter Tammy Tate Meisel and her husband, Greg.

Over the years, Harry and Lena acquired quarters of land in Grant, Kearny and Hamilton Counties. They became ranchers in 1927, buying an 11,000-acre spread south of the river between Coolidge and Syracuse. This enabled them to lock up two large acreages and some other adjacent quarters to make quite a nice ranch suitable for summer and winter pasture. They stocked this first with cattle, then with work horses and brood mares, then started raising mule colts.

Lena dedicated her life to her family and her community. She was the local chairman of the Red Cross for 13 years, served on the school board, and was the first president of the American Legion Auxiliary. She was also an Old Settlers Association president, and Mrs. Tate served as county chair for the Women’s Council of Defense during the first world war. She held membership in the Lakin Literary Society, Lakin Woman’s Club, Women’s Missionary Society, Womens Christian Temperance Union, Kearny County Historical Society, PEO Chapter F.Q., Mus-Art Club, Lakin Book Club, Farm Bureau, Garden City’s St. Thomas Episcopal Church, and Order of Eastern Star where she served as Worthy Grand Matron and belonged to the Past Matrons’ Club.

Lena lived through drought, dust storms, blizzards, plagues, prairie fires, two world wars, the Great Depression, the development of the automobile, and countless other technical advancements. She witnessed firsthand the evolution of Southwest Kansas from open, rolling prairies filled with buffalo and wild horses to bountiful fields and bustling communities.

“A lot of the old timers like to look back and call them the good, old days, but I don’t know. I believe I’ll take electricity and gas with mine,” she said with a smile in a 1949 interview for the Garden City Daily Telegram. Lenora Victoria Boylan Tate died September 21, 1970, at Lakin. Her side saddle is one of the many treasures on display at the Kearny County Museum.

SOURCES: “Pioneering Tate Family Celebrates 100 Years In Kearny County” by Florence Tate Fletcher; Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; History of Kearny County Vol. 1 & 2; The Boylan Web Portal; Ancestry.com; archives of Kearny County Advocate, The Lakin Independent, and Garden City Daily; and Museum archives.

First Kansas Governor Dr. Charles Robinson and his wife, Sara, will make an appearance at the Kearny County Historical Society’s Annual Meeting on May 3. Portrayed by Steve and Suzanne Germes of Topeka, the presentation is guaranteed to be both educational and entertaining. The public is invited to attend the event which also includes a meal and short business meeting. There is no charge, but reservations are required. To make yours, call the Museum at 620-355-7448 by 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 24.