Amanuensis Monday - Conway Springs Star & Argonia Argosy - Star Files for November 1923

Conway Springs Star & Argonia Argosy
7 November 2013

From the Star Files – November 1923

The Cary Circle of Wellington invited the federated clubs of the county to meet at the Park House in Wellington last Thursday.  Because of the rain and bad roads only one car of Progressive club ladies went.  They were Mesdames James Snelling, Joe Shaffer, T. I. Guest, A. G. Small and Raymond Cline.

Several managers of neighboring telephone companies met at the city hall here yesterday as guests of E. J. Frantz, manager of the local company.  The state secretary of telephone managers is visiting various sections of the state since the national convention.

Mr. and Mrs. Bert Probst and son moved down from Wichita this week.  Bert is taking pharmacist exams at Lawrence this week after which he will take a position with Thew’s Drug Store.

“The Merchant of Venice” appeared here Tuesday night as the second number of the school lyceum course.  A big crowd attended completely filling the gym auditorium.

Mrs. Lida Shobe left Friday for an extended visit in Kansas City, MO., with her daughter Lola and Malvern Pepper and on to Murryville, Ill. To visit her sister, Mrs. Lottie Hart.  She will be away until Christmas. 

Amanuensis Monday - Conway Springs Star Flashbacks - September 1933

Conway Springs Star - Flashbacks
reprinted 26 Sept 1933

Flashbacks from September 1933

Kenneth Beal, Roy Jenkins, Clyde Clark and Harold Lange of this place and Julius Miller of Clearwater returned last week from several days visit to the big fair in Chicago.  The boys made the trip in a Model T touring car.

Sam Scott has moved his store from next door to Ebersole Mortuary to the I.O.O.F. building which he occupied several years ago.  He is using only a portion of the building, the balance being used by Bicket and Staley Produce.

Averill Skiles is among the 57 students selected for membership in Southwestern's A Cappella Choir this semester.

The annual Presbyterian rummage sale will be held in the Myers' building Thursday and Friday of next week.

Amanuensis Monday - February 1913 - Conway Springs (Kansas) Star

Conway Springs Star & Argonia Argosy
7 February 2013

From the Star Files 
February 1913

The Home Telephone and Water Company has closed a deal for a new water tower to be built on the site of the old one near the Missouri Pacific depot.  The work of the erection will begin just as soon as the weather will permit.  It will be higher than the old one and have a capacity of 70,000 gallons.  The old standpipe has served Conway Springs for 25 years.  The new one will be of a different model, a large tub supported by steel towers.

There will be a big stock sale at Viola Wednesday, Feb. 19 when Charles Dalbom and F. A. Little will sell a large umber of good horse and mules.

Tuesday and Wednesday were probably the coldest days we have had this winter, but with a heavy snow on the ground and no high wind, the wheat fields were protected and such weather was very beneficial to the country even if it was hard on coal piles.

Wm. Wycoff says this morning that there are some very deep snow drifts in the roads in some places and he is not delivering mail in his auto this week.

Conway Springs post office hours are 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.  Mails close mornings at 8:30 and 10:30; evenings at 6:45.

Joel Campbell was appointed city marshal when Mr McCollough could not serve and will probably remain on the job.

Martin Bolmer is now assistant Y.M.C.A. secretary at Coffeyville.  Martin is an earnest and energetic young fellow and he will be missed by his co-workers in the Methodist church here.

Mrs. A. L. Fullerton left Friday evening for DuBois, Neb., where she will visit her two grandchildren a few days, then go on to St. Joseph, Mo. to buy her spring millinery.

Mrs. Jacob Funk was here from Peabody the first of the week to attend the funeral of her mother, Mrs. A. (Lydia) Landis.

Colonel George M. Boyd - Tuskegee Airman - to Speak on October 21st

On Monday, October 28th, 87-year-old former Tuskegee Airman, George M. Boyd, Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol and former Wing Commander of the CAP and Retired Major in the United States Air Force, Wichita, will present the program “Keeping Our Dreams Alive”, a program about patriotism and being American, to the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society at the Wellington Senior Center, 308 South Washington, Wellington at 6:30 p.m. Contact Jane Moore at 620-447-3266 in case of inclement weather.

See Programs for more information!

Amanuensis Monday - Newspaper Flashbacks - Carry Nation smashes first saloon...

Conway Springs Star & Argonia Argosy
21 February 2013

From the Star Files
February 1933

Local thermometers registered 10 to 14 degrees below zero during the winter's worst cold wave which hit here.  High wind made that night and Tuesday morning most disagreeable.  The wind subsided Tuesday night but the thermometer went on down to 18 below, with 20 below Wednesday morning.  Failure of the local gas supply to meet the demand caused a lot of inconvenience in homes and places of business and caused school to be dismissed all day Tuesday.

I. R. Attebury, who is the new state superintendent for the Western Telephone Corp., was in Conway Springs last week making plans for State Office to be in operation here by March 1.

The Rev. J. W. Winrod of Wichita will speak here Thursday night at 7:30 in the Christian church.  Mr. Winrod was the bartender of the  first saloon which Carry Nation smashed.  Immediately after smashing his saloon, Mrs. Nation became world famous.  Mr. Winrod will tell his experience in the old saloon and how Carry Nation was instrumental in putting him into the ministry.  He has recently returned fro a speaking tour through Pennsylvania and New York state.  He has seen both sides ad says that Prohibition at its worst is better than the old saloon at its best. 

Amanuensis Monday - Conway Springs Star - February 1923

From the Star files
February 1923
Reprinted in the Conway Springs Star & Argonia Argosy - 14 February 2013

Loyal Lads of the Christian Church organized Sunday morning.  This class has twenty-two boys ranging in age fro twelve to fourteen.  Liel Rice was elected president and Lawrence Showman secretary.

   Fred Burchinal, a recent CSHS graduate, is putting Milan on the athletic map.  His teams have done good work all year and last Friday the basketball team defeated Belle Plaine in a regular Sumner County league contest. 

   The Boy Scout band had its first rehearsal Wednesday night with twenty-four members present.  It is the desire of those interested to raise the membership to a fifty piece band.  Mr. Patton is the director.

   What's the matter with our village she-vamps? Do you realize that this town's bachelor list includes merchants, banker, a preacher, veterinarian, dentist, auto salesman, and a lot of other desirables and otherwise?

Amanuensis Monday - Flashbacks from Milan and Argonia, Kansas

From Argonia Argosy Files
One Hundred Ten Years Ago, November 1899
Reprinted in the Conway Springs Star & Argonia Argosy 12 November 2009


Argonia Clipper History
   Milan is adding two rooms to the parsonage which will make it a very comfortable residence.

   At a meeting of the Christian church in Milan F. M. Shore was appointed elder and J. G. Bailey, Sr., Jesse Rhodes and Mrs. Shobe, deacons. At a meeting which closed Sunday night thirteen were received by confession, three reclaimed and five by letter.

   The ladies of the Milan Helping Union will give an entertainment at the M. E. church Thanksgiving evening.

   At a recent revival at the Methodist church in Conway Springs there were sixty conversions and sixty-four accession.

   Another item in the Clipper told of the organization of a county temperance league whose purpose was to raise $10,000 with which to suppress the joints and gambling dives in every town in the county where they exist.  Rev. Cunningham of Wellington was elected president.  None of the officers named were from Argonia.  The interesting name of the organization was "The County Law Lovers League."

Fast Forward to 1939
Organizations in Argonia in 1939 were: The IOOF organized in 1885 was an extremely active organization.  The Masons organized in 1913 are also active in the community. Eastern Star obtained their charter in 1921.  The Rebeccas were organized early but during the World War disband but reorganized in 1925 with a new charter.  The Junior Library Club was organized and sponsored by the Argonia Library Association.

Civic Club president is Howard Jones; vice-president, W. G. Buser; secretary-treasurer, Virgil Ingram.  City officials in 1939 were Mayor R. W. Karnahan; clerk, G. M. Pohlenz; treasurer, L. B. Mitchel. Councilmen: George Achelpohl, M. H. Haworth, A. O. Swan, Luther Phillips and M. H. Wooden.

Argonia business places in 1939 were Argonia Cleaners, Argonia Drug, Argonia Mill, Argonia Produce, Argonia Shoe Shop, Argonia Undertaking Company, Argonia Argosy, Bates Service Station, Badiger Lumber Company, Bettis Wood Shops, Bringer Implement, Brown Poultry, Buser Oil, Coffman and son; Copeland Creamery, Frank Cornwell, Dr. Craig, Harry Doll, Dutch's Quick Lunch, Elarton Garage, Factor Barber Shop, George's Market, Gingham Girls Cafe, Forrest Implement, Hamilton and Newby, Hammnd and Haworth, Hartle Garage, Haworth's Store, Hunter Milling Company, Hometown Grocery, Johnson's Cafe, J. B. Supply, Lee and Stehle, Lee's Repair Shop, Leu Variety, Logue Oil Co., Main's Store, Farmers and Merchants State Bank.

Amanuensis Monday - Indian Papoose Grave Found on Bluff Creek

The Wellington Monitor
11 July 1890

The grave of an Indian papoose was discovered on an island in Bluff Creek near Caldwell by Sam Woodson and Dr. Noble last week.

It was protected by a basket-shaped cover, neatly woven of twigs and roots, and so carefully hidden away among the underbrush as to have escaped observation heretofore.

Old settlers think it was made as far back as 1876 during the Indian troubles at that time.

Kansas Humanities Council Awards Grant to the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society

Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society receives
grant from the Kansas Humanities Council

TOPEKA – The Kansas Humanities Council (KHC) recently awarded Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society of Wellington a $3,500 grant for the “Prairie Letters: Written in Rural Kansas in the Late Nineteenth Century” project.

Jane Moore, SCHGS president said that in 2012 the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society received a notebook containing the “Prairie Letters,” letters that had been written primarily in the 1870’s by Emily Sell, one of Kansas’ earliest setters. Sell homesteaded in the Rome, Kansas area with her husband.  Moore said that even though Kansas was opened to settlement in 1854 and became a state in 1861, there were only 22 white people living in Sumner County by 1870 (The Sumner County Story, Paul and Gwendoline Sanders, 1966, p. 9).  Sumner County was not fully organized until Nov. 7, 1871.

“When I saw that the first letters were dated 1870, and learned that there were only about 22 white people living in Sumner County in 1870, I couldn't imagine what life must have been like for those early settlers,” said Elaine Clark, Prairie Letters Project Director and grant author.

There have been histories written about other areas of Sumner County during this time period, but very few collections of letters have been discovered which give a first-person perspective,” Clark said,  “that makes this collection of letters a priceless, irreplaceable piece of Kansas history.”

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“Transcription and preservation of these letters will give future historians, researchers, genealogists, and those interested in early settlement of the Midwest a first-person account of the hardships and difficulties of early homesteaders,” said Moore.

“Historical details about settlement in the Rome, Kansas, area are sketchy, but the town was officially organized in 1884,” Moore said, adding that  SCHGS members involved in transcribing Emily’s letters to friends and family are eager to learn about early-day settlement of Sumner County through the eyes and viewpoint of the homesteader and his wife.

Clark said she and her husband, Larry Clark, traveled to Jordan Cemetery recently to view and photograph Emily’s grave stone.

“I stood there and wondered what her life was like,” Clark said, adding that “these letters reveal much about the early days of Sumner County and the hardships and sorrows that families endured.  We tend to take food, warmth, air conditioning, doctors and medical care for granted, but these letters share the facts of everyday life for Kansas’ early settlers, babies that died because no doctors were available, weeks that go by before getting letters from family and friends, and children who can’t get an education because they live too far from school or they are needed to work on the farm.”

“These situations would seem foreign to today’s young people,” Clark said.

Clark said that some of the letters are almost unreadable because of fading, so it is imperative for the SCHGS to transcribe these letters as soon as possible. 

“This Heritage Grant from the Kansas Humanities Council will assist in preserving this treasure,” Clark said, “I can hardly wait to do the transcribing.”

Clark added that as the project progresses and they learn more about the contents of the letters, they will share information on the website at www.ksschgs.com, blog at www.ks-schgs.blogspot.com, SCHGS Facebook page and in area publications. 

“KHC Heritage grants encourage the preservation of local cultural resources,” said Julie Mulvihill, executive director of the Kansas Humanities Council. “This transcription project will preserve these one-of-a-kind primary source documents for generations to come. What a treat to find out what stories these letters will tell.”

The Kansas Humanities Council is a nonprofit organization that supports community-

based cultural programs, serves as a financial resource through an active

grant-making program, and encourages Kansans to engage in the civic and cultural

life of their communities. For more information, visit www.kansashumanities.org.

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