Like now, in 1912 the country was heating up for elections.  On the ballot in Kansas that November would be an amendment to the Kansas constitution giving Kansas women the right to vote.  This would be the third attempt to do so, the issue having failed in 1867 and 1894.

Edwards County women, led by Cora A. Lewis, co-owner and editor of the Kinsley Graphic, were actively campaigning and lobbying the men of the county and state to cast their ballots in favor of the amendment.  It is sometime forgotten that it was the men who had to be convinced to give women the vote because women couldn’t vote.

On June 2, 1912, a Sunday afternoon suffrage meeting was held at the Congregational Church in Kinsley.  A promotional article in the May 30, 1912 issue of the Kinsley Graphic reported, “While those taking part in this meeting are all men – the ladies are most cordially invited to attend.”  There was a good turnout with many coming in from the country for the event.

The following week, the Graphic covered the meeting.  Three Kinsley High School students gave short addresses.  Kelton Lewis (Class of 1912 and the son of J. M. and Cora Lewis) spoke on the economic reasons for enfranchising women.

The following week, the Graphic covered the meeting.  Three Kinsley High School students gave short addresses.  Kelton Lewis (Class of 1912 and the son of J. M. and Cora Lewis) spoke on the economic reasons for enfranchising women. (Kelton Lewis would tragically die of a brain aneurism in 1916.)

Chester Mairs (Class of 1913) answered the question “Do Women Want the Ballot?”  As part of his argument, he listed the many state organizations that had endorsed suffrage.

The article reported, “Besides these associations there have been hundreds of names on petitions sent in by women to members of the legislature, and to congress.  No one who heard the young man’s argument can go away and say Kansas women do not want the ballot, or that thinking Kansas men as represented by the Editorial, Agricultural and other societies do not believe they should have it.”  (The library has only a picture of poor quality of Mairs so it is not printed here.)

 John Wire (Class of 1912 and is the father of local resident John Wire, Jr.) gave his Senior oration on suffrage and “covered himself with glory both as to thought, English and delivery.  It is a gratification to this young man’s friends that he is giving some thought to the times of development, in which a young man may be of the widest service to his country.”
(John Wire would serve as Edwards County Sheriff for many years.)

The main speaker was Jouette Shouse who had married Kinsley socialite Marion Edwards in 1911.  They moved to Kinsley in 1912.  He was now 33 years old with an interest in politics, “but believes it should mean something besides a scramble for office.  He not only gave the really strong arguments for the participation of women in the councils of government, but took up the arguments used against it and analyzed the forces which oppose it.”

Five months after this suffrage meeting Shouse would be elected to the Kansas Senate on the Democratic ticket and the go on to serve in the U.S. Congress form 1915-1919 during WWI. One can not help but think his pro-suffrage stance in 1912 helped him win over the ladies’ vote in the 1914 election.

The ministers in Kinsley were also present and speaking for suffrage.  Rev. H. E. Wharton of the Methodist Church gave a “delightful speech, full of flashes of poetry and sentiment.  Mr. Wharton says there is no argument against suffrage and he took a clever thrust at a former speaker who said the largest number of opponents were old men.  He said: ‘The statement was right; and all the young progressive men are for it.  We believe in it and we want it.’”

We know that this meeting and the many others around the state that would follow helped to convince men to ratify the amendment giving Kansas women the right to vote, eight years before the U.S. Constitution would ratify the 19^th amendment.  This marked Kansas as a progressive leader in the suffrage movement.

Memorial Day is Monday, and many people will spend time at veteran parks and cemeteries remembering those who fought for our country.  The day was first called Decoration Day and was created to remember all the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War.  As the years and wars went by, it grew to include all deceased veterans.   It became a national holiday in 1971. Today it has come to be a time to remember all loved ones who have passed.

The June 1, 1900 issue of the Kinsley Graphic describes Kinsley’s elaborate commemoration of that same year.  The day was beautiful and people “began arriving from the country in all sorts of conveyances from carriage to bicycles.” 

“The march to the cemetery began promptly about thirty minutes after the advertised time” (advertised the week before as 10:30 a.m.).  I can imagine they may have been delayed in order to take the picture accompanying this article.

Groups of walkers were organized at the town’s side streets, and parade organizers were instructed “to cut out bunch after bunch and start (them) along the trail, using care to see that they did not crowd or stampede along the line.”  

That word “trail” jumped out at me as I remember this was a wagon road and not paved at the time.

The procession was led by 31 soldiers and sailors of the Grand Army of the Republic, T. O. Howe Post.  They were followed by a firing squad composed of 14 members of the Sons of Union Veterans and the Kinsley Fire Department, fire marshal and drum and fife corps.

“Twelve flower girls, beautifully dressed in white, carrying baskets of flowers” came next followed by the Woodsmen Lodge.  Finally, “about two hundred teams and a party of bicyclists with decorated wheels brought up the rear.”

“Arriving at the outskirts of the city, the marchers were taken into the wagons and driven to the cemetery (1.5 miles away) where the graves were decorated by the children and salutes were fired by the squad.”

When they returned to Kinsley a program was held at the Congregational Church which included a reading of the Gettysburg Address, several speeches and music by the church choir.  The audience was then called upon to “give the old soldiers the Chicago salute of waving handkerchiefs as the marched out.”

I have deduced from research that whenever women were particularly moved, they would show it by waving their white handkerchiefs.  I am not sure why the editor called this the “Chicago” salute as it seemed to be prevalent during the Civil War, and political gatherings afterwards and by the suffragists.

The next sentence reads, “After a word of thanks by Comrade Blanchard, this was done, making a very pretty closing for a very interesting ceremony.”

And there it is, what is fun for me doing local research.  Last week we learned that Judge Blanchard had been wounded three times and survived a Confederate prisoner of war camp.  He came to Kinsley in 1873 and secured a homestead with his Civil War land grant.

I enlarged the above picture archived in our collection.  Comparing to last week’ picture, I believe I was able to locate him standing on the right end of the front row (just in front of the veteran on the end of the second row.)

I invite you to visit Hillside Cemetery this weekend and see the Old Soldiers’ Monument with many Civil War headstones located close by.

The library has a book, ”Architectural Styles of Kinsley, Kansas”, which was researched by architect Ed Carlson for a bus tour conducted in 2010 and again 2017.  Carlson grew up in Kinsley, the son of Edwards County Sheriff Leonard Carlson. During your stay-home time, I recommend going on a self-guided tour around Kinsley either in your car or easy chair.  The illustrated tour guide is available on the library website and in hard copy. 

Many architectural and historical facts are revealed in this book, and I thought I would highlight a few this week.  However, what usually happens, happened again.  I started reading about one of the oldest structures in Kinsley and got caught up in the story of an early pioneer who once lived in it.

The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad reached this area in 1872 and a settlement called Petersburg began to form.  In March, 1973 a group of men representing the Massachusetts colony from Boston located here.  That summer, they would change the name to “Kinsley” to honor Edward W. Kinsley of Boston.

 Ferdinand Charles (F. C.) Blanchard was among these original settlers.  He would later come to live in the house that still stands on the corner of Second Street and Colony Avenue.  Carlson explained on the bus tour that just the center portion of this house was the original structure built by Newton L. Mills about 1878.  

 “The original house was one room deep and two rooms wide…. The wing to the west (left side) and the two stories to the east (right side) were added later.  On the east side of the original house is another gable.  Normally this side would have been the front of the house with a porch on it.  These early houses were not tied down, weren’t plumbed, and didn’t have electricity.  They were easily moved.  I suspect that when they added the east wing, they rotated the house around (to face south).”

The many trials and tribulations of F. C. Blanchard are outlined in the Edwards County Centennial book (p. 252) and expanded on in early newspaper articles and “A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans”.

F. C. was a Civil War Veteran of the First Missouri regiment and fought in many battles including Vicksburg. He was wounded 3 times and captured by Confederate troops. When he came to Edwards County he took a soldier’s claim.  It is said that he was the first to ply a furrow to plant crops in Edwards County.  His first crop was corn and watermelons.  Worms ate the corn and he had to rely on the watermelon and truck garden crops.

F. C.’s marriage to Miss Katie Martin on October 29, 1974 was one of the first weddings in Kinsley.  Miss Martin, known as a talented musician, had arrived in 1873 in the Boston party and lived with the J. A. Walkers.  She witnessed herds of buffalo passing through the area and helped bring the meat in from the prairie where the animals were killed. 

Mrs. Walker told the story of their courtship.  Our home “had only one room, so the young couple had what was known as a traveling courtship, walking about the prairies.  Mr. Blanchard gave offerings of bouquets of wild onion flowers, and … Mrs. Blanchard was married with wild onions in her hair.  This may seem strange, as we have so many beautiful wild flowers now, but in those days, there was not even grass on the sandhills, and lack of rainfall sometimes caused all vegetation to dry up by May 15^th.  Wild onions are the only things that flourish later.”

Mrs. Blanchard related that when they were married, no butter could be had for baking a wedding cake, so they had a sponge cake.   From 1877 to 1896, the couple would have 4 children.

In 1874, F. C. planted 32 acres of corn. “It had reached the stage of roasting ears and one day Blanchard gathered some for dinner.  In the afternoon the grasshoppers came in a cloud and by night nothing was left.” (Centennial book) The following year the crops were destroyed by hail.

The claim was sold in 1878, and the Blanchards moved to a small house with a dugout stable northwest of Kinsley.  Five years later they moved to a timber claim ten miles south of Kinsley where F. C. engaged in the cattle business.  A severe winter killed cattle by the thousand, and he was one of many who found themselves unable to continue their business. 

The Blanchards then moved to a small place north of Kinsley where in March, 1884 a disastrous prairie fire swept away all that remained of his possessions.  “Mr. Blanchard loaded his wife and children, one only three weeks old, into a buggy and ran to a place of safety.  There was no time to hitch up a horse, and he was badly burned by getting the fire in his boots.  Nothing was saved but the clothing worn.”

That was when the family gave up on agriculture and moved to the little house in Kinsley.  Blanchard became postmaster.  Later he took charge of a mill and elevator where he served until it was destroyed by fire.  Then he managed a lumber yard.

Blanchard’s official services in Edwards county began early.  He was elected one of the first county commissioners and was later elected as probate judge from 1891-1915.

“I do not believe we pioneers of Edwards county endured as many hardships as did some of the other early settlers of Western Kansas,” said Judge Blanchard in an interview in the Kinsley Mercury in 1918.  “However, times were hard enough and I am frank to say that I would not grant a repetition of our experiences.  There were years when we hardly knew where we would get food for bare living purposes, but we pulled through those dark periods and I doubt if there is a man alive who breasted the early day hardships who is sorry he remained.”

The hardships that F. C. and Katie endured may help us to put the current pandemic in perspective.  Having lived long lives, F. C. died in 1922 and Katie in 1929 and are buried in Hillside Cemetery. 

     Imagine it’s 1887 and you want to go to Jetmore.  You could have a long horseback ride, or you could climb aboard the stagecoach in Kinsley at 8 a.m. and arrive in Jetmore at 4 p.m. that afternoon. But just where was this trail that you’re traveling on?

In 2016, the library hosted a winter series on immigration which included the early African American settlement of Morton City, located a few miles northeast of Jetmore. While researching, I found reference to the settlers’ arrival in Kinsley in a small book, “A History of Hodgeman County” by Margaret Haun Raser and Ina Rumford:

“A colony of negroes, made up in Kentucky, arrived in Kinsley in March, 1878 on their way to Hodgeman County.  They experienced considerable difficulty in getting their horses released by the railroad because they had no money to pay the freight.  When they were finally able to secure their property, they set out for their promised land on foot and on horseback, singing happily as they trudged along.”

An article in the Winter, 1989 issue of Kansas History described the immigrants in this manner:

“The settlers arrived with few supplies and very little cash.  Since Kinsley … was the nearest depot to the proposed site, the colonists were set down there with no provision for shelter or transportation.  They spent the first night huddled in the small schoolhouse, the only public building in town.  They could see that just beyond the handful of buildings in the village lay the open prairie extending in an unbroken expanse….the colonists left their shelter to walk the thirty miles to what they believed would bring them a new and better life.”

Because the railroad did not go to Jetmore, I was curious to know their route. Working with Rosetta Graff, we discovered an 1889 map on the wall of the courthouse.  It showed a trail going diagonally from Kinsley to Jetmore.  This interested me as roads in Kansas for the most part do not go diagonally. 

About that time, John J Riisoe informed us that the trail went through his property.  He offered to give Rosetta and me a tour of the ruts and creek crossings.  Pictures taken that day are available in John J. Riisoe’s oral history on the library website.  As he pointed the trail out, I realized that we were not in the location depicted on the old map.  Also the evidence of this trail had mostly been destroyed by cultivation.  John J’s information confused us, but I drew in the trail he described on my map.

 Julie Ackerman wrote in her Offerle History book that Mr. and Mrs. Dan Gleason and their five children also had come to Kansas in 1878.  Their Single Bar Ranch is pictured and described as a “stopping place for many a traveler between Jetmore and Kinsley.”  I placed this known trail site on my map.

Rosetta and I then made a trip to the Hodgeman County Museum in Jetmore to see what information they might have.  At that time, they could not help us.  I began to dream of going up in an airplane to see if we could spot evidence of the trail ruts in Hodgeman County.

Fast forward to 2019, when I was talking to good friend and library supporter Marcile King.  She was about to fly off with her son Boyd KIng on another trip.  I’m not known for my shyness, so I asked her to see if he might be willing to give us an aerial tour of the area in his plane that spring. 

Soon I received an email from Mr. King saying he was willing to take us and Dr. Leo Oliva, an expert on Kansas trails, up as soon as there was a good day and time. 

On March 21^st he called and said conditions were right.  He flew his 4-seater Piper Cherokee plane to Rooks County Regional Airport to pick up Dr. Oliva and then to our airport so we could board.  We spent the next hour surveying the landscape for evidence.  Flying over Hodgeman County, we noticed it had more pasture and less cultivation.  After much circling and searching, Dr. Oliva and Mr. King thought they had found a place that might be trail ruts.  I added a notation to my map.

Now we were hot on the trail, so to speak.  The next week, longtime Jetmore resident, Duane Shiew, met us and Dr. Oliva at the museum where he serves on the board.  Imagine our excitement to learn that they had recently acquired an early map of Hodgeman County, and the trail was drawn on it!  When the trail left Hodgeman County, it connected right up to where John J Riisoe said it was in Edwards County!  The old map on the courthouse wall was either incorrectly drawn or there had briefly been another route.

Dr Oliva southeast of Stone Post Dairy Rosetta and Dr. Oliva at Shiew rut site.
Road K

Orwell today (H Road and #228) Morton City site (M Road & #222)

 “For there are more poets, painters, and pianists to the acre in Kinsley than any place west of Indiana.”  Hutchinson News, October 7, 1937

People usually think of western Kansans as being hard-working, practical farmers and ranchers, not poets. But six years ago, I decided to research what was behind the above quotation for a program in April celebrating National Poetry Month.  It certainly proved to be true.

Among the many amateur poets who live here in the first half of the 20^th Century, there were two well-known professional poets:  May Williams Ward (1882-1975) and Nell Lewis Woods (1889-1959).

May Ward was not native to Edwards County.  She came to Belpre with her husband in 1921 and stayed until 1933.  She often came to Kinsley to meet with the other lady poets and to attend Ward Family gatherings at the Fravel House (816 E. Second St.).  Gladys Fravel was married to Vernon Ward, May Ward’s brother-in-law.  One can imagine the parties going on in this grand house in the 1920s. (The house was originally built by Alfred Hobbs and is now owned by the Bill Brokars.)    

May Ward wrote poetry and edited “The Harp” a national poetry magazine.  Ward created over 300 poems which were published in 35 magazines, including Life and The Saturday Evening Post.

Nell Woods came to Kinsley as a toddler and graduated from Kinsley High School in 1908.  She married Rex Woods, Sr. that same year.  By 1926, she had published over 75 poems and over 200 columns for the Kansas City Star under the banner of “Over the Back Fence”.  She was syndicated in the Baltimore News, the New York Sun, the New York Tribune, and the St. Louis Dispatch from 1928-1947. The columns were collected into a book by the same title in 1929

You can learn more about these ladies and eight other local poets by visiting the “Prairie Poets” link in the left menu on the library homepage: www.kinsleylibrary.info. You’ll be able to see the ladies’ pictures, learn where they lived in Kinsley and a little about their lives, read some of their poetry and view their tombstones in Hillside Cemetery.

During these last days of April, I invite you to take a few minutes to celebrate National Poetry Month, 2020, by enjoying Mary Williams Ward’s sonnet celebrating the season.

        “Spring Day in Kansas”

This is a day like days in a story book
With glitter in the air that glorifies
The edge and tip of every leaf, and lies
In pools of mirror strangeness on the brook.
Pale trees are deeply shadowed with the look
Of rendezvous, and clouds like turrets rise.
This is a day for knights and their emprise.
Treasure seems probably in any nook.

And I am not a changeling in the tale.
My ears feel pointed.  I can talk in rhyme
Today, and know what birds say in their song.
I'll find a next, I know, here in the swale.
And over this next hill that I shall climb,
The lover I have waited for so long.

April 19-25 is National Library Week, and here I am in this empty library building remembering the role the library has played in this community.  It is an interesting story of many relocations and transformations.

Kinsley was incorporated as a city in 1873.  As early as 1885, citizens sought to have a library.  In frontier towns libraries were usually funded and located in district schools and by clubs or organizations.  The later charged a modest fee to be a member and to check out books.  Kinsley had several libraries of this type which came and struggled to exist with fees and donated books and funds.

The foundation of what would become our public library came when the Christian Endeavor Society of the Congregational church placed its library in Misses Mert and Mort Schnatterly’s “Millinery Bazaar” in 1899. Their shop was located where the KSU Extension Office is today.  The ladies sold hats and checked out books. 

When the Schnatterlys retired in 1912, the library moved above the Edwards and Noble Store (present day Circle K Auto Parts) and Margaret Hills took over as librarian.  She is credited in keeping the library going with the support of many women’s organizations raising funds through teas, dramas, concerts, box socials, ice cream socials, fair booths and more.   

The library was moved to the north room of the Kinsley High School gymnasium.  Jesse Fravel and Lillie Riley (pictured) would serve consecutively for the next 16 years.

Some people still remember that in the early morning hours of February 13, 1941, the Kinsley High School burned.  The gymnasium with its library was all that survived.  The 7000 books were literally carried to the upstairs of City Hall at 507 Marsh St (across from the Frame Law Office).  Elsie Jenkins serve as the librarian from 1941-1967 (pictured right).

In February, 1953 another election was held and the Kinsley Mercury headline tells the story.  “City Building and Library Bonds Carry by Margin of Eight Votes.”  For the second time, the library won by just a few votes. On March 22, 1954, city hall and the library moved to their new and present facility.  Sixty-six years ago, those few votes counted, and our community is still reaping the benefit today.   We must be grateful to the library board and the citizens for their forethought.

1954 Kinsley Library Board (L to R) Mrs. R. E. Schnoebelen, secretary; Miss Jessie Fravel; Miss Beulah Moletor, President; Mrs. Vern Rehmert, vice president; Mrs. Don Shaffer. (Standing) W. E. Woodard and Roy Hatfield.

Edna Brown was the library director from 1967 to 1972 (pictured left).

Then Beverly Craft took over and ushered in many changes.  She played an active role in establishing the Southwest Kansas Library System of which the Kinsley Library is a member.  She also supervised the introductions of computers into the library and the automation of the library catalog and check out.  When I took over in 1997 the library was in excellent shape. 

I would be remiss if I did not mention that recently retired librarian Rosetta Graff managed to survive three directors during her tenure.  She really was the face of the Kinsley Library for many years.

Over the years, may people have faithfully served on the library board and I have had the privilege of working for them.  Social distancing would not allow for a picture of the 2020 Library Board which is made up of:  Susan Mathes, chair; Don Stewart, vice chair;  Lynn Schaller, secretary; Bill Keenan, Treasurer; Mike Padgham, Tracy Ritchie, and Fran Jarvis. The current staff includes librarian Julia Butler and library clerk Yaneth Holguin.

So back to where I started, sitting here, alone in this building.  It doesn’t take much to realize that the building, the resources, and even the librarians are not what make up a library.  It is the support of the citizens.  It is you coming and checking out books and movies.  It is you accessing a job application, the 2020 census, or a knitting pattern on the internet.   It is your children being amazed with a story hour puppet.  It is people sharing ideas at a book discussion.  It is learning about women’s suffrage, Kansas Indians, or our local history.  It is students discovering how to find the answer and form an opinion.   It is producing a musical about the Fleagle Gang.  It is creating a painting or an experiment in summer reading.  It is simply just seeing and talking to all of you each day.  As was true in history, it is still the citizens of Kinsley who create and sustain this library.   I thank you for your support and involvement.  I look forward to seeing you all here soon.  And please tell the kids, this June we WILL have a summer reading program, maybe in a very creative fashion.