USA > Kansas > Smith County > History of Smith County, Kansas to 1960 > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17
Law and politics traditionally go hand in hand and names always win a great deal of publicity in either one. But too, they contribute an important part to the development of any area because law is a necessary attitude of civilization and as such must come with the first settlers. Many of the early lawyers have been mentioned through this history; mention of another one who is familiar to many people in the state was Hal E. Harlan. He was born on a farma near Harlan, Kansas in 1886, so Smith County can claim him ae a mative son although he moved with hie parent to Downs in 1903. He graduated from the Downs High School in 1906, University of Kansas, and in 1912 was admitted to the bar. He opened a law office in Manhattan, was city attorney from 1916 to 1917, and in later years County Attorney of Riley County for four years, later was Chairman of the Republican Central Committee. In 1929 he was elected to the legislature as representative and during his second term served as speak- er. In 1932 he was elected Senator from the 21st district, then held two terms
66 Biographical sketch of the Myers family and come historical notes on Smith County - Salem, Lebanon; personal manuscripts written by Judge C. Clyde Myers and loaned to the author for this work; letters from Ray Myers, Lebanon.
177
again in 1945 and 1947. In 1950 he married Miss Irene Knittle, private secretary to Rep. Albert Cole. In 1947 Harlan was president of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and in 1950 the director. He died March 23, 1957 at the age of 70 years.67
"P.M.A. State Chairman Farme on Week Ends" was a good introduction to Emmet Womer, whose father homesteaded the land in 1870 that he farmed near Womer, a community that was built around a town and poet office of early days, and named for his grandfather. His mother, Margaret Mitchell, wae of Scottish ancestry and came with her family to a homestead on the Kansas-Nebraska line north of what was to be Womer in 1871. The Mitchells and Womers homesteaded much of this area. His folke built the house in 1897 that etill stands on the farm -- one large enough for the family of eight children. liis father donated the land for the United Brethren Church on the corner of his farm. All the settlers in this area had to go to Riverton to get mail until the post office was established in 1883. A sod post office was built in 1892, and Emmet, although a boy at the time, helped on the job as did hie father, Wes, and brother, Mel (see picturee). Emmet graduated from Kansas Wesleyan University
end started farming. He was on the Kansas Production and Marketing Administra- tion Board at Manhattan for seventeen years and chairman for three years. Dur- ing that time he was a "desk man week-days, and dirt farmer on weekends" as he gave personal attention to hie 2,000 acre farm, the nucleus of which was the homestead of his father. Hie wife, the former Grace Harlan, remembere the day her uncle played for the first time "Home on the Range." Wir. and Mrs. Womer have the unique experience of having a town named for a grandfather of each of them -- Womer and Harlan, both in Smith County. They have two children,
67 Who's Who in the Kansas Legislature, 1929, 1932, 1947.
178
Sylvester and Hilda Jeane. Mr. Nomer, now retired, atill keeps an interest in the farm and spende much of his time assisting in the work of the Smith County Historical Society of which ha was one of the organisars and the firat President. 68
A doctor who is practically an institution and known in every part of the county ia Victor E. Watts. He was born in Unionvilla, Missouri on Hoven- ber 26, 1878 and came to Smith County December 1892. lie attended common schools, then Salina Normal University, then taught country school three years -- the first one at a salary of twenty-five dollars a month. The per- hapa explains his continued interest in better schools throughout the years. lie has sarved many years on the school board. Ha then owned and managed a country atore at Cora for one year, and the next year entered Medical College at Washburn (later affiliated with Kansas University), graduating in 1907. Ho began practice at Womer in northern Smith County, moved to Smith Center in 1913 and has been there aince. ilia main interest has been in obstetrics and pediatrics or care of children. He estimates he has delivered approximately 2,500 babies. He has been elected Coroner of tha county several times and has been County Health Officer for decades. lis was the first person to be recognized by the local Rotary Club for "Service above self to his fellow man" and that this is his motto is illustrated by his own vorde: "I do not feel I have done anymore in life than ia required of everyone. To me life is service -- service to my fellow man in whatever walk of life I found him .... A man is born, he lives, ha dica, and the world forgets. Life is wonderful
68 Topeka Daily Capital, January 29, 1950; Smith County Pioneer, December 12, 1949; Margaret Mitchell Womer, "That You May Know," a biography dictated December 1935 and published for the children and grandchildren; interviews in the Womer home in January and April.
179
juet to be able to help; that has been my aim as I have lived."69
To writers goes most of the credit for the history that ie preserved for later generations because writing outlives the epan of generations. Ae Eugene Ware, Kansas author, saye, "When all are gone, the book alone remains." The history of a local area ie composed of the little thinge written by those on the ecene or the record of things passed down by word of mouth. This could be called "graes-roote reporting" and a true "grass-roots" reporter ie Ray Myers of Lebanon. He actually started writing the history of Smith County thirty years ago with his "Echoes of Old Salem" and "Early History in Kansas," and has continued to do so ever since in hie column "Salem Pay" which he has written for more than half a century for the Lebanon Tines, Smith County Pioneer, Red Cloud Chief, and Burr Oak and Mankato papers. He hae had etorice appear in the Saturday Evening Post, Topeka Daily Capital, and other city pa- pers. He quecees hie column is now "more than a mile long." Elmer Stump, a neighbor and friend, says of him, "He is a community man, church leader, and good farmer. lle writes about his neighbors, down to earth, human interest stories." The Rev. Robert Goldsworth, pastor over northwest Kaneas for fifty years once etated, "I have preached more than half a century. Counting membership, Ray reaches more people every week, some 18,000, than I have in all my years in the ministry. His messages carry about the came ideas - bet- ter people, good citizenship." One time some friende, unknown to Ray, entered come of his columns from the Smith County Pioneer in the newe conteet at the Hutchinson State Fair. He received third place for the etate. This is what the judges wrote:
Country correspondence - Your Salem correspondent, Ray Myere, has won third place for the Pioneer in the 1957 Kansas Newspaper Contest. Mr. Myers telle his newe as he eees it, heare it, live it. He ie a rare type of journaliet of which there are too few. He is original, to the heart, and man to
69 Victor E. Watte, personal letter to the author, April, 1960.
180
man in his writinge and tellinga. Please accept our congratula- tions to Mr. Myers, and his newspaper, the Smith County Pioneer.
A. L Headley, editor of the Smith County Pionesr, wrote of Myars:
Salem, one of the ghost towns of the White Rock Valley, which once flourished to the northeast of Lebanon, has an unique distinc- tion. It never has lost its identity. That fact is dus almost ex- clusively to the versatils pen of Ray Myers. Myers has written a column from the Salem community for the Pioneer and other papers for more than one third of a century, rarely miesing a wsek. 70
A post doctor other than the famous Dr. Higley, wae Dr. M. F. Leary, who had arrived in Gaylord in 1879. He was the author of several poems, but the one entitled "The Ghost of Beaver Creek" was published in 1886. It so wall pictures ths difficultiss and discouragement met by the settlers in the drouth years of the eighties when many left Kansas, yet it has a note of jest that expressed the determination of those who etayed.
The Ghost of Beaver Creek71
Where the water of the Beaver-Beaver Creek surpassing fair Loiters sparkling in the sunlight (when there's any water thars), There is a lagend and a story of a youth who, long ago, Planted corn down in the valley, where no ear of corn would grow; And as night her sabls tressss spreads o'er Beaver's hills and dals, Children gathering 'round their mothers shudder at the ghostly tals.
Early, early in the springtime, as the flowers came forth anen, Blithe was ha, with cheeke of roses, hair of gold and eyes of blue. Light his heart and quick his footsteps on that pleasant epring day morn, As ha planted swiftly and deftly ripened grains of golden corn. Then he laid aside his planters, harrows, plows, machinery, all He had bought with note and mortgage coming due in early fall.
Straight and stately grew the cornstalks in their robes of brightest green, And the neighbors vowed such "promise" ne'sr befors by man was eeen. And has tended well his treasure, cutting weed and sunflower strong While his hymns of joy and gladness loud resounded all day long. And hs reckoned oft his profits and great wealth of shiny gold, Safely loaned on monthly interest, when the corn wae picked and sold.
70 Emer Stump, "Ray Myers - Historian," an unpublished manuecript written for the Smith County Historical Society. The author might add that Mr. Myers, through interviews and many latters, and contacts with people in Smith County for the author has been of invaluable assistance in this work.
71 Dr. M. F. Leary, "The Ghost of Beaver Creek, " Gaylord Herald, Summer, 1886.
181
But July's fisrce suns fell on it, parching tassel, stalk and ground, And the promised rains from heaven came, but always "went around"; And the chinch bugs -- hungry fellows -- hunting fields and pastures new, flurried fast into that cornfield, climbed each stalk and bored it through; Then the hot winds from the Southland rushing past with fiery breath, Till ths stalk and leaf and tassel burned and blackened unto death.
And the youth with golden tresses, as that corn crop faded fast, Hollow eyes end tottering footsteps told his fondest hopes were blast; Gaunt and wasted grew his body, thinner, thinner every day, Till one night in a Kansas wind it is said he blew away; Nor was seen he more to wander where the Beaver's waters flow, Though machine man with his mortgage hunted for him high and low.
But when midnight's hour approaches and shrill north winde folks alarm There ia scen a ghostly figure, ghostly basket on its arm, Passing through the quivering cornstalks, uttering many a sigh and moan, Seeking vainly for some ear -- corn -- but no nubbin there had grown. And 'tia said by those who have seen it, that the apectre so forlorn Is the youth who died on Beaver - starved to death while growing corn.
Leonard Prowant graduated from Smith Center High School with the class of 1917. He is a writer and publisher. Two of his books are Stanzaa for Kansas and a beautiful story called Christ Comes at Christmas Time. One poem par- ticularly relating to Smith County is "Up Lebanon Way," a part of which ia included:
Up Lebanon way, where I was born, They raise pigs, chickens, cows and corn; Things depend entirely upon the farm, And crop failures are viewed with soms alarm. Industrial cities consider with acorn Rural centers like where I was born.
Up Lebanon way, where I was born, They raise something besides stock and corn; I sey it, and I have monsy to bet There live the finest people yet ! Cosmopolitan friendship looks mighty forlorn Beside real friendship like where I was born.
Up Lebanon way, where I was born, They raise pigs, chickens, cows, and corn; And to come right out and speak real plain, I edmit it with pride and not with shane. I have to smother a feeling of acorn When city folks sneer at where I was born172
-72 Leonard Prowant, Stanzas for Kansas, p. 48.
182
Robert Henry Reed, better known in Smith County as "Bob Reed", was an editor of the well known magazins, The Country Gentlemen, for twenty years before his retirement. His grandfather, Judge H. H. Reed, lived on a home- stead about four miles north of Smith Center. Bob's father, O. L. (Tink) Reed, was born there and moved to Smith Center when his father was elected Probate Judge. Tink worked on newspapers here, then was publisher of the Kensington Mirror for a time, and later became owner and publisher of the Almena Plaindealer. Bob was employed in the Kansas City Star office for a short tims, then was with the Saturday Evening Post before becoming editor of the Country Gentlemen. Recently he accepted a position from President Eisenhower as attache in the country of Netherlands in an advisory capacity.
A. L. (Bert) Headley, who was editor of the Smith County Pioneer for more than forty years has helped record more history than anyone will be able to include in one book, as he has been in the newspaper business approxi- mately half the life of Smith County. Mr. Headley was born in a sod house on a homestead and began to help in a printing office when "eo young it was neces- sary to stand on a box to reach the type case in the old handset days." He gradually progressed through the period of his more than sixty years experi- ence to editor of the Smith County Pioneer for the last forty of those years. He was always an ardent politician (se were most editore starting in the 80's and 90's) and served as Republican delegate from the Sixth District when Her- bert Hoover and Charles Curtis were nominated and served on publicity for Alf Landon when he was candidate for governor and later for president. He also served as publicity director for Frank Carlson in his six campaigns for con- gressman, press secretary during his two terms as governor and on publicity committee during his campaign for United States Senator. He was prees secre- tary for Governor Ed Arn; and for many years had been chairman or secretary of the Smith County Republican Central Committee. He is now retired at Smith
183
Center and actively aiding the Smith County Historical Society (1960).
Two more people who have made a splendid contribution to preserving history through newspaper work are Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin T. Baker. Nr. Baker had a record with newspaper work of nearly forty years at the time of his pre- mature death from cancer at the age of fifty-three, twenty-six of which had been in Smith Center. Mrs. Baker has been active in newspaper work since 1917 when her husband died and helped him out before that so her interest stretched over much of the span of Smith County history. B. T. Baker was born in Wash- ington, Iowa and when a young lad came to Kansas and lived on & farm in 08- borne County for a few years, then moved to Canker City where the parents operated a hotel. While attending school Ben worked in the newspaper office of the Cawker City Ledger. Later he took a full time job with the Downs News until he was offered a better position in Colorado. A year later the paper in Colorado was sold and he came back to Smith Center to take charge of the Smith County Journal, a newly organized paper. He and Miss Hattie Cummings of Smith Center were married March 17, 1898 and lived in Smith Center until his death. Some clippinga best illustrate Ben's status in his work:
The Smith County Journal started last week on its 20th year. The editor of the Record can well remember back in the forepart of the 90'e when the Journal was printed on a Washington hand press (the boss of this shop doing the inking act). The Journal has grown since those days and is now one of the best equipped shops in northwest Kansas. The editor of this paper worked for seven years on that paper and we owe about all we know about the printing trade to the present editor of that paper, Ben Baker, one of the best printers in the state.
The Smith County Journal began its twenty-third year last week. With the exception of a year in its early history it has been all that time undor the management of Ben T. Baker, a former Cawker boy, who began as a typo in the Record office. Ben has stuck steadily to his business and has made a success of it; he has recently erected an office building and promises other sub- stantial improvements.73
73 Athol Record, Aug. 8, 1910, Alf Williamson, Editor; Ibid., Aug. 5, 1913.
184
"Hattie", as shs is known to everyone, was born at Indianola, Iowa and came to Smith Center when she was four years old or about 1880. Sha graduated from Smith Centar High School in 1893. After har husband's death, she managed the Smith County Journal until the newspaper was sold in 1923. She stayed with the new owners until the newspaper was again sold to the Pionser, then when H. P. Beason moved his Athol Record to Smith Center in 1933, shs became one of the etaff on it. Sha "went with the deal," as she laughingly put it, when Beason and W. E. Les purchased the Pioneer in 1946 and consolidated the Review and Pioneer. In September 1949, Mre. Baker suffered a hip fracture and has not returned to regular newspaper work except for writing at home. This work has largely become a matter of historical iteme about Smith County of which she is well qualified to write. She has a wonderful memory, a talent for exactnass and detail, and a love for research and har subject that makes her collection a joy to read.74
A veteran newspaper editor in Smith County who deserves mention is Walter Boyd of the Kensington Mirror. Mr. Boyd states that his brother acquired tha paper and he, Walter, began working thare in 1894, at the age of thirteen years. In 1908 ha purchased the business and has eince continuously owned and conducted it. This makes his record eixty-six years service with the Konsington Mirror and fifty-two years as owner. Such a record is history in itsalf:75
74 Facts for these biographies were furnished by Mrs. Hattis Baker at the author's request though, liks so many talented people, she felt har lifs nothing to write about. Much of the material used in this work was due to Mrs. Baker'e "Collection" or to her on-the-scens research for the author, or to the wealth of reminiscences she recounted in visita.
75 Welter Boyd, in personal letter to author, March 28, 1960.
185
A writer of note from Smith County is Urs. Margaret A. (Dannels) Nelaon. She had several articles published, then became known for her book, Home on the Range, published in 1948. Her foreword to the book best introduced it when she wrote:
Unlike stories of western fiction, which are filled with hair-raising tales of wild carousing in open saloons, cattle stealing, and two-gun men, the history of Home on the Hange is a story of devotion and love. It is the story of courageous people who migrated into the prairie country to build them- selves a home, people who came into conflict with colossal forces of Nature which were fraught with perils, and which meant death if they should weaken. Few of these brave souls remain. One by one they have passed on, following the trail which leads home, and a carpet of short buffalo grass has gradually covered their last resting places. To their memory I dedicate this book.
Among the writers a place would be reserved for Dr. Brewster Higley and Dan Kelley, writers of the words and music for "liome on the Range," the song that made people in the United States know there was a Smith County in the heart of the nation. However, these writers are given a starred place in the next chapter with the history of the song they created.
Not too far from the field of writing are the artistic accomplishments in the field of drawing, painting, sculptoring, cartooning, and music. Florence MeVicker Squires was born in Smith Center and graduated from Smith Center High School in 1926. She is a commercial artist and has had work pub- lished in Pictorial Review, Ladies liome Journal, and Vogue. Her mother, Alice Walker MeVicker, also graduated from Smith Center High School, class of 1900. Christy Hobbs, a graduate of Smith Center High School in 1927, is a car- toonist and draws "Billy Bug." Another famed cartoonist, Albert T. Reid, once lived in Smith Center and attended school. The Heid family Lived at Smith Center for a few years in the early nineties while the father was in the bank- ing business. At that time Albert drew picturee in all his books in his spare
186
time although the boys called him "sissy" for drawing instead of joining in the sports. His paintings and drawings are principally of early day Kansas frontier scenes and Indian life.76
Mrs. Nelson Chubb, formerly Nettie Smith, was born and reared in Center Township. Her parents wers Ira and Cora Smith who homesteaded two and a half miles west of Smith Center in 1872. Early in life Nettie developed a talent for drawing and sketching and that has been her main diversion sver since. In 1938 the family moved to Smith Center where the parents lived at their home on West Court Street until their deaths, and where Nettie continued to live. Sha became an outstanding artist, sketching many scenes in Smith County. She has done all the scenes for the Chamber of Commerce in advertising for Smith Center and the county. She has received numerous prizes at fairs and art dia- plays. She and her husband spend their winters in Arizona, where she loves to sketch and paint.77
Bernard (Poco) Frazier was born on a farm near Athol and first made a name for himself at the University of Kansas as a distance runner. He was Big Six Champion two mile runner in 1927, 1928, and 1929. He graduated from the University of Kansas November, 1935. He then went to Chicago to work as an artist in the Midway Studios with Lorado Taft (sculptor). In 1944 he be- came director of the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa; then he came back to Kansas University to teach and continue his work in sculptoring. He did eight dioramas for the Dyche Museum of prehistoric life in the general area of which Kansas is a part. They were four by six by three feet in size, made to scals and in color. Other works are the Bronze Memorial doors of the Campanils at
76 Mrs. Hattie Baker Collection, op. cit.
77 Compiled from material furnished by Mrs. Hattie Baker at the author's request.
187
Kansas University, a free standing bear eight feet tall in front of the Missouri State Office Building in Jefferson City, and two large mall sculptures for the Union National Bank in Wichita. In 1941 he won the Western Hemisphere Award for Sculpture on two buffalo called "Prairie Combat." The Joslyn Museum in Omaha has the sculpture of two colts, "The Yearlings," which won the five state purchase prize in Midwest Competition. His latest work in the summer and fall of 1956 was the stone carvings symbolic of the state's history on three faces of the new State Office Building in Topeka. The south face showed a pioneer settler and his family on the trail with a covered wagon and sunflowers. The west facs depicted the Spanish thrust into Kansas and featured a captain, priest, and Indians. The east side represents modes of travel by settlers who came to Kansas. His wife, Franczeska Shilling, works with him at Lawrence. She is noted also in the field of art and won the sweepstakes prize for her statue, "Adolescent," at the Kansas Free Fair in 1939.78
The Reed Trio, Mildred, Lucille, and Helen, were daughters of Mrs. Nettie Rorabaugh Reed and Harry E. Reed. They were born and reared on a farm six miles north of Smith Center. The girls drove to town to attend high school and graduated as follows: Mildred, 1934; Lucille, 1936; and Helen, 1938. After graduation they formed the "Reed Trio" and soon were singing with dance bands in many large cities. They went overseas, entertained at military camps and sang in Paris night clubs. They and their mother now livs in California (1960).79
78 University of Kansas, Graduate Magazine, Nov. 1935, p. 4; Topeka Capital, July 22, 1956; Topeka Journal, Aug. 6, 1956.
79 Mrs. Hattie Baker, personal letter to author, April 4, 1960.
188
Smith County has had an unusual number of residents interested in missionary work, probably a reflection of their early Christian faith and perseverance. One of the very early families in Christian work was the Thompson family at Harlan. The Harlan Sunday School was organized in the Thompson home in 1879 with Mrs. Thompson the first superintendent. Mr. Thompson (given name unknown) had been a Congregational minister in Wiscon- sin, and preached for the people for awhile, but lived only about a year. His grave and monument are in a little cemetery on the hill north of Harlan. The mother and two boys remained through the pioneer years and the boys attended Gould College. The older son, Frank, went to Africa as a missionary. He went without the backing of a church board, working his way to London, and arriving there without sufficient funds for a night's lodging. A policeman befriended him; his story was presented to the Mission Board of the British Foreign Missionary Society who accepted his application and sent him to Liberia. He returned to Smith County once on a brief furlough, then went back to Liberia to spend his life there. His mother and other brother later joined him.80
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.