USA > Kansas > Smith County > History of Smith County, Kansas to 1960 > Part 9
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13 Condensed from an article by Alfred Gledhill, loaned to the author by F. H. Gledhill.
1
120
Table 8. Post offices of Smith County, in order of establishment.
:
Name
Date established
First postmaster :
Date discon- timed
Gaylord Cedarville
June 2, 1871
July 3, 1871
(Changed to Cedar
May 19, 1906)
Dresden Germantown
Dec. 18, 1871
Frederick Wagner
June 30, 1893
Porter's Ranch
Dec. 28, 1871
William H. Porter
Dec. 31, 1903
(Changed to Stuart
May 31, 1881 )
Cora Smith
Dec. 11, 1871
Julius Nelson
Feb. 29, 1904
Feb. 27, 1872
Orlando Denison
Apr. 25, 1876
(Changed to Valley
Forge June 3, 1873)
March 28, 1872
Aguetua Barnes
Oct. 26, 1874
June 19, 1872
Thomas M. Straw
Dec. 31, 1903
(Changed to Sherwood Dec. 5, 1882)
Covington
Aug. 5, 1872
Ommel A. Burk
Oct. 15, 1890
Darrel
Oct. 23, 1872
William Hobbs
Apr. 16, 1873
Smith Centre
Jan. 8, 1873
Watos M. George
Thompson
Jan. 23, 1873
Samuel Thompson
(Changed to Harlan
Stone Mound
Sept. 11, 1877) Jan. 30, 1873 Oct. 2, 1873
George Smith
May 21, 1886
Crystal Plaina
John B. Nickel
Oct. 27, 1888
Judson
June 24, 1874
Hyman J. Trevett
Dec. 31, 1901
Twelve Mile
June 24, 1874
Joseph Gledhill
Feb. 28, 1894
Union
Dec. 21, 1874
Ebenezer Fox
Aug. 26, 1878
Corvallis
Fob. 19, 1875
Andrew J. Allen
Bowdenville
Jan. 10, 1876
John Bowden
Jan. 31, 1941
Lebanon
Clifford
March 14, 1876
Benjamin B. Ray William Meadows Latimer M. Dyko
March 26, 1888
Custer
July 26, 1876
March 31, 1894
Ohio
Dec. 5, 1876 March 20, 1877
Orrel H. Straw Truman Keeler
Dec. 22, 1877
Cad
Jan. 23, 1878
Elias S. Mobley
March 18, 1878
Sweet Home
Feb. 6, 1878
George M. Shafer
Nov. 11, 1687
Camargo (Long Den) Bainence
Ang. 11, 1874
John L. Cook
March 11, 1885
May 7, 1879
William H. Pounda
Sept. 27, 1881
W. D. Street John Johnston
Dec. 1, 1871
Sylvanus Hammond
Sept. 18, 1877
Ballard Oriale
(Changed to Athol Fob. 9, 1888)
(Changed to Beavar
Oct. 24, 1878; to Resmaville Nov. 10, 1882) Fob. 16, 1876
Sept. 30, 1901
Eagle Rapida
121
Table 8. /uns .. )
:
Date estaolished
: postnister : tinu ed
Andrew Anderson
Nov. 30, 1880 Feb. 28, 1881 (re-established
Edmond Palmer James Smith
July 14, 1884
Aug. 22, 1893
Dec. 15, 1902
Lookout
Aug. 27, 189%) Apr. 19, 1881 Sept .. 5, 1881
Tyner
Troublesome
June 12, 1882
Hardilee
Auy. 3, 1882 Feb. 8, 1883 Fex. 8, 1883
Same. B. King Fençamin Fussell John Martin Isaac N. Depper. Ela W. Beebe Winslow Fuller Leonard Baertsch Joseph Cheetham Robert F. Boyd James D. Mollison Lewis M. Uni Thomas M. Decker James Wherry
Aug. 1, 1881 March 3., 1904 Jan. 30, 1894 Sept. 30, 2401 June 26, 1883 July 20, 1883 March 8, 1887 Feb. 28, 1905 Dec. 30, 1899 Aug. 31, 1891
Jacksonville Uhl
March 24, 1886
Kensington Bellaire New Hope
January 7, 1888 March 6, 1888
Apr. 30, 1894
(Phillips Co. , Aug. 20, 1884; (Smith Co.), March 9, 1891
Benjamin F. Moss
William Mason
Sept. 9, 1896
Oasit
Alig. 11, 189. .re-established Dec. 20, 190C ) oct. 29, 1891 May 28, 1395
Sanford Vinsonnaser
Dec. 14, 1903
Claadell
Nov. 18, 1898
Orrin S. Harris
Hummer
March 30, 1899
William F. Mathes
Dec. 31, 1903
Posyville
Feb. 6, 1901
John F. O'Neill
Aug. 15, 1903
Rosch
Dec. 24, 1901
William G. Smith
Dec. 31, 1903
Thornburg
Oct. 27, 1902
Josian H. Wilson
Feb. 29, 1904
Plexus
Light
Orange
Womer
March 22, 1883 Oct. 1, 1383 Aug. 11, 1884
Peter Dolphin
Jan. 31, 1902 July 14, 1904
Diapaten
Oakvale
* U. S. Fost Office Department, Washington, D. C.
First
Date discon-
Early post offices and ghost towns.
1. Carmarge
29. Smith Center
2. Alexus
30. Bellaire
3. Ohio
31. Stone Mound
4. Tyner
32. Custer
5. Beaver
33. Lebanon
6. Reamsville
34. Old Lebanon
7. Eminence
35. Sweet Home
8. Thornburg
36. Andrew
9. Anderson
37. New Hope
10. Womer
38. Claudell
11. Judson
39. Cedarville
12. Sherwood
40. Hummer
13. Oriole
42. Copenhagen
14.
Hardilee
42.
Oasis
15. Germantown
43. Crystal Plains
16. Jacksonville
44. Stuart or Porter's Ranch
17. Bowdenville
45. Light
18. Uhl
46. Poayville (Webster, section
19. Troublesome
47. Gaylord
20. Cora
48. Harlan
21.
Reach
49. Eagle Rapida
22. 23.
Covington
50. Dresden
Kensington
51. Twelve Mile
24. Clifford
52. Orange
53. Rotterdam
54. Dispatch
55. Good Hope or New Hope (Swan)
56. Oakvale (Crystal Plains)
57. Coyote
58. Smith (Valley Forge)
1
Union
25. 26. Ballard
27. Athol
28. Corvallis
123'
E
Nebraska
R15
R 14
R:3
B18
R 1
"German
Martin :
Beaver'
Logan
T
1
·15
16.
Washington
White Rock
1+
PI cosand
Cbr
'15
18
·21
82
7
Conter
Hein
P S.
$
Cedar
35
23
27
"25
*28
32
7
LYAlley
Harvey
Crystal Plains
.41
Webster
138
30
·
56i
Dor
Houston 57
Harlan
Garfield :5₸
Lincoln
45.
48
:
7
+
¡
19
50
i
52 . 53
OSBORNE. COUNTY
Some not located: Derrel, Cad, Lookout.
Ficare
Location of early post offices and ghost town ad marly an can be acertained from existing ofidence
·11
10-
12
20
34
31
1
6
140.
43
5
124
towns. The first official stage line was established in the spring of 1871, and made weekly trips between Cawker City and Kirwin in Phillips County. The first mail stop was at New Arcadia (now Downs), Bethany (non Portis), Dresden (now Garfield Township), Thompson (west of present Harlan), Gaylord, Cedar- ville, and Kirwin. After 1873 a stage line came into the county from some point east, presumably Concordia, to Jewell City, then Salem, then Smith Center. An early advertisement describing stage departures atated:
U. S. Stage Line, J. R. Burrow, Prop.
Stages leave Smith Center on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Make connections at Red Cloud for Hastings and other points on the B. & M. Will carry passengers and express.
The importance of the railroad to the settlement of Kansas cannot be over emphasized, but it had a somewhat different connotation in Smith County. The trains came after the county was well on the way to settlement so it as- caped the overnight building, the tough characters and crudeness often asso- ciated with many fly-by-night and terminal towns that grew up along the rail- road. The people in the county were settled, "solid" citizens before the rail- roads cama, and the towns that grew up along the tracks such as Kensington, Bellaire, and Lebanon were mainly settled from earlier towns that had been built previously.
The Central Branch of the Union Pacific had built from Atchison on the Missouri River ons hundred miles directly westward. In 1873 the western ter- minus was Waterville, Marshall County. Plans were made to send one branch north to the Republican Valley, one southwesterly to the Solomon. That the news created excitement in Smith County is understandable for settlers who were accustomed to a two weeks trip with wagons to rail points at Watervilla or Hastings to get supplies, lumbar, and store merchandise. There are many sarly accounts of these overland trips.
125
After ths St. Joseph and Denver City Railroad was built from St. Jossph on the Missouri River to Hanover on the Little Blue in Washington County, through Fairbury to a connection with the B. and M. railroad at Hastings, daily stages from Marysville and Hanover carried passengers and mail to all parts of the Republican and Solomon Valleys. 14
The Central Branch of the Union Pacific received a grant of 245,166 acres of land based on the Pacific Railway Act of July 1, 1862. .15
The ready and swift sale of this land and the onrush of settlers to the west led to an extension of the line in 1878-1879 up the Solomon Valley. It reached Gaylord in September 1879. It was customary for the railway company to urge sach township through which it built to vote bonds for its construction. About half of the track in Smith County would bs through Houston Township with the towns of Gaylord and Harlan, the other half through Harvey Township with Cedarvills. Houston folks voted bonds, but the settlers in Harvey Township and Cedarville vigorously opposed them. Due to intense local disagreement, an election was held. Sections 4, 5, and 6 in Houston Township voted with Cedarville; sections 34, 35 and 36 in Harvey Township voted with Houston. These sections changed townships due to this disagreement. The abstracter's maps today show these two townships as the only ones of the twenty-five that are not six milse square (ses Fig. 8, Chapter III). Railroad construction was held up at Gaylord until spring, then in retaliation the railroad company, while it constructed the railroad through Cedarville, refused to build a sta- tion there or to stop the trains until several years later.
14 F. G. Adams, op. cit., pp. 123-135.
15 A. Bower Sagesar, "The Fails Go Westward," Kansas, the First Century, John D. Bright, Ch. X, p. 227.
126
By 1885 the business interests in Salem, Lebanon, and Smith Center were agitating for a railroad through their area. Surveys were made to the county from several different routes in 1886-1888, but no offers were mads to build. Finally the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Company proposed a branch Line through the county if Oak, Center and Lans Townships would each raise cer- tain amounts in bonds. Center Township voted the bonds quickly, but the other two townships refused. Finally Salem and Lebanon areas raised the amounta on their own initiative. Construction started west from Fairbury, Nebraska, but rumors flew faster than the ties. Reports that new surveys were made from Lebanon ten milas east of Smith Center to the southwest and one to the northwest, but the railroad was giving out no information. Fin- ally, after a summer of nervous strain and flying rumors, the railroad pushed straight west at a point two miles east and two north of Lebanon. On October 27, 1887, Smith County Bulletin raported:
The railroad company has all of the tomates in Smith County located and named except the one in Blaine Township. Bellaire/ The town in Oak is well known already and ie called New Lebanon. The town in Lane is called Athol and the Cedar Township town is called Kensington.
Salem and Lebanon both were missed by about two miles. Needless to say, this rang a death knell for these two towns. Salem, a large town of ovar 500 pop- ulation, began to shrink in two months time as houses, businesses, and all sort of buildings were on the road being moved to the new location laid out on the railroad by the company and named Lebanon. The residents of "Old" Lebanon, although deeply disappointed, dsoided to join too and bagan the move. Other residents cams from Cora, Stuart, and surrounding settlements until Lebanon soon was a bustling town. On the 11th day of November, 1887 at 7:20 P.M. the railroad reached Smith Centre. The men worked one hour and twenty
127
minutes overtime to drop the last rail over the town cite line so they might join the huge celebration prepared for the event. Mabel Corn, fourteen-year- old daughter of Attorney A. M. Corn and the first white child born in Smith Centre, was selected to drive the first spika. Preparations were made for a huge bonfire. Mr. Slade, the city baker, had been employed to bake 500 loaves of bread and cook two two-year-old haifers for the "feed" which he did to per- faction. Capt. McDowell had e large order for oysters and crackers; Trube Reeas was in charge of the beer supply, and had sent Bill Perry to a Frenklin, Nebraska brewery to gst sixteen eight-gallon kegs of beer and Hanry Alborn had ordered 200 tincups. There were 250 men in the construction gang and the lighting of the Goddess of Liberty pole - a forty foot pole wrapped with old raga and saturated with tar and turpentine -- was the signal to "Let them come!" It me a celebration that few forgot!
A corresponding gala celebration was held for the fifty year Rock Island Jubilee, September 23, 1937. Mrs. Mfabel Corn Lelfasters, Toledo, Ohio, was present to drive the symbolic golden epike. Registrants who had been present in 1887 numbered 124. John Pollock, who was head of the construction gang on the railroad in 1887 and handed Mabel the spike, came back from Almena and again handed her tha one she drove in 1937.16
Smith County, located as it was between the main river valleys, did not have many early long-distance trails. However, the size and location of the county enabled it to have one of the first twentieth century "highways" in Kansas. There were three roads running acrose Kansas from east to west by
16 Smith County Review, September 16, 1937. Mabel Corn LeMasters" husband was an engineer on the New York Central Railroad. She died April 4, 1957, at the age of 82 years. Her sister, Bertha Corn Masters was the only member of the first graduating class of Smith Centre High School, 1891.
128
VEPRACKA
R XV
R XIV
R XIII
R XII
R_XI
T.1
*
GERMAN
MARTIN
BEAVER
P
Raamkville
I L L
T. 2
SWAN
PLEASANT
KASH INGTOA
E
I
T.3
LANZ
CETER
S
Bellaire
Lel
usingses
L
Rock Island Railroad
C ()
T.1
VALLEY
HARVEY
BANNER
CRYSTAL PLA INS
Cedar
Ţ
Claadell
T.
-Heri am HARPAN
GGARFIELD
LINCOLN
entral Branch of the ! .:
Uniom Pacific
OSBORNE COUNTY
Figure 12. Townships and railroad routes in Smith County, Kang&a
LC PZ FM
BOR
HOUSTON
Wowor
Thornburg
tora
129
1912.
All of these roads were given fancy names by the organiza- tions which had promoted them, and every organization was trying to sell its particular highway to the public. There was the Santa Fe Central Kansas Boulevard which ran through Marion, Great Bend, and Ness City; the Golden Belt Route, which ran from Kansas City through Junction City, Wakeeney, and Goodland; and an unnamed northern route later called the Rock Island High- way which ran from St. Joseph, Missouri, through Marysville, Norton, and Goodland.17
Newspapers called the first Rock Island Highway a "wagon route" across Kansas from St. Joseph to Denver. What was to become US 36 was organized at Belleville, Kansas, March 21, 1913. An organization was created to mark an east-west route across the northern tier of counties and to form a direct route between St. Joseph and Denver, Colorado. The Topeka Daily Capital March 22, 1913, made the statement that "ons of the most active bunch of good road boosters in Kansas met at Belleville and organized another wagon route across Kansas." The Capital might more truthfully have said the group had organized another "paper road" across Kansas - for that was what most roads were in those days. However, agreement was reached on a tentative route which for many miles paralleled the Rock Island Railroad from which it took ita name. Later the road was merged into the Pike's Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway and when the Federal markere were adopted it was given marker number 36.
The members meeting at Belleville voted to log and map the route. They authorized the secretary to raise funds to finance the project and take charge of the tour. At that time no one at the meeting had traveled the entire route, knew where it was, nor knew the mileage. The plan followed township roads the
17 Kansas City Star, August 11, 1912.
YORK
IOAKO
WISCONSIN
WYOMING
MICHIGAN
NYSYLVA
RSORASKA
IN ĐƯA KA
UTAN
CALIFORNIA
1
PIKES PEAK
itty
Y1: 6.KIA
-
MISSQUAL
MF 4* JCKY
.
NORTH CAROLINA
TENNESSEE
OKLAHOMA
HIGHWAY
ARKANSAS
SO. CAROLINA
HISS
ALABAMA
KANSAS DIVISION Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway Ass'n.
(THE ROCK ISLAND HIGHWAY) FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT CENTRAL SCENIC HIGHWAY FROM ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC COAST AFFILIATED WITH THE NATIONAL HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATION WALTER & MONTGOMERY. PUBLICITY MANAGER
Figure 13. Map used in publicity campaign for the proposed Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, 1913.
130
131
entire distance. The St. Joseph Commerce Club offered to finance one car, an Overland 79, owned and driven by Dr. Stevenson. The St. Joseph Auto Club fi- nanced the pilot car, a Kissell. The official party which started from the Robidoux Hotel on the morning of September 21, 1913, was composed of Governor George Hlodges, D. E. Watkins, secretary of the Kansas Sunflower Auto Club, W. S. Gearhardt, engineer from Kansas State Agricultural College, a Blue Book representative, and officers of the highway association. They arrived in Denver four days later at two o'clock in the morning in the mud -- but the highway was officially logged and mapped, placed in the Blue Book and started on its way to national fame - they hoped. Because Covernor Hodges was in the party, schools were dismissed, flags flown, children lined the route to greet the governor, bands played. Mayor E. L. Johnson of Belleville drovs his new Marmon car to Marysville to escort the party to Belleville for a night cele- bration. The group got stranded between Belleville and Marysville in the mud and did not arrive until the following morning. On the return trip the mayor's car got stalled and did not reach home for two days. Such was the condition of roads in Kansas in 1913! The Colorado Springs Chamber of Com- merce wanted national highway connections and had the "Rock Island Highway" re-routed through their city. St. Joseph and Colorado Springs each con- tributed $5,000 a year to publicize the road, paint poles, erect markers, and get out maps and advertising folders. It was advertised thus:
The Rock Island Highway claims the shortest mileage between ths Missouri Hiver and the Rocky Mountains. The route is well marked with official rød and white metallic markers, is graded practically the entire length, is highly improved, being a county road in every county, is systematically dragged after each rain. Thousande of cement bridges and culverts have been put in on the
132
route and, being located away from the rivers, it is entirely free from sand stretches which annoy the motorist so much in July and Auguet.18
U. S. Highway 36 in 1960 ie part of a mejor coast-to-coast highway that is hard-surfaced all the way. Hard-surfaced No. 9 followe the Solomon River east and west through Smith County. U. S. 281 connects with U. S. 36 at Smith Center and goes south through Osborne. There are also many milee of county roads, many of them surfaced with crushed native limestone rock. Each township also patrols a road on every section Line in most instances. Thue Smith County is supplied with a system of well-improved roade.
Smith County Schoole
The establishment of schoole wae one of the first interests of the early settlera. Since it was an accepted and commonplace fact, little has been written about the Smith County schools.
Apparently the first school in Smith County was taught in a dwelling house by Mrs. J. D. Loucks at Cedarville in the spring of 1872. District No. 1 was the first to be organized in the county and was formed in Cedar- ville in August 1872, and a school house was built at the cost of $1,700. The location of the school house and other incidents aroused considerable ill feeling and the district lost its schoolhouse twice by fire, allaged to be the work of incendiaries. The school building wae promptly rebuilt each time, better and more expensive than the one previous .- 9
A vivid description of an early school near Cedar was made by Frank W. Simmonds, a native of Smith County. He was born in a sod-roofed dugout on
18 Topeka Daily Capital, May 9, 1915.
19 A. L. Headley, op. cit.
133
his father's homsetead near Cedar. He recalled that :
After building their homes, the settlers immediately estab- lished school districts, the school housee being built of sod with dirt floor and sod thatched roof supported by a huge ridge pole. The desks were rude benchee and terme of school were short, a three monthe term during the winter for the larger pupils and three months during the summer for the smaller pupils. The teacher usually boarded 'round and received a mere pittance for pay.
... our home district, the Silver Ridge school, was about three måles north of Cedarville. Here in a sod school house I attended school for several years; from forty to fifty pupile were in at- tendance. We sat on benches made of split logs with the flat sur- face up and supported by long pegs driven into the rounded side of the logs. The blackboard (used only by the teacher) consisted of boards nailed together and painted black. Water was carried from a neighbor'e well three-quarters of a mile away. Water wae dis- pensed from a large wooden water pail with a dipper. At certain intervale some pupils would be permitted to pass the water, carry- ing the pail up and down the aislee. Ae I recall it, I believe we younger pupils gained much of what we learned from listening to the alder pupils recite. In arithmetic we ceaselessly drilled in ad- dition, subtraction and the multiplication tables. ... In reading we used first McGuffy'e readere and later the Barnes readers .... Some of the early teachers I recall were Maggie Clark, Marion Wilcot, N. H. Withington and many others. The teacher usually offered prayer on opening school each morning and we all joined in singing hymns. Among the favorites were "On Jordan'e Stormy Banke I Stand" and "Beulah Land." The school houses were used ae churchee on Sunday.20
The first school at Gaylord was also established in 1872 and taught by Mre. Agnes L. Skinner. The schoolhouse was described as a little log shack in the west part of town. In 1873 a frame schoolhouse was built, then in 1881 a four-room school was constructed, forty feet by forty fest, at the cost of $3,555. The first term in the new school found 120 pupils taught by two teach- ers.
Unusual "school lunch delicacies" brought to thie early school were pickled beaver tail, baked coon, and stewed skunk. Pie euppers relied on
20 Frank W. Simmonde, New York City, in a letter of reminiscences to Bert Headley, September 1, 1932. The school described was probably typical of many of the schools in Smith County.
134
wild fruits, currants, plums, wild grapes, and pumpkin. An early school girl said "pancakes should decorate the coat of arms for pioneers" as a staple of the diet. 21
Several school districts were organized in 1873: Germantown, August 1873; Lincoln Township, District 24, July 1873; and Oak Township, District 34, 1873. This did not mean that there were no schools elsewhere, for many areas held subscription schools with each family paying according to the num- ber of pupils enrolled, usually a dollar a month per child, and this was often paid in corn, molasses, vegetables, or extra time of boarding.
The settlers on Beaver Creek organized a subscription school in 1872 with Sam Yarrick, one of the first homesteaders in 1871, as a teacher. This had been his profession in Iowa. This school, the eighteenth subscription school in the county, was held in a dugout, and the charge was one dollar per month per pupil. This was followed by school in a sod schoolhouse on the John Dyer homestead, taught two terms by Stella Higley, daughter of Dr. Higley, author of the now famous song, "Home on the Range. "22 Often formal school districts were not organized for some time as there were no taxes paid so no income could be derived from organization. No formal education beyond eighth grads was required of a teacher. Usually the main problem was to find someone who had the time and illingness to teach. Often there were no two school books alike in these early schools.
An important social event was the Friday night program at the school. Children would present a program and the adults would have a debate, "spell- down", or arithmetic match.
21 Mrs. Cora Skinner Ream, in an article published in the Kansas City Star, March 23, 1941.
22 Margaret Nal son, op. cit., pp. 232-240.
135
The first school in District 7, Oriole, was held in a dugout with T. N. Wiley the teacher. The next teacher was Mrs. A. R. Wilson, who had come as a widow to homestead.
School district No. 4 was organized at Smith Centre in 1873 and the first building, of stone construction, was finished in time for the fall term in 1874. It was built two storiss high with a tall bell tower. When an attempt was mads to issue bonds for the new building, it was learned the required num- bsr of pupils was one short, so John Goodale, ags twenty-eight was enrolled. Mrs. Cordelia Milss was the first teacher at a salary of $20 per month. For several years the stone schoolhouss was the only place in town large snough for public entertainment. Church services wers held there on Sundays; shows, both home talent and traveling, and Masonic lodge meetings also made use of the building. Following the grasshopper plague, so many settlers moved away that only ons room was used, then in 1878 so many arrived that soon both rooms were crowded, and by 1884 other buildings had to be rented until a bigger schoolhouse could be built. This trend was seen all over the county.
In 1874 there were 47 organized school districts in the county with the value of school property listed at $14,819. 23 The får
The first county super- intendent of schools was Edmund Hall who held ths offics from 1872 to 1874. He committed suicide in 1874 in the hotel by shooting himself, apparently dus to political opposition and the printing in the Smith County Pioneer, that he was really Elmer Davis from Mains who had deserted his wife and children, fled his creditors and came to Smith County. Ha was also very unpopular with the teachers because, on the day of examinations, ha had
23 . Report of Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 1876.
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