USA > Kansas > Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence, Volume II > Part 31
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Through the influence of the society, an act was passed by the Kansas legislature making it "unlawful for any person to practice medicine in Kansas who has not attended two full courses of instruction and graduated in some respectable school of medicine in the United States or some foreign country, or produces a certificate of qualification from some state or county medical society." The act also provided for a fine of from $50 to $too for each violation of the law, to which might be added imprisonment in the county jail for a period not exceeding 30 days.
The above refers to the Allopathic or "regular" school of medicine. On April 14, 1869, a number of Homeopathic physicians assembled at Leavenworth and organized the Homeopathic Medical Society of Kan- sas, with the following officers: President, Richard Huson ; vice-presi- dent, James A. Rubicon ; secretary and treasurer, Martin Mayer ; board of censors, Lewis Grassmuck, B. L. Davis, W. B. Bolton, R. M. Hunt- ington and J. J. Edie. The society was incorporated under the laws of the state on Jan. 24, 1871, with John J. Edie, H. F. Klemp, J. A. Rubi- con, Richard and S. K. Huson as charter members. Annual meetings have since been held, at which topics relating to the medical profession are discussed, the proceedings frequently closing with a banquet. The 19II meeting was held at Kansas City, and the banquet was a joint affair with the Missouri Homeopathic Society. The officers elected in I9II were as follows: Dr. O. L. Barlinghouse, of Iola, president ; Dr. C. D. Armstrong, of Salina, secretary ; Dr. Marian E. Swift, of Topeka, treasurer.
An Eclectic Medical Association was organized on June 1, 1869, at Lawrence, with Samuel E. Martin, of Topeka, president; N. Simmons, of Lawrence, recording secretary ; M. Summerfield, of Lawrence, corre- sponding secretary ; David Surber, of Perry, treasurer. This association later developed into a state organization, which was incorporated by the act of March 27, 1871, as the Kansas Eclectic Medical Association, Daniel B. Crouse, Ansel M. Eidson, George H. Field, Samuel E. Mar- tin, David Surber and Caleb D. Ward as incorporators. In 1883 a joint stock company was formed under a charter providing for a capital stock of $30,000 for the purpose of establishing a medical college, but the insti- tution never became a reality. The society still holds annual meetings, and in 1911 numbered several hundred members.
By the act of Feb. 27, 1879, the three medical societies-Allopathic, Homeopathic and Eclectic-were each authorized to appoint a board of examiners of seven members to pass upon the qualifications of and issue certificates to the physicians of the state. Every practitioner was required to show his diploma to the board representing the school of which he was a member, and to make an affidavit that he was the lawful possessor of the same, and that the institution issuing it was engaged in good faith in the business of imparting medical instruction, etc. This law was decided unconstitutional by the state supreme court in Jan., 1881, when the boards were "summarily deposed." No efficient law for
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the examination and licensing of physicians was then placed on the statute books until the act of March 1, 1901, which provided for a board of "medical examination and registration." This board was made to consist of seven members "who shall be physicians in good standing in their profession, and who shall have received the degree of doctor of medicine from some reputable medical college or university not less than six years prior to their appointment, representation to be given to the different schools of practice as nearly as possible in proportion to their numerical strength in the state, but no one school to have a majority of the whole board.".
In the apointment of the first board one member was to be appointed for one year, two for two years, two for three years, and two for four years, after which all appointments were to be for four years. With some slight modifications this is still the law of the state. The board is composed of three Allopaths, two Homeopaths and two Eclectics. It examines into the qualifications of all physicians of the state, and has been a stimulus to the medical societies of the several schools.
Medicine Lodge, the county seat of Barber county, is located in the northeastern part of the county on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. and is also the terminus of a branch of that road which is extended from Kiowa in the southeastern part of the county. The town is situ- ated at an altitude of 1,468 feet. It has substantial business blocks, good graded and high schools, 5 churches, 2 state banks, and two news- papers (the Barber County Index and the Medicine Lodge Cresset). There is a daily hack to Eagle and Lasswell. The town is supplied with telegraph and express offices and has an international money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population, according to the cen- sus of 1910, was 1,100. This is the home town of Chester I. Long, and was the home of the late Carrie Nation, before she began her career of wrecking saloons. Medicine Lodge was named after the river which flows along its southern edge. The Indians were in the habit of camp- ing here to make medicine. The town was not founded until 1873, but there were settlers at this point before that date, as it is recorded in the historical collections that the Indians made a raid through this territory in 1868 and murdered women and children at Medicine Lodge. In Feb., 1873, John Hutchinson came with a party of men and laid out a town on a site of 400 acres. The first building was a hotel erected by D. Upde- graff. A number of buildings were erected, including two stores. Im- migration was very rapid during the first year. The first physician to locate was C. T. Trigg; the first attorney, W. E. Hutchinson; the first druggist, S. A. Winston; the first merchants, Bemis, Jordan & Co. The postoffice was established in 1873, with S. A. Winston as post- master. It was made a money order office in 1879. The town was incorporated in that year, and the first officers were: Mayor, W. W. Cook ; police judge, H. M. Davis; city clerk, S. J. Shepler ; councilmen, IV. W. Staniford, J. N. Iliff, George Mitts, J. Storey and D. M. Car- michael. The first newspaper was the Barber County Mail, which was
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started in 1878 by M. J. Cochran. The first school was taught in 1873 by Miss Lucinda Burlingame.
Medicine Lodge River, a stream of southwestern Kansas, rises in the southern part of Kiowa county and flows eastward for about 40 miles, entering Barber county near the northwest corner. From this point the general course is southeast until it crosses the state line near the southeast corner of Barber county, where it turns southward and empties into the salt fork of the Arkansas river in Oklahoma. The name is of Indian origin.
Medina, a discontinued postoffice on the Union Pacific R. R., in Jefferson county, is located 16 miles southwest of Oskaloosa, the county seat, and 2 miles from Perry, whence mail is supplied by rural route. Medina was established in 1865, when the railroad was built. Lutt, Kunkle & Menzer bought the land and platted it and established a store. A postoffice was established the next year with William King, who opened the second store, as postmaster. The town was at one time quite prosperous and had a weekly newspaper and a dozen busi- ness establishments.
Medora, a little village of Reno county, is located at the junction of the main lines of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific with the St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. It is in Medora township, 10 miles north- east of Hutchinson, the county seat. It has a grain elevator, telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice. The population ac- cording to the census of 1910 was 75.
Meeker, Jotham, missionary, was born at Xenia, Ohio, Nov. 8, 1804. His boyhood was spent on a farm, after which he learned the printer's trade. He then joined Rev. Isaac McCoy in mission work among the Indians, beginning his career as a missionary among the Pottawatomies at Carey, Mich., in 1825. Two years later he was sent to the Ottawa mission at Thomas, Mich., and while there he devised a system of ap- plying the English alphabet to the phonetic spelling of the Indian words, which greatly simplified the work of the mission teacher. In 1833, at the suggestion of Mr. McCoy, he came to Kansas with an old- fashioned hand printing press-the first ever brought to Kansas-for the purpose of printing books in the Indian language. The first one of these was known as the "Delaware First Book." Copies of several of the books thus printed by Mr. Meeker are now in the possession of the Kansas State Historical Society. He died at the Ottawa mission in Kansas, in Jan., 1855.
Melrose, a country hamlet in Cherokee county, is located about 15 miles southwest of Columbus, the county seat, and 7 from Faulkner, the nearest shipping point and the postoffice from which it receives its mail.
Melvern, one of the incorporated towns of Osage county, is located in Melvern township on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. and the Marais des Cygnes river, 10 miles south of Lyndon, the county seat. It has ample banking facilities, a weekly newspaper (the Review),
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good schools and churches, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with three rural routes. The population in 1910 was 505.
The town was laid out in 1870 by a town company consisting of S. B. Enderton, Charles Cochran, J. P. Ball, L. F. Warner, J. W. Beck, J. F. Want, J. M. Woods and Alexander Blake, and was named for Malvern Hills, Scotland. The prospects of a railroad made the imme- diate growth of the town very rapid. This was followed by a depression when the road failed to materialize within a reasonable time. In 1881 a terrific cyclone swept down the north side of the Marais des Cygnes river. It was a half mile in width and leveled everything in its path. Two men were killed and a great deal of property was destroyed. The first school was taught in 1870 by Miss Anna Want; the first birth oc- curred the same year and was that of Thomas M. Beck, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Beck. The first marriage was between O. B. Hastings and Cecelia Wallace. The first death was that of Mary A. Huffman. The first store was opened about the time the town was founded, by Coch- ran & Warner, and the postoffice was established soon afterward with J. W. Beck postmaster. A flour mill was built the next year on the river by Asher Smith.
Memorial Building .- Soon after the war of 1861-65 a number of states took the necessary steps to erect monuments, or some other suitable form of memorial to commemorate the deeds of their volunteer sol- diers. At the close of the war a large number of discharged soldiers, taking advantage of the liberal provisions of the homestead laws, came to 'Kansas to secure homes, and within a few years the state had a larger population of veterans proportionately than most of the northern and western states. Grand Army posts were organized in almost every county, and after a time an agitation was started for the erection of a soldiers' monument or memorial hall of some kind. But Kansas was a new state, with an income hardly sufficient to defray the ex- penses of actually necessary public improvements and the maintenance of the state institutions, and nothing was done.
Congress, by the act of May 29, 1908, appropriated the sum of $97,- 466.02 to reimburse the state of Kansas for expenses incurred in re- cruiting, equipping and subsisting soldiers in the war for the Union. Another act of Congress, approved on March 3, 1909, appropriated the sum of $425,065.43 to reimburse the state for expenses incurred in re- pelling Indian invasions. These two appropriations gave Kansas money enough to carry out the long cherished idea of a memorial to the sol- diers of the Civil war. Consequently, the legislature of 1909 passed an act authorizing a commission to purchase or condemn a site for a memorial building, the commission to be composed of the governor, lieutenant-governor, speaker of the house of representatives, the de- partment commander of the Kansas department of the Grand Army of the Republic, the secretary of the Kansas Historical Society, one mem- ber of the state senate and one of the house of representatives.
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The act also provided that the site selected should be near the state capitol, that the commission should employ the state architect to pre- pare plans for a memorial building suitable for archives and relics of the Grand Army of the Republic and the collections of the Kansas Historical Society. To carry out the provisions of the act an appro- priation of $200,000 was made, of which $39,115.58 was expended in the purchase of a site at the northeast corner of Tenth and Jackson streets in the city of Topeka, immediately opposite the state capitol grounds, and the remainder lapsed because it could not be used within the time and upon the conditions imposed by law.
MEMORIAL BUILDING.
The commission created by the act of 1909 first asked for the total amount of the two Congressional appropriations-$522,531.45-but owing to the fact that the state needed a large sum of money for other enterprises, it was decided to ask for but $250,000, which sum was ap- propriated by the act of March 8, 1911. The act also approved the site selected and continued the commission authorized by the previous legislature. As soon as the appropriation of 1911 was assured, the commission advertised for bids, which were opened on March 22, but all ran beyond the amount available under the appropriation. Some changes were made and new bids opened on the 30th of the same month. The contracts and estimates as finally agreed upon aggregated $261,41I.
The plans as prepared by the state architect, provided for a building three stories high, with basement, the foundation to be of granite and the superstructure of brick with marble facing, the whole to be prac- tically fire-proof. Work of setting marble was commenced on July 8, IQII, and on Sept. 27 the corner-stone was laid by William H. Taft,
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president of the United States. When completed, Kansas will have one of the finest memorial and historical buildings in the Union, another evidence of the "Kansas spirit," which is a synonym of progress.
Memorial Day .- It may not be generally known throughout the North that the custom of placing flowers upon the graves of soldiers who served in the great Civil war originated with a Southern woman near the close of that conflict. It is claimed, on apparently good authority, that this beautiful and touching memorial observance originated with Mrs. Mary A. Williams, of Columbus, Ga. Her husband, Col. C. J. Williams, of the First Georgia regiment (Confederate), died in the spring of 1862 and was buried in the cemetery at Columbus. Mrs. Wil- liams, accompanied by her little daughter, was accustomed to visit her husband's grave at frequent intervals and place fresh flowers upon it. Upon one of these occasions the child asked her mother's permission to put some flowers on the graves of other soldiers near by, and this incident suggested to the mother the idea of having one day in each year consecrated to the work of decorating, with appropriate cere- monies, the graves of those who had died in military service.
In the spring of 1865, several ladies of Columbus joined Mrs. Wil- liams in the decoration of the soldiers' graves in the local cemetery, and a year later, at a meeting of these women, Mrs. Williams was ap- pointed to write a letter to the public on the subject of a memorial day. In her letter, which was dated March 12, 1866, and widely published through the South, she said: "We cannot raise monumental shafts and inscribe thereon their many deeds of heroism, but we can keep alive the memory of the debt we owe them by dedicating at least one day in each year to embellishing their humble graves with flowers. Therefore, we beg the assistance of the press and the ladies throughout the South to aid us in the effort to set apart a certain day to be observed, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, and be handed down through time as a religious custom of the South, to wreathe the graves of our martyred dead with flowers ; and we propose the 26th of April as the day."
The proposal of Mrs. Williams and her associates found favor with the people of the North as well as those of the South, and the ceremony, if not the date, is now observed in every state of the Union. Several of the Southern states, by legislative enactment,, set apart the day sug- gested by Mrs. Williams and declared it a legal holiday, but in the North, the season being some weeks later, May 30 is the day generally observed.
By the act of the Kansas legislature, approved by Gov. Martin on Feb. 19, 1860, May 30 is made a legal holiday. The custom of placing flowers on the graves of soldiers was observed by the people of the state for years before the passage of the law, especially in the larger towns where there are a number of soldiers interred in the cemeteries. Music of a patriotic character, and orations calculated to keep alive the memory of the gallant deeds of "the boys of '61" usually comprise the ceremonies in connection with the decoration of the graves. In the
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archives of the Kansas Historical Society there are a large number of Memorial Day addresses, delivered by citizens of the state at various times and places.
On May 30, 1904, the people of Topeka, in addition to the usual cere- monies of the day, celebrated the semi-centennial of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which organized Kansas and Nebraska as ter- ritories of the United States. The program for the day was arranged by the Grand Army of the Republic and the pioneers of the city, and William H. Taft, then secretary of war, and later president of the United States, was the orator of the day. His address on that occasion may be found in volume six of the Kansas Historical Collections.
Menager Junction, a railroad station in the extreme western portion of Wyandotte county, is at the junction of two lines of the Missouri Pacific R. R. 16 miles west of Kansas City. It has mail from Piper.
Menda, a small hamlet in the southeastern part of Lyon county, is located 7 miles from Hartford, the nearest railroad station, whence it receives daily mail by rural delivery, and 13 miles from Emporia, the county seat.
Mendota, a country hamlet in Ellis county, is located in Hamilton township, about 20 miles northwest of Hays, the county seat, and 10 miles from Ellis, its shipping point and the postoffice from which it receives mail by rural route.
Menlo, a village in Thomas county, is located in the township of the same name on the Union Pacific R. R., 16 miles southeast of Colby, the county seat. It has a bank, 2 elevators, several general stores, telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 200.
Menno, a country postoffice in Hamilton county, is located in Lamont township, about 18 miles southeast of Syracuse, the county seat, and 8 miles from Kendall, the nearest shipping point. The population in 1910 was 25.
Mennonites, The, are Germans who received this name from the re- iigious denomination to which they belong, and which was founded at Zurich, Switzerland, in 1525. Members of this sect located in Switzer- land, Austria and Russia and it is from these countries that the greatest number emigrated. In 1783 Catharine II, of Russia, invited the Men- nonites to colonize the recently acquired province of Taurida. As an in- ducement to gain these settlers, they were granted immunity from mili- tary service, religious freedom, their own local administration, and a community grant of land equal to about 160 acres. They did not own the lands but leased them on condition of cultivating them, the improve- ments alone, belonging to them. The Mennonites had little to do with the general government, as each of the villages had its burgomaster and the government carried on its business with them by means of three officials. The privileges were granted to these emigrant Germans for 100 years, when each family was to get title in fee simple to the land allotted. The villages increased to about fifty in number and from the
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first settlements which were made along the Dnieper, spread through the Crimea, eastward toward the foot of the Caucasus. Other settle- ments were made along the Volga and the members of the colonies grew in wealth and importance.
Everything went well for a number of years, but a feeling of jealousy grew up against them because of their exclusiveness by refusing to intermarry with the Tartar and Russian natives, and most important because of their success and wealth, which was attributed to their privileges. In 1871 the government announced its intention of with- drawing the privileges and making a general conscription, against which the Mennonites protested. The privileges could not be legally with- drawn before 1883, the end of the century, and they were told that they could leave if they did not like it. A period of ten years was granted, during which time any of the 3,000,000 colonists might leave, but few knew of this and had not one of their leaders, Cornelius Jansen, ad- vised emigration to America, many would have become Russian sub- jects. For enlightening his people Jansen was expelled from Russia and visited the United States just at the time the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad began its scheme of colonization in the summer of 1873. He spent a week looking over the land of the company, where a few Mennonites had already located.
Three delegates had been sent to this country to see about land and report. The railroad then sent an agent of its own, C. B. Schmidt, to Russia to look into the conditions and encourage emigration, with a view to having them take the land of the railroad. The Russian government was loth to have these excellent colonists leave and made it as difficult as possible for them to secure passports, but notwithstanding this, 400 familes or 1,900 people, bringing with them over $2,000,000 in gold, arrived in Kansas in 1875 and bought 60,000 acres of land in Reno, Harvey, Marion and McPherson counties.
While waiting to select their lands, these families lived for a month in the King bridge shops at Topeka which had been purchased by the Santa Fe road, but were not yet fitted with machinery, and they fur- nished excellent accommodations. Before the Mennonites left for their homes, the governor asked them to visit him at the capitol building and the strange company in their foreign clothes filed through the build- ing shaking hands with the chief executive and other state officials. Following the first emigrants came many others, and during the ten years there was a steady stream of these excellent farmers pouring into the state. It was estimated that by 1883 some 15,000 had settled on the lands of the Santa Fe road, and since that time they have increased to 60,000. The emigration from Russia started a similar movement from South Germany, Switzerland and West Prussia. The importance of the settlement of these people in Kansas can not be overestimated, as they were professional farmers, with ample means and settled in large num- bers. They brought with them and introduced the Turkey red wheat, which revolutionized the milling business of Kansas, and led to its rapid
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development as a great grain state. In 1890 they had 31 church edifices in the state, with a membership of 4.620. Fifteen years later the num- ber of members had increased to 7,445.
Menoken, a hamlet in Shawnee county, is located in the township of the same name, 5 miles northwest of Topeka, the county seat. It is a station on the Union Pacific R. R. and has a telegraph office. Its mail is distributed from Topeka. The population in 1910 was 25.
Mentor, a hamlet of Saline county, is located in Smolan township, on the Union Pacific R. R., 8 miles south of Salina, the county seat. It has an express office, and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 38.
Meredith, a hamlet in Cloud county, is located about 15 miles south of Concordia, the county seat, and 8 miles from Delphos, Ottawa county, the nearest shipping point and the postoffice from which its mail is distributed. The population in 1910 was 78.
Meriden, a little town of Jefferson county, is located at a point near the west line of the county where two branches of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. diverge, and 17 miles west of Oskaloosa, the county seat. It is an incorporated city of the third class with a weekly news- paper (the Ledger), banking facilities, high school and city library, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with three rural routes. Meriden was platted in 1872 on land owned by Albert Owens. The first building was a section house, the next a small struct- ure erected by N. Colby. The first dwelling was built by Dr. A. Daw- son. After three close elections the township voted $20,000 in bonds to the railroad for a depot, which was built in 1873. The first store was opened in that year by William and Perry Riggs. The postoffice was established in 1872. The first marriage was between Dr. A. Dawson and Miss Dantie Graydon in 1872, and the first birth was that of A. A. Dawson in 1874. The first death was that of George W. Riggs in the same year.
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