Who Belongs in National Statuary Hall?

Prior to the movement to include more women among those proud representatives of their individual states among the bronze and marble statues in the National Statuary Hall, only nine women were so honored.  Soon, two outstanding women from the Great Plains will join those nine earlier women to be installed--Nebraska's Willa Cather, the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize and Kansas's Amelia Earhart, the pioneering female pilot.

The women there before them are a group to be admired, some whose names remain familiar and others whose achievements have begun to fade from American memories.  All of them deserve mention.

Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) was a pioneer in the temperance movement and one of the organizers of the Prohibition Party in 1882.  She served as President of the Women's Christian Temperance Union and was President of Evanston College for Women from 1871 to 1874.  She represents Illinois and was the first woman to be chosen for Statuary Hall.  Less well known but perhaps more significant is Esther Hobart Morris (1814-1902) honored by Wyoming.  Orphaned at 11, she supported herself as a seamstress and businesswoman, involving herself in the anti-slavery movement and women's right to vote.  Her influence led to Wyoming giving that right to women in 1869, along with control of their own property and equal pay for women teachers.  Elected Justice of the Peace in 1870, she became the first woman to hold judicial office in America.

Representing Minnesota is educator Maria Sanford (1836-1920), called at the time of her death "the best loved woman of the North Star State."  She championed women's rights, education of blacks, adult education, and was a founder of parent-teacher organizations.  In addition to education, she also led the conservation and beautification program of Minnesota.

Another educator, Jeannette Rankin (1889-1973), honored by Montana, was a social worker and advocate for women's suffrage, as well as a rancher, lecturer, and lobbyist for peace and women's rights.  Probably she is best known for her political positions, as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916 and in 1940.  She supported the cause of Peace throughout her life and voted against America's entry in World Wars I and II.  She was the only member of Congress to oppose the Declaration of War on Japan.

Colorado's choice was Florence Sabin (1871-1953), a pioneer in science and public health.  She graduated from Smith College and received her medical training at Johns Hopkins Medical School, the first woman to graduate from there.  Her medical career included many achievements, and for the state that honored her she came out of retirement at the request of the Colorado governor to chair the subcommittee on health that modernized the state's public health system with the "Sabin Health Laws."

Two Native American women have been honored by their states.  Sarah Winnemucca (1844-1891) of Nevada and the Paiute tribe, used her skills in languages to assist both the government and Native American people.  She gave speeches, published the first book by a Native American woman, and started a school in which children were taught in both their native language and English.  The second Native American, Sakakawea (ca. 1788-1812) from North Dakota, served as interpreter for Lewis & Clark.  North Dakota honored her as "traveler and guide, a translator, a diplomat, and a wife and mother."

Washington chose Mother Joseph (1823-1902), who entered the Sisters of Charity at the age of 22.  In 1856 she lead five missionaries to the Pacific Northwest where she employed her skills as an architect and artist in the construction of eleven hospitals, five Indian schools, seven academies, and two orphanages, supervising the construction and raising the funds.

Helen Keller

Finally, perhaps the best known woman among those in the National Statuary Hall is Helen Keller (1880-1968) honored by Alabama.  Her statue depicts Helen as a young girl at the water pump when she first understands the connection between her teacher Annie Sullivan's signing in her hand and language.  Although deaf, blind, and unable to speak, she communicated by touch, Braille, and a special typewriter to become a writer and supporter of social causes.

Of particular notice to me as I studied the women honored in Statuary Hall is the common element of service to others.  It was not their personal achievements alone that caused their states to select them but rather their great service to others.  In the push to achieve Equal Visibility Everywhere (EVE), I hope the continuing honors in nominating women will focus on their service to others, as well as their popular fame and personal achievements.

Another observation is that most of the states that have honored women have been from the Western half of America!  Several were born and educated elsewhere, but their service was welcomed and honored by states in the West.  Perhaps the fact that as settlers immigrated westward, women were often partners with husbands and brothers in farming and business.  Women played an active role in the Populist Movement, particularly farm women, while urban women and women in the East were more involved in Suffrage and Women's Rights.  Perhaps, laboring side-by-side on the farm or in other endeavors gained quicker recognition and respect than parades and speeches!

Willa Cather championed women of many types in her writing--Antonia Shirmerda in My Antonia, Alexandra Bergson in  O Pioneers, Thea Kronberg in Song of the Lark--, inspiring readers with fictional heroes as well as inspiring women with her own achievements as an author.  Amelia Earhart showed women not only that they could fly planes but also that just because men had dominated many professions women were not incapable of mastering those professions as well.

Other states are now considering whether to replace earlier statues with individuals from more recent times.  Two governors have already signed legislation to replace male figures with females, with plans to move the statues of these largely forgotten men to a respectful location elsewhere.  In some cases of removal, the men are being replaced because they were chosen for values no longer respected.

The selection of replacements should not be based exclusively on gender, but it does seem appropriate that states give more attention to the ladies than some have in the past!

Amelia Flies Into Washington

Amelia Earhart at Lundeen Studios

It has been a long flight for Amelia Earhart but at last she will  reach her destination!  In 1999 the Kansas state legislature voted to replace the two 19th century statues in the National Statuary Hall.  The subjects of the two new statues were chosen at that time--Amelia and Dwight D. Eisenhower.  The funds for Eisenhower's statue were promptly raised, and his statue was installed in 2003.  Fundraising for Amelia did not proceed so quickly.

An organization called Equal Visibility Everywhere, EVE, stepped in to help.  This nonpartisan organization is dedicated to placing more women among our nation's symbols and icons, and they worked with people in Atchison, Kansas, Amelia's hometown, to complete the raising of $300,000 needed to complete the design and get Amelia Earhart to Statuary Hall.  In 2010, a spokesman for EVE estimated that with Amelia's popularity the necessary funds could be raised and the statue completed in 3 or 4 years.  Obviously, that prediction was overly optimistic, but the important result is that despite the delay the dream was realized.

An impressive group was formed to review the proposals from sculptors from across the country, which included representation from the National Women of Arts Museum in Washington, D.C., the Wichita Art Museum and the Spencer Art Museum at the University of Kansas; both the Festival Chair and a businessman from Atchison, Kansas; the Chair of EVE; Amelia's niece, and the President of the 99s, the famed International Organization of Women Pilots.  Thirty-two sculptor proposals were received and the top five were invited to send additional information, including a maquette of their proposed sculpture (a miniature clay sculpture of their proposed design).

George and Mark Lundeen of Lundeen Studios in Loveland, Colorado were chosen, and they were tasked to produce not only the statue for the National Statuary Hall but also its twin for the Amelia Earhart Hanger Museum in Atchison, Kansas.  The image above is from the Museum website showing the straightening of the clay statue in preparation for casting. 

If you missed last week's post about Nebraska's choice of Willa Cather to represent their state in the National Statuary Hall, you may scroll down to the post below to read more.  Bravo to these Great Plains states for adding two important American women to the inadequate number of women in  Statuary Hall.  Long may they remain there to represent the achievements of two gifted and brave women from the plains!

Bravo to the Ladies

The ladies have been too long neglected in the National Statuary Hall and that has finally been noticed!  I am particularly pleased by Nebraska and Kansas, who are both in the process of sending two of their great ladies to Washington!!

My first in this 3-part series is particularly exciting because I have seen the maquette, or small version of the future full sized sculpture, to be added as one of the two representatives of Nebraska in the National Statuary Hall.  I am also pleased to have met Creighton University sculpture professor and renowned midwestern sculptor Littleton Alston, who revealed the maquette at the 2019 Annual Spring Conference.  

More than 70 artist-applicants from throughout the United States were considered by the selection committee prior to choosing Sculptor Alston.  About his choice settling upon how he wished to depict Cather, he said that he wanted to capture her intelligence and the twinkle in her eyes, "standing, as if surrounded by nature, at home in the Nebraska prairie."

Littleton Alston introduces his Willa

 As Littleton Alston gently lifted the drapery covering the unfired clay sculpture, the ohs and ahs of Cather scholars and fans filled the room.  Several of those scholars, so learned about details of Cather herself as well as of her writing, whispered excitedly about the walking costume the sculptor had chosen for Willa.  'That is the attire she wore in New Hampshire to walk up the mountain to the tent that had been set up for her as a private place to find the solitude for writing,' was whispered in varous versions.  Even the walking stick she used has been included in the maquette.  

Sculptor Alston studied many photograph in making his decision about the depiction of Willa Cather, and perhaps he saw a picture of Cather wearing her New Hampshire hiking attire.  However, the choice does seem especially appropriate for her arrival in Sculpture Hall.  The beautifully beaded evening dresses she loved for attending the opera would not have been appropriate for the serious opportunity of representing Nebraska in the halls of Congress.  I hope Willa would be pleased.

Lyn with Littleton Alston

The new statues of Willa Cather and Ponca Chief Standing Bear will replace the former Nebraska statues in Sculpture Hall of Julius Sterling Morton and William Jennings Bryan.  (Of course, Bryan was the People's Party Presidential nominee when they chose to join the Democrats in nominating Bryan for President.  Isaac would surely have cast his vote for Bryan.) 

Next week will continue with the new statue representing Kansas.

The Emotion of Books

A few of the book titles Isaac owned in similar editions

I confess.  I am still one of those who likes to hold a book in my hands when I read--preferably a beautifully bound hard cover book, although I need to put a pillow in my lap to hold the book because my arms get tired.  I read when I walk on my treadmill, although paperback books are preferable in that case, because they are lighter.  I have a smart phone, but when I encounter a word whose meaning is unclear, I still prefer reaching for the dictionary rather than looking up the word on my phone.  Sometimes I will find something interesting as I flip pages or search down the columns of the dictionary pages for the word I am seeking.  Being in a library where real books line the walls stirs my emotions in a way that computers and smart phones cannot do.

There is something about walking into a library or a personal home with shelves of books that, for me, inspires awe.  When we visited Philadelphia, one of the sites we chose was the tour of a historic home owned by a doctor.  In his personal office were book cases filled with leather bound books, the only furniture being the doctor's desk with its chair facing a fireplace.  I don't remember any of the other rooms in that house, but the library was awesome to me.    

An edition Isaac's library would have contained

Recently we went to the annual book sale held by the Wichita Art Museum.  Donated books are sold at prices ranging from a dollar to five dollars.  The quality of the donated books lining rows of tables are impressive, both in condition and content.  Volunteers have sorted books into categories, and prices are shown by the colors of the bright stickers on each book's cover.  Art books and a few other books deemed more valuable are separately priced, and I could hardly resist the Thomas Eakins art book priced at fifty dollars.

However, the most exciting thing about the annual sale is the crowd!  The parking lot required a long walk to reach the museum, and the people we meet carrying bags and boxes and arm loads of books made me wonder whether all the best books would be gone by the time we reached the museum.  That was not the case.  Although we didn't arrive until after lunch on the second day of the sale, the tables remained full.

A set of books my grandparents owned

Certainly, one of the things that attracted me to Isaac Werner was our common love for books.  As a young druggist in Rossville, Illinois, he spent his money on books, writing in his journal that he believed buying books was a better investment than loaning his money to others for the interest it would earn.  He imagined building a house with a separate structure for his books, to protect his library from fire should his house burn.  When he homesteaded on the prairie in Kansas, he crated his library and brought it with him.

The discouraging

statistics about the decline in reading among Americans suggests that my feelings about books are not shared by everyone.  In 2018, Pew Research reported that 74% had read at least one book during the prior 12 months, if print, audio, and digital were all included.  Print books remained the most popular reading source, 67% having read one print book.  Between 2016 and 2018, the number of Americans 'reading' audiobooks rose from 14% to 18%.  The typical American reads 4 books a year.  Those with more education tend to read more books than those with less education.

Another research source, Statista, found slightly different numbers, although they agreed that women read more than men, and those with college educations read more that those with less education.  They compared readership by age groups, asking who had read at least one book in the past year.  Of those aged 18 to 29, 80% said they had read at least one book; those  30 to 49 reported 73%; those 50 to 64 reported 70%; and those 65 and above dropped to 67%.  Unfortunately, one book a year is a very low target to suggest significant American readers!

Wichita Museum Book Sale 2019

One-book-a-year people were not the readers that came to the Wichita Art Museum to enjoy the Annual Book Sale. I was so thrilled by the crowd that I had to take a picture.  

Research Rapture

Reading the 1880-1890s County Capital newspapers

While going through the clippings and notes I save, I discovered a clipping from a newspaper--probably the 'New York Times' judging from the typeset.  The essay is written by Janice P. Nimura, and she introduced me to the term "research rapture."  The experience she describes in the article is not new to me.  She describes research rapture as "the rare and ecstatic moment when you slip the bounds of the present and follow a twinkling detail into the past."  Of course, she is talking about an author doing research.

Those of you who follow my blog know about my discovery of Isaac Werner's journal and my decision that his story, and the story of the southcentral region of Kansas during the Populist Movement, should be told.  I believed that his story deserved more that simply transcribing the journal for publication, although I did transcribe it.  Rather, I began researching his community during the Populist Movement, keeping Isaac's journal at the heart of my story but expanding my quest to cemeteries, courthouses, museums, Ancestry.com, old newspapers, photographs, state archives, interviews with descendants, visits to towns where Isaac lived, the internet, and of course, books.

Visiting the river near Rossville, Il where Isaac loved to walk

In Janice Nimura's case, she was searching for a subject, knowing only that she was interested in Japan in the late 1800s.  Her moment of "research rapture" came from a memoir titled "A Japanese Interior," which finally gave her direction to a book subject after three years of searching.

In my case, I knew I wanted to write about Isaac and the Populist Movement, but I was open to finding the best way to tell his story.  My "research rapture" happened many times as I explored Isaac and the late 1800s.  Some of my discoveries found their way into this blog, although they did not fit directly into the manuscript.  Nevertheless, they enriched my understanding of the region during that time period.  They helped to guide the direction I would ultimately take in telling history.

Visiting Isaac's Grave

I prefer reading from what I consider "real" books, not e-books or audio books but rather printed books in my own hands.  In doing my research for the manuscript, our library grew.  I read books mentioned in Isaac's journal, books from that era, locally published books about the region or specific communities (often published for centennials or other special occasions), biographies and autobiographies, documents from the period, and scholarly books.  Of course, I also searched online.

It was Nimura's comments about searching online that drew me to her article.  She wrote:  "Search algorithms leave no room for serendipity, and without that, some of the magic leaks out of the pursuit of the past.  I had to be efficient in my research; that's where Google came in.  But whenever possible, I tried to create space for aimless wandering, and every time, the story became more vivid."

Those words spoke directly to me. Nimura's "aimless wandering" may have been done online, but my wandering was not confined within a keypad, book covers, or walls.  My husband and I visited Rossville, Il and Wernersville, Pa, although there is little in the book about those places Isaac lived before coming to Kansas.  We visited his mother's lonely grave in Abilene, Ks., as well as graves of his father and siblings.  I researched the genealogy of all of Isaac's neighbors and acquaintances mentioned in the journal.  I spent days reading all of the weekly editions of the County Capital, the populist newspaper in St. John to which Isaac subscribed and for which he often wrote.  Whether this wandering ended up directly in the manuscript or not, it deepened my understanding of Isaac and the period about which I was writing.

As Nimura wrote:  "It's not enough to find every mention of a specific event, even though algorithms make it easy.  Sometimes the telling detail--the yeast that makes the whole lump rise--isn't in the headline you're reading.  It's in the gossip column on the next page, or in the classifieds tucked in the back."  In my case, the telling details may have been found in such places as an old cemetery or inside an old volume at the courthouse.  Thank you Janice Nimura for putting so beautifully into words the importance of research rapture and the unanticipated discovery.  It is what has lifted Isaac Werner off of the faded pages of his journal to bring him and southcentral Kansas back to life as farmers struggled to survive and created a political movement to help them.  

Reading what Isaac read

Iron Man Artistry

Art is so large it filled the entire bay door

Why is it that sometimes the local treasures closest to home are overlooked as we travel to other places to admire their sites?  Such is true of my neglect to pause long enough to visit the Ironman Studios Metal Art Gallery fourteen miles from our home!

How many times have we gone into Macksville to pick up our mail since Brian Williamson's gallery was opened?  Several times a week at least.  How many times have we pulled in to pump gas at the station across the street from his gallery?  Countless times.

A display in his gallery

If others in our region have failed to visit Williamson's gallery as we had done until recently, I hope this blog alerts you to what you have missed.

Brian Williamson is a craftsman who respects both of the skills that he brings to two very different yet similar things.  He learned a lot about working with metal in his auto repair shop, and he still takes that craft very seriously when someone brings him a car that looks beyond repair.

The fact that his gallery is in what was once a filling station may trick you into overlooking that an artist is at work there.  Although he has landscaped the exterior beautifully and the gallery where his work is displayed offers a professional background for his artistry, cars and trucks rumble by without realizing they have passed an art studio.  

My husband and I knew what it was, but until we happened

Detail reveals the silverware utilized

to pass by when one of the bay doors of the former filling station shop was open and we saw the magnificent metal artistry of Williamson did we pull in to visit his studio.  Parked in front of the gallery was a severely damaged car that awaited the artist/auto repairman.

When I asked him if I might interview him and take some photographs for my blog, thinking he might enjoy a little publicity for his art, he graciously stopped his work, but he also admitted that he had about as much work as he could do to keep up with orders!  That is a wonderful problem for an artist to have.

Study the pictures of his artistic creations closely.  He uses old blades and silverware in his designs.  I asked if he used chemicals to bring out the colors in his metal works, and he said, "No, I use fire."

Enjoy the colors and light of the metal

He told me some of the places where he had shipped his art to other states, so he is clearly not an unknown, struggling artist.  But if you are a local, or someone who happens to be passing through Macksville, Kansas, don't be as neglectful as I was.  Stop in to see the amazing metal sculptures of Brian Williamson at 133 E. Broadway, Macksville, Kansas 67557.

As I write this blog, I cannot help but recall how Isaac Werner carefully saved materials to be used in new ways and with his own creative gifts designed, invented, and improved so many things that are described in his journal.  

Remember, you can click on the images to enlarge them.

Fairies at the Farm

Iris from Spring of 2019

The spring of 2019 was a challenging year for iris.  Straight line winds and heavy rain whipped and drenched the iris beds repeatedly.  Yet, somehow, these old fashioned flowers withstood the abuse and kept blooming.  Although they look as delicate as hothouse orchids, they are stubborn.  As Old House Gardens writes at their website, "Tough, beautiful, and diverse, heirloom iris thrive without care in old gardens and graveyards across America."

I have written about the iris at our farm before--my mother's love for them and my collecting of rebloomers when we lived in the South where winter arrived late enough to allow a second blooming season.  My collected rebloomers survive the Kansas weather, but they no longer bloom in the fall.

This year, as I cleared away the leaves deposited in the iris bed the previous autumn and swept aside the sand that constantly tries to smother my iris tubers, I decided to add a little magic to the iris and native wild violet beds.

Our Aunt Freda is an artist.  I wrote about her 100th birthday celebration, and this October she will celebrate her one hundred-third birthday!  For many years, including into her 100th, she enjoyed painting Kansas scenes on canvas, but eventually even this invincible lady confronted a challenge that required her to give up painting her landscapes and structures.  Failing eyesight did not force her to give up painting entirely, however!

She discovered the miniature birdhouses at the craft store and directed her artistic gifts toward painting these tiny houses, continuing her creativity in a way that did not require the detail of her paintings on canvas.

With her usual generosity of sharing her work, she enjoyed gifting these colorful little houses to family and friends.  As I worked cleaning the iris beds, I thought of Freda's tiny birdhouses that we had put away for the winter, and decided they would make perfect fairie houses in my iris and violet beds.  With a few small stones tucked inside the houses to keep the Kansas winds and curious squirrels from dislodging them, I found protected places in the roots of old trees for the little structures.  As stubborn as the iris and violets, the little fairie houses have withstood the wind and rain, and even the curiosity of squirrels and occasional deer.  Although I haven't caught sight of a fairie yet, I'm sure they have appreciated a place to take refuge this past stormy spring.

Corporations and the People's Party

Isaac's journal kept during the Populist Movement

The early years of what became the United States of America consisted almost entirely of a population of farmers, proprietors of small shops, and independent producers, like blacksmiths and farriers.  Gradually, that began to change from self-employed proprietors to large corporations operated by salaried managers.  The agricultural and small merchant society of community businesses and small towns with citizens having fewer economic differences evolved into larger urban areas with greater distinctions in wealth.

At the beginning of the Civil War, there were 400 millionaires in the United States.  By 1892 there were 4,047.  American society had evolved into a wealthy class, a middle class, and a laboring class.  Key to this evolution was the changing view of incorporation.  Many lawmakers saw the interests of the nation as linked to the growth of large corporations.  With this perspective, lawmakers voted for tax cuts and other benefits, and the old way of life changed forever.

It was during this period of rapidly changing social conditions that Isaac Werner kept his daily journal and farmers and other workers formed the People's Party to come together in their greater numbers to politically confront the smaller number of wealthy voters.  However, the wealthy had greater power, and with many politicians seeing corporations as essential to the economic growth of the nation, even those politicians elected by workers often voted with the wealthy once in office.

Power of Wall Street & Railroads political cartoon

Farmers like Isaac saw the incorporation of America as an unfair misappropriation of the nation's wealth.  The original idea had been that the new nation's greatest wealth was in its vast lands, a wealth that seemed inexhaustible.  Thomas Jefferson and others had predicted that it would take a thousand years for the population to spread to the Pacific, and homestead laws were enacted to encourage that spread.  Instead, only three generations had been needed.  Railroads had played a significant role in that expansion, and railroads had also been key to the economic changes in the nation, including the growth of incorporation.

After the Civil War the 14th Amendment was enacted to provide freed slaves "equal protection of the laws."  However, an aggressive lawyer used it for his railroad client's purposes.  Seeking to avoid a California tax on railroad property, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company owned by Leland Stanford argued that his railroad was a person too.  His lawyer cited the intent of those who drafted the amendment as having been meant to embrace 'artificial persons as well as natural persons."  Years later it was found that the lawyer had fabricated that intention.

By then, as the saying goes, the horse was out of the barn.  A series of cases which have led to the more recent Citizens' United case, have expanded the interpretation to see corporations as people too.

In a speech in 2003 by Bill Moyers, he said:  "They [populists and progressives] were a diverse lot, held together by a common admiration of progress--hence the name--and a shared dismay at the paradox of poverty stubbornly persisting in the midst of progress like an unwanted guest at a wedding.  Of course they welcomed, just as we do, the new marvels in the gift-bag of technology...But they saw the underside, too--the slums lurking in the shadows of the glittering cities, the exploited and unprotected workers whose low-paid labor filled the horn of plenty for others, the misery of those whom age, sickness, accident or hard times condemned to servitude and poverty with no hope of comfort or security. ...This is what's hard to believe--hardly a century had passed since 1776 before the still-young revolution was being strangled in the hard grip of a merciless ruling class."

United States Supreme Court

When America was founded, there was a natural suspicion of corporations, based on abuses known from English law.  The evolution of corporations in American was gradual, recognizing the benefits of people coming together to pool assets for businesses larger than the simple independent producers in the original colony but also realizing the potential for abusive power.  Yet, gradually the benefits began to seem more important than the risks.  Black's Law Dictionary defines a corporation as "An artificial person or legal entity created by or under the authority of the laws of a state or nation... acting as a unit or single individual in matters relating to the common purpose of the association..."

We ordinary humans do not need "the authority of the laws of a state or nation" to define us.  Corporations do.  In the Citizen's United case, the dissent argued that the Founding Fathers disliked corporations and never intended the First Amendment to apply to corporations.  In his concurring opinion with the majority, Justice Scalia wrote that even if that argument were relevant, "the individual person's right to speak includes the right to speak in association with other individual persons."  Scalia seemed to think that because a group of individuals had incorporated to manufacture "something or other," they were entitled to select those to speak for them about their common venture, and those persons, acting within that corporate capacity, are protected under the first amendment. 

For Scalia, the individual shareholder in the corporation has not only his voice but also the voice of the corporation of which he is a part.  One might say such a person has his own tiny voice but also the megaphone volume of his voice amplified by the wealth and influence of the corporation.  Others might see it as unfair for both individual shareholders and the corporation of which they are a part to have the protection of the 1st Amendment's freedom of speech, but the Supreme Court did not.

By analogy, it might be argued that all of those coming together in the People's Party in the late 1800s to exert more influence through the combined power of their votes were using the power of a political party to magnify their individual votes.  Even so, they didn't get to vote twice. 

Remember, you can click on images to enlarge them.

     

Isaac Werner Visits Cullison, Part 4

Last week's blog left Isaac Werner on his way to Pratt, leaving Cullison after feeding and resting his horses a bit.  If you have not been following Isaac's potato marketing trips to and through Cullison, Kansas, from July through October of 1887, you may want to scroll back through the previous three blogs.  

D. W. Blain

Having traveled 40-some miles that October 26th day in 1887, Isaac "Staid [sic] over night in Blaine's new built large implement shed.  Pratt quite lively, building large new brick buildings hurried along towards completion."

He awakened to a "fair and pleasant day."  The weather was always important to Isaac, and each day's entry in his journal began with the weather, even when he was not at home, as was the case that morning when he awakened in Blaine's  new shed.  Isaac was a regular customer, and he had business to conduct with them.  "Morning paid Blaine Bros 15.00 cost to apply on my last 25.00 note for Deering mower due November 1st.  Then selected a new Pekin Steel beam stirrig plow at 18.00, due Sept 1st, 1888, interest at 10% after April first & plow returnable if not proving satisfactory."  His overnight stay coincided with  the move-in for Blaine Bros., and they had begun "moving their stock to new building by 8. 

Apparently Isaac was in a visiting mood before colder weather kept him at home, for he traveled "home via Iuka and to dinner at Bob Moore's."  Isaac had built Moore's home for him, and they were well acquainted.  The noon meal was 'dinner,' and the evening meal was 'supper,' terms used in my own family when I was a child.

When he finally reached home, he could hardly wait to try the "new Pekin plow out," plowing out Silver Skin [potatoes], working tolerable well just one round & picked them up by dusk, ground yet nice for potato digging and plowing."

This ends my four-week series on Isaac's potato marketing in 1887.  He did sell potatoes to businesses nearer home, but locally, his profitable potato venture had become keeping potatoes in his cellar through the winter and marketing seed potatoes in the spring.  He knew that selling the seed potatoes reduced potato sales later to those who were growing their own, but it gave him some needed spring revenue.  Most neighbors lacked the space to store potatoes through the winter or only planted what they needed for their own consumption, so his spring seed potato business was active in the community.

This series is an example of the contents of Isaac's journal and how I can develop a narrative about a particular theme, sharing the story accurately without simply transcribing the journal.  My manuscript is not a mere transcription of the journal's text but rather the story of the Populist Movement in Isaac's area and the nation, focusing on historic events from the perspective of a particular Kansas community.  The authentic experiences of Isaac, and the communities near his claim, are integrated with research from many sources--academic books, searches in courthouses, local publications, newspapers, visits to cemeteries and towns in which Isaac lived, and historic sites, interviews of descendants, old letters and photographs, genealogy research on Ancestry.com of everyone mentioned in Isaac's journal, and my own experience of having been raised in the area in which Isaac staked his claims, among other extensive research.

Sharing Isaac's 1887 potato marketing in these four posts utilizes more actual quotes from his journal than I use in the manuscript and less narrative with research from other sources, but I hope you enjoyed experiencing how Isaac survived as a potato farmer one particular summer.

Isaac Werner Visits Cullison, Part 3

Wagon displayed in Stafford County (KS) Museum

Having been successful marketing his potatoes further south of his community, Isaac Werner planned his last trip before winter.  The cold weather required special preparations for his trip, which began October 24, 1887.  "By 9 a.m. I got done choring & off with my load of potatoes for Stringfield's [the local blacksmith].  Got mares shod in front & off for Cullison.  There by 2 p.m. & cold raw NE air & cloudy, about bordering on snow.  Disagreeable cold to be out unless extra warm dressed to sit on wagon."

Eager to resume his trip in daylight, before temperatures dropped with the setting sun, "...by 3 left Cullison & by dusk turned in at J.P. Chinn's ranch 7 miles N. of Sun City.  Chilling night air sure, covered my potatoes some extra."

Isaac "found Chinns a clever family."  In the 1890 Federal Census, it appears that John P. and Joanna Chinn had both been born in Kentucky.  They had four sons--Isaac L. (born about 1853), Garrett C. (born about 1855), John T. (born about 1857), and Eddie D. (born about 1863), all of whom were born in Iowa, indicating that the couple had not come directly from the land of their births to Kansas.  By the 1900 Federal Census, J.P. Chinn is a widower living by himself in Pratt, Kansas.

Bachelor Isaac, living alone as he did, enjoyed the opportunity to visit with people he found interesting, and after his night's rest, the following morning had "cleared off and moderating into pleasant day," so he lingered for "a lengthy morning talk with Mr. & Mrs. Chinn," delaying his start until "by 10 I got started & by noon down to Sun City, good roads and agreeable weather."  Although Isaac had taken the precaution of covering his potatoes "some extra" the night before, a "few got frost bitten on top layer under 3 thicknesses of wagon cover." 

Slicker Ad from St. John County Capital newspaper

Isaac was disappointed when, unlike the market for his previous marketing trips to Sun City, "potato market somewhat dull--money so scarce.  Finally I sold 5 bushels at Hotel and 16 1/2 to dry goods store (Dougles), all at a dollar a bushel."  He did a "a little trading & by 4 ready to start back, & after dusk & moonlight by 8 to Spring Vale.  Staied [sic] there over night in feed stable.  Thirty-five cents to hay and stable."  As part of my research for the manuscript, my husband and I traced Isaac's route for this trip, but our search for Spring Vale found no remaining trace.  

The next morning dawned "fair & pleasant," and Isaac went to Wellsford to get "some needed harness trimmings & collar."  Unfortunately, Isaac had forgotten his new slicker and had to backtrack to Spring Vale to retrieve it.  That done, Isaac headed to Cullison to feed his team.  After giving his team a short rest, he headed to Pratt, making that day's journey about 40 miles.

Next week's blog will conclude Isaac's potato marketing trip as he does some shopping in Pratt and pauses for a visit with a neighbor before returning home.

Isaac Werner Visits Cullison, Part 2

James B. Cullison moved on to Oklahoma with his family, but the town named for him began to grow.  (You may visit last week's blog to learn about the young family's arrival on the prairie and the roots of Cullison.)  By 1887, the new town was thriving, and Isaac B. Werner  decided to travel south of his claims in search of markets for his potatoes.  On July 21, 1887 he loaded 4 bushels of a neighbor's corn and 9 bushels of his own potatoes "...and by 2 p.m. got started off & by sun down in Cullison, staied [sic] at feed stable."

When Isaac arose the next morning he left Cullison for "...Spring Valley with my potatoes and sold same to Bridge camp at 87 1/2 cents a bushel."  The camp he mentions was an encampment of rail road workers building a bridge for the rails headed west.  He passed through Cullison on his way home, but the next morning he took a load of potatoes north to St. John.

On July 12, 1887, he decided to travel further south in search of potato markets, and although he passed through Cullison, he continued in the dark to stay with Judge Purdy overnight.  He was headed for Sun City, and "...by 11 got in there, among winding hollows & green trees."  Isaac commented on the corn, only fit for fodder, and the dry crops.  

Isaac's library contained books of all sorts, and his guesses about the terrain he was passing through  suggests his knowledge of geology.  "[C]urious country around there, once a flat country but gullies started and washed by ages & frosts crumpling projecting rock flatten bluff sides down to gentle sloping & now green grass covered."  In Sun City he got a dollar and more for his potatoes and fifty cents for his corn, and with storm clouds coming from the west, he returned to Cullison for the night.

Near the end of August, Isaac made another trip to Cullison, again spending the night in the feed stable.  Given the recent history of severe storms in the Greensburg area, I read this passage written in Isaac's journal on August 30, 1887, with particular interest:  "Trifling shower working from NW against light-sprinkling clouds coming up from S tending to sprinkle from both directions, but the NW movement conquered finally, some lightning & thunder & towards 4 p.m. some of steadiest showering for a good hour's duration seldom witnessed; seemed like 6" of water fell, ground flowing & covered, the upper part of shower going S and lower part blown by on strong wind from S at wind of almost cyclonic for short spell tearing down some buildings and several at Greensburg.  I staied [sic] over night in Metropolitan feed stable, its floor flooded 6".

Despite the conditions and the hard pull for the horses, he went to Greensburg the next morning and "by 4 p.m. soon disposed of my 18 bushel corn at 45 cents and ten and a half bushel potatoes at $1.25," calling Greensburg "a live town, business booming on all sides."  He headed east for 12 miles, spending the night in Haviland to let the roads dry over night for easier travel.

Of particular interest to history is that when he reach Cullison the next morning, the "...Rock Island R.R. track entered town by noon"

Next week I will continue with Isaac's return to Cullison in October. 

Isaac Werner Visits Cullison, Part I

James B. Cullison (1857-1936)

First, before linking the information taken from Isaac B Werner's journal about his visits to Cullison, I must give credit to Jeffrey R. Cullison for his "A Brief History of Cullison, Kansas" posted online and dated 1997.  The last activity I found on the web page is more than ten years old, but I am grateful his information remains available, and it makes the journal entries by Isaac in 1887 even more interesting.

Growing up, I was very familiar with Cullison, for its school was in the Skyline League, along with the Byers School that I attended.  There was an active 4-H Club in Cullison, so I knew kids my own age through 4-H activities.  

My husband and I left Kansas after college, and although I had passed Cullison by on the highway, I had not visited the town for many years.  In the "Brief History" written in 1997, author Jeffrey R. Cullison writes:  "Not much remains of the old Cullison of prosperity and boom times.  A few old buildings are all that is left of those years.  I visited Cullison in 1987 and could not help but think of part of it almost as a ghost town."  At the 1986 reunion, several thousand people had come to celebrate its Centenial Year, and an unpublished "History of a Prairie Town" was written by Clara B. Farnsworth, which author Jeffrey R. Cullison consulted.  Pratt author J. Rufus Gray added information in his 1977 "Pioneer Saints and Sinners."  Now, I can supplement their records with entries from the journal of Isaac B. Werner.  Like author Jeffrey R. Cullison, when my husband and I finally exited the highway to tour Cullison, little that I remembered remained.

Founder James B. Cullison, pictured above, was a young lawyer with a wife and baby when he staked a preemptive claim and built a little shack on the land that would become Cullison.  The town was platted on his homestead on March 17, 1885.

Like many communities on the prairie, success depended on the railroad, and those towns through which the railroad passed were more likely to prosper.  J.B. Cullison realized this, and attempted to profit from acquiring land through which a proposed railroad would pass.  A good idea--but when the railroad changed its mind, his investment dreams disappeared.  He participated in another site, but as for his family, his dreams had moved south.  He staked a claim in the Oklahoma Cherokee Strip, and made his dreams come true as a lawyer practicing in Enid.

Cullison did plat a town and get a railroad, and by 1887 was incorporated as a 3rd class town with about 2,000 residents.  It was during that very year that Isaac B. Werner paused in Cullison several times, which are recorded in his journal.  More about that in next week's blog post.    

Remember, you can click on the images to enlarge them.

  

Memorial Day Tribute

Detail of a Painting Honoring W.W. I Soldiers

It has become a tradition with this blog to recognize Memorial Day with a specific post that week.  Many have included photographs taken at our local cemetery, showing the veterans carrying the flag to honor those buried there.  You can open the May blogs and scroll to past postings to read those older blogs from past years.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States, established to remember and honor those who died while serving in the military.  In most local communities, remembrances are not limited to soldiers buried there but rather, flowers are placed on the graves of family and friends as well.

Traditionally, Memorial Day was observed on May 30th during the years from 1868 to 1970.  Since 1970, the date has been the last Monday in May.  Many traditions have changed over the decades, but it seems that by changing Memorial to a holiday weekend, the recognition of fallen soldiers on the day set aside for that purpose has diminished, with people now using the weekend for pleasure trips.

Reminders of the service to the nation by our men and women in uniform deserve to be observed, and this years Memorial Day blog is going to reflect back half-a-century to another form of recognition.  A few months ago I was going through keepsakes and discovered a simple silver bracelet baring the name of Commander Raymond Vohden.  Beneath his name is the date 4-3-65.

Bracelet 'lest we forget' POW Raymond Vohden

Some of you may remember bracelets like the one I wore during the years of the Vietnam war, a symbol to remember American prisoners of war.  It had been a long time since I had worn the bracelet remembering Commander Vohden, and I decided to do some research.  Did he eventually return home?  How long was he imprisoned?  Is he still living?

This is what I found:  Raymond Arthur Vohden,  an Air Force Pilot, was one of those 'lucky' prisoners who survived to be released.  Upon his release, he is quoted as having said, "After the ordeal I've been through for the past seven and one-half years, I can handle any situation that comes up when I get back."  However, returning soldiers did not always find it easy to slip back into their old lives.  Vohden had written to his wife after six years as a prisoner of war, expressing his permission that she file for divorce and "make a new life."  She did file, but when the cease-fire was negotiated not long after, he asked her to dismiss the divorce proceedings.  She did.

He was not alone in finding it difficult to acclimate to the changes that had occurred.  In some cases wives had entered new relationships, lonely and uncertain whether their husbands would ever return.  In other cases, wives had changed, becoming more independent and less willing to hand back the responsibilities in the marriage that they had assumed, which these women now preferred to continue doing.  In still other cases, the 60s had brought social changes to those at home that were unacceptable to the returning POWs and caused friction in their marriages.  Not only their wives, but also the children they left behind had changed, adding to the difficulties of rejoining the family.

Arlington National Cemetery

A newspaper article shared the story of difficulties experienced by Vohden and his wife when he returned.  She described the initial exhilaration of his return, but said he became depressed by how things had changed during the almost eight years of his absence.  He acknowledged that he struggled with cultural changes, particularly the 'sexual revolution.'  The newspaper article ended with his decision to get away by himself for a while and "just to kind of enjoy life."  His wife agreed that he needed to be alone to work out some of the issues he was facing.

I did not find a follow-up to their story.  I do know that Raymond Vohden died November 21, 2016, leaving behind a wife, four children, eleven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.  Interment was to be in Arlington National Cemetery.  Because the given name of his wife was not included in the 1973 New York Times article, I do not know whether they resolved the issues caused by their long separation during the war or if the wife mentioned in his obituary was a second marriage.  I am certain, however, that he paid a high price not only during his imprisonment but also in re-entering a changed society following his release.  I hope he found the happiness he longed for, and I am glad that the POW whose bracelet I wore was able to return.

On Memorial Day, not only the men and women who died in service to their country, but also those whose lives were inevitably changed by their service, deserve the nation's recognition and thanks.

Meet Rebecca's Children

Since last week's post was about Isaac Werner's mother and some important events in her life, this week I will share four other important events--the births of her five children!

On May 23, 1844 Rebecca Werner gave birth to twin boys, Henry Beckley Werner and Isaac Beckley Werner.  To both boys she gave her maiden name of Beckley as their middle name.  Henry did travel some before his marriage, but he chose to settle down with his wife Eva {Hain} and son Charles near the Pennsylvania area in which he was born.

Next came daughter Emma Rebecca Werner, born October 3, 1846, to whom she gave her own given name as a middle name.  Emma married William E. Good, an executive with the railroad, and they had four children:  Miriam, Florence, Paul Eckert, and Marriott Augustus.  Emma spent her life in Pennsylvania, living in Philadelphia at the time of her death, and buried in Redding.

A fourth child, daughter Elmira Rebecca Werner, lived only briefly, from 1849-1850.

Rebecca's last child was Henrietta Catherine Werner, born August 5, 1851.  She married Samuel Palmer, a pastor, called not long after their marriage to a church in Abilene, Kansas.  Four daughters were born of their marriage:  Miriam Agusta, Emma May, Mary M. and Gertrude Octavia.  Rebecca lived with the Palmer family until her death and is buried in Abilene.  A few years after, the Palmer's moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where Ettie and Samuel are buried.

Composition book for 1866-1867, Ettie C. Werner, Harrisburg, Pa.

Rebecca's surviving children lived successful lives, and their mother must have been a contributing factor.  I like to think that her influence on education made a difference.  My research found that her twin sons were still students at the age of 17, a significant education for that era.  The younger daughters were still in school at that time as well.  Unfortunately, I could find no further records of their educations, although there may have been more.  (See Ettie's book, which seems to indicate she may have attended a boarding school in Kentucky.)  What I did find was that Ettie's daughters attended college.  Education was clearly important to the Werner family.  I have journals kept by Isaac, Henry, and Ettie, and Emma may have kept one as well, although I did not locate it.

I was very fortunate that a descendant of Ettie shared a faded copy of Ettie's journal kept in 1866-1867 when she would have been about fifteen.  The image above is from that journal, and I transcribed the faded ink of a passage I found very telling of the importance the Werner family placed on reading.  Obviously, Isaac's amazing library has been mentioned many times in this blog, and his youngest sister clearly shared the same love of reading, as I suspect all of the siblings did.

From the words of the teen-aged Ettie, taken from her "Composition Book," it is obvious that her love for books was strong.  "We should also be careful to read at right times, for if we create a passion for reading it [the book], and then do not control this passion we often get to be very careless and negligent about a great many other things when we have commenced some book in which we are interested, it is very hard to resist the temptation to sit down and read and not attend to any thing else till it is finished."

As someone who rarely lacks having a book near at hand, I can certainly appreciate Ettie's words.  I only wish that passion were stronger among the larger population today.  Surely credit is due Rebecca for having nurtured such a love of reading and of learning in her children.    

Mothers' Day Reflections

With Mother's Day this week, it seems relevant that I reflect on Isaac Beckley Werner's mother, Margaretha "Rebecca" Beckley Werner.  Shortly before his mother's death, Isaac recorded in the upper-left corner of the fly-leaf of his journal that his mother was still living.  She died on April 22, 1893, two years before Isaac's death.

Death of Tecumseh in 1813

Rebecca, as she was commonly known, lived during exciting times in America.  She was born September 11, 1812, during the years of the War of 1812, in which Britain had imposed a naval blockade to hinder neutral trade with France during the Napoleonic Wars.  The United States challenged this as illegal under international law.  Furthermore, Britain supplied Native Americans with weapons used to raid American settlers on the frontier, intending to hinder further settlement.  Particularly well known is the Battle of New Orleans in January of 1815, when British forces, unaware of the Treaty of Ghent having been signed on December 24, 1814, invaded Louisiana.

Rebecca married William Werner on November 15, 1842, when she was 30 and he was 40, his 41st birthday one month later.  Gold had been first discovered in California the previous March, but that initial gold rush was primarily Mexicans from Sonora on a small scale.  Universities were expanding across America, including Willamette University in Oregon, Wesleyan University in Ohio, the University of Notre Dame in Ohio, and The Citadel in South Carolina.

Assault on New Orleans in 1815

Rebecca was widowed June 13, 1865, and she and her daughters continued to live in the family home on their farm until the spring of 1868, when they moved into Reading, Pa.  On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Ulysses S.  Grant at Appomattox Court House, and on April 14 (Good Friday) President Lincoln had been assassinated--tragic and tumultuous times.  By the time she and her daughters moved into Reading, the War had ended, but in February of 1868 Andrew Johnson, who had assumed the office after Lincoln's death, was impeached, his acquittal by one vote in the Senate not occurring until May.  Ulysses S. Grant had been elected President on November 3, 1868, but on December 25, before leaving office, Johnson granted unconditional pardons to all Civil War rebels.

Union Officers

After her younger daughter married, Rebecca made her home with Ettie's family until Rebecca's death in 1893 at the age of 80.  The 1880s were exciting years, with electric lights and telephones coming into use and "sky-scrapers" being built.  Rebecca had moved to Kansas when Ettie's husband was called to pastor a church in Abilene, and while Eastern Kansas and living in town may have allowed Rebecca more conveniences than Isaac experienced in his rural community, it was surely less sophisticated that Eastern American cities.  Perhaps Rebecca enjoyed the new 1887 'liquor-free' drink of Coca-Cola in Prohibitionist Kansas!

Sadly, although Isaac and his mother both lived in Kansas in the 1880s and early 1890s, I found no evidence that he was able to share a Mother's Day with Rebecca.  The responsibilities of his farm, the early risks of claim jumpers, the expense of travel, and his poor health in later years seem to have made a reunion impossible.

As you gather with family to celebrate Mother's Day this year, perhaps it would be fun for the mothers among you to share with children the changes over the decades of your own lives.

Remember, you can enlarge images by clicking on them.

Lady Justice in Populist Cartoon

Last week's blog featuring the Populist political cartoon picturing the power of wealthy was so popular that I am sharing another political cartoon from 1892.  If you missed last week's post, you may want to scroll down to read it as well.

The caption reads "I simply demand 'Justice'!  Where is she?"  The man wears a cap titled "Labor."  Of course, he is asking where Lady Justice has gone.

The structures behind the laborer represent institutions in which Justice would be expected to be found.  Because the print may be difficult to read, I will supply the names of the institutions with the corresponding excuses for Lady Justice not being found in those places.

The Press:  "Don't know her--What's her last name?"  The College:  "She lives only in ancient history."  The Church:  "She is not a member of our congregation."  The Court:  "She has moved."  Wall Street:  "Eish Dodt So?"

Unfortunately, the entry on Wall Street is an ethnic slur, intended to represent a foreign accent of the question "Is that so?".  Many in the Populist Movement believed the American economic system was controlled by wealthy bankers in England, and Jewish bankers.  The sign on Wall Street was a reference to that belief.

While Populist Movement members included people from many different countries, and the Farmers' Alliance and he People's Party welcomed all workers, the sad fact was that they did not always act as their principles directed them to act.  There was a particular animosity toward Chinese laborers brought to America to do dangerous and onerous labor building the rail lines, who were willing to work for cheap wages in unsafe conditions.  Workers from other countries who took jobs away from immigrants who had arrived decades earlier also caused resentment.  Blacks, freed by the Civil War,  could join populist groups, but often they were relegated to separate clubs.  The discrimination shown other ethnicities is not a proud chapter in the history of populisms.

As for Lady Justice, she is not a symbol unique to America.  In fact, her roots run back to Ancient Rome.  The objects she carries--a balance (scales), a sword, and the blindfold she wears--symbolize  her ability to weigh the balance of the evidence and make her decision without bias; her willingness to fight for what is right; and her impartiality, without regard to wealth, power, or status.  Her image can be found in many different countries.

The laborer in the 1892 political cartoon, who lacks wealth, power, and status, calls out for Justice in his despair, but each institution in which he had hoped to find justice denies his appeal.