The Larabee Story, Part 3

Exterior View of Nora's Window on Library
Photo credit:  Larry D. Fenwick

Having decided to honor their daughter Nora E. Larabee with the construction of a beautiful public library to be gifted to the town, they chose perhaps the leading architect in Kansas at that time to design it.  His name was Charles E. Shepard.  Based in Kansas City, he was an impressive choice.

Shepard chose dark red brick and wood trim fashioned in a Corinthian style for the library.  According to Paul Hawkin and Dixie Osborn, writing in the "Stafford County History, 1870 to 1990," when the library was subsequently expanded, each extension included one of the original windows incorporated into the new additions, decisions that made the renovations nearly unnoticeable.

Stafford Library with addition

The most beautiful detail of the library, however, was the stained-glass window with the portrait of the lovely, young Nora.

Despite their generous motives, the gift of the library to the town of Safford was not immediately accepted.  Although the family businesses had created jobs for Stafford citizens, the mother and daughter had been active in the arts for the town, and the men held city offices, a rift had developed between Joseph Larabee and the editor of the Stafford Carrier, who served on the city council.  He led the council members in a rejection of the gift.

The townspeople responded with a recall election that displaced those council members, and the new members accepted the gift.  Animosities are not unheard of in communities, and the details of the tragic rift between the two men is not known to many today, but for those of us viewing the beautiful library, the rejection of the gift is difficult to understand.  Regardless, the town received a beautiful library, and the family's memorial for their daughter remains in her honor, in her hometown of Stafford, Kansas.  The Nora E. Larabee Memorial Library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Charles E. Shepard also designed the bank building at 100 S. Main in Stafford, and the structure currently houses the Stafford County Museum.

Nora is buried in the family Mausoleum in the cemetery on a hill just outside Stafford. 

Larabee Masoleum, Photo credit:  Larry D. Fenwick

The Larabee Story, Part 2

Tuberculosis had no regard for wealth.  It struck the rich and famous, as well as the poor and working classes.  For a time, it was the leading cause of death in America.  From 1880 to 1940, New Mexico attracted "health seekers" with its high elevation and abundant sunshine.  By 1920, people seeking the cure were estimated to represent 10% of the state's population.  Instead of fearing the tubercular sufferers, they were sought with advertising such as Albuquerque's slogan "Heart of the Well Country," Silver City's title "City with the Golden Climate," and Santa Fe calling itself the "Land of Sunshine."  Pamphlets advertised "hotels well-furnished, bright sunny rooms...at very reasonable rates," and for those invalids with less money, a pamphlet suggested an invalid could "pitch his tent or build his cabin where he pleases without fearing a land owner's interference.  Even ranches were suggested, with the caveat that while the outdoors and sunshine were desirable, the rancher might not be welcoming.

The treatment of that time consisted of rest, fresh air, ample good food, and a positive attitude.  If the patient did not improve, the next types of treatments might be far less pleasant.

In the early years, those with tuberculosis were welcomed, but by the early 1900s the attitude had begun to change.  The back page of the Albuquerque Commercial Club pamphlet read:  "Albuquerque does not invite indigent or hopeless cases."

Another group of health seekers had poured into the state.  Discharged soldiers with tuberculosis arrived hoping to find treatment, overwhelming the already stressed population.

The discovery of streptomycin, and eventually other drugs, at last proved effective for treating tuberculosis, but it was too late for Nora E. Larabee, who died in 1904.  Unable to have saved their beloved daughter, the family decided to honor her with a beautiful library donated to their home town, Stafford, Kansas.

(Thank you to Santa Fe Trail Magazine, "The Lungers and Their Legacy," Nancy Owen Lewis.)

The Larabee Story, Part 1

The Nora E. Larabee Window

It is always dangerous to make assumptions, and I had mistakenly assumed for years that the beautiful library in Stafford, Kansas was a Carnegie Library.  In fact, it was given to Stafford by a local family in honor of their daughter, who fell victim to tuberculosis.  There is much more to this family's story than can be told in a single blog, but all of it is worth sharing.

Joseph D. Larabee was born in N.Y. in 1832 or 1833, and he was not the typical man seeking a fortune by heading West.  When he brought his family to Stafford in 1886, he had already established a modestly successful career in New York as a cheese buyer.  However, it was in Kansas where his financial success expanded.

In her article published March 26, 2012, Beccy Tanner described Larabee's enterprises, including not only the Larabee Flour Milling Company in Stafford but also land in Western Kansas amounting to thousands of acres, lead mining in southeast Kansas, a charcoal plant in the Ozarks, oil and gas refineries in Kansas and Oklahoma, a cement factory in Mexico, and financing for such operations as a car dealership and a carburetor company. 

At the age of 32, Joseph had married 18-year-old Angeline.  Their first child was Frank, followed by their second son, Frederick.  A third son, Kestor, died before his first birthday.  Their last child was Nora.  It was after her birth that the family came to Stafford, Kansas.

With their financial success and their family complete, it seemed they were fortunate indeed.  However, sickness has no regard for wealth.  The beautiful young Nora contracted tuberculosis.

The Timeless Storyteller

(c) Jerry Pinkney 

 Those of you who regularly follow my blog know that I love illustrated children's books, and this blog shares a story teller who has retained his popularity for centuries.  "Aesop the fable writer" was mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus, describing Aesop as a slave living in ancient Greece during the 5th century BC.  Plato wrote that Socrates knew the oral stories of Aesop and that during his time in prison, Socrates converted some of Aesop's fables to verse.

The tradition of using the ancient fables of Aesop as guides for ethical behavior continues even today, and just as Socrates did, modern writers use the themes of Aesop in their own versions of his stories.  The simple lessons are easy for children to grasp; yet, the lessons are equally true for adults.  In fact, the fables were originally told to adults as ethical guides.

Among the illustrated children's books in my collection I have several books of Aesop's fables, and two of my favorites are illustrated by Jerry Pinkney and John Rocco.  Pinkney has used the fables in several books, including one titled "Aesop's Fables" containing 61 of the stories, with many illustrations, including the one pictured in this blog.

(c) John Rocco, Wolf! Wolf!

One of my favorite fables is commonly titled "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," a simple story about a young man sent to watch the sheep and call out a warning if the wolf appeared, to alert the villagers to come drive the wolf away.  His simple responsibility bored him, and he sounded the warning falsely, just to break the monotony, not just once but a second time.  The villagers were disgusted by his false warnings, and when the wolf actually appeared and the boy cried "Wolf!" no one came.  The simple moral to the fable as stated in Pinkney's book:  "No one believes a liar."

John Rocco chose the same fable, but as creative people often do, he added his own twist.  The little boy in his version also falsely cried wolf and lost the trust of the villagers, but in Rocco's tale, the wolf is old and knows that he is not really able to chase down a goat, so he bargains with the boy.  He tells him to select one of the goats and take it to the wolf's garden on the other side of the mountain, and tie it to the fence post.  That way, the boy will regain credibility with the villagers since a goat will be missing, and the wolf will get a goat.  The boy agrees, and he does deliver the unlucky goat, but when the wolf goes out to the garden and sees the goat, he discovers that the goat has eaten all the weeds and the garden looks beautiful.  The goat apologizes, admitting that he is a picky eater and he prefers weeds to vegetables.  He begs the wolf not to eat him, and the Wolf agrees, concluding, "What's one breakfast compared to delicious vegetables for the rest of my days."

I love both books, and both themes are important.  No one should be a liar, but compromise can sometimes work to the advantage of both sides.  The lesson Aesop teaches is that a liar will be found out and disbelieved if he continues to lie, and the assumption is that once discovered, the liar will admit his obvious guilt and stop lying.  Aesop understood that lying is not  insignificant, and most wolfs are not vegetarians.  Much as I love John Rocco's positive outcome, Aesop's simple moral is the better lesson for us to learn.  Beware of a liar, for when you can no longer trust the truth of what the liar says, the result may be your own loss. 

I recommend both Jerry Pinkney's "Aesop's Fables," published 2000, and John Rocco's "Wolf! Wolf!," published 2007.  There are many collections of Aesop's Fables that are wonderful choices for children's libraries.  

Computers and History

 One of my favorite bloggers is Maria Popova, who often guides me to overlooked books published in the past.  A recent blog post at "Brain Pickings" featured Alan Turing (6-23-1912 to 6-7-1954), who played such an important role in theoretical computer science.  Popova shared how, as a young boy, Turing was given The Children's Library, Natural Wonders, by Edwin Tenney Brewster.  In the book, Brewster had described how much of our body is constantly changing, using in his description an analogy of cells as living bricks.  The young Alan Turing was fascinated.

Turing grew up to become a leader in the development of artificial intelligence and is particularly known for his role during the Second World War working in Britain's codebreaking centre.  Charged with breaking the German naval cryptannalisis coded messages, he devised a number of techniques for breaking German cipers.  The work of his group, and particularly of Turing, may have shortened the war in Europe by more than 2 years and saved over 14 million lives.  His role in theoretical science represented a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation.

The coronavirus has forced many of us to expand how we use our computers, but movies have long ago been intrigued by the idea of artificial intelligence resulting in plots about a takeover of the world from we less intellectually equipped humans.  Turing must have given this subject some thought, for he raised questions of whether a computer would ever be able to "enjoy strawberries and cream, make someone fall in love with it, learn from experience, use words properly...?"

At the time Turing raised those questions, such possibilities may have seemed insurmountable, but today we know that computers can use words to ask and answer questions.  We know they can learn from experience and self correct.  Advances in self driving vehicles reflect the growing applications of data and algorithms.  We know, at least based on the amount of time most of us spend on our computers and smart phones, that we are certainly infatuated, if not in love, with the seemingly indispensable computers in our lives!  As for enjoying strawberries and cream, taste and smell have proved to be challenging for computers.  Sensors have been created to detect such things as salt, sugar, and bitterness, but the human use of both tongue and nose to achieve the sense of taste has yet to be replicated.  Scientists are working on an electronic tongue, but appreciating strawberries and cream is beyond today's computer.

Thinking about Turing and what he achieved, and then considering how much has changed since his death in 1954, led me to think about how surprisingly rapid change is. 

Isaac Werner and his neighbors came to the prairie and built dugout homes or structures cut from blocks of sod.  The only horsepower they possessed had four legs, and the books they read were viewed with candle or lamp light.  Yet, in only a few years they had homes of wood, powered farming equipment, and towns with street lights, multilevel brick businesses and street cars.

Each generation sees changes the generation before could not have imagined.  To better understand ourselves, it is important that we know the history that came before and shaped who we are.  Lacking that awareness, we will continue to change, but we may leave behind wisdom our ancestors could have shared.

 

Maria Popova concluded her "Brain Pickings" essay with these words: "The triumph of history is tracing the roots--ancient and alive--of our present condition in the world. The Triumph of self-understanding is tracing the roots of the formative influences that make us who we are, that shape the people who shape the world."

A Thrifty Dilema

I was raised to be thrifty. In past blogs I shared my father's habit of carefully using a letter opener, going around the entire envelope of letters he received, stacking the envelopes blank sides up, and stapling the stack. Those were our note pads for shopping lists and game score pads, and we had business envelope size and letter size options. My mother was also thrifty, never wasting leftover food or even the juice from the vegetables, and finding ways to recycle clothing into something new. My father and brother's slacks were just enough to make a straight skirt for me. I have inherited versions of their thriftiness. Because I quilt, it is very difficult for me to throw away fabric scraps. I do use those scraps in quilts, but I have enough fabric to make quilts into the next century!

When our mothers past away--now over a decade ago--they had boxes of unused greeting cards. Unlike today, when most of us go to the card rack to select a particular card for a particular recipient, a generation ago people bought boxes of cards--often an assortment for various occasions. Typically, they used all the birthday cards, with cards such as anniversary or congratulations unused. They would buy a new box of cards to get what they needed, and the unused cards would continue to accumulate. At our mothers' deaths, I inherited those accumulated cards. There is nothing wrong with them, except they do not look like todays' greeting cards. They are in like-new condition--except they look like they were new in the late 1900s. The messages are still appropriate. However, it is obvious that I did not go to town and select that particular card especially for the recipient. Here is my dilema: Is it an insult to send a card from decades ago that will be obvious to the person who receives it that it was not selected especially for them? What is a vintage classic vs. just something old? When does thrifty slip into cheap?!!!

Backgrounds in Virtual Interviews

My husband and I were watching CBS Sunday Morning, as we often do, and one of the guests was Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize Winner, biographer, historian, and political commentator.  As is typical in the coronavirus era, she was being interviewed from her home.  "Look at all of her books," I said, as usual trying to make out some of the titles on the book binders.  "Do you see 'Prairie Bachelor' on her library shelves?" my husband teased.  "Not yet!" I replied.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Later in the show, 98 year old Norman Lear, television writer and producer, was being interviewed.  "You know, you could write a blog about the backgrounds people choose for their virtual interviews," my husband said.  Sure enough, Lear was seated in front of a book case, which also held an  Emmy award, as well as books.

Norman Lear

 I liked my husband's idea.  After all, when I was interviewed for the Fort Hays State University Alumni award last fall, I had carefully chosen the book cases in our dining room as my background.  

Lynda Beck Fenwick

I decided to conduct an experiment, so I went into the kitchen where I could still hear the tv to listen to Sunday Morning, and turned on our small tv to begin switching from channel to channel to take screen shots of whomever was being interviewed at that time.  The first thing I learned from my experiment was how much of our tv viewing time is consumed by commercials, for I was often detained, channel after channel, by commercials!

Peggy Noonan

On NBC's Meet the Press, Peggy Noonan, author, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and perhaps best known for having been the speech writer for President Ronald Reagan, was being interviewed.  A book case appears in the right side of the picture.  

Chris Christi

On ABC This Week I encountered my first fire place background when Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018  and today political commentator and lobbyist, was being interviewed.

Laurie Barrett

Science and the coronavirus were the topics at MSNBC, where science journalist Laurie Garrett was being interviewed.  The crowded book case behind her contained books on many topics, but she is known for her science background and for having won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for her series on Ebola published in News Day.

Andy Puzder

On Fox Business the guest was Andy Puzder, former CEO of CKE Restaurants, and unsuccessful nominee for Secretary of Labor.  He appeared in a traditional executive's room, in which the edge of what appeared to be a fire place could be seen, and on the opposite wall, a painting.  

Jeff Van Drew

 

New Jersey Republican Congressman and dentist, Jeff Van Drew, was the guest on Fox News.  His setting included a fire place.

Erie Foner

At CNN the guest was Erie Foner, a History Professor at Columbia since 1982 and the author of many text books.  Behind him was a crowded book case.

My informal survey began about halfway through CBS Sunday Morning and ended before that program concluded.  Much of my time was taken waiting for commercials to end, even though I moved from channel to channel trying to avoid the delay of the commercials.  I was not selective about choosing the guests in this survey.  Whoever happened to be on the screen on each particular channel became the subject of my screen shots, with whatever background each of them had chosen.

Perhaps not everyone has found it as interesting as I have to observe the background choices of those being interviewed virtually from their homes.  I also enjoy seeing the art people have on their walls, only one example of which appeared in this impromptu survey.  It is also fun to see those who select kitchens for their backgrounds.

The occasional dog bark or the cat who springs into the camera frame add interest, and enthusiastic plant lovers sometimes display potted plants or cut flower displays in vases.  Flowers can be seen in both Noonan's and Christi's screen shots. Some of the settings in the background seem carefully staged, while others look as though not a single thought was given before inviting thousands of viewers into the person's home.

To be honest, when the coronavirus threats are banished and everyone returns to their studios, I am going to miss being invited into their homes.

Election Tragedies

 I have found it difficult to compose this week's blog post and I apologize for the late posting.  It has been a tragic time for our nation, but as many of the blog posts over the past decade have shown, there is often much to be learned by looking to the past.

Stairs inside the refurbished Kansas Capital, Photo:  Lyn Fenwick

In 1893 the populist candidate for governor, Lorenzo D. Lewelling, was sworn into office in the state capital of Topeka.  The People's Party gained the majority in the Kansas Senate as well.  It was in the Kansas House, however, where the outcome of the elections was in turmoil.

In my book, "Prairie Bachelor, The Story of a Kansas Homesteader and the Populist Movement," the description of events is told in Chapter 10, including the important role played by Representative William Campbell, Isaac Werner's friend and neighbor.

As other blogs have expressed, many Kansas homesteaders were Union veterans of the Civil War, and politically they voted Republican in respect for their old leader, Abraham Lincoln.  Consequently, Kansas politics was and remains primarily Republican.  The Democrats were occasionally successful in elections, but Republicans were accustomed to winning.  There was no dispute that the People's Party controlled the Governor's office and the Senate; however, in the House the results were challenged..

Undisputed, the Democrats held 2 seats, and the People's Party held 58 seats.  Disputed, however, were 18 certifications of the 65 seats the Republicans claimed.  Evidence of fraud had been collected to challenge those 18 certifications, and if fraud were found, the majority would shift to the Populists.  A Committee of Fifteen, with five Republicans, five Democrats, and five People's Party members, was assembled to consider the evidence.  Although five of their own members were included on the committee, the Republican leadership refused to acknowledge the authority of the Committee.

Both parties sent messages to the Governor and the Senate that they were ready to do the State's business, and the People's Party members were recognized.  The Republicans refused to accept that recognition.  Both parties elected Speakers and conducted business as if they were authorized.

After 31 days of this legislative standoff, matters erupted.  The governor's appeals to the Republicans were ignored, the militia commander sent to clear the hall refused the command of his superior, the Republicans used a sledgehammer to crash through the locked door of the chambers, unauthorized people were issued weapons by the Republicans, a new militia commander established a position outside the capital...in short, it was a dangerous situation.  The People's Party members finally agreed to allow the State Supreme Court to hear the matter, knowing the Court had a Republican majority which would probably result in a judgement for the Republicans.  It did.

The militia commander was court marshaled, according to military justice, and he was found guilty of refusing to carryout a direct order from his superior.  Two years later, when the Republicans were back in power, the verdict was set aside on political grounds, since it was undisputed that the order he refused had been lawful.  

United States Capital, west side

The greatness of our nation rests upon our magnificent constitution and our laws, state and national.  Not only must those we elect act in good faith under those laws, so must we as citizens.  Loyalty to party is part of the mechanism of government, but it must never be greater than respect for the laws that have knitted together our nation of diverse citizens.  In these times, we must hope that those to whom we have entrusted the protection of our nation act with wisdom and respect for the office they hold. 

Author of the Prairie

Isaac Werner's Homestead Claim Today

It will come as no surprise to those of you who follow my blog that I love Willa Cather.  She was not a Kansan, but she didn't miss it by much, since she spent much of her youth in southcentral Nebraska.  She was born December 7, 1873 in Virginia, but in 1883 when Willa was only ten years old, the family arrived in Nebraska.  The farm on which they first settled was about 20 miles north of the Kansas border, but a year and a half later they moved 16 miles south to Red Cloud.  From a prairie farm to a prairie town, Cather came to know and love the prairie, and that love is revealed in much of her writing.

Somewhere I read an unattributed quote that goes like this:  Anyone can love the beauty of the mountains, but it takes someone special to love the prairie.  Cather certainly loved both and used both in her books, but she had a special feeling for the prairie.  That is why I wish more Kansans would read Cather.  Our state is not often the featured landscape for novelists, but the prairie is featured in many of Cather's short stories and novels, as is occasionally our state.

Some of those to whom I have recommended Cather have found the pace of her stories too slow.  It is true that they aren't action filled.  But, part of that is the result of her attention to setting, character, and particularly to descriptions of nature.  I might paraphrase the quote above:  It may be easier to love a book filled with action and adventure, but it is worth immersing yourself in a book filled with deep explorations of characters and setting.

Willa Cather

So, why is my New Years blog about Willa Cather?

During the era of covid-19, many of us have found ourselves at home, away from activities that would usually occupy our time.  Several of my friends have mentioned turning to books.  Perhaps this is a good time to try Willa Cather.

Although I have read all of her novels and many of her short stories, there remain stories that I have not read.  An internet friend and writer has created The Willa Cather Short Story Project, in which followers have the opportunity/challenge to read a Cather short story a month.  I signed up!  All of the stories are available at the Willa Cather Archive on line, so it is not necessary to buy any books.  Those who sign up can simply read along or can comment.  As my friend who has originated the project says:  "The point is to read Willa Cather with pleasure, whatever that looks like for you."

Photo credit:  Lyn Fenwick

Which brings me back to my particular love for Cather...for I just finished one of the short stories, "The Clemency of the Court," from which the following quote is taken.

The love of the plains was strong in him.  It had always been so, ever since he was a little fellow, when the brown grass was up to his shoulders and the straw stacks were the golden mountains of fairy land.  Men from the cities on the hills never understand this love, but the men from the plain country know what I mean.

This New Years blog is about using the opportunity that staying at home offers to read some of those books you have put off reading.  I know that many of you are already doing more reading than usual, but might it be fun to direct your reading in a particular way--to organize a personal project that you would enjoy during this unusual confinement at home.  I did that earlier with my marathon reading of all the Harry Potter series, and that was fun.  Maybe you have a set of Churchill's World War series or Sandburg's Lincoln that has been gathering dust.  Maybe it is poetry you prefer, and you could read a poem a day.

I understand that for some of us, the annual New Years resolution to go on a diet is needed this year more than ever! but maybe reading is a good way to keep your mind off the refrigerator too!  I will be reading Cather short stories as my resolution.  As I often do with my New Years post, you are invited to share your resolutions with me!

Merry Christmas from My Friend Mary Ann

Photo credit:  Lyn Fenwick

I know that Christmas letters are often the butt of jokes, but they would not be if they were all written by our friend Mary Ann Marko!  She has given me permission to share her 2020 Christmas letter on my blog, and you are in for a treat!  (Only the images are mine.)

What to Make of a Covid Year

From January whisperings about a strange disease in a faraway land, to March when things began to look ominous, to the present, which finds us engulfed in a world pandemic, we have all taken a ride through some kind of a Sci-Fi horror movie.  Now we come into this season of gratitude and try to conjure up something we can to be thankful for.  No matter what, I will always be grateful for the moon, elephants, and cottonwood trees.  I am also grateful for the optimists who try to fill our cup at least half full with their postings of stunning sunsets, blooming flowers, jokes that force a smile, and photos of happy days.  We long to be with family and friends during this season, but are thankful for our warm, safe house to weather out this virus storm.  We are grateful, too, for Zoom that lets us at least see the faces we long to touch--to hold their hands.

Photo credit:  Lyn Fenwick

Sheltering at home has brought its own set of challenges.  Those dreams of long ago, when life was a frenzy of even a few hours alone with my sweetie, have turned to accusations of stalking.  (He says he was just trying to put the clothes away.)  We stop.  Regroup.  Find ways to make space for each other, seal the deal with a kiss, and carry on.

When the news unnerves us, we remember we have Netflix, with the Tiger King and that chess girl, and The Crown.  We open another puzzle; read another book.  Our yearning for sweets triumphs over any resolution to eat healthy.  Kale and carrots do not do what Twin Bings and Blue Bell ice cream can do to tamp down the stress and sooth the spirit.  

We stay up late and get up late.  We bring in the paper with its predictable bad news, drink coffee, scroll face book, and now it's noon.  Lunch.  I need a nap.  Billy Collins reads poems to us in the afternoons and Heather Cox teaches us history lessons.  OLLI offers courses on line--very good ones--and I remember to tune into about half of them.  I have learned about flying buttresses, Neanderthals, viruses, crocodile, and all manner of animals and insects, how my brain functions, and how Google plays with it.  I have learned more about the constitution, and how, like the Bible, it can be manipulated to fit most anything one chooses to believe.  In searching for truth, I have learned to question everything I ever thought I knew.

Irregular adherence to safety measures keeps us home from church, grocery store, and everywhere else.  And so, we watch Mass on television (with coffee and cinnamon roll), order groceries, and everything else on line--staying safe, we hope.

Yesterday on my walk, I saw a neighbor's yard strung with bedding, and chairs sitting outdoors with a basket of disinfectants beside them.  My husband tells me there was an ambulance there when he came home from PT.  We hunker down even tighter.

Photo credit: Lyn Fenwick & Emy

If we travel next year (a vaccine and a thumb's up from Dr. Fauci being the key to our traveling), it will be to memorial services that are increasing, as is the pain of not being able to share the grief with family and friends in real time.

The giant poinsettia gifted us by a friend to usher in the season will be all the decoration we need for this year.  I am eagerly waiting for the stores to stock candied fruit so I can make fruitcake--I'm ready to open that apricot brandy.

We will spend Christmas home alone, happy in the knowledge we are protecting our families, and they us.  We await the Baby in a Manger to lighten all our burdens.  And when this year comes to a close, we will celebrate its departure by stomping on something and then banging pots and pans while demanding a new and vastly improved 2021!

My thanks to these special friend of ours, Mary Ann, for sharing her humor and wisdom, and to her husband, Gene, for providing her with such great material.  May the Holiday Season bring all our friends and blog followers the grace and humor of this message, and may the new year bring us kindness and health.   

Two Special Blog Followers

 The challenges of Covid-19 have reminded  us just how important friends are.  I am certainly appreciative of my friends, made so visible by their support for my book and by their continued following of my blog.  And, I must add, the appreciation of staying in touch through many years with their annual Christmas cards and letters, and the new novelty of zoom.  I have missed seeing or hearing from others, as the opportunities which would have allowed us to stay in touch in the past are now impossible.

Many of us have stayed in touch through face book, and others have followed my blog.  This week's blog shares the fun of both ways I have connected with friends.

What fun to open my face book reminder about Isaac Werner's construction of a neighbor's house, posted December 10, 2020, to discover that somebody "Loved It."

Unfortunately for me, they loved it so much they wanted more information about the county section number, information that I did not have.  My blog had only indicated the general direction and distance from Isaac's claim.  While I was considering how to reply, I realized someone else had answered the question.

That was a relief, since my research records compiled while writing the book focus more on Stafford County legal descriptions, although Isaac had many friends and business acquaintances in Pratt County.

However, what it also reminded me was how much is now available online that I needed to use other reference sources to find when I was doing my research.  The conversation between my two face book friends had not only shared the certificate number and date of issue , but also an image of the certificate.

My information about this particular topic had come from Isaac's journal, a rare source material that included the number of days the construction took and the amount Isaac was paid for his labor.  I had also interviewed a family descendant, which was helpful in distinguishing for whom the work was done, since two brothers had the same surname and lived in the same community.  However, since the Moore brothers were friends but not major characters in my book, I did not take the time to go further.  My face book friends found the information online in no time at all.

 However, this story does not end.  An image of the location was also supplied before I had time to praise the two online sleuths for sharing their research.  

In past blogs I have commented on the disappointments that technology has brought to communication--the extreme rarity of a personal letter, the greater likelihood that people will correspond by text that by e-mail, and the rarity of a chatty phone call.  

Yet, this face book exchange illustrates the other side of technology.  Three people shared information, and the chain of the conversation was not begun by a request.  Perhaps that is one part of the technology that is overlooked.  I posted my blog without any expectation that I would receive information that I didn't have, and unexpectedly, all three of us learned something new.

The challenge to all of us, young and old, is to discover and utilize the new possibilities, but to do so without the loss of benefits from the old possibilities.  If nothing else, the Covid-19 isolation has shown us that we miss the smiles behind the masks (and bless us for wearing those!), we miss the impromptu meetings with friends at the grocery store, and we miss the traditional rituals that bring strangers together--the clerks in stores, the strangers we are seated beside at programs and sporting events, the distant relatives at family reunions...  If Covid-19 should have taught us anything, it should have reminded us that privilege and class mean nothing to the virus, and neither should our sadness for those the virus has taken.  If we have missed those impromptu connections with friends, acquaintances, and strangers, perhaps we have also learned the significance of smiles, thank yous, and traditional courtesies (like holding the door for someone whose hands are full).  And, like remembering the common humanity in all of us.   

Finding Descendants of Isaac's Friends

A simple sod house in early Kansas.

When my husband and I returned to Kansas in retirement and rescued the old homestead that had been vacant for several years, our return to the family home represented the 4th generation of my family to occupy the ancestral home.  There are other generational families in the community but it is increasingly rare for a family to occupy the same dwelling that their ancestors occupied.

Such families were more common in my youth, and when I began the research for my book about Isaac Werner and his community, I tried to arrange interviews with descendants of people who either homesteaded or arrived early in the communities near Isaac Werner's claims.  Some of the older people I interviewed still lived in the area, but many others had moved away.  

It is a special treat for me to talk with descendants whose ancestors knew Isaac Werner and who are mentioned in Isaac's journal.  The man I mention in this blog is Robert P. Moore, and the ancestor to whom I spoke is a relative although not a direct descendant.  This remote family member still lives in the area Isaac described in his journal.  He told me how his own ancestor mowed all the way to Iuka so that when he walked there he could follow a mowed path.  Isaac did the same thing, mowing from his homestead to the Emerson School, so that when he walked to meetings held at the school house he didn't have to walk through tall grass, especially on rainy nights.

Robert P. Moore was five years younger than Isaac, and he was born in Kentucky to Andrew J. and Rebecca Moore.  By 1880, Isaac Werner had been in Stafford County about five years, but Robert P. Moore was still in Kentucky, living in Cordova, KY, with his wife Martha (also called Marthy) and engaged in farming.  However, within five years Robert and Martha were in Kansas, having settled about 3 1/2 miles southeast of Isaac Werner's claim.

My assumption is that they had not lived there too long, for they hired Isaac to build their house.  Of course, many settlers built temporary abodes when they first arrived on the prairie--dugouts, sod houses, simple wooden shelters, or even tents, and Robert P. Moore's family may have build such a temporary structure before proceeding with a house.

Sometimes one member of a family would come to stake a claim, and other family members would follow.  In his journal, Isaac mentions "staid overnight at Jim Moore's," but I am not certain of the family connection between the two men.

On January 30, 1885, Isaac got his tools ready to start building Bob Moore's house.  His journal entries describe a 2-story building, with two gable windows on the second story.  Isaac's February 8, 1885 entry documents having completed the finishing touches of laying the floor and hanging the door.  He had worked 8 ten-hour days, plus "1/4th hour", for which he was owed $12.10 and was paid $10.00 cash.

Isaac was known as a talented craftsman, and before he got his horse, he often did building jobs for cash to earn money to hire others to break sod for his farm.  He continued carpentry jobs throughout his life, including furniture and cupboards, and his tools sold well at his estate sale.  The obituary his family wrote for publication back in Pennsylvania described both Isaac's fine farm and his gifts as a carpenter. 

Zooming with Isaac Werner

 On December 1, 2020 the Fort Hays State University Foundation, Alumni Association, and Forsyth Library hosted a zoom book launch for my book, "Prairie Bachelor, The Story of a Kansas Homesteader and the Populist Movement."  I am late posting this blog, because since arriving home after the event until a few minutes ago, I have been sending messages and thank you's to not only the people who made the event possible at FHSU and The University Press of Kansas but all of the wonderful people who shared the zoom event.  If I have missed anybody, please forgive me.  So many were involved in the work it took to create the event and the effort to register and clear the evening to attend the celebration, especially for those who had never zoomed before.  To everyone, thank you for a perfectly wonderful evening!  

Isaac Beckley Werner's stone

When we left our farm to go to Hays, Kansas, home of Fort Hays State University, I asked my husband to make a special detour.  The book, "Prairie Bachelor," shares the story of a particular region leading up to and during the Populist Movement, as well as the other events happening across the nation during that time.  But, at its heart is Isaac Beckley Werner, his 480-page journal, and the articles he wrote for the populist newspaper, 'The County Capital.'  Isaac Werner has been a part of our lives for a decade now, and I wanted to pause at the lovely old Neelands Cemetery, where Isaac and so many of his neighbors are buried, to share a moment at his stone.

 

Mary, Larry, Lyn, and Leslie

That was only the beginning of a remarkable day.  When we arrived at the Forsyth Library, everything was set up so professionally that I knew it was going to be a great evening.  We were greeted by representatives of the Foundation, the Alumni Association, and the Library, and pictured are Mary Hamond, Larry and I, and Leslie Haas.

I cannot begin to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the evening.  When the Dean of the Library, Deb Ludwig, asked me if they could host a zoom book launch, I was thrilled.  Deb's last day in that position was the Friday before the event, but she will not be leaving entirely, a fortunate save for FHSU!  She led the planning for the event, but so many others contributed their talents as well, and they made everything work beautifully.  All I had to do was show up!  Since I have rarely left the house since February, showing up was a bit of a big deal, but we wore our masks and social distanced (this brief photograph being the only bit of a violation of the social distancing...but with masks on!).

Photo by Larry Fenwick

Every person who came was special, and those who braved learning how to zoom for the first time were particularly special.  There were 22 states represented among those who registered for the event, and one guest from Ukraine.  Those of you who follow this blog may have noticed many comments from my international friend Allen, originally Canadian.  Early in my blog a mutual friend who lives in Kansas suggested to Allen that he might enjoy my blog, and he became a regular follower of the blog.

Another group certainly deserves mention, for descendants of Isaac Werner's uncle were present as a family, including 92-year-young Jim Werner, whom I met in Wernersville 8 years ago and who was very helpful with my research, and Susan Davis, the great-great granddaughter of Isaac Werner's youngest sister, whom I met on Ancestry.com early in my research and who shared family history and photographs with me as well.

I am sincere when I say that everyone who joined the celebration and many that were unable to join is special.  Many shared stories about their ancestors, some shared images, one gifted to me a book signed by Isaac that she discovered in a library deacquisition sale, others serve on museum boards and are directors of museums, are newspaper publishers and writers, others worked in libraries, courthouses, and in Hains Church in Wernersville.  Others followed my blog for a decade or are friends and strangers who continued to ask about the progress of the book.  It is dangerous to start naming so many reasons to be thankful for the help and encouragement I have received because I will unintentionally leave someone out--but not in my heart.  Sharing the zoom celebration was just one way to acknowledge how many people contributed to my completion of "Prairie Bachelor."   

 

Photo credit: Larry Fenwick

A special group in attendance were those from the University Press of Kansas.  It was not easy producing a book in the midst of Covid-19, but they did it.  I have personally thanked those present to celebrate with me through zoom, but there are so many others that made the book possible.

Deb planned the zoom book launch to be an informal gathering, a group of friends enjoying an evening with their favorite beverage, having an informal conversation with the author of a new book.  We discussed various topics but we had no script, no pre-planned  Q & A.  We wanted everyone to relax and have fun.  I hope everyone did just that.  I know that I did, and I think the photograph taken during the gathering makes it clear that I was having a great time.

Thank you to everyone who not only attended the zoom book launch but who encouraged and helped me along the way, particularly my biggest fan, Larry D. Fenwick.  I hope Isaac Werner would be pleased by the book his journal inspired, "Prairie Bachelor, The Story of a Kansas Homesteader and the Populist Movement," available at www.kansaspress.ku.edu or to order by phone at 785-864-4155, or online or your favorite book store. 

The link to watch the celebration is https://youtu.be/7cMTRbHino4 . 

Thankfulness in Difficult Times

The illustrations of Norman Rockwell captured American traditions so perfectly that they continue to resonate with us today, but Thanksgiving 2020 for most of us is going to be different.  Perhaps we will roast the turkey just as we do every Thanksgiving, but for many of us, family will not be gathered around the table.  Even so, we have reasons to be thankful.  This week's blog will share some of the reasons I have to be thankful, and I hope my abbreviated list of gratitude will remind us that although 2020 has brought loss and disharmony, there are also reasons to give thanks.

Credit:  Lyn Fenwick

If you are searching for a reason to be thankful, one reason is obvious.  Many people are making our lives easier by their sacrifices and volunteering, from those who continue to go to work every day so that we can buy products we need to those who volunteer at food distribution locations, to thousands in between.  But perhaps those for whom we must be most thankful are the health care providers who put their lives at risk, disrupt their own families, and break their hearts with the suffering they see around them--doing their jobs to help the rest of us.

 

In a time during which Covid-19 reminds us how fragile life can be, the importance of family and friends become more apparent.  A decade and a half ago, descendants of the first occupants to live in the house behind them gathered at the farm where we had often celebrated holidays.  Today, several of those in the photograph are gone, but the memories of good times together at this place with family and friends remain, and those memories are another reason to be thankful.

 This year, although tragedy and need will fill our memories, I have many reasons to be particularly thankful to many people.  To Fort Hays State University, for special recognition at Homecoming (celebrated virtually) and to the upcoming zoom celebration they are hosting Dec. 1st for the release of my book, "Prairie Bachelor, The Story of a Kansas Homesteader and the Populist Movement."  Too many people have been part of those two events to recognize them individually!  To the University Press of Kansas and the many people who played an important role in publishing my book in the middle of a pandemic.  To Lucille M. Hall, and those who keep her dream of a museum in St. John, Kansas alive--the museum in which Isaac Werner's journal was found.  To so many others that I cannot name, who loaned family images for the book, who encouraged me not to give up on the manuscript for over a decade, who followed my blog, who aided my research in museums and libraries, who welcomed me in a church in Wernersville and introduced me to a Werner descendant, who helped me find Werner graves, who ordered the book months ago and continue to place orders, who were strangers who shared information on Ancestry.com and face book.  I was inspired to write the book because a stranger who died decades ago recorded the stories of his neighbors.  I wrote the book with his journal at its heart because I wanted to preserve the history of the struggles and courage of those early settlers for another generation to read.

Credit:  Lyn Fenwick

Each day, as I sit at my computer to write this blog and as I sat at the computer sharing Isaac Werner's story, this photograph at left is my view.  The lumber in the old part of the building you see came from the tenant house my grandfather built for his fulltime farm worker, which my father recycled to build their garage, and which my husband and I used to expand the building.  All of us build on top of what was left to us by those who came before us, and we leave behind what future generations will build upon.

I hope "Prairie Bachelor" will share with young readers today and in the future the struggles and achievements of those who came before them, and the hopes and dreams those forefathers and foremothers had for their descendants to come.  It is a pattern repeated generation after generation all around the world, and it is important to remind ourselves to be thankful of what those ancestors, and the choices and sacrifices they made,   did for us.  We should not forget people like Isaac Werner, and countless other forgotten men and women, who left no descendants but made a difference, whether large or small, documented or not, for those of us who followed.

  

Thank you to so many people who have made this a remarkable year for so many, facing difficult times  with courage and generosity. 

Holidays in Unusual Times

For many of us--limiting or cancelling things that take us from our homes and eliminating most social occasions--the days begin to blur and run together, one no different from the rest. Seasons change but traditional occasions go uncelebrated--no fireworks on the 4th of July, no parades on Labor Day. I find myself needing to check my phone to confirm what day it is.

I have decided that although no family or friends gather at our home to celebrate, it remains important to recognize special occasions as more than just another day.

My decorating began with Halloween, and although there were no trick-or-treaters, witches and pumpkins and crows assumed their customary places. The morning after Halloween, they went back into their boxes for another year, and Thanksgiving decorations took their places.

My grocery shopping list includes the ingredients for our favorite pumpkin cake, and the turkey awaits in the freezer. My mother's ceramic topiary stands atop the vent shelf over the range, a special memory not only of the artistic talent she shared in so many ways but also a memory of the many family Thanksgivings celebrated in this house over four generations. Isaac Werner's journal describes many holidays, most of which he celebrated alone. In 1887 times were particularly difficult for farmers on the Kansas prairie. On Thanksgiving Day, he wrote: "Everybody busy with their work, little thanking for short crops and hard times, going ahead with the hay' [haying?] more promises ahead to accomplish something."

Isaac's journal entry for Thanksgiving 1888 was more encouraging. On November 29, 1888, he wrote: "Fair like day to work, very favorable to prepare for winter and gathering corn, and make one feel thankful for it [even] if he can't afford a Thanksgiving turkey. At night dance to be at Garvin's barn. Last Saturday he bought and shipped bulk of loose fat hogs in neighborhood shipped from Macksville, bringing a little cash to many needy ones." The sadness brought by Covid-19 is severe, but it is important to remind ourselves of the things we have for which to be thankful. As Isaac wrote, even if we can't afford a turkey, there is still reason to dance!

The Challenges of Keeping a Journal in Early Days

 

One of the followers of this blog commented on how seeing Isaac Werner's signature moved her, bringing him to life in a way that his transcribed words alone could not do.  I have shared in an earlier blog post  how special it was for me to receive the gift of a book in which Isaac had written his name.  Although I still long for the discovery of a photograph of Isaac, his signature remains almost as intimate.  

Of course, I spent months transcribing his 480 page journal, so I can certainly recognize his writing.  Early blogs have explored the significance of dropping cursive writing from the curriculum of public schools.  The art of a distinctive penmanship has been a mark of education and aesthetic appreciation for generations, and the abandonment of that discipline is regretted as disappointing by many of us. 

In past years I was often complimented for my style of printing.  Today, I am more likely to be complimented for my cursive script.  Either way, I believe how we write introduces us in a particular way.  Many graduates of the past decade no longer have been taught cursive, and even their training in printing is treated as only an adjunct to the "real" writing they will be doing electronically.  In short, writing by hand is not taught as particularly important, and it certainly is not considered an extension of the writer's personality, respectfulness, or education.

Transcribing Isaac's penmanship from his journal was challenging, not because his writing was careless but rather because of how densely he often wrote and because some of the lettering was of a style no longer used.

However, the biggest problem was the ink.  I suspect that living far from town without a horse may have caused Isaac to stretch his ink by adding water when he noticed the ink well getting low and he had no plans for a trip to town.  The paleness of the ink did not appear to be the result of fading through  exposure to sunlight.

In 2016, the Berk's History Center republished the April 12, 1946 article by Luke Sutliff titled "An Old Recipe for the Making of Ink.  The recipe was taken from a 1748 German Almanac.  "It often happens that if people in our country have something to write they will take gunpowder and water, and make ink, and write with it."  The author of the recipe complained that when the gunpowder and water ink dried, it not only smeared but could be wiped off the paper.

Instead, his recipe suggested "pulverize a piece of cherry tree gum the size of a bean, let it dissolve in as much water as half an egg shell can hold and add the [gun?] powder afterward for then the ink will not wipe out."  The author also suggested "gallnuts from oak trees in the late summer when they are ready to fall and are soft" with a recipe including vinegar, vitriol and gum added later.

The ink recipes sounded confusing to me, but the 1946 article had added an ink recipe from the 1943 World Book Encyclopedia, and I hoped it might be simpler.  It wasn't!  It involved a "pound of bruised nutgalls, one gallon boiling water, five and one-third ounces of sulphate of iron..., three ounces gum Arabic previously dissolved, and a few drops of antiseptic such as carbolic acid."  I failed to make it through the details of steeping and straining.

Not only do I now understand why Isaac would have preferred to buy his ink in town and water it a bit if he ran low before he anticipated another trip to town.  I am also grateful for my ball point pens!