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Remember when: A community review of Tonganoxie

By Billie Aye - | Aug 23, 2011

10 years ago: Aug. 8, 2001

Prehistoric home discovered: Floodwaters uncover pottery, stone tools… June 13, Scott DeMaranville made one of his regular treks through Leavenworth County, looking for evidence of Indians who lived hundreds of years ago (Mr. DeMaranville came across an area that had burned logs and he saw items protruding though the ground. In that 20 by 30 foot area, he knew he’d made a significant find. He called a University of Kansas anthropologist about the site, uncovered by flooding. The site dated back to 1000 to 1400 and was once a nearly 700-square-foot dwelling. A photograph showed Brad Logan, anthropologist, holding a “seed bowl.”).

Deaths: Mary Agnes Hubbel, 90, Bonner Springs, died Aug. 1, 2001; Lucile Agnes Knapp, 74, Tonganoxie, died Aug. 3, 2001.

(Caption under picture.) Tonganoxie dentist Grant Ritchey stands atop Mount Adams, a 12,242-foot mountain in south central Washington. Ritchey and about 15 other dentists climbed the summit as a fund-raiser. (The climb was an annual fundraiser for Operation Smile, Ritchey said, a charity that primarily provides oral surgery and plastic surgery to the underprivileged who have severe dental problems, such as cleft palates. At last tally, the group had raised about $60,000 for Operation Smile. Ritchey alone brought in almost $4,000, donations made by friends and family.)

Birth: Gary and Jill Rogers, Tonganoxie, a son, Brendan William, born July 4, 2001.

25 years ago: Aug. 6, 1986

Sunday, Aug. 3, the families of the late Witt and Grace Wiehe met at Wyandotte County Park for their annual reunion.

The John Brackett reunion took place at the Ruby Crank farm in July.

Deaths: Robert Leroy Grems, 53, Bonner Springs, died Aug. 4, 1986; Mrs. Sylvia Soetaert, 87, Tonganoxie, died Aug. 4, 1986; Mrs. Jean M. Harman, 66, Tonganoxie, died Aug. 4, 1986; John August Norman, 69, Oskaloosa, died following a heart attack Monday.

Birth: Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kolman, a son, Andrew Robert, born Aug. 5, 1986.

Jarbalo Jottings: Rachel Clark celebrated her third birthday Aug. 3, at the home of her parents, Phil and Betty Clark.

Approximately 15,000 people attended the annual McLouth Steam Engine show and Threshing Bee during the weekend.

50 years ago: Aug. 24, 1961

Bill New, Leavenworth, an International Farm Youth Exchange delegate to Turkey from June to December, writes of his experiences for the readers of this newspaper (Mr. New was a junior in agricultural economics at Kansas State University in Manhattan and was a former member of the Hornets 4-H club in Leavenworth. A detailed article told of his many experiences in Turkey.).

Smoke Signals by J.J.N. The Mirror cannot publish letters, right, wrong, or indifferent unless they have the writer’s signature. Even then, we call the person to make sure they really wrote it, even before it is printed.

Walt Neibarger plans to retire Sept. 1 from the governor’s office in Topeka after serving as executive assistant to Gov. John Anderson Jr., since last Dec. 15. He completes almost 23 years in the state government as follows: chairman state planning board 1939; budget dept. 1940; Supreme Court 1943-60. In addition he served 24 years as Mayor-Councilman at Tonganoxie and six years as member of grade school board, a total of 52 years in state and local government. Some of this, of course, overlapped.

75 years ago: July 30, 1936

John H. Meinke, age 81 years and 11 months died very suddenly Saturday evening, July 25, at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Etta Campbell, in Lawrence.

Will West was telling grasshopper stories at Valley Falls last night, said one got inside his shirt and bit him. When hoppers start biting Republicans, it’s time to do something.

Neighboring towns… How Eudora was named: Eudora, Douglas County town, was named in honor of Eudora Fish, daughter of an Indian chief, Pascal Fish. Fish settled there with his tribe many years before the white men came. He built the first log house, which was called the “Fish House” and served as a sort of hotel. Eudora Weekly.

Birth: Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Gilliland, Linwood, a daughter, July 21, 1936; Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Turpin, an 8-pound son, Billy Vernon, born July 25 in Leavenworth.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hedderman are driving a new Ford V8; Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Allison are driving a new pick up truck purchased this week.

Raymond A. Allen left Tuesday for San Diego, Calif., where he is enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps.

100 years ago: Aug. 10, 1911

Lem Evans is one of the survivors of the battle of Wilson’s Creek, Mo., and he says the feature story in last Sunday’s Star is incorrect when it says the Union soldiers slain in that battle were not buried. He and six others, all soldiers who had been wounded and had been left behind at Springfield, urged on by the taunts of the Confederates that the Union Army would not bury its dead, went to the battle field 11 days after the battle and buried 268 bodies of Union soldiers. The only assistance they had was from a farmer who hauled the bodies to a four feet trench sixteen at a time and was paid $10 per day for his services. The volunteers spent four days at this work. For years afterward Mr. Evans said that every time he took a cold he could taste and smell the horrible odor that they had to encounter in those four days.

C.B. Harmon, representing the Journal-World, was in town Saturday, soliciting subscribers for that newspaper.

Ivan Sechrest has gone the two motorcycle mail carriers one better by getting an auto. He started going on Route 2 with an auto Monday and shortens up his day’s work considerably. He makes the trip almost as quickly as the motorcycle carriers.

Life is getting to be just one hot spell after another.

Frank Stone put two incubator thermometers in the shade on his porch yesterday afternoon and they both registered 106. Incubator thermometers are true.

Will Loomis is building another silo on his farm on Stranger. The new one will be larger, the dimensions to be 18×37 and will hold 200 tons.