×
×
homepage logo

Remember When: A Community Review for Dec. 14, 2016

By Janet Burnett, Ray Stockman, Kris Roberts - | Dec 15, 2016

10 years ago: Dec. 13, 2006

The weather outside was frightful, but a handful of children braved Thursday night’s frigid temperatures to attend the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at Tonganoxie’s VFW Park. Four children assisted in turning on the tree lights.

Frances Korb died last week at the age of 92.

Her great-grandparents homesteaded south of Tonganoxie. Her father attended school in the Friends Academy, which in the late 1800’s stood at the northwest corner of Fifth and Shawnee.

Throughout her life, Korb said, she made do with what she had. She recalled as a child wearing boots she made from old rubber tubing and binder twine.

She and her husband, Ed, ran a milk route from their Reno home. She raised chickens, helped her husband with the dairy and put away 500 to 600 cans of homegrown produce every year.

Korb said she loved doing farm work.

“It didn’t hurt,” she said several years ago, her eyes sparkling as she smiled. “I lived this long.”

The fire department is readying their annual Santa Secret Shop, where children can purchase low-cost gift items to give to family and friends. The shop which is located at the fire department will be open from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.

25 years ago: Dec. 18, 1991

The Tonganoxie school board members voted unanimously to enter into a lease-to-buy option on the 80 acres of land owned by the McConahey and Himpel families.

At approximately 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, December 11, a military ambulance helicopter was forced to land in a field north of highway 5, behind the Sunset Motel in Tonganoxie.

The pilot stated that he and his crew were returning to Fort Riley after completing a patient transfer mission into Kansas City when he noticed a caution light on the instrument panel. The crew isolated the problem which was in the rear rudder and was able to repair it from the field.

Many sewers in Tonganoxie were built in 1922. Normally, the sewers can handle 225,000 gallons of water, but, when it rains, water goes into the deteriorating pipes and millions of gallons of water flows through them. In early 1990, the city authorized up to $1,000,000 to be spent on the collection system. The city has now requested a loan from the Dept. of Health and Environment, which will mean there will be no need to increase taxes to pay for repairs and replacements on the sewer system.

Work on the sewer system will be carried on throughout the city. It may be difficult to find older parts of the system. Some may be located in people’s front yards.


50 years ago: Dec. 15, 1966

The Tonga Basketball team continues winning, with victories against the Hiawatha Redskins (62 -51) and Effingham Tigers (50-48). 

Santa will be at the Laming Garage Building 1 -5 pm on Saturday with candy for the kids.

USD 464’s new band director, Joe Weigand, is rapidly expanding the band program with upcoming classes that will enlarge the current 15-member high school band. 

Savings accounts with 5 percent interest are available at Citizens’ Mutual Building and Loan.

The recently renovated Greenwell Packing Plant was advertising a complete side of beef for 47 cents per pound.

Korb Electric just received new Color Televisions just in time for Christmas. 


75 years ago: Dec. 11, 1941

Dec. 7 was a black Sunday in our little hamlet as it was everywhere else in these United States. People sat by their radios listening to the incredible news unfold of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The editor notes that our US policy of isolationism is a vanished mirage. The fighting will cost many of us more than money.

One tip to parents of boys in the Pacific — no news is the best news right now. The government has no extra resources to spare on those individuals who are alright. Lloyd Mills, secretary of the Leavenworth county Selective Service reports that 22 men will be inducted from Tonganoxie, Lenape, Linwood, Jarbalo, Basehor and Easton. They will be processed in Leavenworth.

Barbara Whitaker, granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dick Whitaker of Tonganoxie is featured in a motion picture, “Radio Rhythm” being shown at the Granada Theatre in Kansas City.

A Christmas Reminder from J.C. Laming- What better Christmas present could you give the wife, than an insurance policy in her favor in the Banker’s Life!

100 years ago: Dec. 14, 1916

The high price of furs this season has gotten a lot of the small boys industrious trapping skunks, but it seems as though they have not been able to anywhere near all.

Last week a man named Higgins, from Lawrence, made a trip up Nine-Mile creek from Reno, and captured 32 of the varmints. When he got back from the trip he was well loaded down. The man received over $100 for the furs her captured.

On Monday Dec. 18, a Home Talent Play will be given entitled, “Her Gloves.” The plot of the play is woven around a pair of gloves which were picked up on the yacht of a man, after he and his father-in-law had taken a sail in which they refused to allow their wives to accompany them.

The play, at Laming’s Hall, is lively, full of complications, and uproariously funny. Local talent includes Foster Laming, Ray Ridgway, Dr. J. E. Watkins, W. Chandler, Mrs. J. E. Watkins, Grace Zoellner, Evilo Green, Ruby White, and Mabel McNaughton.

at Laming’s Hall.

125 years ago: Dec. 10, 1891

Fairmount Features: Our inventive geniuses Ed Allen and Marian Woodward have been very busy lately, making cider. They partake freely we know, for they declare they saw a man setting fence posts in a snow drift west of their shop.

Chicago women who are plunged into the depths of melancholy by the discovery that the law which purports to give them the right to vote for school officers is simply a fraud and a deceit, should take heart. The experience of Boston has shown that the fashion of voting, like other feminine fads, is but transitory, and does not persist through two consecutive elections. Last year 8,300 women registered in that city, while this year but 1,600 made preparation to avail themselves of that right of suffrage which seems so precious to woman until she gets it.

Honey Valley Alliance will have an open meeting a week from Saturday evening.

The east bound North western passenger train had a diminutive wreck at McLouth this morning.

The threads of a pipe broke in the engine of the Roller Mill Monday, and the steam blew the pipe out. The escaping steam extinguished the fire and cleared the engine room of all its occupants. The break was repaired again that day.