25 years ago: April 26, 2000

On May 4, The Mirror will celebrate its 118th birthday, and the newspaper’s staff would like our readers to join us for an afternoon open house. We’d like all of our readers to come over to our offices at 520 E. Fourth and have a piece of cake.

Earth Day celebration at Tonganoxie Elementary School included a play based on the children’s book, “The Great Kepok Tree,” by Lynne Cherry. Ruth Wickey’s first-grade students performed the play for others at TES.

When Donna Wiley takes a break for a snack during the Leavenworth County Fair, she’ll be eating in the pavilion named in her honor. Wiley, president of the Leavenworth County 4-H Foundation, was surprised Saturday night during the foundation’s second annual meeting with the news that the fairgrounds pavilion would be named in her honor. Wiley’s work with Leavenworth County 4-H started in 1963, when her children became involved. “We organized the Reno Bobwhite 4-H Club,” said Wiley. “Nobody wanted to be community leader, and I said, ‘Oh, I’ll do that for a year.’ It went on for 30 years.”

50 years ago: May 8, 1975

Work has begun on the new Providence-St. Margaret Hospital at 90th and Parallel, Kansas City, Kansas. This will be another major improvement for Western Wyandotte County.

Linwood is to have a new post office, to be located on a tract just east of the Sherman Township Fire Station and the Fina Service Station. Linwood serves about 400 families in town and on Route 1. It has two clerks: Eudora Windelman and Dottie Pritchard and a carrier Dean Kirkman. Bill Anderson served as a rural carrier there from 1919 to 1956.

Marilyn Haas, a Kansas University junior from Tonganoxie, has been chosen as the outstanding Sellars Scholarship Hall resident at KU. Also, Miss Haas was elected to the 1975-76 All Scholarship Hall Council. She will be taking the office of vice president of the scholarship council. Miss Haas is an elementary education major and the former president of Sellars Scholarship Hall. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John G. Haas.

In an effort to provide for the district students, new school additions are being built onto both the high school and grade school buildings. The additions have been under construction all winter and are expected to be ready for use before the fall school term begins. The new addition to the grade school spans the gap between the present grade school and the junior high.

Walter C. Walden died at the age of 79. He was born at Basehor in 1896 and lived his life on the same Walden Farm where he was born. He and Edith celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary recently. He was one of the organizers of the Leavenworth Co. Soil Conservation District. In 1955, the Waldens made a trip around the world with KCMO’s World Farm Tours. Walter C. Walden was a living legend around Basehor and in Leavenworth County as well.

The Tonganoxie varsity track team completely destroyed the rest of the league in the league meet, beating the nearest competitor by 43 points.

75 years ago: May 4, 1950

Mother’s Day, Spring Teas and Dinner Dates are in store for you when you purchase a pair of Rosebud gloves. These beautiful cotton soft mitts, adorned with a Dawnelle kip seam shortie will be sure to accentuate slim fingers. Winner of the Fashion Academy Award-get yours for only $2.00 per pair at Weaver’s in Lawrence.

Polio insurance policies are available at Lloyd Mills Agency for an individual or a family. This pays from that first day polio manifests itself and thereafter with benefits for three years of treatment.  

Well, the cleanup committee keeps rolling in the complaints. Number 1 of course, the outdoor toilets, followed by dilapidated buildings on private grounds, carcasses in a pig pen at the Franklin plant and whiskey bottles. One man complained that the bottles were so thick behind the post office that he could not drive there to pick up his mail. Stray dogs and dumped kittens, and mosquitoes rounded out the list of concerns

Mike Seymour, Jr. son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Seymour and Cheryl Needham, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Needham won the most adorable babies at the Hayloft Jamboree.

The State Department of Education has not given our high school an A rating until new physical facilities are made. Specifically inadequate auditorium, gymnasium and classroom space must be improved.

100 years ago: May 7, 1925

Cakes, Pies, Chickens, Hot Rolls and other good things to eat at the Catholic Ladies Food Sale Saturday at Rumsey’s.

The Scenic Road. The construction of the proposed road along the riverbank from the Muncie road to the Wyandotte county line where it will join a hard-surfaced road into Kansas City will be one of the finest things that could be done for this part of the country. Besides relieving the congestion on the Fort to Fort Road it will give us the most beautiful drive in all the West and will open up a very beautiful part of the state.

The above nice endorsement in the Leavenworth Times of the proposed duplicate road between Leavenworth and Kansas City, gives sanction to the most extravagant rural road construction yet proposed in the state of Kansas. The “scenic” road is to be twenty-seven feet wide with curb and gutter and is to be constructed of fibre brick, a proposal that carries with it an expense of at least $75,000 to $80,000 per mile, or about twice that of the cost of the roads already constructed. In the meantime, three road projects long proposed in this county are languishing. The Lecompton road connecting the townships of High Prairie and Alexandria with the county seat has been petitioned for some time ago. The McLouth-Tonganoxie road connecting the west edge of the county with the county seat has been petitioned for still longer ago. And the Salt Creek valley road which has not been petitioned for but which the people are anxious to have constructed and which will connect the townships of Easton and Kickapoo with the county seat, is the third project much more essential than the proposed scenic highway. The three projects will enable farmers to get out of the mud, but the scenic road is proposed to be a pleasure highway for the benefit of the people of the cities only. This community is not opposed to sensible road projects, nor is it opposed to the “scenic” highway if the construction is brought to the standard of the other roads and is allowed to take its proper turn. This community believes the benefits to the farmers should be the first consideration in all road construction.

125 years ago: May 3, 1900

John D. Rockefeller, the head of the Standard Oil Company, has made an investment in Tonganoxie. He has secured a controlling interest in the Missouri Pacific of which system the Northwestern is a part. We have been buying coal oil, benzine and lubricating oils from John for a long time and this is the first chance we will have of getting something back in taxes.

The Tonganoxie township Sunday school convention will be held here on May 13. A good program is being prepared. 

The entertainment of the junior class of the Academy will be given in Laming’s Hall, May 24 and will be interesting.

The Ladies Aid Society of the Congregational Church will meet with Mrs. JC Laming, at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 10.

Robt. Keck, one of the Tonganoxie boys, went into a company to prospect for oil near Bakersfield, California and struck it.

Frank Fairchild’s team and milk wagon made things lively on Fourth street for a short time Sunday afternoon. The driver Ben Williams had hitched them to the box car after unloading the milk, and when the train came along, they tore loose. Luckily there were no teams on the street, which probably saved some vehicles from demolition.