25 years ago: Dec. 10, 1997

The Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting was held at the VFW Park on Sunday, December 7, just before the snowstorm that dropped 3-4 inches on the town. “The Shoemaker and the Elves,” a Christmas play was performed, directed by Peachez Joles and Jeffrey Gibbens. Santa Arrived on fire truck and Mayor Herb Robbins threw the switch on the tree. Hot chocolate and coolkies were served at the VFW Post and the snow started at 7 p.m.

50 years ago: Dec. 7, 1972

Kansas State University student, John Robert Schlup, Tonganoxie, is among 45 students initiated into Sigma Tau. Election to Sigma Tau is the highest honor which K-State engineering students can receive.

A major Kansas Highway Project for 1973 was announced by the State Highway Commission on bids taken at Garden City.  Included is a large job on the north side of the City of Tonganoxie totaling $716,325 on US 24-40. This project consists of increasing the routing from the curve eastward 0.5 miles at a point north of the K-16 and US 24-40 junction at the west side of Tonganoxie to a point east of the County R-5 overpass to four lanes on right-of-way previously purchased but not developed when original new route was built after World War II. Included also is two new bridges at Tonganoxie Creek and the Leavenworth Road overpass, on the north side of current structures which were declared insufficient by federal standards.

The Tonganoxie School Board set into motion the process of negotiations with teachers for next year’s contracts. Superintendent Powers represented the board and Phil Lobb represented the teacher’s association.

The Tonganoxie Chieftains opened their basketball season on a winning note by whipping the Lansing Lions 68-33. The opening win was the first time the Chieftains had won their opening game in four years.
The Tonganoxie Wrestling Squad dominated the mats as they trounced Gardner, 60-0, in their first league match this season.

75 years ago: Dec. 4, 1947

A newly issued Victory Medal is available for any service member who was in the Armed Forces between December 7, 1941 and July 24, 1947. These medals will be presented to all who qualify on December 7, 1947 at the High School. Our local VFW made arrangements for the medals to be obtained. All that you need to present are your honorable discharge papers and a medal will be presented to you. Everyone in the community is invited to attend this ceremony where United States Armed Forces Films will be shown during the program. This is the sixth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A report that a farmer on Rural Route 2 in Bonner Springs has a 200-pound hog that stands on its hind legs, drinks milk out of a glass and never spills a drop, dispels the insult that certain people are hogs with no table manners.

Christmas tree light sets are available at Zellner Hardware. These sets make a more enjoyable Christmas, prettier and safer, too.

For Gifts that Please, Dresses that Fit and Zippers that Zip, visit Spoor Variety Store. These are ready made and ready to wear items that will be just the thing for the arrival of 1948.

Musil’s Bakery is offering the famous Christmas Carol Fruit Cakes. Order yours now so you won’t be without this delicious yearly treat.

100 years ago: Dec. 7, 1922

The Franklin Milk Condensery, Tonganoxie, managed by C.E. Todd, Gardner boy, and owner of the Olathe creamery, distributes among the farmers within a radius of seven miles of Tonganoxie for milk and cream an average of $40,000. Per month during the summertime and $20,000. Per month during the winter. The average per gallon for milk runs 20 cents.

The Olathe creamery, of which J.H. Harlan is manager, distributes among our farmers $10,000 per month in the summertime and $5,000 per month during the rest of the year.

This has meant much to our farmers especially in the past two years when crops were short and prices low. It would be a good thing indeed for more of our farmers to keep cows and more cows.

Mr. Graham, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. C.R. Churchill, of the Olathe Register, and the Editor of the Mirror were invited by Mr. J.H. Harlan, manager of the Olathe creamery, to accompany him to Tonganoxie on Sunday to inspect the Condensery where he was for two years foreman of the plant, and to eat one of “Mother” Myers’ Sunday dinners, far famed for variety, good cooking and abundance of eatables from the river north, and from Kansas City to Topeka.

The dinner, highly touted, proved to be fully 60 per cent better in every way than we had anticipated. Mother Myers has conducted a semi-private boarding house in the residence part of town for years, and her reputation as culinary artist has gone beyond the confines of this state.

The food, the appointments the service, was par excellence. By actual count here were 43 different items of food on the table, and all particularly well put up or cooked. We had been admonished not to eat any breakfast but had done so and at the dinner table is where we found that had made a mistake.

[The rest of this article will appear in next week’s column.]

125 years ago: Dec. 9, 1897

While there is a growing scarcity of game useful to mankind, there seems to be no letup in the fecundity of various pests that rob hen roosts and otherwise destroy things of value to the farmers.

Every hunter makes war on game such as quails and prairie chickens in season and out of season, and farmers hereabout are getting greatly incensed at the reckless hunters who kill insect destroying game without regard to the loss of the agriculturalist or the statutes of the state. Farmers are now getting together to prosecute hunters that roam over their premises, and there is a likelihood of a boom in justice court business in the near future.

It seems almost incredible that in a county as thickly settled as this, pests of several kinds multiply so rapidly that they are nearly as much of a nuisance as ever they were. As an instance how numerous some of these pests are within a few miles of Tonganoxie, the trappings of Q.A. Baldwin may be cited.

Several weeks ago, he took half a bushel or so of traps out of town and set them on his place and along Tonganoxie creek, none of them over two miles from town. This week he reported that he had captured between 15 and 20 muskrats, seven mink, seven skunks, two coons and even got five of those naked-tailed creatures.

These forty hides are worth a snug sum, and the captures serve the two-fold purpose of a riddance of the pests and a plethora of spending money.