compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president
Part IV
"At one time, Valley Falls was very much a railroad center," reminisced E.T. Stewart in his "early days in Valley Falls" story. Three roads served the community. The Kansas central or narrow gauge, later operated as a branch of the Union Pacific and later as the Leavenworth, Kansas and Western was built out from Leavenworth in 1872.
In May the same year, the Santa Fe from Topeka to Atchison was built, and in the 80's the Kansas City, Wyandotte, and North Western came through. For a long time there were 12 passenger and several freight trains in and out each day.
The narrow gauge locomotives were so small they could pull only 10 or 12 freight cars and often the train would stall on the hill east of town until the fireman could build up a head of steam when the train would be cut and the front hauled into Boyle Station then a return made for the other half.
Railroads used oil-burning locomotive headlights and oil burning lamps in the coaches. Railroad coaches were painted yellow and had no end vestibules. They were heated by coal stoves and used the old link and pin couplings.
Railroad section men (laborers) went to work on hand cars and often in the winter after a bad snow storm, they were called out to shovel snow off the tracks to let the trains go through.
Livestock was shipped to Kansas City over the Northwestern. One night, as the train was moving across the bridge over the Delaware southeast of town, the bridge collapsed and the locomotive and several cars of hogs and cattle dropped into the channel. It took a long time to rebuild the bridge.
Farmers 50 years ago lived a different life than they do now. The farmer and his hired hand toiled from sunup to sundown. Hired hands were paid from $10 to $15 per month including board. Men trailed along on foot behind plows, listers, harrows, and cultivators drawn by horses or mules.
Corn was shucked by hand. The farmer's wife generally had to do the milking and churning, feed the chickens, gather the eggs, and keep weeds out of the garden in addition to doing general housework. Cooking and baking were done on a coal or wood stove. The washing machine was a copper boiler, a tub, and a washboard.
Ordinary laborers were paid a dollar for 10 hours of work and there was no leaning on the shovel handle. Clerks in stores received about $25 per month and worked from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week.
For those dependent on farm products, milk was cheap at five cents a quart. Park Murray, the town milk man would come around morning and evening in a two-horse spring wagon which carried two 10-gallon cans equipped with faucets. As he drove up in front of the home, he would ring a large hand bell. The customer would go out with a small pail and Park would draw off in a quart or pint measuring cup the quantity desired.
Next: "Young folks seemed to enjoy fake patent medicine shows that set up each season in old Turner Hall."
The society museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 4.
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