— compiled by Betty Jane Wilson
Part III of III
Mrs. Bliss recalls early days living in Grasshopper (Valley) Falls. "Who would have dreamed that in fifty years from the time that I landed in Grasshopper Falls, I would be comfortably located in a house of our own, not more than a block from where I first started housekeeping."
She described their first home. "The house had four rooms below and an attic we used for a store room. We reached it by a step ladder as far as it would go, then we climbed the best we could until we landed safely above.
"We had only been keeping house about two months when I was taken very ill. We called a doctor by the name of Coyle. This was Saturday night, Oct. 30, and rain coming down in torrents. Before morning we had an addition to the family, a dear little baby boy.
"In December, Mr. Bliss and Strickland bought the Curtis Hicks Hardware Store. In March of the following year, we thought our young hopeful, then five months, needed a new perambulator, so we proceeded to hire Mr. Dunn's 'one horse shay' with the horse hitched in front and drove to Atchison. We purchased the finest baby buggy they had in the city. It was the only one. I was happy to have something to take the baby out in and believe me, I was 'some beans'. As to my knowledge, it was the only buggy in town at that time. Five and a half years later, I had it remodelled for the second heir to the Bliss fortune. By taking the tongue off the front (for then we had pulled the buggy) and having handles something like those that are now used on the back and we pushed the vehicle in the front of us.
"My first meeting with Mr. Kendall was as a young man in Mr. Rufus Crosby's store." (Later A. D. Kendall of Kendall State Bank) "And Mr. John Dornblasser, also clerking in Mr. Crosby's store. I remember buying a toothbrush holder from Mr. Dornblasser. It was of white iron stone china and had little holes in the bottom and a saucer to catch the dripping water. He sold it to me for a bouquet holder saying that the holes were there to let the water run out. I was too timid to tell him what it really was.
"My first callers were Mrs. Mark Hillyer, an aunt of Mrs. Kendall, and a Mrs. Jones, the Congregational minister's wife. Mr. G. W. McCammon was one of our early acquaintances. Mr. McCammon was teaching at what I believe is now called Pleasant Ridge School House." (G. W. McCammon, later, was builder of the building that now houses the Valley Falls Historical Society Museum.)
"He came often to spend the evening or Sunday afternoon or evening with us. He was lonely and so were we. Later on, Miss LeLe Goodrich came to visit her aunt, Mrs. Hillyer, and when Mr. McCammon became aquainted with her, his visits to our home were not so frequent. They were finally married.
"On May 18, 1872, we drove to Leavenworth to attend the celebration of the new bridge over the Missouri River. While we were there, we learned the first passenger train was to leave Atchison for Grasshopper Falls, so we sent the team home, and went to Atchison, thereby coming home on the first passenger train that ran over that track.
"Many things flit through my mind as I think of the pioneer days such as shoutings of desperadoes (I being an eye witness to one shooting affair), of the grasshoppers, the drought, the building of churches and many more incidents that I haven't time to touch upon, but I will close my paper with these few lines— 'Proud of Kansas? Yes, I am. In the onward march Kansas sets the pace and was never known to lag in the race. If the nation should lack presidential timber, Kansas can furnish it. Please take our number.'"
The Valley Falls Historical Society's museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 5.
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