— Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, president, Valley Falls Historical Society.
A Valley Falls telephone directory for July 1957, retrieved from the Valley Falls Historical Society files, listed the following merchants, professionals, businesses, and residents located on Broadway Street from street numbers 100 through 500 — for reminiscing:
100, Santa Fe Railway;
200, Mercer Chevrolet;
210, County Shop;
300, Wade's Market;
300 1/2, IOOF Hall;
301, Steinmetz and Needham Skelly Service;
304, Gamble Hardware and Newman Plumbing Shop;
306, Needham Implement Co.;
306 1/2, Jesse Dobbins, Bernard Putthoff;
309, Ann's Cafe;
310, Gillispie Hardware;
311, Broadway Beauty Shop and Searles Heating and Plumbing;
312, Vindicator Publishing Co.;
312 1/2, Wilfred Quinlin;
314, Burkert's Shop;
315, Lloyd W. Barker Insurance and Campbell's Jewelers;
315 1/2, Emma Stewart;
317, Jayhawk Appliance;
320 1/2, Bob Rife;
322 1/2, Edna Snider;
323, Kendall State Bank;
323 1/2, R.W. Ferguson;
324, Corner Drug Store;
324 1/2, Mrs. Lulu Dixon;
400, Gordon K. Lowry, Attorney;
401 1/2, Masonic Hall;
404, Margaret's Style Shop;
405, Arthur's Cafe;
406, Citizen's State Bank and H.D. Wyatt Insurance Co.;
409, Hatfield's Penslar Store;
410, Valley Implement Co.
411, Hauck's Department Store;
412, Summerfelt's Hardware Co.;
413, Wilson's Department Store;
415, Valley Self-Service Laundry;
417, Swirly Top;
418, Reichart and Brosa Clothing;
419, Ben Franklin Store;
421, Cook's Hy-Klass Grocery;
423 Orville Gragg Truck Line;
424, Tobin Hatchery and Produce;
425, John K. Griffith, M.D.;
425 1/2, Lois Jean VanGaasbeek;
508, Mrs. Louis Ott;
510, Searles Cleaners;
512, Billings Oil Co. and Hundley Standard Oil;
513, Mrs. I.E. Foster;
517, Mrs. Grace Newman;
522, Phillip Reichart, Broadway and Walnut, Burke Oil Co.
The Valley Falls Historical Society will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 30. There is no admission.
June 27, 2012
June 20, 2012
Gragg's Chapel
Source: From the files of the Valley Falls Historical Society.
In the winter of 1855, William Gragg moved his family from Platte County, Mo., to the North Cedar community. He chose the south side of Cedar Creek for his homestead. His family of eight sons and daughters settled in surrounding quarter sections and soon the area became the Gragg Settlement.
By April 1, 1855, the settlement consisted of George Parrott, Robert L. Shanklin, John Wood, W.H. Lang, Henry Gragg, John Gragg, Thomas Wood, his wife, and two children, Zack Gragg and Granville McDaniel and his wife.
Others joined the community where land sold for $1.25 per acre. Roads were planned, a saw mill moved in, frame houses, barns, and a store were built as well as a stone school house near North Cedar that served as a community center.
Zachariah Gragg donated ground that first became a cemetery, then a neat frame building was constructed at a cost of $1,400. It was named Gragg's Chapel. In 1870, the Methodist Episcopal South organized with Rev. McEwan as the first pastor of the chapel. Charter members were Zachariah Gragg, John Gragg, and Isaac Ferrell.
During the late 1880s, Gragg's Chapel enjoyed a large membership, serving Bloomfield, Rock Creek and south of North Cedar — who had no churches. The nearest houses of worship were several miles east at Valley Falls. From 1884 to 1888, during Rev. Faubion's ministry, attendance was so large that folks had to stand along the walls during services.
Regular church services were discontinued about 1920 because of lack of funds to support the minister; however, Sunday School classes were held into the 1930s.
On August 23, 1936, approximately 150 people met at Gragg's Chapel under the leadership of M.H. Ginter. It was decided to hold an annual meeting at Gragg's Chapel on the third Sunday of August, officially designated the "Gragg Chapel Community Picnic." Beginning in 1936, 150 to 200 people attended the meetings and picnics. Meetings were held every year except 1944 and 1951, because of floods. Attendance declined and the building was sold in 1950 for $212.50 and dismantled about 1953.
Gragg Chapel Cemetery remains intact on Hwy. 116 approximately five miles west of Valley Falls. Regular maintenance continues by volunteers.
The VFHS museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 23. Admission is free.
June 12, 2012
Nichols Station
— Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, Valley Falls Historical Society President.
Source: Nichols family history and from the pen of Lois Cleavinger Malm.
"Don't pull up our pegs," begged A.A. Robinson, head of an 1870 surveying party surveying the land of Wilby Nichols' Farm, located between Grasshopper Falls and Nortonville, for the Santa Fe Railroad. A previous survey, known as a gun survey for Santa Fe for a right-of-way from Atchison to Topeka was made in 1868, however, nothing was done about it, and, after a time, Nichols told his sons to pull the survey plugs.
"The railroad is really going through this time," promised surveyor Robinson.
Nichols, an iron worker from Pittsburg, Penn., had moved to Kansas, near Grasshopper Falls with his family in 1860. He bought 160 acres of land 3 1/2 miles south of Nortonville and settled on his farm for nearly 10 years before the advent of the Santa Fe. He consented to the survey request and proved his approval of the rail service by donating a right-of-way through his land 100 feet and also a site for a station known as Nichols' Station in his honor. The open-air flag stop station serviced the community.
The railroad road bed was graded in 1871 and track laid in the spring of 1872. A.A. Robinson and his surveyors, and, later, railroad crews laying track to Nortonville boarded at the Nichols' home located west of the station and track designated areas.The house was known as the "Old Nichols Homestead." It also housed the Ashcroft Post Office. The homestead began as a log cabin, later rooms were added, then siding, paint, a second story, and finally a large screened porch.
In time, the post office was no longer needed and closed. The stockyards and station were removed by Santa Fe with the discontinuance of rail service and eventually the old homestead was empty and met its fate in the 1960s when it was burned to the ground on Hallowe'en eve. The legend of an era became a page in the annals of Jefferson County and Kansas history.
The society museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 16.
Source: Nichols family history and from the pen of Lois Cleavinger Malm.
"Don't pull up our pegs," begged A.A. Robinson, head of an 1870 surveying party surveying the land of Wilby Nichols' Farm, located between Grasshopper Falls and Nortonville, for the Santa Fe Railroad. A previous survey, known as a gun survey for Santa Fe for a right-of-way from Atchison to Topeka was made in 1868, however, nothing was done about it, and, after a time, Nichols told his sons to pull the survey plugs.
"The railroad is really going through this time," promised surveyor Robinson.
Nichols, an iron worker from Pittsburg, Penn., had moved to Kansas, near Grasshopper Falls with his family in 1860. He bought 160 acres of land 3 1/2 miles south of Nortonville and settled on his farm for nearly 10 years before the advent of the Santa Fe. He consented to the survey request and proved his approval of the rail service by donating a right-of-way through his land 100 feet and also a site for a station known as Nichols' Station in his honor. The open-air flag stop station serviced the community.
The railroad road bed was graded in 1871 and track laid in the spring of 1872. A.A. Robinson and his surveyors, and, later, railroad crews laying track to Nortonville boarded at the Nichols' home located west of the station and track designated areas.The house was known as the "Old Nichols Homestead." It also housed the Ashcroft Post Office. The homestead began as a log cabin, later rooms were added, then siding, paint, a second story, and finally a large screened porch.
In time, the post office was no longer needed and closed. The stockyards and station were removed by Santa Fe with the discontinuance of rail service and eventually the old homestead was empty and met its fate in the 1960s when it was burned to the ground on Hallowe'en eve. The legend of an era became a page in the annals of Jefferson County and Kansas history.
The society museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 16.
June 06, 2012
Museum visitors in May
— Betty Jane Wilson, society president
May visitors to the Valley Falls Historical Society Museum, including Memorial Day holiday weekend, were: Melissa, Kendall, and Addison Welborn, Owasso, Okla., Joan Ferrell, Edmond, Okla., Catherine Ferrell and Amy B. Ferrell, both Tulsa, Okla., Elva Ferrell, Midwest City, Okla., Dennis Ferrell, Stillwater, Okla.
Richard Estes, Shannon, Ga., Bruce McDowell, East Keilor, Victoria, Australia, Mary Fike, Golden, Colo., Shirlee Dorr, The Woodlands, Texas, John Call, Phoenix, Ariz., Donna Bilderback Covert and Jerry Covert, Loudon, Tenn., Heidi Bond, Kansas City, Mo., Paul Estes, Middleburg, Fla., Diane Etheron, High Spring, Fla.,
Jerry and Karen Lonard, Lenexa, Doris McAfee, Olathe, Linda Keesling, Perry, Nancy Bond, Topeka, Richard Wellman, Baldwin, and Phil and Donna Dunn, John Duffield, Patsy Frommer, Daryl Ford, Clarke Davis, Sylvia Woodgate, Keith and Pat Jackson, and Les Barnes, all Valley Falls.
The society museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 9. Admission is free.
May visitors to the Valley Falls Historical Society Museum, including Memorial Day holiday weekend, were: Melissa, Kendall, and Addison Welborn, Owasso, Okla., Joan Ferrell, Edmond, Okla., Catherine Ferrell and Amy B. Ferrell, both Tulsa, Okla., Elva Ferrell, Midwest City, Okla., Dennis Ferrell, Stillwater, Okla.
Richard Estes, Shannon, Ga., Bruce McDowell, East Keilor, Victoria, Australia, Mary Fike, Golden, Colo., Shirlee Dorr, The Woodlands, Texas, John Call, Phoenix, Ariz., Donna Bilderback Covert and Jerry Covert, Loudon, Tenn., Heidi Bond, Kansas City, Mo., Paul Estes, Middleburg, Fla., Diane Etheron, High Spring, Fla.,
Jerry and Karen Lonard, Lenexa, Doris McAfee, Olathe, Linda Keesling, Perry, Nancy Bond, Topeka, Richard Wellman, Baldwin, and Phil and Donna Dunn, John Duffield, Patsy Frommer, Daryl Ford, Clarke Davis, Sylvia Woodgate, Keith and Pat Jackson, and Les Barnes, all Valley Falls.
The society museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 9. Admission is free.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)