Happy Birthday Valley Falls!

"Ten-foot falls!" yelled pioneer James Frazier. His three companions
came running and in a minute Grasshopper Falls was discovered.
Traditionally, the story is repeated in December as "A Happy Birthday
Grasshopper Falls (Valley Falls)" greeting.

Christmas Day, 1854
On the morning of Saturday, December 23, 1854, four men — James
Frazier, Robert Riddle, Andrew J. Whitney, and Hozea B. Jolly — set
out on foot from their camp on the west side of the Grasshopper River
(now the Delaware). After traveling north about three or four miles,
they crossed the present site of Valley Falls, at the corner of
Sycamore and Sarah streets. A short distance farther up, they crossed
the Grasshopper River and wandered up to about the mouth of Coal Creek
before they started their return trip. A short distance above the
present town site, at the mouth of Cedar Creek, they found an Indian
village and tried to make them understand that the object of their
search was a waterfall for a mill site, but did not get any
intelligible directions. Continuing their return trip, they reached
the point where they had crossed the river. Here James Frazier
wandered down a trail along the river hoping to find a fjord. While
still in the hazel brush, he heard water running over the rocks, and
yelled, "ten foot falls!" (really only about three feet high), at the
top of his voice. The others came running and in a minute more,
Grasshopper Falls (Valley Falls) was discovered. They returned to the
high prairie and moved their camp up to this point on the 24th, and
drove stakes for their claim on Monday, December 25th, Christmas Day,
then commenced the erection of a cabin. Thus Christmas Day, which has
so many meanings for everyone, has a very special meaning for the
people of Valley Falls.

— Researched by late historian Arthur Strawn and printed in The
Vindicator Dec. 26, 1963.

The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will be closed Dec. 25 and
Jan. 1. Winter operation hours will be announced later, reports Betty
Jane Wilson, historical society president.

Recollections of Mr. Piazzek

- compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president

Part II of II

"We can't eat their flour" claimed Joe Piazzek's customers referring to the Oak Hill Flour Mill "about 60 miles below us and built at an expense of $13,000 for machinery alone" wrote Mr. Piazzek, continuing to relate incidents in his active career.

"I paid the Oak Hill Mill a visit and found smutty and rusty wheat there," he wrote.

"The proprietors showed me how they would make whiter flour out of buckwheat. I took the hint and bought a secondhand mill rig, all wood, for $40, a pair of 4-foot burrs for $80, made another wooden water-wheel, shaft and all and started my homemade mill February 1862, at a cost, all told, not including my labor, of $240. My customers could not wait, but piled grists (batches of grain) in this open sawmill building without doors for me to grind when ready. 

"Finally we started with a smutter (apparently smut remover) running like double-geared lightening and made flour right away that they said was o.k. . . .    

"The Civil War now shut off all our cotton. General Lane sent us seed and people sowed and raised small patches, and now another trouble began. 'Can't you gin our cotton?' By this time, I owned all of the mill. I got tired of being teased and ordered a gin from Massachusetts — paid $60 for the gin, $40 express charges — hauled it home and set it up, ginning for all — some as far as 100 miles away. The gin is now in the possession of the historical society in Topeka, Kan. The $240 mill ran for 18 years with little change on all-around custom, including the cities of Atchison, Leavenworth, Topeka, and regular big grists from St. Marie's Mission. 

"In 1880, I built my new stone mill, costing some $16,000 . I also owned the upper Half Mound mill, which I sold just in the nick of time for $7,000 to help pay the depositors of the Valley Bank, of which I was vice president, dollar for dollar. The latter mill, a few years after, sold for $200 for junk. In my new all-roller mill, I happened to get my money back, buying wheat at 90 cents and selling flour at $4 a hundred and giving complete satisfaction. There are people living now who declare they never ate better bread than that made out of the flour I sold them. 

"My honest miller, Mat. Glassel, stayed with me most of this time, also George Stanger, who lingered for 25 years from boyhood until he became a farmer. He now drives up occasionally in his auto. I often used to say to him 'Go make hay while the sun shines for it won't last. The farmers will get to be the aristocrats.' He says it came true. 

"In 1906, I paid out on another bank run, caused by a 'smart alec.' There was some scratching, but I made it — dollar for dollar to the depositors, in spite of the fact that the Missouri National also went up with $1,500 of my money. I kept up  and gave away one farm to a kin of 480 acres, now worth $50,000 and $60,000.

"Summing it up, I started here when I was 21 years old, worked like a tiger, made barrels of money, and now at 82 years old, have an idle woolen mill, an out-of-date oil mill, thousands in uncollected notes, a partly idle flour mill . . . quite a lot of land, which certain cheats had no use for . . . There must be something in inborn management acquired during mill tub times. Out of 10 mills  once on the Grasshopper River, my mill is the only one left. The Oak Mill, although rebuilt and overhauled, did not, at the sheriff's sale, bring the price of overhauling. An appreciative public smashed all the windows, unbarred the doors . . . and there it stands,  a wreck. My own mill contains some seven bullets shot through the windows lately."     — Yours truly, J.M. Piazzek

The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18.

Recollections of Mr. Piazzek

— Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president

Part I of II

"Out of 10 mills once on Grasshopper River (now Delaware River), my mill is the only one left and is target for progressive vandal and sport" were words written by J.M. (Joe) Piazzek addressed to "Editor American Miller" apparently in response to a request from the publications editor following a previous communication with Piazzek. No date is indicated; however, the news item is titled "Poland+Kansas+60 years." Mr. Piazzek wrote:

"I was born in Poland in a room separated from a flour mill by a brick partition, learned my trade at about 18 years of age and was ready for military duty. To gain some time to travel, I volunteered and obtained a permit after one night in the barracks. I reached America in 1854 and worked on my first job in Newton, Ky. Thence, I took a steamboat for Kansas City, but being  unable to see the city and no one informing me, I was still on board when the boat went past and later stuck on a sandbar. The next morning I footed it 22 miles to Weston, Mo., where I found work helping to build a small mill at Grasshopper Falls (now Valley Falls, Kan.)

"We started building this sawmill in April 1855. Our nearest neighbors were the Indians up along the creek. In May, when it warmed up, we began to 'smell Indian.' Upon investigation, we found an Indian buried in the forks of a tree, looking through the cracks of his rudely hewed-out coffin. He was wrapped in a blanket — had his bow and arrows, tin plate, fork and knife, his pipe, tobacco, matches, needle, thread, and a playing three spot card with 'Pa, Po, Ok' marked thereon. The body was there until fall when our first doctor came along and insisted that I should show him the Indian. We crossed on the dam and on arriving found the Indian down and scattered in the weeds. The doctor got quite huffy because I did not help him clean the bones to put in a sack for a manikin (sic), which he kept as long as he lived.

"We excavated for the mill building in the bank just where the Indians had their path to cross the creek, and I dodged quite often to avoid a pony carrying a loosely swaying Indian within a few inches of the edge of our pit, fearing pony, Indian, and all would come down on top of me.

"We started sawing about Christmas and Isaac Cody, Buffalo Bill's father, was my boss. In order to get my wages, I bought one-quarter interest. In 1856, I ground the first corn raised in Kansas on a little bit of a mill with a wooden water wheel. My customers wanted a wool-carding machine, so I got it on my own hook against the advice of my partners and cleared $900 the first season and added more cards."

Mr. Piazzek's milling career expands when he bows to customers' pleas for him to build a flour mill. Details in Part II.

The historical society museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4. The 2011 historical society calendars are available at the museum.  

First view from Half Mound "magnificent and sublime"

"A view from twelve to eighteen miles can be had in every direction," commented a reporter for the Kansas New Era dated Aug. 25, 1877. 

The writer continued: "Last week we took our first view from the summit of the Half Mound on the east bank of the Delaware, six miles above Valley Falls. The Half Mound seems to be a detached portion of the dividing ridge, which separates the waters of Coal Creek from the north and stands immediately upon the river's bank. Long years ago, it was undoubtedly a complete mound, but the west half has been carried away by the winding Delaware, which flows at its base. 

"At the foot of the mound on the west side, stands the flouring mills belonging to Hillyer and Co. with accompanying graineries, ware houses, cribs, etc. with  M.D. James in charge. Half Mound makes no pretentions toward a village or town site at present, although there are four or five families living within a short distance of the mills. The Kansas Central (R.R.) has a switch within a quarter of a mile, but no regular station (depot). The train is generally stopped by waving a hat, and we saw one man bring the puffing engine to a sudden halt by waving a 'jug.' "

"Standing upon the elevation, one sees spread out before him like a huge checker board at least one third of Jefferson and a large portion of Jackson and Atchison counties. Valley Falls and Nortonville and Arrington are in full view. The winding streams with their fringes of timber, together with orchard groves and hedges, combine to make the view magnificent and sublime."

Information source: Yesteryears, compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, Valley Falls Historical Society President.

The historical society museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 27. Historical Society calendars are available at the museum.

1927 Almanac advises parents on feeding youngin’s

— Betty Jane Wilson, historical society president 

"Old fashioned cornmeal mush is good food for a child's evening meal. Serve with syrup and butter or cream and sugar or milk and sugar," advised the Rexall Family Almanac of 1927. 

The popular United Drug Co. publication of weather forecasts, moon phases and countless gems of family advice continued with the following children's diet:

"Below the age of six or seven, the child should have little or no meat, a small amount of scraped beef, a bit of chicken or an occasional cup of broth are sufficient. In these early years, protein needed is furnished chiefly by eggs and milk. The fat in a child's diet is supplied by cream, butter, and vegetable oils. Natural brown rice, oatmeal, whole wheat, egg yolk, apples, dates, and prunes are all rich in iron. Cocoa and dried figs supply magnesium."

The report continues listing the virtues of fruit and vegetables with the conclusion:
"It is estimated that the child from three to six years of age needs about one-half as much protein and fat as a grown person and only one-third as much carbohydrates."

"No Happy Meals?" our compiler Betty Jane Wilson asks.

The historical society museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20. Dodie Bolz and Dee Bayless will be hosts.

Autumn color, veterans honored in window display

by Betty Jane Wilson, historical society president

A serene country scene, enhanced by a smattering of nature's unique
and variegated bounties, affords credence to a mega "Give Thanks"
poster planted midst the harvest assortment. Pumpkins, sans carved
features, overflowing cornucopias stuffed with colorful treasures,
sunflowers galore towering over large and small pine cones nestled
among brilliant leaves fallen from parent trees, all under the silent
visage of a wise old owl, complete the November autumn scene of the
Valley Falls Historical Society Museum.

"Lest We Forget" . . . mini military service flags prominently
displayed against an American flag background with veterans support
slogans placed among the flags honor all veterans past and present on
Veterans Day, Nov. 11. Remember the price of freedom.

Frank and Edie Shrimplin will be museum hosts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 13.

1898 School Fire

by Betty Jane Wilson, society president

"The unexpected happened this time. Our magnificent public school
house a pile of ruins." From the Valley Falls Historical Society
files, the following report, dated Oct. 5, 1898:

"No one had the remotest thought that the school house, the seat of
learning and the pride of the city, was the next to be taken by the
fire.

"Just before ten o'clock, less than an hour after school had been
called, Mrs. E. Summerfelt first noticed smoke issuing from the roof
of the school house and she hastened to the school rooms to give the
alarm. Elbert Allen happened to be in the school yard and fled to the
fire bell and sounded the alarm. The very tones of the bell, the
sharp, strong clangs seemed to mean a fire sure enough . . .

"The fire company and everyone else responded promptly and soon there
were streams of people hurrying to the school house where it was
feared that hundreds of children would be in danger. Their fears were
soon relieved, the teachers and pupils were all out of the burning
building and were safe.

"The fire spread rapidly under and over the large roof and it was soon
evident it was doomed. First the water pressure was inadequate . . .
people entered rooms and threw out books, slates, desks, and anything
they could handle. The water pressure improved and after roofs fell
in, the fire was soon under control and by half past eleven, the
worst was over.

"The lower floors were not very badly damaged and ceilings were fair.
The stone walls remained intact and only one chimney fell down. The
school was built in 1866. The building was insured for $8,000, which
will not cover the loss.

"When school will be resumed, even in temporary rooms, or what will be
done about rebuilding, has not been determined. Whether the fire
originated from a defective flue or a spark on the dry roof will
perhaps never be known."

The historical society museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 6. Admission is free. The 2011 calendars are available.