Maple Hill was founded in 1887, just prior to the Spanish American War. Several of its founders were veterans of the American Civil War. One of Maple Hill's early prominent citizens was Dr. J. M. Kemper, who was a native of Cincinnati and had fought for the Union Army in the American Civil War. He was at one time commander of the Kansas Grand Army of the Republic with headquarters in Topeka. He established his practice at the old Maple Hill townsite in 1885, even before the new townsite 1.5 miles to the northeast was chosen.
Dr. John Wilson Lauck served Maple Hill as a physician briefly in 1898 and again from 1927 through the mid-1950s. The following is a brief account of Dr. Lauck's extended family and service from "Kansas and Kansans" published by the Kansas State Historical Society in 1915:
"Doctor John Wilson Lauck was a native of Kansas, having been born in the City of Atchison on October 28, 1875. He was of Scotch ancestry and his forefathers came from that country to Maryland in early days. His father, the late Isaac S. Lauck, was for many years one of the trusted officials of the Santa Fe Railway Company at Topeka. I. S. Lauck was born at Washington, D. C, in 1845. He was reared and married in his native city and in 1872 came, to Kansas, locating at Atchison, where he was cashier of a bank for a time, but soon removed to Topeka and for over thirty years was auditor of the Santa Fe Railway Company. His residence all that time was in Topeka, but he died in Chicago in 1903, while on a pleasure trip to his native City of Washington. Politically he was a democrat. Isaac S. Lauck married Amanda Lyons, who was born in Virginia on March 15, 1847, and lived at her home, 205 Western Avenue, in Topeka. There were three children. Doctor Lauck being the oldest. Allen A. is a traveling auditor with the Santa Fe, with home at 201 Western Avenue in Topeka. Isaac S. Lauck, Jr. is in the hardware and lumber business at Willard, Kansas.
Doctor J. Wilson Lauck grew up in Topeka, attended the grammar and high schools of that city, and prepared himself for his profession in the Kansas Medical College at Topeka, from which he graduated in 1898, with the degree M. D. He has had unusual opportunities and experience to fit him for the work of his career. In 1904 he took post-graduate work in Rush Medical College of Chicago and in 1911 pursued a course in the Harvard Medical School of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 1898, Doctor Lauck practiced for six months at Maple Hill, Kansas. During the Spanish-American
War he entered the United States Army as assistant surgeon with the rank of first lieutenant, and. was
stationed at the National Military Home at Leavenworth from November, 1898, until the fall of 1901.
The two following years he spent at El Reno, Oklahoma, and in September, 1903, returning to Kansas,
located at Olsburg, where he had a large private practice as a 'physician and surgeon. Doctor Lauck also owned and operated the only drug store at Olsburg, and his interest in farming led him to acquire a place of eighty acres two miles east of town and he also rents 284 acres adjoining his own place. His home was on Second Street in Olsburg.
Doctor Lauck served as clerk of the school board in Olsburg, and in 1913 was health officer for Pottawatomie County. He is affiliated with Fostnria Lodge No. 392, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with Topeka Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite. He also belongs to Olsburg Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America and was a charter member of Leavenworth Lodge of Elks. Politically he was a Republican. Doctor Lauck married at Topeka January 27, 1904, Miss Helen Goddard, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Goddard. Mrs. Lauck 's parents owned a large ranch in the Vera community of Wabaunsee county and lived on a farm near the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Doctor and Mrs. Lauck have three children : Engenia. born November 21. 1905; Helen, born June 28, 1910; and Edith, born February 9, 1912."
Dr. Lauck and his family returned to Maple Hill in 1927 and retired in the 1950s and was the last resident medical doctor in Maple Hill. He actively supported the American Legion and Auxiliary.
Franklin Adams, moved to Maple Hill in 1879 from Mendota, Illlinois. He was a farmer, rancher and land speculator and also founded the Stockgrowers State Bank in 1907. He and his wife Elizabeth (Parsons) had three sons who were veterans of World War I. They were early supporters of founding an American Legion Post in Maple Hill. W. J. Tod, prominent rancher and his wife Elizabeth (Saunders) Tod were supportive owing to the service of their son, James in World War I. The large McClelland and Romig/Romick families had lost one of their own, James Elmer Romick in World War I.
James Elmer Romick Post #4 of the American Legion was the name decided upon. The organizational meeting was held at the home of Franklin and Elizabeth Adams. The first official meeting of the American Legion Auxiliary was held on December 16, 1921 again at the Adams home and the following officers were elected: Mrs. James E. Romick, president; Mrs. W. J. Tod, vice president; Mrs. Elizabeth Adams, secretary-treasurer, Mrs. W. E. Billings, Mrs. Edwin Thompson and Miss Ava L. Sells, Executive Committee.
The organization felt that a building was needed as a home for the two patriotic groups and fate played a hand in it's realization. Mr. Sam Wiley had purchased the two-story brick store building on Maple Hill's Main Street from Mr. David Stewart in April 1919. David Stewart was a veteran merchant in Maple Hill, moving to the new town from Paxico when it was established in 1887. After a series of fires in frame buildings on Main Street, including Mr. Stewart's original store, he constructed the brick building in 1912. The new brick two-story store building burned to the ground in December 1919. No cause was ever determined.
An alliance was struck between four organizations to buy the lot on Main Street and construct a two-story brick building. The groups were: The American Legion, The American Legion Auxiliary, the Maple Hill Lodge, Free and Ancient Accepted Masons and the Maple Hill Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. The building was to be owned by the Legion groups who would occupy the first floor and rent the second floor to the Masonic and Eastern Star organizations in perpetuity. The Legion and Masonic groups agreed to raise $10,000 cash and the Stockgrowers State Bank agreed to loan them $10,000 to pay for construction and finishing of the building. The Adams, Tods, McClellands, Romicks, Sells, Billings and others families contributed liberally towards the cash needed and members held fundraising projects to raise the $10,000 to pay off the loan. These projects continued for several years.
The lower floor was known as the American Legion and Auxiliary Hall and consisted of a kitchen and meeting room at the rear of the building and a large hall with stage in the front on Main Street.
The hall was the largest meeting space in the downtown area and was used by many groups for their gatherings and programs.
My earliest memories of the American Legion and Auxiliary Hall, are probably in about 1950 or 1951. My maternal grandfather, Robert Corbin, was a veteran of World War I. I grew up hearing him tell about driving a mule-drawn ambulance through the battlefields of France where he sustained serious injuries after breathing mustard gas. My maternal grandmother, Mildred Mae (McCauley) Corbin Clark, was involved for an additional reason. Her brother, Robert M. McCauley, had also been a veteran of World War I and had served in the battlefields of France as a dough boy.
As World War II became a reality, my the Corbin and Clark families had many members who served. Uncle Lewis and Aunt Janie Clark's sons Clarence and Oney Clark were all in WWII as were Clarence's sons, Floyd and Richard. Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin's son, George S. Corbin and their son-in-laws Richard Andrews and Leslie Justice were all in WWII. George Corbin was in a jeep accident while over seas and was seriously wounded, carrying metal plates to strengthen injuries the rest of his life. Hardly a family in Maple Hill was untouched by World War II. That made the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary two of the strongest organizations in Maple Hill.
After World War II was over, a large, lighted billboard-type sign was placed in an open lot owned by the city just across the street east of the Old Town Well. The lot had a red tile building on the far east end which used to house the first fire truck in Maple Hill. The building still stands but is no longer city-owned. As a youth, I and many other young people in Maple Hill played baseball and football on the city lot and we were always careful not to run into or damage the sign in any way. The sign was almost sacred because on it were painted the names of all the community men who had served in World War I and World War II. There was a very tall wooden pole on the southwest corner of the lot on which was mounted the electrical siren that alerted the community to fire and other dangers. Power for the sign lights also came from that pole.
My first memories of the Legion and Auxiliary Hall, are from 1950 when I was in the first grade. My mother, Lucille Clark, my maternal grandmother, Mildred Corbin and "Aunt" Bonnie Mitchell (who was really a cousin by marriage) were all very much involved in the American Legion Auxiliary. Aunt Bonnie's brother, Pinkney Thomas of Byers, Oklahoma was a veteran of WWI, served in France and was later the state commander of the American Legion in Oklahoma. They were a part of the group of Auxiliary ladies who annually produced what was known as The Poppy Tea. I remember many others who were involved but I'll mention only my family members because I'm sure I would leave out important participants.
The Poppy Tea was held in the Legion and Auxiliary Hall and was a sort of local talent and variety show where the children of members sang, danced and played instruments. I don't know when it first started but it had been in existence for many years when my brother Gary Wayne Clark and I stood on the stage and sang, "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy." I think my Aunt, Joan Cobin-Andrews-Frazier accompanied us but it may have been Miss Inez Tiffany, who was the band director at Maple Hill High School. After the program, the ladies would serve tea, coffee and home made pies and cakes. If memory serves me correctly, I believe the cost was .25 cents. After we children had eaten all the cake and cookies we could, the Auxiliary ladies would give us bunches of paper poppies which we would take all over Maple Hill and sell. People could either pay .10 cents for a poppy or give a donation. The spirit of competition was a live and well amongst we children, and soon those who would contribute the most liberally were well known to us. The poppies were made by disabled veterans and were worn in button holes or pinned to shirts and blouses to show support of veterans. The Poppy Tea was always held around the end of the school year, which occurred just before Memorial Day, also known as Decoration Day, at the end of May.
The American Legion and Auxiliary sponsored a much grander and more formal celebration each fall on November 11. There was a luncheon and a program. I remember the menu because it was always the same during my participatory years (1950-1962.) The ladies would make pans and pans and pans of chicken in gravy, which had home made biscuits on top. I believe they called it chicken pie. I don't recall any pans that didn't look like perfection with their beautifully browned biscuits. Also served would be mashed potatoes and gravy, usually green beans, a square of jello salad on a leaf of lettuce and all kinds of delicious home made pies. The hall was always filled to capacity and sometimes there were more than one setting of people at the luncheon.
The entire high school would be released to attend the program and luncheon, which was also attended by dozens of men and women from the organizations and community. The program was very formal with an invocation presented by the pastor of the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church (I remember when I first started attending, it was Rev. Harold Weisgarver who was also a veteran of WWII) and the main speaker was always a high ranking military or government official, usually from Topeka, the capitol of Kansas, or Ft. Riley. Even though I was in grade school, I played trumpet in the high school band after 1953, so I was released to go. The band (which really wasn't large enough to march but did) would usually form on the street between the U. S. Post office on the north and the Stockgrowers State Bank on the south. We would then march to the American Legion and Auxiliary Hall playing some patriotic march such as Sousa's "Washington Post" or "Stars and Stripes Forever." We would take our seats in the Hall and then play two or three more selections through the program. Sometimes we marched out after the program and sometimes not. The activity usually required most of the day and meant that we didn't have to go to school which added to the excitement.
During some of the early years, a football game was played after the program. My father, John Leander "Tim" Clark, was on the Maple Hill High School football teams of 1936-1939. He told the story of a Veteran's Day game in 1939 when Washburn University's football team, under Coach Jerald Barker, came to Maple Hill and was beaten by the Maple Hill High School Cowboys. I'm a graduate of Washburn University and I loved my father---so obviously I confined my celebrations to a few pats on the back for dad.
Over time, as the American Legion and Auxiliary founders became older or passed away, the younger members were not able to continue the activity on such a large scale. I moved away from Maple Hill in 1978 and have never lived there since, but my mother and grandmother continued to be very active in the American Legion Auxiliary well into the 1990s. The event became a carry-in supper or a navy bean and ham supper in later years. I don't really know what is done now, if anything.
Fate dealt the American Legion and Auxiliary Hall a cruel blow when the weight of an ice storm collapsed the building in the 1990s. It was never rebuilt.
During the 1990s, members of the American Legion and Auxiliary started what became known as The Avenue of Flags in the Old Stone Church Cemetery at Maple Hill. My mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark was president of the American Legion Auxiliary for nearly three decades in the last half of the 20th Century and took great pride in the project. She passed away on January 5, 2011 at nearly 90-years-old and had been a member of the Maple Hill American Legion Auxiliary for 73 years. My brother, Gary Wayne Clark, who served in the U. S. Army in the 1960s, is a member of the American Legion and participates with the Legion at the Avenue of Flags Ceremony. A salute is fired by members honoring those who have served and are deceased. Taps are played after the salute is fired and the American flags are carried into the Stone Church or the service.
Those are some of my memories of Memorial Days and Veteran's Days at Maple Hill. I hope you'll leave yours in the "Comments" section of this blog for others to enjoy. Happy Trails!
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