More Pictures of Mabel R. (Jones) Clark Taken at the Central Office and a Story

Yesterday, I knew that I had a couple more pictures I wanted to use with the blog but I just couldn't find them.   After a couple of hours searching through my pictures, I had some luck but one is still eluding me.   I especially wanted to include pictures of the Maple Hill Central Office building/house where my grandparents, James Peter and Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark lived from 1914 to 1958, with the exception of two years, 1919 to 1921.  During those two years, they moved to the Stewart farm south of Maple Hill, where my Grandfather Clark farmed.  My father, John Leander Clark, was born in 1921 when they were living there.


This is a photo of my Grandmother, Mable Rachel (Jones) Clark, standing on the south side of the Maple Hill Central Office, which was home to she and my Grandfather, James Peter Clark from 1914 to 1958.   Grandmother loved to grow caster beans and moon flowers, both of which were usually in this location.  Grandmother Clark was a large, tall woman and was always proudest when the caster beans exceeded her height.  This picture was taken in about 1950.

Grandfather Clark wanted to try farming.  He and a cousin named Lee Wilson, had purchased the Maple Hill Livery Stable on Main Street and had operated it for four years after it was owned by Rufus King, the famous murderer.  One day in August 1921, Frank Shipp went to the farm and begged them to move back to Maple Hill and take over the Central Office again.   Within a couple of weeks they made the decision to do so after the telephone company promised to make significant improvements to the Central office.

These are pictures of the moon flowers grown by Mabel R. Clark at the Maple Hill Central Office.   The photos are dark because the moon flowers didn't open until after sunset, thus the name.  My Grandmother had a small, black Brownie box camera that she always kept at hand and snapped photos.  The first photo shows the screened in back porch at the Central Office.  It was on the southeast corner of the house.   I don't know when it was built on but I slept on a cot on the porch many times, as did other cousins.   There was a door going into the kitchen and the bedroom from the porch.

The Central Office was at the southeast corner of 3rd and Main Street.  My Jones cousin, Frank Shipp, who was for more than 40 years an employee of the telephone service in Wabaunsee County, told me that it had originally been a one story, two room house on a farm south of Maple Hill.   The telephone company had purchased it before 1910 and moved it to Maple Hill, where they added  kitchen on the south and a west room on the front of the house to provide a telephone office where the switchboard and switching equipment could be located.   The Central Office room would eventually also include a phone booth for long distance calls and an office area where people could pay their telephone bills.  Frank could not remember the exact year the house was moved to Maple Hill nor could he remember the name of the people who owned the farm where it was located.  He was nearly 90 when that interview took place.

This is a photo of the Main Street of Maple Hill, Kansas looking south and taken in 1910 for a Bower's Post Card.  The first structure on the left-hand side of the photo, a frame house painted white with two windows on the north side, is the Maple Hill Central Office.  It does not yet have the front Central Office room added on.  Also visible on the same side of the street are the blacksmith building of John Turnbull and the Livery Stable owned by the Romick Brothers as well as the grain elevator built by Fowler and Tod in 1887.  Across the street is the Maple Hill State Bank founded by Russel T. Updegraff and the two-story store building belonging to David Stewart.

This is a photo of Elmer Emory Jones and his wife Fleta I. (Marney) Jones, taken in 1932 in front of the Central Office at Maple Hill, Kansas.   Elmer, better known as Casey Jones, was the son of Leander Emory and Jeanetta Susanna (Reinhardt) Jones and was born in 1911.  Casey Jones was a half-brother to Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark and he and Fleta were frequent visitors at the Central Office.  Casey and Fleta Jones lived most of their married lives in Topeka, Kansas where they owned and operated various businesses.   Casey and my father, John Leander (Tim) Clark were good friends and hunting companions.  I always knew them as Uncle Casey and Aunt Fleta.

The Central Office was the "hub" of the community and my Grandmother Clark served as the head of Maple Hill Central Intelligence :)   She knew all of the comings and goings of her customers.  When there was a funeral, Grandmother collected money for the community flowers and ordered them from Topeka florists.  When there was illness or a wedding, or any other right of passage, Grandmother could provide information with the permission of the family.   While some Central Office operators were known to listen in on calls and gossip or repeat information, Grandmother was never among them and held what she knew in strictest of confidence.
Her tenure was the longest of any Central Office operator, 43 years, and she was replaced by my mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, who served from 1958 until the telephone company became a part of Southwestern Bell Telephone and was converted to dial switching in 1962.   My mother was a relief operator for Grandmother Clark as was her cousin Mable (Phillips) Herron, Irene (Leeper) Hoobler, and Irene Flannary.   There were undoubtedly others.   I should have had her make a list but didn't.
My Grandmother also held another special role in the community.   When one of the town's doctors was out delivering a baby and needed assistance, he would call my grandmother.  She would find my Grandfather, Jim Pete Clark, have him tend the switchboard, and she would go help the doctor deliver the baby.   On seventeen occasions during her 43 years, there was a need to deliver a baby and the doctors were either out of town or already attending sickness and could not be summoned.   My Grandmother Clark delivered those seventeen babies.   I do have list of them and will write about that later.

This is a photo of my Grandmother, Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark, when she became "Central Mabel" at the Maple Hill Central Office in 1914.  She is sitting at the switchboard console in the telephone office.







A photo of Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark taken about 1958 in the doorway between her bedroom and living room in the Maple Hill Central Office.

There was a porch on the south and east side of the Central Office that ran along the office proper and the kitchen.   Grandmother stretched wire along the east side of the porch and planted a Virginia Creeper vine.  The vine kept the west sun from coming into the kitchen.   Every year, cardinals came to build their nests in the vine.   Grandmother would watch over them and pamper them and incredibly, every year, neighboring cats would come and eat the baby birds.   Grandmother would war against the cats, scalding them with hot water and every other manner of torture she could think of, but I don't ever remember a family of cardinals being raised to maturity in the vines.


My Grandmother was a large woman and incredibly strong.   I remember one Sunday afternoon, she had asked her cousin, Mabel (Phillips) Herron to watch the switchboard and had picked my brother Gary Wayne Clark and I up to go for a ride.  That was a very common Sunday afternoon thing to do in Maple Hill.   Every time I visited Maple Hilll over the entire course of my life, I took my grandmothers, mother and cousin Bonnie Mitchell (and many others) on Sunday afternoon rides around Maple Hill, and through the Flint Hills of Wabaunsee County.  On this Sunday, we stopped and visited with my Grandmother and Grandfather Robert and Mildred Corbin at their farm south of Maple Hill, and then we started back to town.   The railroad crossing was very steep and went up 8 or 10' to the level of the tracks.   Grandmother stopped and put the car in low gear before starting up the incline at the crossing, but she killed the engine just as the car pulled on the track.  She let the front wheel roll off the raised gravel between the crossing and the rail and the front tire rolled off and came to rest against the rail.   Had she had time, she could have probably started the engine and backed the car off the track.   However, just as she started to do so, she heard the whistle of an approaching locomotive  as it came around the curve heading east into Maple Hill.

This is a photo of L-R Mabel R. Clark and her cousin, Bernice Herron taken on the front step of the Maple Hill Central Office in 1935.   Bernice was the daughter of Mable (Phillips) and Wilber V. "Jack" Herron.   Mable Herron was Mabel Clark's first cousin through the Jones Family.   Bernice Herron was later the principal of Maple Hill High School.

Grandmother didn't panic, and she didn't take Gary and I out of the big Dodge car.   She just stepped around to the front of the car, grabbed hold of the bumper, picked the front end of the car up and rolled it back off the crossing.   The train was whistling and whistling as it approached the crossing but it didn't seem to alarm my Grandmother.   She said she wasn't scared until after the train had passed.   Her strength in lifting that car off the rail and pushing it back off the crossing was always amazing to me.  There are many other stories that I will share in future blogs.  

At the back of the Central Office, was a large plot of ground that was first used for a vegetable garden, and then as Granmother Clark aged, it became a flower bed with tomato plants at the back.   This photo shows Mabel R. Clark with her bed of bachelor buttons and larkspur and at the back, the large tomato vines.   Growing on the clothesline pole are Heavenly Blue morning glories.  At the left midground of the photo, is the south side of Earl and Alice Lemon's house and behind Grandmother is the Charles M. Lemon House.   The home of her parents, Lee and Jeanetta Susanna Jones is in the right mid-ground.
This is a 1925 photo taken on the south side of the Central Office.  Show is the corner of the front porch, the south kitchen wall and the back porch.  Also shown is are the outhouses on the Central Office property and the Charles M. Lemon Property.   In the photo L-R are baby Bessie Weeks, Betty Gilispie, and Tim Clark.  Betty Gilispie was a Clements.   Bessie Weeks was a Clark cousin of Jim Pete Clarks.   Tim Clark was the son of Mabel and Jim Pete Clark.


This is a photo of my Uncle, John Hedges (husband of Thelma M. (Clark) Hedges and their youngest son, John "Johnnie" Hedges taken behind the Central Office and in front of the flower and tomato bed in 1950.

My Grandmother, Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark, was a lovely Christian lady, a devoted wife and mother, and a servant to others all her life.   She lived out her life in Maple Hill, and passed away at the age of 93 on July 27, 1986 and is buried beside her husband in the Old Stone Church Cemetery, Maple Hill, Kansas.  I don't believe she had an enemy in this world.  I hope I can end my life the same way.   Happy Trails!

Christmas Memories Good and Bad

Yesterday may have been once of the worst Christmas memories for me.   I woke up with flu symptoms, had a terrible cough, head congestion and I stayed right in bed the whole blessed day!  I somehow dragged myself into the kitchen long enough to prepare a big pot of chicken soup which seems to have revived me.   The blessing in disguise was that I didn't get to go to a Christmas dinner with friends where I would have undoubtedly consumed thousands of calories.   So some good does come of everything--a favorite wisdom of my mother's.

This is a photo of the author's brother, Gary Wayne Clark, at the Maple Hill Community Christmas Program held at the American Legion Hall in 1949.   Santa's helper was George Wild, Sr. and the girl with the Shirley Temple curls is, I believe, Trudi Mee.
I had intended to write a little about Christmas yesterday.   I should begin by saying that during my 67 years, I have had far more good than bad Christmas memories.   I suppose my earliest memories are of having Christmas Eve with Grandmother and Grandfather Clark and Christmas Day with Grandmother and Grandfather Corbin.    My Clark grandparents lived in Maple Hill, where my grandmother Mabel was the Central Office telephone operator.   Christmas was always a busy day for her because all of the telephone calls placed or received by Maple Hill's 300 telephone owners had to go through Grandmother's switchboard.  She had more time to spend with us on Christmas Eve so we'd usually go to church and then go to Grandma and Grandpa Clark's.

There will probably be those who might dispute this (but one of the advantages of waiting until you're 67 to begin writing memories is that many of those who might disagree are dead!) but my father's favorite food was grandmother's butter beans and dumplings.  That was usually the main course when we had Christmas at the Clark's.   I also loved Grandma's butter beans, which were in early memories prepared on the coal range in her big kitchen.  She would go to the back porch and get kindling (little slivers of wood from the lumber yard) and small chunks of black coal.   She'd put them into the stove, add a little kerosene, stand back and throw a match into the stove.   Soon it would be providing ample heat for cooking and for warming the room.   In one corner of the kitchen was a pitcher pump which was connected to a large cistern outdoors.  The guttering on the house was all connected to the cistern and there were two charcoal filters the rain water had to run through before collecting in a big brick and plaster basin.    This water was used for washing clothes and for washing dishes.   For drinking, we had to take two, two-gallon enamel buckets outdoors and across Main Street to the town well.


The wedding photo of Jim and Mabel Clark, March 15, 1910

The town well had been dug in 1887 when Maple Hill was established and the physical features had taken many forms.   I don't have pictures of them all.   Originally, it was just a wooden platform with a pump and a big wooden horse watering trough.   It was used mainly by people who were riding or driving their horses into town and needed to water them before returning home.   However it was also a source of water for families who did not have dug wells on their property.   I don't know if there ever was a dug well on the Central Office property but there wasn't when I was growing up.   I do remember my uncle, Richard "Rick" Andrews and the Maple Hill Boy Scouts either repairing the stone wall around the town well or actually building the stone wall.  I don't know which it was at this point, but that work would have done in about 1957 or 1958.    I also remember there being a sort of wooden pergola over the town well on which morning glory vines grew in the summer.

The Maple Hill Town Well on Main Street looking north (circa 1950.)

But I digress---which I find myself doing more and more at this advanced age.  Grandmother Clark usually had a small, live Christmas Tree in the telephone office and a larger live Christmas tree in the living room, which was immediately behind the central office.  There was a door between the two rooms, (which had separate coal heating stoves) and that door could be closed for privacy but was more than not open.

I may as well provide one of the sad memories near the beginning of this blog.   My Grandfather, James Peter Clark, died in his sleep on Christmas Eve in 1949 until St. John Vianny Catholic Church was constructed in 2008.   Therefore, most of the children involved in the other two programs were also involved in the MHCCC Christmas Program.  Mrs (Steele) Ellen Romick was the Sunday School superintendent when I was very young, followed by Mrs. (Elmer) Charlotte Imthurn when I was in the upper grades and high school.   I became Sunday School Superintendent for two years during the late 1960s and worked with the programs.   Usually there were four or five Sunday School classes that prepared programs.   We all had verses to memorize and sometimes little plays were given.   There would also be group singing, duets and solos (both vocal and instrumental.   These were usually aided by Mrs. Romick, who was an excellent pianist, by Mrs. (Lyle) Melba Jo (Adams) Raine, Mary Sue Kitt and Mrs. (Howard) Lois Hammarlund, who was for decades the church organist and choir director.   Often times, the church choir would prepare a Christmas Contata which was performed on the Sunday before Christmas.    I say with confidence that MHCCC had excellent musical leaders and the musical programs were without equal among the small churches.

This is a photo of the first and second grade classes at the old, wood frame grade school in Maple Hill.  I am standing on the far left end, first row.   This photo was a gift from Mrs. Mae Crayton, a long-time teacher at Maple Hill Elementary.

I believe I can identify all except one.  Back Row, L-R: Pam Wisegarver, Roberta Oliver, Patty Holmes, Mary Sue Kitt, Marlene Lawson, Sharon Oliver, ----?----, Virgie Sexton, Carol Gurbb, Ann Adams.
Front Row, L-R:  Nick Clark, Rosemary Gandt, Larry Schulte, Trudi Mee, Bonnie Sloan.

Any help or corrections would be appreciated.


I think I'll quit there.    I have many other Christmas memories but they will need to wait for future years or blogs.    Happy New Year and Happy Trails!

A Maple Hill Mystery Solved

I generally spend some time each day looking at the Ebay Website for items related to the history of my hometown, Maple Hill, Kansas.   I have found many interesting picture post cards, letters, commemorative plates, books, etc. that are related to Maple Hill.

This is an oil painting of the Old Stone Church, 1.5 miles west of Maple Hill, Kansas.   The author of this blog is the artist.   The painting was completed in 1981 almost 100 years after the church was completed and dedicated in 1882.

Originally named after a benefactor church in Newton, Massachusetts, the Eliot Union Congregation Church was built upon the proposed town site for Maple Hill, Kansas.   The 40 acres it occupies was donated by William Pierce, who was one of the New England pioneers who came to Maple Hill from the Boston, Massachusetts area.  Pierce expected the new town of Maple Hill to be built to the south and west of the church when the Chicago and Rock Island built their railroad line through Kansas, Wabaunsee County and Maple Hill Township in 1887.

However as we who grew up in Maple Hill know, that was not what happened.   George Fowler, who owned a large ranch east of the proposed town site, decided that the town should be built on his ranch land.   The Chicago and Rock Island delivered the lumber for the depot to the Pierce town site, but Fowler's ranch hands moved it to his property during the night.  Legal action ensued and it seemed that the railroad would be built before a town site could be decided upon.

Everything has it's price.   Fowler offered to make Pierce an officer of the new town site company, to give him lots for resale in the new town site and to name one of the principal streets in the new town site after Pierce.    With that action completed, the new town was located on the Fowler Ranch approximately 1.5 miles east of the Old Stone Church.

The Old Stone Church was for twenty years, the only church in the Maple Hill area.   The congregation flourished under the pastorate of Rev. W. S. Crouch, whose Biblical knowledge and oratory were renowned throughout eastern Kansas.  

This is a picture postcard of the Eliot Union Congregational Church in Maple Hill, Kansas taken in 1910.   The remodeling of the original school house was completed in 1905 so the congregation had been in it's new town site home for five years in 1910.  The church has been remodeled many times since.  It was located two blocks east of the old Methodist Church.
Transportation was difficult.   After the new town was established, people did not want to hitch up their horse and wagon or buggy and/or walk the 1.5 miles from the new town of Maple Hill to the Old Stone Church.  In the meantime, George Fowler had given land and money to build a Methodist Episcopal Church in Maple Hill.   Fowler was a Methodist himself.   Fowler had also given land and money to build a new school house on the eastern edge of the new town.   The school house had been designed by architects Root and Siemens of Kansas City.   There was no finer school in any town the size of Maple Hill.

The Methodist Episcopal Church, Maple Hill, Kansas about 1910.   Eventually, this congregation merged with the Eliot Union Congregational Church (during the 1930s) and the new church became known as the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church.   The old Methodist building was then owned by the new MHCCC and was used as a Fellowship Hall until being raised in 1951.

By 1900, the Eliot Union Congregational Church (Old Stone Church) had begun a steep decline.   The population of the new town had grown to about 300.   Although only about 15 years old, the town school had become crowded and a new, larger building was needed.   The townspeople, with the assistance of Fowler's ranch manager and partner, William J. Tod, had approached George Fowler about building a new school and remodeling the old school building for use by the Eliot Union Congregational Church.
This is the new school house built in 1904-1905 on the western edge of Maple Hill.  George Fowler donated the land.   Several generations of our families attended this school which had elementary rooms on the first floor, secondary rooms on the second floor and a large indoor play area in the basement.   The author went to school in this building for first, second and third grades from 1950-1953 when it was razed and replaced by a modern, one-story brick school building still in use.   In 1921, a brick high school building was built.  That allowed the four rooms on the first floor to be used as elementary rooms while the second floor was used for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes.  There was also a study hall/library combination on the second floor when I was a student there.

While browsing Ebay this week, I came across a color print for sale titled, "Maple Hill Congregational Church, Maple Hill, Kansas."    That's not unusual.   There are many photographs and picture post cards of the Old Stone Church west of Maple Hill, Kansas.   I have about a dozen different views myself.  But this was not the Old Stone Church.   It was an architectural rendering for the building of a new stone church in the new town site of Maple Hill.    It was dated March 1903.  That fits in perfectly with planning for a new Congregational Church in Maple Hill.   Evidently Fowler had Root and Siemens firm design a new stone church so that the congregation could remove from the Old Stone Church and hold worship in the town of Maple Hill.   Below is the rendering and description:

A Beautifully Detailed, Original Plan of the Congregational Church in Maple Hill, Kansas. HAND-COLORED. Root & Siemens, Architects, Kansas City, Missouri. From the American Architect and Building

I have never seen this picture before, nor have I ever heard that a stone church was ever proposed for the new townsite.  This picture is extremely rare, as the American Architect and Building News not only had a very small circulation during that time, but very few copies were actually preserved or colored as this has been. It measures 13 by 8.5 inches and has mat border and foam core backing (not attached to the picture). The whole plan measures approximately 15.5 by 11.5 inches (with mat border). Finely detailed and beautifully hand-colored. 

A photo of my mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark and the blog author, Nicholas L. Clark, taken in front of the Old Stone Church in 2009.  The church was destroyed by fire in 1955 and restored.   In 1994, it was destroyed by a tornado and again completely rebuilt and restored.   The church is used for weddings and funerals and services are held there each Memorial Day by the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church.   A grave yard was begun around the church in the early 1880s and continues to be the primary burial ground for Maple Hill.  

I thought I was a pretty good student of the history of the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church.   I was a member there from birth in 1944 until I left Maple Hill in 1978.   But my mother always said, "Don't stand on a stump cause you make a better target!"  I'm sure there is much more history to discover and I'll keep trying to be a good student.

Happy Trails!!

Jones/Clark Christmas Photos and Memories Related to Sports and Hunting

I've now passed more than 1,000 readers of this blog, and I have yet to receive a single comment.   However I expect that to change after today's post.   Why?   I have several Clark family photos that were taken on Christmas Day, and strangely they all seem to relate to hunting.    I well remember doing just that when I was a boy and young adult.   We would usually gather at one of my grandparent's homes, or in later years at my parent's home, and after stuffing ourselves full of good things to eat, we would either take our shotguns and go quail hunting, or we would take our 22 caliber rifles and go rabbit hunting.

I love animals as much as the next person and I want to make sure there is plenty of wild game to hunt when if my great grandchildren want to go hunting, but I'm not a radical member of PETA or other animal rights organizations.   Animals have a cycle of life, and I believe in protecting the environment so animals will have habitat in which to life and multiply happily, but I also believe that if you obey the laws you will not depopulate or over harvest any animal.   Okay, enough said, on to the photos and hunting memories.

I never knew my paternal great grandfather, Leander Emory Jones (who was also called Lee or Deacon) but he was an avid hunter and fisherman.   My father, John Leander (Tim) Clark, told me that Grandfather Jones took him fishing when he was so young, he had to tie him to a small tree with a dishtowel to keep him from falling into Mill Creek.   Grandpa Jones was a "mans man" and was into all kinds of athletic sports.  He was a good friend of Jess Willard, who was the heavy weight boxing champion of the world in 1915.   Willard was born in Pottawatomie County, Kansas and grew up on a farm.   He was a wheat farmer until starting to box at age 27.   They met at a barn dance where Grandfather Jones was playing the violin and became great friends.

Jess Willard, who won the heavy weight boxing championship of the world in Havana, Cuba in 1915.

My maternal great uncle, Robert McCauley, worked for Leander Jones.   Lee Jones owned a threshing machine and went all over western Kansas and Wabaunsee County threshing grain for farmers.  Uncle Bob McCauley said that he used to drive the water wagon which hauled water from creeks, rivers and ponds to the threshing machine.  Water was needed to produce steam which powered the threshing operation.   Uncle Bob said that Lee Jones used to go into nearby towns in the evening and offer to fight for money.   Uncle Bob said that he was a good fighter and mostly won fights he was in.

Leander Emory (also called Lee and Deacon) Jones.  Born September 20, 1871 near Alma, Wabaunsee County, Kansas.
Everything about this photo indicates that he was a "mans man."

James Peter (Jim Pete) Clark, with his beloved whippet hounds.  This picture was taken in the back yard of the Central Office, at Maple Hill, Kansas.   In the background are a coal shed and outhouse and a portion of the Charles Montgomery Lemon home on the left and the home of coal shed and Leander E. (Lee) Jones to the right.  The date is before 1935, because the second story of the Lee Jones home burned in 1932 and the house in the photo is one story.  The caption on this photo is in my Grandmother Clark's handwriting and just says, "Jim and his hounds, Christmas Day."

My paternal grandfather was James Peter (known as Jim Pete) Clark.   He was the son of Johnnie and Mary Eliza (Woody) Clark and was born on a farm near Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas on March 15, 1886.   There was an adult men's softball team in Maple Hill in the 1910s, and Grandpa Clark played for that team.   He was also an avid hunter and raised whippet hounds, mostly to hunt coyotes and jack rabbits which were plentiful when he was young.  The whippet was smaller than a grey hound but could run just as fast.  When in pursuit of game, they could attain speeds of nearly 20 miles per hour.   My grandfather raised these hounds and sold pups to other hunters in and around Maple Hill.  He was married to Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark who served as the Central Office Operator (telephone operator) at Maple Hill from 1914 until 1958.   The Central Office was a room containing the switchboard and other telephone equipment on the front of a three room house located at the main intersection of Maple Hill. 

My Grandfather Jones, my Grandfather Clark, and my Dad, Tim Clark all participated in many coyote and jack rabbit hunts, also called roundups.  These animals were plentiful during the early 1900s.   The coyotes were so numerous that there was a bounty of $3.00 if you brought the ears from a dead coyote to the county courthouse.   The jack rabbits were plentiful and were used to feed hungry families during the Great Depression Era and before.  Having said all I did about hunting in the first paragraphs, I will admit that the jack rabbits were over hunted as were the coyotes.   Eventually, they became endangered species and their populations were reduced to almost nothing during the 1950s.  Now coyotes are plentiful again but jack rabbits are rarely seen in Wabaunsee County, Kansas.

There is no caption on this old photo and I don't recognize anyone but I would guess that it is from the 1920s.



This picture is dated New Years Day 1945 but I do not recognize anyone in the picture.

I never heard my father, John "Tim" Clark, say that his Father or Grandfather Jones went coon hunting, but my Father went at least two or three times a week during the winter.   I have gone on many coon hunts with him, as have all of my brothers.   I never liked coon hunting much because it was always done in winter when it was cold and often the dogs would chase a coon for miles and "get lost" until the next day, when a neighbor would call and say they were at their house or they would just find their way home.   We would often leave our house on these coon hunting expeditions about 7pm and not return home until 10pm or 11pm.

John "Tim" Clark shown with coon hides on drying boards on Christmas Day, 1950.  This picture was taken at the Sells Ranch south of Maple Hill.  The caption on the photo indicates that these are his red bone coon dogs, "Rock" and "Rowdy."

Until going to work at the Veteran's Hospital in Topeka, Kansas my father, John (Tim) Clark farmed and also worked as a heavy equipment operator for Fauerback Construction, St. Marys, Kansas.  My dad was very good at operating a D-9 Caterpillar bulldozer and mostly built ponds and terraces during the winter when he wasn't farming.   Construction was not always dependable work during the winter so my father's primary occupation during the winter was trapping fur bearing animals and hunting for coons, coyotes and rabbits.    He would often make $3,000 or more over the winter from the pelts he obtained.   He would set traps along Mill Creek, the Kansas River, ponds and sloughs and would catch beaver, muskrats, and mink.   It was cold, hard work but he reveled in it.


There isn't any caption of date on this photo, but judging from my Dad's gray hair, I would it was probably taken in the 1970s.  I believe I'm able to count seven coyote pelts.   The bounty was taken off coyotes in the 1970s and these pelts all  have their ears, another reason for the date.

Making money from furs was hard work.   It might take a whole morning in freezing temperatures to check your traps.   Then you had to bring the animals home, skin them, scrap all of the fat off the pelt, and then stretch them over properly formed and shaped fur boards.   Then you had to let the pelts dry before taking them to market.   The coyote pelts in this photo have all been skinned, stretched, dried, taken off the boards and grouped.   There were many fur dealers in those days in Topeka, Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee County.   My Dad would call them, or they would send him pricing fliers, and he would take the pelts where they might bring the most money.   The very best price I remember him getting for premium grade pelts was usually $12 to $15 each for raccoons and $10 to $15 each for coyotes.   The beaver pelts might bring $20 to $40 dollars each and minks $15 to $20 each---but those were all the best prices.  Usually the net was much less.   None-the less, $3,000 in the 1940s, 50s and 60s went a long way toward feeding a family and most importantly, my dad lived and breathed hunting and loved every single minute of it.

I don't know the date of this photo, but the smile on Dad's face tells me that he was in the height of his glory---he has just caught a bob cat in one of his traps.   In the background at raccoon pelts on stretching boards.  Again I would say the photo is from the 1970s.

I don't ever remember my dad shooting a bob cat.  We have head them "scream" when coon hunting but I don't remember seeing one or shooting one.   However, my Dad did catch two or three bob cats in traps.   Those were always happy days.

In the summer, Dad's attention turned to fishing.  I do not consider it boasting, to say that my dad was one of the best fisherman in the Maple Hill area.   He fished with a rod and reel and he fished by setting lines both on Mill Creek and on the Kansas River.   Occasionally, he would fish from a pasture pond, but mostly he fished with a rod and reel.  Having said that, the photo to the right was taken in 1973, when my Dad (John "Tim" Clark) caught this 38# flat head out of the Kansas River on a rod and reel.  During the summer, I think that it's safe to say that he fished four or five nights every week.   He fed his own family and then fed his extended family and gave fish to half the town.   He loved fishing and never tired of it.   Unfortunately, I didn't inherit that love but all three of my brothers love to fish.  Just this morning I received an email from brother Gary Wayne Clark saying that he had gone fishing in Mill Creek on last Saturday and Sunday and had caught a total of 10 cat fish.

My brother, Gary Wayne Clark, carrying a pan of crappie fillets from the warmer at the 2008 fish fry.

My Dad, my brothers and other friends and relatives started the Maple Hill Fish Fry on the last Saturday in August more than 30 years ago.   They wanted to share their bounty with relatives, friends and neighbors.    Any time they have the opportunity to fish, whether it's a warm day in winter or throughout the spring, summer or fall, you will likely find my three brothers on the banks of Mill Creek or at one of the many man-made reservoirs in Kansas.   They all have one or two freezers and my mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark always had two big freezers filled with crappie, bass and channel cat.   On the Saturday of the fish fry, my brothers and their friends gather to batter the fish and now have two large friers that are used to fee more than 200 people in Maple Hill City Park.   Everyone brings a covered dish at 5pm, and the fish is courtesy of the Clark family and fisherman friends.


Most years, the temperature will be between 95 and 105 when the annual fish fry is held in late August, but it never seems to make the crowds smaller.  Everyone brings a dish to share in the shelter house in Maple Hill City Park, there's free margaritas, lots of good conversation and no one goes home until well past dark.








  

My mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark was always the biggest duck in the puddle at the annual fish fry.   Mom was an avid quilter and took the opportunity to sell quilt chances for the quilting group.   You could always find her under a tree in her rocking lawn chair "making a dollar for the Lord."  She was sorely missed at this year's event.

Fortunately, this story is going to have a happy ending.    While the fishing and hunting gene may have skipped me, it is alive and well in my son and grandchildren.   At right is left Liam Clark with a nice bass caught from the pond near his house.  His sister Mia Clark is just as eager with the rod and reel.    To the right are grandsons Will and Wyatt Allendorf who have a great fishing pond just a few houses from them in their subdivision.   Every time I visit we have to take bread to the pond and feed the fish and turtles which are real gluttons!

My son Nicholas with his bob cat.                             My son Nicholas Clark belongs to a hunt club near his home in Suffolk, Virginia and also has a fishing boat.   He is often out on the James River fishing.   In recent conversations he has been more than willing to share stories about deer hunting, shooting a bob cat, trying without success to get a red fox----so I'm very sure that my father and other ancestors would be happy to know their skills are alive and well.               Happy trails!

Gone on Grampee Duty Again!!

Dear readers,
I will be gone for a couple of weeks enjoying a visit with my brother, Gary W. Clark, and also with my daughter's family in Cincinnati.    Amy and husband Rich have three boys:  Will who is 7, Wyatt who is 4, and Weston who is 10 months.    I'm going to fly to Kansas City where I'll meet brother Gary and we're going to drive from there to Cincinnati---unless Mother Nature has other ideas!!

Will and Wyatt, Christmas 2009

Rich, Amy, Will and Wyatt

Grampee Nick holding Weston, with Wyatt just below and Will sitting at my feet.    Can't wait to see them all again!

I am really enjoying writing the blog and I hope to be back at it by mid-December.

Happy trails!

Nick Clark

Stewart and Lucy Grandy Lemon - Travels, Transportation and Disasters

Next week, I will be making a trip to Kansas and Ohio to visit my brother and daughter's family.   I'll board my plane in Palm Springs, California and will be at Kansas City International Airport about four hours later.   My brother, Gary W. Clark is going to meet me there and we're going to rent a car and drive to Cincinnati, a distance of 588 miles on interstate highways.  It will take about 10 hours depending on traffic an weather.

Compare that to the travel of our ancestors about 170 years ago.   We will be in warm planes and cars.  But our families had little protection from the elements as they moved hundreds of miles in horse- or oxen-drawn conveyances to unknown places where they literally had only the clothes on their back and whatever could be carried in a 6'x12' wagon.  

I remember reading descriptions of  travel on the Oregon Trail.   Wagon trains (no one every traveled alone.   There was safety in numbers!) would leave Westport Landing (now Kansas City, Missouri.) Their wagons would be pulled by sturdy oxen and were filled with the fine furnishings that filled their eastern homes, including  grandfather clocks, pianos, tables, heavy dressers and trunks of linens.   Within a week of leaving Westport, the trail would be littered with that same furniture being left behind.   It was more important to transport food, clothing, the apple saplings to plant in orchards, wheat seed, and other commodities that were essential to future survival.   All else was excess!

This is a wagon in the collection of the Oregon Historical Society that actually made the trip from Westport Landing to Oregon via the dirt trail over prairies and mountains.   Not much could be included.

The wagons our ancestors traveled in were most likely very similar to the one shown in the illustration.  These sturdy wagons weighed about 1,000 pounds before loading and were usually pulled by four or six oxen, which were considered stronger thank horses.  My great great grandparents, Stewart Montgomery and Lurancy Louisa "Lucy" (Grandy) Lemon moved from state to state with their belongings many times.

Stewart and Lucy Lemon were married at Lake Geneva, Walworth County, Wisconsin on August 24, 1847.  He was 20 years old and Lucy was 13.  My maternal great grandmother, Lucy Mae (Lemon) McCauley-Bonta-Strong was their youngest daughter.  She was born in 1873 and died in 1955, when I was 9-years-old.   I knew and remember her but most of the stories about family history were handed down to me by her daughter, Mildred Mae (McCauley) Corbin Clark, who was my maternal grandmother.

Grandmother Corbin-Clark said that as she remembered the story, Stewart was working in a lumber camp with Lurancy's father and brother at Lake Geneva, Walworth County, Wisconsin when they met.    Lucy, at 13 years old, was considered a woman of marriageable age.  Just imagine it!  Stewart was 20 and she was 13.  Today it wouldn't be allowed, but in those days, it happened often and many times the husband was much older.

Lurancy wasn't from a poor family, her parents had been born in Vermont and both at least attended a few years of country school according to census reports.    Ira and Lurancy (Silbey) Grandy had been married in 1824 when he was 22 and she was 16.  They had the same trip from Vermont to Wisconsin, with a total of eight children.    We don't know if they moved that distance in one move or several.  If they moved in one trip, they could have made the entire trip by covered wagon but the Erie Canal had been completed through New York in 1825 so they may have made a major portion of the trip via canal and then passage on a Great Lakes sailing ship to Detroit.    Those were both viable options.

Shown is a typical Erie Canal Boat loaded with
passengers bound for the eastern terminus at
Buffalo, New York on Lake Erie.

In any case, both families, the Lemons and the Grandys, experienced journeys of great hardship and distance in migrating from Vermont to Wisconsin and from New Jersey (where Stewart was born) to Wisconsin and Michigan.

If you were traveling by horse and wagon, 15-20 miles was a full day's journey, especially if the wagon was heavily loaded.   To "save" the horses, all but the driver usually walked beside the wagon.  The exception might be the aged and the infirm.   If the roads were muddy or had snow on them, 5 miles or less might be a very good day.

So follow along now as we make the journey from Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan to Norton County, Kansas where Stewart and Lucy Lemon's journey ends.   The distance is 1,014 miles as the crow flies but it's difficult to know how many miles their family actually traveled. 

This is a photo of  Wisconsin lumber camp in the early 1850s.   No actual location is indicated.

Stewart and Lucy (Grandy) Lemon moved from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to live new his father, brothers and sisters soon after they were married.   His father owned 160-acres of land near Pontiac, Michigan which included a small portion of Love Lake.    This area is now one of the most expensive residential suburban areas north of Detroit and a single house lot can cost $1 million dollars.  At that time it was mostly timbered land which had to be cleared to be worth even $4 or $5 per acre.   Stewart's father was also a shoe cobbler and had a small shop in Pontiac, Michigan.

From birth and death records, we can pretty much surmise that Stewart and Lucy lived in Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan from the late 1840s to 1857.    How do we know that?   Because their first three children, Charles Montgomery, Lurancy Louisa, and Ira Elmer were all born there.   Ira Elmer was the last in October 1854.   

This tintype of Lurancy Louisa (Grandy) Lemon is now in my possession and I will relate the interesting story of how I came to have it later.    She is probably about 50 in this photo.  It is easy to look at her toil worn face and handmade clothing and get a sense of how hard her life must have been.

My maternal grandmother, Lucy Mae Lemon McCauley Bonta Strong, told her daughter Mildred Mae McCauley Corbin Clark, that her sister Lurancy Louisa (named for her mother and grandmother) was killed in an accident.   She said that her mother had started from the farm to town to buy supplies and that Lurancy was bundled in a blanket on the wagon seat.   The wagon hit a rut and the resulting lunge caused the baby to fall off the wagon.   The baby fell under the wagon wheel and was crushed to death.  Her death occurred on March 11, 1856 in Pontiac, Michigan.   It is hard to imagine how the little pioneer mother must have felt after this horrendous tragedy.   She was only 21, and she had already had three children, one of which was now dead as the result of an accident.

This is a tintype of Stewart and Lucy (Grandy) Lemon now in my possession.   Stewart would appear to be about 50 and Lucy about
42 or 43.    To my knowledge, these are the only known images of Stewart and Lucy (Grandy) Lemon.

The family Bible (which is in possession of the Norman Steele Family in Kansas at this writing) indicates that Ira Elmer Lemon, Steward and Lurancy's third child, died on October 18, 1856 at Pontiac, Michigan but does not indicate a cause.  That means that Stewart and Lucy had now lost two of their three children in one year.

The next child, Francis Elbert Lemon, was born on September 16, 1857 in Winona, Minnesota.   This would indicate that the family had moved to Minnesota sometime between Ira Elmer's death in 1856 and Francis's birth in 1857.

The author's cousin, James Milton "Jim" Lemon, was the son of George Washington Lemon and Eliza Jane (Fisher) Lemon.  That makes him the grandson of Stewart and Lurancy.   He was in his 90s when I visited with him in Spokane, Washington in 1977.  He is the only person I ever visited with who had actually known both of his grandparents.  He was born in 1887 and Stewart passed away in 1894 so Jim would have been seven years old.   He knew his grandmother Lurancy Lemon, much longer since she died in 1918 when Jim Lemon was a grown man.

This is a photo of men pulling logs down the frozen Mississippi River in the 1850s.  All of the photos and drawings in this blog are compliments of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Jim said that his grandparents said they moved to Winona, Minnesota because Stewart could find work on area farms but especially because he could work all winter in the lumber business.  He said that Stewart Lemon told him that he trained teams of oxen to pull huge logs down the frozen Mississippi River to the lumber mill.

This is a drawing of a n 1850s lumber mill on the Mississippi River.
Again using birth and death records as well as U. S. Census accounts, we can determine that Stewart and Louisa (Grandy) Lemon lived at Winona, Minnesota from 1857 until 1872 or 1873.   There, six more children would be born to them:
James Greer on March 26, 1860
Henry Ellsworth on December 21, 1861
George Washington on December 26, 1863
Mary Jane on April 5, 1866
Margaret Elizabeth on January 8, 1871.

While the family lived at Winona, Minnesota, the Civil War raged.   In order to obtain the enlistment bonus of $300.00, Stewart Lemon joined the U. S. Army and was gone from the family for nearly two years.    He came home sick from chronic diarrhea and was disabled.   He obtained a small pension of $8 monthly, but it wasn't enough to keep the family so Lucy went to work as a laundress for the lumber men.  In that way,  the family could eke out a living.

The Lemon family decided to leave Winona, Minnesota and follow the broom corn harvest to Kansas.  This was a way they could make the trip and earn money to pay for it along the way.   At that time, broom corn was a major crop across the state of Iowa and many tenant farmers and farm labors would plant and harvest broom corn on rented land.    The top/tassel of broom corn was the natural material was used in making all kinds of brooms.   The work was very dirty and hot.

A photo of broom corn.   The grain was removed leaving a course material still used in brooms.
Although technically disabled, Stewart fathered he and Lurancy's last child at Eldora, Hardin County, Iowa.   Lucy Mae Lemon was born on December 8, 1873.   She told her daughter, Mildred McCauley Corbin Clark, that her mother only stopped working for one day before rejoining the harvest hands.  Lucy Mae was bundled and tied to her back.   Her labor was needed to keep the family from starving.    They lived at the edge of broom corn fields in a tent fastened to their covered wagon during that time.  At night, Lucy would have to cook supper for the family and at least once each week, she would have to boil water to wash clothing.   This memory was also shared by Margaret Elizabeth (Lemon) Miller with her son Bill.

After the harvest, the family moved southwest to Norton County, Kansas, a trip of about 300 miles.  They made the trip for two reasons: first they could homestead 160-acres of land if they were able to remain there and build a house on it within five years.   Second, the Union Pacific Railroad was building across northern Kansas and the family learned there were jobs available.  Somewhere during his life, Stewart had picked up stone laying skills, which were very useful at their new destination.

A special plow was used to cut sod from the Kansas prairie.   This sod was made into "bricks" which were used to build houses, barns and outbuildings.  Often times, a pit was dug into the ground about three feet deep.   Pioneers knew that this would help them keep their new dwelling cool in summer and warm in winter.    Then sod bricks were used to build 4' walls around the pit to make total height about 7'.  Timber for roofing was very scarce in western Kansas, so pioneers used what timber was available just to make the roof frame.   Then they would cover the frame with sod blocks three deep. 

This is a photo of a "dug out" sod house in western Kansas but is not the one the Lemon family built.  When the family arrived in Kansas, they met neighbors who were German.   They were the Christian and Catherine (Crosby) Miller family, who helped them build their new home.   Margaret Elizabeth "Maggie" Lemon, would later marry William Miller, one of the Miller sons.

The Lemons were looking forward to homesteading their 160-acre claim.   It seemed that finally they might have the opportunity to better themselves.   But fate is cruel and it was not to be.   1874 was the year of the Great Grasshopper Plague in Kansas.   Millions and millions of grasshoppers moved into Kansas from north to south.   It is still called the greatest natural disaster that the State of Kansas has ever sustained.

Pioneers wrote many descriptions of the event but in general, they usually say that the grasshoppers came in "clouds" and that they were accompanied by a deafening noise.   They describe walls of animals on the ground as well, eating every bit of vegetation in their paths.   In addition, they craved salt so they would also eat leather harness, the handles out of farm implements, men's leather gloves, wooden cutlery handles.    Usually they remained only day or two, ever advancing to the south, but in the path of destruction, almost nothing remained.  

This engraving appeared the the Farmer's Grange newspaper and depicts the Great Grasshopper Plague.                                                                  There are many reports of humans and animals simply going mad.   The noise is often described as so deafening that humans could not stand it and would shoot themselves.  The Great Grasshopper Plague of 1874 was a horrific pandemic that disillusioned pioneers and reduced the possibility of their survival.

Some of the families surrounding the Lemons had been in Norton County for a couple of years or longer, including the Christian Millers.   These families shared what they could and somehow, the Lemons and other newcomers survived the winter, which was severe.   The next spring, Stewart Lemon, his wife Lurancy and other family members abandoned their homestead farm and went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad.  The family seems to have clustered around Concordia and Beloit, Kansas.   Lurancy and her daughters who were old enough, went to work as cooks, laundresses and seamstresses for the railroad workers.   Stewart was not able to work, but his sons did.   The family began to pull itself together and have the resources to move forward.

A photo of a grasshopper.   They seem small and rather innocuous, the this is the little critter that did so much damage in 1874.

In 1887, some of the family learned that the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad was going to build a new rail line across central Kansas.    They caught up with the work at what would be come Maple Hill, Wabaunsee County, Kansas.    Maple Hill would become home to many members of the Lemon family for generations.   Sadly, there are no families named Lemon now living in Maple Hill.   However my brother, Gary Clark, great great grandson of Stewart and Lurancy Lemon still lives in Maple Hill along with Loren Justice, who is also a great great grandson.

In about 1890, Stewart heard that stone masons were needed in Perry, Jefferson County, Kansas.   He and Lurancy moved there and Stewart, although old and infirm, worked on the construction of two stone structures.   In 1894, he suffered a stroke at Perry and died there.   He is buried in the Perry Cemetery.    Lurancy lived another 24 years and died at the home of her daughter, Lucy Mae (Lemon) McCauley Bonta Strong, at Clements, Kansas in 1918.

I will write other blogs that have more detailed, specific genealogical information about the Stewart and Lurancy (Grandy) Lemon family, but I specifically wanted to write this article to emphasize how our pioneer families traveled and the hardships they endured.   Despite failure after failure, they never lost hope.   When the going got tough, the tough got going!

Educational Exercise:  I hope that the adults reading this article will get maps of the United States (they're readily available on-line) and have their children and grandchildren retrace the route Stewart and Lurancy followed during their lives.  It would be fun to do it as you read them some of the story.   They will learn geography, learn about travel, and hands-on activities will help them remember the family heritage.   You can also click on the photographs, change the image to black and white, and print them out for coloring pages.

I hope you're enjoying reading these blogs as much as I am writing them!    Happy trails!