2nd Quarter 2008
April, May, and June 2008
A quick note, this web page is sponsored by Elk City PRIDE in connection with Kansas State University PRIDE Program and through the Blueskyways Library System. PRIDE and the people of Elk City make up the content of this website.
Elk City Fireworks Stand
Elk City has its Wizard Fireworks stand - built, owned and operated by an enterprising young man, Thaddeus. We in Elk City wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July.
PRIDE Awards Banquet Held
The Annual PRIDE Awards dinner was held in April. A wonderful crowd attended, enough so we had to put up extra tables. The building was creatively decorated and pictures of the honored guests were displayed.
This year PRIDE honored some of Elk City's special senior citizens. The oldest Ladies honored were Mildred Brashier and Marjorie Warren; both are 91. The oldest gentlemen honoree was Pat Hall; he is 87, and he said the secret to a long life was hard work and a good cook!
Also honored were two couples married the longest; Lyman and Juanita Newton married 65 years. Pat & LaDornia Hall married for 70 years.
Pictures of the recipients of the PRIDE Award Banquet
LaDornia Hall receives recognition for 60 years as a member of the Gingham Aprons.
LaDornia Hall received her 60 year member pin with the Gingham Aprons F.C.E. The Gingham Aprons Club was formed in 1943. LaDornia joined in 1948 when her children were small, and she has been with the club from that day onward. She has held the offices of Vice President, Reporter, Council Member and for many years Courtesy Chairman.
The first meeting in 1943 was at the home of Mrs. Leland Aiken in the month of October. Nine ladies met: Mrs. Audrey Aiken, Mrs. Stella Bryant, Mrs. Redding, Mrs. Dorothy Sailor, Mrs. Ruth Woodward Moberley, Mrs. Berniece Price Belleville, and Mrs. Dollie Crossfield. The club was named because all the ladies were wearing gingham aprons.
LaDornia was invited by a friend to join in 1948 and has been a faithful member ever since. Gertrude Hovey was the county agent for many years; then Linda Carr became county agent for the next 40 years. By 1949 eighteen members were coming to the meeting. Most of the ladies lived in rural Elk City and a few in the town of Elk City. The club received their first gold seal in 1947.
Mrs. Hall received her 50 year pin in May 1996 and her 55 year pin at Crawford County Recognition day in 2002. Her favorite lessons were on Clothing styles; matching clothes, tying scarves, dressing up or down with accessories. Keeping up with the style changes over the years was one of my goals.
She remembers when they served the banquets at the Elk City high school, started the library and held story hour for the kids, and had housing tours. We have had many projects over the years and many lessons that were informative and enjoyable. I still love going to the meetings each month.
The Gingham Aprons started out as a Farm Bureau club and had lessons on gardening, foods, food safety, lots of different clothing styles and ideas, crafts etc. Then the name was changed to Home Demonstration Unit. LaDornia doesn’t remember if the lessons came from the Extension Office when it was HDU. Some years later, it became the Extension Home Unit (EHU). The lessons over the years are the same types of lessons provided by Kansas State University Extension and were very enjoyable and a lot of fun and much was learned during this time. The Extension kept everyone abreast of the new ideas and changes over the years. In the 1990’s the name was changed again to Family, Community and Education.
Elk City High School Alumni Banquet Held
Elk City High School's Alumni Banquet was held May 24th at the Independence High School Cafeteria. There were 115 people attending this year; some of the states represented by attending alumni were Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri. The class of 1967 hosted the gathering and Lou's B-B-Q catered the meal. The food was delicious, the company excellent, and everyone had a good time visiting and looking up old class mates. The classes hosting reunions were the class of 1968 their 40th, class of 1958 their 50th, class of 1963 their 45th. Mr. Harry Whistler was the oldest graduate, graduating in 1924; then there was a big span of years before the year of 1937 was called. Next year the class of 1961 will host the annual Alumni Banquet.
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The crowd at the Alumni Banquet
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Officers for 2008 were the class of 1967 |
50 year reunion, the class of 1958 |
45 year reunion, the class of 1963
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Memorial Day
Memorial Day 2008 was a bust this year as it started raining the night before and rained all day Monday the 26th, big heavy rains most of the day. The VFW had to cancel their program, because of inclement weather and the cemetery was so soggy. We even had a young man, a Foster son, who came back on leave all the way from Iraq to be in the VFW program, I think he was in the rifle squad. The VFW went out at dawn to put up the flags hoping the weather would break but it got worse instead, so for the 2nd year in a row we were unable to fly the Avenue of Flags. The VFW 7254 now have 69 flags for the deceased veterans who are buried in Oak Hill. Each flag is hoisted on a flag pole and the veteran's name is put on a plaque attached to the pole. The project began May 30, 1988 when the first Avenue of Flags was flown at Oak Hill; in 1988 it was sponsored by the Elk City Memorial VFW Post No. 7254 and the Ladies Auxiliary.
Noel Hayward's Davis Trading Post Picture restored
Restoration of the Noel Hayward Painting
of the Davis Trading Post at Elk City
The painting of the Davis Trading Post which has hung in the Community Building in Elk City since 1970 was needing some repair work done. The painting was donated back in the 1960's and hung in the high school for several years, until the Elk City High School closed it doors due to unification of school districts.. It was painted by Noel Hayward, using a description of the area from his grandmother. Elk Citians have been proud of this painting for many years, and even have post cards made from the painting. The painting was starting to chip and crack and needed restored.
Two years ago the Elk City Alumni Association, headed by Wilbur Schwatken and Jim Greer, brought the idea before the Alumni Association during the business meeting. The Alumni voted to pay to have the painting restored and the hat was passed. Enough money was collected in 2006 to refurbish the painting.
It took over a year to find someone who had the expertise to restore old paintings; the committee of Wilbur and Jim had about given up hope of finding someone, when the name of Ron Hess from Bartlesville came up. Mr. Hess restores paintings all over the United States, and he agreed to see what he could do. Ron picked up the painting in December of 2007, and after much work, returned it in May 2008. It took five months time, using bees wax on the back of the canvas to restore it, and then sealing it with a varnish sealer. Mr. Hess said it should be in good shape for as long as needed. On the back of the painting Mr. Hess put a note with the itinerary of what had been done in case someone needed to know in the future.
The painting was in such poor shape and would have been lost in the not too distant future, but after the restoration, it should be in good shape for a long time. Thanks to the Alumni Association for their insight and generosity in having the painting refurbished.
Elk City Youth Baseball is back
Your 2008 ELK CITY BRAVES
COACH PITCH and
PEE WEE
Pictures of the Elk City Baseball Program
Everyone has enjoyed the T-Ball and Peewee games we have played so far. It has been just great watching baseball these past few weeks. A nice crowd attended the games.
This has been a project that truly required the effort of so many Elk Citians! The list is long and distinguished, a big Thank You to all who helped get baseball back in Elk City. It all started with AMAZING financial donations by The City Council and mayor, VFW Post 7254, and individuals in Elk City.
The Second step was getting the Field ready for play and for that we can thank a long list of people who worked hard to make everything ready.
The Third step was getting the teams together and that started with getting coaching staffs put together. Two young ladies stepped up to the plate and became Head Coaches and were supported by their 4 assistants. The Elk City Baseball Association provided uniforms and the caps were provided by the VFW and Hand-Sewn by Mrs. Brashier.
Fourth, we had to put together a Concession stand and this was spearheaded by several people who cleaned, painted, stocked, cooked and served some great food at each and every game. Thanks to all of the folks who helped them in a pinch! Included in this step was setting up the people who made the games happen. Our Game announcer, the Umpires, the score keepers and the wonderful Food provided for our Raffles and many others!
Lastly and most importantly, were the kids who signed up, practiced each and every time and gave their all during the games. Thanks for all the support of the parents who ensured that the children had had every chance to have a quality, safe and fun environment. Leaving work early, being prompt and dedicated was greatly appreciated.
Elk City VFW Post 7254 - "Adopt-A-Unit" Project
Elk City VFW Post 7254 would like to extend a note of thanks to everyone who
has helped make our "Adopt-A-Unit" such a great success. We have mailed
many care packages to 3 of our Local Men and their respective units, who are
currently serving in Iraq/Afghanistan and we will continue to do so.
We lost one of our own this past month, Richard 'Doc' Stout, a long time member
of our local VFW who served as our post Adjutant. Included among his many
great contributions to our country were 35 Aerial missions during WWII. He
will be missed.
As I am sure you are aware this years Memorial Day service was cancelled due
to inclement weather. We would like to ask everyone to make an extra effort
this 4th of July to fly a flag in their yard.
Marine Visits local School
Lance Cpl Cole Schmidtberger is the grandson of one of our citizens. He stopped by a local school in nearby Independence to meet and visit with the students who have been corresponding with him for the past year. He has been serving in Iraq and is home on leave.
He thanked the students for the cards and letters they had sent when he was in Iraq. They told him they were glad he was home safe. The students each presented him with new handmade cards and asked several questions of the Marine. He told them when asked if he was in the Army, "The Marine Corps is like the Army - ONLY BETTER"! He also said all the men and women serving in Iraq appreciate the boxes of goodies that the community sends to them.
Cole spent 8 months in Iraq. It was 120-140 degrees at times, the last 3 months were really cold. He joined the Marines two years ago.
Moonbuggy Race
A group of Elk City youth went to Huntsville, Alabama and entered the 15th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race held in April at the Space & Rocket Center. The physics class at Elk Valley high school entered the race. The students are required to design a vehicle that addresses a series of engineering problems that are similar to problems faced by the original Moonbuggy Team.
Each Moonbuggy will be human powered and carry two students, over a half mile simulated lunar terrain course including "craters", rocks, lava ridges, inclines and lunar soil. Kids working to get the Moonbuggy Ready
Piloting the Moonbuggy
Year Ago Flood
For awhile during the month of June 2008 it seemed as if history would repeat itself. It was a year ago June 30th that Montgomery, Elk, Chautauqua & Wilson were four of 12 counties declared disaster areas due to the rains received the last week of June. Reports of 20 inches in Elk County and 13 inches in the Elk City area caused the Elk & Verdigris Rivers to reach record levels, since 1943 creating havoc on many rural and city dwellers.
According to a local weather channel up to the time of this printing our area has received about 40 inches so far this year. This is about 20-21 inches above normal rainfall.
The Elk & Verdigris Rivers have been out of their banks with several acres of crops under water, but no reporting of water in homes other than leaky roofs. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of last year.
Around Town
The 4th Sunday Breakfast sponsored by the Carson Lodge #132 breakfast fell on Memorial Weekend. Even though it was cloudy and looked like rain, a big crowd attended, many from the Alumni Banquet checking out their old home town and youth haunts. A large group of motorcyclists came; they were 3 deep on one block overflowing into the 2nd block.
Montgomery County Genealogical Society has a 125 year Anniversary Book available. It is a very nice brown hardcover book with the old courthouse embossed on the front cover. It features acid free paper with 140 pages of county history and 205 pages of family history sent in by families. It is also indexed. If you are interested, go to the Montgomery County Genealogical Society Web Site.
Montgomery County Genealogical Society Web Site
We are again following the path of last year with rain and more rain, we haven't flooded yet and sure hope we do not have a repeat of last year's flood. Creeks and Elk River have gone over the banks twice so far but most didn't stay long and went back into the banks overnight. The Elk City Reservoir back up grounds are underwater again but this is keeping it off most farm land hopefully.
Farmers Market began the last Saturday in June. It didn't rain early and the Farmers Market had a nice crowd; a number of customers made quick work of the produce available. It was a nice morning and many stood around drinking coffee, and visiting for a long time. In the afternoon it started to rain and a gully washer ensued; it rained for the rest of the day and over night.
PRIDE hosted the Elk City Trades Day on May 3rd, the day was cool but nice. PRIDE served lunch and had Elk City note cards available for sale. There were a couple of other tables in the Community building and 10 garage/rummage sales. More people could have come to Elk City as the crowd was sparse. We found out that half the county was having some activity the same day including another Trades Day at Caney.
April started the PRIDE Yard of the Month for 2008. PRIDE of Kansas is promoting beautifying and cleaning up your community. The sign will be in a different yard each month through summer and fall.
Vacation Bible School, sponsored by United Methodist Church and First Christian Church, hosted this year Bible School Review with the theme "God's Big Backyard". Thirty-five Children and 12 teacher/helpers enjoyed a week of Bible Lessons, music, crafts and cookies.
Commercial Club is working to renew membership and receiving donations to meet the expenditures for 2008. The Commercial Club rent out the Community Building and maintain and pay bills on the building.
The Good Old Days
by Sylvia Raydene James Clubine
taken from THE THREAD published in 1987 part of the Southeast Kansas Heritage series
Those were the days when people would have listened more readily to predictions of gold mines to be opened here on the prairies much more readily than to suggestions that the time would come when fuel would flow out of the earth in iron pipes all ready to burn and transport itself to their door. But about 1890 both oil and gas were found here by William Mills, the man who had been first to bring in an oil well at Neodesha. And it all came true when the new fuel was piped and came in use in the fall of 1902. All the city was heated and lighted with natural gas, and nearly all the streets were lighted with the same material. There was a splendid telephone system, the best schools in the county, and all the conveniences that made it a good place to live (taken from Duncan: History of Montgomery County, 1903)
Everyone thought Elk City to be a beautiful little city. There were large trees along main street with broad side walks and hitching posts for the horses and carriages. Every store was full and more were going into business. There was predictions that its population would soon reach 2,000. These were the years of climax of our little city; this was the height of all its glory.
Mont Simpson organized the Elk City Military Band in 1903. It was one of the first bands in the county and a very showy organization. They had a red band wagon drawn by horses and played for all occasions in cities all around, including, Indian Joe's Saturday Stomp, or something like that, at Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Chub Reed's dad furnished the team, and the barn for the wagon was south of the lumber yard. They had a large band stand on rollers that they kept back of Floyd Vaughn's old filling station and pulled out in the middle of the street for concerts.
Those were the days of the great 4th of July celebration, great political orations at Davis grove and of band concerts. Then everyone dressed in their Sunday best and loaded up with a picnic lunch and went to the big celebrations. The teams were tied to the side of the wagon for their feed and every little boy had a trick up his sleeve to play on the girls. Those were the days when everyone could drink from the same big barrel of lemonade out of the same old tin cup and it never hurt a soul. And when the horse drawn merry-go-round would go so fast and was so thrilling, the children nearly fell off from excitement. The merry-go-rounds were fixed so that the horses walked in a circle; the horses were changed every two hours.
In 1904 L. W. Davis became editor of the Elk City Sun. "Ned" as he was always called by home-towners, was 17 years old at the time and the youngest editor in the state of Kansas. The Enterprise was published in connection with the Sun.
1904 was a bad year. The excitement began to die down when it was found that the oil wells weren't as good as everyone had expected and when they found they weren't all going to get rich quick, many moved on to other adventures. There were three floods that year ruining all the farmers crops and a tornado struck town, destroying or damaging several business houses and other improvements and killing Vick Palmer's older brother. Several merchants just moved on rather than rebuild. The farmers north of town organized and signed a petition for the removal of the dam on Elk River that furnished power for the grist mill, knowing that it was the cause of all the flooding. The dam was blown out in April 1905, but there were still floods. The Bowen Milling Co. later bought the mill and remodeled it with a steam boiler.
From here on Elk City became a quiet little town with not much out of the ordinary happening. In 1905 the city marshal was elected to turn the street lights off and on at the proper times each day; he performed the duties of street commissioner and health officer for a total salary of $45 per month. In 1906 an organized fire department came into being, consisting of 11 men headed by a chief, selected by the governing body. The city acquired its first chemical fire engine. It would freeze on cold days and many times was no use at all in winter. In 1907 there was the bank scare but Elk City was affected very little.
The first auto in town was owned by Brent Davis, father of Ned Davis, who made the venture quite early. After the more prosperous lads about town ventured to buy one; by August 1909 there were 5 auto owners in Elk City. There could have been nothing prouder than a man with a new auto, especially when so few had them; but how heartbreaking it was to drive on the narrow rutted roads of that day and to meet a frightened horse and his mad owner in the middle of the road.
In Elk City there was the boast that there was not another city in the state of Kansas the size of Elk City that had 2 miles of paved streets and alleys and that oiled its main business street as it did.
Natural gas was 25 cents per thousand feet in 1909 and Elk City had their contract for electricity. The school enrollment numbered 182 counting the 26 high school students. The first trades day was held in Elk City on December 6, 1909. The trades days have always been a big part of this town. Trades day was a day when farmers brought in all their produce to sell and came in to visit with their neighbors. The band played that day and there was bronco busting and it was just a big event.
When the census was taken in 1910, it was recorded that there was a population of 659. Our glorious days of competition were over. Somewhere we had lost out in the race for greatness.
Obituaries
Kennedy, Wilma Jean "Jennie" age 65 died April 9th.
Thompson, Donna M. age 94 died March 17th. Interment in Oak Hill Cemetery. Mrs. Thompson was born October 15, 1913 in Texas daughter of Charles Boren & Nellie Taylor Boren.
Meadows, Edward Leon, age 75 died March 18th. burial in Oak Hill Cemetery. Mr. Meadows was born in Elk City June 23, 1932 the son of Charles and Mary (Pearcy) Meadows.
Welch, Curtis C. age 89 died March 20. Interment in West Liberty Cemetery near Elk City. Mr. Welch was born Dec. 30, 1918 near Elk City to Charlie and Veta (Stong) Welch
Simmons, Steven Michael, age 35, died June 15th. Burial in Oak Hill Cemetery
McCabe, Esther Noreen "Polly" age 89, died June 17, burial in White Cemetery North of Elk City. Mrs. McCabe was born April 18, 1919 to Fred and May Tindle McGinnis.
Remembering the Past
