Voices of Harvey County Archives - Page 101 of 122 - Harvey County Historical Society

Back to School: A Harvey County Photo Album

Posted on August 21, 2015 by hchm-curator

In honor of school beginning for the 2015-16 year, we are sharing photos from area schools.

The first school was opened in Sedgwick in 1870 before the county had even been officially formed. By 1881, Judge Muse boasted that Harvey County had 68 school districts.

Kellas School, rural Harvey County, 1902. Gertrude Hauk, teacher.

Burrton Primary School, 1903. Olive Mae Challender, teacher.

Burrton School, 1905. Olive Mae Challender, teacher.

School Dist. 49, 1911.

Having some fun! Lincoln School teachers, Newton, Ks, 1915.

Shady Side School District 76, 1931.

Washington School, 1944. !st Grade, Beatrice Bacon, teacher.

Washington School, Newton, Ks, 1954. 2nd Grade

McKinley School teachers, Newton, Ks, 1956. Rhea Astle, Elaine Hasenbank, E.P. Robertson, Pauline Wiebe, unknown, Regina Starr, Emma Linschied, Myrtle Buckley.

Washington School, 2nd Grade Girls, 1960-61. (front) Patti Lettau, Teresa Prockish, Becky Stroud, Carol Richert. (back) Elvira Terrones, Janet Koehn, Jeanette Rinner, Sherry Moody.

Washington School 2nd Grade Boys, 1960-61. (Front) Gilbert Monarez, Teddy Siegler, Alan Rambo, John Horn, Bobby Batson, Robert Gillispie, Ronnie Montano, Terry Duncan. (back) James Loewen, Ronnie Miller, Alfred Monarez,, Mark Krehbiel, Robert Wyren, Philip Cervantes, James Hall.

Lincoln School 1st Grade, 1993-94, Jane Sears teacher.

What is your favorite back-to-school memory?

Stuff We Love: Volunteering at the Canteen

Posted on August 14, 2015 by hchm-curator

This week’s post is based on memories shared by Vere English, HCHM Board Member, for the exhibit, Stuff We Love. Vere picked a photograph of the ladies that served at the Red Cross Canteen during WWII. This was just one of several groups of women that would meet the trains and provide snacks for the troops as they came through Newton.

Photograph of Red Cross Canteen No. 9 1942

Red Cross Canteen No. 9, 1942 Regina Starr is on the far right, by the mixer.

As a boy, Vere remembers traveling to his grandmother’s house about once a week to visit. His aunt, Regina Starr (also a teacher at McKinley), would tell stories of her volunteer work at the Canteen in Newton during World War II. She would mention the piano that the soldiers signed, but even more importantly, the music that they would play on it. According to her, some were “quite good and entertaining.”

Interior of USO Canteen, Newton, Ks, ca. 1945.

Sometimes a soldier might stay a little too long in the lounge eating cookies and playing the piano. They would have to run after the departing train and jump on. Some lost their hats in the process. For shorter stops, the women from the Canteen would walk along the trains with huge wicker baskets full of cookies and the soldiers would reach out of the windows to grab a few.

Canteen Food Cart, American Red Cross Canteen, Newton, ks, 1945.

Vere also remembered coming to Newton on Saturday nights with his family. They would park the car near the tracks and watch the trains go past. For a 10 year old boy, it was fascinating to watch the train cars loaded with war machinery and troops go by. Vere recalled that the trains ran 24 hours, both ways.

Do you have memories of the canteen?

“The Hardest Task in Life:” Bridget Kennedy Fox

Posted on July 31, 2015 by hchm-curator

by Kristine Schmucker, HCHM Curator

Early Harvey County was a melting pot of people and cultures. From the Prussian Mennonites to freed slaves, many families came to build homes and community. Each has their own story.

Seventeen year old Bridget Kennedy stepped off the train in Newton, Kansas after a long exhausting journey that began in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. No doubt the first thing she saw was the dusty, dry flatness of the town and prairie. Traveling alone, she later recalled that she did not speak to anyone until she arrived in Kansas and met her cousin, Mike Connell.

The life she left behind in Ireland had been difficult. Her father had recently died, leaving her mother alone with six children. Food was scarce due to potato crops which failed every couple of years throughout the 1800s. The desperate conditions were covered by the American press and perhaps influenced a cousin in far away Kansas to write and offer help.

Mike Connell, had left Ireland for the US at the age of thirteen, after the death of his father. Connell lived in Newton and worked for the AT&SF. He had heard that his mother’s brother had died, leaving a large family.

Michael P. Connell. in Smurr, Harvey County History, p. 148.

He wrote a letter asking; “Would one of his cousins be willing to come help his wife?” Bridget decided that she wanted to go. She knew her mother would probably send one of her older siblings, so, she secretly contacted Connell, saying she would come. She arrived in Newton in 1879 and for the next several years helped Jennie Connell care for the children.

She married James Fox in 1886. James Fox, born in 1862 in New Jersey. The Fox family had come to Kansas and by 1880 were farming a homestead in Highland Township, Harvey County, Ks. Soon, James joined his older brother, Edward, as a stone mason.

James Fox, building contractor, Newton, Ks, ca. 1900

The couple was married in the basement of the cathedral in Wichita, Ks that the Fox brothers were working on.

Church under construction in Wichita where James and Bridget Fox were married, 1886.

James and Bridget Kennedy Fox wedding photo, 1886.

James continued to work as a stone mason in Harvey County. The couple had four children.

Hugh Fox (1887-1935)

Nellie Fox (1889-1974) & James Fox, Jr (1891-1971)

Leo Fox (1896-1976)

In 1908, James died leaving Bridget, age 45, a widow. Leo, the youngest was only 12. She also took in Mike Connell’s youngest son, Charles, after Mike Connell died in 1909. Throughout her life, Bridget was active at St. Mary’s Church, serving on the Altar Society from 1887 to her death in 1950.

Despite all of the challenges and hardships Bridget faced, when asked later in life what was the hardest thing she had to do, she replied, “memorize her prayers in Gaelic in order to be confirmed.”

Bridget Fox, Harvey County pioneer, died May 22, 1950 at the age of 87.

Sources:

“Death of James Fox” Obituary Newton Evening Kansan Republican, 3 January 1908, p. 5 and 6 January 1908, p. 5.
“Mrs. Bridget Teresa Fox” Obituary, Newton Evening Kansan Republican, 22 May 1950, p. 5.
Newton City Directories 1885, 1887, 1902, 1905, 1911, 1913.
U.S. Census, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1930, 1940
Smurr, Linda C. Harvey County History, Harvey County Historical Society, Newton, Ks, Curtis Media Corp., 1990.
http://www.maggieblanck.com/Mayopages/1880.html
http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/exhibitions_talks_and_events/19th_century_emigration_to_the_north_america_online/the-homeland.htm