“A Flair for Mechanical Devices:” Allen A. White

Posted on by hchm-curator
Our current exhibit, Fathers of Invention, features inventions by local people. An earlier post featured Michael B. Adams. Another inventor featured is Allen A. White.

Allen A. White

Born August 27, 1912, Allen A. White grew up on his parents’ farm in Harvey County and attended Newton High School where his favorite classes were Public Speaking and Vocational Agriculture.  He married Edna Horst September 27, 1936, the couple had six children—5 boys and one girl.  White also served as a minister in the Mennonite Church.

White had a “flair”  for mechanical devices and by age 25 he obtained his first patent for a variable-speed wind charger.

“There had to be a better way. . . “

In 1946, White’s “flair” to improve the way things work led him to his next invention.  White observed a man jacking up a car to repair a flat tire with both an axle and a bumper jack.  He thought “there had to be a better way.”  In a shop he set up in his garage, he began experimenting and eventually developed the “White Triangle Chain Jack.”

Sales from the new jack paid for White to attend college at Hesston College and Friends University. He continued to  invent and improve everyday objects for the rest of his life.

Son, Roger A. White, with the White Triangle Chain Jack on exhibit.

After a few years living and working in Wichita, White moved his growing family to a farm near Peabody, Ks.  He lived the rest of his life in the Peabody—Hesston area.  He established White Industrial Lab in Peabody, Ks. In 1952 he began working with the Hesston Manufacturing Company, Hesston, Ks as an engineer and inventor.  Over the 25 years of his employment at Hesston Corp, he was issued 41 patents, including one for the Baler Model 4800 in 1978.

Service Manual for 4800 Baler

In 2003, Agco, formerly Hesston Corp,  produced the 25,000th of the large square balers designed by White twenty-five years earlier.

Other Hesston Corp Projects

White at a demo. Photo courtesy Kauffman Museum, N. Newton, Ks

Turn Dry Rake. Photo courtesy Kauffman Museum, N. Newton, Ks

Sickle Drive. Photo courtesy Kauffman Museum, N. Newton, Ks

He retired in 1980.

Even in retirement  he continued to look for ways to help people through better tools.  He had four patents of his own. One of last inventions he worked on was the “Tool for the Application of Elastic Stockings” to help those who had difficulty putting on support stockings.

Photo courtesy Kauffman Museum, N. Newton, Ks

Prototype. On loan from Kauffman Museum, N. Newton, Ks

White died in 2003.  The writer of his obituary noted that he was  “a gifted man. He helped build equipment and machinery with his family and was always willing to help others.”

Thank you to Kauffman Museum, N. Newton, Ks for loaning a collection of White’s prototypes and photographs for the exhibit, Fathers of Invention.  Our thanks  also to Roger White for loaning a Triangle Jack for the exhibit.
The exhibit, Fathers of Invention, is up through May 2018.
Sources:
  • Allen A. White Papers 1924-2001, MS 537, Mennonite Library & Archives, N. Newton, Ks
  • Allen A. White Collection on loan from the Kauffman Museum, North Newton, Ks.
  • Patents by Assignee Hesston Corporation.  http://patents.justia.com/assignee/hesston-corporation
  • “Allen A.White” obituary.  Mennonite Weekly Review 28 April 2003, No. 17, p. 2.
  • “Service of Worship in Memory of Allen Andrew White,  Life Sketch” Whitestone Mennonite Church, Hesston, Ks 18 April 2003.  HCHM Curator Biographical Files.
  • “25,000th Large Square Baler Celebrated in Hesston, Ks.” Author Anne, May 17, 2013. http://blog.agcocorp.comtag/large-square-balers

A Piece of History: ‘Dog Tags’ from the Great War

Posted on by hchm-curator

by Kristine Schmucker, HCHM Curator

One of the smallest objects in the museum’s collection  consists of two small  aluminum discs on a cotton string. The object may be small, but  tell a big story.

Not used officially in the U.S. until December 1906, the Identification Tag, or ‘dog-tag’ was a small aluminum disc worn around a soldier’s neck and included name rank and “USA.” Initially, only one disc was worn, but in July 1916, a second disc was added. The purpose of the tags were to aid in identifying the dead after battle.

These small discs are very personal objects that soldiers wore at all times –  relaxing with friends or in the heat of battle.  The Identification Tags might also be the last connection a family would have with their loved one.

We have several ‘dog-tags’ from Harvey County men who were in France during the Great War.  Walter H. Deschner was one man.

Walter H. Deschner tags

Dog Tag with serial number.

Walter “Dash” H. Deschner was born January 9, 1895, the son of Charles and Orpha Fenter Deschner. He graduated from Newton High School May 21, 1916.  Deschner was working as a clerk when he enlisted on May 9, 1917 and went to Doniphan, Fort Sill, OK where he was with Co K 139th U.S. Infantry.

Before he left, his mother, Orpha, wrote on the front fly leaf of his Bible; “mother’s prayers will be often and many for you.“

Walter H. Deschner, 1918

April 24, 1918  he left the US  on the Adriatic and roughly 40 days later arrived at Mellville, France. August 5, was his “first under fire”  experience in “No-Man’s Land in Vosgues Mountains.” On October 26 he was involved in the Argonne Drive.

Sad News

Evening Kansan Republican often reprinted “soldier mail” and in the October 21 issue the editor noted “there were many smiling faces that were soon overshadowed as word was noised about that three of the Newton boys . . . had fallen.“

Frank Sheets wrote that he had been involved in the “big battle which had been raging for five days, and seeing Roy Barker *** lying dead beside the road.” 

Sheets went on to describe the conditions he experienced, noting “he was five days and nights without time to change his clothing and said that a cold rain fell much of the time.”

A Soldier’s Memories

These pages are from a Memory Book that Walter Deschner filled out highlighting his experiences while a part of the US Infantry.

Activities

 Friends and Places

On the Front

The same issue of the Evening Kansan Republican that had a letter from Sheets included one from Deschner.  He wrote that “he was back from the front safe and sound. . . . Leo Burgener was injured, but not seriously, but  Arthur Whitesell and Loren Finnell were both killed within 15 yards of him.” ***

Other battles he was involved in included Meuse-Argonne, and Verdun. He also noted the deathes of Whitesell and Finnell.

 

Return to Harvey County

Deschner returned home to Harvey County  May 8,  1919 and resumed his work as a clerk for the Santa Fe Railroad.  He worked for the Santa Fe for more than 25 years.

 He married twice. On December 24, 1920, he married Erma Marie Ragsdale.  Sadly, she died due to complications in child birth on  March 23, 1939. The infant girl also died. He remarried March 5, 1945 to Emma Billau. Deschner died August 28, 1948 survived by wife, Emma, brother, George, and a niece.

Notes:
***The report of Roy Barker’s death  turned out to be false, however both Arthur Whitesell and Loren Finnell were killed during the Meuse-Argonne drive. Both were from Harvey County.
Sources:
  • Walter H. Deschner Collection, HCHM Archives 98.1
    • “My Soldier” Scrapbook Walter H. Deschner Collection, HCHM Archives 98.1.9.
    • The Jayhawker in France: the Unofficial Organ of the 137th Infantry Sampigny, France  5 February 1919, Vol. 1 No.2.
    • “Pictorial Supplement Overseas Edition Camp Dodger” Published by 88th Division.
  • Evening Kansan Republican: 25 July 1917, 9 August 1917, 17 July 1918, 24 September 1918, 21 October 1918, 26 October 1918, 20 September 1920, 24 October 1921, 23 March 1939, 28 August 1948, 1 September 1948.
  • Greenwood Cemetery, “Deschner” at http://newton.harvey.ks.govern.com/cmquery.php?a=query&m=p&s2108479621=mlkflrefebslm1rt1iecken4v7
  • “Identifying the Dead:  a Short Study of the Identification Tags of 1914-1918” at  http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/the-great-war/great-war-on-land/weapons-equipment-uniform/1033-identifying-dead-short-study-identification-tags-1914-1918.html#sthash.bl6XUO0P.dpbs

Carried in Battle: Bessmer’s Briefcase

Posted on by hchm-curator

by Kristine Schmucker, HCHM Curator

Many of the men that settled in Harvey County in the 1870s-1880s were Civil War veterans. Most were former Union soldiers, although a few, like R.M. Spivey, had fought for the South.

Unknown, 1861-1865.

At the close of the War, soldiers from both sides returned to everyday life.  For some, this meant establishing homesteads in the west.

John George Bessmer was born in Germany in March 1841.  He came to the United States at the age of 12 and settled in New York.

Bessmer was 20 years old in September 1861 when he joined Co H, 56th New York Infantry of the Union Army. For the next four years, he fought under the command of General McClellan and later Gilmore.  Bessmer was involved in several battles, including “the battle of Fair Oaks and the Seven Days’ battles.”  He “took part in the capture of forts Wagner and Gregg and the bombardment of Fort Sumpter. . . and several minor engagements in South Carolina.”

He carried this briefcase with him throughout his time with the Union Army.

Briefcase belonged to J. George Bessmer, carried during the Civil War, 1861-1865.

Bessmer’s Briefcase.

J. George Bessemer, Co H 56th New York Infantry, 1861-1865.

Following the Civil War, Bessmer returned to New York.  He married  Rosina Kautz, also from New York, on December 5, 1867.  The couple had seven children; 2 sons and five daughters.  In March 1882, the family came to Harvey County, Kansas, settling on a farmstead in Emma Township, near Hesston,  previously owned by his brother Michael Bessmer.

The Bessmer family moved to Newton in 1908. George Bessmer passed away at his Newton home, 1211 N. Main, in the early morning hours on May 22, 1915.

His obituary noted that “he did not belong to any fraternal orders except Judson Kilpatrick Post No. 36, always preferring the quiet and duties of home above all else.”

Sources:

  • Newton Daily Republican: 22 July 1888, 2 January 1889, 19 December 1893.
  • Evening Kansan Republican: 22 January 1906, 4 September 1907, 10 February 1908, 24 August 1909, 11 September 1909, 27 April 1911, 22 May 1915, 25 May 1915, 14 July 1915, 13 January 1921, 13 May 1921, 9 June 1922
  • https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/56thInf/56thInfMain.htm
  • http://minisinkvalleygenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/09/co-h-124th-new-york-infantry-regt-in.html