Black Day for News Cameraman - Medora, Kansas

From April 19, 1961 Hutch News
By TED BLANKENSHIP
My "Bad Day at Black Rock
turned out to be a "mad morning
near Medora" Tuesday.
You never know when tempers
will flare and you will find yourself
and your camera lymg in the
muck of the Little Arkansas.
It didn't quite happen, but
there were times when things got
a little uncertain.
An attempt at news suppression
by threat on a lonely railroad
trestle in Reno County was
the last thing I anticipated when
I left my breakfast table Tuesday
morning.
But here's what happened:
I got a call from the editor.
A routine assignment: a teenage
girl had tried to lead a horse
across a railroad trestle, and the
animal had caught a hoof between
the ties.
When I arrived the veterinarian,
Dr. Brace C. Detter Jr., of
Nickerson had given the mare an
anesthetic, and was trying to get
her legs tied so she couldn't hurt
herself.
A group of Medorans, apparently
farmers, was helping. A tractor
was ready to move the animal
off the tracks on a wooden
sled.
No Publicity
"We don't want any publicity,"
said one of the men.
"Here comes a TV man," said
another.
I hastened to point out that I
was from the Hutchinson News,
not a television station.
"You're not going to take pictures
of that little girl's horse,
are you?" another little girl
asked, animosity in her eyes.
"I have a job to do," I replied.
The girl, I determined later,
was Martha Suarez of-Hutchinson.
I then waded across the stream
to get on the east side of the;
group of men so I wouldn't be
shooting against the sun.
One of the men said it was "no
skin off my nose, but it would be
nice if you wouldn't take any pictures."
I again explained that I was
following orders and had to do
my job as best I could. What
was used in The News would be
determined by my superiors.
"Wliy don't you be real mean
and leave it out this time," he
said. After all, those little girls
have had enough trouble for one
day."
By this time Dr. Detter had finished
tying the mare and she was
being loaded onto the sled.
Touch of Sarcasm
"I hope you got all the pictures
you wanted" said Miss
Suarez, a touch of sarcasm in
her voice. "Why don't you go
get a picture of that little girl
crying in the car? That ought
to make you a good front page
picture."
About that time one of the men
working over the horse asked me
how I would like to have him
throw me and my camera into
the mud under the trestle.
I think I am just horse enough
to do it," he said.
I thought to myself that he
probably was horse enough, but
said nothing. I didn't want to
lose my film or my self respect
at the moment.
By this time the horse was on
the sled, and I decided it was
time to leave. I stopped to get
one more picture, and at this
point Miss Suarez planted herself
in front of my camera to blot
the view. It truly was time to
go-As I turned my car around on
the gravel road, I wondered how
much help I would get if I backed
my car into the ditch.
I tried to drive carefully.

Ghost Houses of the Prairies by Dave McKane

Irish Photographer Dave McKane was exposed to the Kansas plains as an exchange student at Hutchinson High School in 1978. His love of the area continues as he works to document the "ghost houses" of the prairie. Dave is featured in my story on Pollard, Kansas. He is work is awesome - he is very talented! I love it that he has a passion for rural Kansas and visits here a few times every year.

And I love the photo he took of the house just outside the dead town of Pollard in Rice County. Here is a photo from his website.
http://www.davemckanearts.com/folios/folio1.html

Ghost houses of the prairies    

Eventually

clouds roll in

filling big, blue skies

full of darkness and lightning

worrying the lifeless farmhouses beneath

like icebergs rushing headlong

towards the Titanic

1941, 1961, 1981

how long since

beds were made

stoves fired up

living room floors kissed

by straw brooms?

Now

screens that once protected windows

hang at crazy angles

flapping dangerously

in a prairie wind

that rushes down from Canada to the Gulf

but fails to move windmills

which resist raising water

no longer needed

for families long since left

Dwellings built with pride

detailed with love

no longer filled with children’s chatter

slowly sink

into the prairie that was once a sea

waiting patiently

for the earth

to take them back

Irish Photographer Dave McKane

Hutch News 1920 - Pollard resident brought home

BRING BODY HOME OF

. A REAL KANSAS HERO

Edwin Anderson, Orderly to Captain

of Co. E, Gave His Life

in the Argonne.

. T h e r e m a i n s of a K a n s a s hero, Edwi n A. A n d e r s o n , w h o g a v e his l i f e In 

t h e Argonne a s a r e s u l t of t r y i n g to save his c a p t a i n , a r e b e i n g brought

home for b u r i a l.

A n d e r s o n w a s o r d e r l y t o Cspt. Ben S. Hudson, commanding Co. ID, 137th

Inf. In t h e A r g o n n e . When Capt. Hudson fell wounded on t h e field h i s orde r l y

h e l p e d r e s c u e him. H e w a s hims

e l f badly gassed, b u t s t a y e d w i t h t he

company until t h e r e g i m e n t was relieved.

He died a f e w _ d a y s later from

t h e - r e s u l t of t h e gaeslng.

H i s body 13 b e i n g brought home, a nd

t h e funeral will be held a t Lyons und

e r a u s p i c e s of t h e A m e r i c a n Legion

post t h e r e . His p a r e n t s Mr. a n d Mrs.

C h a r l e s Anderson, live a.t Nickerson.

a n d his wife, t o w h om h e w a s m a r r i ed

J u s t b e f o r e , ' g o i n g overseas, lives at

P o l l a r d , Rice county.

The d a t e of t h e funeral l i a s not been

set as yet, b u t a' n u m b e r of t h e membe r s of Company E In H u t c h i n s o n a re

p l a n n i n g ot a t t e n d.

Dec. 30, 1920

Ardell, Kansas - and Edwards County Dead community spot

Here are some photos from a trip to Ardell, Kansas in summer 2012.

A cenutry-old plate makes it back to Amy, Kansas.

Searching an antique shop in a town near her home in Naramata, British Columbia, Wednesday, Elaine Davidson stumbled upon a peculiar plate. 

The plate shows a picture of a boy riding a tom turkey, the feathers tucked. At the bottom in gold lettering is stamped complements of Patten Mercantile, Amy, Kansas.

“I collect vintage kitchen items, which I like to use,” Davidson said. “The plate was high up on a shelf of a store filled with dishes, kitchenalia, vintage Christmas tree ornaments and such.”

The illustration is what caught her attention. The plate was manufactured in Ohio and the child riding a turkey was a popular depiction at the beginning of the century.

 “I like pieces that are whimsical and make me and my guests laugh,” she said. “The shop owner said it was from the turn of the century but didn’t know much more about it.”

Davidson said the first thing she does when she purchases antiques is researches them. It led her to an article written by The News’ Amy Bickel about the ghost town of Amy in Lane County.

According to Vance Ehmke, a local farmer who lives nearby and has an old sign from the Amy store, Guy and Rodney Patten owned the store in the 1920s.

Ehmke has a story about the store on a bulletin board in his shop that was written by area historian Ellen May Stanley for the Dighton Herald.

Stanley, who spells the name “Patton” in her article, wrote that the store was built in 1906 by the Boltz family. A bandstand was located not far from the building.

The store closed in 1955. The local elevator – the only business left in town, burned the store down in 2003 to make way for a new office and scales.

Meanwhile Davidson reported this after a day of emailing Thursday.

“Here is the end of your story,” she wrote. “I’m on my way to the post office to send the plate back to Amy and Vance Ehmke.”

- Amy Bickel

Frizell, Kansas - a dead town in Pawnee County

The Depot that once was at Frizell, Kansas, in Pawnee County. The 1965-1966 school year was the last classes to go through the school, said Katie Kecheisen, education director and archivist for the Santa Fe Trail Center near Larned. Anna Bassford, director of the center, said the L'Dora school and the Frizell depot were moved to the museum grounds in 1970. The school has undergone regular upkeep. The depot, however, was recently renovated using the original blueprints from 1929. It opened to the public for the first time last month. Kecheisen said the depot now includes an exhibit on rail history. The railroad still goes by the site of Frizell, but there is nothing there but a few foundations of the elevator, along with the current farming operation, said Don Deege, who still lives just west of the fort.

The school house. Milburn Stone went to school at Frizell and worked at his parents store there. Established in 1859 along the Santa Fe Trail, Fort Larned was decommissioned in 1883. A year later, the government sold the land, including a section that contained the fort buildings to Frank Sage who represented the Pawnee Valley Stock Breeders Association, according to the Kansas State Historical Society. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad went through in 1886. A siding - which allowed trains to pass on the same line - was constructed at the future town site and designated Sage in honor of Frank Sage. The site had a schoolhouse, which was established in 1889. E.E. Frizell purchased the fort in 1902 and the name of the station changed to Frizell, according to an article in the Dec. 26, 1929 edition of the Larned Chronoscope. Frizell, a state legislator along with being a rancher and entrepreneur, helped build the little station town, according to the Chronoscope article. A post office was established in 1904. Dora Arnold, wife of Lee Arnold, the town merchant, was postmistress, the article stated. The school burned down and was rebuilt in 1906, named L'Dora, after L'Dora Frizell, Redding's great-grandmother. In 1929, according to the article, the town had a depot, siding for freight cars, filling station, feed and grain business, one elevator and "a modern school." The town had a population of 40, with more than half of the residents Mexicans employed by the railroad and area farmers.

Crazy issues

It looks like I need to figure out what is going on with my blog! Hang with me as I do some updating. Thanks!