Long ago on independence square (Kansas City, Jefferson City: disability, appointed, home)

[CaseyMO]

Hula Hoops?
Frisbees?
Bowling pins?

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by CaseyMO

Hula Hoops?
Frisbees?
Bowling pins?

Nope.
Nada.
Nein!

One of those known for using this item was an alleged singer. Another was a character in the popular radio series Adventures in Odyssey.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

What would you have if you owned an item produced by the Gerden Manufacturing Company of Independence?

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

According to a small mention in The Examiner they produced about 500 of these items per day. Personally I find that a bit unbelievable, as I can't imagine that large a market for the thing.

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

The items made were a fad at one time. Even as a fad an individual would only need one, which if properly cared for would last a lifetime.

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

One of those known for using this item was an alleged singer. Another was a character in the popular radio series Adventures in Odyssey.

Tim and Vickie were two of the better known fans of this item.

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

Tim and Vickie were two of the better known fans of this item.

Someone made ukuleles?


Regardless, What time frame was this?

[WCHS'59]

From The Examiner concerning the year 1909:

Men and women on their way to church who passed The Lyric on West Lexington Street and the vaudeville theatre on West Maple Avenue saw the brilliant electric lights and heard the usual blaring metallic music of the moving picture show and the theatre. This was the result of the defeat in the council of an ordinances especially prohibiting such performances on Sundays.

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George W. Bush, a laborer living in the western part of this city, has brought suit for $5,000 damages against Col. D.B. Dyer, owner of the large mansion on the hill just north of Beaumont on the Independence road. He says while employed on May 9, 1907, in the construction of the house, he was knocked to the ground from a scaffold and severely injured and impaired for life. He says negligence of fellow workmen was to blame.

–––

Dr. Atkins, city physician, left police headquarters in search of an officer whom he wished to accompany him on a professional visit. After a search around the square, he returned to headquarters reporting he could not locate the marshal or his assistant. The marshal happened to walk in at that moment. Atkins had passed both of them on the street and failed to recognize either of them in their new uniforms and caps, mistaking them for salvation army lieutenants.

–––

Proceedings have begun in the circuit court for the purpose of opening important streets. The first case is for the purpose of opening Maple avenue and connecting with Lexington street. The second is to widen South Pleasant through the W.H. Waggoner property.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Someone made ukuleles?


Regardless, What time frame was this?

The mention was in a list of memories that Mr. Turner had. Unfortunately it did not give any dates for when this factory was in business. It was located at 23rd & Scott. I'll dig more.

[WCHS'59]

Another hard luck wagon train.

Somewhere near present-day Oregon in 1845, a man named Stephen Meek offered to take a huge wagon train over an area that was a shorter and faster way to their Willamette Valley destination—for a fee, of course, apparently one dollar per wagon.

One source says rumors were floating around that Indians were planning to attack the train if it stayed on course. The rumors seemed to be spread by Meek and a brother who was also in the area.

Part of the train decided to follow him. The reality seemed to be that Meek had never taken this route or had taken it many years before and was not intimately familiar with the territory. The route was arid and offered little water. Two-hundred wagons and more than 1,000 people decided to follow him. Twenty-four of them would die. The cutoff took many weeks longer than the people were told it would take.


A movie called Meek’s Cutoff is currently playing on Netflix. It deals with the basics of the story of the people who followed Meek.

The movie is slow paced but very good.

There are several drawbacks, though, with the low budget 2010 production.

Only three wagons are in the movie representing the 200.

The movie is in color but was filmed in 1.33 width, which was the pre-1952 standard movie width, before wide screen CinemaScope was introduced.

The female director said she chose the narrow screen width because of the sunbonnets the women wore. These bonnets provided a narrow view to the wearer because of the long shape that kept the sun away from the face. The director reasoned the audience would see the scenery in the movie from this same narrow view.

My grandmother wore this type of bonnet on the farm. I can recall sometimes wondering how she could see out of it.

Another drawback seems to be the captive the “train” had with them.

Another drawback was the ending.

In the movie, Meek is by himself but in real life, Meek had his wife with him. They were a pair who roamed around the trails until he found employment.

But, overall, I liked the movie.

[WCHS'59]

From The Examiner 100 years ago this week:


“James Connelly, one of the Irish rebels who was mortally wounded in a recent riot in Dublin, and who is now in a British prison till he gets well enough to be executed, lectured in Independence in September 1909 in the interest of Socialism. He was a guest at the home of Frederick Koehler, chairman of the Jackson County Socialist Committee. He spent many years as a lecturer and editor and recently threw his energies into the disastrous Sinn Fein Movement.”






Apparently, Connelly was being executed as these words hit the Independence newsstands. On May 12, 1916, Connelly faced his executioners. However, he was still not well and could not stand. He was carried to the execution spot by a stretcher, tied to a chair, and executed by firing squad.


Fred Koehler owned a jewelry store on Maple Street across from the square. He seems to have purchased the store around 1922 from A. C. Betty and at one point was responsible for winding the courthouse square clock on a daily basis.


In a post earlier this year, I mentioned that it was thought that Koehler ran for vice president of the United States with Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party of America presidential candidate. If so, he would have been the first man from Independence to have ran for vice president and Harry Truman would have been second.



However, I could find no information on the internet about his vice presidential run or his connection to Eugene V. Debs.

[Mad Anthonie]

So far I have not found any evidence for the ukulele plant in Independence, other than the mention in this article...





How many of those memories do you share?

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by Mad Anthonie

So far I have not found any evidence for the ukulele plant in Independence, other than the mention in this article...





How many of those memories do you share?

I can remember penny post cards. Two cents first class postage and one cent post cards were available through Dec 31, 1951.

I suspect this was written in the fifties some time or maybe early 60s or 70s because of the mention of the penny post cards. He did not pass on until 1981. Phil Turner had a brass band that rode in parades on a trailer with a stepped platform made for their purpose.

I can remember four theaters in the square area but not five. However, from Sanborn maps, that fifth theater may have been on the southwest corner of Main and Lexington.

I remember Nat Milgram being in the local news quite frequently. He did not pass on until 1958. What I was seemingly not aware of was that he sold his stores to Kroger in 1928, but apparently remaining as the president of the Milgram company operating the stores. In 1984, the stores were sold to another company and then gradually phased out.

I was not aware that there were two phone companies operating in Independence, but I remember General Telephone operated in what is now the far eastern part of Independence. General Telephone was the largest telephone company next to Bell and eventually became Verizon.