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In 1961, Independence received the first of three such awards to Independence over the years but the first award was the only one in which Look magazine was involved.
Look magazine started the awards around 1948.
Do you remember all the bumper stickers sporting that honor?
Do you remember all the bumper stickers sporting that honor?
I don't remember any bumper stickers but I recall billboards advertising the award at the entrances to the city. There was one billboard that was almost thirty miles out on US 40 reminding people where they were headed.
Which Independence school was named for a well-known slave? None were.
Young school was not named for a well-known slave. The school was named for a well-known ex-slave.
Hiram Young was born a slave in 1812 in Tennessee and then moved as a slave to Missouri. In 1847 he and his wife were freed in Greene County, Missouri (Springfield). As a slave, no one but his master would have ever heard of him at his release. And no one in Independence would ever hear of him until this ex-slave moved to Independence via Liberty and began manufacturing wagons in 1851.
If Young had not been released from slavery he would have remained a slave until 1865 when he had seventeen years to live. He probably would not have moved to Liberty or Independence and there would have been no naming of a school after him.
Most (but not all) of the slaves in the Confederacy were declared free on paper by the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 but those slaves in the Union, including in Missouri and three other states officially remained slaves until the war was over and the thirteenth amendment made it a fact in December 1865.
Young fled Independence in 1861 and went to Kansas. He did not return to Independence until 1868 where he started the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He also started the first school for blacks in Independence. This was an action that probably significantly reinforced his standing to claim the honor of having the Independence School District in 1934 name a school after him.
2. Palestine Missionary Baptist Church
138 East Farmer
Built ca. 1938 the Palestine Church is the second oldest African American church structure in Independence. It is maintained by an active congregation and is one of the few buildings still associated with Independence's historic African Americancommunity. The church is situated on the historic Young School property, which housed the first African American school building in Independence. Designated locally in 1998.
Last edited by Major Tom 58; 08-03-2014 at 08:00 PM..
2. Palestine Missionary Baptist Church
138 East Farmer
Built ca. 1938 the Palestine Church is the second oldest African American church structure in Independence. It is maintained by an active congregation and is one of the few buildings still associated with Independence's historic African Americancommunity. The church is situated on the historic Young School property, which housed the first African American school building in Independence. Designated locally in 1998.
I did not know this either. I had thought Young built the first black school, a wood structure, in Independence at his own expense and named it after himself. If he did that, it would have to have been between 1868 and 1874. The 1934 school on Dodgion must have replaced the 1874 school shown.
When I was a lad, the black high school kids from Young School were bussed to a black high school in Kansas City. I dont know where the black kids prior to when this busing started went to high school, if they did.
Speaking of Young School: the principal was the head waiter directing a number of young black waiters at a dinner function in the Metropolitan Hotel. Fred Hammontree’s Orchestra entertained throughout the evening and a vocal quartet sang.
This was 1909 and the event was started that year as an annual occurrence. I have no information as to when it ended; but, today, it would never be allowed for more than one reason.
However, something like this was needed by the city then, and as Mayor Jones of Independence the chairman explained this was why it was so badly needed:
“It is to bring the men of the city, official, business and professional, all together in closer friendship, and to get rid of the restrains that shackle us in the stress of business. We need something of this kind to enable us to know each other better.”
Who would have thought these early century municipal and business people of Independence labored under so much stress and hardship?
As the evening progressed, a number of telegrams were received at the mayor’s table. One of those was to the mayor from the Farmers Protective Association of Blue Bottoms and that organization threatened to get the law involved if the city did not quit doing what they were doing.
The mayor refused to take responsibility and blamed the event on an Independence city councilman.
Fast forward to the 1913 event when Mayor Christian Ott was the chairman for that year's event. Seventy-five cars left Independence for areas other than Blue Bottoms with the intention of harvesting the food supply for the dinner that year. Jackson County even provided a number of trucks to help with the occasion. Later the group gathered on the street in front of a local hardware store and the Lewis Theater to show off their crop.
That year’s dinner event was held at the First Christian Church with ladies in white doing the serving in place of the black waiters. Mayor Ott “admonished those present to leave all grouches on the outside, forget about indigestion and all serious matters, and assured them that even the banks had promised that no interest would be run for that night on the notes held by them.”
I did not know this either. I had thought Young built the first black school, a wood structure, in Independence at his own expense and named it after himself. If he did that, it would have to have been between 1868 and 1874. The 1934 school on Hocker must have replaced the 1874 school shown.
When I was a lad, the black high school kids from Young School were bussed to a black high school in Kansas City. I dont know where the black kids prior to when this busing started went to high school, if they did.
Please see number 5 below for further info on the Hiram Young School.
5. Hiram Young School (Second Location)
501 North Dodgion Street
In 1935, the Independence School District completed work on a
new building for the city’s African American students. The African American teachers were pleased
to move to a new school building; however, one teacher, Tamar Randall, sat down and openly cried after she learned that the new school building was completely unfurnished, because she knew her students would not receive the same education as the white students in town.
During this period, the school district also started a high school for black students, but in 1945 the high school was abandoned because the parents of several students believed that the high school instruction was inferior to the instruction that the
white high school students received at William Chrisman High School. As a result, African American high school students from Independence attended Lincoln High School
in Kansas City. These students continued to attend Lincoln High School until 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared separate but equal (segregated schools) unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In the fall of 1954, William Chrisman was integrated and the lower grades were integrated in the following years. Following desegregation, the Young School building continued to be used by the Independence Board of Education for special education classes, until the 1980s.
Please see number 5 below for further info on the Hiram Young School.
home. Today the National Frontier Trails center is located where the old mill once stood and the Trails Center exhibits a Hiram Young document and one of Young’s ox yokes, which 4was manufactured in his factory on North Liberty Street.
4. Woodlawn Cemetery *
701 South Noland Road
Woodlawn Cemetery is the official city cemetery of Independence
and is owned and maintained by the city. Land for the cemetery was purchased in 1837, with additional acreage added in 1845, creating what was formerly known as City Cemetery. Directly south of the City Cemetery was the six-acre St. Mary Catholic Cemetery. In 1922, these cemeteries were combined and renamed Woodlawn Cemetery; additional land acquisitions have increased to property to 56 acres. Among the notable African- Americans buried in Woodlawn Cemetery are James Boldridge, Emily Fisher, Vietta Garr, and Hiram Young, and their graves have been marked with notable monuments. However, a large number of other African-Americans who played
5important roles in the early history of Independence are also buried here.
5. Hiram Young School (Second Location)
501 North Dodgion Street
In 1935, the Independence School District completed work on a
new building for the city’s African American students. The African American teachers were pleased
to move to a new school building; however, one teacher, Tamar Randall, sat down and openly cried after she learned that the new school building was completely unfurnished, because she knew her students would not receive the same education as the white students in town.
During this period, the school district also started a high school for black students, but in 1945 the high school was abandoned because the parents of several students believed that the high school instruction was inferior to the instruction that the
white high school students received at William Chrisman High School. As a result, African American high school students from Independence attended Lincoln High School
in Kansas City. These students continued to attend Lincoln High School until 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared separate but equal (segregated schools) unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In the fall of 1954, William Chrisman was integrated and the lower grades were integrated in the following years. Following desegregation, the Young School building continued to be used by the Independence Board of Education for special education classes, until the 1980s.
6
6. Jabez Smith Home and Farm Northeast corner of
North Noland Road
and U.S. 24 Highway
(Current site of William Chrisman
High School.)
Jabez Smith was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on March 2, 1787. He operated a store in Virginia
and also became involved in land speculation prior to coming to Jackson County in 1843, when he purchased several tracts of land from previous settlers, as well as some land held by the federal government. In 1844, he moved to Jackson County and brought with him between 340 and 400 slaves, which made Smith one of the largest slaveholders in the state. The number of slaves that Smith brought to Jackson County was out of the ordinary, because most Missourians who owned slaves during this time only owned between one to five slaves. While the large number
of slaves implies that Smith was engaged in plantation agriculture,
his probate records do not reveal
the agricultural work of his slaves; however, they do reveal that Smith was also engaged in freighting goods into the west with Jacob Hall and Isaac Hockaday and he had an established business relationship with free black, Hiram Young. There is also evidence to suggest that Smith
Does anyone know where the black high school was? Maybe it was also in the grade school?
I remember blacks in WCHS but I dont remember them in 9th grade at junior high.
I also recall that not all white people, students, teachers, and townspeople wanted blacks to be integrated but accepted it and there were not a lot of problems. However, I recall there were a few male black students that were equivalent to the white "hoods" who made trouble. These were mean guys. Eventually, they were all expelled or just left and the black kids who wanted an education remained.
Isn't that both strange and interesting. Wonder who uses it for drinking?
I used to swim there as a young boy, there was a giant slide where you could slide down on a raft and skim across the lake. I wouldn't suggest anyone drink the water out of the lake since it was closed due to human waste in the water.
I used to swim there as a young boy, there was a giant slide where you could slide down on a raft and skim across the lake. I wouldn't suggest anyone drink the water out of the lake since it was closed due to human waste in the water.
Welcome "64055."
Independence started with one zip code and that was 64050.
I also recall that prior to the zips, Kansas City had a forerunner of the zip code that I think was called a zone. Each KC post office was numbered for its zone and the mailing address was like Kansas City 8, Mo or Kansas City 6, Mo.
Using the zip in mailing was started on a voluntary basis sometime around '59 or '60 and was supposed to be mandatory by '63 or so or the PO would send it back to the sender. Zip code catalogs for the entire US were a hot item in stationery and book stores as the mandatory time got closer. But, I don't think I ever heard of the post office sending something back because it did not have a zip.
I don't know when the nine digit zip got its start.
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