Edward and Betsy Walker Visit England in 1897

   

William Sharpe - 1927

Here I am in sight of the shores of old England and I will mail this in Liverpool after I land. We had a very disagreeable voyage and the most of us are heartily sick of the sea, continuous winds, rain and fog. South easterly winds nearly the entire distance accompanied by torrents of rain and a temperature of about 40 degrees every day. Nearly frozen out, I have wished for 100 in the shade several times. I have had all I want of the Atlantic Ocean, it is not what it is cracked up to 
be, not in a storm at least.
We got into fog and ice in the Strait of Belle Isle and had to wait fourteen hours; just stopped the engines and drifted around. When the fog cleared away we were just surrounded by immense bergs – it was a great sight. They were all shapes and sizes from the size of a town lot to a 40-acre field, but they were grand. 

William Sharpe aboard the State of California, the Allan Line in July 1897

      After 26 years of marriage, Edward took Betsy home to England to meet his family. Making the trip with them was Betsy's brother, William, who lived in Clay Center. Their plans included visiting the Walkers near Chester and touring the eastern side of England where William and Betsy had lived until moving to the United States in 1870.

     Before leaving Topeka for Montreal where they boarded the California, Edward and Betsy made arrangements for their seven children and Edward's drugstore. Lily, their oldest and 24 years old,  would be in charge of the home front and Fred at the age of 23 would tend the shop. Two of the girls, Eula, 13 and Grace, who would turn 12, while her parents were away, went to Clay Center to stay with their aunt, Jesse, William's wife. The others Percy, 17, Edna, 9 and Ada, 4 would remain in Topeka.

     William, like his brother-in-law Edward, had been a druggist, a president of a bank in Clay Center and now owned a shoe store there.
   

Walker Family c. 1896
Lily, Percy, Edward, Eula, Betsy, Fred and Grace
Ada and Edna

     A bit more from William about their trip that also included others from Topeka, Charles Adams, publisher; Frank Shellabarger, funeral director; and the Rev. A. S. Embree:

           Tatten Hall Eng.

It is only two days since I landed yet Dr. Embree, [the minister at First Methodist in Topeka] Mr. Walker and I have been around a great deal. We were met by Mr. Walker’s brother and taken to their fine old home, “Russia Hall,” built about 200 years ago. Thursday we went to Eaton Hall, the seat of the duke of Westminster, richest man in England. This place is one of marvelous beauty. From thence we went on into Wales, to Hawardan Castle the home of the grand old man, Gladstone. I must say I never enjoyed myself so much in my life. England is so inexpressibly beautiful and I am delighted with my native land, in fact I am wild over it. The weather is delightful. The natives were complaining of the heat so I looked at the thermometer and it was 82 in the sun. After sundown it gets so cold that I am compelled to stay in the house. Gossip from Wm. Sharpe

      The Walkers and William may have been enjoying their time in England, but back in Topeka, things were not well. Eventually Lily had to cable her parents with the news that Percy was dreadfully ill with typhoid fever.

Mary Cooke Walker

The suddenness of their departure from England comes through in this letter from Edward's mother, Mary, to Lily,
   

My dear Lilly.

Your telegram letter to me, has been read many times over and the finish that Percy was getting better was best of all. A trained nurse knows how to do in special cases. I know you feel the responsibility very keenly as father and mother were away.

I greatly regret I did not begin to put things together I wanted them to have when first they came but then it seemed plenty of time but it was a mistake.

Your mother endeared herself to us all by her kindly manners and I do not feel now as if I had loved her half enough. I am not very demonstrative with my love but my son [would know] how I feel. When . . . how suddenly your father and mother left us. Your uncle cheered me up with saying Percie would get better but I could take no comfort until I got your letter. [Fathers . . the New York telegram in .  .Sarah has been to her brother’s wedding the 25^th August and the bride wore white cashmere Irish lace. Sarah got a train to use with lace and to wear and brought me a piece of wedding cake. This morn I read a note of invitation to Denhull Hall from Mr. & Mrs. Goodwin to their daughter’s marriage on Sept 29 time enough for me to get a new dress but I shall.

Your loving grandma, Mary Walker

Your loving grandma, Mary Walker.

        There are parts I haven't quite deciphered, but I'm still working on it. I also haven't figured out the Sarah with a brother that married in 1897. There are other letters from that trip and time period that I will try to post soon.

Hollywood Comes to Lawrence - 1940

     Much to the delight of Mary Grace, Hollywood came to Kansas in the spring of her junior year of high school, April 1940 to be precise. She was 16 and talked her mother into letting her skip school for the day and go to Lawrence with her for the festivities. In Lawrence they hoped to see Walter Pidgeon, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Gabby Hayes, etc.


From her scrapbook about her visit to the Hotel Eldridge:

My mother and I talked with the National Guard at the elevator for several minutes. I expressed my desire to see one movie star up close and he let us go upstairs at the Hotel Eldridge at Lawrence, Kans. He turned to my mother and said, “Which floor?”

Mother stammered around that she didn't know.

He said “they’re on second, third and fourth,” out of the corner of his mouth.

Then “third floor.”

We didn't hesitate and were on the elevator in a minute. We got so pushed around that we couldn't get off till the fourth floor We rode up feeling like something somewhere between the Queen of England and Shirley Temple. Alighting on the fourth floor, we looked around for a movie star and seeing nothing but ordinary mortals like ourselves inquired of a waitress and found they were resting.

We walked around the corner and bingo into a fat man we ran, just a trifle drunk.

“What floor am I on?” he asked.

“Fourth,” we answered.

“Wrong floor,” and he ran down the stairs.

Finding no one that looked important, we followed our friend to the third floor.

Walter Pidgeon in the parade
at Lawrence.

As soon as we reached the third floor, our friend came up and inquired what floor he was on. We replied third. He said wrong floor and went to second. We found third to be quite a floor.

Around the corner we go and bingo again we almost ran into Gabby Hayes. He was pacing the floor looking very depressed, smoking a cigarette. I was very much afraid he would put his beard on fire. He paced up and down about ten times then went into his rooms. We felt now we had seen one star we must see another so asked another waitress and she told us to go down as far as we could down in the hall and we would find Gene Autry’s and Walter Pidgeon’s rooms.

So we go. The waitress outside Gene Autry was quite flustered when we got there. She was arguing with some people outside his door telling them they could not go in. They informed her that they were his parents so she didn't argue any further.

Autographs of Walter Pidgeon, John Wayne & Gene Autry

The door behind us opened. We turned around and there was Walter Pidgeon’s head sticking out of the door. He very obligingly signed his autograph on the back of the telephone bill. Which incidentally will be reported to be lost this month. Having reached our peak here we departed for the second floor. Again we meet our friend and again he is on the wrong floor. But this time he wanted to give us his autograph so he also writes on the telephone bill much to my sorrow because from what we could read he was the secretary to a secretary. June Sotery then entered the picture, taps on Wendy Barris door and went in, lucky dog.

The movie, Dark Command, was based, although only so slightly, on Quantrill's raid on Lawrence in 1863. And to honor and celebrate the film, a set featuring the Hotel Eldridge was built in Lawrence's South Park and then set on fire, albeit Hollywood style fire so nothing actually burned.

Mary Grace's photo of
the burning of Lawrence-1940.

    According to one of synopsis of the film on the website imbd, Quantrill played by Walter Pidgeon and called Cantrell was upset that a Texan, John Wayne, had beaten him in an election to be Marshall. Upset by this defeat Cantrell, a well respected school teacher, steals Wayne's girlfriend and burns the town down. According to one clipping in the scrapbook, eventually Cantrell's mother kills him. The oddest part, although, the film's treatment of the raid that killed more than 160 people is all odd, is that it is set before the Civil War.

More Mary Grace and the Cavalry

Update: There was more than one Russell I discovered today when I was scanning in more of Mary Grace's scrapbooks. The war years must have been tough because she didn't exactly put them together in order. That's about all the blame I can pass on to her for mixing up the Russells. The Russell in the South Pacific was Russell Bosley as he told her or perhaps it was Bosler. He was born in 1919 in Watkins Glen, New York. She went with him to a winter formal on January 29, 1944. By February he had been sent to the South Pacific. He sent her the photos from there the following January.

Russell Bosley and Mary Grace
Winter Formal, January 29, 1944
Topeka

Russell Bosley, Staff Sergeant
in the Army Air Corps

   

So to those of you who felt that men didn't serve in both the European theater and the Pacific theater, apparently you were right--at least in this case. I must admit I didn't think the Russell in Topeka in 1945 looked that much like the Russell in the South Pacific, but it wasn't enough to stop me from publishing the blog. It was, though, enough to keep me from sending the photos or copies of the photos to Russell Hains' survivors. 

Mary Grace spent a lot of time at the USO, dancing with the GI's and helping to distract them from the war. Her mother gave her this cartoon, saying it reminded her of Mary Grace. She kept their photos and mementos through the war years, adding comments like, "I didn't even dance with this 'little guy'." Among these are nearly 20 photographs, Russell Leroy Hains sent her from his posting with the 5th Bombardment Group in the South Pacific.

Cartoon from 1944
The things you're saying to these boys
sounds pretty serious -- I don't want a 
troop of soldiers marching in here to quarrel
over you!

       According to his obituary in January of 2004, he earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Europe during World War II, but the article doesn't mention his time in the South Pacific. To me the Russell Hains in the obituary is the one whom Mary Grace knew. There are records that indicate he was mustered out of the army at a hospital in Topeka in September 1945.

"A picture of our pet parrot, George. That's me
beside him. Nice tan don't you think."

       
     These photos are a sampling from what he sent her. I haven't been able to pinpoint where he was stationed, but it may have been in the Solomon Islands. Clearly somewhere warm as these are dated either December 15 or Christmas Eve 1945. Russell was born in August 1924 so that would make him only 20 years old.

December 24, 1944
Another view of our celebrating Christmas
in the Islands.

December 15, 1944
E. Moodie, our ballgunner with bananas
and tree.

Russell saw Mary Grace when he returned to the states in 1945. On this day in August he and Mary Grace posed for several photographs. In her My Life, Mary Grace wrote that she almost got engaged to one of the soldiers she met through the USO. At this point, no one knows or remembers which one of her suitors she meant, but she has more photos of Russell than anyone else. She and Ray had been dating off and on by then for almost four years with engagements occurring between them every so often. They eventually married in July 1946 less than a year after this. In Mary Grace's scrapbook, near the photos of Russell in Topeka, is a clipping describing the 30th McClenny reunion, including the information that Mary Grace Burkhardt attended. Russ left Topeka soon after these photos were taken. The last reference of Russ is a postcard from him saying he was on his way home to Philadelphia.

December 15, 1944 - Solata,
my radio operator and me.
Things that look like rocks are coral.

Edna and Russell
August 1945 Topeka

Russell and Mary Grace
August 1945 Topeka

The John and Edith McClenny Family Home - 60 Years Apart

Edith Davis and John McClenny
Wedding day, November 9, 1890

      John McClenny married Edith Lorraine Davis on November 9, 1890 at the home of the Edith's parents according to the Farmer's Vindicator. It could have been the home of her mother, but her father, James Young Davis, had died in 1884. John and Edith, who grew up 300 miles apart, may have known each other because their families were somewhat intertwined. John's father, WC, grew up in Bond County, Illinois where Edith's family, the Davises also lived. John's aunt, Mary Melissa, married Edith's father's half-brother, Amos Huntington Davis. As a sidelight, Amos, spent the Civil War as a member of the 20th Illinois Infantry band.

     Their first child, Curtis, was born in August 1891 in Jefferson County, but their next two children, Otis and Valla, were born in Bond County, Illinois. At the beginning of 1898, they returned to Jefferson County. In January 1899 they took out a mortgage on 10 acres near present day 150th St and Marion St in Jefferson County.

From the left, John holding Goldie or Helen as we knew her; Otis, Curtis, either Edith's mother, Mrs. Davis
or her sister, Sada Davis; Valla and Edith outside their home in 1901.
Both Helen and Vala started with two l's, but they both dropped the second l at some point.

McClenny Home from a different view from the back after an addition. This photo was dated 1914.

     The McClennys lived there until about 1917 or 1918, perhaps, five years after John's death in 1913. Below is a home movie from 1965 when Helen and Vala revisited their home, nearly fifty years after they last lived there. John & Edith's home on Google maps The description of their land is 10 acres of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 35 in township 8 of range 18 east of the 6th meridian. It's close to the intersection of 150th St and Marion Road in Jefferson County.

Burkhardt Portrait 1928

    This portrait photograph was in the notebooks Mary Grace put together from photos that Edna had. I don't know why E.A. is not in it. I thought maybe it was a gift for his fortieth birthday, but that would have happened in September 1926. Maybe Helen remembers what the occasion was.

From left: Helen, Ethel, Mary Grace, Allan, Edna
Portrait labeled 1928

     This was in the notebook I was working on and left unattended on the floor. Buster found it and decided to add his own comments. Fortunately I had already scanned in this portrait and the other photographs and pages he felt worthy of his comments.

A Baptist, a Bicycle and a Bootlegger and Possibly a Vindictive Wife

    In June 1911, a 30-something Baptist preacher blew into Topeka on a reputation as an orator, [oddly considering it was based on his finishing 6th in an oratory contest with 12 contestants] For nearly the first year of his tenure at the First Baptist Church, he showed a progressive bent i.e. support for women's right to vote and was in the forefront of the Men and Religion Forward Movement, an attempt to address society's ills through Christianity.

     But then came a morning in late April 1912. The Rev. Robert Gordon describes it:

The bright sunshine of this morning was doubly delightful after a gloomy Sunday and I rolled along, on a round of duties, in unusually exalted spirits all unconscious of the dark impending future . . ..

From the east I came up on the north side of Eighth and wishing to proceed southward on Kansas made for the west side of the street. Having learned in the geometry long ago that the sum of any two sides of triangle is always greater than the other side, I was following the diagonal when startled by a raucous shout. Someone seemed to be in serious distress--drowning or burning up. Looking around I saw a tall. .policemen in the middle of the street, swinging a billy and shouting.

I stopped to inquire into the occasion of his excitement when metaphorically speaking he ‘put me into the box.’ Solemnly he asked name and address and put that data down in a book, telling me I was to appear before the police judge at three o’clock. A crowd on the sidewalk seemed to be enjoying life immensely.

At court this afternoon, I found myself charged with ‘cutting corners’ and paid a fine of two dollars. I tried to pay by check that I might have the instrument framed to pass on to my progeny as a proof positive of the fact that law is law in Topeka. But the official wouldn’t accept a check. I asked for a receipt thinking that would be a curiosity, but the man in blue and shining buttons wouldn’t grant that request. He said ‘You are the receipt. If you didn't pay you wouldn’t get out.’ I guess he was right on that. You may say that on Sunday night I expect to speak on Law Enforcement in Topeka.

   You might say that the Reverend didn't take it well, felt particularly embarrassed and ridiculed. And then began a nearly eight-year off and on fight with the police and city officials.

    The Reverend had a tradition of giving a sermon on Sunday night and on May 5, the Sunday after his ticketing he gave one listing the various sins of the city police department and the mayor. Starting with what I would say was sarcasm, he complimented the department on their enforcement of the jay-driving ordinance, but then the screed began:

According to the Capital,  Rev. Gordon flayed these same officers of the law for alleged indifference to lawlessness which he declared was flourishing in the city. The Rev. Mr. Gordon in his sermon at the First Baptist church, on “Law Enforcement in Topeka,” claimed that hoodlumism, neglect of duty the the officers, gambling, cigarette smoking, and the social evil [prostitution] are rampant. He read a list of names which he termed “undesirable citizens,” who are holding federal licenses for wholesale or retail of liquor.

    On the list of undesirables was one Fred T. Walker, Edna's older brother, third child of Betsy and Edward. He was actually on the list twice - because he had a permit for both wholesale and retail sale of liquor. Kansas had always tried to regulate liquor, but up until 1909, pharmacists were allowed to sell it to persons presenting prescriptions. But in 1909 the law was tightened because there was a belief that pharmacists were far too gullible and filled prescriptions even if the person came in with a new one every day. So this is where it gets a bit cloudy because apparently someone like Fred could get a federal permit, but the sale was still illegal.

Fred, standing, Percy seated holding Bud and
to the right of Bud are Pearle and Lucille

    As one might imagine city officials didn't take kindly to the Reverend's sermon especially since one young officer lay dying while the Reverend gave his harangue. The officer had tried to arrest someone at the Union Pacific depot and in the struggle he was shot.

     The mayor stated to the Capital that he found the Reverend's words unfortunate. But Gordon was not apologetic. Mayor Billard believed the reverend's remarks were made in very bad grace. . . .The charges made by the reverend gentlemen really are not worth answering. They are absurd. For instance, he gives a list of names of what he calls “undesirable citizens” who really are good, honest druggists in this city.. . . Because the police arrested and fined a minister it is no attack on the churches in Topeka.

Continuing the confrontation, the Reverend replied in kind, speaking of the mayor's choice for police chief who was involved in the melee where the young officer was wounded. He had courage you say. You ought to remember there is a clear line of demarcation between physical courage and moral courage. It wasn’t necessary for him to capture a  boy murderer to convince us he had nerve. Any man who, with his record, would accept that office, certainly has nerve.

     Fred, having made the list of undesirables, became the only one to have his drugstore raided. On Thursday, May 16, 1912, the police searched his drugstore and confiscated 7 half pints and ten pints of whiskey, three quarts and two pints of wine, and 20 bottles of beer.Liquor Is Secured in Drug Store Raid The question becomes why was his drug store raided? And the answer may lie in the following want ad that Fred ran in the Capital in early April 1912:

From the April 3, 1912 Topeka Daily Capital

    There is no evidence that I've found that says this is why he was raided, but there seem to have been no other raids carried out. Fred and Pearle's marriage continued for another ten years after this. Fred also continued to own and operate his drug store so I'm not sure that he was, eventually, even fined.

      As to the Revered he continued his criticism of the city officials of Topeka. By the spring of 1918 according to then mayor Jay E. House, the city of Topeka was tired of the Reverend. Mayor House in the March 3rd Daily Capital wrote:

From left to right: Bill Smith, best man; Delphia Burkhardt, Edgar, Rev. Thayer, Edna, Jennie Thayer Walker, Bud Walker, Ada, Betsy Walker, Grace Walker Bale, George Bale, Eula Walker Faust, Frank Faust, and the bootlegger, Fred. There is a woman  who is hard to see behind Betsy and perhaps that's Pearle. The two daisy chain girls in the front are on the left Lucille Walker and the right, Dorothy Leib,

In a way, the Rev. Mr. Gordon interests us. But we hold, and have always held, that he is much more to be pitied than censured. Outside a certain small circle in and out of his own church, the Rev. Mr. Gordon has no standing and no influence. He has talked himself off the map of this town. His public utterances inspire either contemptuous jeers or ribald laughter, We know of no other citizen of Topeka who is so thoroughly discredited in the public mind. We can conceive of nothing more humiliating to the Rev. Mr. Gordon than the position in which he finds himself.

 

        The Walkers didn't run from Fred and a mere 13 months later, he walked Edna down the aisle for her wedding to Edgar Burkhardt, June 18, 1913. 

Betsy Did Put an Addition on 1119 Polk

Not long after Edward and Betsy moved their family to Topeka from Morris County, they placed this want ad in The Topeka Daily Capital on September 27, 1889. Edna said they lived first at 518 W. Polk which could have been the house they found with this want ad.

Ad for a large house for the winter

Walker home on Polk in 1907

But by 1902 they were living at 1119 Polk Street. The first photograph shows the house circa 1907.

Edward became ill with hardening of the arteries according to Edna in 1910 and died about a year later in February 1911. By this time both boys, Fred and Percy, were pharmacists. Fred had his own drugstore on Kansas Avenue and Percy had worked with his father. It seems Betsy was looking for ways to augment her income.

Walker home in 1911 after addition

In June of 1911, she took out a building permit in the amount of $1,700 Betsy Walker building permit, 12/31/1911 about $42, 500 in current dollars. As is shown in the second photograph, there was an addition over the porch and the window over the bay window on the first floor became a double window. Edna recalled that she let the additional rooms to young men studying law at Washburn. Every fall the horse and wagon would come from the train station with their trunks