After leaving Santa Fe and fighting hard winds all the way into Kansas, we stopped in Abilene at the Eisenhower Home and Museum. It, of course is the crown jewel of this little town.
Dwight Eisenhower and his brothers were born and raised in this simple and typical Midwest home. It is on the original land and unlike many Presidential homes, has not been moved.
Every bit of the furnishings, down to wallpaper and linens are original to the Eisenhower home. After visiting numerous other Presidential homes this winter, we found this to be an extreme rarity. It is really nice to know that what you are looking at is what the family lived with and used on a daily basis.
On the same grounds, the Presidential Museum and Library are also located.
The museum has lots of pictures and history recording Ike’s military history as well as his election and Presidency.
The famous picture of the sailor kissing the first girl he saw after D-Day in New York City, has a life-size statue of the two people right in front of the print. You get a double effect of the celebration.
This reproduction of a window of a Duckwall’s 5 & 10 Cent Store took me by surprise. OK, here is where my age is going to show. Duckwall’s was a small precursor to Walmart, was originated in Abilene. They were spread throughout the Midwest.
My first job at 16 was working at a Duckwall’s store in Topeka. In the summer I worked 40 hours a week, (20 hours during school months) and made 67 and a HALF cents an hour. (Who set up that pay scale??) It was one of the hardest jobs I ever had.
This chapel is also on the grounds.
It holds the burial place of Ike, Mamie, and their 4-year old son who passed away in the early years of their marriage.
After leaving Abilene, we spent some time in Waterville, in the northern part of the state where I lived during most of my high school years. Waterville is a small town filled with lots of old Victorian homes.
My dad was manager of the grain elevator and we lived directly across the street from the elevator and railroad tracks, not in a beautiful Victorian, but in an old (even then) storefront converted to apartments. The building we lived in has been torn down, the railroad doesn’t use the tracks anymore and the grain has to be trucked out of the elevator. Don keeps telling me you can never go back.
The house was basically directly across from where the large truck is sitting. My dad had a short commute to work.
In the local museum we found a a picture of nearby Alcove Springs, part of the Oregon Trail history. We drove north of Blue Rapids to find the springs.
Since there has been a lot of rain recently, we were told the spring would probably be running. We were looking forward to seeing the water-fall spring like in was the picture.
(On the way there, we crossed the Blue River, which is totally mud-brown. In this picture the sky is reflecting on the water, not giving you the full effect of the water color. Having become used to the crystal-clear rivers and lakes in the Pacific Northwest, this takes a bit of getting used to. Don figures whoever named this river was color blind.)
The information we had was that the spring was named by Edwin Bryant, a member of the ill-fated Donner and Reed emigrant wagon train that camped there for several days in late May of 1846.
The company, which lost most of its members to starvation (and cannibalism) before reaching their destination, suffered its first loss here at Alcove Spring. Mrs. Sarah Keyes, the elderly mother-in-law of James Frazier Reed, died after an extended time suffering with ‘consumption’.
Off the beaten path, we found the location of Alcove Spring along with signs regarding the history of the spring area.
Kansas at this time of year is lush and green. There was a foot bridge and a well marked path which we followed back to the spring.
The path led us to the rock overhang shown with water flowing over it in the picture, but nary a drop was even close to running over the rocks. There was some mossy green water under the ledge, letting us know that it had run there some time earlier in the spring, but not much else.
These early travelers had carved names and dates into a few of the rocks. Some of the letters were easy to read, others were pretty worn away. This one shows, JFR (James Frazier Reed)…26 May…1846.
On this one we could read, “SPRING” and a few of the letters of “ALCOVE." It’s amazing that there is anything left of the original carvings. It would have been nice to see the waterfall, but it was still interesting to see some authentic Oregon Trail history here in Kansas.
Across the road from the entrance to the spring, was a marker indicating where the wagon train crossed the Blue River. This is not a small river and at this time of year it is running quite high. I can’t imagine the danger of such a crossing!
The next day we met in the little town of Leonardville for lunch and a family reunion. This occasion was the primary reason for us to make this trip back to Kansas.
Jordy Nelson, 2011 Super Bowl
I nearly forgot to mention that we have a rather famous relative, distant though he may be...Jordy Nelson.
Now if you are a football fan, especially the Green Bay Packers, who won the Super Bowl this past year, then you know that Jordy Nelson is the Packers Wide Receiver...and a second or third cousin to me and the the rest of my cousins who were there that day. (I don't know how they count those things, but his great-grandfather and our grandfather were brothers.)
Jordy's parents own Nelson's Landing, the restaurant in Leonardville, Kansas where we all met and had lunch. His sister, Kelsey, did a fantastic job as waitress for our large group. She teaches at a nearby high school during the week.
Jordy has made this little town very proud of their local, home-grown son.
Standing: My brother Larry from Las Vegas, cousin Jim from Canyon City, CO, cousin Orpha from Wichita, KS, cousin Marilyn, from Kansas City, MO, cousin Orlin, from Surprise, AZ, cousin Verla, N. Kansas City, MO. Seated, cousin Harlan, Clay Center, KS and me, Sunriver, OR.
All of the cousins on my mother’s side who are still living came from various parts of the country. We were all here except for my younger brother, Jared from Florida, who became ill at the last minute and had to cancel his plans.
We had a lot of fun telling stories about some of the crazy escapades we had engaged in when we were young and foolish. There was lots of laughing and a few tears before we called it a day.
This was the entire gang, spouses (mostly are behind their wives) included here, except for Don who was taking turns taking pictures with everybody’s camera.
On Monday, which was Memorial Day we went down to Clay Center (the town where I was born more than a few years ago) to visit the cemetery where my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles (the parents of all the cousins at the reunion) and even more relatives are buried.
After that, we drove south to the little town of Ramona where we lived for several years when I was in Grade School. Back then it was a town of 75 people set out in the middle of wheat fields. This was a major disappointment and I wish I had never gone there. Some things are better just as you remember them, not as they really are.
The town for the most part is in a total state of decay. There were a few homes that were being cared for, but mostly people who have moved there in recent years are about five minutes short of being homeless.
These people have moved in a lot of really old mobile homes or moved into very old tumble-down houses. They have loaded up their yards and porches with discarded mattresses, hub caps, rusty cars and just about any thing else you could think of that belongs in a land fill.
This was the home where we lived, right in the middle of town. Then it was painted white and was in good shape. Now, with people still living there, the roof is actually falling in. I cut most of the yard junk out of the picture.
Don is right. Sometimes not only can you not go back, but you shouldn’t go back.
Next we are going into Topeka for a few days. I expect that to be a better experience.
