Thursday, December 5, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
9
Photo by Steve Ewert
Someone lives behind this door
'Tis the season to be jolly . . .
My door is broken.
Santa Claus is coming to town . . .
My house is cold.
With visions of sugar plums . . .
I'll enjoy my Christmas side meat.
Fa la la la la la la la la . . .
Hah!
By STEVE HAYNES
Kansan Staff Writer
AMERICUS — The Twentieth Century is the setting for the death struggle of a midwestern institution — the small farming community.
These one-horse towns, hundreds of which formerly dotted the prairies, have shriveled on the vines of the railroad branch lines which brought most of them into existence. Most of them are still there, but their mainstreets are lined with boarded-up hulks which once housed thriving businesses and their residential areas are mostly weed-grown lots.
Wichita inaugural will be a first
Americus has come from the bottom, Robert Patrick, executive vice-president of the bank, said. "Ten years ago," he said, "when they tore up the railroad, Ameri-
A Kansas town in Lyon County refuses to die. Americus, situated eight miles northwest of Emperia, has registered an unofficial 50 per cent increase in population in the last four years—even though the population of every other small town in the county has dropped.
In an age when young people leave these rural communities as soon as they can for jobs in the city or an education at the University, the atmosphere here is strikingly different. Children roam the streets of town and play in the one park, and high school age youths drive up and down the main street.
The town is not an "old" town. Grade school enrollment tops 200 students and the townpeople talk proudly about the new high school which the unified district plans to build east of town. New families move to town every month—they come, they say, to raise children in a quiet, small town.
When Gov. Robert Docking goes to Wichita to be sworn in for his second term Jan. 13, he will not be the first to receive the oath away from Topeka but he will be the first to take all of the inaugural festivities with him.
Paul Pendergast, executive secretary of the Democratic State Committee, formally announced last week that the ceremonies would be held in Wichita, adding that there were no plans for any of the attendant celebration to take place in Topeka.
This small Kansas town isn't dying
Officials at the Kansas State Historical Society said this will be the first time the festivities have been held away from the capital city although two governors have taken their oaths of office elsewhere.
Kansas' first governor, Charles Robinson, did not take the oath until several weeks after the state was admitted to the union. He was sworn in at Lawrence, his home town, on Feb. 9, 1861. At that time there was no inaugural celebration.
Gov. Ben Paulen took the oath for his second term at Fredonia in 1927 where he had gone to attend his father's funeral. However, Topea remained the site of inauguration day speeches
The Topeka Commonwealth
newspaper of Jan. 6, 1877, reported the delay to accommodate the Leavenworth train and also told of a "social gathering" to be held the evening of the inauguration to give Topeka citizens "an opportunity to become acquainted with strangers present"—presumably referring both to the newly-elected officials and the out-of-town well-wishers.
Two years later, in 1879, the inaugural of Gov. John Pierce St. John was billed as the first public inaugural.
The inaugural problem this year at Topeka began when it was discovered that the Topeka Municipal Auditorium had already been reserved Jan. 13 for
the state convention of the Kansas Association of School Boards.
The state constitution says the oath must be taken on the second Monday in January following the election.
Pendergast said no other suitable facilities could be found in Topeka. In addition to Wichita, he said, Kansas City had been considered. Kansas City Mayor Joseph McDowell had suggested at least holding the inaugural ball there.
Ronald H. Baxter, Docking's legal adviser and pardon attorney, said he checked the constitution and state laws and found no requirement the event take place in the capital city.
cus was so flat it really couldn't have hurt any." That was before the town decided to die.
"The railroad left because the towns were dying-it didn't desert them," he said.
Growth, Americus leaders say, depends on the proximity of Emporia. They see their town as a bedroom community for the new industries and the college there.
Old people, they say, are also important to the town. The peaceful, rural setting attracts them in their retirement years.
The future, though, lies in the young families whose children populate the schools and laugh in the streets. They are the ones who will live in the several new houses now going up and who occupy the trailer court at the south end of town. They mostly commute the eight miles to Emporia over the new highway the county, has built this year. The drive is an easy 10 minutes.
Americus seems to consider its promising future as not so much luck as the product of a community effort. The town has been in
existence since 1857, a year longer than Emporia.
Some of these towns, such as Admire and Allen on the main line of the Missouri Pacific, once were more important, but are now decayed.
Businesses in these towns folded in recent years, but in Americus, two new ones—a lumber yard and a cafe—opened this year.
The cash register seems to ring continuously in the grocery, the bank appears to be constantly adding to its $1,800,000 assets, the grain company seems almost ready to expand again—it has several new buildings and bins.
The big difference, however, is in the voices and faces of the people. Here they are confident, even enthusiastic. Their pride is evident. They talk of their schools, their children, their hopes for the town. They want to establish their own police force and not depend on the county sheriff, who may be 50 miles away. They speak in glowing terms of the proposed high school.
The town is very much alive.
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