Monday. April 17, 1961 University Daily Kansan
Page 13
State Museum Reflects
By John Peterson
History is vivid, its heritage and tradition rich. This is the burning spirit the four-story Kansas Historical Society Museum in Topeka reflects.
Legendary names, pictures of famous incidents during the state's first hundred years and tales of heroic exploits adorn the walls and display cases. But it is the memorials of the unknown figures that stand out and impress the wanderer through the halls of the museum.
**IN A CORNER** of the main floor stands a five-foot tablet that is dedicated to Edward Grafstrom, chief mechanical engineer of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. It says:
"During the great flood of June, 1903, which swept over North Topeka, he designed and built a small side-wheel steamer in which, with a volunteer crew of six men, he rescued hundreds of people. While making the last trip on the night of June 2, 1903, the boat was capsized and Mr. Grafstrom was drowned."
—Courtesy The Kansas Historical Society
Inside the main entrance and next to the assembly room of the Spanish-American War Veterans are two bronze plaques that immediately take the daydreaming mind from Topeka to Cuba. Each has a memorable inscription. The first says:
famed bar-busting erusades.
Kiowa was the first town she hit
and then in rapid succession
Enterprise, Winfield, Wichita, Topeka and Leavenworth.
On the fourth floor are displays depicting life during all eras of the past century. The second airplane built in Kansas, 1912; a buggy a doctor drove for about 20 years at the turn of the century; "Old Kickapoo," a cannon used through the state during the border wars.
IN FRONT OF a window lean two splintered doors and a sledge hammer. The sign simply says that they were the doors to the House of Representatives in 1833 that were smashed by the sledge hammer when the Republicans and Populists were fighting for control of the legislature.
A number of battle flags of different battalions and regiments that fought in France in World War I tell of Kansas' part in that great struggle.
But missing are the battle flags, rifles and other mementoes of the
"THIS TABLET in Memorium of the U.S.S. Maine destroyed in Havana Harbor . . . was cast from metal recovered from the U.S.S. Maine." In a wreath on the plaque are two words, patriotism and devotion.
Shawnee-Mission Was Indian School
The overall effect of Kansas' turbulent history is sharply impressed on the mind with every step taken in the museum. It has been a full century.
Civil War. It is like a void in a story, one that never had its introduction and first chapter written.
Shawnee Mission, one mile from the Missouri-Kansas line and eight miles from the mouth of the Kansas River, was an early-day Indian mission school, under the direction of the Methodist Episcopal church.
The adjacent plaque says, "Greater Love Hath No Man." It is dedicated to six men who lost their lives in 1900 after the Spanish-American War fighting the yellow plague in Cuba.
Next to the glass encased World War I flags is the first flag adopted by the state legislature in 1927.
Lining the walls on all four
MAINSTREET, 1890—This Historical Society photograph shows Topeka's Kansas Avenue in 1890. The Society's photo collection includes pictures from all phases of Kansas life and history.
The institution was erected in 1850, and consisted of three buildings, accommodating about 100 students, which was the number usually attending.
The Rev. Thomas Johnson, first Methodist missionary in Kansas, was supervisor.
floors are paintings of famed Kansans, an honor roll of greatness;
JOHN JAMES INGALLS, U.S.
Senator from 1873 to 1891 and creator of the state motto, "ad astra per aspera" (to the stars through difficulty).
Charles Robinson, first governor of the state.
Edmund G. Ross, his picture located in a turn on the staircase behind the elevator shaft, U.S. Senator from 1866 to 1871 who cast the deciding vote that kept President Andrew Johnson from being removed from office.
General Fred Funston, a native of Jola, who captured the notorious Aguinaldo in 1901 to end the bitter struggle in the Philippines.
DR. SAM J. CRUNBINE, one-time dean of the KU School of Medicine and secretary of the state Board of Health for more than two decades, who was founder of public health in Kansas and had slogans such as "Don't Spit on Sidewalk," carved in sidewall brick.
Carry A. Nation and her hatchet with its 15-inch blade. Carry was a housewife in Medicine Lodge at the age of 54 when she started her
The Jay Shoppe, now in its tenth year of providing fashionable clothes to the women at K.U., is happy to offer Centennial Greetings to our outstanding University.
We are proud to have been a part of the growth and development of K.U. and happy to have been able to aid in making our University one noted for its well dressed women (as well as its attractive ones).
High quality goods have become an important part of our way of life at K.U. and we are glad to have contributed to the fashion of our campus through such stylish lines as Bobbie Brooks, Lady Manhattan, Gabey, Ship'n Shore, Jane Compton, Minx Modes, Youth-craft, and many others.
TO THE STUDENTS AND FACULTY OF KU,
We have enjoyed dealing with you and providing you with our quality apparel. May each and every one of you develop and prosper through the years just as our great state has done.
Sincerely, JIM SCHUBERT Proprietor