Page 10 University Daily Kansan. August 19. 1982
House still stands after 125 years
Grinter place a home of rich Kansas history
By CANDICE SACKUVICH Staff Reporter
The old house is still standing, and the paint is fresh and bright. It was built 125 years ago high atop a hill that overlooked an apple orchard, the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Scott military road and the Kansas River. Today it faces a highway, railroad tracks and, still, the river.
This two-story brick house with white trim sits on an eight-acre plot and is the oldest house in Wyandotte County. It is situated at 78th Street and K-32 Highway, a few miles east of Bonner Springs.
THE HOUSE WAS BUILT in 1857 by Marion Woods to allow men to marry properly within the region where women were raised.
Gritter, a native Kentuckian, came to the area in 1838 before Kansas was a territory. The Delaware Indian Reserve, established in the area by treaty with the Indians, occupied when he developed the first ferry service across the Kansas River.
The ferry was known by several names, including Grinter's, Delaware Crossing and Secondine Crossing, in honor of a Delaware chief's son, according to Jefferson Brown, curator of the house.
Immigrants to the West, Fort Leavenworth soldiers and ftr traders used the ferry. Travelers on foot, horseback used the ferry for 50 cents a person or a $2 a wagon.
With the increased traffic, Grinter saw the need for a post office and convinced the U.S. government to establish one at the ferry landing in 1850. It was the second non military post office in that was to become the state of Kansas.
In 1836, Grinter married Anna Marshall, daughter of an Indian trader and a Delaware Indian woman. They lived together until he decided to build the big house.
The house was a Southern Colonial structure modeled after one his uncle and grandfather.
The 125-year-old Griner Mansion majestically stands on the hill overlooking the Kansas River at 78th Street and K-32 highway, in Kansas City, Kan.
Grinter molded bricks from earth.
The handmade bricks were burned on
ALL THE INTERIOR walls of the house are solid brick. They are 17 inches thick on the first floor and 13 inches thick on the second floor.
the ground, using clay and Kansas river sand, with animal hair incorporated for strength and rigidity. Lime from the surrounding hills was used to make
The interior woodwork is walnut and white pine that was hauled from Leavenworth by ox team. The floors are made from native linden wood, and mill work on columns and cornice moldings was done in St. Louis.
Gritter lived in the house until his death in 1876, and his wife lived in the house as a child.
Ownership of the Grinder house has passed through many hands since those
Photo by JILL M. YATES
It stayed in the family until 1950, when Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hanson bought it. They spent the next 20 years restoring the house and researching its history.
In 1970, an organization called Friends of Grinter Place raised funds to buy the property and donated it to the state. In 1971, it became Grinter House and was placed under the administration of the Kansas Historical Society.
Today, a step across the threshold is like a step into a time warp where the calendars are dated more than 100 years in the past.
in the parlor. An antique saure grand piano is behind it.
The center of the house is a two-story hallway with wide-planked wooden floors. To the left is the parlor and to the right is the dining room, a dog run and the kitchen.
The black divan arm is rocking chairs are upholstered with woven horsetail, and a 9-foot secretary-bookcase dominates one wall. It nearly touches the ceiling, which is 9 feet 3 inches high.
MOST OF THE furnishings in the house are of the period in which it was built and are provided by the Kansas Museum, however, belonged to the Grinters.
The parlor is the most lavishly furnished room in the house. It was used for church services, marriages, baptisms, wakes and funerals.
Brown said that women of the 19th century used their own hair to weave tiny hearts, leaves and flowers. They sometimes wore their creations as jewelry or clustered them for three-dimensional picture arrangements.
Brown said that whenever a traveling minister was in the area, Grinder would stand on his front porch and blow a 6-ton cannon at the neighbors to the house for worship.
This hair picture has ferns and flowers arranged around a tiny harp in
kitchen from the main house was characteristic of Southern architecture of the times. The dog run kept the cooking area in the kitchen, and the heat to the other rooms in the house.
IN KANNAS the main disadvantage of such an arrangement was that dur-
The huge Grinter family Bible is opened on an intricately culped pulpit
the middle. The brownish-black terms look an entanglement of tarantula.
THE PARLOR HAS a fireplace, as do all the rooms in the house. Two brass and cut-glass candlesticks, originally belonging to the Grinters, rest on the mantelpiece.
The kitchen is the least formal room and is separated from the house by the
The dog run is a 60-foot long porch at the back of the house. Separating the
Therefore, many of the Grimer family winter activities involved around the base.
isolated from the coveted heat of the kitchen.
Besides cooking in the fireplace, the not chores consisted of boiling laundry, washing dishes, and cleaning the kitchen.
Another job, making apple butter,
was usually done in the fall. A large
black cauldron of pureed apples would
be gooey so that a cook would only
approach it with a 10-foot pole. A perfor-
ated wire can be used to reach the
and was used in sit the enconction. |
The kitchen may have been the most family-oriented room in the house, that the upstairs bedrooms offer a more pleasing atmosphere of the people who once lived there.
A Southern-style commode sits against one wall. It is a wooden chair with a hole conveniently placed over a chamber pot.
AN ABRAHAM LINCOLN bed is the outstanding feature in the master bedroom. Five of these beds were made in the same style as the rest and belonged to his personal physician.
The 6-foot-6-inch mattress was obviously created for a tall person. The carved walnut head board is 1 foot high.
A rag rug, made of worn-out clothing,
is on the floor. A girl's red gingham
dress and a faded pair of men's overalls
add color to the rug.
A small chair with rompers draped across the back is in one corner. A tiy pair of cracked white shoes rests beneath it.
OF THE GRINTERS' 10 children, only five survived beyond the age of 6. Childhood was hazardous in those days and cholera epidemics. Brown said.
Their sons slept in the upstairs hall, and their daughters slept in the other room.
The girls' room is furnished with two small beds, two old trunks and a large wooden wardrobe close. Long calico dresses hang in the wardrobe, and black lace-up shoes are lined up at the foot of a bed.
Toys are in the room, but the laughter of children is not.
A hobby horse, with horsehair main and a rope tail, sits in the middle of the horse.
An onlooker can only guess which of the two doles in the room was some little girl's favorite; the china one who wore a striped skirt and the small cloth one made from flour sacks.
Amish are 'keeping simple' in a modern world
Staff Reporter
By KATHLEEN J. FEIST
Staff Recertion
"We believe in keeping simple," said Larene Borntrager.
Two young Amish women, wearing small white bonnets and plain collared dresses held together with straight elbows, their grandfather's unit living room.
Lorene and her sister, Irene Borntrager, live among 50 Amish families in Mount Ida. All believe in "keeping simple" by not using electricity, driving automobiles or wearing the latest fashions.
THE AMISH THEN immigrated from Switzerland to America in the 1708s to settle in Pennsylvania, keeping their Dutch heritage and never marrying outside their own religion. The Amish traveled west seeking settlers. One of them was Onondaga in 1904 in Anderson County, Kansas, which became Mount Ida.
THE AMMSH ARE Quickly spotted in their horse and buggies with bearded men in suspenders and broad-brimmed hats driving to town to shop. For a moment, it is almost as if time has been set back to the late 1700s.
"It's more in keeping with beliefs instead of going with the world," Lorene said. "Our parents did it. Their parents did it."
man language known as Pennsylvania Dutch
The tradition goes back to the late 1600s when Jakob Ammann broke away from the Mennonite Church because he thought it had become too liberal.
The Amish have kept their traditional ways and still speak an English-Ger-
"We're taught it from when we're young," Irene said. "But before school, we're taught English so we can understand."
THE BORNTRAGERS SAID they had a hard time answering questions because they had to first think in German and then translate it into English. Their language is spoken in their churches and homes. Irene said.
The Borntrium rags sisters, who are married to brothers, live in such a world where they do not know each other.
lights, gas washing machines, gas refrigerator (which they are hard to need) and a dryer.
In a small brick school in Mount Ida built in 1863, the children are taught the skills of Dutch.
And as for buttons, they are necessary for men, but not for women.
The Amish also do not have to use the horse and buggy all the time.
The women buy clothes from an Indian dry goods store. If the clothes have any unnecessary items on them, such packets, they are ripped off, Irne said.
"We don't know why," Lorene said.
"We can't wait!" Irene chinced in.
"Right now there is no English in the school, but we do we have English teach-
The Amish do without electricity but seem to do very well with gas.
The children go to school until they reach the eighth grade, at which point they become adults in the Amish community, changing even the way they dress. Boys change from suspenders and knickers to suspenders and change from dresses that button in the back to dresses that pin in the front.
"WE S'EW OUR OWN clothes," said Irene, who was wearing a dress that reached to her mid-calves and was a large scarf. "But for the men, we builr their shirts."
"The menfolk use tractors to run to
the trease said. The horses don't
like the tractors."
Some Amish do travel in automobiles
and other means of transportation when convenience calls for it.
To the Amish, Scripture is as important as tradition and because of their strong belief in their faith, they have faced many tribulations.
"WE DON'T BELIEVE IN taking lives," Stutzman said. "It's because of the Bible we feel that way and not
allowed for their potential drafttes to be sent to civilian public service camps during war. :
because we don't want to face death.
It's against our plans."
"Eikeness of Christ," Stutzman said
with a proud smile. $
And the beards?
Along with the Quakers, the Dunkers (High-German Baptists), and the Menonites, the Amish are conscientious objectors. After much persistence for 30 years, they pushed for the Selective Training and Service Act during World War II, which
MOST OF THE AMISH have gas
But whether it is the Bible or tradition, the Amish all work toward of it.
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