Today’s Photo Friday is a real rarity, a view of a traveling medicine show taken between 1890 and 1900 at Alma, Kansas by Alma photographer, Gus Meier. An arena with bleachers has […]
Photo Friday: Hecker Bros. Traveling Medicine Show
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Derailed
In the history of Wabaunsee County, among the significant events which shaped the county’s development and growth were the coming of the railroad in 1880 and the subsequent addition of a second […]
Photo Friday: Soda Fountain Memories
One of the iconic businesses that existed in most Kansas towns of the 20th century was the local drug store and pharmacy. The business, itself, underwent great changes as the patent medicine […]
Alma Portland Cement Works
Photographer Tom Parish visited the site of the Alma Portland Cement Works, a late-19th century manufacturing enterprise, located near Alma, Kansas. Parish photographed the remains of the large kiln where ingots of […]
Photo Friday: Mill Creek Valley & Council Grove Railway Bond, 1873
No single force was so important to the development of the American West than the railroad industry. By the middle of the 19th century, the nation’s lawmakers realized that the development of […]
Photo Friday: Video, Halloween Parade, Eskridge, Kansas
This is a short 8-millimeter video of the Halloween parade in Eskridge, Kansas taken in the very early 1950s. It’s a great little video of an iconic parade in small town America. […]
A Tale of Two Photographers
-by Greg Hoots- Louis Palenske was born in Richardson County, Kansas Territory in 1858 (renamed Wabaunsee County in 1859) in a log cabin on the banks of Mill Creek, the son of […]
Photo Friday: Artist, August Ohst
Today’s featured photo includes two views, both taken in 1888 by Louis Palenske, of his good friend, artist, August Ohst. August Ohst was born in Ratzeburg, Germany in 1851 and came to America […]
Number Please: The History of the Telephone in Wabaunsee County
In the history of Wabaunsee County, June 25, 1898 is a date of historical significance when the McMahan Telephone Exchange opened for business in Alma, Kansas with twelve subscribers. The telephone company […]
Shave and a Haircut
One of the most iconic small town businesses which thrived in the first half of the 20th century was the local barber shop. Every town had one. Some towns had two […]
Flint Hills Special 