-by Greg Hoots- Elmer Jones was born on January 17, 1878 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. His path to the American West is undocumented, but by 1895, the seventeen-year-old youth had arrived in […]
The Life and Times of Hickory Jones
The Early Career of Photographer, Dave Mathias, 1955-1965
-by Greg Hoots- David “Dave” Mathias was born on May 6, 1937 in Reading, Pennsylvania, the son of David and Margaret Mathias. When Dave was five-years-old, his parents divorced, and for seven years he attended a series of elementary schools, as his mother moved several times during and immediately after World War II. In 1949 […]
Steinmeyer Bros. Garage, Alma, Kansas
-by Greg Hoots- In the 1910s, a wave from the future swept across America. The automobile arrived in the cities and small towns, alike. Ten years earlier, most people had never seen […]
Phelps Oil Company, West Plains, Mo.
-by Greg Hoots- I was born at Christa Hogan Hospital in West Plains, Missouri in the middle of the 1950s. I don’t remember any of the event, although my mother had a […]
The Curious Case of Postcard Photographer, John Bowers
-by Greg Hoots- John Bowers was born in 1865 in Minnesota, the son of a farmer. In about 1879 John left Minnesota to move to Topeka, Kansas where he took residence with […]
The Peter Thoes Barn
-by Greg Hoots- Peter Thoes was born in 1821 in a small village on the river LaBelle Mosille on the western edge of Germany. After Peter’s birth, his parents, Johannes Thoes and […]
The William Horne Barn
Many of the most historically significant barns have disappeared from the Wabaunsee County landscape throughout the 20th century, leaving a remaining few relics of their heyday scattered at the sites of former […]
Fifteen Minutes Till Doomsday
-by Greg Hoots- In 1938 two German chemists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, announced their discovery of nuclear fission and presented their theory to the world academic community. The importance of the […]
Two Barns in Wabaunsee County
-by Greg Hoots- No single structure is more iconic and fundamental to ranching heritage than the hay barn. Many of the earliest barns in the Wabaunsee County were log structures, but by […]
Gas Station Bandits Strike Eskridge
-by Greg Hoots The year was 1931. The Great Depression had changed the face of America. Hardworking folks who had never experienced unemployment, hunger, homelessness, and the inability to feed their families […]
