By Greg Hoots On April 6, 1917 at 1:11 pm, President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration of war passed by both houses of the United States Congress, launching America into World War […]
Enemy Aliens of Wabaunsee County, Kansas
A Profile of Courage: PFC Charles E. Barnhart
-by Mark Barnhart- Editor’s note: When I was in high school, college, and later, one of my closest friends was Chris Barnhart. The Barnhart family lived four or five blocks from my […]
Old Friends of the Flint Hills: Russell Woofter, 1915-2007
By Greg Hoots Author’s note: This article originally appeared in the 2012 print edition of the Flint Hills Special. Russell Woofter was the hardest working man that I’ve ever known. Russell approached […]
Carl F. Hoots Arrowhead Collection
-by Greg Hoots- I once asked Daddy when he started collecting arrowheads, and he said that when he was about ten or eleven years old, he found his first arrowhead in his […]
Ozarka Village: Daddy’s Dream
-by Greg Hoots- Author’s note: This story is about my dad, Carl Hoots, and his dream to build a historic interpretative center and tourist park near West Plains, Missouri in 1970. Daddy […]
An Immigrant Story
-by Greg Hoots- Friedrich Meditz was born on May 24, 1929 in Buchel, a hamlet in the ethnic German enclave of Gottschee, located in the Lower Carniola region of Yugoslavia. Friedrich’s parents, […]
Matchbook Memories
One of the great inventions of the 19th century which improved the quality of life for virtually all Americans was the creation of the match in the early 1800s. The first modern, […]
Greg Hoots Real Photo Postcard Collection
Postcards have a rich history in the United States and abroad with the first postcards being used in Europe in the 1840s. In the United States, the first postcard was patented by […]
A Flint Hills Story by Victor Palenske
Editor’s note: Victor Palenske, born in Alma in 1903, authored this story in 1973, recalling his youth in Alma. Palenske’s penchant for details is amazing and insightful. This editor has added period […]
Stanley Funeral Home, Eskridge, Kansas
Editor’s note: This story of the Stanley Funeral Home was compiled with personal recollections of Judy Stanley Hayes who was a toddler while her family resided in Eskridge, Kansas, supplemented with photos […]
