-by Greg Hoots- For years I shared my lunch break with Don Mogge. I would grab a bite to eat in the early afternoon, and Don would usually meet me at the […]
Don Mogge: Eyewitness to History
A Day in History: June 8, 1918, The Great American Eclipse
On August 21, 2017, millions of Americans will view the total solar eclipse as its shadow sweeps across the country at midday. It is predicted that as many as 100-million people will […]
Photo Friday: Strand Theatre of Eskridge
The Strand Theatre, located at 115 South Main Street in Eskridge, Kansas, opened in the mid-1950s, providing a modern movie house for residents of the surrounding area. The theater was owned by […]
The Photography of Charles Herman
Charles L. Herman was born in 1922 in Alma, Kansas, the son of Alma shoemaker, Fred Herrmann and his wife Mary Schubert Herrmann. Charles graduated from Alma High School and was a […]
A Day in History: August 30, 1900, Modern Woodmen of American Log Rolling at Alma
-by Greg Hoots- Modern Woodmen of America is a fraternal organization founded in 1883 in Lyons, Iowa by Joseph Cullen Root. Root was an esteemed businessman who had been very successful in […]
Herrmann’s Shoe and Harness Shops
-by Greg Hoots- Ferdinand and Christine Herrmann were a young German couple, married for five years when they immigrated to America in 1874, settling in Alma, Kansas, a rural Wabaunsee County town with […]
Prohibition Blues: The Life and Times of Bill Page
-by Greg Hoots- When one hears about Prohibition, the image that comes to mind is the decade of the “roaring twenties”, complete with gangsters toting machine guns and wild nights in the […]
Cold Case: Murder on Eight-Mile Road
-by Greg Hoots- William Thomas Smale came to Kansas in 1869 as a 14-year old youth when his family immigrated to the United States from Canada. Smale’s father was a farmer, and […]
Photo Friday: The Sweeney Bridge
-by Greg Hoots- This is a photograph of the Sweeney Bridge, an iron bridge under construction over the Kaw River in early 1911. The bridge was located in Kaw Township in Wabaunsee […]
Photo Friday: The Alma Colored Band
-by Greg Hoots- As the small towns of the Flint Hills began to develop between 1880 and 1900, one of the needs felt by the early settlers was to have a city […]
