-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
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 […]
The History of the Alma National Bank
-by Greg Hoots- The Alma National Bank enjoyed a prominent place in the history of the business community of Alma, Kansas, boasting a rich history in the very roots of the town. […]
The Alma Hotel: A Chronology
-by Greg Hoots- Joseph Brandt was born in Germany in 1828 and immigrated to America in the mid-1850s, settling first in Wisconsin where he met his wife, Christena, the daughter of Prussian […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Birth of a Town: Alma
Alma, Kansas is a thriving small town located in the center of Wabaunsee County and serves as the county’s seat of government. The town’s history dates to the middle 1860s when the […]
Alma Bottling Works
-by Greg Hoots- There are few of us that have never enjoyed a cold bottle of “soda pop” on a hot day. That simple pleasure has become a big business in the […]
