Tonganoxie Community Historical Society Museum
25 years ago: February 4, 1998
Three Tonganoxie Elementary School students won trophies for their extraordinary spelling skills. They will also participate in the county spelling bee on February 12, which will be held in Leavenworth.
Wildhorse Orchard apple cider was rated the best apple cider by the Mid-America Fruit Growers Association. The great cider champion won in competition with 25 entries from across Kansas and Missouri.
Magnatech Engineering, Inc. has signed a lease to purchase the “Perka” Building from the City of Tonganoxie. The company plans to expand its business here.
50 years ago: February 1, 1973
Mrs. Charles W. Scott refused to let muddy roads stop her from taking her son, John, to school. Mrs Scott arrived at Mrs Morey’s nursery on the farm tractor with John and another passenger, her little daughter Elizabeth.
Tomorrow, February 2, is Ground Hog Day. If this wet weather continues, ground hog could turn into a swamp rat. Instead of seeing its shadow, it may have to swim to dry land.
Stranger Creek is said to flow out of its banks and into fields after an overnight rain. Tonga Creek was filled with level and coming to the road, north of town.
Tonganoxie experienced an increase of 137 telephones during 1972. Nearly 1,688 telephones are now in service locally, up from 1,551 in early 1972.
The City Council’s Water and Sewerage Committee agreed to study the possibility of increasing the amount of water the city sells to Rural Water District No. 6 of Leavenworth County. The spokesperson for the rural water district has asked the city to raise the limit of 80 customers in the district and sell additional water. The district has several applicants for water service, but none can be approved until the city agrees to expand service to the district. Committee chairman Wayne Finch said, “We need to make sure we have enough water for our city customers before expanding service to rural areas.”
75 years ago: January 29, 1948
Fires are burning and smoke billowing from chimneys as temperatures in Tonganoxie hover around -11. It is eleven degrees below the freezing temperatures we suffered last week. Ponds are frozen, accidents have occurred and people are falling on the ice. We need warm weather and soon.
In a story reported late last December, William Denholm hopes his toy animals will take him to Europe. Readers may recall that Denholm began making 3-inch felt toy animals with batteries to operate flashlight bulb eyes. He has continued to make them and now has retail locations in Manhattan, Lawrence, Lansing and Kansas City. He hopes to raise $800 to become a UNESCO student ambassador to Europe. It will take a lot of horses, wild cats, elephants and other toy animals! Good luck.
Three unions blocked the union peace and rejected the wage increases already accepted by 19 other rail unions. They believe that an hourly increase of $0.15 and a half is not enough. They threatened a strike that would bring our country to a standstill. Come and see the documents and compare your salary.
The Oaks Inn was the scene of a PEO Chapter A three course dinner. Eighteen members attended this beautiful event.
100 years ago: February 1, 1923
Mr. Stevenson reports that he is very pleased with his new business law courses. This is proving to be a much more successful subject than Economics which was taught in the first semester. The largest class consists mainly of elderly people. Many of the Junior students study business arithmetic instead of business law, so this explains the small number in the other class. While all students don’t expect to become great lawyers and judges, they do expect to know something about business transactions.
The new ten-wheeler recently purchased by the Leavenworth & Topeka Railroad, which arrived at Leavenworth last Saturday, made its first journey Wednesday morning. With the new engine, L&T will be able to handle all of its freight traffic, officials said. Ten or twelve loads can be handled with ease by the new engine, whereas it was impossible for the old engine to carry this heavy load and made it necessary to run the extra freight train often. – McLouth Times, January 25, 1923
125 years ago: February 3, 1898
The first to leave Tonganoxie for the Klondike was Frank Warner, who has been in the employ of George Wilkinson for the past two years or more. Tuesday afternoon he started his long journey.
Jarbalo Jottings – Farm trading is the topic of the day. William Trackwell bought a farm near Eagle from GG Henderson; the latter bought JB Thiry’s farm, adjacent to his house; Mr. Thiry bought a farm near Basehor; OW Bissett has sold his farm to Henry Wager, and now we imagine we smell the wedding cake.
There is undoubtedly a great need for some of the dubious political transactions in this county to be fully investigated. The Leavenworth Standard in a recent issue makes a pretty strong suggestion as follows: “The alderman’s office is worth anywhere from $3,400 to $4,000 a year,” is the statement a wealthy and prominent Republican made to Mayor Edmond yesterday. He asked what was meant, as the salary was only $3. a day for about three months.
“I know,” was the reply, “and I know what I’m talking about. In the past, councilors have been able to earn much more than their salary, and the figure is not far from the figures indicated ». The air in Leavenworth is full of nasty rumors about how the various offices have been tendered out, and if they’re not true they’re doing a great injustice to a number of people. The Civic Federation should go investigate some of these rumors and find out if they are true.
