The New School Year

 

By Seth McFarland

August 17, 2022 

 

It is that time of year that is met with mixed emotions for all families - the beginning of school. Schools have changed over the past 150 years of Pawnee County.

The first school was established in Larned, and on June 23, 1873. Ms. Isabel Worrell was hired to teach in the first building in Larned otherwise referred to as the Little Red House. The building had been brought from Fort Larned by members of the Larned Town Company, and had previously served as variety of functions including a saloon.

By 1874, a new larger building on Main Street was erected by the Presbyterians and Methodists. Both church groups used the building for Sunday services.

The first class to graduate from Larned high school in 1890 was completed after a three year course. This was the tradition until 1904 when Larned high school became the standard four year preparatory school.

As the population of Pawnee County grew, schools were laid out throughout the county. Country schools constructed of white wood frame, stone or brick dotted the countryside. Students ranged in age from five to 21, and came from a variety of cultures. Many immigrant families did not speak English, and the students would learn English through lessons at school.

School children traveled on foot or horseback, and often the schools had barns or hitching posts for the horses. Traveling barefoot in the snow seems like a modern exaggeration, but was a rather common experience for nineteenth century youth. They often endured Kansas weather including dust storms, prairie fires, wind and blizzards with little to no shelter on their way to and from school.

In all, Pawnee County has had over 67 schools. As the school districts incorporated, many of the schools were renamed, relocated, or dismantled entirely. By the mid 1960's, most one -room schools had become a thing of the past. Visit the Santa Fe Trail Center to view one of the surviving country schools from the nearby community of Frizell.

 

 

Who Were These People?

Part 3: A.H. Moffet

August 17, 2022

 By Carol Jenkner

            Moffet Stadium, built in 1937, is listed as a historic Kansas baseball stadium and is one of the older ones still in use. Why is it called Moffet Stadium and not simply Larned Stadium? The easy explanation is that the land for the stadium and surrounding park was donated by a man named A. H. Moffet.

            Mr. Moffet first took up residence in Garfield in the 1880s where the family opened the Moffet Bros. Private Bank and Mercantile Company in 1889. The Moffet Bros. Bank was moved to Larned in 1896 where it became the First National Bank in 1910.

            Moffet and E.E. Frizell offered land once called Moffet’s Park where a residential area was developed in the early 1900s. The southern end of this development once contained a miniature golf course. There was much discussion about whether to continue plans to build a stadium at Lowrey Park or take the offer from Moffet and Frizell to build a large ball field with a stadium. The Lowrey Park idea lost favor, partially because the area flooded when there were heavy rains.

            The field, with several changes and delays was finally completed in 1937. It was named Moffet Stadium because A. H. Moffet was the principal donor for the project. Mr. Moffet, did not live to see the stadium named in his honor completed. He died August 17, 1933 in Gallup, New Mexico at the age of 68. He was also an enthusiastic naturalist and prominent in the Boy Scout movement in Larned.

The Machine Age

 August 17, 2022

Carol Jenkner

Santa Fe Trail Center

            Smith, Donovan, Stafford, Jones; are these names recognizable as automobile companies to anyone? In fact, all of these and more were automobile manufacturers in Kansas at one time. Kansas has an amazing history of mechanical invention from automobiles, to farm equipment, to aeronautics. How many have heard of Studebaker, REO, Overland, Mitchell, Hudson, Essex? These were all automobiles, too. The last of these to go was Studebaker. Now we have a host of international cars to choose from all made on automated, computer driven assembly lines.

            Besides the romance with internal combustion engines, there were several electric car makers in the Kansas City, Kansas area as well as the steam engines. An online article on the VisitKC website talks about the three types of engines in the early days. The electric car was simple; you turned it on and it moved forward. The problem was the battery life and top speed was only 50-60 mph.

            The gasoline engine was difficult. It was hard to starts, often had to be cranked and that process could break and man’s arm. The steam engine might take up to 20 minutes to get started, but once started worked great and was very fast. But you had to have a steady supply of wood or coal to keep the water boiling to make the steam.

            There were up to twenty companies manufacturing automobiles in Kansas City, Kansas in the early 1900s. The lone survivors of all of this automobiles manufacturing were Chevrolet and Ford, both of whom moved plants into the Kansas City area in the early 20^th century.

             An American president drove a car manufactured by a Topeka man. Before he was president, Harry Truman purchased a 1911 Stafford touring car in 1913. He noted that it was a very good car and lasted him for three years before he wore it out.

            Imagine this: from 1911-1920 Pawnee County boasted the highest per capita automobile ownership of any county in the entire United States!

           

 

Who Were These People?

Part 2: Lowrey Park

By Carol Jenkner

August 10, 2022

 

The other half of Schnack Park is Lowrey Park, at one time a separate park with a road running between the two. Eventually, the two were combined to form today’s Lowrey-Schnack Park. The Lowrey’s were one of Larned’s prominent families. Mr. F.D. Lowrey owned an early harness and hardware store, was a proponent of advanced farming methods and a landowner himself. Later in life he became president of The First State Bank. He gave the land on which Lowrey Park stands to the city of Larned.

            There was a Lowrey Bros. Hardware and Implements that sold Studebaker wagons, barbed wire, pumps, pipes, and fixtures for the home and farm. They also sold fine buggies, tinware and stoves. This ad appeared in a Larned City Directory dated 1886. In 1886, the directory listed E.W. Lowrey as a merchant at Main and 8^th Street, but Fred Lowrey was listed at the corner of 9^th and Toles also a merchant. By 1910, Mr. F.L. Lowrey was listed in a city directory as a hardware dealer at 903 Toles. By 1921 Edith and a son, George, were listed at 903 Toles. F.L. (Fred) and wife Erma were listed as living at 203 E. 7^th. Are they all related? Let me know if you figure it out!