Kansas Helping the War Efforts

The Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant or as we know it from Sex in the Heartland, the Sunflower Ordnance Works was built in 1941. The plant is spread over nearly 11,000 acres. It is actually not within the Lawrence city limits, but is considered to be in De Soto. City commissioners at the onset of World War II brought the idea of bringing this plant to Northeast Kansas. The smokeless and propellant manufacturing facility is owned by the United States Government and is operated by the Hercules Aerospace Company.

As World War II was happening in the European and Asian theaters, the Sunflower Ordnance Works produced more than 200 million pounds of propellants. At the conclusion of the war, the plant was put on a limited standby. The plant went from limited standby to a complete standby in June of 1948 and government officials took over the security and maintenance of the plant.

When the United States went to war in Korea in 1951, the plant was brought out of standby. During this period, the Kansas Ordnance Plant produced more than 166 million pounds of propellant and employed 5,000 people. Production ended in 1960, when the plant went standby again.

In August of 1963, the plant officially changed its name to the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant and was reactivated in 1965 to support to the Vietnam War. A major facility reconstruction initiative started in 1967. This initiative included construction to the plant, so it would be able to house the production of nitroguandine, which is an explosive propellant. This plant was a one of kind plant in North America. The production of nitroguandine started in 1984 and ended in 1992, when the plant was put on standby again. The plant was for the most part, dormant until 1998, when the U.S. Army began selling the site.

It is obvious the ammunition plant played vital roles for two reasons. The plant brought jobs to Kansas for almost 40 years. The plant also gave Americans in edge in the wars in Europe and Asia. From our reading of Sex in the Heartland, we learned that a lot of resident of Northeast Kansas were skeptical of the people that were going to come to their cities because of this plant. Their ignorance didn’t last because of the plants success to the state’s economy. I can see some harm from this plant, though. Sustainability was not a virtue of this plant. With all of the standbys that resulted from the ends of wars, employees of the plant could not plan on personal job security. Another factor that could harm the individual and their personal emotions is that just because they were earning a decent wage at the plant, they knew they were helping produce a product that was killing lives over seas. Granted the death that comes from the institution of war and helps to protect our freedom, this idea is not something that is easy to succumb to.

In 2005, Kansas’ political leaders have planned to create the land that previously housed the ammunitions plant into thousands of homes, offices, retail space and research parks. http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2005/oct/14/former_sunflower_army_ammunition_plant/

-Sammy Greenberg

Sources:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/sunflowerarmy/sun_p1.html

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/aap-sunflower.htm

picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sunflower_Army_Ammunition_Plant.jpg

The Rules of the Eldridge

I found the below while looking on Kansas Memory*.

Photo source: Kansas Memory (http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/3349)

It’s interesting to consider the fact that the Eldridge has been around as long as it has.  This photo (taken from an index card of sorts given to tenants) lays out all of the codes that proprietors and tenants had to live by while dwelling inside the Eldridge.  The most intriguing word there to me is “tenants,” the fact that the Eldridge was more than simply just a hotel.  It was a boarding house where people lived.  It’s earliest incarnation was the Free State Hotel during the period in which it was still up for debate whether or not Kansas would be slave or free.

It was on one of Lawrence’s most famous nights (that of Quantrill’s Raid) that the Eldridge was truly born.  Urban legend** states that when Quantrill and his made stormed into Lawrence, patrons of the hotel leaned out their windows to cheer, “ooh,” and “ahh”; they thought it was some kind of show being performed for them.  After the smoke cleared, Colonel Shalor Eldridge took the burnt lot on which the first hotel had stood and built another incarnation, naming it after himself***.  From the date inscribed on the Rules and Regulations card, one can infer that if this card wasn’t made available upon the Eldridge’s grand opening that it followed soon after.

Another facet of the Eldridge not commonly known about is its supposed haunted nature.  According to Legends of America, the Eldridge is rumored to possess a portal to the spirit world.  On top of this, there have apparently been encounters with ghosts witnessed by guests in room 506:

“In this room witnesses have reported breath marks on recently cleaned mirrors, doors opening and shutting on their own, and lights turning on and off by themselves.

Others report cold spots throughout the old hotel. Some guests have even encountered apparitions on the fifth floor and an ‘elevator ghost’ likes to open and close the elevator doors on the fifth floor. Several photographers have also mentioned having inexplicable technical difficulties with their cameras when near the elevator.”

Beyond just the Rules and Regulations, how do you think hotel/boarding house culture has changed between then and now?

-Elliot Kort

* – www.kansasmemory.com

** – Paul Stuewe, Lawrence Historian

*** – www.eldridgehotel.com

Langston Hughes

“Must always be free to choose what he does, certainly, but must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.” This quote was stated by James Mercer Langston Hughes, a well known poet, revealing his experiences and memories of the 19th and 20th centuries.* Hughes, an African-American, used poetry to express his passion and emotions to the world.* While Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin Missouri, he spent his childhood in Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas with his mother, but mostly with his grandmother. She was the one who taught him to fight for his freedom and what he believed in.* Although, Hughes was not accepted by many of his fellow peers during grade school, because of his skin color; Hughes grandmother taught him to judge a person by their action, not the color of their skin.* In Kansas, Hughes grew up venting his rejected childhood in writing poetry and reading. In 1915, 19-year-old Hughes left Kansas for Chicago where Crisis magazine published “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” one of his very first poems.* New York City was Hughes next home where he expanded his reputation, and became part of the New York’s Harlem Renaissance.* Some of his best poems and essays were published between the 1920’s and 1930’s.* Langston Hughes spent a majority of his life traveling the world and writing.* Even though he was away, Hughes never forgot about where he grew up, and wrote a popular novel in 1930, about a boy who grew up in a small town of Kansas.* Hughes died May 22, 1967 in New York City, leaving behind his exceptional, touching, pieces of writing for the rest of the world to read.* Langston Hughes gave his readers the opportunity to feel the life of an African-American during the years of discrimination. It is interesting to think of Hughes growing up in Kansas though, because he wrote so powerfully of the hardships African-Americans faced. Kansas is in the middle of the United States, and has no big urban centers. It did not have the harsh racism and laws of the South or the clash of different cultures in Northern cities. Yet Hughes was still affected by racism enough to write his emotional poetry. While he may not have constantly faced the threat of lynching or poverty, he still was emotionally scarred by discrimination. I believe this shows how greatly racism affected America as a whole, and was not just a regional Southern characteristic. Racism was a cultural problem in America, which seeped its way into towns across America, even Lawrence. Hughes life is an example of this, because he spent his formative childhood in Kansas.

*http://www.kshs.org/portraits/hughes_langston.htm

Image: http://uagreeks.uark.edu/images/Langston_Hughes.jpg

By: Brittany Ross

Extra Credit Blog Post: Watkins Museum

Picture taken by Zachary White, November 28, 2009

The first thing that grabs your attention about the Watkins Museum is the remarkable architecture. The building size, shapes, angles, and color is unique to the area surrounding the Museum. The architecture on the inside of the building is just as impressive. The wood work is extraordinary. The crown molding and framing around the windows showed how committed the architects were in making this building the pride of Lawrence. The building was built between 1885 and 1888. The first floor of the building was originally used as offices for lawyers and public groups. The second floor was used as the Watkins National Bank. The third floor housed the main office for the J.B. Watkins Land Mortgage Company. In 1929, Elizabeth Miller Watkins donated the building to the city of Lawrence. The building was then used as the City Hall until 1970. Then in 1975 the building became the Elizabeth M. Watkins Community Museum and later became the Watkins Community Museum of History.
The museum is packed full of information. There were displays that told the story of the Underground Railroad in Lawrence, Phog Allen, James Naismith, and Langston Hughes. All of the displays were very informative. They provided actual artifacts such as Phog Allen’s Coaching Notebook and letters from Langston Hughes to family members. I also learned about what the city of Lawrence looked like in the late 1890’s because of the very detailed map that outlined every commercial building in the city at that time. I also learned about two potential blogging topics the Great Flood of 1951 in Lawrence and the Vinegar Gang of 1882.
One of the things about the museum that was really interesting was the timelines on the 2nd floor. One of the timelines documented significant events from overseas, another timeline was about significant events involving Native Americans, and the other timeline followed the lives of the people of the United States. I thought this was really cool. It really made me think about how certain events, inventions, policy’s and other things really affected all the different groups. This timeline matches up with what we do in our class; we look at things from multiple perspectives. In HIST 348 we have learned about events from the perspective of Mexican immigrants, women, African-Americans, children, poor people, populists, and many other groups. Seeing things from multiple perspectives is an extremely important, if not the most important, part of history and historiographies. Without looking at things from multiple vantage points historians and others can miss out on important pieces of the story.

http://www.watkinsmuseum.org/

Big Well

Before the E-5 tornado decimated the small south central town of Greensburg, Kansas in 2007 the town’s claim to fame was that it was the home of the World’s Largest Hand-Dug Well. The construction of the well began in 1887 and cost about $45,000. The well would serve as Greensburg’s water supply and would provide water to the railroad companies for their steam powered trains. There were many different railroad companies that converged right around Kiowa County including, the Santa Fe and Rock Island companies. The well was constructed using day laborers hired for fifty cents to a dollar a day. The men worked in teams to dig the well and bring stone from the Medicine River which was located 12 miles south of Greensburg. After the well was dug the stone was put in place as the casing of the hole. The well’s construction was complete in 1888. It was 109 feet deep and 32 feet across. 3,000,000 people have visited the well since 1939 when it was opened for tourism. In 2008 the Greensburg Big Well was voted as one of the 8 wonders of Kansas. Also the federal government made the Big Well a National Historical Landmark in the 1970’s.
The small Big Well museum which is located directly south west to the opening of the well houses what used to be the world’s largest Pallasite Meteorite. The meteor which weighs in at approximately 1,000 pounds is now the second largest Pallasite Meteorite because a 1,400 pound meteorite was recently found in a nearby town.
If anyone does want to visit this historic site it will not cost you much, admission is only $3.

http://www.bigwell.org/bigwell.html

Leave It To Beaver

Leave It To Beaver, the infamously cheesy sitcom began playing on network television in October of 1957 and acted as a segue between radio comedy and television sitcoms. Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who had previously worked together at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in New York, created the iconic show. In 1942, Connelly and Mosher left the advertising world and ventured into radio comedy writing and eventually became very successful; producing material for over 1,500 radio and television scripts for the Amos ‘n’ Andy Program. The pairs first attempt at television was a collection series starring actor Ray Milland, but was a recognized failure. Shortly after, while taking is son to parochial school, Connelly developed an idea that became The Private War of Major Benson, which ultimately earned both men Academy Award nominations in 1956. In 1957, the duo embarked on a new idea for a show that would appeal to adults but be told from a child’s point of view. This concept was incredibly innovative because sitcoms at the time had never used a child as the focal point. Connelly’s eight-year old son Ricky shaped the character of Beaver and his 14 year-old son was the inspiration behind Wally. Although the renowned character’s given name was Theodore he acquired his nickname, Beaver, when he was just a baby. His older brother Wally pronounced Theodore, “Tweeter” and his parents, Ward and June Cleaver, modified the name to Beaver. The shows Original title was Wally and Beaver but when a sponsor of the show, Remington Rand, thought it sounded like a nature program, its name was changed to Leave It To Beaver.

The sitcom ran from October 1957 to September 1963 and aired on CBS for the first season and on ABC for the remaining five. The show had 234 episodes that paralleled the development of Beaver from a cute little boy to an awkward teenager. Also as the show went on, Wally, transformed into a teenage heartthrob with his cookie cutter image. The Cleaver parents remained archetypal parents of the 50s, providing their boys with love as well as discipline. June Cleaver is especially well known as the beautiful housewife who baked chocolate chip cookies and vacuumed in heels and a dress.

The show was such a success because it was able to portray a typical middle class family enjoying the “American Dream” in a light and carefree way. Only three months after Leave It To Beaver was taken off the network, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated devastating the American public. Because of this, Americans turned away from the simplicity of shows like Leave It To Beaver and sought out sitcoms that included issues of the time. Even though Leave It To Beaver was only on the air for six years, re-runs of the sitcom still play today enabling current generations of Americans to see what middle class perfection in the 1950s was portrayed as.

-jordan potts

* http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=leaveittob

*http://www.tvcrazy.net/images/beaver.jpg

**

The Watkins Community Museum of History (Extra Credit)

As a student at KU, whenever I hear Watkins, the first thing that comes to mind is the place where no student wants to go, the student hospital. I finally have a different image in my head, when I hear the name Watkins. After touring Watkins Community Museum of History, and talking with a museum employee, I learned Jabex Butning Watkins is a man of independence, wealth and controversy.

The building that houses the Watkins Community Museum of History was constructed between 1886 and 1888. The building was originally a three-story mortgage bank. Watkins eventually expanded from mortgages to a traditional bank. The first floor was used as offices for lawyers and civic groups. The second floor housed the bank itself. The walls on this floor were 24 inches thick. The original bank-teller cage is still intact today. The third floor was used for Watkins’ main business, the Watkins Land Mortgage Company.  The employee at the museum informed me that above the third floor is a loft, where Watkins had a private bachelor bad, even though he was married.

Today the first level of the museum is used for storage. The second floor has a wide range of artifacts. Some of these items are a fully restored Milburn Electric car, Native American moccasins, a Kansas history timeline stretching along the back of the bank-teller cage, quilts and Civil War weaponry. Going from the second floor the third floor, I climbed an elegant staircase, which was made out of marble stairs and a brass railing. The windows along the stairs were stained glass. An antique chandelier accented with stained glass as well hung from the ceiling. The third floor was unique in its own right. This floor had a Day of the Dead exhibit, James Naismith and Langston Hughes biographies, an underground railroad room and a KU basketball history display.

After walking up and down the three floors and talking with the museum employee a few things stuck out to me. First the museum needs upgrades and needs them bad. Everything is disorganized and the information on each floor does not flow well into one another. Some of the displays were falling apart. Although the presentation was poor, the information was still educational and enlightening. I learned from the underground railroad room that quilts were used to communicate with fugitive slaves. Certain patterns were thought to present instructions for the slaves. Another interesting fact was that Watkins was not looked upon by everyone as a Lawrence hero. He was critiqued for his drinking, frequent travel, and conflicting political views. When he died in 1921 he left his entire fortune to his wife, who eventually left a good portion of that money for the Lawrence community.

-Sammy Greenberg

*All Information was provided from the Watkins Community Museum of History.

Extra Credit The Watkins Community Museum Of History

I chose to visit the Watkins Community Museum of History here in Lawrence Kansas, located on Massachusetts Street.  I enjoyed the museum and thought it was very informational because it provided artifacts and basic history of Kansas throughout the years.  A pamphlet I received when I came in the entrance of Watkins provides background information on the building itself.  The building was built between 1886 and 1888 by Jabez Bunting Watkins. The Watkins building is sectioned off into three different levels.  When it was first built the first floor was used for offices of lawyers and civic groups.  Watkins National Bank was located on the second floor of the building; the third floor was Jabez Bunting Watkins business, The Watkins Land Mortgage Company.  Today the Watkins building is a museum, holding the history of Kansas. The first and second floors are open for the public to view a broad spectrum of Kansas’s history. Certain exhibits of the museum I enjoyed were the Glass cases that held random, old belongings, clothing, and tools.  There were several maps of the state of Kansas and larger exhibits that make the state of Kansas known.  For instance, the information provided on Phog Allen, the father of basketball and coaching. They had a whole section dedicated to Phog Allen’s life and his work in basketball. I found this interesting because the University of Kansas is well-known for basketball and in the museum they had a piece of the first basketball court. Along with the exhibit of Phog Allen, the museum had a section for the Naismith Family.  Providing, the story of James Naismith’s invention of basketball. Another exhibit that caught my attention was the Milburn electric automobile. I found this exhibit neat because it had a letter from the actual owner stating personal memories with the car.  One exhibit portrayed information of Langston Hughes achievements and overall life. There was also a Langston Hughes Statue, which in a way I thought was relevant to me. Because I have been doing volunteering for Langston Hughes Elementary School and now I know the history of the School’s name.  The final exhibit that I really enjoyed was the Van Hoesen Playhouse from the 1880’s. The playhouse was a remodeled version of the playhouse Isaac Newton Van Hoesen built back in 1878 for his daughters.  This exhibit allows children to interact a little more within the museum and be able to play in the playhouse making Kansas history fun.

*All Information was provided from the Watkins Community Museum of History.

-By Brittany Ross

National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial. (Extra Credit)

The National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial is located in Kansas City, Missouri and is pretty close to Crown Center. Its official address is 100 West 26^th St. The museum has an excellent and informative website that helps guests plan their visits and provides useful background information about its special exhibits as well as its permanent collections. For someone like me, that previously knew very little about the First World War, the museum offers a perfect amount of introductory information but also gives those who know a lot about World War I a chance to look back at amazing memorabilia as well as original uniforms, artifacts, weapons, propaganda, and much more.

The museum does require a ticket but general admission is only $8. After purchasing the ticket you walk over a beautiful glass bridge with thousands of poppies underneath it. Before actually looking at the collections, guests file into a movie theater to watch an informative yet interesting introductory video that basically explains why the war started and what its effects were in Europe. The video is very effective because it clarifies why the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in June of 1914 triggered a long line of consequences and the involvement of major world powers like Britain, France, Germany, and Russia. The first half of the museum focuses solely on the War in Europe so after the short video guests file into the collection space filled with pieces from Europe. It is a little overwhelming because there are so many things to look at once you actually enter but what I found helpful was this arced wall that chronologically listed all the important dates and events of the war. I would recommend spending a little bit of time reading the information on the wall because it provides a guest with somewhat of a roadmap for the rest of the museum. After reading the wall, guests are free to walk from room to room and look at all the amazingly artifacts from the war that were, surprisingly, in excellent condition. Everything is very well organized; weapons are categorized by purpose and the region in which they were used, uniforms are classified by country, and war medals and medallions are organized by who they belonged to and what country they were from. The coolest part of the first half of the museum was all the of replica trenches that guests could look into to get a sense of how it was to be fighting from a muddy trench. After guests are done looking at the first half of the museum they are escorted into another movie theater where a movie about the American involvement in the War is shown. The movie does a great job portraying the immense amount of pressure that lied in the hands of President Woodrow Wilson who won his reelection on the notion that he kept Americans out of the War. U.S. participation in the War officially came about in 1917 when war on Germany was declared. The second part of the museum is also full of weapons, postcards, uniforms, propaganda, war posters, medical items, and war medals. The most interesting part however was all the “souvenirs” that American soldiers brought back from various European countries. American soldiers who had never left their hometown let alone the country did find some excitement in seeing different cultures and different people arnd brought home dishes, figurines, china, and clothing.

Overall I really enjoyed my visit to the National World War I Museum and would definitely recommend it to anyone that knows very little about the First World War or an expert on World War I.

-jordan potts

 

For 12/3: William Curtis Hamilton, a POW from Kansas

William Curtis Hamilton was a survivor in more ways than one. Living through the Great Depression in a borrowed farmhouse in the middle of Kansas, he learned many valuable lessons about life. Perseverance was the key to surviving any hard time. This was a foundational principle in the Hamilton family. It was a standard that pushed William to succeed as he climbed the ranks in the US Army. It would also be a fundamental belief that kept him alive as he suffered through, what some have described, the worst treatment of US Soldiers in history.

On April 9, 1942, US soldier surrendered to Japanese forces in Bataan, a northeastern territory of the Philippines. The Japanese believed surrender was reprehensible and that a soldier’s duty was to fight to the death. American forces, along with Chinese and Filipino soldiers, were forced to march 61 miles with no food or water. Beatings were random and unprovoked. Of the 72,000 prisoners, only 54,000 reached their destination. It was a nightmare that had just begun.

After their march, William along with his comrades spent 62 days crammed inside of a ship bound for Japan. Many died along the way. The lack of air was the main cause of death, though other factors such as no bathroom or daylight played a significant part in their torturous journey.

William survived but fell ill. His experience in the “hospital ward” of the prison camp was horrifying. “The men lay on filthy straw with their mouths open, green blow flies crawling in and out while their last gasps of life drifted away. All night long, I would listen to them struggle for their last breath. Some died from just plain neglect, no name attached as a reason for their death; some just gave up.” *

William was a Japanese-held POW for 1,256 days. He survived and returned to the US, a decorated war hero. He chose to retire in California until his death on April 16, 2008. He was 86 years old. His memories are recorded in a memoir titled Late Summer of 1941 and My War with Japan.

*http://www.lindavdahl.com/Bio%20Pages/W.Hamilton/W.Hamilton%20Obit.2.htm