History Siftings
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Conservations with KC
The Topeka Board of Education minutes of May 7, 1942 state:
"The matter of a swimming pool being accessible to the Mexican children during the summer playground season was discussed; that Mr. Hinman had been asked if they can swim at Ripley Park; that Harry Snyder, Park Commissioner, does not approve of their swimming with the white children. It was mentioned that the Mexican children will not swim in the same pool with the colored children. IT WAS THE CONSENSUS OF OPINION THAT THE BOARD WILL LEAVE THIS MATTER TO MR. SNYDER." (My emphasis)
Although Topeka High was integrated as far as classroom study was concerned, there were no African-American teachers and the prom was not integrated until 1952!
Nelda Shiver was elected to the Board in 1953 by 56 votes out of 24,000 cast. Well educated and the wife of an educator/administrator she was seen by the Board as a problem due to her belief in speaking out about the segregation/integration issue. She did not campaign on an integration platform although her son has stated she was a true believer in integration. Prior to the change of the Board in the next election there had been four members of the Board who would meet in the parking lot before the official meeting so that they could decide how they would vote on issues, thereby avoiding her input and opinions. Her family lived in Westboro and her son has also described the community's negative effect of him having a black friend visit the home.
Notes on West Hills
Joe Pashman was a residential developer/contractor/home builder. He working with Bob Onek developed one of the first residential areas out sw, west of the SW Fairlawn 33rd – 37th area where the homes were spaced closely together with shared amenities and driveways etc. He returned to Topeka later and he did a couple of commercial deck additions one at PepperTree gated communnity.
Selsam Hanni was a financial consultant and/or investment company -they may have had attorneys on staff too. I am uncertain if Jim Hanni (was owner of AAA) is related to the Hanni.
And was Garlinghouse involved? See the planbook and the current photo.
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Topeka Aviation
Airports (1940s and before generally)
George Hersch--Topeka Airport at NE Quincy Street and Walnut Grove
Buena Terra--north
Pauline--roughly at Forbes where the Air National Guard Building is
Allen--21st and Wanamaker
Westboro--west of 15th and Stratford/Tom Crosby's
Huntoon Airport. It was, I believe, on the southeast corner of Huntoon and Urish. It was there for only a few years, in the mid-1940s, and was operated by Ed Harrington and Bob Shideler.
965-66 the KU parachute club used an airstrip West of Topeka called Sky ranch. I jumped 5 times before our plane burned in a hangar fire
Currently:
Buena Terra Airport - 33KS 5919 NE Shaffer Rd
Mesa Verde Airport - 3KS1 5225 NW 62nd St
Starshire Farm Airport - 2KS9 4525 SE 89th
Sunset Strip Airpark Airport - 90KS 4624 SE Paulen
Don't forget the heliports at the three area hospitals.
14SN Colmery
21KS KU Med/St Francis
3KS0 Stormont Vail
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Topeka Aviation--Howard Athon
Howard Athon. There are a few photographs of him and his airplanes in Kansas Memory.
Howard, originally from Quenemo, was in the Navy in World War I. He took advantage of military surplus after the war and he and his brother Fred started a barnstorming service in Lyndon. Howard soon moved to Olpe then to Topeka to work. In Topeka he flew out of Billard. He was flying with a trainer over the Kansas River just north of Topeka in 1931, in the passenger seat, with A.J. McKimmon at the controls. They were conducting some daredevil moves under the power lines and crashed into the river. McKimmon was ejected and died in the crash. Howard was severely injured but survived. His wife never flew again, and kept her children out of the cockpit after that. Howard always claimed it was the tough webbed seatbelt that held him in the cockpit and he kept that for many years. He continued to fly out of Billard, then when Allen Airport opened along 21st Street and Wanamaker Road in west Topeka, he moved his planes there.
Topeka Aviation History---the Meisingers
The Meisinger Mansion at 5 way intersection of Westover, 15th and Stratford is one of the legends of the city. According to he historic resources inventory at KSHS, the Gatsbyesque manison was built "According to the owner, construction of the home began with John Morrel, a meat packing industry executive. It is unclear if this individual was associated with the John Morrell & Co meat packing plant in Topeka. Morrel died before the home was completed and its construction was resumed by Daniel L. Meisinger (1915-1997), who was Morrel’s former private pilot. In 1940, Meisinger married Morrel’s widow, Pauline Connelly (1917-1996). The home was completed the prior year, in 1939. Meisinger was born in Naperville, IL, attended the Dallas Aviation School, and briefly traveled the country as a barnstormer and flight instructor. He established the Topeka Aircraft Company in 1938 at Billard Airport in Topeka. In 1945, Meisinger began a 60-year career as an executive at Beechcraft Aviation. Meisinger maintained this residence in Topeka until his death in 1997, when it was sold to his son, John “Jack” D. Meisinger (1944-2019), who maintained the home until his death."
Legend always had it that there was airfield/stip in back. But I have never found solid documentation of it.
I doubt that I can say it better, but here are the listings on Dan Meisingers from the National Air and Space Musuem. https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/daniel-l-meisinger-sr
and on Jack Meisinger https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/jack-arthur-meisinger
Remembering the Meisingers--"
I remember seeing Dan Meisinger at Billard in the 1950s.
Thrilling. All of it. He offered charter flights, I do believe.
When I saw him at Billard, I was a child. My mother pointed him out, saying, "See that man carrying that other man's bag to the plane? That's the richest man in town." Her point was that she admired him for humbling himself to give full service when he was hired for a job. It was a life lesson for me that a job well done matters more than rank, status, or privilege."
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Queen of the Air
Regaled as the “Queen of the Air” Amelia Earhart is remembered for her flying career, but that adventurous, risk taking spirit is what caused her to be one of the first women to leverage her national celebrity power into a personal, broad-ranging business.
Earhart’s first dream was to become a doctor. In 1917, while in Toronto she received training from the Red Cross and worked at the Spadina Military Hospital . During the Spanish Flu outbreak, she contracted pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis and was hospitalized, this was a recurrent problem and she wore a bandage on her cheek to cover a small drainage tube off on on for the rest of her life. Not deterred from her dream of medicine, Earhart moved from Toronto to New York to attend Columbia University, (1919-20, then again in 1925), where she explored the campus utility tunnels and enjoyed climbing to the top of the library dome, perching herself outside for the best view of the city.
Responding to requests from her parents for help, she left Columbia and moved to California in 1920. There she discovered flying. The next year purchased her first plane, a Kinnear Airster, which she named “the Canary”. Through bad investments in a friends’ gypsum mine she lost her inheritance from her grandmother and was forced to do a variety of odd jobs including driving a gravel truck, working as stenographer, telephone operator, and a photographer in order to continue flying.
Her celebrity began in 1928, when she completed her first transatlantic flight as a passenger aboard the Friendship with co-pilots Wilmer "Bill" Stultz and Louis "Slim" Gordon. After this she published her first book and criss crosses the country doing lectures. It was then that she got her first product endorsements, most were aircraft related and included Mobil Oil, Pratt and Whitney aircraft, Hornet engines, Longlines timepieces, Horlick malted milk tables and Beech-Nut gum. Ads for Lucky Strike cigarettes proclaiming that Earhart smoked to relieve stress through that first flight, “For a slender figure, reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet. “It’s toasted”. No Throat Irritation-No Cough.”; conflicted with her non-smoking, squeaky clean image and lead her to donate the proceeds to Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition.
Due to limited income, the expense of flying and the lack of comfortable clothes, Earhart made much of her own clothing. Tall and slender, she cut a stylish figure and set the model that women did not have to fit the roles that were assigned to them and she embraced this role. To encourage women to fly more, Earhart began the “Hat of the Month” program for Niney-Niners, a group of women pilots, the women who flew into the most airports each month received a Stetson hat designed by Earhart. She also designed her own jumpsuit and flying suit that were comfortable for women to wear.
In 1933, encouraged by designer Elsa Schiaparelli, Earhart began making clothes in her suite at the Seymour Hotel in NYC for her clothing line and was eventually sold nationwide in department stores such as Macy’s. Earhart’s designs featured 25 outfits, dresses, skirt, pants outerwear, which were sold as “separates”, instead of one-size –fits all dresses. Blouses with longer shirttails, loose slacks with pockets and zippers which were made of washable fabrics such as parachute silk and textiles from airplane wings. Propeller shaped buttons and tags with Earhart ’signature in black writing in the contrail of a tiny plane were marks of the line. Priced at between $25 and $55 per item for readymade, Earhart also sold patterns through Woman’s Home Companion magazine. The line was short lived and discontinued a year or two after it began, but in 1934 the Fashion Designers of America named Amelia Earhart one of the ten best-dressed women in America.
Timeline
One of marketed as Modernaire Earhart Luggage) also bore her unmistakable stamp.
1925 social worker at Denison house, Boston
1927--Sales repr for Kinner aircraft in Boston; wrote newspaper columns
promoting flying
1928 Publishes 20Hrs, 40min. Lecture tours; endorses luggage(Modernaire
Earhart luggage), Lucky Strike cigarettes, women's clothing and
sportswear (Amelia Earhart fashions, fashions 1934-35; luggage seems to
have had a longer life)
1928-1930 Aviation editor for Cosmopolitan magazine
1929--Represents Transcontinental Air Transport (later becomes TWA) ;
99ers founded, AE founding member
1931--invests regional shuttle service between NY and DC--Ludington Airlines
1931 Earhart became the first woman vice president of the National
Aeronautic Association, which authorized official records and races.
1932--Publishes For the Fun of It
VP National Airways--(become Northeast Airlines)
1935 Earhart and Mantz created Earhart Mantz Flying School; on staff at Perdue
Sunday, January 15, 2023
A Work in Progress; Historic Sites in Shawnee County
Well, this is a little frustrating. Formatting always is, but I will keep at it. In the meantime here Topeka Historic Resources
Kansas State Capitol
Kansas Museum of History
https://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-museum-of-history/19578
Brown v. Board of Education NHS
785-354-4273; https://www.nps.gov/brvb/index.htm
The Great Overland Station Union Pacific Depot
785-232-5533; https://www.greatoverlandstation.com/group-tours
Combat Air Museum
785- 862-3303; office@combatairmuseum.com
Kansas Air National Guard Museum
785-862-1020; https://www.kansasguardmuseum.com/
Topeka Cemetery
Lisa Sandmyer; 785-233-4132, topekacemetery@gmail.com
Old Prairie Town
John Bell; 785- 251-6989, john.bell@snco.us
The Ritchie House/Shawnee County Historical Society
Bob Totten; 785) 234-6097, shawneecountyhistory@gmail.com
Constitution Hall
Chris Meinhardt; 785-250-8228, tour@oldkansascapitol.org
Colored Women’s Club
Sandra Lassiter 785) 221-5694 or Faith Temple Church at (785) 235-1834
Jayhawk Theater
Jeff Carson; 785) 233-4295; info@jayhawktheatre.org
First Presbyterian Church
785 233 9601; info@fpctopeka.org
Topeka High School Historical Society
Joan Barker; 785) 295-3200 or https://m.me/THSHistoricalSociety?fbclid=IwAR1lMRhYcKLg7KGcE1LqpPPf1HMGG5s-JqbImX5NOsngcN26efVCp7B29YU
Charles Curtis Home?
Seaman High Historical Society
Topeka Genealogical Association
Breakdown of Topeka's Heritage Sites
!. Transportation
Aviation
Combat Air Museum
Air National Guard Museum
Longren's Aircraft Factory on 1401 N Winfield
Longren's Aircraft Works on 420 SW Jackson
Billard Airport Hangers
Forbes Airport Hangers
Allen Airport Hangers
Railroad
Great Overland Station
Santa Fe Shops
Old Santa Fe Office Building
Trails
Oregon/California Ruts (Governor's Mansion, Uniontown, w of Big Springs, Tecumseh boulder)
Military Trails (Ft. Leavenworth-Ft. Riley)
Native American Trail?
Roads
Hwy 40 National Road
Hwy 24 Golden Belt Rd
Street car routes/transit routes
Tpeka Intracity Transit
Automobile
Smith Car Co.
2. Commercial Buildings
Capitol
GAR Memorial Bldg
Ward Meade
Menninger Tower Bldg
Jayhawk Tower
Jayhawk Theater
TPAC/City Hall
Shelter House/Gage Park
Crawford Building
Knox/Columbian Bulding
Columbian Bank
US Post Office on S Kansas and N Kanss
Rtichie House
Consittuion Hall, the Free State Capitol
Exoduster Stagin area/Expo center grounds
Downtown Masonic Hall
Hughes Conoco
ATSF Motive Power Building
Casson Building
Central Motor and Finance Corporation Building
Davies Building
Gordon Building
HTK Architects
Masonic Grand Lodge
Santa Fe Hospital
Thatcher Building
Tinkham Veale Building
3. Historic Homes
Curtis House
Crosby Mansion
Woodward House
Dillon House
Ross Row Houses
Cedar Crest
4. Apartments
The Devon Building
The Gem Building
Hick's Block
St. Joseph's Lofts
Kansas Avenue Lofts
Huntoon Street Row Houses
Evergreen Court Apartments
St. John's Lutheran School
Senate Apartments
5. Neighborhoods
Potwin
College Hill
Holliday Park
Elmhurst
Old Town
Coutry Club Addition (is this the same as Quinton Heights?)
Westboro
Oakland
Tennessee Town
Kenwood
NOTO
East Topeka
Ward Meade
Auburndale
Governor's Row
Collins Park
Central Park
Westwood
Chesney Park
6. Churches
First Presbyterian
St.Joseph's
Our Lady of Guadalupe
SL Baptist Church
Grace Cathedral
First Methodist
Holy Name
Assumption
St.Johs AME
St. Marks AME
Shiloh Baptist
Pilgrm Baptist
Swedish Church north of 6th and near Terry's
North Topeka Baptist Church
Westminister Presbyterian
7. Schools
Monroe
Sumner
Topeka High
Randolph
Cair Paravel
East Topeka Junior High
Gage (Topeka Civic Theater)
Sacred Heart
Curtis Junior High
8. Fire Stations
1, 2, 4. 6. 7
9. Cemeteries
Topeka
Mt. Auburn
Curtis
Ritchie
Rochester
Prairie Home
Mt. Hope
Topeka State Hospital
Menninger Hill???
Simmerwell
Union Town
10. Bridges
Blacksmith Creek Bridge
McCauley Bridge
Thomas Arch Bridge
11. Villages
Fool Cheif's Village
Hard Cheif's Village
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