Beliot Industrial

Dr. Chris Lovett at ESU has been researching women in institutions in Kansas and recently had an article in KSHS' journal.  I wonder what they story is on this one, what the girl really did and what the outcome was.  This is not talked about much, but this was usually awful for the women.  See https://klcjournal.com/the-colorful-contentious-story-behind-health-advocate-samuel-crumbines-leadership/  and Christopher Lovett, Topeka. "Bad Girls: Sex, Shame, and the Legacy of Samuel J. Crumbine in Kansas, 1917-1955."  Kansas History, Spring 2018.

Medicine

Not related to Chiles at all, but I found it while reading on Chiles.  I just found a piece about the "American Doctors" , ironic that they are located in the "European  Hotel", I know that later this would have been CF Menninger's office--not sure if he was part of this group although he was in Topeka practicing medicine at this time. I also think it is interesting that they are offering free medical services--this is the second group to do this and the other group was the "British" doctors--that is in a prior post.   According to Lloyd Z. there was a hotel the NW corner (6th and Jackson) before the train station--it was torn down early in the century--the train station is nice, but geeze we tear a lot down and it has not been beneficial. So many towns out there with much better houses/architecture which is sad because from reading Topeka had some of the finest buildings, now we don't. 

More on medical care

Interesting article a) because how they spell out what happened--they are up front, one guy was messing around with another guy's wife.  The husband found out, shot the guy.  These days they would say that members of the community were not in danger and that it was alleged or unknown.  b) the patient was treated with opiates.  Not sure exactly which ones they are talking about but I am pretty sure that those are illegal now.  c) woman Dr. Agnes Wallace--I haven't heard of her before. 

In the Chiles' plot at Mt. Auburn Cemetery

I don't know who this is. Maybe a brother to Nick Chiles' father--according to the obituary that ran in the Plaindealer for Chiles--his parents were Moses and Winnie Chiles.  Also, according to the obituary Chiles was born in South Carolina in the 1860s. So, I am not sure who this is, but it is someone who would be contemporary to Chiles' parents, so I am guessing an Aunt and Uncle although there may be no family connection.  More research.....

Carrie and Foster Chiles--from the dates they appear like they may have been  a niece and nephew or cousins.

Also in the family plot, Frank Chiles

.Noah Chiles--he appears to have been in the military--he will be easier to research.

Sorry this is upside down, Harry Earl Chiles--luckily he was in the military.  I should be able to find him at KSHS.

Beatrice Chiles Williams 

Mary and Rev. IB Chiles

Samuel and Remus Chiles

I don't know why this one is on it's side..Ulysess Chiles

And where Nick and Minnie are there is no gravestone.  Getting them a gravestone is one of my objectives.  

Prohibition

I don't know how well this article will copy but I love it--classic example of Prohibition era corruption and collusion.  It from July of 1897 and it boils down to the Chief of Police periodically raids joints, the owners are thrown in jail and then they are released on bond.  The joint owners never show up to court and the city gets the bond money--a pretty neat system for everyone, until Chiles bucks the system and goes to court and fights the charges, he wants his $100 back.  Chiles claims that he is not running an illegal alcohol selling operation but it is an OMB lodge meeting place.  (I am not sure what OMB lodge is.  More to look up. )

I also love how the guys (and it does appear to be all guys although in reality I doubt that this was true, they had the larger more legit operations is my guess) who run the clubs or joints are called "joinists" --simple, clear, easy to understand name and not an acronym.   I wonder where all the stills were around town. I have heard that there was one back in Martin's hill (what later became SBG/then Menningers/part of the Governor's mansions trails) but there had to be more.  Interesting stuff.

More on prohibition from Lisa Sandmeyer;  " Ferdinand Poppendick thrived, I think Bogardus isn’t so strange. Poppendick left,by the way, when the liquor laws got too strict. His hotel and restaurant were top of the line in the day, and he hosted many legislators in town for the session."

Chiles' hotel

Up early, as usual, working on the Nick Chiles project.  I am deep in the year of 1897 and Nick has just purchased the three story building that will be Chiles' for the next 30 years.  He bought it for $6,200 from T.G. Shillinglaw and it was known as the "Case"building.  I haven't looked it up yet but I am betting that it was built by the  "Hib" Case--an early Topeka attorney and a cohort of James Lane (he is buried at Topeka Cemetery--Lisa Sandmeyer does a great tour which includes him). 

This is from the the appraiser's website. Chiles' hotel is the most non-descript of the three and the farthest to the left.  I think that Chiles' eventually buys all three of these buildings but I am not there yet..  The Chiles hotel opened on January 1st, 1897--with some 200 people coming out for dinner at a cost of 25cents--evidently, beer and port wine were served--openly and advertised on hand bills which created quite the controversy in a dry state. Papers as far west as Stockton have pieces in the paper about it ,C.K. Holliday, who was on the Board of Police Commissioners at the time, writes a letter to the editor defending the police decision not to stop the sale--Chiles was technically not selling alcohol, he was giving it away and an emergency meeting of the WTCU ( Women's Christian Temperance Union) is  held--they decide that they cannot do anything and to try with the new slate of Populist politicos coming in, to hold the police to a higher standard.

  Chiles was never one to play it safe, doing it was one thing, but advertising was a bold move. Could be called flaunting it.  There were 11 furnished rooms which rented for $1.00/week.  After Chiles gets the paper quite often the guest register will appear in the society pages.

Currently, this is owned by "AIM Strategies" who own several other properties downtown.  From what I can tell by driving by (I may go by today for more pictures) they are not doing anything with it.  Sad. When I first came to town, on the first floor was Custom Photographic--I remember taking film there (I had a Pentax K-1000--I wish I knew what I did with that camera, I would like to play around with it again--black and white rules) and get back cut sheets with the strips of negatives in a waxy paper sort of sheet and then I would use a grease pencil to indicate the photos that I wanted developed.  Neat place. 

Medical care/patent medicines

As much as we lament the FDA approval process, the exorbitant costs of medical care, insurance and the like.  Medical care has come a long way in 120 years.  In 1899, the year that this ad appeared, there was no regulation of medical doctors, medicine, or hospitals, the patient was at the mercy of luck.

 Here is an ad for a cure for pain by magnets and a school of medicine--I have never heard of either but these sort of things proliferated, every town had it's own patent medicine, Topeka's best known was Gavitt's https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/patent-medicines/12165

One of my favorite books on the history of hospitals is Bellevue https://www.amazon.com/Bellevue-Centuries-Medicine-Americas-Hospital-ebook/dp/B01A4ATWJU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536403406&sr=8-1&keywords=Belleview.   

The following ad appeared in the Plaindealer in November of 1899.  This is something that I will go back to.