Historic Shawnee County

HISTORIC SHAWNEE COUNTY 

The Story of Topeka & Shawnee County 

by Spencer L. Duncan 

A publication of the 

Shawnee County Historical Society, Inc.

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HISTORIC SHAWNEE COUNTY 

The Story of Topeka & Shawnee County 

by Spencer L. Duncan 

Commissioned by the Shawnee County Historical Society 

Historical Publishing Network 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

❖ 

A view of a dome from the tower at 

the Catholic Assumption Church on 

Eighth and Jackson Streets, c. 1982. 

COURTESY OF THE TOPEKA AND SHAWNEE 

COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

First Edition 

Copyright © 2005 Historical Publishing Network 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing 

from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 11555 Galm Road, Suite 100, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-0464. 

ISBN: 1-893619-43-5 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2004117164 

Historic Shawnee County: The Story of Topeka & Shawnee County 

author: Spencer L. Duncan 

cover artist: Glen Miler 

contributing writers for “Sharing the Heritage”: Spencer L. Duncan 

Historical Publishing Network 

president: Ron Lammert 

vice president: Barry Black 

project manager: Curtis Courtney 

director of operations: Charles A. Newton, III 

administration: Angela Lake 

Donna M. Mata 

Judi Free 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

graphic production: Colin Hart 

Michael Reaves 

Craig Mitchell 

John Barr 

Evelyn Hart 

PRINTED IN SINGAPORE 

2 ✦ HISTORIC SHAWNEE COUNTY

CONTENTS 

4 FOREWORD 

5 CHAPTER I before territorial days 

11 CHAPTER II a capital county is born 

21 CHAPTER III an identity is fashioned 

37 CHAPTER IV unprecedented prosperity 

49 CHAPTER V a new century 

59 CHAPTER VI redefining a capital city 

63 CHAPTER VII a time of change 

67 CHAPTER VIII modern times 

70 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

72 APPENDIX 

76 SHARING THE HERITAGE 

151 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Contents ✦ 3

FOREWORD 

Being a Kansan is something one feels. We hold a fundamental belief in the life-changing power of education and 

learning; we share a reverence for our land and natural resources; we live the values of faith, family, and hard work; 

we take pride in our pioneer heritage and rugged independence. 

The citizens of Shawnee County and Topeka have always exemplified this Kansas spirit, and this city and county 

form a nucleus from which we accomplish great things by working together. 

As one of the first counties established in the Kansas territory, the early pioneers who chose this site believed in 

the equality of all citizens and endured dangerous conditions and difficult terrain and weather to settle the area. 

Today, the citizens of Shawnee County and Topeka represent the same values and visions of those who settled 

here 150 years ago, and possess the same dream Kansans continue to strive toward. 

Shawnee County and Topeka pioneers were the ultimate optimists—leaving the comfort and safety of what they 

knew, for the promise of a better future. 

This book is the story of that optimism and the dedication which continues to guide all citizens of Kansas. 

Kathleen Sebelius 

Governor, State of Kansas 

2004 


CHAPTER I 

B EFORE T ERRITORIAL D AYS 

Those who first traveled to the land in the West kept its secrets, saving the knowledge for their 

own gain, hoping others would not learn of the wonders of the natives, the landscape, or the 

bountiful resources. Early trappers and traders who slipped between East and West refused to reveal 

the locations where they found the most success. 

Upon his travels in 1724 to what would become Shawnee County, French explorer Etienne 

Veniard de Bourgmont wrote that the area would someday be generous to those who stayed. 

For settlers in search of new beginnings the land which comprises Shawnee County was a veritable 

dream come true for those in need of resources, with hills and mounds providing unique beauty. 

The prairie welcomed all travelers. Warm Kansas breezes whispered through tall grasses. The mighty 

Kansas (Kaw) River cut a long swath, with the smaller Wakarusa River flowing east. More than two 

dozen tributaries created a network of water. Settlers were eased by the thought of not having to 

search hard for drops of moisture. 

❖ 

A moonlit night on the Kansas River 

at the turn of the twentieth century. 



Chapter I ✦ 5

❖ 

Above: Kaw full-bloods Josiah Reece 

and Bacumjah, his wife, in traditional 

dress, c. 1895. 

COURTESY OF THE KANSAS STATE 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Below: An unidentified Kansa Indian 

woman, circa the 1880s. 



Along the water routes stood strong timber: 

Elm, cottonwood, black walnut, oak, sycamore, 

box elder, hickory and ash: A multiplicity from 

which to select for the next log cabin, 

schoolhouse or ferry. Below the timber, nestled 

deep in the soil, an abundance of coal and 

limestone lay dormant for centuries, eventually 

cultivated for heating homes and constructing 

buildings when timber was sparse. 

The Kansas River has forever sliced the 

county into two regions. The Wakarusa, which 

gently flows into the river just outside of 

Shawnee County has provided luscious soil ideal 

for crops, an attraction to hungry settlers looking 

ahead to the next planting season. The soil, a 

dark loam, was recognized early for its ability to 

grow small grains and cereals. However, this 

richness came with a price, as a flood plain 

crosses the county on the North, and through 

time would ravage Shawnee Countians. 

For an all-too-brief time, the future county 

was populated with communities in which 

Native Americans and white settlers lived among 

one another and prospered in unity. Naming the 

county Shawnee, taken from a tribe of Indians 

inhabiting the land, indicated the affinity 

settlers had for the natives. Many native words 

were retained: Topeka is Kaw meaning “wild 

potato”; Wakarusa means “river of big weeds;” 

Shunganunga means “the race course.” 

The earliest inhabitants of Shawnee County 

were the Kansa Indians, whose seventeenth 

century eastward trek ended in the region. Their 

semi-permanent villages dotted the prairie, built 

of dirt, with dome shaped timber frames, 

covered with sod and grass, and arranged in 

irregular rows. The 30-by-50-foot structures 

were inhabited by no less than two families. 

Cultivated fields of corn, squash, pumpkins and 

beans surrounded the homes. 

The Kansa’s demise as residents began June 3, 

1825, when the tribe bartered away the land to 

Shawnee Indians, for $4,000 in goods and horses 

and a promised annuity of $3,500 for 20 years. 

The Kansa tribe was also promised a fixed reserve 

along the Kansas River. A few years after the 

agreement, many Kansa were pushed farther away 

when government officials designated twentythree 

sections of land north of the river as the 

Kansa Indian reservation, but mistakenly placed a 

majority of the sections in the Delaware Indian 

reservations. Only seven tracts were in future 

Shawnee County. The Shawnee Tribes’ barter with 

the Kansa gave them most of the land south of the 

river that would become Shawnee County. 

The first white man to settle among the Indians 

of the county was Frederick Choteau, who in 1830 

opened a trading post on the west bank of Mission 

Creek. Later that year, the Rev. William Johnson 


egan missionary work among Kaw Indians. In 

1835, a settlement consisting of Choreau’s trading 

post, the mission, a government blacksmith, 

farmer and a few employees constituted the first 

official settlement in the future county. 

During this time, a small tract of land in the 

north was taken over by Delaware Indians. By 

1840, Pottawatomies became the regions’ 

dominant tribe. What began as a region of varying 

tribes melded into a community where Indians, 

settlers with differing cultural backgrounds, and 

religious missionaries lived harmoniously. 

A group of Baptists opened a Pottawatomie 

Mission south of the Kansas River in 1840. 

Although they lived in log shelters, the Baptists 

constructed a sturdy stone school. Established 

by Dr. Johnston Lykins and Issac McCoy, the 

school’s first class was taught by McCoy’s 

daughter, Elizabeth, and attended by 11 

Pottawatomie girls, five Pottawatomie boys and 

one white girl. 

Around this time, three French-Canadian 

brothers sharing the name Papan (who had been 

raised in St. Louis and married women who were 

part Kaw Indian), settled and began a needed, but 

dangerous, ferry service, primarily for Oregon Trail 

travelers. The famed Oregon Trail, a pathway to 

the West, cut through the heart of future Shawnee 

County. The Papans settled on land north of the 

Kansas River, because by government treaty the 

brother’s wives were entitled to land on the 

reservation. The Papans are credited with starting 

the first county township: Soldier Township. 

The first ferry was rudimentary: a makeshift 

log platform carrying one wagon at a time. A 

rope was tied to one tree on each side of the 

bank. The rope served as the ferryman’s guide as 

he propelled the craft using a long pole pushed 

into the mud of the river basin. The 

temperamental Kansas River harassed travelers, 

causing delays and upturning wagons. It often 

took three to five days to get all wagons of a 

train from one bank to the other. 

The Papans had the most famous service but 

faced intense competition, with as many as 15 

services operating the next 30 years. Industrious 

Pottawatomies were the Papan’s toughest 

competition, charging between 10 to 50 cents per 

trip and with their crossing methods no more 

refined. These services closed down periodically 

because of flooding, occasionally leaving sections 

of the future county without service. 

Soil throughout Shawnee County was fertile as 

flooding kept the land moist. This was a boom to 

❖ 

Kansa Indian boys at the Washungah 

Agency in 1905. The tribe was moved 

to Indian Territory in 1873. 



Chapter I ✦ 7

❖ 

Above: Oak Grove School, one 

of the earliest in Shawnee 

County development. 



Below: The early settlers of Rossville 

gather for a celebration in 1899. 



farmers, but a bust to development. On June 10, 

1844, the first of many floods was recorded. It 

remains one of the areas most spectacular. Waters 

washed away developments and ruined crops, but 

did not discourage settlers, who started over once 

waters receded. The flood caused some 

businessmen to leave, although in most cases 

temporarily. The Papans moved to Kansas City, 

only to return and pick up where they left off 

by 1846. 

Catholic Priest Christian Hoecken intended 

to serve Pottawatomies in 1847, constructing 

log cabins along the Wakarusa River near what 

would become Auburn. However, he discovered 

his construction efforts had been mistakenly 

made in Shawnee Indian territory, so he moved 

to what would become St. Marys, where 

Pottawatomies actually lived. 

Silver Lake was originally intended, in 1847, to 

be a community built by whites for Indians to 

inhabit, but the men employed to cultivate the area 

settled there, deciding it was a good place to start a 

community. The first rope ferry on the Wakarusa 

eventually occurred there, in 1852, along with the 

first deck ferry boat used on the Kaw. 

Rossville was born simultaneously with 

Silver Lake. The whites who settled the 

community only stayed a few years, but those 

who followed grew the township into a thriving 

settlement. A toll bridge was built over Cross 

Creek and Daniel Morgan Boone, grandson of 

famed Daniel Boone, who ran a government 

farm for Indians, opened a store in Rossville. 

The community welcomed Pottawatomies, 

whose reservation was in the territory. 

The county’s first growth spurt occurred in 

1848. Catholics, Baptists, traders, blacksmiths, 

agricultural experts and others were settling the 

region, intermixing with Native American 

populations. The settlers’ influence was marked 

by their ability to convert Pottawatomies to 

move from sod houses into “modern” log 

houses. This integration was noticed by the 

United States Government, which deemed the 

area ripe for aid and established a trading post, 

in 1848, within the Pottawatomie reservation. 


R .W. Cummins and A.J. Vaughn selected a site 

for trading and named the area Uniontown. This 

became the first town in future Shawnee County. 

It was not a prime location as far as 

Pottawatomies were concerned, located a mile 

from the south bank of the Kansas River 

overlooking what would become Dover 

Township. To reach Uniontown, Pottawatomies 

had to cross the river, which constantly changed 

depths and was often difficult to cross. 

Nonetheless, Uniontown served as the official 

regional trading center, and for many years was 

the most important trading post on the river. 

Uniontown was the first place many settlers took 

residence before beginning their own 

communities. Those who lived in Uniontown 

during various periods included founders of 

Brownsville, Topeka, and Indianola. The eventual 

founder of Tecumseh, Thomas N. Stinson, built 

the first home in Uniontown. A bit ahead of their 

time, Pottawatomies were recorded using circular 

saw mills near Uniontown. 

The most famous Pottawatomie arrived in 

1848: Sub-Chief Abraham “Abram” Burnett. 

Tipping the scales at nearly 460 pounds when 

he died, Burnett was known for his size and 

prodigious drinking ability. He was a frequent 

visitor in white drinking holes. Born in 1812 

and educated in the East, Burnett served as 

interpreter during various tribes’ move to 

Kansas. In 1843 he married a German woman 

and, after his arrival in future Shawnee County, 

settled on a reservation north of a mound inside 

what would become Topeka. The mound today 

is named Burnett’s Mound and is one of the 

oldest landmarks in the county—a high point 

which caught the attention of travelers on the 

open prairie, originally called Webster’s Peak. In 

his last years, Burnett drove to Topeka at least 

once a week for the purpose of drinking. He 

would often pass out and have to be rolled on a 

board out of the saloon on to his wagon, where 

his horse would, unaided, drive Burnett home. 

Upon his death in June 1870, a 

special casket had to be produced to hold his 

heavy frame. 

An outbreak of cholera threatened 

Uniontown’s existence in 1849 and 1850, killing 

some whites and numerous Native Americans. 

Many whites moved until the outbreak was over, 

but Indians had no place to go. Pottawatomies 

recorded deaths in the “hundreds.” After the 

outbreak was contained, Uniontown became 

home to 50 houses and 300 Indians, and on the 

outskirts lived a handful of white settlers and 

Pottawatomie farms. Uniontown’s growth was 

spurred by U.S. Government aid which 

stationed, among others, a physician, trade post 

❖ 

This cabin was built in the 1850s 

in Shawnee County by William 

Tecumseh Sherman for 

Thomas Ewing, Jr. 



Chapter I ✦ 9

❖ 

The original Anthony Ward home. 



representative, two blacksmiths, wagon maker, 

two gunsmiths and circular saw mill. 

The California and Oregon Trails, famed 

“roads” leading West, played prominent roles in 

Uniontown’s growth and was the reason for the 

U.S. Government’s interest. There were two 

Oregon Trail legs through the region: an older 

fork that turned southwest and resumed toward 

the northeast near the river above Uniontown, 

and a road which curved northwest near the 

future site of Topeka. Rocky Mountain traders 

and trappers frequented Uniontown, an ideal 

place to cross the river to reach the route to the 

Northwest. Modern development and lack of 

preservation have erased nearly all traces of 

the trail. 

The California-Oregon passage prompted a 

surge in ferry services by 1853. On the east side, 

the most successful company was operated by 

Tecumseh founder Thomas N. Stinson and 

James K. Waysman. The route evolved into a link 

to Fort Leavenworth and, for a period, the 

territorial legislature drew up a charter that 

forced the ferry service to operate at all times, 

except night, to keep Oregon Trail traffic 

moving. Ferries were active in Shawnee County 

until 1904, when the last recorded trip was made 

in Rossville by William Reece. 

A shift in commerce and trading routes were 

among factors in 1853 that led Uniontown to 

move to Cross Creek near Rossville, before 

its demise. Never meant to be a full-fledged 

town, the trading post was buried by new communities. 

A forced move of Pottawatomies by 

the government to a reservation in Jackson 

County also signaled Uniontown’s end. The area 

Uniontown originally inhabited eventually 

became Dover. 

Indianola’s history was similar to Uniontown’s: 

a trading post which, having outlived its 

usefulness, was incorporated into Topeka. 

Situated at the crossing of Solider Creek, 

Indianola was on the road from Fort Leavenworth 

to Fort Riley. The community was laid out 

by H. D. McMeekin, a half-Indian who drove 

the town’s success, building a hotel and 

other buildings. 

The Oregon Trail also led to what today is 

known as Ward Mead Park. Ward Mead began 

as a family farm in 1854. What remains today is 

a six-acre complex with a Victorian home, log 

cabin, and 2.5-acre botanical garden. 

A handful of stagecoach companies began 

operating in Shawnee County in the early 

1850’s, with coaches using hotels as depots. The 

Kansas Stage Company provided service from, 

among other places, Leavenworth to Tecumseh, 

Topeka, St. Marys and as far as Junction City, for 

a fee of $10. These services dissolved with the 

arrival of the railroads in the 1860s. 


CHAPTER II 

A CAPITAL C OUNTY IS B ORN 

The creation of Shawnee County and Topeka was put in motion May 30, 1854, when President 

Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and one month later appointed Andrew H. Reeder, 

a Pennsylvania lawyer, as territorial governor. 

In October, Reeder arrived in Kansas and made his home at the Shawnee Methodist Mission in 

Johnson County. Reeder divided the territory, which at the time stretched to the Rocky Mountains, 

into 17 districts. Portions of the 3rd, 12th, and 13th districts became future Shawnee County. A year 

later, Reeder created three judicial districts, the second comprising Shawnee County. 

The establishment of these districts legitimized the region. In 1854 and 1855, future Shawnee 

County was defined by the creation of six settlements. In the north, Calhoun was founded by James 

Kuykendal; Indianola was incorporated by H.D. McMeekin; and Whitfield City was founded by J. 

Butler Chapman. In the south, Brownsville, which would become Auburn, was organized by John W. 

Brown; Tecumseh was organized by Thomas N. Stinson; and Topeka was organized by a group of 

nine, represented by Cyrus K. Holliday. 

In December 1854, Stinson, a Uniontown trader, along with Reeder, Second Judicial District Judge 

Rush Elmore and eight others formed the Tecumseh Town Association to develop a city with the intent 

of making it the county seat and eventual state capital. Taking advantage of federal laws, 240 acres were 

set aside for Tecumseh and another 80 acres commandeered by Stinson for personal use. The group 

❖ 

The first house in Topeka located 

at what is now First and Kansas 

Avenue, as illustrated by famed 

artist Henry Worrall. 



Chapter II ✦ 11

❖ 

Left: A portrait of Franklin Pierce as 

president of the United States. 



Right: Topeka founder and railroad 

entreprenuer Cyrus K. Holliday as a 

young man. 



sold town stock for $50 per full share and $37.50 

per half share. Local groups, such as a library 

association and bridge company, were given stock 

to sell to use the profits for development. 

Stinson, Elmore, and other Tecumseh 

founders were also pro-slave southerners who 

used slaves to work the land. This gave the town 

a distinction that helped its early development, 

as pro-slave settlers felt comfortable living in a 

community nestled in a predominantly antislave 

territory. 

Tecumseh’s pro-slave roots, however, led to 

Topeka’s formation. In November 1854, a group 

from free-state Lawrence was searching for a 

place to settle, originally exploring Tecumseh as a 

possible home. They quickly pushed past upon 

finding slaves in the area, and continued 25 miles 

upstream from Lawrence, coming upon an area 

close to the river, home to a wealth of trees and 

rich farmland. It also seemed a prime location for 

steamboats to land. The nine male travelers, 

agents of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, 

agreed to form a city. The men hardly knew one 

another, having met just before their search 

began a month prior. 

On December 4, 1854, the Topeka town site 

was selected by Charles Robinson and Cyrus K. 

Holliday, who the following day, along with F. W. 

Giles, Daniel H. Horne, George Davis, Enoch 

Chase, J. B. Chase, M. C. Dickey, and L. G. 

Cleveland, formed the Topeka Town Association, 

electing Holliday president. 

The men divided the town site into 50 shares, 

each getting portions of property and nearly onesixth 

of the lots left reserved for new settlers. 

While federal law allowed the men to have 320 

acres total, they decided four square miles was a 

better size, eventually drawing boundaries that 

encompassed roughly 684 acres. 

For nearly a year, the only building in Topeka 

was a one-room log cabin built by the founders, 

which they shared. After finishing the first cabin 

December 4, 1854, it burned down a few nights 

later, and was immediately rebuilt. 

The first territorial election—for a congressional 

delegate—was November 29, 1854, 

and set up the first of many battles between proslave 

Tecumseh and free-state Topeka. Held at 

Stinson’s home, which was designated the third 

district’s polling station, forty-eight people voted 

and the pro-slave candidate won. 

During the winter of 1855, around thirty-six 

people settled in Topeka, and Mr. and Mrs. F. J. 

Case built a log house with a blacksmith shop, 

making it the city’s first commercial property. 

Several sod huts were constructed and one small 

shanty became a boarding house. Topeka 

received its first newspaper mention that year in 

Lawrence’s Herald of Freedom: 


introduced there, upon the first renewal in the 

spring. The name is said to be the original Indian 

one for the Kansas River. 

A new town site with the above names has 

been selected, and is now rapidly filling up with 

Eastern people. It is located about twenty-five 

miles above this point, on the Kansas River, and 

will probably be a place of considerable 

importance. Several of our most active business 

men are connected with the movement, and are 

bound to make it ‘go ahead.’ It is said there is a 

fine country around it, and nature has been 

prolific in her bounties. A steam saw-mill, and 

all the various appliances of civilization will be 

By March 1856, Topeka had a post office, 

Methodists opened the first church, a second 

boarding house opened, neighboring farms 

cropped up and small stores opened with hopes the 

area would be a nucleus for territorial commerce. 

The earliest houses and structures built in 

Topeka were randomly situated, with large uneven 

gaps between edifices. The first permanent stone 

structure was built by John and Loring Farnsworth 

in April 1855, near the Kansas River bottoms, now 

the 400 block of Kansas Avenue. Two stories high, 

it became an all-purpose facility, serving as a home, 

printing office, meat shop, grocery and liquor 

store. In 1856, the Free State Legislature met in the 

building, deeming it Constitution Hall. Eventually 

the State Legislature met there briefly and some of 

Topeka’s first school classes used rooms. The 

building is still in existence, but incorporated in a 

row of other buildings. 

While the first homes were built close to the 

river, the first businesses moved inland, 

grouping in rows that became Kansas Avenue 

and Sixth Streets. With an abundance of 

quarries in the territory, most of these were built 

of brick and stone. 

The first recognized store in Topeka was 

opened by J. W. Jones in Spring 1855, on the 

❖ 

Above: This statue honors the pioneer 

women of Kansas and sits on the 

Statehouse grounds. It was designed 

by famed Topeka artist Robert 

Merrell Gage. 


COUNTY LIBRARY. 

Below: During the 1850s and ’60s, 

the Ritchie Block on Kansas Avenue 

was the hub of local business activity 

in Topeka. 



Chapter II ✦ 13

❖ 

In November 1869, a fire ravaged the 

Ritchie Block on Kansas Avenue. This 

was the interior of Crane’s Book 

Bindery once the flames subsided. 



west side of Kansas Avenue, between second and 

third streets. The first tin shop and hardware 

store opened soon after by J. C. Miller. During 

these years Topeka’s oldest business opened— 

Perine Iron Works. Likely founded in 1856 by 

Aaron Beach Perine, it opened as a wagon 

repair shop and evolved, becoming a plow 

manufacturer, and today is a welding company. 

The area near Sixth Street and Kansas Avenue 

was developed by three men: John Ritchie, 

Walter Oakley and L. C. Wilmarth. The threestory, 

70-by-100-foot row was a business and 

commercial hub. It also housed an auditorium 

and Wilmarth Hall, where festivals and dances 

were held. It was in Wilmarth, in 1857, that the 

first Topeka play, The Drunkard, was performed. 

Most of the block was destroyed in a fire 

November 28, 1869. The fire sparked Topekans 

to form a fire department. 

Hotels joined Kansas Avenue immediately, with 

the Pioneer House opening March 1855, 

becoming Topeka’s first overnight lodging house. 

A single meal and room went for $1. The following 

year, Walter Oakley opened the Topeka House at 

Fifth and Kansas Street. Although the hotel burned 

in 1870, it was a hotspot for politicians where 

corrupt deals were said to be made. 

Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder called for 

Kansas’ first census in February 1855, to prepare 

for the first Territorial Legislature election on 

March 30. In the third electoral district, which 

contained Tecumseh, Topeka and an area west of 

the present county boundary, 252 persons were 

tallied (161 men, 91 women and 112 minors). 

Of these, ninety-three were deemed eligible 

voters, as women, slaves, children, and men 

under the age of thirty were not allowed a vote. 

Election Day, Missourians swarmed the ballot 

box, entering the town armed with revolvers 

and bowie knives. The crowds were so great at 

the polls that many eligible voters were unable 

to vote, and free-staters were threatened with 

violence if they entered the polling station, so 

they turned away. 

When the final tally was recorded, 372 people, 

nearly four times the registered electorate, voted 

for pro-slave candidate D. S. Croysdale, while 

free-state candidate C. K. Holliday received four 

votes. Reeder called for a new election on May 22, 

but in defiance of this decision pro-slave voters 

chose not to vote and Holliday won 146 of the 

149 votes cast. Reeder allowed the vote to stand. 

It was a short victory for Holliday, however, 

because the regional legislature, controlled by 

pro-slave forces, awarded Croysdale the seat. 

In a surprise vote during the first session of the 

Territorial Legislature in July 1855, Lecompton 

was named territorial capital, a designation 

Tecumseh officials believed it would be awarded. 

As compensation, Tecumseh was named county 

seat for its loyalty to the pro-slave cause. 

The county was officially organized August 

25, 1855, and the original boundaries included 

present East and West lines and stretched from 

the Kansas River south to a boundary below 

Burlingame in what is now Osage County. Most 


of this was carved out of what was—before an 

1854 treaty—Shawnee Indian lands, hence the 

name Shawnee County. General H. J. Strickland 

of Tecumseh, member of the territorial council 

in 1855 and member of the Joint Committee 

on Counties, was to guide county development 

statewide. Strickland preferred the name 

Shawnee, but the suggestion was scoffed at by 

Rev. Thomas Johnson. He leaned toward 

Johnson. The committee sided with Strickland, 

but honored Johnson’s request elsewhere, hence 

the name Johnson County in the eastern portion 

of the state. Shawnee County was one of 

the original counties established in Kansas, 

and while drawn in 1855, it was not until 

February 20, 1857, that official county lines 

were established. 

Topeka was granted the right to form a 

municipal government by the Territorial 

Legislature in an effort to placate free-state 

factions. Topeka’s first municipal election was 

held January 28, 1856, and Loring Farnsworth 

was elected mayor while L. Housel, H. W. 

Farnsworth, G. S. Gordon, J. G. Bunker, James 

A. Hickey, W. W. Ross, Guilford Dudley, and 

J. Fin. Hill were elected councilmen. 

One of the council’s first acts was to clean up 

downtown, grading Kansas Avenue for travel and 

levying taxes. In the following years, the council 

had sidewalks and schools built and banned pigs 

from running free in city limits. The city’s first 

official population count tallied 512 souls. 

By granting anti-slave Topeka municipal 

rights, the pro-slave legislature hoped to 

appease the anti-slave movement without 

relinquishing authority. The action did not have 

the desired effect. The direction of the 

legislature and its pro-slavers displeased freestaters 

to the point that, September 5, 1855, a 

convention was held in Blue Springs to organize 

formal opposition. The group held a 

constitutional convention in Topeka on October 

23, 1855, which led to the approval of the 

Topeka Constitution, passed by a 1,731 to 46 

territory-wide vote on December 15. The 

Topeka Constitution prohibited slavery but 

excluded free blacks from the state. It limited 

voting rights to white males and “every civilized 

male Indian who has adopted the habits of the 

white man.” Congress rejected the constitution 

and denied the territory’s request to be admitted 

to the Union as a state. 

The convention was a first step in Topeka 

being recognized across the Kansas territory as a 

political hub, which would factor into Topeka 

being named county seat and state capital. Three 

more conventions were held the next three years: 

Lecompton, 1857; Leavenworth, 1858; and 

Wyandotte, 1859. From each meeting came 

drafts of what became the Kansas Constitution 

upon the territory’s statehood admission. 

The legislature and pro-slave voters viewed 

free-staters’ actions as illegal and stayed away 

from the December elections, in which 135 

Topekans and 34 Tecumseh residents elected 

Charles Robinson governor. 

This conflict pushed tensions between the 

factions to the limit, opening a violent rift that 

❖ 

The National Hotel at the northwest 

corner of Seventh and Kansas Avenue 

was razed in 1926. The National 

was one of many overnight stops that 

cropped up along Kansas Avenue. 

The site had also been home to the 

Windsor and Jeff Hotels. 



Chapter II ✦ 15

❖ 

Edmund G. Ross was a printer turned 

U.S. senator from Topeka. 



led to settlers’ deaths. While none were killed in 

Topeka, Indianola or Tecumseh, a number of 

people were injured in these communities. This 

went on nearly seven months, until July 4, 

1856, when federal troops dispersed the freestate 

government, putting an end to the Topeka 

Free-State Legislature. It did not put an end to 

pro-slave and anti-slave disputes, which 

continued through the Civil War. 

The fighting centered on free-staters raiding 

pro-slave communities, particularly Tecumseh 

and Indianola, whose residents owned slaves. Proslave 

factions often stopped free-staters’ wagons as 

they delivered supplies to Topeka, forcing trips to 

be made at night. Both sides contributed equally 

to the destruction, but free-staters were 

imprisoned more often. Although most were 

acquitted, the uneven arrests contributed to freestaters’ 

resentment. When the U.S. Government, 

in 1859, reimbursed those whose property was 

destroyed during this period, Shawnee County 

claims totaled more than $24,200. 

Wandering through the prairie in 1855, C. K. 

Garvey was searching for a place to settle where 

he could start a newspaper. His first stop was 

Tecumseh, but a cold reception persuaded 

Garvey to move on to Topeka. A fast-talker from 

Milwaukee, Garvey convinced locals he had a 

steam press on its way from Missouri, and all he 

needed was someone to build a publishing 

house. The Topeka Town Association provided 

$400, but the steam press never arrived. 

Garvey commandeered a small press, and for 

years his “publishing house” served as Garvey’s 

home, print shop, post office and a hotel called 

the Garvey House. Despite his swindle, Garvey 

started Shawnee County’s first newspaper, a 

weekly which hit the streets under the name 

Kansas Freeman on July 4, 1855. Garvey also 

printed the first daily paper in Topeka, although 

it only printed editions during the Topeka 

Constitution Convention, under the banner 

Daily Kansas Freeman. Garvey left town soon 

afterward, settling in Tecumseh and opening 

Garvey’s Retreat, a popular gathering spot. 

Garvey’s contributions may have been 

minimal, but sparked a printing revolution. 

First printed December 10, 1855, John 

Speeder’s Kansas Tribune served as Topeka’s 

primary newspaper before ceasing publication 

in the early 1860s. Brothers Edmund G. and 

W. W. Ross published the third city newspaper, 

the Kansas State Record, selling it before 

Edmund became a famed U.S. senator. 

Territorial newspapers in the county were 

limited, with only three known around this 

time—two in Tecumseh and one in Auburn. 

Tecumseh publishers printed the pro-slave 

Note-Book and the competing Free State Kansas 

Settler. Both lasted only a few months. After April 

7, 1858, there is no recorded history of a 

Tecumseh newspaper. 

Many routes to Missouri from Shawnee 

County were controlled by southern sympathizers 

in 1856 to 1857, leading free-staters 

tired of having supplies stolen, to create a route 

to Iowa. Dubbed the Lane Trail, because it was 

conceived by Jim Lane, the road brought 

supplies and transported emigrants and escaped 

slaves. Traveling south through Holton, 

Indianola and Topeka, then northeast and on to 

northern Kansas, before reaching Civil Bend, 

Iowa, the Lane Trail was part of the 

Underground Railroad which helped escaped 

slaves travel secretly to freedom. By 1857, 

famed abolitionist John Brown set up his Topeka 

headquarters in the home of Daniel Sheridan, at 


the southwest corner of Twenty-third and 

Pennsylvania Streets. Brown was active in the 

Topeka Underground Railroad for than two 

years. He was among many who kept the 

passages active until the Civil War. Mrs. 

Williams Scales’ stone house at 427 Quincy 

Street, built in 1856, by John Armstrong, was 

the first station in Topeka on the Underground. 

The house was torn down in 1920. Reverend 

Lewis Bodwell, of the Congregational Church, 

and Avery Washburn were well-known keepers 

of the Underground. More than twenty locations 

in Topeka were Underground Railroad stops. 

Baptist and Methodist missionaries were some 

of the first to settle in Shawnee County in efforts 

to “aid” Indian populations. The Methodist 

church influence was strong during Topeka’s 

creation. Although they did not build a church, 

the Methodists are recognized as the first to 

organize on March 21, 1855. Ten days later, the 

first Methodist Episcopal Conference quarterly 

meeting was held in Tecumseh, where Methodists 

were the first to build churches. North and South 

Methodists constructed churches in 1857—the 

houses of worship standing back-to-back. 

No Topeka groups rushed to build churches, 

and denominations held services in homes. By 

1858, as many as five denominations shared 

rooms in Constitution Hall, the free-state 

legislative building. 

The first group to build a Topeka church 

faced severe obstacles. Congregationalists 

commenced construction on a one-story 

building in Fall 1857, only to have a tornado 

smash the creation midway through. Work 

resumed in June 1860, but another storm 

damaged the walls. Finally, the first sermon was 

given January 1, 1861. 

Episcopalians organized in 1857 and 

Presbyterians in December 1859. In March 

1862, Catholics founded the Church of the 

Assumption and, five years later, Lutherans 

organized. Others organizing included: United 

Presbyterians (1870), Christians (1870), 

Unitarians (1883) and synagogue Temple Beth 

Shalom, orthodox Jewish (1920). 

Once an area reached a respectable 

population, constructing a school became a 

requirement. The first Shawnee County 

school—and perhaps first county school in 

Kansas—opened February 1855. Within 10 

years, the number of school districts in 

Shawnee County was 33, serving nearly 2,000 

students between the ages of 5 and 21. Topeka, 

Auburn, Tecumseh and Indianola, in that 

respective order, contained the largest pockets 

of students. 

❖ 

Left: A sculpture of famed abolitionist 

John Brown by Topeka artist Robert 

Merrell Gage. 



Below: John Brown used this cabin in 

Shawnee County to hide slaves 

traveling on the Underground 

Railroad. The cabin was not preserved. 



Chapter II ✦ 17

❖ 

Above: Baptists were some of the first 

to settle in Shawnee County, 

constructing stone churches such as 

this one in Dover. 



Below: Sand is loaded for shipment on 

a riverboat in 1922. Although the 

Kansas River through Shawnee County 

was declared unnavigable in the 1860s 

for major riverboats, the river was still 

used for shipping supplies 



Opposite: A pamphlet put out by antiprohibitiontists 

urging people to vote 

for alcohol to be legal in Kansas, 1948. 



The last week of May 1855 the first steamboat 

—the Emma Harmon—docked in Topeka, 

marking the beginning of steady river traffic. The 

Territorial Legislature ordered the Topeka 

Association to provide a riverboat landing, and it 

was constructed near the foot of Quincy Street. 

However, riverboat traffic never grew to expected 

levels. Santa Fe traders used the river and traveled 

past Topeka to shorten trips to New Mexico 

settlements, but a number of these voyagers 

passed by Topeka. Many river merchants who did 

stop often left unsatisfied, commenting that area 

traders and farmers had little to offer. 

The busiest year of Topeka’s river trade, 

with the main goods being produce and 

passengers, peaked in 1859, the same time of 

the city’s brief gold rush. In April, a steamboat 

carrying gold seekers to Western Kansas, now 

Colorado, stopped in Topeka. A few of the 

seekers discovered miniature metal particles 

floating in the Kansas River, and for a period 

citizens could be found huddled in the waters, 

seeking their fortunes. 

Dickey and Young, a mercantile firm, shipped 

the county’s first corn order in 1857 via 

riverboat. But by April 1861, The riverboat 

Kansas Valley was the last boat to dock in 

Shawnee County. Three years later, in February 

1864, low volumes of water in the Kansas River 

forced the State Legislature to declare the Kaw 

unnavigable, officially ending the steamboat era. 

Topeka was barely a city when prohibition 

staggered into town, establishing a longstanding 

battle. It was March 12, 1855, when the Topeka 

Association adopted the following resolution: 

“No member of this association shall be 

permitted to buy, sell, or give away where profit 

accrues, and intoxicating liquors of whatever 

kind, nor permit them to be bought, sold, or 

given away where profit accrues upon his 

premises….” A business owner could sell “such 

liquors for medical, mechanical or sacramental 

purposes.” This was an enormous loophole, as 

many citizens continually had ailments only 

liquor could heal. In 1907 one Topeka druggist 

reported selling $4.50 worth of prescriptions 

and $1,400 worth of beer, wine and whiskey. 

Telling people whiskey, a popular drink, could 

not be sold was very different than enforcing such 

a mandate. The first saloon opened Spring 1857. 

This defiance angered prohibitionists to the point 

of retaliation, when on July 11, 1857, a group 

marched through town smashing kegs and 

bottles in saloons before they were confronted by 

the opposition and a fight broke out on Kansas 

Avenue. Similar scenarios played out in other 

Shawnee County communities, most notably 

Tecumseh and Indianola, where marches were 

led by women. Tecumseh was a well-known 

drinking town, with nearly half a dozen saloons – 

a large number for a community its size. 

The saloons became hotspots for gambling 

and fighting. In 1858, The Wigwam Saloon in 

Tecumseh gave prohibitionists the ammo they 

were looking for as evidence saloons were bad 

influences. Andrew Kerr, Edward Adams and 

Charles O’Hara entered into a fight after a card 

game at The Wigwam, which ended in Adams 

shooting and wounding Kerr. The incident 

incited residents of Tecumseh, Topeka and 


neighboring communities to organize a jury 

trial, at which Adams and O’Hara were found 

guilty and shooed out of town. The incident led 

to Tecumseh’s stricter regulation of alcohol, 

with sales limited to outside city limits. 

Shawnee County and Topeka were attracting 

professional classes – doctors, teachers, lawyers – 

early on, along with land developers and 

speculators attracted to the thought of immense 

profit to be made in the new territory. In 

1856, Shawnee County’s first commissioners 

determined that, in order to legitimize the city 

and attract professionals, certain problems cited 

by travelers had to be repaired, thus beginning 

the county’s first public works campaign. The 

commissioners split the county into two road 

districts and appointed two overseers. The 

mission: clear roads of debris; construct and 

repair bridges; and grade the roads so travelers 

could pass safely. 

Financial difficulties ensured the work was 

primarily left undone, despite a slew of 

petitions filed by residents. Collecting tax 

revenue was difficult, since pro-slave and freestate 

factions were waging intense political 

battles that kept residents from handing 

over tax money, apprehensive it might aid the 

other side. 

Laid out in an area settled years before by 

J.W. Brown, Auburn became a community in 

March 1856. When Brown and a handful of 

travelers from Jackson County, Missouri, arrived 

in 1854, they bought cabins from the Shawnee 

Indians. Once Auburn was officially laid out, 

the community thrived, instantly building a 

two-story school, a church (Methodist), and 

hiring a trustee, sheriff and justice of the peace. 

While not a recognized holiday at the time, 

Topeka was officially incorporated on what is 

today Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1857. Topeka 

was experiencing a population surge while 

Tecumseh’s population was moving the opposite 

direction. Once Topeka was incorporated, it set up 

a confrontation between the communities— 

“which should be county seat?” Added to the mix 

was Auburn, as its citizens believed it should be 

considered, although it was the smallest 

community of the three. It was a question that had 

no immediate answer, and whichever town 

experienced more growth during the next year 

would make the final decision. 

Chapter II ✦ 19

❖ 

Storey School classroom in Topeka 

circa early 1900s. This was a typical 

Topeka classroom of the time. 



The New England Emigrant Aid Company 

constructed Topeka’s first schoolhouse in 1857, 

a two-story brick building that required tuition 

from most students, although a few poor were 

allowed to attend for free. Soon after, several 

private schools were built, which advertised that 

they went beyond the traditional curriculum. 

While offering spelling, reading, math and 

history, private schools also provided courses 

such as astronomy, bookkeeping and Latin. 

Costs ranged from $3 to $10 per term, and had 

to be paid in cash in advance. 

Topeka’s first bridge project was a disaster, 

courtesy of Mother Nature. On May 1, 1858, 

Topeka christened the first Kansas River Bridge. 

Not more than 12 weeks later flooding 

demolished the bridge. It began a tumultuous 

history of engineering versus the Kansas River 

and convinced Topekans that ferry service 

would have to do for a while. It was not until 

after the Civil War, in 1865, that the city built 

another river crossing—a pontoon resting on a 

series of 13 flat boats tied together from bankto-bank. 

In 1870, this crude design was 

replaced by the King Wrought Iron Bridge 

Works of Cleveland, Ohio with a more 

structurally sound bridge. Thirty years later, a 

concrete structure replaced the decaying iron 

bridge before it collapsed in 1965, where the 

current bridge spanning the same location, the 

Kansas Avenue Bridge, resides. 

The Sardou Bridge was built in 1899, the 

Brickyard Bridge in 1901, and the Willard Bridge 

was completed in 1902. A 1903 flood tore all 

three asunder. Each was rebuilt, then destroyed in 

a 1951 flood. The Topeka Avenue Bridge remains 

the city’s oldest, constructed in 1938, and today 

needs more than $50 million in structural work. 

By 1857, the legislature had turned less proslave 

and its members leaned toward Topeka 

as county seat, since growth in the community 

outpaced Tecumseh and Auburn. The 

legislature set an October 4, 1858, date to put 

the county-seat question to a vote, confident 

Topeka would win, which it did. While 

Tecumseh protested the outcome, in January 

1859 the legislature acknowledged Topeka as 

county seat. The designation sparked a period of 

growth for Topeka, but signaled a decline for 

Tecumseh and Auburn as people chose to settle 

in the county seat. By the time officials moved 

county records from Tecumseh to Topeka in 

1859, it was evident Tecumseh’s decline would 

be as swift as its development, the community 

having hinged its future on its status as a 

government center. 


CHAPTER III 

A N I DENTITY IS F ASHIONED 

By 1860, efforts to clear Indian reservations to make way for settlements was nearly complete. The 

effort was spearheaded by the railroad lobby, which desired the land to extend tracks and save money 

by not having to lay track around reservations. The last government-established Indian reservations 

in Shawnee County disappeared by 1860. While this hurt the Indians’ standing and forced many to 

move from the region, some tribes still owned land within the county, and held on to it for a decade. 

However, by 1871, Shawnees, Pottawatomies, Kaws and Delawares had forfeited their land rights, 

forever ending the tribal presence in Shawnee County. 

Topeka played an important role in the cattle industry, specifically during the 1860s and 1870s, when 

trains passed through. The cattle came from a plethora of locations, including Texas, Colorado, Kentucky, 

Ohio and Illinois. While becoming increasingly populated, the county was still open land where herds fed 

on community pasture. Most local cattle ranchers simply had to wait for cattle buyers from other parts of 

the state or country to pass through, and buyers would purchase cattle and ship it on the railroad. 

The abundance of cattle and chicken ranchers brought with it an industry—packing. Seymour 

Packing Company, the largest, was founded 1892 to process poultry and Hill’s was founded in 1907 

to process pet food. Wolff packing company made its name with honey ham and lard, and became a 

brand name. Founded in the 1870s by butcher Charles Wolff, the slaughter house averaged 12 cattle 

and 150 hogs per day by the turn of century, while also butchering, smoking, curing, packaging and 

shipping. By the 1920s, the company slaughtered 300 to 500 cattle and 7,000 hogs on average. The 

Morrell Packing Plant succeeded Wolff’s, but a 1951 flood shut down the plant and ended the county’s 

meat processing industry. The 1860s also brought Topeka’s first flour mill, The Shawnee Mills, which 

❖ 

The Kansa Indian subagency on the 

Kansas River, first operated by Daniel 

Morgan Boone. 



Chapter III ✦ 21

❖ 

Inter-Ocean Mills, on Quincy Street at 

the southeast corner of Railroad 

Street, was one of the most successful 

mills in Shawnee County before 1900. 



shipped around $200,000 in products to Illinois, 

Iowa and Colorado. Other wheat and flour mills 

included Crosby Roller, Emil Utz, Forbes, Inter- 

Ocean, Topeka Mill and Elevator, and Mid- 

Continent. Most were located near riverbanks or 

close to railroad tracks. 

Economic distress, insect infestations, 

droughts and a litany of agricultural problems in 

1860 led Shawnee Countians to form the region’s 

first farmer’s clubs, with annual meetings held at 

the county fair. The same year, H.W. Curtis led 

the move to organize the Shawnee County 

Agricultural Society, comprised of a board with 

representatives from each county community. 

The goal of the groups was simple: find ways 

citizens could band together to battle struggles 

facing industrial agriculture. Many were 

cooperatives, created in hopes they could push 

for fair wages. The greatest growth for these 

groups occurred from 1868 to 1873, when 

similar organizations formed in Dover, Indian 

Creek, Silver Lake, Plowboy, Wakarusa, Lynn 

Creek, Waveland, Monmouth, and Indianola. 

It was at the Wyandotte Constitutional 

Convention of 1859 that Topeka was selected as 

the temporary capital of the territory, but it was not 

until a vote of the people in November 1861 that 

Topeka officially became the state capital. Topeka’s 

closest rival for the honor was Lawrence, which 

garnered 5,291 votes, short of Topeka’s 7,996 

votes. Several other locations divided 1,184 votes. 

Since the territory opened, the legislature 

had met in various places. The first territorial 

capitol building was at Pawnee in Riley County, 

where the first Kansas Territorial Legislature met 

at Fort Riley. For a time, the legislature met at 

the Shawnee Methodist Mission in Lecompton, 

or at Constitution Hall in Topeka, and in other 

random locations. Once Topeka was designated 

a permanent capital, construction of a state 

capitol building was set in motion. 

Cyrus K. Holliday donated a twenty-acre tract 

of land near downtown Topeka, which the 

legislators accepted. They immediately authorized 

E. Townsend Mix’s building design of French 

Renaissance architecture with Corinthian 

composite details. Construction began in 1866 on 

the east wing, with the legislature’s first meeting in 

the wing in 1870, despite that portion of the 

building not being completed until 1873. Work 

on the west wing began in 1879 and was 

completed in 1880. Construction on the central 

building began in 1885, and during construction 

a spring was discovered flowing under the 

property. It was not until 1890 that the roof and 

dome were completed, and it was a full thirtyseven 

years from the time the first brick was 

laid that the Statehouse was finished—in 1903 

at a cost of $3,200,588.92. Nine men died 

during construction. 

The original brown sandstone that had been 

laid as foundation soon cracked, and had to be 


eplaced with limestone. The setback was costly, 

at nearly $8,000, and was the first of many delays. 

The first wing erected—the east wing—lacked 

plumbing and bathrooms, and outhouses were 

put up. This mistake was not made when the next 

wing—the west wing—was completed seven 

years later. 

The interior design of the senate chamber in 

1884 brought about controversy, with its 

elaborate chandeliers and furnishings. Critics 

who had wanted the capital in their city used the 

expensive decorations as evidence that Topekans 

were not meant to handle the careful duties of 

being a capital, specifically, spending frugally. 

Supporters pointed out that only Topekans could 

create such an exquisite capitol building befitting 

such a wonderful state. In 1889, parts of the 

dome cracked under its own weight, some of 

which was repaired and some of which was not. 

By 1862 the city’s growth prompted county 

commissioners to assign Topeka as School District 

23, which would evolve into today’s Unified 

School District (U.S.D.) 501. The county did not 

provide money for a school for another three 

years, and eventually a schoolhouse was built on 

Harrison Street because the land had been 

donated. Soon after the school’s construction, the 

first session of Topeka’s Board of Education met in 

May 1867, and voted to build a stone restroom for 

the Harrison Street school. The district did not 

have the necessary funds to build schools, so the 

board leased rooms throughout town. By 1870 

the city owned four schoolhouses and rented 

four more, providing 15 public classrooms for 

Topekans and area children. Average class size was 

forty-four students per teacher. 

The Topeka Tribune put out a call in August 1863 

for the formation of a citywide band, creating the 

Topeka Brass Band. Numerous communities, 

schools, and social groups followed. In the coming 

decades, Rossville created a famed cornet band, 

which along with a Silver Lake group was often 

heard performing at weddings or parading down 

streets. Tecumseh formed brass and string bands. 

Shawnee County’s roles in the Civil War were 

limited, as no battles took place in the county. 

However, many Shawnee Countians enlisted and 

fought on both sides, although most fought for 

the anti-slave Union against the pro-slave 

Confederates. Many Shawnee Countians enlisted 

in volunteer regiments raised in 1861 and 1862. 

Company A, Second Infantry was almost entirely 

raised by Topekans who fought at the battle of 

Wilson’s Creek. Shawnee Countians enlisted in 

the Fifth Cavalry, and 24 soldiers from Indianola 

joined Company E, Eighth Infantry. There were 

also members from the county in the Fifteenth 

Cavalry and the Third Indian Regiment. 

The Second Regiment, Kansas State Militia was 

brigaded with Lawrence and Wyandotte units. On 

October 12, 1864, with battles raging near the 

Kansas-Missouri border, this unit was called to 

duty when martial law was declared and every 

man between the ages of 18 to 60 was ordered to 

arm himself and head to battle. The unit was 

amidst combat within ten days, but the Second 

Regiment was broken up by October 26, with the 

soldiers placed elsewhere or sent home. By the end 

❖ 

Hereford cattle and calves were 

common in Shawnee County, as 

ranches such as this one in 1896 

dotted the land. 



Chapter III ✦ 23

❖ 

Above: Cattle feeding stations, such as 

this one in 1896, were established for 

cattle passing through the county. 



Below: Workers use the first electric 

derrick ever used to help construct the 

Capitol Building in downtown Topeka. 

It took thirty-seven years for the 

building to be completed. 



Opposite, top: The state capitol 

building, c. 1900. 



Opposite, middle: The interior of the 

House of Representatives in the 

capitol building, c. the early 1900s. 



Opposite, bottom: Jackson’s Twentyfirst 

Regiment Band, an all-black 

band, in 1918. This was one of many 

black community organizations that 

added to the city’s diversity. 



of the border battle, Shawnee County lost 24 men, 

20 were wounded and 88 were taken prisoner. It 

was the county’s largest brush with war. 

John Ritchie, Topeka pioneer, long held 

the idea of opening a college. When 

Congregationalists indicated they wanted to form 

a Kansas college, Ritchie offered the church 160 

acres of land and promised to secure funding. But 

Topeka was unable to produce the money, and 

the Congregationalists took their idea to 

Lawrence, calling the project Monumental 

College. Lawrence also failed to meet its promises 

and the Congregationalists returned to Topeka. 

Once the Civil War ended, the college was 

opened January 3, 1866, under the name Lincoln 

College, after President Lincoln. 

A seven room school was built on the northeast 

corner of 10th and Jackson Streets, and the first 

class consisted of 22 men and 16 women. The 

school was split into English and classical 

departments. Within a few years the school 

experienced financial woes and, in October 1868, 

Professor Horatio Butterfield persuaded Ichabod 

Washburn, a former blacksmith from Worcester, 

Massachusetts, to donate a $25,000 endowment. 

This donation persuaded school trustees to 

rename the institution Washburn College. 

With financial resources the school 

prospered, and by 1871, Washburn College 

finally made its way to John Ritchie’s land. 

Construction on a main hall began in 1871, but 

was not completed until 1874. 

During the next few decades, dormitories 

were built and benefactors with deep pockets 

stepped forward, giving Washburn College the 

financial freedom to construct a campus of 

buildings. In 1905 the college became one of the 

first institutions in the country to receive a gift 


from Andrew Carnegie, who donated money for 

a library. 

In April 1941, Topeka voters approved the 

municipalization of the college, which prompted 

a name change to Washburn Municipal 

University (the municipal was later dropped) 

and brought the school under the auspices of the 

city. Today, Washburn is the only municipal 

university in the United States, and the city’s 

most prominent educational institution. 

In 1866 the first passenger train pulled in to 

Topeka, beginning a new era. The first planning 

for a passenger railroad in Shawnee County began 

in 1857, when Topeka founder Cyrus K. Holiday 

and a Board of Directors envisioned creating the 

St. Joseph & Topeka Railroad to service southern 

and western Kansas, Oregon, California, New 

Mexico, and Texas. The company built a stretch 

of track between Elwood, Kansas and Marysville, 

and in April 1860 the first locomotive west of the 

Missouri River made its journey between the 

cities, dubbed the Elwood & Marysville Railroad. 

This was as far as the St. Joseph & Topeka 

Railroad Company developed, as money dried 

and the dream faded. In 1861 a railroad 

convention in Topeka devised a track that would 

stretch from Atchison to Topeka and on to Santa 

Fe. The group forwarded the idea to Washington, 

knowing it would take federal money to subsidize 

the project. The answer was yes, but the Civil War 

put the project on hold. 

In the meantime, in 1864, the Union Pacific 

Railway Company completed tracks from 

Leavenworth to Lawrence, traveling through 

Topeka. On January 1, 1866, the first passenger 

train stopped in Topeka. By the middle of the 

year, tracks were extended to Silver Lake and by 

1880 the track stretched to Denver, allowing 

Shawnee County merchants and ranchers to 

send products to other territories and reach 

Kansas City in six hours. 

Railroads were key to Shawnee County prosperity, 

allowing the area to become a trade zone 

and hub for travelers moving across the state and 

country. This prosperity, however, came with a 

price, as railroad arrival meant displacing Native 

American populations that had refused to be 

placed on new reservations. Attempts to remove 

Indians from Kansas land diplomatically were 

abandoned by 1867, and reassignment had 

become a military matter. The U.S. Government’s 

Chapter III ✦ 25

❖ 

A group of Shawnee County soldiers 

who fought in The Civil War. 



use of force was countered with Native Americans’ 

retaliation, and in June 1867 the Eighteenth Kansas 

volunteer cavalry was called to service to “subdue 

hostiles.” More than 150 men from Shawnee 

County were battalion members, primarily from 

Auburn, Eugene and Tecumseh. The battalion 

fruitlessly battled Indians for than two months 

before returning home and reporting that little 

progress was made. In November, the 19th cavalry 

left Topeka for similar battles and returned with 

similar results. Eventually white settlers won the 

battle, but not until much blood was shed. 

The growing city needed public transportation 

and in 1866 an assortment of transits cropped up. 

The earliest public transportation offerings were 

horse pulled wagons that delivered passengers off 

the trains to hotels or homes. The Southwest Stage 

Company and Omnibus Company began offering 

“bus” lines by 1872, consisting of as many as six 

horse teams of carriages which traveled along 

Kansas Avenue from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. 

The first major expansion of Topeka occurred 

with only minor problems. In April 1867, South 

Topeka annexed North Topeka. Although North 

Topekans viewed themselves as autonomous, 

with dreams of becoming their own city, many 

North Topekans accepted the act, and some 

hoped it would spur growth. 

The other major annexation at this time was 

of land owned by Dr. Franklin Crane, an original 

city founder. Crane had held on to a tract of land 

on the East side and lured businesses to the site, 

including the King Bridge Factory and Santa Fe 

Railroad shops. Seeing the obvious benefits to 

having these businesses in city limits, the area 

was annexed soon after North Topeka. 

The most troublesome annexation occurred in 

June 1867, when Topeka’s city council decided it 

wanted portions of land owned by John Ritchie. It 

was not land Ritchie was willing to give up. 

Ritchie had long been a polarizing figure. 

Born in Ohio in 1817, he arrived in Kansas in 

March 1855; a strong abolitionist who helped 

runaway slaves through the territory. In 1860, 

Ritchie shot to death a sheriff’s deputy who 

entered his home without permission, and was 

found not guilty because the jury decided the 

sheriff should not have entered the home and 

Ritchie was protecting himself. 

Ritchie was generous with his property, giving 

away land to settlers who promised to improve the 

lots, and he subdivided much of his property into 

75 to 150 foot lots and sold them to farmers. But 

the land Ritchie owned north of 12th Street, west 

of Kansas Avenue and East of the Shunganunga, 

was not an area he was wanted taken. Topeka 

councilmen did not care. Upon annexing the land 

in 1867, the city proceeded with improvements, 

building streets, sidewalks, schools and taxing the 

residents who lived on the land. 


Ritchie sued and, in 1872, was successful. 

Topeka again annexed the land, and Ritchie sued 

again, once more winning and putting a temporary 

end to the city’s annexation of Ritchie’s property. 

These annexations began a significant growth 

spurt in 1868, when roughly four hundred 

buildings were constructed in Topeka. The 

Union Pacific had been so beneficial to Topeka’s 

growth, that Cyrus K. Holliday’s consistent 

persistence to start a railroad seemed 

unnecessary to some. Having already failed with 

the St. Joseph & Topeka railroad and having the 

Civil War hamper the Atchison, Topeka and 

Santa Fe, many thought Holliday would move to 

other projects. Yet, Holliday was determined to 

see the town he founded became the hub of an 

important western railway. 

In Fall 1868, Senator Edmund Ross shoveled 

the first mound of dirt on Washington Street to 

begin construction on a bridge across the Kansas 

River, bringing across the first locomotive. In 

1869, locomotives started traveling from Topeka 

to Burlingame, and by 1872, a line was built 

between Atchison and Topeka and traveled 

through the Arkansas River Valley. The Atchison, 

Topeka and Santa Fe was open for business. 

As a state capital, Topeka fostered a strong 

publishing presence, because print owners 

wanted to be near state politics. The most 

influential city paper was the Kansas Daily 

Commonwealth, a four-page Republican-centered 

daily that began May 1, 1869, and ended 1879, 

when Major J. K. Hudson purchased the paper 

and consolidated it into his Daily Capitol. The 

Commonwealth was used by Republicans to push 

their agendas, and it was widely read, serving as 

a source of community news. 

In November 1870, a Ladies Literary 

Association was born, providing the groundwork 

for Topeka’s library system. The group’s purpose 

was to provide a free public library, and it 

purchased books and kept them in a storeroom 

at Keigh & Meyers dry good emporium. 

Incorporated in 1872 as the Topeka Library 

Association, for an annual fee of $3, individuals 

had unlimited access to the books. It was opened 

to the public in 1878, and the location floated 

around until 1883 when Santa Fe and Union 

Pacific Railroads donated $25,000 for the 

construction of a library. A stone building was 

erected on the northeast corner of the Capitol 

Building grounds and dedicated April 20, 1883. 

The library moved to a larger location on West 

❖ 

Above: The Union Pacific Depot at 

Silver Lake. During early 

development, the Union Pacific 

was Shawnee County’s most 

important railroad. 



Below: The early Atchison, Topeka, 

and Santa Fe Railroad yards, known 

as “The Yards.” 



Chapter III ✦ 27

❖ 

Above: The home of John Ritchie, an 

early Shawnee County developer, at 

1106 Quincy. 



Top, right: Joseph Kennedy “J. K.” 

Hudson was founder of the Daily 

Capital and one of the premier 

publishers in Shawnee County history. 

He was also known for his duty as a 

brigadier general in the Spanish 

American War. 



Below: The original city library in the 

early 1900s. 



Tenth Street in 1953, where it rests today and 

recently underwent renovations designed by 

world-famous architect Michael Graves. 

Efforts to cultivate a local theatre group 

continually failed, and it was not until January 

1870 that the first professional theatre group, 

James A. Lord’s Chicago Dramatic Company, 

performed in the city. This sparked a surge in 

theatrical growth and required an appropriate 

professional theatre in Topeka. On January 26, 

1871, Lorenzo Costa cut the ribbon on his 

Opera House on Kansas Avenue. In 1880, Lester 

Crawford purchased the building and renamed 

it the Crawford Opera House, only to watch it 

burn down within weeks of the purchase. 

Topeka’s fire department took shape 

February 1870 with the arrival of the first fire 

equipment: a Silby fire engine, two hand cars, 

and 1,500 feet of hose. The department was 

called to action for the first time May 28, 1870, 

when the Topeka House Hotel caught fire. 

While the equipment was kept just down the 

street, it had been stored in a barn that’s doors 

were blocked by parked public transportation 

carriages. It took more than a half-hour to get 

the equipment out to fight a fire 100 yards away. 

The Topeka House Hotel was lost. 

Public schooling in Shawnee County existed 

primarily for those of elementary school age. 

After age 12, many were required to find work or 

stay home to help tend to family ranches and 

farms. By 1870, industrialization and an 

increasing belief in extended education 

prompted Lizzie Town, a Harrison Street School 

teacher, to organize Topeka’s first high school. It 

opened with five students and a vast curriculum 

which included algebra, geography, botany, and 

French. The Topeka School District incorporated 

a high school into the school system in 1871, 

moving classes from building to building for six 

years until finding stationary rooms in the 

Hudson Building, a commercial downtown 

building. The building was deemed a death trap 

by 1893, as enrollment hit an all-time high. So, 

the following year, Topeka High School was 

constructed on Eighth Street, with seventeen 

classrooms, a library, an assembly hall, 

laboratories, and bathrooms. 

By 1870, the women’s suffrage movement in 

Shawnee County was underway. Three years 

prior, the Kansas Legislature placed a 

constitutional amendment on the ballot that 

would have given women and blacks the right to 

vote. Shawnee Countians, along with most 

Kansans, voted it down by a large margin. This 

defeat sparked Shawnee County women to 


organize, and by 1870 the Women’s Suffrage 

Association of Topeka had become a political 

force, not just advocating a right to vote but also 

equal pay. The group consisted primarily of 

upper-class women whose husbands were 

Topeka leaders and businessmen. These men 

were part of the association, even occupying 

association offices. As many as half of the nearly 

200 members were male. The group’s influence 

was enough that, in January 1871, famed suffrage 

advocate Susan B. Anthony stopped in Topeka. 

However, by 1875 the association dissipated, 

aligning itself with a national organization. 

Women’s rallying efforts made a small impact 

when in 1887 the Kansas’ legislature granted 

women the right to vote in municipal elections. 

Kansas became the first state to grant such 

rights, as the Washington territory was the only 

other region that had done so. The women of 

Shawnee County wasted no time in using their 

newly appointed right. In an April 1887 city 

election, 1,400 of nearly 5,500 voters were 

women, with three-fourths of those women 

voting Republican. By 1891, half as many 

females registered to vote as males in some 

districts. But nowhere was the impact of a 

women’s right to vote exemplified in the county 

more than Rossville, when April 1, 1889, an all 

woman ticket captured the offices of mayor, city 

council, and police judge (one councilwoman 

elected was disqualified while the police judge 

declined office, saying it was a man’s job). The 

first woman mayor in the United States was 

Susanna Medora Salter of Argonia, Kansas, but 

close behind was Rossville’s new mayor, H. H. 

Miller. One month after taking office, Rossville’s 

all-woman council outlawed gambling and then 

all declined re-election the following year. 

In the early 1860s, Topeka’s primary 

businesses were blacksmiths, gunsmiths, steam 

mills, groceries and tailors. After the Civil War, 

industrial businesses saw the capital as a 

worthwhile investment, and factories were 

constructed. This was a saving grace to Topeka 

and Shawnee County, which were facing 

economic instability. 

Luring businesses to Topeka proved a 

fractious endeavor, creating rifts between North 

and South Topeka. With the river separating the 

❖ 

Above: Topeka’s Fire Deparment 

Headquarters on Seventh Street 

between Jackson and Kansas Avenue, 

c. 1900. 



Below: The first official Topeka High 

School on a snowy day, c. 1899. Built 

in 1894, it served as a high school 

until 1931 and was razed in 1977. 



Chapter III ✦ 29

communities, North and South operated like 

separate entities, each keeping to their own and 

viewing themselves as individual towns. The 

situation worsened when city officials, who 

resided in South Topeka, sold municipal bonds 

to lure industry and the move backfired, 

increasing the city’s debt. North Topekans were 

opposed to the idea from the beginning, and 

jumped on the error as a reason why South 

Topekans were unable to lead. Each side was 

convinced the other was only interested in its 

own prosperity, not concerned with the welfare 

of the other. 

The rift between North and South was 

evident in July 1872, when a pivotal vote was 

put to citizens that would have a notable impact 

on the city’s railroad future. The ballot question 

was whether to issue $100,000 in bonds for 

permanent Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 

shops and offices. While the company already 

had shops in the city, Emporia offered $200,000 

to procure the shops and their future 

expansions. If the bonds passed, employment 

would increase from 55 men to 200. 

The bonds won approval in all four city 

voting wards (three south of the river and one in 

North Topeka). However, only 83 North 

Topekans voted out of 400 eligible voters. With 

the new offices and shops slated to be built in 

South Topeka, North Topekans apathy at the 

polls was a message they wanted to be involved, 

and saw no benefit if the measure passed 

(although of the 83 North Topekans that voted, 

80 voted yes). The vote kept the Atchison, 

Topeka, and Santa Fe in Topeka, although it 

would be six years before the railroad company 

completed the shops and offices, built along 

Ninth Street and Tenth and Jackson Streets. 

Today the building is operated and owned by 

the State of Kansas. 

This passage sparked the most important 

Santa Fe construction, beginning with a depot 

and office on Washington Street. For a period, 

Santa Fe engines and passenger cars were 

constructed in Topeka, with the first being a 

4-4-0 American Class engine bearing the 

name Cyrus K. Holliday. After the Depression 

and World War II, steam engines were 

replaced by diesel, which Santa Fe pioneered, 

but not in Topeka. With this change, Topeka 

locomotive shops switched to manufacturing 

freight cars before economic factors led Santa Fe 

to consolidate those operations elsewhere. Santa 

Fe shops covered more than 120 acres and by 

1914, 40 percent of the Topeka work force was 

employed by Santa Fe. 

The last major attempt at a Shawnee County 

railroad came in 1873, when the Lawrence & 

Topeka Railroad began making runs. Although 

officially established in 1868, it took nearly five 

years to get the line running. This link became 

important for Topeka commerce and travel 

because tracks from Lawrence were connected 

to depots in St. Louis. Topeka and Tecumseh 

subsidized this railroad with more than 

$200,000 in 1873. Confusion, however, reigned 

with so many railroad efforts intersecting, and 

by 1874 the Midland Railroad Company 

incorporated the various efforts. Midland was 

successful, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa 

❖ 

Shawnee County suffragettes rally in 

support for all women’s right to vote 

in 1916, although Kansas women had 

been granted the right in 1913. 




Fe became the beneficiary of Midland’s 

efficiency. On June 30, 1875, Midland leased— 

for ninety-nine years—all available track to the 

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, solidifying the 

company as the strongest in the state. 

During this period small short lines were 

operated by entrepreneurs connecting Auburn, 

Silver Lake, Rossville, Maple Hill, Alma, 

Tecumseh and Soldier Township. While short 

lived, the connections allowed workers to go 

back and forth and helped commerce between 

the communities prosper. 

Industry was important to Rossville and 

Silver Lake, the largest county communities 

behind Topeka. With railroads passing through, 

the communities took advantage. In 1872, 

Rossville residents chartered the Rossville 

Manufacturing Company to produce furniture 

and wagons. In 1874, Silver Lake residents 

incorporated the Silver Lake Distilling and 

Mill Company to make flour and whiskey. 

Prosperous during their time, the companies 

were gone by the turn of the century. 

By 1865, coal was the primary fuel used to 

generate electricity. By early 1870, the Excelsior 

Coke and Gas Company revolutionized Topeka 

by introducing gas lighting. The company 

manufactured the gas at First and Monroe 

Streets, and began by lighting Kansas Avenue. 

But the pleasure of having Kansas Avenue lit was 

offset by an unpleasant side effect: sulphorous 

odors emitted by the gas plant and fixtures. 

This, for a time, prompted many Topekans to 

push for the return to dimmer coal lighting, a 

mood which quickly changed when Excelsior 

solved the problem. Gas lighting expanded in 

1882, but logistical problems delayed the 

availability of gas lighting to homes and other 

areas until 1905, when the company was the 

Kansas Natural Gas Company which, in 1935, 

became the Gas Service Company. 

Outside Topeka most citizens acquired gas 

and/or electric service considerably slower. 

Rossville did not hang its first gas lamp until 

1902. Several individuals constructed small 

operations to generate electricity, like the 

Rossville Electric Light and Ice Company, before 

Kansas Power and Light took over. In 1891, 

Kansas ranked fourth in coal production west of 

the Mississippi River, which brought established 

companies to the area and accounted for 

Shawnee County’s fast electricity growth. By 

1889, five power plants provided electricity to 

Topeka. President Franklin Roosevelt’s New 

Deal projects touched Shawnee County lightly, 

notably in 1937, when it created the Kaw Valley 

Electric Cooperative to build an electricity 

distribution system in western Shawnee County, 

Auburn, Dover, and parts of Douglas, Jackson, 

Osage and Wabaunsee counties. Without this 

system, it is difficult to say how much longer 

many rural homes would have had to continue 

to wait before having access to electricity. 

Much of the county’s progress, conflict and 

change was chronicled in a host of county 

newspapers and journals that began to appear 

by 1871. Many came and went, often only 

❖ 

Above: The Santa Fe Railroad shops, 

c. 1940s. 



Below: Docked at the Santa Fe shops 

in Topeka, this was the largest steam 

engine in the world when built at 

the shops. 



Chapter III ✦ 31

❖ 

Above: Czech farmers plant potatoes 

in Rossville during the early 1900s. 

Farming was the largest industry in 

Shawnee County during early 

development, especially among 

immigrants. 



Bottom, left: Coal production was 

abundant in Shawnee County during 

the early 1900s. This Franklin 

Company ad appeared in February 

1915, selling coal to Topekans mined 

from the county. 



publishing a few copies before folding. North 

Topeka was home to one of the first county 

papers, the weekly North Topeka Times, although 

its influence was diminished in 1882 by the 

rival Mail. Both focused on events around the 

county, often ignoring news from South Topeka. 

The east side of Oakland had three newspapers: 

the News and Item in the 1890s and Blade from 

1905 to 1915. 

By 1879 the publishing phenomenon spread 

outside South and North Topeka, as Dover, 

Richland, Rossville, and Silver Lake produced 

county papers at various times. Rossville 

produced O. L. Sedgewick’s Kansas Valley Times, 

which began in 1879. By 1911, Silver Lake had 

three newspapers and Dover and Richland each 

had consistent publications. 

Various cultural groups formed a significant 

publishing world within the county, as Germans, 

Swedes, and blacks produced newspapers 

targeted to their cultures, offering news in other 

languages and providing viewpoints left out of 

other newspapers and journals. Topeka had 

more than a half dozen newspapers printed by 

Bottom, right: The Victor School in 

Rossville, representative of what 

many one-room schoolhouses looked 

like before being closed down in the 

mid-1900s. 




lacks and more than a dozen German and 

Swedish newspapers. 

Growth in 1870 prompted the Topeka Board of 

Education to build the $40,000 Lincoln School at 

Fifth and Madison Streets. It was Topeka’s largest 

public building, three stories tall with a bell tower, 

seven classrooms, and an auditorium on the top 

floor. It also brought about separation of the sexes 

for the first time in local education, putting boys 

and girls in their own classrooms. In January 1871, 

six black children asked to be admitted to Lincoln, 

but the local superintendent directed the Board of 

Education to keep blacks out of “white” schools. 

State law gave cities the choice of whether to 

segregate, and Topeka kept grade school and 

junior high children separated. High school was 

different. Topeka High was never segregated in the 

classrooms, due to economic reasons and because 

few blacks attended high school. By 1887, there 

were 17 schools, six exclusively black (Lane, 

Madison, Washington, Adams, Buchanan, and 

Douglas) with an enrollment of 9,996 and 86 

teachers. Student segregation was institutionally 

justified in 1896, when the U.S. Supreme Court 

established the “separate-but-equal” doctrine in 

Plessy vs. Fergusson. 

Rural schools were the largest educators, with 

4,500 school-age children by 1873, but only 

around 3,000 of them enrolled. The remainder 

were blacks or Indians unable to attend or who saw 

no need for school. Many were needed at home to 

help with daily farm work. A typical country school 

had one room and combined the grades. Rural 

schools were more than daily learning rooms. They 

served as community houses, where citizens held 

functions such as picnics, and the schools served as 

meeting places. For a time, spelling bees were 

major community events, always held at a local 

school. The celebration of Kansas Day—the day 

Kansas became a state—was one of the more festive 

days at schools. 

The majority of those living outside Topeka in 

the 1800s made their living from agriculture. By 

the middle of the decade, a number of these people 

lost that livelihood as agriculture was rocked by a 

series of environmental disasters. Having recovered 

from droughts in 1860 and 1865, farmers and 

livestock producers were struck with one of the 

worst droughts in county history in Summer 1873. 

Agricultural growth as a significant industry 

took shape in the late 1860s and early 1870s. By 

the summer of 1870, local newspaper accounts 

tallied the number of planted crops in the 

neighborhood of more than 11,000, producing 

❖ 

Above: The printing press of The 

Daily Capital, c. the early 1900s. 

The Daily Capital proved to be one 

of the most successful county 

publications, but was one of 

more than a hundred that have 

been printed during Shawnee 

County’s history. 



Below: Driving wagons in the 

Kenwood development in Shawnee 

County, just outside Topeka. Many 

small developments sprouted 

which were eventually incorporated 

into Topeka. 



Chapter III ✦ 33

❖ 

Rogers Bakery, c. the 1920s. Bakers 

were among the first to unionize in 

Shawnee County. 



more than 400,000 bushels. Wheat production 

surpassed 35,000 bushels. By 1872, Board of 

Agriculture statistics showed corn as the area’s 

main crop, with 41.5 million bushels produced. 

Corn growth far outpaced demand, and often 

farmers sold and used it for heating fuel. 

Grasshoppers, more precisely a nowpresumed-extinct 

Rocky Mountain locust, were 

the biggest agricultural problem of the 1870s, 

earning the state the moniker “The Grasshopper 

State.” Grasshoppers devastated crops, devouring 

up to 60 acres an hour. The insects harassed 

individuals, eating the clothes off people. These 

grasshoppers, along with other insects, devastated 

crops and livestock. At the end of Summer 1874, 

on a Saturday in August, millions of grasshoppers 

descended on the county. 

The insect swarms of 1874 led to locust and 

grasshopper infestations in 1875, as larvae left 

behind hatched. Area residents lit fires and 

covered gardens with burlap bags to keep the 

insects out, but it rarely worked. Then, just as 

swiftly as they had swarmed in, the insects 

moved west. This was not the first time 

grasshoppers had plagued the prairie. 

Unions found a voice in Shawnee County 

beginning with Topeka Butchers who organized in 

March 1873 to guard against loss from unreliable 

patrons. Anyone who bought meat but did not pay 

was not allowed to purchase products from any 

butcher in town. Among the other first Topeka 

unions were cigar makers (1881), Brotherhood of 

Railroad Trainmen (1884), carpenters (1886) and 

machinists (1889). By 1915, it was difficult to find 

an industry without a union. Bakers, barbers, 

electrical workers, flour packers, garment workers, 

horse shoers, musicians, painters, plumbers, 

pressman, printing press feeders and assistants, 

tailors, theatrical stage employees, and typographers 

were among the many who unionized. 

During the mid-1870s, the Santa Fe and Union 

Pacific railroads owned land across Kansas which 

they sold frequently to German-Russians, many of 

whom stopped in Topeka on their way through or 

stayed to find work in the Santa Fe shops. Much of 

the German population lived on the South side of 

the city, near Swedish neighborhoods in what is 

today Third and Van Buren Streets. “Little Russia” 

in North Topeka was established by Russian born 

Germans. These groups created their own 

neighborhoods with schools, churches, clubs, 

newspapers and journals. At least three Swedishlanguage 

publications were printed, while 

Germans opened athletic and social clubs. This 

same sort of development occurred in areas 

around Tecumseh. 

The Kansas Freedman’s Relief Association was 

organized by Governor St. John to provide 


thousands of blacks who came to Kansas the 

ability to establish communities. The effort was 

headed by John M. Brown, a black from Topeka 

with no relation to abolitionist John Brown. 

Created May 1879, the association was so 

successful in luring blacks that they became 

known as Exodusters, because of the great exodus 

made to the state. The “Exodus Years” occurred 

from 1879 to 1881. This unprecedented 

migration of blacks brought thousands, 

particularly from the Mississippi Valley region. 

The number of blacks arriving in Kansas during 

this period was between 40,000 and 60,000. 

Topeka was designated a receiving point in 

March 1879 and nearly 300 black migrants arrived 

each week. They were housed in churches, 

warehouses and buildings at the county 

fairgrounds. A warehouse fronting Gordon Street 

became the site from which aid was distributed. In 

May, the Kansas State Colored Immigration Bureau, 

an organization of Topeka blacks created to aid 

Exodusters, was formed with abolitionist John 

Brown as president. 

Blacks established strong communities 

throughout Topeka: Redmonsville north of the 

river; next to Shunganunga creek in South 

Topeka and throughout East Topeka. Many 

blacks and Mexicans moved into developments 

left behind by affluent whites who had moved to 

other areas. 

The oldest black development in Topeka was a 

four-block area on the south bank of the Kansas 

River, known as “the bottoms.” The area was 

destroyed by urban renewal in the 1960s. Another 

old district was known as “Ritchie’s Additions,” 

located south of Tenth Street and east of Jackson. 

The construction of Interstate 70 destroyed the 

settlement. Mudstown, in southeastern Topeka, 

was located in the Shunganunga bottoms near the 

intersection of Fifteenth Street and Adams, adjacent 

to what would become Highland Park. 

The most prominent black district was the 

King Addition, in southwestern Topeka around 

Buchanan, Lincoln, Lane, 10th and Huntoon 

Streets. The lots, which sold for between $50 and 

$100, remained empty for many years after it was 

founded in the early 1870s. Years later more than 

500 blacks from Tennessee purchased the land, 

earning it the nickname Tennesseetown. While it 

was a strong and positive black community, many 

of the booms Topeka experienced occurred 

around Tennesseetown, as white developers did 

not invest in the area. 

Shawnee County has never been in the 

Kansas “wheat belt” but grain has been an 

important staple crop for local growers. The first 

spring wheat grown was transplanted from Ohio, 

Pennsylvania and Maryland. Other important 

Shawnee County crops included: Sorghums, 

Alfalfa, Milo, and Kaffirs. Sorghum production 

rivaled wheat and corn, as it resisted drought 

and was easier to harvest. If wheat harvests failed 

to yield, often times they would be plowed and 

short-term sorghum was planted. 

The 1870s may just as well be significant to 

Topeka for the number of saloons which 

❖ 

The 1920 Topeka Police Force lines 

up outside the Crawford Building at 

Fourth and Jackson Streets. 



Chapter III ✦ 35

❖ 

Alfalfa being harvested in Shawnee 

County during the late 1800s. Alfalfa 

was a major crop in Shawnee County. 



appeared. Despite prohibition laws, city 

administrators licensed saloons under the 

argument that they could be controlled and the 

saloons would follow strict guidelines. But 

enforcement was poorly executed and saloon 

owners ignored city officials. 

Despite the legislature passing prohibition 

amendments in 1879, and voters approving 

them, Topeka and Silver Lake continued to 

produce and drink alcohol. In 1879, The Topeka 

Distillery Company opened and Shawnee 

Countians’ consumption was heavy according to 

numbers from the Topeka Distillery, which was 

producing 1,200 gallons of alcohol every 18 

hours. By 1883, there were three county 

breweries. Before the turn of the century, lower 

Kansas Avenue, south of the river, was a row of 

drinking establishments that city residents and 

officials ignored. 

When the county’s first prostitutes appeared 

is anyone’s guess, but it was well before 

statehood and, once Topeka became an official 

city, the industry thrived.In the 1870s, houses of 

ill repute were located in every section of the 

city, though predominantly near the river. The 

more successful prostitution houses were on 

Madison, Monroe, and Quincy Streets. Police 

continually arrested prostitutes and customers, 

with both often spending one night in jail and 

having to pay fines ranging from $5 to $15. If a 

woman could not pay, she was ordered to leave 

town. Tecumseh and Indianola also had well 

established businesses. 

The location of prostitution houses was not 

secret, and Samuel Radges, famous for printing 

Topeka’s early city directories, marked the 

locations in the directory with an asterisk. 

Community leaders were not immune to the 

lure of the trade, with city officials and leaders 

caught during a house raid. A city deputy marshal 

was once known for owning one of these homes 

and South Topeka City Marshal E. B. H. Lull, in 

1886, was found in one of these houses with his 

boots off and was forced to resign. Nine months 

later he was appointed a city council member. In 

1918, Topeka’s reputation for prostitution 

prompted the War Department to announce that, 

unless steps were taken to “eradicate the vice of 

evil,” it would order soldiers from Camp Funston 

to stay away from the city. That same year, soldiers 

from the camp would pick up women who 

arrived on trains and send them home to keep 

them from “doing business” in the city. 

A perceived need to put those with mental 

“disabilities” away from society prompted the 

legislature, in March 1875, to provide $25,000 

for the construction of an asylum in Topeka. 

Shawnee County donated the land, two miles 

northwest of the Statehouse. It took nearly five 

years, but when completed, the complex, built 

primarily of limestone, was four buildings large 

and housed nearly 200 patients. 


CHAPTER IV 

U NPRECEDENTED 

P ROSPERITY 

The 1880s remain one of the most prosperous times in Topeka business history. Industry was 

extensive: 10 cigar manufacturers; 9 flour and feed mills; 7 metal roof plants; 3 iron foundries; 3 

machine shops; publishing and printing shops; stone works; harness and saddle works; two door and 

blind factories; vinegar works; electric light plant; railroad shops; packing houses; candy manufacturer; 

gas works; fruit-preserve works; soda-bottling plant; tent and awning factory; carriage makers; shirt and 

shoe producers; fire escape manufacturer; washing powder company; and a furniture and trunk maker. 

L.V.R. Smith and his sons manufactured artificial limbs, braces and crutches. When business was slow 

they made knives, bows and arrows. The company eventually became Petro’s Surgical Appliances. The 

Topeka Sugar Refining Company was chartered in 1882, with Cyrus K. Holliday one of its directors, 

and The Topeka Sugar Mill opened in 1888, but was destroyed two years later by fire before resuming 

production in October 1890. Will Ripley opened the Kansas Preserving Works in 1884, producing 

jams, mincemeat, catsup, sauces, pickles and other like items. Butters Manufacturing took over the 

company and by 1893 Otto Kuehne purchased Butters. Kuehne’s Topeka Vinegar and Preserving Works 

sold an extensive line and became the most famous company of its kind in the region. Located in North 

Topeka, the company never recovered from damage it suffered in a 1903 flood and 1909 fire and by 

1917 was out of business. Baughman’s established itself as a Topeka institution. Although outside town, 

the ice cream shop was a popular post-party and date site. Until the 1950s, Baughman’s sold ice cream 

from horse drawn carriages throughout the city. 

Topeka was in rare company in 1887, when the Topeka Cotton Manufactory opened. Because most 

of the cotton crop was grown in the south, few cotton mills opened toward the West. A two-story 

building was constructed in west Topeka—it never produced more than flour. Five years later, the 

Topeka Woolen Mill in Oakland opened, but it took three years for machinery to be installed and it 

❖ 

Located just outside the Topeka city 

limits, Baughman's was one of 

Shawnee County’s most successful 

businesses, serving ice cream for more 

than seventy-five years. 



Chapter IV ✦ 37

❖ 

Above: Greenhouse owners found for 

a period during the late 1800s and 

early 1900s that apples could be 

grown in Shawnee County. This is D. 

A. Rice’s greenhouse at 1600 Kansas 

Avenue, c. 1890. 



Below: Minister W. F. Farrow gives a 

Thanksgiving sermon in 1890 at the 

Westminister Presbyterian Church. 

Presbyterians were one of the first 

religious groups to organize in Topeka, 

doing so in 1859. 



never produced goods until five years after its 

incorporation. It did, however, operate as was 

intended, turning out blankets, skirts, flannels, 

jeans, and yarns for 10 years. 

One county industry involved apples. Many 

growers planted Champagne Apple trees, 

imported from northern France in the late 

1880s, and thousands of seedlings could be 

produced on an acre of soil. Topekan J. H. 

Skinner and F. W. Watson, of St. Marys, were 

the areas most notable growers, while 

nurserymen cropped up in Rossville, Grantville, 

Soldier Township and Silver Lake. These 

orchards largely disappeared during the 

1930s depression. 

For many years, the potato was a staple 

Shawnee County crop, as dirt north of the 

county produced strong numbers of Irish and 

sweet potatoes. Beginning in the 1920s, 

however, a moderate decline in potato crops 

began, spurred by a drought in the 1930s that 

ensured the potato’s demise by the mid-1940s. 

An agricultural slump following World War I, 

depression that rocked the nation in the 1930s, 

and the drought ran a number of growers from 

the area. A flood in 1951 was the final blow, 

wiping out remaining potato patches. 

Auburn, Dover and Richland prided 

themselves on their ability to produce goods, 

particularly cheese. The communities were 

pillars of cheese production, operating the 

Dover Cheese Factory, Vassar Creek Cheese 

Company and Richland Creamery Company. 

By 1880 an estimated 26 churches of varying 

denominations had been constructed, and less 

than a decade later that number reached more 

than 50. Hispanic, Swedish, German, and black 

populations built churches as centerpieces of their 

communities. The majority of churches 

constructed by foreign settlers were spoken in 

those cultures’ native tongues. Congregationalists, 

Presbyterians, Lutherans and Methodists all 

completed impressive structures. 

Episcopalians completed Grace Church at 

Seventh and Jackson Street in 1865 and on June 

5, 1879, a church convention elevated Grace to a 

cathedral for the dioceses of Kansas. This honor 


meant the current church was not adequate, and 

plans were designed for a $100,000 cathedral to 

be erected on Eighth Street beginning October 

1887. However, money was scarce, and it was 22 

years later, 1909, before construction began. The 

towers were not completed until 1955. On 

Thanksgiving eve 1975, fire gutted the cathedral, 

but it was rebuilt. 

Only a few 1880s churches survive, the 

largest being the First Presbyterian. The 

cornerstone was laid May 5, 1884 and the 

church dedicated April 12, 1885. 

Churches outside the city did not prosper 

like their capital city counterparts, primarily 

because smaller populations meant smaller 

resources. Methodist and Baptists were the 

primary denominations in most towns, with 

either a resident or circuit preacher conducting 

services. In some cases, denominations shared 

space. In Auburn, Baptists and Presbyterians 

cooperated on the construction of Union 

Church, in 1877, which still stands. 

Topeka’s first water works division opened in 

1881, although many believed it was late in 

arriving. Water was taken from the Kansas River, 

purified and pumped throughout the city. The 

Topeka Water Supply Company was given 

authority to lay water pipes, maintain the supply 

and provide no fewer than 150 hydrants. After 

twenty years, the city agreed to buy the company 

and bring it into government operations. 

Unaware of just how close modern modes of 

public transportation were, in 1881 the Topeka 

city council granted exclusive rights to the City 

Railway Company to lay track and operate a 

horse-drawn rail system on Kansas Avenue and 

other thoroughfares. Less than eight years later, 

electric trolley cars arrived. City Railway 

Company, however, retained exclusive 

transportation rights, and more modern trolley 

cars were forced to use side streets and alternative 

routes, while horse-drawn wagons were given 

right-of-way on Kansas Avenue. It was May 1896 

before the last horse-drawn wagon made its final 

public transportation journey. 

Mechanized transportation appeared in 

1887, when the Topeka Rapid Transit Railway 

Company built electric poles for trolleys. To 

generate electricity, small steam locomotives 

were designed to look like miniature passenger 

cars and traveled the lines. Noisy and 

distracting, a handful of citizens were outraged, 

believing the noise would frighten horses and 

lead to deaths. Modern technology eventually 

converted skeptics and, by 1889, more than 42 

miles of street railway crisscrossed the city. 

❖ 

Top, left: Grace Cathedral Episcopal 

Church at Eighth and Polk Streets. 

Episcopalians were one of the more 

influential denominations in Shawnee 

County during early development. 



Above: Grace Cathedral Episcopal 

Church after a Thanksgiving 1975 

fire. The cathedral was rebuilt. 



Chapter IV ✦ 39

❖ 

Right: Kansas Avenue, c. 1896. 



Below: Electric trolley cars, such as 

this one in the lower center traveling 

down Fifth and Kansas Avenue, were 

the most common form of public 

transportation until the mid-1900s. 

By the turn of 1900, more than fortytwo 

miles of track lined city streets. 



Bottom, right: The Right Reverend 

Thomas Hubbard Vail, who along 

with his wife, Ellen Bowman, is 

credited with starting Christ’s Church 

Hospital in 1884. 



Opposite, top: A modern sketch of the 

Grand, one of Topeka’s first and finest 

theaters, first hosting live performances 

and then converted to a movie theater. 

Built in 1882 it closed down in 1984. 



Opposite, middle: The famed 

Marshall’s Band at the Santa Fe 

Railroad Station around 1910. 



Opposite, bottom: Jane C. Stormont 

Hospital in Potwin, c. 1895. 



With growth came entertainment. Perhaps 

Topeka’s most famous theatre, the Grand, opened 

October 1881. Costing around $60,000, it was the 

largest facility of its kind, and was used for nearly 

100 years. The first moving picture shown in 

Shawnee County appeared at the Grand on 

January 28, 1899, and by 1920, the Grand was 

primarily a movie house. One year after the 

Grand’s construction, the Topeka House opened, 

and its debut performance was by the Grand 

English Opera Company. With a few professional 

theatres, Topeka attracted a number of famous 

performers. Vaudeville played at the major Topeka 

Theatre’s—the most famous places for this being 

the Novelty in the early years and the Jayhawk 

Theatre beginning in the mid-1920s. 

Topeka’s well-known music group, Marshall’s 

Band, played its first notes in 1884, evolving from 

a small Republican Party band. John. B Marshall 

grew the group to more than 50 members, all 

amateurs performing popular and classical music. 

In 1889 the band participated in President 

Benjamin Harrison’s inauguration parade. 

Ellen Bowman Vail and her husband, the Right 

Reverend Thomas Hubbard Vail, the first 

Episcopal bishop of Kansas, lost their ten-year-old 

son in 1878 due to complications from illness. 

The same year, Ellen Bowman Vail nearly died 

from a prolonged illness, the side effect causing 

her to lose her sight. The tragedies motivated the 

Vails, and Ellen purchased property west of 

downtown Topeka while Bishop Vail pledged to 

raise $10,000 and called upon Topekans to do 

likewise so a hospital could be built. The Vails 

raised enough so in August 1884 a two-story 

frame hospital named Christ’s Hospital was 

opened. It had six private rooms and four wards 

housing six patients each. There was a resident 

physician, and it cost $7 per week for bed patients 

and $6 per week for convalescents. Improvements 

were made through the years, with the founding, 

for example, of the Christ’s Hospital Training 

School whose first nurse graduated in 1894. A 

new one-hundred-bed Christ’s Hospital opened in 


1927, and would eventually merge with the Jane 

C. Stormont hospital. 

Topeka’s boom was in full force, and with it 

subdivisions surrounded the city. Many of these 

subdivisions eventually became part of the larger 

city, but a portion are still known: Lowman Hill, 

College Hill, Potwin, Oakland, Quinton Heights 

and Highland Park. Many began along train tracks. 

The oldest subdivisions are the City of Potwin 

Place and College Hill. J.B. Whitaker, a county 

surveyor, registered College Hill on November 5, 

1880, at the request of Washburn University 

officials. The university was far from the city 

limits, and Washburn President Peter McVicar 

envisioned homes and dormitories being built 

there for students. The original land was small, 

just north of the school. But the land soon filled 

and College Hill was expanded, growing large 

enough that a primary school was built. 

Commercial development still marks College Hill 

at the intersection of Fifteenth and Lane Streets. 

Charles W. Potwin designed the City of 

Potwin Place as an upscale hub where the upper 

class would live. A native of Zanesville, Ohio, 

Potwin bought 70 acres west of Topeka for $200 

per acre. The area was subdivided in 1882, and 

its design remains intact. Potwin planted an 

estimated 2,000 elms on the land to create a 

secluded feel, and began selling plots for $2,000 

each in 1885. By 1888, more than 600 people 

lived in Potwin, and in 1895 the Jane C. 

Stormont Hospital opened. The wealth of those 

living there allowed it to build a school, along 

with modern amenities such as sewage, gas, 

water and telephone. 

Highland Park’s founder had a vision similar to 

Potwin’s, but not the success. Major J.K. Hudson 

founded Highland Park east of Topeka in 1887, 

near the Highland Park Circle Railway. He built five 

homes, each with eight or more rooms. But the 

wealthy individuals Hudson, a newspaper owner, 

hoped to attract never migrated to the area, instead 

opting for Potwin Place. It was not until after World 

War II that the area experienced growth with the 

development of a shopping district and new 

homes. On September 5, 1957, Highland Park 

became one of the last major tracts of developed 

land annexed by Topeka. 

J. B. Billard and Freeman Sardou established 

Oakland in North Topeka by 1887, and it grew 

to be an important working-class community 

with more than five hundred residents by 1889. 

Housing was affordable and the community was 

clean, with no liquor establishments. A library, 

school district and high school were 

Chapter IV ✦ 41

constructed. The community incorporated in 

1903, with F.A. Brigham elected mayor. By the 

1930s, Oakland was a vibrant community for 

Mexican and Spanish speaking residents. The 

growing Hispanic population in Oakland led 

the Augustinian Recollect Fathers to establish 

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in 

1914. Our Lady of Guadalupe school was 

formed soon after. By 1921, a combination 

church and school were constructed near the 

corner of Crane & Branner Streets. The twostory 

building was built by Mexican 

parishioners, and in 1928 a parish house and 

hall were added. To raise money for the parish, 

the church held the first Mexican Fiesta in the 

summer of 1932. The event has grown into a 

citywide phenomenon, considered one of the 

most important yearly community activities. By 

1947, it was evident the small church could not 

accommodate the church’s growth, and on 

August 15, 1948, a new church was completed. 

One of the more successful black newspapers 

statewide, The American Citizen, was started in 

1888 by John L. Walker, also a deputy county 

attorney. The same year he began his publishing 

enterprise, Walker was elected as an at-large 

Republican elector for the presidential election— 

one of the first blacks to serve on the Electoral 

College. President Benjamin Harrison appointed 

Walker consul to Madagascar in 1891, and 

before the turn of the century Walker formed the 

Afro-American Cuban Emigration Society, 

encouraging blacks to move to the country. 

❖ 

Top: Homes on Greenwood Street in 

Potwin, which was created as a 

community for Topeka’s wealthy. 



Above: The College Hill subdivision 

was an active place for college 

students, such as these in the 

early 1920s, because of its proximity 

to Washburn. 



Right: Potwin development in 1888. 




Few knew when the Reverend Charles M. 

Sheldon founded Topeka’s Central Congregational 

United Church of Christ in 1888 that the religious 

leader would become a household name 

worldwide. Located at 1248 Southwest Buchanan, 

Central Congregational was a small church that 

attained a substantial following. For more than 

thirty years, Sheldon preached against the sins of 

liquor, smoking, war, racism and anti-Semitism. 

Although a native of Wellsville, New York, 

Sheldon fit in with Midwest parishioners. He was 

well-educated, attending prep schools as a boy, 

Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, 

and Andover Theological Seminary in Andover, 

Massachusetts. His skill was an ability to relate the 

gospel to the common person, showing them how 

it applied to their daily life. His popularity 

reached new heights through his writings, the 

most successful of which was In His Steps, today 

translated into nearly every language and the 

tenth most read book in the world. 

In His Steps is the story of the self-satisfied 

congregants of a Midwestern church challenged 

by a tramp to live up to their declaration of 

faith. The tramp dies in their midst, and so 

moved are the congregants that they pledge to 

live their lives for one year by asking, “What 

Would Jesus Do?” The saying has become 

popular worldwide, placed on everything from 

t-shirts to bracelets. 

The story began as a series of sermons by 

Sheldon, with a chapter recited each week and 

❖ 

Above: Central Congregational 

Church Bulletin from 1917. With 

Charles Sheldon as minister, the 

church became one of the most 

popular in Shawnee County. 



Top, left: J.K. Hudson and his family 

home in Highland Park, Twentyseventh 

and Virginia Street, in the late 

1800s. Hudson founded the Highland 

Park area. 



Below: The interior of Our Lady of 

Guadalupe Catholic Church, c. 1961. 

A vibrant Mexican population in 

Oakland prompted the construction of 

Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1914, and 

a reconstruction in 1948. 



Chapter IV ✦ 43

❖ 

Above: Reverend Charles Sheldon on 

the cover of The Advance, a Chicago 

weekly that published a series of 

Sheldon’s sermons that became the 

basis for In His Steps. In His Steps 

is the tenth most read book in 

the world 



Below: Rock Island Train depot, 

c. 1900. 



containing a cliffhanger, enticing parishioners to 

return the following Sunday. In November 

1896, The Advance, a Chicago religious 

magazine, began printing a chapter each week. 

Once completed, The Advance published the 

complete story as a book, and it was an instant 

hit. However, neither the publisher or Sheldon 

filed proper copyright papers, so In His Steps has 

been printable by anyone, with no fees attached. 

The most famous gathering spot for upperclass 

men beginning in 1889 was the Topeka 

Club, at Sixth and Harrison Streets. Opened by 

two lawyers, it became a gathering spot for the 

county’s prominent men. Since it served alcohol 

and denied membership to some, the club was 

viewed as elitist and despised. Women were 

occasionally allowed, primarily on “Ladies’ 

Nights.” The club was shut down in 1921. 

Before the Topeka Club, the city’s most elite club 

had been the St. Ananias Club, where men went 

and told tall tales with the goal of each meeting 

being to see who could tell the biggest lie. This 

group, comprised of some of the city’s most 

important citizens, disbanded in the 1920s. 

Public transportation was in fast transition by 

the 1890s as the horse and buggy were retired 

by electricity, steam power and the gas engine. 

Competition between transit companies was 

fierce, with the Rapid Transit Company and City 

Railway Company fighting for customers. At 

one point, both laid tracks to the new Rock 

Island train depot, although the city had granted 

City Railway Company exclusive right to do so. 

Workers from one company would tear out the 

tracks of the other company, the other company 

would rebuild and then tear out the 

competition’s tracks. This went back and forth 

until a court injunction forced the parties to 

cease. By 1892, Topeka Railway Company 

purchased most of the small transit companies, 

including Rapid Transit, and became the largest 

transportation provider until 1920, when it was 


purchased by Kansas Power & Light. For a 

period in 1915, small gas-powered buses, called 

jitneys, competed against the trolleys. Despite 

the fact that more than 100 jitneys were 

operated by various individuals, the five-cent 

rides did not last longer than one year, but were 

important precursors to the buses that would 

travel the streets a decade later. The first smog of 

a gasoline bus wafted through Topeka in 1925, 

marking the beginning of the end for trolleys. 

The buses’ ability to travel to nearly any area 

was a significant selling point over the trolleys, 

which had to stay within limited routes. 

Years of political bickering came to a head 

in 1893, disrupting state governance and 

forcing Topeka to play a part in an event 

unlike any other in state politics. Since its 

founding, Shawnee County’s politics have 

been predominantly Republican. Populists 

temporarily disrupted Republican dominance in 

1892, when the Populist ticket was elected and 

the party took five of eight congressional seats. 

When the legislature reconvened in January 

1893, Republicans refused to recognize the 

Populists as a legitimate party, and Republicans 

and Populists organized their own House of 

❖ 

Above: A crowd gathers outside of 

the state capitol building in the late 

nineteenth century. 



Below: Republicans refused to give up 

the capitol chamber to Populists 

in January 1893. 



Chapter IV ✦ 45

❖ 

Top: The 1932 City Baseball League 

Champions. Baseball was the most 

popular sport in Shawnee County for 

more than one hundred years. 



Above: Weather permitting, Shawnee 

Countians were known to occasionally 

play hockey in local parks, as these 

kids take to the ice in the 1940s. 



Representatives. When the session was called to 

order, each party elected their own Speaker of 

the House, and the two shared a desk the first 

day, going so far as to sleep under the same 

blanket next to the desk that night, in 

fear if one left, the other would take control of 

the proceedings. 

The Populists were the recognized majority 

in the legal body, but after it became clear 

Republicans would not recognize them, Populist 

lawmakers barricaded the doors of the House of 

Representatives. On January 15, Republican 

lawmakers hammered down the doors, forcing 

out the Populists and taking control of the 

room. Several militia companies were called to 

ensure no bloodshed occurred but they had no 

authority to resolve the situation. Adding to the 

confusion was the Shawnee County sheriffs’ 

office, which declared itself the official 

peacekeeper and supplied deputies to 

Republicans to ensure their barricades held, and 

helped them receive supplies. Before the month 

ended, negotiations resulted in an agreement 

that Republicans would continue to meet in the 

House of Representatives, while Populists met 

in a separate room. This tête-à-tête did not 

conclude until the Kansas Supreme Court 

ruled that Republicans represented the legal 

legislative house, and the populists were forced 

to integrate despite the injustice. By 1894 the 

Populists’ reign ended. 

To distract themselves from the political 

nonsense, Shawnee Countians relied on 

athletics and traveling shows. Football arrived 

as early as 1893, when a Topeka High team 

recorded a 6-4 victory against Washburn 

College. High school and college teams played 

often, as there would otherwise have been a lack 

of competition. Sports have always been 

important in Shawnee County, beginning with 

Buffalo hunts in the 1870s and ’80s. Boxing, 

rowing and horse racing were constants, with 

matches and races held every weekend. Silver 

Lake and Topeka often competed for money in 

regatta races on the Kansas River. 

Baseball was the most popular sport. Topeka 

possessed numerous teams, including the 

Shawnees, Prairie Club and Capitols. The games 

were events, with the Topeka Brass Band playing 

between innings. Tecumseh had the Plowboys 

and Monmouth Township the Modocs. By 1880, 

Washburn and University of Kansas teams 

played each other. That same year professional 

baseball came to Topeka: the Westerners joined 

the Western League, a six club division which 

included Leavenworth, St. Joseph’s, Lincoln, 

Denver and Leadville. In the 1920s, a Topeka 

team was affiliated with the professional St. 

Louis Cardinals, and in the 1950s, the Reds 

were a farm team for the Cincinnati Reds. Many 

of these teams played on fields at Kenwood, 

near Potwin at Washburn University, and in 

Highland Park. Softball is said to have 

originated in Topeka in 1916. As legend goes, 

Santa Fe employees looking for something to do 

on lunch breaks created a soft ball that could be 

batted around indoors. 


Circuses also began to stop in the area, with 

P. T. Barnum’s Circus having first traveled 

through in 1872. 

Kindergarten came to Shawnee County by 

way of the church in 1893. The Rev. Charles 

Sheldon and a group of citizens were worried 

that poor children were not having their 

educational needs met. On April 3, 1893, the 

group opened the Topeka Kindergarten 

Association in Union Hall, along with a reading 

room and library for Tennesseetown residents. 

More than two hundred children enrolled 

opening day. The Topeka Kindergarten 

Association provided the only free kindergarten 

until 1908, when it became standard at all 

public schools. 

In Spring 1895, Edward Stephaus and Izzie 

Reddick opened a kindergarten for black children 

on Washington Street. In 1896, growth forced a 

move to a room on Kansas Avenue and by 1898 

the school purchased a two-story brick and stone 

building on Kansas Avenue, between 17th and 

18th streets. This growth caught the attention of 

the community and it became a state project. In 

1903, with private donations and grants from the 

legislature, the school purchased 105 acres a half 

mile east of the city limits. The school became an 

educational institution that helped blacks who 

attended to obtain higher-paying jobs. Eight 

buildings were constructed with classrooms, 

auditorium, library, gymnasium, two 

dormitories, barn and two small trade buildings. 

The school changed its name various times and 

provided kindergarten through high school. In 

1951, it became a college under the name Kansas 

Technical Institute. As successful as the school 

was, the Brown v. Board of Education decision 

that ended segregation also ended the institute. 

One of Topeka’s more prominent publishers 

—responsible for the city’s current daily 

newspaper, the Topeka Capital-Journal—began 

his empire in the fall of 1893. A former capitol 

reporter, Arthur C. Capper purchased the North 

Topeka Mail for $2,500. Two years later, Capper’s 

Mail and the Kansas Breeze, owned by Thomas 

McNeal, merged to form Kansas’ largest weekly 

newspaper. It evolved into a rural journal, still 

published, under the name Capper’s. Capper 

and his wife, Florence, daughter of former 

Governor Samuel J. Crawford, purchased the 

Daily Capital and the Capital Publishing empire 

for $50,000. By 1920, the Cappers owned 

publications in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, 

Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Capper also 

owned, for a time, the Kansas City Kansan. On 

July 31, 1941, Capper’s Daily and the Journal 

merged business operations, but printed 

separate publications until the papers were 

bought in 1956 and merged. Arthur Capper 

died in 1951. 

Soon after arriving in Topeka in 1899, Nick 

Chiles become one of the most well-known 

blacks in the county. He owned a hotel, saloon 

and considerable real estate. His hotel at 116 

❖ 

Left: The circus was a major form of 

entertainment in Shawnee County, 

and during the early 1900s the 

YMCA Gymnasium was where many 

performances occurred. This program 

is is from the 1909 Barley & 

Bayrum’s Circus. 



Below: The Sheldon Kindergarten 

Band, c. the late 1800s. The Reverend 

Charles Sheldon help found Shawnee 

County’s first kindergarten, from 

which this group was born. 



Chapter IV ✦ 47

❖ 

Above: The Capper Publications 

building on Tenth Street, 

which housed Arthur Capper’s 

publishing empire. 



Top, right: Thomas McNeal’s Kansas 

Breeze merged with the Capper’s 

Mail in the late 1800s, forming 

the county’s largest newspaper of 

the time. 



East Seventh was described as the leading black 

hotel in the city, and his real estate holdings 

included three buildings on East Seventh Street 

and a farm in the Kaw River Valley. He published 

the Plaindealer, which with a circulation of more 

than eleven states set new standards for the black 

press. The paper was published until 1958, 

making it one of the longest running black 

newspapers in Kansas history. The Plaindealer 

was outspoken, leading a crusade against 

lynching, discrimination and segregation, 

causing many areas in the south to ban the 

publication. Chiles also served as business 

manager for Carry Nation’s The Smasher’s Mail. 

Chiles’ large printing plant was located at 1129 

Kansas Avenue, and he died in 1929. 

Bottom, left: Capper’s Magazine 

was one of many publications 

owned by local publishing magnate 

Arthur C. Capper. 



Bottom, right: An issue of The 

Smasher’s Mail with Carry Nation on 

the cover. Nick Chiles, a famous black 

publisher, edited the publication. 




CHAPTER V 

A NEW 

C ENTURY 

At the turn of the century, there were 1,276 adults and nearly 1,800 children in Topeka, the majority 

living in a 45-block stretch from the river to Fifteenth Streets and on Tyler and Harrison Streets. 

Because of this growth, it was determined Topeka needed a consolidated city hall. The City Hall was 

constructed in 1900, along with a city auditorium, for $76,611. Before this construction, city offices were 

anywhere the council could find a room, often renting from store owners. In December 1878, a 

municipal building was constructed at southwest Kansas Avenue and Seventh Street for $38,000, with 

empty rooms rented that generated enough revenue to pay off debt accrued from construction. 

The outside perception of Kansans has often been that of country folk who wait for technology to 

reach them. It is a misconception far from the truth, as Shawnee Countians have a history of undergoing 

efforts ahead of the times. Had it not been for early economic struggles, Topeka might have been a focal 

point of the automobile and aeronautical industries. The city was also progressive in telephone service. 

In 1900, Terry Stafford, a bicycle repair shop owner, built an automobile: a wagon with a sevenhorsepower 

engine strapped to the undercarriage. Built in Stafford’s shop on East Fifth Street, the car 

could go 25 miles per hour and get 20 miles per gallon. All parts were made in Topeka except the 

rubber tires. After minor refinements, Stafford approached brothers Anton and Clement Smith, local 

businessmen who produced a range of goods from cigars to knives, to help him manufacture and sell 

the cars. By 1903, the Smith brothers constructed an automobile factory at the corner of 10th and 

Jefferson streets. The cars produced were called, among other things, the “Smith” and the “Great 

Smith.” By 1904, of the 31 automobiles owned by Topekans, 13 were “Veracitys’” manufactured by 

the Smith Company. It seemed the factory would be a national success, particularly when the 

company contracted with a New York group for 130 cars for $338,000. 

Competition, however, from Detroit manufacturers with deeper pockets and extensive resources 

made it impossible for Stafford and the Smith brothers to compete, and the Smith Automobile 

Company was sold to the Perfection Metal Silo Co. of Kansas City, in 1912, which led to the factory’s 

❖ 

Topeka’s early city hall and 

auditorium, circa the early 1900s. 



Chapter V ✦ 49

❖ 

An illustration of the Smith 

Automobile Factory, which produced 

cars during the early decades of the 

1900s in Topeka. 



closing. Perhaps it was before its time, as by 

1913, Shawnee County would lead all counties 

in Kansas in applications for automobile 

licenses, with 569 requested. 

Telephone service spread through the county 

much like electricity services, although a bit 

faster with less infrastructure needed to support 

telephone lines. By 1895, services were so 

prevalent that a telephone price war erupted. 

The Harrison Telephone Company, locally 

owned, charged $36 per year for business 

phones, compared to $48 charged by Bell 

Company. Bell offered business and home 

service. To beat out the local competition, Bell 

reduced its rates as low as $18, and told 

customers they could switch at that rate, but 

would have to drop Harrison as their business 

phone provider. Harrison, with no choice, 

announced it would also charge the same 

low rate. 

The most popular Topeka gathering spot at 

the turn of the century was Vinewood Park – 

with its sprawling landscape, open fields and 

wooded groupings, it was an ideal place for 

recreation. In July 1903, the park expanded, and 

more then 7,000 residents attended the opening 

celebration, consuming more than 40 gallons of 

ice cream and 100 gallons of lemonade. 

Vinewood contained a penny arcade, theater, 

dance hall, movie theatre, carousel and swings. 

Guilford G. Gage arrived in Topeka in 1856, a 

brick manufacturer from Ohio. A philanthropist, 

Gage donated to many causes. On the land that 

would become Gage Park, Gage was excavating in 

1896 for coal when he discovered a natural spring. 

The large excavation hole instantly filled with 

water and so Gage had his workers create a lake. 

In the late 1890s, Gage announced his 

intentions to donate this land to the city for a 

park, near what is now S.W. 6th and Gage. Gage 

died May 19, 1899, before he could develop the 

area. In his honor, Gage’s heirs donated 80 acres 

to the city, with the stipulation the land forever 

be used as a park or it would revert to the heirs. 

The first park board reported, in 1900, that the 

land included 1.5 miles of fence, a lake and boat 

house, an apple orchard, and a six-room house 

and barn. In 1910, Louisa Gage, Guilford’s 

widow, donated money to construct an arch 

gateway into the park from S.W. 6th, while an 

entrance was created off 8th Street to 

accommodate a streetcar line. A swimming pool, 

tennis and basketball courts were constructed in 

1913, and in 1953 the last purchase of land was 

made, increasing the park to its current size of 

160 acres. The original pool was replaced in 

1957 with an Olympic size pool and remodeled 

in 2002. The original bathhouse was converted 

into a theater, and is home to the Helen Hocker 

Theater. A mini-train was installed, owned and 


operated by A. C. McCall in 1967, and still takes 

passengers on a one-mile loop around the park. 

The Gage Park Carousel was built in 1908, 

purchased by Charles Boyle in 1957, and 

brought to Topeka. The carousel, which 

contains a 1909 Wurlitzer band organ, was 

restored in 1989 and is next to the swimming 

pool. The park is also home to softball and 

baseball diamonds, a rose garden, rock garden, 

playgrounds and picnic facilities. 

Many historians trace the roots of the 

Pentecostal movement to Shawnee County, 

beginning in 1900. The Reverend Charles Fox 

Parham, former Methodist minister, opened the 

short-lived Bethel Bible College of Topeka. 

Parham is regarded as the theological father of the 

Pentecostal movement. Basing his teachings on 

New Testament sources, Parham structured the 

theological movement around the idea that the 

Holy Spirit would be accompanied by 

supernatural manifestations, including speaking 

in tongues. The events occurring at Bethel Bible 

College, located in a mansion at Southwest 

Eighteenth and Stone Street drew the attention of 

national newspapers 

Today, the Pentecostal movement has more 

than six hundred million members worldwide, 

making it the fastest growing segment of 

Christianity. Despite its success, the early 

movement suffered ridicule and harassment. 

Eventually Parham and his followers were 

forced out of Bethel Bible College, and the 

building burned to the ground. Parham, in the 

meantime, moved around the state, including a 

stop in Kansas City, soliciting followers, some 

whom began preaching Pentecostal beliefs 

nationwide. Parham was dogged by criticism 

and accusations, which tarnished his reputation 

so much that for many years he was left out of 

Pentecostal history books. He died in the 1920s, 

and in recent decades his image as the father of 

the movement has been restored. 

A contemporary of Parham was local Reverend 

Clarence “C. E.” Foster, who in the early 1900s 

helped push the movement across the state. 

Foster opened a summer camp for meetings in 

1905, which became so controversial that in 

1915 Foster and other Pentecostal leaders were 

jailed for inciting “frenzy” and allowing children 

at the meetings. The camps, held at Garfield Park 

at 1600 Northeast Quincy, were successful, and 

became a gathering place for individuals near and 

far. The event is held today at Forest Park 

Campgrounds, 3158 Southeast Tenth Street. 

A few days of rain was all it took for the mighty 

Kansas River to creep from its banks. Despite 

warnings, development continued in the flood 

plain areas, and in 1903 waters unleashed upon 

the city. A visit from President Theodore Roosevelt 

was to mark a ceremonious time in May 1903. 

Instead rains began in the middle of the month 

and flooding began in the low-lying districts of 

North Topeka. Waters more than twenty-five feet 

deep suffocated North Topeka and Oakland. For 

days, North Topekans scrambled to south of 

Topeka, escaping the destruction, while others 

stayed behind, believing the waters would cause 

little destruction. Those who stayed needed 

❖ 

Above: Out for a drive in their Smith 

Automobile, this groups stops to 

admire the prairie in this 1907 photo 

by John F. Strickrott. The short-lived 

Smith Automobile was manufactured 

in Topeka. 



Below: Looking northwest from the 

Union Pacific Depot into North 

Topeka during the 1903 flood. 



Chapter V ✦ 51

❖ 

Top: A rescue boat during the 1903 

flood delivers supplies and takes 

citizens to safety. 



Above: The Kansas River rose to 

worrisome levels in April 1904, rising 

near the bottom of the train tracks 

which connected North and South 

Topeka along the Melan Bridge. While 

these waters never broke the river's 

banks, as it had the year before, 

flooding destroyed many homes and 

businesses. 



rescuing and men used fishing boats to move 

North Topekans across the river and strung cables 

across rushing waters for people to pull 

themselves along. 

Anyone with a boat began running back and 

forth across the river, taking citizens to high 

ground in South Topeka. Edward Grafstrom 

drowned while doing rescue work. Credited 

with saving hundreds of lives in a small sidewheel 

steamer which he designed and built, his 

boat capsized during a rescue attempt. When 

waters subsided, carcasses of dead animals 

littered the North, and burning began 

immediately. Flooding also struck Rossville, 

Silver Lake and Tecumseh, although not as 

severe. Berryton was flooded by Lynn Creek. 

Floods would again do damage in 1908, 

1919 and 1935, but nothing close to the 

disaster of 1903—until forty-eight years later. 

As recent as 2004, the Topeka City Council 

debated whether its structure and the city’s form 

of government adequately served citizens. It is a 

debate with a reoccurring thread in city history. 

In the early 1900s, the city needed Kansas 

Legislature approval to change its form, and in 

March 1909 the legislature cleared the way for 

non-partisan primaries and elections, city civil 

service elections, and the recall of 

commissioners. In a special election November 

2, 1909, voters approved a commission form of 

government. Under commission form, the city 

was ruled by five commissioners, one of whom 

was a mayor elected every two years. This was a 

change from the mayor-council form of 

government Topeka operated under since its 

inception, which gave more control to the 

mayor, elected every four years. The first 

municipal election under the commission form 

was held April 5, 1910, and J. B. Billiard was 

elected mayor. In 1929, 1952, 1962, 1964 and 

1969, voters defeated proposals to alter the city 

government structure in various forms. In 1976, 

voters approved a strong mayor-city council 

structure, which exists today and is a closer 

return to the city’s original structure. 

The car was a common novelty by 1909, 

with around three hundred vehicles registered 

to county residents. This led to Topeka 

and Shawnee County’s first official traffic 

laws when Topeka City Commissioners 

established a downtown speed limit of 9 miles 

per hour and an 18 mile per hour limit in the 

rest of the city and an age limit of 18 years-old 

was established. Within six years, more than 

3,000 cars traveled city streets. Automobile 

races and associations became regular parts of 

life. The county fair in September 1902 

showcased the first race. This fast growth 

also brought about the creation of a motorized 

police force. 

Mechanics were revolutionizing the local 

wheat harvest by 1910, as harvesting was almost 

exclusively being done with machines that 

helped cut and bind wheat. It is unrecorded as 

to when the first gasoline tractor took a spin 

around the county, but there were several by 

this time. After World War I, gas engine trucks 


and tractors replaced all horse and wagons, 

followed by a web of power lines which brought 

electricity to county farmhouses. 

The Sisters of Charity from Leavenworth 

opened St. Francis Hospital in 1909, with the 

goal of providing comprehensive services to the 

poor. Nearly one hundred years later, the hospital 

thrives as one of three in the area, Stormont-Vail 

Healthcare and the VA Medical Center hospitals 

being the others. Santa Fe operated a hospital for 

a period, exclusively for Santa Fe employees. 

Few female American writers were able to 

make a living, let alone garner national exposure, 

during the early 1920s. One who did was not a 

Topeka native, but did her influential work while 

living in the city. Margaret Hill McCarter arrived 

in 1888, an English teacher and dentist’s wife. In 

1910, McCarter’s first novel, The Price of Prairies, 

became a bestseller and was continually printed 

for the following two decades. McCarter 

published eighteen novels, each a romantic 

adventure with suspenseful narratives. The 

novels focused on pioneers and were set on the 

prairies toward the West. This success allowed 

McCarter to become the first woman to speak at 

a national political convention, speaking in 1920 

before the Republicans. 

The World Famous Topeka Zoo began by 

accident, without any substantial planning by 

citizens. In 1911, Norris Gage, brother of 

Guilford Gage, purchased seven buffalo and kept 

them in a two-acre fenced area on the southwest 

side of today’s Gage Park. One year later, two 

alligators, 25 monkeys and several bears were 

added. It would be 20 more years, in 1933, that 

a collection was put together creating a zoo. It 

began with Monkey Island, which included a 

trapeze and miniature of City Hall. Monkeys, 

pelicans and spoonbills shared the island. 

Friends of the Zoo, the facilities oversight board, 

was formed in 1964, and two years later the 

Animals and Man Building was constructed. The 

Tropical Rain Forest followed in 1974, 

Discovering Apes in 1981 and Lion’s Pride in 

1988. Additions through the years also include: 

African Savannah, Birds of Prey, Black Bear 

Woods, Children’s Zoo, and Waterbird Lagoon. 

From the zoo and Reinisch Rose Garden grew 

Gage Park, which also is home to a public 

swimming pool, playgrounds, shelter houses and 

the Helen Hocker Center for the Performing Arts. 

Flight was popular in Topeka by 1911, when 

the balloon Topeka II, piloted by Ralph Emerson, 

made its first air voyage, a twenty-one-mile ride. 

On July 9, the Western Aero Association entered 

the balloon in a national race at Kansas City. 

Frank M. Jacobs was the pilot, but the balloon 

was forced down after 190 miles. The winner 

flew 252 miles. 

Cities such as Seattle, Washington, and 

Wichita, Kansas, may have become known for 

their ability to build top-flight aircraft. But the 

same year Topeka II flew, a pair of Kansas 

brothers tried to make Topeka an aircraft mecca. 

Albin K. and Erenius Longren were motorcycle 

builders from Leonardville, Kansas, whose 

dream was to produce the world’s finest flying 

machines. On September 2, 1911, the brothers 

gave Shawnee County its first flight—a brief and 

bumpy ride that crested at a distance of two 

hundred feet. Soon, the brother’s had their 

aircraft making trips longer than five miles. 

It was impossible not to be fascinated by the 

Longren’s work, and among the admirers was L. 

Philip Billiard, twenty-one-year-old son of Topeka 

Mayor J.B. Billiard. By 1912, it was not uncommon 

to behold Philip cruising around the capital 

building in a Longren-built biplane that could 

travel as fast as 80 miles per hour. For between $5 

and $15 per ride, Billiard would give rides to brave 

souls. Between the Longrens, Billiard and a few 

other pilots, Shawnee Countians became 

❖ 

Above: The cover of a thirty-ninepage 

booklet available to voters 

detailing Topeka's 1909 change in city 

governement structure. Topeka's form 

of government was changed twice by 

voters during the first 150 years, and 

proposed changes were voted down 

five other times. 



Below: The Shawnee County 

Fairgrounds in 1941. 



Chapter V ✦ 53

❖ 

Above: Margaret Hill McCarter became 

a bestselling author while living in 

Topeka during the early 1900s. 



Right: A dance in 1950 at the 

Veteran’s Administration Hospital at 

Twenty-first and Gage Streets. The 

Hospital is one of three major 

healthcare facilities in Topeka, and 

takes care of veterans from across 

Shawnee County and Kansas. 



Below: The original enclosures of the 

Gage Park zoo were simple fences like 

the one pictured here in the 1920s. 



accustomed to the sounds and sights of planes 

buzzing around. It was not uncommon for the 

flights to end in crashes, coming down in the river 

or a farmer’s pasture. Most of those in the crashes 

were rarely injured, although a few died. Billiard 

was commissioned captain of the aero corps of the 

Kansas National Guard in 1916; and in 1917 

received $3,000 from the legislature to open an 

aviation school in Topeka. He died in July 1918 

while testing a plane in France for the U.S. military. 

The Philip Billiard Municipal Airport in North 

Topeka is named after the aviator. 

By 1919, A. K. Longren decided to make 

Topeka a center for aircraft development. Setting 

up in an abandoned woolen mill in Oakland, he 

was determined to mass produce aircraft. The goal 

was to employ as many as 150 people and 

produce 20 planes per day. But manufacturing 

proved difficult, and for a few years Longren’s 

innovations proved more useful than his 

manufacturing. It was Longren who created the 

folding wing biplane. Despite early struggles, 

Longren’s factory labored on and interest 

worldwide was high. By 1924, the governments of 

France, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, China, and the 

Soviet Union expressed interest in the “New 

Longren Aircraft.” The U.S. Navy ordered a plane 

for testing. 

Money was a problem and raising enough 

proved difficult, making it impossible for 

Longren to produce the high volume of aircraft 

necessary. The community did not rally around 

Longren. The irony was that the community 

offered little support because many believed the 

factory had no future. However, had they offered 

support the factory might have changed the 

future of airplane production in the Midwest. By 

1928, the Longren aircraft was grounded. 

For nearly fifty years, Shawnee County was 

Kansas’ center for the poultry industry. In 1887 

the first Kansas poultry association was formed 


in the city, although its offices moved to 

Manhattan. But the group’s formation attracted 

poultry producers, and by 1914 the industry 

was clucking. With hens and chickens relatively 

easy to raise and their sale profit higher than 

crops, pigs or cattle, a significant number of 

fanciers surrounded Topeka and Shawnee 

County. Estimates indicate more than one 

hundred fanciers raised chickens in the area. 

Seymour Packing Company operated one of the 

largest poultry production facilities, cultivating 

more than 600 carloads of poultry and eggs 

annually by 1920. By 1927, Johnson Hatchery was 

one of the largest in the Midwest, with five 

incubators with a capacity of 47,000 eggs each. 

The Beatrice Creamery, Continental Creamery and 

Topeka Packing Company were other significant 

poultry producers. By 1960, however, many of the 

poultry companies moved and an overabundance 

of chickens forced fanciers from business. In its 

heyday, poultry in the county numbered greater 

than two hundred thousand. By 1960, the number 

was barely ninety thousand and declining. 

Creameries were also a strong industry in the 

capital city. The Continental Creamery 

distributed more than five million pounds of 

butter in 1913, 350 carloads of eggs and 100,000 

gallons of ice cream. Another group, the Beatrice 

Creamery Company, would become so strong 

that in 1919 the attorney general’s office charged 

it with violating anti-monopoly laws. 

Households with operating restrooms and 

running water became an issue in 1914, as a 

study showed that nearly 10,000 homes were not 

hooked to sewage lines. This was an indication of 

❖ 

Top, left: The Topeka II balloon 

helped bring flight to Shawnee 

County, and in 1911 was a 

participant in a national race at 

Kansas City. 



Top, right: In September 1921, the 

cover of Aerial Age magazine 

featured a photo of Topeka as taken 

from a local Longren built airplane. 



Below: A. K. Longren at the controls 

of the first successful flight in Kansas 

on September 2, 1911. 



Chapter V ✦ 55

❖ 

Above: Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine, 

secretary of the State Board of Health, 

was often seen around Topeka 

advocating health measures such as 

clean water and clean sheets. 



Below: A view of a portion of 

downtown taken from the Northeast 

corner of the dome of the Capitol 

Building, c. 1920. 



the poverty which permeated areas of the city 

and raised concerns about unsafe water. East 

Topeka had more than 7,000 residents without 

sewers. There were nearly 5,000 water wells in 

town, and more than half were polluted. North 

Topeka had the cleanest water. These facts had 

city councilmen focusing on infrastructure and 

led to the construction of more sewer lines. In 

1917, the State Board of Health sealed intakes at 

the Topeka Waterworks, saying the city’s drinking 

water was polluted and a menace to public 

health. Work began on a well to supply Topeka 

with water for domestic use, and polluted water 

already in the pipes was ordered boiled before 

drinking, until a chlorine machine could be 

installed. The concern was that unhealthy water 

was spreading fatal diseases. Topeka was dealing 

with tuberculosis, Brights’ Disease, heart disease 

and typhoid, and the cleaner the water, the safer 

the population would be. 

Health concerns were a constant consideration. 

In 1911, Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine, secretary of the 

State Board of Health, could be seen around the 

county advocating for clean sheets daily in hotel 

beds. An abundance of flies in 1914 lead to 

worries about diseases insects could pass. In an 

effort to reduce the fly population, the Topeka 

Board of Health bought flies from citizens. For 

each quart bottle of flies a citizen brought in, they 

would receive a clean bottle and a dime. Topeka 

merchants offered one cent for every two flies an 

individual killed. 

By 1914, city officials, under pressure from 

citizen’s groups, determined to crack down on 

drinking. Distilleries and saloons operated 

primarily on Kansas Avenue. A record 681 

people were arrested in 1914 for drunkenness 

and a number of long-operating saloons were 

shut down. Most saloons were discreet and 

located on the second and third floors of 

buildings, so they would not be seen. Those 

located on the ground floor along Kansas Avenue 

were fronted by legitimate businesses, like 

restaurants and cigar stores. By the 1930s, 

continual police pressure led many drinking 

establishments to relocate outside of the city 

limits. This all stopped in 1948, when Kansas 

voters repealed prohibition permanently. 

The communities of Auburn and Dover were 

relatively isolated from Topeka, but many residents 

traveled between their community and the capital 

city for work, play or shopping. By 1916, residents 

of these communities were fed up with traveling 

mud roads, they formed committees and 

demanded that modern roads be constructed 

connecting them to Topeka. Roughly $216,000 

later, roads were built. It was a boon to Topeka 

businesses, which saw an increase in outside 

revenue. For shop owners in Auburn and Dover, it 

brought about financial turmoil, as local citizens 

preferred spending money in the capital city. 

Shawnee County became more accessible to 

the rest of the county by 1920, when massive 

highway projects cut through county lines: 

Golden Belt Highway (U.S. 24); Victory 

Highway (U.S. 40); and Capital Highway (U.S. 

75). The coast-to-coast Victory Highway, 

dedicated to those who died in World War I, 

was opened at the Shawnee-Douglas County 

line by Governor Henry Allen. In 1922 the 

Topeka and Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s 

gathered on the site of the first free-state 

convention near Big Springs to celebrate the 

opening of the first paved road between the 

cities, with farmers along the way serving 

thousands of chicken dinners in celebration. 

It is no understatement to say that the roots of 

change in mental health care in the United States, 

if not the world, are planted in Shawnee County. In 

1919, Dr. Karl Menninger joined his father, C. F., 

in establishing the Menninger Clinic as a practice 

in general medicine and psychiatry. By 1925, Will 

Menninger joined his father and brother in 

focusing on offering psychiatric treatment as an 

alternative to the common practice of admitting 

people for long stays in asylums. The trio opened 


the Menninger Sanitarium in a farm house at 3535 

Southwest Sixth Street and focused on treating 

patients through intensive means, as opposed to 

bringing in individuals to live out their lives 

isolated from society. This was a radical departure 

and began an era of mental health treatment that 

continues today. 

Of the brothers, Karl, a Harvard graduate, 

became the most famous, beginning in 1930 

when his book, The Human Mind, was published. 

The book was written for professionals, but 

became a popular success. It succinctly 

communicated concepts about mental health 

treatment and was the first of fourteen books 

Menninger wrote. A number of Karl’s teachings 

and concepts continue to be taught among 

mental health professionals. He died in 1990. 

Will Menninger was also influential, making the 

cover of Time magazine in 1948. He also started 

a school of psychiatric nursing in the 1930s. The 

brothers led the fight for improved mental health 

care and kept their clinic on the cutting edge of 

research and application. 

At one point, the Menninger Clinic was so 

influential it trained ten percent of all 

psychiatrists in the United States, and treated 

numerous celebrities. It grew to the point of 

owning five hundred acres of property on a hill 

above the Kansas River, known today as 

Menninger Hill. The services created by the 

clinic were vast, covering every age group and 

mental health problem conceivable. The 

Menninger Clinic remained in Topeka until 

2003, when it moved to Houston, Texas. 

Various Santa Fe worker strikes in other 

regions of the country during the 1920s, 

❖ 

Above: Mexican railroad workers, 

circa 1921. Many Mexicans migrated 

in the early 1920s to Shawnee County 

to work for the Atchison, Topeka and 

Santa Fe Railroad. 



Below: Workers on the main line of 

the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 

Railroad in Pauline. 



Chapter V ✦ 57

❖ 

Above: WIBW broadcast the first local 

radio in 1922, and it was instantly a 

success with many families, including 

members of the Couch family, 

pictured here. 



Below: WIBW-TV studios when the 

television station signed on the air 

in 1953, the first station in 




particularly in 1922, had a cultural impact on 

Topeka. More than one hundred families moved 

from Shawnee County to fill railroad jobs vacated 

during these strikes. The majority of these families 

were German and Russian immigrants. In their 

place, Mexican workers filled the void. This 

shifted the cultural makeup of sections of the city. 

The increasing migration of Spanish speaking 

cultures to Topeka led the local school board to 

establish the Branner Annex in 1918. The long, 

L-shaped building near Second and Madison 

Streets became a segregated learning center for 

those who could not speak English. It was an 

extension of the larger Branner School, where 

whites attended primary grades. The restrooms of 

the annex were in a separate structure built of 

limestone in the back, along with the drinking 

fountains. The grades were separated in the 

annex, and there was consistent holding back 

and shuffling of students during the early years. 

The school was closed at the request of Spanishspeaking 

parents in the 1940s. 

The Ku Klux Klan had a presence in Shawnee 

County, and by the mid-1920s was estimated to 

have 5,000 members. On July 4, 1925, more 

than 15,000 people attended a Klan Fourth of 

July celebration at the Topeka fairgrounds, with 

700 hooded Klansmen parading. The presence 

of the Klan and bigotry of the times kept black 

communities isolated, and it was not until the 

late 1950s that the Gage Park swimming pool 

and Lake Shawnee bathhouse were opened to 

blacks. In the 1990s, the Klan held several 

national rallies on the Statehouse steps, attended 

by more individuals protesting against the Klan 

than those attending on behalf of the Klan. 

The first official radiophone broadcast in 

Topeka occurred February 18, 1922, when music, 

market reports and messages from a ship at sea 

were picked up. As radio swept the country, it was 

WIBW in 1927 that became Topeka’s first station. 

Originally intended to open in Logansport, 

Indiana, the Capper Syndicate (which owned the 

station, along with local newspapers and 

magazines), moved the station to Topeka. Always 

a CBS affiliate, the first studio was in the National 

Reserve Building, before moving, for a brief time 

in the 1930s to Topeka Boulevard. The station 

resided on Menninger Hill for many decades 

before recently building a station on Huntoon 

Hill. For a brief period in the 1930s, the radio 

station had its own acting company, the WIBW 

Players, made up of local talent. 

Local television debuted in Shawnee County 

in November 1953, when WIBW started a 

station. Debuting November 15, the first 

broadcast was a football game between the 

Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers, Six- 

Gun Theatre, and the Jack Benny Program. Three 

Kansas City stations already sent their signal to 

the area, so WIBW erected its transmitting 

tower on a high hill west of town, making it the 

tallest manmade structure in Shawnee County. 

WIBW was the only local station until 1967, 

when an NBC affiliate moved to town. 


CHAPTER VI 

R EDEFINING A C APITAL C OUNTY 

What began as a small home and garden developed into a city landmark, and in April 1930, 

Topeka dedicated the Reinisch Rose Garden at Gage Park. The garden was named after E. F. A. 

Reinisch, the city’s first landscaper architect and horticulturist from 1900 to 1929. Reinisch 

developed the city’s park system, and in 1926 began planning an elaborate rose garden, but funding 

fell through. Upon Reinisch’s death in 1929, The Topeka Horticulture Society raised money, 

including a large donation from Topeka attorney T. F. Doran, whose name is on the Gage Park rock 

garden. A Chicago architect, Emmett Hill, along with landscape gardener L. R. Quinlan, laid out the 

garden in June 1930. Upon its dedication, the Reinisch Rose Garden had no equal. Today, the Garden 

comprises a large portion of Gage Park and is home to roses, assorted flowers, plants, and small 

ponds. It is near Reinisch’s former home which was in the area that is now the World Famous Topeka 

Zoo. Since its dedication, the site has served as a gathering place for wedding ceremonies and those 

who enjoy an evening walk among its grass paths. It is also a nationally designated rose testing 

garden where hybrids are experimentally grown and monitored. 

The 1930s marked a turning point in local education. Years before, state authorities began 

pressing for school consolidation, lowering the overall number of schools to cut costs while creating 

fewer districts. Before this time, a school district may have only included two schools. Under 

consolidation, school districts had more schools under their control, closing other districts so the 

❖ 

The Reinisch Rose Garden at Gage 

Park, established in 1930, is a 

popular gathering spot. 



Chapter VI ✦ 59

❖ 

Above: Karl Menninger, who along 

with his father and brothers, opened 

the world-renowned Menninger Clinic 

in Topeka and revolutionized the 

mental health field. 



Below: The Reinisch Rose Garden at 

Gage Park, just more than ten years 

after its construction. 



system was more centralized. This reduced the 

number of districts in Shawnee County to a 

handful, down from more than 100. By the end 

of the war in 1944, the number of school 

districts was down to 32, and within 10 years 

the number was closer to 20, with the current 

district system that exists today having firmly 

been established. By 1965, all one-room 

schoolhouses in the county ceased to operate. 

In 1931 the city met its high school needs 

when it opened a new Topeka High School, 

which is still in use. The Topeka High built in 

1894 on Eighth Street outlived its use and, 

despite several expansions, was a fire hazard. 

Tired of dealing with high school overcrowding, 

the Topeka School District proposed 

constructing a building that would meet the 

city’s needs. In a citywide vote November 6, 

1928, the electorate agreed, approving a $1.1- 

million bond to pay for the school. Famed 

architect Thomas Williamson copied a design 

from Thomas Wolsey’s and Henry VIII’s 

Hampton Court Palace, and added a 155-foot 

bell tower. Much credit for the Gothic and 

ornate designs go to Chester Woodward, Topeka 

Board of Education president. While some 

board members were unsure of the design, 

Woodward convinced them to go along. 

The first classes were called to order 

September 1931. The structure was one of the 

grandest in the city and a worthy structure for 

the education of children. The school is one of 

Topeka’s most recognizable landmarks. The 

stunning three-story Gothic building has nearly 

278,000 square feet. The library has stained 

glass windows and a fireplace (one of four in the 

building). There is a swimming pool and an 

auditorium with chandeliers. The main hall and 

stairwells are lined with marble. While doors, 

tiles, carpeting and windows have been repaired 

or replaced through the years, much of the 

original work is still in place. 

The old high school, turned over to other 

government agencies for offices, burned down 

May 18, 1935. 

For a period of nearly ten years—1928 to 

1938—Shawnee County had considerable 

political influence on a national level. 

Nominated to fill an unexpired Senate term 

in 1909, Topekan Charles Curtis was elected 

vice-president of the United States in 1928 with 

President Herbert Hoover. Curtis was part 

Kansa Indian, and remains the only person with 

Indian blood to rise so high in government. 

Curtis spent one four-year term in the White 

House, being in office during a Wall Street crash 

for which he and Hoover were blamed. In 1932 

the duo lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

In the early thirties, Topekans Arthur Capper 

and Alfred M. Landon became well known 

political figures. Capper, already a successful 

publisher, was a U.S. Senator who made a name 

for himself as a supporter of the Kansas farmer 

and staunch supporter of Roosevelt’s New Deal. 

Landon, a Republican, was elected Kansas 

governor in 1932, defeating Topeka mayor Omar 

Ketchum, a Democrat. Four years later, Landon 

became the Republican frontrunner in the 

Presidential race of 1936. On July 23, 1936, 

Topekans flooded the grounds of the State Capitol 

as Landon was officially announced as the 

Republican nominee for President, and handed 

the daunting task of defeating Roosevelt. It proved 

too much, and in the November election Landon 

captured just two states: Maine and Vermont. 

Kansas, the beneficiary of numerous New Deal 

initiatives, handed its electoral votes to Roosevelt. 

Today, the Landon name is worn by an arena at 

the Kansas Expocentre, a state office building and 

middle school. 

During the Roosevelt administration, former 

Kansas governor and Topekan Harry Woodring 

served as secretary of war, while Georgia Neese 

Gray, of Richland, former actress and banker, 


ecame first female treasurer of the United 

States under Harry Truman, serving in that role 

most of the late 1940s. 

Topeka’s most notorious criminal of the 

1930s made his name in 1934. Alvin “Creepy” 

Karpis was born east of Topeka, and after 

turning eighteen, joined the well-known Barker 

Gang. He made headlines in February 1934 

when he and a few other men broke into the 

home of a National Bank of Topeka teller and 

tried to force him to help them break into the 

bank. The effort did not work, but made Karpis 

a household name. His reputation grew and in 

May 1936, famed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover 

oversaw Karpis’ capture. 

It seemed a good idea when drawn up in 

1930, but when drought paralyzed Kansas for 

the next decade, filling Shawnee County’s largest 

body of water, Lake Shawnee, seemed 

impossible. It finally opened in September 1939, 

but was a struggle. Work began on the 2,200- 

foot long, 55-foot high dam above Deer Creek in 

1935. Located at Southeast Twenty-ninth Street 

in southeast Shawnee County, it was a project of 

the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the 

federal agency that created jobs and public 

projects during the Great Depression. When the 

lake was completed in 1938, more than 400 

workers had helped construct the $1-million 

project. It would be August 1939 before enough 

water would fall into the lake to allow it to open. 

Public swimming was not possible until 1941, 

when the lake finally reached a significant water 

level. Through time, the lake has become an 

important gathering spot, allowing for boating, 

fishing, and swimming. It is surrounded by 

seven hundred acres of parkland, used for 

picnics, camping and hiking. It includes the 

Ensley Botanical Gardens, the Garden House, the 

Lake Shawnee Arboretum, and an eighteen-hole 

golf course. It has become the site of the city’s 

Fourth of July fireworks display. 

Who specifically is responsible for creating 

the detailed plans to construct Topeka’s Army 

Airfield is unknown. But it was designed well 

before the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl 

Harbor, Hawaii, by the Japanese which entered 

the U.S. into World War II. Within two weeks of 

the attack, Congress greenlit construction of the 

base, and eight months later the completed base 

❖ 

Top, left: Charles Curtis in 1884, at 

the age of twenty-four, when he was 

first elected as Shawnee County’s 

district attorney. He eventually 

became vice-president of the 

United States. 



Top, right: This portrait of Georgia 

Neese Gray, painted by David Zlotky, 

hangs in the Harry S. Truman 

Presidential Library. Neese Gray was 

the first female treasurer of the 

United States, from 1949 to 1953. 

The Topeka Performing Arts Center 

bears her name. 



Below: Topeka High School, which is 

still in use today. 



Chapter VI ✦ 61

❖ 

Thousands lined Kansas Avenue in 

July 1936 to celebrate Alf Landon’s 

acceptance as the Republican nominee 

for president. 



was being used as a central military installation. 

During World War II, the base was instrumental 

as home to the 333rd Bombardment Group and 

Twenty-first Bombardment Wing and was one of 

just three B-29 aircraft centers. Through the 

years the base was used in varying capacities, 

with numerous changes in the units that called 

it home. During the Korean and Vietnam Wars 

it remained a hub of military activity, also 

serving as a training ground for refueling units. 

Although small in size compared to other bases, 

Forbes Field, as it became known, was a 

significant installation used by the military. By 

the late 1970s, however, military budgets were 

slashed and new planning created a phase out 

for Forbes. In 1973, The Department of Defense 

announced intentions to close Forbes, but three 

years later redesignated the installation an Air 

National Guard base, which it remains today. It 

is also a commercial airport used primarily by 

private owners. 

The area around the base was left unused 

once the base was redesignated for National 

Guard use and to rectify this problem, the 

Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority (MTAA) 

was created. The MTAA has turned Forbes into 

a mecca for businesses, with more than ninety 

percent occupancy by local and national 

corporations, while still serving the military. 

When rains began to fall hard upon Shawnee 

County the first week of June 1951, after 

months of spring rains, it did not take long for 

Topekans to realize another great flood was on 

the way. Streams and creeks slowly rose from 

their banks, followed by a swelling of the Kansas 

River, as muddy waters rushed the city. 

Sandbagging along the river was not working, 

and the Coast Guard flew in equipment from St. 

Louis in preparation. 

By June 13, North Topeka, Oakland and 

areas of South Topeka were under as much as 36 

feet of water. In Tecumseh, flood waters washed 

away the Santa Fe train depot, along with 

houses and farms. The Kansas Power and Light 

Tecumseh power plant and Topeka Water Plant 

were saved by the hard work of employees and 

citizens who barricaded it from disaster. Airmen 

stationed at Forbes Field patrolled the skies and 

performed rescues in Shawnee County. 

Nearly twenty thousand people were left 

without homes, but early warnings ensured no 

deaths in the county. Homes were torn from 

foundations and railroad tracks uprooted. The 

monetary damages were in the millions, and 

many North Topeka businesses never reopened. 

In some areas, the Federal Government 

provided trailers to families until permanent 

residences could be purchased or rebuilt. 

Volunteers from across the country flocked to 

help in the reconstruction and aid efforts. The 

city leased a nine-acre plot north of Soldier 

Creek and west of Topeka Avenue as a trailer 

camp for flood refugees, but the camp took 

longer than expected to be constructed and 

was not ready until January 1952, in which 

two hundred people immediately moved into 

the camp. 

The flood cost the state billions, inspired 

construction of Perry reservoir and helped lend 

credence to President Harry S. Truman’s call for 

a national flood-control system. The disaster led 

to an extensive public works program aimed at 

stopping such flooding from again occurring. 

Dike and dam construction was begun along the 

Kansas River and on Soldier and Shunganunga 

Creeks. These projects took nearly twenty years, 

some finally completed in 1971. 


❖ 

Linda Brown in the yard of the allblack 

Monroe School in 1953, when 

she was ten years old. 



CHAPTER VII 

A TIME O F C HANGE 

The United States changed May 17, 1954, and seeds of this change were planted in a Topeka 

classroom. It was on this day, that, by unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its Plessy 

v. Ferguson decision made decades earlier. The new ruling stated that separate educational institutions 

were unconstitutional and violations of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which 

guarantees all citizens “equal protection under the laws.” The decision changed education and 

society, forcing governments to unify all races in classrooms. 

Chapter VII ✦ 63

The decision was the result of a suit filed 

February 1951, on behalf of several black 

plaintiffs against the Topeka Board of Education. 

On June 25 and 26, 1951, a three- man court 

heard the case in Federal District Court, but the 

judges ruled Topeka schools were not 

unconstitutional, upholding the concept of 

separate but equal. The case was appealed to the 

Supreme Court. At this same time, similar cases 

were moving through courts in Delaware, the 

District of Columbia, Virginia and South 

Carolina. The Topeka case was elevated above 

the rest because it came from a non-southern 

state and Topeka’s black schools were deemed 

more equal to their area white schools compared 

with the relationships in the other districts. 

The Topeka case had thirteen plaintiffs, and 

Oliver Brown was one of the last to join, his 

daughter being a student at Monroe School, one 

of Topeka’s four segregated schools. The case 

became known as Brown v. Board of Education 

simply because of the alphabet: The plaintiffs 

names were alphabetized and Brown came first, 

hence Brown et al, … versus the Board of 

Education of Topeka. 

Despite Topeka having been the focal point 

of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education 

decision, Topeka Unified School District 501 

faced accusations of de facto segregation in the 

late 1970s through late 1990s. 

In 1979, attorney Richard Jones persuaded 

Linda Brown, daughter of Oliver Brown to be a 

plaintiff in a resurrected version of the case with 

the same title. Brown, who had children in the 

district, sued U.S.D. 501 for not following 

through on desegregation. The district argued it 

was not at fault and the areas people chose to 

live in had created schools with large minority 

populations and schools with almost no 

minority students. Brown’s suit argued it was the 

responsibility of the district to bus students 

from areas they lived to schools farther away or 

redraw the district lines in effort to integrate the 

races evenly. 

In 1987, Federal Judge Richard Rogers ruled 

“there is no illegal, intentional, systematic or 

residual separation of races.” Two years later, the 

10th Circuit court of appeals, on a 2-1 vote, 

reversed Rogers’ decision, finding that 

segregation remained with respect to student 

and staff assignments. 

Around this same time, the owner of the 

Monroe School, which had long stopped operating 

as a learning institution, put the site up for sale. It 

was purchased by The Brown Foundation, an 

organization established to educate Americans 

about the significance of the Brown decision and 

record the experiences of those involved with the 

case. In 1992, President George H. Bush signed the 

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site 

Act, turning Monroe into a national historic site. 

Today, The Brown Foundation is instrumental in 

helping establish the site as a museum and 

stopping point for visitors. 

U.S.D. 501, in the meantime, appealed the 

circuit courts decision to the U.S. Supreme 

Court, who ordered the 10th Circuit to 

reconsider its decision, which the circuit court 

refused to do. Topeka Public Schools asked the 

Supreme Court to again reconsider, but the 

Supreme Court declined review, allowing the 

Circuit Court’s decision to stand. In 1994, U.S.D. 

501 submitted a desegregation plan to Judge 

Rogers, which included boundary changes, a 

transfer program, the creation of English as a 

Second Language classes in elementary and 

middle schools, and the construction of three 

new schools. When the new schools opened in 

1996, enrollment statistics showed the schools 

had met court standards, thereby racially 

balancing Topeka’s schools. 

Highland Park High School was not 

integrated into the Topeka Public School System 

until 1959. The original high school serving 

Highland Park residents was built in 1935, but 

became too small and was turned into the junior 

high. The current Highland Park High was built 

in 1951 by the Highland Park School District. It 

was in the late 1950’s that Topeka annexed the 

Highland Park area, with the school integrated 

into the Topeka system in late 1959. 

Before 1900, many Catholics sent their 

children to private schools in St. Marys and 

Leavenworth. By 1911, the Catholic High School 

opened in Topeka. This evolved into Hayden 

High School, named after founder Father Francis 

M. Hayden, built on the west side of Topeka in 

the 1960s. Topeka West High School was built 

by the Topeka School District in 1961 at Twentyfirst 

and Fairlawn Streets to serve students of 

southwest Topeka. By this year, the city had 

begun to expand southwestward. While today 


the area is considered just another section of the 

city, in 1961 it was the edge of town on the 

southwest side. 

Shawnee County’s history with tornadoes is 

as dubious as its history with floods. A small 

tornado ripped through Tenneseetown in April 

1897. In June 1917, Menoken and Soldier 

townships were ravaged by a twister which 

killed at least three people and destroyed 

numerous properties, requiring the help of 

National Guard troops during rebuilding efforts. 

However, no tornado in the area’s history 

compares to that which struck June 8, 1966. 

The half-mile wide tornado began eight miles 

southwest of Topeka and headed toward 

Burnett’s Mound, feasting on suburbs in the 

vicinity, before turning and traveling through 

the heart of the city. The twister was on the 

ground 27 minutes and traveled 22 miles. The 

destruction was enormous: 16 persons killed 

and more than 500 injured. Property damage 

resembled a war scene after a bombing: roofs 

flew off houses, homes turned to rubble, trees 

were ripped from the dirt and placed on cars 

and through buildings, the city was littered with 

debris, electricity lines were downed, and gas 

mains leaking. More than $100 million in 

damage was reported, with 800 homes 

destroyed and 1,210 damaged. 

Immediately, sightseers and looters had to be 

shooed away. However, more than four thousand 

people arrived to help clean up. The American Red 

Cross fed people from mobile units, while the 

Salvation Army handed out food and clothing. 

President Lyndon Johnson declared Topeka a 

disaster area, and federal agencies opened offices 

throughout the city. 

Washburn University lost nearly all its 

original buildings. Central Park grade school 

was obliterated. The Santa Fe shops east of 

Branner Street were decimated and the Philip 

Billiard Municipal Airport lost nearly all of its 

airplanes. For years, the path of the storm was 

evident by an absence of trees where the 

tornado touched down. It remains the single 

most devastating event in Topeka history. 

WIBW-TV Channel-13 newscaster Bill Kurtis 

issued to viewers his now famous call, “For God’s 

sake, take cover,” as the tornado touched down. 

He is credited with saving lives of people who did 

❖ 

Above: A tornado ripped through 

Topeka on June 8, 1966, killing 

citizens and destroying property. 



Below: Homes at the foot of 

Burnett’s Mound were destroyed by 

the 1966 tornado. 



Chapter VII ✦ 65

❖ 

Above: An aerial view of a corner 

of the city decimated by the 

1966 tornado. 



Below: Commerce Bank constructed 

this drive thru at Thirty-third and 

Harrison Streets as part of 

development in the 1960s that 

began the migration of business 

from downtown to other areas of 

the community. 



just that. Kurtis’ coverage earned him recognition, 

and today he is known nationally as a producer 

and narrator of shows on cable television. WREN 

radio reporter Rick Douglass was broadcasting 

from Burnett’s Mound and was picked up by the 

heavy winds, battered with debris which tore his 

coat off before leaving him covered with mud on 

the ground. He was hospitalized for a week, then 

released healthy. 

The city had undertaken a massive 

revitalization effort in the 1960s, but it was 

hampered by the 1966 tornado, a lack of funds 

and lack of commitment on behalf of city 

government and developers. Numerous suburbs 

and parts of downtown were cleaned up, but many 

original city structures were bulldozed and never 

replaced as originally intended. Areas around the 

city were cleared courtesy of the interstate highway 

program. The effort did lead to some growth, with 

a number of industrial warehouses and factories 

built on this cleared land. But urban renewal failed 

to rehabilitate old structures, and many remain in 

need of tearing down or renovation today. The 

1960s also brought in the age of the shopping 

center, which centralized shopping in other areas 

of the city, pulling businesses away from 

downtown. It was the beginning of a slide for 

downtown that has persevered, and efforts to 

revitalize downtown that began nearly forty years 

ago have still failed. Large developments have 

opened west of downtown, pulling the economy 

away from the heartbeat of the city. Recent efforts 

have begun to show progress, with businesses, 

restaurants, taverns, the Topeka Performing Arts 

Center and an ice rink giving Topekans a reason to 

return downtown. 


CHAPTER VIII 

M ODERN 

T IMES 

When Heartland Park opened in 1989, the goal was to attract the nation’s top racing talent, 

including NASCAR and Indy racing. While that did not exactly happen, the $20-million, 750-acre 

racing facility has become a Midwest racing stop for differing levels of professional drivers. A list of 

racing legends has graced the track, including Dale Earnhardt, Mario Andretti, A. J. Foyt, Richard 

Petty, and Bobby Allison. The cornerstone of the track’s racing has historically been drivers involved 

with the National Hot Rod Association, and significant drag racing records have been set at Heartland 

Park. The biggest gamble the facility took was in opening a road course instead of an oval track, and 

in 1999 Heartland Park constructed a dirt track to attract national and local events. The Sports Car 

Club of America made Topeka its national headquarters in 2003, in part because of Heartland Park. 

The Georgia Neese Gray Topeka Performing Arts Center (TPAC) opened March 23, 1991, 

providing Topeka with a world-class performance facility that has hosted local and worldwide 

performers. Long before a performing arts center occupied the land between Seventh and 8th and 

Quincy and Monroe Streets, the land was the site of Colonel George W. Veale’s Victorian home, the 

first in the city with electric lights, furnace and bathrooms. Dignitaries honored there included 

President Grant and every governor and United States senator from the state since Kansas was 

admitted to the Union. In the late 1800s the land was purchased, the home leveled, and a two-story 

❖ 

The Topeka State Hospital, in the 

background, was closed by the Kansas 

Legislature in the 1990s. The land is 

now home to Hummer Sports Park, a 

Topeka Public Schools all-purpose 

sports facility. 



Chapter VIII ✦ 67

❖ 

Above: The Municipal Auditorium 

under construction in 1939. For more 

than fifty years, the auditorium was 

the core of entertainment and social 

functions in the city. It was renovated 

in the 1990s into the Topeka 

Performing Arts Center. 



Below: The Municipal Auditorium 

after completion in 1940. 



brick building constructed that housed an 

auditorium, fire station and city offices. Topeka’s 

first city hall opened at that location in 1900. 

Years later, the Federal Public Works Agency 

awarded Topeka a grant of $7 million for 

construction of a town hall, and three years later 

a city office building with an auditorium was 

completed on May 12, 1940. The building had 

303 windows and 420 doors. The auditorium 

included an orchestra lift measuring 50 feet by 9 

feet, and was one of only eight such lifts in 

existence at the time in the United States. 

Municipal Auditorium, as it was called, served 

the city proudly for fifty years, hosting many 

significant theatre and community events, high 

school basketball games and circuses. 

When the Kansas Expocentre opened in 

1987, it seemed the Municipal had run its 

course. The Expocentre included a state-of-theart 

arena, conferencing facilities, and was 

located on the old fairgrounds, keeping the 

livestock arena and several other buildings. The 

Municipal could not measure up. A task force of 

private citizens came up with the idea of 

converting the auditorium into a performing 

arts facility. After raising more than $2.5 million 

in a capital campaign, including $500,000 from 

Andrew J. and Georgia Neese Gray, renovations 

began, culminating in the 1991 opening. 

The winter of 1992-1993 brought about 

above-normal snowfalls to the area, and by 

Spring 1993, rainfalls reached above-normal 

levels. Nearly every night in July thunderstorms 

rolled through Shawnee County and 

surrounding areas. The Republican, Big Blue, 

and Kansas Rivers swelled and by the end of the 

month more than twenty-four inches of rain had 

fallen. Streams and creeks overflowed and 

areas ravaged during the 1951 floods were 

again underwater. While damage from flooding 

did not mirror that of more than forty years 

prior, county residents suffered damage. 

Statewide, flooding caused more than $400 

million in damages. 

After nearly a decade of debate, the statue Ad 

Astra, a Native American shooting an arrow into 

the heavens, was placed upon the Capitol 

Building dome in October 2002. Sculptor 

Richard Bergen, who named the statue of the 

Kansa Indian warrior in reference to the state’s 

motto, spent fourteen years working on the 

project. It was step one in a long renovation 

project for the Capitol. 


Through time, wear and tear on the Capitol 

has been substantial, and efforts to maintain and 

restore the building have been attentive, but a 

lack of financial resources hampered efforts. 

While restorations have been done to parts of 

the façade and Senate and House chambers, the 

dome has been closed to visitors due to safety 

concerns. One major effort, however, has been 

the construction of an underground parking 

garage, and the beginning of an ambitious $135- 

million, nine-year Statehouse restoration 

project. The $15-million, 550-space parking 

garage is step one in the facelift. The following 

phases include upgrading plumbing, heating, 

air conditioning and electrical wiring. High tech 

data and communication lines will be added, 

and exterior masonry and the leaky roof will be 

repaired. The Senate and House chambers, 

corridors, rotunda, governor’s office, old 

Supreme Court chamber and state library will 

receive historically accurate lighting, furniture, 

wall treatments and stenciling. Murals and 

woodwork will be restored. This nearly ten-year 

project will be the biggest effort to boost the 

building since its construction, with an effort 

made to bring back the look and feel the 

building had upon opening. 

In 1997, the legislature closed the Topeka 

State Hospital and uses for the site were 

researched. In March 1999, a group of U.S.D. 

501 employees presented the idea for a sports 

complex. In April 2001, voters approved $24.5 

million in bonds to pay for the complex and 40 

classrooms at schools. In 2004, under the name 

Hummer Sports Complex, the facility opened, 

serving as the sports center for Topeka schools 

and hosting statewide events. The complex is 

home to a soccer field, football field with press 

box, track, baseball and softball diamonds and a 

37,480-square-foot natatorium providing a 50- 

meter swimming pool. 

Consisting of twelve townships governed by 

three-member elected boards, the Shawnee 

County of today is a metropolis—the prairie 

that dominated the territory 150 years ago 

replaced with homes and commercial 

developments. More than 13,000 work for 

government agencies alone inside the county 

limits; nearly 6,000 students attend primary or 

higher education classes; the overall population 

is nearly 170,000. Much like a century ago, 

Topeka maintains a mix of industrial, 

manufacturing and professional services to 

balance its economy. 

❖ 

An evening on Kansas Avenue in 

the 1980s. 

COURTESY OF THE GREATER TOPEKA 

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 

Chapter VIII ✦ 69

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY & WORKS CONSULTED 

INTERNET RESOURCES 

Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Site, http://www.nps.gov/brvb/home.htm 

City of Topeka, http://www.topeka.org 

Historic Highland Park, http://geocities.com/historichighlandpark/ 

Historic Topeka, Inc., http://www.geocities.com/historictopeka 

Kansas Department of Agriculture, http://www.accesskansasn.org/kda 

Kansas Photos, http://www.kansasphotos.us 

Kansas Preservation Alliance, http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/kansas/kpa/mainpage.html 

Kansas State Historical Society, http://www.kshs.org 

Kansas Western Trails Project, http://www.skyways.org/KSL/trails/ 

National Register of Historic Places, http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/ 

National Weather Service, http://www.crh.noaa.gov/top/tor66.html 

Topeka Genealogical Society, http://www.tgstopeka.org/ 

Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, http://www.tscpl.org/ 

Shawnee County Kansas, http://www.co.shawnee.ks.us/default.shtm 

Washburn University Center for Kansas Studies, http://www.washburn.edu/reference/zzcwcks/index.html 

PUBLISHED WORKS 

Art Publishing Co. Topeka: The Capital City. Wisconsin, Neenah, 1888-89. 

Beatty, Pauline D. Aristocratic Topeka Avenue and Its Environs. Topeka, Kansas, 1963. 

Berrett, Howard D. Who’s Who in Topeka. Topeka, Kansas: Adams Bros., 1905 

Bird, Roy D. and Douglass W. Wallace. Witness of the Times – A History of Shawnee County. Topeka, Kansas: Shawnee County Historical 

Society, 1976. 

Carlin, Karen and Robert Richmond. Kansas First Families at Home: Residence, Residents, and Recipes. Topeka, Kansas: Friends of Cedar 

Crest Association, 1982. 

Continental Publishing Co. Who’s Who In and Around Topeka. Kansas City, Missouri, 1926. 

Connelley, William Elsey. Quantril and the Border Wars. Ottawa, Kansas: Kansas Heritage Press, 1992. 

Dover Heritage Day Association. Dover Heritage (three volumes). 1987-1990. 

Everts and Company. The Official State Atlas of Kansas. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: L. H. Evert and Company, 1887. (Reprinted by the 

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies, Topeka, Kansas, 1982). 

Fowler, Richard B. Alfred M. Landon, or Deeds not Deficits. Boston, Massachusetts: L. C. Page & Company, 1936. 

Giles, Frye W. Thirty Years in Topeka: A Historical Sketch. Topeka, Kansas: Crane Publishers, 1886 and 1960. 

Harvey, A.M. Tales and Trails of Wakarusa. Topeka, Kansas: Crane Printers, 1917. 

Heckert, Jerry. TM Magazine. Topeka, Kansas, 1946. 

Hrenchir, Joan M. From Berry Creek to Berryton. Berryton, Kansas: Berryton Historical Committee, 1986. 

Ingram, W. Scott. Kansas: The Sunflower State. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: World Almanac Library, 2002. 

Jackson, Mary E. Topeka Pen and Camera Sketches. Topeka, Kansas, 1890. 

Jones, Martin. Oakwood Farm: Biography of a Kaw Valley Homestead. Topeka, Kansas: Shawnee County Historical Society, 1997. 

Kansas State Historical Society. History of Kansas Newspapers. Topeka, Kansas: State Printing Press, 1916. 

King, James L. History of Shawnee County, Kansas and Representative Citizens. Chicago, Illinois: Richmond and Arnold, 1905. 

Klingman, A. C. Topeka: Its Business and Its Beauties as Seen Through the Camera. Topeka, Kansas: Hall Lithographing Co. 

Mack, George, and Charles R. Zin, Daniel Fitzgerald, Douglass W. Wallace. Sunday Open House: George Mack’s Historic Homes. Topeka, 

Kansas: Shawnee County Historical Society, 1994. 

Markley, Walt. Builders of Topeka. Topeka, Kansas: Capper Printing Co., 1934. 

McLellan, Charlotte and John W. Ripley. Potwin Place, Its History and Traditions. Topeka, Kansas: Shawnee County Historical Society, 1968. 

Miller, Timothy. Following in His Steps: A Biography of Charles M. Sheldon. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press, 1986. 

Peterson, Merrill. John Brown: The Legend Revisited. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 2002. 


Reicherter, Emma C. A History of Silver Lake, Kansas. Topeka, Kansas: Topeka Printing Co. 

Richmond, Robert W. Kansas, A Land of Contrasts. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1974. 

Ripley, John W. Town Hall Tonight: A Pictorial History of Topeka’s Theaters. Topeka, Kansas: Shawnee County Historical Society and 

Arts Center of Topeka, 1988. 

Ripley, John W. and Robert W. Richmond. The Melting Pot: A History of Shawnee County’s Ethnic Communities. Topeka, Kansas: 

Shawnee County Historical Society, Bulleting No. 58, 1981. 

Ripley, John W. and Robert W. Richmond. A Century of Music. Topeka, Kansas: Shawnee County Historical Society, 1977. 

Seitz, Don Carlos. From Kaw to Teepee to Capitol. New York, New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1928. 

Shawnee County Historical Society. Highland Park History. Topeka, Kansas: 1956. 

Shawnee County Historical Bulletins: 

#24 North Topeka, 1955 

#26 Highland Park, 1956 

#29 Tecumseh, 1957 

#31 Auburn, Dover & Wakarusa Townships 

#38 College Hill, 1962 

#40 Topeka Boulevard, 1963 

#45 Potwin Place, 1968 

#51 Nineteenth Century Homes, 1974 

#53 Shawnee County History, 1976 

#56 Santa Fe Railway, 1979 

#64 Oakland, 1987 

#67 Topeka Schools, 1990 

#70 Country Schools, 1993 

#71 Topeka Houses, 1994 

#74 Shawnee County Historic Farmsteads, 1997 

#75 Downtown Topeka, 1998 

Spaulding, Vey B. R. Dover Then and Now: A History of Dover, Kansas, 1856 to 1964. Kansas City, Kansas: Phelps Creative Printing, 1964. 

Stratton, Joanna, L. Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981. 

Strickrott, John F. Strickrott’s Photographic Souvenir of the Flood at Topeka, Kansas, 1903. Kansas City, Missouri: LeBeau and Buttles, 1903. 

Swan, Robert, Jr. The Ethnic Heritage of Topeka, Kansas: Immigrant Beginning. Topeka, KS, 1974. 

Todd, Charles C. and Earlnor Starbird. Dover Heritage, 1885-1915. Dover, Kansas, 1989. 

Topeka Business Today. Topeka, KS: Educational Concepts Corp., 1986. 

Treadway, William. Cyrus K. Holliday: A Documentary Biography. Topeka, Kansas: Kansas State Historical Society, 1979. 

Unrau, William E. Mixed-Bloods and Tribal Dissolution: Charles Curtis and the Quest for Indian Identity. Lawrence, Kansas: University 

Press of Kansas, 1989. 

Zurcher, Louis A. and William H. Key. James B. Taylor. Tornado: A Community Responds to Disaster. Seattle: University of Washington 

Press, 1970. 

Selected Bibliography & Works Consulted ✦ 71

APPENDIX 

SHAWNEE COUNTY MUSEUMS 

Combat Air Museum 

Hanger #602, Topeka, KS 66619 

785-862-3303 

Bethany Place 

833 Southwest Polk 

Original use: A college building. 

Today: A bishop’s house. 

Frost (John E.) House 

935 Southwest Western Avenue 

Original use: A private residence. 

Today: An office and residence. 

Museum of History 

Kansas History Center, Topeka, KS 66615 

785-272-8681 

Lane University Museum 

640 East Woodson Road, 

Lecompton, KS 66050 

785-887-6148 

Indian Pay Station Museum 

102 East Mission Street, 

St. Marys, KS 66536 

785-437-6600 

Museum of the Kansas National Guard 

6700 Southwest Topeka Boulevard, 

Building 301, Topeka, KS 

785-862-1020 

Historic Ward Meade Park and 

Botanical Gardens 

124 North Filmore Street, Topeka, KS 

785-368-3888 

SHAWNEE COUNTY SCHOOL 

SYSTEMS 

USD 330 Wabaunsee East in Eskridge 

USD 345 Seaman in Topeka 

USD 437 Auburn Washburn in Topeka 

USD 450 Shawnee Heights in Tecumseh 

USD 501 Topeka Public Schools in Topeka 

HISTORIC PROPERTIES IN 

TOPEKA 

(From the National Register of Historic 

Places & Register of Historic Kansas Places.) 

Anton-Woodring House 

1011 Cambridge Avenue 


Today: A private residence. 

Carnegie Library Building 

Washburn University 

Original use: Library. 

Today: Library. 

Cedar Crest 

Cedar Crest Road 


Today: Governor’s Mansion. 

Central Motor and Finance 

Corporation Building 

222 Southwest 7th Street 

Original use: An auto dealership. 

Today: Offices. 

Central National Bank 

701 South Kansas Avenue 

Original use: Bank 

Today: Bank 

Crawford Building 

501 Southwest Jackson 

Original use: Offices 

Today: Offices 

Curtis (Charles) House 

1101 Southwest Topeka Boulevard 

Original use: A private residence 

Today: Offices 

Davies Building 


Original use: Offices and retail space. 

Today: Offices and retail space. 

Elks Building 


Original use: An Elks Lodge. 


German-American State Bank 


Original use: A bank. 


Giles-Nellis House 

915 Southwest Munson Avenue 


Today: A bed and breakfast. 

Hicks Block 


Original use: Apartments. 

Today: Apartments. 

Jayhawk Hotel, Theatre and Walk 

700 Southwest Jackson Street 

Original Use: A hotel and theatre. 

Today: Offices and a theatre. 

Columbian/Knox Building 


Original use: Offices. 


Memorial Building 


Original use: State offices. 

Today: State offices. 

Menninger Clinic Building 

3535 Southest 6th Street 

Original use: Institutional. 


Monroe Elementary School 

1515 Southeast Monroe Street 

Original use: An elementary school. 

Today. A museum. 


Potwin Place Historic District 

Potwin Area 

Original use: Residences. 

Today: Residences. 

John Ritchie House 

1116 Southeast Madison Street 


Today: A house museum. 

Ross Row House 

513-521 Southwest Van Buren 


Today: Rented for special occasions. 

Sargent (John) House 

225 Southwest Clay Street 



St. John’s Lutheran School 



Today: Apartments. 

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church 

235 Southwest Van Buren 

Original use: A church. 

Today: A church. 

State Capitol Building 

Southwest 8th and Harrison Streets 

Original use: State capitol. 

Today: State capitol. 

Sumner Elementary School 

330 Southwest Western Avenue 


Today: Vacant. 

Thatcher Building 

110 Southeast 8th Street 

Original use: Commercial. 


Union Pacific Depot 

Northwest Jackson and Railroad Street 

Original use: A railroad station. 

Today: Vacant. 

Ward-Meade House 

124 Northwest Filmore Street 


Today: A historic park. 

Willits House 



Today: A bed and breakfast 

Woman’s Club Building 


Original use: A woman’s club. 

Today: State offices. 

Woodward (Chester B.) House 

1272 Southwest Filmore Street 

Original use: residence 

Today: Bed & Breakfast 

HISTORIC PROPERTIES IN 

SHAWNEE COUNTY 

(From the National Register of Historic 

Places & Register of Historic Kansas Places.) 

Blacksmith Creek Bridge 

S34/T11S/R14E 

Original use: Bridge 

Today: Bridge 

England Farm 

4619 Southeast 37th Street 

Original use: A farm. 


Lyons (Horace G.) House 

4831 Southeast 61st Street 



Oakwood Farm 

NESE S14/T11/R16E 

Original use: A farm. 


Pottawatomie Baptist Mission Site 

Southwest 10th Street and Southwest 

Urish Road 

Original use: A school. 

Today: A museum and offices. 

Sage Inn 

Northwest corner of the intersection of 

Southwest 57th Street and Douglas Road 


Today: A bed and breakfast 

Stallard Mound 

Northwest S33, T13S, R15E 

Original use: A bridge. 

Today: A bridge. 

Thomas Arch Bridge 

14SH32 (S30/T11S/R14E) 

Original use: A bridge. 

Today: A bridge. 

Wakarusa Hotel 

Main Street, Wakarusa, Kansas 

Original use: A hotel and theatre. 

Today: N/A 

SHAWNEE COUNTY 

TOWNS & HISTORY 

Arvilla: East of Burlingame on or near 

the old Osage County line in 1857. 

Auburn: Established 1856; for many 

years was known as Brownsville; was 

located on the California Road. 

Avoca: Founders were Cyrus K. Holliday, 

John Farnsworth and Milton Dickey; 

location unknown. 

Berryton: Founded 1888 by George 

W. Berry. 

Bishop: Located six miles west of Topeka. 

Blackfau: Incorporated 1858 by Tecumseh 

and Shawnee County residents; 

location unknown but was in Douglas 

or Shawnee County on Santa Fe Road. 

Blacksmith: post office 1871 to 1873; 

Located in Dover Township on or 

near Mission Creek; also known as 

Central Grove. 

Burlingame: Platted in 1855; originally 

called Council City; in 1857, was 

renamed to current name and 

established as major settlement. 

Calhoun: Established 1855; named for 

John Calhoun, U.S. surveyor general 

for Kansas and Nebraska. 

Appendix ✦ 73

Canema, Kenamo, or Land of Canema: 

Paper town organized by Joseph W. 

Allen in December 1857; Located 

near the site of Washington in 

Tecumseh Township. 

Carthage: Founded 1857 in northern 

Monmouth Township. 

Challendeer’s: Founded May 1871; Santa 

Fe Railroad station north of Pauline. 

Chaumiere: Founded as pro-slave town 

in 1857 by Thomas Stinson. 

Chicago Heights: Founded 1888 by H. D. 

Booge; Located north of Topeka. 

Dayton: Monmouth Township; on the 

Oregon Trail. 

Douglas or Douglas Township: Founded 

October 16, 1855; named for Senator 

Stephan A. Douglas; originally in 

Calhoun County; bounded on the 

south by the river, east by Jefferson 

county line, north by Military Road 

and on the west by the Pottawatomie 

Indian Reservation. 

Dover: Founded 1865 by Alfred Sage. 

Edna: Platted 1870 east of Rossville, on 

the east bank of Cross Creek; 

eventually became part of Rossville. 

Elmont: Incorporated October 18, 1886. 

Essex: Incorporated 1858, by Joel 

Huntoon and Milton Dickey; town 

was never established. 

Esther: Post office from 1891 to 1893 in 

Monmouth Township. 

Eugene or Eugenia: North Topeka. 

Eureka: Free-state town platted 

December 9, 1854; located near 

Burlingame. 

Evans Town: Pro-slave paper town 

incorporated December 1857; 

never developed. 

Exeter Park: In Mission Township. 

Freeman’s Land: On Muddy Creek and 

the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe line. 

Fremont: Established 1854; located west of 

Topeka, near the Ward-Meade Home. 

Georgetown: Founded 1858; 

abandoned 1860. 

Glascow City: Founded February 1, 1858. 

Glendale: Incorporated 1856; location 

unknown. 

Grand Haven: Founded 1884; was a post 

office in the southwest corner of 


Grove: Founded 1905 on the Union 

Pacific line to Marysville. 

Grove Township: Established July 15, 

1918; last township created in 


Gumithorne: Established July 4, 1871, 

by John Guthrie, Jacob Smith, and 

Daniel Horne; located twelve miles 

north of Topeka. 

Half Day Township: Founded October 

16, 1855; was a Calhoun County 

township named for Half Day Creek. 

Havana: Established 1858; Village 

west of Burlingame; abandoned in 

early 1870s. 

Hughes Park: Platted August 6, 1887; 

located two miles south of Topeka. 

Indianola: Land purchased from Indians 

in 1854; home to government post 

office beginning in 1855; located on 

the Military Road between Fort 

Leavenworth and Fort Riley. 

Kilgore: Platted June 20, 1889, by S. H. 

and Georgia C. Kilgore. 

Kilmer: Established around 1880; named 

for Capt. Charles B. Kilmer; laid out 

on the Santa Fe line to Atchison on 

the eastern edge of Soldier Creek. 

Kingsville: Located between Silver Lake 

and Rossville. 

Kiro: Opened 1890: Primarily a 

shipping point. 

La-Veta: Founded October 1887; 

located northeast of Auburn in 

Williamsport Township. 

Leaderville: Located in the 

Wanamaker area. 

Lexington: Platted April 13, 1857; 

Never developed. 

Mairestown: Established 1857; Named 

for Thomas W. Maires, a county 

sheriff; Located east of Watson. 

Massosoit: Named for the Indian who 

helped the Pilgrims; located south of 

Uniontown. 

Menoken: Originally named Farmersville; 

Name was changed 1877. 

Menoken Township: Formed from Silver 

Lake Township July 18, 1879. 

One Hindered and Ten: The creek 

crossing the Santa Fe Trail on this site 

was called 110 Creek, because it was 

110 miles from Westport Landing in 

Missouri, starting point of the Santa 

Fe Trail; now in Osage County. 

Paris: Incorporated 1858; 


Pauline: Founded 1870; named for 

W. D. Paul; located in Williamsport 

township near Forbes Field. 

Plowboy and Valencia: Established 

around 1880. 

Potwin: Third-class city established 

1888-1889. 

Prairie City: Platted 1856; name was 

changed to Osage City. 

Redsmondsville: Established 1880s; 

black settlement in North Topeka. 

Richland: Platted in 1872 by John 

Helton; located in southeast corner of 

the county. 

Ridgeway: Formed 1858; now in 

Osage County. 

Rossville: Trading house was built in 

1853 on Cross Creek: post office 

since 1862; located inside 

Pottawatomie Indian Reserve; named 

for Agent W. W. Ross; also went by 

the name Cross Creek; founded as a 

temperance town. 

Rossville Township: Founded January 

16, 1871; taken from the western part 

of Silver Lake Township; settled by 

the Pottawatomie Indians. 

Saqua, Sawqua or Osawaque: Opened 

1870; post office in northern 


Seabrook: Opened 1887; post office 

southwest of Topeka; now a shopping 

center at 21st and Gage Streets. 

Shorey: Established February 1889; 

located one mile north of Topeka; 

primarily a post office: closed 1908; 

Silver Lake: Stores were established in 

the 1850s for Indians and Oregon 

bound travelers; March 1866, Union 

Pacific reached the settlement and 

two years later the town was laid out. 


Soldier Township: Formed February 

23, 1860. 

South Tecumseh: Organized 1858; 


South Topeka: Third-class city 

established around 1880. 

Spencer: Whistle stop on the 

Santa Fe line. 

Sumner City: Proposed all-black city in 

the 1890s, between Topeka and 

Tecumseh, near the river. 

Swinburn: Hamlet in the Grove Township. 

Tecumseh: Originally a U.S. Trading Post 

for Pottawatomie Indians in 1848, 

under management of Colonel 

Thomas N. Stinson; located fourteen 

miles west of Topeka. 

Tecumseh Township: Formed September 

17, 1855; oldest township in 

Shawnee County; included all land 

from the Wakarusa River to the 

Kansas River. 

Tevis: Whistle stop on the Missouri 

Pacific line; located in Monmouth 

Township near Berryton. 

Topeka: Established 1854. 

Topeka Township: Formed February 

23, 1857. 

Trenton: Incorporated 1858; 

location unknown. 

Uniontown: First white town in Shawnee 

County; last point west of the 

Mississippi River where supplies 

could be purchased by pilgrims 

on their way to the gold fields 

in California. 

Urbana: Established 1869; possible 

neighbor with Wakarusa. 

Valley Town: A town company 

established by pro-slavers to obtain 

land away from Free-state Topeka. 

Vidette: Established 1887; post office in 

Mission Township. 

Wagner: Formed in 1880; post office 

in northern Shawnee County near 

the Jackson County line; 


Wakarusa (also spelled Warrunza or 

Wahkarussi): Platted 1868; first 

named Kingston; name means “The 

River of Big Weeds.” 

Wanamaker: Post office in 1891. 

Washington: Established 1855; located 

on the Oregon Road. 

Watson: Opened 1883; post office; 

closed 1899. 

Waveland: Community by 1872; located 

thirteen miles southwest of Topeka. 

Whitfield City, Delaware, Kansapolis, or 

Rochester: Established by J. B. 

Chapman and his wife; went through 

numerous name changes. 

Willard: Located on the Kaw south of 

Rossville; Old Uniontown cemetery is 

one mile southeast of Willard, filled 

with first settlers of Shawnee County. 

Williamsport: Formed 1860. 

Wyoming: Formed 1856; 


Yocum Township: Formed 1855; located 

south of the Wakarusa River; named 

for William Yocum. 

Appendix ✦ 75

❖ 

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE TOPEKA AND 

SHAWNEE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY. 


SHARING THE HERITAGE 

historic profiles of businesses, organizations, 

and families that have contributed to 

the development and economic base of 

Topeka and Shawnee County 

Sharing the Heritage ✦ 77

Capitol Federal Savings ....................................................................................................80 

Commerce Bank & Trust ...................................................................................................84 

Martin Tractor Company...................................................................................................88 

BA Designs, LLC/Comfort Keepers ......................................................................................90 

Lower Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc.............................................................................91 

Kaw Valley State Bank and Trust Company ..........................................................................92 

Gregg Tire ......................................................................................................................95 

Parrish Hotel Corporation.................................................................................................96 

Cardinal Brands, Inc........................................................................................................99 

Stormont-Vail Healthcare ................................................................................................100 

Washburn University ......................................................................................................102 

Columbian Financial Corporation .....................................................................................104 

Hawkins Optical ............................................................................................................106 

McElroy’s Inc. Mechanical Contractor ...............................................................................108 

St. Francis Health Center................................................................................................110 

Designed Business Interiors, Inc. ......................................................................................112 

Vanguard Products Corporation ........................................................................................114 

Radiology and Nuclear Medicine.......................................................................................116 

Topeka Transfer and Storage............................................................................................118 

Strathman Sales Company, Inc. ........................................................................................120 

DeBacker’s, Inc..............................................................................................................122 

Topeka Harley-Davidson .................................................................................................124 

Payless ShoeSource, Inc. .................................................................................................126 


Topeka Blueprint Company, Inc. .......................................................................................128 

Midland Hospice Care, Inc. .............................................................................................130 

D. L. Smith Electrical Construction, Inc. ...........................................................................131 

Capital City Bank ..........................................................................................................132 

John Hoffer Chrysler Jeep ...............................................................................................133 

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas ................................................................................134 

Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority..............................................................................135 

J. F. McGivern, Inc.........................................................................................................136 

Kansas Livestock Association ...........................................................................................137 

Lawyers Title of Topeka, Inc............................................................................................138 

Plumbing by Carlson, Inc. ...............................................................................................139 

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company....................................................................................140 

TARC, Inc.....................................................................................................................141 

Alliance Bank................................................................................................................142 

Fairlawn Plaza Shopping Center.......................................................................................143 

Bott Radio Network ........................................................................................................144 

Security Benefit .............................................................................................................145 

Coffman, DeFries & Nothern ...........................................................................................146 

Bob Florence Contractors, Inc. .........................................................................................147 

Falley’s Inc. ..................................................................................................................148 

R. E. Duncan, Attorney at Law ........................................................................................149 

Kansas Mutual Insurance Company...................................................................................150 


CAPITOL 

FEDERAL 

SAVINGS 

❖ 

Above: The Capitol Building and Loan 

Association at Sixth and Kansas, 

c. 1918. 

Below: The Capitol Building and Loan 

Association at Sixth and Kansas, from 

1924 to 1961. 

Topeka’s population of 30,000 was on the verge 

of celebrating the city’s fiftieth anniversary, and the 

Oregon Trail had been the main road for westward 

movement for nearly 50 years, when a group of 15 

local citizens met on September 16, 1893, to form 

an Association for the purpose of providing 

savings and loan services to area residents. Among 

those who filed the official charter for the Savings 

and Loan Association of Topeka, today’s Capitol 

Federal Savings Bank, were bankers, insurance 

agents, attorneys, railroad employees, the 

president of a dry goods store, the Topeka City 

School Superintendent and a physician. 

From the beginning, Capitol Federal has 

maintained a steadfast commitment to providing 

its customers with “a means for achieving 

the habit of thrift and the joy of home 

ownership”. It is a resolution fulfilled by 

adherence to conservative business standards 

and sound lending policies that have ensured 

over a century of financial stability. 

Capitol Federal assets total more than $8.6 

billion, with capital in excess of $990.1 million, 

a capital-to-assets ratio of more than 11.47% 

and a 40.15% efficiency ratio to shareholders. 

Capitol Federal proudly serves nearly 

400,000 accountholders with an extensive 

portfolio of personal financial service products. 

A variety of checking, savings and investment 

options include: Visa ® True Blue ® Direct, 

providing account access worldwide; checking 

accounts molded to the needs of customers and 

offering bill payment by phone; and IRAs and 

Money Market Select accounts. In 2001, Capitol 

Federal introduced True Blue Online ® , a fully 

interactive, real-time and secure Internet 

banking alternative for customers. In just over 

two months, more than 10,000 customers 

signed up to use this service, extending 

convenience to customers for the purposes of 

bill payment, account balance inquiries, 

transferring funds and ordering checks. It 

further provides customers the ability to 

download account information to Quicken ® . 

Through fun and educational means, the 

Blue Bucks Kids’ Club teaches youngsters how 

to save. Capitol Federal also offers comprehensive 

insurance programs through its insurance 

affiliate, Capitol Agency. 


Capitol Federal is the state’s leading residential 

mortgage lender, having funded over $1.32 

billion in total loans for the nine months 

ended June 30, 2003. True Blue home loans offer 

a variety of solutions for first time buyers as well 

as current homeowners. Low- to moderateincome 

buyers benefit from specially designed 

Home-At-Last loans, and borrowers benefit from 

loan servicing that stays with Capitol Federal. 

Because of a new state law, the Association’s 

name was changed to the Capitol Building and 

Loan Association in July 1899. The successful 

venture begun in 1893 resulted in assets totaling 

$2 million by 1913. When the Association 

adopted a Federal Charter in 1938, its name 

became Capitol Federal Savings and Loan 

Association. From the difficult Depression and 

World War II years, Henry Bubb emerged as a 

strong leader, guiding the Association through 

challenging years. With his knowledge and 

leadership, Capitol Federal was well-prepared 

for the post-World War II residential home 

ownership boom. 

In 1950, Capitol Federal introduced a new 

customer service concept—its first branch office, 

located in Topeka at Twelfth and Topeka Avenue. 

By 1962, it had become the largest financial 

institution in Kansas, with the branch network 

having expanded into Lawrence and Johnson 

County. Capitol Federal reached a milestone in 

1977 when it announced assets of $1 billion. 

During the financially challenging 1980s, 

Capitol Federal maintained a conservative 

business plan and introduced automated teller 

machines, interest-bearing checking accounts 

and consumer loans. The decade ended with the 

loss of Henry Bubb who served Capitol Federal, 

his state and the nation as a leader in financial 

industry, political and community service. The 

Association continued its strong leadership with 

the election of John C. “Jack” Dicus as Chairman 

in 1989. Having served more than 40 years with 

the Association and more than 25 years as 

President, Mr. Dicus is a man of integrity, 

dedicated to Capitol Federal’s employees, 

customers and communities. 

To commemorate its 100th anniversary in 

1993, Senator Bob Dole and Congressman Jim 

Slattery read the Association’s history on the 

floors of the U.S. Senate and House, thereby 

listing it in the Congressional Record. Kansas 

Governor Joan Finney declared December 16, 

1993, as “Capitol Federal Day” in recognition of 

the milestone. 

In 1996, the promotion of John B. Dicus to 

the position of President assured the future 

leadership of Capitol Federal well into the 

twenty-first century. In 1999, the Board’s 

decision to reorganize Capitol Federal as a stock 

savings bank utilizing a mid-tier mutual holding 

company structure and a stock issuance plan set 

the stage for greater flexibility and more 

opportunities. At that time, the Association, 

which had been known as Capitol Federal 

Savings and Loan Association since 1938, 

became known as Capitol Federal Savings Bank. 

The Capitol Federal Foundation was created to 

benefit the communities which the Bank serves. 

❖ 

Above: Capitol Federal Savings 

Seventh and Kansas from 1961 to the 

present. 

Below: The first Capitol Federal 

Savings branch location in Topeka at 

Twelfth and Topeka, c. 1950. 


❖ 

Above: Henry A. Bubb, late chairman 

of Capitol Federal, served the bank 

from 1926 to 1989. He began his 

career in 1926; became president in 

1941; named chairman in 1969, 

which at that time John C. “Jack” 

Dicus became president. Bubb 

was chairman until his death in 

January 1989. 

Below: Capitol Federal President John 

B. Dicus (left) and Chairman John C. 

Dicus displaying Capitol Federal’s 

2001 Governor’s Award of Excellence. 

The Foundation is committed to improving the 

quality of life in these communities by investing 

in the citizens of today and tomorrow. The main 

areas of focus for accomplishing this mission are 

education, affordable housing, the United Way 

and other charitable purposes. 

In March 2000, the Bank completed its first 

year as a public company. It reported record 

earnings due in part to the conversion to a 

public company and in part to a greater loan 

demand in the face of increasing interest rates. 

The Bank grew from $5.77 billion in assets at 

March 31, 1999 to $7.64 billion at March 31, 

2000. This growth, while maintaining a sound 

capital position, made Capitol Federal the 15th 

largest thrift in the nation. 

On June 1, 2001, Governor Bill Graves and 

the Kansas Department of Commerce and 

Housing honored Capitol Federal Savings with 

the 2001 Governor’s Award of Excellence. This 

prestigious quality award is bestowed on one 

Kansas company each year and is a source of 

pride for Capitol Federal. This award shows 

appreciation for the business in Kansas most 

exemplifying service to customers, a positive 

work environment and a commitment to its 

communities and to Kansas. When presenting 

the award, Governor Graves recognized 

Capitol Federal and its employees for their 

achievements and impact on the communities 

served by the Bank. 

During the same year, the Kansas 

Department of Human Resources and Aging 

honored Capitol Federal by naming it the 

Kansas Employer of the Year, recognizing the 

Bank “...for providing an exemplary model to 

promote positive older worker images.” 

Today, more than 750 dedicated professionals 

staff 37 branch locations throughout Kansas in 

Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City, Manhattan, 

Olathe, Johnson County, Salina, Emporia and 

Wichita. Innovative customer conveniences 

include branch locations within SuperTarget, Price 

Chopper, Hen House and Dillon’s stores and a 

telephone Customer Service Center open Monday 

through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., 

Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Noon to 5 

p.m. at 1-888-8CAPFED (1-888-822-7333). 

With True Blue commitment, Capitol Federal 

contributes to communities with financial 

sponsorship and employee involvement. Home 

buyer education programs cover contracts, home 

upkeep, budgeting and finance. Teen seminars 

teach money management in preparation for 

college and home ownership. Staff members 

serve as mentors in schools and help 

organizations such as Junior Achievement and 

Mennonite Housing. The Bank has maintained 

involvement with the United Way and American 

Cancer Society, including leadership and 

volunteer roles in both organizations. Within 

their communities, Capitol Federal employees 

provide thousands of volunteer hours each year 


to a variety of youth, educational, community 

and charitable organizations. 

A major Foundation goal is to serve as an 

advocate for higher education at the university 

level. In the fall of 1999, the Foundation 

approved a gift to Washburn University for its 

Living Learning Center, a student housing and 

learning center. The donation assisted with “the 

learning component of this building,” known as 

The Capitol Federal Center for Learning. 

Through grants provided by the Foundation, 

Capitol Federal established scholarship 

programs for business students at Emporia 

State University, Johnson County Community 

College, Kansas State University and Wichita 

State University. 

For more information about financial 

products, employment opportunities and the 

overall strength of Capitol Federal, visit the 

website at www.capfed.com. 

❖ 

Above: The ribbon cutting ceremony 

for the Capitol Federal Center for 

Learning at Washburn University. 

Present are (from left to right) Capitol 

Federal Savings President John B. 

Dicus; Capitol Federal Foundation 

President Jack H. Hamilton; Capitol 

Federal Savings Chairman John C. 

Dicus; and Washburn University 

President Jerry B. Farley. 

Left: Capitol Federal Foundation 

Trustees celebrate the opening of the 

Capitol Federal Young Readers’ Room 

at the Topeka/Shawnee County Public 

Library. Present are (from left to 

right) Rick C. Jackson, first vicepresident 

of Capitol Federal Savings; 

Jack H. Hamilton; John C. “Jack” 

Dicus; John B. Dicus; and Nancy 

Perry, executive director of the 

United Way of Greater Topeka. 


COMMERCE 

BANK & TRUST 

❖ 

Above: Prominent Topeka 

businessmen meet in 1959 to discuss 

organizing Commerce State Bank. 

Below: Commerce Bank & Trust’s 

history of banking innovations 

has made them Topeka’s leader 

in banking. 

In today’s ever-changing banking world, one 

Topeka institution remains committed to the 

community banking concept it was founded on 

decades ago. This is the story of Commerce 

Bank & Trust, one of the Midwest’s most 

forward-looking banks. 

In early 1959 a group of prominent Topeka 

businessmen became interested in starting a 

suburban bank. The group’s decision hinged on 

convincing Emery Fager, a young banker in 

Overbrook, to come to Topeka and become 

president of the bank. Fager had recently 

graduated from the American Institute of Banking 

in Madison, Wisconsin, when he received the call 

to lead this venture. 

Much work was needed to make the bank a 

reality: a charter had to be approved and issued 

by the State Banking Commissioner and State 

Banking Board and then approved by the FDIC; 

a board of directors had to be appointed; three 

hundred thousand shares of stock had to be 

sold; and a building needed designed and 

furnished. Once the charter was approved, 

Fager formulated plans for a sixty-eighthundred-square-foot 

building, to be built on the 

Southeast corner of Holliday Square Shopping 

Center. The bank opened for business 

December 3, 1959, with capital stock of 

$200,000 and surplus of $100,000. It occupied 

half of the new building. 

Fager was adamant this not be just another 

bank. “The concept I had when we opened the 

bank was that we would be convenient…a 

people-oriented bank,” he recalls. 

The location in what was then suburban 

Topeka was itself a new idea in convenience, 

but the innovations were just beginning. 

Soon thereafter, Commerce introduced driveup 

banking, extended hours, and banking on 

Saturday morning. 

“Our customers loved banking on Saturday 

morning, although the other bankers in town 

were very upset with me for starting this practice,” 

Fager says. “They knew they would have to follow, 

and they didn’t like that.” 

Saturday banking was the beginning of 

customers coming to the bank “as they were.” 

They felt more at ease coming on Saturday in 

casual dress. This was a change from dressing 

up to go to the bank. 

Many more innovations would follow. For the 

first time in Topeka, Commerce customers were 

furnished with fully personalized checks. Machine 

receipts became customer’s official receipt, which 

did away with passbooks, a bold move in 1959. By 

the end of the first year of operation, Fager had 

established Commerce as the leader in 

convenience, a position it has never relinquished. 

In 1960 and 1961 the South Topeka area 

expanded rapidly with the development of White 

Lakes Shopping Center and the Industrial Park. 

Recognizing an opportunity to expand, the bank 

acquired a tract of land at Thirty-third and 

Harrison to build a future drive-thru facility. This 

was a key factor in attracting most of the businesses 

at the new White Lakes Mall as customers. 


Fager continued to introduce new concepts in 

banking by paying interest monthly on savings 

certificates. The community responded, and by 

the end of 1964, Commerce State Bank assets 

exceeded $8 million, and ground had been 

broken on a new White Lakes drive-thru facility. 

Foreseeing the future impact technology 

would have on the industry, Fager implemented 

automated checking, savings, installment and 

commercial loan accounts. By the end of 1965 

the bank had automated its major processing 

functions. Fager also was working to obtain 

trust powers for the bank from state regulators. 

The bank realized by 1967 that it was rapidly 

outgrowing its quarters and acquired land for 

the future home office of Commerce Bank & 

Trust at Thirty-first and South Topeka, just 

south of the existing bank. 

In the late 1960s, all the talk was of the 

“checkless society” with the emergence of 

BankAmericard in California. Soon, thousands of 

Commerce customers were among the first in the 

area to be issued BankAmericards. Furthering 

the convenience of this plastic card, Commerce 

signed up local merchants who would accept the 

card as payment for goods or services. 

MasterCharge was added a short time later. 

By 1971, construction contracts were being 

awarded and Commerce was still thinking ahead. 

A marketing department was created to facilitate 

growth and future CEO Duane Fager was elected 

marketing officer. The bank took advantage of its 

trust powers, and began offering full investment 

management and custodial services. 

The year 1972 brought completion of a $1.25 

million, 135,000-square-foot building. Thousands 

of Topekans attended the grand opening on 

October 7. Much of the building was vacant, and 

many of his banking colleagues scoffed at Fager for 

being overly optimistic in his dreams of future 

growth. Undaunted, Fager made further 

expansion moves in 1973. He purchased property 

at Twenty-ninth and Prairie Road, and remodeled 

the structure to provide banking services to west 

Topeka businesses and consumers. In April 1974, 

Commerce West opened and the bank installed a 

state-of-the-art IBM computer system that would 

become the core for many more technology 

advances to come. 

In 1976 the culmination of that technology 

resulted in Commerce installing the first on-line 

ATM in Topeka, another giant leap in 

convenience for Commerce customers. By 1977, 

Commerce had Telly’s in grocery stores, shopping 

centers and a hospital. Commerce had become a 

$78 million bank, double its size of 1972. 

Furthering conveniences, Commerce instituted 

a local VISA and MasterCard Center, issuing and 

processing transactions locally. By the end of 1978, 

Commerce was the third largest bank in Topeka, 

and Duane was named its president. 

As Commerce celebrated its twenty-fifth 

anniversary in 1984, the bank was focused on 

community involvement, expansion and 

infrastructure growth. Exemplifying the bank’s 

position as community leader, the Commerce 

Bank & Trust family played a pivotal role in 

transforming the old Municipal Auditorium into 

The Topeka Performing Arts Center, a first-class 

performance hall. 

Recognizing the need for expansion north, 

Commerce purchased the First State Bank in the 

❖ 

Above: A young Emery Fager as 

president of the new Commerce 

State Bank. 

Below: Commerce Bank was the first 

bank to introduce drive-thru banking 

to Topekans in the early 1960s. 


❖ 

Above: In the late 1990s, Commerce 

Bank & Trust opened this branch in 

the West Ridge Mall. 

Below: Ribbon cutting ceremony for 

the first Commerce branch outside of 

Topeka, in Emporia, 1997. 

800 block of Kansas, and the rest of the block 

south to the Kansan Tower building at Ninth 

and Kansas. By late 1986 this location became 

Commerce Bank & Trust downtown. Also, a 

full-service branch was constructed in the 

Fleming Place Shopping Center at Eleventh 

and Gage, and opened in February 1987. 

This modern facility featured full-service 

banking and five drive-thru lanes, one with a 

Telly machine. 

Fager’s “mission driven” approach fueled the 

bank’s growth, without sacrificing service. 

“We have grown one customer at a time and 

we have done that by delivering an excellent 

quality product, served by people who are 

enthusiastic and really want to help our 

customers,” asserts Duane. 

Already the first bank in Topeka to offer 

extended hours, in-house credit card service, 

telephone billpayer, debit cards, simple interest 

installment loans, sixty month auto loans and 

twenty-four hour ATMs; Commerce 

strengthened its leadership position with the first 

full-service supermarket branches in Topeka. 

Four supermarket branches opened in 1988. 

The supermarket banks were the first to bring 

seven day-a-week banking to Topeka, as well as 

evening hours, and each location offered the full 

array of Commerce services, including loans. 

In 1989, on the bank’s thirtieth anniversary, 

Commerce was a $200-million bank, with nine 

branches and twenty ATMs. A national research 

firm named Commerce the leading provider of 

financial services in Topeka and Shawnee County. 

The 1990s brought deregulation, industry 

change, and technological advances. Withstanding 

oppressive legislation and national 

FDIC Insurance Fund problems, Commerce 

continued to grow, showing $250 million in 

assets at the end of 1990. “Commitment to our 

Community” was the theme, as the Topeka 

Performing Arts Center opened, and Commerce 

employees showed community spirit by 

building a Habitat for Humanity Home. The 

bank was recognized with a long list of awards, 

including the JCPenney Golden Rule Award for 

Community Service in 1990; a coveted “A” 

Rating from Sheshunoff Information Services in 

1992; and IDC Financial Publishing’s “Superior” 

rating in 1993. The FDIC awarded Commerce a 

string of “‘Outstanding’ Ratings for Community 

Reinvestment Performance.” The bank’s 

commitment to the arts was nationally 

recognized in New York City with the Business 

in the Arts award, and Commerce was awarded 

the Governor’s Arts Award for significant 

contributions to the Arts in Kansas. 

Aggressive loan programs in the 1990s helped 

fuel further growth, and in mid-1992 Commerce 

opened two more supermarket branches. 

The mid-1990s brought growth in 

commercial banking. In 1995, Money Magazine 

named Commerce “Best Bank in Kansas” based 

on convenience to customers, and products and 

services offered. The bank’s “Telly” network had 

grown to nearly three dozen machines. 

Commerce introduced Internet Banking and 

established a presence on the World Wide Web. 


“Technology will continue to change the way 

we do business,” Duane says. “We will continue 

to be at the forefront of that change.” 

The bank’s advertising theme, “Locations, 

Locations, Locations,” took on stronger meaning 

with the opening of two locations on Topeka’s 

expanding west side in 1996. The Twentysecond 

and Wanamaker Branch positioned 

Commerce solidly on the Wanamaker corridor, 

and the branch at Twenty-ninth and Urish gave 

Commerce a strategic residential location in the 

growing southwest part of the city. 

By the end of 1996, assets surpassed $400 

million. The bank continued its growthoriented 

path in 1997, opening another 

supermarket branch. Commerce announced 

plans to build on the opposite side of the city, 

with the Deer Creek Branch on East Sixth 

opening in the fall of 1997. 

During this time, Commerce was looking 

outside Topeka for growth opportunities, 

purchasing a building at 1440 Industrial in 

Emporia as its first location outside Topeka, 

opening there in 1997. That was soon followed 

by two more Emporia locations. 

Additional branches were opened in Topeka 

in the late 1990s. One in Hunter’s Ridge at 

Highway 75 and North Forty-sixth Street, and 

another in West Ridge Mall. Commerce has 

implemented limited-hours offices in Brewster 

Place and Hearthstone retirement communities. 

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, 

Commerce has more than twenty branch 

locations with more in development. Through 

this growth, one constant remains: satisfied 

customers. Commerce has grown to be the 

leading provider of financial services to its 

marketplace by listening to customer’s needs 

and providing exemplary customer service in 

convenient locations. The same principles that 

shaped its past continue to shape its future. And 

highly focused and dedicated people are making 

it happen…now, and in the future. 

❖ 

Top, left: Commerce monument signs 

are a frequent reminder of their many 

convenient locations. 

Above: One of the supermarket 

branches first introduced to Topeka by 

Commerce in 1988. 

Below: One of Commerce Bank & 

Trust’s newest supermarket locations. 


MARTIN 

TRACTOR 

COMPANY 

❖ 

Above: The original owners of Martin 

Tractor Company (from left to right): 

Bill Martin, Charles Martin, Jr., C. H. 

Martin, Don McRae, and Fred Martin 

at the shop on Topeka Boulevard. 

Below: Ottawa Foundry and Machine 

Shop in Ottawa, Kansas, purchased 

by Charles H, and Fred P. Martin in 

1911, “Where it all began.” 

With more than ninety-three years of service 

to Kansas, Martin Tractor Company is not just 

one of the oldest companies in Shawnee County 

but is also the second oldest Caterpillar 

dealership in the world. It remains a thirdgeneration 

family owned business, with roots 

deep in the Kansas and Topeka communities. 

While its origins are in Ottawa, Martin 

Tractor’s growth can be traced to Topeka. The 

self-described “two boys just off the farm” 

Charles H. and Fred P. Martin purchased the 

Ottawa Foundry and Machine Shop in Ottawa, 

Kansas. The brothers added the manufacture of 

road drags, concrete mixers, and silo and 

culvert forms to their product lines. 

The company became a sub dealer for the 

Holt Manufacturing Company in 1920. When 

Holt merged with The Best Company to form 

Caterpillar Inc. in 1925, Martin Tractor became 

a dealer. 

In 1928 Charles moved to Topeka to 

establish the Martin Tractor and Harvester 

Company. In 1935, Topeka became the 

permanent headquarters of Martin Tractor 

when the Ottawa store closed and Fred and 

several employees moved to Topeka to 

consolidate the business in a larger facility at 

700 East Eighth Street. 

After moving to Topeka, Martin Tractor 

became more involved in the state and 

local community. Fort Riley relied on 

Martin Tractor in the 1940s to help ready 

the Army post for troops. In the 1950s and 

60s, Martin Tractor continued to 

witness increased business opportunities. 

The Kansas River Valley flooded in 1951 and 

the Topeka tornado in 1966 presented the 

company with two opportunities to 

assist in various communities in the wake 

of disaster. 


In the 1960s, Kansas, the company and its 

customers continued to enjoy tremendous 

growth. The decade began and ended with 

projects that expanded dams and power plants. 

The turnpike was completed and the building 

of the interstate system was in progress. The 

highway system was enlarged and soil 

conservation contractors were employed to 

improve farm ground. 

Martin Tractor’s development has been 

considerable the past twenty-five years. In the 

1980s, Martin Tractor became a dominant 

supplier of earthmoving and power generation 

equipment in Kansas, and remains the leader today. 

In 1994 the company added Precision Truck & 

Diesel of Emporia to its holdings. In 1996 a fullservice 

radiator facility was opened in Chanute. 

Martin expanded into the used construction parts 

business in 1997 with the conversion of a building 

in Concordia. The used parts business serves 

customers in Kansas and nationwide. 

The company opened a Regional Training 

Center in Topeka in 1998, with full-time 

trainers for Martin Tractor employees and other 

dealer personnel. The Regional Training Center 

provides technical training for agriculture, 

engine and construction products. 

In 2001, Martin Rents opened in Topeka, 

offering a full line of CAT equipment 

and other construction-related products for 

homeowners, contractors and other business 

needs. And in 2002, Martin Tractor became 

a Challenger product dealer with a complete 

line of agricultural products including 

tractors, combines, balers, mowers and 

other equipment. 

The company’s headquarters is currently 

located in the Southgate Industrial Park. 

The company also has stores in Chanute, 

Concordia, Colby, Emporia and Manhattan. It 

sells and services Caterpillar equipment at 

locations serving fifty counties in Eastern and 

Northern Kansas. 

Martin Tractor has also branched into 

other areas of business. In 2002, BA Designs, LLC 

became a business partner and in 1999 Superior 

Installations was formed as a division of BA 

Designs. These businesses provide interior 

design, commercial furnishings and installation 

to companies throughout eastern Kansas. 

Comfort Keepers joined Martin Tractor in 2002 

as a wholly owned subsidiary, offering 

affordable solutions of non-medical in-home care 

to customers in Topeka and Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

The company is a team of 338 men and 

women with over 2,670 years of experience 

committed to a vision of “Serving and Inspiring 

Each Other, Our Customers and Our 

Stakeholders.” The company believes that it 

will accomplish its vision by living out its 

core values: 

• To “Honor God” in all that we do. 

• To be “Responsible Stewards” of all that has 

been entrusted to us, and 

• By being “Inspirational Leaders” to those 

whose lives we touch. 

❖ 

Six Topeka Highway Mowers ready 

for delivery to the Kansas Highway 

Commission outside the store at 700 

East Eighth Street in Topeka. 


BA DESIGNS, LLC 

COMFORT 

KEEPERS 

❖ 

Comfort Keepers is operated by 

Randy and Sarah Cox, lifelong 

Topekans committed to the well being 

of city residents. Randy has owned 

Randy Cox Drywall for more than 

twenty-six years and Sarah has 

worked in the healthcare field at 

Menninger and Heart of America 

Hospice as a social worker. 

At first glance it would seem the only 

connection between BA Designs, LLC and Comfort 

Keepers are their associations with Martin Tractor 

Company, as each is a subsidiary of the 

corporation. But the connection is deeper, as each 

was born of a commitment to serve the needs, first 

and foremost, of customers. 

With a desire to focus on customer service as 

much as design work, Beth Anne Branden, Stacey 

Utech, and Janie Stock brought together their 

combined experience of more than fifty years to 

open BA Designs, LLC in February 1995. The firm 

offers a wide range of services, including project 

programming, interior design, space planning, and 

inventory management. Committed to providing 

the cutting edge in technology, the firm employs 

the most current software—including threedimensional 

imaging—allowing designers to 

produce comprehensive and specific design and 

space planning. 

Expanding to provide comprehensive services, 

BA Designs, LLC established an installation side to 

the business, Superior Installation Services, under 

the direction of Russ Branden. Superior Installation 

Services is responsible for the company’s furniture 

installations, moves and reconfigurations. 

In January 2000, BA Designs, LLC became a 

wholly owned subsidiary of Martin Tractor. The 

company’s partnership stems from a family 

connection: Beth Anne’s family has owned Martin 

Tractor for ninety years. 

Comfort Keepers has been in business 

since July 2002 and is committed to providing 

high quality in-home services to seniors and those 

capable of handling their physical needs but 

requiring assistance with some daily tasks. Its 

mission is to provide clients with the highest 

quality of care giving services, treating each client 

with the respect and dignity they deserve. 

The non-medical services Comfort Keepers 

provides include companionship, light housekeeping, 

laundry, grocery shopping, and meal 

preparation, services that make it possible for 

clients to live comfortably in the privacy of their 

own homes. The caregiving is tailored to meet 

each client’s specific needs. 

Comfort Keepers is operated by Randy and 

Sarah Cox, lifelong Topekans committed to the 

health and well-being of city residents. Randy 

has owned Randy Cox Drywall for more than 

twenty-six years and Sarah has worked in the 

health care field at Menninger and Heart of 

America Hospice as a social worker. 

The company has about twenty-five 

professional caregivers, each screened, bonded, 

and insured. While Comfort Keepers is locally 

owned operated, it is part of a nationwide network 

of nearly four hundred Comfort Keepers’ services. 


On July 1, 1971, Chuck Lower opened 

Lower Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc., 

starting out installing furnace and air 

conditioning systems in new homes. As the 

lone employee, Chuck prided himself in 

offering his customers the best possible 

installation and service. 

Through the years, that dedication has paid 

off. Today, Lower Heating and Air Conditioning, 

Inc., still operated by Chuck, has 40 employees, 

over 4,000 steady customers and over $4.5 

million in annual sales. 

The business has gone from a small heating 

and air company to one that offers residential 

and commercial heating and air conditioning 

installation and service, plumbing installation 

and service and sheet metal fabrication. 

The company is proud to have installed 

the heating, air conditioning and plumbing in 

some significant projects, such as the YMCA, 

Petro's Allied Health Center, the Kansas High 

School Activities Association, WIBW Radio 

Station, the Kansas University Union 

Renovation, the Washburn University Stadium 

renovation, and many more. 

Lower Heating and Air Conditioning is a 

member of the Topeka Homebuilders 

Association, Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors 

Association, Topeka Chamber of 

Commerce, Associated General Contractors of 

Kansas, and the Better Business Bureau. The 

company also has financially supported 

Go Topeka, Washburn University, Cappers, 

Sheltered Living, Casa, United Way, and the 

Jayhawk Area Council. 

Lower has established an enviable reputation 

for top-quality installation and service, together 

with fair and honest business practices, and will 

continue to emphasize the safety and well being 

of its employees and the community. 

LOWER HEATING 

AND AIR 

CONDITIONING, 

INC. 

❖ 

Above: Chuck Lower, owner and 

operator of Lower Heating and Air 

Conditioning, Inc. 

Below: The Lower Heating and Air 

Conditioning, Inc. headquarters has 

been a fixture in southeast Topeka 

since Chuck Lower opened its doors 

in 1971. 


KAW VALLEY 

STATE BANK AND 

TRUST COMPANY 

❖ 

Above: Glenn Swogger, Sr. next to one 

of his first “innovative” purchases. 

Below: The interior of Shawnee State 

Bank in 1902, which was consolidated 

into Kaw Valley Bank. 

Kaw Valley State Bank and Trust Company is 

a Topeka institution with roots in North Topeka, 

which extend more than 150 years. 

The bank has expanded its assets from $54 

million in 1984 to $350 million in 2002, and now 

has ten branches citywide. The pillars of the bank’s 

growth have been service to loyal depositors and 

quality lending services to small businesses. 

The present family ownership of Kaw Valley 

began in the 1920s with the purchase of the 

Oakland State Bank by Glenn Swogger, Sr., and 

his father, J. S. Swogger. The bank was a 

storefront operation, with the bank in front and 

family living quarters in back. The bank grew 

through consolidation of the Oakland State 

Bank with Kaw Valley National Bank, Shawnee 


State Bank, and Citizen’s State Bank. When 

Oakland State Bank purchased Kaw Valley 

National Bank in 1933, it was moved to 844 

North Kansas Avenue and assumed its present 

name, Kaw Valley State Bank and Trust. In 1965 

a new building was constructed at 1110 North 

Kansas, which remains (with many expansions) 

the bank’s headquarters. 

In the era of bank robberies, the bank at 844 

North Kansas was equipped with two Enfield 

rifles, a revolver, a pistol, and a sawed-off 

shotgun. On one occasion, a bank teller chased 

a would-be robber to Billard Airport, where the 

thief was captured. 

In 1951 the Kaw Valley was devastated by a 

flood, which damaged much of North Topeka. 

The bank was under ten feet of water and most 

of its internal fixtures were destroyed. In the 

flood’s aftermath, service was maintained, 

deposit box contents were returned (slightly 

wet!), and soggy documents were taken to the 

Swogger household and dried with a mangle 

iron. The bank was rebuilt in North Topeka. 

In 1982, after a distinguished career, Glenn 

Swogger, Sr. retired from his position as 

chairman and president at the age of 86. He was 

replaced as president by Gerald Lauber—then 

twenty-nine years-old—and shortly thereafter 

by Glenn Swogger, Jr., M.D, as chairman. Dr. 

Swogger also served at the time as director of 

the Will Menninger Center for Applied 

Behavioral Sciences. He was a staff member of 

the Menninger Clinic for twenty-two years, 

retiring in 1993. Gerald and Glenn continue in 

their roles at present. 

Kaw Valley State Bank was one of the first 

banks in Kansas to set up a website 

(kawvalleybank.com). Check imaging, online 

services, and bill paying services rapidly 

followed, allowing the bank to offer a full range 

of services in locations throughout Topeka. 

The bank has over 100 employees, many 

of whom have served five years or more. 

The quality of the staff and their long-term 

relationships with many of Kaw Valley’s customers 

helps them provide outstanding service. 

Trust services have long been a part of Kaw 

Valley Bank. The wide range of services 

provided by their legally trained staff include 

many forms of trusts, such as revocable trusts, 

conservatorships, investment management, 

ESOP’s, and industrial revenue bonds. Our 

$100 million in assets involves personal service 

to clients large and small. An unusual example 

of Kaw Valley “going the extra mile” occurred 

some years ago when they handled a 

testamentary trust whose assets were to be used 

for the care of a large number of pet cats. A 

problem arose when it was determined the cats 

were multiplying in the kennel where they were 

kept, threatening to completely deplete the 

trust’s assets. The solution was found by a trust 

officer who determined that spaying the 

beneficiaries was consistent with the services 

provided by the trust. 

Another prime engine of Kaw Valley’s growth 

has been commercial lending to businesses and 

commercial real estate. The size and capabilities 

of the bank’s outstanding staff of loan officers 

❖ 

Glenn Swogger, Sr., who along with 

his father J. S. Swogger, opened 

Oakland State Bank, which evolved 

into Kaw Valley State Bank. 


❖ 

Left: Kaw Valley State Bank & Trust 

Company Chairman Glenn Swogger, Jr. 

Right: Kaw Valley State Bank & Trust 

Company President Gerald Lauber. 

allows them to handle large loans to local and 

regional businesses. Kaw Valley is also noted for 

loans to small local businesses—some of whom 

grow into large businesses. The bank was one of 

the first to extend credit to a small North 

Topeka retail dry goods store, which expanded 

into retail shoes, and became what is now 

nationally and internationally known as Payless 

Shoe Source. 

Characteristic of the bank’s approach to 

commercial lending has been an ethic of loyalty 

to customers, which elicits loyalty from 

customers. A belief in cooperative business 

relationships allows the bank and its customers 

to work together to grow the business and solve 

problems that arise. The number of bank 

branches with full-time loan officers is being 

increased to make service more convenient. A 

mortgage subsidiary, Kaw Valley Home Loans, 

has been formed. 

Kaw Valley State Bank is fortunate to have an 

active board of directors who meet regularly 

during the year to provide oversight to 

management, and in an all-day retreat each 

January to evaluate long-term strategy and 

determine goals for the coming year. In addition 

to Glenn Swogger, Jr., and Gerald Lauber, board 

members include Robert Maxwell, lawyer and 

senior vice president; Sylvia Swogger Sheldon, a 

major stockholder and president of Kaw Valley 

Bancshares Holding Company; Sam Kelsey, 

retired farmer and grandson of M.T. Kelsey, a 

member of the original Oakland Bank board; 

Conant Wait, lawyer and retired senior vice 

president affiliated with the bank since 1946; 

Bob Bernica, investor and internal consultant; 

Kent Palmberg, M.D., chief medical officer at 

Stormont Vail Hospital; Mark Mohan, 

businessman and head of Mohan construction; 

and Jere Noe, partner at Wendling, Noe, 

Nelson and Johnson and head of the bank’s 

audit committee. 

Kaw Valley Bank’s community activities 

involve a range of North Topeka and Topeka 

programs, including the Topeka Youth 

Symphony and North Topeka branch of the 

YMCA. The bank is especially committed to the 

Overland Station project to restore the Union 

Pacific Railroad Station, with its art deco 

fixtures—remodeling it into a railroad museum 

and community center as part of the larger 

Riverside Park project. It also has a longstanding 

commitment to the Topeka Shawnee County 

Public Library, being a prime supporter of the 

annual Friends of the Library Book Sale and 

other Library projects. 

Kaw Valley State Bank’s growth has made it 

one of the larger locally owned banks while 

retaining person-to-person contact and local 

decision making. 


GREGG TIRE 

For much of the nation, 1917 is remembered 

as the year the United States entered troops into 

World War I and the year the prohibition 

amendment was submitted to the states for 

ratification. For Topekans and the local business 

community, 1917 also marked the beginning of 

Gregg Tire, a company that has established itself 

as a downtown fixture and one of the most 

successful longstanding businesses in the city. 

Now operated by a third generation of the 

Gregg family, Gregg Tire has been an 

independent dealer for the Goodyear Tire and 

Rubber Company for eighty-three of its eightyseven 

years. The company was honored on its 

seventy-fifth anniversary by Goodyear, for its 

commitment to service and longevity. In recent 

years the business branched out, opening 

additional stores in Lawrence and Kansas City. 

Randy Gregg, who currently oversees 

business operations, downplays the company’s 

longevity, but is proud of what his family has 

accomplished, and says that stability and a rich 

history of strong customer service make Gregg 

Tire a trustworthy Topeka institution. 

Randy assumed control of the business in 1987 

when his father, Otis Gregg, retired. Otis had 

succeeded his mother, Hazel Gregg, who ran the 

business after company founder, George Gregg, 

Hazel’s husband and Randy’s grandfather, died in 

1934. Hazel guided the business through its 

toughest years, including the Great Depression 

and World War II, when the military controlled 

most of the nation’s rubber for the war effort. 

The business should long remain a family affair, 

as Randy’s sons, Rob and Ryan, are actively 

involved in the company. Rob manages the Topeka 

store and Ryan works in the Lawrence branch. 

In recent years the company has remodeled 

the Topeka store, with a commitment to remain 

downtown, and has seen steady growth in sales. 

For Gregg Tire, however, sales are a minor 

component of the companies’ history and 

future. “We’ve got to distinguish ourselves from 

all those other places,” Randy says. “And about 

the only way we can do that is to provide really 

good service.” 

❖ 

Above: The Gregg Tire Company as it 

looked in the 1930s and 1940s on the 

corner of Sixth and Van Buren Streets 

in downtown Topeka. 

Below: The staff of Gregg Tire stand 

in front of the building in the 1950s. 


PARRISH HOTEL 

CORPORATION 

❖ 

Above: The Jayhawk Tower was once 

the Hotel Jayhawk, a popular 

gathering place for political leaders 

since its construction in 1926. 

Top, right: Parrish Hotel Corporation 

owns and manages the historic Elks 

Club building, located at 122 

Southwest Seventh Street, across the 

street from the Jayhawk Tower. 

The success of Parrish Hotel Corporation has 

been a direct result of the energy, enthusiasm 

and historical understanding of owner and 

founder James W. Parrish. Parrish, a Topeka 

attorney and president of Parrish Hotel 

Corporation, has long worked for the improvement 

of the community, through public service 

as a state senator and through efforts as a 

property owner and investor who ensures that 

historic sites remain intact and renovated. 

In 1994, Jim and his wife, Nancy, a district 

court judge, along with Loren and Betty Lou 

Hohman, donated The Jayhawk State Theatre of 

Kansas to Historic Jayhawk Theatre Inc., so the 

historic structure could be renovated and used 

by the community. 

The theatre is adjacent to the historic Jayhawk 

Tower, an office building owned by Parrish and 

Hohman located at Seventh and Jackson Streets. 

The Jayhawk Tower was once the Hotel Jayhawk, 

a popular gathering place for political leaders 

since its construction in 1926. Parrish and 

Hohman purchased the eleven story building in 

1991 and have kept the Tower maintained to 

resemble the original look and feel of the hotel, 

ensuring that it continues to be an important 

downtown landmark. Atop the Tower rests two 

thirty-five foot tall neon Jayhawk signs, which 

were refurbished and relit in the mid-1990s 

under the guidance of Parrish and Hohman. 

Parrish Hotel Corporation also oversees the 

historic Elks Club building, acquired by Parrish 

and Hohman in 1991 and located at 122 

Southwest Seventh Street, across the street from 

the Jayhawk Tower. On the National Historic 

Register, the building was constructed in 1900 and 

became the Kansas Highway Patrol headquarters 

in 1982. During the past twelve years Parrish has 

remodeled the building three times, maintaining a 

modern, comfortable office environment while 

preserving the historic nature of the building. 

In 2002, Parrish acquired The Downtown 

Ramada Inn, a historic hotel which has served the 

Topeka community for nearly forty years, first as 

the city’s premier motor hotel and more recently 

as the largest convention hotel in Kansas. 

For decades, the Kansas Republican Party 

hosted its annual Kansas Day celebration at the 

Ramada, attracting dignitaries from home and 

afar. Among those who regularly attended the 

celebration were: the late Alf Landon, former 

presidential candidate and Kansas governor; 

Bob Dole, former Senator; Barbara Bush, former 

first lady; President Ronald Reagan; President 

Gerald Ford; and President George H. W. Bush, 

who stayed overnight while vice-president. 


The Kansas Democratic Party has used the 

Ramada as its convention site for many years. 

Among many prominent Democrats to speak at 

the Ramada are the late Senator Robert Kennedy 

during his quest for the presidency in 1968 

and Senator Ted Kennedy as a candidate for 

president in 1980. 

Local entrepreneur Sam Cohen built the 

original Downtown Ramada Inn and several 

additions. In the construction, he incorporated a 

special group of collector’s pieces from the former 

Kansas governor’s mansion which was located at 

Eighth and Buchanan Streets. Items include 

fireplaces, paneling, windows, doors and fixtures 

from the mansion, which were salvaged by Cohen 

as the building was being razed in the mid-1960s. 

The Holiday Inn Holidome, which Parrish 

acquired in 2002, is on the west side of Fairlawn 

Road just south of I-70 and boasts 254,109 

square feet with nearly 200 rooms. Constructed 

in 1968 with additions built in 1981, the 

Holidome has seen improvements that include 

renovations to sleeping rooms, the coffee shop, 

the lounge/restaurant, meeting rooms, elevators, 

and the exercise room and atrium containing a 

pool, spa, seating area and game room. In 

addition, Parrish has replaced boilers and air 

conditioning equipment, resurfaced the parking 

lot and replaced much of the roof. 

Parrish also acquired the Holiday Inn 

Express, an eighty-one room hotel resting on a 

1.9 acre plot on Wanamaker Road. Built in 

2000, it serves business travelers and families 

who travel Interstate 70. 

Well beyond his investments, Parrish has 

long been an active force in Shawnee County. 

Born in Great Bend, Kansas, Parrish 

graduated from Great Bend High School in 

1964, Pratt Community Junior College in 

1967, and Kansas State University in 1970, all 

with honors. He holds a bachelors of science 

❖ 

Above: The Holiday Inn Holidome, on 

the west side of Fairlawn Road south 

of I-70 was constructed in 1968 with 

additions in 1981. 

Below: This neon sign graces the 

top of Jayhawk Tower, originally 

Jayhawk Hotel. 


❖ 

Right: The Downtown Ramada Inn 

has served the community for nearly 

forty years. Among those who have 

stayed there are: the late Alf Landon, 

former presidential candidate and 

Kansas governor; Bob Dole, former 

senator; Barbara Bush, former first 

lady; President Ronald Reagan; 

President Gerald Ford; and President 

George H. W. Bush, who stayed 

overnight while vice-president. 

Below: The Holiday Inn Holidome, on 

the west side of Fairlawn Road just 

south of I-70, was constructed in 

1968 with additions in 1981. The 

Holidome has seen improvements that 

include renovations to sleeping rooms, 

coffee shop, lounge/restaurant, 

meeting rooms, elevators, exercise 

room and atrium containing a pool, 

spa, seating area and game room. 

degree in technical journalism from Kansas 

State, where he was also a member of Phi Delta 

Theta social fraternity, Phi Kappa Phi and Blue 

Key honor societies, and served as editor of the 

Kansas State Collegian. He was also a 

distinguished military graduate in the ROTC. 

Parrish went on to graduate cum laude from 

Washburn University Law School, where he 

received his Juris Doctorate in 1973. He began 

practicing law immediately upon graduation, 

and during the course of his professional 

practice, he has specialized in securities, 

business and real estate law. From 1973 to 

1974, Parrish also served in the Kansas House of 

Representatives and then served in the Kansas 

Senate from 1975 until 1980. From 1977 to 

1980, he served as senate assistant minority 

leader. In 1985 he was elected chairman of the 

Kansas Democratic Party where he served until 

February 1991. He then became Kansas 

Securities Commissioner from 1991 until 1995. 

Parrish has experienced much success in 

business, serving as the senior vice president 

and director of Brock Hotel Corporation, 1977- 

1983, and owner/operator of seven Showbiz 

Pizza Place Restaurants. Since 1985 he has 

directed Parrish Hotel Corporation as its 

president. He is also on the Board of Directors of 

the Topeka Bar Association and is past president 

of Downtown Topeka, Inc. and remains on its 

Executive Committee and Board of Directors. 

He is past chairman of the Capital Business 

Improvement District Advisory Board and 

remains as a member, and has served as 

chairman of the Metropolitan Topeka Airport 

Authority on four occasions during his ten years 

of service. He is also past president of the 

Topeka Phi Delta Theta Alumni Board. 

Parrish is also administrator for the Kansas 

Workers Risk for Counties Cooperative, a 

self-insurance pool which provides workers 

compensation coverage for more than half of 

Kansas counties. He has been a valuable 

contributor in his community, co-founding the 

Highland Park Baseball Association as well as 

serving as a member of dozens of organizations, 

including Highland Park Methodist Church, 

Downtown Topeka, Inc., Historic Jayhawk 

Theatre Board of Directors, Highland Park 

Optimist Club, American Legion Capital 

Outpost No. 1, Aircraft Owner and Pilots 

Association and the Washburn Law School 

Association. His honors include the Greater 

Topeka Chamber of Commerce Certificate of 

Appreciation, the Topeka Alumni Club of Phi 

Delta Theta Member of the Year Award and the 

Outstanding Young Man in America—an award 

he won three times from 1973 to 1975. 


Cardinal Brands/Adams has been part of the 

Topeka landscape for more than a century of the 

city’s history. 

This printing company has been located at 

200 Southwest Jackson in downtown Topeka 

since 1926 and was founded on May 1, 1889 by 

“The Adams Brothers,” with a foot powered 

press in their mother’s kitchen. The Adams 

Brothers’ company grew and moved out of the 

kitchen and into a variety of locations in 

Topeka. In 1908 the company became The 

Adams Brothers Manifold Printing Company as 

the brothers added electric presses. At this time, 

the business printed many types of documents, 

specializing in guest checks, bank deposit 

books, teller tickets and sales books. 

The sales book business grew rapidly, and 

in 1941, the business changed names again 

and became The Adams Brothers Salesbook 

Company, Inc., under leadership already 

established by a second generation of Adams’ 

family. Surviving the great flood of 1951, the 

business continued to grow and technology was 

driving business documents in new directions. 

To better identify the business in this new 

environment, the name changed again to Adams 

Business Forms, Inc. 

The next several decades brought other 

changes. Improvements were made and new 

buildings were added to the facility on Jackson 

Street. Interstate 70 became a neighbor as it was 

built within nine feet of the facility and a third 

generation of Adams’ family members became 

active in the business. The company grew 

rapidly in the late 1980s and 1990s as it began 

to service the burgeoning small home-office 

products market through retail superstores. 

As a result of retirement, the Adams family 

involvement ended in 1999. Under new 

ownership a year later, Adams merged with 

Eagle OPG and became Cardinal Brands, Inc. 

Cardinal Brands includes Adams, Globe-Weis, 

Hazel, Cardinal Binders and Generations and is 

a major supplier to the office products 

market. Cardinal Brands continues the Adams 

tradition as it sells sales books and other hand 

written forms, while adapting to rapidly 

changing technologies in office products and 

document management. 

Cardinal Brands Inc. is proud to be part of an 

association with Topeka that goes back 115 

years, and on behalf of all employees, current 

and past, wishes Topeka success in its’ 150th 

year and beyond. 

❖ 

CARDINAL 

BRANDS, INC. 

The Cardinal Brands offices have been 

a part of downtown Topeka, located 

on Jackson Street, since 1926. 


STORMONT-VAIL 

HEALTHCARE 

❖ 

Above: Christ’s Hospital in the 1920s. 

Below: Jane C. Stormont Hospital & 

Training School for Nurses. 

The community hospital has long held an 

extremely important role in the history and 

development of cities and towns across the 

United States. Along with responsive 

government, high quality schools, and a positive 

business environment, excellent hospital care— 

readily available to all regardless of race, creed, or 

ability to pay—is key to a community’s quality of 

life. It was upon this concern for the well-being 

of everyone that the hospital which became 

Stormont-Vail HealthCare was founded. 

In 1865, the Right Reverend Thomas Hubbard 

Vail and his wife, Ellen Bowman Vail, arrived in 

Kansas. He was the first Episcopal Church bishop 

consecrated west of the Mississippi River. In 1879, 

Ellen Vail had a violent attack of congestive chills 

that left her blind. During her illness, Mrs. Vail 

received loving care and later realized that not all 

people in the expanding countryside could 

receive such attention. She asked her husband to 

help her develop a hospital to offer care and hope 

to those less fortunate. The bishop embraced her 

dream and began work immediately to bring it 

to fruition. 

By February 1881 the Vails had purchased 

twenty acres of land, including a ten-acre tract 

where Stormont-Vail stands today. In July 1882, 

Bishop Vail and fifteen associates drew up a 

charter, constitution, and bylaws for the 

proposed Christ’s Hospital. When the hospital 

opened May 1, 1884, it was the first non-military 

hospital in Kansas, and was considered the first 

modern hospital in the state. The two-story 

frame facility had six private rooms and four 

wards housing six patients each. 

Christ’s Hospital accepted all patients 

regardless of ability to pay, and as many as one 

third of the hospital’s beds were filled with 

indigent patients. Often the amount spent on 

charity patients far exceeded revenue from 

paying patients. 

In 1895, Jane C. Stormont, widow of one 

of the state’s most prominent physicians, 

Dr. D. W. Stormont, teamed with five influential 

doctors to found the Jane C. Stormont 

Hospital and Training School for Nurses. It 

opened October 1895 in Topeka’s Potwin 

neighborhood. A women’s auxiliary was formed 


to ensure Mrs. Stormont’s goal that no indigent 

patient go unserved. 

By the early 1920s, it was reported that sixty 

Kansas counties were located along railroad 

lines running to Topeka, making the city a 

logical regional hospital center. To prosper, the 

community needed a newer, larger hospital. 

“Topeka is already well on the way to being a 

great institutional city,” said a member of 

Christ’s Hospital Association in the early 1920s. 

“A big, modern hospital such as we are planning 

will add to the prestige of Topeka.” 

In April 1927 the new $450,000 Christ’s 

Hospital opened. It was called the “best and 

most up-to-date hospital in this part of the 

country,” with the “finest and most modern X- 

ray equipment this side of St. Louis.” 

During the next three decades, advances in 

medical technology and practices were rapid. 

Teamwork and efficient use of resources 

became paramount, and this led to the merger 

of Christ’s Hospital and Jane C. Stormont 

Hospital in April 1949. The new Stormont-Vail 

Hospital opened at its current site at Tenth and 

Washburn in July 1953. 

Stormont-Vail remained a leader in twentyfour-hour 

healthcare for all citizens through 

further expansions, updates in technology, and 

such medical breakthroughs as Topeka’s first 

open-heart surgery, performed in 1975. The 

Pozez Education Center opened in September 

1983, strengthening Stormont-Vail’s prominence 

in health education and community outreach. 

And in 1996, Stormont-Vail Regional Health 

Center merged with Cotton-O’Neil Clinic to 

become one of the first hospital/physician 

practice partnerships in the region, forming 

Stormont-Vail HealthCare. PediatricCare joined 

the system in 1996. 

In 2004, Stormont-Vail HealthCare is an 

integrated healthcare system serving a fourteencounty 

area in northeast Kansas, with more 

than 3,000 employees and 125 physicians in 

twenty-five locations. The system includes 

Medical Arts Pharmacy, Jane C. Stormont 

Women’s Center, Topeka Single Day Surgery, and 

Stormont-Vail Foundation. 

Since 1884, Stormont-Vail HealthCare has 

worked hard to make Topeka and northeast 

Kansas a better place to live and raise a family. 

Offering unique inpatient and outpatient 

services, such as the region’s only Level III 

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the area’s first 

Computer-Aided Detection Mammography 

equipment, and introducing the most up-to-date 

surgical facilities in the region in July 2003, 

Stormont-Vail has a proven record of service to 

the community. 

“Stormont-Vail’s mission is: working together 

to improve the health of our community,” said 

Maynard Oliverius, president and CEO. “As a 

voluntary, community hospital with more than 

3,000 dedicated staff members, we offer 

around-the-clock 24/7/365 service to all citizens 

regardless of race, creed, or ability to pay. You 

can rely on Stormont-Vail HealthCare to be here 

for your health…all the time.” 

❖ 

Above: Stormont-Vail HealthCare, 

June 2003. 

Below: The region’s most up-to-date 

surgical facilities, opened July 2003. 


WASHBURN 

UNIVERSITY 

❖ 

Washburn University, c. 1906. To the 

left is Rice Hall, which was damaged 

in a fire in 1907, rebuilt and again 

destroyed during the 1966 tornado. In 

the center is McVicar Chapel, built in 

1889 and destroyed in the 1966 

tornado. To the right is Carnegie Hall, 

built in 1904 and originally used as a 

library. It was damaged by the 

tornado, then restored and is still 

in use. 

Rooted within the history of Shawnee County 

are the traditions of Washburn University. 

Washburn University was established in 

1865 as Lincoln College, with a charter issued 

by the State of Kansas and the Congregational 

Church. The choice to honor the nation’s 16th 

president was considered appropriate by the 

school’s founders, who upheld the tenets of civil 

and religious liberty. As a result, the new school 

championed progressive ideals by admitting 

women and blacks as students. 

The first classes were conducted in January 

1866 in a building at 10th and Jackson Streets. 

The unstable economic climate following the 

Civil War impacted the financial health of 

the school and bankruptcy seemed imminent. 

In 1868, Ichabod Washburn, a Massachusetts 

industrialist known for his participation in 

abolitionist, suffrage, and temperance 

movements, donated $25,000 to the college, 

after having been approached by Horatio Q. 

Butterfield, the school’s first president. In a few 

months, the school was renamed Washburn 

College as an expression of gratitude. 

The college was granted a permanent location 

in 1870 when Colonel John Ritchie donated a 

160-acre site southwest of what was then the city 

limits. The first building, Rice Hall, opened in 

1874. For the next two decades, college 

President Peter McVicar conducted an aggressive 

development campaign. His efforts resulted in 

the establishment of numerous Victorian 

limestone structures that characterized the 

campus for the next 90 years. 

Expansion of the school was constant. The 

School of Law was organized in 1903, as was a 

School of Fine Arts and a medical school, which 

educated physicians until 1913. During the next 

three decades many structures were added, one 

being the Mulvane Art Museum. Today, the 

Mulvane is the oldest accredited art museum 

west of the Mississippi River. Washburn is also 

home to KTWU, established in 1965 as the first 

public television station in Kansas. In 1966 a 

tornado struck Topeka and several historic 

campus buildings were demolished. The 

Washburn community rallied and financial 

support from friends and alumni made possible 

the rebuilding of many facilities. 

In recent years, the campus has been 

revitalized. The Living Learning Center, a 400 

bed residential living facility opened in 2001 and 


Washburn Village, an apartment-style complex 

was completed in 2004. Renovations have been 

made to Lee Arena, the Memorial Union, and 

Moore Bowl. New features on campus include 

Stauffer Commons and Bianchino Pavilion at 

Yager Stadium. A Student Wellness and 

Recreation Center opened in 2004. 

The successes of the university are more than 

bricks and mortar. Washburn consistently 

receives a top ten rating in the “America’s Best 

College” rankings issued by U.S. News & World 

Report. The university offers more than 190 

programs leading to certification, associate, 

bachelor, master’s, and juris doctor degrees 

through the College of Arts and Sciences and 

the Schools of Applied Studies, Business, Law, 

and Nursing. Prominent WU alumni include 

former Senator Robert Dole; Dick Davidson, 

president and chief executive officer, Union 

Pacific Railroad; Bill Kurtis, television 

commentator/producer; Earl Sutherland, Nobel 

Prize for Medicine recipient; Georgia Neese 

Gray, first female treasurer of the United 

States; and Delano Lewis, former ambassador to 

South Africa. 

A record enrollment of 7,350 was attained in 

the fall of 2004. Small class size remains an 

asset, with a student/faculty ratio of fifteen to 

one. Ninety percent of full-time faculty hold 

doctorates or the highest degree in their 

discipline. Students enrolled at Washburn 

find that more than $42 million in financial 

aid is available annually. Scholarships awarded 

from university resources are $42 million. 

Endowment funding of approximately $100 

million ranks Washburn in the top five 

institutions in the nation on a per-student basis 

among all public master’s-level institutions. 

Washburn is a publicly 

funded, independently governed, 

state coordinated university. In 

1941 the citizens of Topeka 

endorsed Washburn by voting to 

establish a municipal university, 

supported in part by the city, and 

governed by a local board of 

regents. In 1999 the university’s 

primary funding was moved from 

city property tax to county sales 

tax sources, with the school 

retaining status as a municipal 

subdivision of the state. In 

addition to local financial 

support, Washburn has received 

state funds since 1961, which 

have been coordinated by the 

Kansas Board of Regents since 

1991. Washburn is governed 

by its own nine-member board 

of regents. 

❖ 

Above: The center of the Washburn 

University campus is a hub for 

students as they pass between 

classes. It is also a meeting place 

for organizations and has 

hosted numerous campus and 

citywide events. 

Left: The Living Learning Center is 

one of the newest additions to campus. 


COLUMBIAN 

FINANCIAL 

CORPORATION 

❖ 

The historical Columbian Bank 

Building today. 

In this era of big, out-of-state banks, a native 

Kansas institution like Columbian Bank is somewhat 

of a rarity. But for more than eighty years, 

they have continued to provide various financial 

services for the citizens of Eastern Kansas. 

Columbian Bank’s story begins in 1920 when 

it was founded in Topeka—not as a commercial 

bank, but as Columbian Title and Trust 

Company. The business was formed as the result 

of a merger between Columbian Trust and 

Topeka Title and Bond and named after the 

building it where it was housed, the three-story 

Columbian Building, which still stands today on 

6th Avenue in downtown and is on the National 

Register of Historic Places. 

Even though Columbian’s trust charter 

authorized it to engage in commercial banking 

from the beginning, it chose to concentrate on 

title insurance and trust services. The company 

steadily grew during the next several years and 

eventually ran out of building space. It was then 

that it moved from its original location on Sixth 

to a building at 820 Quincy. 

In 1978 a decision was made to enter the commercial 

banking business. And that year 

Columbian National Bank and Trust Company 

was formed. Seven years later, the parent company 

of Columbian bought Topeka Bank and Trust. 

In 1990 the banks merged under the Columbian 

name and consolidated banking operations in the 

historical Topeka Bank and Trust building at 

Seventh and Kansas in downtown Topeka. This 

location is where the bank remains today and, 

like the original Columbian building, is on the 

National Register of Historic Places. 

The building (which had previously been 

occupied by Central National Bank and Topeka 

State Bank) was, and still is, a downtown 

landmark of sorts. In fact, upon opening, it was 

declared by some to be “one of the most 


eautiful bank buildings in the country.” Its 

neo-classical design was the work of Kansas City 

architecture firm Wight and Wight—known for 

designing the Kansas City Life Building, the 

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the First 

National Bank of Kansas City and several other 

legendary buildings in the Kansas City. 

Construction of the concrete and steel 

building began in 1926 and was finished in 

1927. Because of its size and weight, the bank’s 

vault was placed in the ground first and the 

building was built around it. None of the vault’s 

sides are connected to walls, which allowed the 

security guard to see all the way around 

the building and ensure no one was drilling into 

the sides of it. Legend has it that at the time of 

completion, the vault’s thirty-three-ton door was 

the country’s second largest west of the 

Mississippi—rivaled in size only by the vault 

in the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City. 

In addition to being beautiful, the 

Columbian Bank building is also functional. 

Taking into consideration the unpredictable 

weather in the area, Wight and Wight designed 

the building with no air spaces along the facing 

of the walls. The purpose of this was so the 

building could withstand a direct hit from a tornado 

and sustain only minimal damage. 

Today, Columbian Bank remains an independently 

owned, family-run bank with seven branches 

in Shawnee and Johnson Counties and more than 

eighty employees. During the past ten years, it has 

grown in assets by 233 percent. Its longevity in the 

community not only makes it a pillar of stability, 

but allows customers the unique opportunity of 

doing business with a bank that is unusually in 

tune with this particular area. 

In addition to banking, Columbian is also 

active in the community—supporting the Lions 

Pride Benefit for the Topeka Zoo, the Mulvane 

Art Museum, the Topeka Civic Theater and the 

University of Kansas Endowment. It is also a 

major benefactor of the Shooting Stars 

Recognition and Scholarship Program, which 

honors and awards scholarships to graduating 

high schools seniors who have excelled in the 

arts. In 2003, Columbian received a Kansas 

Governor’s Art Award for its permanent 

collection of more than 100 pieces of 

artwork, focusing on local, emerging artists and 

acquired over a thirty year period. 

❖ 

Left: The building’s vault. The door 

alone weighs thirty-three tons. 

Below: The Columbian building was 

built in 1927 and designed by the 

well-known Kansas City architecture 

firm of Wight and Wight. 


HAWKINS 

OPTICAL 

❖ 

Below: The founders and first 

employees of Hawkins Optical in the 

original office. From left: Kenneth 

Hawkins, Sr., Everett Hawkins and 

O. R. “Bud” Bargman. 

Bottom: Hawkins Optical laboratory 

as it looked during the late 1950s and 

early 1960s, before the company 

moved to its current location on 

Quincy Street. 

The list of family-owned businesses that have 

existed for one-third of Shawnee County’s 

existence, and are cornerstones of Topeka 

commerce is a short registry of elite companies. 

Near the top of the list is Hawkins Optical, a 

company that is dedicated to being a leader in 

its field and has created a unique and longstanding 

enterprise in the heart of downtown. 

In 1948, brothers Everett and Kenneth Hawkins 

left their jobs at Duffen’s Optical to start their own 

company. Opening a laboratory at 115 Southeast 

Sixth, the brothers hired one employee, their 

nephew, seventeen-year-old O. R. “Bud” Bargman, 

a high school graduate from Beatrice, Nebraska. 

The company, which focused on developing 

and making lenses, remained a three-man 

operation during its early years. 

In 1949, Everett and Kenneth approached 

Bud with a proposition: the brothers had a 

silent partner that would be willing to sell his 

stock shares and for $2,500, Bud could become 

a partner. 

A significant sum in 1949, Bud asked his 

father, Albert, for a loan. Albert loaned him the 

money, but told Bud it was a risky investment 

and the business would probably never make it. 

In retrospect, Bud understands why his father 

thought that way. After all, the competition at the 

time was stiff, and succeeding in a crowded 

market seemed arduous. 

Bud became a partner and for the next 16 

years served as a sales representative, traveling 

the state. In 1977, after Everett and Kenneth 

had both retired, Bud acquired all interests in 

the company and became sole owner. 

In the years since, Hawkins has gone from a 

small operation to a firm with nearly fifty 

employees and annual sales in the millions of 

dollars. A majority of the employees at Hawkins 

have tenures of more than ten years. 

Bud has been a driving force in Hawkins’ 

growth and in the advancement of the industry 

as a whole. He served as president of the Optical 

Laboratories National Association (OLA), and 

has assisted the profession on legislative issues at 

the statehouse and been a voice in the Kansas 

Optometric Association (KOA). In 1997, Bud 

was presented with an honorary membership in 

the KOA—one of just a handful so honored in 

the organization’s 109-year history. 

Hawkins has had several addresses during its 

history: From its original location to space in the 

700 blocks of Kansas Avenue and Quincy to the 

100 block of East Seventh. In 1974 the company 

moved to its current location on Quincy where it 

has often expanded its laboratories, most 

recently in 2002. 

The company has remained a family operation. 

Like his father, Kevin Bargman began working at 

the business when he was seventeen years-old. 

Today, Kevin co-owns the company, serving as 

president while Bud is chairman of the board. 

Hawkins’ mission is simple: "To care for 

customers through delivery of services with a 

sense of warmth, friendliness, personalized 

services and honorable business practices." 

While most of the company’s business is 

in Kansas, Hawkins also serves customers in 


Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, and Missouri, 

creating nearly three hundred eyeglasses and 

lenses per day. 

Hawkins has proven to be one of 

the more progressive eyewear laboratories, 

refusing to simply produce, and insisting 

on teaching and developing. The company 

also provides educational classes in eyewear 

fitting procedures for professionals and 

technicians. Starting in 1983, thousands 

of opticians and technicians have attended 

the classes and a number of labs nationwide 

have adopted the program for their customers. 

Many of these programs are hands-on, and 

have a waiting list of participants. With 

most eyeglasses being selected and designed 

through eye doctor’s offices, Hawkins education 

programs have also focused on marketing 

and dispensing. 

The company has continually implemented 

many technological advancements, moving 

progressively from the days of calculating the fit 

and grind of a lens by hand to using computerdriven 

machines that trace and shape lenses 

with great precision. 

In 2003, the Greater Topeka Chamber of 

Commerce recognized Hawkins as a “Small 

Business of the Year” winner. 

❖ 

Above: Employees of Hawkins Optical 

design and create lenses in the 

laboratory. Hawkins produces an 

average of three hundred eyeglasses 

per day. 

Below: Hawkins Optical Laboratory 

Chairman Bud Bargman (left) and 

President Kevin Bargman have been 

creating eyewear in Topeka for 

decades. Bud was the first employee of 

the company, founded in 1948 by his 

uncles. 


MCELROY’S, INC. 

MECHANICAL 

CONTRACTOR 

❖ 

Above: The McElroy’s location built at 

2611 West Seventeenth in 1955. It 

was in operation until 1968. 

Below: The sheet metal shop built in 

1961 at South Topeka Boulevard is 

still operational today. 

For more than fifty years, McElroy’s Inc. has 

provided plumbing, heating, air conditioning 

and sheet metal installations and service for 

residential and commercial clients in and 

around the Topeka community. 

McElroy’s services include plan and spec 

projects, residential retrofitting, and engineering 

design services; with a constant emphasis on 

customer satisfaction and on-call services to 

meet any emergency. An environmental controls 

division was recently added, allowing McElroy’s 

to customize and remotely monitor indoor 

environments of large projects, giving clients 

better control and operation of buildings while 

conserving energy and lowering operating costs. 

Homer and Rosemarie McElroy founded 

the company on May 1, 1951. Homer worked 

as a Topeka fireman from 1941 to 1946 before 

becoming a service manager for Air 

Engineering, a Topeka company providing 

heating and air conditioning services. McElroy’s 

first place of business was a small shop at 1616 

West Seventeenth. 

The flood of 1951 brought additional 

business, with the need to restore many heating 

systems and the growing popularity of attaining 

central air conditioning that was starting to be 

put in residential homes. For many years, 

McElroy’s was the company of choice when it 

came to designing and engineering residential 

whole-house air conditioning systems. 

Homer made many friends in the early days 

by taking care of the heating and cooling systems 

in the upper scale homes of Topeka. Those 

relationships were key in helping accelerate the 

early growth and success of the company. 

By 1955 it was necessary to build a larger 

facility from which to operate. A new office and 

shop were built a few blocks west at 2611 West 

Seventeenth. The new location was the base 

of considerable growth and community 

relationships. Other early key players Homer 

had on his team that contributed to McElroy’s 

success, to name a few, were Phil Morris, Jerry 

Vinyard, Jim Olin, Lewis Rake, Vance Elder, 

Clarence Wilch, Orville Leslie and Melvin Jones. 


By 1961, McElroy’s was again in need of a 

larger facility and built a sheet metal fabrication 

shop at 3209 South Topeka Boulevard. It was 

this location that future offices and a plumbing 

shop were built so that all business operations 

would be in one location. The current business 

location is 3209 South Topeka Boulevard, which 

has seen many remodels and expansions during 

the years to keep up with the growth of Topeka 

and the client base. 

The second generation to head up this family 

business is Jerry McElroy, who went to work full 

time in 1963 after having spent a few years in 

the manufacturing business. Jerry, Homer’s son, 

was a valuable asset to the growth and 

profitability of the company. Jerry was named 

president in 1972, allowing Homer and 

Rosemarie to fully retire by 1977. 

Jerry continued to build the business by 

treating clients fairly and providing good services 

at a fair price. Jerry embraced new technologies, 

allowing the company to be a leader in the field. 

And, while a separate entity, more than seventeen 

years ago McElroy’s expanded its services by 

opening McElroy’s Electric, Inc. 

McElroy’s Inc. has maintained a position on 

the leading edge of industry technology and 

automation. Its sheet metal cybermation plasma 

arc cutting table was the first in Topeka to 

provide computer aided manufacturing 

capabilities to a sheetmetal fabrication facility. 

Today, the company enjoys a networked facility 

with high-speed Internet access and the ability 

to do multiple tasks with greater ease, as well as 

keep a database with up-to-date client histories. 

Some of the more notable projects McElroy’s 

has provided engineering and mechanical 

services and installations for through the years 

includes: Capitol Federal Savings, Shawnee 

Federal Bank, Commerce Bank and Trust; Curtis 

State Office Building; First National Bank 

Tower; Sears & Roebuck at White Lakes; 

Macy’s Downtown; Kansas Power & Light; 

Western Resources; St. Francis Health Center; 

Stormont-Vail Healthcare; Jayhawk Towers; 

Commerce Towers; Blue Cross & Blue Shield; 

Fairlawn Plaza; missile sites at Forbes Air Force 

Base; National Reserve Life; American Investors, 

Security Benefit Group; Fleming Foods; Fleming 

Mansion; and various projects and Kansas 

University, Kansas State University, and 

Washburn University. 

The third generation to carry the company 

forward has been put in place, with Greg 

Hunsicker, who is vice president and has been 

with the company since 1983, and Dan Beal, a 

mechanical engineer who is also a 

vice-president and has been with McElroy’s 

since 1991. 

Greg and Dan intend to continue the simple 

mission of providing quality engineering design, 

installation and servicing of home and building 

systems in a safe and efficient manner to 

maintain customer satisfaction. 

❖ 

The McElroy’s, Inc., offices at 3209 

South Topeka Boulevard. 


ST. FRANCIS 

HEALTH 

CENTER 

❖ 

Above: St. Francis Health Center 

provides comprehensive prevention 

and treatment services to patients 

throughout northeast Kansas. 

Right: The St. Francis Heart and 

Vascular Institute performed the first 

atherectomy, first coronary stent 

procedure and first minimally 

invasive beating heart bypass surgery 

in the Topeka service area. 

Answering a call to serve those in need, a 

determined band of resourceful Sisters of 

Charity led by Mother Xavier Ross, journeyed 

from Nashville, Tennessee, to Leavenworth, 

Kansas, in 1858 and assessed the prairie 

outpost’s harsh conditions. Shortly after their 

arrival, they established schools and orphanages 

and began tending to the needs of sick 

townspeople and wagon train travelers hard hit 

by the epidemics of the day. 

The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth 

fostered wholeness by addressing the physical, 

spiritual, and emotional conditions of their 

patients, ultimately expanding the scope of their 

service to include nine hospitals in Kansas, 

California, Colorado, and Montana. St. Francis 

Health Center’s beginnings date to 1908, when 

the Topeka Commercial Club donated land to 

the sisters to build a hospital. Sister Mary 

Germaine Kramer and Mother Mary Peter Dwyer 

raised $40,000 in donations to construct a fortybed 

facility, which opened on October 17, 1909. 

Today, St. Francis Health Center has 378 

licensed beds, a medical staff representing 

nearly all specialties, and a vibrant auxiliary and 

volunteer program. Since its inception, St. 

Francis has characterized itself as an innovative 

provider of high-quality healthcare services, 

introducing the community’s first X-ray 

machine in 1918, first intensive care unit in 

1960, first diagnostic ultrasound equipment in 

1973, first use of bedside computers to provide 

patient documentation in 1987, first Pain 

Medicine Center in 1998, and first Positron 

Emission Tomography (PET) scanner in 2000. 

St. Francis is home to the St. Francis Heart and 

Vascular Institute and the St. Francis 

Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only 

community hospital in the Topeka service area 

accredited by the American College of Surgeons as 

a Community Hospital Comprehensive Cancer 

Program and the only one using a linear 

accelerator capable of delivering the newest 

generation of radiation therapy treatments. The 

accelerator, identical to those used at major cancer 

research centers throughout the nation, delivers 

the highest therapeutic radiation doses possible to 

assist in destroying cancer cells while minimizing 

injury of normal tissues. This accelerator combines 

with a new stereotactic radiosurgery system and 

the Health Center’s present Varian 21EX and 

2100CD accelerators to create the most medically 

advanced radiation therapy treatment available. 

Access to both PET and Computer 

Tomography (CT) scanners permits the 

Comprehensive Cancer Center to offer PET 

image fusion, which merges two computergenerated, 

digital images into one, enabling 

physicians to define cancer margins and 

locations with greater precision. 

In 2003, St. Francis added a complementary 

Picture Archiving and Communication System 

(PACS) to expedite access to X-rays for 

radiologists and physicians, thereby accelerating 

treatment decisions and intervention time while 

fostering better patient outcomes. Digital 

imaging allows radiologists and physicians to 

manipulate and enhance images in ways not 

possible with X-ray film, resulting in fewer 

retakes of images and reducing patient exposure 

to radioactive materials. 

In addition to providing high-quality patient 

care within our facility and clinics, St. Francis 

contributes resources toward community 

initiatives addressing many aspects of physical, 

spiritual, and emotional health for children and 

adults in northeast Kansas. Combining education 

and medicine, the mainstays of the sisters’ legacy, 

these initiatives include supporting parenting 


programs to develop strong family relationships, 

sponsoring free preventive health screenings, 

participating in health fairs, and allocating 

financial resources to the Marian Clinic and 

Marian Dental Center, which are owned and 

operated by the Sisters of Charity of 

Leavenworth. The Marian Clinic and Marian 

Dental Center provide the working poor and 

uninsured with everything from immunizations 

and routine teeth cleaning to surgical procedures 

and crown and denture work. 

Embracing and emulating the principles the 

sisters established in the 19th Century, St. 

Francis instills in its workforce the belief that 

high-quality healthcare requires integrating not 

only body and mind for prevention and 

treatment, but also unifying the community by 

providing educational opportunities, support 

groups, and funding for healthcare programs 

that address the special needs of those most at 

risk. The healing touch of St. Francis includes 

programs focused on preventive medicine, such 

as the Mammography Screening Center, the 

Sleep Disorders Center, and advanced 

diagnostics capabilities offered through the 

Diabetes Center. Persons with chemical 

dependency or gambling addictions meet with 

counselors at the Recovery Center at St. Francis 

to replace harmful behaviors that put 

themselves and others at risk, so they can 

reclaim control of their lives. 

To ensure a motivated, mission-oriented 

workforce, the St. Francis culture of 

stewardship encourages employees to engage in 

spiritual reflection; initiate discussions with 

peers and supervisors to discover ways to serve 

patients and family members better; and to 

develop mentoring relationships with 

colleagues. In all of its undertakings, St. Francis 

Health Center upholds the sisters’ original 

values in treating the multifaceted needs of 

patients today, especially the poor or vulnerable. 

❖ 

Left: St. Francis Hospital, as it was 

first known, began treating patients in 

this facility on October 17, 1909. 

Below: The St. Francis Comprehensive 

Cancer Center is the only 

community hospital in the Topeka 

service area accredited by the 

American College of Surgeons as a 

Community Hospital Comprehensive 

Cancer Program and the only one 

using a linear accelerator capable of 

delivering the newest generation of 

radiation therapy treatments. 


DESIGNED 

BUSINESS 

INTERIORS, INC. 

❖ 

Above: Jeanne Baldwin, owner and 

founder of Designed Business Interiors. 

Below: The staff of Designed Business 

Interiors. Back row (from left to 

right): Kevin Sutcliffe, Lyn Klein, 

Brant Moyer, Terri Eaton, David 

Ward, Terri Shields, Chris Meyer, 

Greg Ross, Richard Ballard, Linda 

Williams, and Monte Cutshall. Front 

row (from left to right): Lana Miller, 

Michelle Bixby, Jeanne Baldwin, 

Stephanie Dahlquist, and Kim 

Jacobson. Not pictured: Jeff Kelly. 

Designed Business Interiors, Inc. is a fullservice 

interior design firm specializing in space 

planning, design, and furnishings for nonresidential 

interiors. Organized in 1972, the 

company believes the word “design” encompasses 

the many disciplines it takes to become each 

client’s reference point for excellence in service. 

Designed Business Interiors is an offshoot of 

Thacher, Inc., which was founded in 1936 as a 

statewide office furniture and school supply 

store. At the time, office supply and furnishing 

companies sold desks, chairs, filing cabinets, 

and other office needs. 

In 1954, Jeanne Baldwin became an 

employee at Thacher and the Interior Design 

Division was formed. Thacher became one of 

only three companies in the United States to 

have a designed showroom with vignettes 

displaying not only office furniture, but carpets, 

draperies, wall coverings, accent lighting, and 

accessories. The other companies were in New 

York and Los Angeles. 

In the early years, the Interior Design 

Division of Thacher, Inc. designed and 

furnished the interiors of many buildings 

throughout the state. Those in Topeka included 

the Bank of Topeka, Merchants National Bank, 

The Topeka Club, Commerce Bank and Trust at 

Holiday Square, Topeka Savings & Loan, 

American Savings and Loan, and the National 

Reserve Life Insurance Company. 

The company received a national award and 

pictures and a story were published in an early 

issue of Architectural Digest. 

Baldwin worked with the U.S. archivist in 

Washington, D.C., in the planning of the 

Eisenhower Library in Abilene. The assignment 

included a theatre, a library, an entryway, and the 

moving of President Eisenhower’s Washington 

office to Abilene. 

In 1965 the Merchandiser Mart in Chicago 

developed a national organization of designers 

affiliated with leading office furniture dealers. The 

organization was called the National Office 

Furniture Association-Designer. Six designers from 

across the country were indoctrinated as the first 

members, and Baldwin was one of them. In 1970 

the group became the Institute of Business 

Designers (IBD) and moved to New York. 

From 1969 through 1973, Baldwin served on 

the IBD National Board as vice president and was 

subsequently elected to a four-year term as 

chairman of the board, serving eight years at the 

national level. 

Baldwin chartered the Kansas, Missouri, 

Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, and Northern and 

Southern California chapters of the IBD. She was 

speaker and discussion leader at several design 

management seminars in New York, Chicago, 

and Dallas. Baldwin also served as a member of 

the Interior Design Education Council and was 

recipient of IBD’s 1974 Contract Interiors Award. 

In 1994, following a merger between IBD, the 

Council of Federal Interior Designers, and the 

International Society of Interior Design, the name 

was changed to International Interior Design 

Association, which today has more than ten 

thousand members. 

Opposite, top: A portion of the 

Designed Business Interiors showroom 

on the first floor of the company’s 

building on Sixth street in Topeka. 

Opposite, bottom: Architectural 

drawing of one floor of the Curtis 

Building, the new state office building 

in Topeka. Designed Business Interiors 

worked with the architects to design 

the inside layout of the building. 


The third floor of the Merchandise Mart in 

Chicago contains a “wall of fame” with pictures 

and induction dates of the organization’s College 

of Fellows. Baldwin’s picture hangs on that wall, 

as she was the first fellow in 1974. 

In 1972, Designed Business Interiors 

(DBI) was formed. Thacher, Inc., started an 

operation in Kansas City and Mr. Thacher 

relinquished his interest and the Topeka 

business became a branch of Designed Business 

Interiors in Kansas City. 

In 1984, Baldwin purchased the Topeka 

operation from the parent Kansas City company. 

The company is located at 107 West Sixth 

Avenue, a downtown location, and houses its 

offices on the second floor and a showroom on 

the first floor. The company maintains satellite 

offices in Manhattan and Lawrence. 

Designed Business Interiors is a dealer for 

Herman Miller, the leading office furniture 

manufacturer in the U.S. 

Interiors of distinction have been the 

foundation of DBI’s work since the company’s 

inception. Its professional staff is experienced in 

the design disciplines of space planning, interior 

design, budgeting, preparation of relevant 

drawings and specification, product procurement, 

and contract administration for professional, 

commercial, and institutional projects. 

The company utilizes computer-aided design 

for space planning and creating complete floor 

plans. It embraces computer technology, and 

has the ability to create floor plans, 3-D 

drawings, colors, and budgets in a client’s office 

with the use of a laptop computer. 

DBI’s own factory-trained installers handle 

new installations, remodeling and reconfiguration 

of existing client’s facilities. 

For the past twenty-five years, DBI has 

handled the contract between the State of 

Kansas and Herman Miller for procurement of 

systems furniture. As a result, a long-standing 

relationship has developed with Kansas State 

University, the University of Kansas, Washburn 

University, and Emporia State University. In 

2001, DBI completed a two-year process in 

planning and furnishing the interior of the 

Curtis Building, Topeka’s magnificent new State 

office building. DBI partnered with the 

architect, GLPM of Lawrence, in the planning of 

the 265,000-square-foot facility. 

Other major clients in Shawnee County 

include Frito-Lay, Inc., Payless Shoe Source, the 

Topeka Capital-Journal and Commerce Banks. 

DBI is a member of the Topeka Chamber of 

Commerce and Baldwin was a major contributor 

to the Topeka Performing Arts Center when 

it organized. 


VANGUARD 

PRODUCTS 

CORPORATION 

❖ 

Above: The original Vanguard 

Products Corporation building as 

constructed by James Van Sickle in 

1966. The original building still 

exists, but is now part of a much 

larger complex. 

Below: Vanguard Products 

Corporation as it looks today, having 

expanded immensely since the first 

building was constructed in 1966. The 

company has more than quadrupled 

in size since its beginning. 

In 1964, James Van Sickle was an engineer 

with a Topeka pre-cast concrete producer who 

was preparing to purchase the business. But after 

two years of futile negotiations, he resigned to 

start his own pre-cast concrete manhole business. 

Twenty acres of industrial zoned land at the 

northwest corner of Topeka were purchased 

and, with a Commerce Bank loan, a 96-by-60- 

foot steel building and attached office were 

constructed. A five-ton bridge crane in the 

building moved heavy molds and manholes as 

they were produced. and Van Sickle—called Jim 

by most—had himself a one-man operation 

called Vanguard Products Corporation. 

For the next three years Van Sickle designed and 

built molds and equipment to produce reinforced 

concrete manholes, and made manholes ordered 

by contractors for subdivision developments. Two 

or three times per week, usually at nights and on 

weekends, Jim rented a crane truck and delivered 

manholes to construction sites. 

As orders increased, Jim hired his first 

employees, bought a semi-trailer truck, and built 

a 96-by-40-foot expansion to the east side of the 

building and a 50-by-25-foot office at the south 

end. Fabrication of steel and reinforcing for 

manholes and all metal-working machinery and 

welding operations were moved to the 

expansion, freeing the original plant for casting 

and curing manholes. 

Van Sickle’s son, Bob, a graduate engineer, 

joined the company, helping with production 

and bookkeeping. Meanwhile, Jim developed a 

small curb inlet used widely in Topeka and by 

outlaying towns. 

Dean Forbes, Jim’s stepson, joined the company 

as a sales representative in 1976. Products were 

now being shipped as far as three hundred miles 

outside Topeka, to areas including much of Kansas, 

western Missouri, and northeastern Oklahoma. 

In 1985, Jim purchased the pre-cast concrete 

company he wanted twenty years earlier, adding 

reinforced concrete pipe to Vanguard’s products. 

The newly purchased plant—called the east side 

plant—provided floor space for a new product 

line: rectangular structures for use as curb 

inlets, junction boxes, or any other use for a 

below ground room. 


In 1986 the office space doubled and the 

original plant expanded by 120 feet on the west 

side to provide a curing area for manholes and 

pipe. The following year, a 150-by-222-foot 

building for the production of pipe and 

rectangular structures was built on the north 

side. Insulated pre-cast panels made in the plant 

were used in the outside walls of the building. 

Equipment in the plant included a pipe machine 

moved from the east plant and rebuilt; a 

complete batch plant for concrete production; 

four bridge cranes; an automatic welding 

machine for making steel reinforcing units used 

in many sizes and shapes of pipe; and reinforcing 

bar shears and bending machines. Rectangular 

structure production was moved from the east 

plant to the new building. 

A four-story building with basement was built 

to provide rooms for tornado shelter, laboratory 

testing, lunchroom, meeting room, and electrical 

distribution center. Vanguard had 50 employees 

and used seven contract truckers to deliver an 

average of 300 tons of products each day. 

In 2000 a decision was made to produce box 

culverts. This required a new building to handle 

heavier products. The new building was large 

enough so the remaining east plant work could 

be moved to the west plant and the east plant 

could close. Six acres adjacent to the west of the 

original 20 acres were purchased to provide 

storage space for the increased production. 

Construction of the new 280-by-98-foot 

building started in 2002. Insulated pre-cast 

concrete panels produced by Vanguard were used 

for the first 10 feet of the 50-foot high walls. A 

concrete producing batch plant was built on the 

southwest corner of the building, with a 

computer-controlled concrete mixer. This mixer 

was produced by a Danish manufacturer, and was 

the first of its kind shipped to the United States. A 

computer-controlled concrete distribution 

machine that can be programmed to follow the 

shape of box culvert molds transports concrete 

from the mixer to fill the molds. 

By late 2003 the rectangular structure 

production was moved to the north half of the 

new building, and all operations of the east 

plant were moved to the area once used for 

rectangular structures. 

Vanguard Products Corporation is a sponsor 

of the Nova program on KTWU and a cosponsor 

of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra. 

Vanguard is a founding member of the Kansas 

Concrete Pipe Association, which has merged 

into the Missouri Kansas Concrete Pipe 

Association. Dean Forbes continues to serve as 

an officer of that association. 

❖ 

Above: When it opened, Vanguard 

Products Corporation made only 

manholes. Today, the company makes 

a variety of products, including these 

precast structures for storm water 

control being installed around Topeka. 

Below: One of Vanguard Products 

Corporation’s top products are these 

various reinforced concrete pipes 

stacked behind the production facility 

before being shipped to contractors. 


RADIOLOGY 

AND NUCLEAR 

MEDICINE 

❖ 

Above: Radiation Oncologists Judith 

A. Kooser, M.D., and Ralph D. 

Reymond, M.D., use state-of-the-art 

computers and third-generation linear 

accelerators to deliver the latest forms 

of radiation therapy. 

Below: No longer are there hard 

copies of images such as x-rays. The 

new PAC’s system at St. Francis 

produces all images, x-rays, MRI’s, 

CT, etc., in digital format for instant 

enlargement, manipulation and 

examination. Pictured from left: Dr. 

Jack Snarr and Dr. James W. Owen. 

Why have radiologists from many of the top 

medical schools throughout the world come to 

Topeka to practice their trade? When medical students 

preparing to embark on a career in radiology 

begin to consider where they will spend their 

professional lives and establish their family’s roots 

in a community, they could choose from medical 

practices in bigger cities or with certain geographic 

amenities that Topeka simply can’t afford–but 

time-after-time, Topeka’s own Radiology and 

Nuclear Medicine has attracted the best talent 

from the world’s top medical schools. Why? 

Simply put, few other practices in the world offer 

such a tradition of excellence and commitment to 

the use of modern medical equipment. 

“I was offered a faculty position at my alma 

mater, Washington University School of 

Medicine, but chose to join Radiology and 

Nuclear Medicine(RNM) because it was far and 

away the best quality practice I found,” said Dr. 

James Owen, who joined RNM in 1983. “I was 

given the opportunity to work among an amazing 

group of peers who had come from all over 

the world–Hopkins, UCLA, Duke, and even 

Switzerland–to be part of this team.” 

Since its founding on January 1, 1959, RNM 

has always been on the forefront, both in 

administration and its use of state-of-the-art 

technology. Early on—not long after it was 

founded by Dr. Willis Beller, Dr. Harold Woods, 

and Dr. Homer L. Hiebert—the group staked its 

position as a leader and innovator by 

establishing itself as one of the first physician 

groups to be organized as a corporation in the 

entire country. Today the practice stands as the 

oldest incorporated physician group in the U.S. 

In 1961, RNM pioneered radiation oncology 

services by installing the first cobalt machine in 

Northeast Kansas. In 1976 linear accelerators 

were added to the armamentarium. Today, the 

Radiation Oncologists of RNM use state-of-theart 

computers and third generation linear accelerators 

to deliver the latest forms of radiation 

therapy: three dimensional conformal irradiation, 

intensity modulated radiation therapy, and 

stereotactic radiosurgery. In addition to providing 

care to cancer patients throughout the 

region, Topeka’s radiation oncologists have a 

long history of providing national leadership at 

the highest levels in their specialty. 

The practice has thrived, growing from five 

doctors to over thirty today, by taking a team 

approach to empower its doctors to focus more 

on patient care and less on burdensome administrative 

tasks. Now organized as a limited liability 

corporation, R&NM is the largest radiology practice 

in the state and the only radiology group in 

Topeka, the medical hub of northeast Kansas. 

The practice serves two major local hospitals (St. 

Francis Health Center and Stormont-Vail 

Regional Medical Center), plus a number of surrounding 

regional facilities. 

RNM’s smart use of technology has been a 

major factor in both the success of its patients’ 

care and its recruiting efforts. Many radiology 

practices take a “wait and see” approach to the 

implementation of new medical technologies, yet 

a chief reason many medical students choose to 

specialize in radiology is the speed at which new 

technology advances. For this reason, radiology is 

a very exciting career path, and another reason 

many of the physicians at Radiology and Nuclear 

Medicine made Topeka their home. 


Since RNM began, its visionary founders were 

dedicated to equipping the practice with the latest 

medical technology, acquiring state-of-the-art 

equipment based on good medical sense for 

patients and sound financial sense for the practice. 

Its facilities provide cutting edge radiographic, 

ultrasound, CT, and special procedures equipment. 

New technologies also enable the practice to 

expand services well beyond the walls of its 

downtown Topeka offices. RNM provides portable 

X-ray services, which allow area nursing homes 

and health agencies to offer in-house testing for 

patient convenience. The group has also 

implemented a Teleradiology system to transmit 

images digitally among local and regional hospitals 

and radiologists’ homes, benefiting patients in rural 

communities with timely imaging procedures. 

Today more than ever, the physicians of 

Radiation and Nuclear Medicine are working 

to expand their practice to better serve the 

citizens of northeast Kansas. They are continually 

evaluating the newest technologies and recruiting 

the best doctors that medical schools produce to 

ensure that the practice maintains its position as the 

state’s largest and most advanced provider of 

diagnostic and therapeutic radiology. 

❖ 

Above: Dr. James P. Werner confers 

with a patient just before a scan 

through the new 10-slice CT scanner 

at Radiology and Nuclear Medicine’s 

Imaging Center. 

Below: Radiology and Nuclear 

Medicine’s new 3-D Ultrasound 

system, which produces detailed 

images, even three dimensional 

pictures of the fetus. Pictured here are 

Dr. Marlin J. Fugate and a patient. 


TOPEKA 

TRANSFER AND 

STORAGE 

❖ 

Above: One of Topeka Transfer and 

Storage's original warehouses. The 

company is one of the oldest 

businesses in Shawnee County. 

Below: More than 100 years old, 

Topeka Transfer and Storage 

originally transported goods by horse 

and carriage. 

As Shawnee 

County and Topeka 

celebrate 150 years, 

Topeka Transfer 

and Storage is 

on the extremely 

short list of local 

companies that can 

claim to have been 

around from nearly 

the beginning. 

The company 

can trace its roots 

to the D. H. Moore 

Co., which began 

serving Topeka in 

1863 as a horsedrawn 

wagon and 

barge that linked Topeka and North 

Topeka, which at the time was a more 

defined separate area of the city. The 

business opened in the 400 block of East 

Sixth Street. 

C. P. Balmer bought the company in 

1873 and renamed it Topeka Transfer 

in 1880. J. H. Hartzel took over operations 

in 1881, calling the business Topeka Transfer 

and Omnibus Co. For the next twentytwo 

years the business had four different 

owners, until, in 1902, O. H. White and W. F. 

Axtell purchased the company and anointed 

it Topeka Transfer and Storage. E. F. Dean 

joined White and Axtell as an owner in 1904. 

By 1906 the business had thirty-six horses, 

five moving vans, nine freight trucks, three 

express vans and two storage houses. Topeka 

Transfer purchased its first truck, a Chase truck, 

in 1908. 

In 1955, Topeka Transfer and Storage was 

recognized as the oldest moving and storage firm 

in the Midwest between Minnesota and Texas, and 

was the twenty-eighth oldest in the United States. 


The White family operated the business 

from Southeast Adams Street until it sold 

the company to Clyde Hartter in 1974. In 

the early 1980s Topeka Transfer made its 

final move, resting at Southwest Fortyfirst 

Street, where it is still housed. In 1995, 

Hartter sold the company to current owner, 

George M. Hersh, II. 

Today, 140 years later, Topeka Transfer 

and Storage has a fleet of more than 

fifteen tractor-trailer rigs and more 

than fourteen trucks. The company employs 

around fifty individuals. 

Under the guidance of George Hersh—a 

lifelong Topekan—for nearly a decade, the 

company has flourished. Its clientele includes 

virtually every major local corporation, 

homebuyers, military officers, and the 

occasional college student. Topeka Transfer 

and Storage handles more than fifty percent of 

the Topeka market. 

The company maintains two warehouses 

in Topeka, a 32,000 square-foot facility on 

Forty-first Street and a 70,000 square-foot 

facility north of Topeka. The north facility 

houses professional records management, a 

division of the company that barcodes and 

stores office records. 

The building on Forty-first Street has one 

of the only indoor docks in Kansas where trailers 

can be loaded and unloaded out of 

the weather. Roughly 400 weather-tight, 245 

cubic-feet storage vaults can be stacked in 

one area. 

Topeka Transfer and 

Storage is also a charter 

member of United Van Lines, 

and in 1997 it received fiftyyear 

status membership with 

the company. United Van 

Lines is owned by 120 Class 

A stockholders, of which 


was one of the twentyfour 

original agents. 

Having an affiliation with 

United Van Lines gives 


the accessibility to move 

people anywhere in the 

world. It also provides “back 

haul” for drivers returning to 

Kansas from points across 

the United States. 

❖ 

Above: The Topeka Transfer and 

Storage current offices at The Topeka 

Industrial Park. 

Below: The Topeka Transfer and 

Storage warehouse in the mid-1900’s. 


STRATHMAN 

SALES 

COMPANY INC. 

❖ 

Above: One of the delivery semitrucks 

that Strathman Sales Company 

uses to deliver its product. 

Top, right: Strathman Sales 

Company’s early delivery truck and 

employees in 1954. Pictured from left: 

Joe Strathman Sr., Joe Strathman Jr., 

Al Kobler, Clarence Hopkins, Bob 

McFarland, and Art Strathman. 

For more than sixty years, Strathman Sales 

Company has distinguished itself in the Topeka 

business community, providing wholesale services 

and contributing to the neighborhoods it serves. 

Joseph H. Strathman was granted distribution 

rights for Budweiser beer by Anheuser 

Busch in 1939. The first office and warehouse 

were located at 127 Kansas Avenue, and the 

draught beer was stored at Railway Ice and 

Storage at the corner of First and Jackson 

Streets. The business was originally managed by 

Bert Hacfer, who was later called to serve in the 

United States military during World War II. 

After several succeeding managers, Carl Seifert 

took over management duties until 1953. 

While today the company employs a fleet of 

climate control storage trucks to deliver its 

products, the original delivery equipment was 

not as advanced. The first delivery fleet consisted 

of one half-ton panel truck and one threequarter-ton 

panel truck. Occasionally an extra 

truck was rented from Baker Truck Rental (now 

known as Ryder Truck) on First Street. Delivery 

volume at the time was 10,000 cases. 

Business was done in taverns and grocery 

stores during the 1940s, and by 1949 the volume 

of beer sales began to increase at a steady rate. 

During a citywide flood in 1951, waters rose 

as high as three feet up the warehouse and office 

walls, forcing renovations to be completed on 

the facility. 

In 1953, Joseph F. Strathman took over management 

of the company and was joined by 

Arthur C. Strathman in 1954. By 1955, Busch 

Bavarian Beer was introduced, making it the 

second Anheuser Busch beer available and 

Strathman Sales was distributing around 

100,000 cases at this time. The company was, 

and continues to be, an exclusive distributor of 

Anheuser Busch products. 

In 1963 the company was incorporated with 

Joseph H. Strathman, Joseph F. Strathman, and 

Arthur C. Strathman as shareholders. By this 

time, the company had outgrown its original 

warehouse and moved to a larger facility at 316 

East Thirteenth Street. 

Joseph F. Strathman sold his shares of the 

business and left the company in 1977, while 

Joseph H. Strathman sold his shares in 1978. 

Arthur C. Strathman and Lynda J. Strathman 

purchased the partners’ shares and took over sole 

ownership and management of the company. By 

1982 the pair had expanded the warehouse and 

added an office space for the growing staff. A 

third generation of Strathman’s, Kurt and Matt, 

had been working part-time at the business, and 

by 1982 were full time employees with input into 

the daily operations and long-term growth of the 

company. From 1977 to 1983, Francis Waetzig 

was the office manager, and in 1981, Jeff Jones 

was hired, eventually reaching the position of 

sales manager in 1999. 


Arthur, Kurt, and Matt determined in 

1984 that another warehouse move was 

integral to the company’s future. In 1986 a 

new warehouse was completed by Wolf 

Construction and architect Phil Coolidge at 

2127 Lakewood Boulevard, a location which 

remains Strathman Sales Company’s home 

office and warehouse. In 1987 the company 

distributed more than 670,000 cases, a 

new high at the time. 

Kurt and Matt became company shareholders 

in 1994, and by 1999 Matt was the majority 

shareholder. In 2000, Kurt sold his shares and 

left the company for other opportunities. 

From its two trucks, small-warehouse 

beginning, Strathman Sales has grown into a 

company that is home to thirty-six employees, 

and distributes along twelve package and keg 

routes transporting more than one million cases 

per year. 

The company has continually contributed 

to the community, supporting a diversity 

of activities and groups, including donating 

scoreboards to youth and recreational softball 

fields, contributing to “Go Topeka” development 

projects, sponsoring events at Topeka Civic 

Theatre, Heartland Park Topeka, and backing the 

Topeka Capitals baseball team. 

❖ 

Above: An aerial view of Strathman 

Sales Company’s warehouse and 

offices in Topeka. 

Below: The interior of Strathman 

Sales Company circa 1954. Pictured 

from left are: Joe Strathman Jr., Al 

Kobler, Clarence Hopkins, Art 

Strathman, Bob McFarland, and Joe 

Strathman Sr. 


❖ 

DEBACKER’S 

INC. 

DeBacker’s Inc. location in East 

Topeka, where the company moved 

and has remained since 1968. 

DeBacker’s Inc. began in the 1940s, when 

a neatly dressed “Mr. Clean” type, Sidney 

DeBacker, quit his teletype operator job at 

the Santa Fe Offices and decided to work 

for the Holland Furnace Company, a job 

which was as much out of character as night 

and day. 

The work consisted of tearing down old 

coal gravity furnaces and resetting them 

with furnace cement between the very heavy 

segments of the cast iron furnace. During 

this time, John D. “Jack” DeBacker helped to 

do these repair projects during the summer 

and on Saturdays during his high school 

years. Salary for a dirty days work was $1.25 

per day plus lunch. 

The start of DeBacker Sheet Metal began 

in 1949, when Sidney left Topeka for California. 

John, Sr., and Jack did all types 

of sheet metal work, guttering, metal roof 

and duct works, as well as replacement of 

coal furnaces with gas and oil gravity 

systems, which did not have a blower 

system. These systems were very welcome 

in the post-World War II era. It gave the 

homeowner an automatic system that was clean, 

simple and economical and eliminated the 

handling of a very dirty and time-consuming 

coal, which also had a sulphur smell at that 

time. It was modern heating. 

In the early 1950s, forced air (blower) 

furnaces came on the scene. These could 

move air to previously hard to heat areas, 

and also provided a basis to centrally air 

condition homes. The air conditioning 

boom began in the mid- to late 1950s, and 

Debacker’s was among the first in the 

residential market. 

The early central air conditioning units 

(of which some are still operating) were 

very heavy, quality units that took four 

to five days to install. Units now are 

installed in less than four to five hours. Also, 

air conditioning units are one of the few 


products that cost more in 1955 than a similar 

tonnage system does today. 

From 1950 to 1960, a new car could be 

bought for $1,200 to $2,000. A three-ton air 

conditioner cost $2,000 then and costs less than 

that now, fifty years later. Not too much 

inflation in the field. 

DeBacker’s Inc. has been located in East 

Topeka since 1968. The office, plant and 

warehouse are located at Tenth and Lafayette 

Place. Several additions have been made to 

the original facility. 

Steady growth has been sustained through 

the years in both new home construction 

and the replacement market. 

The company principals and employees 

have been active in community organizations. 

They include: Topeka Chamber of Commerce; 

Better Business Bureau; Topeka Home Builders 

Association; Notoma; Optimist Club; softball, 

basketball and hockey sponsorships; North 

Topeka Historical Society; Habitat for 

Humanity; Kansas Chamber of Commerce and 

Industry; School Board member; Shawnee 

County Historical Society; fatherhood groups; 

Shawnee County Landlord Association; and 

Topeka Realtors Association. 

The principals of the company are John D. 

“Jack” DeBacker, president; Greg T. DeBacker, 

vice president; and Flora DeBacker, secretary/ 

treasurer. 

Employees and lengths of service: Paul 

Falk, 35 years; Julian Lutes, 29 years; Jim Harries 

and Stephen Craney, 28 years; Craig Whitford, 

20 years; Kelly McDonald, 16 years; Terry Long, 

14 years; Sandy Streeter, 13 years; Denny 

Steward, 11 years; Norman Owens, 8 years; 

Mark Simecka, 7 years; Mary Ann Breitbach, 5 

years; and J. D. Sexton, Mel Sexton, Ryan 

Crowell, Steve Foster, and James Klesath. 

❖ 

The staff of DeBacker’s Inc., the 

majority of which have been with the 

company for ten years or more. 


❖ 

TOPEKA 

HARLEY- 

DAVIDSON 

Above: Pat Patterson stands outside 

his original Topeka Harley-Davidson 

store in 1949. 

Below: In 1951, Topeka Harley- 

Davidson was ravaged by flood and 

was forced to rebuild. 

Henry “Pat” Patterson purchased Topeka 

Harley-Davidson in March 1949 from 

Dutch Myers. Pat moved his wife, Leola, 

their two young boys, Larry and Dennis, and 

all of the family’s possessions, in one car 

and a motorcycle trailer, from Grand 

Junction, Colorado, to Topeka to take control 

of the dealership. 

Pat endured numerous hardships during 

his first few years in business. Within a 

year of operating the dealership at 305 

Kansas Avenue, the Throop Hotel, located 

next door, caught fire and collapsed on 

the Harley-Davidson building, ruining the 

structure. Pat was forced to temporarily move 

across the street before finding a new location 

at 2410 West Sixth, near the edge of town. 

Soon after that move, Pat arrived one 

morning to find the new store in three feet 

of water after the largest flood in Topeka 

history swept through in 1951. 

Pat persevered and stayed with the 

business and his dream through many 

difficult decades. After working years by 

himself or with just one employee, Pat was 

happily surprised when his son, Dennis, 

joined the dealership in the mid-1970s. It 

was perfect timing for Pat, as Japanese 

motorcycles were taking a stranglehold on 

the market and Dennis’ energy helped 

save the business from demise. In the 

late 1980s, Pat’s grandson (Dennis’ 

nephew), Mike, joined the business, making 

it three generations of Patterson's managing 

the store. 

With the resurgence of Harley-Davidson, 

the Topeka store grew at a rapid pace. In 

1990, the Sixth Street store had served its 

purpose and more room was needed. The 

Patterson's, and their five-member team, 

moved to 600 Northwest Highway 24, north 

of town, to a building that was so much 

larger the group did not know at first what 

to do with all the space. 

As Harley-Davidson’s became increasingly 

popular, two expansions that tripled the 

size of this store during a six-year period 

were needed to keep up with the growth. 

In 1999 the store celebrated fifty years 

in business with a gala event held at the 

Kansas Expocentre that included more than 

700 friends of the store and Harley- 

Davidson’s Chief Executive Officer Rich 

Teerlink. Rich paid tribute to Pat’s seventytwo 

years of Harley-Davidson dedication. Less 

than a week after the event, Pat succumbed 

to his battle with cancer, but he had 

persevered and accomplished his goal of 

fifty years in business 

In 2000, Topeka Harley-Davidson made 

a major relocation to its current facility 

at Twenty-first and Topeka Boulevard. The 


uilding, constructed in 1935, formally 

housed the Shawnee County Maintenance 

Department and Willie C’s Restaurant. The 

renovation allowed Topeka Harley-Davidson to 

incorporate the restaurant (Henry’s Grill) and a 

museum (Yesterdays) into the dealership at the 

new location. This unique combination has 

created an enjoyable stopping point for 

motorcyclists and visitors. 

The museum houses more than thirty-five 

motorcycles, a model of Harley’s original shack, 

a recreation of Henry’s office and various signs 

and artifacts fundamental to motorcycling’s 

proud past. The restoration of the museum 

pieces sparked the creation of Yesterdays 

Restoration Services, which provides bike 

restoration services in a secluded section of 

the store. Jobs are handled on a case-bycase 

basis ranging from turning up an old 

side-valve to ground-up restorations and 

custom applications. 

Outside the business itself, the Pattersons 

have long been avid riders and enthusiasts. 

Throughout his lifetime Pat owned an 

assortment of bikes and rode extensively 

around the country, traveling to such places 

as the World’s Fair in Chicago and the 

Harley-Davidson factory in Milwaukee. 

Dennis continues to enjoy street bike and 

dirt bike riding and is organizer for the 

Southwest Adventure Motorcycling Trip 

each fall. Mike began a racing career at an 

early age and progressed to professional 

status for a ten-year career. He continues 

to enjoy street and dirt bike riding. 

To help other enthusiasts and pass on 

Pat’s passion to future generations, Topeka 

Harley-Davidson operates Rider’s Edge, an 

educational and instructional program about life 

on two wheels and what it means to be part of a 

community of dedicated, spirited individuals 

who share a passion for the open road. 

❖ 

Above: The interior of the Topeka 

Harley-Davidson store at Twenty-first 

and Topeka Boulevard. 

Below: This former Shawnee County 

maintenance department building was 

renovated in 1999 to house Topeka 

Harley-Davidson. 


PAYLESS 

SHOESOURCE, 

INC. 

❖ 

Above: One of the original Payless 

Shoe Stores in Topeka, opened in the 

mid-1950s. 

Below: The 1963 Payless Shoe Stores 

annual report. 

From the simple idea of offering affordable 

shoes to local customers arose one of the most 

marketable companies in the country—Payless 

ShoeSource. Not bad for a pair of cousins who 

just wanted to save people money. 

In the mid-1950s, Louis and Shaol Pozez 

noticed wages were not rising, but prices were. 

Shoes had grown expensive for the average 

family and, to help families’ lower costs, on 

Febuary 1, 1956 the Pozez cousins founded 

Payless ShoeSource. 

Originally known as Payless-National and 

then Volume Distributors, the low-cost selfservice 

format made Louis and Shaol’s vision a 

reality, appealing to a large market of valueconscious 

consumers. As they do today, 

customers helped themselves in the hassle-free 

shoe stores, which were not fancy. There was no 

floor carpeting, no extravagant fixtures and no 

paint on the wooden shelves in the early stores. 

Until 1966 the interior of stores was constructed 

by district supervisors, who built the shelves to 

hold the shoes, which were displayed in boxes. 

Two stores opened within six months of the 

company’s founding. The first on East Twentyninth 

Street in Highland Crest Shopping Center, 

the second on West Sixth Street. A third store 

opened in March 1957. Shortly thereafter, the 

company opened a store in Oklahoma City, with 

three stores operating there within a year. Fort 

Worth, Texas was the next market, with the first 

store opening in 1957 and three more within a 

year and a half. The company opened stores in 

Omaha and Fremont, Nebraska during that time. 

The average price for a pair of shoes at the 

first stores was under three dollars. The 

majority of the chain’s business was, and is, 

represented by women’s shoes, which originally 

accounted for about sixty percent of sales. 

By 1962 the chain grew to thirty-five stores 

with $4.5 million in annual sales. Volume 

Distributors, as the company was known, went 

public March 14, 1962. During this period, 

Volume Distributors operated its retail stores 

under various names, including Pay-Less Service, 

National Self Service, Gambles Discount Shoes, 

and Shopper’s City. 

In the early 1960s, Payless began having 

shoes made to the company’s specifications, 

ensuring Payless’ customers found what they 

wanted in affordable footwear. 

Payless moved to a new home in 1966 after a 

tornado struck the offices and warehouse at 911 

Adams Street and the company built the current 

worldwide headquarters at 3231 South East 

Sixth Avenue. 

In 1967, with seventy stores and $8.24 

million in annual sales, Volume Distributors 

changed its name to Volume Shoe Corporation. 

The company opening its hundredth store in St. 

Joseph, Missouri, in 1969. 

Payless made its first major acquisition in 

1968, purchasing M. Burnstein & Sons with 

thirty-one stores in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, 


and Mississippi. From 1968 to 1973, Payless 

acquired eight companies with 145 stores. By 

1975 the company had 486 stores in 31 states 

To meet customer’s demands for better shoes, 

Payless started its own brands in the 1970s, 

beginning with “Highlights.” As regional 

shopping malls developed in the 1970s, Payless 

added stores inside malls. The company is one 

of a few retailers successful in all four real estate 

types: free-standing, central business district, 

shopping centers and shopping malls. 

Volume Shoe adopted the nationally known 

retail name Payless ShoeSource in 1978, creating 

the still-in-use signature yellow, orange, and 

brown signage. On November 17, 1979, Volume 

Shoe merged with May Department Stores of 

St. Louis, paving the way to continued growth 

and success. 

In 1980 the company opened a 320,000 

square foot distribution center north of Topeka. 

The lifeblood of the company, the center was 

expanded three times, in 1984, 1987, and 1992. 

Louis and Shaol retired in 1981, as the company 

opened its one-thousandth store and celebrated 

twenty-five years in business. 

The company took another major step in 

1983, opening an office in Taipei, Taiwan, 

which became the heart of Payless International, 

and made its largest acquisition in 1994, 

purchasing Kobacker Company’s 679 stores. 

On May 4, 1996, the May Department Store 

spun off Payless ShoeSource as an independent 

company, traded on the New York Stock 

Exchange under the symbol PSS. In March 1997, 

the company acquired Parade of Shoes from J. 

Baker Inc, adding a second retail concept. Later 

that same year, Payless entered Toronto, Canada. 

The Company’s international expansion 

continued in the years that followed, with rapid 

growth in Canada, and stores opening in eleven 

countries in Central and South America. 

In July of 1999, Payless.com was launched, 

offering “shoes online anytime.” That same 

month, Payless announced an agreement with 

ShopKo to operate licensed shoe departments in 

their stores. 

Today, Payless ShoeSource, Inc. is the largest 

family footwear retailer in the western hemisphere. 

The company sold more than 215 million pairs of 

shoe in fiscal 2002, generating $2.9 billion in net 

sales. It operates more than 5,000 stores in all 50 

states, plus Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, the U.S. 

Virgin Islands, Canada, Central America, the 

Caribbean, and South American. 

❖ 

Above: A free-standing Payless outlet. 

The company is one of a few retailers 

successful in all four real estate types: 

free-standing, central business district, 

shopping centers and shopping malls. 

Below: Payless ShoeSource 

World Headquarters on Sixth 

Street in Topeka. 


TOPEKA 

BLUEPRINT 

COMPANY, INC. 

The mission of Topeka Blueprint Company 

has always been to serve its customers and 

clientele. In accomplishing that mission, Topeka 

Blueprint became an important part of the 

history of Shawnee County and Topeka. The 

company’s importance was evident June 8, 

1966, the day a tornado ravaged Topeka, 

causing massive destruction and taking lives. 

The tornado struck just hours after the funeral 

of founder Mac Mills. His son A.M. “Sandy” 

Mills, then company president, and the entire 

Topeka Blueprint staff spent all night and the 

next few days printing the blueprints and copies 

needed by relief workers and companies trying 

to rescue people and put the city back together. 

Founded in 1927 by Arthur McPherson (Mac) 

Mills, Jr., and Anna Zemborski, the company was 

a rarity, as no other local companies offered 

similar services. This clearly helped business and 

made Topeka Blueprint an integral part of the 

county’s growth. Topeka Blueprint was 

established as an outgrowth of the Parr Map and 

Engineering Company. Arthur “Mac” McPherson 

Mills, Jr. was a draftsman for Parr when it was 

purchased by the H. M. Gousha Map Company 

and moved to Kansas City, Missouri. 

During this time, Parr operated a Sun Frame 

on the roof of the Parr Map Company at 624 

Kansas Avenue, for the purpose of making 

blueprints of the company’s drawings. The 

process required the exposure of translucent 

drawings made on vellum or cloth to a 

sensitized paper for a period of four to ten 

minutes (depending on how much sunlight was 

available). This was a negative working process 

producing prints with a white line and dark 

blue background, hence the term blueprint. 

When Parr left Topeka, Mac purchased the Sun 

Frame and partnered with Zemborski to begin 

Topeka Blueprint Company. 

During the early 1930s the business flourished 

and two branch locations were opened in Wichita 

and Sioux City, Iowa. However, as the depression 

hit the Midwest in the 1930s, a slowdown in 

business forced Topeka Blueprint to close the 

branches and focus on saving the Topeka store. 

The majority of business at this time was 

producing county road maps. This was prior to the 

establishment of the Kansas Highway 

Commission. Each county in Kansas was required 

to provide its own roadway mapping. Topeka 

Blueprint put together one of the first atlases of 

blueprints that showed all roads in Kansas and 

sold them to the public. The strong sale of these 

atlases, along with an emerging architectural and 

engineering industry, helped Topeka Blueprint 

survive the economic downturn. 

As World War II began, Topeka Blueprint 

again faced difficult times as the private 


construction industry to ground to a halt. 

However, government construction flourished 

across the state with the building of military bases 

and installations. Topeka Blueprint printed many 

of the blueprints for these projects. From 1942 to 

1946, Mac became reproduction manager for the 

Sunflower Ordinance Works in Desoto, Kansas 

and commuted from Topeka, while Anna 

Zemborski took over day-to-day operations of 

Topeka Blueprint. At the conclusion of the war, 

the private construction industry regained its 

footing and Topeka Blueprint began an ongoing 

growth pattern that continues to this day. 

Investing in new methods of reproducing large 

and small documents, the company began to 

expand its services to include a wide-range of 

printing, photographic, and digital services. The 

company was the first in Topeka to have a 

color copy machine. 

In 1961, Sandy Mills joined the company and 

became president of the corporation in 1966. 

Since this time, Topeka Blueprint has expanded in 

size and capability to keep abreast of technical 

advances and maintain the latest in digital printing 

equipment. With the changing technology and 

ever-growing A/E/C industry, Topeka Blueprint 

now provides service not only in Kansas and 

Missouri, but is also able to send and receive 

printing files electronically anywhere in the world. 

In 1996 the company became an Employee 

Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) firm owned by all 

its employees and headed by long-time 

employees, President Craig Trapp and Vice 

President Galen Murphy. 

For more than seventy-six years, Topeka 

Blueprint Company Inc., has held true to its 

original philosophy: hard work, ethical 

principles, fast, high quality printing at fair 

prices, but most of all, treat your customers 

with great service. 

❖ 

Opposite: One of the first print 

advertisements Topeka Blueprint 

produced, which ran in the Topeka 

Capital-Journal in 1939. 

Above: Topeka Blueprint is located in 

one of the more historic buildings in 

downtown Topeka at the intersection 

of 6th and Jackson Streets. 

Left: The interior of Topeka Blueprint. 


❖ 

Above: A sketch of the original 

Midland Hospice Care location on 

Southwest Fillmore Street in Topeka. 

Below: The terraced lattices leading 

to the entrance of Midland’s 

Hospice House. 

MIDLAND HOSPICE CARE, INC. 

Midland Hospice’s roots can be traced to 

1978, when a group concerned with the quality 

of life for the terminally ill formed Hospice of 

Topeka. Their dedication formed the foundation 

of what would eventually become Midland 

Hospice Care, Inc. 

In 1980, Hospice of Topeka, in cooperation 

with the Topeka-Shawnee County Health 

Department, hired the first hospice nurse to 

provide skilled care in the homes of terminally 

ill patients. By September 1983 the program saw 

significant growth and the increased needs for 

nursing and home healthcare required more 

resources. The not-for-profit organization 

renamed itself Friends of Hospice, Inc., and the 

group continued its services and provided 

volunteers, pastoral care, bereavement care and 

fundraising to those in need. 

Between 1983 and 1992, the group moved 

locations three times due to rapid growth. One 

of those locations was the historic mansion at 

1272 Southwest Fillmore Avenue, which was 

placed on the National Register of Historic Places 

in 1992. In 1994 the organization purchased 

three buildings on the site of the former 

Menninger’s Children’s Hospital, where its 

facilities still reside. 

By January 1991 the organization had such 

explosive growth that drastic changes were 

needed if the group was going to continue to 

serve the community. The Board of Friends of 

Hospice, Inc. voted to separate from the 

Topeka-Shawnee County Health Department 

and established a freestanding hospice program. 

In March 1991, Midland Hospice Care, Inc. 

became the official name of the program, which 

began to provide care using its own staff. 

Continuing as a trailblazer, Midland opened 

an adult day program, becoming the first 

hospice in Kansas to offer such a service. During 

the mid-1990s, Midland merged with hospice 

organizations that served the counties of Osage, 

Wabaunsee, Anderson, Franklin, Linn, Miami, 

and Ottawa. 

In 1997 the adult day care program separated 

from the hospice operations and incorporated as 

Midland Adult Day Programs, Inc. Three years 

later the organization opened the first 

Residential Hospice Program in the state of 

Kansas. Since 2000, Midland Hospice has 

expanded its bereavement services and opened 

an education center. 

The philosophy of Midland Hospice is 

concise. It recognizes dying as a normal process 

and believes an individual is entitled to actively 

participate in the process. It strives neither to 

hasten nor postpone death, but exists in the 

hope and belief that, through appropriate care 

and the support of a caring community, 

terminally ill patients can live fully until death. 

Midland Hospice Care strives to support family 

members before a loved one’s death and during 

the mourning period. 


D. L. SMITH 

ELECTRICAL 

CONSTRUCTION 

INC. 

Shawnee County settlers took great risks 

when establishing the community. D. L. and 

Suzy Smith took a similar risk when they staked 

everything on forming an electrical company. So 

far, both risks have reaped tremendous rewards. 

In 1972, D. L. Smith worked for Allied Electric 

in Topeka as a shop superintendent, when friend 

Larry Noller, who owned Noller Electric, 

mentioned to D. L. the idea of starting a business. 

D. L. and Suzy had three children, and while the 

thought was appealing, they knew it was risky. But 

possible rewards outweighed possible risks, and 

the husband and wife hocked all they owned and, 

on September 27, 1972, D. L. Smith Electrical 

Construction, Inc. was born. 

D. L. hired one full-time employee, Douglas 

Tucker, who remains with the company today, and 

opened in a nine-hundred-square-foot office. After 

four years, D. L. Smith Electric had to move 

because the building it occupied was being torn 

down. D. L. found a new location at Southgate 

Industrial Park, and thanks to his father-in-Law, 

Ernest (Jim) Salsbury, a successful contractor, a 

new facility was built in 1976. 

The company remains at Southgate, and in 

2001 the building size was tripled. Under the 

guidance of D. L., the company has as many as 

ninety employees and does an average of $8 

million in revenue per year. The future of D. L. 

Smith Electric is strong, as it will remain a family 

operation under the guidance of Shawn Smith, one 

of the couple’s children. 

The company’s construction services include 

maintenance, service, and electrical installation in 

new and existing property and buildings. 

D. L. Smith Electric leads the industry as a highly 

demanded provider of construction services for 

traditional and emerging high-tech markets, with 

highly trained employees and state-of-the-art 

techniques, while creating an environment of 

security, cooperation and growth for employees. 

In 1997 the company established D. L. Smith 

Communications Group providing network 

voice, data, and cabling systems for the integrated 

technology customers require. D. L. Smith 

companies can also provide a coordinated system 

of electrical and communications wiring. 

D. L. Smith has a strong presence outside of 

their day-to-day operations. Among his affiliations, 

D. L. is a member of the City of Topeka Electrical 

Board; chairman of the board of directors of the 

Better Business Bureau of Northeast Kansas; on the 

State of Kansas Building Advisory Commission; 

member of the Downtown Topeka Rotary Club; 

member Sigma Lambda Chi International Honor 

Society for Construction; member, Topeka 

Chamber of Commerce; member of the Kansas 

Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors 

Association; and member of the Associated General 

Contractors of Kansas. 

❖ 

Top: A sketch of the D. L. Smith 

Electrical offices, done in pencil by 

Topeka artist Robert Jones. 

Middle: One of the original signs that 

hung in the D. L. Smith Electrical 

window when the company opened 

in 1972. 

Bottom: One of the original D. L. 

Smith Electrical business signs. 


CAPITAL CITY 

BANK 

❖ 

Above: The original Capital City Bank 

building at Thirty-seventh and Topeka 

Boulevard as it stands today. The 

building was dedicated by President 

Harry S. Truman in 1964. 

Below: Capital City Bank converted 

the original Topeka Bus Depot (right) 

into one of its local branches (left). 

While the origins of Capital City Bank are 

traced to Richland, Kansas, a case can be made 

that Topeka is where the institution found 

its identity. 

Capital City Bank was established in 1892 

as Neese Brothers Bank in Richland. In the 

early 1900s, the name was changed to the 

Richland State Bank. In 1930, Georgia 

Neese Gray began helping her father, Albert 

Neese, run the family business, and in 1935, she 

began working at the bank as an assistant 

cashier. Following her father’s death in 1937, 

she became president of the bank. In 1949, 

President Harry Truman named Georgia the first 

woman treasurer of the United States. 

In 1964, the Richland State Bank relocated to 

Topeka, taking residence in a new building at 

the Southeast corner of Thirty-seventh and 

Topeka Boulevard, and was renamed Capital 

City Bank and Trust Company. 

The bank remained in the Neese/Gray 

family until 1974, when Georgia and her 

husband, Andy Gray, sold it to Gaylen Lawrence 

and Jim Hentzen. They managed the bank until 

1979, at which time they sold it to current 

owner and Chairman Emeritus of the Board 

Frank Sabatini. In 1993, Southwest Bank at 

Seventeenth and Gage was acquired and merged 

into Capital City Bank. Southwest Bank was 

organized in 1958 by Lou Falley and a group of 

local businessmen. 

Capital City Bank has increased its assets 

from $56,970,000 in 1992 to $347,108,000 at 

year-end 2003; a twenty percent annual 

increase. Over the last eleven years, the bank 

has moved from being eighth on the list of 

largest community banks headquartered in 

Topeka, to second on the list. 

The bank has played an important role in the 

restoration and preservation of historic Topeka 

locations, including the downtown bus depot that 

Sabatini purchased and renovated, and in 1988 

opened as the third Capital City Bank location. 

Participation in other restoration projects includes 

the Union Pacific Depot, Cedar Crest Mansion, 

Row House, and Historic Ritchey House. 

Capital City Bank, the Sabatini family, and 

bank associates have played an integral part in 

Topeka. For his contributions, the Topeka 

Capital-Journal in 2000 named Sabatini the fifth 

most influential individual in Topeka. 

Giving back to the community, on both 

corporate and individual levels, is what 

Capital City Bank does best. Not only through 

loans and other banking services, but also 

in donations to charitable, educational, and 

a variety of nonprofit organizations. Besides 

monetary donations, associates donate time 

on behalf of Capital City Bank. They 

chair gala events, work at auctions, serve on 

boards of directors, and provide volunteer 

support to numerous community and 

educational organizations. 

The bank has nine full-service locations, 

including eight drive-thru facilities and fifteen 

automated teller machines throughout Topeka, 

Lawrence, and Overland Park, Kansas. Capital 

City Bank has focused on serving individuals 

and small to mid-sized businesses, placing 

emphasis on customer service and keeping pace 

with advances in technology to improve the 

customer’s banking experience. 

Capital City Bank is owned by a one-bank 

holding company, Capital City Bancshares, Inc. 

Capital City Bank owns one subsidiary, Capital 

City Investments, Inc., a real estate company. 


Few stories are more representative of the 

American dream or Kansas entrepreneurial 

spirit then that of John Hoffer. 

In 1969, Hoffer became a service writer 

for Chrysler in Topeka, largely because it 

offered him the opportunity to work days, as 

opposed to his former job which kept him 

up at night. The job also allowed Hoffer the 

opportunity to work in areas he excelled: 

business and customer service. By 1976, Hoffer 

was appointed service manager and at the time 

he considered his position a big step in his 

professional life. He had no inclination at the 

time of how big his next move would be. 

In 1980, Chrysler’s market share dipped and 

Jim Clark, who owned the Chrysler dealership 

John worked for, wanted to sell. Hoffer grabbed 

the opportunity, wrestled a loan from the bank 

and bought the Chrysler-Plymouth store. 

“I was used to living without money, and they 

told me, ‘John, those bankers won’t eat you,’” 

Hoffer says. “But the first year or two, I thought 

they were going to.” 

While Hoffer was, at first, unaccustomed to 

financing, he had a firm grasp of daily 

operations and what it to took to ensure the 

company’s prosperity. Within a year, John 

boosted sales and improved customer service. 

“We’re successful because of our service and 

we get repeat business because people who 

come to us once understand how important 

they are to us and they come back,” Hoffer says. 

In 1986, Hoffer purchased the Topeka 

AMC/Jeep franchise. “I always liked Jeeps, so it 

made sense to buy the franchise,” he says. In 

1995, Hoffer purchased a Dodge store in 

Carthage, Missouri and doubled sales within 

a year. Hoffer’s five-star dealerships include 

the Dodge store in Carthage and his dealerships 

selling Chrysler and Jeep vehicles in Topeka. 

The latest store to join the Hoffer family is 

a Suzuki dealership on Wanamaker Street 

in Topeka. 

Since moving from a service manager to 

owner nearly twenty-five years ago, Hoffer has 

taken the Topeka dealership from a small sales 

force to a business that focuses on sales and 

service. It is a certified five-star dealership 

selling new and used vehicles. It offers shuttle 

service, rental cars, detailing, towing, full body 

work and painting services. 

“It has been a lot of fun,” Hoffer says. “And 

through it all my motto has been, ‘Be nice to 

somebody and it comes back ten times.’ People 

like to do business with someone they like and 

who they know has been around for a while.” 

JOHN HOFFER 

CHRYSLER JEEP 

❖ 

The John Hoffer Chrysler Jeep store in 

Topeka, which has been located on the 

same plat of land on Topeka Boulevard 

since John Hoffer became owner more 

than twenty-five years ago. 


BLUE CROSS AND 

BLUE SHIELD OF 

KANSAS 

❖ 

Above: The location of the first Blue 

Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas 

offices in Shawnee County. 

Below: Building A of the Blue Cross 

and Blue Shield of Kansas campus in 

downtown Topeka. 

Throughout the company’s sixty-two-year 

history, Kansans have relied on Blue Cross and 

Blue Shield of Kansas to provide first-rate health 

insurance. In 1942 the company’s three Topeka 

employees first offered one benefit design to 

eight customers. Today, BCBSKS has grown into 

an organization serving approximately 798,000 

Kansans, with nearly 1,700 Topeka employees, 

and offering thousands of health insurance 

benefits combinations. 

The company was set in motion in 1941, when 

the Kansas Legislature passed a law enabling a 

hospital service corporation. One year later, Blue 

Cross of Kansas opened its doors on the corner of 

Fifth and Jackson. In 1945 the legislature created 

a medical service corporation and Blue Shield of 

Kansas became incorporated. In 1983 the two 

companies consolidated into one organization, 

and in 1992, the organization became a mutual 

insurance company owned and governed by 

policyholders. Its service area spans all of Kansas 

except Johnson and Wyandotte counties. 

As the state’s leading health insurance 

company, BCBSKS provides customers with 

access to quality health care, a choice of 

affordable products and award-winning customer 

service. The company has been associated with 

Medicare administration since the federally 

funded program’s inception in 1966. 

BCBSKS is rooted in the Topeka community. 

Topeka’s Ripley’s Laundry was the first business 

to purchase Blue Cross group coverage for 

employees in 1946. Today 11,500 Kansas 

businesses rely on the health insurance services 

of BCBSKS for their employees. 

The company remains an important Topeka 

establishment and a dedicated member of the 

community. Its corporate headquarters, and 

subsidiary operations, are located in Topeka, at 

Twelfth Street and Topeka Boulevard. The 

company has occupied that corner since the 

early 1950s when it moved from the Casson 

building at Sixth Street and Topeka Boulevard. 

The main campus has grown to encompass 

nearly five city blocks. 

Since its beginning, the company and its 

employees have given financial support and 

volunteer hours to community organizations 

including United Way, Project Topeka, Junior 

Achievement and Meals on Wheels. The 

company has supported the neighborhood 

improvement efforts of The Society for the 

Preservation of Holliday Park by assisting with 

funding for lighting, park benches and the 

refurbished fountain located in Historic 

Holliday Park at Huntoon and Tyler. 

Neighborhood markers and street lamps along 

Washburn Avenue have also been made possible 

by company contributions. 

BCBSKS is among the ten largest employers 

in the city and is a major force in the Kansas 

economy. The company takes pride in its 

history of service to Topekans and looks 

forward to continuing the tradition of Kansans 

serving Kansans. 


METROPOLITAN 

TOPEKA 

AIRPORT 

AUTHORITY 

On occasion, David Stremming, Metropolitan 

Topeka Airport Authority (MTAA) president, 

receives a call from someone placed in charge of a 

closed military base. Often that individual needs 

advice, and is eager for someone to offer hope. "I 

tell them it’s OK to take time and mourn. But 

don’t take long," Stremming says. "There is a 

future if you are willing to make a commitment 

and put in the work. In Topeka, we have proven 

positives can come from a closing." 

Under the MTAA, what was once a major 

military installation has transformed into a 

commercial airport facility and local mecca for 

businesses and organizations with more than one 

hundred tenants. 

In January 1974 the MTAA was created to 

oversee most of the thirty-one-hundred-acre facility 

once used exclusively for the military. The facility 

was transferred to the city in April 1976. In 

November 1978, Shawnee County voters approved 

legislation making the MTAA autonomous. The 

Authority's responsibilities include Philip Billard 

Airport, an aviation facility; the Topeka Air 

Industrial Park, formerly Forbes Cantonment Area; 

and Forbes Field. 

The Industrial Park has undergone 

considerable renovation, with over ninety percent 

of its original wooden structures refurbished and 

restored. More than $15 million, much of which 

came from federal grants has gone into the two 

airports, and improvements have been made to 

both runways and a majority of the taxiways, 

which are still used for military applications, 

including the deployment of troops. 

Approximately fifteen buildings have been built 

in the past eight years through private investment. 

The breadth of businesses that make Forbes home 

is wide, including manufacturing, warehousing, 

distribution, service, shipping, and aviation. 

This resurrection was primarily done with 

private funds and through other economic 

avenues, easing the burden on taxpayers while 

providing Shawnee County with an important 

business and economic resource. An aggressive 

incentive package exists for developers and businesses. 

Factor in MTAA’s Foreign Trade Zone status 

and there is an international scope. 

The MTAA is honored that local businesses 

move to Forbes. The Industrial Park has also 

attracted national companies, providing a 

complementary mix. 

In December 2002, the Sports Car Club 

of America opened its national headquarters 

in a 20,000-square-foot office complex on 

approximately 97,000 square feet of industrial 

park land. 

Million Air Topeka occupies space in the 

main terminal as well as several other buildings 

on the field. Million Air is charged with fulfilling 

federal government fuel contracts for the 

military, and is a full-service operator. Mid- 

America Aviation is also a full-service operator 

established in 1976. Mid-America performs 

refueling services, rents hangar and tie-down 

facilities, provides aircraft maintenance, and 

offers flight instruction. 

In October 2003, a new air control tower 

commenced operations. The tower coordinates the 

more than fifty thousand air operations which take 

place at Forbes Field each year. The project was 

one hundred percent funded by the Federal 

Aviation Administration. 

Stretching across a beautiful landscape, MTAA’s 

wide open spaces have also made it an important 

gathering place for community events such as 

Railroad Days, SCCA Pro Solo and Solo II National 

Championship, Boy Scout Jamboree, and the 

Kansas Senior Olympics. 

❖ 

Above: The Sports Car Club of 

American moved its corporate 

headquarters to Topeka, constructing 

this new facility on the grounds of 

Topeka Air Industrial Park. 

Below: The air control tower, 

funded by the Federal Aviation 

Administration, opened for business 

at Forbes Field in 2003. 


J. F. MCGIVERN, 

INC. 

❖ 

Above: J.F. McGivern refurbished this 

ceiling at the Great Overland Station, 

which reopened in 2004. 

Below: The interior of the senate 

chambers at the Kansas State Capitol, 

one of J.F. McGivern’s many 

restoration projects. 

J. F. McGivern Inc. is the premiere 

residential, commercial and painting contractor 

in the midwest. Few companies have had more 

of a hand in the extensive restoration and 

decoration of Topeka landmarks and businesses 

than J. F. McGivern, Inc. 

John F. “J. F.” McGivern, Sr., began his 

painting career as an employee of the Topeka 

Board of Education and was later employed as a 

journeyman painter with the VA Hospital. 

Cousin Joe Higgins offered J.F. a partnership in 

his residential paint company. As it often 

happens in small partnerships, disagreements 

over issues developed and J. F. left the 

partnership in 1944 and started his own 

company, using the name McGivern Painting. 

The name became J. F. McGivern, Inc. in 1946. 

The early years were challenging. The 

company had no vehicles, using public 

transportation to get to and from jobs. 

Equipment-primarily ladders, tilleys, ladder 

jacks, and drop cloths, were transported by a 

transfer and storage company. Most exterior 

paint (pure lead and oil) was mixed at home, 

over the weekends, and was strained, boxed, and 

pailed to be ready for use the following Monday. 

The first paint shop was a wood shed behind the 

house, with no lights, heat, or running water. 

Labor was supplied on an “as needed” basis 

by Painter’s Local Union #96. J. F., though now 

a contractor, remained an active member 

of Local #96. Within a short time, J. F. bid 

on bench priming lumber, as it was unloaded 

from boxcars, to construct temporary buildings 

for what became Forbes Air Force Base. The 

lumber priming project served as a launching 

pad for J. F. McGivern to hire sufficient 

employees to become a recognized contractor. 

The business was originally incorporated 

with five family shareholders: J. F., his wife 

Gladys, and children Judy, Jack, and Jim. Jim 

sold his interest in the mid-sixties, starting his 

own industrial paint company. 

J. F. participated extensively with Jim, leaving 

day-to-day management to Jack, as president, 

and Judy, as secretary-treasurer. After the deaths 

of J. F. and Gladys, the company was owned by 

Judy and Jack, who operated the business until 

2000, when they sold it to a third generation: 

John A. “J. A.” McGivern, and long-time 

employee Steven Beier. Today, J. A. is president 

and CEO, while Steve is vice-president. 

J. F. McGivern, Inc., is the best equipped trade 

contractor in the Midwest, with an inventory of 

modern, efficient trade tools exceeding $1 million 

in cost. The company maintains a permanent 

workforce of more than twenty and hires 

additional employees during the peak season. J. F. 

McGivern, Inc., has completed many large 

projects, such as the Topeka Boulevard Bridge, 

SBG home-office facility, Bank of America 

Building, and major projects at the State Capitol 

Building, including patination of the dome 

exterior, and restoration of the House of 

Representatives, Senate Chamber, Capitol 

Rotunda, and the restoration of the governor’s 

mansion. J. F. McGivern, Inc., was chosen to 

participate in the restoration of the historical 

Landon Residence and is currently doing painting 

decoration for the restoration of the North Topeka 

Great Overland Station Train Depot. 


The Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) 

headquarters have been a fixture in Shawnee 

County for more than a century, making it 

one of the longest tenured businesses in the 

community. Whether it was in offices 

downtown, near the Kansas Expocentre, or on 

the southwest side, where it currently is located, 

the organization has represented independent 

livestock producers across the state on legislative, 

regulatory and communication matters. 

More than one hundred cattle producers 

from a dozen counties, mostly the Flint Hills, 

formed the organization in 1894 to combat 

unreasonable railroad freight rates, cattle theft 

and animal diseases. This group of progressive 

business operators realized they could 

accomplish more collectively than individually. 

The nonprofit organization’s membership 

peaked in the 1920s and again in the late 1980s 

at ten thousand producers. Current membership 

of six thousand is a direct reflection of the 

increased efficiency in agriculture, with fewer 

producers feeding a larger world population. 

KLA members from all corners of the state have 

visited Shawnee County through the years for 

association meetings, to testify at the statehouse 

or tending to business at the KLA office. 

KLA’s faithful membership following is 

based on quality service and value for the 

dues dollar. The organization, for example, 

successfully lobbied the Kansas Legislature 

in 1925 to repay cattle producers whose 

animals had to be destroyed to control foot 

and mouth disease. A KLA delegation met 

with five major packers to discuss widely 

fluctuating markets and possible manipulation in 

1916. Not long thereafter, KLA was instrumental 

in creation of the National Live Stock and Meat 

Board, the first organized effort to promote red 

meat to consumers. KLA led an effort in recent 

years to keep the Environmental Protection 

Agency from forcing burdensome and 

unreasonable water quality regulations on farmers 

and ranchers. The organization has won 

numerous battles to keep certain inputs exempt 

from sales tax and cattle off the property tax rolls. 

These hard-fought victories advance members’ 

common business interests, which is part of KLA’s 

mission statement. The struggles have been many, 

with success the result more times than not. In 

some cases, it has taken thirty or more years to 

correct a situation with a negative impact on the 

industry. Individual operators or smaller groups 

would have neither the resources nor persistence 

to see difficult, yet important issues, through to 

completion. It has taken a special partnership 

between forward-thinking livestock producers and 

a dedicated staff to achieve the desired outcomes. 

KLA executive directors who have been familiar 

faces around Shawnee County through the years 

include: Joe Mercer, Will West, Will Miller, H. E. 

Floyd, A. G. Pickett, Charles Esslinger, Robert 

Hudelson, John Meetz, and Dee Likes. 

The tenacity, professionalism and ability 

to adapt to change exhibited by the members 

and staff have helped KLA remain the state’s 

leading lobbyist for the livestock industry. 

Shawnee County has, and will continue to be, 

“operation central” for this influential and 

historic organization. 

For more information about the Kansas 

Livestock Association, please visit www.kla.org. 

KANSAS 

LIVESTOCK 

ASSOCIATION 

❖ 

The Kansas Livestock Association 

offices are located at 6031 Southwest 

Thirty-seventh Street in Topeka. The 

association has been a part of 

Shawnee County for more than one 

hundred years. 


❖ 

LAWYERS 

TITLE OF 

TOPEKA, INC. 

Above: The St. John family, who have 

owned and operated Lawyers Title 

since its inception, stand in the lobby 

of the Topeka business. Pictured are 

(from left to right): Christopher St. 

John, Susan St. John, Hayden St. 

John, and David St. John. 

Below: These employees make up the 

core of Lawyers Title Closing 

Department, an essential part of the 

company that provides top customer 

service. Pictured are (from left to 

right): Kim Hernandez, Erin T. 

Villines, Barb Rodgers, David St. 

John, and Dian Goebel. 

Lawyers Title of Topeka prides itself in its 

meticulous approach: from thorough procedures 

used to research and provide title insurance, to an 

outstanding Closing Department. With a complete 

set of records dating to the government patents in 

the 1860s, Lawyers Title has established itself as an 

important Topeka institution. 

Founded in 1975 by Harry H. St. John, Jr., 

Hayden B. St. John, and Robert T. Craig III, the 

company has remained family owned and 

operated and is an exclusive agent for Land 

America/Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation in 

Richmond, Virginia. The company opened its 

doors with three employees, and today, it employs 

twenty-seven people, all distinguished by their 

outstanding customer service. Lawyers Title 

prides itself on its state-of-the-art computer 

technology, integrity, and its friendly and 

accommodating customer service. 

Three generations of the St. John family have 

worked in the business, starting with Harry St. 

John, who was chairman of the board until his 

death in 1986. His son, Hayden St. John, has been 

president of the board since 1975, while Hayden’s 

sons, Christopher and David, have been with the 

company since 1985 and 1999, respectively. Chris 

serves as executive vice president, is in charge of 

computer services, and is an expert on title 

matters. David serves as closing officer and has 

expertise in the title research area. Hayden’s wife, 

Susan St. John, has worked for Lawyers Title as a 

computer operator since 1987. 

Lawyers Title is active in community and 

statewide affairs. Hayden, a former Air Force 

officer, served on the board of directors of the 

Washburn University Alumni Association, the 

St. Francis Hospital Health Center Foundation 

and the Better Business Bureau of Northeast 

Kansas. He has served as past president of The 

Kansas Land Title Association and past 

chairman of the Title Standards Committee of 

the Kansas Bar Association. Chris serves as an 

executive committeeman of the Kansas Land 

Title Association. 

Company personnel are active in The Topeka 

Board of Realtors, The Topeka Homebuilders 

Association and the Sales & Marketing Executives 

of Topeka. The company supports many 

community cultural and charitable activities. 


PLUMBING BY 

CARLSON, INC. 

On June 1, 1957, it would have been easier 

for Robert “Bob” Carlson to have gone to work 

just like any normal day, but this was not to be. 

On this day, Bob and Louise Carlson realized a 

dream that was long in the making. 

Taking Bob’s legendary plumbing skills, 

Louise’s attention to detail, $1,500, and an 

already old 1941 milk truck, they set off to start 

a legacy. Nearly fifty years later, that dream is 

still going strong in the form of Plumbing By 

Carlson Inc., which serves Topeka by offering 

onsite service and contracting work. 

At the onset of the business, the company 

“hung its shingle” on the door of the family’s 

garage with just two employees: Bob worked 

out in the field and Louise kept the books. Their 

hard work and perseverance through good times 

and bad helped the business survive several 

economic downturns. 

Now, thanks to the help and dedication 

of their employees past and present, Plumbing 

By Carlson, Inc. is still in business, located 

near downtown Topeka, with more than 

twenty employees. 

As with any family business, the kids were 

introduced at a young age. Bob’s son Neil, started 

going to work with his dad at the age of six, and 

in turn, Neil’s son Kris, started tagging along 

with his dad about the same age. From Bob to 

Neil to Kris, the family torch is still burning 

brightly. As the successive generations have 

entered the business, they have provided it with 

new ideas and fresh inspiration to leave their 

own mark. 

The company’s longevity has also built strong 

community connections. Some of Bob’s original 

service customers are still counting on Plumbing 

By Carlson to take care of their needs today. 

Bob and Louise both passed away in the midnineties 

and are sorely missed. It is the desire of 

the existing two generations to keep the dream 

they started alive and well, hopefully for 

another forty-seven years. 

❖ 

Above: The original Plumbing by 

Carlson location as it looked in 

the 1950s. 

Below: The Plumbing By Carlson 

headquarters on Van Buren Street. 


GOODYEAR 

TIRE & 

RUBBER 

COMPANY 

❖ 

Above: The Goodyear business 

campus and factory as it is today. 

Below: The largest tire that 

Goodyear produces, the 46/90R57, is 

made in Shawnee County and 

Topeka. It stands approximately 11.5 

feet tall and weighs 8,320 pounds. 

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s impact 

and importance to the Topeka and Shawnee 

County communities cannot be understated. 

Since its construction in 1944 by the federal 

government to produce tires for the war effort, 

the plant has employed thousands of Topekans 

over the years, and made the city an integral 

part of the global tire industry. 

Goodyear began management of the 

facility in 1945, and then purchased the 

plant from the federal government in 1946. 

Over the years, the plant produced virtually 

every type of tire Goodyear made, and reached 

a peak employment with approximately 

4,400 workers in the late 1970s. It was 

then, and remains today, one of the area’s 

largest employers. 

Sitting off Highway 24, the Topeka plant 

and Midwest Distribution Center consists of 3 

million square feet, or 69 acres under roof, and 

is the third oldest Goodyear facility in North 

America (behind plants in Buffalo, New York 

and Gadsden, Alabama). The plant has 

withstood rough times in Topeka, especially the 

1951 flood when the waters of the Kansas River 

engulfed much of the city. The waters 

surrounded the Goodyear plant and soaked the 

floors and first few feet of the plant. Undaunted, 

Goodyear remained committed to the city 

and county. 

Today, Goodyear employs approximately 

seventeen hundred workers in Topeka and 

specializes in producing unisteel light truck, 

medium radial truck, and off-the-road tires. The 

largest tire Goodyear produces is the 46/90 R57, 

which is made in Topeka. The tire stands 

approximately 11.5 feet and weighs 8,320 

pounds. Goodyear has demonstrated a longterm 

commitment to Topeka, and is in the midst 

of a $100 million upgrade project. 

The factory workforce is represented by 

USWA Local 307 and IBFO Local 7. Goodyear 

has also continually been a good corporate 

citizen, contributing to Shawnee County and 

Topeka programs and contracting jobs to local 

businesses whenever possible. In 2002, 

Goodyear spent $18.6 million with Shawnee 

County vendors and suppliers. 


TARC, INC. 

From its inception, the goal of TARC, Inc. has 

been to ensure that those in need get the help 

they deserve. Fifty years later, the organization 

has not only met this goal, but revolutionized the 

way the community and state assist persons with 

developmental disabilities. 

On February 8, 1954, a group of thirty-two 

parents met to discuss a mutual problem: No 

support services existed for their children with 

mental retardation. On that night, they formed 

the Shawnee County Association for Retarded 

Children (eventually to be TARC, Inc.). In 1955 

the Association established a small home to 

provide care and support for twenty-four 

students between the ages of five and eighteen. In 

1961, Ethel May Miller was hired as the first 

executive director, a position she held until her 

retirement in 1976. 

Since those early days, the accomplishments 

of TARC and its impact have been stunning. In 

the 1960s the association began an adult Work 

Activity Program and a Life Skills Training 

Program. TARC assisted in the formation 

of Sheltered Living, Inc., a well-established 

organization providing community and 

residential support to persons with disabilities. 

In the 1970s, the Community Center 

for the Mentally Retarded, located at 2701 

Southwest Randolph, was dedicated and 

the name was changed to the Topeka 

Association for Retarded Citizens (TARC). 

An Early Intervention Program for infants 

was also started. 

The 1980s saw such a need for services that a 

work center and service building were constructed 

and the TARC staff surpassed fifty employees. 

Beyond the invaluable services offered, TARC 

has been instrumental in reforming the way 

governmental services are delivered to citizens 

in need. In 1995, Kansas enacted the 

Developmental Disabilities Reform Act and 

TARC's Community Developmental Disabilities 

Organization Department implemented the 

provisions of the act, paving the way for reform 

and the expansion of needed services statewide. 

Today, TARC's staff of more than 150 

employees contributes to the community by 

enhancing the lives of over 700 local citizens 

with developmental and related disabilities, and 

their families. 

TARC’s mission is to enhance the lives 

of people with developmental and related 

disabilities and their families with service, 

support, advocacy, and community involvement. 

TARC’s vision is to transform 

itself into an exceptional organization driven 

by the individuals and families it serves. 

TARC will partner with others to ensure 

the delivery of supports and services make 

a positive impact on the life of each person 

touched by TARC. You may visit TARC’s 

website at www.tarcinc.org. 

❖ 

Above: The entrance of TARC, Inc. in 

Topeka. TARC provides daily 

activities, training and support 

services for persons with 

developmental disabilities. 

Below: TARC, Inc. provides services to 

individuals with developmental 

disabilities, ranging from day 

programs to employment training. 


ALLIANCE BANK 

❖ 

Above: The original trailer that was 

Alliance Bank’s first business location 

when opening in 1998. 

Below: Alliance Bank on Wanamaker 

Road. The bank hopes to add more 

branches in the coming years. 

Not all of Topeka’s treasures have a long 

history behind them. One of the town’s newest 

treasures is Alliance Bank. 

In the fast-paced financial world where bank 

mergers and sales have become an all-toocommon 

occurrence, a few Topeka bankers 

decided that consistency and a renewed focus on 

serving local customer needs was a necessity. With 

that simple concept, Alliance Bank was born. 

Jeff Berkley, Mark Ault, and Steve Herron had 

all worked for the big banks. The trio believed 

that the various mergers were resulting in less 

than acceptable customer service and 

satisfaction. Through the encouragement of 

customers, friends and family, they decided to 

open a customer-friendly bank that could 

provide patrons with stability and the level of 

quality service they deserved. 

On September 3, 1998, Alliance Bank, a state 

chartered FDIC insured institution, opened in a 

temporary facility with eight employees, $5 

million in capital, and a personal commitment 

to serving its customers. In March of 1999, 

Alliance Bank moved into its newly constructed 

building on Wanamaker Road. Since its humble 

beginning, Alliance Bank has grown to $50 

million in assets and has increased its staff size 

to fifteen. 

The bank offers a full line of traditional 

banking products and services and 

holds the distinction of being the first statechartered 

bank in Kansas to obtain a “bank 

owned chartered courier service,” which 

allows bank personnel to operate a pickup 

and delivery service for its customers. 

While still in its infancy as a company, plans 

for the future include adding branches 

for customer convenience, enhancing 

products that utilize innovative ideas and 

incorporating technology in delivering superior 

customer service. 

The bank’s strength continues to be its 

people and the success of Alliance Bank can be 

traced to its mission, which is to deliver top 

quality financial products and services with 

superior services and a commitment to 

relationship building. 

Alliance Bank reflects Topeka’s history 

of growth, stability, conservative values 

and a friendly place to call home. Alliance 

Bank is ready to introduce you to banking 

the way it is meant to be—the way you expect 

it to be. 


Chief among centers of consumer activity 

in Topeka is Fairlawn Plaza Shopping Center, 

the community’s first true shopping center. 

On February 7, 1959, Topeka Capital Journal 

reported “Plans for an ultra-modern planned 

shopping area, estimated to cost about $7 

million when complete, at the southwest 

corner of Twenty-first and Fairlawn were 

announced Tuesday by Charles R. Bennett, 

president of Bennett Housing Inc.” Bennett 

also announced a three-hundred-unit housing 

development had been platted to the south 

of the proposed center. The center was 

constructed on 30 acres near Twenty-first 

and Fairlawn and 40 acres more fronting 

Twenty-first were planned for commercial use. 

Bennett had extensive experience in 

construction, having built public and 

commercial buildings throughout the country. 

In Kansas, for example, Bennett was general 

contractor for Allen Field House at the 

University of Kansas and Ahearn Field House at 

Kansas State University. 

Commercial tenants for the new shopping 

center were Standard Oil, which erected a 

full-service station at Twenty-first and Fairlawn, 

and Dibbles IGA grocery store, which anchored 

the north end of the strip center. Many 

merchants followed, as commercial space 

south of Dibbles was built to accommodate 

the original tenants, which included Duckwalls, 

Hudson Pharmacy, Hume Music, and a tenant 

who remains today, Bill Williamson; owner of 

Fairlawn Plaza Style Center. 

In 1970 an indoor mall was constructed, 

running south of the site. The land 

was anchored by a Woolco discount store 

on the east and a Jerry Lewis Twin-Cinema 

Theater on the west. A junior department 

store and McDonalds, occupied the center of 

the mall. 

Over the years, numerous out-parcels were 

built and, in 1984, remodeling took place, as 

pad sites were developed. At present, almost 

300,000 square feet is under lease to more than 

50 tenants, including Bank of America, 

Walgreen’s, Office/Copy Max, Food 4-Less, and 

the gas station still operates under its original 

1959 lease. 

Fairlawn Plaza has been home to many 

different tenants, as the center reflected 

changing consumer tastes, but ownership has 

remained with Bennett’s family. Vested in a 

memorial trust since Bennett’s 1985 death, the 

center has been managed by his nephew, 

Randy Austin. 

In 1987, Austin purchased the mini-mall, 

unifying the ownership. Under his leadership, 

Fairlawn Plaza emphasizes its local heritage 

with a strong involvement in Topeka’s civic and 

cultural organizations. Fairlawn Plaza and its 

Merchants Association raise thousands of 

dollars yearly to support Topeka causes, and the 

center’s owners have consistently supported 

local art and cultural organizations. 

At Fairlawn Plaza not only are you within ten 

minutes of anywhere in Topeka but also you will 

find front door parking and special events for 

the whole family all year long. For a list of 

special events for the family or a list of the stores 

available to you, please visit Fairlawn Plaza’s 

website at www.fairlawnplaza.com. 

FAIRLAWN 

PLAZA 

SHOPPING 

CENTER 

❖ 

Fairlawn Plaza was the city’s first 

strip mall and has become one of its 

most successful, with outdoor and 

indoor shopping available. 


❖ 

BOTT RADIO 

NETWORK 

Above: Bott Radio Network Executive 

Vice President Richard Bott II. 

Bottom, left: Sherley and Dick Bott 

founded KCCV-AM in 1962 and the 

Bott Radio Network was born. 

Bottom, right: Network Control Room 

Operator Nick Nicholas assures that 

the BRN network programming is 

broadcast to network affiliates. 

COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER T. MURPHY/ 

BOTT RADIO NETWORK. 

A pioneer in the development of Christian talk 

radio, Bott Radio Network (BRN) is a national 

leader in quality Bible teaching and Christian news 

and information programming. Their flagship 

station, KCCV-AM, was founded in the Kansas 

City area in 1962. BRN has since grown to 25 

stations in eight states, representing 22 markets, 

and covering more than 18 million people. 

In July 1996, Bott Radio Network began 

serving the people of Topeka and northeastern 

Kansas with a new radio station, KCVT-92.5 

FM. The signal reaches from Manhattan to 

Lawrence and from Osage City to Holton. The 

KCVT office and studio are located in Topeka. 

Today, BRN broadcasts twenty-four hours a day 

nationwide on Sky Angel’s direct broadcast satellite 

(DBS) service and worldwide over the Internet at 

www.bottradionetwork.com. “We are growing but 

we’re not changing our commitment,” says 

founder Dick Bott, president and CEO. “Our 

listeners depend on us for a biblical worldview. We 

present the nation’s finest Bible teaching ministries 

to communicate God’s Word, with news and 

information from a Christian perspective.” 

The Barna Research Group states that 

Christian radio is the fastest growing medium for 

spreading the faith. “The Christian radio 

audience has grown dramatically over the years,” 

says Richard Bott II, executive vice president, 

who has an MBA from Harvard Business School. 

“We are as committed to the Christian 

talk/information format as we were more than 

forty years ago when we began broadcasting. 

Our audience has confidence in our programs. 

We only broadcast quality programs that are of 

excellent reputation and character.” 

National program topics on the network 

range from family and faith issues to live call-in 

shows about current events. Programs include 

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and Billy 

Graham’s Hour of Decision. 

BRN is a long-time member of the National 

Religious Broadcasters association, where both 

Dick Bott and Rich Bott serve on the board of 

directors. The network is supported wholly by 

its program producers and by local businesses 

that sponsor the network’s programming. 

“Our talk-intensive format attracts more 

listener attention as they learn from the talk 

shows and teaching programs,” says network 

Chief Operating Officer Trace Thurlby. 

“This is a benefit to our advertisers because 

it provides greater recognition and retention 

of advertising messages from a loyal and 

responsive audience.” 

As the network’s coverage and listening 

audience continue to grow, Bott Radio Network’s 

commitment stands firm: to help people grow in 

their faith and apply it in their daily lives. 


For more than 112 years, 

Security Benefit has prospered, 

while weathering the Great 

Depression, two World Wars 

and numerous recessions. It 

began with a strong foundation 

and unique history of helping 

people plan for their futures. 

In 1892, eleven Topekans 

contributed one dollar each to 

form a fraternal benefit society. 

Headquartered in a downtown 

drugstore, the only office 

equipment was a single desk 

and total assets could have been 

contained in a child’s bank. 

Innovative from the beginning, 

the organization cared for and 

protected others, equally served women and 

men, and made insurance widely available to 

people nationwide. 

In the first ten months, membership grew 

from 11 to 768. In just three years, membership 

rocketed to 10,770 representing more than $18 

million of insurance. By 1908 membership 

exceeded 100,000. 

Housed today in an impressive state-of-the-art 

complex, Security Benefit has evolved into one of 

the foremost financial service companies in the 

country, offering individual and group variable 

annuities, retirement plans, mutual funds, and 

other investment advisory services. The 

organization has more than twelve billion dollars 

in assets. 

Security Benefit became one of the first 

insurance companies to shift its focus to 

investment management by offering mutual funds 

and variable annuities. The company pioneered 

annuity product features that became routine 

throughout the industry. It is an organization 

whose products and services have evolved in step 

with the demands of a continuously changing 

marketplace. Today, Security Benefit focuses on 

asset management, especially for investors with 

a long-term outlook. The company understands 

the need for competitive, comprehensive, and 

unique financial solutions, responding to that 

need with a full-service approach to retirement 

plan design, implementation, and administration, 

as well as flexible, modular, and innovative 

investment products. 

Providing a broad variety of financial 

programs to investors in the advisor, corporate, 

banking, education, government, institutional, 

and qualified markets, Security Benefit 

partners with leading money managers to offer 

over 150 investment options, as well as 

proprietary fixed annuities, variable annuities, 

and mutual funds. 

Security Benefit associates also are dedicated 

to improving their communities by generously 

volunteering their talents and time. This 

community spirit has earned the company a 

multitude of awards, and associates annually 

contribute thousands of hours of their talents and 

time to their communities. 

SECURITY 

BENEFIT 

❖ 

Above: Doc Warner's drugstore on 

East Fourth Street was the first home 

office of the Knights and Ladies of 

Security, which would eventually 

become Security Benefit. 

Below: The front of Security Benefit's 

current building, a far cry from its 

original storefront at Doc Warner's 

drugstore. 


❖ 

COFFMAN, 

DEFRIES & 

NOTHERN 

Current members of the firm, from 

left to right, include: Tad C. Layton, 

Lance A. Weeks, H. Hurst Coffman, 

Susan Krehbiel William, Jeffery A. 

Wietharn, Austin Nothern, and 

S. Lucky DeFries. 

Coffman, DeFries & Nothern, a Professional 

Association, has conducted legal business in 

various downtown Topeka office buildings, 

diligently working on behalf of its clients. The 

firm earned its reputation of integrity from years 

of representing clients with a thorough 

research of tax laws to find favorable yet solid 

grounds with regard to tax, business and 

personal planning. 

Although the firm’s name has periodically 

changed, it is rooted in local history. Starting in 

1949 in the former First National Bank 

building, Harold R. Schroeder had a simple 

idea: to concentrate in tax law. Within two 

years Schroeder, CPA and attorney, was 

joined by Barney J. Heeney, Jr., a graduate of 

New York University Law School with a Masters 

of Law Degree in taxation. Heeney endeared 

himself to Schroeder with his adequate typing 

abilities and his belief there was a future in 

providing tax and estate planning legal services. 

Robert J. Groff, an expert in probate and real 

estate, joined them. 

In the firm’s early days, an obscure case 

decided by a U.S. District Court held that 

professionals, such as lawyers and doctors, could 

conduct businesses as corporations. The Internal 

Revenue Service (IRS) was opposed to this 

decision because it allowed such groups to create 

tax-sheltered pension plans. However, a group of 

Topeka physicians specializing in radiology and 

nuclear medicine wanted to do just that. 

Schroeder set up the physician’s professional 

corporation and pension plan, making certain 

the physicians acted in a corporate manner. At 

first the IRS was intent on making this 

professional corporation a test case, but 

during its audit the IRS found how carefully 

the corporation’s records had been kept 

and conceded this was not a good case to be 

litigated. The victory paved the way for 

professional practices nationwide to 

form professional corporations. 

The firm’s dedication to its clients 

was evident in the case of a man who 

had not filed a tax return in twenty-five 

years. In meetings with IRS officials 

Heeney noticed the client would 

sweat and become nervous and 

subsequently had the man evaluated. It 

was determined he suffered from tax 

phobia and the IRS dropped its pursuit. 

Other attorneys who have been 

firm members include: Harry W. 

Craig, Jr., Richard Harmon, Allan A. 

Hazlett, Henry L. Hiebert, Kristine 

Schlaman and Howard Spies. In 

addition, two Thelmas were integral 

to the firm’s early success: Thelma 

Ramberg was a stenographer for more 

than thirty years, and Thelma Cain worked in 

administrative roles. Wilma Rabe and Louise 

Corrick also served the firm for many years. The 

current staff carries on the firm’s tradition of 

hard work and dedication. 

Although the firm continues to provide 

advice on tax matters and is known for estate 

planning, business continuity planning and trust 

practice, it has developed an extensive state 

and local tax practice, representing businesses in 

income, sales and use, and property tax matters. 

The firm advises businesses and individuals 

on a variety of contractual, real estate and 

administrative matters and has represented 

clients before the Kansas appellate courts. The 

firm also collaborates and assists other attorneys 

whose expertise is in areas other than tax, estate 

planning or business matters. 

The firm is located at 534 South Kansas 

Avenue. Stockholders are H. Hurst Coffman, S. 

Lucky DeFries, Austin Nothern, Susan Krehbiel 

William and Jeffrey A. Wietharn and the 

associates are Lance A. Weeks and Tad C. Layton. 


BOB FLORENCE 

CONTRACTORS, 

INC. 

Bob Florence Contractors Inc. began more 

than a hundred years ago as a business devoted 

to specialized craft and has evolved into an 

organization versed in all phases of construction. 

In 1895, Joseph Florence, founded the 

company in Toronto, Canada. In 1898, Joseph 

followed his missionary parents to Topeka, setting 

up business in his home. In 1903, Joseph founded 

the Wood Wire and Metal Lather Union, which 

merged into the Carpenters Union Local 1445 in 

the late 1970s. 

Robert Florence, Sr., Joseph’s son, began 

working as lather for the company in 1925 and 

took over the business in 1935. Bob Florence, 

Jr. assumed control in 1970 with Adam and 

Stacy Florence taking control in 1997. 

As the need for large projects grew, the 

organization evolved into a comprehensive 

construction company and has worked on 

buildings throughout Topeka, across Kansas, and 

in California, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, 

Nebraska, and across the Pacific Ocean in the 

Central Philippines. 

The ornamental work adorning Topeka High 

School, the Kansas State Capital, and the Jayhawk 

Theatre in Topeka, was made by Florence 

Company employees. Work on Topeka High 

School included using a Ford Model T, a cable, 

and a pulley to hoist material from ground to roof 

bar joists. 

The company was called upon in 1906 to help 

rebuild San Francisco after an earthquake. They 

constructed one of the country’s first low-income 

housing complexes in Corpus Christi, Texas in 

1939; and in 1957 built 640 units of what is today 

Montara outside Topeka. Four generations of the 

Florence family have worked on the old Santa Fe 

building at Southwest 10th and Jackson Street. 

Robert Florence worked on the original Hoch 

Auditorium at the University of Kansas, while his 

son and grandsons worked to rebuild the 

auditorium after it was destroyed by fire. More 

recent projects include the Lied Center at the 

University of Kansas; the renovation of the Topeka 

Bible Church Sanctuary; the Stormont-Vail 

Cotton-O’Neill Heart Center; the City Center 

Parking/Office Complex; the Stormont-Vail 

Healthcare Surgery Center; the Stormont-Vail 

Cotton-O’Neill Digestive Health Center; the 

remodeling of the Stormont-Vail Healthcare 

NICU/ICU; and several buildings at Camp Karis 

on the island of Bohol in the Phillipines. 

The company’s focus is on completing interior 

and exterior constuction, as well as general 

contracting. Bob Florence Contractors, Inc., 

applies traditional principals to all of its specialties, 

but also in the field of general construction. With 

today’s ever-changing construction environment, 

the company believes there is a need for a general 

contractor who can provide quality service in a 

timely manner with honesty and ingenuity. 

Florence Contractors are at 1934 South Kansas 

Avenue in Topeka, Kansas, 66612 and can be 

contacted by phone at (785) 357-0341. For more 

information, visit at www.florencecontractor.com. 

❖ 

Above: Containing the cutting edge in 

medicine and surgical services, Bob 

Florence Contractors Inc., helped 

complete the Stormont-Vail 

Healthcare Surgery Center and 

addition in June 2003. 

Below: Helping to revitalize downtown 

Topeka, Florence General Contractors 

Inc., completed the City Center 

Parking and Office Complex in 2003, 

located just one block from the 

Capital Building. 


FALLEY’S INC. 

❖ 

Above: One of the original Food 4 

Less stores opened in 1973 by 

Lou Falley. 

Below: Organic produce and great 

customer service go hand in hand 

at Falley’s. 

Falley’s Inc./Food 4 Less began as a necessary 

way for a boy to feed his family and turned into 

one of the most successful grocery enterprises in 

the Midwest. 

Lou Falley was born in 1905 in North Topeka 

to Fred and Georgia Falley. When Lou was 

ten years old, his parents died in an 

automobile accident, so he went to work to 

support other family members by farming 

and selling produce with his brother, Sam, 

in the Silver Lake area. He also worked, 

briefly, as a lumberjack in Wisconsin. 

In 1934, Lou decided to open a full-service 

grocery store in Topeka and selected a location 

at Twenty-first and Gage. At the time, the site 

was on the edge of town where almost no 

development existed. Many people thought Lou 

was crazy for choosing that site, but it was an 

instant success and the city eventually grew 

around the store. 

The company became a family affair, with 

two generations of Falley’s helping build the 

business: Mel Falley, Lou’s brother; John Alberg, 

Lou’s son-in-law; and Bert Falley, Lou’s son. 

Lou opened the first Food 4 Less in 1973, a 

box-store concept at 1133 Wanamaker Road. By 

the time Lou sold the stores in 1987, the 

company was worth $200 million. 

Lou believed his employees made the 

difference in business. He treated all employees 

like family. After a 1966 tornado destroyed parts 

of the city, Lou gave several employees who had 

been injured or lost homes $1,000 each to help 

them get back on their feet. Lou died at age 

ninety-three in October 1998. 

Today, Falley’s and Food 4 Less stores 

are a full-service grocery chain offering 

fresh produce, full-service meat, pharmacy, 

film developing, natural and organic foods, 

and more. 

Falley’s Inc./Food 4 Less has been a 

subsidiary of Associated Wholesale Grocers, 

Kansas City, Kansas since 1999. There are 

currently 30 stores with more than 2,000 

employees in Kansas and Missouri. There are 

seven stores in Topeka and Wichita, three in St. 

Joseph, Missouri, three in Manhattan, two in 

Leavenworth, and one in El Dorado, Haysville, 

Hutchinson, Kingman, Great Bend, Junction 

City, Salina, and Lawrence. 


R.E. “Tuck” Duncan has been an attorney at 

law in Topeka, Kansas, for a quarter century. 

Born Robert E. Duncan II on October 4, 1951, 

in Washington, D.C., to Barbara W. and Ralph 

Emerson Duncan, Jr., Duncan has mid-western 

roots, as his grandfather was a Kansas City, 

Missouri, physician and his father grew up in 

Kansas City, Missouri. 

Raised by his mother, as his father died when 

he was nine years old, Duncan attended New 

Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and 

graduated from the University of Kansas with a 

B.S. in journalism 1973 and received his juris 

doctorate from Washburn University in 1976. 

His academic honors include the KU Owl (Junior 

Men’s Honor) Society; Omicron Delta Kappa; and 

membership in the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. 

Duncan’s career encompasses the public and 

private sector. He was secretary and chief 

counsel for the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals, 

1976-1978; assistant attorney general, State of 

Kansas, 1979-1981; assistant city attorney, City 

of Topeka, 1981-1983; and has been a private 

practitioner of law since 1983. 

Duncan is admitted to practice in Kansas, 

federal district court, circuit courts of appeal, 

and the United States Supreme Court and sits as 

a judge pro tem, Shawnee County District Court 

for domestic violence matters. He represents the 

Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers 

Association, the Kansas Occupational Therapy 

Association, and American Medical Response 

before the Kansas Legislature. 

Duncan was actively involved in 

extracurricular activities at KU and has 

contributed to the Topeka community as 

chairman of the Topeka Housing Authority Board 

of Commissioners from 1999-2004; president of 

Topeka Friends of the Zoo; and a member and 

vice-chairman of the Topeka Public Schools Board 

of Education and chairman of the Kansas 

Expocentre Board during the 1980s. Duncan 

served as president of the Voluntary Action Center 

and Children’s Hour, both United Way Agencies. 

In 2002-2003, Duncan chaired the Topeka 

Postal Service Customer Advisory Council. His 

passion for the cinema was demonstrated as he 

reviewed movies for WIBW-TV (CBS) in 1996- 

97 and KMAJ (radio) at Sunrise in 1997. 

Duncan is an active participant in the Topeka 

Bar Show, a satirical musical comedy on the 

R. E. DUNCAN, ATTORNEY AT LAW 

politics of the day, as an actor, singer, and 

dancer. He is a member of the Topeka and 

Kansas Bar Associations and Life Member of the 

Washburn Law School Association. 

Duncan and his wife, Kathleen Allen 

Duncan, whom he married in 1974, are Life 

Members of the University of Kansas Alumni 

Association and The Topeka/Shawnee County 

Friends of the Library. Tuck has twice been 

Senior Warden and member of the Vestry at St. 

David’s Episcopal Church and is the 2004 

President of the Shawnee County Historical 

Society. Tuck is the father two adult sons, 

Spencer and Ryan, foster-dad to Joromono 

Martin and proud grandfather to Tessa. 

❖ 

Above: R.E. “Tuck” Duncan (right) 

on the set of the WIBW Television 

morning show, where Duncan 

reviewed movies. 

Below: R.E. “Tuck” Duncan holds 

out a bowl of candy during a 

presentation in front of a Kansas 

Senate hearing at the Statehouse. 

Duncan represents various groups at 

the legislature, including the Kansas 

Wine and Spirits Wholesalers 

Association and the Kansas 

Occupational Therapy Association. 


KANSAS 

MUTUAL 

INSURANCE 

COMPANY 

❖ 

Kansas Mutual Insurance is located at 

1435 Southwest Topeka Boulevard in 

Topeka, Kansas. 

A strong will to survive that has proudly 

moved from one generation to the next has 

made Kansas Mutual Insurance Company one of 

the few success stories of the domestic 

insurance industry in Kansas. Organized on July 

13, 1895, by W. B. Gasche and other Kansas 

pioneers, it is the last surviving property and 

casualty insurance company with its home office 

in Topeka. Although still considered small by 

today’s standards, the company employs 

thirteen people full-time who remain vigilant in 

helping fellow Kansans with insurance 

protection on the dwelling or mobile home 

where they live, the farm where they work, any 

rental dwellings they might own and items of 

personal or farm property they might acquire. 

People such as Gail W. Gasche, grandson of 

W. B. Grasche and chairman of the board until 

his death in 1988, L. M. “Bud” Cornish, director 

and attorney for the company in the early 

1990s and current president/executive manager 

R. Dan Scott have contributed in countless 

ways to Kansas Mutual Insurance Company’s 

development and growth. A committed and 

active Board of Directors plus dedicated 

employees have also been a real positive for the 

company throughout the years. Employees are 

encouraged to give their money and time to The 

United Way of Greater Topeka, as well as to 

other civic organizations and churches that 

regularly benefit from the company and their 

employee’s continued generosity and 

community-mindedness. 

The company moved to various locations 

throughout the city and settled upon their 

present location at 1435 Southwest Topeka 

Boulevard in March 1966—just two and 

a half months before a disastrous tornado struck 

and leveled many areas of the community and 

nearly toppled the financial base of the company. 

But weathering storms is nothing uncommon 

to a Kansas native. Kansas Mutual Insurance 

Company celebrated a milestone at the end of 

2004 with annual policyholders premiums 

totaling over $8 million. Policyholders (15,000) 

have placed their trust in a company which has 

remained true to its promise to give each and 

every concern the attention it deserves. 

As Kansas Mutual neared an astounding 

century of service in 1995, current president 

and executive manager R. Dan Scott reflected 

upon the nature of the business and the tasks 

ahead with one particular phrase—“We are here 

to serve each policyholder and that is our only 

purpose...may we never lose sight of our 

purpose for being here.” It is that kind of 

determined commitment that sets Kansas 

Mutual Insurance Company apart. 

For more information about this historic 

company and its unparalleled service, please 

visit www.kansasmutual.net. 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Spencer L. Duncan is a native of Topeka, Kansas, and holds a master’s degree in business administration from 

Baker University, and a B.S. in journalism and B.A. in English from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. A freelance 

writer and journalist, he has been a sports reporter at the Topeka Capital-Journal in Topeka, Kansas; a copy editor 

at the Austin American-Statesman in Austin, Texas; a sports reporter and columnist at the Rocky Mount Telegram 

in Rocky Mount, North Carolina; and sports editor at the Emporia Gazette in Emporia, Kansas. He has been recognized 

by the Kansas Press Association and North Carolina Press Association for his work as a reporter. 

ABOUT THE COVER 

Painted by Glen Miler, this image was produced for a Topeka guide printed by the Topeka Chamber of Commerce 

in the 1930s. 


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