First Finds

A few years back was looking for information on the Vernaz Drug Store for Maurine Achauer when I ran across a couple of photos of a dapper young man named Jimmy Kemper in the Juanita Vernaz file.  He grew up in the "Good House"  which was then the Kemper home.  This young man ended up in New York and shared his song stylings on nationally syndicated show called Beautiful Thoughts on NBC Blue Radio.  He performed in Kansas City and in Chicago as well.  If anyone has heard any of his music please let us know, have yet to find any sound files.   It may be that he was a comedian/songster, and he sometimes went by the name Jamie Kemper... we think.  Anyway, he is still an untold story among the more notable Johnson Countians... and finding his picture really piqued this curator's enthusiasm for the gems hiding in our files!; This particular photo was not the first, but is signed to one of our founders' daughters, Liz Smiser Schwensen.

Old Time Christmas

The frosty wind rattled the windows of the Old Courthouse on Saturday night, but several brave souls (the Star Journal called them "The Faithful") gathered to sing carols around the Perfection stove.  The decorations were simple and natural and didn't break our banks.  Christy dried orange and apple slices,  Anne donated a fragrant tree, Ronda went out pruning our cedars, Paige contributed candles, baskets and an eye for what was appropriate period wise.  Fresh fruit and gingham bows provided some color and old fashioned cookies beckoned on a stoneware plate.   Jennifer of Parkers Floral contributed a fresh garland and  some boughs and candles.  We had a lovely time festooning the building and it paid off for an accidental recreation of what it might have been like for the fledgling church families that formed within the same walls over 150 years ago.  Old time carols like O, Come O Come Emmanuel rang through the chamber in a haunting reliving of an ancient yule custom.  And in the daylight for the next day's holiday homes tour, it was just as lovely...

Thanks to all.  Especially Shannon who conceived of the Carols in the Courthouse event last year and prepared charming crafts for the children's hands on activities in the Schoolhouse.  Thanks to Betty for the Cookies!!!

Ferry Charges 1868

Ferry Rates

On the Georgetown-Lexington Road near Dunksburg, crossing Blackwater River. 
 In 1868, Noah Bides had a Ferry License.  The rates follow: 
                                                          Man and Horse                       25 cents
                                                          Two Horses and wagon        50 cents
                                                          Four Horses and wagon        75 cents
                                                          Horse and buggy                    35 cents
                                                          One Footman                         10 cents
                                                          Stock                                         5 cents per head

These  fares were found in the personal belongings of Dunksburg's Dr. Tyler and submitted to the Historical Society by Mary Van Bibber in 1972.

Found today while helping a reporter from The Concordian who was researching the Lowland School (#18).  It is in the Grover Township file.  

Carols in the Courthouse Dec. 11 & Homes Tour Dec. 12th

Join us Saturday, December 11th

 from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m.

for

Carols in the Courthouse

(& Crafts in the Schoolhouse)

Sweet treats for all.

302 N. Main Street

Warrensburg, MO  64093

Local Records Project

Today, the volunteers in our Local Records Project reminded me that they had just processed (for microfilming) a case concerning a double hanging.  The murderers called themselves the "Hamilton Brothers" but really they were not related.  They tricked a young man from Holden, Mo. into getting off the train between stops, promising him a lemonade.  Then they killed and robbed him.  A hand cut graphic in the newspaper depicted the gruesome event of their hanging, and MANY people attended!.

Today in Gossip--so you think you live in a small town now?

From the Warrensburg Standard Dec.3, 1885... 125 years ago...Headline "The Invisible Telephone"
"Hello, STANDARD office?"
"Hello Little Bird."
"I'm on the wing nowadays and having lots of fun.  Want a good item?"
"Yes."
"Well it's a good one, but if the parties find out I told you, they'll clip my wings, sure."
"Go ahead, we'll protect you"
"It's on a young music teacher here in town, and a young lady student.  The y.l.s. is a stranger in town and has never seen the inside of the opera house.  The y.m.t. agreed that he would take her to see the next show that came along, and let her see the hall at the same time."
"He took her to hear the Bridges twins, did he?"
"Well hardly.  The little darlings were here Friday night, and the music man arranged with another young lady to take her and the Normal girl to church.  The other lady, for fun, you know, persuaded the Normal lady to pretend to think they were going to the concert, and she arrayed herself in all the finery of opera toilet-- white kids, opera shoes, opera dress and all.  When the young man showed up she thanked him for his kindness, as she could thus see the opera house and hear the concert.  Killing, wasn't it?"
"Yes, what did he do?"
"Fell over dead.  He told the girl he hadn't a cent of money with him, and had come to take her to church only.  She retorted by saying she wouldn't go with him, even if salvation was free.  And then I left as they pulled down the curtain on the last act.  Good-bye."

Warrensburg, Johnson County, Missouri 1870s-- a description

Speaking of accidental, I remembered a book containing the following excerpt and yesterday (saving myself a trip downstairs) I pulled the "Burke Murry" collection off the shelf and found it had long ago been reprinted in a local paper.  A renowned ornithologist had been invited to Warrensburg to create a collection of local birds (taxidermy, of course... with multiple specimens to share with other scientists ).   In his "The Story of a Bird Lover" W.E.D. Scott writes of his first impressions... the year was 1874.  High praise, indeed.
        "There was little to attract an eastern visitor in the appearance of the place; all livestock ran at large; the pig, genuine razor-back variety, with its numerous progeny, possessed the land, the jimson weed ran riot.  The streets when wet were deep in mud, when dry deep in dust; the board above the roadway with projecting nails at frequent intervals, afforded a precarious footpath.  Half clad Negroes and poor whites lounged on the business corners, their only occupation chewing and spitting; the cuspidor adorned the houses of rich and poor alike. .. The Normal school was an oasis in this intellectual and material desert.  There was a great division of the small village caused by differences of religious beliefs.  There were at least twelve denominations, with splits in the church due to their southern or northern sympathies."

For Example:

Did you know that when Missouri first became a state the area now known as Johnson County, Missouri was contained in a large county named for state legislator James Lillard?  Lillard County reached from the Missouri River to the Osage River and Lexington was founded as the county seat in 1822.  The name of the large county was changed to Lafayette after the tour of the French general in 1825.  By 1834, the new county of Johnson was established with its original county seat in Columbus.

Welcome to Accidental History

This Johnson County (Missouri) Historical Society Blog is to share the interesting items that are uncovered daily in our archives and museum.  It's a way to publish the fascinating stories which we accidentally uncover on the way to the actual research being conducted.  Every now and then we run across stories that we share among ourselves at the Heritage Library, but we've wished for a platform to share on a regular basis with our members and interested friends.  Please bear with us as we discover blogging as a way to showcase our shared history with a larger audience.
The building illustrated here is our 1840s Old Courthouse, still maintained as a museum on the original town square.

                                           Lisa Irle

                                         JCHS  Curator

                                           Warrensburg, MO