Here’s an Interesting item hidden deep in the bowels of the Johnson County Historical Society Museum.  It’s a McIntosh Stereopticon projector used during initiation ceremonies at the local Odd Fellows lodge.  The projector and the slides that went with it were donated November 2009 by Leland Stewart.  

The slides were on glass and still retain their brilliant color.

Here's one of them:

David Before Saul

The Odd Fellows no longer meet in Warrensburg but at one time they were a major men’s club. Here’s part of an address of Hon. Edmond A Nickerson Delivered Before Eureka Lodge No. 88 Independent Order of Odd Fellows at the Dedication of Its Hall, November 12 1917

"The Eureka Lodge No. 88 Independent Order of Odd Fellows was duly instituted at Warrensburg on the 21st day of May, 1856.  It had for its charter members the best citizens of Warrensburg and of Johnson county: Josia Holden, Finis Hobson, William H. Colbern and other men of standing and influence [provided] a large and enthusiastic membership, until all of its proceeding were disrupted by the coming of the Civil War ...until… from the ruins of a Union of Sovereign Confederate States has arisen the mightiest form of National Government that ever existed since the days of the Roman Empire, and is destined in the future to be the most powerful, wealthy, and war-like nation on the face of the globe." (Yaay us!)

Lucille Gress

Lucille Deloras Gress was born on December 18, 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas to Willard P. and Fannie Hancock Gress. Her siblings were Bernadine Gress Coleman of Warrensburg, MO, Russell Gress of Sibley, MO and glenn Gress of Winfield, MO

In 1941, she started working as a Machine operator at the Hipsch Shirt Factory in Holden, MO.  By 1947 she worked as an operator for the United Telephone Company in Warrensburg, MO.

After getting her GED in 1951. She went on to earn a diploma from the Independence Sanitarium and Hospital school of Nursing in Independence, MO in 1954,and then stayed on as a member of the nursing staff until 1962.  By then, she had earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Missouri in Kansas City, and was promoted to the instructor staff at the Sanitarium.,  

In 1966, she earned a Master of Arts degree in education from the University of Missouri in Kansas City and joined the faculty at that institution. While there she was a member of the Torch and Scroll Society. She worked her way up to Associate Professor of Medical Surgical Nursing. By the time she left there in 1983.

A lifelong learner, she did postgraduate work in the University of Kansas where she was a member of the Sigma Theta Tau, Delta Chapter.  Finally she came to Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg in 1984 for additional course work.

She had many other interests and was a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and was a member of the RLDS Profgssional Nurses Associations.  She was a member of the Friends of the Library, and the Mid-Missouri Artists Association all in Warrensburg, MO.

She also joined the Warrensburg Writers Circle where she developed her interest in writing.  She was the author of the monograph, “An Informal History of Black People of the warrensburg Area in 1993 and “An Informal History of Black Families of the Warrensburg, Missouri Area in 1997.

She also published poetry in various anthologies, journals and chapbooks.  She also published haiku in the “New cicada,” a Japanese publication and in the Chapbook “Nature’s Quatrain, 1992.

Lucille was also an artist whose work includes water colors, pencil and pen and ink sketches which were exhibited at the annual Mid-Missouri Artists spring show, and at the Central Missouri State University Art Gallery.  

Her book is available at the Johnson County Historical Society Museum for $15.00.

ePictures of Lucille Gress suitable for printing as 5X7 photographs are available from the Johnson County Historical Society for $1.00