Homestead
Don Coldsmith
Monday, June 18, 2007
RECENTLY, a friend sent to us a photocopy of a clipping from the Emporia Gazette dated Nov. 27, 1939, compliments of the Lyon County Historical Society. It was simply an account of the death of an early homesteader in our area, C.P. Putnam.
Mr. Putnam was a very active and influential citizen, involved in local, regional and even some state politics. A strong personality. At the time Mr. Putnam arrived, our area had a tendency to be active in several different efforts, such as business, agriculture, politics and about any other direction needed on a growing frontier.
Curt Putnam qualified. He was born in Ohio in 1862 and moved to this area with his parents at the age of 15.
Seven years later, he married an Emporia girl, Anna Walkup. They raised two daughters and at the time of his death, he and Anna had two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
He was active in politics and was one of the 10 Kansas electors who cast votes for Herbert Hoover in 1928. Curtis Putnam was a direct descendant of General Israel Putnam, a Revolutionary War hero.
Active also at a local level, he was a precinct committeeman on the “West Side” for 20 years and was a director of the Lyndon Valley school district for 30 years. He was active in the First Christian Church and a member of the Masonic lodge.
In his eulogy in 1939, there are significant expressions which indicate the respect which this man carried, personally and politically. I quote:
“He knew his way around the Convention. He was consulted on the various horse trades which were necessary to nominate a Republican county ticket. A man who survives in the political atmosphere of the old convention has one sterling quality that is proclaimed by his survival: His word is good — Curt Putnam was real. He had other virtues besides honesty. He was loyal to his friends. He was brave when courage was needed, was wise as necessary and his heart was always kind ....”
So, how do I happen to be writing about this remarkable man? We don’t see his name in the history books and he apparently never sought notoriety. He must have been one of the quiet, yet influential politicians behind the lines, carefully nurturing a delicate situation to produce the desired result from which everyone results.
Simply stated, we now live on the site of of Putnam’s home, built here about 1900, with the latest of engineering at the barn; lifts and cables and a “fork” to harvest, stack and store a winter’s supply of hay for the several teams of draft horses — (At that time, this was the “horse power” of any effort of production). There was even a small coal mine a few hundred yards north of the house, no longer used.
When we bought this place, we couldn’t see another house or any other building of any sort, in any direction. There were 25 acres of hay and/or pasture in the portion we bought, as well as the buildings and the old house. We were raising and showing horses and utilized it well. One year we “wintered” 20 horses or more, including newborn foals. It is important to have show animals born early in the season, since they compete against others born in the same calendar year.
See you down the road.
(Continued next week.)
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia.