About communities again
John E. Peterson
Thursday, March 8, 2007
IT HAS BEEN a long time since I have written about communities. I used to do that often and I really enjoyed the topic, but I ran out of material. Over time, however, an item has arrived from you lovely people every once in a while. I think I may have a few interesting things to say about communities — and about you marvelous people who tell me about them. I think I would do that, if I had my way.
I read in an obituary that the gentleman had graduated from Toledo High School in 1951. That was only the second time I had even heard of Toledo. And I had no idea that there had been a high school there. Was there one? Some of you must know whether there was.
Toledo, as I understand it, is the community on the Lake Kahola road about a mile or so north of US 50. At least, that is where I think it is. Am I correct? It is interesting that Plymouth and Saffordville are still on the map and have signs pointing to them. Toledo does not, but it seems to be more of a community than either of those two. Why is that, I wonder?
Lawrence Vohs has been interested in these community stories for a long time. That is because he grew up in Maydale. He told me about it and I told you readers about it in a column sometime ago. Maydale was just a bit southeast of Olpe, but is now long gone. Only the cemetery remains. It is understandable, then, that when Lawrence discovered a locally-written history about another community, when he was cleaning up old things in his house, that he wanted me to read it.
The story Lawrence gave me was eight typewritten pages. It was written by two women in 1956. It was very interesting reading about the history of the Madison community. Too bad that I cannot go into much detail. I can tell you that it was divided into sections and gave the history of each.
The sections were about the old, original town: the churches, the schools, the first hotel. Then, on to railroads, newspapers, the brickyard and mill, the first bank, public utilities and the opera house. It closed with discussions of civic improvements, veterans organizations, the Sauder Tank Company and the library, city park and city officials. And it even told about the loss of a doctor who had been there for 50 years.
I think I mentioned all those sections of the story about Madison for a couple of reasons. First, the descriptions made interesting reading. More important, however, it seems to me that it was a fine way to look at a community. Perhaps it will help some of you examine and think about a community in which you are interested. It would, if I had my way.
Mr. Duane Fitch of Burlington has long been involved in these community columns of mine. He regularly reads The Gazette in the Burlington library and then has often sent me some of his comments. I have two long letters from him before me now.
Duane’s letters to me are about a variety of things. Always interesting, but much too long to share. He does tell me much about his travels and the towns and communities he visits. There are a couple of community-related things in these two letters, however, which I find of special interest.
He tells me that he sees the Rev. Winter and his wife frequently. They live in Ottumwa and, as Duane says, are interested in keeping that community alive. I wrote about Ottumwa as a community many columns ago. Most of what I told about it was information I got from Mrs. Winter. It is marvelous that they want to keep the Ottumwa name alive.
The other community-related thing Duane told me about has to do with community post offices. For years, he has “filled in when needed at the little contract post office at New Strawn.” Duane has much to say about small communities losing their post offices and becoming “rural branches” of that in a bigger town. In the case of New Strawn, that, of course, is Burlington. I know this will continue to happen. Small communities will lost their post offices. They would not, however, if I had my way.
Mr. Loren Johnson lives in Long Beach, Calif. Even so, he gets The Gazette regularly. He has sent me two letters about my columns and a third letter to The Gazette, a copy of which was sent on to me. It was sent to me because in it he suggested I do a column on Aliceville. Aliceville is on the southeastern edge of Coffey County. It is still on the map and there is a sign on K-57 pointing to it, though it is not in the town list on the map.
Loren Johnson was born just west of Burlington, but his family had much to do with Aliceville. Perhaps he will tell me about Aliceville. So far, he has told me about his area of California in several pages. For example, he purchased his Long Beach property in 1963 for $23,750. Today, it is worth half-a-million. Wow!
There, then, you have some of the community information which has come to me recently. I like the subject and you would send me more about our local communities, if I had my way.