Something for everyone at Americus Days
Festival-goers and vendors overflow park
By Bobbi Mlynar
Saturday, October 6, 2007
By Bobbi Mlynar
mlynar@emporiagazette.com
Old animosities apparently were forgotten Saturday afternoon when the Community Theatre of Emporia – with substantial help from Americus residents – presented a spoof of the legendary theft of the Lyon County seat. Performances came during day-long Americus Days activities, which also celebrated the town’s sesquicentennial.
Depending upon who’s telling the story, a small gang of Emporians either slipped into the Americus courthouse and stole the county records, or took what was rightfully theirs.
The enhanced CTE version of the tale, “The Great Seat Robbery,” acknowledged that the play was “a dramatic and sort of historically accurate re-creation of the events surrounding the relocation of the Lyon County Kansas seat from its original (and somewhat nicer) location in Americus to its current location in Emporia.” Whew.
Former Emporian R. Scott Rochat adapted the historical events into a script that both sides could warm to. The performance centered around the county seat – a toilet decorated in gold – and the premise that the play would provide “pathos, drama, skullduggery and a couple of laughs to take the hurt away.”
The cast brought an eclectic and enthusiastic mix of players who, 150 years ago, likely would have been enemies.
Ron Redelfs and Mark Sherman were cast as snake-oil salesmen; members of the Americus Day Committee – Belle Grimsley, Nathan C. Anstey, Hailey M. Anstey, and Jan Huston – held signs encouraging members of the audience to cheer, boo, sign, and whistle on cue.
Ron Slaymaker played William T Soden, an entrepreneur and member of one of Emporia’s founding families. Soden was one of several men who make the trek to Americus to get the records.
Cast members held quilt corners and waved it out-of-sync to symbolize the creek Soden fell into as he attempted to walk across a log on his way home.
Wanda and Lowell Chambers of Emporia laughed as they said they especially enjoyed Slaymaker’s farmer costume and his “realistic” portrayal of Soden and the underhanded maneuvering that marked the elections and the theft of the seat.
“I thought it was very entertaining and delightful, and I enjoyed every word of it,” Wanda Chambers said. “… And then there was Miss Ellen. She was dressed like a lady of the night … and handing out money to pay them off.”
The audience on the tennis court where the play was staged added good humor to the production.
Brian Anstey of Americus agreed.
“There was a lot of crowd participation,” he said, “cheering and booing and sighing.”
After the play, part of the crowd drifted over to the North Lyon County Board of Education building to hear a serious presentation by Michael Shimeall, Ph.D., who based his doctoral thesis in large part on the murder of Judge A.I. Baker by “Bloody Bill” Anderson. Anderson, who rode with Quantrill’s Raiders for a time, allegedly trapped Baker in a basement below the judge’s store and burned the building on July 3, 1862.
Shimeall took part in an archaeological dig at Agnes City in 1972, on the west boundary of Lyon County, and has written a book about the incident.
The board office filled quickly with an audience intent on learning more about the history of the area.
The Americus Days Committee brought in an assortment of other activities, booths and exhibits to satisfy the diverse interests of the crowd.
The city-square park held a multitude of booths and food vendors.
Gary Anstey, well known for his pencil drawings of horses and wildlife, has returned to his art after a 10-year absence and had set up a booth with matted and framed drawings, and greeting cards as well. One of his newest works features a baby mountain lion that he met on a visit to Peabody.
Anstey’s booth sat next to one operated by granddaughters Megan, 12, and Hailey, 13, who were selling their homemade cookie and cereal mixes; glass jars of moist and flavorful banana nut, carrot, and cranberry bread that had been “canned” for long-term storage, and biscuits for puppies and kittens. The biscuits are made with whole wheat, flax oil and sometimes catnip.
In fact, we were making up the puppy ones and we were all eating them because they taste like crackers,” the girls’ grandmother, Thea, said.
Not too far away, people were signing up for ongoing massages being given at a massage and yoga booth.
Photography exhibits, children’s books, glass etchings, shirts and Americus sesquicentennial books were among the many items being sold.
Arts and crafts and games entertained children, who occasionally joined adults on the tennis court for contra dancing lessons. East of the courts, gunsmiths in period costumes worked metal after heating it over a fire as they illustrated gunmaking. On the far side of the park, the Hunt for Hunger group handed out information and entry blanks for a two-day hunt that will benefit the Salvation Army.
Members of St. James Missionary Baptist Church and St. Catherine’s Catholic Church, both of Emporia, joined other local churches and organizations to sell hamburgers, hot dogs, pin tacos, and barbecued meats to the afternoon crowd.
At about 3 p.m., festival-goers flocked to a vacant lot across from the park to have a look at the MidWest Life Team helicopter that circled the town before landing between antique tractors and the Lyon County Emergency Response Unit exhibits.
The Old Skool band was scheduled to play for a dance later in the evening to end the day’s celebration.