The Emporia Gazette

February 12, 2012

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A few columns ago, I wrote about farming and the fading out of family farming. Most of that column consisted of thoughts given to me by Joan Gatewood. The Gatewoods are now at the Presbyterian Manor, but they were on a farm just a bit south of Dunlap for over 50 years.

After that column appeared, Joan told me I should do a column on Dunlap. I told her that I had been long intrigued by Dunlap, but I did not know much about it. She said that she did and that she would write about it for me. She did. She gave me four handwritten pages and a full-typed page which she had written about six years ago. Therefore, the things I tell about Dunlap are essentially all things Joan told me. I would relate them correctly, if I had my way.

It is widely known, I think, that Dunlap had a big African-American population. It was a place where former slaves came to live after the Civil War. Joan tells me much about that aspect of Dunlap, but I do not think I can get it into this column. Perhaps in a future column. This one shall be about other aspects of Dunlap.

A man named Dunlap chose the town site because it was on a prairie near Rock Creek. The creek drained some thousands of acres of virgin prairie. by 1885, more cattle were shipped in and out of Dunlap on the Katy Railroad than on any other shipping point on the MKT railroad.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Dunlap was a thriving town. On Saturday night, Model Ts and other cars lined the streets, Joan says. Interestingly, she also blames Henry Ford and automobiles for causing such towns as Dunlap to die out. “If we were all driving a horse and buggy, Dunlap would still be thriving,” Joan says.

At one time, Dunlap had three grocery stores, two banks, two hardware stores (one of which advertised that it had the largest stock of hardware west of the Mississippi River). It also had two car dealerships (and) a movie place in the town hall. It had three doctors, one who wsa Joan’s uncle, Dr. John R. Woodmansee, because he was married to her Aunt Hazel Butler.

Joan remembers when the first east-west street in Dunlap was lined with elegant houses. Many had large front porches for sitting. The bankers, store owners and cattlemen lived there in splendor, she says.

Joan tells this story about the MK&T railroad which ran through Dunlap. I do not know whether it actually happened in Dunlap, but I thought it was an interesting story.

The MK&T railroad was built from Texas and through Kansas on the most level land. After it was built and in operation, Morris County discovered that it owed $8,000 in taxes. The county commissioners ordered that the next time a train pulled into the station a log chain should be tied around the engine wheels and the rails. The train was not to move until the taxes had been paid. This was done and the railroad paid right away. Joan says that, “Maybe the old ways are best.”

Mr. Dunlap had selected the location for the town because of the fertile, black soil there. It seemed an excellent choice. It was, however, in the Neosho River flood plain area.

The first recorded flood was in 1893 after a spring with heavy rains. There had been an excellent wheat crop. It had been cut with a binder and was ready for the threshing machine. The rains poured down, the rivers and creeks all rose and a major flood swept through Dunlap. The wheat shocks were pushed around and piled up wherever there was anything to hold them.

The flood swept through Dunlap and filled houses with water and mud. The stock yards were all washed out and had to be rebuilt. Many farmers lost all of their crops and had to be helped to sustain their operations. Joan does not say anything about other floods, but there must have been many of them over the years.

I have room for a bit of what Joan told me about the Negro population. She says that from the 1880s to the 1930s about half the Dunlap population were Negro residents. They had two churches, a Methodist and a Baptist. The Methodist church is still standing, on a hill on the side of Dunlap, high above the high water level. It is lonely, forsaken and abandoned, she says.

One of the early preachers and his wife are buried there on the church grounds. She says that there must be many people who can trace their family events back to that church.

There, then, I have given you a good bit of Joan Gatewood’s story about Dunlap. I find it very interesting. There is more of her story, which she sent to me. I hope to share it with you all someday. I will do that, if I have my way.