The Jaci(Son County Historical Society
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THE JACI(SON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY - -1-\- r J VOLUME 4 3 NUMBER S l' R N G 200 2 FEATURES @ From the Directors Chair ...... .3 Jackson County, lVlissollri's 17S-Year History @ in a Nutshell ...... .. .... .4 175th Anniversary ~ Legacy Li st ....... .......8 Winding the Clock: Time Keeps Ticking for Jackson County's Two 19,h @ Century Courthouses .. ' .... .9 Field to Fac,ory: The Great IVJigralion afPost-Civi l ~ War American Blacks ...... .1 2 The "American R.E.s": ~ Kansas City's Railway Engineers in the Great War ..... 14 Gone But Not Forgotten: A History of ,he Burials in the Jewish @ Cemeteries in Kansas Cit)' .. .19 DEPARTMENTS An Editor's Episcle .... .. .. ... 2 Mystery Photo Contest . ..... 21 Book Notes ........... .22 This mllml of Jackson County, Missouri, (actual size 6 112 [t. by 10 ft.) was sponsored by Judge Henry A. Bundschu and painted by Mrs. Aileen Franklin some years ago. Another of lvl s. Franklin's mumls, "Ka nsas City's Heritage," is mounted in the auditorium of the National Frontier Trails Center in Independence. Do YOli know the names and locations oLMs. Franklin's other murals? If you'd like to help con tribute information for an article about this topic in the Autumn 2002 JOURNAL, call the editor ,oday at 816.252.7454. 2 J C H S OURNAL S P R N G 2 0 0 2 An Editor's Epistle By David W. Jackson Greetings! Here in IvIissouri wc\e brcczing through Spring and are heating up for Summer. 'Time seems to be fleeting so quickly these days, so we invite you to sit back and res t a whilc. Grab somcthing to quench your thirst and takc in some interesting reading. \l\1e've becn busy assembling <l collection of historica l articles that will entertain and educate you and ),our [,mily. As we embark on our armchair time travel, we are going back to an cra commonl), called "pre-history." From those origins we will review 1 75 Years qjjncksoll County [Iisto}), in a Nutshell JACKSON COUNTY to discover how ri ch, varied and unique our County's heritage is to our nation's history. The HISTORICAL SOCIETY people, places and events mentioned in this concise overview are merely representative of a OFFICERS deeper, more reflective history. Representative, too, are the names of 175 individuals who have J. Bradley Pact", President contributed to our County's evolution and have been chose n for inclusion in jackson Coullty's Dan Hr.I Ubuf)" Pre si dent-Ere..: ! 175thAnniversnlY L egacy List. This is the second part of the list that debuted in the Autumn Justin I~ Orr, v.P. Sife Den:lopment Kathryn i'd . Harn'l, V. I'. Fund DC\'c!opmcm 2001 JOURNAL. Colleen foudrec. V.P. EdU(';.UiOl1Ji Dcwlormcnt Brad Pace, Jackson County Historical Society's President, has been kind enough to expound Bryan Snyder, V.I'. A rchil'e5 B e l1j~mill F. Nlallll, Secr.:!ar), on a section from hi s published book, Survivors:A CatalogofNlissollri's R emaining 19th Celltlll)' Tr:lc), i\·!an·e1. Trt':lSllfa COllfthollSes. Pace's article, "flinding the Cloek:jtukson COllllty's Enduring 19th Cel/tllry Courthouses, KatherYIl Hunt Gerstner, A~ ;;is t. Trel$Urer re-counts the two courthouses that have withstood the ravages and renovations of timc. This DIRECTORS timely article strikes at a moment when the Independence Square Courthousc faces the latest ReginJld L. Bm3 Anita L(It'b l\lalthew). lkem, CFRE EdW;lrd T. M;t tht ll), Jr. pcndulum swing from outdated use into a modern voe (read the article to find Ollt what that Charles C. Bi ~ hop Hon. Ralph A.l\loJllCO means). \,in((111 P. Gl ulhier,A1CP Jim Nutter]r. illyl!ili. Gentry Patrick O'Neill There arc other sacred spaces being saved that you should know about. Anita Loeb has Ger.tld W. GOrTnJn Chults Rtnntr been working for eleven years to document a HistOlJ oftbe Burials ill tbejcwisb Cemeteries if Shi,IK ~pt'r N~n(r Beer Tobin Kal1Sas City, 111i550Ilr;, recently published in her new 934-page book titled COliC Bllt Not RiChllJ,\, King FOIgottell. Loeb's compendium not only explores the development of the synagogues and Jewish ADMINISTRATION Jim Giles, Exc,ucil'i.' lJirC'(lor cemeteries in Kansas City, but lists more than 15,000 burials with biographical data on many Bcrefl,. Dobson, Admin. As~is t. persons. You might say she's won a battle in a great war against time. ARCHIVES, RESEARCH Another Great ,I\'ar is part of our area's cultural history. Coinciding with the rededication of LIBRARY & BOOKSHOP Kansas City's Liberty IVIemorial this lVlay, Roger Cunningham reviews one ''''arid Vhr I unit's Dal·id \V.Jackson, Director of Archi\"es overseas campaign in Kal1Sas City's Amcrican Royal Enginecn the Great War. and Educ3tion;jOURNAL Editor ;11 Cunningham's unit history takes you on a fortunate 1859 JAIL MUSEUM Sman Church, 1\!uscum lJifl:'ctor return trip between Kansas City's Union Station to far away trenches and French battle fields. Those inter,'sted in United SWC".s, jI,·li s>ouri state and local hi.fOfY are im;ted to subscribe Abandoning fields was an experience :lI1d contribute to the JOURNAL. The shared by another part of our community who JOURNAL is published ~m i-annually (Spring and Autumn) by theJack50n Count)' Historical came to our area from the deep south. Society - a nonprolit org'lIIiz:ltion committ ed Dan Dillon's Field to FaetOlY: Tbe Great to preserving and promoting the county's rifh lvligmtioll Post-Civil Hlar America}} history -:lS a ben!.'fit of membership. Individual of copies, when :l\'dilabJ!.', are $5 .00 el.(h. Blacks illustrates the emigration and Members :md friends of the Jackron County settling of African-American populations H istorical Socie ty ma), also rt."ce il·c S'X;")' Ni'WJ, printed quarterly, and Ill:l)' subscribe to in northern cities like Kansas Cit}', which an e-mail newsletter forom. literally changed the fa ce of a burgeoning All photographs;lIe from the (01 1('(tion5 of the metropolis. Jackson County H is toric.ll Soci!.'t)', unless otherwise noted. The Jackson Count}' HistoriC'.l1 Societ), aS5Um('s no responsibility for st.lIements m:lde by contributors. Historical Socicty Archi\·cs stafr and volunteers recently completed the project of prese rving For morc information cont,lct: Jackson County Historical Society back issues of thc JOURNAL. The JOURNAL has been published continuously since 1958, with 129 'Vcst I.exington Al'enue the exception of a two-year gap in 1988 and 1989 when The Courier (a newsletter that was published Independence, MO u.t050 (SI6) 461-1897 between 1985 and 1989) was used. Through this process it was also di scovered that the volume [email protected] number of the JOURNAL has been ICon-" for quite a number of yearsj beginning with this issue the www.jchs.org count has been reset to reflect the actual volume number. Luckily, with 43 years of publications only © Copyright 2002 a couple of issues arc miss ing from the collection. CaU the Society's Archives if you'd like to help fill Jackson Coullty Historical Soci('ty in the mi ssing gaps. S p It N G 2 o o 2 • JCHS JOU It N A L • 3 From the Director's Chair By Jim Giles In November my grandfather died ships in all, we embarked 0 11 0/11' way 10 community and was a friend to many. peacefully in a Veteran's Administration invade NorlbAJrim all O(lober 24,1942. And yet what remains for me to touch is hospital room in Indianapolis. It was not 11 look 26 days 011 Ihe 7.uale/: Dill' the Kinko's produced copy of his funeral sudden, but rather the result of a small ampbibiollS tmining was lested bere, as a homily and the excerpt from the veteran's stroke that capped off a difficult several very rougb landiug 'Was en(o unlered. Ro(ky magazine. months for a man that had lived a full 89 diJJs flnt! rougb 'lUflVeS were fl rcal (ballellge IvIy ignorance is interesting. On one years. and nji!7.u men dro7.ullcd. Enemy macbillc hand] never asked Illy grandfather to tell During the 34 years that I knew gllm 7./Jere ell(OIlIlft:rcd. 0111' (ompallY me abollt his past. But, on the other we him, this man had always seemed old. Commander 7.uas killedibe/irsl day, were told not to. Therein lies a struggle From Illy earliest memories, Grandpa, November 8,1942. 1 7./Jill always remember that while not as epic as the chi cken and whose reainame was Ernest Gordon Ibis day, as myjirsl SOli was born all tbal date. " the egg, begs the qucs tion - how then do Giles, or otherwise known as "pop" to we know history-if we do Il ot ask - fOllr sons, or to most, simply, Bud, he and if we do not tell. was old . He walked with a limp fi'om The responsibility of preserving arthritis and hvo hip replacements, had history lies with each of \I S. In a bald head, and somehow remembered talking with our f:1I1lily, Ollr neighbors, the owners and residents of every and our teachers, doors can be parcel of land in Boone County for opened and we call be regaled with the last 50 ycars- a feat I always the stories of the distant and not so thought to be am;lzing. These few distant past that may fascinate us - details I g leaned from Illy parents or challenge li S - and inspire us.