GREELEY, KANSAS 1908 by MARIE BOLING CORNELIUS Submitted by Bus Cornelius , copyright May 2001; transcribed by Teresa Lindquist ----------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Transcriber's Note: All material, including spellling and punctuation, was typed as it appears in Marie's original document. Brackets [ ] indicate places where material was missing or illegible. GREELEY KANSAS 1908 At the turn of the Century Greeley Kansas was a small town in eastern Kansas, it was, as most little hamlets, complete unto itself, it was your own small safe world where you could roam the countryside ba[ ]-footed in summer, wading the tiny streams looking for craw-dads the warm sun on your back. you didnt have to worry if there was a rapist hiding behind the bushes, the worst that could happen was, someone wondering you were going to take your clothes off and go skinny-dipping" so they could tell the town gossips. As I said before, the town was complete unto itsself, there was 2 if not three grocery stores, at Henry Gerholds place of buisness Which was a 2 story building you could buy everything from a pound of homemade butter to fine furniture, I can see that butter yet, all dumped together in wooden barrels, it was oil in the hot summer time and you didn't know who butter you were buying, sometimes it was good but more often rancid, we were always pleased that our mather made her own. Also in Greeley was 2 livery stables that rented horses, buggys + carriages to the people that had money for such things, lucky was the girl that had a "beau" who on fine Sunday afternoons could rent a rig for a drive around town and out in the countryside. Our one drugstore had everything that you could buy in Kansas City plus a soda fountain, I never had a soda there as that also was for the rich. We had "Champs" bakery + ice cream parlor my mother baked all our bread rolls and pastries so we never bought anything there as those luxuries were also for the wealthy. I think I did have a dish of icecream one time in the parlor but most of the time we had to be contented "just gazing in. This "Mr. Champs" 2 or 3 times in the summer would make icecream, put it on a 2 wheeled cart and peddle it around town, my mother would take a huge vegetable dish out to the cart and Mr Champs would pile it high for 20c, how we looked forward to that. Mr. Champs had a large ice house and in the winter when the river froze 6 to 8 inches deep he would cut blocks of ice and place it in the icehouse between thick layers of saw dust, he sold this ice in the summer and we used it in our tea + lemonade, it might have a few sticks + leaves in it but no one seemed to mind. Daisy lived across the street from this ice house so when Champ came for a load of ice Clinton Harry Bump and myself would go over there and he would give us a sliver of ice to suck on, that was about as near to heaven you could get on a hot summer day. We had a fine hardware store, it was huge as they had to keep a little of everything a "Mr. Timothy Johnes" had a lumber yard, sand plaster lime + coal yard that would do justice to a large city today. There were 2 creamery + poultry places, a bank 2 clothing stores, 2 millenery shops where they made your hats as you wanted them, you picked out the straw, the flowers + ribbons and they put it together and we might not have many clothes but our mother always saw to it we had "hats" for Sunday school We had a telephone office and the Boling family were the first people in Greeley to hav a phone installed, we had no one to call, so a friend of Mother "Nina Tanner" ordered one so she and Mother could talk across town. There were 2 blacksmiths shops, one just across the street froom our house and we kids used to stand in the shop door to watch the sparks fly from the forge and see the smithy pound the horseshoes into the right shape, we also got a kick out of the fracticious horses, sometimes they would kick and squeal and finally throw themselves. We had a photography shop and that man Mr Newman made beautiful photographs of the town people, the pictures are good to this day There was a saddle + harness establishment that shipped their wares all over the country. I used to visit that place real often. There were 2 hotels, 3 Churches, Brethern, Catholic + Methodist, 2 schools protestant + Catholic, a sawmill, jail, bandstand + park and one resturant, I don't think anyone ever ate there but traveling men. Dan Pease was the post Master for many years in Greeley, dealing out kindly advi[ ] and law to anyone who needed it and without pay. Lena and Harry were married at the Pease home as Mrs Pease had died, my mother helped with the wedding as she was pleased with this one, I also remember this ceremony, Lena was a primary teache[ ] and as she was sweet on my brother she let me star[ ] to school when I was 4 years old, I said "start"? I was always there so she let me stay, Harry and Lena had a happy life together and loved each other as much at the end as at the beginning. Jot Baker--Bulas first father-in-law Eileens grandfather I never knew Mrs Baker as she died when I was a very small child, I never knew what "Jots rean na[ ] was but I can see him yet, he was a tall very goo[] looking man, never did anyone a bit of harm but never did much good either, he was a gambler, always dressed well and acted like a millionaire without a nicle in his pocket, he finally broke old uncle Joe Baker, fat[ ] who was quite wealthy at one time, Jot had 2 sons Harry + Joe, they were both like their father, could charm the pants off you (and usually did) the Bakers were a fine family, these three, father + 2 sons just happened to love "Wine women + song, Bula married Greeley + Lane Tolliver Bump--Daisys in-laws The family - May - Clara - Roy - Charlie - Florrie - John - Henry - Jessie + Pearl The Bump family as I knew them were respectable but always very very poor, Roy married Daisy and took her to a good home as he had been working at the pumping station in Greeley and had saved his money, he was a good provider, he had the second car in Greeley a "Brush" with a tiny rumble sea[ ] he and Daisy used to haul traveling to the other small towns, I used to go with Daisy for company as the car had no top we would either freeze o[ ] roast, Roy + family moved to Lane about 1915 and bought t[ ] livery stable also fixed what few cars there were a[ ] that time, moved to Calif about 1923, moved back to Lane about 1930, 2 years later back to Calif where he died in 63. Greeley John Sutton Lees in laws The Sutton family was pretty low on the social ladder, Mrs Sutton herself was a sweet pleasant woman but "Jack Sutton" who ran one of the liver[ ] stables in Greeley was an old devil, he undressed each woman as she came by and if girls wen[ ] to visit Ella (Lees wife) he would pinch and feel until [ ] drove them out, it broke my mothers heart when Lee married Ella, but being a dressmaker she made Ellas wedding dress, Lee confessed in later years that he married her out of pity to get her out of that fam[ ] but she never appreciated it, she was too much like old Jack, her dad, I was only five but I remember that wedding, the service was performed in Suttons front yard, at night, with coal oil lights hanging from the trees, when Clyde, Lee little son died from dysentry Ella said "I am glad he died" Lee never forgave her for that, if it hadent of been for Esther his daughter he would have left Ella then + there, why he didn't in later years I will never understand, Lee had an affair with a schoolteacher in Kansas City after Esther married + left home, a wonderful woman who wan[ ] him to get a divorce and marry her, but there again why didn't he leave, we cant prove it but we know Ella murdered Lee after they moved to Santa Ana Calif, she hit him three times in the back of the head with a hand axe she was a mean lying bitch of a woman and [ ] hope she is burning somewhere. Greeley Daniel Pease (Harrys in laws Dan Pease was a timid milky toast sort o[ ] man but smart, his wife whom I never knew was a gentle sickly woman for most of her life, they had three girls, Cecil, Lena + May We had a tin shop in that small town that turned out gutters, crimped tin for barns roofs and almost anything you could wish for in those days, thats another place I used to visit real often, they would give me the scraps and I would haul them home to sell to the junk man Lena Boling, Harrys wifes father ran our postoffice, Dan Pease, a fine old man whom everyone loved and respected, he had studied som[ ] law so people would go to him for help, we [ ]o had a small realestate office, I used to visit that place too, the old man that ran it would lift me up on the desk and tell m[ ] stories, today they probably call him "a dirty old man" but he was kind and dear to little 5 year old girl. Oh the memories that come flooding back, I can just touch the highlights, I remember in, I guess 1909, one of the Gerholds boys built that huge [ ]use for his bride and to me it was what I always imagine a palace looked like, and it is still there, and it is _big_, carefully maintained the last time I saw it. Sarah + Otis had the first talking machine in Greeley, an Edison with the little Cylinder reco[ ] and a big horn, people gathered at our house from all over town to hear the "Uncle Jock" records and such laughing you never heard. My parents always kept a cow or two and I used to deliver milk to the neighbors in little tin buckets, very often they would give me a penny to smile and show my deep dimples, I spoke of visiting all these places of business I was a veritable tramp" as I was the last 9 children my mother was worn out with kids so she didn't pay much attention to me, I was everywhere, in everybodys house, rich + poor n[ ] one escaped me, I knew every nook + cranny of Greeley and got into scrapes with Otis + Sarah once in a while by repeating things I shoulden[ ] I was just a curious 5 year old unsupervised. I remember the first motor car to come through Greeley, 7 « hours from Lane over muddy roads they wore out yards of rope with which they wrapped the tires, This was Greeley in 1908. ---Marie Cornelius Boling