Fred

From the Johnson County Cemetery Index, published by the Johnson County Genealogical Society in 1983

Page 737

McKenzie Howard N. b.---1897 d.---1948
Willima E. b.---1890 d.---1972

Page 738
McKenzie Howard N. b. Feb 18 1897 d. Sept 30 1948
KS MUS USNR F WWI
Eccles Blanche K. Mother b. Oct 8 1887 d. March 21, 1961
Monte H. Father b. Nov 1 1884 d. Sept 26 1964
Sarah C. Mother b. 1864 d. 1953
George Father b. 1857 d. 1941

From “The Spring Hill New Era”, Thursday, October 7, 1948, Vol. LXVI. No., page 1, column 2

Howard McKenzie, of Leavenworth, who was killed by an automobile last week, was brought to Spring Hill cemetery for burial, Saturday afternoon. Mr. McKenzie was a nephew of Mrs. Kate Eccles.

First, there is only one other McKenzie listing in the cemetery index. That is for a child that lived for about two years in the 1970s or 1980s. So Howard’s parents and any other male siblings are not listed as being buried in Johnson County. It is unclear why there are two listing for Howard. My assumption is that the listing on page 737 is a headstone and the listing on page 738 is a foot stone, with the military information included. I think both listings are the same individual. I am also assuming that Blanche K Eccles is Howard’s aunt Kate, referred to in the death notice. The only Eccles listing in the county cemetery index are the four above, all in the Spring Hill Cemetery.

Obituaries: There was no obituary for Howard published in the Spring Hill newspaper. I think you will find one in the Leavenworth Times newspaper. I also did not find an obituary for Blanche K Eccles in the Spring Hill newspaper. It may have been delayed a couple of weeks, but it was not in the paper for March 23, 1961 or the next week. The Spring Hill paper is a weekly, 6 to 8 pages in length.

In general, all newspapers published in Kansas have been microfilmed by the Kansas State Historical Society. The microfilms are available for interlibrary loan to your local library or Family History Center.

For Howard’s obituary, and possibly his wife Willima(?), you can get the newspaper microfilms yourself, visit the links to the Leavenworth Library and have them do a search or I think if you visit the RootsWeb Leavenworth County Kansas message board and look through the messages for the last two or three moths you will find a volunteer who has posted to do lookups. The Leavenworth library will charge a $15.00 fee, but they do have the microfilms of the Leavenworth newspaper and quite a few obituary scrapbooks.

Home page for the Leavenworth Library:

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/library/leavenworth

Leavenworth Library Research Policy page:

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/library/leavenworth/KSR/KSresearch.html

Home page for the Kansas State Historical Society:

http://www.kshs.org

Search page at KSHS for newspaper microfilms. Best bet is to just enter the county name and the time frame for the search. The you get all the papers published in the county for the search period.

http://www.kshs.org/library/news.htm

OK, I just spent some time looking at the census records on Heritage Quest with the following results

1900 Could not find Samuel or his family
1910 found S L McKenzie (50), wife Ada (49), and four of five children including Howard in Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas T662, Roll 438, Page 78. It appears that Samuel was born in Illinois, Ada was born in Ohio and all the children were born in Nebraska, with the oldest being 25 and Howard being the youngest at 13. The other three children listed are girls.
1920 Ada (59) is living by herself on T625, Roll 531, page 50, line 67; Howard (23) is living with his wife Wilima (28), and daughter Vivian (1/12)on T625, Roll 531, page 77, lines 77-79. This census lists Howard as being born in Kansas and his parents as being born in Nebraska. Guess Howard’s wife may have given the information and not really known who was born where.


I will take a look in the Douglas County Cemetery books to see if I can find Samuel and Ada.

I hope his helps

Dave Goldy
Overland Park, KS