Mr. Beemon's grandfather, William Henry Harrison Tanner, married Alice Jane Cummings and moved to Argentine around 1892. They built the home still standing at 3818 Ruby Aveneu and this is where Jack Beemont lives today. [1980] The house is approximately 170-190 feet east, southeast of the grave site. Mrs. Alice Cummings Tanner was present in 1897 when Charles Bluejacket returned and located the grave. She was also present in 1921 when E. F. Heisler of the Kansas City Sun newspaper and the Wyandotte County Historical Society erected an approximate temporary marker in 1921.

The Whitefeather Spring was long a favorite swimming and watering hole of the Argentine community. It surfaces on the Beemont property and flows above ground for three blocks before entering a storm sewer at 39th and Strong Avenue. Mistakenly referred to sometimes as the Prophet, Chief Whitefeather or Jack Whitefeather Spring, it was actually named after the Shawnee Indian Susan Whitefeather. The government granted her the land upon which the spring has its origins.

Local lore has it that a certain Mr. Tucker became ill while traveling through the area. He drank the mineral water from the spring and shortly thereafter, became well. Tucker began selling and hauling the water by horse and buggy. At one time, this area was known as Tucker Town, and the spring was called Tucker Mineral Springs.

The property changed hands several times and eventually became the property of T.P. Knippenberg in 1916. He developed it, starting with 12 customers and 150 business establishments. In 1922, he gave the water the name Min-Rock and the spring the name East End Mineral Spring. Mr. Knippenberg died and the spring water went off the market. In 1946, the spring became the property of Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Hughes, who put the water back on the market in May of 1959. Mr. Hughes was an engineer for the Santa Fe. The Hughes' home is at 1015 Metropolitan Ave.

The name Min Rock is copyrighted with the state of Kansas. The water contains about 10 different minerals. It comes through the rocks from the hills to the south and from a radius of about 10 miles. It is estimated that the spring will run 75,000 gallons of water in a 24 hour period. It maintains a temperature of 53 degrees.

On 128 acres of ground, they established terminal facilities, transfer sheds, round houses, machine shops, repair shops and a coaling depot.

The Santa Fe Railroad also completed an enormous ice house in the early days. This ice house, one of the largest and the most modern in the entire Santa Fe system, was filled with ice from lakes in the northern part of thee country. It was 36 feet by 208 feet and had a capacity of 3,000 tons.

By 1890, the Santa Fe had 27.46 miles of tracks in the Argentine yards. The value of its property was approximately $9,000,000 and it had a payroll of nearly 500 workers. A small village quickly grew up by the railroad yards. It was this location that W. N. Ewing came upon in his search for a smelter site. The immense transfer yards of the railroad convinced him that this was the proper location. The smelter was thus built near the railroad tracks. The establishment of a smelter colony led to the need for the plotting of a town and in 1881 the town of Argentine was founded.

Today the Santa Fe Railroad's giant freight handling facility at Argentine is the hub of the 13,000 mile transcontinental freight service. As early as 1920, at least 6,000 freight cars and more than 500 passenger cars pm 144 trains passed through Argentine daily. Approximately 3,100 employees received an average monthly payroll of $240,000. The 6,500,000 bushel capacity grain elevator in the Argentine yards was at that time the largest west of Chicago and the second largest in the country.

The Pennsylvania Car Company of Sharon, Pennsylvania maintained a plant here. Freight cars were built, rebuilt and repaired. There was a construction capacity of ten to twelve new cars daily.

Today, an average of 6,200 cars are handled through the Argentine yards. The total working trackage can accommodate nearly 15,000 cars. Connections are made in Argentine by the Sant Fe with twelve other railroads.

In an average year, it has been estimated that enough oranges pass through Argentine by rail to provide each resident of the country with about six each. Enough potatoes pass through to provide 100 pounds for every citizen of the metropolitan Chicago area. Enough piggyback trailers and containers pass through the yards that, if placed bumper to bumper, they would extend over more than 1,200 miles of highway.

In July of 1967, the need for greater speed and reliablility led to the construction fo a new $2,000,000 freight classification yard completed in 1969 and in full operation by the spring of 1970. Computers are used in this setup. From the time a train bound for the Argentine yard leaves its place of origin, constantly updated information on destination, customer, weight loads and otehr basis of the data received, decides whether the car is to go in the Argentine yard and on what train.

The entire Argentine yard, including the new freight classification yard, extends for over nine miles along the Kansas River. The yards vary in length from 180 feet to 6,440 feet. Physically, the new facilities include a forty-eight classification yard holding 7,736 cars; a ten-track receiving yard holding 1,208 cars; a nine-track departure yard holding 804 cars; and an eleven-track transfer yard capable of holding 762 cars.

The Argentine yard is one of only three terminal points on the Santa Fe Railroad that is equipped for the major servicing of diesel locomotives. These repair yards were constructed in 1954. In 1960, improvements were made on these facilities. A further enloargement was made in 1967 and 1968. Additional expansion of the diesel maintenance facilities is planned to meet growing needs of the railroad.

In 1961, a modern terminal office building and freight office was constructed on the North side of the yards. This structure consolidated into one unit offices for the local agent, the division superintendent, communications and freight house facilites. This three-story building also houses the offices of the Santa Fe Trail Transportation Company, a trucking facility whose freight handling operations are co-ordinated with the Santa Fe's rail freight facilities.

Om 1907, a depot was build in Argentine. This depot was located north of Strong Avenue on 26th Street. This two-story building was used for both passenger and freight trains. At one time eleven employees worked at this depot. This station, however, became obsolete after the construction of the new freight house at 42nd and Kansas Avenue in 1961. After the retirement of Luther C. Prather, the station master who had spent his entire career in Argentine, the depot was closed.

When he was asked to account for his change to the undertaking business, he would explain it this way: "Well, I was practically forced into it. A man by the name of Charles Dolly died. He lived a short distance from my livery stable. Members of the family asked me to drive to Kansas City, Missouri to get a coffin. I preserved the body in ice until arrangements could be made for the burial in Argentine Cemetery. That was the first man I buried."

A precedent was set and soon after another death occurred. Again he was called to assist in the burial since there weren't any facilities for embalming and he was the only man in town who owned a spring wagon. The constant demands for the use of his rigs to carry the body to the cemetery made him decide to purchase a stock of caskets and to enter the undertaking business officially. George learned embalming procedures in 1887 from Professor F. A. Sullivan who had embalmed the body of Ulysses S. Grant.

George formed a partnership with his son G. Gilbert (Gib) around 1895. In April, 1935, they purchased Dr. Clopper's 20 room clinic-hospital from Dr. K.C. Haas. The clinic-hospital was erected in 1925 by Dr. Clopper, a physician in the Argentine district and a former mayor of the town.

Dr. Clopper experienced difficulties in operating the clinic as a hospital because the state of Kansas required that to run a hospital you had to have a staff of so many interns and nurses and Dr. Clopper was just too hard headed to go along with that. He had to mortgage his home to build the clinic-hospital and when he had trouble keeping the clinic open, the Exchange State Bank had to foreclose on the mortgage. Upon Dr. Clopper's death, Dr. K.C. Haas, a fellow Argentine physician, acquired the hospital as an investment only.

Mr. Simmons originally tried to acquire Dr. Clopper's residence at 33rd and Metropolitan but was unable to do so because the neighbors objected to having the location rezoned for business. Dr. Haas approached Mr. Simmons regarding the clinic-hospital since it was already zoned for business. Drs. Eldon Miller, Robt. Lee, Maurice Walker, physicians, and Dr. C. J. Brown, a dentist, had offices for a short time in the building.

The interior of the $40,000.00 building was considerably redesigned in converting it to a mortuary. Office, reception room, living quarters and work rooms were provided. Gib and his wife Carrie and their daughter Marjorie moved into the new living quarters in 1936.

Howard H. Simmons joined his father and grandfather in the late 1920's. Marjorie was associated with the firm for many years during the early 1940's. A great-grandson, Donald H. Simmons, joined the firm in 1958. His son, Gary H., representing the fifth generation, is also a part of the firm. Howard's wife, Anna E. Simmons, who has been associated witht the firm since the late 1940's, completes the family roster.