Ben Hur Lodge was formed by eleven Masons residing in Argentine who were desirous of having a Masonic Lodge in this area. They petitioned the Grand Lodge of Kansas and reeceived their letter of dispensation on March 2, 1889 to install their officers and hold meetings.
Officers installed to preside over the new lodge were Anderson Phalp, Worshipful Master; Jesse H. Work, Senior Warden; John Westmorland, Junior Warden; George W. Brown, Treasurer; Charles E. Bowman, Secretary; J.B. Marshall, Senior Deacon; W.A. Mack, Junior Deacon; George E. Horne, Senior Steward; A.G. Compton, Junior Steward; and E. H. Cook, Tyler.
On February 27, 1890, the Grand Lodfge of Kansas issued a Charter to Ben Hur Lodge No. 322 A.F.& A.M. This Charter recognized the lodge as being skilled members of the Fraternity and capable of carrying on the good work of Masonry.
The lodge met around the 21st and Silver area for nearly 30 years. Sufficient funds were accumulated to build a Temple building, and on March 8, 1923, the present Temple was completed and dedicated. It is still being used at the location of 30th and Connor.
The Temple building, like many residents and and business buildings, was caught by the 1951 flood. The water reached a few inches above the lodge room floor, burt was soon restored by the help of its members.
Submitted by Wayne K. Ozias, Secretary
On March 6, 1890, a meeting was held for the purpose of organizing a Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. J.A. Westmoreland was appointed chairman of the meeting and J.B. Marshel as secretary. The name of "Leah" Chapter was unanimously chosen. Mary O. Bliss was elected Worthy Matron; J. A. Westmoreland, Worthy Patron; Louise Marshel, Associate Matron, Clara Crawford, Secretary and Kate Kilmer as treasurer.
On March 20, 1890, the newly installed Matron appointed four Star Points, Warder and Sentinel. In 1891, the first by-laws were passed and it was unanimously decided to change the name to Tirzah, Ben Hur's sister.
Tirzah Chapter's first Grand Chapter appointment was Sister Lucas, Chairman of Nechroloty. In 1903 the flood touched many of their members and the Grand Chapter appointed a relief committee to see to their needs. Sister May Crawford was appointed as Grand Marshall.
In 1908, a great honor was paid to Tirzah Chapter when Sister May Crawford was elected WSorthy Grand Matron of the Grand Chapter of Kansas. The first mention of The Pal's Club (Past Matrons and Patrons) of Tirzah Chapter appears in the minutes as early as 1920. It was in 1923 that Tirzah started meeting in the new Temple building at 30th and Connor. Previous (sic) to that, they met in the old hall over McGeorge's Drug Store, 22nd and Metropolitan.
Tirzah Chapter sponsored the Jobs Daughter Bethel, working under dispensation, October 22, 1924. The Advance Nights were started in the 1931 to 1940 period. Brother Thomas Finigan was elected Worthy Grand Patron of the Grand Chapter of Kansas. Tirzah Chapter continues to be blessed with quality leadership in meeting the demands of change and progress.
Submitted by Wanda Lee Strader, Worthy Matron
Willis Mack died on December 3, 1930, at the age of 76. He held a large amount of stock in the Badger Lumber Company which passed on to his widow. A son, Warren W. Mack, borrowed money and soon bought his mother out. In the early 1930's, he changed the name of the lubmer yard from Badger to Mack. For many years the company has operated lumber yards in Western Kansas and still operates five yards around Hays, Kansas. Warren Mack retired in January of 1956, due to an automobile accident. Later, however, he became the President of the Argentine Savings and Loan Association from 1956 to 1974. His three sons: Skylar, Bill, and Warren own and operate the Mack Lumber Company today.
On April 20, 1891, the city council with Mayor Gaskill presiding, instructed J. C. Long, city clerk, to secure plans and specifications for a new city hall building from architect George S. Colby, of Kansas City, Missouri.
The contract for grading was awarded to Tim J. Enright on May 18, 1891 and the construction contract was awarded on July 8, 1891 to J. A. Westmoreland, who was appointed to be superintendent of the construction work.
The resulting two story buiding was made of brick with a basement and an attic. Dimensions of the building were 48 feet wide and 74 feet long.
On November 16, 1891, the architect, George Colby, announced the completion of the new city hall. The estimated cost of the building was $8,000. The official acceptance of the building was held on November 25, 1891, at which time all fo the taxpayers were invited to inspect the new structure.
The basement was fitted with cells and housed the city prisoners. Each morning, the chains gangs were escorted from the jail, marched up to the rock quarry on Monkey Mountain, and there maade to break rock for use by the city street department.
On the east side of the building was the entrance to the fire department located in the rear portion of the first floor. Also on the first floor were housed the Chief of Police, the city clerk, the police court, and his honor, the Mayor.
The city council had its chambers on the second floor, and the firemen had their sleeping quarters. One room was used as a public library. The remaining area of the second floor was sectioned off into classrooms for the students of high school age. They later moved into the new Argentine High School building which was completed in 1908.
In the early 1930's, later being vacant for many years, the building was finally torn down. Only a small portion of teh basement jail remained until it was also torn down to make way for the Ruby Avenue Extension in 1958.
We all attended the Turner Schools. Our grandmother Catherine Pitsch Ashlock, was born in Germany in 1843, and came to Wyandotte County in 1861. Our grandfather, Obediah Ashlock was born in Tennessee in 1825. They were married in 1872, and lived in a log house in Morris at what is now the corner of South 78th and Holliday Drive. Our motehr, Della, was bonr in 1877. The Ashlock family bought the 80 acres, as above [in the hard copy book, only], in 1887. Presently is divided and occupied by Inland Storage (below) and 7 residences on ground level.
The first owner of said 80 acres was William Barbee, a Shawnee Indian, by a land grant in 1854. The Indian home had 4 rooms - two in the basement, and two at ground level. In the basement was the dining room and the kitchen where cooking was done in a fireplace made of 500 lb. blocks of sandstone. The walls of the basement were two fee thick, built of very large limestone rock and mortar. All nails in the upper structure were of the square shank type, and all timbers (joists and beams) were hand-hewn oak. Barbee built it himself (wth help probably of a couple of "Braves") and lived in it until 1870. When the "Pale Faces" (Ashlocks) acquired it, four rooms were added to the surface structure, and the basement fireplace gave way to the "modern" wood and corn-cob cooking range -- upstairs.
Now, the "Indian house"
is gone, but the basement enlarged and on which stands a new 10-room all electric
home built in 1954-63 by my husband, August Lind, with timely assists from me.
Ironically, just two years earlier, much of the Great Plains suffered thorugh a three month drought. Sufficient rains failed to come during the summer of 1901. Rains finally came in amounts that were adequate enough to insure only a sub-par yield for the year. in 1902, however, rains came at the appropriate times and the farm belt responded with a banner harvest. Farmers were anticipateing excellent weather conditions in 1903.
Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. Heavy rains fell in Western Kansas during the first part of May of 1903. The Central and Eastern parts of the state endured heavier rainfall. In some locales more rain fell in ten days than normally fell in a year. By May 26, the Kaw River had overflowed her banks above Lawrence. The waters downstream at Knasas City continued to rise and on June 1, the river was fourteen feet above what was considered the danger level.
The flood crest came to Kansas City on Friday, May 30. By Saturday night one story buidings in Argentine were submerged. Fast rising waters stranded many people in their homes. Gas and electricity went off. Water was one to ten feet deep in parts of Argentine and Armourdale. Whole blocks were virtually washed away. Kansas City, Kansas and Argentine had a total population of approximately 60,000 in 1903 and over 20,000 of these were homeless. Argentine had a population of 7,000 and 3,000 of these were rendered homeless. From Spear Avenue to the bluffs in the east, the Kaw River was one mile wide. Except for one long winding road to Rosedale, Argentine was virtually cut off.
The high waters of the Missouri River acted liek a huge dam and backed the flooded Kaw up to Muncie, Kansas. Nineteen bridges over the Kaw River were washed out. The only bridge left standing was the 23rd Street Viaduct Bridge. Only the heroism of the local superintendent of the railroad saved what for several days was Argentine's only link to the City. On his initiative, locomotives were loaded on the bridge to weight it down and others were anchored to the bridge's support beams. A total of forty-four locomotives were employed and the bridge was saved.
After the flood waters receded, the cleanup task was staggering. Soldiers and engineers arrived from Fort Leavenworth. Pontoon bridges were built at all locations where the original destroyed bridges had stood. These make shift bridges consisted simply of planks nailed over boats. Some of these planks were only twenty feet wide, with no railings and one one foot above the water level. Soldiers worked in rescue and cleanup operations. They also protected property against looters, and were under orders to shoot anyone failing to halt or to show passes.
Many homes in Argentine and Armourdale were destroyed. The corners were torn out of many birck and wood frame buildings by smaller houses washing against them. Streets were blocked with wreckage as high as twenty to thirty feet. Four feet of mud covereed much of Argentine with the floors of even some two story buildings covered with as much as four inches of mud. Near 5th and Kansas Avenue a wagon was hurled against a house with such force that the end of the house was splintered and the wagon was left clinging in the wreckage.
Another house was suspended between two other houses by telephone wires. One man returned home to find a dead horse in his parlor.
The Argentine community was already suffering from a depleted city treasury and the closing of the smelter. Aid arrived from the surrounding communties of Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri and the town made a slow belabored recovery. Nature, however, was to deal the still much scarred small city another cruel blow one year later, and yet again in 1908.
In July of 1904, heavy rains again fell in the Kansas River watershed. The Kaw Valley experienced another flood. This flood was not nearly so severe, but was nevertheless, quite damaging. The Kaw River crested at 27 feet, compared to thte 35 feet of the flood in 1903. Nevertheless, parts of Lawrence and North Topeka were flood again. In Argentine, Armourdale and the West Bottoms area of Kansas City, the same area flooded in 1903, was again covered with water ranging from one to ten feet. Tow-thirds of Armourdale and one-third of Argentine was flooded. A total of 5,000 people abandoned homes.
InArgentine, the Kaw began rising rapidly around midnight, July 6. By noon of the next day, the lowlands fo Argentine were flooded. The Santa Fe Railroad Depot was surrounded by water. The railroad yards and the roundhouses were under water. All of North Argentine was also flooded.
For two days the waters continued to rise. By July 8, hundreds fo Argentinians were homeless. On that Friday morning the business district along Spear and Strong Avenues were under as much as eight feet of water. Flood waters extended as far west as Adams Avenue approximately a quarter mile away. The community again was almost isolated. The only means of communication with the city (KCK) was by one telephone wire of the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Compnay. Just two miles to the west, as int he flood of the previous year, Turner, with its 800 inhabitants, was a virtual island in a sea.
The flood waters quickly subsided. Damages were light in comparison with the 1903 disaster.
Within a short time the Argentine community was back to normal. Nevertheless, the metropolitan Kansas City area had been devastated for two consecutive years. Another damaging flood would occur in 1908, as aprelude to the great disaster of Black Friday, July 13, 1951.
In 1905, the Kaw Valley Commercial Club of Kansas City, Kansas urged the state legislature to establish a flood control drainage system. There appeared to be widespread public support for this effort. Endless legislative debates eliminated any chance for immediate action and the public eventually grew disinterested. Flood control became a dead issue.
But the Kaw Valley experienced yet another flood in 1908. This deluge was not expected for although heavy rains had fallen in May and early June, veteran observers did not expect a mojor flood. Even T. B. Jennings, United States Weather Observer in Topeka, emphasized that the valley was in no danger of a flood.
This flood was an oddity in another respect. The waters reached a crest and receded. When the peril seemed over heavy rains again fell upstream. The Kansas River rose steadily and an even higher flood crest was reached.
The initial flood waters reached Kansas City on June 8. Fortunately, since the rivers rose slowly, Argentine residents had time to remove some of their valuables. Merchants were able to remove or give away much of their merchandise. The flood crest of 28.5 feet was reached Thursday night, June 11. By ten o'clock Friday, the river had fallen over three feet to a 25.2 feet rading. People began moving back to their homes and plans were drawn up for the cleanup operations.
But, just as swiftly as the river fell, it rose again. Heavy rains were falling through the Kaw's watershed. As a result of those heavy rains between June 13 1n3 July 4, anotehr major flood rocked the communities of Topeka, Lawrence, Armourdale, and Argentine. At 2:00 A.M. on July 15, the Kaw River reached a new flood crest of 29.7 feet. This level was more than a foot higher than the June 11 crest.
In essence then, the flood
of 1908 was actually two separate floods with the second one occuring about
a month later. Due to the time span and the slow rising flood waters, property
damage totals were far less than those of the floods of May of 1903 and July
of the following ear. Prior to the 1951 flood, in terms of flood crest, the
1908 flood did achieve thrid ranking behind the great floods of 1844 and 1903.
By comparison the 1904 flood achieved fourth place ranking with a flood crest
of 27.5 feet.
In January, 1905, Ben Hur Masonic Hall was rented for the meetings. A piano was rented for 50 cents a month and the telephone for 25 cents a month.
There were 59 Charter Members, and averaged 18 members per meeting. Many members came by horse and buggy.
Harmony met 21st and Sliver in what had been referred to as the "OLD OPERA HOUSE".
In June, 1964, fire destroyed the building. Lodge was held in the following places. Shrine Patrol Building, Argentine Memorial Building, while a new building was being constructed. The new hall was dedicated February 6, 1966, at 4001 Strong Avenue.
In 1919 and 1944 Harmony Rebekah Lodge made service flags honoring veterans from both wars.
Several youths have sent on the United Nations Tour to the United Nations Assembly.
On Kansas City Black Friday, July 13, 1951, the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs, were ready to help and the hall was opened to those whose homes were flooded and were kept there until places could be found for them to live.
Sister Ruth Hoffman was installed President of the Rebekah Assemblyb of Kansas in October 1977 and served until 1978.
Harmony Rebekah Lodge meets
the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.