Kansas Heritage Series
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Each winter, the Wilson County Old Iron Club hosts a 3 event series focusing on a different aspect of Kansas history and heritage. The premier series was held in early 2013. All events are held on Sunday afternoons at 2pm, in the Town Hall at the “Rollin ‘Red’ Vandever Memorial Park”.
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2019 Heritage Series
This year’s series focuses on three seemingly very diverse topics, yet
all will inform us about aspects of our shared history.
all will inform us about aspects of our shared history.
Jan. 27, 2019 - "World War I and Wilson County - We Remember" - Jeff Fehr
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Jeff is a social studies teacher at Neodesha Middle School/High School. He and his students have been particularly focused on projects and research related to World War I and local veterans. Jeff’s grandfather, Herman August Fehr, served in the 117th Ammunition Train as a member of the 42nd Rainbow Division.
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Feb. 24, 2019 - Foam on the Range - Isaias McCaffery
Kansas was on the forefront of the temperance movement, eventually becoming the first state to prohibit alcohol consumption. This enforced abstinence clashed considerably with many German, Czech, Irish, Italian, Mexican, Croatian, Greek, and Jewish immigrants who had settled in across the state. Indeed, anti-foreign prejudice helped drive support for prohibition in some areas. In response, ethnic communities frequently violated prohibition laws in an effort to preserve an important expression of cultural identity. Although Kansas breweries and vineyards were forced into neglect, immigrant communities improvised and persevered.
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March 24, 2019 – “The Cherokee Trail in Kansas"
- Brian D. Stucky The Cherokee Trail is a well-documented but little-known 1849 Gold Rush Trail. It began in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, entered Kansas in Montgomery County, west of Coffeyville, passed within a mile of the “Little House on the Prairie”, into Chautauqua County within 25 miles of Fredonia, through Moline, just south of El Dorado, and joined the Santa Fe Trail near Galva. It led to Colorado and Wyoming where it joined the Oregon-California Trails, and ended in California. Brian Stucky will discuss the history and still visible parts of the trail, and efforts to mark and preserve it.
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