Waconda Land, first published in 1989, includes legends and pioneers’ accounts of settling the land in the Waconda Spring area of North Central Kansas in the 1870s through articles gleaned from newspapers of the time. The Great Spirit Spring was located just east of where the North Solomon and South Solomon Rivers joined to form the Solomon River. The spring is now covered by Waconda Lake. Indians revered the spring for its magical healing powers, and settlers found the site fascinating. This 2nd Edition, published in 2020, includes over sixty more articles discovered while researching Kansas newspapers of the time. Copyright 1989 – 2nd Edition 2020
The Major’s Railroad is the story of Major William F. Downs and the town he founded in North Central Kansas. Major Downs was in charge of building the Central Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, one of the earliest railroads built in Kansas. Major Downs worked himself to death in the process, and died at the age of 46. The book describes the founding of Downs, the lives of the people and businesses, and looks at the country, ranches and farms in detail from 1878 to 1886. The book includes many interesting photographs. This history was published in the Downs News & Times before it was compiled into a book. Copyright 2015
Battles were touched off in the new territory of Kansas when Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Settlers rushed in and began fighting over whether this unsettled land would become a slave state or a free state. Among those who struggled over the future of this new Territory were Northern and Southern newspapermen with their presses and hand-set type. They fought with both pens and swords during the era known as “Bleeding Kansas” and on through the Civil War. This book follows these editors as their newspaper presses were thrown into rivers, type and printing materials were trampled in the dust along with the furnishings from wrecked printing shops, and editors were arrested as “traitors” or run out of town. Copyright 2012
The chautauqua was one of the strongest educational and cultural events in the United States 100 years ago. In Kansas, the Lincoln Park Chautauqua was one of the strongest in this state … and was the only rural chautauqua. The chautauqua was a two-week event where 1,500 well-dressed people gathered under huge oaks to live in tents and rustic cabins. They heard the best educated and most famous people of their time, listened to some of the nation’s best musical performers, all in a large tabernacle tent, and studied a diverse array of educational events all day long and into the evening. This history of the park was compiled from dozens of Kansas newspapers. Copyright 2007
Downs, Kansas, was an important railroad center during the romantic era of steam railroading, from the summer of 1879 when railroaders founded the town until the advent of the diesel engines. Those were the days, before the advent of the automobile, when people rode passenger cars that were pulled by steam-driven locomotives. Most of this story was found in the files of the Downs newspapers, the Atchison newspapers, and any other sources which described the lives of the railroaders and the passengers who rode the trains. These descriptions were written by the editors of the various newspapers at the time that they happened. Copyright 1999
OUT OF PRINT
This book includes sketches written to breathe life into some of the long-forgotten events in Downs, which was a typical Great Plains farming community with an unusual history as a railroad division point. The details used here were written, in large part, by the newspapermen of Downs as they recorded the everyday events of that community. This is not a complete history but rather is a series of vignettes. Copyright 1996
OUT OF PRINT
This book tells of the beginning of civilization in the Solomon Valley, Osborne County, and Downs and its surrounding communities. Hundreds of persons helped make it possible. There were the newspaper editors who published a week-by-week record; the pioneers who wrote their experiences for publication in those papers; the many reporters and photographers who journeyed thru this country recording what was happening; the explorers who kept a journal of their trips; and, most important, the Kansas State Historical Society, which has preserved all of those newspapers and other records so they could be studied. Copyright 1961