100 years ago
AUGUST 15, 1902 — On Monday, Aug. 10, 1902, at about 4 o'clock p.m., Lost Springs was visited by one of the worst cyclones that this county ever experienced. It came from the northwest, was about fourteen miles wide, and played havoc in its track. The town was the greatest sufferer.
Six people received serious injuries and many others received minor injuries. The property loss was immense, totaling $9400. (Names, properties, and damage estimates are listed)
Everyone is trying to be as cheerful as possible, but deep in their hearts the people feel sore. This beautiful town is ruined for a time, and it will take a long time to repair the damage.
We cannot say as to the mill being rebuilt, but if the people respond as Lost Springs people generally do to such calamities, it will be put back.
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A New Court House
Mr. Editor — In reading your paper a good many years I have noticed that in almost every issue was a communication, and sometimes several, from different people pertaining to one subject or another, sometimes public and sometimes private, and for that reason I take the liberty of writing this article on a subject which should be of great public interest, and I hope it (or a similar one from your own pen) may find space in your valuable columns.
In visiting other counties in the State, one cannot help but notice how sadly Marion county is in need of a court house, counties with half of our population and a fourth of our wealth have court houses costing four, six or ten times as much money.
By buying the north half of the block on which the present court house now stands, we have an ideal location and at small cost, and the beauty of a forty thousand dollar court house facing Main street, with a beautiful, well kept lawn and sparkling fountains can hardly be appreciated on paper.
Of course I understand that a proposition of this kind, or for that matter any public improvement, will arouse the antagonism of some people, and that is true in every county, but public improvements must be made just the same and are as necessary as the clothes you wear or the food you eat. The building of a new court house would be but a small tax upon our people. These lots could be bought and a court house built like the Clay county court house (a beautiful structure) for a total outlay of fifty thousand dollars, and it would be good for two hundred years or more. We could vote fifty-year bonds if we wished, or we could pay for it all in one year, and I venture that every tax payer will be surprised to know that if we paid it all in one year it would only cost about six dollars on a quarter of land or piece of property worth $3000, or if we voted fifty-year bonds about twenty-five cents a year, and I wonder if any one doubts that it would add that much to the selling value of his property. The first place that a land buyer goes usually is to the court house, and the difference that a bright, clean and commodious court house would make on the feelings of a prospective buyer can only be imagined by putting yourself in his place. It is just like sitting down to a table with snowy white table linen — it's appetizing. You want to eat, they want to buy. Even the worst kind of old "mossbacks" like progressive people. The contact with them stimulates the flow of their blood and helps eject the bile from their system.
We have one of the worst court houses in the State of Kansas. Do you question that? If so, point out a poorer one. The court houses at Clay Center or Beloit would be fine models to pattern after. They are alike, and cost the same amount — forty thousand dollars — and are modern in every particular. They are large and commodious, heated by furnace, nice wash rooms and water closets on every floor and basement, and a fine big rest room with toilet where farmers' wives and families can go and comb their hair and wash the dust of the road from their faces, and eat their lunch if they so wish.
Marion could well afford, and I have no doubt would, make a liberal donation to this proposition. We have the mechanics to do the work, and the stone in our quarries, and all we need is a little public spirit to put together a structure that every citizen of the county will be proud of, and reasonably so too, because it would belong to all of us.
A Business Man
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School teachers will play the school officers at the Marion ball grounds on Monday, August 25, at 10 a.m. Geo. Noce and S.A. Adams, captains.
Don't forget the Annual Reunion and picnic for Ohio people next Wednesday, the 20th. Bring yourself, your family, your friends, and your baskets, and have a big time.
Miss Ina Harold was hostess at a delightful party at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Harold, six miles northwest of Marion, last Wednesday evening. The following Marion young people were there: Misses Hattie Sterling, Elizabeth Lindsay, Virgie Donaldson, Elizabeth Bryan, Mabel Brumbaugh, Inez Pyle, Ethel Dean and Anna Hoch, and Messrs. Ralph Bryan, Clarence Waring, Taylor Riddle, Will Rudd, Walter Corby and Charley Wible.
Notice
Repeated complaints have come to me because of the dumping of garbage in the public highway near the bridge south of Marion known as the "Dead Man's Bridge." I have made repeated demands upon the city authorities to have this stopped, but my efforts seem to have been in vain. The city has a regular dumping ground and this should be used. If it is necessary for me to take legal methods to stop this nuisance I will be compelled to do so. I trust this statement will be enough.
Wm. Bower, Township Trustee
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Misses Edith Davis, Clara Morris, Della Knowles, Edith Keller, Sadie Keller, Annabel Knowles, Lacy Alexander and Laura Thorp, and Arthur Keller and Homer Hoch enjoyed a moonlight boat ride on the Cottonwood last Wednesday evening.
(Copied by Joan Meyer from the 1902 microfilm files of the Marion Record)
