Our Past Is Present - June 1, 2021

In the past weeks we have had severe weather in our area. However, none can be compared to the devastation experienced by our neighbors in Chapman, Kansas on May 25, 2016. Gaylynn Childs wrote an article in the JC Union newspaper in 2008 about Junction City being spared from storms in the past. This is some of what she wrote.

For those who contend that a tornado has never hit Junction City proper, an account was found a few years ago in George Martin’s Junction City Union newspaper dated April 14, 1866. The headline was A Gentle Zephyr. “Ever since the first of the month it has been one incessant blow. A few moments previous a red glare appeared in the heavens, which during the height of the storm, appalled many with the suspicion of fire. From such information as we can gather the storm was but a few miles in width. The damage done in town was serious in the destruction of property, but no personal injury was sustained by anyone.

Wright & Lockstone’s new building on 7th Street, which was not totally enclosed, was leveled to the ground. Jacob Morrell had a small frame house standing apart from all others which was torn board from board and scattered for hundred of yards about. Not a splinter of it was found within a hundred feet of where it stood. The large frame business house erected by John Bartlett, then occupied by Karnan’s Tin and Stove Company, was moved several inches from its foundation and the roof of Kurtz’s new house on Washington Street was moved a few inches. All loose property and many outhouses were borne indiscriminately across the prairies.”

The Junction City Union newspaper dated April 15, 1882, described the effects of the storm in Junction City, which also struck at Fort Riley. “About twelve o’clock Friday night of last week, a terrific gale from the southwest struck Junction City. Many outhouses, chimneys, barns, and fences were blown down, although no serious damage was done. It took the roof of a house and barn belonging to Mr. Bruhm, our dairyman, about a mile south of town.”

The late Gaylord Munson provided a series of photographs and an account of the damage done to local farms by a tornado in April of 1919. “This storm was very unusual because the winds came from the northwest to the southeast. Most tornadoes come from the southwest. My brother, Ralph, and I were both less than 10 years old when this tornado hit our place in the spring of 1919. We kids knew the wind was getting stronger and we didn’t want to miss out on anything, so we ran up two sets of stairs to the third floor of our house to look out and watch these buildings blow away. My brother and I have always been kidded about this because now we take shelter in the basement.

A few years later we went up to around Wakefield after they’d had a tornado hit there and as we walked by hedge wood fence posts; we could see wheat straws sticking out from the posts. The wind had driven straws into the hard wood! These Kansas winds do some impossible things.”

We need to be alert and attentive to weather reports and guidance given us by the professionals at the Geary County Emergency Management Department. Be wary of saying “It can’t happen here.

Julia Snyder looked for new opportunities in Kansas – Part I

At the end of the Civil War this area experienced an influx of new residents. People from the war-weary eastern states were looking for new opportunities and new homes in Kansas. Immigrants from Europe sought homestead land and the chance for a better life arrived here every day. Merchants and entrepreneurs of every kind arrived as fast as the newly built railroad could bring them.

Among those who arrived during this time was 16-year-old Julia Snyder, the daughter of a dry goods merchant from Crawfordsville, Indiana. Julia, with her future husband, Bertrand Rockwell, would go on to make an important mark on Junction City. Near the time of her death, at the age of 97, segments of Julia’s story were published in the Kansas City Star in 1947.

Julia traveled with her Aunt Carrie Scott, a refined and accomplished lady. Julia’s first home in Kansas was in Ogden, where her uncle had built a large stone house with a wide veranda that overlooked the Fort Riley-Leavenworth Military Road. This was the main land route from the eastern settlements to Riley and beyond for all travel, including cavalry troops, wagon trains, freighters, peddlers and local settlers. As a result, the Scott home had a continual cavalcade of frontier life to view and a great variety of fascinating visitors, including the young officers at Riley, who were frequent callers.

Julia wrote: “Our life at Ogden was filled with pleasure and excitement. I learned to ride horseback and drive four mules and a wagon. There were no fences to interfere and few roads. However, we had to watch out for the buffalo wallows. These were depressions formed by the buffalo rolling one after another in the same spot until a hollow was made.

One bright morning in the early fall, my brother George and my friend Tina McKenzie were visiting us. We three sat talking when the house began to shake: things rattled, and a platter fell. We ran out of doors to find the women who were doing our wash kneeling and praying. We had felt our first earthquake!

The arrival of the stagecoach was an exciting daily event in Ogden. We would watch it dash along the road westward. Junction City had become an important factor in our lives. It was situated four miles west of Fort Riley. George was a clerk in Dr. Hall’s drugstore and kept me well supplied with sweets and even perfume for my dog.”

Julia wrote that she had many suiters among the young officers at Fort Riley but explained: “Army life in spite of its pleasures had no special appeal to me. The men were fine dashing fellows, easy to entertain and excellent company, but owing to the Indian warfare, the Army was in constant motion and no sooner were we acquainted with the officers of a command then orders were issued for them to move.”