A Kansas Memory: The Kansas Historical Society Library and Archives Podcast

Kansas governor Mike Hayden held office from January 12, 1987 - January 14, 1991. Hayden grew up in Atwood in northwest Kansas and relied heavily on support from agriculture and the rural areas of the state in his 1986 campaign. During his administration a comprehensive state highway plan was passed and statewide reappraisal was implemented. Hayden lost his bid for re-election to Kansas' first woman governor, Joan Finney, largely because of the reappraisal controversy.

This features excerpts from the second interview with Kansas Governor John Carlin, who held office from January 8, 1979 to January 12, 1987. In 1978, in a surprise upset, he defeated the Republican incumbent Governor, Robert Bennett, in his bid for re-election. In this interview, Carlin recalls that Bennett initially won, not because he was a popular choice, but because his Democratic opponent was Vern Miller, the controversial Wichita sheriff and Kansas Attorney General from 1971-1975. Carlin ran for a third non-consecutive term as governor in 1990 in one of the most interesting Democratic primary races in Kansas history.

Kansas Governor John Carlin held office from January 8, 1979 to January 12, 1987. He was elected to the Kansas legislature in 1970 and was Minority Leader of the House from 1975-1977; then Speaker of the House from 1977-1979, when Democrats unexpectedly won a majority. In 1978, Carlin upset incumbent Governor Robert Bennett's re-election bid by only 16,335 votes. The interview is the basis for Dr. Bob Beatty's article, "Be willing to take some risks to make things happen," published in Kansas History, vol. 31 (Summer 2008). Video and a complete transcript of the interview is available on Kansas Memory.

William Avery would have never become a politician if not for a series of disastrous floods in Kansas in the mid 20th century. He was the third generation of Averys farming near Wakefield, in Clay County, when President Truman appropriated funds to build two dams in the Blue Valley that would inundate his farm. Avery became an opposition leader and was elected to serve in the Kansas Legislature from 1951-1955, and went on to serve in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1955-1965, though he was unable to stop the dam project. In 1965, Avery became Kansas 37th governor. Video and a complete transcript of the interview is available on Kansas Memory.

John Anderson Jr. was governor of Kansas from January 9, 1961 to January 11, 1965. Dr. Bob Beatty, professor of political science at Washburn University, conducted this interview as part of the Kansas Governors Recorded History and Documentary Project, 2005. In these excerpts, Governor Anderson explains his support for the death penalty during his tenure in office and the major changes he helped bring about in the Kansas public education system. Video and a complete transcript of the interview is available on Kansas Memory.

Robert Lee Carter was hired by Thurgood Marshall after WWII to work as an assistant counsel for the NAACP. He worked on a number of civil rights cases and represented the plaintiffs in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case before the U. S. Supreme Court. Because of the case, the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that segregated schools were unconstitutional.

This podcast features excerpts from the letters written home by young Clark Bruster of Waverly, New York during the fall of 1917 while he was training with U. S. Artillery Battery A at Fort Riley, Kansas. Some artillery are still drawn by horses during WWI and Clark describes their drills in detail. He is proud of what an accomplished horseman he has become, but saddened that he is missing the birth of his first niece.

Clark Bruster's great-grandfather was an early settler of Waverly, N. Y., a village on the New York/Pennsylvania border. Harvey and Cora Bruster raised Clark and his brothers there in the early 1900s. Waverly had about 6,000 residents at that time. Clark had finished school and begun working as a meat salesman in nearby Elmira, when the U.S. entry into World War I changed his life dramatically. From Fort Slocum on Long Island, Clark boarded a train to travel to Fort Riley, Kansas, in June 1917, to begin training with an Artillery Battery. These are excerpts from letters he wrote to his family from Fort Riley during the summer and fall of 1917. They begin on June 21st, the week the first U.S. troops were landing in France.

Susan Bixby Dimond and her husband Will made the long journey from her family home in Mayville, New York, to Osborne County, Kansas, in February 1872 to begin a promising new life in the West. Susan was a 30 year-old former schoolteacher; Will was a Civil War veteran from Pennsylvania who worked as a blacksmith in addition to farming. Their severest test came during the winter of 1874 and 1875, after millions of locusts had descended on the Midwest the previous summer, decimating every shred of vegetation. The settlers only survived due to the generous relief shipments from the East. The excerpts were reading today are from January through March of 1875, before the locusts returned and destroyed that years crops as well.

John William Gardiner was the third of nine children in the large Gardiner family. His parents, William and Susan, were farmers who moved from Missouri to Jefferson County, Kansas Territory, in March 1855 when John was four years old. These excerpts are from the diary he kept in 1875 while completing classes in Leavenworth in order to obtain his teaching certificate, then teaching at a new school in Winchester in Jefferson County. He impatiently waits for letters from his girlfriend, Mattie. He enjoys musical performances and often sings himself. His diary gives us a first hand look at what it was like to be a one room school teacher in a blossoming frontier town

Before he became the "Wild Bill" of legend, James Butler Hickok was one of hundreds of immigrants who streamed into Territorial Kansas hoping to acquire a piece of the Indian reservation lands that were coming onto the market. After the Kansas/Nebraska Act passed in 1854, Northeast Kansas was no longer Indian Territory and it turned into a battleground between the pro-slavery and free-state settlers. James grew up in Troy Grove, Illinois, where his father, William Alonzo Hickok, was an abolitionist who helped slaves escape to the North. James was 19 when he journeyed to Johnson County, Kansas, in June 1856. Records show James tried to pre-empt a claim for 160 acres of Shawnee land in February 1858. It turned out, that land had already been claimed for Wyandotte Float Land. After that, James tried to acquire some Delaware Reservation land, but was again unsuccessful. The violence along the Missouri/Kansas border was at its peak when Hickok arrived and he mentions his involvement in the Battle of Hickory Point in this letter that he wrote to his brother Horace from Kansas on November 24 and 27th, 1856.

Robert Fonzo Layher enlisted in the U. S. Navy in 1939 and was assigned to the North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego, when he resigned his commission to join the American Volunteer Group. This was a covert operation that served with the Chinese Air Force under U. S. General Claire Chennault. Since it was organized before the U. S. declared war on Japan, the pilots were technically working for a private military contractor to guarantee that supplies reached the Republic of China's armed forces through Burma, during the Japanese occupation of eastern China. Hear Layher's story of flying with the secret air force that preceded the U.S.'s entry into WWII.

Arthur Jones served in WWII with the 219th Field Artillery, 35th Infantry Division of the Third Army. They landed in France shortly after Independence Day, 1944. Arthur's duty was to drive a Jeep that carried encoded messages back and forth between officers, under cover of dark. Hear his first-hand account of the 35th's push across France toward the German border, then their rush to Bastogne to assist the 101st Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge.

Raymond Brown grew up on a farm in Olpe, Kansas, during the 1920's and 30's. He was twenty-six when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and in 1942 he joined the newly activated 95th Infantry Division, part of General Patton's Third Army. On September 15, 1944, Private Brown landed on Omaha Beach with the 379th Infantry Regiment. They were in contact with the enemy over 100 days in a row and suffered enormous casualties. Hear his personal reminiscences about the "Victory" Divison's drive across France to the German border that fall. This interview is part of the WWII Veterans Oral History grant program that was funded by a bill passed by the 2005 Kansas Legislature.

Mabel Holmes, a longtime Topeka resident, kept a daily diary from January 1, 1935-December 31, 1939. During this time, storms resulting from the severe drought conditions blanketed the state in dust so thick that it could be pitch black in the middle of the day; Kansans were coping with an economic depression even worse than our current one; the threat of a second World War in Europe was looming. Against this backdrop, Mabel talks about the news, weather, shopping, outings with her sister, Elma and their friends and her volunteer work with her church and local women's groups. It's a personal time capsule of an era when Kansas and the nation was experiencing unprecedented change.

Mabel Holmes, a longtime Topeka resident, kept a daily diary from January 1, 1935-December 31, 1939. During this time, storms resulting from the severe drought conditions blanketed the state in dust so thick that it could be pitch black in the middle of the day; Kansans were coping with an economic depression even worse than our current one; the threat of a second World War in Europe was looming. Against this backdrop, Mabel talks about the news, weather, shopping, outings with her sister, Elma and their friends and her volunteer work with her church and local women's groups. It's a personal time capsule of an era when Kansas and the nation was experiencing unprecedented change.

In 1868, raids by hostile Indian bands on the western frontier increased as the white population of Kansas swelled after the Civil War and railroads were built father west. George Armstrong Custer and the 7th U. S. Cavalry were assigned to pursue the Indian tribes to their winter camps and force them to return to the reservations. In Kansas, Governor Crawford quickly raised a volunteer regiment, then decided to resign from office and lead the 19th Kansas Cavalry himself. They joined Generals Sheridan and Custer shortly after the attack on Black Kettle's Village. The troops accompanied Custer on his mission to retrieve two Kansas women, Anna Morgan and Sarah White, who had been abducted during the fall. George Jenness, the commander of Company F of the 19th Kansas, wrote this account of the winter expedition based on his diaries.

In 1868, raids by hostile Indian bands on the western frontier increased as the white population of Kansas swelled after the Civil War and railroads were built father west. That winter the U. S. Army, led by General Sheridan, decided to pursue bands of Cheyenne, Sioux and Comanche to their winter camps and force them to return to government reservations by destroying their food and horses. General Custer and the 7th U. S. Cavalry were chosen for this winter campaign. In Kansas, young governor Samuel Crawford, outraged by the continuing violence, received permission to quickly raise a regiment of Kansas men to assist the U. S. troops. At the last minute, Crawford decided to resign from office and lead 19th Kansas Cavalry himself. They marched southwest from Wichita to join Generals Sheridan and Custer. George Jenness, the commander of Company F of the 19th Kansas, wrote this account of the winter expedition based on his diaries.

Ned Beck continued writing in his diary throughout the summer of 1880, so we have his first-hand account of Holton, Kansas' 4th of July festivities. Holton planned to hold a community picnic on July 3rd, since July 4th fell on Sunday that year, but it was an unusually rainy summer and that Saturday was no exception, so the celebration was somewhat subdued. Just like kids today, Ned's favorite part of the holiday was the fireworks. Here's his description of the events of that week.

Another school year is coming to a close in Holton, Kansas. Final exams; class picnics; summer baseball teams forming--it could be May 2009--but 11 year old Ned Beck wrote this diary in 1880. This podcast features Ned's diary entries during late May. Moses and Mary Beck are enlarging their home to accomodate their full household: Ned, or Edward, their oldest son, his younger brother William, who is 7, and two daughters: Mattie, 9, and Clara, 3. In addition, they have a 17-year-old servant named Ida Walton living with them and two young male boarders, Charles "Ed" Rose and Fred Brown. Ned's father ran a drug store and published the Holton newspaper, The Recorder. Ned and his younger brother, Will, often helped out in their father's businesses, in addition to doing farm chores. Hear about the activities that filled Ned's summer days.