Manhattan/Riley County, 1921-1930

Events Timeline

1921

April - Suspension of City Schools and a ban on all public meetings due to scarlet fever ordered by the City Commission and Health Officials.
May - Woman murdered in Gillett Hotel by two Fort Riley soldiers.
May - Meeting of 600 or 800 members of the Grand Army of the Republic parade. Reverand Knipe, veteran of the Mexican War as well as the Civil War, marched.
July - Grand Army of the Republic Post #271 disbands, only four members remain (Pollard Carnahan, I.S. Smith, J.N. Caldwell and W.B. Rhodes).
July - Funston abandoned. All frame buildings except those to be used by the Calvary at Fort Riley are salvaged. The heating plant and waterworks are maintained for a future emergency. December 1922, the rest of the Funston barracks are sold.
September - Citizens State Bank closes after a run on the bank precipitated by the forced retirement of S.J. Pratt and an assessment of 10 percent by stockholders to cover a shortage in the bank funds. Pratt acquitted of one charge in April 1922, convicted of two counts of embezzlement in September. December 1923 petition with 2,050 signatures asking for parole for Pratt fails. Governor refuses pardon. January 1925, Governor Davis gives Pratt a full pardon.
September - Liberty Milling and Ice Company fails.

1922

March - Kiwanis Club organized; Dr. J.W.Evans is Chair.
March - Stevenson Clothing Co of Salina buys out Knostman's Clothing Company, founded in 1867.
April - Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) mark the original college site with a large red boulder at the corner of College and Claflin.
May - Chamber of Commerce to have office in the Community Building.
May - Two women killed in a railroad wreck at Keats.
May - Rotarians set to build camp for Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls at the Huse Farm on McDowell.
July - Street Car Company struggling. They experimented with gasoline cars, but it had not helped. August, Manhattan City and Interurban Railway Co in receivership. Public sale of the line is held in September. First mortgage bond holders bought it. The Brown interests (United Power) bought the Manhattan City and Interurban Railway Co and will run the line. The gasoline cars (green bugs) were sent to Abilene and the line goes back to electric cars.
August - Organizer for the Ku Klux Klan holds an organizational meeting in Manhattan.
August - Army City Corporation dissolved; territory returned to control of the Township.
September - Manhattan gets a new fire truck with a 46 gallon chemical attachment.
September - Light added (the extension of the white way) to the Rock Island depot.
October - Two Post Office workers arrested for opening Ku Klux Klan letters.
November - The Reserve Officers of Manhattan met and formed a temporary organization, Colonel George Frank, President.

1923

February - Mill stone from Mitchell's Mill placed outside the pioneer log cabin. The original Mill, on Clark's Creek near Ogden, was built in 1855. The mill was equipped with burrs for grinding corn only. In 1860, Mr. Mitchell heard of two stone burrs at Council Grove for grinding wheat. It is not known how they came to be at Council Grove but it is assumed they were brought on the Santa Fe Trail to location. Bringing the burrs back to Council Grove, they were caught in a terrible blizzard and one of the party froze to death. The Mill went out of operation in the 1890's.
February - The previous year, 3,500 motor licenses were taken out in Riley County. This year is over 700 less.
March - Charter granted for new bank located in Aggieville.
April - The City Commission decides to pave Anderson Avenue. When completed, the section of town south of the college, the newest part of town, will be all paved to City limits.
August - A test well for oil drilled on the Thierer farm and in other places in Eureka Valley.
September - Local Red Cross and Chamber of Commerce appeal for relief for the Nipponese earthquake sufferers.
October - Ku Klux Klan meeting held in City Park. In an attempt to block the meeting, 1,460 automobiles were parked on streets adjoining the park. The City cut off electricity for a time.
October - One of the Penney chain stores is to be located in town.
December - Many Manhattan citizens heard Coolidge deliver his message over radio.
December - County Commission redistricted the County into three districts that are fairly equal in population. Manhattan Tribune reports it is not the best division that could have been made but it is good enough.
December - Bank bandits blew up the bank at Keats. They secured about $250.00 in cash and three or four thousand dollars in bonds, only about a thousand of which were not registered. No casualties.

1924

January - Utility merger: The Manhattan Gas and Electric, The Rocky Ford Power and Milling and the United Traction Co. The new concern is capitalized at $9,000,000 under the name of United Power and Light Company.
February - Local Council of Royal and Select Master Masons granted a charter by the Grand Council.
February 11th - Three faculty members planned and presented what is believed to be the first college broadcast of the nation over the new station at Milford (Dr. Brinkley's station).
March - Country Club votes to extend their land. The course is enlarged to 18 holes.
March - College made another effort to develop a water plant on campus separate from City.
April - The Supreme Court has decided that the City cannot sell the market squares under the law that was passed. A sale is only possible under a different enabling law.
May - The Golden Belt highway is to be paved as far as the City limits.
June - A Ku Klux Klan orator spoke in the park. A large crowd assembled. A big meeting of the K.K.K. was held on Bluemont. The streets from Third to Tenth and from Thurston north were packed with cars. On the hill, a flag was flying and a cross was by its side. Later in the evening this was fired and blazed for a long time. There was a lecture and after visitors were dismissed, the Klan had a meeting.
June - Canteen and barber shop run on campus discontinued. There was always an objection by some town interests against anyone having "inside" privileges.
June - Dancing pavilion at the foot of Bluemont burned.
July - New sidewalk flags are flying.
August - KSAC College of the Air may not be able to open in September on the home grounds due to a delay in filling orders for material for the broadcasting plant.
September - The Manhattan Business College fails.
October - Randolph suffered a $40,000 fire. Garage, Auto Supply House, Bank destroyed.

1925

January - The Manhattan Book Store changed hands. It was established as the Fox Book Store in 1868 and has been renamed Varney's, Brewer's and then Endacotts.
January - Kiwani Queens.
February - Dr. William Jardine, President of KSAC, elected by President Coolidge to be Secretary of Agriculture. Appointment confirmed in Sentate. Dean F.D. Farrell appointed acting President of KSAC.
March - Keats grade school burned.
April - By passing the ten thousand mark in population, the salaries of the Commissioners are automatically increased from $900 to $1,200 and the salary of the Mayor is increased from $1,000 to $1,200.
April - The street department is putting curb and gutter in the park.
April - The City Commission is draining the old channel of the Blue east of town so that water will not stand there anymore.
April - The Huse Ice and Fuel Company, the old Blue Valley Mill (210 Leavenworth), burned. Originally built to house a paper mill, this business never got started as the machinery was shipped but there was no money to pay the freight, so it was sent back. G.W. Higinbotham bought the building and opened the Blue Valley Mills, which operated as a grist mill for a number of years. For a time in the latter 1870's the mill was vacant and was used to house the exodites, the African Americans that left the south in mass in 1879 coming to Kansas to try to find a better life. After G.W. Higinbotham's death in 2899, his son, S.N. Higinbotham continued the business and then sold to the Long-Barner Mill Co who manufactured Purity flour. It was then converted to an Alfalfa Mill and the property was sold to Albert W. Floersch. Operation ceased and the property was foreclosed by J.B. Floersch and the Union National Bank. The Liberty Milling Company was organized and took over the property and put in new machinery for making flour. The plant included a flour mill, an ice plan and the alfalfa mill but was not paying and was sold by auction. A wrecking company bought it and Mr. Huse bought it from them.
August - Telephone cables on 4th Street removed from poles and placed underground.
September - The City has bought a repairing plan for the asphalt streets at a cost of $3,400 and it is proposed to keep the streets in condition at all times.
September - An order for 2,748 telephones to be installed locally has been placed. New automatic phones have been ordered for the new building at a cost of forty thousand dollars.
November 11th- Traffic regulations requiring motor car and other vehicles to stop before entering Poyntz at 3rd, 4th and 5th streets formally went into effect when the new traffic signs made their appearance at these intersections.
December - John Phillip Sousa visits and gives concerts.

1926

January - Joyland, the pavilion just outside the City limits southwest of town was burned.
January - Dial telephones are being installed in Manhattan. With the completion of the new telephone building an automatic switchboard will be installed. In May, the cut over from the old system to the dial system is made at midnight May 29th by the United Telephone Co.
March - Atkins hardware store sold to Currie and Blakslee. The Adkins hardware store was started in the 1860's by A.J. Whitford, sold to J.C. Jones, who sold to Mr. Dudley Atkins in 1909.
March - The Mercury and Chronicle have arranged for a leased wire for telegraphic news. The Manhattan Nationalist newspaper was sold to Fay N. Seaton, to be combined with the Mercury and known as the Mercury and Daily Nationalist. The merger will delete one evening and one morning paper, bringing the daily papers in the City to one evening paper with a Sunday morning edition.
April - W.E. Sheffer of Concordia elected superintendent of Manhattan Schools, succeeding E. B. Gift.
April - The Y.M.C.A. building is sold to the Parkview Hospital Association on assumption of a $3,500 mortgage, other consideration, and promise to provide for a contagion ward. August, the staff, equipment and patients of the Parkview Hospital have been moved to their new building, the remolded Y.M.C.A. building.
May - County Commission to pave a little over a mile of the Victory Highway west of Manhattan. This is the first mile of paving on the Victory Highway in Riley County. The contract does not include the new bridge across the Wildcat. Work is being started to widen the subway on the Rick Island on the Victory Highway southwest of town.
September - The new paved road across Wildcat opens.
September - The Ringling Barnum and Bailey Circus is in City Park.
November - A branch of the Eugene University of Eugene Oregon establishes in Manhattan on corner of 14th and Anderson, purchased for $15,000, under the auspices of the Christian Church (Manhattan Christian College).

1928

February - Farmers and Stockman's State Bank closes. All depositors are paid in full in September 1929.
July - With the installation of a full time fire chief in the person of P.L. Noble, a definite fire protective program will be followed in Manhattan.
October - The Rural Parent-Teachers Association Council of Riley County organized. Representatives of 15 Rural PTA's attended. Nine of the group organized in past year.
October - Street Cars ambling up and down Manhattan streets will soon exist only in memory. Yellow buses carrying from 16 to 20 passengers are substituted for passenger service over a much wider area of the city.
October 29 - Around 10:00 a.m., natural gas was turned into the mains in Manhattan. Noon meals made on gas stoves were cooked with natural rather than artificial gas.
November - Street Commissioner W.A. Pittman completed the work of filling in the old channel of the Blue where the bridge from the end of Poyntz crossed.
November - The Riley County portion of Chauncy Dewey's huge ranch sold. Geary County portion sold for $87,684.18.
November 18 - By week end, Manhattan residents had a bus system instead of street cars.
December - Tear gas effectively routed robbers who tried to gain access Saturday night to the money and postage left in the vault at the Manhattan Post Office.
December - State Engineer and State Auditor's office representatives in Manhattan for the sale of the old river channel. Of the 850 acres to be sold, 160 have been disposed of.
December 20 - Houston and Fourteenth Street Bus route is discontinued and the bus will operate along street car lines from Second to Poyntz to Seventeenth and Anderson.

1929

March - The Marshall Theater closes to install Vitaphone and Movietone equipment of the latest design. Installation cost is $18,000.
March 24 - The Marshall Theater had three afternoon and two evening performance with the new sound equipment.
June - Pottawatomie County Commissioners conferred in Manhattan with the Riley County Commissioners, officials of the United Power and Light and interested land owners about directing the Blue River into a new channel.
July - New currency, one third smaller than the old, replaces paper money in circulation since 1861.
August - King's Drug Store (founded in 1880's by Dr. C.F. Little and Dr. Jeff Robinson; owned by A.H. King since 1913) is the last drug store to install a soda fountain.
September - Montgomery Ward and Co opens a store in the Ulrich Building.
November 6 - Champion farmer cornhuskers from 29 Kansas counties compete at the Juniata Ranch owned by Dan D. Casement. Husking 1,804.5 pounds or 25 bushels and 54 pounds of Reid's Yellow Dent corn in the allotted period of 80 minutes, William Lutz, Riley County, defended his Kansas Cornhusking championship in the state contest. His record beat last years by nearly two bushels.
December - Charles O. Dailey, 823 Colorado, in charge of organizing a local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Completion expected in 3 or 4 months.

Building Timeline

1921

New Catholic Church built.
Central and West portions of Engineering Hall erected at KSU.
Cleburne Methodists build new church.
Mr. Purcell erecting a frame store building on the south side of Houston.
August - New standpipe erected on Sunset Hill in circle south of cemetery.
August - At Rocky Ford, the Rocky Ford Power Company completed a swimming pool 50 feet by 500 feet with the water heated in condensing steam.
October - The Manhattan Telephone Company to have a new home. September 1925, workmen broke ground on North 4th Street. The new building, with an automatic switchboard, is expected to be complete by May or June 1926. Dial telephones are being installed in Manhattan.

1922

January - City gets contract for new filtration water plant. September, iron sediment is remove from Manhattan water pipes.
March - Drive started to build a College Stadium. July, work on the new stadium starts. March 1924, General James G. Harbord donates his bonus check of over $800.00 to the Memorial Stadium at KSAC. August 1924, the KSAC Stadium is completed.
April - Long Oil Co is building a filling station on the corner of Moro and Manhattan, site leased from H.P. Wareham.
June - New Masonic Hall dedicated. (Began in 1920, cornerstone in 1921).
July - Swimming pool being built. The Manhattan Tribune reports "the dirt that has to be moved for the swimming pool and out of the ditches dug for intake and drain pipe, dug into was the meanest, toughest dirt that hand of man has yet uncovered." About three hundred men and a hundred women participated in the days fund and work. The girls served the dinner and the men served in the trenches. August, the pool gets concrete sides and an asphalt bottom.
October - Gillett Hotel to be enlarged and another elevator added. April 1923, revised plans for the rebuilding of the Gillett Hotel call for the construction of a fourth story.
October - Juvenile Building dedicated at the I.O.O.F. home (now Job Corps).
October - School bonds carry. Three new schools (Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and the Junior High) planned. December 1923, contract for school building to replace old Central School in January 1924, when Roosevelt School is occupied.

1923

KSU: Veterinary Clinics, west wing of Waters Hall & residence of President.
Evangelical Lutheran Church at 530 Osage.
February - L.W. Johnsmeyer plans the erection of a $4,000 bakery at 610 N. 12th Street to be completed by June 1st.
March - Excavation for new Mercury building started, north of Spot Cash Store. It will be two-story with two rooms below, one for rent, with offices above.
May - Clarence Johnson gets the contract for the College State Bank of Aggieville bank building. The second floor will be fitted for Club rooms. August, Bank opens at corner of 12th and Moro, even though not finished.
August - The Ulrich Block (southeast corner 4th and Poyntz) to be remodeled and office entrance on 4th Street side.
Roosevelt School built.

1924

February - Central School razed and new school (Woodrow Wilson) built. Name is in dispute, some want it named for recently deceased Amanda Arnold.
March - The contract for the new high school building (Jr. High, now Manhattan High School East) to be let in May. Mr. Williamson, architect of the Roosevelt and Arnold buildings, has been employed to draw the plans. June, Mont Green Contractor of new high school building.
July - Handsome offices built at the corner of 3rd and Houston. A.W. Long, Long Oil Co, has moved his offices here.
The Swedish Lutheran Church purchased two lots across from the High School at 10th and Poyntz and plans to build.

1925

April - Keats votes to build a new school to replace the grade school destroyed by fire. June, ground broken for the new Keats school.
May - The foundation walls of the new Methodist Church are being laid. July, corner stone laid. September 1926, the new Methodist Church is complete, costing above a hundred thousand dollars. It is dedicated on October 10, 1926.
August - Contract for the new dormitory, Van Zile Hall for girls to be let. It will be located in the northeast corner of the campus where the sheep are and across the road from the chickens. It is completed and occupied in 1926. It will accommodate 125-150 girls.
September - Progress at a rapid rate on the Wareham building. Heavy steel beams and girders are handled with ease by the big crane and the steel skeleton is taking shape rapidly. October 1926, the exterior of the new Wareham building is complete, except for the windows. It will be finished by spring and fitted for a hotel with 150 rooms. Back of the hotel, across the alley, Mr. Wareham will build a large storage garage to go with the building for the special use of its patrons.
Telephone exchange built, present day Riley County Office Building East Annex. Estimated to be finished May or June 1926.

People Timeline

June 1920 - Wilson Wreath, 82, was killed in front of his home at 1318 Yuma by a street car.
May 1921 - Reverand William Knipe died. Knipe was a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars.
1922 - Mayor J.C. Barber.
November 1922 - Major General James G. Harbord, one of the most distinguished soldiers of the World War and only second to General Pershing in the American Army has resigned from the army to accept the head of the National Radio Corporation. Harbord is an alumni of KSAC and his mother and sister live in Manhattan.
April 1923 - George D. Rathbun has rented a part of the old Liberty Milling property and will open a wholesale fruit and vegetable house. George Rathbun wrote the Rathbun Speller, used in Kansas schools for a generation.
April 1923 - Amanda Arnold, teacher and early settler, died.
August 1924 - Nellie Rhodes McMillan elected National President of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic in Boson.
December 1924 - E. B. Purcell died. One week later, Mrs. E.B. Purcell died on December 19, 1924.
April 1925 - Clarence Johnson voted Mayor of Manhattan.
September 30, 1929 - Dr. John D. Walters died. He was connected with KSAC for 52 years.

Manhattan/Riley County, 1921-1930

1921

1925

1926

Events Timeline

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

Building Timeline

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

People Timeline

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