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These Curry family tidbits or trivia may seem irrelevant, but we include them because they are representative of problems encountered by many of our relatives who emigrated to Kansas.
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Elmo- Banner City There are none left to take us down memory lane to Banner City of 1886 and to Elmo of 1885; only faded photographs prevail. Lost towns' histories make more desirable reading if they can be coupled with historical happenings. How to authenticate the happenings to be set down for posterity becomes the problem; almost as great as the struggle between the two towns of Elmo, 1885, and Banner City, 1886. Bear with me! Jeane Bonfield. .. 1989 John Joseph Berry (1847-1933) was one of the earliest Berry settlers in Kansas. He operated a department store in Abilene, Kansas. Thomas John Curry lived with the Berry's, and married Annie Cecilia Hart, the niece of Jennie Byrne, John Joseph Berry's wife. Elmo is located about ten miles due south of Abilene KS. The closest villages are Lindsborg, site of Bethany College, operated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Herrington, due south of Junction City where several of our family members lived. Elmo was petitioned in December 1885 by L. E. Monninger, Mary E. and J.E. on the SW 1/4 of section 5 and the NW 1/4 of section 8, Banner Township. David Feeney and Don Bethe are respective owners (1997). Flower Valley School, Dist. 47, was organized in 1872-73 and built on the southeast corner of Section 6. Six month terms were taught to as many as 109 pupils during railroad building in 1885. The school also served as a community center for spelling bees and debates, and the United Brethren families used it until they built a church on the L.E. Monninger farm. Lutherans, Evangelicals, Christians, and Methodist used the school and then the church. After the old church building was replaced by the new one in 1887, it was sold and moved onto a farm owned by Bessie Williams, Section 12, Holland Township, and used as a barn. In 1894 the United Brethren church building was moved from Elmo to Banner City. According to an issue of the Abilene newspaper in this year, the congregation split into two factions regarding the location of the church. The final result was a compromise between the two groups, a piece of land was purchased midway between the proposed and the original sites. Several years later the building was sold to the Modem Woodman of America for use as a lodge hall. Fire destroyed the building about 1920. The Elmo Cemetery was established by the United Brethren -- two acres adjacent to the school ground was purchased from L. E. Monninger in 1882. In 1900 it was chartered as Banner City Cemetery Association, and deeded to the group in 1916. The "first" Elmo village consisted of six families within a quarter mile radius of the village country store. Dr. W.H. Caulk was postmaster in 1884. Two years later Caulk proposed William McCormick be postmaster of Banner City Station, 1886. The hamlet of Elmo was growing. Merchants were William and J.E. Monninger, A. L. Shane, and H.M. Reaugh. Al Loupee had a blacksmith shop, and surrounding homesteaders were William Brewer, A. J. Sterling, Joshua Conklin, Henry Bethe, and M.S. Cooley. Banner City Station was petitioned March 2, 1886 by J.J. Berry after the railroad failed to go through Elmo. Berry formed the Banner City Town Co. with the aid of Thomas J. Curry. Amid the furor of the residents of Elmo they platted Banner City on the southeast corner of Section 5, adjacent to the Topeka, Salina, & Western Railroad. Thirty blocks were platted; east-west thoroughfares were Main, First, and Second streets; north-south streets were Cedar on the west, Mulberry, Walnut, Pine, and Oak. Nine months after he petitioned in December, William McCormick became postmaster, specifying one hundred forty inhabitants, supplying three hundred population. Banner City was located one mile east of Elmo. Several years later it was found Trego County had a town named Banner City, so in the mid-l890s, the name was changed from Banner City to Elmo. J J. Berry, an implement dealer in Abilene hired Thomas Curry to manage his Banner City venture, which he did for ten years. Berry built a three-room, two story building on Main street from the local brick made on the J .E. Monninger farm with sand coming from the A.L. Davis and Wm. Brewer farms. Many two-story buildings with dwellings above were built. H.M. Reaugh and A.L. Shane moved their stores to Banner City from Elmo. W.T. Sterling and William McCormick erected a merchandise building; Gillett and Schrader built a two-story structure that later became George Brewer's ice cream parlor and sundries store. The building is gone, but the brick ice-box structure stands alone on the south side of Main Street. (Ice blocks were cut in the winter and stored between straw in caves that dotted the countryside.) . Smizer and McCormick had a hardware and lumberstore; they later became the Badger Lumber and Coal Yard. The building was repaired and converted into a double vehicle garage. A.J. Davis built a grain elevator, later sold to William Hacker, it later became the Elmo Grain, Inc. Cecil Leshley was the manager when this last Elmo business ceased operation. The second story room of H.M. Reaugh' s building was used as a community hall; adjacent, W.P. Hull built a two-story hotel with a livery stable joining to accommodate the drummers (salesman) who came by train and traveled by buggy through the countryside. The hotel housed a sundries and confectionery in the front, with sleeping rooms upstairs. The livery stable was later sold to the Hughes Brothers. John Ireland bought Al Loupee's blacksmith shop. Frank Neyer, Sr., a woodworker, had a two-story building erected by John Whitehair; later it was sold to Bert Davis. John Bonfield built and operated a hardware store which he later sold to the Elmo Mutual Telephone Co. The above excerpt from Halen Dingler, Past & Present Towns of Dickinson County, Kansas was received from Julie Hanson, November 2007. Kansas and the other plains states are dotted with similar locations, once thriving, now deserted. Vine Creek is another example. |
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1913 Valuation of the Tampa Kansas James Noone farm We have no idea why the following letter was written. Both James Noone and his wive Anne Curry died in 1934, so it was not for estate purposes. The reason for including this letter in the clan site is to give the reader an idea of what buildings and improvements would be on a homestead site in the early 20th century, as well as then current prices. Note that the letter is dates 1923, but refers to a valuation of 1913.
Copy of original letter received from Julie Hanson November 2007 |
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Declaration of Intention |
Citizenship
practices. Any child born in
the US was considered a US citizen. Those
who immigrated were expected to apply for
citizenship, which was readily granted.
Not every immigrant
followed through on the application, as it was
needed only for voting and holding public office.
The applicant filled out a Declaration of
Intention and about five years later applied for
Naturalization.
Women did not have the right to vote in the nineteenth century, so most immigrant women did not apply for citizenship. Culturally, women were not considered rational enough to vote. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the argument was made that women would only be a duplicate vote because they would vote any way their husbands dictated. They received the right to vote in 1920. Military service accelerated the waiting period for full citizenship. Three of the Foy sisters who acted as nurses for the US Army in France were granted citizenship upon discharge from the Army, as was my father Peter Joseph Foy. Some of the clan applied for disability benefits based on service during the Civil War, which also provided widow's benefits.
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Naturalization |
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Father Thomas O'Reilly and St. Andrew R C Church, Abilene Kansas
The first known Mass in Abilene KS was at Margaret Callahan's cabin in 1859. The cornerstone of the first St. Andrew Church was laid on Nov 30, 1874, the feast of Saint Andrew. The parish was served by a number of priests, mostly itinerant until Father John O'Leary was named as the first resident pastor in 1880. This was followed by another quick series of priests. In 1894 the first bell was installed. This 1500 lb. bell is installed in the current church. In 1910, Rev. Thomas O'Reilly came from Elmo to be St. Andrew's second resident priest. It was under his direction that the first parish church was razed and the present St. Andrew's Church was constructed. The cornerstone was laid in 1916 and the building was finished the following spring. The dedication services were conducted by Most Rev. J. F. Cunningham, D.D., Bishop of Concordia, with the Very Rev. John Maher, Salina, giving the dedicatory sermon. Horace Smith was an altar boy at this service. Anna Haslouer and John Kohman were the first couple married in the new church.
St. Andrew's Church is romanesque in design
and is constructed of dark red brick with white The Rt. Rev. Msgr. C. J. Roche came to Abilene from Ogden in 1930. He was ordained in the Cathedral of Carlow, Ireland, on June 14, 1908, and came to the Concordia Diocese the same year. On June 14, 1958, Msgr. Roche celebrated his Golden Jubilee with a parish open house. An apostolic blessing from Pope Pius XII and a greeting from President Eisenhower were among the honors Msgr. Roche received. Information derived from the 1986 parish directory and history of Saint Andrew, Abilene Kansas. Received from Julie Hatton November 2007 |
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most recent revision: 10 March 2008 |
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Father
Thomas O'Reilly is typical of priests who were trained in Ireland
(Maynouth seminary) and sent as missionaries to other countries
to service the religious needs of the Irish emigrants. The Irish
seminary system had been revised by the ultraconservative
Cardinal Paul Curran of Dublin and this conservative cast
permeated the hundreds of Irish priests who came to America.
While in residence at Saint Andrew Church in Abilene, he had his
older sister living with him as well as Bridget Berry Cosgrove, a
widow who had married Richard Cosgrove in Streator Illinois and
migrated to Kansas. Bridget's husband died soon after
their arrival in Kansas, and there were no children of the
marriage. Bridget served as the parish housekeeper for many
years. Father O'Reilly is cited humorously in
limestone trim. The $60,000.00 structure is 120 feet by 50 feet
and has a capacity of 500 to 600 people. It is a tribute to the
parishioners that the church was paid for upon completion. The
spire towers 125 feet above the sidewalk and is surmounted by a
12 foot cross. The interior of the church was devotional and rich
in color with three white altars. The frescoing, which decorated
each side archway with a Christian symbol, cost $3,000.00. The
windows, manufactured in Munich, Germany, were all stained glass
and were donated by parish families. Each window depicts a
mystery of the rosary. The large crucifix, which is now at the
rear of the church, was part of the sanctuary.