Upola

[W. Gray]

There is a red brick building close to the tracks. At first I thought it might have been the depot but it seemed to be too far from the tracks and I later found there to be a question as to whether Upola had a depot. Also, the railroads tended to construct wooden depots in the small areas.

On my second trip out there, the brick building looked like it might have been a school. Someone appeared to be living in it.

Anyone know what that brick building is or was?

[patyrn]

I believe Glenn and Agnes Barnaby lived in the Upola area before moving to Howard.  When their daughter, Elizabeth, joined our class in Howard in the 3rd or 4th grade, she said she had gone to school at Upola.  I had NO IDEA where that might have been, but the name was always kind of intriguing.  I would imagine there must have been a school building there, because I don't think the Barnaby kids ever went to the Longton schools.  Just a possibility......................

[frawin]

There was a school at Upola at one time.  In 1954, Mrs. Golda Barnes, from Longton was the Teacher at Upola and  had two eighth grade graduates who came to Howard to graduate with the Howard Eighth Grade Class.  All rural students came to Howard to graduate.  The students from Upola were Cleda Reed and Jeanean Reaynolds.  Frank & I were both graduated from the eighth grade that year.  There were 10 of us from the rural schools that graduated with the Howard class that year.  One from Pleasant Hill (Inez Biddinger was the teacher);Upola (as listed above), Upper Paw Paw had three students (Juanita Anderson, Teacher); Flint Hills had one graduate (Pansy Barnaby was the teacher); and Union Center had 3 graduates (Clara Perkins was teacher).
Myrna

[flintauqua]

It's been fun for me to follow this thread. You folks bring such history to the table! I thought maybe Upola once had a newspaper but according to the Kansas State Historical Society, none with that name ever existed. Now, I've just got to find the place and take a 360 look-around.

Rudy,

Road 30 meets Harvest at the railroad at Upola:  N 37.41605 W 95.99905

The topo map shows the cemetary up on top of the hill not to far north of the rural water tower, but I can't make it out on the arial maps.

Charles

[frawin]

In my original post I said the year was 1958, I have corrected that to 1954  when the Upola 8th graders came to Howard to graduate.

[W. Gray]

The last reading of the Grandview, or Upola, Cemetery took place sometime in the 1980s according to Kansas Trails.

There are around 40 graves in the cemetery.

The most names belong to Edwards followed by Holtsclaw, Pitts, and Cox.

The earliest burial is of Howard Nordyke died April 23, 1873, at about 40 days old.

The latest burial was of Medora Campbell sometime in 1984 at age 76.

Other names are Cummings, Dunn, Fields, Hepner, Hodge, Hoyt, Matthews, Myers, Seimears, Trotter, and Wiles.

[jarhead]

Waldo,
About half those names you listed in the Upola cemetary are related one way or another to each other. I think I read somewhere that you live in Colorado. If so, this is unrelated to the subject of Upola but I'm gonna give you a "mission". Because my dad worked train service for Santa Fe for almost 40 years, I've always had an interest in it. I thought I had either read, or heard that an old steam engine that used to run on the Howard Branch( the run from Moline to Emporia) was alive and well on the Durango & Silverton  Narrow Guage RR. I thought I had read it on a site of James Burke, the authour of The Iron Horse Vol I & II, but now I can't find out anything about it. Maybe I just had a dream !!!
Jo--I think the hay barns at Upola were owned by Ira Rothgeb. Does that sound right ?

[W. Gray]

I have those two volumes by James Burke.

(For other forum members, this is not the same James Burke that had the "Connections" PBS science series. Our James Burke grew up in Climax north of Severy.)

I had not heard that a Howard Branch locomotive was on the Durango and Silverton, though.

I am not saying it is impossible, but it is difficult so envision how they could put narrow gauge drivers on a standard gauge locomotive.

What I seem to recall was that one of the old Howard Branch locomotives was sitting in a park somewhere on static display, but I cannot recall where. This has been more than three years ago but I seem to recall having tracked down a picture of it.

Tomorrow, I will try to see what I can find.

[flintauqua]

Tangent from a tangent Alert

(For other forum members, this is not the same James Burke that had the "Connections" PBS science series. Our James Burke grew up in Climax north of Severy.)

Had to do some looking.  I was thinking of "The Secret Life of Machines", but that's Tim Hunkin.

[dnalexander]

Update see my next post for a possible answer.
May be this will help you on the steam train question. I see a few ATSF trains on display in Colorado a ways down the page.

http://www.steamlocomotive.info/state.cfm?state=Colorado

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway No. 1024 2-6-2
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway No. 1819 2-6-2
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway No. 2912 4-8-4

or

Santa Fe Preserved Locomotives
http://atsf.railfan.net/atsfpres/


General info.
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/