March 4, 1881
Republican Preston Bierce Plumb of Emporia begins serving as one of Kansas' U. S. Senators, 1877. In 1881, Plumb was the first legislator to propose a prohibition amendment to the U. S. Constitution. Plumb served until December, 1891.
A Calendar of KANSAS History 1979
March 6, 1977
There is no entry for March 5 on this calendar.
Appropriately named, Greenleaf, Washington County, is the smallest city in the nation to win a "Trees Cities, U.S.A." award in connection with a National Arbor Day promotion, 1977.
March 8, 1891
The New York Sun, interviewing "Sockless" Jerry Simpson, recently elected to the U.S. House from Kansas, reports: "Simpson wears socks," 1891. famous for allegedly exposing a bare ankle and declaring that the farmer "ain't got no socks" because of hard times, Simpson said: "Some blamed newspaper writer started that story. I said 'let it go, it will do me more good than harm,' and I guess it did."
March 9, 1937
Mississippian Fred L. Jeltz, a black who came to Kansas in 1889, taught school and wrote a column for the Topeka Daily Capital called "Joltz from Jeltz," dies in Topeka, 1937. Jeltz also made his reputation as a journlist with the estabishment of a black weekly newspaper, the Kansas State Ledger (1892-1906).
March 11, 1887
Charles H. J. Taylor, who was born a slave in 1856, attended Oberlin College, studied law at Ann Arbor College and became a Leavenworth lawyer active in Democratic politics, begins an eight-month tenure as minister resident and consul general to the Republic of Liberia, 1887. Taylor was later appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia, a post he held until 1896.
March 12, 1941
Charles Sanford Skilton, nationally known composer and a professor at the University of Kansas for 40 years, dies, 1941. Skilton, who came to Kansas early in the 20th century and wrote compositions based on tribal Indian melodies and American folklore and legend, is best know for his "Suite Primeval".
March 13, 1929
Official announcement is made that Clyde Tombaugh, Burdett, has discovered the planet Pluto, 1929. Tombaugh, still in high school, was working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, when, as he stated, he "came upon a star-image that had shifted in position in the star-field. The amount of shift was such as to indicate that the object was situated beyond the orbit of Neptune."
March 14, 1911
A month after the Kansas Legislature votes to put the Woman Suffrage Amendment on the Kansas ballot, Henry J. Allen, owner of the Wichita Beacon, says that "the wife who allows her husband to cook his breakfast has let her end of the double-tree get almost into the spokes of the wheel," 1911.
March 15, 1874
John Noble, world famous seascape painter, is born near Wichita, 1874. Noble, who first worked as an illustrator at the Wichita Eagle, painted "Cleopatra at the Bath." which Carry A. Nation criticized as degrading to Wichita women. Noble said that if he'd painted nudes with wings she'd worship them. A few days later, while hatcheting the Carey Hotel Saloon where "Cleopatra" hung, nation destroyed the painting.
Now that is interesting; I knew about Carey Nation and the hotel, but about the painter? I knew nothing. Thanks Wilma! :D
March 17, 1898
Blanche K. Bruce, a black who worked his way to freedom from Mississippi to Kansas before the Civil War and who went on to become registrar of the U.S. Treasury, dies in Washington, D.C., 1898. The Kansas City Times obituary called Bruce "the most conspicuous man of his race".
March 18, 1923
Temperatures plummet 60 degrees in 12 hours, leaving it -8 degrees in Hiawatha, Brown County, and setting a new weather record for March in Kansas, 1923.
March 20, 1912
Kansan William Kopsecker's "stadliasator," a weight with a wheel at the bottom which was to be hung from an airplane to keep it from capsizing, is approved by the War Department, 1912.
March 21, 1963
Composer Thurlow Lieurance, a Kansan from his high school days on, whose works, most notably "Drama of the Yellowstone" and the song "By the Waters of the Minnetonka," were based on his study of Indian music, is born in Iowa, 1878. Lieurance died in 1963 after having been music dean at Wichita University from 1926 to 1953.
March 22, 1972
Police officer John Banninger spots "an unusual light northwest of Dighton," 1972. During the year, he saw the UFO three other times, noting that it moved rapidly away each time he reported it over his radio. Around this time, similar sightings at Colby, Hays and Russell led Colby Police Officer Paul Carter to say: "You'd think we were maniacs except for all the people who saw this. It's true; that's all I can say about it."
March 23, 1911
The "largest locomotive in the world" to this date, built in the Santa Fe shops at Topeka, is given a test run, 1911.
March 24, 1877
When "a gust of wind removed seven dollars out of the stocking of Alice Chambers," a Dodge City prostitute of Front Street cattle town days, and only one dollar is recovered, the Dodge City Times writes: "We had supposed that the Kansas wind was of a higher order, and did not stoop to such larceny. . . under some circumstances even the wind can be found feeling around in by and forbidden places."
March 25, 1908
Addressing a woman's club on the subject of food adulteration, Secretary of the Board of Health Samuel J. Crumbine randomly picks a gingersnap from a box, finds in it some brown straws, and concludes that "sweepings about the tables where pies and cakes and cookies are made, are used in gingersnaps." 1908
March 26, 1873
A Farmer's State Convention at Topeka recommends that every farmer join some kind of farm organization, that taxes be reduced, that tariff laws be amended to protect farm prices, and freight rates be regulated, 1873. Further, the convention denounces bankers' monopoly over interest rates as robbery of agricultural people.