On to Howard, Kansas

[W. Gray]

I don't think I have posted this before.

http://shorock.com/nora/ellen/howard.htm

[patyrn]

Waldo,

Do you know who this little girl was?  I recognize some local names, such as Norval and Ethel who probably would be the Yantis folks.  Also the photo of the house in Howard looks like the Ray Perkins House.  I haven't taken the time to read though all the segments, but it is very interesting.

KRI

[W. Gray]

Her name was Ellen Louise. Her last name escapes me.

She sat on a bucket turned upside down and watched the Elk River alligators being stuffed.

That is the house on the southwest corner of Randolph and Perry.

Someone in Greenwood County told me that house burned down and was rebuilt around 1940, or so, but I have my doubts.

Her daughter's web page is at

http://shorock.com/nora/

[Wilma]

If that house burned and was rebuilt, they built it back exactly the way the photo shows.  It is still a magnificent looking house.

[Marcia Moore]

     The house previously pictured in this category is the house that is now standing.  The original house built at that location was built for James W. "Jim" Donnell and his wife, Sarah J., in the summer of 1912 and was three stories high.  Somewhere I have a news article that tells when the original house burned to the ground.  I know it wasn't in the 1940's, though, because the Donnells were the ones that built the second home there and they both died before 1940 - she in 1930 and he in 1937.  I was thinking the house may have burned only a few years after it was built.  In any case, the Donnells did not have insurance, so when it was rebuilt they built it back smaller - only two stories high.  The news story I have tells that Mrs. Donnell was having a ladies get-together at her home and one of the attendee's sons was playing with matches and started the fire.  Rumor is that Mrs. Donnell was so distraught that the house had caught on fire that she ran into a closet and refused to leave, but someone got her out anyway.
    Here is a photo of the original house that was three stories high.

[Mom70x7]

Wow  - that's interesting. I pulled up the two pictures and compared them side by side. Very nice re-building.

[Marcia Moore]

     While looking on the forum, I see where a suicide took place in 1927 in the garage of the house next door to the Donnell home.  The man who hung himself was Ralph Dewey.  To see the story, go here:
http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php/topic,2008.msg7239.html#msg7239

[W. Gray]

Holy Frijole, I was aware he lived on the west side of town but did not know the location.

If the house is on the Perry Street side, it appears that is the Moore's house. Those folks are in Twilight Manor.

If built in 1912, the house probably burned, as you say, just a few years later. The little girl, Ellen Louise, was in Howard around 1926, and if the photo on the "On to Howard, Kansas" web site is from the time she was in Howard, it would have to be the current house.

The current house is very "spacey" on the inside, so the original must have been really something.

An Elk County register of deeds, Will H. Walker, also committed suicide by putting a gun to his head after he came up short in the county funds under his care. I do not recall the date.