As a culmination to the 7-week-long Reads, Kansas State University’s Diana Farmer, who has worked in Afghanistan, will show photographs and talk about her time there. Farmer will speak at 7 p.m. March 11 in the Iola High School lecture hall.
Farmer was in Afghanistan “advising them about their libraries” in both November 2008 and June 2009, she said. She helped select library materials and “offer(ed) training sessions to faculty and some graduate students on how to do research on the Internet.”
The talk will teach Iolans more about life in Afghanistan, where Greg Mortenson, author of Iola Reads’ spring selection “Three Cups of Tea” works building schools, especially for girls.
While Farmer did not work with Mortenson, she did note the impact education has on the culture there.
Afghanistan is very conservative, at least toward women, Farmer said.
Women have to keep themselves concelaed at all times. Farmer had to abide by similar social mores, she said.
“I did have to wear a scarf and keep my head covered,” she noted. “The clothing I wore had to cover me from the wrist to the neck and also my ankles. The clothing also had to be loose and not form-fitting.”
At Kabul Univeristy, where Framer spent time, her lectures were attended by both men and women at the same time, a habit not typical even at the university level.
“Most of them understood the cultures are different and they were happy to get the information,” she said. Even so, she noted, “when they would come in for a class the women would sit on one side of the room and the men would sit on the other.” Outside the university, men and women who were not married couples could not be in the same room at the same time, she said.
Kabul University has no women teaching in their engineering department, Farmer said.
In addition to Kabnul Univeristy, Farmer visited Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province while in Afghanistan, she said. It is home to the blue mosque, believed to entomb Hazrat Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Muslim prophet, Mohammad. The mosque is reverred as “the tomb of one of the religious leaders of one of the sects of Islam,” Farmer said.
Farmer will present a PowerPoint presentation of her trips during her talk.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Afghanistan recovering slowly, Kansan says
The most striking aspect of the photos Diana Farmer showed of Afghanistan Thursday night as a culmination to the spring Iola Reads program was the lack of soil in the region.
“It’s high plains desert,” she noted of the mountainous terrain. Ragged peaks jut menacingly from thin valley floors. Snow scrapes farm fields and rock faces alike. And people, millions of people, live here, with only two lane roads and the crumbling remnants of a decade-long war with Russia that hammered what was once a nation that “led the region in education of women,” Farmer said.
Kabul is located in a narrow valley at about 5,000 feet elevation, cupped by 8,000- to 10,000-foot peaks. Two million people live in a city designed for 500,000, Farmer said. The city has only two high schools, which house 500,000 students between them. Students attend classes in shifts.
Farmer — science collection manager at Kansas State University library, who visited the country twice to help Kabul University enhance it’s library collection — said that as a result of the Soviet conflict and subsequent takeover by the Taliban regime, there is not much left of Kabuil University’s libraries.
“Many of the books are from the ’50s and ’60s — they’re no good for teaching,” she said.
“The Soviets shut down the University and hunted down as many educators as they could and killed them,” Farmer sad. “When the Taliban took over, they stripped every bit of metal from the buildings — radiators, boilers, electrical wire.” As a result, the buildings of Kabul University, which stretch over 600 acres in the city’s square, are mere shells. Uninsulated and barren, classes are limited to spring and fall, to take advantage of moderate weather.
The World Bank awarded the school, originally established with U.S. funds in the 1950s, a 10-year three-tier grant to revitalize its engineering and English programs. Farmer’s visits were part of that. In exchange, K-State is serving as a temporary home to some of Kabul’s engineering faculty, who are pursuing masters degrees through the grants.
The grants have meant a return of female students. “If the Taliban were in control, women would not even be allowed in” Farmer noted.
While women are present at the university, they must remain segregated from their male counterparts in all public settings.
In the library, men have the main floor, while women use a small balcony, Farmer said.
While “men can wear almost anything,” women — even visitors — are required to be covered top to toes.
“Nothing from my chin to my feet could resemble a human body part,” Farmer quipped, explaining that women’s clothes must be loose-fitting and all-encompassing.
As the Taliban’s hold on the country loosens, women are beginning to wear slightly more form-fitting garb, she said, but even saris of India are too revealing for the strict religious culture. Women “can show the hair from the top of the head forward, but from there back you must be covered,” Farmer said. The clothing tradition dates to long before the Taliban, Farmer added.
The 1979-1989 war with Russia devastated Afghanistan, Farmer noted.
Almost everyone educated person between the ages of 30 and 50 either fled the country or was killed.
“There’s almost two generations of experience and skill missing from this culture. I don’t know how that’s going to affect the future,” she observed.
In addition, Russians planted land mines throughout the rocky terrain.
There are lines of rock in fields and along roads, Farmer said, that denote safe areas to walk.
“If you walk between the rows of rocks painted white, you won’t be blown up. If there are rocks painted red, it’s an area that has not been de-mined yet.”
Because of the mines, about 1/5 of Kabul’s 2 million people have at least parts of limbs missing. Children are especially vulnerable, she said, as they tend to their family’s sheep and goats as the animals wander in search of forage. The animals, Farmer said, “get blown up quite frequently because of the mines.”
The country’s transportation system is tentative. Roads are narrow and unpaved, jutting from mountainsides through steep avalanche corridors and around blind curves.
“The transportation system is not organized,” Farmer said. “Everybody’s going in every direction at the same time.”
Old army trucks, bedecked with jangling chains over the wheel wells, are common. The trucks are painted shades of blue, and with numerous eye balls, Farmer said, to ward off evil spirits.
Camels and donkeys still convey goods across precipitous peaks and high plains, Farmer said. Shipping containers are used as houses. Husks of airplanes and tanks litter Kabul. Electrical service, even in the capital, is erratic, Farmer said.
At its worst, the Taliban would follow behind Afghan crews who erected high voltage towers and tear them down immediately.
While in the country, Farmer visited Mazar-i-Sharif, home of the famed Blue Mosque, tomb of Mohammed’s cousin, she said. It is every shade of blue, Farmer noted, ranging to deep turquoise. Mazar-i-Sharif is one of the country’s main cities, on a road that circumvents, as much as possible, the precipitous peaks of the country’s interior. The loop road hopes to connect each province in Afghanistan, save a thin strip of land that is the country’s most formidable.
The far eastern edge of the nation is a thin buffer zone between Pakistan and Russia, established by the British in the late 1800’s.
The Hindu Kush mountains engulf the span, rising 20,000 feet and peopled by various ethnic tribes distinct from the dominant cultures of the nation, Farmer said.
A new government, in place about a dozen years, hopes to unify the country through establishing an offical language.
Schools built through the Central Asia Institute, which Iola school children recently collected pennies for, also teach English, noted Gail Dunbar, USD 257 curriculum director.
At Kabul University, Farmer taught English department and library staff Internet use and software.
Farmer said the World Bank grants did not achieve as much change as the organization had wished, mainly due to lack of oversight of how the funds were used. Leaking roofs are still the norm in some of the University’s buildings. But, Farmer showed slides of locally handcrafted bookcases lining walls, of mission-style tables and chairs also constructed by Afghani craftsmen, of floors covered in locally loomed rugs. Certainly these changes improved conditions for students at the University.
In addition, about a dozen women were hired to teach in the English department until regular professors, on leave to attain their masters degrees in Colorado, Kansas and Turkey, return.
The women hope the experience is a career step, Farmer said. Teachers at the university earn about $50 per month, she noted. In contrast, interpreters for non-governmental organizations can earn 20 times that much, she said.
Many male students, she noted, work as interpreters, and cram all their classes into one day per week so they can hold such jobs.
Farmer noted other changes in the countyr bvetween her first visit, in Novemebr of 2008, and her second, in June 2009.
More building is occuring in Kabul, she said.
“In November, there was not the comfort with the government to want to do anything.” She said “the last stable government they had was their king,” in the 1940s and ’50s.
But now electricity was on up to 12 hours a day, she said. In Novemebr, three hours was the norm.
Slowly, she said, the region is recovering.
Still, “it’s not going to be an easy job to make Afghanistan a nation.”
“It’s high plains desert,” she noted of the mountainous terrain. Ragged peaks jut menacingly from thin valley floors. Snow scrapes farm fields and rock faces alike. And people, millions of people, live here, with only two lane roads and the crumbling remnants of a decade-long war with Russia that hammered what was once a nation that “led the region in education of women,” Farmer said.
Kabul is located in a narrow valley at about 5,000 feet elevation, cupped by 8,000- to 10,000-foot peaks. Two million people live in a city designed for 500,000, Farmer said. The city has only two high schools, which house 500,000 students between them. Students attend classes in shifts.
Farmer — science collection manager at Kansas State University library, who visited the country twice to help Kabul University enhance it’s library collection — said that as a result of the Soviet conflict and subsequent takeover by the Taliban regime, there is not much left of Kabuil University’s libraries.
“Many of the books are from the ’50s and ’60s — they’re no good for teaching,” she said.
“The Soviets shut down the University and hunted down as many educators as they could and killed them,” Farmer sad. “When the Taliban took over, they stripped every bit of metal from the buildings — radiators, boilers, electrical wire.” As a result, the buildings of Kabul University, which stretch over 600 acres in the city’s square, are mere shells. Uninsulated and barren, classes are limited to spring and fall, to take advantage of moderate weather.
The World Bank awarded the school, originally established with U.S. funds in the 1950s, a 10-year three-tier grant to revitalize its engineering and English programs. Farmer’s visits were part of that. In exchange, K-State is serving as a temporary home to some of Kabul’s engineering faculty, who are pursuing masters degrees through the grants.
The grants have meant a return of female students. “If the Taliban were in control, women would not even be allowed in” Farmer noted.
While women are present at the university, they must remain segregated from their male counterparts in all public settings.
In the library, men have the main floor, while women use a small balcony, Farmer said.
While “men can wear almost anything,” women — even visitors — are required to be covered top to toes.
“Nothing from my chin to my feet could resemble a human body part,” Farmer quipped, explaining that women’s clothes must be loose-fitting and all-encompassing.
As the Taliban’s hold on the country loosens, women are beginning to wear slightly more form-fitting garb, she said, but even saris of India are too revealing for the strict religious culture. Women “can show the hair from the top of the head forward, but from there back you must be covered,” Farmer said. The clothing tradition dates to long before the Taliban, Farmer added.
The 1979-1989 war with Russia devastated Afghanistan, Farmer noted.
Almost everyone educated person between the ages of 30 and 50 either fled the country or was killed.
“There’s almost two generations of experience and skill missing from this culture. I don’t know how that’s going to affect the future,” she observed.
In addition, Russians planted land mines throughout the rocky terrain.
There are lines of rock in fields and along roads, Farmer said, that denote safe areas to walk.
“If you walk between the rows of rocks painted white, you won’t be blown up. If there are rocks painted red, it’s an area that has not been de-mined yet.”
Because of the mines, about 1/5 of Kabul’s 2 million people have at least parts of limbs missing. Children are especially vulnerable, she said, as they tend to their family’s sheep and goats as the animals wander in search of forage. The animals, Farmer said, “get blown up quite frequently because of the mines.”
The country’s transportation system is tentative. Roads are narrow and unpaved, jutting from mountainsides through steep avalanche corridors and around blind curves.
“The transportation system is not organized,” Farmer said. “Everybody’s going in every direction at the same time.”
Old army trucks, bedecked with jangling chains over the wheel wells, are common. The trucks are painted shades of blue, and with numerous eye balls, Farmer said, to ward off evil spirits.
Camels and donkeys still convey goods across precipitous peaks and high plains, Farmer said. Shipping containers are used as houses. Husks of airplanes and tanks litter Kabul. Electrical service, even in the capital, is erratic, Farmer said.
At its worst, the Taliban would follow behind Afghan crews who erected high voltage towers and tear them down immediately.
While in the country, Farmer visited Mazar-i-Sharif, home of the famed Blue Mosque, tomb of Mohammed’s cousin, she said. It is every shade of blue, Farmer noted, ranging to deep turquoise. Mazar-i-Sharif is one of the country’s main cities, on a road that circumvents, as much as possible, the precipitous peaks of the country’s interior. The loop road hopes to connect each province in Afghanistan, save a thin strip of land that is the country’s most formidable.
The far eastern edge of the nation is a thin buffer zone between Pakistan and Russia, established by the British in the late 1800’s.
The Hindu Kush mountains engulf the span, rising 20,000 feet and peopled by various ethnic tribes distinct from the dominant cultures of the nation, Farmer said.
A new government, in place about a dozen years, hopes to unify the country through establishing an offical language.
Schools built through the Central Asia Institute, which Iola school children recently collected pennies for, also teach English, noted Gail Dunbar, USD 257 curriculum director.
At Kabul University, Farmer taught English department and library staff Internet use and software.
Farmer said the World Bank grants did not achieve as much change as the organization had wished, mainly due to lack of oversight of how the funds were used. Leaking roofs are still the norm in some of the University’s buildings. But, Farmer showed slides of locally handcrafted bookcases lining walls, of mission-style tables and chairs also constructed by Afghani craftsmen, of floors covered in locally loomed rugs. Certainly these changes improved conditions for students at the University.
In addition, about a dozen women were hired to teach in the English department until regular professors, on leave to attain their masters degrees in Colorado, Kansas and Turkey, return.
The women hope the experience is a career step, Farmer said. Teachers at the university earn about $50 per month, she noted. In contrast, interpreters for non-governmental organizations can earn 20 times that much, she said.
Many male students, she noted, work as interpreters, and cram all their classes into one day per week so they can hold such jobs.
Farmer noted other changes in the countyr bvetween her first visit, in Novemebr of 2008, and her second, in June 2009.
More building is occuring in Kabul, she said.
“In November, there was not the comfort with the government to want to do anything.” She said “the last stable government they had was their king,” in the 1940s and ’50s.
But now electricity was on up to 12 hours a day, she said. In Novemebr, three hours was the norm.
Slowly, she said, the region is recovering.
Still, “it’s not going to be an easy job to make Afghanistan a nation.”
ACT studies past to prep for future
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
Future leaders of Allen County were given a walk through time Wednesday afternoon as part of the first Allen County Togetherness class.
ACT, through five classes over seven months, hopes to develop a new crop of community advocates. The first step, learning about former leaders, took place at the Allen County Historical Museum.
Museum docents Ray and Donna Houser introduced 11 participants — most members of Iola’s banking or business community — to the movers and shakers who established Iola and Allen County. All, Society Director Jeff Kluever said, made large “personal investments in this community.”
Early Iola leaders were businessmen and entrepreneurs with their fingers in many pies, Donna Houser told the group. And they believed in networking.
“All the people who ran things, started things, operated things, were all friends,” she said.
“Fred Horton,” she noted, “drilled the first significant gas well in Allen County. He was brought here by the Bowlus and Northrup families.”
Before such early leaders built the grand mansions and brick buildings that still make up old Iola, “This town was a bunch of wooden structures,” Ray Houser noted. “They decided to make something of this town. These people came to Iola as pioneers.”
Early leaders, Donna Houser said, saw potential in the railroads and waterways that crossed Allen County.
They brought with them memories, and marked the landscape with names from their youths.
George Bowlus, Donna Houser informed, came from Piqua, Ohio, and named his new town after his old. Bowlus then started the second bank in town; Levi Northrup had the first, she said.
The Funston family moved from New Carlisle, Ohio, to found Carlyle, Kan.
Ed Funston was a political leader. His son Fred became a two-star general in the army, the highest possible rank at that time. Serving under him were generals Douglas MacArthur, George Patton and John Pershing, Ray Houser said.
But some early leaders were either disingenuous or shortsighted, Ray Houser said.
“Cofachique promised they’d have the first grist mill, but they didn’t think the Neosho River was clean enough to drink from,” he said.
So Humboldt was built, and used the river’s plentiful waters for drinking and other needs, and quickly surpassed Cofachique in size and prosperity.
A vegetarian colony attempted in the mid 1850s promised settlers housing, gardens and mills — but didn’t deliver on any of it. Only one of its three “leaders” settled there himself. It was gone in less than a year.
The communities that prospered did so because of the conviction of leadership, Donna Houser said.
“Northrup leant money on a handshake. It’s because of him Iola prospered,” she said.
“Tom Bowlus also leant that way,” docent Amy Specht added.
“You don’t do that anymore,” Donna Houser nodded to Heather Curry, an ACT student who works at Citizen’s Bank.
“No,” Curry agreed.
It was that early trust, though, that allowed the town to grow, Donna Houser said.
“At one point, Iola was the fastest growing community in the United States,” Ray Houser said.
That was due to the discovery of gas just after the Civil War, he noted.
“There was thought to be so much gas that it would last forever. Any business that came to town was given free gas. We had lumber mills, brick factories, an electric railway,” Ray Houser noted. “But forever turned out to be about 20 years,” then the gas dried up, he said.
Population peaked at 15,000 around 1918, he said.
Now, “Savonburg and Elsmore are really dying concerns,” Ray said. “Gas City is still a bedroom community for Iola. MIldred is thinking of unincorporating. Nobody cares anymore,” Ray Houser said.
Donna Houser touched on the role of women in leadership in Allen County
“To get to be a leader you had to be a brazen person,” she said.
The mindset worked against women, she noted.
“When I was in dental school, I was told, ‘you don’t need this education, you’re just going to get married.’” she noted.
Women “had to work against all the rules,” Donna Houser said. She called them “silent leaders.”
Blacks, too, had taken leadership roles in Allen County, Ray Houser noted.
“Spencer Ambler was the first black postmaster in Kansas,” he said. “Salis Bass was the first black doctor,” Donna Houser added. “Whites and blacks went to him. He was a very good doctor.”
His funeral, she noted, was attended by crowds of both races.
Modern day leaders can look to the challenges faced by Iola pioneers to understand the commitment to place necessary in growing a town, the Housers said.
The Housers told the class it is important to learn about the past and focus on the future.
Register Reporter
Future leaders of Allen County were given a walk through time Wednesday afternoon as part of the first Allen County Togetherness class.
ACT, through five classes over seven months, hopes to develop a new crop of community advocates. The first step, learning about former leaders, took place at the Allen County Historical Museum.
Museum docents Ray and Donna Houser introduced 11 participants — most members of Iola’s banking or business community — to the movers and shakers who established Iola and Allen County. All, Society Director Jeff Kluever said, made large “personal investments in this community.”
Early Iola leaders were businessmen and entrepreneurs with their fingers in many pies, Donna Houser told the group. And they believed in networking.
“All the people who ran things, started things, operated things, were all friends,” she said.
“Fred Horton,” she noted, “drilled the first significant gas well in Allen County. He was brought here by the Bowlus and Northrup families.”
Before such early leaders built the grand mansions and brick buildings that still make up old Iola, “This town was a bunch of wooden structures,” Ray Houser noted. “They decided to make something of this town. These people came to Iola as pioneers.”
Early leaders, Donna Houser said, saw potential in the railroads and waterways that crossed Allen County.
They brought with them memories, and marked the landscape with names from their youths.
George Bowlus, Donna Houser informed, came from Piqua, Ohio, and named his new town after his old. Bowlus then started the second bank in town; Levi Northrup had the first, she said.
The Funston family moved from New Carlisle, Ohio, to found Carlyle, Kan.
Ed Funston was a political leader. His son Fred became a two-star general in the army, the highest possible rank at that time. Serving under him were generals Douglas MacArthur, George Patton and John Pershing, Ray Houser said.
But some early leaders were either disingenuous or shortsighted, Ray Houser said.
“Cofachique promised they’d have the first grist mill, but they didn’t think the Neosho River was clean enough to drink from,” he said.
So Humboldt was built, and used the river’s plentiful waters for drinking and other needs, and quickly surpassed Cofachique in size and prosperity.
A vegetarian colony attempted in the mid 1850s promised settlers housing, gardens and mills — but didn’t deliver on any of it. Only one of its three “leaders” settled there himself. It was gone in less than a year.
The communities that prospered did so because of the conviction of leadership, Donna Houser said.
“Northrup leant money on a handshake. It’s because of him Iola prospered,” she said.
“Tom Bowlus also leant that way,” docent Amy Specht added.
“You don’t do that anymore,” Donna Houser nodded to Heather Curry, an ACT student who works at Citizen’s Bank.
“No,” Curry agreed.
It was that early trust, though, that allowed the town to grow, Donna Houser said.
“At one point, Iola was the fastest growing community in the United States,” Ray Houser said.
That was due to the discovery of gas just after the Civil War, he noted.
“There was thought to be so much gas that it would last forever. Any business that came to town was given free gas. We had lumber mills, brick factories, an electric railway,” Ray Houser noted. “But forever turned out to be about 20 years,” then the gas dried up, he said.
Population peaked at 15,000 around 1918, he said.
Now, “Savonburg and Elsmore are really dying concerns,” Ray said. “Gas City is still a bedroom community for Iola. MIldred is thinking of unincorporating. Nobody cares anymore,” Ray Houser said.
Donna Houser touched on the role of women in leadership in Allen County
“To get to be a leader you had to be a brazen person,” she said.
The mindset worked against women, she noted.
“When I was in dental school, I was told, ‘you don’t need this education, you’re just going to get married.’” she noted.
Women “had to work against all the rules,” Donna Houser said. She called them “silent leaders.”
Blacks, too, had taken leadership roles in Allen County, Ray Houser noted.
“Spencer Ambler was the first black postmaster in Kansas,” he said. “Salis Bass was the first black doctor,” Donna Houser added. “Whites and blacks went to him. He was a very good doctor.”
His funeral, she noted, was attended by crowds of both races.
Modern day leaders can look to the challenges faced by Iola pioneers to understand the commitment to place necessary in growing a town, the Housers said.
The Housers told the class it is important to learn about the past and focus on the future.
Kansans showed spunk during Depression
On Saturday evening about a dozen local history buffs turned out to hear Lorraine Madway in a Kansas Humanities Council-sponsored talk on “Struggle and Resilience — Kansas during the Great Depression” at Allen County Historical Society Funston Meeting Hall.
Madway is an archivist and curator of special collections at Wichita Statue University.
While cataloguing collections at WSU, Madway recognized that the “university holds a major Works Progress Administration Writers Project collection.”
The WPA was a government program instituted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the extreme unemployment of the Great Depression.
Known primarily for its construction projects, building highways and infrastructure in national parks and across the nation, the WPA also sponsored artist “projects” that employed photographers, writers, illustrators and painters to capture the face of the nation during an unprecedented time of hardship.
The writers project put to work teachers, journalists, secretaries, lawyers — “Anyone who could handle a typewriter,” Madway said — in recording the stories of the common people.
In each state, writers were hired to prepare guides to chronicle the culture, history, geography, agriculture and byways of that state. The books became widely popular, especially during the prosperity after World War II, Madway noted, when they were “popularized and purchased as a celebration of America.”
Madway noted some stories wax poetic, while others are more straight forward in nature.
“The writers that went around were fascinated with the stories people were telling them,” she said. In Kansas, writers talked “to pioneers, farmers, former slaves, a tramp.” In cities such as Wichita they also featured ethnic communities, she noted.
Madway was surprised that the tales were not all woe.
“In the process of going through these materials, it was clear to me that, in the case of Kansas, the struggle is matched by resilience. In Kansas, there is a real record that crisis brought out the best in people.”
Kansas during the 1930s was already struggling before the depression, Madway noted, due to ongoing drought and subsequent economic downturn.
“Agricultural productivity dropped 63 percent,” as billowing clouds of black dust rolled across the state, seeped into houses and made breathing and outdoor work all but impossible, she said.
Still, Madway noted, neighboring states fared worse.
“Oklahoma suffered a great deal” more, she said, but “here in Kansas is was hard enough.”
What comes through from the records of the writer’s project, she said, is that in Kansas, “There is a sense that people are determined to deal with this and find a life that is worth living.”
Throughout the Depression, Kansans held county fairs when they could, danced and met with neighbors to share meals and entertainment, Madway said. Although some left the state, she said, many stayed because they had history here.
“You come to respect the love the people have for this state,” she said.
Images from early Kansas history can be found at wichitaphotos.org
Madway is an archivist and curator of special collections at Wichita Statue University.
While cataloguing collections at WSU, Madway recognized that the “university holds a major Works Progress Administration Writers Project collection.”
The WPA was a government program instituted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the extreme unemployment of the Great Depression.
Known primarily for its construction projects, building highways and infrastructure in national parks and across the nation, the WPA also sponsored artist “projects” that employed photographers, writers, illustrators and painters to capture the face of the nation during an unprecedented time of hardship.
The writers project put to work teachers, journalists, secretaries, lawyers — “Anyone who could handle a typewriter,” Madway said — in recording the stories of the common people.
In each state, writers were hired to prepare guides to chronicle the culture, history, geography, agriculture and byways of that state. The books became widely popular, especially during the prosperity after World War II, Madway noted, when they were “popularized and purchased as a celebration of America.”
Madway noted some stories wax poetic, while others are more straight forward in nature.
“The writers that went around were fascinated with the stories people were telling them,” she said. In Kansas, writers talked “to pioneers, farmers, former slaves, a tramp.” In cities such as Wichita they also featured ethnic communities, she noted.
Madway was surprised that the tales were not all woe.
“In the process of going through these materials, it was clear to me that, in the case of Kansas, the struggle is matched by resilience. In Kansas, there is a real record that crisis brought out the best in people.”
Kansas during the 1930s was already struggling before the depression, Madway noted, due to ongoing drought and subsequent economic downturn.
“Agricultural productivity dropped 63 percent,” as billowing clouds of black dust rolled across the state, seeped into houses and made breathing and outdoor work all but impossible, she said.
Still, Madway noted, neighboring states fared worse.
“Oklahoma suffered a great deal” more, she said, but “here in Kansas is was hard enough.”
What comes through from the records of the writer’s project, she said, is that in Kansas, “There is a sense that people are determined to deal with this and find a life that is worth living.”
Throughout the Depression, Kansans held county fairs when they could, danced and met with neighbors to share meals and entertainment, Madway said. Although some left the state, she said, many stayed because they had history here.
“You come to respect the love the people have for this state,” she said.
Images from early Kansas history can be found at wichitaphotos.org
History on display
A non-ending stream of lolans - and one Alaskan - presented their personal historic artifacts to a packed house at the Allen County Historical Society winter meeting Monday night. From marbles to milk jugs to milking hobbles, all the items presented had some personal meaning for those displaying them.
Leon Harris' collection of old glass jars came "from the old house" his parents moved into in 1967, he said. He explained how different kinds of bottles required different stoppers, from corks to crimped paper lids. He had medicine jars and milk bottles and even a milk jar with a bulbed neck, for separating cream in the days of raw milk and home dairy delivery.
"You're making me feel old," quipped Raymond Cooper, who earlier had shown a "slave-owner's rifle." Cooper said he used small, cup-sized glass milk jars in kindergarten.
Leon Smith began the night with a family bible from the 1800's. Cooper followed with a 50-caliber lead ball-and- black powder gun formerly the possession of a slave-owner.
"Back then I was collecting guns and not history," Cooper said. "If I had it to do over, I'd have taken a piece of paper and took down everything he had to say." He's now more interested in the back story of items he collects, to the point of admonishing a later speaker to "write down the story that goes with that photograph; write down what you know."
Family ties were expressed with most of the items displayed.
Ardith Harris showed a long, wrinkled photograph of her father's work crew in the Civilian Conservation Core of 1936-37.
"He was from here," she said, "but he and his brother went to Twin Falls, ID, to work with the CCC."
She didn't know what he did there. "He talked about it a lot during his life; I wish I had paid attention."
Some of those who shared their treasures through the evening were children.
Clyde Toland, ACHS executive director, said it was nice to see young people there.
"It tends to be a geriatric crowd," he joked, although the ACHS board now boasts two members under 40, he said. Show and tell seems popular with younger audiences, he said.
Sierra Snavely, 7, and her brother Mason, 9, showed family heirlooms: Sierra held a plate bearing a likeness of the Allen County Courthouse, and told how her great, great, great grandfather was caretaker there.
"He wrote his name on the back of the clock," she said, pointing to the clock tower on the plate.
Her brother Mason showed off milking hobbles, a wood plane and a wrist-worn corn cutter. Their grandmother Judy supplied the items.
Nick Lohman had the crowd in stitches with his descriptions of discontinued drugs. Lohman said he began collecting the samples while a student pharmacist.
"I'd take them from doctor's offices," he deadpanned, then explained the items had to be removed because they were outdated or unsafe. "I'm probably not supposed to have them," he quipped again, showing some medicines recalled due to their revealed health hazards.
"If you go on E-Bay there are people selling the whole array of Zocor pens," he said of pharmaceutical-related collecting. "But I like drugs," he quipped.
The night ended with a personal story - the artifact displayed was the presenter himself.
Frederick Heinz was visiting from Alaska. Born in Allen County, he didn't become interested in its history until moving north. In Alaska, he said, he met an old Norwegian who told him all about Frederick Funston. He was in Iola this week exploring that history.
Leon Harris' collection of old glass jars came "from the old house" his parents moved into in 1967, he said. He explained how different kinds of bottles required different stoppers, from corks to crimped paper lids. He had medicine jars and milk bottles and even a milk jar with a bulbed neck, for separating cream in the days of raw milk and home dairy delivery.
"You're making me feel old," quipped Raymond Cooper, who earlier had shown a "slave-owner's rifle." Cooper said he used small, cup-sized glass milk jars in kindergarten.
Leon Smith began the night with a family bible from the 1800's. Cooper followed with a 50-caliber lead ball-and- black powder gun formerly the possession of a slave-owner.
"Back then I was collecting guns and not history," Cooper said. "If I had it to do over, I'd have taken a piece of paper and took down everything he had to say." He's now more interested in the back story of items he collects, to the point of admonishing a later speaker to "write down the story that goes with that photograph; write down what you know."
Family ties were expressed with most of the items displayed.
Ardith Harris showed a long, wrinkled photograph of her father's work crew in the Civilian Conservation Core of 1936-37.
"He was from here," she said, "but he and his brother went to Twin Falls, ID, to work with the CCC."
She didn't know what he did there. "He talked about it a lot during his life; I wish I had paid attention."
Some of those who shared their treasures through the evening were children.
Clyde Toland, ACHS executive director, said it was nice to see young people there.
"It tends to be a geriatric crowd," he joked, although the ACHS board now boasts two members under 40, he said. Show and tell seems popular with younger audiences, he said.
Sierra Snavely, 7, and her brother Mason, 9, showed family heirlooms: Sierra held a plate bearing a likeness of the Allen County Courthouse, and told how her great, great, great grandfather was caretaker there.
"He wrote his name on the back of the clock," she said, pointing to the clock tower on the plate.
Her brother Mason showed off milking hobbles, a wood plane and a wrist-worn corn cutter. Their grandmother Judy supplied the items.
Nick Lohman had the crowd in stitches with his descriptions of discontinued drugs. Lohman said he began collecting the samples while a student pharmacist.
"I'd take them from doctor's offices," he deadpanned, then explained the items had to be removed because they were outdated or unsafe. "I'm probably not supposed to have them," he quipped again, showing some medicines recalled due to their revealed health hazards.
"If you go on E-Bay there are people selling the whole array of Zocor pens," he said of pharmaceutical-related collecting. "But I like drugs," he quipped.
The night ended with a personal story - the artifact displayed was the presenter himself.
Frederick Heinz was visiting from Alaska. Born in Allen County, he didn't become interested in its history until moving north. In Alaska, he said, he met an old Norwegian who told him all about Frederick Funston. He was in Iola this week exploring that history.
Computer class tackles logo contest
Tumbling books, stacks of books, books being read by families — the Iola Public Library will choose between them and more — as its Family Reading Festival logo contest comes to a close Feb. 12.
The contest was open to the public, so Anna Catterson, Allen County Community College computer science instructor, assigned creation of the logo to her advanced Photoshop and computer graphics classes.
All told, about 50 student designs will hit library desks next week, added to the dozen or so IPL has already received from local artists.
CATTERSON’S class uses Adobe Illustrator to create their designs.
Each student first created a sheet of sketches before working on the computers. They picked the best elements of two of their designs and merged them, said Taylor McDonald.
Curved lettering, symmetry and books, books, books were on most every screen.
“Each day (Catterson) would teach us new tools to use,” Mindi Lozenski said.
“We’ve gone over static shapes, geometric shapes, organic shapes,” Catterson said. “Logos are supposed to use all the design elements.”
But as Dalwinder Dosanjh noted, “if there’s too much going on in a logo, people get confused.”
Dosanjh has one leg up when it comes to design.
“I used to do Web design,” he said.
His advice? “Keep it simple, with one picture and text.”
MOST OF his classmates seem to agree, coming up with simple geometric designs. Finessing those designs can be all-consuming, Catterson said.
“Once you get yourself a project, you find you’re never finished.”
Still, she said, the class is doing well.
“A lot of these students are freshmen. A lot don’t have any design skills whatsoever.” Yet, she said, “some of the beginners are actually better than my advanced class.”
About half the class had never used MacIntosh computers before, either, so “you’re not only learning a new program, you’re learning a new platform,” Catterson said.
The students used two basic design styles to create logos for the library: freehand drawing and computer imagery.
Some used writing tablets — computers where drawing is done with an electronic pencil that makes lines only on the screen.
Janell Robinson, who calls herself an artist, prefers it to straight computer graphics. So does Taylor Smith.
“I personally, would rather make my own” design than pull clip art off the screen, Smith said.
But preference is personal.
Others, who claimed no innate creative ability, found putting together geometric shapes a better fit.
“This is definitely easier than drawing a picture,” Tomas Del Castillo Hoppough said.
Whatever their opinion, the result is win-win: students get real world design experience, and the library gets a slew of creative designs to choose from.
“I think it’s fun,” Savana VanVleck said of the project. “I think it’s cool that we get to work on something with the community. You get to do something for somebody — and it’s a real life application while learning.”
“I hope the library will be pleased,” Catterson added. From the creativity expressed on screen, that shouldn’t be a problem.
ANY community member still wishing to may also enter the logo contest, librarian Lesa Cole said. Pick up entry forms at the library’s circulation desk for complete rules.
A $100 prize, plus use of the logo, will be awarded.
The contest was open to the public, so Anna Catterson, Allen County Community College computer science instructor, assigned creation of the logo to her advanced Photoshop and computer graphics classes.
All told, about 50 student designs will hit library desks next week, added to the dozen or so IPL has already received from local artists.
CATTERSON’S class uses Adobe Illustrator to create their designs.
Each student first created a sheet of sketches before working on the computers. They picked the best elements of two of their designs and merged them, said Taylor McDonald.
Curved lettering, symmetry and books, books, books were on most every screen.
“Each day (Catterson) would teach us new tools to use,” Mindi Lozenski said.
“We’ve gone over static shapes, geometric shapes, organic shapes,” Catterson said. “Logos are supposed to use all the design elements.”
But as Dalwinder Dosanjh noted, “if there’s too much going on in a logo, people get confused.”
Dosanjh has one leg up when it comes to design.
“I used to do Web design,” he said.
His advice? “Keep it simple, with one picture and text.”
MOST OF his classmates seem to agree, coming up with simple geometric designs. Finessing those designs can be all-consuming, Catterson said.
“Once you get yourself a project, you find you’re never finished.”
Still, she said, the class is doing well.
“A lot of these students are freshmen. A lot don’t have any design skills whatsoever.” Yet, she said, “some of the beginners are actually better than my advanced class.”
About half the class had never used MacIntosh computers before, either, so “you’re not only learning a new program, you’re learning a new platform,” Catterson said.
The students used two basic design styles to create logos for the library: freehand drawing and computer imagery.
Some used writing tablets — computers where drawing is done with an electronic pencil that makes lines only on the screen.
Janell Robinson, who calls herself an artist, prefers it to straight computer graphics. So does Taylor Smith.
“I personally, would rather make my own” design than pull clip art off the screen, Smith said.
But preference is personal.
Others, who claimed no innate creative ability, found putting together geometric shapes a better fit.
“This is definitely easier than drawing a picture,” Tomas Del Castillo Hoppough said.
Whatever their opinion, the result is win-win: students get real world design experience, and the library gets a slew of creative designs to choose from.
“I think it’s fun,” Savana VanVleck said of the project. “I think it’s cool that we get to work on something with the community. You get to do something for somebody — and it’s a real life application while learning.”
“I hope the library will be pleased,” Catterson added. From the creativity expressed on screen, that shouldn’t be a problem.
ANY community member still wishing to may also enter the logo contest, librarian Lesa Cole said. Pick up entry forms at the library’s circulation desk for complete rules.
A $100 prize, plus use of the logo, will be awarded.
Enrollment keeps college in the black
Allen County Community College board of trustees learned Thursday night that enrollment numbers are still rising and its financial status is
solid, if never as rich as anyone would like.
Neil Phillips, of Jarred, Gilmore and Phillips accountants, told the board the college completed its fiscal year in the black.
“Basically, what you’re seeing is a positive year,” Phillips said.
“We actually decreased our liabilities last year by $17,008,” Phillips said, primarily by being able to pay down on the college’s financial obligations to capital improvements.
Grants, tuition and fees brought in $997,000, Phillips said.
“Federal grants are not money we can spend,” but come in the form of tuition and fees, said ACCC President John Masterson.
All told, the college received $6.1 million in federal aid, $5.6 million of that as financial aid to students.
“That’s putting $6.1 million of federal tax money into the local economy,” Masterson said.
Salary costs increased $376,000, up 8 percent from 2008.
“It takes more money to teach more students,” Phillips noted. Total instructional budget is just over $7 million, he said, comprising 37 percent of the college’s budget.
Operations and maintenance costs rose $120,000 while academic support increased $39,000 and scholarships and awards rose by $726,000.
Even though state contributions decreased, the college made up for it with tuition funds from increased enrollment, Phillips said. Over all, “33 percent of your money comes in as state appropriations,” Phillips told the board.
About $1 million comes to the college through a 16 mill county levy. In comparison, Masterson noted that Neosho County’s levy is 30 mills, providing their college with a bit over $4 million annually.
“I’m not saying we should raise our mills,” Masterson said. Instead, he supports careful management of existing funds.
“We do a lot with what we have,” Masterson acknowledged. “We’re pretty frugal.”
The college cut travel expenses by 15 percent, and Masterson noted employees know intrinsically not to leave lights burning at night and take other common sense measure to help reduce expenses.
“In times of emergency, this college has always responded really well,” Masterson said, noting that no matter what occurs, the college has one focus — “the core point is teaching students.”
AFTER THE audit report, the board heard form Benchmark Roof and Pavement Consultants representative Gary Elliot, who gave them an idea about materials and methods needed to reroof the college’s main academic building, student center and Horton Hall dormitory.
Elliot told the board that roof composition varies on the buildings, in some places having three or four old roofs atop each other, from gravel to sprayed-on polyurethane to fleece-backed rubber and asphalt over a primary concrete or steel deck. All need to come off.
“To meet code, you can’t put any more roofs up there,” Elliot said.
Elliot anticipated no major repairs to the concrete roof deck, but said there might be some rust in steel decked portions.
Benchmark proposed adding R-15 insulation over decking to meet Iola building codes, then topping that with gypsum board and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or KEE (ketone ethylene ester) plastic which would be heat-sealed at the seams.
The most challenging aspect of the job, Elliot said, was that the college’s buildings lacked sloped roofs, which prevent proper drainage and can contribute to leaking.
Benchmark plans to engineer a slight (under two inch) grade into the roofing material at building corners to encourage water flow into roof drains and other methods to prevent leakage.
If begun in May, Elliot said, the entire reroofing project should be completed before school resumes in August.
Benchmark, based out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, works across the country, Elliot told the board. It has overseen roofing projects for USD 257 and the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
A walk-through for potential contractors was suggested for February. Total project cost is expected to be about $1.3 million. The project is a planned expense.
ACCC is seeing continued enrollment growth, noted Dean of Student Affairs Randy Weber.
The college has enrolled 400 more students since Dec. 18, Weber said. Half of those are online students. Compared to last year, Weber said credit hours are up 10 percent, and head count is up by 5.3 percent, or 150 students. There will be 42 new students on the Iola campus when classes resume Jan. 20, Weber noted.
“We just keep rockin’ and rollin’,” he said. Numbers include outreach centers as well as the Iola campus.
In residence halls, 236 of 242 available beds are filled. “That’s’ a really good occupancy rate,” especially in spring, Weber said.
Two rooms are kept as models to show incoming students.
JON MARSHALL, vice president for academic affairs, said that a “teaching squares” program last semester was highly successful.
In the program, four groups of four and one of five teachers from disparate disciplines (both in class and online) observed each other’s teaching styles in order to evaluate and improve their own methods.
One example given was of a teacher who wrote on a white board, then stood in front of the writing. Marshall noted that observation easily translates into behavior change for teachers, who can take note of their own body placement when using the boards.
Before the teaching squares program was implemented, Marshall said “our teachers didn’t really have an acceptable institutionalized way of watching each other teach.”
The program continues with a new group of teachers this spring.
solid, if never as rich as anyone would like.
Neil Phillips, of Jarred, Gilmore and Phillips accountants, told the board the college completed its fiscal year in the black.
“Basically, what you’re seeing is a positive year,” Phillips said.
“We actually decreased our liabilities last year by $17,008,” Phillips said, primarily by being able to pay down on the college’s financial obligations to capital improvements.
Grants, tuition and fees brought in $997,000, Phillips said.
“Federal grants are not money we can spend,” but come in the form of tuition and fees, said ACCC President John Masterson.
All told, the college received $6.1 million in federal aid, $5.6 million of that as financial aid to students.
“That’s putting $6.1 million of federal tax money into the local economy,” Masterson said.
Salary costs increased $376,000, up 8 percent from 2008.
“It takes more money to teach more students,” Phillips noted. Total instructional budget is just over $7 million, he said, comprising 37 percent of the college’s budget.
Operations and maintenance costs rose $120,000 while academic support increased $39,000 and scholarships and awards rose by $726,000.
Even though state contributions decreased, the college made up for it with tuition funds from increased enrollment, Phillips said. Over all, “33 percent of your money comes in as state appropriations,” Phillips told the board.
About $1 million comes to the college through a 16 mill county levy. In comparison, Masterson noted that Neosho County’s levy is 30 mills, providing their college with a bit over $4 million annually.
“I’m not saying we should raise our mills,” Masterson said. Instead, he supports careful management of existing funds.
“We do a lot with what we have,” Masterson acknowledged. “We’re pretty frugal.”
The college cut travel expenses by 15 percent, and Masterson noted employees know intrinsically not to leave lights burning at night and take other common sense measure to help reduce expenses.
“In times of emergency, this college has always responded really well,” Masterson said, noting that no matter what occurs, the college has one focus — “the core point is teaching students.”
AFTER THE audit report, the board heard form Benchmark Roof and Pavement Consultants representative Gary Elliot, who gave them an idea about materials and methods needed to reroof the college’s main academic building, student center and Horton Hall dormitory.
Elliot told the board that roof composition varies on the buildings, in some places having three or four old roofs atop each other, from gravel to sprayed-on polyurethane to fleece-backed rubber and asphalt over a primary concrete or steel deck. All need to come off.
“To meet code, you can’t put any more roofs up there,” Elliot said.
Elliot anticipated no major repairs to the concrete roof deck, but said there might be some rust in steel decked portions.
Benchmark proposed adding R-15 insulation over decking to meet Iola building codes, then topping that with gypsum board and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or KEE (ketone ethylene ester) plastic which would be heat-sealed at the seams.
The most challenging aspect of the job, Elliot said, was that the college’s buildings lacked sloped roofs, which prevent proper drainage and can contribute to leaking.
Benchmark plans to engineer a slight (under two inch) grade into the roofing material at building corners to encourage water flow into roof drains and other methods to prevent leakage.
If begun in May, Elliot said, the entire reroofing project should be completed before school resumes in August.
Benchmark, based out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, works across the country, Elliot told the board. It has overseen roofing projects for USD 257 and the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
A walk-through for potential contractors was suggested for February. Total project cost is expected to be about $1.3 million. The project is a planned expense.
ACCC is seeing continued enrollment growth, noted Dean of Student Affairs Randy Weber.
The college has enrolled 400 more students since Dec. 18, Weber said. Half of those are online students. Compared to last year, Weber said credit hours are up 10 percent, and head count is up by 5.3 percent, or 150 students. There will be 42 new students on the Iola campus when classes resume Jan. 20, Weber noted.
“We just keep rockin’ and rollin’,” he said. Numbers include outreach centers as well as the Iola campus.
In residence halls, 236 of 242 available beds are filled. “That’s’ a really good occupancy rate,” especially in spring, Weber said.
Two rooms are kept as models to show incoming students.
JON MARSHALL, vice president for academic affairs, said that a “teaching squares” program last semester was highly successful.
In the program, four groups of four and one of five teachers from disparate disciplines (both in class and online) observed each other’s teaching styles in order to evaluate and improve their own methods.
One example given was of a teacher who wrote on a white board, then stood in front of the writing. Marshall noted that observation easily translates into behavior change for teachers, who can take note of their own body placement when using the boards.
Before the teaching squares program was implemented, Marshall said “our teachers didn’t really have an acceptable institutionalized way of watching each other teach.”
The program continues with a new group of teachers this spring.
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