D.R. Gorden: A Man about Town

David Ross Gorden was an early resident of Abilene who had a remarkable career in several positions.  During his time in the town, Gorden served as Abilene’s first Kansas Pacific Railroad station agent, first telegraph operator, and served as the town’s postmaster.  He was also involved in the organization of Abilene’s first grain elevator, and in the formation of the Citizen’s Bank of Abilene in 1885.  Needless to say, he was an incredibly active man in Abilene.

Before making his way to Abilene in 1869, Gorden was present for one of the most famous presidential speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address.  Gorden was eighteen at the time, and managed to situate himself close to President Lincoln so that he could clearly hear the President’s words.  Prior to President Lincoln’s famous speech, a man named Edward Everett gave a long address to the crowd.  After this, the President delivered his Gettysburg Address, which is admittedly a rather short speech.  After President Lincoln had finished speaking, Gorden distinctly heard the President say to Everett, “I have made a failure of my speech.”  Everett’s reply was, “Oh, no, your speech will live long after mine has been forgotten.”

After the end of the Civil War, Gorden learned the skill of telegraphy and moved to Abilene, Kansas.  He would live in Abilene for the rest of his life.  During his duties as Abilene’s railroad station agent and telegraph operator, Gordon encountered many colorful characters including the town’s city marshal in 1871, James Butler “Wild Bill”Hickok.

According to one of Gorden’s memories, he witnessed a conversation between Hickok and a gambler that almost turned into a shootout.  One day when Hickok was visiting Gorden in the telegraph office, a gambler walked into the building with a revolver strapped to his leg.  Hickok ordered the man to give him the gun since it was illegal to carry firearms in Abilene.  The man replied to Hickok, “Bill, I am not going to take off this revolver and you know darn well you cannot make me take it off.”  Both men glared at one another and rested their hands on their six-shooters.  Now, Hickok is of course known for his famous shootouts, but he was a practical man when it came to fights.  He always tried to avoid a fight that he was not positive he could win.  According to Gorden, Hickok replied to the man, “Well, just keep it hidden so that I cannot see it.”  The unsettling moment passed.

As a resident of Abilene, Gorden saw many changes in the town.  After the end of the cattle drives to Abilene, Gorden saw his town change from a wild and dangerous place, to a peaceful small community.  Throughout his entire life, Gorden remained an active man, always willing to tell a story about Abilene’s past, and offer his support for new enterprises that would improve the community.  He lived until the ripe age of ninety, and died April 7, 1935.

Note: Quotations were taken from the "Reminiscences  of D.R. Gorden," found in the files of the Dickinson County Historical Society.

The Broadway Market in Abilene, Kansas

Broadway Market. Courtesy Jeffcoat Photography Studio Museum.

Throughout a large part of the twentieth century in Abilene, the Broadway Market, located at 311 N. Broadway Street, was a small grocery store that despite its size, carried several items.  The market was a family business, first owned by Charles Benignus.  His son, Albert Benignus later took over the business. 

In the early 1900s, the Broadway Market was exclusively a meat market, one of five in Abilene.  By 1939, the market was promoting their many different food items, including 139 different types of cheeses in stock!  As it is told, Dwight D. Eisenhower loved to stop by the Broadway Market, and buy some steaks to cook up while visiting his parents at home.

Mr. and Mrs. Albert Benignus. Courtesy Jeffcoat Photography Studio Museum.

Albert Benignus' right hand man, Isaac "Ike" Wesley Robinson, worked in the meat department and was known for his skill in preparing ham loaf, Swedish potato sausage, and pon haus.  For those of you with inquiring minds, pon haus is a dish of Pennsylvania Dutch origin, and is a mixture of corn meal and pork leavings.  It is commonly fried and served for breakfast.  Eisenhower apparently loved the dish so much, that the Broadway Market shipped it to him in Europe during World War II on multiple occasions.

Courtesy Jeffcoat Photography Studio Museum.

The Broadway Market no longer exists today, as is common with many small grocery stores, it went out of business after the advent of supermarkets.

The basis of this post was inspired by the writings of Bill Jeffcoat, who wrote down many stories of people from his hometown of Abilene.  The story of Albert Benignus and the Broadway Market is featured in the Jeffcoat Photography Studio Museum's current exhibit.

Bishop Ray Witter

Courtesy Jeffcoat Photography Studio Museum.

For today's blog post, I thought I would briefly tell the story of Ray Witter, one of the stories featured in the Jeffcoat Photography Studio Museum's current exhibit Our Community, Our Stories: Through the Eyes of the Jeffcoat Studio.

Witter grew up on a farm south of Abilene.  His family were devout to the Christian faith, and were members of a Brethren in Christ parish, as many people in Dickinson County history have been.  Witter was a cousin to the Eisenhower boys, and was close to the same age as the future President, Dwight.  Since they were related to one another, the two boys knew each other well, and Eisenhower would often visit and work on the Witter farm during the summer.  The Witter family had horses, so the boys enjoyed horseback riding when they had free time.

As the two boys grew up, their lifestyles greatly parted from one another.  Of course, Eisenhower had his famed military career and was an expert in the ways of war.  Witter took a much different path and became a Brethren in Christ pastor, eventually becoming the minister for a church in the Hope, Kansas area, and later attaining the role of Bishop.

After Witter's retirement, he moved to Abilene and worked as a painter and paper hanger.  After Eisenhower became President, Witter and his son were invited to visit the White House, which must have left quite an impression on Witter.  According to a note written by Bill Jeffcoat, which is featured in the exhibit, "This was the proudest moment in Ray's life."

Our Community, Our Stories: Through the Eyes of the Jeffcoat Studio, is currently on display at the Jeffcoat Photography Studio Museum through the rest of August.  Be sure to visit the museum's Facebook page for more information.

Matt Visits the Wonders of Kansas #1: The Kansas Museum of History

Every now and then, I will be visiting locations that were selected for the Kansas Sampler Foundation’s 8 Wonders of Kansas lists.  The Kansas Museum of History in Topeka was selected as a top 8 Wonder of History.

I recently paid a visit to the Kansas Historical Society’s Museum of History over the Independence Day holiday weekend.  It had been a while since my last visit to the museum (I believe I was in Middle School the last time I toured the place).  It has been interesting to visit other museums over the past year to say the least.  Since I began working in a museum, I feel that I look at other museums in a new light.  I am not just there to learn about the historical narratives that the exhibits teach me, I am also there to see how the museum and exhibits are constructed, and get new ideas for the future.  

The Kansas Historical Society has a fantastic space for their museum.  The ceilings are very high, allowing them to feature many large and tall artifacts such as a windmill, covered wagon, Native American tipi, airplane, and of course, a train.  If I have one critique about an element of the museum’s exhibits, it is that some of the exhibit labels are difficult to read.  Now this can partly be attributed to lighting, however many artifacts on display cannot have direct light on them.  The museum would definitely not want to cause accelerated light damage, so changing the lighting would not be the solution.  One possibility would be to change the coloring of some of the labels.  I think this would help quite a bit.

But I am not writing this to complain about exhibit minutiae, I am here to promote history!  If you have never been to the museum, it begins with a fascinating look at Native American life in Kansas.  This area of the museum features many American Indian tools, and a Plains Indian grass lodge and tipi.  It is difficult to describe how cool it is to see a tipi actually made from bison hides.  Pending on the size of the tipi, it could take twelve to sixteen hides to make the outer covering of a tipi.  If you think about the process and hard work it took to create something like this, it is truly amazing.

The museum also features interesting exhibits on the Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, and Bleeding Kansas.  The Bleeding Kansas period has always held special interest to me.  It is incredible to look at how Kansas was at the forefront of national politics (and people were killing each other over these issues!).  I feel the museum does a good job of showing both sides of the story, and showing how many people were invested in their respective causes during that period in time.

The train, in which you can walk through a section, is probably the museum’s superstar.  Inside the drover’s car, visitors can learn a little bit about the Kansas cattle towns and Joseph McCoy.  Outside of the train are many artifacts relating to changing technology and town growth.  

Probably my favorite part of my visit was getting to see the museum’s current exhibit in their temporary gallery.  The exhibit is entitled 150 Things I Love about Kansas, and will be on display for the remainder of this year.  The exhibit features a plethora of objects related to what makes Kansas great.  Most notable for me was a dress worn by Carry Nation.  Also featured was a painting of the famous hatchet-wielding woman, painted after her visit to the town of Enterprise in Dickinson County.  In the painting, her face is bruised due to women attacking her while she was in Enterprise to smash up Schilling’s Saloon.  It was such a cool piece of history to see, since I already knew the story of her visit to the town.  Fascinating stuff to see.

If you have never visited the Kansas Historical Society, be sure to do so.  I have only scratched the surface of what you can see in this blog post.  Also, if you have seen the museum before, I highly recommend returning, so you can see the current exhibit.

To learn more about the Kansas Museum of History and the Kansas Historical Society, be sure to visit their website. 

Kansas 150 Film Series

The Dickinson County Heritage Center has been showing movies related to Kansas history once a month throughout this year.  We have had a great turnout for all of these events so far.  Over one hundred people came to the museum to see June's movie, which was Surviving the Dust Bowl: The American Experience.  If you live in the Abilene area, we would love to see you at the rest of these historical film showings.  All films begin at 2:00pm on their respective dates.

July 17: The Wild West Cowboys
August 21: Mr. Sear's Catalog
September 18: The West of Charles Russell
October 16: The Railroad: Transcontinental, 1865-1880; The Railroad: The Golden Age, 1880-1916
November 20: The Real West