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New exhibit celebrating 150th anniversary of KCK opens at Wyandotte County Museum

The original Kansas City, Kansas, founded 150 years ago, is the subject of a historical exhibit that opened Saturday at the Wyandotte County Museum. (Map from Wyandotte County Museum)

The Wyandotte County Museum is featuring a new exhibit in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Kansas City, Kansas.

On Oct 22, 1872, Kansas City, Kansas, was formally incorporated, but at that time it was far from the Kansas City, Kansas, of today.

“The Original Kansas City, Kansas,” exhibit will feature a series of early maps, facts and images from the city’s earliest years. It will provide visitors with a glimpse of several important stories related to the city’s early development and growth.

“The Original Kansas City, Kansas” exhibit will be on display at the Wyandotte County Museum from Oct. 1 until Feb. 18, 2023. The Wyandotte County Museum, 621 N. 126th St., Bonner Springs, will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. There is no charge for admission.

After the Louisiana Purchase, the federal government reserved the land on the western portion of the bottoms for a potential fort, preventing it from becoming part of Missouri, according to museum officials. This land was later given to the Wyandots as “floats,” but several non-tribal families continued to “squat” on this land. An uneasy compromise was reached in 1858.

The Kansas City, Kansas, Town Company was formed in 1868, by Wyandot Chief Silas Armstrong, David E. James, Dr. George B. Wood, Luther H. Wood, William Weir, Thomas Ewing Jr, T. H. Swope and N. McAlpine.

Kansas City, Kansas was situated north of the old bed of Turkey Creek, east of the Kansas River, south of the Missouri River and bounded on the east by the Missouri state line.

The town was ripe for growth as new waves of immigrants arrived and businesses opened. In the period between 1872 and 1882, the area developed a strong industrial base providing job opportunities for new arrivals. By 1886, Kansas City, Kansas’ population had grown to 3,802 and city consolidation was the first step towards the Kansas City, Kansas, known today.

For more information about this exhibit contact the Wyandotte County Museum at 913-573-5002 or visit www.wycokck.org/wycomuseum. – Information from Wyandotte County Museum

Fairfax district to celebrate 100th anniversary with luncheon at museum

The Fairfax Industrial Association will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the industrial district with a luncheon Sept. 15 at the Wyandotte County Museum, 126th and State Avenue, Bonner Springs.

The event will include the viewing of the exhibit on the Fairfax 100th anniversary currently running at the museum.

Also, there will be an interactive panel discussion and a barbecue luncheon at the event Sept. 15.

Besides artifacts, the museum exhibit includes a 10-minute video on the history of the Fairfax industrial district, which is located in Kansas City, Kansas.

The exhibit will run through Sept. 24 at the museum, 621 N. 126th. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Admission is free.

The cost of the luncheon at 11 a.m. Sept. 15 is $35. Advance reservations are necessary. For more information, visit https://fiakck.org/product/sept2022_luncheon_museum/.

Historian tells of Sumner High School

by Murrel Bland

Chester Owens Jr. received a telephone call in about 2005 (he can’t recall the exact date) telling him that many artifacts of Sumner High School were about to be destroyed. He quickly rescued these historic items, storing many of them in the basement of his home.

This is one of several stories that Owens told Sunday afternoon, March 20, at a quarterly meeting of the Wyandotte County Historical Society at the Wyandotte County Museum in Wyandotte County Park, Bonner Springs. About 50 persons attended.

Today, there is a history room at Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences displaying many items including the rescued artifacts.

Owens, a dedicated historian of Sumner High School, came to Wyandotte County with his family from Ashdown, Arkansas, in 1946. He became a sophomore at Sumner.

Owns told of how Sumner became the only segregated high school, by law, in Kansas. On April 12, 1904, a very popular white youth, Roy Martin, was shot and killed in Kerr Park. Charged and convicted was Louis Gregory, a Black youth. Throughout the years, Black historians have argued that Gregory was trying to defend himself. The white community was up in arms. The solution was to segregate schools—all Black students would attend Northeast Junior High and Sumner High School.

Kansas Gov. E.W. Hoch was reluctant to sign the bill that made Sumner a segregated school; he did it only after being assured Sumner would be of the same quality as other buildings in the Kansas City, Kansas, School District. The law also guaranteed that Sumner faculty members would be paid as well as their white counterparts. These factors attracted faculty members from all over the United States.

The name of the high school was chosen honoring U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an abolitionist.

Owens told several prominent graduates, faculty members and administrators of Sumner. They included:

• William Foster, president of the American Bandmasters Association and board member of the John Phillips Sousa Foundation.
• Fernando J. Gaitan Jr., senior U.S. Court Judge for the Western District of Missouri.
• John McClendon, first Black head coach of any professional sport.
• Leon Brady was band director at Sumner. His jazz band raised $25,000 from private sources so the band could attend international competition in Paris—they called the event “Sumner in Paris.”
• Col. Vernon Coffey was appointed as the U.S. Army aide to President Richard M. Nixon.

The Historical Society named Owens the “Historian of the Year.”

Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wyandotte County Historical Society.