100 years ago in Kansas, August 21-24, 1917.

August 21, 1917

  • A dispatch from Washington said bituminous coal prices were fixed by President Wilson for every mine in the country.  Prices for run-of-the-mine coal were $2.55 in Kansas.  Dealers in Atchison, Topeka, Hutchinson, and Fort Scott declared they were “on the brink of ruin.”

August 23, 1917

  • KU (University of Kansas) offered a five-hour training course in the fundamentals of aviation.
  • Kansas, a chestnut-sorrel war horse, was presented to Gen. Charles I. Martin when he left Topeka for Fort Sill.  (If you didn’t know who Gen. Martin was, he was the Adjutant General of Kansas from April 1, 1909 to September 30, 1917, and again from January 27, 1919 to January 11, 1923.)

August 24, 1917

  • Dr. H.J. Waters, K.S.A.C. (Kansas State Agricultural College) president, was appointed federal food administrator for Kansas.

Blair Tarr is the Museum Curator of the Kansas State Historical Society. He oversees the three-dimensional collections of the Society, but has special interests in the Civil War, Wichita-made Valentine diners, and Leavenworth's Abernathy Furniture. In the last few years he has also done a lot of cramming on The Great War. He is a past president of the Kansas Museums Association and the Civil War Round Tables of both Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. He is currently a board member of the Heritage League of Greater Kansas City.