100 yeas ago in Kansas, October 17-19, 1917.

October 17, 1917

  • Anna Held, French comedienne, sold Liberty bonds from the steps of the State House.

October 18, 1917

  • Kansas had 525 cases of typhoid fever in September.  The State Board of Health had given 9,000 free shots.

October 19, 1917

  • The federal food administration ordered Topeka, Wichita, Salina and Hutchinson mills to requisition their wheat from government headquarters at Kansas City, Mo.  The government said it would have to take control of wheat at country points because of a shortage.  The Kansas Grain Dealers Assn. opposed the move and believed many independent mills would have to shut down.
  • Scarlet fever epidemics were reported from Cowley, Butler, Dickinson and Leavenworth counties.

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.