100 years ago in Kansas, January 7-11, 1918:

January 7, 1918

  • The Dodge City board of education abolished German classes in the high school.

January 8, 1918

  • The Kansas Educational Council met at Topeka to study problems brought on by the war.  Intramural rather than intercollegiate athletics, abandonment of special functions, and shortening of the school term were suggested.

January 9, 1918

  • Hotels and restaurants were ordered to observe meatless Tuesdays and wheatless Wednesdays.

January 10, 1918

  • Three carloads of jackrabbits were shipped from Garden City to New York in two weeks.  Shippers paid a dollar a dozen.

January 11, 1918

  • Four bank clerks were killed at Camp Funston in a hold-up by Capt. Lewis Whisler who got $62,826.  He later killed himself, and the money was recovered.
  • Farmers were asked to grow castor beans for oil to lubricate airplane engines.
  • Temperatures were the lowest since the weather bureau was established in 1887.  Smith Center reported -23 degrees.  Snow was from 4 to 11 inches deep, and a coal shortage threatened.
  • The Kansas Women’s Farm and Garden Club was organized at Topeka to encourage women to help the war effort by increasing food production.

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.