100 years ago in Kansas, March 14 – 22, 1918:

March 14, 1918

  • Articles by Henry J. Allen about Y.M.C.A. work in France appeared in the Wichita Beacon.

March 15, 1918

  • Thirty-five members of the I.W.W. were indicted by a federal grand jury at Wichita for seditious activity.

March 19, 1918

  • Hay was being shipped out of Coffey County at the rate of 40 carloads a day.  It sold at $18.50 a ton, and there were ten tons in a carload.

March 21, 1918

  • John M. Hoover, Harvey County, sold his 400-acre ranch for $32,000 and invested it in Liberty bonds.  He said he did not need the money and was glad to “lend it to Uncle Sam.”  Hoover, a Civil War veteran, had settled on the land in 1872.

March 22, 1918

  • Farm hands were getting finicky, the Alma Enterprise complained.  One asked for $50 a month and the use of the farmer’s car.  Another wanted $45, Saturday afternoon and Sunday off, and the use of the farmer’s horse and buggy.

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.