100 years ago in Kansas, April 8-18, 1918:
April 8, 1918
- The Marysville Turnverein, a German society which bought $50,000 in bonds during the first Liberty loan drive, resolved to buy $25,000 more in the third drive. Mennonite churches in Reno county also voted to buy bonds.
April 12, 1918
- Eight Kansans, arrest May 31, 1917, for alleged anti-draft conspiracy, were freed by the U.S. District Court in Topeka. See the previous posts: https://www.kansasww1.org/the-topeka-anti-draft-conspiracy-the-arrests/ and https://www.kansasww1.org/the-trial-of-the-topeka-conspirators/
April 15, 1918
- Ellsworth, despite a 20 percent German population, substituted Spanish for German in the high school.
April 18, 1918
- The Night Riders, a secret organization, circulated printed warnings in Barton county neighborhoods suspected of pro-Germanism. See the previous post: https://www.kansasww1.org/home-front-night-riders/
- Five “Paul Reveres” who rode in motor cars instead of horseback, made a relay run across Kansas in behalf of the third Liberty Loan campaign.
Blair Tarr
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.
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