100 years ago in Kansas, July 1918:

July 1, 1918

  • Dr. Charles M. Sheldon advocated planting tobacco land to potatoes.  He said the change would furnish each family of four with four bushels.
  • Sugar rationing was extended to housewives who were pledged to use only three pounds per month per person.

July 4, 1918

  • Many Kansas cities held community sings with patriotic songs as the theme.  The State Fire Marshal requested that no fireworks be used and offered the slogan:  “Send the Powder to Pershing.”

July 7, 1918

  • Coal rationing to householders was announced.

July 11, 1918

  • As a war measure the State Council of Defense ordered all stores to be open only ten hours a day.

July 24, 1918

July 26, 1918

  • Germantown, a Brown county Catholic community, changed its name to Mercier, after Cardinal Mercier of Belgium.

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.