Memorial Day, traditionally observed on May 30th but now on the last Monday in May, began as a recognition of the men who died to preserve the Union during the Civil War. As time went on, this holiday broadened to include all soldiers who gave their lives for our country, and then all those we love who have passed on – a quiet day of reflection and of tribute to the dear ones we have lost. Across the United States, families visit cemeteries and decorate the graves of loved ones with flowers. In Arlington National Cemetery, a flag is placed at each of the thousands of graves there by a member of an Army regiment assigned this special duty.
At KanColl, we pay our respects to the people, remembered in our pages, who have died but left us a legacy of life, learning, and freedom. We honor people like E. C. D. Lines – Eddie Lines – who died in the service of his country during the Civil War ... Elijah Doughty, infantryman in the West in the 1800s, and Ben Cruzan, bugler in Europe in World War I ... and Captain, later Brigadier-General Randolph Barnes Marcy, who devoted his life to military service and the West in the last half of the nineteenth century. We remember family such as Harold C. Place, editor of the Kansas State Chamber of Commerce magazine, Progress in Kansas and his wife Irma ... Margaret Stafford Young, a woman who taught her family some of the most important things in life ... and Gordon McLin, Kansan through and through. We remember all the voices who echo in KanColl's pages, sharing their lives, their joys and sorrows, and the lessons they learned about life and service. They left a record for us, and on this day, we honor them, and thank them for the legacy they left us, not only on paper, but in the lives of those they touched.
Here is a list of some of those voices in KanColl:
Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies
Frank S. Edwards, A Campaign in New Mexico With Col. Doniphan
Sara Robinson, Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life
Hannah Anderson Ropes, Six Months in Kansas
John W. Geary, Governor Geary's Administration in Kansas (by John H. Gihon, M.D.)
Capt. Randolph Barnes Marcy, The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions
Miriam Davis Colt, Went to Kansas
Richard Cordley, A History of Lawrence, Kansas, The Lawrence Massacre and Pioneer Days in Kansas
Joseph G. McCoy, Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest
William G. Cutler, The Andreas History of the State of Kansas and The Andreas History of the State of Nebraska
Percy G. Ebbutt, Emigrant Life in Kansas
John N. Reynolds, Twin Hells
William M. Thayer, Extract from Marvels of the New West
William Allen White, The Real Issue, What's the Matter with Kansas? and The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me
Eugene Ware, Some of the Rhymes of Ironquill
Charles M. Sheldon, In His Steps and Howard Chase, Red Hill
William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Last of the Great Scouts (by Helen Wetmore Cody)
Lyman Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
F. F. Crevecoeur, Old Settlers' Tales
Carrie De Voe, Legends of the Kaw
Leverett Wilson Spring, KANSAS: The Prelude to the War for the Union
Ed. Blair, The History of Johnson County, Kansas
A. M. Harvey, Tales and Trails of Wakarusa
Melissa Genett Anderson, The Story of a Kansas Pioneer
Rosie Clem Maxton, The Last One
James C. Malin, The Grassland of North America and A Sampler
Roscoe Fleming, "Kansas, 'Ad Astra Per Aspera'"
James Whitcomb Riley, "A Tale of the Airly Days"
Harold C. and Irma Place, "Progress in Kansas", the 1930s Kansas State Chamber of Commerce magazine
Homer White
Marie Boling Cornelius (by Bus Cornelius)
Benjamin Edgar Cruzan, A Soldier's Diary and Views of War
Elijah Nelson Doughty, Civil War Diary of Travels
William Anderson Thornton, Diary: Military Expedition to New Mexico
Alonzo and Jacob Ragle, The Ragle Letters
Thomas Wells, Letters of a Kansas Pioneer, 1855-1860
Edwin Tucker, Diary
Mary Jones, Letter
William Smith, Letter
Clay and Kate Bowen, Prairie Homestead:
Richard Smith, Letter to Edward Beedles
Elizabeth Totten, Life on the Plains
Winton Slagle Sipe, Memories of a Kansas Farm Boy
Watson Stewart, Personal Memoirs
Nancy Wisner, Recollections of Pioneer Life
E. T. McFarland, Memories of Kansas Settlement
Robert Condon Stone, Reminiscences
Mary Beeson, Autobiography
William Darnell, Reminiscences (with George Root)
Bennett and Millie Scribner, and William Tharp, How WILLIAM met MILLIE (by Tommy Graham)
Dolly Belt, "Nick Names of Lane, Kansas"
Benjamin Franklin Smith, Memories of Lincoln and Douglas
U. S. Grant Sanders, Frank Bursinger
Fred Wishart, The Zulu
Sarah Edna Eutsler Kennedy, "Autobiography"
Elizabeth Garen, "Scrap Book"
C. L. Edson, "The Old Windmill" by C.L. Edson
Sherman Peter Young, "The Factual History of Kansas"
"Tales of the Smokey Hills: Brownie, a Hobo" (by Jim Sumner)
"J. C. Returns Home" and "J. C. Redfield: Sheriff" (by Ray Downing)
Honas Henning and Amelia Beckman, A Pretty Church Wedding contributed by John Maier
Josephine Winifred Hammond Crawford, Josie's Ledger
John Newton, Amazing Grace
William Jennings Bryan, The Cross of Gold Speech
Dr. R. C. McClymonds, Excerpt from Physician's Pocket Account Book
Ruth Considine, Aunt Ruth's Pioneer Woman (by Mary Ann Sachse Brown)
Howard Raynesford, The Raynesford Papers -- Notes on Kansas Trails and the Butterfield Overland Despatch
Margaret Young Stafford, A Life of Strength (by James E. Stafford)
Gordon McLin, Kansan. (adapted from Rev. Paul B. Mitchell's remarks)
McKinley Burnett, Fired by a Dream
Nellie Cronk, The Remarkable Young Woman from Turkey Creek (by Gail Martin)
Mark Carlton, Who was the Wheat Dreamer? (by Michelle Stafford)
Cora Pickering Cordell (by Julie Schossow)
Dr. Ellis Hobson, Obituaries
John Brown of Osawatomie and Daguerrotype of John Brown taken in 1847
Tom Smith, Tom Smith of Abilene (by Dick Taylor)
Joseph Dvorak and Francis Zvolanek, Life Altering Decisions (by Eric Taylor)
Abraham Rothrock (by Barbara Hill)
Florence Betz, Wheat Field, 1940
Company M, at the Marion County Court House, 1916 or 1917
Yates Center boys, First to Leave in World War I
Freese Family Photograph Album
People of Great Bend, Kansas: A Photographic Album
Portrait Gallery of Eminent Kansans
Well-Known Visitors of Early-Day Kansas
Class of District School No. 6, Douglas County, Kansas (1897)
The University of Kansas Orchestra (1904)
Rick Housh's Family Photographs
Old Elsmore School, Douglas County, Kansas (1917)
From the Preface to Tom Carney's book, The Way It Was:
"Her face was wrinkled from almost a century of living and on her left hand was a worn wedding ring that must have been almost as old as its owner. In her other hand she clutched a copy of the story I had written.
"Slowly she turned her head to look at me and, after glancing again at the magazine, said in a low, soft voice, ‘Someone remembered ... someone remembered his name.'"
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