When people think of the iPad, they seldom think about a multitude of classroom uses. Or library uses. Or museum uses. Most people think iPads, and they immediately see individuals in coffee shops hunched over or leaning back in a relaxed fashion reading.

But picture a small scale technology easily used for preparing presentations in class or for large training sessions; collaboration within class among students; sharing notes/lessons/responses back and forth in the classroom; importing photographs/research in collaborative projects with instant access; editing and revising pretty much anything and the possibilities go on endlessly…

Or being visitors and using them to view and learn about exhibits in a museum, such as the Miami County Historical Society Museum in Paola. Or being able to check out an iPad from a Miami County library or museum…

The potential uses are endless, which is what brought educators and library personnel from both Miami and Johnson Counties together at Fort Scott Community College (FSCC) last Monday.

Two iPad labs will soon become available for everyday class work at the Miami County Campus of Fort Scott Community College thanks to two grants totaling $15,718 awarded by the Baehr and the Jewell-Roman Foundations.

Each Miami County library has received a grant, said Buddy Jo Tanck, director of the Miami County Fort Scott Community College campus in Paola, for iPad labs.

“I hope we will be able to collaborate some of our training and ideas for the iPads with these groups,” Tanck said about what was an introduction to iPads.

A much better understanding of educational concepts, Tanck said, taught in the classroom will be accomplished with the new equipment.

“I predict these devices will allow much more understanding of concepts discussed in the classroom,” Tanck said.

Along with FSCC instructors and staff in attendance on June 11, library directors and personnel from Osawatomie, Paola, Louisburg, Spring Hill and Johnson County took part.

Because he has already been using iPads at the Miami County Historical Museum in Paola, Joe Hursey, the museum’s director, conducted the training.

“We believe we are the first museum in the midwest to begin using iPads for our patrons, which has gotten us a lot of attention,” Hursey said.

Museum visitors, Hursey said, can be issued an iPad with a QR code, as they view the exhibits.

“All they have to do is turn on the camera function, and the iPad with explain the item on display,” Hursey said.

What surprised Hursey is how the museum’s oldest senior citizens have been attracted to the iPads.

“They have had no problems, and it can get a bit out of hand because they find they don’t want to give up the iPad,” Hursey said.

This is why, Hursey said, the museum plans to have full-time sign out very soon.

As for the FSCC training session, Hursey and Tanck both said the training had been designed for beginners with no experience.

In opening remarks, Hursey said iPads can be used so differently and that there are about 80 different tablet-like devices on the market.

“iPad is the best thing going, which is why he has them at the museum. Kindles and Nooks will do specific things, but the iPad is the most versatile, even with a few limitations,” Hursey said.

As the FSCC campus director, Tanck said she has been able to see, firsthand, numerous potential applications for iPads in the classroom.

“The coolest thing that I have seen is an astronomy application that allows you to hold the iPad up to the sky, and the GPS in the device allows you to find stars, constellations, and even satellite locations,” Tanck said.

Witnessing the use of an iPad for astronomy, Tanck said, was fascinating.

“I thought, ‘What potential there is here for engaging students in learning.’ It definitely sparked my interest in learning more about the stars and the planets. I also thought about how easy it would be to teach this to my kids with my own limited knowledge of the subject,” Tanck said.

Both Tanck and Tricia Sinclair, Paola campus Computer Applications and business instructor, have been discussing a variety of ways to integrate technology into the classroom for students and the instructors.

“We both purchased devices similar to the iPad but which were less expensive. However, they did not work the way an iPad does. We knew that the only way we would be able to use these in the classroom or even educate our instructors on the devices was to receive them through a grant or a donation,” Tanck said.

Tanck said she had to find a means of getting the devices into the hands of students and faculty.

“It is very difficult for students, faculty, or individuals in the community to know how the iPads can be used, if they are not able to get their hands on them and use them. This is exactly what I wanted to do for our faculty,” Tanck said.

This way, Tanck said, she could actually give her faculty and staff an opportunity to get their hands on an iPad.

“Now, they will be able to think about how they can enhance their teaching and student learning by utilizing these devices,” Tanck said.

When talking to the FSCC Director of Nursing, Bill Rhoads, Tanck said she discovered how iPads are already being used.

“They actually integrate iPads into the final semester for the nursing students. This made sense to me since a lot of hospitals are integrating tablets and other computerized database programs at the patient bedside.

“I felt we needed to help train these students on how to use these devices before they went into this final semester,” Tanck said.

Although actual details about use of the labs, said Tanck, are still under discussion, part of the grant included training for faculty, staff, and community resource personnel.

“The training session in June, Tanck said, was designed to help familiarize participants with the iPad technology. The plan is to offer a second opportunity around the end of July for FSCC instructors to discuss ways we can utilize the iPad in the classroom,” Tanck said.

Tanck said they are excited to have the new labs and devices in their building and for utilization in their classrooms.

“We owe a great debt of gratitude to the Baehr and Jewell-Roman Foundations and their trustees.

“It is also because of all the work you do for the college and for the members of our community that has led us to this success and future endeavor,” Tanck said about the college faculty and staff, as well as the community.

Plans for the iPads at the Osawatomie Public Library will focus on literacy and their Early Childhood 6 by 6 Program said Director Elizabeth Trigg.

“The 6 by 6 program is an early literacy educational tool for parents to use with their children, which involves the six tools kids need to learn by age six,” Trigg said.

By focusing on different books and word recognition and vocabulary parents can pick out important details, Trigg said, and help their children become better readers.

“Brad Debrick, originally from Paola, developed 6 by 6 for the Johnson County Library, where he works, rolled it out to the the state, and it has been a fabulous program,” Trigg said.

The 6 by 6 program has gone on to develop applications for iPads with early literacy tools, Trigg said.

“We have already been looking at those apps, such as the Goodnight Safari iPad App. With this, children and their parents have Read Me directions. Children can move characters around and interact with the story,” Trigg said.

Having already been looking ahead, Trigg said, the Oswatomie Friends of the Library bought 250 picture books with iPad tie-ins.

“Each book is already checked out and with the 6 by 6 program apps tie-in we should be ready to go with the iPads. Parents are so excited,” Trigg said.

Speaking about attending the training session, Paola Free Library Director Rosy King said one of the best things about the class was being able to hear how the college and other libraries were planning to use the iPads within their facilities.

“I think we beginners learned enough about the basic use of the iPad that we could take what we learned and do some learning on our own. We Microsoft users lost our fear of an Apple device,” King said.

Louisburg Library Director, Kiersten Allen, said the training had been a good starting point.

“I’m glad Buddy took on the task. I’m lucky to have a relationship with Joe, so he’s going to come over to the library once summer reading has ended and provide us with a more tailored presentation and kind of question and answer,” Allen said.

The efforts of Blake Heid, member of the Baehr Foundation Board of Trustees, said Allen should be recognized.

“We are so thankful to Blake Heid for pursuing the grant to donate this level of technology to our patrons and staff. We now have the opportunity to explore the devices and really test the limits of the iPad 2, because there are so many things we can do now,” Allen said.

Currently, Allen said they plan to use some iPads for early literacy and others as eReaders.

“But we are keeping our options open. We will have a focus group and encourage those patrons to use them as eReaders, checking them out and taking them home to explore for themselves,” Allen said.

This is a big step, Allen said, but they are working on policies to keep the iPads and our patrons safe.

“We are pretty excited. One of the first things we will do is accept credit card payments and donations. Our patrons will be happy with that, and it’s a relatively small charge. It will be fun to discover all the ways this iPad 2 Learning Center will help the library and our patrons,” Allen said.

Before iPads could be placed in service, Tanck said, WIFI had to be installed.

“This is something the college paid for. Unfortunately, we will not be able to afford WIFI in the entire building, so we had to choose a space that would benefit the most with WIFI,” Tanck said.

The community room, Tanck said, was chosen and will be where teachers can access WIFI.

“If a class like biology would like to implement an iPad application into their course work, they would go to the community room for this part of the class. This will be much like going to the computer lab when working on assignments.

“If we were able to get WIFI throughout the entire building, we would be able to move these devices anywhere. This is what I would like to eventually be able to do,” Tanck said.

Unlike the two rooms set up as computer labs on the Paola FSCC campus, the term, iPad lab, means something entirely different. The two labs are actually two rolling carts able to store, charge, and sync up to 30 individual iPad devices.

On a trip to Wichita last Friday with Diane’s parents to spend the day

visiting family, the mother-daughter conversation had covered the

“what’s going on “ norm on the drive from Atchison, but nearing

Nortonville, Diane’s mom asked, “Have you heard? Arthur Shufflebarger

died. He was 60.”

The minute I heard the name Arthur…I knew the Shufflebarger part

would follow. Diane’s eyes grew large and her face so sad about one of

her classmates from Atchison High School. Arthur was class of 1970

and Diane 1971, and they both ran in the same circle of friends.

When Shufflebarger became Osawatomie City Manager in 1985, their

friendship was renewed. We would visit Arthur at his place in

Osawatomie, or he would come to see us in Paola. Visits were spent

playing cards or board games, and I often felt at a disadvantage with

Arthur, especially with Trivial Pursuit.

You see, Diane said then and still insists that Arthur was the

smartest student Atchison High School ever produced.

“He was also the most level-headed guys of the bunch and with a very

good sense of humor,” Diane said.

Back in high school, Diane had been going out with one of Arthur’s

friends. One day, Diane needed to go dress shopping and so the guys

decided to accompany her and add their expertise.

“After trying on two dresses I liked and had come out of the dressing

room, Arthur was still there waiting. The other guy had wondered off.

“One of the dresses was pretty short, so I asked Arthur which dress I

should buy, and he said, ‘Well, not that one,’ meaning the short one

with a ‘don’t do it look’ on his face, and, you know, he was right!”

Diane said.

His first winter in Osawatomie, we had invited Arthur to dinner. The

snow that day had been unusually heavy, so much so we expected him to

call any minute to cancel. He drove up anyway.

Arthur married Kelsey Paulus in a beautiful ceremony at the Atchison

United Methodist Church in 1986, and we enjoyed getting to know

Kelsey. They left his apartment life and bought a house on Main

Street, but when they announced his plans to take the village

manager’s job in Milford, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, in

November 1990, we could understand his desire to pursue new

challenges.

Nonetheless, we were sorry to see them leave Osawatomie.

Soon after arriving home Friday night about midnight from our Wichita

excursion, I found the Milford Times online. Arthur had died at home

of natural causes.

Milford’s Village Clerk Debbie Frazier both a friend and colleague of

Shufflebarger’s since 1992 according to the Times describes Milford’s

reaction.

“His passing is a huge loss that will be deeply felt — by the many

professional and civic groups with which he shared his time and

talents, as well as throughout the community where he and his wife,

Kelsey, raised their two daughters.

“He was the best listener in the world. Always listening, and always

fair. He had a lot of friends out there and touched many lives,”

Frazer said in the Times.

Arthur and Kelsey have two daughters. Kayla is a student at Oakland

Community College studying film animation. Ieasha will be attending

Ferris State University in the fall. She received the Huron Valley

Education Association scholarship, and she will pursue elementary

education.

“Arthur was very proud of his girls and was looking forward to their

future successes,” said Kelsey., who with Arthur, had just held a

graduation party for Ieasha on June 9.

Osawatomie’s city clerk, Ann Elmquist, had been hired as

Shufflebarger’s secretary soon after he began his job in January 1985.

‘This was his first city manager position, and he had a tough time at

first,” Elmquist said.

But as Elmquist recalls, Arthur never got mad, even when he should

have, and always attended League of Kansas Municipalities meetings and

a variety of meetings to keep up to date.

“You don’t realize how good he was until he was gone and living in

Milford. Just think, he must have really cut his teeth here in

Osawatomie to have been able to remain in the same city for 22 years,”

Elmquist said.

In a Times editorial, a look at the village manager came through, as

well as a glimpse of the Arthur we knew and Diane remembered in high

school.

“Quiet and unassuming, Shufflebarger has always been a calming

influence during council meetings. Regardless the topic, or if

emotions started to flare up, it was rare when the village manager

reacted in similar manner.

“Instead, he typically sat back as discussions progressed, and he

would share his thoughts to wrap up the debate, adding a new insight

or summarizing the feelings expressed by the others in the room,” the

Times said.

Both of us – Diane and me – have not been able to connect with Arthur

and Kelsey since they left Osawatomie. Diane’s mom, through the years,

has mentioned Arthur sightings in Atchison. And, we always look

forward to their Christmas letter, especially if pictures of the girls

are enclosed.

Condolences can be left online at http://lynchfuneraldirectors.com .

On Aug. 31, 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt spoke to an audience of 30,000 in his dedication of what we know as John Brown Memorial Park.

Many of those listeners President Roosevelt addressed were survivors of the Civil War, that sadness that enveloped the United States with routes beginning right here in this location.

And in a cabin used by abolitionists, the Rev. Samuel Adair and his wife, Florella, as a safe house on the Underground Railroad.

President Roosevelt told those veterans of America’s bloodiest conflict:

We can admire the heroic valor, the sincerity, the self-devotion shown alike by the men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray; and our sadness that such men should have to fight one another is tempered by the glad knowledge that ever hereafter their descendants shall be fighting side by side, struggling in peace as well as in war for the uplift of their common country, all alike resolute to raise to the highest pitch of honor and usefulness the nation to which they all belong. As for the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic, they deserve honor and recognition such as is paid to no other citizens of the Republic; for to them the republic owes it all; for to them it owes its very existence. It is because of what you and your comrades did in the dark years that we of to-day walk, each of us, head erect, and proud that we belong, not to one of a dozen little squabbling contemptible commonwealths, but to the mightiest nation upon which the sun shines.

Roosevelt also recognized Kansas for its own sacrifice:

It was the result of the struggle in Kansas which determined that our country should be in deed as well as in name devoted to both union and freedom; that the great experiment of democratic government on a national scale should succeed and not fail.

Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” speech came out of a time, not much different than the present day, when Roosevelt felt the need to both recognize the valiant deeds of the past and to call out the evils of his present time like “big business”, and the robber barons of his day, much like President Barack Obama has called for a dialog about corporations doing more to pay their fair share in taxes.

Now, America and the world have been watching as the first African-American President of the United States returned to a place from which a great turning point in American history began.

The President, Barack Obama, had said in a press release, that he would, “…lay out the choice we face between a country in which too few do well while too many struggle to get by, and one where we’re all in it together — where everyone engages in fair play, everyone does their fair share, and everyone gets a fair shot.”

To those who continue to ask, “Why Osawatomie for the President’s visit?” There was no better place for this speech.

Something entirely different hit me, the Virginia kid, in southeastern Kansas. I liked it, too!

My stories to Virginia friends had been about the great and unusual places to eat, like Chicken Annie’s or Chicken Mary’s, Harry’s Café, Otto’s Café, Jack’s Steakhouse, 1106 (a drive-in burger joint), Los Charos (a Mexican restaurant known for $1 night once a week), and a whole slew of little places.

Jokingly, I told my Virginia friends, “They’ve got a bar, liquor store or alcohol outlet [grocery stores, too] on just about every block of Broadway, the town’s main street, and it’s a long drag!”

All of these places were locally owned! All except a few businesses, like JC Penny, in the little enclosed mall on the very south end of town.

The alcohol outlets – all Pittsburg owners; the restaurants – all Pittsburg owners; mostly all the businesses in town were all locally owned. Many mom and pop establishments. The nothing alike appealed to me.

A grandma ran a bar out of her garage in an alley, right off of Broadway! You won’t see that anymore.

On Columbus Day, we thought it would be fun to take a fall drive, not just to see the changing colors along the way, but to check on Pittsburg and “the college.”

After all, Diane’s the first girl I met on campus (my roommate’s girlfriend); it’s where we married (in Pitt State’s Timmons Chapel); and where we started our life together in a minor’s shack on Monroe Street.

Our route took us south on Highway 7 to Fulton and a quick drive down what remains of the old 69 Highway to Fort Scott. The old chip and seal surface brought back memories of cars running bumper to bumper with trucks on those deadly and very narrow and hilly stretches.

Chili’s-Applebee’s-Long John Silver’s-Arby’s-McDonald’s-Sonic-Starbucks and other chain eateries greeted us as we drove into Pittsburg.

Signage made it nearly impossible to find El Charro’s, a Mexican restaurant we had talked about for lunch. We soon found it lost in look-alike-mania.

The downtown portion of Broadway appeared, thankfully unchanged, a corridor of brick and decorative storefronts from another era.

My late parents, who graduated from Kansas State Teachers College in the early 1940s, talked often about shopping in the stores and the cafes.

They would be glad to know Otto’s Café and Harry’s Café still exist, although Harry’s was closed – it being a Monday – and Otto’s way too busy when we were ready to eat.

Sadly, I missed not getting to gaze over Harry’s selection of pies. Talk about yummy! And the choices! The chicken places (Annie’s and Mary’s) being a Monday, were also closed.

Just north of the college, our three-room minor’s shack on Monroe Street, where we first lived as man and wife, looked dingy. Was a renovation underway? Hard to tell, but the place looked sad and dirty. We drove on quickly.

My first rental house, located on Madison just one block down and behind the “old” Taco Bell, appeared well kept. Glad to see!

Especially since it had been a rental for college students known as Grand Central Behind the Taco Bell! Green paint covered the yellow of old.

As we pulled back up to Broadway, we both noted the empty lot where 1106 once sat. GONE! The best greasy burgers in the state of Kansas, well Southeast Kansas – gone! A freshly graded dirt lot!

No more fresh and flavorful, hand-rolled burger patties. Totally gone!

Yet, Pizza Hut-Burger King-Taco Bell-Kentucky Fried Chicken-Subway, all anchored by the “golden arches,” spread out within view. Ugh!

A once drab, gray shack of a building, called The Palace, right across from Russ Hall, Pitt State’s administration building, towered over Broadway in green and yellow paint emblazoned with the name, The Jungle.

A party deck crowned what was now a new top level, particularly the neon sign promoting, “$1 DRAFTS & SHOTS SUNDAYS.” What was that about the Bible Belt I learned about in 1971? Bet “the college” loves this place!

What comes to my mind every time we visit Pittsburg and “the college” is preservation, endurance and knowing an educational purpose will continue in this region for future generations.

A few locally-owned outlets survive, but overwhelming signage, as it does most everywhere, camouflages the distinctive nature of a vibrant community we once called home.

If you think today’s Kansas House appears exceedingly one sided and the U.S. House dysfunctional, perhaps it’s time to take a look back at an earlier moment in Kansas history to a “war” within the Kansas legislature, as described above in the Kansas City Star from February 15, 1893.

When I first read this KC Star quote, as well as more information in a Kansas State Historical Museum display, I couldn’t help but think about the current Republican Party, the Tea Party, and a truly partisan stalemate stalling any hope of jobs creation and deficit reduction in our United States.

Can you picture two Republican Houses? The regular Republicans and the Populist (Peoples Party) Republicans? Then, there was the Democratic House. Kansas stopped working, too. Sound familiar?

Can you imagine the Speaker of the Republican House using a sledge hammer to batter open the chamber door to the House of Representatives?

Can you imagine the militia and a Gatling gun being called up to the statehouse?

Can you imagine the Shawnee County Sheriff, a Republican, deputizing as many as 200 men and providing them with arms?

All of this actually happened in 1893. Where people are nice!

Populism rose out of the 1880s economic depression in the United States, according to the University of Houston’s Digital History website, when farmers and working people reacted to prices set by railroads, lenders, grain-elevators, or in other words, big money controlled by corporations, banks, and the rail barrens.

The Populist platform the Digital History explained, “embraced government regulation and government ownership of railroads, natural resources, and telephone and telegraph systems,” while calling for a coalition of poor white and poor black farmers.

Populists “endorsed labor unions,” said the Digital History writers, and, “decried long work hours, and championed a graduated income tax as a way to redistribute wealth from businesses to farmers and workers.”

In other words, American working people were tired of money being concentrated in the hands of the few and saw government as the answer to their problems.

By Populism’s end, the secret ballot and voting rights for women prevailed, as did a Federal Reserve System, farm cooperatives, government warehouses, railroad regulations, and conservation of public lands. Not exactly the Tea Party agenda, though, but all of it designed to protect the workers.

My fascination with Kansas Populists came from my great-grandfather’s law enforcement background. John A. Miller, well-known family farmer from outside of Anthony, Kansas, became sheriff of Harper County from 1896 to 1898 on the Populist ticket.

To this day, I have no idea why only one term, but I do know the Populists fell out of favor about as quickly as they became a national phenomenon.

In 1892, a Populist, Lorenzo D. Lewelling, had been elected governor, while the Populists Party had taken the Senate two years earlier and believed, according to the Kansas State Historical Society, that the Populists had also “claimed 64 seats in the lower chamber.”

When legislative members resumed their seats in 1893, both Republicans and Populists “claimed a majority.” Real tension mounted in February when, as the historical society said, “Populists took sole possession of Representative Hall locking themselves in and Republicans out.”

Tensions reached a breaking point when the Populist House clerk, Ben Rich, was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace of the legislature.

Kansans of all stripes took to the streets and Speaker of the Republican House, George L. Douglas, “led members of and employees of the Republican House [including Osawatomie’s J.B. Remington, a House Rep.], who had all gathered at the Copeland Hotel on Kansas Avenue and marched to the Statehouse.

“A few guards tried to stop them but were easily swept aside. They gained entry to the Hall by applying a sledge hammer to the door of the House of Representatives.”

During the three-day crisis, the Populist governor ordered the Kansas militia from Wichita to bring a Gatling gun, while the Republican sheriff deputized an army of locals to face off against the military.

By February 15, Governor Lewelling raised the white flag and negotiated an agreement with the Republican Speaker and the “war” ended.

I wonder when and if the current state and federal gridlock will end, and this country can get back to work without tearing down established institutions placed there to protect us?

I continually googled sites about Bleeding Kansas and reading about the border warfare in Kansas and Missouri. This helped satisfy my curiosity about the time and place in which Friedrich and Jacob Diehm chose to homestead in May 1857.

Former cabin owner, George Diehm, described the construction as “all labor intensive.” He didn’t know how they did it, unless they used oxen to drag the logs.

I checked into John Brown’s whereabouts. Not in Kansas. Read about the various battles, skirmishes and border actions. Most had already taken place in 1856.

With just about every hit from the search button, the name William Clark Quantrill surfaced. I knew Quantrill had been a Kansas school teacher and about his blood-thirsty side – killing 150 men and boys in the raid on Lawrence in 1863 – but what about his life in Miami County?

Quantrill, age 20 and known as Bill, arrived in March 1857 to file a claim outside Stanton, which lies about 15 miles to the north and west of Beagle.

A treasure trove of insight and information popped up when I opened the Google eBook posting Quantrill and the Border Wars by William Elsey Connelley (1910).

Unlike the stout and hardworking Diehm brothers, Quantrill’s arrival proved more an arrangement at Bill’s mother’s request. Both Harmon V. Beeson and Colonel Henry Torrey already had families but had fallen on difficult times and were looking for a new start in Kansas.

Giving in to Quantrill’s mother, the men agreed to take Bill along. Connelley writes in his book, “Mrs. Quantrill was anxious to have him go, hoping that he might secure a farm upon which could be made a home for herself and children… .”

A plan materialized, and Quantrill would work for the two men. But Connelley wrote, “…it was decided to take him to Kansas and try to induce him to abandon his roving, idle habits and settle himself to some steady occupation.”

Several sources suggested Quantrill left Ohio ahead of the law. Had Quantrill stolen a horse while still a school teacher in Dover?

Beeson and Torrey bought their claims – a half mile south and half mile west of the small village of Stanton – just across the line in Franklin County and even assigned one in Quantrill’s name in the northeast quarter of Section 21, Township 17, Range 21.

A small cabin stood on Torrey’s claim near Stanton. In a letter dated May 16, 1857, possibly about the time the Diehms were felling trees to start one of their two cabins, Quantrill described the cabin to his mother: “Our house is built of round logs with a fire place made partly of stone; a floor made of puncheon – that is split boards about 3 inches thick.

“Our furniture consists of 2 stools made out of puncheon, 3 trunks & a table made when we wish to use it by putting a board (which we found in the river) across the 2 trunks. Our walls are decorated with guns, boots, side meat, skillets, surveying chain &c.”

Known actions run counter to letters home to mother. In the same letter, he wrote, “I have just finished a hard job of rolling logs at a clearing around our cabin, which we are going to put in potatoes.”

Yet, Connelley, through his research and stories by Beeson and Torrey said, “Although Quantrill was paid to work he was a very unsatisfactory hand. He prowled through the timber of the river bottoms with a gun most of the time, and every day he visited the claim he was holding for Torrey.”

Quantrill also had taken to running with a man named Benning, described as shiftless, a proslavery man, and who gave Quantrill, “…the first bent…in favor of the border-ruffians.”

Nothing much was found about his teaching, even though one chapter, titled “Quantrill As A Kansas Teacher,” was full of letters written in his school house and sent home to his mother. But what he wrote – the fiction in his letters – was far from the life Quantrill lived.

Connelley wrote, “…she was to see that he was a poor, meek boy struggling to get board and clothing,” when in fact, “He was…a thief from the first in Kansas…a reckless gambler.”

This amazingly solid and impressive structure serves as a reminder to what it took to settle this region: the sweat, the strength, the fortitude, the endurance, the gumption, the sacrifice, the dreams, simply the willingness to “hang it all out” for a future.

I suggested moving the cabin to the still fairly new Linn County Safety Rest Area, where Kansas Highway 52 crosses U.S. Highway 69 at Trading Post or what has already been recognized as a stop along the Frontier Military Scenic Byway.

In addition, the site celebrates our Native American heritage, as well as that of the Marais des Cygnes Wildlife area.

If needing to stretch your legs at the rest area, a walking path takes travelers from one historical marker to another:

The Potawatomi Tribe’s forced removal from Indiana in 1838;

Pro and anti-slavery forces at work in Kansas;

Settlers crossing the military highway on their way into the unknown;

Movement of soldiers along the road between Fort Scott and Fort Leavenworth along the “Permanent Indian Frontier”;

Soldiers did the repair work on the military highway in 1844 as a matter of frontier defense;

Establishment of a trading post nearby that dealt in fur, whiskey and pro-anti slavery barbs being traded back and forth;

The present day and our high rate of travel;

Nearby stands the Marais des Cygne Martyrs Memorial and a marker for the Marias des Cygne Massacre.

The rest area’s interior reads and looks like a museum. So what’s missing outside? Try something old, something real. Try a cabin! A real log home built and used by settlers who came to Eastern Kansas, like the peaceful Diehm brothers – Friedrich and Jacob from Baden, Germany, in 1857 – right in the midst of Bleeding Kansas.

From this one cabin, a whole future of Miami and Linn county residents would receive their start, many of whom I have taught in Miami and Linn county schools between 1977 and in the present at Prairie View High School. I know the family and many of you do, too.

Miami County’s loss became a gain for Linn County, when the “Old Diehm” log cabin was lifted onto a truck bed and taken to a new resting place in Linn County south of Parker.

The current owner, Christine Staten, said the cabin should be enjoyed by everyone. “I want to see it restored, and I would sell it to a historical group for what we have spent on it.

“It doesn’t qualify for state funds like the Gerth Cabin in Greeley because it is owned privately, and it can’t be listed as a historic landmark because it’s been moved,” Staten said.

When the original owner, George Diehm, realized the state historical society saw nothing special about the cabin and said there was no money for restoration, he gave the cabin to Staten of Paola, who with her husband, Craig, had bought land in Linn County, south of Parker, and used their own funds to move the cabin.

When George and his wife Loretta chose to build a new home on the Jacob Diehm cabin site, George had called the Kansas State Historical Society. “They were more interested in an old barn that had already been taken down. They said the cabin was pretty typical for a cabin of the era, and they recognized the style,” George said.

The cabin may be typical in its architecture, but the pioneering family story it tells is real. “There was an 18-foot square center, axe marks on the logs, most likely walnut logs off of the creek, all cut by hand, possibly dragged by oxen, and the construction all labor intensive.

“The impressive logs were solid and placed on a limestone footing. Flat rocks, no mortar, and stacked on level ground,” Diehm said.

Everybody pitched in to build this structure, including the women and children. Construction had to be finished before Jacob’s wife, Katherine, gave birth to George’s grandfather, Gilbert, the youngest of eight children in 1877.

There’s so much more in those old logs than typical architecture. Imagine what they’ve seen and, yet, what can be passed on to future generations about overcoming the odds in Kansas.

This summer, another woman brought a set of stories to me, one about her father, a pioneering history enthusiast named “Crowfoot”; the other about an old log cabin. She had already drafted the cabin story several years ago.

Christine Staten, who lives a few miles south of Parker, shared on that first evening a story about our state’s heritage. I couldn’t believe what I was reading.

In the workshop, I encourage participants to talk. Christine, who has a knack for storytelling, began by telling me about a log cabin that she and her husband Craig had moved to their property. “It belongs to George Diehm, and he wanted to build a new house, but to do so, the county said he had to bulldoze the old house,” Staten said.

Diehm, who lives a short distance south of Beagle, planned to build a house, but his ancestor’s clapboard-sided home stood on his chosen spot. Diehm thought there might be a large timber some place beneath the siding, Staten said, that he could use as a mantle on his new fireplace.

A log house came to light with the removal of each board. “He didn’t know there was a complete log house hidden beneath the siding,” Staten said.

The Diehms arrived from Germany before the Civil War, she told me. “They first settled in Missouri and built a cabin. When someone asked where they stood on the slavery issue, they said, against. And that cabin went up in smoke,” Staten said, “as did several more.”

She described how Diehm had told her the family eventually moved to Kansas. “One cabin after another kept getting torched. This was the only one of seven to remain standing,” Staten said.

In other words, I said, “This is a real story, holds a real connection to Bleeding Kansas and the border warfare.”

“Yes,” Staten said.

What once stood as a huge tree, possibly a Burr Oak, became a story and a half of square-cut logs taken from the trunk. Twisted and far from straight, yet squared-off logs apparently had been impressive branches. Women and children had used mud and small sticks and bark taken from the grand tree to fill the cracks.

All Diehm wanted to do, she said, once he found a whole house preserved under siding, was to move the building to a new location. “What he really wanted to do was to see if a museum would be interested in acquiring the building and restoring it. But even 12 years ago, there was no money for something like this,” Staten said.

This is when she volunteered to move the cabin to the new property she and her husband Craig had bought in Linn County.

The move was made in 1998, and the Miami County loss was for Linn County a gain of historic proportions. Now, if only a museum, a tourism entity someplace, a city or county group could find a way to acquire the cabin as a historical site and place it where people could appreciate what George Diehm’s ancestors and American pioneers in general went through in their day.

So far, the structure is resting well off of the ground away from termites, but the cabin needs plenty of tender loving care — spelled money.

The cabin’s predecessors burned to the ground. It’s safe enough for the present, thanks to Christine and Craig Staten, but only time will tell.

I know politicians and historians and citizens of many stripes continually talk about how to impact and present the history of Bleeding Kansas and Native American heritage of the region, well…I see the perfect place to begin.

Best yet, I covered a story a few years ago about the opening of the new rest area location along Highway 69 in Linn County, where it crosses Kansas Highway 52 near Trading Post. Displays abound there about the Frontier Military Highway and Native Americans.

This seems like the perfect place for the log house to sit and draw even further attention to our shared history.

Our Gray Lines (the actual company name) bus had driven right by the nondescript and dusty exterior to the building on the road to the scout ranch. I don’t remember the Saint James at all. But, then, I was 14 with my mind set on hitting the trail.

Worst of all, I never knew that many of the cowboy heroes, outlaws and historical figures I followed in television westerns and movies had all stayed there at one time or another.

The likes of Wyatt Earp, Jessie James and James’ killer Bob Ford, Bat Masterson, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody, Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid, Pat Garret, Clay Allison, Kit Carson, Civil War General Phillip Sheridan, and train robber Black Jack Tom Ketchum.

Unknown to me had been how the writer Zane Grey began writing his novel, Fighting Caravans, while he stayed there. And New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace, a Civil War hero himself, worked on some of the novel Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) while staying there. While there, Buffalo Bill Cody began planning his “Wild West Show” which would include Annie Oakley.

But, it was no wonder so many famous people stayed there, being the only fancy lodging on the Santa Fe Trail.

Diane and I were there for one thing and one thing only. Well, we had to fit lunch in because it was noontime when we arrived. Our lunch was delicious, the service very good, and busy considering it was Sunday and they had a buffet working. Our server, though, who had only worked there a few months had never seen a ghost, but she had heard the stories.

But, I’m talking ghosts. It had been hard enough to keep Diane in the dining room. Since watching a story on Haunted Collector on the Syfy network recently about the St. James, Diane had said, “We will go through Cimarron!”

The John Zaffis family from Haunted Collector tracks down objects. Spirits can inhabit objects or remain in a location because of “items like paintings, guns, jewelry and dolls,” or so says the Haunted Collector Web site. Bullets, too! John Zaffis found no objects he could pinpoint, but he did focus on bullet holes from drunken gunfighter’s energy left in the ceiling of the dining room, which once was the saloon.

Legends account for 26 men dead from gunshot wounds in what began in 1872 as Lambert’s Saloon and Billiard Hall. Henry Lambert, a Frenchman, had been a personal chef to President Lincoln.

The saloon’s ceiling (now, it’s the dining room and bar area) is pock marketed with 22 original bullet holes. Fortunately, a double layer of hard wood flooring kept the bullets from passing through to do harm. Lambert also added 30 rooms to make the facility an official hotel. After all, his saloon, and the billiard and poker tables, attracted a wide assortment of travelers. .

Room 18 remains padlocked supposedly because of the guest who died in this room. The violent and mean-spirited Thomas James Wright, who had just won the hotel in a poker game, was shot in the back and made it into his room where he slowly bled to death. Nobody who enters this room can remain there for long. So they say!

Lambert’s second wife Mary Elizabeth lets her presence be known by her rose-scented perfume. If a certain window remains open a continuous tapping will remind hotel workers to close that window. The figure of a transparent woman has been reported moving around in the hallways for years.

“Little Imp,” a dwarf-like man, reportedly moves objects around to play tricks on the staff and then mysterious laughter can be heard, it has been reported.

We plan to return next summer to stay in one of the 12-original rooms (no telephones, radio, or television). Modern rooms have been added in an annex with modern conveniences, as well as refurbished dining rooms, kitchen and a patio.

Whether you believe in spirits or not, I can’t imagine there not being some kind of presence remaining due to the number of traders, trappers, cowboys, card sharps, gunfighters, well-known people of the day, and just regular folk who stopped there during the hotel’s raucous heyday.

The guest register from July 10, 2011 reads, “Nice Food. The ghosts are real!”.

“Wall Street’s going through the roof, and Main Street’s paying the bill,” Schultz reminds viewers. Everybody describing themselves as middle class will/are picking up the tab: liberal Democrat, moderate liberal Democrat, fence riders, moderate Republican, conservative Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Tea Partiers, those who hate politics, people with jobs, people without, etc.

As our conservative ones in the state’s legislature just finished cutting more from what is important to most Kansans, just keep in mind that “they” will be back next year to slice even further taxes on the wealthy and corporations, while holding hands open in our direction.

No wonder there’s an ongoing crisis created to meet their philosophical demands, while fleecing you and me to make up the difference! And next to no effort on the jobs creation front! Who brought this crisis upon us? Who gave us the Bush Tax Cuts on the wealthy? Who promised trickle down jobs? Who continues gutting state treasuries in the name of tax giveaways to the wealthy and the corporations?

Why conservative Republicans, that’s who, hell bent on following an agenda masterminded by the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. And, I’ve asked it before? Why would any normal conservative politician create job one, if it would help make President Obama look good?

Much of what the Kansas legislature and the governor attempted or completed this term in the Statehouse also had been attempted or completed in other states from plans originating with ALEC, while ignoring the voters last November for jobs creation. Bills concerning abortion, voter identification, union rights, gun regulations, KPERS, killing the Kansas Arts Commission, and so many other non-jobs related efforts became priority.

Do our legislators really believe corporations will create even one job? Or the Bush Tax cuts would lead to job creation? They must! In the real world, corporate incomes have been skyrocketing like never before, and those corporations realized they can produce what’s necessary with the current workforce.

In a recent Huffington Post story, several CEOs/presidents of companies were interviewed about what they had done with Bush tax cut money? One said, “Nothing,” another traveled more, and another said the bigger boat he built didn’t help American workers because he had it done in Italy. But most importantly, each man is a member of “Patriotic Americans”, a self-described “gang” of nearly 200 millionaires, who have signed a letter requesting higher taxes on millionaires.

You know who’s not listening to 200 millionaires don’t you?

Wear out workers and replace when necessary, more accurately a Robin Hood in reverse take-from-the-middle-class and give to the wealthy/corporate empires in the name of a jobs creation scheme. But create no jobs! And, we fell for it, well somebody did.

In their drive to privatize and open up another money stream to the wealthy and corporations, conservative Kansas legislators had their sights set on the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS). This includes teachers (like me), law enforcement, fire fighters, state and local employees in county and municipalities and judges.

The Senate would have those covered pay more into the system (sounds like Wisconsin); the House would move KPERS to a 401K for workers hired after June 2013. This mimics other states under conservative Republican control, that have, like Kansas, given away, unnecessarily, tax breaks to the well-to-do. And the hired hands pick up the tab!

If passed, a contributions shortfall for new employees being diverted into the new 401K replacement plan would leave state and local governments at a loss estimated at $7.7 billion. The tab for setting up the new 401K system would be $1.2 billion.

No Kansas public employee ever hired on to get rich. Make a difference to those we serve? Yes! Make a living? Yes! Retire with enough to keep us comfortable, pay our bills and not be a burden to our loved ones/society until we pass on? For sure! This, too, means spending money on Main Street.

Teachers (the youngest and the oldest) already fear pink slips, are watching schools close and have been taking hits to their take-home pay; they may now be forced to put more into their retirement accounts. Meaning, they/we are and will be spending less monthly on Main Street.

The Kansas governor plans to phase out personal income tax and reduce the corporate income tax rate further. You do know who will pick up this tab don’t you, to keep the state of Kansas operating, which will leave even fewer dollars to spend on Main Street?

When our conservative legislators manage to lower – much further next year – income taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, what else will you and I have to cut, thus limiting spending on Main Street by the conservative – Robin Hood in Reverse – cleaver?