John Brown Among Finalists For 8 Wonders of Kansas People

By Doug Carder

Grady Atwater is relieved that John Brown made the list of 24 finalists for the Kansas Sampler Foundation’s 8 Wonders of Kansas People contest.

Atwater, the city’s tourism director, knows getting Brown selected as one of the top eight people in Kansas history is going to be a challenge. He is asking for residents in Osawatomie and the surrounding area to go online and vote for Brown.

Though paper ballots are also available, Atwater is encouraging people to vote online at 8wonders.org.

“You can vote three times online from one email address, but you can only vote once by paper ballot,” said Atwater, who is also curator of the John Brown Memorial Park State Historic Site.

“After numerous essays, I was pleased to finally get John Brown on the list of finalists,” said Atwater, who was in Inman, Kan., last week to hear the list of finalists’ names read at the Kansas Sampler Foundation’s headquarters.

“It would be a big boost to our community if we can get Brown named as one of the top 8 Wonders of Kansas People,” Atwater said. “It will attract thousands of tourists from around the world.”

The mention of John Brown’s name already attracts thousands of visitors each year to the museum site at Adair Cabin in the park. The 8 Wonders designation would add scores of more names to the visitors’ log at the park, Atwater said, as well as bring more tourism dollars into Osawatomie.

“It would be good for the museum and the community,” Atwater said.

The 8 Wonders of Kansas People contest is the last in a series organized by Kansas Sampler Foundation. Previous contests featured the Foundation’s eight rural culture elements: Architecture, Art, Commerce, Cuisine, Customs, Geography and History. The 8 Wonders of Kansas kicked off the contests in June 2007.

“It seems fitting to end with a promotion of outstanding Kansans,” foundation director Marci Penner said in a news release.

The deadline for voting for the top eight people is midnight Oct. 22. The eight winners will be announced Oct. 27. The Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan., will host an 8 Wonders exhibit from Kansas Day (Jan. 29, 2011) through the summer, and the foundation will publish an 8 Wonders book, due out in April 2011.

The 24 finalists are listed below.

• The Amazon Army, a group of several thousand women who marched in December 1921 with striking miners in Crawford County.

• Amelia Earhart, famous aviatrix from Atchison.

• Bernhard Warkentin, miller and banker from Newton and Halstead.

• Buffalo Soldiers, members of an all-black regiment in the U.S. Army 10th Cavalry, formed Sept. 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth.

• Buster Keaton, comedic actor from Piqua and Iola.

• Carry Nation, hatchet-wielding crusader with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union from Medicine Lodge and Kiowa.

• Clyde Cessna, aviation pioneer and founder of Cessna Aircraft Co. from Rago and Kingman.

• Cyrus Holliday, one of the founders of Topeka who organized the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.

• Emil Kapaun, a priest and military chaplain from Pilsen.

• Frederick Funston, youngest U.S. brigadier general at age 35 and Medal of Honor recipient from Iola. Funston’s quick action during the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 earned him the title: “The Man Who Saved San Francisco.”

• George Washington Carver, agri-scientist, botanist, educator, humanitarian and inventor from Minneapolis and Beeler.

• Haskell Indian Nations University, established in 1884 in Lawrence.

• Jack Kilby, Nobel Prize winner for physics, from Great Bend.

• James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball, and coach at the University of Kansas at Lawrence.

• John Brown, famous abolitionist, Osawatomie.

• Joseph McCoy, one of the state’s first leading cattlemen, from Abilene and Wichita.

• Martin and Osa Johnson, pioneering wildlife filmmakers, photographers and authors, from Chanute.

• Mary Ann “Mother” Bickerdyke, Civil War battlefield nurse, from Bunker Hill and Ellsworth.

• Olive Ann Beech, first woman to head a major aircraft company, from Wichita and Waverly.

• Walter Chrysler, founder of the Chrysler automobile corporation in 1925, from Ellis and Wamego.

• Walter “Big Train” Johnson, Major League pitcher and Hall of Fame member from Humboldt and Coffeyville.

• William Allen White, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper editor known as the “Sage of Emporia.”

• William Inge, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright from Independence.

Some notable Kansans are not on the list, because they have been involved in other Kansas Wonders contests. Some of those people include Dwight Eisenhower, Gordon Parks and John Steuart Curry.

Atwater will have information about the contest at the Freedom Festival this weekend as well as at the museum from now through the voting deadline.

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Posted by Doug on Sep 15 2010. Filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry