BEWARE OF THE DEVIL'S DARNING NEEDLE 

Cave Springs was a coastal town, or had been. Lying pert near on the extreme southeast Kansas and Southwest Missouri state lines. Nature ruled here. It was a numbers game. Millions of insect species and wild animals of all sorts, plus a few tame ones, versus us three humans who shared in calling our surroundings home.

I was taught to respect snakes, all "dumb" animals. That word "dumb" used in that context was not meant to sound mean in any way, it just meant they couldn't talk. Snakes were easy to empathize with. Low to the ground they had to slither along with poor eyesight to find nourishment for the day and to have a Plan B if a predator appeared. I didn't want to be that unnecessary predator. 

While it didn't terrorize me, my least favorite creature of all was the dragonfly, never called that by my grandma Martin. She preferred the more colloquial "snake feeder." Each time I found myself outside in some boundless reverie, I would see one, darting around in Olympian form. That meant a snake was lurking nearby waiting for its carhop to deliver some grub. That snake could be a rattler, the Lord of the Underbrush, my phrasing nod to the lowly reptile with the arsenic bite.

Carefully, I would search and search. Each time no snake. Then I would walk to the house, looking to the ground with each step I took in case one was lying low waiting for me. In house I would tell Grandma for the umpteenth time what had taken place. As always she would say, "It's there."

Grandma knew her nature, so I wasn't about to argue. There was another dragonfly she called the "Devil's Darning Needle," another colloquial expression. It somehow differed slightly from a snake feeder, something she could pick up on what with all the darting goings-on. She knew darning needles, having plenty of them and having put them to good use over the years. The insect one, however -- and this is a big however -- could sew your mouth shut. That is, I imagined, if the Devil ordered it. I considered that even less likely than the snake feeder.

You could not venture outside during the warmer months without encountering dragon flies. Grandma's warnings no doubt were intended to keep a playful youngster alert for snakes in the grass. It worked at that level really well. 

...

 FRATERNAL GROUPS POPULAR WAY BACK AGO

International Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) was a popular organization. I have dues slips payment receipts going back to 1903 for my grandfather Noah W. Martin, a fellow traveler and member of the Short Creek chapter.

An invitation card, 1901:

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was a powerful organiza- 

tion, having in its ranks notable figures. Its membership included 

congressmen, judges, police chiefs, attorneys, wealthy businessmen, 

newspaper moguls, blue-collar or white-collar workers, plus those of 

meager means. They all joined in the lodge room of Odd Fellowship.

The main tenet of Odd Fellowship is to "relieve the distressed, 

bury the dead, and educate the orphan." The Order seeks to improve 

the character of mankind" by employing its main principles of Friend- 

ship, Love, and Truth. 

The name "Odd Fellows" is derived from England during an era 

when it was thought to be strange or "odd" for people to aid each other.

"All-Seeing Eye" 

The all-seeing eye is watching you. This is what you believe if you 

are a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The eye 

reminds one that a Higher Being is always scrutinizing one's ac- 

tions and thoughts. The skull and crossbones force one to be reminded 

of his or her mortality, and the duty to seek a proper burial or place of 

rest for a departed brother or sister. These symbols also encourage one 

to value the memory of that departed person's virtues. The scythe is the 

symbol of death. The serpent signifies wisdom; and the coffin is the final 

place of rest for a person. These are just a few symbols used by the Odd 

Fellows for hundreds of years.

History of the I.O.O.F. By Peter Sellars V

HUDSON COUSINS/ SPRING GROVE SCHOOL 1941

My first two years were at Liberty and then to Spring Grove.  

I've two male cousins here, brothers Joe and Chuck Hudson, a couple of years before I breathed my first. 

Chuck is on bottom row, 2nd from R. -- Joe, 4th row, 3rd from R.

TRONA'S IRON MAN

Joe Hudson, on the job 55 years in Trona, Calif

...

 JAKE SHOT DOWN IN GALENA

Jake Killian

A week or so ago I mentioned the fact that Granby produced a lot of desperate characters during its heyday as a mining town in the mid to late 1800s. One of them was Jake Killian. In fact, all the males in the whole Killian family were a bunch of hard cases. I have an article about the Killians that will be published in a future issue of Wild West Magazine. So, I don't want to steal my own thunder by going into a lot of detail here, but here's a brief version of their story. The Killian family moved from Arkansas to Granby during the mid 1850s. The father, Cy Killian, got beat to death with a whiffle-tree by a drinking buddy on the streets of Granby in the late 1850s. During the Civil War, an older brother of Jake named Mart was taken from a jail in Carthage and strung up to a tree near Spring River by bushwhackers who rode down from Barton County to avenge an outrage on a Lamar saloonkeeper's wife. Jake himself was shot and blinded in one eye during the war while wrestling a fellow soldier named Norton for a gun after getting into a dispute over a card game. After the war, Jake killed William Lake, owner of a traveling circus, when the circus came to Granby in 1869. In 1873, another of Jake's older brothers, Ben, got into a row at a similar traveling show in Granby, and an innocent bystander was killed during the ensuing gunplay. Two years later, Jake's younger brother, Thomas, and two other men killed one of the citizens who had served on the grand jury that indicted Ben Killian for murder. Then in 1878, Jake Killian was killed by William Norton, the same man who'd blinded him during the war, on the streets of Empire City, Kansas (now part of Galena), when he went there in search of revenge. So much for the Killian family,Article by Larry Wood

 

FIRST AND GREATEST MUSCLE CAR EVER

In December of 1964, while I was enjoying a Christmas leave from the U.S. Marine Corps, an uncle in Trona, Calif., honored my request by driving me to the high-mountain town of Bishop where I paid cash for a new Pontiac GTO at Perry Motors. I owned a 1956 Olds Rocket 88 hardtop at the time, my second favorite ride ever. Red and white with chrome to burn.

 

Sea Foam green in color, it was a beauty to behold, the GTO.

I had read a review of the car explaining how GTO stood for Gran Turismo Omologato in Italian, translated as "fine touring vehicle." My sights had been set on a Triumph TR4 sports car in English Racing Green, until the lean and clean GTO garnered my exclusive attention.

Car and Driver magazine, March 1964

The finishing touch was the audacity of those three letters on this car, or more likely, it was the audacious way the Tempest GTO delivered on that apparent overpromise. Yes, it was quick, but it stopped and handled, too. We called it "the best American car we have ever driven, and probably one of the five or six best cars in the world for the enthusiast driver." In case readers didn't take that seriously, we included this appraisal: "Our test car, with stock suspension, metallic brakes, and as-tested 348-hp engine, will lap any U.S. road course faster than any Ferrari street machine." And when we called it a bargain, we emphasized the word with italics. The competition emphasized the GTO's significance with an explosion of similar cars that consumed the national conscience for a decade. It took the triple hit of emissions controls, an oil embargo, and an industry-wide rethink of insurance stand­ards to finally slow the trend. —Jared Gall

I enjoy more simple driving pleasures today. Once you've had the best it doesn't matter all the rest.

...

 

	FISH FRY

The following girls enjoyed a fish fry, Thursday evening at the home of Miss Hazel Ferneau near Spring river: Misses Opal and Gertrude Duley, Mildred Lindsey, Beatrice Alford, Iva Keyes, Lora and Alma Dillon, Crystal Stark, Merl Sweeten, Emma Lewman and Mrs. Daisy Peek, Gladys and Bessie Ferneau. 

TACKETT-LAPPIE 

Announcement has been made of the marriage of Miss Lizzie Lappie and Fred Tackett, which occurred November 2, 1921 at Columbus.

Galena Evening Times, Pg. 3, April 27, 1922

GALENA TOWN TEAM BASEBALL 1922

Last evening Raymond Williams and Elmer Carney were seen warming up in an alley off Main street. Raymond is a coming young pitcher with lots of stuff but no head, but a good battery mate, like Rauch can hold him in check, also "Pug" Shackelton, star holdout, has reached an agreement with Carney and has signed a contract. The salary is not made public. As Elmer Carney’s bunch of would-be and has-been baseball players are so anxious to go down in unglorious defeat before Harry Gray's all-star athletics, the West Side has consented to defeat them Tuesday afternoon at Association Park. Gray dees not wish to show up Carney's team before the game by printing his line-up, but will do so because of repeated requests from all the fans? As yet an umpire has not been chosen as both the pitchers want to call the balls and strikes themselves. The West Side line-up is: Fred Archer, Raymond Moore, Cash Rohrbaugh, Joe Clark, Arthur S. McNay, Barney Bliss, George Long, Bryce Sater, Bert Coles, L J. Haines. Dickie Kennedy, “June" Klbler. Jess Bender, Schmidt Bros., Porter Clark and John Hoffman.

Galena Evening Times, Pg.1, August 11, 1922

 

1956 GALENA LIONS

BABE RUTH LEAGUE AGES 13-15

BACK ROW (L.-R.) Coach Noah "Poppy" Martin, Coach Jack Shallenburger, Norm Cure, Stan Bruce, Bryce Martin, Bill Price, Larry Murray, Gale Davis, Manager Frank Bruce. FRONT ROW: Jan Bruce, Don McKnight, Harold Washom, Neal Qualls, Mike Swain, Harold Shallenburger, Dan McKnight, Howard Kent.

...

OH, NO!

My fun run with the talented Lions team came to an abrupt end after the '56 season when manager Bruce was notified that with the upcoming season approaching, he had too many 15-year-olds on the roster, according to league stipulations. Bruce said he drew names out of a hat for the two that had to depart, myself and Don McKnight. With “SJ” on the cap and “GFD” on the shirt, I was now with Smokey Joe’s, sponsored by The Galena Volunteer Fire Department. It was like a bad dream. Kenneth Molloy was the new manager, and he inherited a bunch of newbies, weak on talent. Max Murray was the only holdover of any worth from last year’s competitive team. That group was helmed by Earl Carriger and Eddie Richardson. One game in particular with my new 'mates serves as a good example. In that one, I pitched and hit a three-run homer over the leftfield fence. We won that one 3-2. Max Murray was one of our few bright spots. He was a good catcher and a powerful hitter. Don McKnight was steady and dependable at bat and patrolling right field or first base. One skin on the wall for us was the fact we were the only team in the league that season to have three players with home runs, myself, Murray, McKnight. The NY Yankees had the “M&M Boys” (Mantle and Maris) while we had the “M&M&M Boys.

...

A consolation from Lion's teammate Stan Bruce upon hearing the news, "I didn't want to see you go. I thought you was one of our better players last year." 

...

J

Jan Bruce, retired Kansas Highway Patrolman of 28 years

Photo: Galena Sentinel-Times

 

BAKERSFIELD

Padre Hotel/Alley Cat

Art by Bruce Hebron