Have You Ever Heard of Kaw City?

I’ve never been one to get hyped up about history. Does this strike you as an odd fact after reading my previous posts? Well, it is true. It wasn’t exactly a subject that captured my attention in school. I was never very good at remembering dates and putting events in some sort of chronologic perspective was not exactly my fortè. However, I did well in the subject, thanks no doubt to some sort of memory tool or another that allowed me to recall pertinent information, spit it out on a test & subsequently forget it. Nonetheless, I always held the subject in high regard because I thoroughly believed the statement by George Santayana that, “those who cannot remember [or learn from] the past are condemned to repeat it”. Somewhat contradictory, isn’t it? Enter my life. Ha! Seriously though, I understood the importance of studying, learning & retaining the information, but in the mind of a studious young lady the things I was supposedly “learning” were flying at me from every direction & some of it stuck & some of it just didn’t! Thankfully, in my older, wiser years (sure hope there are a lot more of those to come) I have begun to appreciate the erratic mind of my youth. Surprisingly enough, I’ve retained a lot more than I ever thought possible.

 That brings me to my topic for today; a little bit of history regarding the “village” of Grantville & how Maplecroft Farm came to be in existence. It is quite interesting, I believe, to see how the beginning of a county and its towns shaped the landscape that we live in today. Obviously, the “landscape” I am referring to is not the literal lay of the land & its geological formations. That landscape is somewhat absolute & relatively unchanging. I may visit that topic in a future post as this region of Kansas, particularly the Kaw River Valley where Maplecroft is situated, is commonly regarded to be quite picturesque. I am talking about how our society has evolved, where our ancestors chose to homestead, how our cities have developed and basically how the “chips” fall! 

According to the Kansas Historical Society, the Kansas Territory was opened to non-native settlement by the U.S. government in 1854 (http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/settlement-in-kansas/14546). "This is one of the oldest settled portions of the county," according to William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, JEFFERSON COUNTY, Part 24, KAW TOWNSHIP. The first white settlers who came to Kaw Township were Jefferson Riddle, J.T. Wilson, J. Kuykendall, and R.P. Beeler. They settled this area in 1854. (http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/jefferson/jefferson-co-p24.html#KAW_TOWNSHIP). To put that in perspective, if you can recall from your formative history lessons, Kansas became the 34th state to join the United States of America on January 29, 1861. This was during the chaotic period of our history when the state was referred to as "Bleeding Kansas" due to the violence that ensued over the slavery debate. Kansas entered the union as a free state.

What I find particularly interesting is that the town of Grantville likely would have been located about one and a half miles north of its present location. Our farm could have looked much different today if Kaw City had been a success! According to William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, “In the spring of 1857 a town company, of twenty-five members, was formed, and a town site, consisting of 320 acres, was laid off, and called Kaw City. Its location was on the east side of the Big Muddy, at the base of the hills, at the place where the wide valley of the Kansas River begins.”

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunate for us, the site of Kaw City was not a success and in 1865 the Kansas Pacific Railroad built a station at our present day site of Grantville. In 1866, the first passenger train came through. (http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/jefferson/jefferson-co-p24.html#KAW_TOWNSHIP).

My father recounted to me the following information regarding Maplecroft, much of which is also recorded in William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas.

“John Kuydendoll was granted title to 146 acres on Big Muddy Creek, which was at that time called Traverse Creek, in 1856. James S. Townsend purchased this same tract in 1856 and brought a stock of goods from Platte City, Missouri and opened a store in a small log cabin. J.S. Townsend traded his claim for a hotel in Oskaloosa and Mathew R. Dutton became the third owner. He began construction of a large limestone house and barn on the property about 1870. On Dec 1, 1873, Hanson Zebulon Frisbie purchased the property and called it Maplecroft.” (Generations of Love, A Story of the Frisbie Family, 1992 by Leisa M. Frisbie). The Frisbie family has owned the property ever since & still live there to this day.

Photograph of the home and the original limestone barn, date unknown. Owner, George Frisbie (1864-1951) and his wife, Etta Frisbie, are pictured sitting in the rockers on the porch.

The limestone barn and carriage house that sat to the south of the limestone house burnt to the ground on March 1, 1946. The south barn sits adjacent to the west barn at a right angle. The existing wood frame barns were rebuilt on the original limestone barn foundation. Currently, the two barns remain standing, albeit in deteriorating condition. Much water damage has occurred to both barns, particularly the west one which still has the original shake shingle roof. The south barn has fared a slightly better fate, as it has a metal roof. However, the affects of several bad ice storms and time are cause for immediate attention if the barns are to be saved.

  Photograph I took of the existing wood barns in 2006. The west barn is pictured at left and the south barn at right.

Obviously, there is plenty of work to be done at the farm today. The structures are in need of repairs & the grounds need clearing & cleaning. Beef cattle are no longer raised here. Therefore, many trees have grown in the cow lot next to the barns & will need to be removed before the structures can be stabilized and repaired. Can they be saved? Some say yes, others say no…I say I still have hope.

Sorting Through the Museum – Back to the Beginning of Inspiration

It’s the beginning of a new month again! While I aspire to update this blog more often, for now I will be content with a small amount of progress. I may not have reached my goal but if I have learned anything from working on this project, it is that little steps are still steps in the right direction. Things might not be happening as quickly as we would like, but it is still progress. And that is good! I think we all need to remember that we aren’t living in our time; we are living in God’s time. I’ll be sure to write that on a sticky note & put it on my mirror as a reminder for this upcoming weekend as Daylight Saving Time ends. (Not my favorite time!)

So, what are some of the things I have been doing? A lot of my time has been spent researching the family and sorting through old documents. It really is like a museum around that place! The problem is that things are not documented, organized or stored properly. The Frisbie family has such a rich history and much of it has been documented by many people over the years. Many thanks go out to the Frisbie-Frisbee Family Association of America, Inc. (FFFAA) for their work in the Frisbie genealogy, cataloging information and documents, publishing reports & keeping the family connected. (You can find them at http://www.fffaa.org). I never realized it until now, but the FFFAA is a major source of my inspiration for the Maplecroft project. Another major source of inspiration for this project is my dad!

When I was a child my father showed me the books compiled by Nora Frisbie about Edward Frisbie of Branford and His Descendants & the Frisbie family quarterly newsletter, The Frisbie-Frisbee Family Bulletin, published by the FFFAA. He told me how Edward Frisbie is credited with being the first Frisbie in America. I remember being impressed to see my family lineage printed and bound in hardcover and indexed with a genealogic numbering system! This inspired me to someday publish a book of my own; a story of the Frisbie family at Maplecroft. (I’m still working on that “someday” dream! Progress; one [small] step at a time!) 

As a child, the Frisbie family stories sparked my wild imagination. The notion of my ancestors being present in this country before the famous Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock conjured up images of that traditional Thanksgiving propaganda we learned at school. I thought about how that translated to a more recent day story when my great-great-grandfather traded goods with the Kaw Indians on Traverse Creek, now called Muddy Creek, and I wondered if he sold any of those goods in his general store at Grantville, Kansas. I was curious to know if he traded and sold buffalo pelts and if so, why weren’t they still here at the house? (To a young child like me it sure seemed that everything else under the sun was in that enormous house!) I considered the possibility that perhaps the famous Daniel Boone had been here visiting family (yes, we are related to Daniel Boone; I thought it was a tall tale for many years, but it is true) and maybe they were given to him as a gift. It was a possibility in the mind of a child.

The family origin can be traced back to England, appearing as the name of two manors in Leicestershire in the Doomsday Book from 1086. I often thought of how the village of Frisby-on-the-Wreake could be similar to what we referred to as our small “village” of Grantville. I imagined that the stone houses in that faraway country could resemble our stone home. I thought about the day when I would travel to all the places of our ancestors, especially back to England, where the oldest roots are found. (Someday!)

In the meantime, I will continue to sort & organize & catalog & find the proper way to preserve all of these memories, documents & antiques. I will continue to write my story and to seek out the stories of others. I am in the process of contacting people who have spent time at Maplecroft and might have stories of their own to share. It would be wonderful to interview those people & document their stories and memories in their own words. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a documentary crew that could film it all! 

If you are reading this & have stories, memorabilia, photographs, or other items of interest that you would be willing to share then please leave a comment or send me a message. Additionally, if you know people who have stories that need to be documented then please let me know who to contact. I am specifically seeking out information about the Frisbie’s of Maplecroft, of Grantville, Kansas, however, any information about the farm, the neighbors, or the community might be helpful. Thanks in advance!

Once Every Month Is Not Okay!

I have good intentions of getting on a regular schedule & making this work...but my latest tagline for my life is:

Life gets in the way of living!

I really will get better at keeping this blog up to date! I will prioritize! My goal here is to at least get you an update of some sort once a week. I hope that will be okay. In the meantime, I am working on getting our Facebook page up & running. I've updated my last post with the address but you can find us at www.facebook.com/MaplecroftFarm.

Here’s to new schedules! Feel free to comment with ways you keep your life on track and your schedules intact.

New Year's Resolution

I have officially decided to enter my 2012 New Year’s resolution into the record books. You may be thinking, “What? Are you a crazy lady? Talk about procrastination; it’s September 1^st!” But I think I might actually be able to move forward on this project at a more even gait if I am bound by my dedication to a daily ritual (I can dream, can’t I?) and my obligation to my readers (I am being rather optimistic about anyone wanting to follow this, aren’t I?).  However, I feel that I need to reach out to a broader audience and gain some accountability to myself and to my mission.

Photograph of me as a child, in front of the stone house at Maplecroft...now, where will the dream take us?
               
One might wonder what my mission is. Well, I will attempt to be concise (not a virtue of mine when it comes to writing…unless there is a considerable amount of editing and rewriting involved). For many, many years I have had a vision, perhaps one would call it a dream or an appointment from the most divine, to seek out a way to restore the homestead where I was raised.

Actually, this vision literally came to me in a dream when I was a young child. It has matured and developed but I will admit that I still don’t know exactly where this path is taking me. I believe that I have been shown an image of what is meant to be, but I am fully trusting God to guide me to see His will and execute it here on this earth.

My goal is to raise awareness of this historic property, document our progress and inform others about the wonderful opportunities we hope to have in this space. We aspire to do great things and be a light of God’s love throughout this process. I pray that you will enjoy this journey with us! Please like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MaplecroftFarm and leave your comments or suggestions. We will be glad to hear your feedback. God bless!