From Loren Taylor, the Wyandotte County Historical Society & Museum Inc., and The Historical Journal of Wyandotte County:
The second volume of the Historical Overview of Wyandotte County is currently at the printers and will hopefully be released within the next six weeks. It will include supplemental sections for the past three publications: This is the newest publication in this impressive 25-year mission/project. One purpose for this volume was to supplement the prior publications in the project.
- The Consolidated Ethnic History of Wyandotte County
- The Historic Communities of Wyandotte County
- Historical Overview of Wyandotte County and Its Historic Sites Volume I
This six-hundred-page supplement has been five years in its development. The material is often of exciting historic events with little or no past coverage. It is amazing to read such as:
The coverage of the Ku-Klux-Klan in Wyandotte County during the 1920s and its political implications on later events, (Including the full work by the noted historian Tim Rives with the National Archives and Eisenhower Museum.
The assassination of the developer of the UP railroad occurring on Minnesota Ave during the Civil War. The personalities involved included Abraham Lincoln, Sen.\ Gen. Lane, Gen. Fremont and local notables, some who observing the killing in 1864 on Minnesota Ave. and spoke to the known assassin just before the killing. – This coverage includes conspiracy theories.
The actual impressive logistics, planning and movement of the Wyandot Nation to Kansas. It includes the actual treaties, news accounts, side accounts, letters written on the steamboat movement and notes on the Wyandot leaders.
It includes in-depth remembrances of two early leading citizens, V. J. Lane and Frank Betton, on the early pre-Civil War period in Wyandotte City, from their different perspectives. Betton adds personal perspective on the early Wyandot Tribal inhabitants. He was a descendant of a signor of the Declaration of Independence, well-educated and married into a prominent Wyandot family. They met after his arrival at Kaw Point in 1857.
The controversies and intrigues surrounding the early quest for utilities. This includes water, gas lights, electric lighting. Electric power and the eventual quest for an innovative Board of Public Utilities.
The story of North American Aviation in KCK and its Bomber Plant and personal information concerning its employees in Fairfax during WWII by Dr. Dan Desko the. founder of the B-25 History Project. It includes material on both the plant and the people. It includes everything from an overview of the plant timeline to information on many of the test pilots from the plant. The role women played in the plant is discussed in detail.
It includes an overview of the early history of the developing law in Wyandotte County and the early Wyandotte County Bar. It includes the law, as practiced, in the early Wyandot settlement.
There are hundreds of other topics addressed in this volume. This includes examples such as: supplemental additions on the history of education in Wyandotte County by Patricia Adams, the developing influence of the early German immigrants in business, political influence and civic activities. There are entries into the other ethnic communities throughout the volume.
The work concludes with a comprehensive index of great value to genealogists as well those who simply are intrigued by the impressive history of Wyandotte County and its diverse ethnic people.
For additional information, contact Loren Taylor at (913) 321-6195.