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Kansas Historical Notes - August 1932

(Vol.1, No. 4), page 411

Transcribed by Lynn Nelson; HTML editing by Tod Roberts;
digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society.


The rock garden and lily pool which were presented to Shawnee Mission by the Shawnee Mission Floral Club were dedicated April 3, 1932. Gov. Harry H. Woodring accepted a Washington elm in behalf of the state and Kirke Mechem, secretary of the Kansas Historical Society, accepted the rock garden for the mission.

A monument to Dodge City's "cow town" history was unveiled on Boot Hill June 6, 1932. It is estimated that seven million Texas longhorns came over the trails from Texas to Dodge City during the seventies and eighties.

The Scott County Historical Society met in the Scott County State Park June 13, 1932. The following officers were elected to head the association for the ensuing year: J. K. Freed, president; W. S. Manker, vice president; Mrs. Clarence Dickhut, secretary; Elmer Epperson, reporter; Mrs. Daisy Elrod, librarian.

Stories of early-day life in Manhattan and community were told June 18, 1932, at a meeting of the Pioneers' association of Riley county.

Relics of interest to Harvey county and Kansas are being collected by the Bethel College museum at Newton.

Bing; the Story of a Tramp Dog (New York: Win. Morrow & Co., 1932), by Dr. Thomas C. Hinkle, of Carbondale, is a recent book of interest to young Kansans. The locale of the story is laid near Junction City during the cattle- and sheep-herding days of the early eighties.

ORDER OF THE PURPLE HEART AWARDED TO GENERAL METCALF.

Gen. Wilder S. Metcalf, of Lawrence, president of the Kansas Historical Society in 1919, recently was awarded the Order of the Purple Heart by the War Department, in recognition of his services on February 23 and March 29, 1899, while serving as a major in the Twentieth Kansas volunteer infantry in the Philippines.

The Order of the Purple Heart was established by Gen. George Washington as a permanent decoration at Newburgh, August 7, 1782, for the performance "of any singularly meritorious action, instances

411 KANSAS HISTORICAL NOTES

 

of unusual gallantry and extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way." It is believed that only three awards of the decoration were made at this time. Subsequent to the Revolution the award of the decoration was forgotten, and was not revived until February 22, 1932, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Washington.

General Metcalf has been a resident of Kansas for many years. During the Spanish-American War he succeeded Gen. Frederick Funston in command of the famous Twentieth Kansas regiment of volunteers, and during the World War he served as a brigadier general in command of Camp Beauregard, La. He has been active in the American Legion, and was the state commander in 1921-'22. He has served on the national executive committee, and has been chairman of the national finance committee of the Legion for almost ten years. At two different times he has served as the commissioner of pensions in Washington. He has also been a member of the national militia board, and recently retired from active service in a Topeka life insurance company of which he had served as president.