News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

February 5, 1910

BLIND WOMAN WAITED

AT DEPOT IN VAIN.

Hostess Detained by Accident -- Mrs.

Aldrich Writes Literature

for the Blind.

Mrs. Clara Aldrich, totally blind and a stranger in Kansas City, arrived at the Union depot last night from Joliet, Ill. She was expecting friends to meet her at the station, but was disappointed. She told Mrs. Ollie Everingham, matron at the depot, that Mrs. O. P. Blatchley of 220 South Ash street, in Kansas City, Kas., had promised to meet her. The matron called the Blatchley home over the telephone and found that Mrs. Blatchley had fallen on the ice near her home yesterday morning and received injuries which confined her to bed. The matron sent Mrs. Aldrich to the Young Women's Christian Association boarding house for the night.

Dr. O. P. Blatchley said last night that his wife's parents were friends of the parents of Mrs. Aldrich, and that she had arranged to locate her in Kansas City, Kas. Dr. Blatchley said that Mrs. Aldrich for many years has been engaged in writing religious literature for students in the blind schools over the country.

Mrs. Blatchley suffered a dislocated left shoulder and a ruptured artery over her left eye in her fall yesterday.

Labels: accident, depot matron, doctors, Kansas City Kas, telephone, Union depot, visitors, visual impairment, YWCA

January 6, 1910

JEU BING FLEES

FROM TONG WAR.

CHINESE BOY, ESCAPING FROM

FRISCO, SPENDS HOURS IN

KANSAS CITY.

Hides in Union Depot to

Evade Prying Enemies

of His Family.

So that he, at least, might escape the tong war in San Francisco in which an uncle has met death and in which his relatives are all involved, Jeu Bing, a Chinese boy, was spirited from the California city at night and with $500 in gold in his pocket was placed aboard a train for Chicago. His ticket called for a change of trains at Kansas City, and he spent a couple of hours yesterday morning in the Union depot. The boy has letters to several Chinese merchants of Chicago and it will rest with them as to whether he continues East or remains there. A price, it is said, has been placed on Jeu's head by the tong faction said to be responsible for the death of his uncle.

Jeu is 16 years old. He was born in San Francisco's Chiatown and was left motherless when a little child. The boy attended the Presbyterian Sunday school there and acquired the English language rapidly. With his knowledge of the Chinese tongue and his familiarity with the denizens of his section of the city he was frequently called on by the authorities as an interpreter. It was while engaged in some of these cases that he gained the enmity of influential Chinamen who were his father's rivals in business.

MARKED FOR DEATH.

After the earthquake, Jeu was constantly in demand. The authorities wanted information on the mysteries of the Chinese section. They thought that they could get it from Jeu. If they did, it is a secret, for Jeu declares that he knew nothing of the underground passages and the hovels and haunts of the criminal Chinese. After the restoration of Chinatown much of the blame for the activity of the authorities was laid to the Bing family.

Then came the tong wars. How his family were interested in these, Jeu could or would not say. It was sufficient that there was bad feeling, he said, and to make matters worse his uncle was one of those who was stabbed in the back one night. His body was found the next day. There was much excitement in the Chinese quarter. There were other assaults and the other members of the Bing family remained indoors. Two weeks ago a friend notified them that Jeu was one of the Chinamen on whose head a price had been put by one of the tongs.

Friendly Chinamen were called in consultation. The authorities, who were told of the threat, suggested that Jeu secure the names of some of the Chinamen suspected and they would be arrested. He was unable to do this, and at a friendly council it was decided to send Jeu away from the city.

DONNED WOMAN'S DRESS.

This was the hardest part of the programme. It was known that the house was under surveillance, and it was with difficulty that Jeu was spirited out. He was dressed in a woman's walking suit with a heavy veil, and in this costume made his way to the railroad depot, where a detective purchased his ticket. He had a purse containing $500 in gold, the most of which he brought to Kansas City with him.

Arriving here early yesterday morning, Jeu presented a note to Station master Bell. The latter escorted him to Matron Everingham, who made the boy comfortable and kept him out of sight until the time for departure of his train to Chicago. The boy feared that if his presence in the depot became known some Chinamen, enemies of his family, might telegraph to San Francisco and that members of the tong who were sworn to kill him would follow.

Jeu was an entertaining conversationalist and also a good quizzer. He asked hundreds of questions of the "red caps" as to the size of the city, the number of Chinese in the town and also expressed wonder that there was no Chinese quarter and no Chinese servants. He took the names of several who had been kind to him and said that he would send them a little token of his regard when he returned to San Francisco, which he hoped would be soon.

Jeu said that he was a nephew of Lee Bing, the deceased Chinese philanthropist of St. Louis. Over a score of members of the Bing family, he said, came to America about a quarter of a century ago. Many of them are dead, while some live in El Paso, Chicago and New York. The rest all live in San Francisco.

Labels: California, Chicago, depot matron, railroad, Union depot, visitors

January 2, 1910

DEPOT MATRON'S GUESTS.

Mrs. Everingham Cared for 9,120

People During the Year 1909.

About twenty-five persons a day have been cared for through the office of the matron at the Union depot, according to the report tabulated yesterday by Matron Ollie Everingham, and which will be submitted today to the depot officials. A total of 9,120 persons made use of this department last year. this was done with an expenditure by her of $110.80. Of this amount she personally donated $7.54. The total cost as given is exclusive of her salary. A fund box which she tacked up for donations last July received $11.10, and the balance was contributed by travelers. Her report shows a balance on hand of $1.13.

There were but two deaths in the depot during the last year. One was in April and the other in July. This despite the fact that a total of 1,046 sick persons received the personal care of the matron. But four women required the attention of the matron because of drunkenness. The matron's report does not show any runaway girls, while eight boys are given credit for having tried to run away by way of the Union depot. Fifteen young girls were sent to their homes, but there is no record of any boys being sent that way.

The matron's report classifying the people cared for through her department included:

Blind cared for, 76; babies left, 1; children cared for, 1,010; directed to address, 1,209; directed to hotels, 670; families cared for, 67; funeral parties, 9; insane cared for, 64; lost articles restored, 52; mutes cared for, 63; old ladies cared for, 1,096; old men cared for, 241; poor helped and fed, 191.

Labels: charity, depot matron, Union depot

December 25, 1909

TWO WREATHS OF HOLLY.

Outward Evidence of Christmas at
Union Depot.

Two wreaths of holly -- one over Matron Ollie Everingham's desk and the other in the sick room -- was the only evidence at the dingy Union depot last night of the fact that it was Christmas eve. The crowd, good natured and unusually large, packed bundles and and parcels and exchanged Christmas greetings. The exchange of presents by employes at the depot was accomplished under difficulties, made so by the unusually heavy travel this year. There were two places where the fact that it was Christmas eve was apparent. These were the Bell and Home telephone exchanges. The pretty girl operators were fairly loaded up with boxes of candy.

Labels: depot matron, holidays, telephone, Union depot

October 28, 1909

AT AGE OF 104 YEARS

MAKES 200-MILE TRIP.

CENTENARIAN IS ACCOMPANIED

BY SON 76 YEARS OLD.

Fondness for Clay Pipe and Long

Green Leads Mrs. Indiana

Hagan to the Smok-

ing Car.

After a 200-mile railroad ride from Clarence, Shelby county, Mo., only slightly fatigued, Mrs. Indiana Hagan, 104 years old, with her baby boy, Levi Howard, 76 years old, left Kansas City last evening for Sparta, on the Blue River, where they will make their home with George Howard, the other surviving son. William Riley Howard, 52 years old, son of Levi Howard, accompanied them from Clarence to Liberty, Mo.

"I don't feel as pert today as I usually do," said Mrs. Hagan between puffs of long green from an old clay pipe, which she said was a score or more years old.

"My feet hurt me today and I had to take my shoes off. This was the longest railroad trip I ever made and it made me sort of tired. I guess I smoked a bit too much, too. I will be glad when we get to my son's home. I won't go away from there."

DOESN'T SHOW AGE.

Rawboned, almost toothless, yet with some eyesight, her face a mass of wrinkles, Mrs. Hagan does not look the age she says she is. Her age would not be readily believed were it not for her son who is with her and looks the age he says he is -- 76 years.

Mrs. Hagan was born in Washington county, Ind. After her marriage at the age of 18 she removed to Lawrence county. It was there that Levi Howard was born. He was one of four brothers and a sister, all of whom have died except his brother, George, at Sparta.

Two of the brothers died as the result of injuries received in the battle of Gettysburg. Levi and George were in the Fourteenth Indiana regiment of infantry and passed through the war without receiving injuries. After the war the entire family emigrated to Missouri. The mother remarried, and a daughter, now Mrs. Ella May Crewett, was born. Mrs. Hagan has been living until recently at this daughter's home at Clarence, Shelby county, Mo.

SHOWS PIPE COLLECTION.

Several months ago Mr. Howard, who has been living with a son at Annabelle, Macon county, decided to go to his brother's farm to recover from an attack of asthma. He broached the subject with his mother and she decided to make the trip with him. William Riley Howard, a son who lives at Liberty, Mo., accompanied them from Shelby county to his home.

"I have never had a sickness in my life," said Mrs. Hagan as she sat on the couch in the waiting room at the Union depot, refusing Matron Everingham's admonition to lie down and rest.

"My only bad habit is smoking long green. I don't like any other sort of pipe but a clay pipe, and I brought all my pipes with me. This one," she said, pointing to the one she was smoking yesterday, "is about twenty years old."

The pipe bore evidence of great age. It was colored a deep black and part of the bowl had been burned away.

Because of her fondness for her pipe, Mrs. Hagan occupied a seat in the smoker on the trip here.

Labels: depot matron, Seniors, Union depot, visitors

October 17, 1909

MISSED MOTHER AT DEPOT.

Boy of 8 From Ohio Now in Charge

of Police Matron.

Charles Francis, 8 years old, arrived at the Union depot yesterday from Toledo, O., expecting to meet his mother, Mrs. Eva M. Francis of Kansas City, who sent for him. Mrs. Francis was not at the station and Matron Ollie Everingham sent the little fellow to the police matron, until Mrs. Francis could be found. A telegram addressed to Mrs. Frances from Toledo awaits her at the Union depot.

Labels: children, depot matron, missing, police matron, telegram, Union depot

October 16, 1909

HOMES FOR WORTHY WOMEN.

Depot Matron Has Half Dozen Offers

but Not One Applicant.

"For two weeks I have not had a request for a home from a woman who was willing to work," said Depot Matron Ollie Everingham yesterday, "although during that time I received letters from half a dozen persons who offered to care for worthy women, and some have offered to pay a small salary. I am holding these letters and offers, for it will not be long now until I will be burdened with requests for homes by women who are anxious and willing and able as well to do housework for their keep."

Labels: depot matron, women

October 15, 1909

MET DEPOT MATRON BEFORE.

Two Juveniles Rush From Their

Train to Greet Her.

"Here we are," cried Walter Baker, 11 years old, leading his brother, Arthur, 9 years old, by the hand and addressing Matron Ollie Everingham at the Union depot last night.

The boys were on their way home from a visit with their grandfather at Maple Hill, Mo. They live at Eldon, Mo. When they passed through Kansas City six weeks ago they were taken in charge by attaches of the depot and placed in Mrs. Everingham's charge. On their return they hurried from their train to her desk.

Labels: depot matron, Union depot, visitors

September 25, 1909

HIS MOTHER TO A HOSPITAL.

So 10-Year-Old Son Starts to Walk

to Clinton, Mo.

Ernest Wolf, 10 years old, weak from typhoid fever and just out of a hospital, started out last evening to walk from his home in the rear of Holmes and Twelfth streets, from which place his mother is to be taken to a hospital today to his father's at Clinton, Mo.

The little fellow expected to follow the railroad tracks. When he got to the Union depot he saw so many tracks that he became frightened and began asking questions.

According to Ernest's story which Mrs. Everingham verified through the authorities, his mother, Alice, has been so ill that she has not been able to work for almost a month and arrangements were made yesterday to take her to a hospital.

Mrs. Everingham arranged last evening with the Associated Charities to take care of the boy until his mother is able to support him again.

Labels: Associated Charities, children, depot matron, Holmes street, illness, Twelfth street, typhoid, Union depot

September 15, 1909

FORGOT HER DESTINATION.

Oklahoma Girl Bought Ticket for

Garnett Instead of Kansas City.

Through a mistake, for which she cannot account, Miss Emma Howe, 17 years old, bought a ticket and checked her trunk for Garnett, Kas., instead of to Kansas City, where her sister, Mrs. Hattie Fields, resides, before leaving Ola, Ok., Monday afternoon.

The trunk was put off at Garnett and Miss Howe would also have been detained there for lack of funds to proceed further, but several traveling men made up a purse to pay her fare here. When she arrived at Union depot over the Santa Fe last night it was to discover that her troubles had only just begun, for the paper on which her father had written her sister's address in Kansas City was in her trunk.

The girl was cared for overnight by Mrs. Ollie Everingham, the depot matron. The name of Mrs. Hattie Fields does not appear in the city directory.

Labels: depot matron, oklahoma, railroad, Union depot

September 3, 1909

REMEMBERED DEPOT MATRON.

Children Had Fruits and Flowers

for Mrs. Ollie Everingham.

Four children cared for by Mrs. Ollie Everingham, the Union depot matron, when they passed through the Union depot at various times in the summer to spend vacations in the country, arrived at the depot yesterday morning on their way back to home and school. The children were glad to see Mrs. Everingham, and each had a bit of fruit or a bunch of flowers for her. The children were: Walter and Fred Herman of Sedalia, Mo., who had been to Lincoln, Neb.; Grace Egan of Saulsbury, Mo., who had spent her vacation in Clinton, Ok., and Raymond Stolie of Mystic, Ia., who spent his vacation in Peabody, Kas.

Labels: children, depot matron, flowers, Sedalia, Union depot, visitors

August 29, 1909

LOSES HUSBAND AND APPETITE.

For Two Days Patient Mexican

Woman Has Been Unable to Eat.

For two days, or since she has been at the Union depot, not a particle of food has crossed the lips of pretty Senora Hobbs, the wife of John Hobbs, watchmaker and preacher of the Seventh Day Baptist faith. Standing on the balcony of the women's waiting room at the Union depot, rocking the cradle wherein lay her sick 6-months -old baby, the weakened woman kept unceasing vigil, scanning every person who entered the waiting room, hoping against hope almost that any minute would bring her word of her husband, from whom she had not heard for eight days.

Matron Everingham looked after the baby to the extent of seeing that it was supplied with fresh, pure milk, and she volunteered to see that the Mexican woman got food. "I do not feel like eating," she told the matron, when Mrs. Everingham asked her if she did not want to eat something. "I only want my husband. He must be here, and I will find him."

Yesterday Morning Mrs. Hobbs visited the postoffice where she learned that the letters which she had written her husband from La Crosse, Kas., had not been called for by him. She also visited the store where her husband had been employed. They could give her but little information. Her plea for help to locate the man she married in Mexico has roused half a dozen of the attaches at the Union depot and all possible assistance was given the little blackeyed woman from the South in locating Hobbs yesterday. So far as could be learned Hobbs had not done any preaching in the streets in Kansas City. Where he roomed has not yet been learned. At Morino's store, he said that he had lost his watchmaker's tools but the wife says that he had them when he left LaCrosse.

It developed yesterday that Hobbs had been out of communication with his wife for two weeks on a previous occasion. This was when he left Chihuahua for the states. He went to San Antonio and his wife, failing to hear from him for two weeks, got on a train and found him ill at a hotel in the Texas city. There she says she sold her camera and photographic outfit.

Labels: depot matron, Mexico, missing, Union depot

August 16, 1909

ONE GIRL IS GRATEFUL.

"Ella" Sends Flowers and Fruit to

Woman Who Saved Her.

Dear Matron -- Here is a basket of the nicest peaches I could find. Hope you will enjoy them. ELLA.

This note accompanied a basket of fruit which reached the Depot matron, Mrs. Ollie Everingham, yesterday. It came from a Western Kansas town, and back of it lies a little story of a girl saved from the wiles of the city.

A year ago "Ella," whose other name Mrs. Everingham has forgotten, came to Kansas City from Southern Missouri. She was an unsophisticated country girl and she wore a rose on her left side. The matron learned that she was waiting for the man who had promised to marry her, but whom she had never seen.

Their acquaintance had been brought about through a matrimonial paper and their courtship was carried on through correspondence. She had a packet of his letters, in which he declared his love for her and in which he said that he had an excellent position with one of the banks. She had her little marriage dot, something like $100, tightly done up in a bit of handkerchief. The man whom she was looking for was also to wear a rose.

One of the detectives at the depot heard the girl's story and an hour later he caught sight of a man wearing a rose who was evidently looking for someone. It did not take the detective long to ascertain that it was the girl's supposed fiancee. The stranger discovered that he had been talking with a detective, excused himself and got away.

It was hard to tell "Ella," who then declared she would not go home. She said she would go out to Kansas and live there. Since then Mrs. Everingham has received at various times boxes of flowers and fruit from the grateful girl.

Labels: depot matron, detectives, romance, Union depot, visitors

August 15, 1909

ICE FOR CHILDREN AT DEPOT.

Mrs. Everingham Made Little Ones

Cool and Happy.

While the mercury in the thermometer at the Union depot hovered around the 99 mark yesterday afternoon, several young men, under the direction of Matron Everingham, secured chunks of ice and, breaking it up, distributed it among the children in the waiting room.

The ice used had been broken from the big chunks used in icing the cars. The supply lasted until well after the severe heat of the afternoon. The eagerness with which the children grabbed at the bits of ice more than repaid the attaches of the station for their labors in getting and distributing the ice.

Labels: children, depot matron, ice, Union depot, weather

August 10, 1909

HAS APPENDICITIS IN DEPOT.

Unconscious Oklahoman Carried

$2,000 Currency in His Pocket.

With $2,000 in currency in his pockets, Gus Schneider, a cattle raiser of Enid, Ok., was attacked with appendicitis while waiting for a train in the Union depot last night, and was discovered unconscious by Mrs. Ollie Everingham, the depot matron. Mrs. Everingham gave him emergency treatment until a physician, Dr. R. O. Cross, was secured from among the waiting travelers.

Schneider brought his cattle to the stock yards Saturday night. They were sold yesterday, and after dinner he walked to the depot. He did not feel well, and selected a seat near a window. He was attacked by pains in the stomach and it is presumed he lost conscious shortly afterwards.

Several phone calls were put in for physicians, all of whom happened to be out. One of the callers then used a megaphone in the waiting room, and Dr. Cross responded. Dr. Cross lives at Lahoma, Ok., and was on his way home. He accompanied Schneider on the train.

Labels: depot matron, doctors, illness, oklahoma, railroad, stock yards, Union depot, visitors

August 9, 1909

FORMAL FUNERAL FOR

ENGLISH GIRL'S CANARY.

Bird Victim of Hardships Was

Buried in Depot Matron's

Back Yard.

In the yard in the rear of the home of Mrs. Ollie Everingham, the matron at the Union depot, is a little mound. Beneath it in a tin box lies the cotton encased body of a little canary bird, the sole companion and pet of Miss Ethel McFarland, an English girl, who immigrated to this country just seven weeks ago. Bobbie, the bird, died yesterday morning, just after Miss McFarland had stepped from a Wabash train from St. Louis, where she had been looking for employment. Miss McFarland, who is Mrs. Everingham's protege, was her guest last night.

A little more than two months ago Miss McFarland, a clerk and bookkeeper in London, left her home for this country. She had read much of the United States and believed her future lay here. When sh e departed she had, besides her clothing, her pet canary bird, which she had reared from a nestling. The little fellow, whom she named Bobby, was attached to her as she was to him. A charge of $2.50 was made for carrying the bird on the ship, and when Miss McFarland reached this side she discovered that she owed the steward $1 more for caring for it en route.

Seven weeks ago a ruddy faced girl with a decided English accent, carrying two suit cases and the cage containing the canary bird, got off a train at the Union depot. Mrs. Everingham's attention was attracted to the girl and from that time on, Miss McFarland declares, he one best friend was the matron.

Mrs. Everingham secured lodgings for the girl, and the next day got her a position in a household.

"I don't want to work at books; I want to learn to keep house as they do in America," she told the matron.

Two weeks ago the family with whom Miss McFarland lived departed for the North. She heard of a position in St. Louis and a friend whom she had met through Mrs. Everingham offered to assist her in securing the position.

St. Louis was not to the liking of the English girl and she started back to Kansas City Friday night, arriving here yesterday morning. The ride was too much for the bird, which was dead when Miss McFarland arrived at the depot.

With tears streaming down her face and almost heartbroken at the loss of her little companion, Miss McFarland sought Mrs. Everingham. The sympathetic depot matron had a tin box in her desk. Some cotton was secured and the little bird was wrapped in the cotton, placed in the box and given a ceremonious burial in the back yard of the matron's home.

Labels: animals, depot matron, England, immigrants, railroad, Union depot, women

June 27, 1909

LEFT BABY WITH STRANGER.

Then Mother Disappeared in Crowd

at Union Depot.

Entrusting her 4-months-old girl baby to an entire stranger at the Union depot, a woman whose name could not be learned, yesterday disappeared into the crowd, ostensibly to see a friend on the train, and has not been heard from since. The woman who volunteered to care for the child turned it over to Mrs. Ollie Everingham, depot matron, and declared she did not believe the mother would ever call for it.

Accompanying the mother of the baby was a girl about 12 years. When they approached with the baby and asked the woman, who gave the name of Laura Jones, to care for it, they also left a grip containing a good supply of clean clothes.

In the grip were two bottles of paregoric, one small bottle of castor oil, two cans of cream and two nipples. The bottles bore the label of M. L. Galloway, Holden, Mo., and the druggist who sold the castor oil was W. H. Nelson of Kingsville, Mo. No other marks of identification were found.

Mrs. Everingham declared she would take the child and care for it, but the authorities ordered it turned over to the police matron, pending the search for its mother.

The mother is described as wearing a large black straw hat, a gray gingham suit and walked with a decided stoop. She is about 35 years old.

Labels: children, depot matron, police matron, Union depot

June 25, 1909

BOY'S PRAYER IS ANSWERED.

Supplication to St. Anthony Brings

Food to Hungry Child.

After being apparently abandoned in the Union depot for a day and a half and waiting thirty-four hours without a bite of food for a friend who had promised him that he would come, in the hour of his distress Sylvester Stark, 11 years old, had recourse in prayer. He breathed a supplication to St. Anthony, his patron saint since his confirmation, and his prayer was answered. A red capped depot usher came and took him to Mrs. Olive Everingham, the depot matron. To her he told his story and Mrs. Everingham, turning to some men nearby, said:

"Who'll pitch in to buy this boy a meal?"

"Come with me, sonny," said one of the bystanders and led Sylvester to a restaurant across the street.

Ham and eggs and side dishes were ordered. Sylvester consumed them all and then, contented as a hibernating bear, was bundled into a car and taken to the central police station where he was turned over to the matron and put to bed.

Sylvester lives at 2108 Market street, St. Louis. He is the only son of a widowed mother. In the winter he attends school and last summer he worked. This year a friend of his mother, Charles Ayers, who lives at Whitewater, Kas., invited the boy to pay him a visit. A week ago he sent the ticket and Sylvester came. There on his friend's stock farm he enjoyed himself, but his mother wrote that she was getting lonesome and he must go home. Mr. Ayres bought the boy a ticket to Kansas City and put him on the train, saying he would follow on a stock train and meet him yesterday morning in the women's waiting room at the Union depot.

"I got here at 9:45 o'clock Wednesday night," said the boy last night. "When night came I crawled beneath a bench and slept. When I woke up I was awfully hungry, but I was afraid to go out of the station because while I was gone Mr. Ayres might come and not find me. Then after a while I didn't feel hungry any more. I got a headache and I began to pray and then the man with the red hat came and got me. I think Mr. Ayres must have passed through the station and failed to find me. I'm sure he didn't forget about me."

Word was telegraphed to Ayres last night that the boy was safe.

Labels: children, depot matron, food, police matron, St Louis, Union depot, visitors

June 23, 1909

AGED MAN'S SEARCH FOR SON.

Blind and Partially Deaf, G. E.

Keller Fails to Locate Him.

When G. E. Keller, 88 years old, blind and partially deaf, arrived in the Union depot yesterday morning, having come to Kansas City in quest of his son, Charles Keller, whom he believes to be ill and out of money, he did not know his address and a search through the directory failed to show the name. Mr. Keller came here from the state of Washington.

A letter received from the son a few weeks ago told of his illness and an operation. The boy was then living in a rooming house, and funds were sent to him at the time. The aged father lost the letter giving the son's address.

Mrs. Ollie Everingham, depot matron, asked the police to aid in the search for the boy, but at a late hour last night he had not been found.

The old man was made comfortable at the depot, where he spent the night.

Labels: depot matron, hearing impaired, missing, Seniors, Union depot, visitors, visual impairment

April 30, 1909

CAN'T FIND THEIR FATHER.

Four Children Came Here From

Brunswick to Meet Him.

Because their father failed to appear at the Union depot to meet them yesterday morning, four children, ranging in age from 8 to 14 years, sat in the waiting room of the depot and when not indulging in the abandon to tears, listened with eager interest to the assurances of Mrs. Ollie Everingham, the matron, who tried every possible way to locate Tom Elson, formerly of Brunswick, Mo.

Lola Elson, the eldest girl, has been "mother" of the family since the death of Mrs. Elson, more than six months ago.

She said an uncle, Sam Teters, lives here. The name could not be found in the city directory of either Kansas City. Her father, she said, just did whatever he could find to do.

"He was at home at Brunswick last Tuesday," she declared, "and told me to bring the children to Kansas City today."

The children were supplied with food and beds were fixed for them by Mrs. Everingham and John Walentrom, night depot master. The younger children are: Josephine, 9; Charley, 11, and Frank, 8 years old.

Labels: children, depot matron, missing, Union depot

April 14, 1909

559 POUNDS OF GIRL

IN ONE BIG WRAPPER.

With a Waist Line of 88 Inches,

Pearl Rambo Is Still Taking

on Flesh.

PEARL RAMBO.
15-Year-Old Girl Who Tips the Scales

at 559 Pounds and Still Growing.

Pearl Rambo, aged 15 years and weighing 559 pounds, was a guest of Mrs. Everingham, matron at Union depot, yesterday afternoon. Pearl arrived in Kansas City from her home in Council Bluffs about 3 o'clock, and for more than three hours was the center of an interested group of spectators and questioners, while she waited for the train which was to take her to Abilene, Kas.

"No, I was not always so large," she said, "but from what physicians tell me, I haven't much hope of ever being any smaller. Since I passed through this city a little more than three years ago, I have gained 109 pounds, and they say that if I continue to gain weight at that rate, when I am thirty I will tip the scales at nearly half a ton. But I don't believe anything like that.

"I have had but very few sick days in my lifetime, and I feel pretty good most of the time. I eat whatever looks good to me, but try to avoid foods that produce fat. Perhaps once a month I eat candy, and then never much. Breakfast foods are struck entirely off my menu, and seldom do I eat those things that are usually served with sugar and cream over them. Sweet things seem to agree with me, but I do not eat them.

"There is only one other person that I know of larger than I, and that is Anna Fredline. She is 35 years old and weighs 670 pounds. When I get to be her age, I fear I shall weigh much more than that."

Pearl walked from the train into the depot unassisted and also walked to the train when she left. It was difficult for her to pass through the gate, and still more difficult to get through the car door. She managed to pull herself up to the first step alone, but, finding it necessary to turn sideways in order to enter, the porter was obliged to assist her.

With a width of forty-five inches across the shoulders, and an eighty-eight inch waist measure, this girl cannot enter an ordinary carriage. She must have either a very wide and very low single buggy or a spring wagon. Her arms at the biceps measure twenty-four inches in circumference. She says she likes to travel and see things and people.

Labels: buggy, depot matron, health, Union depot, visitors

March 3, 1909

SEARCHING FOR GOLD TOOTH.

Mentally Unbalanced Young Woman

Says Thief Has It.

Somewhere in Kansas City a pretty, young girl is wandering about in search of a person whom she imagines stole a gold tooth which she once owned. She is Miss Florence Anderson, who came to Kansas City yesterday from Wichita, Kas., to visit two sisters residing here.

The young woman first attracted attention by her queer actions at the Union depot.

"I am looking for a man who stole my gold tooth," she said to the station matron, "and if I catch him there is going to be trouble."

Thee matron saw that the girl was deranged mentally, and went to a telephone to call an officer. When she returned to the place where she left the girl, the young woman had disappeared. At a late hour last night she had not been found, although the police made a diligent search for her. Relatives in Wichita have been advised of her disappearance.

Labels: children, depot matron, mental health, Union depot, Wichita

February 26, 1909

SEND FAMILY ON THEIR WAY.

Depot Philanthropists Help Mother

and Children.

Speeding today toward Twin Rocks, Pa., where her husband has prepared a home for her and her six little children, Mrs. Eliza Sherwood is thanking from the bottom of her heart Matron Ollie Everingham of the Union depot and kind travelers who enabled her to continue her journey last night.

Mrs. Sherwood, who has been living at Denning, Ark., on her arrival in Kansas City, found that she lacked $8 of having enough money for tickets to the Pennsylvania town. Making a liberal donation herself, Mrs. Everingham appealead to bystanders to make up the deficiency. Willing hands flew to purse pockets, and in a few minutes there was plenty of money for the stranded woman to continue on her way and to feed her hungry offspring while en route.

Labels: charity, depot matron, Union depot, visitors, women

November 20, 1908

WANDERING BOY

WANTS HOME.

Fred Watson Hasn't Had One Since

San Francisco Disaster.

Wandering around the country since the San Francisco earthquake, Fred Watson arrived here in Kansas City yesterday afternoon. He came here from St. Joseph, where he spent four days sightseeing. Fred is just 11 years old, and while he was roaming around the Union station yesterday, the matron was attracted to him by his big blue eyes. He was coatless and stood near the radiators to keep warm.

The matron gave him supper and then telephoned to the Detention home to know if they would care for him. She was told that she could send the boy to the home for the night, but that he would be turned adrift after breakfast in the morning. The matron at the Detention home said that it was against the policy of the home to take runaway boys, as they stole cookies and jam from the pantry. The matron then arranged to keep Fred at the depot all night and find a home for him in the morning.

An hour later the warden of the home, Edgar Warden, appeared at the depot and said he would take the boy. Fred informed the matron that his father and mother were killed in the earthquake in San Francisco, and that he had been tramping ever since. He said a home where someone would be a mother to him was what he wanted, but that no one had ever offered to keep him.

Labels: children, depot matron, detention home, St.Joseph, Union depot

February 17, 1908

HER LOVE DREAM

NOT SHATTERED.

COUNTRY GIRL CAME TO WED

MAN SHE MET ON TRAIN.

FIRST VISIT TO BIG TOWN.

SWEETHEART FAILED TO MEET

HER; UNDER ARREST.

"I Love Him More Than I Do Myself.

Please Have That Big Policeman

Let Him Talk to Me,"

Miss Willis Said.

Ida A. Willis of Blackrock, Ark., came to Kansas City to marry James Rainwater, whom she had met on a train in Arkansas. Both Miss Willis and Rainwater were examined by Police Captain Walter Whitsett yesterday evening and are being held for investigation.

Ida, who confesses to 18 years, when she looks to be not over 15, walks flat-footed and wears neither a straight front nor a rat in her hair, is comely in spite of her dress. Her eyes have the shade of blue that appeals and when she takes your hands and asks you to help her out of trouble you feel like doing your best.

"I love him so," she said last night as she lay on the couch in the matron's office and fingered a Baptist hymnal which she had brought with her from Blackrock. "I love him more than myself. Please have that nice, big policeman who talked to me let him out of jail and send him up to see me. I want to talk to him.

"I was never in a city like this before, although I have worked in Hoxie and in Jonesburg, Ark. I never saw big buildings like you have here And I never saw a policeman half as big as the captain who talked to me so nice this afternoon and said I ought to go home to my mother. But I'm not going home until they let me talk with Rainwater, and they might as well understand that. If they lock him up I'll stay around and get to see him."

It was a case of love at first sight with Ida Willis.

"I was riding with a girl friend, Clara Lempson, on a train from Jonesburg to Blackrock last Decembr," she says. "We made a lot of racket trying to turn a seat back over, and couldn't get it to turn. Rainwater and a young man who was with him turned the seat for us, and we fell to talking. He was awfully nice, and when he asked me where I lived, I told him. He has written bushels of letters since. Saturday he telegraphed a ticket to me, and I came out here to be married.

"I didn't find him at the depot, where he said he would be, and so I went to the matron She sent me up here. There was a detective there, who said he would help find Rainwater."

Rainwater, whose first name, he says, is James, and the girl says is Joseph, has been driving a hack for the Depot Carriage and Baggage company for fifteen months. When Mrs. L. A. Shull, the depot matron, told Detective Bradley about the girl, Bradley hunted him up and sent him to police headquarters, where the girl was. Captain Whitsett met Rainwater on the stairs of the matron's rooms and questioned him. Rainwater didn't answer to suit the captain and was locked up.

Catain Whitsett telegraphed to Miss Willis's father in Blackrock last night for instructions.

Labels: Arkansas, Captain Whitsett, depot matron, detectives, railroad, romance, Union depot, visitors

June 6, 1907

KISSES AT THE DEPOT.

AN OSCULATORY BEE BY FORTY-

FIVE DEAF MUTES.

Greetings Implanted on the Cheeks

Instead of Lips -- Youngsters

Were From State School

for the Deaf.

When the 5:40 Chicago & Alton from the east pulled into the Union depot yesterday afternoon, bringing forty-five deaf and dumb children from the state school fo the deaf at Fulton, the excitement could not have been greater if all the forty-five and the crowd of Kansas City relatives had all been shouting at the tops of their voices.

The deaf folk are great kissers. Every Kansas City boy and girl but one -- and twenty-six of the forty-five were Kansas City children -- was seized by fond arms, hugged tight and kissed upon both cheeks. The deaf people don't kiss one another upon the lips, or at least those at the Union depot did not yesterday afternoon.

When the kissing was completed the finger greetings began. How many hundred questions were asked and answered from hand to hand the innocent bystander whose hands were deaf and dumb could only conjecture. But every blessed child and welcoming parent or sister was talking the single hand language on each hand seeparately at the same time. It made the bystander wonder if there wasn't some advantage, after all, in being deaf and dumb. A man who talks with his mouth and listens with his ears cannot talk about more than one thing at a time. He has only one mouth. The deaf and dumb people talked twice at the same time -- one with each hand -- and listened with both eyes, the listener at the same time talking twice at once.

They are an exceedingly friendly folk, and everything was forgotten in the welcome extended to the home-coming school children. They didn't know that a dozen locomotives were blowing and panting nearby or that there was a roar of whistles and bumping cars out in the yards. One deaf mother carried a baby which cried, but she didn't hear it or pay any attention.

One of the youngest and prettiest little girls in the party was the last to come out of the car which had orne the party from Fulton. She stood alone on the platform of the car for a moment, signaling frantically with her thumb on her upper lip and her fingers wigging. The sign was rather an unexpected one for a neat little girl in a bright blue uniform and mortar board cap, to be making in the face of a big crowd. After a little she stopped it and dased down the steps into her mother's arms.

Professor D. C. McCue, assistant Superintendent of the school, who was in charge of the party, was asked what that sign meant in deaf and dumb one-hand lingo.

"It means mother," he said. If you put your thumb on yuour forehead and wiggle your fingers, you are saying 'father.' Your thumb on your chin and wiggling fingers means 'sister.' The little girl was calling her mother."

One little lad met no welcome. There was no one to meet him and he began to cry. Professor D. C. McCue took him by the hand to the depot matron's office. There the little lad sat and cried, waiting for his father or mother to come. He couldn't talk to a soul and his eyes were so red with weeping that he couldn't read the cheering notes which the matron wrote for him. The lad carried a card, as do all the deaf children, bearing his name and address. It read: "Everett Early, 1309 Crystal avenue." Once before, a year ago, a little boy who came home from the deaf school waited in the depot long hours until his father, who was at work during the day, came to take him home.

The other children passed through the depot at 7 o'clock. There were two parties of them, one of thirty under the care of J. S. Morrison, bound for Joplin, and the other one of twenty in care of Professor L. A. Gaw, bound for Springfield. There were no Kansas City children on the 7 o'clock train.

The total enrollment at the state school for the deaf for the year, which closed yesterday, was 381. All of these children were sent to their homes in groups of twenty or more, each group under the care of one of the teachers in the school. They went from Fulton to all parts of the state. The school consists of two large buildings and cottage dormitories for the children. In addition to double hand language, the children are taught to read and write and to work at some trade. There are classes in cooking, cabinet making, tailoring, printing, shoe making, harness making, blacksmithing, gardening, sewing and dressmaking. There are thirty-five teachers and over fifty other employes.

Labels: blacksmiths, children, Crystal avenue, depot matron, hearing impaired, schools, Union depot