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

October 10, 2025

CANE MAKER TO THE

PRESIDENTS IS DEAD.

WILLIAM M'KINZIE HAD GIVEN

STAFFS TO MANY.

Made Money Farming and Turned

the Leisure of Age to a Useful

End -- Had a Note From

Roosevelt.

William McKinzie, a farmer, 84 years old, died yesterday at his home a half mile ast of Piper in Wyandotte county, Kas. Since he moved to that vicinity in the fall of 1865 he was well known in Republican local politics and it is said that up to 1900 he never missed a county convention of his party.

In his early life McKinzie was a cabinet maker in New York state. When he moved to Kansas at the close of the civil war he found the Western market did not justify this occupation so he permanently gave it up. A remnant of his first profession came back to him later when he had acquired considerable wealth from the soil, and in his odd moments he would sit for hours at a time in some sunny place carving out handsome canes with his pocketknife.

At the time of his death there were 350 unfinished canes in the woodshed back of the old fashioned residence. He has given as many more to inmates of the Old Soldiers' Home. Some of the products of McKinzie's jackknife are very beautiful and every president of the United States from Grant's time to the present has received one and acknowledged the gift in his own handwriting.

One of McKinzie's fancies was never to give away a can unless there was actual need of one on the part of the recipient. At some time during their administrations all the presidents had something the matter with their legs, until Roosevelt was sworn in. Grant often suffered with a bad knee; Garfield, Arthur and the rest down the line suffered, occasionally from rheumatism and kindred ailments. McKinley sometimes had a lame back and received a cane with sawed-off knots along its trunk bearing letters spelling the words "Protection" and "Reciprocity." When it came to Roosevelt there was a decided hitch, for the president absolutely refused to have anything the matter with him.,

Finally, two years ago, word came to the aged canemaker that the president was suffereing from a sprain received from the fall of his favorite horse, and his chance had come. The article, long preserved for this occasion, was taken out of its buckskin covering, dusted and hurried through to the White House.

The little note bearing the signature of the nation's chief in this instance is the proudest possession of the McKinzie household.

McKinzie often had said since the Republican national convention that he hoped to live to give a cane to Taft. During the last few days of sickness he often joked over the prospects of not living to make the presentation.

He is survived by Frank, Charles and Henry McKinzie, sons, and Mrs. Mary Hendricks, his daughter. All live near Kansas City.

Funeral services will be held at the home at 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon. Burial will be under the auspices of the G. A. R. and the Masonic lodge in Maywood cemetery. The funeral will probably be one of the largest ever held in that part of Wyandotte county, as the friends of the old farmer are said to be numbered by teh party roll call. A large delegation of acquaintances will leave Kansas City Sunday morning to attend the services.

Labels: cemetery, death, New York, Piper, President Roosevelt, Seniors

August 18, 2025

PECULIAR FAMILY MIXUP.

Father and Son Are Married to Sis-

ters at Piper, Kas.

The inhabitants of the little village of Piper, just north of Kansas City, Kas., in Wyandotte county, are at present engaged in a general debate over a relationship problem which has arisen as a result of the recent marriage of William Waldson and Eliza E. Wilson, of that place. The bridge is a sister of Flora Walldson, who was married to John Waldson, father of William Waldson, several years ago. Now that the father and son have married sisters they become brothers-in-law, and the elder Mrs. Waldson becomes her sister's mother-in-law.

Mr. and Mrs. John Waldson have four children, which are half-brothers and sisters of young Mr. Waldson. Now the question that threatens to wreck the mental faculties of all Piper is, should the last union be blessed with off-springs, what relation will they be to the other young Waldsons.

The entire countryside in and about Piper has taken up the argument, and it is feared that the crops will not get harvested as a result. Men congregate at the town post-office and discuss the matter in large numbers while little knots of farmers and farmhands are seen at the cross roads speculating on the marriage of the Waldsons and the Wilsons.

Labels: Piper, romance

March 2, 2026

SUES HIS WIFE'S RELATIVES.

Mother-in-Law One of those
Blamed for Alienation

William T. Dunlap, a telegraph operator in the employ of the Postal Telegraph Company, yesterday filed suit in the district co urt, Kansas City, Kas., against his mother-in-law, Sarah A. Brown, and his sister-in-law, Mattie L. Brown, for $30,000. He charges that his sister-in-law and his mother-in-law together alienated the affecitons of his wife.

Dunlap says he married Jessie Brown in Piper, Kas, June 28, 1899. Since that time he and his wife have lived in various parts of the United States. Mrs. Dunlap insisted upon making frequent visits to her mother and sister. After each visit, Dunlap says he noticed a lessening in his wife's affections for him. The last visit made to the Browns, who live at Piper, Kas., was in July, 1906. But a orrespondence continued.

"I wish I had the money to buy him out and let him go," is one of the remarks which Dunlap says his mother-in-law used to disparge him in the eyes of his wife. Besides this, he alleges that both mother-in-law and sister-in-law told his wife that he was a fool, continually found fault with him to her, told her that he did not provide decent furniture for their home, and that he was not good enough for her, anyway.

Because of these uncomplimentary remarks, Dunlap says that his wife left him January 7, 1907. But in a day or two she came back to take most of the furniture, not even leaving him a bed. All she allowed him was a cook stove, a small stove, four chairs and a wire couch, but no bed clothes.

And so, as Dunlap says, "disgraced and rendered homeless," he filed suit for $30,000 against his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law, who live on a farm near Piper, Kas.

Labels: Divorce, Lawsuit, Piper, telegraph