Marion County is Kansas in a capsule
Upright silos are
the 'castles of Kansas'
Marion County is "Kansas in a capsule," according to Jim Hoy, historian from Emporia State University.
Hoy gave a presentation Friday at a special dinner meeting of Marion County Historical Society at Eastmoor United Methodist Church.
Hoy noted that Marion County can boast of the Flint Hills on the east and farmland to the west. Historic trails, the Santa Fe and Chisholm, run through the county.
He presented a slide show and sang several folk songs about early life in Kansas.
He showed a picture of a 15' corn stalk surrounded by people. It was taken at Burdick in 1915.
He also showed pictures of various means and methods of harvesting, stacking, and storing hay.
"My grandfather believed a drop of rain should split evenly when it hit a stack of hay," Hoy said. He was raised on a ranch near Cassoday.
Barns and upright silos also were pictured, including a silo near Burdick made of wood. Hoy calls them, "the castles of Kansas." Many of them remain, although no longer used.
At the close of his presentation, Hoy gave a history of the song, "Home on the Range," which originated as a poem in an 1872 Kansas newspaper.
It was set to music by several entertainers and carried throughout the West.
It was thought to be a folk song, and an Arizona couple later copyrighted it and sought royalties. That's when its true origin was discovered. In 1947, it became the state song.
As Hoy strummed his guitar, the approximately 100 people who attended the presentation joined together in singing the wistful tune.
