Fall, 2007 Issue

Memoirs of John W Bartleson: Boyhood

Chapter One: Boyhood

I, John W Bartleson, was born August 16, 1846 in Pulaski county, Illinois, two miles north of the Ohio river, near Grand Chain.  My father, John Bartleson and my mother, Mary (Wilson) emigrated from Ohio in about the year 1843.  They floated out of the Sengamon (Muskenquin) river and down the Ohio river in a small flat boat, bringing their two [ten] children and a neighbor by the name of Davis.  Prior to this time Father and the neighbor, Davis, had been to Iowa and had selected land, and it had been their intention to make their way to Iowa up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, but their means became exhausted and they stopped in Illinois for the summer, claiming a tract after the “squatter” fashion.

As Eyesight Dims, Waterville Muralist Turns to Home 

A painter leaves something of himself in each painting, embedded clues that if deciphered reveal an intimate biography. It can be a particular shade of color, the way light dances on softly-rounded hills, the casual fold of a skirt, the scampering of a rabbit, dark clouds building in the distance, or an expression caught between now and an uncertain future. The trick for the admirer is to ferret out the clues, to discover the artist within the art.

From Akron Aircraft to Kansas Tractor Collectibles

Joe and Howard Funk were born just 30 minutes apart on September 17, 1910, in Akron, Ohio. The brothers seemed to have a knack for all things mechanical, and both excelled in drafting and shop classes in school. They took an immediate liking to flying machines, which were becoming quite popular in the Akron area. Their folks, however, had other ideas and set them up in the retail grocery business. But that just provided them the financial platform needed to pursue their interest in aircraft.

Mistake Puts Alma Couple on Stony Road to Success

Upon entering the showroom of Stone 1 there's so much to take in that my eyes get crossed. Small stones, big stones, oddly shaped stones, stones on shelves, on the floor and spaced along the walls, stones with Wildcats and Jayhawks, stones engraved with names, designs, company logos, flags, insects, mammals, cowboys: the variety is not only unexpected but tantalizing.

Stone 1, owned by Mike and Teresa Brown, is a home-based stone-carving business specializing in custom commercial and residential signs, memorial stones, stone fence posts, collegiate collectibles and artistic sculptures. Located just north of Alma, the "City of Native Stone," it seems an appropriate place for a company whose product is crafted from the native limestone beds underlying the Flint Hills.

Watering Bindweed: County takes first step in biological control for pesky weed

As a former horticulturist and current noxious weed agent for Washington County, Duane Bruna has a history of battling bindweed. It goes way back into his childhood on his dad’s farm, where bindweed was ever-present. Chemicals knocked it down, thinned it, sickened it, even killed some of it, but like a Timex watch it took a licking and kept on ticking.