Riley County

John W. Bartleson Biography

John Wool Bartleson (J.W.) was born August 15, 1846 in Pulaski County, Illinois, and died in Beloit, Kansas, April 18, 1944.  Starting sometime in the late 1920’s, J. W. began transcribing his life story to Rachel Bates.  This catalog of his life, spanning nearly 84 years at its completion in May, 1930, provides a unique vision of the life and times of a generation who come to age in the Civil War, later settling and building the rural communities of Kansas.  These memoirs—typed by Ms. Bates later annotated and corrected in pencil by J.W.— are a historical trove of information. Alone they provide great historical record.  But J.W. started a process—continued in fits and starts—by his children, grand children and now great grandson in documenting and sorting the record of this settler into a meaningful narrative. 

Mason by Day, Farmer 24/7

“I'm not a farmer,” says Bill Schardein. “I have some cows!” he laughs as he sits on a stool at the kitchen island in his home located on University Park Road in northern Riley County. Bill and his wife, Susan, have lived on the same land since 1974. Susan's father heard about the farm and told the young couple they needed to buy it. They bought the farm and lived in the two-story house until a few years ago when the old house made way for the new one designed by Bill. From the office window you can see bright colored fish swimming in the old basement that was turned into a pond. “I kept the foundation, stones,” Bill explains how he built the pond. “It helps the folks who lived here remember where the old house once stood.”

Photos:
A Randolph Landscape

A Stone House
This old rock house is located near Randolph, just off Highway 24.

Tuttle Dam

This picture was taken by the dam just north of Manhattan.

Tallgrass Prairie
As Lewis and Clark made their way up the Missouri River in 1804, they came upon an unexpected discovery.  In the Northeast corner of Kansas they took a left turn up a smaller, yet mighty river later to be named the Kaw. What they did not anticipate was the end of the deciduous forest and the beginning of the tallgrass prairie. 

Screech!!
An owl from Ackert Hall, Kansas State University...

Tuttle Creek in Fall Colors