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It is the older generation I especially want to mention. My great-great-grandparents, the Heaths, were among the first settlers of Bonner Springs. Their daughter, Agusta Dundham (my grandmother) was widowed the year my father was born, 1867. In 1877 she and two older children, Etta, 19, and Will, 21, came from the east to join her parents, the Heaths. My grandmother and aunt Etta opened the first bakery in Bonner Springs. She also did men's tailoring. My uncle, Will Dunham, was a carpenter. A family of wealth that lived west of town and raised race horses had him build the first nice home in the area. Uncle Will used to mention the dumb waiter. It later became the J. L. Jackson home on Clark Street.
My father remembered the ferry across the river, the McDanields and the Clarks. He went east in 1896. In 1918 he returned to Bonner Springs and bought his first home from Frank Warner on Sheidley Street. We shopped at Louie David's General Store. As we walked to that store we passed through an open space that had been the city cemetery. My great-great-grandparents, the Heaths, were buried there. Their bodies were moved to the new cemetery north of the city prior to 1918 or before my father could be located. Consequently their bodies were buried in a mass grave, something I regret. The trees that sheltered the graves were left standing. I felt a reverence for that vacant space as I criss-crossed it everyday to David's Store, where I was employed. In 1918 a new high school was built there. I continued to walk by everyday as I watched my soon-to-be husband, R. J. Donahue, apply the last coat of paint to the exterior of that building. I was 19 when I applied for work at David's Store. He had two other employees, Mrs. Frank Atkison and Urban Rudell. Ethel Barger worked part-time.
Directly across the street were three buildings, the inter-urban station, Amos Showers' very nice cafe, and the Fredrick Candy Store. Byron handled this store that sold bulk candy, gum drops, licorice, hoar-hound, stick candy and delicious chocolates. Ward Harrington's father owned a small hole-in-the-wall, an eight-stool lunch counter that gave quick service. An old hotel owned by Mrs. Forbes was located on Front Street north of the station. Next to the hotel was a rat-infested shack. Blind Bob made it his home. He depended on friends for support and especially Louie David, who paid his water bill and gave him food to eat.
There were three churches in Bonner Springs in 1918. Catholic, Methodist and Christian. Father Jacobs was the Catholic priest. Fowler was the Methodist minister.
I shall never forget the day I arrived in Bonner Springs. Having spent my school days in a very modern pioneer country this giant town was indeed different. I was met at the Santa Fe railway station by a very old but courteous black man. He was driving a two-horse team hitched to an old phaeton buggy with the fringe on top. This town was not built on a square. The crooked streets confused me, but did not distort the welcome signs. I loved the town and its people and lived there 25 years.
To prosper is to change. Generations come and go but to the few of us that are crowding the century mark memories are priceless. To me Bonner is such a place.
Wanda Phleger
519 Swan Drivde
Sebring, Fla., 33872
(September 17, 1987)
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