Each week we’ll take a step back into the history of Great Bend through the eyes of reporters past. We’ll reacquaint you with what went into creating the Great Bend of today, and do our best to update you on what “the rest of the story” turned out to be.

This week, we celebrate Lillian Wald. While she hosted an important event on May 12, 1910, the second conference of the NAACP. We weren’t surprised to find no mention of her in newspapers in Kansas from the time, but, in our research we learned so much more about Wald, who also happens to have been a leader in public health and nursing in her time. How appropriate then, to cast a spotlight on her this week in 2020 as we observe National Nurses Week. 

While in nursing school, she saw the need for health education for poor mothers on New York City’s lower east side. According to her Wikipedia page, “By 1893, she left medical school and started to teach a home class on nursing for poor immigrant families. Shortly thereafter, she began to care for sick Lower East Side residents as a visiting nurse. Along with another nurse, Mary Brewster, she moved into a spartan room near her patients, in order to care for them better. Around that time she coined the term “public health nurse” to describe nurses whose work is integrated into the public community.”

She provided employment opportunities for women through the Henry Street Settlement, which she founded to provide nursing care and education for poor New Yorkers. She supported suffrage and was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She opened the Henry Street Settlement’s doors to the organization for its first and second conferences in 1909 and 1910. 

In 1970, Wald was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University. Her legacy as a medical provider, educator and employer carries on today in the Visiting Nurses Service of New York. 

Bridge building

The Tuesday, May 10, 2910 edition of The Great Bend Daily Tribune reported about a well attended meeting in the city.

“Over 250 residents of this part of the county met last night in the Moses Hall, this city, and discussed the matter of building bridges in this county over the Arkansas River,” it said. Spirits were high and enthusiasm was plenty. “A special train brought 150 people from Ellinwood and vicinity and these met the residents of Great Bend, South Bend, Dundee, Liberty and Washburn and a big meeting resulted. 

“The sentiment for the bridge, of course, was unanimous and there were some northsiders present who expressed themselves as favoring the bridges asked for.” 

Men from the north and the south were equally in favor of the business prospects that would result, and meetings were planned to garner support for the proposition before the election day at the end of the month. 

Clearly, today, things could not move so fast! In order to get an issue such as this on a ballot requires months, not weeks, of work. But, the government wasn’t as complicated then, and there was a lot less red tape. 

Boosting the ball team

In May, 1910, the Great Bend Daily Tribune led the charge to raise funds for the town baseball team. 

While the general admission to baseball games then was 25 cents, the Tribune proposed loyal fans pay $1 for their ticket, with the additional 75 cents going to support the team, and allowing it to operate without a deficit for the year.

The suggestion was timely, as there was a $700 deficit hanging over the team as the season started. Taking care of the debt meant the difference between having a team and not. 

“This will be met in all probability, but if during the season the game runs behind the directors state the team will be disbanded. So boost the game along. Each day the names of those in the dollar list will be published in the paper. Don’t let yours be missing. It costs one dollar for a ticket and a ribbon which denotes that you are a dollar fan. As the general admission is only 25 cents and this is divided between the home team and the visiting team, you give the balance, 75 cents, for a seat in the grandstand and the money goes to benefit the local association. It is the cheapest and most loyal boost you can give the town.”

Inside the paper, an editorial advised, “It is a voluntary gift and no one will feel that you’re shirking if you don’t wear a badge. You can be just as big a booster for the town and for the team without a badge. But be a booster if you can and let the visitors to the town Friday see that the town believes in good sport and is back of the team.” 

Fast forward to 2020, and the Great Bend team is the Bat Cats. According to the May 5 report by the Tribune’s Jim Misunas, The Bat Cats have released a 29-player roster that features Great Bend’s Brayden Smith (Fort Hays State) along with six players with Barton Community College ties, including Jarrett Seaton (Emporia State).

“The Covid-19 has put a damper on fundraising this year, and understandably so,” Great Bend Bat Cats coach Roger Ward said. “Our league is putting together a new schedule with a June 15th tentative start. Our players, and their families alike, are all excited to get this thing going.” 

One-hundred-ten years after the Great Bend baseball boosters hatched their plan, baseball still has the power to bring the community together. Ward believes the resumption of baseball would be a good sign.

“Baseball brings people together and it’s a big social event. People want it,” Ward said. “It could be what everyone needs. We’ve got to plan for a potential season. That’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Celebrating grads

This time of year, graduation is on the minds of communities everywhere, and especially this year as every graduating class, from Kindergarten through college, is grappling with a pandemic that has shut down mass gatherings and curtailed ceremonies marking milestones that students have fought hard to reach for their entire school careers. 

In 1910, most kids attended school through the 8th grade, and not everyone graduated from high school, and even fewer even attended college, let alone graduated with a degree. We found a report about Common School graduates in the May 10, 1910 Tribune. That year marked a big jump in graduates. 

“There were 129 applicants for county diplomas and grades from the rural schools of Barton county this year. Last year there were but 84,” the report stated. “Of the 129, 45 wrote for grades and only a part of the subjects and 84 wrote for diplomas. Of those who wrote for diplomas, 44 were successful and soon will be granted a diploma at the graduating exercises on June 17th. 

“The highest average was 93.7 percent and it was made by Miss Mabel E. Conner, a pupil of school district No. 4. The second highest average was 91 percent and it was made by Miss Verna V. Ford, a pupil of school district No. 72. In the class there are 28 girls and 16 boys.”