Girard, Kansas

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Girard, Kansas
Location of Girard, Kansas
Coordinates: 37°30′37″N 94°50′39″W / 37.51028, -94.84417
Country	United States
State	Kansas
County	Crawford
Area
- Total	1.9 sq mi (4.9 km²)
- Land	1.9 sq mi (4.9 km²)
- Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km²)
Elevation	981 ft (299 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	2,773
- Density	1,461.4/sq mi (564.3/km²)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP code	66743
Area code(s)	620
FIPS code	20-26300[1]
GNIS feature ID	0469732[2]

Girard is a city in Crawford Township, Crawford County, Kansas, United States (PLSS description = T29S,R23E,sec24 and sec13 from the Sixth Principal Meridian). The population was 2,773 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Crawford County^[3]. This city is located on a gently undulating prairie at the center of the county. It is regularly laid out, has a public square in the center. Its elevation is 988 feet above the sea.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The Early Days 1.1.1 Banks and the Press 1.1.2 Mills 1.2 Mining 1.2.1 Immigration 1.3 Politics 1.3.1 Socialism in Girard 1.4 Recent History 2 Geography 3 Demographics 4 Cultural facilities 5 Notable natives 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

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The town was started in the spring of 1868, in opposition to Crawfordsville.

The Girard Town Company had been organized and a site secured on the surveyed line of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, which now seemed to be a fixed fact, and this gave it a decided advantage over its antagonist.

In the summer of 1868 Girard was laid out, at or near the center of the county by the Girard Town Company. The Girard Town Company was first composed of the following gentlemen: A. Danford, President; Charles Henry Strong, Secretary; Dr. Couch, Dr. B. F. Hepler, E. J. Boering, Levi Hatch, John Lash, D. S. McIntosh and Col. J. Alexander. This company was formed upon the survey of the railroad through this portion of the county and the town located upon the line, it was named by C. H. Strong, after the town Girard, Pennsylvania, which had previously been his home.

[edit] The Early Days

^[4] The first buildings erected in Girard were by the following parties, in the order given: Col. J. Alexander, a general store; C. H. Strong, a dwelling house, Eclectic Physician and Surgeon, and a drugstore (Girard Press-1869); Chauncey Doyle, a saloon; N. Sinnet, a general store. Some time during this year (1868) the first blacksmith shop-Boyle Blacksmith-was opened on the North side of the square, followed by White Blacksmith on the Northwest corner of the square (Girard Press-1869); the first frame house was built by A. A. Fletcher, and the first hotel was opened early in the year. In December, James Hull erected the first part of a building which was used temporarily as a court house. The first birth in Girard was that of Mary Fletcher, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Fletcher; the first marriage, that of A. J. Vickers to Miss Margaret McIntosh, and the first death that of Mrs. Dr. L. F. Crawford in the spring of 1869. Immediately after the death of this lady, Judge McIntosh located the cemetery southwest of the town. The first celebration in Girard occurred on July 4, 1868. It was a Sunday school celebration and a celebration of the nation's natal day, both in one. The Hon. A. Danford and Dr. Couch were the orators of the day. When these festivities took place the town had made considerable progress. The post office was established in Girard early in 1868, C. H. Strong being appointed first Postmaster.

Under a law passed in March, 1871, Girard became a city of the third class, and in the early part of April elected her first city officers. The last meeting of the trustees was held April 5, and the first meeting of the new Council was held on the 7th. The result of the election was that George Ryan had been chosen Mayor, and A. J. Vickers, J. E. Raymond, E. Fanger, H. P. Grund and F. B. Andrus, Councilmen. At the first meeting of the Council, A. M. Cook was elected Clerk.

[edit] Banks and the Press

Frank Playter started the first bank in Girard in June, 1871. In 1872, he erected for the accommodation of his business a two-story brick building, the first brick building in the town. This bank was closed in July, 1877, and in August re-organized and started again on a new basis as the Merchants; and Farmers' Bank, with Frank Playter as President. Mr. Playter retired from the bank in January, 1878, and, in June, 1879, this bank was succeeded by the Bank of Girard, established by E. R. Moffit. The Bank of Girard was succeeded in 1882 by the Girard Bank, a private institution of which Chapman & Adams are the proprietors. It is in the Playter Building.

Citizens' Bank. - J. H. Booth started a bank in May, 1878, and, on February 6, 1882, was succeeded by the Citizens' Bank. This is a private institution, and does a general banking business. The company is composed of four members - J. D. Barker, President; J. T. Leonard, Cashier; H. P. Grund, Vice President, and W. H. Brown. The first newspaper published in Girard was the Crawford County Times, April 16, 1869, by Scott & Cole. Only one number was issued, as the object of its issue was accomplished viz.: the bringing of the Osage Mission people to time.(sic)

The Girard Press was moved by Warner & Wasser from Fort Scott to Girard in November, 1869, the first issue appearing at the latter place on the 11th of the month. The paper took strong ground in favor of the validity of Mr. Joy's title to the neutral lands, and on this account its office and material were set fire to on July 14, 1871, and destroyed. The loss was $4,000. New material was obtained, and the paper, enlarged and improved, re-appeared August 13, and has since been published as a nine-column folio weekly. When Horace Greeley became a candidate for the Presidency, Dr. Warner, the senior editor, supported his candidacy much to the disappointment of the then junior, present senior editor, E. A. Wasser. In consequence of this disagreement of the two proprietors in regard to politics, Dr. Warner sold his interest June 16, 1873, to A. P. Riddle, since which time the Press has been published as a stanch (sic) and able Republican paper by Wasser & Riddle.

[edit] Mills

The Girard Mills were built in 1870, and began operations in the spring of 1871. The first building was a two and a half story frame, costing, with the machinery and power, $10,000. The property was owned by Tontz & Hitz. In 1879, Tontz retired from active participation in the management of the business, and in 1882 sold his interest to Hitz. Mr. Hitz thereupon erected a three and a half story brick mill, put in five run of buhrs, and two sets of Gray's patent rollers, thus making it a combined mill, which experience has demonstrated to be best adapted to grinding Kansas wheat. The machinery is propelled by a fifty horse-power engine, and has a capacity of 100 barrels of flour per day. The old building has been converted into an elevator, with a capacity of 6,000 bushels. The entire property is worth $25,000, and is owned by Mr. C. Hitz.

The Crawford County Mills were built in 1870 by a stock company. In 1875, they were sold to Frank Playter, and in 1876 to B. C. Redlow, who, in 1879, sold them to C. D. Patterson. These mills are two and a half stories high, contain three run of buhrs and one set of rollers, thus being also a combined mill, and the machinery is propelled by a twenty-five horse-power engine. The entire property is worth $10,000.

The Custom Mills are located west of the northwest corner of the public square, confine themselves principally to grinding grists, and are worth about $5,000.

[edit] Mining

^[5]The coal industry of Crawford county dates back farther than the sinking of the first mine. For years before the first coal shaft was sunk coal was taken from the surface of the earth in this county. Before the Civil war coal was taken from strip and slope workings in the southeastern part of the county. At that time the nearest settlements were Fort Scott and Carthage, Missouri. Teamsters dug the coal from the outcroppings on the surface, and made a livelihood by hauling it across the prairies to Carthage or Fort Scott. One of these early coal drifts was opened up in the ravine east of the present location of the vitrified brick works in Pittsburg. Coal was also stripped from the surface in a crude manner by teamsters along the old military trail which ran along the state line south from Fort Scott through this county. The pioneer settlers who made a sparse living in this section before the war took coal from the outcroppings and traded it at Fort Scott and Carthage for groceries and supplies. When the Civil war broke out a good deal of coal was hauled by teamsters to the fort at Fort Scott for army use. Most of this was obtained from coal banks along Drywood and Bone creeks in the northern edge of the county.

Carbon Creek was the location of the first mining camp of the county. No shafts were sunk at first, but several strip pits were opened, and from the strip pits slopes were run along the veins, and coal operations opened on a small scale. By 1877 perhaps one hundred miners were working along Carbon creek, getting out coal. One of the early strip pits was opened by the firm of Piper & Sawyer, the latter, P. H. Sawyer, still being a resident of Pittsburg. They ran a slope in from their strip pit. Another strip pit was opened up by Tom Fields of Joplin. A Girard man named Anderson also opened a strip pit, and an Irishman named Dugan opened a slope about 1876. P. H. Sawyer was the first to operate a drift.

In the 1960's many of the mines closed. Today the landscape of southeastern Crawford County is covered with long strip mines now full of water and serving as fishing lakes & unfarmed wildlife habitat. The ruins of abandoned zinc & lead smelters can also be seen. Many of them being Superfund sites polluted with the toxic remains of smelter operations. The economy that was driven by industrialized mining & smelting during the first half of the 20th century has now (2007) largely reverted to an agricultural basis.

The Girard Public Library has several record books and other resources pertaining to mining operations in Southeast Kansas. An interesting detail to the Coal Miner Accident and Death Records (covering 1886-1950) is that after the 1930's, only fatal accidents were reported.

[edit] Immigration

With the growth of the mining industry in Crawford County, large numbers of immigrants from Southern Europe and the Balkans were brought in to work in the mines. These immigrants were more often adherents of Catholicism in contrast to the generally Protestant population previously in the county. At the time this created social tension but today (2007)Crawford county celebrates its South European heritage with the annual "Little Balkan Days" event.

To dig that coal, laborers were needed. Thus Playter and Sargent began a concentrated effort to attract coal miners from other areas of the United States and from the coal producing nations of Europe. Overseas, broadsides were distributed along the Mediterranean, promising prosperity in the coal fields of southeast Kansas. Steamship companies sent agents throughout Europe to enlist workers, underwriting one-way passage. From 1880 through 1915 huge waves of immigrants came to southeast Kansas. In all, over fifty nationalities came to mine coal and work in the area's smelters and other industries. [1]

[edit] Politics

[edit] Socialism in Girard

In the first decades of the 20th century Girard became a hub of socialist politics. In 1896 Julius Wayland moved to Girard from Kansas City, Missouri and brought with him his socialist periodical "Appeal to Reason".^[6] In 1900 he employed Fred Warren as his co-editor. Warren was a well-known figure on the left and managed to persuade some of America's leading progressives to contribute to the "Appeal to Reason". In 1904 Warren commissioned Upton Sinclair to write a novel about immigrant workers in the Chicago meat packing houses. Wayland provided Sinclair with a $500 advance and after seven weeks research he wrote the novel, The Jungle. Serialized in 1905, the book helped to increase circulation to 175,000. When published by Doubleday in 1906, The Jungle was an immediate success. Within the next few year it was published in seventeen languages and was a best-seller all over the world. As the popularity of the "Appeal to Reason" increased, so did the attacks on Wayland and Warren. The paper's offices were repeatedly broken into in an effort to find evidence of criminal activity. [2]. The phenomenal success of Wayland's newspaper meant that Girard came to have a printing plant capable of handling a weekly newspaper of huge circulation; on occasion over 400,000 copies per week. It also meant that Girard appeared in the imprint of many radical books and pamphlets, for the Appeal to Reason Company issued hundreds of other socialist publications in addition to the Appeal.^[7]

During the decade of the 1900's Eugene V. Debs lived in Girard and worked on the "Appeal to Reason". He was the Social Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States in the election of 1900. He ran for President again on the Socialist Party of America ticket in 1904, 1908, and 1912. Debs received 901,000 votes in the election of 1912 (6% of the vote).[3] In 1908 he kicked-off his campaign for president from the steps of the Crawford county courthouse in Girard. In 1912 he carried Crawford County (one of four counties he carried nationwide)^[8]. During World War I Debs was a victim of unconstitutional efforts by President Wilson to suppress dissent against the war. He was convicted of violating the Smith Espionage Act and, in September 1918, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 1920 he ran for President while still incarcerated in the Atlanta Penitentiary. He received 919,799 votes (3.4% of the vote) despite his imprisonment. President Warren G. Harding pardoned Debs in December, 1921.[4]

In 1915 Emanuel Julius was invited to move to Girard and write for "Appeal to Reason", then the largest socialist periodical in the country.[5] In 1919 he became co-owner and editor of the "Appeal to Reason" and began printing in Girard the first of of his small paperback books which soon became the foundation for his Little Blue Books series. His vision was to make good literature available to the masses at a cheap price. At the end of nine years the small project had become a gigantic publishing venture and E. Haldeman-Julius (he combined his name with his wife's) was "the Henry Ford of literature" according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch [6]. Following World War II, the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover viewed the Little Blue Books' inclusion of such subjects as socialism, atheism, and frank treatment of sexuality as a threat and put Haldeman-Julius on their enemies list. This caused a rapid decline in the number of bookstores carrying the Little Blue Books.

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius died July 31, 1951 at his home in Girard. He was found drowned in his own swimming pool by his second wife of nine years, Sue Haldeman-Julius. He was out on bond while appealing a six-month jail sentence for income tax evasion.[7] Suspicion surrounded his death and rumors of involvement by J. Edgar Hoover and the F.B.I. spread because of Emanuel's socialist beliefs and because he had attacked Hoover in print for his "tyrannical tactics against perceived enemies".[8]

The Little Blue Books continued to be reprinted after Haldeman-Julius' death and were sold by mail order by his son until the Girard printing plant and warehouse was destroyed by fire in 1978.

[edit] Recent History

In 2003, Girard suffered the loss of belongings due to an F4 tornado. The tornado passed east of the town effecting unincorportated parts of Crawford county such as Ringo and Franklin.

[edit] Geography

Girard is located at 37°30′37″N, 94°50′39″W (37.510204, -94.844157)^[9].

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²), of which, 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²) of it is land and 0.52% is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 2,773 people, 1,063 households, and 723 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,461.4 people per square mile (563.5/km²). There were 1,219 housing units at an average density of 642.4/sq mi (247.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.93% White, 1.05% African American, 0.54% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 1.12% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.69% of the population.

There were 1,063 households out of which 32.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.2% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.9% were non-families. 28.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the city the population was spread out with 24.8% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 25.9% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 20.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 92.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $32,847, and the median income for a family was $37,014. Males had a median income of $26,431 versus $20,682 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,668. About 8.1% of families and 13.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.4% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Cultural facilities

• Girard Public Library

[edit] Notable natives

• Dennis Franchione — college football coach
• Ron Kramer — Green Bay Packers player
• Dennis Hayden — Actor, producer

[edit] References

• Girard Press-1869

[edit] External links

• City of Girard Website

• Girard, Kansas is at coordinates 37°30′37″N 94°50′39″W / 37.510204, -94.844157 (Girard, Kansas)Coordinates: 37°30′37″N 94°50′39″W / 37.510204, -94.844157 (Girard, Kansas)
• History of Girard, Cutler's History of Kansas, 1883
• http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Girard/history.html History of Girard
• “Carnegie Libraries: The Future Made Bright”, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

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