How does one in Elk County pronounce "Upola?"
Is it Up-ola or U-pola?
Anyone know where the name came from?
Waldo, I always heard it pronounced U-po-la. One of the areas of the county that I never was in much. Must of been one of the few areas that neither my dad, uncle Ed, or Jerry Boyer had cattle or crops in at some point in time.
Can't find my copy of John Rydjords Place Names of Kansas book at the moment. My "Library" really needs to be in shelves permanently, rather than boxed up as most of it is presently.
I'll keep looking,
Charles
Waldo, we always pronounced it the way Charles has it on his post. I haven't been there for years, but Fred and Russ were there not too long ago, I believe. It used to be quite a neighborhood, back in the 40's.
When I was about 7 a family member was buried at Upola. Well I got it in my head Larua Ingells Wilder liver there and could see no reason my father couldn't take me to her house and just drop in. We didn't go ofcourse but I've thought of it often over the yrs
U Pola is still there. Or rather farm houses and the rr crossing is.
Mostly a ranching and haying community. Mail comes out of Longton.
Lots of nice people.
Okay, thanks everyone.
I asked a few times in Elk County received the answer "U-Pola--isn't it?"
Be interesting to find out where that name came from. Where is Henrietta Elma Mann and Mary Audrey Neeland when I need them?
Waldo, Upola was/is a European family Surname. Census records don't show any Upola's in Kansas but I suspect the name came from some early settlers family surname.
Thanks
Good stuff, folks. Thanks.
Hey Greatguns, in searching I found an earlier post from you saying that your grandmother or greatgrandmother was born in Upola so maybe you can enlighten your Elk County neighbors. ;D
Larryj
My grandparents lived at Upola. That is U-pola. My mother and her siblings were born there. I still visit the cemetery every year. I'll have to ask my Mother if she knows how it got its name. Maybe Jarhead knows as he is far more worldly than I.
Guns, I aint got a clue to how Upola got it's name. I do know our grand-father had a grocery store there but all that's left is a cement slab with a big cottonwood tree growing out of it. On the south side of the road from that is a HUGE hand dug well. in looking at the Kansas Bottle book I see that Upola never had a drug store. I thought it was a booming town, and would have , seeing as how Oak Valley had 7 differant drug stores from 1879 until 1908. Speaking of 'bottles', does anyone have any info on when Longton had 2 differant "bottlers" The H.G Bailey and The Longton Bottling Works ?
I just looked in John Rydjord's book entitled, Kansas Place-Names, to see if it mentioned how Upola got its name. Here is what it says.
The story of the naming of a town in Elk County concerns a girl who owned a pony named Polo. She was riding Polo when the pony stopped at a railroad crossing. The railway workers heard the girl's exclamation or appeal: "You - Polo!" From this, it was said, the town of Upola was named.
Interesting.
Thanks, Marcia.
From my experience Dr. Rydjord is usually dead-on correct on his name origins as they are very extensively researched. But that one does sound a little "hoakie".
Charles
First thing that came to my mind was whether the railroad was there at the time Upola was founded.
The Longton to Independence track was laid in 1879, I don't know when the Longton to Fredonia track was built but it would have to have been after 1879. There is nothing else in Elk County on that line, so it would seem the railroad was attracted to Upola?
That rail line, though, was built by a different railroad, the Chicago, Kansas, and Western, and they may have just needed a connection from Fredonia to Longton and Upola subsequently located on those tracks? An 1886 map shows Upola as a stop.
The Elk County history book mentions only that there were a lot of towns, including Upola. for which the editors had no information.
For some towns, the railroad came to the town because it was already there.
Other towns located on known projected rights of way before the rails came through.
Others located on the tracks after they came through. Our famous Elk County example of that was the railroad laying its tracks between and missing the towns of Canola and Greenfield. Both towns packed up with one moving north and the other moving south and meeting at the tracks becoming Grenola—a consolidation of the names.
There was a Upola Town company with capital stock supposedly valued at $50,000 and that company's incorporation papers would hopefully be on file at the Kansas State Historical Society showing when the town came into being.
Waldo,
My dad was born and raised in Upola and I think if he was still alive he would be in his 90's, so it was along time ago. His grand father homesteaded the place where Randy Cannon lives today . It was just a dug-out in the side of a hill.. Later a house was built on top of it and it became a root cellar.He talked alot about growning up in Upola. The railroad used to set a box car of ice on a siding every 4th of July. The ice was packed in saw dust and I think was just ice chopped the previous winter from a river or lake somewhere. My Dad said they would chip off big chunks of ice and suck on it like it was the best thing they had ever tasted. Beside the RR tracks there were two huge pole hay barns. Hay was stored there , then later loaded onto RR cars and shipped.
Thank you, I find information like that to be very interesting.
I have seen some reports of hay being shipped out of Upola.
There was only freight service available at Upola but anyone could stand on that platform and the caboose would roll up to the platform and pick him or her up. I suppose they paid the standard ticket price to Longton, or maybe Fredonia, where they could connect with a passenger train.
I have also seen a petition to the railroad to put a station and a freight agent there. The railroad said they would consider it if business picked up. I don't know if they ever did erect a depot.
There is a story of a dug out home in a hillside in another county.
A buffalo walking on the hill came crashing down into their home while they were eating.
Jarhead your Dad would have been 98 this year if he was still with us. He was 10 years older than Mother. Did he ever talk about the 4th of July celebrations they had at Upola? That is where Mom took her first plane ride. Grandma used to feed the hobos. I've heard Mom tell about picking blackberries and selling them to the train men to buy her fireworks. Enough rambling from me.
Yes Guns, my dad did talk about their 4th of July whing -dings. People from all over would meet and they played ball and alot of that game where they whack wooden balls with little wooden sledge hammers. I know the name of the game but not sure how to spell it. :) Next time you go to Upola cemetary take note of a Black Jack tree that is straight south of that rural water tower, near the foot of the hill. Our grand father farmed a 9 acre field by that tree and it was the only shade around. It must of been around 1960 when my dad told me they would rest under that tree and it was still the same size it had been when he was a kid. That tree is still there and I think it's still about the same size. Ask your Mother if she ever heard the story of what her dad lost out of his bib overalls in that 9 acre field. i won't tell you what it was because you might have a medal detector and go find it, but I'll give you a hint. It was "yeller" in color and had a "20" on it. :)
croquet
Could that slow growing tree possibly be a Post Oak rather than a Black Jack. Reason I ask, university extension foresters from Arkansas and Oklahoma have been identifying what they have started calling Ancient Post Oak stands throughout the Cross Timbers physiographical region, of which the Chautauqua Hills is the northernmost extension. Through corings and dating from the rings, they have determined some of these trees are over 400 years old, even though they may be only 12-14 inches in diameter. They are usually in stands, but they have identified some single remaining trees also, where for some reason just the one tree was spared by nature and man.
KS Map: http://www.uark.edu/misc/xtimber/map/seks.html (http://www.uark.edu/misc/xtimber/map/seks.html)
Homepage: http://www.uark.edu/misc/xtimber/index.html (http://www.uark.edu/misc/xtimber/index.html)
Just curious.
Also, my grandmother Octa Hainlin tried to teach Roberta and I how croquet was supposed to be played. We didn't seem to care about the rules, we just liked whacking the balls all over the place.
Charles
There are items in the Longton Weekly Ledger in 1872 or 73, talking about croquet being a favorite sport in Elk Falls.
In 1875, a team sport, organized baseball, was being played with the Longton Grasshoppers, the Boston Clinchbugs, the Elk Falls Resolutes, and the Fredonia something or others.
Somewhere in a local newspaper, I saw that around that time, Wichita had an all female baseball team.
Croquet---Yep that's the game but I was not about to try and spell it cause it would look like "crock of something or other "
Flint, you sure might be right about the tree. I've never been real close to it and from a distance it looks like a black-jack but I sure aint a tree expert. It would be intereseting to see how close the growth rings must be. I think higher up the hill there is another lone tree of the same kind and about the same size. Now I'm going to be forced to take a drive and check it out.
A half mile or so east of the RR crossing in Uola the used to be a lone grave out in a pasture. This was back in the 50's. The head stone could be seen from the road and the grave had a fence around it. I don't see any sign of it anymore. greatguns---ask your Mom if she knows who was buried there.
Flint, now that web page about post oak is gonna make me do some walking. Near Oak valley I know where there is --what I thought was a black jack tree---grows straight up, then bent a 45 degree angle , then up again. An old timer told me the Indians made it grow that way and it's pointing to where a spring is coming out of the rocks. Maybe it's a post oak
My experience with these post oaks involves a chain saw. Twenty or more years ago, my father (Stub) and I were cutting some trees out of the fence line on the Womacks pasture (that Horst Hiller owns now). Just cuttin along through the Black Jacks like butter, then came to the next tree and it was if the chain dulled as we were walking. Thought maybe we'd got into some rock, so switched chains. Well we had got into some "rock", it was the tree. Sparks were flying as we tried to force that saw through that tree.
Of course didn't know anything about Ancient Post Oaks at the time, but that had to have been one.
Can you imagine how hard it would have been to chop one down with an axe? Probably why there's still some around.
I'll ask my Mama and if she doesn't remember, I'll ask her sister.
It's been fun for me to follow this thread. You folks bring such history to the table! I thought maybe Upola once had a newspaper but according to the Kansas State Historical Society, none with that name ever existed. Now, I've just got to find the place and take a 360 look-around.
Rudy, When you go to Upola be sure and look at that hand dug well. I think there's a board / rock or something you can move and look down in it. It is a huge well. Years ago I was tearing an old house down and under a linoleum was a 1920's something Longton newspaper The Upola news iteam was " Monty Edwards and Carl Rice went duck hunting" That was it !!! At least they could have said weather they got any ducks. The hay barns at Upola we were talking about---at least one of them was destoryed by a tornado but was rebuilt. They were both still standing even as late as the 1960's but burned to the ground.
Glenn and Mable Shanks and their children lived at Upola. My dad Carl and his brother Roy Workman did hay baling, with a stationary baler,the crew was my brother Jack, me, my sister Helen cousins Robert, and Gene. We put hay in one of those Upola barns one year.
Glen Shanks was helping barn hay that year, we also baled some for Jess Schroder. Man, that was hot work - Daddy and Uncle Roy mowed with the tractor and a sickle blade, my sister Helen run the sulky rake and I run the buck rake, and we each drove a team of horses. Daddy had a John Deere tractor, that was what run the baler. The men and boys fed the baler, tied and stacked the bales. I helped tie bales, and barn the hay too. That was in the 40's.
There is a red brick building close to the tracks. At first I thought it might have been the depot but it seemed to be too far from the tracks and I later found there to be a question as to whether Upola had a depot. Also, the railroads tended to construct wooden depots in the small areas.
On my second trip out there, the brick building looked like it might have been a school. Someone appeared to be living in it.
Anyone know what that brick building is or was?
I believe Glenn and Agnes Barnaby lived in the Upola area before moving to Howard. When their daughter, Elizabeth, joined our class in Howard in the 3rd or 4th grade, she said she had gone to school at Upola. I had NO IDEA where that might have been, but the name was always kind of intriguing. I would imagine there must have been a school building there, because I don't think the Barnaby kids ever went to the Longton schools. Just a possibility......................
There was a school at Upola at one time. In 1954, Mrs. Golda Barnes, from Longton was the Teacher at Upola and had two eighth grade graduates who came to Howard to graduate with the Howard Eighth Grade Class. All rural students came to Howard to graduate. The students from Upola were Cleda Reed and Jeanean Reaynolds. Frank & I were both graduated from the eighth grade that year. There were 10 of us from the rural schools that graduated with the Howard class that year. One from Pleasant Hill (Inez Biddinger was the teacher);Upola (as listed above), Upper Paw Paw had three students (Juanita Anderson, Teacher); Flint Hills had one graduate (Pansy Barnaby was the teacher); and Union Center had 3 graduates (Clara Perkins was teacher).
Myrna
Quote from: Rudy Taylor on August 27, 2009, 08:09:16 AM
It's been fun for me to follow this thread. You folks bring such history to the table! I thought maybe Upola once had a newspaper but according to the Kansas State Historical Society, none with that name ever existed. Now, I've just got to find the place and take a 360 look-around.
Rudy,
Road 30 meets Harvest at the railroad at Upola: N 37.41605 W 95.99905
The topo map shows the cemetary up on top of the hill not to far north of the rural water tower, but I can't make it out on the arial maps.
Charles
In my original post I said the year was 1958, I have corrected that to 1954 when the Upola 8th graders came to Howard to graduate.
The last reading of the Grandview, or Upola, Cemetery took place sometime in the 1980s according to Kansas Trails.
There are around 40 graves in the cemetery.
The most names belong to Edwards followed by Holtsclaw, Pitts, and Cox.
The earliest burial is of Howard Nordyke died April 23, 1873, at about 40 days old.
The latest burial was of Medora Campbell sometime in 1984 at age 76.
Other names are Cummings, Dunn, Fields, Hepner, Hodge, Hoyt, Matthews, Myers, Seimears, Trotter, and Wiles.
Waldo,
About half those names you listed in the Upola cemetary are related one way or another to each other. I think I read somewhere that you live in Colorado. If so, this is unrelated to the subject of Upola but I'm gonna give you a "mission". Because my dad worked train service for Santa Fe for almost 40 years, I've always had an interest in it. I thought I had either read, or heard that an old steam engine that used to run on the Howard Branch( the run from Moline to Emporia) was alive and well on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Guage RR. I thought I had read it on a site of James Burke, the authour of The Iron Horse Vol I & II, but now I can't find out anything about it. Maybe I just had a dream !!!
Jo--I think the hay barns at Upola were owned by Ira Rothgeb. Does that sound right ?
I have those two volumes by James Burke.
(For other forum members, this is not the same James Burke that had the "Connections" PBS science series. Our James Burke grew up in Climax north of Severy.)
I had not heard that a Howard Branch locomotive was on the Durango and Silverton, though.
I am not saying it is impossible, but it is difficult so envision how they could put narrow gauge drivers on a standard gauge locomotive.
What I seem to recall was that one of the old Howard Branch locomotives was sitting in a park somewhere on static display, but I cannot recall where. This has been more than three years ago but I seem to recall having tracked down a picture of it.
Tomorrow, I will try to see what I can find.
Tangent from a tangent Alert
Quote from: W. Gray on August 27, 2009, 08:26:58 PM
(For other forum members, this is not the same James Burke that had the "Connections" PBS science series. Our James Burke grew up in Climax north of Severy.)
Had to do some looking. I was thinking of "The Secret Life of Machines", but that's Tim Hunkin.
Update see my next post for a possible answer.
May be this will help you on the steam train question. I see a few ATSF trains on display in Colorado a ways down the page.
http://www.steamlocomotive.info/state.cfm?state=Colorado
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway No. 1024 2-6-2
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway No. 1819 2-6-2
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway No. 2912 4-8-4
or
Santa Fe Preserved Locomotives
http://atsf.railfan.net/atsfpres/
General info.
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/
I may be wrong but I think you are talking about this locomotive. (Thanks Waldo for the distinction)
ATSF 1947 Big Prairies #1819
Howard Branch: Locomotives
1947
Prairies: 1014, 1018, 1019, 1025, 1038, 1073, 1079, 1114, 1134.
Big prairies: 1801, 1819, 1820, 1825, 1838
Mikes: 3102, 3105, 3109, 3114, 3124.
http://www.atsfrr.org/resources/Sandifer/Howard/Consist/Locomotives/Locomotives.htm
Now in Lamar, Co
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway No. 1819 2-6-2
http://www.steamlocomotive.info/state.cfm?state=Colorado
A number of the steamers used on the Howard Branch have been preserved: 1015 (Emporia, KS), 1050 (Independence, KS), 1073 (Lawrence, KS), 1079 (Coffeyville, KS), 1819 (Lamar, CO), and 1880 (Newton, KS).
(http://www.steamlocomotive.info/locomotives/co0058.jpg)
(http://atsf.railfan.net/atsfpres/atsf1819.jpg)
David,
It would not be a train unless there were trailing cars. ;D But you were right about the location.
Jarhead,
The Howard Branch locomotives web site is at
http://atsfrr.net/resources/Sandifer/Howard/Consist/Locomotives/Locomotives.htm
It says a number of the steamers used on the Howard Branch have been preserved: 1015 (Emporia, KS), 1050 (Independence, KS), 1073 (Lawrence, KS), 1079 (Coffeyville, KS), 1819 (Lamar, CO), and 1880 (Newton, KS).
I tracked those numbers down as follows:
1015 is on display at Fremont Park, Emporia, KS.
1050 is on display at Riverside Park, Independence, KS.
1073 is on display at Watson Park, Emporia, KS.
1079 is on display at W. Johnson Memorial Park, Coffeyville, KS
1819 is on display behind the Amtrak depot, Lamar, CO.
1880 is on display at Military Park, in Newton, KS.
The Durango and Silverton steam roster is at
http://www.drgw.net/info/index.php?n=Main.DSNGRoster
And, it does seem to say they might have rebuilt some standard gauge locomotives into narrow gauge. I don't think any of them were Santa Fe, though.
Had coffee this morning with an old timer that grew up in the Upola area. I tried to pick his brain. Best he remembers is that Richard Kimzey was the last person to be buried in the cemetary and that was 3-4 years back.
The hay barns, one was owned by Ira Rothgeb and the other was BM ( Meade ) Edwards. They both were destroyed by a tornado in the 30's and built back. They both had hay crews that would put the hay up, barn it, and sell it to Ira & B.M. Roy & Carl Workman's hay crew was one of B. M.'s . The hay was loaded into box cars in the winter and shipped off.
The brick building next to the RR tracks was originally a store and never a school. Upola school was east of there a "piece" and the cement steps can still be seen on the north side of the road. Upola school was formed after the one room schools of Lone Star, Ohio and North Oak Ridge consolidated. Greatguns mother was this old timers teacher in one of those schools. My dad taught in one and they had a sister teach in the other one. I'm not sure but I think to become a teacher back in them days all you had to do was go to Pittsburg, Ks, take a test, and if you passed , you were a teacher.I asked the old timer about that lone grave east of Upola. He said I need to learn my directions because it was west of the RR tracks. It was the grave of a small girl that had died when some settlers were heading west by wagon. They buried her there then years later came back and put up a head stone.
What happened to the second set of hay barns that are no longer there?
They were still being used to store hay in as late as the 60's, maybe early 70's when one night they were set afire and burned to the ground. About the same time there was a huge pile of hay bales at Zollars corner and a hay barn at Oak valley that all "caught" fire.
My Mother and that old timer are in agreement about where the grave is located and who is buried there. I believe my Mother taught at Ohio.
Where is Zollars corner? Never heard of that. I have heard of Zollars Hill but have never figured out where it is either.
Zollers curve is at the foot of Zollers hill. It's about half way between Longton & Oak Valley on US 160. The "newbies" of nowdays call it Dead Mans Curve. Been a passle of wrecks on that curve.
Guns, ask your Mom if she knows which of those country schools my Dad taught a year or two at and which ones their other two sisters taught at. i think Aunt Mary Ellen taught at one too.
OK, so I was wrong about a steam engine from the Howard Branch and now wrong about which direction that grave was. Guess that makes it where I have been wrong twice in my life-----OK ??? :)
Which curve? As you're going east, is it as you leave the flat and go up and the the right, before Road 28? Or is it the completely blind curve to the left, just as you get to Evergreen?
Charles
Jarhead, your Dad taught at Lone Star, Beuna taught at North Oak Ridge, although her first year of teaching was at Border. Marie taught at Cove and Stoney Point. Mary Ellen taught at Frog Hollow and Buxton. Mother wanted to know if you talked to an old timer, just what does that make her? ;) ;D
Jarhead, Holtclaw's ran a grocery store in the brick building at Upola. Mont Edwards also had a grocery store, they use to buy butter, buttermilk, cream & eggs from local farmers - and had other grocery items. Don't know where the store was located. I have a box of papers that MM Edwards wrote alot about his childhood in Upola. I'll get back with you, if there is mention about the store.
It was located west across the street from the brick building. I'm sure Jarhead will be interested in those papers that his Dad wrote. My Uncle's dad had that store before My Grandad did I believe.
Lodie, I wonder if we might have met before in this or someother life? ??? ??? ???
Flint,
Zollers curve is where Evergreen rd meets US 160. Been a ton of wrecks on that curve over the years. About a 1/4 mile east of where rd 28 meets the highway is where a young Longton man lost his life a little over a week ago in a car wreck. That curve has had it's fair share of wrecks also.
Quote from: jarhead on August 31, 2009, 11:57:14 AM
Flint,
Zollers curve is where Evergreen rd meets US 160. Been a ton of wrecks on that curve over the years. About a 1/4 mile east of where rd 28 meets the highway is where a young Longton man lost his life a little over a week ago in a car wreck. That curve has had it's fair share of wrecks also.
Thanks, I thought so, but I wasn't 100%.
I've had several close calls there myself.
From Longton to just west of the county line needs redone, badly. But it will never happen, Elk County just doesn't have the pull.
Charles
So why is it called Zollars hill and Zollars curve. My grandpa's homestead is nowhere near the highway. It is back west of the cemetery.
Charles,
You are probably right about Elk County not having enough pull. But, there was a politician, who may have wanted to get his name in the paper, right around the time that K-99 was finished north of Howard who said he would work hard to get US 160 upgraded from the east Elk County to the west Elk County line.
As a result of the stimulus, US 160 in Elk County is getting a $98,000 overlay for a .4 mile section in the Longton city limits.
Buddyboy,
The Elk County history book says Charles Zollars was a road and bridge builder. Maybe he was the first to grade that hill?
In the old days, state routes followed section roads. At some point, they started going through sections rather than around.
From looking at a map, it looks like the entire downhill direction of that road may have gone diagonally from what was one section road through a section to another section road. Maybe US 160 subsequently followed that route.
Buddyboy, I know where the Zoller homestead NW of Longton is but I haven't been up that road for a coons age. Last time I knew ,above a gate was a sign saying when it was homesteaded. I am not postive but I'm pretty sure at Zollers curve there were some Zollers that lived there. Now you got your work cut out figuring which relative lived there.:) Just as you turn on Evergreen road look to the north and you can see the cave/ celler that was behind the old house
Waldo, Just on the north edge of Zollers curve, at one time or other, long ago, the road went almost straight west and pretty much ran along the river and then came out just east of the Painterhood bridge. Pretty much went around the hill where as now it goes over the hill. there are still a couple of little rock layed bridges that went over gullies and walking it you can tell it's an old roadbed. Maybe back in horse & buggy days or Model-Ts ?????
Buddyboy,
I asked a 93 year old ,old timer , who lived at Zollers hill. He said it was Jess Zollers, brother of Charles Zollers. He said Jess had a contracting business out of Independence and built alot of bridges in the area. He said Charles was mainly a brick layer and built the original Longton school that stood across the street west of the high school. This info might not be gospel but what was told to me
Jesse Zollars built the Longton Jail bleive and was also the first to get to stay all night I was Told. That curve is about where John dropped off the Elk Co Sheriff back in the '30's I yhink.
I suppose Main Street is now the county road.
(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad256/waldoegray/upola.jpg)