Posts Tagged ‘Argonia’

Conway Springs Star & Argonia Argosy
19 August 2010

FROM ARGOSY FILES – TWENTY YEARS AGO, August 1990

LEON AMMANN

Machine shop equipment, tools, vehicles, steel, salvage iron and miscellaneous attracted buyers from a wide area during the Ammann Machine auction here Friday and Saturday. The equipment was owned by Leon ammann who was in business here more than 50 years. He died February 3 of this year.

The Amman collection began many years ago when Leon was just a small boy. During an interview by the Argosy in 1968 Ammann said he practicaally grew up in the farm shop helping his dad, Jim, with various mechanical repair jobs. A native of this community, amman was born and raised southeast of Milan and attended country schools there. He graduated from the Milan High School in 1930. The elder Ammann [Leon’s dad, Jim] is a resident of Spring View Manor, Conway Springs and will be celebrating his 102 birthday the last of October.

In 1937 Leon decided to go into business for himself. He purchased a machine shop at Elkhart and moved it to the Milan farm. In the spring of 1939 he moved the shop to Argonia in the building just south of what is not the Four Seasons restaurant. More room was needed and Ammann constructed and moved to the building just east of what is now the Argonia Clinic. During World War 2 he sub-contracted on aircraft parts.

In 1951 the firm was moved to the location one block west of the bank where he did designing, engineering, sub-contracting, built combine attachments, fertilizer applicators, and was never too busy to do repair work for various persons. He held patents on some of his designs. Leon was Civil Defense director for many years and fire chief of the Argonia Fire Department for over 20 years.

August 7, a fast spreading fire of undetermined origin destroyed the machine shop housed in the east metal building. Althougoh Ammann was in declining health at the time he was determined to rebuild and salvage as much equipment as possible. He said he was ovewhelmed by the large number of persons who came to offer assistance during and after the fire.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
Written for the Wichita Eagle’s Active Life Magazine – February 2009

Want Your Family Tree Researched?  Get Famous!

Probably no one knows better by now than Barack Obama and his family that if you want to have your family tree researched for you, just become famous and run for office.

There is a fascination with knowing more about famous people, especially our presidents, and even those who didn’t vote for Obama want to know more about him and his family.

There are websites, blogs, and numerous articles devoted to discovering, talking about and arguing about Obama’s family history, even going so far as trying to determine what ethnic percentage he has of Caucasian, African, and Arab in his ancestry.

Marsha Stenholm, retired genealogy librarian at the Wichita, Kansas Public Library, said there is a great deal of interest in Obama’s Kansas roots from journalists, television anchors, and individuals.

Are You Related to Barack Obama?

Are you related to Obama?  You may be.

Obama’s family has ties to several cities and counties in Kansas, including Wichita in Sedgwick County, Argonia in Sumner County, El Dorado and Augusta in Butler County, as well as Chautauqua, Howard, Labette, and Johnson Counties.

“Obama has ties to El Dorado and Wichita,” Stenholm said, “and if you go back another generation, his great-grandparents and great-great grandparents have ties to Wichita and Argonia in Sumner County as well.”

According to Stenholm, Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, (who was named for her father), was born in Wichita, possibly in St. Francis Hospital, in 1942. Her father, Stanley Armour Dunham, was born in Kansas in 1918 to Ralph Dunham and Ruth Lucille Armour. Her mother, Madelyn Lee Payne, was born in Wichita in 1922 to parent’s Rolla Charles Payne, who was born in Olathe, Kansas and Leona McCurry, born circa 1897 in Kansas. According to Federal Census resources, Stanley Armour Dunham worked in the furniture business.

Obama’s Great-Grandfather Born in Argonia, Kansas

“Obama’s great-grandfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham was born in Argonia, Kansas,” Stenholm said, to parents’ Jacob William and Mary Ann (Kearney) Dunham, and are on the 1900 Federal Census in Dixon Township Stenholm said the census records are available online at www.ancestry.com or at the Wichita Public Library.

By 1909, Stenholm said that Wichita City Directories indicate the family was living in Wichita. They also showed up in the 1910, 1920, and 1930 Federal census, where Jacob was listed in 1910 as a manufacturer of drugs in a drug store, in 1920 he was listed as a pharmacist in a drug store, and in 1930, he was listed as a physician in a medical business.

In 1915, Ralph married Ruth Lucille Armour, whose parents were Harry Ellington Armour and Gabriella Clark, who appeared in the 1910 and 1920 Federal Census of Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas, and in the 1930 Federal Census are listed as living in El Dorado, Butler County, Kansas.

Obama’s Grandma Toot born in Kansas…

Two different sources have Madelyn Lee Payne, Obama’s grandmother “Toot” born either in 1922 in Wichita, Kansas, or in Peru, in Chautauqua County, Kansas, to father Rolla Charles Payne, who was born in Johnson County, Kansas and Leona McCurry Payne, born circa 1897 in Kansas. The 1930 Federal Census lists seven-year-old Madelyn living with her parents in Augusta, and her father’s occupation is listed as a bookkeeper for an oil company.

Are you related to Obama?  Whether you are or not, you may find researching Obama’s family ties at http://genealogy.about.com/od/aframertrees/p/barack_obama.htm fascinating. And if your name is Dunham, Payne, Armour, Stroup, Kearney, Holloway, Clark, Overall, McCurry, Wright, Black, Wolfley, Abbott, Creekmore, Wright, or Allred, you might just want to take a quick look into your family history and see if you, too, have ancestral ties to our new President.

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“Complete Idiot’s Guide to Genealogy” by Christine Rose and Kay Germain Ingalls

“Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy” by Croom

“Tracking Your African-American Family History” – David T. Thackery