"The Great Monument Search"

A Moment in Time

Kansas Historical Society

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

A flourish of color, the cadence of drums, steel sabers, a military band--at a special Memorial Day ceremony a crowd gathered to honor a grand and stately monument erected one hundred years ago to commemorate the Civil War dead from the Battle of the Blue. As members of the Kansas State Militia, these fighting men were part of a hastily-gathered Union force that defeated a Confederate attempt to take Missouri and invade Kansas. Like this granite soldier statue, located in the Topeka Cemetery, many monuments are scattered throughout Kansas, which became known as the "soldier state" due to the number of veterans who moved here after the war. An effort to document, preserve, and promote these soldiers' legacies is one of the tasks recently undertaken by the Kansas Historical Society in conjunction with Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!), a nationwide project established to preserve all outdoor sculpture and monuments.

Interestingly, the Society's home for most of this century--the old Memorial Building in downtown Topeka--is itself the largest monument to Union veterans in Kansas. Construction of the building began in 1911, using money from the federal government as war claims compensation for Civil War losses. For many years, the second floor of the building served as headquarters for the state department of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a national organization of Union veterans. The Society developed the remainder of the building into a state museum and archives, and eventually gained use of the second floor as the GAR's ranks gradually thinned. Today, the Society (having outgrown the Memorial Building) is moving its extensive research collections to a new building on the grounds of the Kansas Museum of History in west Topeka.

The SOS! effort and a growing public interest in historic preservation has prompted the Society to take a new look at the sculpture and monuments of Kansas. All across the state volunteers have organized to gather the information necessary for a centralized data bank that will promote public awareness and preservation of outdoor monuments. In addition to assisting in compiling and housing this information, the Society hopes to promote these monuments for tourism and historical research.

Due in part to the Society's close association with Civil War veterans, researchers have concentrated their efforts on documenting Kansas veterans' monuments. These monuments constitute a historical record of the war experience and at the same time are symbols of patriotic service and personal dedication and devotion.

Of the many Kansas war memorials, Civil War monuments are the most numerous. They vary considerably and primarily consist of statues, obelisks, and cannons. Erected mainly from 1886 to 1918, they are commonly found on courthouse lawns, in city parks, or in public cemeteries, accompanied by a flagpole and surrounded by veterans' graves. Cannons come in all sizes, ranging from small mountain howitzers in the Emporia city cemetery to an enormous coastal defense cannon guarding the library in downtown Newton. Unfortunately a number of cannons were sacrificed during World Wars I and II scrap metal drives. The cannon from the town of Holton is one example but with a unique twist to its story: although the original cannon was taken during World War II, it was replaced by a replica now located, as the original was, in a corner of the courthouse lawn.

Civil War soldier statues probably attract the most interest, standing "at rest" and imparting a sense of serene dignity. The majority of the statues were sculpted of stone; most are granite, with a few made from less durable limestone and marble. A handful are made of bronze, smithed rather than cast, with most or all of them coming from the well- known W.H. Mullins Company of Salem, Ohio. Two statues, in Bronson and Kingman, are made of zinc, popularly known as white bronze.

Although nearly all Kansas statues were made in factories and sold commercially, often through mail-order catalog sales, Kansas has one splendid monument made of hand-molded concrete. Located in the Kinsley cemetery, it features four soldiers and a "Victory goddess" constructed in 1917 by a local man, D.A. Lester. Lester's statues are strikingly reminiscent of the fanciful concrete statuary created by another Civil War veteran barely a hundred miles away at the remarkable Garden of Eden in Lucas, causing one to wonder if there was contact between the two artists.

Ultimately, all of the Save Our Sculpture! data will be available to the public as part of the Kansas Historical Society's research collections. Currently the Society's collections are being moved to its new facility complete with up-to-date research tools and professional assistance. This facility is part of the newly created Kansas History Center at 6425 S.W. Sixth Street in Topeka.

On October 7 and 8, the Society invites the public to celebrate the dedication of the new Kansas History Center, which will include the new Center for Historical Research, the nationally renowned Kansas Museum of History, Koch Industries Education Center, and Stach School. The weekend festival kicks off at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 7, with music, theater, arts and crafts, games, and many more activities for all ages. The day concludes with a barbecue and western dance from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. On Sunday, October 8, renowned historian Elliott West lectures at 2:00 p.m. on "A Story of Three Families."

For more information on the Kansas History Center's grand opening and its programs and collections, call 785-272-8681; TTY 785-272-8683