St. Marys, Kansas - May 2024

An Abandoned House near Holton, Kansas

On one of the many trips that I’ve taken in the last few years between Omaha and Corpus Christi, Texas, I drove through St. Marys, Kansas on a Sunday Morning.  On that particular Sunday morning there were a lot of people about on the street and the St. Marys Mercantile (a really nice country store) was open and bustling.  We learned later that there was some event at the St. Mary’s Academy and College, a school that goes K – 12 and four years of college, which probably explained the bustle.  It was intriguing enough that Mom and I have decided to take a day and visit again. 

The spring weather in the Midwest has been dangerous this year – on Friday, April 26th 3 F3 Tornados hit Nebraska.  In Douglas County (Omaha) there were almost 1,000 homes damaged and 173 destroyed.  Luckily, there was only one fatality (in Iowa) and only a handful of injuries that were not severe.  Mom and I spent the late afternoon/early evening in the basement while the sirens wailed.  Our area was spared – but our thoughts and prayers have been with those who were not so lucky. 

The EF3 Tornado that passed near Lincoln, Nebraska on April 26th, 2024

We headed out on a cloudy Tuesday morning, with a weather check that made it look like we could stay ahead of any really nasty weather, if we kept to our schedule.  As we were headed out of Omaha (5 blocks from home) the sky was so incredible - - I’ve never seen clouds like these, so, of course, we had to pull over and take some pictures to get us started.

From there we headed down through Nebraska City and on to Auburn, Nebraska.  I recently purchased a folk-art chair that had a sticker on it (old) from an antique store in Auburn.  I knew that the antique store was gone, but thought if there was another one there, it might be worth seeing if I could find any other similar furniture to try and track down the maker.  No such luck, but there was a pretty church in town!

From there we headed to Valley Falls, Kansas.  A pretty setting for a little town. 

In my recent work on genealogy, I  discovered that there are a lot of ties between Kansas and my Paternal Grandmother’s side of the family - - I thought that I had identified Valley Falls as the birthplace of my Great Grandmother, so, check it out we did!  Unfortunately, once I returned home, I do not see anywhere that Valley Falls is listed - - - O well, it was a nice place to drive through and it got us onto some pretty back roads where we found this abandoned farmhouse near Holton, KS and this lovely country church as we got close to Valley Falls.

From there we headed to St. Mary’s, and the Mercantile that we remembered.  The weather was turning dark and stormy, so we enjoyed wandering through the Merc, purchased some spices and pickles and mixes, and then headed to Manhattan where we spent the night.

We arrived in Manhattan just as the storms arrived to the area that we’d been traveling through – In the map you can see Valley Falls in the upper right corner, and St. Mary’s in the lower left – we drove right through the area just North of Topeka where they later had a tornado and large hail storms.  We were grateful to be in our snug hotel room where we enjoyed Mexican food from a place just next door!

By the morning, most of the server weather was completely out of our way, and while we had some dark skies and rain throughout the morning, most of our trip home was in dry weather!

Our first stop on that second day was in Abilene, Kansas.  I had booked us a trip on the Flint Hills Express Excursion Train.  The trip left out of Abilene, Kansas and delivered us to Enterprise, Kansas where we had a chance to visit a Grist Mill that is still in operation today!   Before the journey we had a chance to wander a little bit through Abilene.  Today, the population is just over 6,400 but the town feels bigger.  It was established in 1857 as a Stagecoach Stop in the newly established state of Kansas.  In 1867 the Union Pacific Railroad pushed through to Abilene and the first “Cow Town” of the west was born. The famed Chisolm Trail ended in Abilene and between  1867 and 1871 more than 440,000 head of cattle were shipped out of Abilene.  In 1871, Wild Bill Hickok became the Marshal of the town.

Abilene is also known as the home of Dwight D. Eisenhower.  It now houses the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum and both Ike and his wife, Mamie, are buried there.

The Eisenhower Home, where Dwight Eisenhower lived from  1898 to 1911 (until he entered West Point at age 20), is still located there next to the museum.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Home in Abilene, Kansas

There were beautiful old homes throughout the community, many that had been restored and most were incredibly well maintained.  As we drove through the city we could both imagine ourselves living there.

One of the truly extraordinary homes that we came across as we wondered through town was The Lebold Mansion.  It looks, especially on a dark day with lightening flashing, like an old vampire movie set!  The house was built of native Kansas Limestone in 1880 by a successfully Abilene banker and land agent, Conrad Lebold.  He later became the Mayor of Abilene and a member of the Kansas State Legislature.  The house has gone through some hard times and in 2021 it was bought at foreclosure and has been restored. According to one of the railroad employees, the owner is quite a character.  Spooky old movies and TV shows have been the inspiration for much of the current refurbishment and the owner drives through town in a Zimmer Golden Spirit  automobile (one of only 1,500 ever made) that looks shockingly like Cruella DeVil’s Car in 101 Dalmatians!  We didn’t see the car, but I found a picture online of the current owner and his car and am including it below.  It was also interesting that when I was taking pictures of the mansion, a huge flock of black birds were circling the tower the in mansion.  It seemed, well, fitting!!

We arrived at the Rock Island Depot in Old Abilene Town in time to board our Steam Train for the journey to and from Enterprise, Kansas.  We were treated to hot coffee and Cinnamon Rolls for the trip. 

We arrived in Enterprise and had time to walk into the town (very small) and to visit The Hoffman Grist Mill.  The mill was originally established in the 1800’s but was re-established in 2016 to work in conjunction with the Abilene & Smokey Valley Railroad.  They grind Turkey Red Heritage Grain that was originally brought to the US by Mennonite immigrants in 1870.  They have a small shop where you can buy milled flours.  We bought some Buckwheat Flour and had spectacularly good Buckwheat Pancakes for breakfast our first morning back in Omaha.

The trip was enjoyable and the all-volunteer staff we’re a pleasure to visit with.

Once back in Abilene, as we took a last loop through town, we came across a Children’s Park with some of the old playground equipment from the 1950’s!  It certainly speaks to simpler times.

From there we headed North towards home, through the town of Clay Center, Kansas.  They have some of the coolest Murals in town that we’ve seen.  There was a fair bit of traffic, and we were racing the rain to get home, so were only able to photograph one of the 25 murals that are there.  The one of the books below I found on the internet – it is just next to the steps of the library and is, well, really cool!

From there we headed up to Beatrice, NE – pushing for home, we didn’t spend too much time, but will plan a day trip to go back and visit in the near future.  The churches in town were lovely, and I’d like to go and see if we could get in to see the interiors of some of them. 

Our last picture of the trip was as we were leaving Beatrice…there was a beautifully restored home, just across the street from one of the churches and in the storm door was a cat, who patiently watched as we took pictures, just keeping tabs on the neighborhood!