Laredo Woman to Celebrate 77th Mother's Day this year
By Dorothy Barker-Killingsworth
To celebrate a holiday honoring all mothers, England began a "Mothering Sunday" many years ago. In 1904, after several other people made an attempt to adopt a "Mother's Day" for America, a person named Anna Jarvis began a campaign for a nationwide observance of Mother's Day.
She chose the second Sunday of May, including the custom of wearing a carnation, a colored one for persons with a living mother and white for those with a deceased mother.
On may 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution of contress recommending a national observance of Mother's Day. The following year, President Wilson was authorized to proclaim Mother's Day as an annual national observance.
Katie Eunice Owens, a Laredo resident, celebrated her first Mother's Day as a mother in 1920. She will observe her 77th Mother's Day in her Laredo home this Sunday. [May 11, 1997]
Katie was born Sept. 29, 1897, the daughter of Frederick Lawrence Lein and Ethel Tindall Lein in a farm house east of Laredo. Lein immigrated from Vienna, Austria. Katie was the first of four children. The youngest is Chillicothe resident Mary Lydia Lein Molloy.
Laredo
Laredo became a town in 1887, with the plat filed June 20 of that year. In the beginning the town had been called Gorham. Laredo was incorporated in 1890. By 1891, the population had reached 400, with 20 business places. The railroad, a factor in the town's growth, almost doubled the population in one year after Laredo was made a "division" of the Milwaukee Railroad. The railroad shops were moved from Chillicothe at that time. With the rails came the town's first coal chute. It was completed in 1905, burned in 1909 and was rebuilt that year.
The town saw hard times with plagues of all kinds. Heavy rains started July 4, 1909, resulting in the worst flood in history (at that time). A drought followed the flood. Then in January 1911, the town was dealt another blow, this time with sleet. All telephone lines were broken. Every telephone in town had its own wire connected to the switchboard.
In late November 1946, fires lighted up the night as several businesses burned down. Fear gripped the town until the arsonist was captured in Chillicothe. The Kansas City man, Elopus Walker, a 46-year old black laborer, also admitted setting fires in Brunswick, Gilliam, Higginsville, Maysville, Higbee, Corder and Wakenda.
At the time, it was called the biggest arson case in the United States by the United States Board of Underwriters spokesman, Ralph Trueman. Walker was tried in the Grundy County court in Trenton and sentenced to life in prison in Jefferson City.
Gone were the Christian Church, a grocery store, barber shop, restaurant and some dwellings. All were rebuilt except the barber shop. Laredo was ready to fight and regain its town.
Young Katie
The rails moved a lot of trains through Laredo with one such train taking the entire Lein family from Laredo to Arkansas in 1912, for a family reunion. Several Lein family members had left Missouri for Arkansas. There, the children got to visit with their grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. "We had a very large trunk full of clothes," Katie told me. "It took a lot of clothing back then." This was an experience that Katie has carried as a fond memory throughout the years.
Katie made another trip, not so far, but as full of adventure. A classmate from the one-room school invited her to stay overnight. The two girls hitched a horse to a wagon and headed for Trenton, 13 miles away. There they visited with a school teacher named Addie Rooks. [another account says Addie Rooks was the other girl, and they visited their teacher Opal Gee--ed] After a pleasant visit, the two girls made the long trip back home that day. In those days, 13 miles was a long way to go in a round trip.
During the 1915 chautauqua, William Jennings Bryan, the noted lecturer-politician gave one of his famous orations. The city was "bursting at the seams" with people who had come to hear him speak. Chautauquas were popular until the advent of automobiles, then they slowly died out. In recent years, many communities have tried new versions of a chautauqua.
Young Married
On July 15, 1918, Katie and Oliver Miller Owens were married. Oliver had been a student at Bethel School, the same one-room school and during the same time as young Katie Lein. They moved to a farm with a small three-room house in Wilson Township, three miles from Laredo.
There, they farmed and raised their three children, a boy and two girls. "We had a buggy for trips into Laredo," Katie told me, "and I always stopped by Urton Mercantile for supplies. We could get almost anything at Urton's, including the mail, as that is where the post office was located".
In 1908, two rural mail routes were established out of Laredo. Two horses were used to pull each of the two enclosed wagons that the carriers used.
"We had two hat shops in town and one would not dare go out without a hat - and certainly not without a pair of gloves - usually white. In the spring and fall, the women had to get their hats 'dressed' for the season."
Medicine Creek
"Do you know how Medicine Creek got its name?" Katie asked.
"Well, I will tell you. There was a Dr. Martin who wanted to cross the creek to see a patient. In crossing the swift creek, the lost his medicine bag in the water. Folks asked Doc how he was going to doctor without his case and he replied, 'They can just take a dip in Medicine Creek'."
Katie sat there, her eyes dancing in delight and to tell this story again brought a chuckle from her. "And Dr. Martin was a distant relative of mine," she quipped.
Another story about Medicine Creek was the flood that washed out the bridge about 1947. Folks east of the bridge were dut off from Laredo, giving school children a good excuse to miss classes. Church, trading, friends and family were sorely missed.
A swinging bridge was quickly erected and at first was nothing but two boards laid side-to-side upon woven wire, suspended from two cables. Young men tried to balance baskets of groceries in crossing. Those not so brave crawled across, while the very brave (or foolish) rode bicycles across the make-shift bridge. Eventually, a new bridge was built.
Katie's Clippings
Memories on Paper
Katie began her hobby of clipping newspaper stories and items as a young girl. "I just clipped and saved whatever appealed to me," she said. today, she still has all her clippings from all the years of saving. There are six to eight scrapbooks of obituaries, one of just fires, some on just murders, and Katie knows where each box or scrapbook is located. "When we lived on the farm, our house was too small for me to store my clippings inside, so I used the smokehouse." When the Owens moved into Laredo, the clippings were moved also.
From the large trunk that held the children's clothing on the Arkansas trip in 1912, are newspaper, never folded, lying there to bring back memories at any given time. Newspapers such as The Republican Times, the Grundy County Gazette, a 1913 Trenton Weekly Republican and the Weekly Kansas City Star dated Nov 6, 1940. The front page picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt depicts his third term reelection. A Laredo Tribune, dated Feb 5, 1909, is among her treasures.
Katie maintains a wonderful sense of humor and a good memory. "A little neighbor boy was here a few days ago and saw all the boxes of papers behind a sofa at one end of the living room and he asked what I was doing with all the papers. I told him I clipped out stories and saved them, or in some cases, the entire paper. He looked at me for a while in amazement and said, 'We always burn ours'."
During this time, Katie's grandson, Dr. Roger Brick, handed her a story I wrote recently on abandoned cemeteries. She looked it over and began telling me I should visit the Shagle Cemetery and of some other cemeteries of interest. Brick again repeated that I had written the story that she was telling me about. With that, she thought for a moment and said, "You had to come a long to get someone to read it." Dr. Brick and I got a laugh out of that.
After that article came out, Dr. Brick and another man adopted Macedonia Cemetery [in Livingston County] to maintain a couple of times a year, or more. Brick had hoped that others would take up the challenge to take over one of the abandoned cemeteries.
Letter to Betsy
Great-granddaughter Betsy Brick needed information for a school project on what school was like "way back when". The following is quoted from a letter she wrote to Betsy.
"Betsy, I will tell you what it was like when I went to school. We had to have a new dinner bucket for our dinner because we did not have lunches at school. We had to walk to school because we did not have school busses or cars. My dad would pick us up on horseback if it was cold, raining, or muddy. We had to have our own drinking cup. We had a big stove to heat the schoolhouse. We did not have any plumbing. We had outdoor toilets.
The teacher taught all eight grades. We had slates and slate pencils to write our lessons on and sometimes we could go the 'blackboard' to write our lessons.
Great-Grandma Owens"
100-Year-Old Plant
One of Katie's prize posessions is an over-100-year-old Christmas cactus given to her by an elderly aunt who lived in Laredo. "I can remember that plant from the time I was a young child," Katie said. "The plant is still beautiful and especially so when it blooms."
Daughter Roberta took a cutting from the plant last year which resulted in a second plant equally as beautiful as the mother plant. It is unusual to have an indoor plant for so long, especially when the owner can remember it for almost 100 years.
Balloon Ride
For Katie's 87th birthday celebration, her grandson Dr. Roger Brick took her for a balloon ride. Lifting off from Trenton, they viewed all of Grundy County and her favorite area, that of Wilson Township.
"My son Charles was also in the balloon and while leaning over to look down, his billfold slipped and fell into a cornfield. Roberta saw the billfold fall and marked the spot," Katie said. "We later went to the area and found the billfold with everything intact. It was an odd thing to happen and the balloon ride was great. Everything looked so pretty!"
Katie's firstborn, Charles, died in 1990, but happy memories linger forever in a mother's eye and mind. In telling of the wallet loss, Katie described her son as only a mother could. Then she perked up and related another story.
"That is not the only balloon story I have to tell," said Katie. "Roger ballooned 14 years and he even got married in a balloon." Her story of the wedding in a balloon was reeled off in a short time, being told this way.
August 29, 1983, Roger Brick and his bride, Debra Jo Hutcheson, along with the wedding party, consisting of Roger's brother Rex, Debra's sister, the preacher and balloon pilot were all inside the balloon for the wedding ceremony, as family members and friends watched.
After the nuptials, the balloon pilot, Dr. Brick and his bride lifted off from the site in Springfield, MO., along with 25 other balloonists in a race. "And," she concluded, 'they won the race and it was all over the AP wire and in many newspapers!"
Family Bonds
This tight-knit family really looks after Grandma Owens, as her two daughters take turns caring for their mother. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren are also on hand and Katie does not go more than a day without company dropping by to say hello.
As the family grouped together for a four generation photograph for this article, daughter Roberta Brick sat on her left, with grandson Roger Brick on her right. Great-grandaughters, 5-year-old twins Madeline and Meredith sat near Grandma's feet. Older sister, 8-year-old Betsy was in school, as was her mother, Debra, who teaches music in the Chillicothe School District.
Katie gave birth to three children and has nine grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. She has been a mother since 1919. Happy Mother's Day, Katie Owens, for your 77th time to observe this holiday honoring mothers!
From the Chillicothe (MO) Constitution-Tribune - reprinted with permission.
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