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You know you're from Erie, Ks when.

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05/31/2026

Erie Grade School 1st Grade class. See the names below.
Sharon Brazier is one of the students.
These kids were the class of 1960.
Thanks to information provided by Tracy Weirich Turner.
What do you remember about the members of this class???

FIRST GRADE
BACK ROW - -
GENEVA STEGMAN
KAREN CRAIG
NEIL TRAMMEL
FRANK REID HORINE
WILMA MATTOX MARGERET LEWIS
DON WARD
FOURTH ROW -
PHILIP WILLIAMS
LARRY PAUL RANEY
JOHN STREETER
PHIL SIMMONS
DALE SEXTON
PEGGY EDWARDS
MARY LOU MONTGOMERY BETTY DOANE
GARY DON MITCHELL .
THIRD ROW--
JUNE MCCOY
SHARON BRAZIER
JIMMIE THUR-MAN
CHARLES BROOKS
JOHNNY MEEK
GERALDINE NESBITT
RALPH KENNEDY
FREDDIE HAVILAND
MIKE RICHEY
SECOND ROW-
VIRGINIA WILBORN GLORIA NOAKES
LINDA NEWLAND
LINDA THURMAN
MARILYN SHAFFER
DAVID RIFFEL
CONNIE NOLAND
LARRY DEAN SIMMONS
LEWIS PORTER
FIRST ROW--
CHARLES MCKINNEY DONNY MALCOM
JIMMY LONG
GARY JOBE
EDDIE MYRICK

TEACHERS- -
MISS FRANCES STEPHANS MRS. NELLE OLSON

Comments about all the fun things your class did?!?

05/30/2026

A visit to the MemErie museum- go visit - you can call any of the numbers located in the Front Door to have someone let you in and tell you about what’s in each room.

05/29/2026

May 8, 2026.
Erie High School Spring Sports

TRACK:
High School sophomore Quincy Brown with a monster jump at the Caney Track Meet April 28. Not only does Brown take the meet record from EHS alum Garrett l Ruark (6-2), but Brown breaks his own high school record that he set at the start of the season.
Erie High School senior Mark Tenebro places sixth in the javelin at the Caney Track Meet April 28.

LADY RED DEVIL TRACK
Erie High School freshman Faith Daniels, above, finishes 12th in the junior varsity 100-meter dash at the Caney Track Meet April 28. Freshmen AJ Theford-Haviland and Lydia Hendrickson, below, take third and first, respectively in the junior varsity 100-meter high hurdles.

05/28/2026

MAY 20, 2026

The FREEDOM ROCK ARRIVES.

Yesterday we revisited the beginning of the FIRST FREEDOM ROCK located in Kansas thanks to the Erie American Legion post #102 and particularly the Freedom Rock Committee.

After months of work and donation gathering, members of the Erie Freedom Rock Committee gather in front of the just-placed rock Wednesday afternoon at the northwest corner of the courthouse lawn.
From left: Barb Kinne, John Phillips, Bill George and Steve Richey. Not pictured, Robin Vogts.
The Freedom Rock, the first of its kind in Kansas, is scheduled to be painted next month - prior to the 153rd Annual Old Soldiers & Sailors Reunion July 12 - 18 2026.

See comments for Sorenson’s website!!

05/27/2026

THANKS TO THE ERIE FREEDOM ROCK COMMITTEE MEMBERS WHO MADE THIS HAPPEN!!

May 20, 2026.

Members of the Buntin Construction crew worked the spot for the future Freedom Rock on the northwest corner of the courthouse lawn last week. Photo 1

Photos 2 & 3
After months of work and donation gathering, members of the Erie Freedom Rock Committee gather in front of the just-placed rock Wednesday afternoon at the northwest corner of the courthouse lawn.
From left: Barb Kinne, John Phillips, Bill George and Steve Richey. Not pictured, Robin Vogts.
The Freedom Rock, the first of its kind in Kansas, is scheduled to be painted next month - prior to the 153rd Annual Old Soldiers & Sailors Reunion.

When is a rock, more than just a rock?
An Iowa artist is turning large rocks across the country into incredible artworks, one rock at a time.

Ray "Bubba" Sorensen II established the Freedom Rock in 1999 - a 60+ ton boulder was the FIRST ONE- located in a rural Iowa town.
Erie’s American Legion Post #102 member Steve Richey told members of the Erie City Council.
"There is now a Freedom Rock in every one of Iowa's 99 counties."
While the original Freedom Rock is touched up each year by Sorensen, the Iowa artist travels the nation sharing his tale According to his website, Sorensen started a 50-state "Freedom Rock Tour,' and as hoped the Erie FREEDOM ROCK will be the FIRST ONE in Kansas.
Richey and several other townspeople are adding a Freedom Rock to the northwest corner of the courthouse lawn - just north of the chamber's Memorial Wall and northwest of the bean pot.
The Neosho County commissioners gave Richey the go ahead and backed the project as well and allowed a variance to place it, if necessary, at the desired location.
"SORENSON turns these rocks into patriotic scenes," Richey told the council, "and it's not cheap. I'm not asking for money." The rock itself once placed will likely not need a variance, but the planned canopy to protect the rock may require an exception to the city codes and ordinances.
"Our first choice is just north of the Memorial Wall," Richey explained. "It would be a great draw. With a roof, the (artwork) will last 100 years. The roof would protect the paint from rain and sun."
The project was not a direct Legion project, though several members associated with the project formed a committee and made it happen.
The goal of having the Freedom Rock completed in Erie before the Old Soldier & Sailors Reunion in 2026 is happening.
There will be the Freedom Rock surrounded by a foot of gravel with a four-foot sidewalk on all sides of it.
Sorenson is an Iowa legislator representing House District 23 from January through May. His website claims he is "thanking our veterans, one painting a time.

05/26/2026

Update on
101 S. Main St
DOCTOR’S OFFICE & HOSPITAL

This modern design appears to be somewhat modest in this era, but does not seem to mind having its magnificent grandeur admired by all ERIEITES.
HAVE YOU SEEN IT??
UPDATES
It was Dr. Bryan's house later. Would you have thought it was built before 1890? It was very unusual for the era in which it was built.
***Bill Payne: Bob and Betty Wintle were living there when Sherry and I were married in front of that house ‼️‼️AND At one time it was a Hospital.
***Sherrie Payne: My parents bought this house from Dr. Bryan.
NO ONE KNEW ABOUT THE DOCTOR OR HOSPITAL.
UPDATE on 101 S Main, William T Dutton’s MODERN designed house built in the 1880s.
After searching the MEMERIE files, Tom & Anita McDaniel figured out the answer to the question about this house we all know as Dr Bryan’s House as a hospital in the distant past?! Bill Payne remembered that it had been a hospital.
***Tom & Anita: We found out that this house was purchased by Dr Ralph Cambern Henderson in 1920. He bought the house to use as an office and a hospital. This was the period of time when having sick patients in a place where they could be watched more carefully than at home was becoming the norm. Dr. Henderson‘s first office office was located in the Leon (L.S.) Cambern building, which is where was located on Main Street in Erie next to the Arlington hotel on the corner of fourth and Main St., Northeast Corner.
Right next to it was where Leon S. Cambern building was built.
When Dr. Henderson came to town, he opened his office in that building due to the fact that it was his mother’s relative’s building.
Dr. Henderson’s office and “hospital” were located in the upper story of that building.
However, in 1919 the building caught fire and Dr Henderson’s office was pretty well destroyed even though it was eventually restored.
So, he purchased 101 S Main (W T Dutton’s house) in 1920 for his office and hospital.
However, within a year Dr Henderson bought Mrs Mary Long’s HUGE house on the NE corner (it’s still there) of 4th & Butler Streets because it was big enough for ALL the patients who need special care and for a real office..

05/25/2026

MAY ALL THOSE BE REMEMBERED TODAY WHO GAVE THEIR ALL IN SO MANY WAYS FOR OUR COUNTRY.

MEMORIAL DAY 2026!!!

05/24/2026

MEMERIE HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM NEWS:
We have received many donations of Erie related items and monetary ones also.
Some of those items are:
Memorials for Neva Richard; stained glass from Pierce-Wall Funeral Home;
Class of 1962 Album and monetary donation;
items from Johnson & Son's Lumber Yard;
GAR ribbon of Henry Lodge;
Brooches and jewelry from Fred and Vera Johnson; maps of Levees in Neosho County and others;
Erie ball caps;
a 250th flag donated by Lisa and Steve Mahar, celebrating the US 250th birthday of our nation;
a 2018 Neosho County blue ribbon WINNING cross-stitch of the 1904
Courthouse by Terri
Bartholomew;
An informal photo of the Class of 1993; and
a monetary bequeath from the Rita Lenore Rush estate.

The Erie Museum is proud to announce that the museum is finally expanding with a building south of the present museum. The building will be completed, however the completion of the interior will only be completed when enough Donations ate received.
BbAs funds come in, the interior will be completed
We're happy to open for visitors at any time. We can be contacte by calling the the phone numbers listed on the museum entry doors.
Call one or more of the numbers and someone will come open the Museum.
We can help Teachers create questionnaires for their students and make a appointment to come into the Museum for the kids to look around and pick out the answers to those questions. If you need help with what can be found at the museum you can call any of those numbers and they will help you find someone that can help with that.
If you would like to find out more on the history of Erie or see items from those bygone days, come in and browse. It's a wonderful fount of Erie’s bygone days.

HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!!!.

05/23/2026

We received info about the 1943 S. River Bridge collapse from Joe Dobson so We thought we would share Parsons’ perspective on what happened at Erie.

April 28, 1943
Parsons Sun.
Erie’s South River Bridge is destroyed by a big truck.
From the Parsons Sun’s Point of View.

BRIDGE on US 59 Near Erie Falls with a Big Truck
Driver suffers minor injuries
Erie- belong steel bridge on US 59/2 a mile south of Erie collapsed and fell into the Neosho river at 7:40 this morning with the weight of a large U.S. Government semi trailer truck hauling a big caterpillar bulldozer, earth moving machine.
Earl Cooke of Tulsa, Oklahoma, driver of the truck escaped death, and was not seriously injured, although he did suffer a wrenched back and numerous bruises. He drove onto the bridge from the south end (note: this part of the bridge was built in 1884 out of cast iron -new usage in bridges). He was hauling machinery from Tulsa to be used by army engineers in Erie on Levy construction work near here.
Traffic on the highway will be stopped for sometime and it may not be possible to replace the bridge until after the war. Traffic is being detoured west. Northbound traffic turns west on the highway 5 miles south of Erie, then onto Galesburg and Urbana or on west to US 169 at there, then north.
Whole Bridge Goes Down
The bridge span, about 150 feet long fell 30 feet to the river bed with the truck, but it remained upright and virtually intact except for bent girders.
Both ends of the bridge came loose as the span buckled in the middle and the the entire span came down in one piece- (Note: all but the 1884 South end of the bridge which remained in tact even today) splashing down in the shallow end of the river. Luckily, the river was not flooding.
The water is so shallow in that location that the bridge floor remained out of the water.
The driver, Mr Cooke, received a terrible shock in this horrible situation.
NOTE: the bridge was remodeled using Steel in 1907 widening the roadbed due to the size of the traffic. The South Section remained the same, but the rest of the bridge was replaced with 2 existing bridges that were being replaced because during WWII ALL METAL ( Steel) went for the War effort. So, one bridge came from Norton, KS and the other from Salina, OK. Also a new Tierf (abutment in the middle span) was installed in the center of the two bridges where they meet to make sure that they didn’t fall again.
See MemErie Museum photos 1 - 4 for the 1907 bridge and the collapsed bridge, the 1943 bridge with the NEW tierf
Photos 5 & 6 were in The Parsons Sun of the 1907 bridge collapse.

05/22/2026

May 8, 2026. The Erie Record!

The MEMERIE HISTORICAL SOCIETY & MUSEUM BEGIN EXPANSION

THE MEMBERS HAVE WORKED FOR MORE THAN HALF OF THE 9 YEARS THE MUSEUM HAS BEEN IN THE CREAMERY OFFICE BLDG.
The MEMERIE MUSEUM has received so many donations of personal, EHS, schools, related Erie or Neosho co, items that became packed into the huge building bought in 2017!!
There will still be all the things you have seen, but they will be more space and organized easier to see. Plus items there wasn’t room for will be on display.
The work is supposed to be done about Reunion time..

NOW IS THE TIME TO PLAN A TRIP TO SEE ALL THE HISTORY THAT IS HELD IN THE MEMERIE MUSEUM.

Nally Construction workers apply the finishing touches to the base of the new expansion of the MEM-Erle Museum last week.

Address

403 S. Main
Erie, KS
66733

Opening Hours

Thursday	1pm - 3pm
Friday	1pm - 3pm
Saturday	1pm - 3pm

Telephone

+16208203015

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