Richmond Community Museum

08/19/2026

JACOB GRIFFIN REES

While researching the Underground Railroad (UGRR) in this part of the state, Jacob Rees is someone I expected to run across. I haven’t found anything that mentions him being associated with it, but there is not a lot out there on the UGRR. I still believe he had an involvement in some capacity.
Jacob Rees was born Oct. 20, 1825 near Eaton, Ohio. He was the third of thirteen children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Rees. He was educated in the public schools in the area. He did acquire his interest in politics from his father and the love of reading and writing from his mother and a strong dislike for slavery from both.
In 1842 at the age of 17 he was placed with the editor of the paper in Eaton to learn the printing business. It was the paper Jacob had been reading for years. He was especially intrigued by a number of articles entitled, “The Evil and its Remedy” under the name of “Brissot.” The author of those articles come in one day and he met, “Brissot”, it was James Hanway, and the start of a life long friendship.
With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846 Jacob enlisted in June as a corporal in Captain Hawkins Company of the 3rd U. S. Infantry. November 5, 1846 this company was mustered out. He did not see any action, but gained valuable military experience.
When he returned he became publisher of the “Banner” a Whig newspaper published in Greenville, Darke County, Ohio. It was about 1850 when Jacob purchased the “Journal” also in Greenville, he was now proprietor and publisher.
In this same time period the ‘Greenville and Miami Railroad Company’ was established. I mention this because of all of the names on the list there were 3 names that jumped out at me. Listed under incorporators were the names of Rufus Gilpatrick and James Hanway and under managers at Greenville was J. G. Rees. (We know today another railroad Hanway and Gilpatrick were involved with in Darke County at that time was the UGRR)
November 11, 1851 Jacob and Elenora Stamm were married in Greenville. In September the following year their son Lloyd was born. Things were going well he had his business ventures and family.
In 1856 two things happened that would change his life. He was selected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, reigniting his interest in politics. The other at the time probably didn’t seem like much, James Hanway went to Kansas.
Early in 1857 Hanway returned to Ohio to close his business and pack up his family to move to Kansas. He was only back a short time, but he took time to tell people what Kansas was like. He made it sound so good there were others that followed him to Kansas. Jacob Rees and his family were among them.
Jacob and his family arrived in Kansas in late spring 1857. His homestead was north of Greeley, just across the line in Franklin County. Just a few miles north of him was Hanway and a few miles southeast was Gilpatrick. It didn’t take long for him to get involved. In August of that year a group of men had a meeting in Anderson County to decide how to handle the Constitution that was coming up for a vote, that would make Kansas a slave state. Many of the names that were mentioned as being there were very much abolitionist and he was among them.
Early in 1858 he was in Leavenworth having been chosen as one of the delegates to draw up what would become known as the “Leavenworth Constitution.” It was adopted by a vote of the people in May 1858, however, the US Senate rejected it. The conspicuous aspects of this Constitution were a Bill of Rights that referred to "all men" (making no distinction between the rights of races), the banning of slavery from the state, and a basic framework for the rights of women.
Jacob is finally getting his farm going and in June 1860 their second son, Victor, is born. He has an orchard planted, crops in the field and some livestock, but they are in the middle of a bad drought and there is continued border trouble.
Late 1859 or early 1860 he along with others organized a militia at Berea and he was elected Captain. There is not much known of it’s early development there are no records until Kansas becomes a state. He does not appear in any of those either, because he was away. He was serving as a member of Kansas first State Senate.
In 1862 his term in the senate came to an end he applied for and received a commission as Captain. He recruited a company of troops, they became company F of Kansas 11th Vol. Calvary Regiment. They took part in the battles Prairie Grove, Cane Hill and Fort Wayne. For nine months in 1863 he was commandant and provost marshal of Independence, MO. He was then called back to Kansas and placed on the staff of General McKean as inspector-general and chief of Cavalry. In March 1865 he resigned due to poor health.
He went back to his farm and family. However, the family was one short, his youngest son died in the spring of 1863. After being home several months, that fall he was elected into the Kansas House of Representatives from Franklin County. He served 1 term then was back on the farm.
Through out the remaining years he stayed active not just with his farm, but other ventures as well. He was a member of the Garnett GAR post till 1890. Greeley organized there post in 1890 and Jacob was named post commander. He was a member of the state Horticulture Society and served various other local positions.
It was around 1890 he and his wife moved to Greeley, leaving their son to tend the farm. It looked as if he was ready to relax, but that was not to be the case. In the election of 1898 he was elected to the State House again, this time from Anderson County. At age 73 he was the oldest member of the House at the time.
After returning home he and Elenora finally settled down. They lived in Greeley till she passed away in 1906. Sometime after her passing he went back to the farm to live with Lloyd and his wife. In 1912 he passed away on the farm. He and Elenora are both buried in the Greeley Cemetery.

Dennis

If you would like to donate to the museum.
Please send checks to: Richmond Community Museum, P.O. Box 284, Richmond, KS. 66080.
Thank you for your continued support.

08/03/2026

Opened the time capsule July 26. Congratulations on one hundred and hopefully many more.

A time capsule was placed behind the cornerstone of St. Therese Chu...

07/20/2026

Its been a little over a week since the fair. We had about 110 visitors at the museum over the three days of the fair.
Thanks to everyone that took time out of there day to host at the museum.

A special thanks to Sabrina Norton and Gwen Starrett for arranging the museum’s walking parade crew and Gwen’s mom for the pictures and videos.
Thanks to those that participated in the parade Gwen, her father Chris, her sister Adah, her friends Jeremy Beuttel and Elijah Eslinger, Sabrina Norton and Jake Akes.

Gwen Starrett and her family are from Ottawa. Gwen has been interning with the museum this summer.
If you stop in at the museum and she is there say hi and get to know her. She is a great young lady and its great having here.

If you would like to donate to the museum.
Please send checks to: Richmond Community Museum, P.O. Box 284, Richmond, KS. 66080.
Thank you for your continued support.

07/09/2026

The fair is here. Come in and check out the new display for St. Therese, as they celebrate 100 years.
The museum will be open Thursday and Friday 2 pm - 8 pm. Saturday open from 8 am - 8 pm.

06/28/2026

What fire could not do, disrepair and time did.

Last week a building in downtown Richmond had to be taken down, before it collapsed. It last housed the business of Heartland Hot Rods.

A history of the building (s).
In Nov. 1910 George Bowen had a brick building put up on his lot in Richmond. The building was flanked by wood frame buildings. To the west was a single story barbershop and a wood two story building housing a restaurant on the ground floor and living quarters upstairs. To the east were also wood frame buildings an undertakers storage building, an empty storage shed, Mrs. Werntz milliner and notion store and the bank which was a wood frame building covered in sheet metal.
In the early morning hours of Feb. 16, 1911 a fire broke out in empty shed to the east. Flames quickly spread to the undertaker’s building and the milliner shop and the bank. Those four buildings were soon lost to the flames. Bowen’s brick building suffered little damage and in March was completed and ready for business. He had a furniture store on the ground floor in the front and a harness shop in the back. Over the Bowen store were the offices of Dr. D. H. Smith, physician and Dr. W. F. Whitmer, veterinary.
On the morning of April 29, 1914 fire once again struck. However, this morning it was within the building itself and almost totally destroyed it. Bowen lost his furniture and harness stock as well as all his machinery. Dr. smith lost everything including his X-ray machine. About the only thing that was saved was Dr. Whitmer’s desk and the brick walls.
By August the building was once again ready for occupancy. Bowen had his harness business on the lower floor and the doctors were back in their offices upstairs. In Nov. 1914 Bowen sold his business to Ross Spencer. Spencer would run a harness shop and shoe repair business.
Feb. 1916 fire once again would strike. This time to the west, both the restaurant and barbershop, were destroyed. Some how Spencer’s building escaped being damaged. Guy Price purchased the lots 1919. He built the “Price Ford” dealership (later the CO-OP hardware store). He put a filling station in the front with the tank under the sidewalk. I mention this because on May 27, 1922 that tank exploded tearing up the sidewalk, but doing no other damage. That old brick building had survived again.
In 1923 a store was built on the east side of Spencer’s building by Ross Gault. In 1925 George C. Dietrich bought him out. Sometime after Dr Smith’s death in 1937 Dietrich purchased the building, in the late 30’s or early 40’s. He opened up the wall between the two buildings making them one.
The Dietrich’s were in business here till 1969 when they sold the business to Art and Phyllis Rossman. The Rossman’s made numerous upgrades. They sold it to George (Bud) and Helen Feuerborn who then operated the store and finally selling it to the Burkdoll Bros. as a meat market and grocery.
In April 1986 a lightning strike set the building ablaze once again. The damage was significant, but the building survived yet again. Mark Stevenson purchased the building after the fire, he fixed it up and in 1987 moved his auto body shop in. He operated here till 2003 when he relocated on the highway and Heartland Hot Rods purchased it.

Thank you Connie Weber for the demo pictures.

If you would like to donate to the museum.
Please send checks to: Richmond Community Museum, P.O. Box 284, Richmond, KS. 66080.
Thank you for your continued support.

05/19/2026

We are still needing hosts at the museum. You don’t need any special knowledge to do so. Just spend a few hours greeting people, checking out the material and items and keeping an eye on things. The hours are 1-4 PM Saturday and Sunday.

The dates we need to fill are: May 30th, June 6, 7 and 27, July 4 and 25, August 1, 2, 8, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29 and 30, September 5 and 6.

Also during the fair July 9, 10, and 11th. The hours on those days are 2-8 PM. You don’t need to work the whole shift, if you can work a few hours that’s a big help.

Please respond in the comments or call 785-418-6750 or come by when open and sign up.

Thank you for your help and look forward to seeing you there!

05/03/2026

In April of 2026 the Richmond Consolidated Fire Department moved into it’s new building on Highway 59. It took 80 years to get here. I don’t know the origin of the Richmond Fire Department. Until the 1950’s fighting fires was locating the nearest well or cistern and form a bucket brigade.

In 1951 Richmond had no public water, homes and businesses had either cisterns or wells. The city counsel at the time was discussing several options to supply the town with water. They drilled exploratory wells west and northwest of town with no satisfaction. It was discussed hauling water from Garnett by rail or piping it. They looked into rebuilding the lake south of town. The final decision was to purchase 60 acres east of town and build a lake.

In the spring of 1952 Richmond purchased it’s first fire truck. In Sept. that year it was decided to build a firehouse on the north end of the park, it was completed in December.

In 1954 the lake was built.

1955 bonds were sold and final plans were made to pipe water to the homes in Richmond. In May the Santa Fe tank in Garnett was purchased. Highway 59 between Richmond and Garnett was closed for a day and the tank was hauled to the hill west of town. Richmond now had water in town including fire hydrants.

In the 1970’s Kenneth and Virginia Cunningham donated lots in Richmond to the township. In 1985 a building was erected for the Richmond Township to house the rural firetrucks.

In the 1990’s the Richmond city and township fire departments consolidated and both buildings were utilized. Things advance and move forward - if not grab a bucket.

We would like to thank all of the volunteers past, present and future.

If you would like to donate to the museum.
Please send checks to: Richmond Community Museum, P.O. Box 284, Richmond, KS. 66080.
Thank you for your continued support.

04/28/2026

We would like to thank everyone that turned out for our spring program (about 50).
Special thanks to Diana Staresinic-Deane for the great program and all the information.
Also thank you to Carl Edwards on the donation of his grand father’s, Earl Lewis Edwards, hat.
Thank you to all that signed up to host this summer. We still have a number of days to fill.
Hope to see you this summer, stop in and check it out.

If you would like to donate to the museum.
Please send checks to: Richmond Community Museum, P.O. Box 284, Richmond, KS. 66080.
Thank you for your continued support.

03/31/2026

Join us for our spring program.
A fun educational afternoon.
No charge.
Share with others.

03/23/2026

March 23, 1912
Think this has been a wild March?
Saturday March 22, 1912 the snow started falling continuing all day and most of the night. Waking Sunday the 23rd to two feet of snow on the ground.

If you would like to donate to the museum.
Please send checks to: Richmond Community Museum, P.O. Box 284, Richmond, KS. 66080.
Thank you for your continued support.