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Grenola Now and Then #10

         Kandace Metcalf, the family and consumer science (FAQS} teacher at West Elk High School, led her students to win the KSDE (Kansas State Department of Education) Recipe challenge Contest. Over the course of two years, they worked with products developed from sorghum, one of the crops raised by Kelly Farms of Grenola, to develop recipes that met the guidelines for school lunches and were tasty and easy to make. The product was Sorghum flour!  They found that sorghum flour could replace high gluten wheat flour which is high in gluten.  Poppa Chocky Muffins, and Pumpkin Bars were the winning recipes.  Jayden Gooch was one of the students from Grenola who helped research and develop one of the recipes as is their teacher, Mrs. Metcalf.  Karla Julian, food services manager for West Elk and Chris Kelly from Kelly Family farms served as advisers to the teams. Their recipes are being published in several Nutrition programs across the state and if you asked, they might give you the recipe themselves.

         Sorghum is also called Broom Cane of Kafir Corn.   It is rich in nutrients for man and animals.  The heads have small bead like grains. The grains are ground to make flour.  Or they can be fed to livestock.  The stalks are used for fodder for animals.

         Back in the early days sorghum was used for a sweetener instead of sugar. The stalks can be crushed to squeeze out a liquid that can be cooked down in large vats to a syrup consistency.  William Dory had a sorghum mill on the Caney River north of town near the Arbuckle farm.  

          Back in those days there were broom factories in each town. Irvin Lister had a broom factory using the sorghum heads after the grain had been removed. There are pictures and more information about that in the museum.

               This brings us back to the story about the Grenola Mill and elevator built in 1909.  Corn was a major crop grown in Kansas up through the middle of the 1920’s and every elevator had a corn sheller and a cob house. This one was located on the east side of the office. A spout on the outside of the east wall conveyed the cobs to the cob house.  The north third of the cob house was partitioned off for a dust bin to receive the dust from the grain cleaner.  Two spouts protruded from the east wall of the elevator one conveyed the cobs and the other the dust.  In Grenola, the cobs were given to the local citizens to burn in their wood stoves.  By the fifties, less corn was grown, and the cob house was torn down in the sixties.  One of the spouts remains.

      J.R. (Ralph) Demmitt managed the elevator from 1909 to 1944, when Mr. Demmitt caught his right hand in the grinder in the mixing room, his right hand had to be amputated just below the elbow.  The owners then sold the elevator to the Durbin and Sheel Feed Store of Moline, with John Bacus as manager.  Bacus later purchased the Durbin interest.  John and his wife, Aliene, managed the business for several years.  Some of the longtime employees were, Clarence Schul, Charley Hawkins and David Wolfe.  In July 1972, Gary and Lowell Kinnaman purchased the elevator and Merle Hey was manager. In 1981 the Grenola elevator was sold again to Ralph Lewis and R.W. Lenington and was managed for two years by Kenny and Byrdee Miller, with Rick Mitchell as the employee.  With more land turned into pastures and better transportation, the Elevator was no longer feasible to operate.  The building was sold at auction purchased by someone who didn’t intend to attempt to operate it.  And in 1989 the Grenola Historical Society purchased the building at an Elk County Sheriff’s auction.

            The useful life of a country elevator was estimated to be about 40 years.  The Grenola elevator was in operation for 76 years.  The sturdy oak timbers are strong and durable, the aged boards are so hard that it is nearly impossible to drive a nail into them. Rising 56 foot high at the peak it can be seen coming from any direction into Grenola.  In the summer for several decades many remember seeing trucks lined up all up and down Mainstreet waiting to unload their grain. Dorothy Keplinger wrote in her closing statement of the application, “It stands as a monument to the simple agricultural life of earlier years.”  Due to her efforts, in 2002 the Grenola Elevator was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States!

        Another graduate of Grenola High School has passed on.  Deloris Burdette Groene of Winfield was born on Jan 22, 1930 on a farm south of Grenola to Clarence and Mabel Ruby (French) Burdette.  She attended the Wolf Creek School and graduated from Grenola High School in 1947.  In 1954 she was married to Francis Groene. Her children are Randy, Kirk, Jay, Debbie Roths and Linda Ellis.

        She was the last of her family, her sister Doris Bretlinger and her brother Darrell of Grenola preceded her in death.  The Burdettes are well known in the Grenola area.  Her brother and sister also attended Wolf Creek School and graduated from Grenola High School.   Darrell and his wife Louise raised their three sons David, Dwight and Nelson on the MK&O Ranch and they  continue in the ranching business.  Deloris’s daughter, Linda and husband lived in rural Grenola and their children, Jessica, Cale, and Baily grew up in our community.  

         The Burdette family has lived in or near Grenola for several generations.  From the Elk County History book I found that John M. and Sarah M. Hite Burdette came to Kansas in 1893 from Mt. Ayre, Iowa after living in Roane County West Virginia  and settled south of Grenola in Chautuqua county.   They had six children, all of whom raised their families in the Grenola area.  Four daughters, Della Burdette Millsap; Lue Burdette Cain, Coa Burdette Hall, and Maude Burdette Keplinger, and two sons, William  and Miles.

        William Morgan Burdette  was born in 1865 and in 1887 married Lucinda Perdue before coming to Grenola.  He  participated in the Cherokee Strip run but settled on a 200 acre farm three miles south of Grenola. They had only two daughters Lela Esther who married Charles Thompson in 1923 and Ruth who married William Oscar Crowther.

      Miles was born in 1870 in Roane County West Virginia.  He came to Kansas with his parents from Iowa.  Miles made the historic ride at the opening of the Cherokee Strip.  He staked a claim and built a house on it, and later traded it for a team and wagon and came back to Kansas.   In 1897 he married Ida M. Edwards. The couple lived on farm south of Grenola in Chautauqua county until moving to town in 1943.  They had one daughter, Florence Rice, and three sons Homer, Roy and Clarence

 
     I recognized many of the names mentioned in this genealogy.  Perhaps you do too.

          Last but not least don’t forget to go to the Pancake and Sausage supper at the Grenola Community Building on Friday, December 1 beginning 5:30 P.M.   You will have an opportunity to visit with many friends and neighbors and help fund the badly needed roof for the Community Building.