The Faces of Liberty
(with apologies to Samuel Clemens)
© 1997 Mark Alan Anderson/IDEA, Inc.
A script for two characters:
Harp, a crusty, salt-of-the-earth character who is very direct and manner of fact in his mannerism.
Everett, a very proper gentleman. Stiff and slightly pompous, he puts on a slight aire of pretension.
Scene: The two are sitting on the park bench (corner of Main & Kansas) not playing checkers. Both are dressed in turn of the century, rural costume and oblivious to the audience. They are an unlikely pair from different stations in life and different backgrounds. Both have a rural dialect, Everett's is somewhat at odds with his attempts at a cultured affectation: something close to Frank Morgan's portrayal of the Wizard of Oz. Harp is more akin to a grown Huck Finn.
Character Direction: Great liberty may be taken with the dialogue in terms of improvisation. However, care should be given to making certain that historical facts and surmises should remain unaltered: altering history would significantly change the intention of the dialogue and almost certainly result in the community ostracizing of the author by the local historical society.
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Everett: You ever goin' to move, Harp? I gotcha cold no matter where you go!
Harp: Lands sake, Everett! I ain't payin' no attention to the game-all this commotion, I just been people watchin'. (to crowd) Y'all ever do that-people watch? Ol' Everett an' me, we been sittin' here watchin' the faces of Liberty go on by for a long time now. We used to sit in the Massey Cafe and people watch.
Everett: Massey ain't there no more, Harp. (to crowd) Massey Cafe on Main went in after the two Hays Cafes went under. The Hayes Cafe and the Hayes Cafe were two separate restaurants owned by brothers and located on Kansas Street a block off the square and they set side by side one another. One day they just decided to get out of the business and so they closed up and moved out, lock stock and barrel. Liberty had always been so close to Kansas City that, historically, there never seemed to be a need for a really good restaurant and the Massey Cafe upheld that tradition. But the Massey been gone for years.
Harp: Well I guess we have been sittin' here for quite a spell now and for land's sake they shore have been a passle of changes here over the years.
(looks up at flag)
Take
that flag, for instance. Bet you never heard the beat of it in all your
days, but time was that flag didn't fly up there atall, no sir it didn't! Back in 1861 it were, lot of folks in these parts didn't hold much with the fancy, meddlin' ways of the north. Politicians had folks lookin' one way and walkin' the other. My Pap always said there ain't nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.
He were only sixteen at the time, but Ol' John Will Hall didn't keep no truck with Yankee politics. Times bein' what they was, he clumb right on up there and yanked that there flag down off the pole, he did. Take it down he did and down she stayed for fifty-one years.
Took clear up til 1912 'fore we was finally shed of Yankee reconstruction talk. Consarn it all, if the city didn't ask John Will Hall to raise it back up the pole again!
Everett: Yes, sir that is absolutely accurate. Difference of opinion is what makes horse races, Sam Clemens always used to say. And by gad, I believe fleas can be taught nearly everything a Congressman can. Politics pretty near tore this country inside out back then. And the courthouse was right in the middle of it all.
Harp: 'Course that weren't this Clay County Courthouse, mind you all.
Everett: Right again, sir. That would have been the second courthouse, this here being the third. Clay County started building the first courthouse in 1828 and it took nearly five years before it was completed. Beautiful building-it was two stories high, with four doors that each faced a different direction. It was completely fenced in with a gate at each entrance.
Harp: (gleefully)
And a bar!
Everett: (sidelong glance)
Yes sir, there was indeed a public bar in the building.
Back then, weather permitting, court was held under the tree on the west side. County hung a murderer in that tree in 1855 and the courthouse burned to the ground in '57.
Harp: Didn't take long 'fore we had a new one though. Big old dome roof had a statue of Justice standing there on top, just proud as could be.
Back in 1904 an insane prisoner escaped outa the jail and before you could even say Bob's your uncle, he clumb clear to the top and sat on the shoulders of that statue for a whole day. Took eight guards to get him down!
By crikey, that was excitin'! That building shore was a humdinger!
Everett: (sadly)
But I'm afraid some folks thought it was a bit old fashioned....
They tore it down in '34 to make room for this more modern courthouse. Lot of faces been down these street in the past hundred seventy-five years.
(to crowd)
Say,would you all be interested in seeing some of the faces of Liberty?
(looks to crowd for reply)
Harp: By gum, Everett, they was alotta things changed. What say we show these folks around, tell em all a bit of the story of Liberty, Missouri.
Everett: An excellent idea, Mr. Harp. I myself like a good story well told.
(to crowd)
That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.
Harp: (walking toward Pony Express Bank)
Y'all see that building over there? It was Uncle John Major's bank. It used to be the bank back there on Main and Franklin but when he was back there he decided it was getting a little old what with the wood floors warping and all and so they built this bank. And when they built the bank, underneath there, one of the ladies in the town, who was a caterer, had the Jack-o-lantern resternt and that was a very loverly place to go, down in the basement of the bank.
(to crowd)
I've seen slower people than Mr. Everett...but they was dead.
Everett: (1 East Kansas)
This here building was put up around 1891 for the Knights of Pythias.
(looking up)
Up there was the KP Hall, that's where we held all the dances, up on the top there. You know we were really into dancing back then, ballroom dancing and such.
(downstairs)
And this thing sort of came and went: at one time it was a furniture store and then, oh I guess it was the first Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Liberty.
Everett: (5 East Kansas)
And of course Boggess was always Boggess, seems like. And the Boggesses were always unusual people and when we go up on Water Street I'll show you their daddy's house. You know he closed the store up between twelve and one because he had to go to lunch-home to lunch at noon-and he didn't trust any of his employees to run the cash register while he was gone. And so he literally just shut it down, 'cause he was goin' to lunch. Period.
Harp: That was Collier Boggess and there's another wonderful story 'bout Mr. Boggess, but there are lots of them and everyone can tell 'em to you, but Mr. Boggess back in the olden days, well, he had to go someplace and so he left a young man that he'd just hired to run the store while he was gone. So anyways, maybe this is when Mr. Boggess decided he couldn't trust any of his employees but anyway, the young man, he sold a bridle and everything was fine and the man he said, "Well, just charge it" and the young man said ok and so the customer just walked out. So anyway that young man didn't have any idea who it was that had just charged the bridle and he was really scared when he saw Mr. Boggess come a walkin' back up. And by and by he told Mr. Boggess what had happened and he said, "Well, don't worry about it! We'll just charge it to every charge customer we have!" And they did, they charged it to all ten charge customers. And five of 'em paid for it, too!
Harp: ( 7 East Kansas)
And so this here was Beggs Drug Store and before that several others, I guess, but Beggs had it longest.
Everett: Wasn't this where JH Barnes Drug Store was fore that?
Harp: Now that was before my time. But I guess you're right 'cause Mr Gentry was in that drug store and he was the postmaster too. Oh, Gentry! Oh sure. You know in the olden days it was the finest men in town that ended up being the postmaster. They weren't some side kick idiot that came from Nebraska! He was a real gentleman. At one time he lived in the little rental house up on Water, next to the Gill property on the corner. I don't know if it was between houses or what but anyway he was there. He was Governor Dockery's private secretary! Ol' Dockery was one what didn't take no truck from no one-he didn't care what the opposition said about him so long as it weren't true!
Everett: Now you know, at one time, this side of the square, my mother said that no self respecting lady would be caught on this side of the square. This was where the saloons were and the pool halls. They were all over on this side of the square.
Harp: (Photographers)
And then we got down to this middle one and it was always sort of coming and going and then down here
(brant's)
at Brant's was Brant's then as it is now and that was the reaaaal hub of the whole town from about the time 1925 through '35. Because in the back they even had a raised floor and a juke box and you'd go in the back there and you could make your Coke a cola last for a whole evening. You know nobody had any money-you see we'd all lost our money.
Harp: You used to buy your clothes here too, Everett.
Everett: Clothes make the man, Mr. Harp. Naked people have little or no influence in society.
Now, Mr. Brant arrived in Kearney, Missouri as a telegrapher with Western Union. He married a local girl who'd gone to the Liberty Ladies College.
And then right here
(south side courthouse)
is the courthouse of course and the courthouse faced to the south and to the north-this is the old courthouse I'm talking about now-and one week they would have the band concert on Saturday night on this side and the next week they'd have it on the other side and the reason for that was because of the merchants, and the merchants all wanted it to be on their side because they kept their stores open until midnight on Saturday nights because all of the people from around the country and town came and, well, they came to the band concert!
Harp: (15 East Kansas)
The pioneer druggist Trigg Allen was in this building as early as 1876. He had a handsome daughter that married Dr. Francis Matthews in '92 and he had offices here as well. I seem to remember operating a post office out of here also-by 1884 a mail route had been established between nearby Kansas City, Moscow, Barry, Smithville, Paradise and Liberty.
We shore had our share of drug stores, Everett! J.A.H. Garlichs and E. C. Hale had a drug store right here back in 1846. Liberty Savings Association came in around 1877, though and around October of 1902 it became the Commercial Savings Bank.
Everett: (new courthouse)
Walk this way, Mr. Harp! Do you remember the Arthur House Hotel? Of course you do! It was one of the finest hotels west of the Mississippi. Back in 1853 it was the center of social activity.
Harp: You know, my Pappy told me that a fella from Kansas checked into the Arthur House one night, went to room 4 it were. Round about 11 pm he come a runnin' down the stairs pale as death and declared they was a woman ghost come in and laid her hands on him. He wouldn't go back in or take any other room. Pappy said room 4 had seen many a person die in other years. That ghost story made good fodder for a lot of writers back then, I 'spect.
Everett: Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
At any rate, Union Officers made their headquarters in the Arthur House at one time. Later on it was the gathering spot for our local society. I'm afraid it burned in 1903.
(walks across to Bedingers)
Harp: (to crowd)
You folks know why they called it Water Street? 'Cause water from the Liberty Spring used to run right down it! (You may have noticed that the less I know about a subject the more light I throw upon it.)
Everett: (1 N Water, walking)
Now this building right here was Conway's Grocery Store in the twenties-we always had lots of grocery stores! And in the olden days this corner was not a corner, it had sort of a rounded shape, you know and the glass was layed out like that too and so you see, Bedingers has added on just this corner, they straightened it out. The roof line was always the same. Bet you never knew it, but Laura Bedinger's father was a typesetter at the Tribune when it was on Main on the Square. And Jack Henry? Well he cleaned hats across the way in his daddy's clothing store.
Harp: The Union Bus Depot was here at this corner.
Everett: (7 N Water, walking)
And next door here, Thomas Gosny's son had a meat market. And so there was the meat market and the grocery store and next to him was another grocery store which was Hix Grocery Store. And every morning, the Blayne Brothers who lived down on Kansas Street, the Blayne Brothers would chuck their mule to their yellow wagon and they would come and take all of the groceries to the ladies of the town. And they did that for all the grocery stores in town and they all paid a certain amount to the Blayne Brothers and so they had their regular routes and so don't you dare move! because I have John's route and he has Henry's route and so on! Fred Zaiss had a wonderful confectionery here at the turn of the century.
Harp: By Gum, that place smelled good!
Everett: It helped contain the odor of the professional politicians across the street.
(15-19 N Water)
My friends, this was the site of Liberty's other fine establishment, the Green House Hotel. In the 1830's military men would stay at the hotel for weekend leaves. They weren't allowed to stay any further west than Liberty. Up here on the corner, a William Jewell student, Jolly Wymore, was killed right in front of the Green House during a robbery of the Clay County Savings Bank. The more things are forbidden, the more poplular they become. In 1897 the city held a vote allowing saloons after the licenses of Liberty's five saloons had been revoked in 1873 due to temperance sentiment.
Harp: (Jones)
That was Judge Se-vere's Drug Store later on and it was sort of old fashioned even in those days.
Little boy came in one day and asked for some aspididty and Mr. Seimens said, "How much do you want?" and the little boy said, "Oh about that much, 'bout a nickle's worth." So Mr. Seimens made it up and give it to the boy and the boy said to him, "Well, I want to charge it." So he said, "OK. Now which one is your dad?" To which the little boy said, "My father is Hye-ronimous Huuuuddlemeyer." And Mr. Seimens says, "Good Lord Amighty, man, I wouldn't write Hyeronimous Huddlemeyer for twenty-five cents, let alone for only a nickle's worth of aspidity!"
Everett: And then this next little clump, this one here with the straight ups was Craven's Barber Shop. And over on the other side was Mr. Hannah's Barber Shop and he was the only known registered Republican in the entire town and so we had a terrible time in having elections because we had to have a republican and a democrat to soothe the officials of the election, you know a ticket for each and we just ran out of 'em-republicans that is. Well, fortunately over at the college we had a few outlanders that if they searched long enough they could find a few republicans over there.
And the kids round here probably don't remember working their arithmetic lesson on anything but the back of the Rpublican ballot because they had to print as many republican ballots as they did Democratic ballots and who was going to pick 'em up? So they'd just send 'em down to the schools and use as scratch pads the republican ticket. Isn't that a beautiful story?
Harp: (Peter's)
And then where Peter's is, that was always kind of a funny building, because it was a rental building, but it was a book store for a while before the college discovered that they could sell books and they had the first A&P store in there and they used to have the post office in there. And then Mr. Brant closed his bookstore and moved over here (points toward current location) in, oh I guess the late twenties. And everybody used to come here for books and paper and you all are too young to remember this but there used to be just one tablet, not this size and this color and such not, but one tablet and that was the Big Chief tablet.
Everett: (drug store)
And this one has just always been a drugstore, it seems like. And so once upon a time it was called Perkins and McGinnis and Mr. Perkins was a married man and Mr. McGinnis was one of the -bachelors-of the town-oooldd bachelors. And Mr. McGinnis-we don't think Mr Perkins had much to do with it; he was a stalwart soul of the church-Mr McGinnis used to always have allll his good men friends to come up and they'd just have to welcome each other and have a little cheer on Christmas morning. And so we all decided it must be Mr McGinnises fault cause he didn't have to go home and stir the gravy or pluck the chicken! And so he had all the men to come up here and Mr Perkins didn't. And so the reason it became Briehpohl's was because Mr McGinnis passed on and none of Mr Pekins family wanted it and so he up and sold it to the people who bought the Tribune from down south Missouri and anyway they bought it for their daughter and their daughter's husband happened to be named Briehpohl and so that's the only Briehpohl in the whole town!
Harp: (corner)
Up here in the corner building was the site of our first telephone company right here in the Brown Building. Residents signed up for a dollar a month, businesses for a dollar fifty. The town was able to pay off its entire indebtedness of $4280. Downstairs was all the hats on display in the window at the millinery and Mrs Duncan had been there-oh Heavens! she came along about the same time as God I think! She'd just been there forever. Now we didn't think Mrs Duncan had the flair that Mrs Nanny did across the street in the old bank.
(crosses street to museum)
Mrs Nanny looked like a madame, large here and wore here hair up like so and anyway she came from Kearney and she had a millinery store there. But she came here and had the whole front part of the building in hats and at night, because she had so many really fancy hats, she'd lock 'em all up in the old bank vault 'cause she wanted to be careful that nobody got her hats! Now down there below in the place that looks like a sun room is where Miss Lane Pickett lived and she was what you'd call now a commuter. We didn't have a word for it then, but she'd go to work everyday of the world-in Kansas City on the Interurban.
Harp: This building's the oldest building still standing on the square! It was built in 1858 and started out as the Farmers Bank of Missouri. Went broke back in the Civil War and later on became the Clay County Savings Association. You all ever heard of Jesse James? Well, he's the fella that popularized the idea that the lack of money is the root of all evil. Him and his gang of cutthroats and thieves came barreling through here on Valentine's Day in 1866 and staged the first successful daylight robbery. Took over $60,000!
Everett: Mr. Harp, there has never been any real evidence of the James gang's involvement in that particular robbery...
Harp: (Walking away and ignoring him)
Well, 'course they done it, Everett! How many other famous bank robbers we got 'round here anyhow?
(111 N Water, Crawford House)
Harp: This here's the Crawford House. It was built in 1909 by Alexander Bell Crawford when he was 67. He came out here from Kentucky in 1859 and ran a mercantile and a passle of county banks in addition to farming. Old Crawford worked like a mule his whole life and never even got a chance to enjoy the fruits of his labor, 'cause he up and died before the house was finished.
Everett: Then it became the Church-Archer Funeral home for years and years and years. And then later on when it bacame a restaurant there was older folks who'd say I just can't go over there and enjoy my meal by thinking about those old red velvet curtains that they coveredthe caskets with. Now Church, his family home was on up here a bit, but came down here.
(117 N Water)
Everett: Around 1910, Dr. Sophia Hemstreet resided at this location. It became the home of Sterling Price Bogess in the late twenties, two decades after he started the Boggess and Sons hardware store.
(133 and 139 N Water)
Harp: And this is where Judge Trimble lived and his daughter and this whole block from here on back, there were no houses, this was all the back yards of the houses on Missouri Street.
And this is the Conway House, this little whitish and brown one and there was the whole family lived here bachelor brothers and old maid sisters and Miss Lucy was one of the most popular belles in the county and she just never married and no one ever knew why.
Everett: Y'all know Clay County was named for Senator Heny Clay? He wanted to be president and ran three times. Problem was, he lost three times too. But Liberty got a presidential connection all the same. David Atchison was president for a whole day between Polk and Taylor on account of Taylor wouldn't get sworn in on a Sunday.
Now, I'm bound to say, if you folks will stand with me, the local constabulary will direct traffic for us so that we can cross Mississippi in safety.
(cross Mississippi)
(203 N Water)
It's hard to believe, but the Gill house here was built in 1897 for the princely sum of $1800.
Harp: (211 N Water)
Now this here place went up around the turn of the century. Neighbors called it a "bungaloid". I ain't got no idea why they call it such a darnfool thing as a bungaloid. This is the house that has always been rental property where Mr Gentry our postmaster lived, and oh I don't know who else.
Everett: (301 N Water)
A year after John Will Hall removed the American flag from the courthouse-that is, in 1852-Major Alvan Lightburne built Lightburne Harp. Major Lightburne was mayor of Liberty and the founder of William Jewell College. At that time, this was a rural house with orchards on the north and east borders of the property. This is one of the largest surviving antebellum mansions, with 24 rooms and a Greek Revival arch. During the Civil War, Union soldiers camped its grounds.
Harp: And the Sigma Nu boys lived there for oh I guess fifty years and they were very well behaved back then because you know they had a house mother back then and she ruled them with an iron fist, none of this fancy dancy stuff!
(319)
Now this is Mr and Mrs Seimens house of the Seimens Drug Store and his daughter married Tuck Milligan who was quite a local character. In fact Tuck Milligan was running against Truman when Truman got to be Senator and Tuck Milligan didn't quite make it.
Everett: (333 and 335 N Water)
These two houses was built about the same time just before the turn of the century. Georgie Lane bought that one (333) for $2150 and Peter Burns paid $5950 for that 'un there (335). That was a slathers of money for 1893.
Harp: Peter Burns had 'bout the meanest, ugliest old houndog you ever did see. Consarned thing'd chase you up a tree if he had half a chance. I always said I wished I owned half of that dog.
Everett: Mr. Harp, why on earth would you want half of that dog?
Harp: 'Cause. I woulda killed my half.
Everett: Mr. Harp!
Harp: I am not one of those people who in expressing opinions feel confined by the facts...
Everett: (342 N Water, James Inn)
One of the oldest parishes in the Kansas City area is St. James. The Catholic church raised its first building here in 1847. It was torn down in 1913 to make way for this building. As the parish grew in size, the church and the parochial school (which was located across the street) were removed to the West side of Liberty. In recent years, the building has been renovated and has become a popular bed and breakfast.
Harp: (316 N Water)
This big old place was built in 1880 by O'Fallon Dougherty as a summer place-y'all recollect that this was the country back then-one of the bully things about the place was the ice shoot. The ice man come 'round and poured ice down the shoot and into heapin' round bin in the basement that was hooked up to the ventilation. O'Fallon had hisself air conditioning-the first air conditioned house in town! Folks thought he was pure loony at the time.
Everett: (dryly)
The man with a new idea is a crank until it succeeds...
(302)
And this house was the Alexander House (302) and Mr Alexander had some sort of very good position with one of the big furniture companies in Kansas City and we didn't know the word commute then but he went back and forth to kansas City and he had a son and a daughter and the daughter was supposed to be one of the beauties of the town-Lu-cinda Alexander.
(216 N Water)
The gentlemen from Sigma Nu fraternity seemed to have been around Liberty for quite a while. They called this home in 1911. Gordon house was here. Now there are people who will argue with you and say that's not the Gordon house, but that's who was here in the twenties.
Harp: (210)
The next house is Judge Ralph Hughes house. They didn't have any children and he was brother of Frank Hughes who owned the Hughes-McDonald Dry goods store. Judge Hughes wife was quite a lady, her name was Josephine and she had an electric car. The car was a black box, that was all there was to it, it had little velvet straps to get the windows up and down and some stick like an airplane for steering and cut glass for the flowers that she just loved. She'd take that car and go toodling around town. She wasn't ever a menace, cause she just couldn't go that fast.
Harp: (on corner)
And this was Mr William Crismans house. And Mr Crisman had the big blue house with the Widow's Walk a block over on Missouri Street. And he was a very wealthy man and when he got involved with the Savings and Loan and that was just too far away from here to walk an entire Missouri block, so he built this house-by himself, without Mrs Crisman, aye, yea or nay. And so he went to her after the house was built and said, Elvira you want to see your new home? And she did and that's where she stayed.
(Cross Mississippi, walk to brick house)
Everett: And that one is Soper Tall's and he built it when he was so involved with the Clay County Savings and Loan so he could stay close to what was happening, same as Mr Chrisman.
(clay county title)
This was Gosny property and there was a beautiful apple and pear tree here, but this is where Dr Glen Hendren had his first office. Gosny owned a number of properties round here and back in the thirties he lost eleven houses in one day because the bank closed and that was that. He had an old derilect house on the land here and when they tore it down discovered it was an old log cabin. So he packed up the lumber and used it to make a summer home on Winwood Lake, which was the fashionable place in those days. That was down off of I-35, which didn't exist then, and so going to Winwood was quite a travel. But Mr Winn who owned the land put in an eighteen hole golf course and all the kids went to the Lake to take swimming lessons and they had water wings and the whole thing was a beautiful lake area with beaches of sand brought in from the river. And Mr Winn saw some things back east that he liked and so he put in a monkey island and a small amusement park and he put in a dance hall because these were great days for dancing, the days of the big bands and all that sort of thing. And everything was just lovely and everybody in Liberty was there and it was just gorgeous. But it was the beginning of the fledgling labor movement and there was a labor dispute and so one night they bombed the dance floor and the dike under it and the whole lake drained and that was the end of that.
Harp: Well, folks, the town's been around for a hunderd and seventy-five years now and a lotta faces changed since 1822. There's a whole lot more stories could be told about this town, wouldn't you say, Everett?
Everett: Yes, indeed, Mr. Harp. Yes, indeed. But them's better saved for another day.
Historic Liberty
210 North Water Street . Liberty, Missouri 64068
info@HistoricLIberty.org