Did You Know This About Geary County History?”
By Dr. Ferrell Miller
Geary County Historical Society Board Member
“Grandview School Started On J Hill”
District #18 was organized March 6, 1871. According to historical society records, there were three schoolhouses in the District. One of those was a frame building located on the Grandview Hill site, known today as “J Hill”. That wooden structure burned and was replaced in 1894 with a stone building. The big white “J” made of rocks, which is visible from I-70 was just a few feet below the school on the side of the hill.
During the winter months of the 1913-14 school year, the schoolhouse burned a second time. Students attended class at the home of the Degitz family just south of the school grounds while a new building was constructed. School was held at that building until 1955, when it was sold and torn down.
Grandview School remained a one-room school until 1955. In 1956 a new two-room school was built in what is now the Grandview Plaza area.
However, the new school did not accommodate the ever-increasing enrollment, so an Army barracks was moved from Camp Phillips in Salina to provide additional classroom space. Later two new rooms were constructed to replace the barracks. By 1960, Grandview was given permission to send the seventh and eighth grade students to Junction City Junior High School.
The City of Grandview Plaza was established until 1963. The west addition, which held the first and second grades, office, library and kindergarten was built in 1964. District #18 became part of Geary County Unified School District 475 in 1965.
In 2012, the office/nurse’s room, three classes for grades 3,4,5 and new entry way were added. Lynn Shinault is the current Principal. The “Grandview Gators,” make up for their smaller enrollment size with school pride and spirit.
“The Manley Home Was Blessed With Health, Peace And Sweet Content”
In the fall of 1872, Charles Manley wrote two letters. One of those was requesting a job teaching school and the other to Marion Isodora Jones in Wisconsin asking her to come to Kansas and be his bride. She agreed and they were married December 4, 1872 in the home of the Congregational minister in Junction City.
Following the wedding, Charles moved his bride to the homestead, vacated when his mother remarried. The next winter both Marion and Charles got teaching jobs, she at the Kansas Falls School in the McGee District and he at the Walla Walla School. They boarded with families near their schools and got together at their little home on weekends. It was while they were living in an 18 x 20 foot plank cabin that Charles Manley, Jr. was born.
After floods brought mosquitoes and malarial fever to Charles and then the grasshoppers wiped out their crops in both 1873 and 1874, the young family returned to Wisconsin. But by year’s end they were back in Kansas.
They lived in several houses on West First Street in Junction and their family expanded. By then, there were five children and several relatives in the household.
Marion Manley was one of the charter members of the Ladies Reading Club and was active there until she died. By 1883, Charles and Marion Manley had four young sons and two daughters. Charles wrote: “We decided we had better get a little piece of ground outside of town. I bought 25 acres about half a mile south of town and began the erection of a one-story frame house.”
This was the beginning of “Cherrycroft.” Cherry orchards gave the place its name. At Cherrycroft, three more daughters were born to Charles and Marion. “Aunt Dilly” and “Aunt Amanda,” Marion’s unmarried sisters, also lived with the Manley’s residence. Charles wrote that “even though there was no telephone, no bathroom and no running water there was happiness.”
Marion read to the children, taught them to recite poetry, took them to church and sang to them. All nine of them became outstanding community-minded citizens. They all were leaders and gained recognition in their chosen professions. Most raised families of their own, continued the tradition of love and caring and closeness that started in a Geary County home where the motto on a wall of the house was: “Be blessed with health, peace and sweet content.”