Did You Know This About Geary County History?”
By Dr. Ferrell Miller
Geary County Historical Society Board Member
“The Cholera Epidemic of 1855”
Immigrants moving west in the 1800s brought with them more than hopes and dreams. They brought cholera. Cholera probably began in India and spread around the world along trade routes. It first appeared in America in the 1800s. Cholera rarely spread from person to person, but through the contamination of water sources.
Percival Lowe, a former soldier, gave the following personal account to the Kansas Historical Society in 1901. “The Congress that adjourned March 4, 1855 made appropriations for preparing Fort Riley for a cavalry post by erecting new quarters, stables for five troops of cavalry, storehouses, etc. The plans were prepared in Washington and Major Edmund A. Ogden was ordered to take charge of the work. The buildings were all to be of stone taken from quarries in the vicinity of the post. I was post wagon-master at Fort Leavenworth when the order came to furnish transportation for men to Fort Riley along with a request from Major Ogden that I be placed in charge of it. The work crew reached the post in four days and work on the buildings began in earnest the first week in July. By the end of the month, one two-story building was finished and a number of others were well underway.”
In July 1855, cholera struck Fort Riley killing, Major E.A. Ogden. It reappeared on the military posts in 1866 and 1867. It was equally devastating to civilian populations in the communities that had recently appeared in response to the railroad construction and cattle shipping in central Kansas.
Elizabeth Custer, detained at Ellsworth on her way east to Fort Riley, reported that it was so bad there was not enough lumber for coffins, and that crude receptacles were fashioned from hardtack boxes. Her husband, George Armstrong Custer, left his post at Fort Wallace to journey to Fort Riley and was later court marshaled. One of his excuses for leaving his post was fear for his wife’s safety. The last major cholera epidemic in the United States occurred in 1873.
Most of the cholera victims at Fort Riley were buried in the vicinity of the present post cemetery, but their resting places were marked with wooden slabs and these were destroyed by a prairie fire, which swept over the area a few years later. Currently a shady section in the southwest portion of the cemetery has been left untouched and is marked as the collective burial place of the victims of the cholera epidemic of 1855.
D- Day Heroes”
This article is part of a larger one written by the Gaylynn Childs and the late Marilyn Heldstab. Both ladies are former Directors of the Geary County Historical Society. The complete article is found in the book Set In Stone, on page 271.
“Geary County natives John and Maria (O’Neill) Ehlers had two sons, Walter and Roland, who joined the Army together in October 1940. They went through training together and were shipped overseas where they took part in the North African campaign in 1942. They then participated in the invasion of Sicily and the drive into Italy. During that time, Roland was injured by shrapnel and Walter was felled by malaria. Both recovered in time to be shipped to England with the First Division to prepare for the Normandy invasion. Walter achieved the rank of sergeant and his brother, now in the same unit, also became a sergeant. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, they both were part of the second wave to land on Omaha Beach.
Soon after, the Ehlers family were notified that Roland, the eldest son, had been seriously wounded on D-Day. They later found out that he, in fact, had died that same day and Walter had won the Bronze Star for valor.
Then three days later, Walter earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions near Goville, France. According to newspaper reports the citation said he started that day by creeping up on a machine gun that was pinning his squad down. En route, he killed four of the enemy and put the machine gun crew out of action. Walter then went after two mortars protected by machine gun crossfire. He led his squad to do the job and killed three men himself. He had knocked out one enemy position single-handedly.
On January 19, 1945, the Junction City Union carried an article titled General ‘Cliff’ Lee Writes Letter to Grandfather of Lt. Ehlers, War Hero. “It was a proud moment for two former pupils of Junction City High School when Lt. Gen. John Clifford H. Lee recently placed the Congressional Medal of Honor around the collar of Lt. Walter D. Ehlers on a European battlefield. General Lee, a member of the 1902 graduating class of Junction City High School, recently took the time from his busy schedule to write a letter to Claus B. Ehlers, of Junction City, the grandfather of the young war hero, expressing his pleasure in the occasion. In that letter General Lee pointed out that the citation states ‘deeds of heroism worthy of the best Kansas tradition.’”