Memories from the Homestead: Uncle Ike's trip to Kansas City - 100 years ago, May 1926
- John Fullerton
- 24 minutes ago
- 4 min read
This morning, as I was preparing for my 10 a.m. tour, I quickly took care of the cleaning duties here inside Uncle Ike's Notch Post Office on display here at the Shepherd of the Hills Adventure Park. It dawned on me that it was 100 years ago when Ike made the trip to Kansas City to participate in the dedication of the first Chicago to Kansas City to Dallas air mail flight, May 12, 1926.
As you can imagine, this event received much nationwide press before and after; some 5,000 people attended the dedication event. Uncle Ike, 88 years of age at the time, and America's oldest postmaster, was invited by the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
The way he was invited is one of the unique tidbits that needs to be explained. According to an interview Uncle Ike gave to a Hermitage, Missouri, reporter a little over a week prior to the event, he didn't find out he was going to be invited until he read about it in the Kansas City Star newspaper. He read that a committee was coming to Notch to personally invite him.
"It would be a fine trip and I'd like to go," Ike told the Hermitage reporter. "I haven't been to Kansas City since October 1864, since I was in the Battle of Westport. Of course, I used to live near Kansas City when I published a newspaper in Hiawatha, Kansas."
Apparently, a lot of last-minute details were arranged so that Uncle Ike could attend the event. Traveling with him was his wife Jennie, their son Oscar, and their neighbor from across the road, William Henry Lynch, owner of Marvel Cave. They would take the train from Garber to Kansas City. This was the first time Uncle Ike had been on a significant trip away from home in over thirty years.
The reporter also asked him if he'd ever seen an airplane. "Yes, I've seen airplanes, but not close to them. I have seen them flying over my post office a few times. I haven't been out of these hills in 33 years since I came to this particular of the country."
Arriving in Kansas City in the late afternoon of May 11, 1926, Uncle Ike and his family were overwhelmed with the response they received when they got off the train. Being whisked away in a wheelchair and arriving inside the train station, reporters from all over flooded him with questions. A writer with the Kansas City Star asked him about his trip.
"The air, is so thick," Uncle Ike stated, as he could feel his years weighing down on him. "I could tell the difference the minute I got to Springfield, and it's worse here, it's so stuffy. No Sir, there's no air and no water like that down in our hills."
On Wednesday morning, May 12, accompanied by his family, Mr. Lynch, and his niece, Mrs. C.B. Baker, and her daughter Helen, the dedication ceremony took place at Richard's Field, an airport and hangar facility in Raytown at the corner of Gregory Boulevard and Blue Ridge Boulevard. The inaugural plane, named "The Kansas City," was scheduled to land a little after 10 a.m., with some 5,500 pounds of mail onboard. It would take off for Dallas before the end of the ceremony. The event lasted four hours.
As the official guest of honor, again Uncle Ike was overwhelmed with the response and once again granted more interviews and photos with various reporters in the press before the plane landed.
Uncle Ike's portion of the ceremony, which took place at approximately 10:45 a.m. was simple. He had brought with him a jar of water from home and was to christen the plane by dumping the water over the wing of "The Kansas City." After all of that, Uncle Ike was ready to come home. He was noticeably tired, having not slept at all overnight.
Uncle Ike and his family after the event were taken on an auto tour of some of Kansas City's prominent neighborhoods before returning back to the Newbern Hotel, owned by his niece, Mrs. Baker. The next day, Uncle Ike and his family along with Mr. Lynch, took the train for home.
The entire event, celebrating such an historic moment in U.S. Postal history, it's clear that Uncle Ike was honored to be asked to assist with the dedication, and truly wanted to be there. But as his son Oscar would comment years later, "the trip was so tiring, Dad never recovered from the effects of it."
By late August 1926, three months later, Uncle Ike's health had worsened. He was unable to make public appearances for Shepherd of the Hills readers at the Post Office. A birthday celebration had been taking place for his 89th, but he just didn't feel well enough to participate. He passed away the day after his birthday, August 22, 1926.
This season, we celebrate and remember Uncle Ike (Levi Morrill) and what he did for our community. Harold Bell Wright made him nationally famous in The Shepherd of the Hills, and Levi capitalized on his character part as it was literally identical to the way he conducted himself in everyday life.
Come on out here to the Shepherd of the Hills Adventure Park and take the historic tour with me. Lasting 90 minutes in length, tours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m., 12 noon and 2 pm. Call 417-334-4191 for reservations.
Happy trails, everyone!