Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008

A marker to remember North Cedar

by Clarke Davis

It has been years — decades in fact — since much attention has been paid to North Cedar.

It’s a spot of ground within a soybean field on the Harold and Gladys Wunder farm, its heyday alive only in the memories of a small number of people who are getting up in years.

Dennis Ferrell of Stillwater, Okla., believes it should be more than that and so several people gathered on the site Sept. 24 to see a monument erected to the community.

“Without something put in stone this place will be forgotten,” Ferrell said. “North Cedar exists only in the minds of the elderly.”

Ferrell, a former Navy pilot, never lived here but he pays homage to the family name.

“There were Ferrells all up and down this valley,” he said.

A few years back, he dedicated a marker in the community where Thomas Jefferson Ferrell settled in 1856, only two years after Kansas territory was opened to settlers.

Thomas Jefferson had 11 children and the fifth son, Isaac Newton Ferrell, stayed in the community. Dennis’ father was Vernon Ferrell, born a mile south of North Cedar, and his grandparents were John and Ethel Ferrell, who were a part of the community.

Vernon Ferrell had done a considerable amount of genealogy work on the family tree by the time he was killed in an automobile accident in 1974. Dennis gathered up the material and has continued the work, publishing most of it.

Through the research many threads led to North Cedar and this was a concern for Dennis.

“North Cedar is often named and is a big part of the family history, but someday no one will know where it’s at,” he said. “Maybe this marker will help.”

While men from Dodds Memorial Co., Ottawa, poured the concrete base and set the marker, people with ties to North Cedar showed up.

On hand were Neva Martin Braumgart, Topeka, and Daryl Ford, Valley Falls. Their mothers were Ferrell sisters. Gladys and Harold Wunder were present. While not related to Ferrells, Harold was born in a house still standing “over yonder.” Ford was born in the only residential house in North Cedar. He and Harold went to country school together.

North Cedar sprung to life in 1887 with the coming of the Kansas City Northwestern Railroad, one of three railroads serving Valley Falls. It’s located about six miles directly west of Valley Falls.

With the rails came a depot, a general store, a creamery, and a blacksmith shop. There was a rock schoolhouse nearby and Gragg’s Chapel a mile away.

Ferrell said the railroad failed financially in 1919 and was replaced by the “Rag Weed Special.” This was a Model T Ford that had been modified to run on the rails and would make trips into Valley Falls.

But North Cedar was doomed. Mail service stopped in 1927 and the train station was razed in 1943.

The marker is located on a grassy spot next to the North Cedar (or Meriden) Road. Wunder said it’s in grass because the rock and old foundations of the former buildings makes it too difficult to put to row crops.

Ferrell said the expense was all his, but later reported that the Wunders made a “very generous donation.”

The monument contains two photographs, the tracks running past the town and the depot. The words relate the history of the community and the message ends with these words:

“Many people over the years have claimed North Cedar as their home town and to their memory this monument is dedicated.”