TRANSPORTATION

The seat of Bourbon County, Fort Scott is an important railway center, or at least it was in 1910. Then it was served by the Frisco Railroad, running south from Kansas City; by the M. K. & T. Railroad, whose main line connected St. Louis with Oklahoma and Texas; and by the Missouri Pacific Railroad, linking St. Louis to Wichita. A branch line of the Missouri Pacific, providing a daily trip from Durand, Kansas to Rich Hill, Missouri and return, passed through both Redfield and Fort Scott. This was the train on which the Lynn sons came to Fort Scott, “Clay for violin lessons, Roscoe to see an osteopath or dentist.” It was the same train Gladys used to visit the Lynn daughters. For more local travel, Father Lynn “would hire a team of horses and carriage from the village livery stable for the day’s trip.” The first Lynn car was a Lambert, also known as a “Kissel Kar,” but I don’t have a picture of it. Their second was a Patterson. The picture taken from the side shows the younger three Lynns to good advantage. Helen, who wrote “1916” on its back and scribbled an accompanying note, appears between and behind her brother and sister; she identified the other occupants as “H. S. girls.” Lewis Welch and Pauline Newman occupy the front seat in the other photo of the same vehicle, and Roscoe is in the “center back.” The third picture is of a different car and a different set of people. The following is written on the back in a hand unknown to me: “Here is the snapshot I told you about–George isn’t in it–did he take the picture? I seem to have remembered all these years that he and Harold Gordon were buddies. The teacher is Miss Brown-she organized the Campfire Girls. The other boy is Tom Dailey. Kathleen, Gladys, me.” I originally assumed the middy blouse identifies Gladys, but a sharp-eyed friend assured me I was wrong. A look through a hand lens confirmed her opinion; Gladys is the middle one of the three women perched on the car. But, who is the “me” that wrote the note on the back? Is “George” the same Mr. Cassel previously encountered driving up the high school steps? And what make of car is it? The fourth car picture is easier, because that’s Gladys beside the car. I presume it belonged to her father. Model and year, anyone? The last one is also easy, because I readily recognize Clay and Dorothy Lynn; she was born on the very same day as Gladys. A note by Gladys on the back identifies them as “at our rear steps as they were leaving for Phoenix,” but with no date or comment on the car. Again, any takers?