On most Wednesdays you will find me at the Historical Society from 10:00am until 3:00pm.  On a good Wednesday, I have a visitor. One Wednesday last spring, seven people came in to look around. That’s a record! About half of the time no one visits.
     We have tons of “stuff” we have been collecting at the Historical Society since the early 1990s.  Shortly after we moved into this building we received the entire collection of artifacts from the Pink Hill Historical Society,  so on the days when no one visits I do lots of sorting which means I do lots of reading.  For the next few weeks, I will be sharing some stories about Pink Hill.
     With the exception of the old Pink Hill Methodist Church, only farmland and newer homes cover all signs of what was once the thriving town of Pink Hill whose residents awaited the coming of the railroad. The railroad never came but the Civil War did and those two events destroyed the small town.
     In the early 1850’s, the Chicago and Alton Railroad surveyed land in Sni-a-Bar township. Blue Springs was the only town until November 21, 1854, when George Love and David Neer filed an Abstract in the office of John A. Sea for an area of ten acres off the west side of the northeast quarter of Section 24, Township 49, Range 30.  There they established a town of 40 lots with a Main Street and a Locust Street each 33 feet wide plus two alleys 16 ½ feet wide. The area was one mile south of the old Spring Branch Road, now Truman Road.
     The town was built on property belonging to R. G. Pinkard, but did not honor him with the name Pink Hill.  The suggestion for the name came from Robert St. Clair, who settled in Jackson County about 1848.  Meeting with a group of men, he is credited with saying, “The land is covered with pink roses and pink verbena, it should be called Pink Hill.”
     According to Abstract notes, the first of the 40 lots was sold to Rosamah Sanders. Asa Booker purchased some of the lots the following year. The town was placed on the map by the United States Post office department in the same year, 1854. One history stated the Pink Hill Post Office was the second in Jackson county preceded only by Independence. (Other towns have made similar claims.)
     The first mail carrier, Charles St. Clair, brought honor to the town when he brought the first load of mail. He met the boat at the Sibley Landing and rode horseback overland to carry home the mail in a red bandanna handkerchief.
 
Next Week: The citizens, their businesses and their homes.
 
     The Grain Valley Historical Society Museum is located  at 506 South Main Street and online at www.grainvalleyhistory.com.
 

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society

​     Last week, readers were introduced to perhaps the most accurate reason, but there are numerous other theories as to how the name “Sni-a-Bar” came to exist. In addition to the possibility that the name was first given to the creek explored by a Frenchman named Abar who believed he had found a “sni” (the French word for slough) or backwater which would lead him back to the Missouri River, there are other theories,
A July 12, 1925, article in the Kansas City Star reported that University of Missouri professor Urban T. Homes, an instructor in romance philology, theorized that Sni-a-Bar came from chenal-a-boire (pronounced shni-ya-BWAR), meaning “stream to be drunk.”
However logical that may sound, the same article offers a second theory which may be more accurate. Author Robert M. Snyder Jr. researched the subject at some length and believed the nom-de-creek came from Antoine Hubert (pronounced something like yu-BEAR). He was a Frenchman who traded along the Missouri Rivers and its’ tributaries.   A rough prairie pronunciation of this Frenchman’s creek (chenail-a-Hubert) would have sounded close to “Sni-a-Bar.”  Snyder bases his conclusion on a book published in 1829 in Germany by Prince Paul of Wurtemberg, who traveled up the Missouri in 1822 and refers to “chenal-a-Hubert.”
In her Masters of Arts thesis completed in 1937, Anne Atchison’s “Place Names of Five West Central Counties of Missouri,” Atchison offers her theory for the name.
“Many explanations have been offered for the origin of this foreign looking word. The most feasible one is that it was derived from the French work chenal, or its dialect pronunciation “chenail,” which means channel, plus the personal name Robert. The change from Chenel Hubert to Sniabar is a phonetic one.  An island near the mouth of the stream forms a channel from which part of the word is derived, and Antoine Hubert was a French merchant of St. Louis known to have been in the vicinity of Sniabar.”
In researching the name, one can also find many spellings! Euebert 1803; Chenal on Barre 1819-1820; Chenal Ebert 1823; C. aux Hebert 1826; Hebert Creek 1832; Slue Abar 1834, Shnee-a-bar 1834; Shne-bar 1834; Schuyte Aber 1837; Snybar 1855; Snyabar 1859 and finally Sniabar 1869.
Creeks, a township, a road, a farm and even a school share the name, yet it’s source will probably always remain a mystery.
 
     The Grain Valley Historical Society Museum is located  at 506 South Main Street and online at www.grainvalleyhistory.com.
 

     Often the subject for this column comes from questions from the readers.  This week’s topic, “Sni-a-Bar,” comes from perusing the Historical Society files.  Over the past many years, numerous newspaper stories have been archived.  It appears there are as many explanations for the name as there are researchers and writers of the stories.  
     Sni-A-Bar Township was established in Jackson County in 1834.  It encompassed land stretching from the Little Blue River east to the county line and roughly 4 miles north and south of what is today Interstate 70.  In other words, the township runs from just west of Blue Springs to just east of Oak Grove with Grain Valley as its’ center.  Early pioneers named the township for the two previously named creeks that crisscross the township and flow north to the Missouri River.
     It is generally agreed that the work “sni” is derived from one of two French words:  chenal (creek) or chenail (river channel). It is the “a-Bar” that has kept people guessing and I can assure you this writer is no closer to an answer than the many who have speculated this mystery. Let’s begin this week with a story taken from the Kansas City Star and published on March 23, 1914.
     “Out in the eastern hills of Jackson County, close to the Lafayette County line, Sni-a-bar creek wanders among well wooded hills of oak and hickory.  It has never been anything but Sni-a-bar Creek, and the hills have been the Sni Hills since a time when the memory (of pioneer settlers) ran not to the contrary. And very rightly, too. For there’s a story connected to the Sni-a-bar country, which perhaps had not been heard by the man who wrote to The Star the other day demanding that the new highway to that portion of the county take the name East Wood Road rather than Sni-a-bar.
     “Once upon a time—this story begins in the delightfully indefinite manner of fairy tales and other proper lore—once upon a time there was a Frenchman named Abar. At least, that was the way his name was pronounced.  We do not know very much about him, except that he liked to poke the nose of his boat into waters he didn’t know, and that he was always filled with curiosity to know what lay around the next bend, or over the next hill.
     “He set about out of New Orleans up the main highway of the Mississippi River. It must have been quite early spring, with a lingering edge of winter in the air as one rowed northward through the moss-hung trees. Ten men pulled the great boat, or polled it, or trotted along the bank with the cordelle or tow rope.  So they came up the Mississippi and struggled through the turbulent, tossing, menacing gateway of the Missouri, where it poured out its yellow waters angrily.
     “Then the long voyage up the Missouri was begun. How turbulent a stream.  But consider, that it was all quite new and that around those castled cliffs.  Abar must, without a doubt, have a little swagger in his swinging walk, and a touch of crimson in his costume.  But gayety or not it was hard work making headway against the yellow stream, that was how Sni-a-bar happened to be discovered. Out of what is now Lafayette County, they came upon this quiet waterway.
 
     “A little breathing space, a quiet time, a resting from the river. A sni is French for slough; Abar fancied he had struck a quiet loop of back water which would lead him again to the river in a mile or two, But, in a mile it became apparent that there was no slough, but a small stream. And so the board was turned and they polled back to the Missouri.
     “He named the slough after himself. And he polled out of sight and hearing with a song and a laugh. Whatever he did, we don’t know, except that was of no great importance. There was without doubt some trading with the Indians, a little bland and roguish trafficking, And who can say how many trifling creeks may not have drawn the long boat’s prying nose from its course. You may safely let your fancy run riot with Abar, for there is little enough known of him that you’ll run no risk of contradiction.
     “Sni-a-Bar Township—sometimes spelled with two hyphens, sometimes one and sometimes none—took its name, of course, from the stream, and so did the hills from which flow the tiny streams that make the small river.  And really, wouldn’t it be a great shame to take the name away, with all its glamour of romance?
     “East Wood Road, indeed! You might have an East Wood Road anywhere. But there’s only one Sni-a-Bar in the whole world, as far as the atlas can show.”
 
Next Week:  Other stories behind the name, Sni-a-Bar.
 
     The Grain Valley Historical Society Museum is located  at 506 South Main Street and online at www.grainvalleyhistory.com.
 

​     One could say the East Kansas City Airport in Grain Valley began out of necessity.  In the early 1950s a number of private airplane owners learned they would no longer have a home for their planes. The Heart of America Airport located on U. S. 40 Highway near the Little Blue River was closed and the property was turned into a trailer park.
     At that time several of the private plane owners and pilots decided they would purchase land and construct their own airport.  Some of the original 11 stockholders were Frank V. Mawby, lawyer; Walter Jennings, lawyer; Jack Barnhart, Barnhart Construction; Bill Perkins, Perkins Restaurants, Earl Wade, manufacturer, and Ruffs Wilson, electrical contractor, to name a few. Together, they formed an organization which resembled a well-run flying club, but instead of just owning airplanes, the group owned the airport.
     Much work was done by the group to incorporate, draw up sound and workable rules for operation, find land, secure the title, layout the runways, line up local financing, bulldoze the runways, build the hangars and other facilities, and last but certainly not least, convince the townsfolks and the city fathers that the airport would be an asset to the community.
     A parcel of 80 acres was found on the western edge of Grain Valley on Kirby Road at the end of Walnut Street.  In the 1800s this land was owned by Britton Capelle. By the early 1900s it was part of the E. E. Kirby Orchards.  The corporation purchased the land from Tom Cairns, owner of Cairns Flowers in Independence, Missouri.
     The airport started with two runways, one running east to west and a second runway running northeast to southwest. Barnhart Construction Company did the grading for the runways and Jack Barnhart built the first small hangars. By 1978, the cooperative airport association included some 39 members. 
     Over the years many improvements have been made. Asphalt was installed in the older hangars; numerous new hangars were built, and runways lights were installed that can be turned on by the planes’ radios. In addition, an aircraft maintenance hangar, a radio communications area, and a radio repair service shop were added. The current airport has a business office, a main lobby, restrooms, and a pilot’s lounge.  
     Much of the information for this article was furnished by John Washburn of Grain Valley.  Although not an original stockholder, he was one of the very early stockholders. He served on the Board of Directors for many years and served a term as its President.  
     The Grain Valley Airport Co-operative was officially incorporated in 1956.  Its’ uniqueness is still relevant today.  It is one of the very few in the nation that is a privately owned/public use airport and is a testament to the average American businessman.  No government aid was forthcoming for this private enterprise—there is no city, county, state or federal money invested.  
     Mr. Robert Williams is one of the seventy-five to eight current owners. In visiting with Mr. Williams, I learned that the FAA has been involved with the airport over the years, mainly with antenna radio contact to ensure planes land at the proper angle. He also views the airport as “a large green space, like a park.” He pointed out another important feature.  The airport is largely agricultural, noting the large hay crop that is cut each year.
     The current manager, Robert Hackett, has been in his position for over a decade. He tells me the airport has planes available for flying lessons, rides, charters and field trips.  The airport also boasts a team of mechanics known for their excellent work.
 
     The Grain Valley Historical Society Museum is located  at 506 South Main Street and online at www.grainvalleyhistory.com.
 

The Sni-A-Bar Voice, described as “a journal devoted strictly to the interests of Blue Springs and Eastern Jackson County”, was managed from approximately 1903 to 1911 by D.C. (Dave) Herrington of Blue Springs and son of M.M. Herrington of Grain Valley. According to Vol. XI dated January 5, 1911, publishers were Almae C. Hall, Editor and Manager, and William L. Hall, Asst. Editor.
     The following snippets from past Novembers were extracted from film ordered from the State Historical Society of Missouri.
 
From the November 30, 1906 Edition:
Willie A. Adams and Miss Leora Smart married in Blackwell, Oklahoma Wednesday, November 28th. The groom, son of George A. Adams from Blue Springs. Mr. Adams is a brother of Mrs. Cora Fields Duncan of Liberty, MO.

Grain Valley felt the jar of the explosion Monday night. There was considerable excitement. A large quantity of powder and dynamite exploded supplies for a rock crusher about 12 miles from Blue Springs.
 
It was voted to have a Christmas tree at the Christian Church.
 
There is talk of a box supper at the school-house on Friday night before Christmas for benefit of a public library. Already have quite a collection of books from other box suppers.
 
From the October 29, 1915 edition:
Zed O. Webb is going out of business in Grain Valley, moving stock to Blue Springs by November 15.
 
From the November 26, 1915 edition:
Mrs. Sarah Frances Herrington, wife of M.M. Herrington, died at her home just north of Grain Valley, Sunday morning, November 14, after an illness of more than four months.  She is survived by her husband, nine children, 17 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.
 
 
From the November 9, 1917 edition:
Mr. and Mrs. Willis Lynch received word that their son Riley arrived in France.
 
And some advice from the December 1917 edition:
You will benefit yourself and help others by eating less sweets at Christmas time. Sugar is needed “over there”.
 
     The next Historical Society Meeting will be held November 21, 2019. Join us for a pot luck dinner at 6:00pm followed by our program and meeting.
 
     The Grain Valley Historical Society Museum is located  at 506 South Main Street and online at www.grainvalleyhistory.com.

​     Known now as Acquaint Gathering, the oldest continuously used building in Grain Valley was dedicated as a church in 1889.  The original structure was erected on lots 3 and 4 in Finnell’s Addition. The land was purchased from Mary Wright and her husband J. B. Keshlear. The first church trustees, Joseph R Hudson, David T. Johnson and W. L Williams purchased the lots for $60 and $75 respectively.  They were on Capelle Street just south of the Grain Valley School.
     The Methodist Episcopal Church South began in 1888, and was the third church building in Grain Valley.  The Christian Church was established in 1883, and the First Baptist Church was established in 1884.
     Lumber for the church was hauled to the site from a nearby lumber mill by William Armstrong.  With very limited funds, only the main room or sanctuary was able to be enclosed and furnished with simple benches and a pulpit.  First called Pleasant Valley Chapel, Perdee Chapel on Moreland School Road in Stony Point, was sold and the proceeds were used to finish the walls and plank floor and equip the new church.
     The church building remained unchanged for nearly 60 years. By 1948 the growing little church was in need of Sunday School rooms, a kitchen, a dining room and an attic for future classrooms.
     Then in 1962 a legacy of $6,300 was received which made it possible for the church to purchase a new heating system (to replace the huge jacketed stove in the back corner) and a bathroom. Years later additional classrooms were completed upstairs, and the entire interior got a facelift.
     With limited space and even more limited parking, the congregation had to seek land for a new church. In 2007 Faith United Methodist Church relocated to Eagles Parkway, but the building is still very much in use.
     The owners of Acquaint Gathering have kept the integrity of the building, as they turned it into a facility for special events. They provide a great venue for weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties and family reunions.  They even hosted a prom there for a small Christian school.
     And for the past two years, Faith United Methodist has filled the old church for their Ash Wednesday Service. The roots run deep in this old building.
 
     The Grain Valley Historical Society Museum is located  at 506 South Main Street and online at www.grainvalleyhistory.com.
 

​     Charlie Richard was inducted into the Baker University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1995, the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004 as a coach, and the Grain Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2017. 
     He quarterbacked Grain Valley to a winning record in 1958 and William Jewell College to a 9-1 conference championship and national ranking in 1962. After coaching at Odessa and Moberly high schools, he was an assistant coach at Central Missouri State while he completed his master’s degree and Educational Specialist. 
     In 1976, Richard became the football coach, track coach and athletic director at Highland (Kansas) Community College. Then, in 1980, Charlie became the head football coach at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas and, as they say, the rest is history.
     Charlie built the football program at Baker into one of the best small college programs in the nation compiling a 14-season record of 123-28-1. He led Baker to 11 Heart of America Athletic Conference championships, 10 NAIA playoff appearances and a victory in the 1985 Sunflower Bowl.
     Richard’s team won nine games nine times and, at the end of the 1994 season, had been ranked in the NAIA Top 25 for 128 consecutive weeks. He produced 32 All-Americans, 25 Academic All-Americans and was named the conference coach of the year six times.
     Charles Allen Richard was born on May 30, 1944 to William D. “Dub” and Charlene Stephenson Richard. He was the oldest of their three sons and grew up on the family dairy farm on Nebgen Road, south of Grain Valley.  His roots run deep as the Richard family tree can be traced back to the Dennis and Martha Costigan, one of the first families in Eastern Jackson County.
     Charlie’s mother was the youngest of the Stephenson family. Her oldest sister taught at Oak Hill School in 1913 & 14. Les and Lloyd Stephenson (Stephenson’s Apple Orchard and Restaurant 1946-2007) were first cousins.
     Charlie graduated from Grain Valley High School in 1959. In perusing the 1959 Treasure Chest yearbook, his photo turned up on many activity pages.  Charlie was on the newspaper staff, the yearbook staff, student council vice-president, National Honor Society vice-president, the senior play, football, basketball, track and Lettermen’s Club.  In addition to all of these activities, perhaps his greatest high school accomplishment, Charlie was valedictorian of the Class of 1959.
 
     The Grain Valley Historical Society Museum is located  at 506 South Main Street and online at www.grainvalleyhistory.com.
 

     In the late 1940s and early 1950s many small towns had men’s basketball teams allowing young alumni a chance to play on a recreational team. Some of these teams formed on their own and others were sometimes sponsored, usually by local merchants. 
     Referred to as “town teams,” they would schedule games with other nearby towns.  By 1950 my father, in his late thirties, was too old to play so he was the “coach.” I use the term loosely because today they would probably be described as a “pick-up” team.  Most of his players had been outstanding high school players, and there were two or three that had played some small college basketball. Their designed plays were usually made up in the huddle and could more likely be thought of as “trick” plays. Grain Valley’s town teams were usually successful, often defeating their opponents from Blue Springs, Buckner, Levasy, Lone Jack, Oak Grove, Hardin, Polo and the likes.
     Then, during the 1953-54 season a women’s basketball team was formed. Known as Red Ridge Runners,  I can remember twelve different women who played with the team at various times.  They would practice in the school gymnasium one or two nights each week.
     Mildred and Charlie Napier owned the hardware store in town and sponsored the team, which meant they bought the pretty red uniforms with white belts and numbers, and they paid the league and tournament fees, occasionally with help from other merchants.  Charlie was the coach and I believe Mildred could best be described as the team’s business manager.
     They joined a league which played at the Armory in Kansas City on Sunday afternoons. In 1955 they won the league play and earned the right to participate in a national tournament held at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.  
     Although Grain Valley lost in the first round, Louetta Snodgrass was the National Women’s Basketball Queen.
 
Visit the Grain Valley Historical Society’s website at www.grainvalleyhistory.com and follow them on Facebook @grainvalleyhistory.
 
 

     While perhaps not a “household” name, Steven A. Beebe is known worldwide in “communications” circles. Steven, Muriel and Russell Beebe’s third of five children, was born September 19, 1950. He grew up on his family’s farm on Little Road, north of Grain Valley; attended Grain Valley schools K-12 and graduated from GVHS is 1968.
     After graduation, Steven attended Central Missouri State College which became Central Missouri State University in 1972, the year he obtained his B.S. Ed in Communications. He continued his studies there and receive a Masters of Arts before moving on to the University of Missouri in Columbia where he completed his Doctorate of Philosophy. In 1975 he received an Outstanding Teaching Award at Mizzou and in 1976 he was recognized for Scholastic Achievement (Perfect 4.0 Grade Point Average on all graduate course work) at the University.
     Dr. Beebe was a tenured member of the communication faculty at the University of Miami for 10 years prior to joining the faculty at Texas State University in 1990. There he has served as chair of the Department of Communication Studies for 29 years and concurrently as associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication for 26 years.
     He has been a visiting scholar at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and was elected a permanent member of the Common Room of Wolfson College, Oxford University.
     Other leadership roles for Beebe include serving as president of the National Communication Association, the largest professional communication association in the world, founding member of the Russian Communication Association and co-director of the first Russian Communication Association conference held in Pyatigorsk, Russia.
     He has also served as president of the Florida Communication Association.
Dr. Beebe is considered an authority on C. S. Lewis. He made international headlines when he discovered a manuscript written by Lewis that was the partial opening chapter of a book that was to be co-authored with J. R. R. Tolkien about communication (Language and Human Nature. ) while examining Lewis' documents in the Oxford University Bodleian Library.  In 2016 he discovered an unknown poem by Lewis.
     He is author and co-author of 12 books and more than 55 articles and book chapters, plus more than 160 papers and presentations at professional conferences. Steve’s research, with a focus on instructional communication and skill development, has appeared in such journals as Communication Education, Human Communication, Communication Research Reports and several Russian academic journals.
     His alma mater, the University of Central Missouri, named him a Distinguished Alumni in 2010 and the National Speaker’s Association has named him Outstanding Communication Professor in America. In 2003, he and his wife, Susan J. Beebe, set up a scholarship at their alma mater, the University of Central Missouri, for communication students who are also involved in the forensics program.
     Dr. Beebe is a member of the Grain Valley Education Foundation.  If you wish to know more about Steve, just Google him. In this short article I’ve only had space to mention a few of the many honor and awards he has received over the past 40 years.
 

​     When graduates of Grain Valley High School choose the University of Central Missouri (UCM) for their college education, they will no doubt become familiar with the ESU, the student union at Central.  But do they know the union is named for a fellow alumnus of GVHS?
     Known as the “campus living room,” the Elliott Student Union is located in the center of the main campus.  The original union was built in 1962, with an addition completed in 1966 and a complete facelift in 1990.  The Union was named for former UCM President Ed Elliott upon his retirement in 1999.
     The Sandra Temple Elliott Ballroom is one of many features within the building which also houses a bowling alley, a recreation center, the Student Success Center, the Veterans Success center, meeting rooms and numerous dining options including a food court.
     Eddie Mayes Elliott was the third of seven children born to Edna Mae (Rowe) and Franklin Elwood Elliott.  He had two older brothers, Claude and Frank; and two younger brothers Robert (Bert) and Dan.  After five boys, two sisters, Diana and Judy, completed the family.  Like their parents, aunts, uncles and cousins, they all attended school in Grain Valley.
     Ed “Mick” Elliott began elementary school in the fall of 1944.  By the time he graduated from GVHS he had already made a name for himself, both academically and athletically. 
     On the 1956 Treasure Chest (yearbook) Senior Who’s Who page, Ed was voted “Most Athletic” and “Most Likely to Succeed.” He played three sports and was senior co-captain of both the football and basketball team.  He was a class officer every year and Student Council President during his senior year. He was also in music, the senior play, and held a position on the staff of both the yearbook and newspaper. 
     His football skills and leadership won him not only the Napier Award for 1955 but also a scholarship to play football at William Jewell College.
     Ed Elliot earned ten varsity letters as a student-athlete at William Jewell, including four in football and wrestling and two in track and field. As the captain of the wrestling and football teams, he was the only signal caller in Norris Patterson's 18 seasons as coach to call his own plays on offense and defense.  He actually played in front of former Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder.  
     Following his senior season, he was named first team All-Missouri College Athletic Union. In addition, he was the recipient of the Cecil Martin Award for Male Athlete of the Year in 1960.
     For the next twenty-five years, Ed and his wife, Sandra Sue Temple (GVHS Class of 1957, Central Missouri State University, 1961) were at various colleges where Ed coached, taught and completed his Masters and Doctorial degrees.  They also raised two sons. 
     In 1985 they returned to Missouri. Ed became President of Central Missouri State University and Sandra was the popular “First Lady” until their retirement in 1999.
     Ed was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at both William Jewell College and UCM. The first induction for his athletic success and the second induction for his leadership in the fundraising effort for the building of Walton Stadium, as well as Crane Stadium and the South Recreation Complex at UCM.
     After retirement, Ed and Sandra moved to Lee’s Summit. They are regular attendees at the Grain Valley Alumni Banquet each year. Dr. Elliott is a board member of the Grain Valley Education Foundation.