Wellington, Kansas: Museums Galore! " Who Wudda Thunk?"

There was WAY more to see in this little town than one would have ever expected.

Today is the last day in this 50 mile radius of trying to find family history information. We went to library Wellington, KS. They only had microfilm & the not-so-talkative librarian loaded the microfilm into the machine. Gave a lackluster description of how to work it & the print was so small I decided to not even try. It would have taken WEEKS or even months to read all those newspapers.

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These two sculptures of children were in front of the library

SOOOOOO, I'll pays mi monies to Ancestry.com…. I now realize how GREAT they are. Worth every penny.

Speaking of "penny"; today we ate at Penny's diner. 

  

                                                     

The people that work there have done so for several years & LOVE their jobs. It was so obvious.

There was lots of laughter & they were all good at what they did.

 Our waitress even said; "We sure know how to enjoy our jobs, don't we?"

I feel these experiences are priceless! I'm even smiling as I type.

Now the Glass Museum:  in Wellington I almost forgot the newly opened;  NDGANational Glass Museum. 

 It houses American glassware manufactured before, during & immediately after the "Great Depression"  

Next in Wellington, KS we went to the;
  Chisholm Trail Museum: A museum of Domestic life.

It had over 40 rooms with wonderful, informative & interesting things. The building has 3 stories &amp. This building had been used up into the 1960's as a hospital.

 For the first hour here we were the only visitors in the museum. As we were talking with the manager about our trip & things he said he wanted to show us something & decided to take us into a room with Civil War guns.
 He opened one of the locked, glass cases & handed it to us to feel how very heavy it was.
We could sense the history, erie!

We were there about two hours. It's really  building in need of repair but their collections were arranged in a welcoming way.

Inside the Chisholm Trail Museum: Click on Video below;

While were walking around we overheard the manager talking to an employee about how just yesterday when he was there alone he heard muffled  voices of many people…as if at a gathering of some type. He was unable to make out the actual words. It was just a group gathering  background noise as if in a movie.

He's always had been a doubter of ghosts but said he's really thinks there might be something to them……now!

I was looking up the museums name online to do a TripAdvisor Review & found this about the possibility of ghosts there:

http://www.wellingtondailynews.com/news/x342382096/Night-at-the-museum

 http://www.unsolved-mysteries.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=315

And here's a link to the museum itself: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Wellington/museum.html

And   http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Wellington/exhibits.html

The manager got a map out to show us some spots and things we might want to see on our route. More on that in another posting. (we DID take his suggestions)

Tomorrow we head out from here in South Haven, KS to Ft Scott, KS on the eastern border with Missouri. I've been in touch with a fellow there who is a RailRoad historian there & it'll be interesting even if I don't find more on my great grandaddy whose name was not to be mentioned in front my great grandmother, Kate, his wife.

Years ago I'd heard some stories about their getting married in Indian country….where we're now traveling and how he was quite a rogue who actually died of syphilis; some have said.

 Kate (Nanny to me, I hardly remember her) even though estranged from him had promised to see to his burial. She followed through on her promise.

 I'd love to know more about both of them.