Tom L. Evans Oral History Interview, August 8, 1962

Notice
This is a transcript of a tape-recorded interview conducted for the Harry S. Truman Library. A draft of this transcript was edited by the interviewee but only minor emendations were made; therefore, the reader should remember that this is essentially a transcript of the spoken, rather than the written word.

Numbers appearing in square brackets (ex. [45]) within the transcript indicate the pagination in the original, hardcopy version of the oral history interview.

RESTRICTIONS
This oral history transcript may be read, quoted from, cited, and reproduced for purposes of research. It may not be published in full except by permission of the Harry S. Truman Library.

Opened August, 1966
Harry S. Truman Library
Independence, Missouri

[1]

MR. FUCHS: Tom, we might as well go back to Kansas and pick up the story from there.

MR. EVANS: Well, I don't know too much about the story in Kansas except my mother told me I was born September 1, 1896 in the big city of Larned, Pawnee County, Kansas. My father, incidentally, was somewhat mixed up in politics because I've been told that he was constable in the big city of Larned and sheriff; but I left there -- my folks left there in 1903.

FUCHS: What were their names?

EVANS: My father was Joseph W. Evans, and incidentally,

[2]

the W. was for Washington and my mother's first name was Ada; her maiden name was Roe. They moved to Kansas City in 1903. It was in 1903, before I was seven years old. However, I remember my father in Larned being the proprietor of a livery stable. He boarded horses and rented horses out and all the boys who were courting girls rented horses to take their girls driving. That's about all I remember.

FUCHS: Was that known as the "Evans Livery?"

EVANS: Yes, "Evans Livery." So I know or remember little about Larned.

FUCHS: Where did they come from originally. Were they born in Kansas?

EVANS: No, my father was born in Kentucky -- Carlisle, Kentucky and my mother was born in a little town near Quincy, Illinois. Father's father, which was my grandfather, homesteaded in Pawnee County, Kansas. I don't know how mother got there, but

[3]

that's where they were married.

FUCHS: They met and married in Larned. Do you have any recollections of Larned?

EVANS: Oh, yes, I have a number of recollections of Larned, much to my amazement. As a child I remember the people, of course, the people who were much older than me. I didn't remember the people who were my age. Although I did to some extent, but not a great deal. I remember the older people whom I looked up to and just a short time ago I went to Larned for the dedication of Fort Larned, which is just outside Larned. Much to my amazement I met dozens of people that I remembered, and everybody was so amazed that I would ask about people that they hadn't heard about for years, and to think that I would remember them. And I'm a little bit amazed myself at some of the people I remembered, such as a man out there who cut ice out there on Pawnee Creek and stored it in an old ice house with straw

[4]

and hay. He had a very peculiar name; his name was Fudicker -- don't ask me how to spell it because I don't know. But I said to some of my friends out there, "What happened to Mr. Fudicker, the old ice man?"

"My, you can't remember him, can you?"

"Yes, I remember the name; I remember his ice wagon and remember him storing the ice."

"Well, he's been dead for a good many years."

But that happened a number of times. So, I remember the school very well where I went, which of course has now been torn down. There's a very modern school built across the street from the school in Larned where I went. I guess we didn't call it kindergarten in those days, we called it "chart-grade," but that's where I went to school. Across the street from that school was -- in my childhood memories -- a great, big, beautiful home. It seemed to me like a gigantic mansion. It was owned by one of our very rich people in the big city of Larned. I don't suppose he ever knew who

[5]

I was or anything about it, but I marveled at that big home. So on this trip, which was last year, when I went back to this Fort Larned, I met this Mr. A. A. Doorer, who owned this home, and who owned a great big department store -- furniture store. He was, like in most small towns, also the undertaker in the town. I met his daughter who lives in that home, and Mrs. Evans, who accompanied me, and I were invited to this home. Of course, it was the first time I was ever in it. It's a beautiful, old, old place with great big, high ceilings and finally after, let's say sixty-five years, I finally got in that big, beautiful house. That's about the memories I remember of Larned.

FUCHS: Do you have an idea of the size of the town when you were living there?

EVANS: Well, I thought it was probably the biggest town in the State of Kansas when I lived there, but I guess it was really one of the smallest; but it was a town when I lived there, of about

[6]

5,000 and it's about the same now. It hasn't grown very much.

FUCHS: Was the main street paved then?

EVANS: No, not when I lived there, but it's paved now and every street in Larned.

FUCHS: Of course that's quite a while ago, but I was wondering if, at that age, you were aware of the connection with the Fort and were the Fort ruins there? I don't know whether the ruins remain...?

EVANS: Yes, as a child there, I remember the Fort very well. It was an Indian fort and the buildings are still standing. That's what was turned over, by the way (the present owner turned them over to the Government) and it was accepted at this ceremony. As a child I remember the Indian fort and in fact had been there a number of times and with younger friends of mine whom I don't remember. When I was back last year, Mr. Frizell, who owned the property there -- the big wheat farm where the Fort is -- and

[7]

donated it to the Government (he was the one who invited Mrs. Evans and I to come out) took me down to these old sandstone buildings and there was the initials, "TLE" along with "BCB", and I remembered who "BCB" eras. It was an old-time friend of mine whom I haven't seen since I left Larned. And nobody in Larned knows where he lives. It was a boy by the name of Ben Baldwin, so apparently Ben Baldwin and Tom Evans cut their initials there and the date was five, something, 1902. So, apparently that was my initials at the old fort.

FUCHS: You think five represented the day rather than the month?

EVANS: No, I think it was May of 1902. The date was there but I've forgotten what it was. Five, something, '02.

FUCHS: That's very interesting. That was about when you were six years old?

EVANS: Incidentally, my brother who just recently

[8]

passed away, Joseph Earl, was six years older than I, and that's how I got to go places, because I was the little kid brother. He was always very kind to take me with his friends, who were much older, and that's probably how I got to go to the fort so often. He had his horse -- see he was twelve -- and he had his own horse and he would drive it and I would get to go with him. That's the reason I got to go so much.

FUCHS: By "Indian fort" you meant a fort for U. S. Cavalry soldiers to fight the Indians?

EVANS: That's right.

FUCHS: You mentioned your brother, Earl. What other brothers and sisters did you have, if any?

EVANS: Just the brother that I mentioned and a sister, Ethel M., who has been married for many years and her last name now is Bair. She now lives in California.

FUCHS: Do you recall what street you lived on in Larned?

[9]

EVANS: Well, when I was there they didn't have numbered streets or named streets, but I later found out that the street where I lived when we left Larned in 1903 was West 4th Street. "Two hundred and seventeen," I believe, was the number; but of course they didn't have that when I was there. But it was the same house where I lived in 1903; it was still standing when I was back there last year. I visited on the trip a lady by the name of, well, I knew her as Ella Reece. Her husband was Ed Reece and died probably in 1910 and she had since remarried a man by the name of Nedrig and of course, her name was Ella Nedrig. She was eighty-seven years old when I was there last year, and Mrs. Evans and I went there to visit her and we had a wonderful visit. She looked perfectly wonderful; her mind was clear and we talked about a boy she had who was about my age but died when he was about fourteen -- and she was so glad to see me and to visit with me. I was glad to see her. We talked about all the old times of my family and

[10]

her family. They lived next door to us and within the last three or four months, she passed away. I have some very fond memories of the city of Larned.

FUCHS: It sounds as if you had an interesting visit.

EVANS: Oh. I did. Wonderful, wonderful:

FUCHS: You say you went to what would be comparable to kindergarten and then did you go to the first grade there?

EVANS: Yes, I was told when I was there that I was in the first grade when I left and somebody told me or asked me if I remembered my teacher and I said I remembered her very well. Her name was Love. One of my friends here said, "You mean you were in 'love' with your teacher."

And I said, "I think I was but her name was Love, too." That was in the first grade.

FUCHS: What was the name of the school or did it have a name?

[11]

EVANS: They didn't have names. They just had the one in those days, but now they have a number of them.

FUCHS: How large was the school? Was it several rooms?

EVANS: Oh, yes. It was all the grades plus the high school in the one building and it was quite a good sized building when I went to school there.

FUCHS: I see. Then you left in 1903, about what time of the year, do you recall?

EVANS: Yes, it was warm and it was during the big flood in Kansas City, when we arrived in Kansas City. I remember being up on the high hill which now overlooks the airport -- in those days that was where some of the better homes were -- called in those days "Quality Hill." I don't know whether it was a relative or a close friend of my family's, but anyway we went there and we stayed at this lady's home which overlooked "Harlem" (as we called it in those days), which is now where the airport is.

[12]

Everything was covered with water because that was the year of the big flood. They had a boy, but I know nothing about them. Their names were Riley; I know that, but I don't know whether they were distant relatives of my mother's or father's. Anyway, we stayed there and mother and father were busy looking for a place to live. Father bought a home at 408 Kensington here in Kansas City, Missouri, that spring, during the flood. He then went back to Larned and shipped our furniture; we stayed with this Mrs. Riley in her big lovely home until the furniture arrived and we moved into what I thought was a pretty big house, at 408 Kensington. It still stands, I d