People of the Flint Hills: Bluestem Pasture Portraits

by John E. Brown

Overview

The Flint Hills stretch across eighty-two thousand square miles of American history in a long, rocked-up, grassed-up finger pointing from the Oklahoma border all the way to Nebraska. This history winds though the mythos of the cowboy, climbing among families built on fierce independence, respect for the land and the water, and stubborn refusal to sacrifice a way of life to enforced economic change. These stories tell the hard truths of hard people whose traditional values have carried them, have helped them prosper for five generations. Ancestral land belongs these days only to those willing to fight for it. Heaven's own sunsets wait only for the strong and the certain. The world would do well to know these hills and those who live here.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625852564
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	11/04/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

John E. Brown is a freelance writer and author who has penned almost 5, 000 pieces throughout his career. Brown has ghostwritten six biographies and corporate histories. He has also worked in marketing, advertising, television and radio. Brown and his wife divide their time between Wichita and the Kansas Flint Hills. Joe Carter made himself a baseball player. A raw athletic talent, he overcame his weaknesses until he became a consensus All-American and the College Player of the Year in 1981. A five-time all-star, he led Toronto to its second consecutive World Series championship with a historic walk-off home run in 1993. Coach Gene Stephenson was the first NCAA head coach in the 154-year history of collegiate baseball to win 1, 800 Division I games. His teams have made seven College World Series appearances, four NCAA College World Series championship finals and, in 1989, won the College World Series Championship.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

Part I Looking Back: The Old School

Albert Pickell 15

Kathryn Jackson 18

Walter Talkington 20

Albert Wiggins 24

Cabin Bewley 27

Hazel and John Wynn 29

Gerald Roberts 31

Newt Thornton 33

Paul Sr. and Laura Hyner Sccley 36

An Eternal Spring 38

Part II Looking Down: The Work at Hand

Melba Fechter 45

The Umbehrs 49

The Hubbards 51

Cheryl 57

The Sylvesters 59

Vern Hosler 62

Craig Miller 64

Glassel Flaherty 66

Pete Ferrell 68

The Dunafons 73

Jake Betts 81

The Land: Its Own High-Priced Self 85

Part III Looking Forward: The Life

Mitch and Karaline Mayer 91

The Baileys 94

Thrall, Kansas 101

The Nelsons 102

The Mayers 104

The Lundbergs 107

Jan and Frank Lyons 111

The Blythes 115

Annie Brown 119

About the Author 127