Alsop's Tables

James Henry Alsop lived in Wakefield, Kansas with his mother and brothers and sisters. He helped operate the Caine's Creek Farm until the youngest members of the family were able to fend for themselves. This farm was located half a mile east of the farm of William and Delilah (Harsh) Dunn who had settled in Wakefield from Pennsylvania and Ohio respectively. James had grown up with the Dunn children and in 1888, he and Effie M. Dunn, born 1861 in Ohio, became engaged. It was the custom in the 1880's in the rural areas of Kansas for brides to write out their own wedding invitations.

James and Effie first rented a farm located two miles south west of Wakefield and later bought a farm three miles north of town which was to be the place where all of their children were born and grew to adulthood. The "old home place" as it was fondly remembered by their children who experienced the formative years of their lives there, contained a section of good bottom land there with a railroad running through it. The farmhouse has now been removed and part of the land is under Milford Lake.

The children of James and Effie were: James E., born January 1889; Florence M., born November 1890; Inex G., born May 1892; Edith L., born September 1893; Malcolm L., born December 1894; Ethlyn M., born January 1896; Delilah, born April 1900; and Bryan, born 1903.

After the loss of her infant son Bryan in 1903, Effie Dunn Alsop was shocked and overwhelmed by the death of her husband James in 1904. She was left with seven children still living at home whose ages ranged from 15 to 4 years. With the help of kind, concerned relatives and neighbors, but mostly from their own hard work perseverance, the Alsop family survived. However, they didn't just survive, but the children in this family grew up to be successful, contributing citizens who gave back more than life required of them.

The seven Alsop children attended college and each one left with a degree. They all became school teachers and two, Inez and Malcolm, taught at Kansas State University in the history and physics departments. All the rest were high school teachers, except Lila, who taught in the elementary grades. Though they taught in a number of different states, the brothers and sisters kept in close contact during the passing years and even had a tape recorder round robin going during the latter part of their careers. They met each Christmas at their mother's home for as long as she lived and then planned to meet annually at one of the various homes of the brothers and sisters.

After retiring from teaching, the five surviving siblings assembled at Manhattan, Kansas to enjoy their "golden years." Ethlyn and Inez lived on Laramie St. in a house which they purchased. Malcolm Alsop and wife Jean lived in their house across the street, and Lila and Edith lived in their own apartment in the same block. The sisters all became active in a wide variety of activities which included participation in writing clubs, poetry clubs, university women's club, and church clubs. They ate out two or three times a week and celebrated all birthdays and holidays together. They also wrote articles and poems for magazines, and book reviews essays, and poetry for the various newspapers in the area. In a letter written to your author in the 1980's, Ethlyn Alsop Pastrone mentioned that life still had sparkle for her and her siblings, though they were all in their nineties or very close. Ethlyn taught high school English in Kansas for fifteen years and then obtained her masters and taught in San Francisco High School for the next twenty years. As she was contemplating retirement after forty years of teaching and wondering if she would ever see another spring on a farm instead of in a large city, she composed the following poem:

ALSOP FARM LIFE SOME SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO--1908

We were five girls and two boys;

We had struggles; we had joys,

Grew up on a Kansas farm

With lots of work mid lots of charm.

Up at five, retire by ten

That is how we lived it then;

We thawed the pump on winter morn,

Fed the chickens daily corn;

We cooked the breakfast, but alas

Not on electric stove or gas,

But cobs and dry wood made it glow,

And what a breakfast long ago:

Pancakes heaped away up there,

Fried potatoes, beefsteaks rare,

Fruit, eggs, jelly, all home grown;

O, those years, how fast they've flown:

Years of canning, raking hay,

Sorting eggs from day to day,

Cleaning each week room by room,

Beating rugs with sticks and broom;

Painting, churning, baking bread;

Keeping mortgage paid ahead;

From soot of stove lid, pair by pair

We blacked our shoes for Sunday wear;

And when we slept, each slept like lead

On strawtick and a feather bed.

We walked to school, no use to moan

Two miles there and two miles home;

Zero weather way below,

Rain or snow we had to go.

When sleeping out on summer nights

One wakened to the awesome sights

Of falling stars and fireflies,

Of endless space and open skies,

One reached with all one's might to know

The hidden stranger, God, and lo

The substance of all hopes drew near

And unseen evidence was clear.

Times throws pictures on life's screen;

The pictures change from scene to scene.

Time takes a hand and now and then

Wipes the slate and starts again