Remembering Ralph Richards

100 YEARS AGO

(1912)

On the occasion of the recent visit of Miss Helen Gould to Fort Scott, Missouri Pacific officials who accompanied her were obviously pleased with the arrangements that had been made for Miss Gould's reception and particularly with the execution of those arrangements.

Within the past few days, Secretary Benning of the Y.M.C.A who planned the reception for Miss Gould, has received numerous letters of congratulations on the success. One of the incidents that seemed especially to please Miss Gould was the speech of Engineer Ben Cooper, extending her greetings from the Fort Scott railroad men. Mr. Cooper's remarks were well chosen and heartily expressed. Miss Gould's appreciation was made apparent by her cordial grasp of Mr. Cooper's hand as the big fellow of the Meteor run stood before her.

75 YEARS AGO

(1937)

Speaking before the opening session of the annual convention of the Kansas State Branch and Ladies' Auxiliary of the National Association of Postal Supervisors, J.M. Donaldson, Washington, D.C., Deputy First Assistant Postmaster General, sounded a note of renewed American optimism when he said that Montgomery Ward, Sears Roebuck and the Chicago Mail Order Co., the nation's largest mail order concerns, had reported a volume of mail order sales during the past six months greater than at any previous time in their history.

50 YEARS AGO

(1962)

Editorial Comment:

His roots were in Fort Scott's history, but he worked for the town's future. That would be the inscription for Ralph Richards as I knew him for more than 30 years. But he had been making his impression for many years previous.

Through his father, Col. J.H. Richards, who was legal counsel for the Missouri Pacific Railroad when it was building westward from Fort Scott, Mr. Richards heard first hand stories of this area's settlement.

To Ralph Richards, Fort Scott will always be indebted for his words on local history. But he did much more for the town. He was almost a generation ahead of his time in pushing for flood control by reservoirs and soil projects.

Mr. Richards looked ahead. His efforts were largely instrumental in making possible the site for the present Post Office and Federal Building in the 1930s. Even when he was 90, he made a cash investment in Fort Scott's new hotel to help make it possible. His experience as a Fort Scott newspaper editor and publisher are not remembered by many. I well remember his stories. As a teenager he ran a string of weekly newspapers in the Fort Scott area. He helped bring about the merger of two old Fort Scott dailies in 1904, the Fort Scott Monitor and the Fort Scott Tribune.

The advice, counsel and encouragement Mr. Richards gave another young man starting his first work on the newspaper 32 years ago will never be forgotten. -- George W. Marble

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25 YEARS AGO

(1987)

The Kitchen Kabinet (By Nell Dikeman)

"She is chust so wonderful nice," typical Dutch brogue describes Carol Dikeman, injured fatally in a traffic accident Sunday. While Carol was visiting her mother, Dodi Chew, in Pennsylvania last summer she remembered me with a collection of cookbooks featuring the traditional recipes of the early Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania. What fun we had flipping through the pages and chiding one another about our culinary skills (or rather the lack there of). Not to mention our lack of judgment at a public auction. We could very well relate to a verse in one of the books:

"I seen them buy a butter mold,

"For 50 cents or more,"

"That we could get for 20 cents,

"Down at Chon Grumber's store."