Around the Town Thursday: Kansas City Livestock Exchange Building

Happy Friday eve everyone and welcome to another edition of Around the Town Thursday!  Today we're back to exploring Kansas City and we're highlighting the Kansas City Livestock Exchange Building.

Front of Kansas City Livestock Exchange Building

Entrance to the Kansas City Livestock Exchange Building

Originally built in 1910, the Livestock Exchange Building was the headquarters of the Kansas City stockyards.  According to the National Register of Historic Places application: "At the turn of the century the stock yards covered 207 acres with accomodations for 70,000 cattle, 40,000 hogs, 45,000 sheep and 5,000 horses and mules daily. By 1871 seven railroads were operating in the stock yards; today there are over ten miles of track inside the yards excluding acres and acres of track to the east and west."

The stockyards themselves were originally established in 1871 in Kansas City, Kansas along the Kansas River and Missouri Pacific railroad tracks.  According to the Kansas City Kansan newspaper article "How KC became 1 of great stock markets of world": "In the heyday year of 1923, 2,631,808 cattle were received at the Kansas City yards."  The stockyards originally contained five acres and by 1883 another 125 acres had been added.  While there were earlier buildings erected on the grounds of the stockyards, the brick building that currently stands is considered the highlight of the period from 1871 to 1909.

Currently (after a thirteen million dollar renovation in 1991) the building serves as an office building, containing everything from restaurant facilities to a post office to a health club.  While not ornate in decor the building has beautiful original oak woodwork and a simple, yet beautiful Grecian key floor border.

This important piece of Kansas City history has withstood time, floods and the closing of the Livestock Exchange.  It's now a part of the National Register of Historic Places, which will provide the opportunity for future generations to actually see this beautiful building.

Around the Town Thursday: The Money Museum at Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We've got a nice little post for you to read while you're enjoying your good food.  Today we're peeking in at The Money Museum at Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
The Money Museum is located inside the Federal Reserve Bank

The Money Museum gives visitors the opportunity to watch millions of dollars of currency be processed, check out some interesting exhibits and learn about the economy all in one visit.  And the best part of all of this is that it's free to view!

Reservations are not required to tour this museum for groups of 20 or fewer but you will need to go thru a security screening to get in.  You can sign up for a guided tour for groups of 15 or more.

Hours of operation, parking and accessibility information and information regarding security screening can be found here for the museum.  For a little prep for your tour you can check out highlights of the Money Museum here.  The museum recommends approximately one hour to complete the self-guided tour.  It's right next door to the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial, however, so you can make a day of it and tour both museums!

This museum is definitely worth your time, so make plans to go learn all about the economy and the currency process at The Money Museum at Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

And make sure to stop by next week for a very special Around the Town Thursday post!  We definitely won't be in Kansas anymore!

Around the Town Thursday: Pirtle Winery

Welcome to another edition of Around the Town Thursday!  I'm very excited for today's post, for two reasons: first and foremost, it's a winery.  If that's not enough there's the second reason, it's a winery in a church building.  Oh but it gets better!  The old church Pirtle Winery resides in is a Lutheran Evangelical Church that was built by German immigrants.  Being Lutheran I find that very humorous.  So for me, it just doesn't get much better than that, LOL!  Until you get to the wine, that is.

Pirtle Winery
Weston, Missouri

Pirtle Winery has been open since 1978.  According to their About Us page, they've been family owned and operated since they opened.  What a great history to be able to claim.  Located in Weston, Missouri, they're a must stop on the Missouri Wine Trail.

Their wine line up contains the expected red and white grape varieties, but it also contains some fruit varieties such as apple, blueberry and cherry chocolate.  An unexpected treat that you'll find on their wine list is mead.  If you've never experienced mead, you should try it at least once.  What is mead?  The simple definition is that it's a wine made of honey.  Here's a good article on mead (courtesy of About.com).  While many wineries tend to stay away from mead, Pirtle embraces it.  There are currently three different types of mead listed for sale on Pirtle's website.  While I'm not personally a mead fan, I highly recommend stopping by to try Pirtle's mead (and other wines, of course).

When you stop in at Pirtle, allow yourself a little time to look around.  Pirtle has an indoor winegarden and wine bar (a new feature I haven't seen yet) which can be enjoyed but if you're there on a nice day, make it a point to buy a bottle of Pirtle wine, step outside to their vine-covered outdoor wine garden (located between the winery and press house), sit and enjoy the day and your wine.  You won't regret the time spent there.

Genealogy Basics: Marriage Certificates

Today we're continuing to talk about vital records.  Last week we talked about birth certificates and some of the information you can find on them.  This week we're going to talk about marriage records.

If you've been married you know how obtaining a marriage license works.  You fill out an application, get the license, the ceremony is performed, license is signed and returned to the state office to be filed.  At some point in time, some genealogist, somewhere in the world realized how great of a resource these documents were.  Most of the information you'll find will be located on the actual application for the marriage license.  Let's take a look at what kind of information we might find on a marriage license:

• Full name of bride
• Full name of groom
• Date of marriage
• Location of marriage
• Name of officiant
• Names of witnesses
• Birth date of bride
• Age of bride
• Birth date of groom
• Age of groom
• Whether single, widowed or divorced for each party
• Number of previous marriages for each party

God bless the Jackson County Recorder of Deeds because they've digitized their records and have made them searchable.  I was able to locate a copy of the marriage record of my great-grandparents just by going to the Recorder's website.  Below is a copy of the application for their license.  As you can see it lists some, but not all, of the information from the list above.  Keep in mind, different states had different information requirements for their vital records but some of the information is standard across all states, so what information Missouri requests on their applications may be less information that what you might find on the application from, say, Illinois.

Application for marriage certificate for
Edward Conwell, Sr. and Zella McCabe

Another important point to remember: while the majority of licenses filed for were used by the couple, there were instances where the couple filed for the license but never held the ceremony and, therefore, were never legally married.  Marriage licenses expired if they weren't used within a certain time period.  Keep this in mind if you find the application but never find the filed certificate.  I was happy to discover that Edward Sr. and Zella's marriage license had been used and filed and was included with the application when it was digitzed.  Below is the copy of their marriage certificate:

Marriage certificate for Edward
Conwell, Sr. and Zella McCabe

So just from this record I was able to learn the names of the bride and groom, their ages, when they were married, who married them, and where they lived when they applied for the license.

Typically these records have not been digitized and have to be requested from the state or county where the marriage occurred.  There is usually a fee attached and the fee typically covers the search time and a copy of the record if it's found.  Marriage certificates may look different from state to state but the basic information is standard across the states.

Now for an interesting bit of information I discovered after I found this marriage certificate: I learned that my great-grandma Zella was living in Wyandotte County, Kansas when she married my great-grandpa.  I always thought they were both living in Jackson County, Missouri.  Yay for new and interesting finds!

Tune in next week for information on death certificates!

Follow Friday: Ancestry Search

Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday!  Today I'm highlighting Ancestry Search, a family history blog written by Kathleen.  I admit, this one I started reading purely because the first post I saw was Kathleen's post on Researching in the Kansas State Census.  Anyone who knows me fairly well knows I love living in Kansas.  Not tolerate, not like but LOVE so anything Kansas (or Missouri since I was born there and spent many happy summers there) automatically catches my attention.

Enough of my rambling.  Focusing back on Kathleen's blog post about the Kansas State Census, she notes in her post an obvious mistake which was made during indexing two children on the census.  This is a great reminder that indexes (and enumerators) are only human and can make mistakes, thus checking AROUND the family you're looking for in the census records is always a good idea.

Kathleen's posts are just right in length (in my opinion).  I've said before that we genealogists have a tendency to ramble and get off on tangents (noooo, not us!) so a post that focuses and gets straight to the point catches my attention and keeps me reading.

And one last item of interest.  It was Kathleen's post on Reading County History Books - Clues in the Biographies that caused me to Google one of my ancestor's names and discover a Who's Who book that has been digitized for the area in which he resided.  The book is a collection of biographies of the longstanding citizens in the area he lived in and I was tickled to find him in there.  So a big THANKS to you, Kathleen, for writing that post!

Take a minute today and read just one of Kathleen's posts.  I think you'll find it worth your time.

Around the Town Thursday: Amigoni Urban Winery

Welcome to another edition of Around the Town Thursday!  I'm excited about today's subject, Amigoni Urban Winery in Kansas City, Missouri's West Bottoms.

Amigoni Urban Winery

I love finding new wineries because that means wine tasting which equals finding new wines and that process is so much fun!  Amigoni was started in 1995 by the Amigoni family.  Their About Me page has a very nice history of the beginnings of the winery.

If you like dry wines then Amigoni is definitely the place for you to go.  While I'm not a fan of dry wines, I always like to try as many wines as I can when I go to a wine tasting.  Even if I end up not liking the wine I still want to try it, just in case, because you never know what you're going to end up liking.

So I visited Amigoni during my bachelorette party because a friend of mine, V, (insert shameless plug here) who makes fantastic beads was showcasing her beads at a show being held on Amigoni's grounds.  It was a winery I hadn't been to yet so the girls said what the heck and made it our first stop of the day.  Again, I'm not a fan of dry wines anyway but the crew in the tasting room was fun, perusing the wares at the show was a nice diversion and getting to see V was a bonus.  Little did I realize that the winery was actually housed in a historic location!

By now, no doubt, you've figured out I love history and all things historic.  The highlight of this winery visit for me was the building itself.  Amigoni is housed in the historic Daily Drover Telegram Building.  Constructed in 1909 the building was home to a livestock industry newspaper for 50 years.  Amigoni has obviously put a great deal of effort into returning the Daily Drover back to it's original glory.  The architecture, woodwork and tile are gorgeous.  It's definitely worth your time to go down to the West Bottoms to visit Amigoni.  Several of the girls at my bachelorette party enjoyed the wines there and the view isn't too bad either.

Around the Town Thursday: Chubbys on Broadway

Welcome to Around the Town Thursday!  Thursday is becoming one of my favorite days because of Around the Town Thursday.  I love highlighting interesting and unique places.

Kansas City may be known for it's bar-b-que and jazz but don't ever think those are the only good things KC has to offer.  There are tons of great museums, activities, wineries and distilleries and places to eat.  And I love to eat!  D1 is a big foodie and he's got the digs on lots of good little places with great food.

Chubby's on Broadway is a fantastic family-owned diner in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

The interior design is as close to 1950s as you can get without actually going back in time, which I absolutely love.

Love the decor!

One of Chubby's claims to (local) fame are that they're the "Home of 'The Big One'", the "Big One" being huge cinnamon rolls.  Their cinnamon rolls are to die for.  And, yes, big too.

But their cinnamon rolls aren't the only yummy things at Chubby's.  The burgers are great, eggs benedict rock, biscuits and gravy are like eating on the farm and D1 can't get enough of their pancakes.

Between the atmosphere and food this is, by far, one of my favorite places to eat.  Besides, who doesn't love hearing a jukebox play in the background while looking at pictures of Elvis, Marilyn and Ol' Blue Eyes?

Around the Town Thursday: Twelfth Street Viaduct Bridge

Welcome to another Around the Town Thursday!  Now I know what you're thinking: "A bridge??  You're writing about a bridge??"  But this isn't just any bridge.  Today I'm highlighting the Twelfth Street Viaduct Bridge in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri.

Mid-level of the Twelfth Street Viaduct Bridge

Native Kansas Citians will recognize this bridge as being down near all the popular haunted houses and the American Royal.  But the bridge has a very interesting history.  Created to be a link between the business district and the industrial district of Kansas City, Missouri, the Viaduct was created by the great minds at Waddell and Harrington (a Kansas City architecture firm) in 1915.  It is one of the earliest examples of a double-decked, reinforced concrete bridge.  The upper level goes from the Central Business District to the West Bottoms.  The lower level goes into Westside, which contains a variety of restaurants and shops.  And below the bridge...well below the bridge are the original cobblestone street farmers would travel back in the day when the bridge was still young.

View from the lower level of the Twelfth Street Viaduct Bridge

Architectural & Historic Research, LLC has a fantastic piece on their website titled "An Historical Perspective of Kansas City's Twelfth Street Trafficway Viaduct 1911-1915" (written by Cyndy Millstein) that contains a ton of great information about the history of the Viaduct and the architects that built it.  There's also a brief history of the bridge on the Historic West Bottoms website.

A very interesting piece of information I discovered during the researching of this post: you can rent the bridge for events.  Weddings, parties, and other events can be held (for a price) either on the lower level or below the bridge on the cobblestone street.  How fun!  I'm not sure how I missed THAT venue for my wedding in June but D1 definitely had a bit of venue envy when I told him the bridge could be rented for events.  You can find rental information for the bridge here.

And just because I can, I'm going to throw a little spotlight my dear husband's way.  In 1997, the music group U2 did a music video here in Kansas City for their song "Last Night on Earth".  The video producers were looking for some old, run down cars for the video and D1 was (and still is) the proud owner of a 1972 Chevy Chevelle.  Said Chevelle ended up in that video as an "extra" (the music video can be viewed on Dailymotion).  At 2:33 if you look past the open truck door to the next car bumper, that bumper belongs to D1's Chevelle. And then again at 2:40 if you look through the rear view window of the car being driven down the bridge you can see some round taillights of a car.  Those taillights belong to D1's Chevelle as well.  It's a memory D1 smiles about each time he tells the story.

It was fun to take a drive down the bridge for pictures for this post.  If you're planning to go see the bridge I would strongly suggest going on a Sunday evening, around 4:00pm or so because there's hardly any traffic at all.

Around the Town Thursday: Town Topic Hamburgers

I love Around the Town Thursday.  I love being able to highlight really cool places, especially if they're located in my hometown of Kansas City.  One of those really cool places is a fantastic little diner (or diners since there's more than one) located in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

Town Topic Hamburgers has been featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and several times in the Kansas City Star.  They've won a number of awards; the complete list can be seen here.

Original Town Topic Hamburgers
Downtown Kansas City, Missouri

Town Topic Hamburgers #2
Downtown Kansas City, Missouri

Originally opened in 1937, Town Topic began by selling hamburgers for just a nickel a piece.  You can read more about the history of Town Topic here.  Town Topic's menu has pretty much stayed the same since they opened.  They still serve the same breakfast choices and still cook their burgers the same way as they did in 1937.  They have a strong local following and they encourage you to stop in and visit with some of their regular customers.

D1 introduced me to Town Topic a year or so ago.  I can't believe I've lived in this town my whole life and not stopped in there before D1 took me.  So many years of good food lost, oh the humanity!  My personal favorite is definitely their milk shakes.  Whether you live here or are just visiting you'll want to make sure and make time to stop in at one of their three locations, two in downtown Kansas City, Missouri and one in Mission, Kansas.

Tombstone Tuesday - Russell Lee Conwell

Welcome to another edition of Tombstone Tuesday!

Continuing our journey in Mount Washington Cemetery, today's tombstone belongs to Russell Lee Conwell, infant son of Edward and Edith Conwell (my grandparents).  Russell was the third child of Edward and Edith.  He has two sisters (still living) and one brother (still living).

Russell was born 8 August 1948 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri and died 10 August 1948 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri.  He is buried next to his parents (my grandparents) in Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Jackson, Missouri.

Thanks for stopping by Tombstone Tuesday!

Tombstone Tuesday - Edward Bell Conwell, Jr.

Welcome to another edition of Tombstone Tuesday!

Today we're not straying very far from last week's tombstone.  It belongs to my maternal grandfather, Edward Bell Conwell, Jr.  Edward was the second of eight children of Edward Bell Conwell, Sr. and Zella May (McCabe) Conwell.  He had five brothers (one older, four younger) and two sisters (one older, one younger).

Edward was born 23 April 1904 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri and died 18 March 2000 in Atlantic, Cass, Iowa.  He is buried in between his first wife, Ada Jane (Correll) Conwell, and his second wife, Edith Marie (Brown) Conwell (my grandmother) in Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Jackson, Missouri.  He was a fifty year member of the Masons (A.F. & A.M.) and served in the U.S. Navy for a period of time, receiving a medical discharge for stomach issues.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tombstone Tuesday - Edith M. Brown Conwell

Welcome to Tombstone Tuesday!

Today's tombstone is brought to you from Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, MO and belongs to my maternal grandmother, Edith Marie (Brown) Conwell.  Edith was the youngest child of Richard Selman Brown and Martha Lucinda (Vaughn) Brown.  She had five older sisters and four older brothers.

Edith was born 1 December 1912 in Campbell, Dunklin, Missouri and died 7 June 1997 in Kansas City, Wyandotte, Kansas.  She is buried next to her husband and my grandfather, Edward B. Conwell, Jr. in Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Jackson, Missouri.

Thanks for stopping by Tombstone Tuesday!