294 Recollections Of Early Days As Recalled By Mrs

Recollections of Early Days as Recalled By Mrs. John A. Martin, Widow of Ex-Governor

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Mrs. Ida Challiss Martin, widow of Governor John A. Martin, lives in a big two story brick house on North Terrace. Governor Martin took her to the house a bride 66 years ago. The house is among stately elms and maple trees planted by Governor Martin and Mrs. Martin in their youth. Mrs. Martin has lived in the midst of stirring events, her father Dr. W. L. Challiss, long since dead, was a forceful man. Her husband was a man who dominated his affairs yet Mrs. martin, being of a retiring, modest nature, stood back, and let the world go by. As a girl, she devoted herself to her younger brothers and sisters, being the eldest in a large family. After her marriage her husband, their children, and their home engaged all her time, her care and her thoughts. Her only outside interest was her church. From her childhood she had been devoted to the Baptist church, and the only organizations she has ever become identified with have been church societies; and at one time she belonged to the Women's Relief corps of the John A. Martin Post, named for her husband who served as Colonel in the Northern army during the Civil War. Born in Morristown, N. J., Ida Challiss came to Atchison with her parents in 1857. She and her sister Bertha, now Mrs. Leisure, were the only children in the family at that time. Mrs. martin recalls the family came from St. Louis to Atchison by boat, and in April landed where Santa Fe street is now. It was a windy spring day and Mrs. Martin remembers her uncles, George T. Challiss, and Luther Challiss, both long since dead, met them at the landing. Clinging to her father's hand she climbed a steep bluff ascending almost from the landing place. The family went to the home of Mrs. George T. Challiss' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, who lived in a cottage on Santa Fe street just west of what older residents of Atchison call the Herman Kessler place, now occupied by M. J. Baker and his family. Immediately little Bertha Challiss was stricken with the measles, and that was the beginning of Mrs. Challiss' life in Atchison. Her father bought thefranchise*to the ferry boat from George Million, and with the late Granville Morrow operated it. His first boat was named "The Ida," for Mrs. Martin. Some years later he bought a larger boat which he called "S. C. Pomeroy" Mrs. Martin remembers comingfromBrownsville, Pa., in that boat when it was being delivered to her father. The trip lasted six weeks,, and the boat steamed down the Ohio, into the Mississippi, into the Missouri. A glorious boat ride. Who would not exchange an automobile trip for it today? But that is getting ahead of the story: Dr. Challiss not only conducted a ferry boat, but practiced medicine in Atchison, and "Doc" Morrison, an old time dairy man, who died a year or two ago was his first patient. First Home Was a Log House. The idea in coming west was to acquire land and Dr. Challiss took up a claim south of Atchison, where, in order to hold it, he and his family had to live for a year or two. They moved there, and lived in a log house. Mrs. Challiss had followed her husband

west from a luxurious home. She was unaccustomed to hardships, but like the sturdy woman of that bygone day, she bore them uncomplainingly. Mrs. Martin remembers that her fatherfixedup a stove, under the boughs of some trees, and it was there her mother cooked. Sometimes a pig would come along and upset the dinner from the stove, and burn his greedy nose, but that seldom happened. Three young men, who afterwards became citizens of importance in Atchison county, helped plow the virgin soil for Dr. Challiss, and Mrs. Challiss had to cook for them. They were Louis DuBois, Joe McCulley, and John Cook. Louis DuBois felt sorry for the tenderly nurtured eastern woman, struggling in what was then the Kansas "Wilds", and Mrs. Martin remembers, that he helped her mother cook, wash and carried the water the long distance from the spring to the house. In those days the Challiss family never missed a Sunday attending church in Atchison. Some times, when the roads were very heavy, oxen were hitched to the wagon. Mrs. Martin attended school at the Stort's academy, which was at Eleventh and Santa Fe streets, where the John O'Connor home is now. Once Mrs. Martin then a very little girl, spelled down the school, and there were "grown-ups" there too. She has in her possession the gilt edged Bible given to her for a prize. J. W. Vawter was the teacher, and the date of presentation in the Bible is the year 1859. The only child Mrs. Martin remembers attending the school with her was named Quintihy Million. In 1860 Dr. Challiss built the house at 224 North Second street where W. H. Reddick now lives, and moved his family into it. A few years later he bought what became known in Atchison history as the Challiss home on North Terrace. It is one door South of where Dr. and Mrs. Challiss's youngest son, J. M. Challiss, and his family live. Mrs Martin lives only a block away and so throughout her life that neighborhood has been her domain. It is worthy of note that during the 40 years the Challiss family lived in that house there was neither a death nor a funeral there. The First Meeting It was at a church festival that Mrs. Martinfirstmet Governor Martin. She was 16 years of age and he was ten years older. In those days the church festivals were big social events. Tables were arranged along the sides of the room, and they contained salable articles; ice cream, lemonade, flowers, etc. The center of the room was left clear and it was there the young people promenaded, arm in arm. The particular festival, where Governor Martin met Miss Ida Challiss, his future wife, was in the rooms then used for church by the Presbyterians. It was over a store building on South Fourth street, on the east side, between Commercial and Main streets. Mrs. Martin says: "I remember having charge of the flower table, and that Governor Martin, whom we called Colonel Martin, bought my entire stock."

Years after Governor Martin's death, Mrs. Martin came across an ivory-type of herself made when she was 18, and which she had given him. In looking at it the frame fell apart, andflutteringto the floor was a newspaper clipping. Mrs. Martin picked it up and read it. The clipping was from the Atchison Champion, of which her husband was editor and publisher for many years, and told of that church festival where he first met his wife. After that first meeting it was four years before Miss Ida Challiss and John A. Martin were married. He used to walk home from church with her, but her parents were strict and she did not dare invite him in, for fear her mother would tell her she was "Bold." Finally he spoke of a book he would like to loan to her, and brought it to the house, and after that he called Sunday and Thursday evenings. Before Mrs. Martin became engaged to John A. Martin she went back to Philadelphia to visit her mother's relatives, before she left her mother said to her: "Ida, you must not write to John Martin," and she didn't. But, he asked Mrs. Challiss's permission to write to Ida, and Mrs. Challiss reluctantly gave it. And then John A. Martin poured out his heart in a 24 page letter, which Mrs. Martin has in her possession to this day. It was when Mrs. Martin, then Miss Ida Challiss, was in Philadelphia that she looked on the face of the martyred President Abraham Lincoln. He was lying in state in Philadelphia, and she went to look at him. Upon her return she became engaged to John A. Martin, and today she wears the engagement ring, a plain gold band, he gave her. But it was two years later when they were married. Together they watched the house being built where Mrs. Martin has lived ever since. It was in 1885 that John A. Martin became Governor of Kansas, and served until 1889. There was no executive mansion in Topeka in those days, and the salary of the governor of the state was $3,000. Mrs. Martin did not spend much time in Topeka. She had little children to keep her at home, and besides, in those days, the women remained at home, and allowed the men to manage the affairs of state. Mrs. Martin recalls she and the late Mrs. John J. Ingalls, gave a reception in Topeka at the time of Governor Martin's second inaugural. Mrs. Martin and her brothers, Paul Challiss and J. M. Challiss, are the only members of the Challiss family now living in Atchison. Their sisters, Mrs. Mina Donald, Mrs. Blanche Dekker, Mrs. Dora Bennett, Mrs. Amelia Dekker, and Mrs. Daisy Foust, are living in California. Another sister, Mrs. Bertha Liepsner, lives in Kansas City. Mrs. Martin's children are Mrs. Paul Tonsing, and Harres Martin, Atchison, Mrs. Grace Mauck, Oklahoma City; Mrs. Ethel Hole, Monrovia, and Paul Martin, Battle Creek, where he is assistant editor of the Inquirer and News. Mrs. Martin does not lead a lonely life. Living with her, in the old Martin home, is her daughter, Mrs. Tonsing and Mrs. Tonsing's family. A number of herfriendsof a lifetime are still living in Atchison. She is

devoted to her church, and enters, as far as possible, into its activities, and so today Mrs John A. Martin lives as she has always lived, quietly, contentedly, away from strife and toil.

(Atchison, 1931) FAMICM01