Land of Our Father

Elyria, Kansas, Grain Elevator


Oil Well Pumping Away


Christian School

After leaving Lincoln, Nebraska, on Sunday with an ice storm nipping at our rear bumper, we headed south on Hwy. 81. Gene had been wanting to visit, Elyria, Kansas, and today was the day we chose to return to the birth place of his father, Vernon Crabb.

Just two miles off Hwy. 81, Elyria, Kansas, is barely a town . . . in fact, it is an unincorporated crossroads at an intersection of two county roads. A few short streets branch off the county road and a scattering of houses populate the area. We thought of John Crabb as we drove around. The town reminded us of Irwin, Ohio, where John lived. Maybe this is why John had wanted to live in the country. Farming was in his blood, passed down from his grandfather.

Gene had visited the town only once when he was 4 or 5 years old and did not recognize any of the houses as being the Crabb homestead. We stopped and asked one young man if he knew any Crabbs, and the response was negative. One house has a sign out front, "Home of the "Smiths" for four generations since 1949". Four generations! But then, Gene had visited in about 1937, so the Smiths probably would not know the Crabbs.

When Vernon Crabb lived in Elyria, all that was there was the farm, a grain elevator and the railroad. Today, there are about 50 or so houses, a Christian School, and a "Historical Site" monument stating that this was the location of the Santa Fe Trail and that a treaty had been signed with the indians to allow the railroad to be built. The indians promised not to kill anybody working on the railroad.

The other important addition: OIL WELLS. Had the Crabbs stayed in Elyria, they might be oil barons today. Several pumps were working away at drawing oil from beneath the ground.

Asi es la vida!