Martha Peach

My grandmother's parents came to Kansas a bit after the novel to homesteaded in Chase country Kansas and reading the novel gave me a new view of what it was like at that time. While my memories of Kansas started in the 40´s it was long after "we" arrived. My great grandmother first lived in a Sod house papered with newspapers where my grandmother learned her letters so she could go to school. They later built a lovely stone house and a small stone The smoke house. I spent summers there and played with the china dolls and tea sets, the civil war sword, the top hats, etc. in the attic of the house, carried the warm milk up from the barn for my grandmother, went to a little white frame country church and remember the hymn "Fairest Lord Jesus" and looking out the window onto the wheat fields, eating home made ice cream and apple pie in the yard with all the people helping with the wheat harvest, and so many memories that I cherish to this day. One of my first memories and only memory of my Grandfather was in 1945 shortly before he died and I took a glass of water to him in bed that had a glass straw in it that fascinated me His obituary in the Emporia newspaper shared the front page with news of the end of WWII. This novel made me realise the importance of Kansas history much more than the classes on Kansas History that I took in school in the 50´s.