Old Depot Museum

05/29/2026

1904 FLOOD ANNIVERSARY AND UPCOMING EVENTS! History is happening in Franklin County this weekend! Lynsay Flory will present the complex story of the creation of a reservoir during Local Stories of Melvern Lake on May 30 at the FCHS Archives & Records Center or via Zoom. The Civil War Round Table of Ottawa, Kansas will host a program on the The Baxter Springs Massacre at Smoked Creations on May 30. Franklin County Heritage Homes is relaunching with an information meeting at Elliott Hall on May 31. Summer time means that all of Franklin County's community museums - Richmond Community Museum, Appanoose Museum AAPS, and Wellsville Historical Society - are opening their doors for the season. We look forward to sharing history with you!

DEPOT WORKERS TRAPPED BY FLOOD WATERS, MAY 29-31, 1904. Santa Fe Railroad workers were trapped in the Ottawa depot for several days as fast-moving water burst through the waiting room doors on the first floor and rapidly rose until it was shoulder-deep in the ticket office. Several boats attempted to rescue the men inside--which included Harry Keckler, Will Baxter, Chris Hester, John Holmes, Frank Fleming, and J.S. Yancy—but rapid currents made the rescue too dangerous. The men had no food except some radishes and onions they were able to rescue from the Railway Express Agency office using an improvised rope ladder. Reports vary, but it is believed the Marais des Cygnes River crested at about 33 feet, which was (at that time) the highest the river had reached since the town was founded in 1864. This photo by William H. “Dad” Martin shows men on a ladder tossed out a second-floor window and others standing on the platform roof. The roundhouse and car shops are also visible. By the time the river crested around 4 a.m. on Monday, May 30, hundreds were homeless and the town lost its drinking water and utilities when the public works building flooded.

05/22/2026

This Memorial Day weekend, all of us at the Franklin County Historical Society want to thank everyone who honored their loved ones through memorial donations to FCHS in 2025 and early 2026.

All Franklin County community members are part of our history. Your donations help us share our stories.

Obituaries (when available) are in the comments.

Image: Greenwood Baptist Church and Cemetery in Franklin County, Kansas. Photo by Diana Staresinic-Deane.

04/17/2026

The Old Depot Museum will close at 3 p.m. today (04/17/2026).

04/16/2026

RECOVERY EFFORT PHOTOS NEEDED. The Franklin County Historical Society would love to have images of recovery efforts after the Monday, April 13, 2026, tornado. If you have photos of community members cleaning debris, trees being trimmed, utility workers restoring power, volunteers providing food and supplies, signage showing street closures--we'd be grateful if you would post them here or e-mail them to [email protected].

Image is of search and rescue efforts at a Franklin County home following the May 20, 1957, Ruskin Heights tornado.

04/16/2026

Here's the FOX4 News Kansas City segment on the Franklin County Historical Society's work documenting Monday's tornado.

OTTAWA, Kan. — The Franklin County Historical Society wants people to submit photos, videos and stories about Monday’s tornado in Ottawa and the cleanup efforts that followed. The soc…

04/15/2026

FOX4 News Kansas City 's Lexy French and Matthew Mason interviewed us about why we were asking community members to submit their tornado photos to the historical society! Our interview will be on the news tonight (04/15/2026) at 9 pm and 10 p.m.

04/15/2026

HOW MANY TORNADOES? Ottawa’s Monday, April 13, 2026, tornado has Franklin Countians asking: How many tornadoes have touched down in Ottawa and Franklin County? We dug through the Franklin County Historical Society archives to see how many tornadoes we could find. A map in the March 2, 1993, Ottawa Herald shows that Franklin County had 21 reported tornadoes between 1950 and 1992 alone; we’ve listed some of the ones that caused newsworthy damage below.

Is this list complete? It is not. Will there be fierce debates over whether storms are tornadoes, cyclones, microbursts, or straight-line winds? Absolutely! But here are some of the storms newsworthy enough to be listed as cyclones/tornadoes or storms treated like cyclones/tornadoes in historic documents:

September 7, 1872 – Ottawa
April 2, 1880 – Ottawa
April 27, 1887 - Pomona
May 18, 1896 – Lane
March 27, 1905 - Ottawa
June 1, 1917 – Pomona
November 1, 1937 – Rural Franklin County, north of Ottawa
August 5, 1954 – F1 tornado, Ottawa
May 20, 1957 – F5 Ruskin Heights tornado, which started near Silkville/Williamsburg and moved diagonally northeast through Franklin County, ending in Knobtown, Missouri
April 16, 1960 – North of Princeton, Rural Franklin County
April 24, 2003 – Reported tornadoes touched down near Wellsville, Rantoul, and Pomona
March 6, 2017 - EF1 Princeton

Edited to add: the NOAA database currently lists 28 tornadoes between 1950 and 2025. Link to the database in the comments.

Image: Ruskin Heights tornado captured by Charles LeMaster, Ottawa City Airport Operator from the airport.

04/14/2026

HELP US DOCUMENT THE APRIL 13, 2026, TORNADO. The Franklin County Historical Society would appreciate your assistance in documenting the tornado and its aftermath. If you're willing to share YOUR stories/experiences, photos or videos with us, please post them below or, better yet, e-mail stories or high resolution images to [email protected]. Please include detailed location information.

RULES:
1. DO NOT ENDANGER YOURSELF to take photos for us. Please abide by any emergency/law enforcement instructions/barricades.
2. DO NOT TRESPASS onto private property.
3. Please only submit YOUR OWN photos or videos, as you cannot give us permission to use someone else's images.

Thank you for your help in preserving this event. The information you share will help future researchers understand how this storm impacted our community.

Image is of the edge of the storm moving over Cedar Street around 6:30 p.m. by Diana Staresinic-Deane.

03/17/2026

E.H. CORWIN, ARTIST PHOTOGRAPHER: “Corwin has arrived!” With this March 18, 1880, announcement in Ottawa’s Independent-Journal, photographer E.H. Corwin’s new studio was officially open for business.

Elmore Howard Corwin was born in Ohio in 1847. During the Civil War, Corwin served with Company K of the 7th Illinois Cavalry and was injured in the Battle of Nashville in 1864. He married Bernice Coykendall in 1869—the same year he took up photography.

Corwin traveled to Ottawa, Kansas, in November 1879 and established a partnership with C.W. Gano at the “Little Gallery ‘Round the Corner,” a small building on East Second Street. Although his partnership with Gano lasted less than a year, Corwin would be a fixture of downtown Ottawa for more than two decades.

Corwin was known for his portraits, landscapes, and photo-enlarging capabilities with crayon, paint and ink*. In 1884, her purchased what was reputed to be one of the largest cameras in Kansas—a 14”x17” large-format camera that cost $250 (over $8,000 in today’s money). He was an official photographer during the Chautauqua Assembly.

His studio relocated several times; other addresses include the New Opera Block (also known as the Zellner Building and Haley Building) at 201-203 South Main and the Chamberlain Building at 226 South Main. He briefly worked in Kansas City, Missouri, before returning to Ottawa. Corwin also partnered with C.H. Clark and trained photographers William H. “Dad” Martin and Emma Blanche Reineke.

Corwin’s wife, Bernice, died from tuberculosis in 1882. In 1884, The Ottawa Daily Republic named Corwin one of Ottawa’s most eligible bachelors, citing his “mustache which is the glory of a well contoured face,” his “fine income from a neat and genteel business,” and a “handsome cage for his birdie.” Later that year, he married Harriet Elizabeth Stinebaugh of Ottawa. He was father to six children.

A Civil War veteran, Corwin was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic and served as the Post Commander for the George H. Thomas Post No. 18 in Ottawa. He was also a leader in the Knights and Ladies of Security benevolent society, which offered him a position in San Francisco in 1904. The family moved to California and ultimately settled in Los Angeles, where Elmore H. Corwin died in 1940.

Photos include Corwin’s self-portrait from the GAR Post No. 18 group photo; a Corwin & Clark stereocard of the New Opera House, a photo showing tents at the Chautauqua Assembly in 1885, a photo thought to be of Ora Chamberlain, and Corwin’s back-of-photo imprint.

*Learn more about photo enlarging in the 1880s: https://indianahistory.org/blog/painting-or-photograph-it-might-be-both/

01/31/2026

Due to the extreme cold this morning, the Old Depot Museum will be closed. Our program Stories From the Zellner Building - 89th Annual FCHS Meeting WILL be held at the FCHS Archives & Research Center this afternoon.

01/21/2026

We're incredibly excited to share that the Franklin County Historical Society is one of five Kansas museums selected to participate in “History Makers: The Future is Now,” an innovative statewide strategic planning initiative for rural museums from Humanities Kansas. Inspired by American's 250th, "History Makers" recognizes the importance of local history in telling America's stories. This year-long initiative is made possible thanks to Humanities Kansas and the Patterson Family Foundation.