CONTENTS
  
America's countryside is still holding out as the nation's "heartland"
America's urban life – but closely connected to rural America's needs
A picture album of Junction City, Kansas – a typical American town
Other scenes of typical small-town American "middle class" life

        Note:  this page includes no textual material –
        but is simply a grand collection of pictures from the era
AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
AMERICA'S COUNTRYSIDE WAS STILL HOLDING OUT
AS THE NATION'S "HEARTLAND"

A Photo Gallery of a Prairie Town – Dorrance, Kansas – 1910 (population: 281)

Dorrance, Kansas
Kansas State Historical Society

The Dorrance train station
Kansas State Historical Society

The Dorrance post office and drug store
Kansas State Historical Society

The Dorrance telephone switch-board
Kansas State Historical Society

The Dorrance Citizens' State Bank
Kansas State Historical Society

Sheetz's Restaurant on Main Street
Kansas State Historical Society

Peter Steinle and Henry Heinze on their way to Sunday worship
Kansas State Historical Society

The Dorrance Lutheran Church (one of 4 churches in town)
Kansas State Historical Society

A grain elevator built by German immigrants – who brought with them the winter wheat grown locally
Kansas State Historical Society

Hogs raised as an income supplement to wheat-farmer Shilts
Kansas State Historical Society

Driving the water wagon out to refill the steam engine powering the threshing machine
Kansas State Historical Society

Lunchtime on a Minnesota farm – 1901
Minnesota Historical Society
AMERICA WAS LONG FAMILIAR WITH URBAN LIFE –
BUT ON A SMALL SCALE CLOSELY CONNECTED TO RURAL AMERICA'S NEEDS

Cotton-marketing day, Marietta, Georgia – 1905
Atlanta Historical Society

4th of July – Nome, Alaska - 1901

The Cosmopolitan Saloon in Telluride, Colorado
A PICTURE ALBUM OF JUNCTION CITY, KANSAS – 1910 (POPULATION 5000)  – A TYPICAL AMERICAN TOWN SERVING RURAL AMERICA

Loeb and Hollis Drug Store in Grand Junction
Pennell Collection, University of Kansas

Frey's New Cafe on main street in Grand Junction
Pennell Collection, University of Kansas

Park Meat Market in Grand Junction
Pennell Collection, University of Kansas

Latham's Grocery in Grand Junction
Pennell Collection, University of Kansas

The Pegues, Wright Department Store in Grand Junction
Pennell Collection, University of Kansas

Rudy Sohn's barber shop in Junction City, Kansas
Pennell Collection, University of Kansas
OTHER SCENES OF TYPICAL SMALL-TOWN AMERICAN
"MIDDLE CLASS" LIFE IN THE EARLY 1900s

Ladies' sewing circle – Black River Falls, Wisconsin
Historical Society of Wisconsin

Washing Dishes

The ice man – Cleveland, around 1910
Cleveland Public Library

Life on the Eire Canal - 1905

An American classroom – around 1900

Schoolchildren's social studies display of Eskimo life
Minnesota Historical Society

Fire department No. One, Woodbine, New Jersey

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows – Kerkhoven, Minnesota
Minnesota Historical Society

A Sunday-school picnic in Industry, Illinois – 1911
(my grandmother is front-center, my grandfather to the left with overhauls,
his brother between them!)
courtesy Miles Hodges

Keeping up with the latest fashions in rural Industry, Illinois – 1911
(my grandmother is second from the left)
courtesy Miles Hodges



Go on to the next section:  Rising Social Tensions

  Miles H. Hodges