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Page 6 text:
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More than a century ago, the thirty- seven acres of prairie that now comprise the Bethel College campus were covered with clumps of bluestem and switchgrass; these plants pro- vided forage, first for wandering buffalo, then for the vast herds of longhorn cattle be- ing driven up the Chisholm Trail from Tex- as . With the coming of the Santa Fe Railroad to Newton in 1871, this brand new town di- rectly to the south became the primary ship- ping point for the Texas cattle; for a brief but bloddy summer it was known throughout the state as the wickedest town in Kansas . The cowboys and their wild ways were soon gone, however; and Newton entered into a more routine and peaceful existence. The railroad also began looking for settlers for the surrounding vast acres of land which it owned. Among the farmers attracted by the railroad were thousands of Mennonite immi- grants from the Russian Ukraine. These sturdy, hard-working pioneers brought with them from Russia many household articles, farming tools, and even small quantities of seed wheat- -Turkey Red seed wheat- -for they had visions of transforming the fertile plains of their new homeland into waying fields of golden grain . Previous Kansas settlers had been sowing mostly corn, although several varieties of spring wheat and soft winter wheat had also been producing mediocre crops for a number of years. The Mennonites planted their first crop of the Russian hard red winter wheat in 1874. This Turkey Red Wheat was well adapted to the soil and climatic conditions of Kansas, which were similar to those of the Ukrainian steppes; however, despite its su- periority over other varieties, Turkey Red was not grown to any extent outside the Men- nonite communities for more than twenty years . Gradually research began to reveal the out- standing qualities of Turkey Red Wheat. In the mid-1890 ' s Mark Carleton, the world- famous cereal authority, was sent to Kansas by the Department of Agriculture to find out why the wheat crop was so unsatifactory . He found that the only good wheat in the state was grown in the Mennonite colonies. His re- port, combined with importations of the Rus- sian wheat by the Mennonite miller, Bernhard Warkentin, finally resulted in the spread of Turkey Red Wheat throughout Kansas. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the wheat harvest in Kansas doubled; by 1920 it had doubled again, and Kansas was producing more wheat than any other state. Today Kan- sas grain descended from the original Rus- sian Turkey Red Wheat is shipped throughout the world, to provide nourishment for mil- lions of people . The threshing stones located on the Bethel College campus today remind us of our pio- neer Mennonite forebears and our agricultur- al heritage. These cylindrical ridged stones were used in Russia and in the earliest years in Kansas: when pulled over ripe wheat straw by horses or oxen, they beat the grains of wheat out of the heads. Soon advanced me- chanical methods, like the threshing machine located behind Kauffman Museum, replaced the threshing stones. Since November 16, 1934, the threshing stone has been the offi- cial symbol of Bethel College .
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Page 5 text:
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THE 1977 THRESHER Bethel College North Newton, Kansas Table Of Contents Academics 10 Activities 50 Sports 68 Students 84
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