ST ANTHONY

By Peggy Smith Hake

In 1899 William and Sarah Burlingame sold a tract of 197 acres in northern Richwoods Township to D.C. and Lewis E. Crane. On Aug. 27, 1906, the Crane family platted the new town of St. Anthony with six blocks of eight lots each. A school and a church were to be built on land in the middle of the town. A cemetery, north of town, was platted at the same time by the Cranes on an acre of ground.

In September, 1906, the Cranes sold Blocks three and four and the cemetery plot to John J. Hogan, Bishop of the Kansas City Diocese for construction of a Catholic Church and school. St. Anthony is one of the county's newer communities, begun after the turn of the century. A new church was built there in 1906 and dedicated in 1907.

Principal contributors toward the new church were the families of Evers, Otto, Schulte and Blomberg, German immigrants who had come into the county in the latter portion of the 19th century.

WINDOW TO THE PAST

by Peggy Smith Hake

SOME EARLY MEMORIES OF ST. ANTHONY......by Ilde Doerhoff, Osawatomie, Kansas........NOTE: Before his death a few years ago, the information in this article was sent to me in a letter written by Ilde Doerhoff of Oswatomie, Kansas. He had some wonderful memories of the St. Anthony community that remained so vivid in his mind over the years............

John Doerhoff, father of Lambert and Phillip Doerhoff, owned land on the west end of St. Anthony about 1919-20. It ran a quarter mile west. All those buildings west of the last street in the west part of town were not built yet. D. F. Otto owned the store, the only one at the time. John Doerhoff (Ilde called him Uncle John) traded some land to Mr. Otto for the store. He was in partnership with Mr. Paul Groner and they stocked the store up and soon had a very good business going. They built a warehouse and the water pump and made other improvements.

When everything was going well, ‘Uncle John’ thought the town needed a blacksmith shop. There was one up at St. Elizabeth run by an old gent named John Luckenotto. He had a son named Alfonse who was a blacksmith. ‘Uncle John’ made a deal with Mr. Luckenotto and same as give him the land and he built a small shop where the Fred Wieberg home is today . Mr. Luckenotte was killed in a car accident (this was the son, Alfonse) and John Luckenotto took over the house and he and his wife lived there till they died...the town had a blacksmith shop again.

Back in World War I, the Army used a lot of horses and mules. There were several families named Dake living east of St. Anthony at that time. One of the young lads was named Everett Dake and he entered the Army. The Army made a horse-shoer out of him. When he was discharged, he came home and John got in touch with him. Mr. Dake came to St. Anthony and ‘Uncle John’ sold him the land and shop and some land close where Lambert lives. Everett Dake built a 2-room house on it and opened a blacksmith shop. That is where his son was born (Woodrow Dake). Mr. Dake was a strong Democrat and a strong supporter of president Woodrow Wilson, and he named his son after him.

Mr. Dake (Everett) done very well and was liked very much by the community. All went well for sometime. The 2 school districts close to St. Anthony were the Hicks and the Otto schools. Hicks school house was east of town close to where the community park is now and the Otto school was near where the bridge crosses the Big Tavern on the blacktop road (Rt. A). They were all old and out-dated schools. ‘Uncle John’ and a few more got out a petetion to consolidate the 2 schools and build a new school at St. Anthony. That was in 1926. It carried by a large percent of the vote. Then they had to vote a bond to build a new school. That took a 2/3 majority vote. We had the majority votes but not the 2/3 needed to consolidate the two schools...’Uncle John’ and a few more went to the courthouse in Tuscumbia and had a lawyer to write up a deal where it was lawful to build the school house by donations of the land and all the materials without using any taxpayer’s money.

After the school was built, Mr. Dake (Everett) moved from St. Anthony and sold out to John Lindenbusch who built the present garage and house by it. There was a young man who was raised in the Fairway (Fairview) community northwest of Iberia and he moved to St. Anthony to teach the school. He was a good teacher and taught for the first four years there.

NOTE: I believe the teacher Ilde spoke about may have been Ross L. Livingston who was teaching at St. Anthony in 1930......