BY ANDY TAYLOR

INDEPENDENCE — A Montgomery County landmark not only is the setting of a new children’s book by Independence author Wilma Andrews but the castle-like home called Belmont also is a trove for intrigue and family history.

Andrews has released her second book, “Dominica’s Castle,” published by Mennonite Press, after her 2007 book, “Tag-A-Long,” hit area bookshelves. “Dominica’s Castle” is more than a children’s tale of a family’s move from the Swiss Alps to the Kansas prairies. It is a biographical account of Andrews’ Swiss-born grandmother who often told stories of the large Belmont Castle that once stood near her childhood village in Switzerland.

Today, another Belmont Castle, located on county road 4500 between Independence and Cherryvale, stands as a monument to that ancient Swiss castle often mentioned by Dominica (Calonder) Tucker to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

But to know why a Montgomery County home bears the resemblance to an ancient European castle, you have to know the story of Dominica, the main subject in Andrews’ book and also Andrews’ grandmother.

Dominica Calonder was raised near the Swiss village of Trin, where remnants of a 15th century castle called Belmont stood atop the jagged cliffs that overlooked the town. Andrews writes that Dominica often dreamed of living in a castle called Belmont, but those ideas were dashed when the Calonder family made a long voyage to America in the 1880s. The Swiss family found its way to the middle of America to take advantage of job opportunities (Dominica’s father was a stonemason). The family settled in the Independence area, where Dominica, as a teenager, earned a job as a cook at the Montgomery County Poor Farm, which was located southeast of Independence. It was at the poor farm where she met a carpenter, Marrell “Rella” Tucker, whom she married in 1898.

When hard times hit Montgomery County in 1929, the economic downturn could be felt in the Tucker home. They needed to downsize from their large two-story farm house located one mile east of the Verdigris River in Drum Creek Township. They were able to find one of the available homes built as employee housing for the Edgar Zinc Smelting Company in Cherryvale, which, like many of the industries caught in the grips of the Great Depression, was laying off workers due to the economic depression.

A small “smelter home” was acquired and moved from Cherryvale to the Tucker property. And, to better insulate the crudely-built smelter home, the Tuckers decided to erect rock walls (stone was abundant on the Tucker farm) as an insulation barrier.

What better way to design the home’s exterior than to recollect on Dominica’s memories of the ancient castle that cast idealic dreams on her childhood. The rock walls not only were a monument to the mountain castle that intrigued Dominica during her youth but they also served a more practical purpose: to keep the home cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

That’s why the smelter home-turned-Belmont Castle resembles something from a Frommer’s Travel Guide. Gargoyles stand sentry to the castle’s entrance, and large turrets stand on each corner. Even several shiny knights stand in the castle to complement the distinctly European atmosphere.
“This is the castle that my grandmother dreamed of,” said Andrews, a retired school teacher. “That’s the primary theme of this book: to never let go of your dreams. May you never lose your quest and curiosity about your family and your history.”

The home also is decked with the word “BELMONT” clearly spelled atop the stone wall near the front entrance. However, the word is not embedded in stone with shiny ceramic tiles or rare stones. Instead, the Tuckers used beer bottles — green in color and found in a nearby trash heap — to make the word a permanent fixture of the home. The bottoms of the beer bottles carefully spell out each letter. And, within the attic, the bottle neck and mouth protrude through the wall.

“My grandparents were practical people,” said Andrews. “They made use of a lot of materials, even if it meant using old beer bottles found in a trash dump.”

What is not mentioned in the book is the modern-day history of Belmont. Andrews’ nephew, Joe Tucker, and wife, Lara, bought the house in 2002 — after it had been owned by non-family members for about 60 years — and began an expansion project in 2005. The tough part of the project was blending the exterior so that it would appear much like the rock walls that were erected in the early 1930s.

“This was a self-taught process,” said Joe, laughingly. “We had a two hour lesson about laying rock and brick, and then it was up to us to complete it.”

Tucker said he blended the masonry patterns in the same way the stonemasons laid the rock and mortar some 70 years earlier.

“There was nothing simple about it,” he said. “I don’t know how many tons of rock I used, but I know I used about 15,000 pounds of mortar mix just on the exterior walls of the expansion.”

The newly-expanded Belmont home likely would appear much like the castle that Tucker’s great-grandmother would have remembered as a child in Switzerland.

“Seeing what Joe and Lara had to go through to expand this house made me appreciate what my grandparents went through when they moved that smelter house from Cherryvale,” said Andrews. “They probably didn’t have the luxury of power tools or electrical equipment. Everything was done by hand, including hauling huge rocks to form the exterior walls.”

And, what would Dominica have thought if she could have seen the old smelter house become a larger house . . . or a children’s book written in her memory?
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“I think she would have been impressed,” said Andrews.

• Montgomery County Chronicle editor Andy Taylor is a lifelong resident of Montgomery County and also interested in knowing about the unique people and places of the county. If you have an idea for Taylor’s “This Is My Montgomery County” feature, send an e-mail to him at chronicle@taylornews.org, or call (620) 336-2100 or (620) 879-2156.

The Cherryvale Lady Chargers’ season came to an end Saturday afternoon with a 58-38 loss to Rock Creek in the consolation game of the class 3A state tournament in Hutchinson.

Cherryvale finishes its season as the fourth-best team in class 3A and with a 19-7 record.

Poor shooting dominated Cherryvale’s game as the Lady Chargers trailed for the entire contest. Cherryvale hit only 30 percent of its field goal attempts (16 for 53), 20 percent of the three-point attempts (3 for 15) and 43 percent of the free throws (3 for 7). Meanwhile, Rock Creek appeared immovable as the team canned 51 percent of its shots from the field, 50 percent of its three pointers, and 60 percent of its charity shots.

The game was the finale for CHS seniors Kelsey Overacker, Alex Hugo, Sara Schwaninger, Megan Stewart and Abby Ezard.

More details of the Cherryvale team’s apperance in the state tournament will be printed in the March 19 edition of the Montgomery County Chronicle.

BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

CANEY — Plans were announced Monday for the creation of a second preschool program in USD 436.

USD 436 already has a preschool program designed for 4-year-old youths who qualify for free or reduced meals and who have socio-economic factors that are deemed “at-risk.” The second preschool class will be for 4-year-old kids who do not meet the criteria of the other preschool program.

“It has been the goal of this school board to expand our opportunities at the pre-kindergarten level,” said Danny Fulton, superintendent. “This new preschool program will be in addition to the existing preschool class for 4 year olds. And, it’ll allow us to reach a new group of youths who need early education skills.”

Formal approval of the preschool program will be made at the school board’s April meeting, however the board did agree to pursue the remodeling of the multi-purpose room at Lincoln Memorial Elementary School to house the new preschool. The existing preschool program will remain in its location in a contained classroom adjacent to the school cafeteria.

The new preschool program will require about an additional $53,000 for teacher and paraprofessional salaries and benefits. The cost to transform the existing multi-purpose room into classrooms is estimated at $50,000, and new equipment and materials for the new preschool are estimated to be about $7,000.

Total expenses for the two preschool programs — including the remodeling of the multi-purpose room — for the 2009-10 school year is estimated to be about $188,333 while revenue is expected to be $91,850. While the district may have a shortfall of about $96,000 with the two preschools in operation in 2009-10, Fulton said he expected the deficit to be reduced after the new preschool’s first year in operation.

Much like the existing preschool for 4-year-olds who meet socio-economic criteria, the new preschool will have room for about 30 students: 15 in a morning session and 15 in an afternoon session.

Fulton said transforming the multi-purpose room for the new preschool program was one of several options presented to the board for consideration. Other options included:

• lease the former Caney Early Care and Education Center, which closed in 2008, and place all preschool programs in that facility.

• lease the former Caney Early Care and Education Center for all preschool students, relocate the district office to that site, and move the Caney Valley Virtual School and printing center to the current district office.

Fulton said board members felt transforming the Lincoln multi-purpose room into the site of a new preschool program made the most economic sense as it would contain the class in the same building as the elementary school.

“Having the new preschool at Lincoln would allow the district to not worry about paying utilities, insurance or having transportation issues at a separate site, like the Caney Early Care and Education Center,” said Fulton. “Everything is contained in one building.”

Another reason for the board to show a desire to have the new preschool at the Lincoln campus is that the Caney Early Care and Education Center, which was owned by the Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma, has yet to attain a tax-exempt status. The school board agreed several months ago to not make an offer on the Caney Early Care and Education Center property until the tax-exempt status can be granted by the federal government.

On a related topic dealing with early education, the USD 436 Board of Education heard a report from kindergarten teachers Kelli Mills and Reva Shepard regarding the all-day kindergarten concept, which was adopted at the start of the 2008-09 school year. Mills and Shepard both indicated that the all-day kindergarten concept was accepted well and that the students were now testing one full quarter ahead of students who had attended half-day kindergartens in previous years.

CANEY — A new chiropractor in Montgomery County has opened a practice in downtown Caney.

Dr. Amanda Johnson has opened Caney Chiropractic at 125 W. Fourth. The Independence native graduated from Cleveland Chiropractic College in Kansas City, Mo., in August 2008. Since then, she has been assisting in the office of her father, Independence chiropractor Gary Johnson, before opening the chiropractic practice in Caney.

“I really like small towns,” said Johnson, who also is a graduate of Independence High School and Pittsburg State University.

Chiropractic medicine is more than an occupation for Johnson . . . it’s also a family business. Besides her father being involved in chiropractic medicine in Independence, Johnson’s brother, Jeremiah, is a chiropractor in Sedan.

Caney Chiropractic is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Mondays and Thursdays and from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The office is open on Fridays by appointment only.

Johnson encourages area residents to visit with her about any chiropractic health questions. The office telephone number is (620) 879-2111.

Caney Chiropractic will also hold a patient grand opening event on Thursday, March 26. All chiropractic patients will pay only $10 for an adjustment on that day only.

BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

CHERRYVALE — A new yet disturbing trend involving cellular telephones and kids has school officials telling students about the ramifications of transmitting pornographic images.

“Sexting” is the act of using a cellular telephone camera to take racy or revealing photographs of underage persons and transmitting those images by cellular telephone. Although USD 447 has not had any trouble with this new form of pornographic media, the issue itself has caused assistant principal Scott Lambdin to address the matter with students.

“Pure and simple: it’s a criminal act,” Lambdin said while addressing the issue to members of the USD 447 Board of Education on Monday. “And, students need to learn that if they are caught transmitting those child pornographic images on their cell phones, they can be prosecuted under the state’s child pornography laws and ultimately be a registered sexual offender for many years.”

School officials say “sexting” has become a high-tech way to inflict distress among teenage friends. In some cases, teenagers will transmit nude photographs of former boyfriends and girlfriends as a way to retaliate for a relationship gone awry. Or, those revealing photos can be sent as a mean-spirited joke, even if the person being photographed is unaware of the picture being taken.

Regardless of who is being pictured, the act of transmitting images of underage kids who are nude or images of a student’s body is a serious crime, Lambdin said, noting that he has met with several classes at Cherryvale Middle-High School to address the issue.

George Owens, Cherryvale Middle-High School principal, said he recently read of one case in Ohio where a high school student whose constant ridicule and harrassment from peers — after a nude photograph taken by a former boyfriend was sent to hundreds of student cell phones — led to the student’s suicide.

Pornographic pictures taken of adults would not qualify for prosecution under the state’s child pornography laws. However, those students can be prosecuted for transmitting obscene material by cellular telephone.

Lambdin reminded board members that students are prohibited from using cellular telephones during the school day. If a student is found using a cellular phone, the phone is confiscated and returned to the student at the end of the school day.

Board member Lance Carter said the issues surrounding cellular phone communication has become a major problem for schools across the nation. He noted that some states had considered the complete prohibition of student cellular phones on school campuses because of the distractions and problems they have caused.

Fouls plagued the Cherryvale Lady Chargers in a 65-52 loss to the Southwestern Heights Mustangs in the semi-final round of the class 3A state tournament in Hutchinson on Friday night.

The loss dropped Cherryvale to the consolation game on Saturday, where the Lady Chargers will play in a noon contest against Rock Creek. Rock Creek lost to Wichita Collegiate, 42-40, in the other semi-final game on Friday.

In the championship game, Wichita Collegiate and Southwestern Heights will play at 4 p.m., Saturday.

KUSN (98.1 FM) will broadcast the Cherryvale/Rock Creek game beginning at noon Saturday.

CANEY — The USMTS (United States Modified Touring Series) Casey’s General Stores National Tour has cancelled its running of races at the Caney Valley Speedway for Friday night, March 13.

“After conferring with the USMTS and looking at our weather forecasts, it was best to cancel the races for now,” said Kerry Gorby, Caney Valley Speedway manager and promoter. “We’ll try our best to get the national tour to make an appearance in Caney later in the year.”

Two NASCAR veterans — Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace — were scheduled to appear at Friday’s races at the Caney Valley Speedway.

BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

A rock n’ roll band that had its roots in Montgomery County in the late 1950s will be enshrined into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame on Saturday night, March 7, during a ceremony in Liberty Hall in downtown Lawrence.

The group to be inducted into the hall is Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats — a four-man band that was among the originators of the “rockabilly” sound synonymous with people like Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.

However, Saturday night’s ceremony will be devoid of the band’s leader. Bobby Poe, who formed the Poe-Kat band in 1957 in Coffeyville, is now facing a new battle: throat cancer.

Retired and living in Grove, Okla., the 74-year-old veteran of the music scene is a victim of second-hand smoke. His gravelly, gurgling voice is an entire galaxy away from the smooth baritone who belted out hits like “Rock And Roll Record Girl” in the group’s heyday of the late 1950s.

He says he never smoked a cigarette during his years as a rock n’ roller. He didn’t need to, he said. Those countless days and nights spent in dance halls, honkytonks, and private clubs turned into months and years. And, the endless cycle of performing in smoke-filled concert halls forced Poe to inhale everyone else’s cigarette smoke.

It wasn’t one of those things Poe and the rest of the band thought about at that time. After all, the atmosphere in most bars and concert halls of the 1950s and ’60s was a fog of stale beer vapors and cigarette ashes.

Never did rock n’ rollers like Bobby Poe realize that those noxious fumes they inhaled while crooning into a microphone would someday be a ticket to mortality.

“I’m fighting my own battle,” said Poe. “The doctors say that want to take out my voice box. I told them we’re going to fight this with chemotherapy. I can’t give up my voice box. That’s how I’ve made a living ever since I started the Poe-Kats back in Coffeyville.”

Poe says he is saddened that he cannot make Saturday’s hall induction ceremony. “I can’t talk much, and I can’t sing,” he said, his voice breaking. “I’m afraid I would be an embarrassment.”

But an embarrassment is not what the board of directors of the Kansas Music Hall of Fame thought when they named Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats to be among the Kansas-bred musicians to be enshrined into the hall for 2009. Instead, they chose music groups whose style of music opened new doors and new genres.

That’s what happened clear back in 1956 when Poe, who was working in the shipping department for Jensen Brothers, won a $20 bet from a co-worker after Poe climbed onto the stage of the old Casa Del dance club in South Coffeyville and improvised “Love Me Tender” with a three-piece, all-black jazz band.

So impressed was the Casa Del’s owner with Poe’s quick performance that the shipper-turned-crooner was encouraged to form his own band.

And, those words of encouragement were all Poe needed to enter the music scene.

Poe, who played football at Coffeyville Junior College in the early 1950s, went through Coffeyville’s bars and dance halls to locate prospective band members. Along the way, he picked up several top-notch balladeers, including “Big Al” Downing, a Lenapah, Okla., native who, at the young age of 16, had a set of mature vocal pipes that allowed him to sing everything from Little Richard to Fats Domino. A teenage guitartist named Vernon Sandusky from Mound Valley joined the group after getting his start in bars and dance halls in Coffeyville. Percussion was handled by Joe Brawley.

Bobby Poe and the Poe Kats played weekend gigs, clubs and dance halls throughout southeast Kansas and northeast Oklahoma where they played upon the mixture of rock n’ roll, country, western swing, and rhythm and blues to form the trademark rockabilly sound.

In 1957, Poe got a call from Jim Halsey, an Independence native who became a country music manager for musician Hank Thompson. Aware of the group’s rockabilly sound, Halsey was seeking a backup band for young music diva Wanda Jackson, whose blend of rock n’ roll and honky tonk blues made her the new Queen of Rockabilly. Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats were immediately signed to perform as Jackson’s band, traveling all over the United States.

“Traveling with Wanda Jackson was a pretty big deal for a kid from the sticks,” said Sandusky, who now lives near Edna. “We went all over the country with Wanda. We made a pretty big jump — from the Casa Del in South Coffeyville to playing on stage with Wanda Jackson in California.”

Jackson, an Oklahoma native, was doing more than rubbing elbows with rock n’ roll’s elite. She also was known to have had an intimate relationship with Elvis Presley, who persuaded Jackson to record her trademark rockabilly music with the Poe-Kat band as background musicians. Her big hit was “Let’s Have a Party,” which, in 1958, put Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats on the road toward the Big Time.

However, by late 1958, Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats were going in different directions. Big Al Downing went on his own road into country music. Sandusky started a group called The Chartbusters which had Poe as its manager and co-producer. Ironically, The Chartbusters were considered a big hit during the British Invasion era of rock n’ roll. The group had a chart-soaring hit — “She’s The One” — that was a top 40 climber in 1964 and got the group ample airtime on AM radio across the nation. “She’s The One” was recorded for a whopping $45 in a Washington, D.C., studio . . . but that album sold more than 1 million singles — putting the Poe-led band in the same level of stardom as Elvis and the Beatles.

The group even performed on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” where they temporarily stole the spotlight from other British Invasion groups, such as the Rolling Stones.

However, when the British music wave was over, the Chartbusters were relegated to AM radio’s dust bin. Sandusky went on to become a guitarist for country music star Roy Clark. Poe went on to manage other groups and also entered the world of publishing as the originator of “Bobby Poe’s Pop Music Survey.” Those surveys evolved into an annual convention of country and pop music celebrities, who wined, dined and played golf in benefit tournaments. Those Poe-led conventions and annual parties were a must-go for musicians and celebrities in the music industry before Poe finally retired in 1994.

“I was tired of publishing magazines, and I saw that internet was coming into the scene,” he said. “So, I decided to get out of the business and retire. That’s when I moved to Grove.

“It was a lot of fun — being a band leader and manager all those years. If I had to do it all over again, I don’t know if I would do anything differently . . . other than tell people to put out their cigarettes.”

Ironically, Saturday night’s hall of fame induction also will include the enshrinement of Jim Halsey, the Independence native who signed Bobby Poe and the Poe-Kats to their first big deal as Wanda Jackson’s backup group in 1958. Halsey will be inducted into the hall for his 50-plus years as a country music manager. During his career, Halsey has led such performers as Roy Clark, The Judds, Reba McEntire, Clint Black, James Brown, Roy Orbison and more. Halsey also continues his 35-year management relationship with the Oak Ridge Boys. In his later career, Halsey has put his work into education by establishing a music and entertainment business program at Oklahoma City University.

Also to be honored at the event or inducted into the music hall will be Lee McBee, Lawrence; Danny Cox, Kansas City; The Dinks, Beloit; Shooting Star, Kansas City; Billy Spears, Lawrence; The Young Raiders, Lawrence; and The Serfs, Lawrence/Wichita. Another inductee into the hall of fame will be The Sensational Showmen, which had its roots in the Parsons and Pittsburg areas.

The Kansas Music Hall of Fame was established in 2004 to honor performers and others who have made significant contributions to the state’s musical history.

For more information, go to www.ksmusichalloffame.org.

The Cherryvale High School women’s basketball team will travel to the class 3A state tournament next week following the Lady Chargers’ 59-50 win over the Frontenac Raider in the finals of the class 3A sub-state tournament in Southeast-Cherokee on Saturday night. 

Cherryvale (18-5) is the fourth seed in the eight-team state tournament and will play Jayhawk-Linn (18-5), the fifth seed team, in an 8:15 p.m., game on Wednesday, March 11, at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. Should Cherryvale win its opening round game, then the Lady Chargers are guaranteed two more games, including the semi-finals on Friday and the championship or consolation game (depending on outcome of the semi-final round) on Saturday. 

In other first-round games of the state tournament, Southwestern Heights (22-1) will play Hillsboro (14-9); Rock Creek (21-1) will play Riley County (17-6), and Wichita Collegiate (21-2) will play Beloit (18-5). All first-round games of the state tournament will be played on Wednesday. 

More details about the Lady Chargers’ appearance at the state tournament will be posted on this website on Monday. 

In other basketball games, the Cherryvale High School men’s basketball team saw its season come to a close with a 71-48 loss to the Galena Bulldogs in the class 3A sub-state finale on Saturday night. More details about the Chargers’ season will be printed in the March 12 edition of the Montgomery County Chronicle.