Sources: M.J. Morgan, 785-532-0380, morganm@k-state.edu;
and Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, 785-532-0778, blynn@k-state.edu
Friday, May 2, 2008
K-STATE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY TO CELEBRATE COMPLETION OF PROJECT CREATING WRITTEN HISTORY OF 'LOST' KANSAS TOWN OF BROUGHTON
MANHATTAN -- The history department at Kansas State University will have a Broughton Project Celebration and Wrap-up for all students and former residents of the Kansas town of Broughton who have contributed to the project. The celebration starts at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, in the Cottonwood Room at the K-State Student Union.
The Broughton Project, which began in 2004, has been funded by former Broughton resident and K-State alumnus Mark Chapman to create a written history of his vanished town. Broughton, established in 1869, was a tiny crossroads village in Clay County that was lost to the creation of the Milford Reservoir in 1966.
Since 2004, K-State undergraduates and graduates in history and other disciplines have worked to create a manuscript history. Under the direction of M.J. Morgan, assistant professor of history at K-State, almost 40 students have researched in the Clay County Museum and courthouse; they also have conducted site studies, taking many photographs as well as locating and restoring hundreds of historic photographs. Some students have drawn detailed maps based on field trips to old farm sites and the Broughton town site and cemetery.
"It took us four years," Morgan said, "but we have a complete history of Broughton. Because of the interest of K-State students in this small lost community, Broughton has entered the historical record."
One of the most important aspects of the project were the oral accounts students gathered from taped interviews with former residents, many now in their 90s. One woman interviewed for the project is now 105, Morgan said.
"The relationships established between the K-State students and elderly Kansans from this small, rural community have yielded a rich history," Morgan said.
The Broughton Project also has yielded a dividend for K-State's College of Arts and Sciences. Because of the success of the project in encouraging young, avid historians to undertake local Kansas research, Chapman has donated funds to create a Center for Rural Studies at K-State, projected to open in 2009.
The new center, under the direction of Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, associate professor of history, will be in Leasure Hall after renovation. Morgan will direct the history research lab. Rural Kansas landscapes, communities and "lost" settlements and peoples will be a primary focus of the research.
Students involved on the project also have taken their scholarship to a broader audience, Morgan said. Recently, Rebecca Feil a May 2007 K-State bachelor's graduate in humanities, presented the paper "The Broughton Ladies Aid Society and Home Demonstration Unit as a Force for Change, 1915-1930." The essay was based on hours of detailed newspaper research and highlighted the civic commitment of rural women.