The Hodges Collection
“My dear Governor:
...We have received a great number of conflicting requests for musical selections to be recorded for my disc phonograph, and I am trying to arrive at a satisfactory basis for the future.
I should be greatly obliged if you will kindly make up and send me a short list showing a few of the class of musical selections of which you would like records.
Yours very truly,
Thos. A. Edison”
The letter, dated January 30, 1914, was from Edison’s laboratory in Orange, New Jersey, to Kansas Governor George H. Hodges. It and all of the following references are part of the large conglomeration of documents and objects from the Hodges family in the collection of the Johnson County Museum system.
George Hodges was born in 1866 in Wisconsin, but came to Johnson County with his parents in a wagon in 1869, settling near Olathe. His wife, Ora Murray Hodges, was born on a farm in the county. The events in their lives and those around them can be illustrated by a few examples found in the sheaves of papers.
Ora's father, Arnold Murray, an “old settler” of Johnson County, was a fifer in the 123rd Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. His name appears on company E’s roll. Disabled by illness, he received $4.00 a month in disability pay after the war, though on occasion he had to fight for it through correspondence. He bought and sold land in the county and sent his daughter to live with relatives in Rushville, Indiana. Ora went to high school there. Her report cards and commencement booklet relate that she was an outstanding student, later continuing her studies at Butler University in Indianapolis.
Genealogical study was a favorite Hodges family activity. Their records and research reveal Hodges ancestors in Virginia and Maryland in the 17th century. Other names in the family tree include Hartshorn, Murray, Fought, Steed, Mount, Elston, Groves, Lewis and Spear. Ancestors were farmers, soldiers, and businessmen.
The tradition of working in business continued with George and his brother Frank. Starting with a modest lumber business in Olathe in the late 1880s, the Hodges Brothers company eventually had fourteen branch yards. They had controlling interest in the Olathe Milling Company; they speculated in oil fields in Oklahoma and California, and a number of letters and telegrams show a great interest in Miami Beach development in the 1930s. Local banks, federal programs during the 1930s, and the cattle industry took some of their attention as well.
In the midst of all this, George Hodges served in the Kansas Senate betwen 1904 and 1912. Elected Governor in 1913, his term ran until 1915. Every type of political report, debates on paved roads, campaign materials, election results, and copies of speeches on subjects from women’s suffrage to prohibition are preserved. At the Young Men’s democratic club banquet in Abilene on November 9, 1909, the blue program with the yellow ribbon relates that Senator Hodges presented his thoughts on Kansas democracy after a young man named Dwight Eisenhower spoke about students in politics.
George Hodges made many speeches at such dinners and other gatherings over his career. One in particular about World War I stands out. He was urging young men to join in the cause, for those soldiers fighting with Pershing were “men like you, citizens in every walk of life, men who have torn themselves up by the roots... men who tacked these words upon their office doors — ‘This house closed until Hell is licked out of the Kaiser.’ ”
In 1915 Governor Hodges led the huge effort of gathering and shipping thousands of tons of Kansas wheat to the starving people of Belgium. He was decorated by the King of Belgium for his efforts. Ora and he were leaders in Red Cross activities.
Patriotism remained one of George Hodges’ passions, as did prohibition. His stand on suffrage for women is illustrated by a letter from Elizabeth Barr Arthur of Overland Park:
“When we were working for equal suffrage in Kansas and lacked one vote in the Senate, it was State Senator Hodges that came to the rescue and the bill was passed. We had a very exciting time running neck and neck with the opposition until the Hodges vote was cast.”
Indeed, the correspondence in the collection is probably the most exciting part of it. There are letters from the famous and infamous. The subjects run from politics to reports on fishing trips. Franklin D. Roosevelt, when Governor of New York and as president, wrote George Hodges, as did Woodrow Wilson and long-time presidential candidate Alf Landon. Other letters are from William Allen White, J.C. Nichols and Senator George McGill. Following a wire sent by George Hodges on April 16, 1945, to the new president Harry Truman which stated that “in you the world will find a worthy successor to our beloved Roosevelt,“ Truman replied by letter that he appreciated the thoughts, but that he ”would like to be back as your neighbor once more over in Jackson County.”
Hodges had corresponded with Truman in the 1930s and early 1940s as well, when Truman was in the U.S. Senate. He wrote four senators in 1916 about pensions for veterans of the 18th and 19th Cavalry who had served in the western Indian wars.
Other family members’ letters also reflect a wide range of topics. In 1918 son Murray (known as Jimmy) wrote Santa Claus in Greenland, relating that “I want a box of candy and some toys which are a boat and a car, [a] climbing monkey and a fountain pen. I will now have to close. Your loving friend Jimmy Hodges.” No copy of a reply exists.
Lost of documents about the children in the family do remain, however, such as school report cards, letters from camps, college reports, copies of the Sum Bull of Alpha Nu (a newsletter of Jim Hodges’ K.U. fraternity), commencement booklets, and news clippings. One is a story about George and Ora Hodges’ daughter, Georgia, while attending college at Wellesley in Massachusetts: “Miss Hodges... who is driving a Willys-Knight coupe praises the car in every detail.... Although gas is 35 cents a gallon, it doesn't worry much, since the W.K. made over 20 miles to the gallon yesterday and we left her around 50 miles per hour for six hours.”
The clippings in the collection cover a wide variety of subjects. Other documents from business records, information on the Johnson County Democrat (operated by the Hodges Brothers), receipts for purchases of automobiles and property, church programs, birthday cards, scrapbooks to photographs are present. The Hodges collection also includes his inaugural suit, a metal plaque commemorating George's service in the Kansas National Guard during the Parsons, Kansas, railroad strike and riots in 1886, and passes to national Democratic conventions.
By the way, Governor Hodges evidently was satisfied with his phonograph, for a page from the Edison Phonograph Monthly for March 1914 has a photograph of Governor Hodges and his young son Murray by one. The caption states that the governor declared, “There is nothing more restful after a strenuous day of State business than an evening at home with the Edison Disc Phonograph.”
--ALBUM vol. 1, no. 2 (winter 1989)related articles:
-George Hodges (ALBUM vol. 14, no. 1 winter 2001)
