Skip to Content
Kansas Oil Museum
Kansas Oil Museum
Home
Visit
Hours & Admission
Tours & Outreach
Facility Rentals
Explore
Exhibitions
Energy Education Center
Kansas Crossroads
Oil & Gas Legacy Gallery
Beyond Butler
Get Involved
Volunteer
Donations
Research Library
Become a Member
Field Trip Scholarship
Shop
0
0
Search
Kansas Oil Museum
Kansas Oil Museum
Home
Visit
Hours & Admission
Tours & Outreach
Facility Rentals
Explore
Exhibitions
Energy Education Center
Kansas Crossroads
Oil & Gas Legacy Gallery
Beyond Butler
Get Involved
Volunteer
Donations
Research Library
Become a Member
Field Trip Scholarship
Shop
0
0
Search
Home
Folder: Visit
Back
Hours & Admission
Tours & Outreach
Facility Rentals
Folder: Explore
Back
Exhibitions
Energy Education Center
Kansas Crossroads
Oil & Gas Legacy Gallery
Beyond Butler
Folder: Get Involved
Back
Volunteer
Donations
Research Library
Become a Member
Field Trip Scholarship
Shop
Search
Shop Kansas Boy
IMG_0095.jpg Image 1 of 2
IMG_0095.jpg
IMG_0096.jpg Image 2 of 2
IMG_0096.jpg
IMG_0095.jpg
IMG_0096.jpg

Kansas Boy

$24.95

Kansas Boy: The Memoir of A. J. Bolinger offers the twenty-first-century reader delightful and revealing insights on life during an era of dramatic change in American history. Bolinger describes those years as "bursting with energy, wild with ambition." The Kansas of his childhood and young adulthood was a place where life was lived at a rapid pace: investors pursued fortunes as town developers, settlers sought to establish prosperous farms and ranches, and reformers tried to create an ideal society. A. J. opens his account with a vividly detailed description of the prairie itself, including how the frontier settlements of Kansas were in the process of becoming established communities. Born and raised in Elk County, Kansas, he tells stories of ranching and cattle drives. Retelling some of the legends of early Kansas, he debunks more than a few frontier myths. As he moves toward adulthood his accounts of farming and small-town life grow increasingly aware of the agricultural crisis of the 1880s and 1890s faced by farmers and small-town businesses as they struggled with the growing power of corporations, in particular the railroads. In doing so he offers ground-level insights into the appeal of the Populist movement and the rise of the People's Party. The challenges result in the Bolinger family's move to the city of Topeka where A. J. attends Washburn College. As a college student he helps temperance activist Carry Nation wage her antisaloon campaign and goes to Washburn's new law school. His first step in pursuing what would be a lifelong career in the law is to replicate his family's and his era's pattern of moving to where new opportunities lay: the Oklahoma territory.

A. J. Bolinger (1881-1977) offers today's reader a deeply felt memoir with keen insights and thoughtful commentary that is by turns startlingly progressive and deeply conservative. He offers us a richer understanding of life on the prairies and plains of the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century.

Add To Cart

Kansas Boy: The Memoir of A. J. Bolinger offers the twenty-first-century reader delightful and revealing insights on life during an era of dramatic change in American history. Bolinger describes those years as "bursting with energy, wild with ambition." The Kansas of his childhood and young adulthood was a place where life was lived at a rapid pace: investors pursued fortunes as town developers, settlers sought to establish prosperous farms and ranches, and reformers tried to create an ideal society. A. J. opens his account with a vividly detailed description of the prairie itself, including how the frontier settlements of Kansas were in the process of becoming established communities. Born and raised in Elk County, Kansas, he tells stories of ranching and cattle drives. Retelling some of the legends of early Kansas, he debunks more than a few frontier myths. As he moves toward adulthood his accounts of farming and small-town life grow increasingly aware of the agricultural crisis of the 1880s and 1890s faced by farmers and small-town businesses as they struggled with the growing power of corporations, in particular the railroads. In doing so he offers ground-level insights into the appeal of the Populist movement and the rise of the People's Party. The challenges result in the Bolinger family's move to the city of Topeka where A. J. attends Washburn College. As a college student he helps temperance activist Carry Nation wage her antisaloon campaign and goes to Washburn's new law school. His first step in pursuing what would be a lifelong career in the law is to replicate his family's and his era's pattern of moving to where new opportunities lay: the Oklahoma territory.

A. J. Bolinger (1881-1977) offers today's reader a deeply felt memoir with keen insights and thoughtful commentary that is by turns startlingly progressive and deeply conservative. He offers us a richer understanding of life on the prairies and plains of the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century.

Kansas Boy: The Memoir of A. J. Bolinger offers the twenty-first-century reader delightful and revealing insights on life during an era of dramatic change in American history. Bolinger describes those years as "bursting with energy, wild with ambition." The Kansas of his childhood and young adulthood was a place where life was lived at a rapid pace: investors pursued fortunes as town developers, settlers sought to establish prosperous farms and ranches, and reformers tried to create an ideal society. A. J. opens his account with a vividly detailed description of the prairie itself, including how the frontier settlements of Kansas were in the process of becoming established communities. Born and raised in Elk County, Kansas, he tells stories of ranching and cattle drives. Retelling some of the legends of early Kansas, he debunks more than a few frontier myths. As he moves toward adulthood his accounts of farming and small-town life grow increasingly aware of the agricultural crisis of the 1880s and 1890s faced by farmers and small-town businesses as they struggled with the growing power of corporations, in particular the railroads. In doing so he offers ground-level insights into the appeal of the Populist movement and the rise of the People's Party. The challenges result in the Bolinger family's move to the city of Topeka where A. J. attends Washburn College. As a college student he helps temperance activist Carry Nation wage her antisaloon campaign and goes to Washburn's new law school. His first step in pursuing what would be a lifelong career in the law is to replicate his family's and his era's pattern of moving to where new opportunities lay: the Oklahoma territory.

A. J. Bolinger (1881-1977) offers today's reader a deeply felt memoir with keen insights and thoughtful commentary that is by turns startlingly progressive and deeply conservative. He offers us a richer understanding of life on the prairies and plains of the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century.

You Might Also Like

Rocks: Hard, Soft, Smooth, and Rough
Rocks: Hard, Soft, Smooth, and Rough
$10.00
Great Wildlife of the Great Plains
Great Wildlife of the Great Plains
$32.50
Just Havin' Fun IMG_0063.jpg
Just Havin' Fun
$19.95
The Presidency of Harry S. Truman
The Presidency of Harry S. Truman
$32.50
IMG_9195.jpg IMG_9195.jpg IMG_9195.jpg
Advertising a Small Town Vol 1 & 2
$25.00

Join our Newsletter

Sign up to receive news and updates.

Thank you!

Support

Learn more about helping through donation programs, direct donations, and volunteer opportunities.

Donate

About
Membership
Volunteer
Upcoming Events
Exhibits
Facility Rentals

Contact

(316) 321-9333
director@kansasoilmuseum.org


© 2022 Kansas Oil Museum. All rights reserved.