Mystery Locale: Can You Identify? -UPDATED

I have been contacted to help identify a location. All the person has is a photo from about  1950 the building reads "Libbey Hall" and "Children's Home".   The children are brother and sister and your help would be appreciated.  Leave a comment if you have information.

 "My brothers and I were in a children's home in Oklahoma between 1949-1952.  Can you confirm if we were at St. Joseph's.  Wesley John Stevens; Sharon Lynn Stevens, Edward Price Stevens.  The two older children would have been there in 1949; the youngest would have joined us in Jan 1952.  Attached is a picture of the two older children on the steps of what I've always believed to be the home.  I have checked with the Baptist's Childrens home and they have no record of us."

We have a message from the woman who had the photos saving she had identified the location. It is the  "Methodist Children's Home" est. in 1927 in Newton, KS.  It associated with two new works which grow out of that early facility. One is Ember Hope and another reader informed us that the Children's Home , in 1960, become Methodist Youthville.

Youthville is a large service helping children and families. Libby Hall (pictured above) was constructed in 1929.

Look to the Skies: Kansas UFO Story

As Rod Serling said, there is a signpost up ahead...or in this case, along Highway 81 in southern Kansas in a small town begun in the cattle wealth of the late 1800's.  

Here, for your enjoyment and thrills are several tales from this community.  Others exist but they remain tucked away in corners, memories, and local legend.

Place: Wellington, Sumner, Kansas (west of town near lake)
Time: 1960-1962
Description:

"

...the road by the lake....when it seemed everyone had disappeared and there was a bowl over the area locking in sound, making a gray sky...there is a latter memory of other people, cars and everyone standing as if frozen and I walk past them...I was scared...but it was - distant - as  if I was drugged or cut off from all emotion...

When I first began to search for evidence of strange events in the area of my childhood home, there was lot of nothing available online. Records were hidden away, lost in newspapers not digitized or easily available, and otherwise inaccessible.

In the past decades, this has begun to change.  I revisited the subject and found there were ‘flaps’ and they did coincide with several of the incidents in my personal memory. In addition, I found at least one other person who shared a similar event in a nearby community."

In 1960 or 61 (date is approximate at present based on directory information as to when the family resided at the home near east 7th and Douglas). "I was coming home and found myself being followed by small gray "things" - I cannot explain more. They were very nebulous and indistinct. I could see through them and I know I was afraid. I had been playing in an old rail yard behind our block (lots of sand hills). I was headed home ...the memory of the heavy sense of anxiety, the turning to look over my shoulder at the 'men' and the sense they were following are accompanied by a sense of moving in very slow motion...of a strange caste to the air and the sky...a strange amber bubble that encased the episode... Soon after this, I discovered a small healed scar on the back of my thigh - yet I had not been hurt there (it was about 1-1.2 inches long). It showed a strange "weaving" pattern of skin growth between the two smooth edges with tiny pinpoints around the edges. It remained faintly white for many years but is faded now. This was nearly 50 years ago and the memory has remained clear and insistent - like a tooth ache that has refused to go away. I am sharing this now - in the hope that it may help someone else who may have also encountered "something" strange during that time in this location."

About this same time, around the area of Wellington Lake, came a report of a strange experience along a sandy road among a thick cover of foliage.  "I was a small girl and we  had gone out to the Lake for a drive. I remember the sun as we drove through the trees, seeing the sparkle of the lake...my next memory is walking, alone, down that same stretch of road with everything absolutely silent. I remember how tall the trees seemed walking alone down that road. It felt as if a clear bowl had been unended over the area and no sounds or winds were heard. It also gave a gray caste to everything, as  if it had suddenly clouded over.  I remember walking down the middle of the road in that thick sand wondering where did everybody go? .. I remember seeing our car, but at least one other car also, stopped at the side of the road. I remember seeing everybody just staring, blank looking, and then we get back in the car and drive away...everybody is silent until we move away from the gray area....and then it was as if nothing happened."

In about 1963 (thought to be no later than 1964) a resident in a house on North Jefferson street in Wellington, Kansas, reported "my brothers and mother and myself observed a red light bathe the backyard, there was no sound, no wind, nothing but the light." Later interviews with this witness indicated the red light covered the entire sky above the area just out the back door. She remembers seeing the mother and a brother go out and look up wondering what the thing was. The witnessed reported "Its appearance was similar to the "safelight" used in darkroom photography. Then it was gone, like a light being switched off. Details of the source were not visible; you could only see the red-orange round source of the light itself. I remember looking out the screen door, walking outside, looking up and then the next thing I remember is looking back into the house with the light gone. "

1958 in Topeka, Ks the wife of a local doctor sees a small amber glowing craft on the walk in her yard, it stirs her dogs and as she watched it shot out of the yard and a nearby neighbor hurried over after seeing the strange light shooting upward. 

In June of 1960 and in August, witnesses reported several incidents.  The June event was witnessed by a child who reported it years later. She lived on Maple street in Wichita.  She indicated a story of a sighting had appeared in a paper at that time but could not find the article. She also reported other strange experiences: “THIS HAPPEN WHEN I WAS SIX TO EIGHT YEARS OLD. I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND THE NEWS PAPER ARTICLE ABOUT THE OBJECT THAT WAS IN THE WICHITA EAGLE AND BEACON MY MOTHER SHOWED ME THE NEXT DAY . IT WAS A SMALL SECTION IN THE PAPER , IT STARTED OUT WITH BUSINESS MAN AND FARMER SEE UFO . I WAS OUT IN THE BACK YARD AT 2015 W. MAPLE IN WICHITA KANSAS IN THE SUMMER TIME SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 1960AND 1963 . IT WAS INTHE LATE MORNING TIME BECAUSE MOTHER WAS DOING THE MORNING DISHES . I WAS PLAYING UNDER A TREE ON THE GROUND I WAS BUILDING A RANCH WITH TOY COWBOYS, I HAD A PIN WHELL FOR A WIND MILL. EVERY THING WAS FINE UNTIL I HEARD A LOUD HUMMING SOUND, I LOOKED AROUND TO SEE WHERE IT WAS COMING FROM ,FINALLY I LOOKED UP AND I SAW A BRIGHT MULTI-COLORED OBJECT RIGHT ABOVE THE TREE WHERE I WAS PLAYING , IT JUST HOVERED RIGHT ABOVE ME I SCREAMED FOR MY MOTHER…AFTER I HAD SEEN THE UFO WHEN I WAS STILL A CHILD I WOULD HAVE THIS DREAM . I WAS STANDING AROUND THE TREE WITH MY FAMILY AROUND ME AN SOMETHING WOULD SNAP , LIKE WHEN YOU SNAP YOUR FINGERS , HEN I WOULD START FLOATING IN THE AIR TOWARD THE TREE AND NO ONE COULD HELP ME . THEN I WOULD WAKE UP IN A COLD SWEAT …”  (https://www.sightingsreport.com/sightings/69056). 

According to NICAP reports on  Aug. 23, 1960; Wichita, Kansas. 3::24 a.m.  the following was reported by a witness. Boeing aeronautical engineer C.A. Komiske reported seeing one round object with yellow lights coming from what looked like three triangular windows at bottom. Object was dull orange and it flew in an arc for 2 minutes. (http://www.nicap.org/1960.htm)

I reported this (An early 1960's encounter with possible alien occupants near Wellington, Ks.  I was coming home and found myself being followed by small gray "things" - I cannot explain more. They were nebulous and indistinct. I know I was afraid. I had been playing in an old rail yard behind our block (lots of sand hills). I was headed home ...

Soon after this, I discovered a small healed scar on the back of my thigh - yet I had not been hurt there (it was about 1-1.2 inches long). It showed some "weaving" type of skin growth between the two smooth edges and tiny pinpoints around the edges. It remained faintly white for many years.

This was nearly 50 years ago and the memory has remained clear and insistent - like a tooth ache that has refused to go away. I am sharing this now - in the hope that it may help someone else who may have also encountered "something" strange during that time in this location (between 1958-1968). I had two; possibly three other things occur that I have also never spoken about (by the lake and in town - reported earlier). http://nuforc.org/webreports/042/S42484.html

Oct.14, 1960 , Wichita, MUFON, (MUFON Case: 9026) While attending Wichita High School Southeast,(1960) I, Donald Molzen, and Mike Greshiam belonged to NASA (as a volunteers). We tracked satellite launches from Cape Canaveral. On an evening in the winter of 1960 a lady named, Barbra Battie,(part of our team)sighted an object, which was also verified in Australia that same night. This object was seen for several nights [...]https://www.sightingsreport.com/sightings/74513

4 August 1961 - Cunningham, Kansas, USA -   Nocturnal lights were reported and the same day in Wichita,  Nocturnal lights were observed by a female witness (Buck).

http://thecid.com/ufo/chrono/chrono/1961.htm

In September 1961 in New England the famous Betty and Barney Hill case would unfold.

Strangely, in November (11-10-64)  1964 it has also been reported  that there had been a UFO crash and 9 bodies recovered and were allegedly stored at Ft.  Riley, Kansas.   Alternately, the story is the crash occurred there. Too few details to describe the situation.  (http://www.burlingtonnews.net/ufocrashes.html)

Red glow from unseen object

"On a summer night in 1964 or 1965, “ I reported later to NUFORC. “my brothers and mother and myself observed a red light bathe the backyard, there was no sound, no wind, nothing but the light. Its appearance was similar to the "safelight" used in darkroom photography. Then it was gone, like a light being switched off. Details of the source were not visible; you could only see the red-orange round source of the light itself.  I remember looking out the screen door, walking outside, looking up and then the next thing I remember is looking back into the house with the light gone."  (NUFORC Note: Time and date are approximate. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous. Please see another similar report for August 15, 1937, from Fontana, CA. PD)) http://nuforc.org/webreports/038/S38539.html

RAILROADS, VIOLENCE, AND GRUESOME DEATH

WELLINGTON, KS., Nov. 22---Last evening, Levi Meeker, his wife and 8-year-old daughter were found dead on the Southern Kansas railroad track by his son. It is supposed they were struck while crossing the track in a wagon by a passenger train.(reported in the Wisconsin State Journal ~ November 23, 1888). 

In my book, WHEN DEATH RODE THE RAILS: STRANGE DEATHS IN OKLAHOMA, 1900-1920, I explored cases like this. I had found some suspicious cases in northern Texas and theorized there might be more in surrounding states.


Exactly how did a steam locomotive - stealthy they were not - sneak up to kill this family? No one on the wagon (pulled by one or more horses, walking or at most trotting) was aware of the oncoming train? None could hold the team and run it across the tracks in time?   One source indicates express passenger trains on that line were to travel at between 25-35 and mail trains 15 mph.     Were they, like some in Oklahoma, killed and then placed there to cover the crime? Are there similar deaths along that particular line?

TRAIN OUT OF TIME

As a child in Wellington, Kansas there was a railroad yard not far from where we lived and although all the children were instructed to never go there, this was cheerfully ignored. Usually home to mountain like piles of gravel, sand, or piles of rails waiting to be used by the repair crews, on one occasion a passenger care from another time mysteriously appeared and stayed there only a short time before it was moved.

The interior was similar to the image shown here; the seats were a faded burgundy velvet with large tufts in the back seats. The ceilings were faded but showed glinting gold beneath layers of dirt and dust. The wooden floors were covered with old newspapers and more dust. Brass lamps, or what remained of them, hung periodically from the long ceiling. The windows were opaque with grime and dust.

We climbed up the steps at the back and took excited turns peering into the dim interior with a common sense we were seeing something very special. No one wanted to pry open the doors, no one wanted to climb over those seats, and no one wanted to play on this train. It was like the old woman we might meet on the street. We stood a little taller, remembered out manners, and politely took our leave.

Where did the car come from and where did it go? A true mystery of history about a day where a train out of its time paused to allow a group of children a glimpse into the wonder and glory of a past day.

"I'M DREAMING OF AN ALUMINUM CHRISTMAS"

Once upon a time, in a land long ago, Christmas was celebrated with shiny aluminum trees. Oh, what modern marvels! How they glinted, glittered, and reflected the rotating colors angled upwards into those metallic branches. We were in the space age after all! After school, children were entertained by space men on the television, astronauts, and futuristic travlers.

In Kansas in the 1960's, "Major Astro" hosted the daily after school television program on KARD out of Wichita. The program of movies or cartoons, puppets, and characters was inspired by the Mercury astronauts, reflecting the new space age efforts of the Air Force and NASA, and the age-old dream of going "out there." It delighted and inspired children for many years. Everyday children would rush home to make sure they did not miss the smiling Major who always wished us "Happy orbits!" [ He was on the air from 1962 to 1973. Astro, played by Tom Leahy, died at age 87 in June. There is even a Facebook Fan Page honoring him.]

The shiny trees were just another part of this modern, futuristic, science fiction-turning-into-reality environment. We watched launches into history on small grainy pictured televisions, played with toy ray guns and flew into the 'wild blue yonder' of the imagination. Today, they are making a come back, as new versions and vintage finds. In Brevard, NC is the only museum devoted to preserving and sharing the history of these vintage delights. Stop by if you can and remember a tme when there were dreams, confidence, and local television personalties.

Merry Christmas!

(Click on the title above to link to their site).