275 – A Move to Junction City

Mark Jarvis
The Sedalia Democrat – January 16, 1938

In January 1938, Tom “Buddy” Gallagher was initiated into Sedalia’s Boy Scout Troop 58.

It’s interesting, because it’s one of the last events we know about the Gallagher family in Sedalia, Missouri.

Tom and Mary Agnes Gallagher moved to Junction City

Next thing we know, Henry Gallagher of Junction City and Tom Gallagher of Sedalia are in Manhattan, Kansas, on business. What business? Why?

Manhattan Republic – September 29, 1938

Neither Henry nor Tom had worked for Cole’s for five years, so they weren’t in Manhattan on Cole’s business. What did they have up their sleeves?

The Junction City Union – November 5, 1938

Shortly after Henry and Tom were in Manhattan on business, we find Mary Agnes Gallagher as a member of the altar society of St. Xavier’s Church, Junction City. Junction City, not Sedalia. What happened?

The newspapers have reported on birthday parties, illnesses, and trips. The papers cover births, marriages, and deaths. But they’re silent on the fact that Tom and Mary Agnes Gallagher and their children moved from Sedalia, Missouri to Junction City, Kansas in the summer of 1938.

I wish I could tell you why, but I can’t.

333 West Second Street

333 West Second Street, Junction City

Tom and Mary Agnes and their three children moved into Henry Gallagher’s house at 333 West Second Street in Junction City. Ellen, Henry and Tom’s mother, was living there too.

Henry had owned the house for many years. He’d kept the house even when he had moved to other towns to manage Cole’s stores. He and his mother Ellen had moved back to the house in Junction City in 1934.

By today’s standards, it was a bit cramped. Four adults and three children in an 850 square foot, two-bedroom, one bathroom house.

Kathleen slept on a cot. Jane slept in a bed with Grandma (Ellen) Gallagher. I don’t know where Buddy slept.

A new school

Kathleen, Buddy, and Jane enrolled at St. Xavier’s Catholic School in Junction City. By year end 1938 they were ensconced in their new school and had made new friends.

Kathleen a sophomore

Kathleen Gallagher was a sophomore at St. Xavier’s High School in the Fall 1938 and Spring 1939 semesters.

Xavierian Yearbook – St. Xavier’s High School – 1939

1939 doin’s

The Gallaghers were settled in Junction City. Tom’s and Mary Agnes’ family lived with Henry and Grandma Gallagher at 333 West Second Street.

I’m not sure what Tom and Henry were doing for work. I think they both had jobs at Fort Riley.

By 1939, Europe’s storm clouds caused American politicians to increase military funding dramatically.

Family events were front and center. From school to birthday parties to PTA, the Gallaghers were part of Junction City society.

1939 came to an end. Gallagher life was both normal and a seismic change.

On the one hand, Kathleen, 16, Buddy, 13, and Jane Gallagher, 7, lived lives as normal as could be expected in the last years of the depression. On the other hand, their family had uprooted their life in Sedalia and moved to Junction City, Kansas.

We’re ending this story with the same question as when it began. Why? Why did Tom and Mary Agnes Gallagher move to Junction City?

It may have been because of Tom’s strong connection with his brother Henry and mother Ellen, who lived in Junction. And remember, Tom had lived in Junction City from 1917 until 1920, when he moved to Sedalia to open the store for Cole Brothers.

Mary Agnes, on the other hand, was leaving Sedalia, her mother Josie Riley, and her extended family of cousins, aunts, and uncles.

I don’t know why they moved. Perhaps Henry Gallagher had told Tom of the increase in spending and jobs at Fort Riley, just outside Junction City. The fort had been responsible for past boom cycles in Junction City. When military spending and new troops affected Fort Riley, the impact on Junction City was proportional.

We know that both Henry and Tom had jobs at the fort in 1940. We don’t know if they had those jobs in 1939. Maybe…

Timeline

Sources

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