I chose History as a major in college because I love learning about the people and events from the past. My favorite part about History is hearing people’s stories. Journals, notes, and scribbles in pages left unopened for years give me a glimpse into the lives and personalities of people I will never meet, yet somehow I feel close to them.

I have been interning at Lecompton’s Territorial Capital Museum for a week and a half now and I have thoroughly enjoyed sorting and cataloging items for the Museum. I have interned in Museums prior to my time here and I have looked through many books, objects, and items and today I stumbled upon something I have never seen before that made me burst with joy.

I was working on cataloging books from a donation, and I noticed a book that was particularly unattractive. It was dark green with numerous stains, an “1864 Report for the Commissioner of Agriculture.” Not a book I would ever read for fun! Inside the front cover of this book was what amazed me: A letter, over 100 years old written in pencil from a sister to her brother. It read:

Dear Brother

One hundre[d] years from now whose book do you suppose this will be

Who [will] turn this leaf over and think of me and you

Your Sister,

Mary Cummings

 I cannot help but smile when I read the note from Mary to her Brother, and now their love for each other as brother and sister will be their memory that lives on for another lifetime.

Left to Right: Mary, Bill, and Nora Cummings

The Cummings home in Lecompton and family. Left to Right: Tom, Jim, John, Pat, Bridget, Mary, Bill, Nora.

The Lecompton Museum has a wonderful collection of local family items, and that is what makes this place unique. Come to the Territorial Capital Museum Today to check out the Cummings’ family notes and family photo, as well as many other local familial histories!

-Kelli G.