Aulne on display at Marion City Library
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Thanks to Dale Unruh, son of Herman and Iva Unruh of Marion, people can get a glimpse of what the town of Aulne looked like in the early decades of the 1900s.
Unruh and his wife, Phyllis, live in Peoria, Ill.
On Thursday, Unruh presented a 1/87th scale colorful layout of the town to Marion City Library, where it will be on display for a month.
After conferring with librarian Janet Marler and Marion Museum director Cynthia Blount, Unruh has decided to make the museum the permanent home of the display. It will be moved there the end of May or first week of June.
Unruh grew up in Wichita, where his father worked at Boeing, but he often visited his grandparents' homes at Aulne. His grandparents, John D. and Katharine Hett, owned a farm a mile south of Aulne. Pete and Mary Unruh, his paternal grandparents, lived on the north edge of Aulne.
Both families were involved in the business life of the community.
The town of Aulne was flourishing in 1914, and in 1927 at least 10 businesses remained, including two grocery stores, a bank, a service station, garage, and music and radio store.
As a teen-ager, Unruh worked for his uncles, John and Jim Hett, during the summer. He has many fond memories of those days.
Unruh's inspiration for his replicas of Aulne came from a postcard which came into his possession dated 1908. It displays a picture of the corner store in Aulne which was bought by his Grandpa Unruh in 1920.
When he retired from Caterpillar six years ago, Unruh dedicated himself to developing miniatures of early Aulne for his HO scale model railroad layout.
He used pictures taken by his aunt Ellen Darrow to make the buildings as authentic as possible. Some were created from kits, some from scratch, and some are modified kits.
Unruh decided to make a formal layout of the town, and he also built an enclosed case for it. The buildings are identified and explained around the perimeter of the display case. Some of the information was provided by Sondra Van Meter in her book, Marion County Kansas Past and Present.
The display is compressed in time and space. For instance, the Methodist church in the display dates back to the late 1800s. It was destroyed by fire in 1915 and replaced in 1917 with the present brick building.
The home of Dale's grandparents, Pete and Mary Unruh, replicated in the display, was on the north edge of Aulne, and the school house was a quarter-mile east.
In order to ensure the display's endurance for future generations, Unruh decided to donate it to Marion, where it can be appreciated by people with Aulne connections.
He thanked Marler and Blount for allowing him to bring it to Marion, and they expressed appreciation for it.
For a look at early 20th century Aulne, stop in at the library and view the impressive display. Peepholes in the glass-topped display box provide viewing for little children.
