Billings house is Meysing s connection to his roots
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Will Meysing of Portland, Ore., owns the first stone house built at the Marion settlement. It was the residence of the W.H. Billings family, one of three families who founded Marion Centre in 1860.
In 1869, a rock house replaced the Billings' original log cabin. It sits along the north bank in a bend of the original Cottonwood River channel in west Marion.
Meysing also owns the surrounding 18 acres which in the early days were informally referred to as Billings Park.
William and Keziah Billings welcomed visitors to the park for Fourth of July celebrations and many other town gatherings. The open meadow was a favorite place for children to play.
According to an eyewitness who visited Marion Centre in 1876, the park included swings, rustic benches, a bandstand, and numerous footpaths. It was adorned with fruit orchards and natural groves of trees and was planted with shrubbery and flowers.
Meysing said he purchased the property (from Rusty Longhofer) because he needed something to tie him to his home community.
"It gave me a reason to be involved back here in Marion County in the future, and it gave me credibility as a Marion property owner to do searches in Marion," he said.
He excavated a former city dump on the property and found numerous antique bottles. Many were traded or sold at a Hutchinson flea market to provide money for purchase of other bottles from other collectors.
Meysing hopes someday to construct on the property a model of the original log cabin Billings constructed upon arrival. He would use the old hardwood trees along the river.
He hopes to use an archeologist to dig up the old foundation to learn the exact dimensions of the building.
He said early log cabins built in Kansas were only about five feet high inside, made primarily for sleeping and to provide shelter from the elements.
Meysing's interest in things of the past helped him get beyond the school room and the boundaries of his childhood.
He is the oldest of five sons born to Paul and Alice Meysing of rural Pilsen.
Ever since his grandfather took him on searches for Indian artifacts near the former Clark country school — he's got a cigar box full of them — Meysing has been interested in connecting with things from the past.
As a youngster who didn't seem to fit into the world into which he was born, the activity provided an outlet for his nervous energies and was a way to connect with the outside world.
As a 14-year-old, he received a Honda motorcycle and used it to search for places with hidden treasures. He tried to collect all sorts of things but often had problems getting permission from property owners to search on their property.
Once, while accompanying his father to a gun show, he saw a couple of people displaying antique bottles and selling books about bottle collections.
He found a book titled, "Re-digging the West." That initiated his search for old dumps in pastures. He found another book which taught him how to find them. He found a few cork-topped bottles in the dumps, and one was pictured and described in a collector's book.
"It challenged me to grow academically in a way that school didn't," he said. "I was different."
He ran an ad in a collection magazine about the bottles he had found. The response was overwhelming. He got hundreds of letters and phone calls from people all over the country, many of them professionals.
Since then, he has conducted archeological digs in many parts of the country. Outhouse sites often yield a treasure-trove of bottles because they often were used as a means of disposal.
After graduating from Centre High School in 1969, Meysing attended Tabor College at Hillsboro in order to continue to help on the farm. After six months or so, he dropped out of college and went out into the world to seek his own fortune. He had decided farming wasn't for him.
After working at jobs for a while, he attended Butler County Community College, earning his way. He naturally fell into several leadership roles.
He transferred to Kansas State University, where he was interested in pre-med. He managed college business operations, the recreation center at the student union building, and was president of a high-rise dormitory.
All those activities were curtailed when Meysing began to have physiological problems which influenced his work, school performance, and social behavior. College doctors passed it off as "too much on his plate."
During his college years, he continued to collect and trade bottles.
He went on to graduate in 1977 with a biology/psychology degree, but still felt no sure direction for his life. His mind was pulling him in numerous directions, including public administration, politics, and archeology.
In 1978, he moved to Oregon after spending summers there on his Uncle Leo's seed farm.
He pursued a career as an employee recruiter and eventually won many awards.
Once again, he began to experience physical problems and finally was diagnosed with an advanced non-malignant lymphoma tumor lodged at the base of his brain. It was traumatizing the pituitary gland, which produces hormones that regulate a wide variety of bodily activities.
Microsurgery successfully removed the tumor, and Meysing soon was back at work.
When the company he worked for folded, he decided to create his own online business. He named it Corporate Builders, Inc.
A large computer database program connects employees and employers in the construction business.
The successful business is for sale, as Meysing wishes to pursue several other ventures, including writing books. He wants to create his own video program on self-development and already has a CD available.
This spring, he sold a number of rare bottles, mostly embossed medicine bottles, but he still has approximately 1,500 others.
His interest in archeology continues, limited only by a lack of time to pursue all of his ambitions.
At 55 years of age, there's still time to follow his dreams.
He put it this way: "My life hasn't started yet."
