Treasures in Trunks
The Saga of the Hackworth Painter Family 1845-1921

by Alice Seybert Montemurro

Alice Montemurro took 20 years to assemble the contents of five old family trunks into a book about her ancestors... the Painter family and the Hackworth family. She wrote the book in the voice of her great grandmother, Emily Painter... filling in the blanks with family lore handed down through the decades. Between her commentary Alice published the letters the family wrote to one another through the years.

This is a family history, but it is much more to the people in Meade County Kansas. Alice's great grandparents came to Meade County in the very beginning of settlement and were very instrumental in the development of the area. So one get's a feel for what it was like to live on the raw Kansas prairie when neighbors were few and hardships were plentiful. A great deal of Meade County history was entwined in this family's history. It is a large book, 464 pages, 8.5 x 11, and well worth the read.

ISBN 978-0-9746222-6-2
Published 2016 by Alice Montemurro
Hard Cover - 464 pages - 8.5x11
Photos, Family Trees
$49.95

ISBN 978-0-9746222-4-8
Published 2009 by Ohnick Enterprises
Soft Cover - 335 Pages - 6x9
Photos, Illustrations
$19.95

Fifty Years on the Owl Hoot Trail

by Harry E. Chrisman

James Herron left his father's ranch in Texas at the age of thirteen to join a cattle drive heading for Dodge City, Kansas. The book tells of his adventures growing up in Southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma Panhandle... how he became an open-range cowboy and eventually the first sheriff of No Man's Land in the Oklahoma Territory.

Herron's entrepreneurial spirit eventually led him to build up a herd of his own... something very much frowned upon by the Western Kansas Cattle Growers Association. When Jim shipped a load of beef to Nebraska, the Association sent inspectors who claimed to have found some of their brands among Herron's cattle. He was tried in Meade, Kansas, September 1893, and found guilty. Before he was to be sentenced, however, he and his sidekick, Jack Rhodes, escaped. Jack was shot and died on the outskirts of Meade, but Herron made it to "No Mans Land" where the law couldn't touch him. He spent the rest of his life running from the law... a situation the cowboys called being on the "owl hoot trail."

Read more about the book - Read Excerpt & Index -

Cimarron Chronicles - Saga of the Open Range

By LaDonna Meyers
from a manuscript by Carrie Schmoker Anshutz and M.W. "Doc" Anshutz

This book contains the story of Doc and Carrie Anshutz and their experiences on the prairies of Southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma Panhandle in the years from 1879 to the turn of the century.

The first part of the book is Carrie's story... about how she came with her family to Southwest Kansas a child of ten. She writes of the adventure, heartbreaks and good times she experienced growing up on the Kansas prairie.

The second part of the book is Doc's story. He came to this raw country a boy of 15. He tried various lines of work, but ended up a cowboy on the vast open range that encompassed southwest Kansas, northwest Oklahoma and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles.

Follow Doc through endless hours in the saddle and share in his day to day life that was full of adventure. Laugh at the antics of his cowboy companions and ride along as they flee a tornado or control a stampede.

This well-written account of these two interesting lives is entertaining as well as informative.

 Read more about the book - Read excerpts

ISBN 0-9746222-0-6

Published 2004

by Ohnick Enterprises

Soft Cover  - 250 pages - 6x9

illustrations - map - index

$19.95

ISBN 0-9746222-1-4

Published 2005 by Ohnick Enterprises

Soft Cover - 95 pages - 6x9

illustrations - maps

$6.95

The Dalton Gang and Their Family Ties

3rd Edition

by Nancy Ohnick

Eva Dalton, sister to the infamous Dalton Gang, lived in Meade, Kansas, in the mid to late 1880's. Her home in Meade was preserved as a tourist attraction over 60 years ago and remains today a piece of history in itself.

In The Dalton Gang and Their Family Ties one can learn about the preservation of the hideout and the story of Eva and John Whipple, the man she married while in Meade. This book contains information about Eva Dalton that can be found nowhere else.

The book also contains a comprehensive study of the Dalton family by Nancy B. Samuelson, and a story about their outlaw career by a Dalton descendent, Bill Phillips, as well as interesting stories reflected by old timers in the Meade area. Bill Dalton's outlaw activity is explored as it relates to the Southwest Kansas area.

This book will be of special interest to anyone looking for Dalton family genealogy. It is a small book, 6x9, 95 pages, but it is packed full of information and photos.

Read more about the book - Read excerpts

(for INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING go to this listing in my bookstore)

Dalton Gang Hideout Coloring Book

Artwork and story by: Nancy Ohnick

This coloring book tells the story of the Dalton Gang and their time in Meade, Kansas. The pages are filled with line drawings to color with a little bit of the story on each page.

The story starts when Eva Dalton moves to Meade with her friend, Florence Doreland. You see their millinery shop and the mercantile store where Eva first meets John Whipple... then when she and John marry and move into their honeymoon cottage. You find the outlaw brothers digging the tunnel that leads from the house to the barn, and sitting around Eva's table plotting their next move.

The book shows the criminal activity of the gang... as well as their demise and the capture of the youngest member, Emmett Dalton during their daring raid on two banks at one time in Coffeyville, Kansas. It is geared toward the young reader and teaches the premise that "crime does not pay."

View some of the pages

ISBN 0-9746222-5-6

Published 2013 by Ohnick Enterprises

Soft Cover - 24 pages - 8.5 x 11

story and illustrations

$3.95

ISBN 0-9746222-2-2

Published 2006 by Ohnick Enterprises

Soft Cover - 265 pages - 6x9

photographs - maps - index

Trails South

The Wagon-Road Economy in the Dodge City-Panhandle Region

by C. Robert Haywood

As the expanding American frontier stabilized in western Kansas after 1870, Dodge City witnessed a lively trade to the south and west, across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. As the U.S. Army wound down its long war against the Plains Indians, it blazed a rough trail to serve the garrison to Camp Supply, in what is now northwest Oklahoma. There were other needs for trails as well; to serve towns, settlements, trading posts, farms, ranches and other military installations.

With a writing style that is both meticulous to accuracy and at the same time entertaining, C. Robert Haywood has put the story of trail development in the Dodge City-Panhandle region into historical perspective with his account of the people who made this vast transportation network possible; the troops and early entrepreneurs who laid out rough paths, the freighters who refined and developed those paths into established routes, and the people who serviced and were served by the routes.

Read excerpts - Read the index - Read more about the book

A History of Meade County Kansas

An E-Book on CD

by Frank S Sullivan

    Sullivan's history of Meade County was probably the first book written about the area and is highly prized by the few who actually own a copy. Written in 1916, this book documents our history from pre-acquisition through the early 1900's.

    Since the book is so long out of print and many people have expressed an interest, we have published a new edition as an E-Book. This book is on a CD in PDF format in three different files: A History of Meade County, Farm Statistics, and Photographs. The CD also contains a "READ ME" file explaining its contents. This E-Book requires a computer for reading.

Price: $9.95

Read excerpts & Table of Contents

New E-Book Version
Published 2016 by Ohnick Enterprises
$9.95

Plains, Kansas - 100 Years is a book published by Joyce Knott at the time of Plains’ Centennial in 1985. The research, writing and assembling of this information was done by Joyce and a dedicated committee of historians from Plains. You will find them all listed on page 3 of the book.

The book chronicles the first century of this rural Kansas town... it’s people, it’s businesses, it’s farmers and ranchers. There are many family histories as well as the history of schools, clubs, churches and more.

The text is in PDF format and completely searchable.

The Will O' The Wisp

by Mary Spurgeon

Mary Spurgeon's first novel tells the tale of Kathleen Wallace, a young woman who grew up in the yet-to-be part of Oklahoma known as "No Man's Land." With a desire to see another part of the country, Kathleen signed up to teach school far from home in the mountains back east. Little did she know how much this adventure would affect the rest of her life.

Changed forever she returned to the west, soon to be joined by her new-found soul mate, Brennan, who feels he has to prove himself before taking the hand of the willful Kathleen in marriage. Brought together by a link to an ancient time and the mysterious will o' the wisp, the two of them face many obstacles as they make their way to fulfill their destiny.

This novel is based loosely on the authors amazing life spent on ranches in Southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma Panhandle. An accomplished artist, Mary Spurgeon has proved to be just as creative with the written word as she is with her sculpting tools or paint brush. The book is illustrated with examples of the author's art.

Read more about the book - Read excerpt

ISBN 0-9746222-3-0

Published 2008 by Ohnick Enterprises

Hard Cover - 316 pages - 6x9

Illustrations, photos

$24.95