The Logan County Tourism Bureau and Kickapoo Cognizors partner for a new display at the Mill on route 66 Museum

 

[April 12, 2024] 

On Saturday, April 6th the Mill on 66 Museum was open and hosting an open house to unveil a new display honoring composer and Logan County native Horace Grant Fletcher. The display is being provided at the Mill thanks to a collaboration between the Logan County Tourism Bureau and the Kickapoo Cognizors Chapter No. 645 of Questers International.

In early 2023 Lynn Spellman with the Cognizors addressed the board of the Logan County Tourism Bureau explaining that there was a grant available through Questers International that would help defray the cost of establishing an historical exhibit about local history. The Cognizors including Spellman and Nancy Rawlings Saul had dove into researching a song written by Fletcher with the subject matter of Coonhound Johnny, a local bootlegger with a colorful history connected to the Mill.

The club wanted to apply for the grant and would in the grant promise a prominent display as a tribute to Fletcher. They wanted to have that prominent display at the Mill because they planned to highlight the Coonhound Johnny song. The felt that because Johnny had history with the Mill in the days of Blossom Huffman, it would be more than fitting to do so.

The Tourism Bureau accepted the suggestion and the Cognizors went about making their plans.

This month those plans came together as the exhibit opened at the Mill. During a brief speech, Saul talked about the process of researching Fletcher and then creating the display.

On Saturday afternoon, Tourism Director Alice Roate thanked guests for coming and said that the bureau was very excited to partner with the Cognizors in creating the new display.

She introduced Saul who then spoke about the project and the man it honors.

Sault began by explaining what the Questors International is and does. She said that they were an antique study group that also supports historic sites. The work on informational exhibits and historical artifacts.

Saul said that the project began several years earlier when the Mill was collecting items for its display cases. She said one of the items donated was a piece of handwritten sheet music, donated by the late John Sutton. The music was an original composition by Fletcher and dedicated to his Uncle Dutch. The music was titled Coonhound Johnny.

Saul said she had always been curious about the artifact and about the identity of Grant Fletcher, thus she began to do some research. She found that Horace Grant Fletcher was a Logan County native, born in Hartsburg in 1913 to Ulysses and Della Kief Fletcher.

Saul had been curious about who Uncle Dutch was and why the Coonhound Johnny song had been dedicated to him. It turned out that Fletcher and a brother had lived for a time with their aunt Clara Kief. Uncle Dutch was their maternal uncle, C.L. “Dutch” Kief and also a two term Logan County Sherrif. The two boys had heard stories about Coonhound Johnny from their Uncle Dutch.

The Coonhound song was written in 1948 for piano with a percussion version published in 1969.

Saul also shared facts about Fletcher’s musical education and career including his role as the musical director for a production of Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston as Marc Antony before he was actually famous.

The display at the Mill includes a large poster with an abbreviated biography of Fletcher, an larger collection of materials that can be viewed page by page, a vintage looking turntable with a vinyl LP of Fletchers music and the album jacket for the same.

The Mill on Route 66 Museum, located at 728 South Washington Street in Lincoln, is now open for the season and hours are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. and closed on Sunday and Monday’s.

[Nila Smith]