Researching Robert

Robert’s Adoptive Parents

by Jim Potter

Robert Walter Borchart, born in Inman, Kansas, in 1897, was the second son of Richard and Anna Borchart. Richard died in 1899 of an accidental gunshot wound. In 1908, while living in Inman with her four boys, ages three to thirteen, Anna was adjudged insane for the third time and was sent to Osawatomie Insane Asylum.

Anna’s commitment to the asylum meant the boys, with no existing adult relatives, were back in the care of an orphanage.

After a little over a year in an orphanage, Robert was adopted by Henry and Lydia Parks.

Lydia and Henry had lost at least one child shortly after childbirth. An infant girl, born in July 1897 in Emporia, weighed 1.75 pounds. She lived for two weeks. [The Emporia Weekly Gazette (Emporia, KS) July 22, 1897, 5, and July 30, 1897, 1]

The 1900 US Census recorded Henry, twenty-four, Lydia, twenty-three, and Gladys Mae, their two-month-old daughter, living in Emporia. The adults were classified as servants, with Henry working as a farm laborer and Lydia, most likely, housekeeping. In 1904, Henry hauled flour for a mill in Emporia.

By 1907, possibly 1906, the Parks family moved to King City Township, McPherson County, Kansas, where Gladys attended school in District 21 (Section 10) at Sante Fe School. The school sat approximately five miles southwest of McPherson. Gladys, age seven, was one of twenty-eight enrolled students. Their teacher was Eva Finkle, twenty, who already had three years of experience, having started teaching at age seventeen.

In March 1908, Katie Decker and Gladys Parks were taking music lessons from Miss Mary Nichols. During that era, music lessons usually referred to piano lessons, and the students regularly traveled to the teacher’s home. At age nineteen, Katie probably lived with her parents, Daniel and Blanch. It’s unknown how long Gladys studied music, but a year later, Mary  Z. Nichols, twenty, left for college in Chilicothe, Missouri, where she attended a school of telegraphy.

The 1910 US Census, enumeration date April 15, shows Henry, thirty-five, and Lydia, thirty-one, had moved to another farm that they rented. It was in Turkey Creek Township (directly south of King City Township). They probably lived on Section 11 and rented from David Roberson. By then, Robert Borchart, twelve, had joined the family and was recognized as their adopted son. This was seven months before adoption papers were officially signed on November 19. Henry and Lydia’s daughter, Gladys, was eleven at the time of the census.

It’s unclear if the year was 1909 or 1910, but, according to Jacqueline Gamble Parks, daughter of Robert, “The Sheriff was taking my father and several other boys to Topeka, asking in every town if any of the populace wanted to adopt a boy. Henry Parks needed a boy to help on his farm, so he took Robert home with him.” (Jacqueline Gamble Scott, “Memories,” unpublished manuscript, 2000, 5.)

One would expect, or hope, that Henry had discussed this major life event with his wife, Lydia. Henry (or Phillip Henry), born in Indiana in 1876, and Lydia M. Hampton, born in Illinois in 1879, were married in Emporia, Kansas, in 1896. Surely, Lydia and Henry recognized that Robert, thirteen, was born the same month and year as their first born who had not survived.

Robert was thirteen years old at the the formal adoption. The probate judge who approved the adoption was S. A. Sward, the same judge who had tried to keep Robert and his brothers from being separated from their mother by asking the Inman community to help her out, not insist she be taken to the insane asylum.

I’ve read that Gladys Mae Parks “was very fond of her new brother, ‘Bobbie’. They rode to school together on horseback.” (Jacqueline Gamble Scott, “Memories,” unpublished manuscript, 2000, 5.

July 4th, 1913, was Robert’s sixteenth birthday. It’s easy to imagine his parents taking him and his sister to McPherson’s annual patriotic celebration, ten miles north of their Turkey Creek Township home. According to newspaper reports, the city of 3,546 residents ballooned to approximately 15,000 as visitors arrived by special trains and automobiles. On the scorching day during a prolonged heat wave, local mechants welcomed visitors with free ice water at watering stations. There was a grand parade beginning at ten o’clock, followed by band concerts during the basket dinners at the shaded Lakeside Park. In the afternoon, Governor George Lodge, who had been a strong supporter of women’s suffrage, gave a patriotic speech in the shade of the courthouse. Baseball games, horse and motorcycle races, and a masterpiece fireworks display, were held at the fairgrounds.

Out of the thousands of people at McPherson’s annual celebration, Henry P. Parks was chosen to participate in a tug of war demonstration involving a pair of Sweet-Orr overall pants. The event was organized by J. Strouse & Son, a prominent clothing and dry goods store located on Main Street in McPherson. Sweet-Orr representatives conducted the tug-of-war since there were special conditions for the contest. The idea was to see if a pair of trousers could be ripped by having six men, three on a side, pull as hard as possible on each leg of the pants. After the trousers proved too strong to be ripped, the men were each awarded a pair of the Sweet-Orr overalls for their efforts.

Robert’s love of engines, through his farm work experience, would have created interest in the motorcycle races at McPherson’s fairgrounds. The winner of the five-mile amateur race, rode a Yale, 5 HP, 473 cc, four-stroke, single-cylinder engine. His time was eight minutes, ten seconds. A professional driver won the five-mile distance on a Harley Davidson in seven minutes, two seconds. An Indian motorcycle won the ten-mile professional race, the competitor taking a cash prize of thirty dollars for his fifteen minute, fourteen second run. Henry, with his love of work horses, would have preferred the half-mile horsepower event.

On October 21, 1915, after Robert, eighteen, left home unannounced, his parents were concerned about his well-being. The next day, they contacted McPherson County Sheriff O. M. Knowles. Henry and Lydia said they had no idea why Robert would leave since there were no problems in the home. Sheriff Knowles mailed out reward postcards, asking law enforcement agencies across the country to help locate the young man.

When I talked with Jennifer L. Funk, Robert’s granddaughter, she asked me if I knew why Robert had left home. I told her no, but I figured it could have been one of many reasons, including he might have been unhappy with his adoptive parents over strict parental rules, unfair punishment, or maybe he had a thirst for adventure.

In response to my speculation, Jennifer laughed. She told me that while growing up, her mother, Jacqueline Gamble Parks Scott, had told her stories about Robert. One was that Henry, his adoptive father, wanted Robert to marry his daughter, Gladys.

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