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Recollections of Early Days as Recalled By
Mrs. John A. Martin, Widow of Ex-Governor

Mrs. Ida Challiss Martin, widow of Governor John A. Martin, lives in a big two
story brick house on North Terrace. Governor Martin took her to the house a bride 66
years ago. The house is among stately elms and maple trees planted by Governor Martin
and Mrs. Martin in their youth.

Mrs. Martin has lived in the midst of stirring events, her father Dr. W. L. Challiss,
long since dead, was a forceful man. Her husband was a man who dominated his affairs
yet Mrs. martin, being of a retiring, modest nature, stood back, and let the world go by.
As a girl, she devoted herself to her younger brothers and sisters, being the eldest in a
large family. After her marriage her husband, their children, and their home engaged all
her time, her care and her thoughts. Her only outside interest was her church. From her
childhood she had been devoted to the Baptist church, and the only organizations she has
ever become identified with have been church societies; and at one time she belonged to
the Women's Relief corps of the John A. Martin Post, named for her husband who served
as Colonel in the Northern army during the Civil War.

Born in Morristown, N. J., Ida Challiss came to Atchison with her parents in 1857.
She and her sister Bertha, now Mrs. Leisure, were the only children in the family at that
time. Mrs. martin recalls the family came from St. Louis to Atchison by boat, and in April
landed where Santa Fe street is now. It was a windy spring day and Mrs. Martin
remembers her uncles, George T. Challiss, and Luther Challiss, both long since dead, met
them at the landing. Clinging to her father's hand she climbed a steep bluff ascending
almost from the landing place. The family went to the home of Mrs. George T. Challiss'
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, who lived in a cottage on Santa Fe street just west of what
older residents of Atchison call the Herman Kessler place, now occupied by M. J. Baker
and his family. Immediately little Bertha Challiss was stricken with the measles, and that
was the beginning of Mrs. Challiss' life in Atchison. Her father bought thefranchise*to
the ferry boat from George Million, and with the late Granville Morrow operated it. His
first boat was named "The Ida," for Mrs. Martin. Some years later he bought a larger
boat which he called "S. C. Pomeroy" Mrs. Martin remembers comingfromBrownsville,
Pa., in that boat when it was being delivered to her father. The trip lasted six weeks,, and
the boat steamed down the Ohio, into the Mississippi, into the Missouri. A glorious boat
ride. Who would not exchange an automobile trip for it today? But that is getting ahead
of the story: Dr. Challiss not only conducted a ferry boat, but practiced medicine in
Atchison, and "Doc" Morrison, an old time dairy man, who died a year or two ago was his
first patient.

First Home Was a Log House.

The idea in coming west was to acquire land and Dr. Challiss took up a claim
south of Atchison, where, in order to hold it, he and his family had to live for a year or
two. They moved there, and lived in a log house. Mrs. Challiss had followed her husband
west from a luxurious home. She was unaccustomed to hardships, but like the sturdy
woman of that bygone day, she bore them uncomplainingly.

Mrs. Martin remembers that her fatherfixedup a stove, under the boughs of some
trees, and it was there her mother cooked. Sometimes a pig would come along and upset
the dinner from the stove, and burn his greedy nose, but that seldom happened. Three
young men, who afterwards became citizens of importance in Atchison county, helped
plow the virgin soil for Dr. Challiss, and Mrs. Challiss had to cook for them. They were
Louis DuBois, Joe McCulley, and John Cook. Louis DuBois felt sorry for the tenderly
nurtured eastern woman, struggling in what was then the Kansas "Wilds", and Mrs.
Martin remembers, that he helped her mother cook, wash and carried the water the long
distance from the spring to the house. In those days the Challiss family never missed a
Sunday attending church in Atchison. Some times, when the roads were very heavy, oxen
were hitched to the wagon. Mrs. Martin attended school at the Stort's academy, which
was at Eleventh and Santa Fe streets, where the John O'Connor home is now. Once Mrs.
Martin then a very little girl, spelled down the school, and there were "grown-ups" there
too. She has in her possession the gilt edged Bible given to her for a prize. J. W. Vawter
was the teacher, and the date of presentation in the Bible is the year 1859. The only child
Mrs. Martin remembers attending the school with her was named Quintihy Million.

In 1860 Dr. Challiss built the house at 224 North Second street where W. H.
Reddick now lives, and moved his family into it. A few years later he bought what
became known in Atchison history as the Challiss home on North Terrace. It is one door
South of where Dr. and Mrs. Challiss's youngest son, J. M. Challiss, and his family live.
Mrs Martin lives only a block away and so throughout her life that neighborhood has been
her domain.

It is worthy of note that during the 40 years the Challiss family lived in that house
there was neither a death nor a funeral there.

The First Meeting

It was at a church festival that Mrs. Martinfirstmet Governor Martin. She was 16
years of age and he was ten years older. In those days the church festivals were big social
events. Tables were arranged along the sides of the room, and they contained salable
articles; ice cream, lemonade, flowers, etc. The center of the room was left clear and it
was there the young people promenaded, arm in arm. The particular festival, where
Governor Martin met Miss Ida Challiss, his future wife, was in the rooms then used for
church by the Presbyterians. It was over a store building on South Fourth street, on the
east side, between Commercial and Main streets.

Mrs. Martin says:

"I remember having charge of the flower table, and that Governor Martin, whom
we called Colonel Martin, bought my entire stock."
 Years after Governor Martin's death, Mrs. Martin came across an ivory-type of
herself made when she was 18, and which she had given him. In looking at it the frame
fell apart, andflutteringto the floor was a newspaper clipping. Mrs. Martin picked it up
and read it. The clipping was from the Atchison Champion, of which her husband was
editor and publisher for many years, and told of that church festival where he first met his
wife.

After that first meeting it was four years before Miss Ida Challiss and John A.
Martin were married. He used to walk home from church with her, but her parents were
strict and she did not dare invite him in, for fear her mother would tell her she was "Bold."
Finally he spoke of a book he would like to loan to her, and brought it to the house, and
after that he called Sunday and Thursday evenings. Before Mrs. Martin became engaged
to John A. Martin she went back to Philadelphia to visit her mother's relatives, before she
left her mother said to her: "Ida, you must not write to John Martin," and she didn't.

But, he asked Mrs. Challiss's permission to write to Ida, and Mrs. Challiss
reluctantly gave it. And then John A. Martin poured out his heart in a 24 page letter,
which Mrs. Martin has in her possession to this day.

It was when Mrs. Martin, then Miss Ida Challiss, was in Philadelphia that she
looked on the face of the martyred President Abraham Lincoln. He was lying in state in
Philadelphia, and she went to look at him.

Upon her return she became engaged to John A. Martin, and today she wears the
engagement ring, a plain gold band, he gave her. But it was two years later when they
were married. Together they watched the house being built where Mrs. Martin has lived
ever since.

It was in 1885 that John A. Martin became Governor of Kansas, and served until
1889. There was no executive mansion in Topeka in those days, and the salary of the
governor of the state was $3,000. Mrs. Martin did not spend much time in Topeka. She
had little children to keep her at home, and besides, in those days, the women remained at
home, and allowed the men to manage the affairs of state. Mrs. Martin recalls she and the
late Mrs. John J. Ingalls, gave a reception in Topeka at the time of Governor Martin's
second inaugural.

Mrs. Martin and her brothers, Paul Challiss and J. M. Challiss, are the only
members of the Challiss family now living in Atchison. Their sisters, Mrs. Mina Donald,
Mrs. Blanche Dekker, Mrs. Dora Bennett, Mrs. Amelia Dekker, and Mrs. Daisy Foust, are
living in California. Another sister, Mrs. Bertha Liepsner, lives in Kansas City. Mrs.
Martin's children are Mrs. Paul Tonsing, and Harres Martin, Atchison, Mrs. Grace
Mauck, Oklahoma City; Mrs. Ethel Hole, Monrovia, and Paul Martin, Battle Creek,
where he is assistant editor of the Inquirer and News. Mrs. Martin does not lead a lonely
life. Living with her, in the old Martin home, is her daughter, Mrs. Tonsing and Mrs.
Tonsing's family. A number of herfriendsof a lifetime are still living in Atchison. She is
devoted to her church, and enters, as far as possible, into its activities, and so today Mrs
John A. Martin lives as she has always lived, quietly, contentedly, away from strife and
toil.

(Atchison, 1931)
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