August 26, 2023 To the Editor: I read Cindy Entriken’s recent column in the Lincoln Sentinel-Republican and the part about the R. B. Gilkison house caught my eye. Mr. Gilkison was my greatgreat- grandfather.
My mother, Frances (Lewis) Coover, wrote down some family history, probably 40 years ago, with input from her older sisters, Fama Watson and Velma Lewis. According to her notes, in addition to her husband’s harness business, Mrs. Gilkison operated a hotel called “The Farmer’s Home” and served the residents meals in her dining room.
The Gilkison’s daughter, Eva Marie, married my greatgrandfather, Frank L. Lewis, in 1884 and they had one son, Raymond E., my grandfather. Frank Lewis farmed south of Barnard and also worked with his father-inlaw, Mr. Gilkison, at the harness business in Lincoln. Ray Lewis married Mabel Bridenstine, my grandmother, in 1906 and farmed with his father.
In 1915 Frank, Eva, Ray, Mabel and the children, Fama and Velma, took the train to California to visit Grandma Mabel’s family. On the way back, on the train, Frank bought the house at 302 S. 2 nd Street, Lincoln, KS, from Elias Rees. My mother grew up in this house and the family lived there in the winters, but returned to the Barnard farm for the summers. Grandmother Mabel and Velma continued living in the house on 2nd Street, until they moved into the Long Term Care Unit at the Lincoln Hospital in the 1970s. Eventually the house was sold.
The pictures on Google are nine years old and I haven’t been by there [302 S. 2nd] for a long time. I remember the lot was a quarter of the block and there was a small barn, chicken house, shop and a large garden on the property. A second floor sleeping porch on the east side has been removed. I also remember riding what had been Mom’s scooter on the sidewalks around the house which weren’t cement but rocks (limestone, I assume) trimmed into blocks.
Ray Coover
