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  wpe1.jpg (27480 bytes)   Donna Burough Opat.

 Writing is my passion and I want to share some of my works with you. I have written several books The recent ones concern my old home town and the other is about my husband's stories of growing up as a minority in Lindsborg, Kansas. My home town was Delphos, Kansas, a whole hour away. I graduated high school there and attended college for a year at Kansas Wesleyan in Salina. 

I met and married Leo Opat and came to Lindsborg for what will be the remainder of my life. We raised nine children. I did some writing then, but I then attended Bethany College, graduating 30 years after my high school graduation. I got one of their first degrees in social work and worked in that field until retirement.

I am also interested in genealogy, sewing, quilting, knitting and crocheting as well as our expanding family and our church. 

I plan to share anything that I find to add to the stories with those who might remember Delphos and be interested. I will also add any other thoughts some serious and some not.   I hope you will keep looking.

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  PUBLICANS

wpe5.jpg (367321 bytes) Delphos in the Solomon Valley-Collection of articles written by some of the earliest settlers in the Solomon Valley plus stories of the two women captured by the Indians in 1868 and returned by General Custer. 106 pages perfect bound with footnotes and index. $9.00 includes tax.

 wpe11.jpg (376253 bytes)  My Delphos in Kansas-Stories of the 1930' and 40's with some follow up. Businesses, schools and churches, war years and those who served in Civil War, WWI and WWII and registry of the "old timers" in 1939. 144 pages perfect bound with index. $9.00 includes tax.

   Historic Houses in Delphos-details some of the historic houses in Delphos. Some are the more elegant homes built in the early days and newer ones, house builders and the people who lived in them and were leaders in the community. Each of the 32 houses is illustrated, 114 pages, perfect bound, indexed. $13.00 includes tax.

    The Other Side of Lindsborg is a collection of light hearted  stories told by Leo M. Opat about growing up in the Swedish town of Lindsborg when his parents who were Polish Catholic moved there. As a boy and young man he became well acquainted with many of the leaders of the town and college and also contributed much himself. 114 pages, perfect bound, illustrated and indexed. $12.00 includes tax.

Any or all may be ordered from Donna Opat, 410 South Chestnut St., Lindsborg, KS 67456 or using the e-mail address. Postage is $2.50 for two books plus .75 additional ones. Special price on trilogy of Delphos books (one of each) is $28.00. 

WHAT'S NEW?

While at Delphos for the DHS Alumni dinner in May and the DelFest in August I learned a few new things. A nephew of B. Parks said that B. built the house at 216 N. Main and lived in by the Frank White family. He didn't like the house facing the west so he had one built just like it at 203 N. Michigan where he lived the remainder of his life.

I was told by Bob Mortimer that the Morrisons lived in the house diangeled from the Presbyterian Church when Nellie married Melburn Stone (Doc Adams on the TV story Gun Smoke). Later Anna Morrison and three children lived in the cinder block house at Main and Sixth Street, which is named Doc's House in the book, Historic Houses in Delphos, Ks.

Shopper or Hoarded?

I recently bought my first can of coffee. No, I didn't just start to make it, but I had a supply on hand. My husband was a shopper and bought coffee when it was on sale. That was years ago.( He has been gone seven and a half years,)  There were at least thirty big cans of coffee in the fruit closet. Since they were kept dry and cool they were perfectly good. In fact the coffee was better than the new cans  as the new coffee leaves more residue in the cup. It is probably from the filler used to make up the weight.

Those who know us well know that we have always been savers. My boxes of yard goods and yarn are one example as well as all the newspaper clippings, books, and many treasures that would mean nothing to anyone else.

Whether he knew it then or not coffee has been one of the grocery leads along with bananas and toilet tissue. In the long run the coffee was a saving as it certainly cost a lot less then and lasted a long time.

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