Gladys Ellen Hatter

Born: December 3, 1913 in Council Grove, Morris, KS

Died: March, 1998 in Kansas City, KS

Gladys was the little girl who started it all for me. While browsing an estate sale, I stumbled upon a shoebox overflowing with old photographs, most of them neatly labeled with names and dates on the back. I offered the seller ten dollars for the entire box and she accepted.

When I got home and began sorting through the stack, I discovered two portraits of Gladys tucked away at the very bottom. Taken in 1917 and 1919, there was something about her that immediately captured my heart. Looking at her face, I instantly fell in love with Gladys and couldn't help but wonder what her life was really like. 

These farm photos were taken in Highland Township, Morris County, Kansas—the backdrop of Gladys’s early childhood. She was actually born in the nearby historic hub of Council Grove, but according to the 1920 federal census, her father, John W. Hatter, was renting a farm in Highland Township, just a short drive northwest of town. 

​Highland Township sits right in the transition zone to the rolling Flint Hills. The background of the photo showing Gladys riding the cow captures this landscape perfectly. It was an ideal setting for her family's cattle farm.

Tracing her timeline forward to the 1930 census, the family had moved off the farm and into a home on Avenue A in Council Grove proper. By then, her father had transitioned from farming to working as a laborer for the railroad.

In 1941, Gladys and Elmer Hahner were married, marking the beginning of a new chapter. The couple eventually settled across the state line in Kansas City, Missouri, where their son, Roy, was born in 1954. 

Decades later, in 1998, Gladys passed away just across the river in Kansas City, Kansas.

Gladys' photos hang on my wall, a constant reminder that there are more stories from the past to discover. She will always be the little girl on the cow but she's also a symbol of all the people time forgot. 


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