Talk:Manhattan, Kansas

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[edit] Notable Natives

I have removed Margaret Grosh from the notables list. I maintain that her position as lead economist in the Social Protection Anchor Unit at the World Bank does not distinguish her from a number of other potential notables and ranks below the accomplishments of the others listed. If she were, for example, the Chief Economist at the World Bank, she certainly should be listed. If anyone has any thoughts/cares let me know. I am in favor of limiting the list, and Grosh does not even have her own page on Wikipedia. Kgwo1972 03:24, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Native Americans

User:Moncrief, thanks for the edit. Kgwo1972 14:34, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] KSU founded as KSU???

In the article it says this (in History): "The culmination of these efforts came on February 16, 1863, when the Kansas legislature established Kansas State University in Manhattan." But in the KSU article it says it was Kansas State Agricultural College when founded, and "the name of the school was changed in 1927 to Kansas State College, and in 1955, the name was changed again, to Kansas State University". If that is correct, should this article not reflect this? 138.37.199.199 09:15, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Birth

Manhattan, Kansas is where I was born. Felix 19:27, 18 July 2006

[edit] Rating

I gave this a B, but it is one of the better articles about Kansas cities. The only things keeping it from GA are that it could use more breadth (e.g. more about politics, religion, culture, etc.), the trivia section needs to be worked into the article, and it could use more in-line citations. Very nice article. Wrad 18:57, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Economy

Is Manhattan only a college town, or has it factories and other export industries? Jim.henderson 19:53, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Its other major employer is Fort Riley, or in other words, the US military. Wrad 20:29, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Poleska/Polistra

If possible there should be more discussion on the Poleska/Polistra as both have significant google links for Manhattan rather than just declaring out of hand (and with no reference) that Poleska is wrong (there's probably an interesting story in there somewhere about the name anyway). I see you reversed the names I added. The reference I added actually calls it Poleska and in the current format it appears to be (incorrectly) support Polistra. I see you also nuked my additional info about George Park. Park was also an abolotinist and his being in Manhattan spared his life when his printing press in Missouri was thrown in the river. His support for the Blue school is notable in how Manhattan wound up a university town. Americasroof 17:15, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I did some further google checks and almost all encyclopedias refer to the Poleska name. Kancoll.org even throws in yet another name "Poliska". There is a Poliska Lane in Manhattan. The way I read it, an early name translated would be Poland! Americasroof 17:43, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, I probably should have discussed some of this before making changes. The Parrish book is the most definitive book on Manhattan history thus far, and it states that Polistra was the original name. The citation at the end of the sentence actually is for Parrish's book now. My independent research backs this up: newspapers accounts in 1855 all call it Polistra. The first time Poleska appears is in a historical account that Isaac and Ellen Goodnow wrote for the 1883 Cutler history of Kansas ([1]). I think it was just a misrecollection on their part, and Poliska Lane is obviously based on this error. As to Park, I think his contributions to Manhattan have been underappreciated, but I didn't think the information about his press belonged in the Manhattan article (certainly in Park's article). Perhaps the part about a monetary donation to Bluemont belongs, but a more relevant bit of information is that Park was the first to propose a college for the town in a speech to the Boston Town Association in April 1855 (while his type was being thrown in the river in Parkville).Kgwo1972 22:50, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
It’s kinda cool that we have a couple of Kansas ex-pats (I have Leavenworth and KCK in my background) living in NYC discussing Manhattan, Kansas! Since there’ s a legitimate debate on the origin of the name we should probably take off the judgmental term “incorrectly” Here’s some of the encyclopedia articles citing Poleska: Britancia; KS Cyclopeda; History of the State of Kansas.
I wondered in here because I was updating the Park University entry (where I once taught school) and found out that George Park was a much more interesting character than I ever realized. Here’s the Kansas Historical Quarterly entry which gives lots of detail about the early settlements (which uses the name Polistra). I think my initial entry on Park in the Manhattan article was too unfocused. I will probably come back and focus it better on the Manhattan angle.
The Poleska name definitely sounds plausible – especially since there’s a similar street name in Manhattan. Polska is the name for Poland! (and of course would be yet another grand name for Manhattan) Polistra doesn’t really track back although there apparently is a very active blogger who uses that name and so it gets a lot of hits. Americasroof 14:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
And for good measure Poliska Lane is next Wildcat Creek and encompasses the area described in the Kansas Historical Society article as the original settlement. And for double good measure I may wonder into the KSU article to mention Park as the Kansas Historical Society assigns a founding role of the blue mound school to him. Americasroof 14:56, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

(unindenting) The latest revision sounds somewhat better. I've been watching this whole thing, but don't feel like contributing when I don't have access to any sources. Nyttend 17:37, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Manhattan in northeastern Kansas?

I have changed the description of Manhattan back to "northeastern" Kansas, rather than "north-central." Technically, it is certainly true that Manhattan is in the northeastern part of Kansas (although barely). The town is 125 miles from the Missouri border, and the state of Kansas is 417 miles across (according to its article). Mathematically, this means that dividing the state into 3 regions (east, central, west) creates regions 139 miles across. Thus, Manhattan is geograpically in the eastern region (although, as I say, barely so).

More importantly in my opinion, Manhattan is also culturally part of northeastern Kansas. Manhattan was founded by the New England Emigrant Aid Company as part of the original wave of towns founded in the Kansas Territory, along with Lawrence, Topeka, and the proslavery "border towns." Further, Riley County was one of the original 33 counties formed in the state (although Riley formed the western border of organized counties). Please let me know if you have any contrary thoughts on this. - Kgwo1972 22:25, 2 October 2007 (UTC)