Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1886 Feb 25 Paul Gerhardt Tonsing and his half-brother traveled on the train from Ohio to Kansas.
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Paul was sixteen years old. They arrived in Kansas City on the 26 , checked their money and
decided they would go [again, on the train] as far as their money would take them. They made it to
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Waterville, KS on the 27 where Paul found farm work while his brother painted houses. The
brother soon got tired of this and went back to Ohio [Oak Harbor]. Paul stayed on, got interested in
the community and the Lutheran church. The pastor in Waterville took a great liking to him and
when Midland College was established in Atchison, suggested he become a student there with the
idea of possibly going into the ministry. The church congregation gathered funds to pay his tuition,
which wasn’t very much, pay for his clothing and send him to Atchison.
1887 Paul arrived in Atchison and enrolled in the Academy because he had not had the preparation for
college that was required and the construction of Midland College was just beginning. He washed
windows and found other small jobs to help pay his living expenses.
1889 While he was at the Academy, the funeral of a very well known man, Governor John A. Martin, was
held in Atchison. The Governor, elected for two terms in Kansas, had just completed his second
term and was again taking up his profession as printer and publisher of the Champion. He was just
50 years old when he died [Oct 02 1889], leaving his widow, Ida Challiss “Ida C.” Martin to finish
raising their seven children, the youngest of which was two years old. Paul decided to go to the
funeral and there he noticed one of the daughters of Gov. Martin, Ruth, and decided he was going
to marry her. She had also been going to the Academy so he had seen her before. He did arrange
to be introduced [with the help of Jessie Lyon]. They were engaged a number of years while he
went through the seminary.
1893 The seminary called Western Theological College was an adjunct of Midland College. Paul was in
the first graduating class from the college [1893].
1893 Sep 07 Paul and Ruth Martin were married in Atchison. Ruth had been born in the Martin house
[May 31, 1873] as were all of the seven Martin children. The house was almost square, two stories
with a big basement. Entering from the main entrance off Terrace Street, one came into the
entrance hall or foyer that contained the staircase curving around the wall with a large chandelier
hung in the curve. Straight ahead was a central hall, both upstairs and down. On the right hand
was the door to the large library, on the left was a door to the parlor. Coming in the back door from
the yard attached to the alley, one entered a really large, long kitchen on that stretched from north
to south. Between the kitchen and the parlor on the south was the major dining room area. The
dining area had several doors on it’s west side. Of these doors, the south west one led to the back
porch, next to it one led to a short hall between it and the kitchen, then one to the bathroom, and on
the north side of the room, one led to the long hall. There were also five large bedrooms upstairs,
reached either by the front staircase or one at the southwest end of the kitchen. In John A. Martin’s
early days, heating came from two fireplaces that also had hearths upstairs. The hearths were
decorated with tiles set into the wall. Later on there was a large furnace installed in the basement.
After PGT passed away, there was a big, black rectangle shaped heater in the dining area in front
of the old fireplace. The smaller round heating stove in the kitchen had been removed by then.
When Paul’s seminary classes ended, he received a Call from a small church in Beloit, KS so he
and his bride went there with great expectations even before he received his license to preach. The
people were cordial and kindly and they stayed a number of years [until 1898].
1894 Oct 20 Paul was licensed to preach.
1894 Oct 21 Evan Walker Tonsing was born in Beloit.
1896 Jan 08 Orpah Tonsing was born in Beloit.
1897 Aug 17 Luther Maurice Tonsing was born in Beloit.
1898 Paul received a call for Walton, NE, a dual parish with Hardy, NE. While there in 1898, PGT
contracted a bad case of Diphtheria and took six months recovering. The disease left him with a
systemic disorder so that he gained weight and could lose it only by fasting. The doctor said he
must get out of the ministry and get out on the street [outdoor work]. Paul had always wanted to be
a printer. He had composed his sermons, printed his own bulletins and other items so decided he
might open a printing shop.
1901 Jun 11 Cyril Martin Tonsing was born in Walton, NE. The family moved to Atchison to stay in the
home of Ida C. Martin, the Governor’s widow, for a brief time. Her sons, those remaining at home,
were to go to school in Baldwin and she wanted to go to that area to be with them.
1902 June 10 Cyril died in Atchison while the family was living with Ida C. at the Martin home.
1902 Sep 20 Robert “Bob” Lowe Tonsing born in Atchison in the Fall. The Tonsing family was living in
the Ida C. Martin home.
1903 Ida C. wanted them to stay with her for awhile since she was a widow in a big house and her
remaining children living at home, Paul who was seventeen and Harres who was sixteen, would
soon be adults. The Tonsings were having a struggle to make ends meet but after a disastrous
flood along the Missouri River, PGT heard that the Kansas City Star was putting out special editions
to be carried out along the flood routes. The publication wanted someone to be able to take papers
out along the Central Branch [of the railway]. So he would buy the papers, ferry them across the
river, and sell them for ten dollars a copy along the Central Branch in western Kansas. He made
enough money in two or three months to satisfy their [the family’s] needs.
1904 [During the summer] Ida C. relocated temporarily to Ottawa, Kansas to make a home for her
college age sons. Paul and Ruth and their children were still living in the Martin home. Paul had
acquired a printing press somewhere and set up at the rear of the Martin Building for job printing:
envelopes, stationary, letterheads, flyers, etc. [Began his printery in 1904 at the back of Martin
Bldg, 500 Commercial Street, according to a 1937 news article in the Atchison Daily Glob and
confirmed verbally by his youngest son, Paul M. Tonsing, in 2003. The downtown office was seven
blocks from home and he was provided much exercise, walking up and down the steep hills to get
to and from work.] In exchange for space on the second floor for his growing printing business,
Paul agreed to take care of the Martin building while Ida C. was gone. He would maintain the
property including paper hanging and small repairs and collect the rentals for her. [There were
other shops: a drug store on the main floor, a doctor on the second floor, and a large room on the
third floor.] Her youngest son, Harris C. Martin, who had shown great promise in college, served in
World War II and returned from France [in 1916] with a disabling condition he thought was caused
by his time in the service. Although he could not get compensation or a pension from the military,
this condition seemed to change his life. He took a course in electronics (of that day) in Kansas
City and set up a little garage at the house. It was not very successful but he felt was there to take
care of his mother, Ida C., if she needed him. Since his wife had refused to live with him after he
returned from the war, they were divorced. Later he married again and began selling real estate
and insurance, doing much better.
1905 Paul bought a Linotype to set type for his small printery. He bought a second press, a larger one.
He also learned, the hard way, how to keep the machines in good working order and eventually he
became quite a mechanic. As the children grew in size and abilities, each was recruited to help in
the shop after school. Paul began printing the Kansas Synod Lutheran this year. All seven children
eventually learned most facets of the printing trade.
1908 When Ida C. returned to her home in Atchison, Paul and Ruth wanted their own home and found
one on south Sixth Street.
1908 Jul 07 Ernest Frederick Tonsing and Ida Tonsing, twins, were born at the house in south
Atchison.
1909 Apr 11 Ernest and Ida were baptized at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Atchison by Rev. Robert
L. Patterson.
1910 Aug 19 Anna Maria Gertrude Walker Tonsing Mylander, mother of Paul Tonsing, died at age 75
in Oak Harbor, OH. [Her second husband, Frederick Mylander, had died at age 75 on August 24,
1899 in Oak Harbor and she had been a widow for eleven years. Their son, Lewis T. Mylander,
was 32. Lewis had married Emma Sophia Wolf and they had two children, Ruth (born Feb. 07,
1904) and Stanley (born Aug. 13, 1905).]
1911 Oct 25 Faith Catherine Martin, Ruth’s sister, married Clayton Settle in Oklahoma City, OK.
1914 Sep 14 Allen Eugene Settle, was born in Strong City, KS to Faith and Clayton Settle.
1917 Mar 03 Paul Martin Tonsing [previously named Martin Paul Tonsing and known as Junior] was
born in the Martin home. Many times during these years, Paul and the older children had to stay at
work late in the evening to be sure deadlines were met. He liked to think the purpose of his printing
office was to chiefly print religious publications and he did handle many of them; for the Baptists,
Presbyterians, Christian Church of Disciples and the Kansas Synod Lutheran (for over 30 years)
and several weekly bulletins for four or five churches. He printed his own paper, the weekly
Atchison Church Visitor. The Kansas Historical Society in Topeka began accepting copies of all
Kansas newspapers as part of their growing collection. Since they had to have uniform paper sizes
and formats in order to file them easily, they would not accept publications that varied from their
guidelines. This ended Paul’s economical use of odd sizes. Many copies of his own publication,
the Visitor, are still available for viewing from their collection. Seeing the damage that liquor caused
in many lives, Paul was an ardent prohibitionist and this caused some trouble for him. He was
unhappy that Atchison was beginning to get many saloons although prohibition was the law. He
would stand outside places like the local Eagles Lodge and see who was coming and going, then
print their names in the next edition of the Atchison Church Visitor. Often they proved to be
prominent citizens of Atchison, including the sheriff and deputies (who were supposed to be
upholding the laws of prohibition). One evening, Paul was going to the Post Office with the latest
publication and the sheriff and several of his cronies were on the porch of the Lodge and saw him.
They had been drinking and began to come down the steps and he knew he had to get out of there.
He turned and ran but he was heavy-set and they caught up with him. Paul had been a weight lifter
and pugilist while in college so he stood his ground. The sheriff came up to him and began to
threaten him and Paul swung his fist and knocked him down. Then he said he would take on
anybody that came so they ran and scattered and Paul ran into the telephone office where he
called a taxi to go home. They weren’t through with him and on a later night, the crowd set two
black fellows on him and one had a knife. He ran down the viaduct steps and over to the Atchison
Globe office to get away. He called for help again to get home. Then, since he knew the saloon
keepers meant business and weren’t going to leave him in peace, he contacted the state Attorney
General’s office and the saloons in Atchison were closed. While this fighting about liquor in the city
went on, Paul’s weekly paper gained many new subscribers, each at about two dollars a year.
Interestingly, Ed Howe’s Atchison Daily Globe didn’t join in the fight against saloons at all. Later on,
Paul became concerned that Dr. Finney, a doctor who had his office in the Martin building and who
had been elected Mayor of the town, didn’t mind using city equipment to help build some apartment
houses on land he owned. When he sent men with horses and wagons to remove some of the dirt
on the lot, Paul began publishing the information in his weekly paper. The mayor was fired and
there was bad blood between them for a while. However, after some time, Dr. Finney agreed Paul
was right and city workers shouldn’t have been used for private business. They became good
friends again. Paul always seemed to know what was going on in the town so Ed Howe began
dropping by to visit at the doorway when his own sources dried up. He’d write news articles and
one-liners from Paul’s information and sometimes, comments about Paul. They were friends for the
rest of Paul’s life. Carl Brown was another newspaper friend. Remembering Carl’s early talent for
writing papers while in school, Paul had gotten him to move from Beloit to Atchison and pursue a
writer’s career for the Globe. Carl eventually succeeded Ed Howe as publisher and the Globe
continued to be known for its one-liners. As for the Linotype, Ernest mentioned during the oral
interview that he would set the type while Paul, who stood by the Linotype, would read from various
scraps of paper where he’d jotted notes and tell him what he wanted printed. When all the space
was filled, they would quit and that was the composition of the paper for the week. The papers
would be printed on platen presses, fed by one hand while the pressman’s other hand took out the
completed sheet. The two presses and Linotype were all hooked up to leather belts hooked up to a
pulley attached to a central motor. This motor ran all the machines in the office. The children were
not required to come to the office at four o’clock in the afternoon after school, but it was understood
that they would. Ernest said he worked there through grade school, highschool, and even college
and seminary when at home and in the summer. From the grease and ink, the ones who ran the
presses always had dirty looking fingers. Paul wasn’t able to leave his children money when he
died but said he did give them all a trade so they could support themselves and their families with it
if they wanted to.
1917 Spring Evan graduated from Midland College Academy and attended Western Theological
Seminary one year.
1918 Sep 06 During World War II, Evan served as a photographer and correspondent in the Army
Signal Corp at Camp Funston, Junction City, KS.
1918 Jan 19 Orpah and Parl L. Mellenbruch were married in Topeka at the English Lutheran Church
by Rev. John Bright.
1918 Apr 02 Luther and Mary Saindon were married in Abilene, KS.
1918 Sep 19 Orpah & Parl had a daughter, Ruth Margaret Mellenbruch, born in the large library of the
Martin home which the family was using as a temporary bedroom. This room had been used as the
first office of the Atchison Daily Champion, founded by John A. Martin, before the Martin building
was built downtown. The Champion had started life on the site as a pro-slave publication, the
Squatter Sovereign, but Martin bought it with the property and changed the name and function of
the paper. He eventually tore down the building, leaving only the basement. Above it he built the
house for his bride which, after his first election, became the Governor’s mansion although the state
capitol was in Topeka.
1919 Jan 17 Evan Tonsing was on his way home from the War, having been released at the end of
hostilities.
1920 Jul 12 Bertha Challiss, sister of Ida C., married Herman C. Liepsner in Toledo, OH.
1920 Bob had charge of the printing shop by this time and much of the responsibility on Paul Tonsing
had been relieved. They were also putting out Atchison directories with three types of lists: by
names, by addresses, and by phone numbers, and also small books. They did all the necessary
work except the final stitching of the binding. They also composed the ads and distributed the
books, selling them for one dollar. Paul guaranteed they were accurate at the time of publication.
1920 Sep 14 Luther and Mary had a son, John Maurice Tonsing.
1921 Mar 27 Ernest and Ida were confirmed at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Atchison.
1921 Nov 23 Evan & Bess Moyer married. Bess had attended Nortonville, KS Highschool and Midland
College, Nebraska. She was principal of Wheaton, KS Highschool. About this time, Evan began
working for the Atchison Daily Globe as a photographer and writer.
1922 Feb 07 Orpah and Parl had a daughter who lived less than a day.
1922 May 20 Henry T. Smith who was married to Paul’s sister, Belle, died at age 82 of facial cancer.
Brigadier General Smith had been the Commandant at Fort Leavenworth, KS for many years during
World War I.
1922 May 31 Anna “Belle” Isabel Martin Smith, Paul’s sister, died at age 81, just 10 days after her
husband died.
1922 Autumn. Bob attended his first year at Kansas University. At this time, Paul began print a weekly
trade paper that listed all the drugs that a wholesale company handled. Income from this
publication helped bring in the funds for Bob’s education. A man who loved humorous stories, he
would keep a stock of these and refine them until he could tell them in a perfect manner. During
this year, the small Lutheran congregation in Valley Falls, KS found itself without a pastor and they
asked Paul if he could come on Sundays to preach. At eight-thirty on Sunday morning, Paul would
get on the Santa Fe train, ride 30 minutes, and be picked up at the station. They took him to the
church where he would have Sunday school and church services. Then he’d go out to dinner with
someone and visit with various families and prospective members. Then they would take him back
to the train about four o’clock. He would arrive back home again in half an hour or so. He did this
for several years until he purchased a used car and could drive there and back. The church
membership continued to grow and they were eventually able to hire a full-time minister.
1923 May 06 Orpah & Parl had a daughter, Marjorie Louise Mellenbruch.
1923 Jul 07 When Ernest was 15 years old, Paul decided it was time to teach him how to drive. [Farm
boys learn to drive much earlier than age 15.] He gave him a lesson or two and then had him drive
down to town [beginning on an extremely steep hill with brick pavement going down to the main
street]. After that, Ernest drove the family members everywhere they went, including carrying Paul
along the long roads to area churches on various Sundays so he could serve as their supply
minister. Due to having to repair his own equipment in the printing office, he gained considerable
expertise with machinery. Paul was a man of extreme patience and never used a swear word but
would say that everything would all work out and proceed to make it work out. Ruth was the
disciplinarian of the family and when the children were young, if they needed severe correction she
would use a small, limber twig from a bush, usually gathered by the offender. The children didn’t
think it hurt much, but the sting would get their attention.
1923 Jun 10 Luther and Mary had a daughter, Marguerite Lucille Tonsing.
1923 [Vacation trip] Paul acquired a Mitchell car that a steering wheel like a bus. The family previously
had other cars, but the Mitchell was a much larger and heavier touring car. Apparently, Paul
wanted to take several members of the family, including his mother-in-law, on a trip east. Evan,
Orpah and Luther had their own families at this time and stayed in Atchison. Bob stayed home to
take care of the printing business. On this trip, Ernest started out doing the driving, with Paul
beside him and Ida C., Ruth, Ida and Junior in the back seats. At one point, Paul decided he
wanted to drive the Mitchell, saying that he had been trained to drive it. Ernest moved to the
passenger side and Paul took the wheel. He started off fine but promptly drove into the ditch at the
first corner. The steering wheel was geared differently from the other cars Paul had driven and
much stiffer. After he did it again on the next corner, Ruth said she was getting out unless he let
Ernest take the wheel. Ernest drove the rest of the journey. The wheels had clincher tires and
these had at least one puncture a day because the roads were terrible, at least until they got further
east. The first visit was in Springfield, OH, where Paul visited with a friend, a color printer, who
worked for the Curtis Publishing House. Apparently Paul was investigating the art of using color in
his business. Along the way, they had slept in a lean-to tent propped up against the car. All meals
were prepared on a little gasoline stove and the family never ate out. After Springfield, they went
north to Cleveland, OH where Paul had a sister who was married to a funeral director, a dour fellow
with a long face who dressed in black with a celluloid collar and had a big hat on his head part of
the time, a black top hat. Paul’s sister, as the funeral director’s wife, wore black, too and her hair
was pasted down against her head and gathered at the back. She wasn’t overly affectionate
toward children. They didn’t have any children so didn’t know how to handle them. The family
visited there a couple of days and that was the only touch they ever had with the Tonsing family [on
that side]. While in Cleveland, they made some contact with Paul’s half brother [Louis Mylander]
who lived in Cleveland and who painted houses. The Mylanders were tradesmen, a respectable
family. Paul’s mother [Anna Maria Gertrude Walker Tonsing Mylander] had died the previous year
[August 19, 1910] at her home in Oak Harbor. Ernest did not remember whether the Mylanders
had a farm or how they made a living but did remember a story about them going ice fishing near
an island. [The island, in a long, thin bay that extended southeast from Lake Erie was east of their
large farmland area.] They would pack a lunch and drive their wagons out on the ice when it grew
thick enough, dig a hole and go fishing. Paul and his traveling family didn’t attend the Lutheran
Church while they were in Cleveland since they weren’t there on a Sunday. It was difficult to attend
any church during their journey because there was no way to get cleaned up enough while living in
a tent. Next, they went north to Detroit and stopped at the Mitchell factory since they were still
having trouble with a leaky seal on the water pump. After the repair, they continued north to
Toronto and then London, Ontario in Canada. They were a curiosity since not many cars came
through that had a Kansas tag. They had their first view of Niagra Falls and traveled across the
bridge. After that, they started home and arrived without any casualties or flat tires.
1923 Aug 22 Ralph Challiss, brother of Ida C. Martin, died at age 48 in Toledo, OH.
1923 Dec 15 Evan and Bess had a son, Evan Eugene Tonsing.
1923 Dec 15 Evan Eugene Tonsing baptised at St. Marks Lutheran Church, Atchison, KS.
1926 May 28 Ida and Ernest graduated from Atchison High School.
1926 Jun 03 Robert married Helen Hornecker in Wichita, KS at the Lutheran Church. During his
printing years, Paul said he never had to solicit work but was always busy. The shop printed
stationary, directories, booklets and various other items and made it through the depression years
between the late 1920's and early 1930's with little trouble.
1927 Sep 14 Orpah and Parl had a daughter, Esther Lois Mellenbruch.
1928 Jan 25 Paul Challiss, brother of Ida C. Martin, died at age 67 in Atchison County, KS, leaving a
widow, Fannie Louise Downs Challiss, and three children: Pauline, Mary and Fred.
1930 Mar 28 Orpah and Parl had a daughter, Martha Kathryn Mellenbruch.
1930 Oct 11 Evan and Bess had a daughter, Ilola Virginia Tonsing.
1931 Feb 02 Ida Tonsing married Paul B. Denton. [Paul was from a farm family in Denton, KS and
attended KU where they met.] Her father performed the wedding at the Martin home.
1931 Apr 05 Paul Martin Tonsing was confirmed at St. Marks Lutheran Church in Atchison, KS. He
was fourteen.
1931 Oct 19 Paul G. Tonsing’s newest motor vehicle operator license noted that he was age 61, stood
5'10" and weighed 306 pounds.
1932 Jun Ida Tonsing graduated from Kansas University.
1932 Nov 02 Ida Challiss Martin died at age 81 and was buried beside her husband in the Atchison
cemetery.
1932 Dec 24 Maria ‘Mina’ Challis Donald, sister of Ida C. Martin, died in Los Angeles, CA. She was 71
years of age.
1934 Feb 20 Ida and Paul Denton had a son, Paul Ernest Denton.
1935 Jun 01 Ernest Tonsing married Dorothy Louise Peterson in Falun, KS. [In 1982, she wrote a
sketch for Homecoming Weekend at Kansas Wesleyan College that said, “While attending Kansas
Wesleyan, I met my future husband, Ernest F. Tonsing. He was ordained a Lutheran pastor in
1935, in the United Lutheran Church in America.”]
1935 Nov 04 After a short stay at the Martin home, Ida and Paul Denton moved to 824 Santa Fe Street
in Atchison, KS. This was their first real home.
1936 Mar 01 Paul Gerhardt Tonsing died of Spinal Meningitis. The previous morning while he was still
at home, he said he would lie down a little bit. Ernest went on to the shop to get out the Bulletin
and Ruth went to the store for groceries. When Ruth got back, she couldn’t waken him. He died
the next morning of the swiftly moving disease. He was buried at Mt. Vernon Cemetery in Atchison
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on March 3 , his youngest son’s birthday.
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August 23, 2009
The preceding informational pages on the history of the Challiss, Martin, and Tonsing families were
created from the first audio tape made by Dr. Ernst F. Tonsing, Thousand Oaks, CA, on March 29, 1986,
during an oral interview of his father, Dr. Ernest F. Tonsing of Topeka, KS. The elder Dr. Tonsing is the
main speaker on the three tapes. As far as possible, his wording has been used so the language is less
formal than usual. Additional data such as dates and more complete family information, when not
mentioned on the tape, comes from genealogical records of Dorothy “Dot” J. Linn. Brackets indicate
special information added for clarity of the subject being discussed. Since the tapes have been made
from Dr. Tonsing’s memory, all data has been verified as carefully as possible and corrected when
necessary but of course, is always subject to change if more accurate or complete records are
discovered. There seem to be three taping times available for our use and additional information will be
added to this paper as soon as transcribed.