I want to continue to write a bit about the Black families that lived in Maple Hill. Many of us who grew up in Maple Hill during the 50s and later knew Minnie (Oliver) Officer. She was the daughter of George and Neppie (Bradley) Oliver and grew up in Maple Hill. She was married to Leslie Hiram Officer (1896-1984) in 1918 and they had two children: Inez in 1919 and Beatrice in 1922.

The Officer family was one of the early Black families in Wabaunsee County. King and his wife, Emmeline Officer, were listed on the 1870 Census of Wabaunsee County as residents of Alma, Kansas. The census indicates that both King and his wife were migrants who were born in the State of Tennessee.

They were the parents of Alexander, Buck, Cicero, King David, Daniel and Henry Officer. All of the children except Henry, born in 1872, were born in Tennessee indicating that King, Emmeline and their family were probably recent Alma arrivals in 1870. King Officer is listed as a tenant farmer with personal property worth $500.

At least three of his children remained in Wabaunsee County. They were Cicero, King David and Henry. They all married into established Black families in the Newbury/Paxico community where they were well-known.

King David Officer, was born in 1866 in Smith County, Tennessee and moved to Wabaunsee County with his family. He was married to Clarissa James, who was born in Michigan in 1860 and moved to Lecompton, Kansas with her parents about 1875. They then moved to Newbury/Paxico where her father was a farmer. Members of the James family were also listed as Maple Hill residents on the 1900 U. S. Census.

King David and Clarissa (James) Officer were the parents of Oliver, Walter, Gertrude, Leslie Hiram and Walter Officer, who grew up in the Paxico Community. Many of the Officer family are buried in the Newbury Cemetery.

Leslie Hiram Officer was born in 1898 at Paxico, Wabaunsee County, Kansas and was married to Minnie L. Oliver in 1918 and by 1920, they had moved to Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas. Sometime around 1930, Minnie and Leslie Officer were divorced and Minnie moved back to Maple Hill, where she lived with her parents, George and Neppie (Bradley) Oliver.

Inez and Beatrice Officer were both good friends of my mother’s, Lucille (Corbin) Clark and Beatrice Officer was in her Maple Hill High School class of 1939.

I remember Minnie L. Officer well in her later years. As I recall, she worked for the Arthur Adams, Sr. family in Maple Hill. Minnie Officer passed away in April of 1976 and is buried in the Old Stone Church Cemetery at Maple Hill.

(Photos: First is King David Officer, second is Clarissa (James) Officer, and third is Leslie Hiram Officer.)