It Is NOT All About the Trains!!

First of all, Happy Birthday to my sister, Mary. You made it all the way to 65!!! Secondly: I know that the theme of my blogspot is “About My Trains”, but, if you are a regular reader, you know that the posts have not been 100% about the trains on the front of the post cards. Today’s blog really takes this to the nth degree.

The two pictures on these two post cards do not have trains on them. They are, however, part of my train post card collection. The top one is a set of tracks that go over a bridge in the Royal Gorge in Colorado. The bridge is an engineering achievement that allowed the trains to traverse a very narrow spot in the canyon. Those girders are holding up the bridge because there was not enough mass below to support it. This bridge is the subject of many of my post cards about the Royal Gorge. The second post card is a picture of a sunset over Pikes Peak, also in Colorado. Again, I have many post cards that depict the route of the Pikes Peak cog train. I have this one as a supplement to those post cards. BUT, the reason that I am posting these two cards in not because of what is on the fronts of them. I noticed

that, on the backs, both of them have a red-ish, purple-ish rubber stamp on the bottom left of the card that says, “THE RICHARDS-SCHEBLE CANDY CO.” Both post cards were printed by the same company, even though the printer does not identify itself on the card. But, the distributor was kind enough to identify itself. So, I thought to myself, “What was the Richards-Scheble Candy Company?” This brought me down quite the maze of information that ended with intrigue. I first found this in newspaper clippings sent to me by John Green; I found him through the Hutchinson News facebook page. The company was a partnership between Misters Richards and Scheble. In 1901 D.E. Richards started selling candy out of the back of a feed store on Main Street. The Richards-Scheble Co. They were in business from 1902 to 1954. They specialized in hard candy, peppermints, hot caramel and chocolates. The Richards-Scheble Candy Company was especially famous as the home of Donatti Chocolates. The store was located on Elm Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in Hutchinson, Kansas. Hutchinson is very close to the geographical centre of Kansas. Another article intrigued me, too. A.R. Scheble was killed by the elevator while at the candy factory. It seems that at 12:40 P.M. on January 30, 1934 that “he was found with his head and neck wedged between the elevator and the planks of the first floor”. It was deemed an accident. Then, another article included this: “Basil Wilson said A.R. Scheble, a 52-year-old candy manufacturer, was killed in the building while on the freight elevator. After her husband’s death, Junia Belle Scheble asked that the elevator never be used again. A second freight elevator was built and it’s still used today to bring heavy wood pieces to the wood shops. Junia Belle Scheble kept the candy factory open and produced Donatti Chocolates, hard candy, peppermints and hot caramels, but it closed in 1954.” This is when the intrigue really built up in me. In another article I read this: “He [the current owner in 2009] tells the story of a couple coming to the former candy factory to purchase a used car from him. Wilson explained they stood outside when the woman said she was clairvoyant and was getting a feeling that a tragedy had happened in the building. “The woman had never been in the building and she went right to the elevator,” he said. “She said that a person had been murdered and the hat held the answer.” Scheble always wore a hat, and it was found lying on the floor after his death, Wilson said. He admits that sometimes he feels there is another presence in the building. “I don’t think he’s uncomfortable with me,” Wilson said. And, so, I decided to blog about this part of my post card collection. It isn’t ALL about the trains.