By Wendi Bevitt

Standing silent watch, a young girl fixes her gaze over the Overbrook Cemetery. The girl of stone is Vivian Butel, the daughter of Arthur “A.J.” and Maud (Phillips) Butel. Vivian was born in 1914 near Overbrook. Arthur and Maude had two other children: Gerald, born 1909, and Arden, born 1920. People come and leave their tokens in memoriam to this young girl, some not knowing the tragic story of her death.

Vivian’s father, Arthur, was a dentist. At the time of her birth only around 60 percent of dentists were dental school graduates of the country’s approximately 57 dental schools. Many who chose this profession were apprenticed because of the cost of going away to a trade school. Arthur practiced dentistry in Eudora, Topeka, and Kansas City.

Dentistry at this time was rough to say the least. The first dental drills had been invented in the 1870s, but high speed drills were not available until the 1950s. The first X-ray machine used on a living person within the United States was in 1896, performed by Dr. Edmund Kells. The danger of using X-rays at this early time is seen with Dr. Kells himself; he developed lesions and cancer from exposure to the radiation.

When World War I affected the homefront, many dentists were called on to assist the effort. A.J. Butel joined the Preparedness League of American Dentists, which attended to those enlisted as soldiers prior to the soldiers’ deployment overseas. These dentists filled cavities and extracted diseased teeth so that the limited dentists available on the war front would be able to focus on emergency medicine. This was an important cause since many who could afford dental care were only those among the upper classes.

By 1915, Arthur moved his family back to the Overbrook area, where he continued his dental practice. In November 1918, while Arthur was away in Colorado, 4-year-old Vivian came upon a box of pills and ate some. The pills contained strychnine. Strychnine, while a poison and generally discouraged in the medical community, was at one time prescribed in low doses as a remedy for heart and respiratory ailments or as a stimulant. Within four hours the child had died.

By Wendi Bevitt

Just after 1900, Osage City was the home to its own zoological garden complete with its own castle for a headquarters. In this garden, however, the lions didn’t roar, there were no trumpets from the elephants or growls from the bears. They were all as still as a statue – literally.

The garden was the creation of a man named Clyde Hogan. Clyde was the son of Thomas and Nancy (Crowder) Hogan.  Thomas had served his country in the Civil War in the 51^st Illinois Infantry for 3 1/2 years. The family had come to Osage County in 1877.  According to the 1887 Osage City directory, the family lived at 1141 Murray Street.  This location is in the northeast portion of present day Osage City around the Flint Hills Nature Trail.

Clyde Hogan was born in 1886 prior to the move to the Murray Street address.  It is unknown whether they stayed at this address or stayed in the “northeast part of town”, but by the early 1900s they were living in a castle that served as a backdrop for the emerging zoological gardens. Clyde had taken an interest in amusement parks and had started touring with an amusement group. By early 1906 construction was nearly completed on Clyde’s re-creation of what surrounded him during his circus life. The house strongly resembled a “Katzenjammer castle” used most commonly as a fun house. Plaster animals dotted the front yard, posing for guests who came to gaze at the spectacle and a magnificent gate beckoned them in.

Clyde’s circus life didn’t stop there.