Kansas Alliance of Professional Historic Performers

Sod-Bustin' Kansas History

Sod-Bustin' Kansas History Agricultural historian Nolan Sump carries his love for the history of farming onto the stage with stories told by two first-person personae. Humor balances hardship in these tales based on real stories.

J.W. Rauschenberg

...is an 1880 German immigrant farmer. He discusses growing up in Germany, coming to America, and the adventures of life in the 1870s and 1880s.

Nolan as Hank Emerson Hank Emerson

...is a 1930s Dust Bowl farmer in Morton County, Kansas during the "dirty thirties".

Nolan as Governor Green

Governor Nehemiah Green

Step back into the past with Nolan Sump as he portrays Nehemiah Green, the fourth governor of Kansas.

Listen in as he tells stories of coming to Kansas Territory in 1855, serving in the Civil War, becoming ordained as a Methodist minister and later becoming the governor of Kansas in 1868.

Growing up in the community of Green, Nolan Sump attended the Green United Methodist Church, ringing the bell that Governor Green gave to the first city that would name itself in his honor. As a token of esteem and wishing to honor a notable Kansan, Nolan decided to portray the governor.

Performances include demonstrations of farm tools and other implements and technologies of the eras.

Fees:
$200 and travel (add lodging for trips over 100 miles)

Available weekends and summers

Contact information

Nolan Sump
(785)452-9235
sump_97@yahoo.com
506 Hamilton
P.O. Box 162
Beattie, Ks 66406

This site was created in 2003 by the Kansas Alliance of Professional Historic Performers and Ride into History Cultural and Educational Project, Inc. with an Attraction Development Grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce and Housing Travel & Tourism Development Division

Original site concept and development by Danny C. Boyce Computer and Network Support and Consulting, Emporia Kansas

Significant revision by G R Dobbs 6/6/2007
retaining much of the original design concept

Revisions and Layout Updates in 2008 were made by Megan Matile