The Charles F. and Sylvia Broughton Koester family papers
Archived family documents provide a glimpse into life in the 1800s
By Cliff Hight
In September 1876, Kansan Charles F. Koester, along with his wife, Sylvia, two nieces and two nephews, endured an uncomfortable train ride from Jersey City, New Jersey, to spend a day at Niagara Falls. Arriving at 2 a.m., “tired and almost sick,” they slept at the International Hotel overlooking the river above the falls.
By noon, they were observing the falls by carriage, and Charles called one view of them “very romantic and is not easily described; it must be seen.” After further explorations, he summarized the experience this way: “These grandeurs must be seen to know of their vastness.”
Charles had already visited the east coast earlier that year. The United States was celebrating its centennial, and Charles was a member of a Kansas group that helped plan the festivities. He arrived in Philadelphia in May for the opening of the Centennial Exposition before returning to Marysville, Kansas.
In July, Charles and Sylvia were married. They traveled east for a honeymoon trip spanning August and September, stopping to see relatives, friends and other sites on the way there and back. Stops included Cincinnati; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Jersey City; and Niagara Falls.
We know of this trip through Charles’ diary, a practice he kept consistently for more than 25 years. His descendants preserved those volumes, along with photographs and many other historical records, and recently donated them to the Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Archives and Special Collections.
These documents reveal Charles’ life before arriving in Marysville, the life he and Sylvia built with their three children, his heartache when Sylvia died of tuberculosis in 1883, and how he and the children mourned and found ways to carry on. These types of records are a boon to those seeking to understand the lives of previous generations of Kansans, including what they experienced and how they responded to the events of life.
The Morse Department of Archives and Special Collections is thankful to the descendants of Charles and Sylvia for donating these important archives that help document rural Kansas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sarah Koester Morrison and Julia King Muller have represented the family, and Sarah has been the most recent caretaker of the bulk of the records. Julia and her husband, Earl Shreckengast, provided a financial contribution to support processing, conservation and selective digitization of the materials.
The Shreckengasts have also provided funds for two history students to work with the Koester House Museum in Marysville to prepare exhibits for the 2026 sesquicentennial celebration of Charles and Sylvia’s wedding. The students and museum personnel are collaborating with K-State Libraries and the Chapman Center for Rural Studies for the museum displays, as well as for one that will open on the fifth floor of Hale Library in spring 2026.