A 1910 PICTURE OF PROTECTION BOOSTERS AND BAND LOOKING NORTH ON MAIN STREET IN THAT CITY

BRIEF HISTORY OF PROTECTION

"There are two stories about the naming of Protection: One is a traditional story having to do with an Indian scare when the people collected at Red Bluff for protection. It was, according to tradition, an attempt on the part of the cowboys to frighten the early settlers. The other story is a matter of history, the name Protection being given from a protective tariff of that decade, 1880-1890. The town became nationally and internationally known via radio and television in 1955-1956, when the National Polio Foundation chose it as the center for the free distribution of Salk vaccine shots for polio. It then became 100 percent protected. Protection is the only town of that name in the U.S. with a post office. -- Diamond Jubilee, page 46.

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"About a year later a post office was started on the Kiowa and called Protection. Among the prominent members of the old Protection Town Company were E. P. Hickok, W. P. Gibson, J. W. Johnson and one or two others, all republicans, good and true. When it came to selecting a name for the new post office, there was some difference of opinion, and it was finally agreed to leave the naming to the postmaster general, who was a republican also. In the political platforms of those days there was much said in regard to "protection," as compared with "free trade," when speaking of the development of American industries and the employment of labor, and it was but the natural thing for the postmaster general to think of the word "Protection" for the new post office on the Kiowa in Comanche-co., Kansas. That, as I understand it, was how the city of Protection got its name." -- Hiram O. Holderby, The Western Star, April 8, 1921.

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The city of Protection in Comanche County took a direct hit from a tornado Friday, although the damage seemed mostly limited to overturned trees and power lines. The worst destruction occurred at a manufacturing plant, a Comanche County Sheriff's dispatcher said... The city of Greensburg, Kansas, which was largely destroyed a year ago by a massive twister, reported minor damage when a tornado hopped from the western edge to the eastern edge of town Friday. "The funnel cloud went directly over the top of Greensburg," said Ray Stegman, Kiowa County emergency preparedness manager. " - More tornadoes strike Kansas, Oklahoma, Associated Press, 24 May 2008.

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• Protection Cemetery, Comanche County, Kansas

• Blow Dealt Polio By 311 Sore Arms: Protection Protected, article by Hank Parkinson, The Protection Beacon, December 3, 195_.

• Tornado seen from Protection, Kansas, 21 Mar 2005. Photo by Orlin Loucks

• A Gallery of Orlin Louck's Photographs.

• Photos of People in Comanche County, Ks, from the collection of Alice (Norton) Bergeman
  Photos: Christa Ashlock, Marjorie Brewer, Beverly Hoosier, Marcelline Hughes, Josephine Jantzen, Marjorie Lindsey, Bobby McFarland, Alice Lorene Norton, Donald Norton, Wanda Norton, William Robert Norton, Ruby Schultz, Anna Faye Tetrick, Dorothy Thomas, Roxie Young.

• Protection, Kansas, High School Seniors, 1950
  Robert C. Graham, Sponsor; Wayne Woolfolk, Treasurer; George L. Cushman, Superintendent; Claude Junior Prilliman, President; T.M. Johnson, Sponsor; A. Junior Pfieffer, Vice-President; Dorothy Thomas, Secretary; Lewis Murphy; Wayne Webb; Vernon Webb, Reporter; Helen Louise Harvey; Ernest L. Rhodes; Alice Norton; Dennis Atkeson; Majorie Brewer; Sylvester Breit; Leslie E. Jellison; Majorie Lindsey; Robert Zane; Ruby Schultz; Donald Morlan.

• History of the Protection Mennonite Church by Orlin Loucks, 1997.

• Protection High School Alumni Reunion Weekend, May 24th - 26th, 2002
  Surnames: Harmon, Herd, Jarnigan, Maris & Moore.

• Hiram J. & Fidelia JORDAN of Protection, Comanche County, Ks.
  Surnames: Belcher, Brown, Chancellor, Denney, Downey, Graybill, Harper, Hubbard, Jessup, Jordan, Lyons, McFerren, Ramsey, Reiswig, Robbins, Schrontz, Sigman, Starks & Thomas.

• Private Edward L. BURGHARDT, U.S. Army
  Killed in Action 01 November 1918 near Bois de Bantheville, France, in World War I.
  Surnames: Bond, Boyd, Burghardt & Urban.

• Civil War & Spanish-American War Veterans
  Living In or Near Protection, Comanche County, Kansas, in 1919 --The Protection Post, June 5, 1919.

• Protection, Kansas
  A Blue Skyways page by Protection Librarian Mary Ehret Holler.

• C.F. Spicer: An account of pioneer days in Comanche County, Kansas -- The Western Star, June 10, 1921.

• Early Days At Protection by Mrs. Blanche Denney-Towner, from The Ruth Botts History Collection, copied from material gathered by E.G. Osmon of Protection, Kansas.

• James W. Dappert: Reminiscences of Early Days in Comanche-co.
  The Western Star, January 15, 1926.

• TWO PROTECTION BOYS SHOT ON HALLOWEEN:
  High School Boys Are Victims of Stewart Millimum Monday Evening
  The Wilmore News, 4 Nov 1932.

Sign designed by Stan Herd at the south side of Protection, Comanche County, Kansas. Photo by Orlin Loucks, 19 June 2005.