Essay 3 A County Line to Remember

Essay 3
A County Line Moment to Remember
Sometime after Dad and Mother were married—I’m not sure just when because it was before my time—our farm was purchased from Ansell Hopper. Ansell owned a Stanley Steamer, and therein lies an interesting bit of history.
He was driving North on the Reno-Stafford county-line road south of US 50 in central Kansas, just to the east of the house, and to the north of Grandpa Brownlee’s home. Wilmer Learned was driving east with his team of horses on the road just to the north of the farm, and decided to race Ansell to the corner.
It is unclear if Ansell knew there was a race. Perhaps he thought the Stanley Steamer had some kind of right-of-way.
The race was a tie, and the collision had many ramifications.
The Stanley Steamer was damaged with steam leaking—it was dead on the road. The horses were alive.
Ansell sued Wilmer for damages.
Eventually this whole thing made it to court in St. John. The judge was perhaps partial to horses, for he ruled against Ansell, who had to pay court costs, including the costs of the lawyers.
Wilmer won some money quite handily, for he was his own lawyer.
Whenever I approach the intersection two miles south and one mile east of Zenith I always look in all four directions. I do this not just out of respect for history, but in the hope that I might catch a glimpse of that wonderful moment of a “dead heat”.