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The Autumn 2003 JOURNAL of the Jackson County Historical
Society features Priests of Pallas: Kansas City’s Forgotten Fall
Festival by Thomas M. Spencer
Photo
courtesy Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society Archives.
On the night
of October 13, 1887, Kansas Citians waited with great anticipation for the
first harvest festival put on by a new organization, the Priests of Pallas.
The crowds were enormous. Newspaper
reporters had been breathlessly writing about this celebration for days.
Kansas City was going have its own festival parade like many other cities in
America at the time. Festivals were popular in St. Louis, Omaha, Baltimore,
Memphis, and Denver. And, of course, there was the Mardi Gras festival in New
Orleans, Louisiana. Befitting its incredible growth during the 1880s and its
rising status as a regional center, Kansas City was now going to have its own
such celebration. By 1924 the era of the fall festival was coming to a close.
To find out the fascinating history of the parade and the causes of its
demise, check out the printed version of the JOURNAL.
Thomas M.
Spencer is an assistant professor of history at Northwest Missouri State
University in Maryville.
The Jackson
County Historical Society collects through donation artifacts and photographs
relating to Priests of Pallas. Readers possessing photographs, documents or
artifacts relating to the Priests of Pallas desiring to preserve them
properly and make them available to the public to enjoy and learn from into the future may contact the
Jackson County Historical Society’s archives at 816.252.7454.
Websites
offering more information:
Kansas
City Public Library's Priests of Pallas pictures
Priests
of Pallas articles posted by the Kansas City Public Library
Early
Kansas City Facts and 150 Facts about Kansas City
Kansas
City Museum at Union Station Virtual Exhibit
The Official Priests of
Pallas Website
To
order this JOURNAL edition (while quantities last), subscribe or join JCHS click
here.
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