Kansas City in World War I (1914-1918)

Kansas City’s most durable World War I legacy is the Liberty Memorial, funded by a 1919 civic drive that raised more than $2.5 million from some 83,000 contributors in under two weeks; its site was dedicated on November 1, 1921 at a ceremony that brought five Allied commanders together, and the completed memorial was dedicated on November 11, 1926 by President Calvin Coolidge.¹² It is today the National WWI Museum and Memorial, designated by Congress in 2004 and expanded with a museum that opened in December 2006.¹ Kansas City’s wartime industrial and agricultural mobilization is described in general terms below and is largely.

Pre-war KC (1900–1914)

By 1914 Kansas City was a Midwestern industrial and commercial center built on rail-junction infrastructure, the Stockyards and meatpacking complex, and Board of Trade grain trading. Each of these is on this page; see gilded-age-kc and kansas-city-stockyards.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City was established May 18, 1914 and began operating from the R.A. Long Building at 928 Grand, which opened November 16, 1914; its Tenth District covers Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and parts of western Missouri and northern New Mexico.³ It moved across the street to a new $4.3 million building at 925 Grand, by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, which formally opened in November 1921.³

The population figure of “approximately 250,000–300,000 in KCMO alone” for 1914 is; the census series on gilded-age-kc gives 163,752 for 1900.

Neutrality period (1914–1917) and war mobilization (1917–1918)

The account previously given here — that the Stockyards expanded output for Allied food supplies, that industrial capacity grew, that rail infrastructure carried increased troop and materiel traffic, and that the Kansas City Federal Reserve participated in Liberty Bond financing — is ** in every particular**. What the Pendergast Years’ study of the district’s finance does state is general: “During World War I, the Federal Reserve allowed for the transferal of immediate credit among international banks and industries,” and “enabled the conscription of American finances to the democratic cause.”⁴ No Kansas City-specific Liberty Bond figure has been verified.

The November 11, 1918 Armistice ended combat operations. Kansas City-area service figures in the American Expeditionary Forces are; the Liberty Memorial Association records and the Kansas City Star’s wartime files are held offline in Missouri Valley Special Collections.⁵

Camp Funston and the 1918 flu

Camp Funston, at Fort Riley, Kansas, is where the first influenza cases of what became the 1918 pandemic were identified on March 4, 1918, beginning with a company cook, Albert Gitchell; the outbreak produced 2,480 reported cases and hospitalized more than 1,000 men.⁶

Origins are contested and this page does not resolve them. John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza argues the outbreak began in Haskell County, Kansas, and travelled to Camp Funston with servicemen returning from home leave, then to camps across the country and to France with the troopships.⁷⁶ Other researchers have argued for origins in France in 1916 or in China or Vietnam in 1917.⁶

The claim that Camp Funston trained Kansas City-area recruits, that it was one of 32 cantonments established in 1917, and that Kansas City was consequently among the earliest American cities to feel the pandemic, are, as are Kansas City mortality figures for 1918-1919.

The Liberty Memorial

Postwar commemorative ambition and the 1919 drive

The Liberty Memorial Association committee included Robert A. Long, J.C. Nichols, Frank P. Sebree, and William Volker, among others; Long, the Long-Bell lumber businessman, chaired the “Committee of One Hundred.”²

The campaign opened in late October 1919 with a downtown parade honoring Kansas City’s war dead.² Sources differ slightly on the total and the interval: The Pendergast Years states that “within a week, over two million dollars had been raised”;² the National WWI Museum and Memorial states that Kansas Citians “raised $2.5 million in 10 days,” and Wikipedia’s account gives “more than US$2.5 million in less than two weeks” from 83,000 contributors.¹ This page records the range rather than choosing.

The assertion that this drive set the precedent for later Hallmark, H&R Block, Kauffman, and Bloch-family civic giving is and is not asserted here.

Magonigle design

H. Van Buren Magonigle, a noted New York architect, won the design competition unanimously.² Style is a recorded conflict: The Pendergast Years describes the chosen style as Egyptian Revival;² earlier drafts of this page called it Beaux-Arts, which describes Magonigle’s training rather than the memorial. Magonigle’s dates (1867-1935) and the competition year are.

The tower is 217 feet tall, with the whole structure rising 265 feet above the surrounding ground.¹ The “Flame of Inspiration” at the summit, the flanking Memory Hall (east) and Exhibition Hall (west), and the axis facing Union Station are as described here.

1921 site dedication

The November 1, 1921 site dedication was, in the Pendergast Years’ phrasing, “the only time that five Great War leaders appeared together”:²

General John J. Pershing — Commander-in-Chief, American Expeditionary Forces
Marshal Ferdinand Foch — France
Admiral of the Fleet David Beatty — Royal Navy
General Armando Diaz — Italy
Lieutenant General Baron Jacques de Dixmude — Belgium

Crowd figures conflict. Wikipedia states the ceremony “was attended by 200,000 people,” including then-Vice President Calvin Coolidge;¹ the National WWI Museum and Memorial’s own account, as carried by Visit KC, gives “more than 100,000.”¹ Both are recorded; neither is adopted as the page’s figure.

1926 dedication

The completed memorial was dedicated on November 11, 1926 — the eighth anniversary of the Armistice — by President Calvin Coolidge, before more than 100,000 people, with Queen Marie of Romania present.²¹

Long-term significance

National commemorative status: Congress named the site the nation’s official World War I museum in 2004; the expanded museum beneath the memorial reopened in December 2006, exhibiting a collection begun in 1920; and on December 19, 2014 President Barack Obama signed legislation recognizing it as “a World War I Museum and Memorial.”¹
Civic-monument corridor: the memorial sits on the bluff south of Union Station, with Crown Center to the northwest and the Federal Reserve Bank nearby.³ The framing of these as a deliberate “monument corridor” is.
Civic-philanthropic tradition and industrial mobilization legacy claims are.
Pendergast political context: the assertion that WWI-era federal coordination contributed to the Pendergast ascent is; see pendergast-era for the sourced machine chronology, which locates the machine’s consolidation in the 1910s-1920s ward politics rather than in wartime federal programs.

Era pairing

KC’s WWI era overlaps with the broader Pendergast Era (1900–1939) and extends the late Gilded Age. It bridges the two through shared industrial-mobilization and civic-development themes.

Sites associated

Liberty Memorial / National WWI Museum and Memorial — 217-foot tower with the museum beneath, at 2 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, MO¹
Union Station — immediately north across the bluff
KC Stockyards — WWI industrial-mobilization site (demolished)
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City — established May 18, 1914; first premises in the R.A. Long Building at 928 Grand from November 16, 1914; 925 Grand from November 1921³
Camp Funston / Fort Riley, Kansas — site of the first identified influenza cases of the 1918 pandemic, March 4, 1918 (outside the Kansas City metro)⁶

Sources

National WWI Museum and Memorial — “Story of the Museum and Memorial,”; Wikipedia — “National World War I Museum and Memorial,” en.wikipedia.org; Visit KC fact page carrying the Museum’s own account, news.visitkc.com — asserts: Kansas Citians raised $2.5 million in 10 days (the Museum’s phrasing) / more than $2.5 million in less than two weeks from 83,000 contributors (Wikipedia); the 217-foot-tall cylindrical tower was completed in 1926, the whole structure rising 265 feet above the surrounding area; the November 1, 1921 groundbreaking was attended by 200,000 people (Wikipedia) or more than 100,000 (Museum account via Visit KC), including Vice President Calvin Coolidge and Allied military leaders; the finished monument was dedicated November 11, 1926 by President Coolidge in the presence of Queen Marie of Romania; Congress named it the nation’s official World War I museum in 2004; the expanded museum reopened in December 2006 exhibiting a collection begun in 1920; President Obama signed legislation recognizing it as “a World War I Museum and Memorial” on December 19, 2014. Two conflicts are recorded on this page from this footnote: the 1919 total/interval, and the 1921 crowd size. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹
Kansas City Public Library / The Pendergast Years — “Liberty Memorial.” — asserts: the organizing committee included Robert A. Long, J.C. Nichols, Frank P. Sebree, and William Volker, with Long chairing the “Committee of One Hundred”; the campaign opened in late October 1919 with a major downtown parade honoring Kansas City’s war dead, and “within a week, over two million dollars had been raised”; H. Van Buren Magonigle, a noted New York architect, “unanimously won the design competition,” with an Egyptian Revival style chosen; November 1, 1921 “was the only time that five Great War leaders appeared together” — Marshal Foch, Admiral Beatty, General Diaz, Lt. General Baron Jacques, and General Pershing; President Calvin Coolidge presided over the official dedication on November 11, 1926 before more than 100,000 people, including Queen Marie of Romania. Corrects a characterization previously on this page calling the design Beaux-Arts. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Wikipedia — “Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.” — asserts: the bank was established May 18, 1914; it first occupied the R.A. Long Building at 928 Grand, which opened November 16, 1914; the Tenth District covers Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming and portions of western Missouri and northern New Mexico, second in geographic area only to San Francisco; the bank moved to a newly constructed $4.3 million building at 925 Grand, designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, formally opened November 1921; Harry S. Truman kept an office in the building 1953-1957. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Kansas City Public Library / The Pendergast Years — “A Gateway of Finance: The Development of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, 1914-1935.” — asserts: the Federal Reserve System was established by the Glass-Owen Bill of December 23, 1913; the Kansas City bank’s building opened November 16, 1921; “During World War I, the Federal Reserve allowed for the transferal of immediate credit among international banks and industries” and “enabled the conscription of American finances to the democratic cause and helped make the U.S. a financial leader for the world.” The article gives no Kansas City Liberty Bond figures. ↩
Kansas City Public Library — Missouri Valley Special Collections, listed under Research > Local History — the holding library for Kansas City’s World War I-era newspaper files, Liberty Memorial Association records, and Kansas City Star clippings, consulted on site in the Missouri Valley Room, Central Library, 14 W 10th St, Kansas City, MO. The Kansas City Star’s decades of Liberty Memorial coverage, cited generically in earlier drafts of this page, is reachable only through these holdings or a paid archive; no individual article has been verified here. Note: MVSC’s old kchistory.org deep links no longer resolve to their targets and must not be cited. ↩
CDC — “1918 Pandemic Influenza: Three Waves,”; PBS American Experience — “The First Wave,” pbs.org — asserts: the first influenza cases of the 1918 pandemic were identified at Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas on March 4, 1918, beginning with company cook Albert Gitchell; the camp outbreak produced 2,480 reported cases and hospitalized more than 1,000 men; the strongest documented path runs Haskell County, Kansas → Camp Funston → Army camps nationwide → troopships → France; competing scholarship argues for origins in France in 1916 or in China or Vietnam in 1917. Corrects an imprecise “March 1918” dating previously on this page and records the origin dispute rather than asserting Camp Funston as the pandemic’s origin. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
John M. Barry — The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. Viking Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-670-89473-4. Wikipedia summary of the argument — asserts: the pandemic began in Haskell County, Kansas, spread to Camp Funston, and travelled worldwide with wartime troop movements; the argument draws on epidemiologist Edwin O. Jordan’s findings and remains debated. ↩