To Order Merchandise, Join the JCHS, or Give to our Programs
Membership Dues for 2022- March 2023
Daily $5.00
Standard Yearly $30.00
Old Drum Supporter Yearly $100.00
Blind Boone Supporter Lifetime $500.00
The all-volunteer-based, not-for-profit Johnson County Historical Society 501(c) 3 is moving to a one-time per year renewable membership. With the COVID pandemic of the last two years, we were not able to keep up with renewing memberships.
Today however, we have a new board, a new board President, our 501(c) 3 is in place as a tax-exempt organization, and we are ready to embark on a new and exciting chapter in our 100-year-old organization of preserving our area history.
We thank you for your support of the JCHS and for liking our Facebook, blog, and website this past year. We hope that you can join us in 2022 on our newly invigorated historical journey into the future. We are always looking for volunteers and suggestions on how to improve our services.
2022 MEMBERSHIPS
DAILY for non-members. $5.00 This is a one-person, one-day access to our research library. This is not a change. Five dollars gives access for the day to visit and research in the JCHS Mary Miller Smiser Heritage Library. It is for one person to research in our library of family files, photographs, original deeds, obituaries, and original court documents. This is geared mainly to our out-of-town guests who are visiting for only one day. There is a cost for black and white or color copies posted in the museum.
STANDARD YEARLY $30.00 This replaces the individual and family memberships with one donation. The Standard Membership is for $30.00 per year and is good for all persons at one address for the 202 calendar year. It entitles everyone at one address access to our library during open hours and the library of the West Central Genealogy Society, with prearrangement, 25 cent copies, plus our twice per year newsletter sent electronically, beginning in 2023. Voting rights at our annual meeting are extended to all adults at the one address. If you want your newsletter sent through the post office after 2022, there is a $5 per year added to the membership. The cost of postage has made sending the newsletter through the USPS expensive.
OLD DRUM SUPPORTER $100.00 Old Drum Supporter Membership is a new level of Membership. This would give the members of each household at one address all of the benefits of the Standard membership, up to ten free copies on one researching visit then 25 cents per black and white copy thereafter, color copies are still $1, plus one prearranged guided tour of the museum and grounds and notation in the electronically sent newsletter. Voting rights at our annual September Board election meeting are extended to the adults at one address. The newsletter for 2022 continues to be mailed to those households; beginning in 2023, if you want the newsletter mailed and not emailed, there will be a $5.00 annual charge.
BLIND BOONE SUPPORTER $500.00 Lifetime Membership We will move all current lifetime members to the Blind Boone Supporter Membership. The lifetime membership entitles all adults at one address to all the benefits of the Standard membership, “free” black and white copies, color copies are still $1.00, plus prearranged guided tours of the Smiser Heritage Library and Museum and grounds of the Elm Schoolhouse and historic Johnson County courthouse, notation in the newsletter, and engraved name on the plaque posted in the Historical Society’s Library. Voting rights at our annual meeting are extended to adults at one address.
Contact Us (information below) or use Paypal.
You will have to make your order, and list what you are paying for in the directions box when you get to Paypal Please do not forget the postage for shipping.
Hours: 1-4 PM Tuesday, 1-8PM Thursday, 1-4PM Saturday
To Contact us: email: curator@jocomohistory.org
Follow us on https://www.facebook.com/jocomohistory – frequently added new pictures history postings.
Postal address: 302 N. Main, Warrensburg, MO, 64093
Phone: 660-747-6480 please leave a message if we cannot answer
Johnson County (MO) Historical Society 
2016 April 13
Hello from Alabama,
My husband and I will be coming to Missouri next week and hope that your facility is open all week(?) May I join when we come?
My main interest is your Marriage Records for Johnson Co., MO dating from 1834. Have those records been digitized by your organization, or perhaps the LDS? Are they available online?
‘also, other early records. Do you have an online compiled inventory (i.e., a LIST) of your holdings for my planning purposes before my arrival?
I am looking specifically for information on:
JOSEPH M. THOMPSON
b 28 Jun 1825 TN
d 20 Nov 1897 Cass Co., MO
buried Brown Family Cemetery-Harrisonville, Cass Co., MO
I believe he m 3x:
1) 1846-1850 to a Margaret Bryant [MO, likely in Johnson County]
2) 19 Mar 1854 to Catherine Demasters (d/o Jesse & Easter Horn Demasters) in Johnson Co., MO (I have located the record.) I believe Catherine d 1861-1863.
3) 8 Nov 1863 to Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Smith Williamson in Johnson Co., MO (I have located the record.) I have pretty thorough info on this wife.
I am trying to find specific PROOF that Joseph & Catherine Demasters THOMPSON were the parents of my Great Grandmother:
Phoebe Jane Thompson
b 4 May 1861 MO [likely near Holden, Johnson Co., MO]
m 20 Dec 1877 in Sugar Creek, Cass Co., MO to Wiley C. Woods
d 30 Sep 1906 Colorado Springs, El Paso Co., CO
PTL, I have been able to find many “pieces of the puzzle”
I believe I have identified all the children of Joseph by his 3 wives and have obits for many of them.
I am seeking = A TO DO LIST for me when I get there:
(1) An obit or death notice for Joseph M. Thompson (above)
(2) A marriage record for Joseph to his 1st wife, Margaret Bryant (likely Johnson Co., MO ~1846-1850)
(3) Any information (esp. death/burial information) on his 1st 2 wives – I have identified Catherine Demasters’ parents, but not Margaret Bryant’s. Margaret Bryant Thompson d 1850-1854.
(4) Information on a dau by his 1st wife = Priscilla Thompson b ~1848 in Lafayette or Johnson Co., MO. I “suspect” Priscilla died as an infant(?)
(5) Information about a son of Joseph’s by Catherine Demasters = Mattison Thompson b ~1855 near Holden, Johnson Co., MO.
(6) Most of the family members were b, m, and d in and around Johnson, Cass and Bates counties MO – except my great grandmother (Phoebe Jane Thompson Woods) who moved with her husband to Colorado 1884-1889.
Phoebe was b AFTER the 1860 US Census; I cannot find the family on an 1870 US Census; and she m my great grandfather BEFORE the 1880 Census, so I have ZERO federal census records showing her with her family of origin. I am hoping there were censuses done 1861-1877 locally in Johnson Co. MO besides the Federal Censuses, that would at least “tally” her with the family.
Because Phoebe predeceased her siblings (except possibly Mattison), she is not listed as a survivor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I HOPE TO FIND A SHRED OF EVIDENCE there at your facility that will help me confirm my theory on her parentage. My parents (now deceased) and I have tried to solve this mystery since 1980.
Any advice you can offer to make my trip productive will be greatly appreciated.
Is there a reasonable-priced, safe place to stay overnight near your location?
Respectfully yours,
Sally
Sally Randol-Hardy
Do you still have copies of this? If so, how much would they cost.
Thanks,
Dan Liebert, Maplewood, MO
With Grace & Wit: The Paintings of Margot Peet, 1903-1995 at the Johnson County Museum of History in 1999
Hello Dan, I think I have answered you, but I believe that you are looking for Johnson Co. KS Museum of History…