https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049639/
The Proud Ones is the title of the movie I watched late last evening.?ÿ Should have been able to recognize the setting, but those Hollywood know-it-alls always get the settings wrong in their movies.?ÿ Robert Ryan portrays, Cass Silver, the Marshall of Flat Rock, Kansa.
It just so happens that I own half of the land that was once Flat Rock, Kansas.?ÿ In truth, my granddad bought the land and it passed via my father to me.?ÿ The Flat Rock post office moved around a bit.?ÿ It was originally on the property of Archie Markham, the first postmaster, near the banks of Flat Rock Creek.?ÿ When he tired of the job, the post office was moved to the longer-lived location about three miles from the creek.?ÿ Eventually, a fellow by the name of Viets opened a store and took over the job of postmaster.?ÿ He saw to it that the post office was renamed as Vietsburgh.
The only surname in the movie that matches a local family is Barrett.?ÿ One other local historian has found a link in her family going back to that Barrett family.?ÿ One cast member is identified as Markham, but that family never moved to that location.
The names of the other local citizens were all wrong in the movie.?ÿ But, then, I don't recall mention of there even being a Marshall for the place.?ÿ The place folded up and moved in 1888 once the first railroad in the area missed it by a mile.?ÿ A new name had already been chosen, so Flat Rock, AKA Vietsburgh, slipped into the mists of the hazy past.
