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SBA Hill was a 400-acre mutual cooperative farm
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Narrator: In the later part of the nineteenth century, fraternal organizations were popular sources of financial security for many Americans. One of these organizations began in Topeka in 1892. The Knights and Ladies of Security was one of the only fraternal orders open to both men and women.
Howard Fricke, Security Benefit Group: There were various chapters or local chapters, but yet there was also the common organization that spanned nationally, so that if there was a disaster, a flood in Peoria, then an appeal would go out to the membership throughout the United States to help those less fortunate in Peoria that had been hurt by a flood as an example. So there was a lot of those kind of helping each other on a national basis.
Narrator: In 1919 the Knights and Ladies of Security merged with another fraternal order to become the Security Benefit Association. Along with the new name, the Association also bore an innovative idea.
Howard Fricke: A stirring appeal went out from the headquarters, and the headquarters had remained, by the way, in Topeka, to the membership that concluded that in order to really provide a further array of benefits to their members, that they ought to create a hospital, they ought to create what was then called an old folks home, and they ought to create an orphanage. And so all three were sort of combined at the same time to create this grand vision.
Narrator: SBA Hill was a 400-acre mutual cooperative farm. It was almost completely self sufficient, with a central powerhouse supplying heat and electricity to all surrounding buildings. Along with the hospital, retirement home, and children's home, the Hill included a school, a greenhouse, an orchard, a dairy, and even a hotel for visiting friends and relatives.
Howard Fricke: The original hospital building, I think had maybe 90 or 95 beds, hospital beds-unique at the time in that it had its own staff of physicians and surgeons, and they were trying to create a facility that would rival the facility recently created in Rochester, Minnesota by the Mayo brothers. So they saw what was happening there with the Mayo brothers clinic, and tried to replicate that here in Topeka-and did a very, very good job of it. It was a dollar a day-that was the cost as a member. I still meet people who have either been there personally or had relatives that were members of the Security Benefit Association. One just two days ago mentioned, "Yeah, I had an appendectomy at the hospital, stayed there for 14 days, two weeks, and the total bill was $14.
Narrator: The association's philosophy was to care for its members from the cradle to the grave. Charles Hoskins wasn't too far from the cradle when he came to live at SBA.
Charles Hoskins, Seneca: My mother passed away when I was 3 1/2, and my dad wasn't well and finally decided he couldn't take care of us, so he contacted the SBA. If either one of your parents have gone, and the other one couldn't take care of you, you could go to the SBA and turn over the insurance that you had to the SBA, and they would take the children of that family and raise then until they were 18 years old. Well, it was a month before my 6th birthday when I went to the home. And there were four of us. I had two older sisters and an older brother. And they took all four of us. Life there was good really. Of course it was right through the Depression, so we were better off there at the home than a lot of people outside, because we didn't have to suffer the consequences of the Depression, actually. They clothed, fed us and everything. We worked in the gardens when we got older, and some of us worked at the diary. They had a big field out there that you could play in. We played baseball. We played touch football. We played basketball. They had a beautiful playground. We didn't have to stay inside under tight control like that. We were treated like we were at home. I can remember in 1935 we had a big snowstorm, and we got out and rolled a snowball-a whole bunch of us. We kept moving it, moving it. And it was over nine feet tall and nine feet in diameter, and we were still moving it. And then we stopped just for a minute. We never moved it after that. When we stopped, it stopped. And that was the only place out there in the yard during the summer of '35 when we had the drought that was green. There was a big round green spot in the yard the entire summer where the snowball had sat.
Narrator: After the Great Depression, Americans views on social welfare started to change. President Roosevelt's New Deal brought with it programs such as Social Security and a welfare system, lessening the need for fraternal support.
Howard Fricke: And the whole subject and concept of fraternal became somewhat of an anachronism. And we saw the population in the hospital decline dramatically over that period of time. The number of people in the old folks home declined dramatically. They number of orphans declined dramatically. And so what Security Benefit Association did, that fraternal, including the hospital and other pieces of it, tried to allow people to live with dignity. And since society sort of said, "Yes that is something we ought to do for each other-create an environment, a society that allows that, that really caused the need for Security Benefit to diminish.
Narrator: So in 1950 the Security Benefit Association became Security Benefit Life, a mutual life insurance company. The Hill area was later sold to the Menninger Foundation. Security Benefit is now returning to the area known as "The Hill." Howard Fricke says he hopes the move will help reemphasize the company's rich Topeka history.
Howard Fricke: I think we've looked at our history and are very proud of our history by the way, and have tried to build the future without discarding the past.
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This transcript is from KTWU's Sunflower Journeys 2002 season.
Sunflower Journeys Home
A production of:
KTWU Channel 11
Washburn University
Topeka, Ks. 66621
785-231-1111
journeys@washburn.edu
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