While the amateur radio community knows Marshall Ensor, W9BSP, as a pioneer in the field who was instrumental in introducing many to a hobby that ultimately enabled them to acquire marketable skills, he was first and foremost a teacher and, specifically, an instructor in the manual arts.
In the 1920s, '30s and '40s, if a teacher in the Midwest was going to get away for a vacation of any length, he or she had to take that much-desired "California trip" during the summer months when school wasn't in session.
And back then, because classes generally didn't commence until after Labor Day, a teacher had the entire month of August to get in a trip if he or she hadn't been able to slip off somewhere in either June or July due to obligations around the house, in town or, in the case of Marshall and others, on the farm.
Marshall Ensor Trip Map
A small display that can be viewed in the Peg Barn at Ensor Park and Museum indicates that over a 14-year period, Marshall made six different trips by auto to explore more of North America but primarily other parts of the United States. In 1926, Marshall, a single man then, set his sights on Milwaukee, Wis., and covered 1,500 miles in visiting the largest city in the Badger State. The following year, still single, he headed for Washington, D.C., where Calvin "the business of America is business" Coolidge occupied The White House. Quite likely Marshall journeyed into Maryland while he was in the vicinity of the nation's capital, as his parents, Jacob and Ida, hailed from the Old Line State and he probably still had a few relatives living there.
The excursion from Olathe to the District of Columbia and back covered about 4,000 miles.
Writing in 2007, Edith Dana Matthews, a great niece of Marshall, reported that he and Ina Dana got married the morning of June 18, 1930 at the Dana farm located west of Olathe along 143rd Road, a mile due north of Gardner Lake. She said the ceremony was held in the morning so that the newlyweds could depart for a "planned wedding/camping trip."
It may well have been this particular trip that Marshall simply referred to as "The West" in describing where he, and presumably Ina as well, went in 1930 some eight months after the stock market had crashed during the first year of Herbert Hoover's presidency, triggering the Great Depression. According to the map that basically constitutes the display, either en route to California or coming from the Golden State, the travelers were on Route 66 twice, once between Albuquerque, N.M., and Flagstaff, Ariz., and once between San Bernardino, Calif., and Los Angeles.
"If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that's the best;
Get your kicks on Route 66."
--- from the 1946 song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" by Bobby Troup
All in all, Marshall motored a whopping 9,000 miles to have a look-see at the left side of the so-called "Lower 48".
The expedition in 1933 that put Marshall back on the road took him north of the border to the Canadian province of Quebec. "Parlez-vous Francais?" ("Do you speak French?"). Apparently Marshall knew enough to get by (or maybe it was Ina, who was a teacher and a librarian during her life), but in any event, the trek outside of the states covered 6,000 miles.
In 1936, one of the warmest years on record, Marshall returned to the West, but this time he only went as far as Salt Lake. The outing to Utah, the Beehive State, added roughly 4,500 miles to the odometer.
The last trip of the bunch sent Marshall off to check out the North West in 1940 even as Hitler's German troops were on the move in Europe and Japanese forces were fighting the Chinese army in China. The adventure, which covered 6,000 miles, proved to be a precursor of things to come, as Marshall found himself in Seattle, Wash., just three years later and wearing the uniform of a Navy officer at that. During the Second World War he served as an electronics officer, which enabled him to make good use of his extensive knowledge of radio and his diverse radio skills in assisting the war effort.
The photograph accompanying this story shows Marshall sitting on the front bumper of what Marty Peters, KE0PEZ, thinks might be a 1930 Model A Ford Roadster, although Larry Woodworth, W0HXS, reportedly believes that the touring car seen here was actually built in 1928.