Rewind a couple of decades or so to 1995.
The Allen County Historical Society, under a project spearheaded by Iola attorney Clyde Toland, had raised enough money to bring the old, crumbling boyhood home of Maj. Gen. Frederick Funston from its original site several miles north of Iola to the west side of the courthouse square.
Toland, eager to capitalize on Iola’s newest tourist attraction, figured museum visitors would want to know more about Fearless Fred, and how the local farm boy and son of a state legislator eventually became one of the country’s most prominent military leaders of the early 20th century.
