Submitted
Dear Editor,
Today is the 7 year anniversary of the man who's secret I kept all those years. I've received several phone calls about the article printed on page 1 of BCE 2-23-2023. Some weren't old enough to remember how things were before the dam was built, some were older. They were the ones that wanted to know how Sterett Creek levy and land behind the Main Street in Warsaw was connected by a tunnel.
To correct the mistake, nothing! Wayne had worked on the levy prior to finding the tunnel. That's when he met his wife to be Vicky. As he was a union worker he transferred to work where the jobs were. He worked on a highway project in between the levy job and the project on Osage River down river from dam. He was drudging dirt from the river when he found the tunnel. I'm going to say west of Harrison Street in Warsaw (as Warsaw is mapped on a SW-SE direction mostly), not north/south. The tunnel went in general direction of Reser's building. About the Finey school, I have momentos of around 1914 where Edward's father, Melvin Mantonya and my mother went to the Finey School at the same time. Then they both went separate ways, and married. Melvin ended up in Whittier, CA while Sallie Stadler Gaylord, my mother, remained in MO and had her family. In 1953, Melvin Mantonya returned to MO and purchased his old home place where his family lived in the early 1900's. Hence, Edward started to Warsaw High School in his junior year. Helen was just starting and they road same busses to school and fell in love and married in 1956. Edward and Helen still live in the same home place his dad grew up on.
Helen Mantonya
