By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
Sod & Stubble. That’s the name of a classic book about an early pioneer family of Kansas settlers. Now, thanks to a talented and creative group of Kansans, that story is coming to the silver screen.
Deb Goodrich is the Garvey Texas Foundation Historian-in-Residence at the Fort Wallace Museum in western Kansas. She is also the producer of the new film, Sod & Stubble, based on the classic book of the same name.
Goodrich is a historian, author, filmmaker, television host, columnist and more. A Virginia native, she came to Washburn University in Topeka in 1992.
Sod & Stubble tells the story of Henry and Rosa Ise. In May 1873, Henry Ise and 17-year-old Rosa Haag were united in marriage before moving to their new homestead in Osborne County, Kansas. Here they moved into a one-room, sod-roofed log cabin.
Imagine a young woman making a home out on the open Kansas plains more than 150 years ago: No running water, no electric appliances, no telephones, no modern conveniences, no modern medicine.
Sod & Stubble describes the challenges that the Ises faced. There were droughts, storms, horse thieves, rabid wild animals, plagues of grasshoppers, dust storms, prairie fires, market collapses and more. Their first child died shortly after being born.
Henry and Rosie Ise worked hard. They scrimped and saved, persevered and expanded the farm. They were able to build a new house for the growing family, and this became their permanent home. Here, Henry and Rosie raised their eleven children. Henry Ise passed away in 1900.
Henry and Rosie had a strong belief in education. Rosie herself had only a half-day of schooling, so she firmly wanted better for her children. The Ises sacrificed so that their children could go to college.
As the children grew up and left, Rosie had to think about the future. Her children persuaded her to move to Lawrence where several of them were in school at the time. The book ends with an account of the farm sale and Rosie’s departure from the farm.
The Ise children had a phenomenal record in education. They would go on to Harvard, Yale, Stanford and beyond. Son John Ise became an economics professor at the University of Kansas and decided to write a non-fiction novel about his parents’ experiences.
That became the book Sod & Stubble, which was published in 1936. It takes its name from the prairie sod of Kansas and the stubble left standing in wheat fields after the grain is harvested.
Now a group of Kansans have come together to create an independent movie based on the book. Filmmaker and Friends University history professor Ken Spurgeon became the screenwriter and director. “Ken did a great job on the screenplay,” Goodrich said.
People in Downs, Kansas really wanted the movie to be filmed in Osborne County, where the events in the book actually happened. The Ise home had fallen into disrepair, but Don and Linda Miller – the local hardware store owners – had a full-size replica of the Ise house built on their farm.
The replica home is located between the rural communities of Downs and Cawker City, population 453 people. Now, that’s rural.
In summer 2023, filming took place at that house and at Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita.
The film stars Bailey Chase, who appeared on Longmire and other shows. Rosa Ise is played by Dodie Brown. “People are going to be blown away by her performance,” Goodrich said.
Other actors in the cast are Barry Corbin from Yellowstone, Buck Taylor who was in Gunsmoke, Mary McDonough from the Waltons, and western stars Wyatt McCrea and R.W. Hampton. The movie was screened in fall 2024.
For more information, see www.sodandstubble.com.
Sod & Stubble. Now the classic book is coming to the silver screen. We salute Deb Goodrich, Ken Spurgeon, and all those who are making a difference by depicting this pioneer story on film. They are bringing the story of Sod & Stubble to life.
And there’s more. Deb Goodrich has written a new book about an even more famous Kansan. We’ll learn about that next week.
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