(Jon L. Lellenberg's 25th anniverary history of the Great Alkali Plainsmen (1988) is the basis for this note. Quotations are from that history, found in Box 3 of the collection.)

While Sherlockian interests in Kansas City can be traced to such personages as Harry S Truman, Dr. Logan Clendening, and Rex Stout, the origins of this scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars is found "thanks to the devotion and efforts of three people: Ernest Willer, his son Robert Willer, and John Stapleton Altman." Following correspondence with Dr. Julian Wolff and Bill Rabe concerning the formation of a scion society, and with a name for the group already in hand, the founding meeting took place in the Willers' home on October 20, 1963.

One of the early (and influential) members of the society was Milton Perry, curator of the museum at the Truman Library. Another early member, a high school student at the time, was Chris Redmond. ("Today every literate Sherlockian on either side of the ocean should recognize that name, and the name of his father, too, Donald A. Redmond.") Redmond senior was assistant director of libraries at the University of Kansas. Other members followed in short order, some drawn from the ranks of KU faculty, and the society continued to grow. John Bennett Shaw joined in 1964, along with Robert Curry and Frederick Kittle, a professor of medicine at KU. Jerome Wigglesworth, "son of one of the most eminent Baker Street Irregulars, Belden Wigglewsorth" joined in 1965. By this time the mailing list included nearly thirty individuals.

Given the nature of the Great Plains, meetings were held in a number of places such as Lawrence, Overland Park, Independence, and Tulsa. In 1966 the Redmonds returned to their native Canada. In 1968 Shaw, now leading the society, arranged a joint meeting with the newly formed Sub-Librarians scion society of the American Library Association, who held their annual conference in Kansas City. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the society was inactive. Shaw, grieving the loss of his wife, had remarried and moved to New Mexico. The early enthusiasm was waning.

An "outside agitator," in the person of Jon Lellenberg, breathed new life into the society during the mid-1970s. Lellenberg, who grew up in the same neighborhood as the Willers, was now in his mid-20s and working in Washington, DC. A Sherlockian since childhood, Lellenberg felt strongly about the need for an active scion society in his hometown and now used the telephone, letters, and the occasional trip home to bring the society out of its stupor. The December 27th "Feast of the Blue Carbuncle," with twenty in attendance, "marked their unquestionable reemergence as an active scion society." Lellenberg continued the momentum with the establishment of a society newsletter, "The Kansas City Daily Journal," in 1976. Other successful events and dinners followed, along with new members. In 1981 Lellenberg stepped aside. The society was back on firm ground.

John Lehman, Lellenberg's local assistant, moved into the leadership position and continued pressing the Plainsmen ahead. His first year was marked by a very successful workshop by John Bennett Shaw at Rockhurst College. "Ninety-eight pilgrims, nearly a record for Shaw's workshops, came from seventeen states, Texas, and Canada." The Feast of the Blue Carbuncle and joint meetings with other societies continued, along with a good-natured feud with Missouri's other scion, the Noble Bachelors of St. Louis. Other highlights from this time included the 1983 production, by the Missouri Repertory Theatre's performance of "The Speckled Band" and the 1985 visit and talk by the well-known Sherlockian author, Michael Hardwick.