Michael Bushnell
Northeast News
Vaughn’s Diamond was a prominent building constructed in the late 1860’s by early Kansas City real estate pioneer Samuel Vaughn, who purchased the plat in the Ross and Scarritt’s addition in 1866. Vaughn’s Diamond stood at the intersection of Main, Delaware and 9th Street and was known as The Junction, as it was the intersection of the 9th Street, the Main Street and the Delaware Avenue streetcar routes. Robert L. Nicholson of 411 Gladstone Boulevard offered a sketch of Michael Tuite, better known as “Old Wide Awake” in the November 1946 Railwayan magazine.

“Old Wide Awake Michael Tuite (pronounced Toohey) was a friend of our youth. He was a Flagman in the employ of the Kansas City Cable Railway Company which operated the 9th Street Cable line. He worked at The Junction, where Delaware Street branches from Main in the days of long ago. That was the Golden Age, when the old West side was young and still the principal business section of the city.”

“Tuite would clear traffic for the cable trains east and westbound on the famous 9th Street hill by his famous call: “Look out there – wide awake, wide awake!” Many came to the Junction just to hear his call.

His great Irish heart and his wit won him scores of friends.

“Tuite’s life reads like a swashbuckling novel. Born in Ireland in 1836, Tuite ran away from home at the age of ten. He stowed away on a ship bound for America and spent the next several years sailing the high seas. Just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, he alighted in New York and joined the famous New York Irish, the 69th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, attached to the gallant Irish Brigade commanded by Brigadier General Francis Meagher. The unit saw action at Antietam and Fredricksburg.

Following the war Tuite came West and settled in Kansas City, securing work with the Missouri Pacific Railroad as a Yardmaster. He later secured employment with the Kansas City Cable Car Company and was a flagman at The Junction at 9th and Main and Delaware, which is where Tuite gained his moniker as old “Wide Awake,” warning errant pedestrians of the streetcar as it careened almost out of control down the westbound 9th Street hill.

In 1901 Tuite’s health failed him and he was forced to retire from his position. He relocated his wife and family to the Old Soldier’s Home in what was then known as Bain City or Wadsworth Kansas, now part of southern Leavenworth. He was a regular at the local baseball games played in Leavenworth and was a familiar face around his new environs. During the Spring of 1913 his health again failed him and he was confined to his residence. On a hot August 6th in 1913 Tuite passed away in an ambulance en route to the hospital. Cause of death was attributed to asthma as induced by the severe heat. Tuite was transported to the city of Independence Missouri where he was interred on August 9th at the Capital Hill cemetery, now part of Woodlawn Cemetery on Noland Road. Tuite’s headstone, done in the style of a tree trunk signifies his membership in the Modern Woodmen of the World. The unique stone also bears a six-pointed Sheriff’s style badge with the inscription “Wide Awake” inside the badge.

Addendum:
Special thanks goes out to the Kansas City Public Library’s Missouri Valley Room, The Jackson County Historical Society, The Midwest Genealogy Center on Lees Summit Road, The Leavenworth Kansas Public Library and the Davis Morturary, the oldest family operated mortuary in the state of Kansas for their assistance in compiling information for this article. As with most every history research project, what started as a manageable project soon morphed into a much larger and incredible project that detailed the life of a well-known and much beloved citizen of early Kansas City. Much of the history of Michael “Wide Awake” Tuite uncovered for this article was heretofore unknown to researchers and historians. It’s a pleasure and an honor to set the record straight on Mr. Tuite and share the swashbuckling life he led with interested readers.

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