On Thursday, the northeast Kansas town will unveil a statue honoring William “Deafy” Boular.
On Jan. 7, 1933, Boular was featured in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” wherein he was credited with installing 46,000 paving bricks in less than eight hours.
Boular lost his hearing and ability to speak from spinal meningitis at age four. When he was ten, he was hit by a train, severing both his legs.
According to the Atchison Historical Society, The legs were amputated just below the knees. He owned a pair of artificial legs but didn’t like to wear them. So for the rest of his life, he wore specially designed and fitted boots, allowing him to walk on his knees.
According to the Atchison County Historical Society Museum, Boular led a fairly active life, working 35 years at a local foundry and 17 years at an Atchison recreation center as well as being a beekeeper and hunter.
Townspeople called him “Deafy,” pronounced “Deefee.” In 1900, he laid 46,000 bricks in one day. Famed Kansas newspaperman E.W. Howe affectionately featured him in a lecture on May 10, 1904, called “People I Have Known.”
Boular was a bricklayer, foundry worker and beekeeper. Many of the bricks he laid on Atchison’s streets are still intact.
On Thursday, September 12 from 5 to 7 pm, the City of Atchison plans a dedication ceremony. The statue will be unveiled in the 400 block of the Commercial Street Mall.