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Sherman, Clay County
Playing a major role in the railroad industry throughout the middle portion of the country, Sherman was a community inhabited by a wide range of ethnic groups. It saw a boom in economic activity but unfortunately, fell victim to a common die out of a…
Gatesville-Siding, Clay County
Gatesville was named for Lorenzo Gates, who settled on Mall Creek in the fall of 1857. There was a school, a post office, and a railroad, but no town was ever established, even though it was an essential hub for livestock shipping.
Oakhill, Clay County
Oakhill, Kansas, located in Oakland Township in southwest Clay County, may appear to be just another Kansas town. However, the history of this little place paints a unique picture that is unlike other vanishing communities in Kansas. Many Kansas…
Swedesburg, Clay County
Swedish immigrants established the first homestead in what became Garfield Township in 1868. Churches provided the foundation of the Swedesburg community, which overcame the Great Depression, both world wars, and a 1973 tornado.
Mulberry, Clay County
Mulberry was once a Clay County township with thriving stores, hotels, and other businesses, a place where settlers could come with new ideas and prosper. At the same time Mulberry settlers were chasing the new "American Dream" they themselves were…
Madura, Clay County
The story of one missionary’s journey around the world, eventually ending in Kansas and the founding of a town, incorporates biographies, census data, genealogical research, photographs, plat maps, and personal interviews.
Fancy Creek, Clay County
Fancy Creek was not a town at all, but a loose collection of settler homesteads in a township originally named Goshen. Goshen Township was first established and settled on March 18th, 1860 by Capt. G. Shaubel and others who came from the town of…
Iwacura, Clay County
Before the advent of the automobile, Iwacura arose out of necessity to disperse mail and save souls. James Henry Geist established a post office and the United Brethren Church was built nearby. Both served local farms in the area when it was an…
Longford, Clay County
This is a study of the currently viable small town of Longford, Kansas, in Clay County. It traces the history of the town from its founding as a railroad community on the ATSF line heading west through its survival today. Sources include interviews…
Broughton, Clay County
At the latest estimate, Kansas may have nearly 9,000 vanished, named communities. These places had many faces: small crossroads villages; depot mail drops on rail lines, lingering communities that coalesced around a church, rapidly-fading religious…
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Navarre, Dickinson County
Navarre was organized around the school, the church, and starting in 1887, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad. Fire destroyed much of the…