News, Events & County History

Weather forecasters predict arctic temps in the days ahead along with a chance for more snow, but Kearny County still has plenty of the white stuff left over from Monday’s blizzard. Just what kind of winter is in store for Southwest Kansas, and could it be reminiscent of the winter of 1918-1919? Snow blanketed Kearny County with a two-foot snow fall on December 16, 1918, and with temperatures averaging in the 20s, the snow didn’t go away any time soon. Oldtimers who had been here for 30 years or more claimed that they had never saw snow so deep.

On January 3, 1919, a reporter in the Prairie View area north of Deerfield reported that their neighborhood had been snowbound for two weeks with a foot and one-half deep snow and seven-foot drifts. Perhaps the saddest incident reported was the death of John Bender who lived north of Deerfield. The 35-year old father died of pneumonia after a bout with the flu. “When undertaker Nash reached there Sunday (December 29, 1918) there were four bad cases in the home and the father lifeless.” An effort was made two days later “to get a casket to the home and the trip was abandoned after a mile or two of the way covered.”

By January 10, the Advocate reported that the greatest problem in Southwest Kansas was getting feed to the stock, “and it is one of the busiest times our stockmen have ever experienced.” With many cattle to feed and no grass in sight, a large number of cattle were shipped to market and others were driven to the river where feed was shipped in. Four or five hundred tons of hay had been purchased in Colorado and was being shipped to Kearny County by rail which furnished some relief to anxious stockmen. Many tons of straw, alfalfa and cottonseed cake were shipped via the Garden City railroad to Wolf siding from eastern Kansas. Farmers constructed their own sleds of various sizes and shapes to transport feed to their livestock and bring coal home to heat with. With each issue of the paper came more news about horses and cattle dying or being thin and weak near death. Farmers made wooden scrapers and drags to bare the ground, and locals were eager to see the snow go. By January 24, the sentiment was “it is enough for one winter … it will take a lot of “Old Sol’s” heat to melt this deep snow.” Elsewhere in the January 24th Advocate was the report that Dr. Richards had walked eight miles from Deerfield to Lakin on account of his patients as the snow was still a handicap to travel out of broken paths.

Mail delays had become the norm, and at least one carrier abandoned his automobile and resorted to a team and buggy. On February 7, the Advocate reported, “We ascertained Saturday from a trustworthy source that twelve hundred tons of hay had been unloaded at this point in the past five weeks and one hundred tons of straw.” Fortunately, coal dealers had stocked up enough and were able to provide a steady supply of black diamonds to their customers.

“Four degrees above zero Sunday morning . . . we are promised a warm wave by the 18th. We hope it will be warm enough to melt the snow,” was the report in the February 14 Advocate from Prairie View. That same issue carried the news that “Herman Ladner was out riding in his car Sunday, the first car to run in the hills since the 18th of Dec..” On February 21, a Deerfield citizen reported that they still could only see “two or three bare spots of ground.” There were still students who were not able to get to school because of road conditions. “The long distance, mud, snow and slush make it a drudgery for many a pupil and teacher.”

Then came another snow. On February 28, the Prairie View reporter wrote, “We thought that last week, one more day of sunshine would make a finish of the snow, that fell the 16th of December, but on Tuesday night and Wednesday and Thursday, a rain started and wound up with six inches of snow, which seems in no hurry to leave us.” Many complaints were coming in to the county health officer of unburied cattle carcasses and other animals that had perished in the severe weather.

Spring-like days in mid-March, “assured us that the snow would soon be a thing of the past.” Snow in South Kearny had all disappeared except in a few spots where there were heavy drifts. The weather was looking fine, farmers were going to work listing and planting their fields, and the rural people were coming into town again. Mail carriers were once again able to complete their regular routes in a timely fashion. Thinking that winter was over, some ranchers moved their cattle to pastures that had no protection. The Prairie View Sunday School which had been closed since October on account of the flu and impassible roads was scheduled to begin meeting again on April 6.

Then, without warning, came a raging blizzard. The April 11 Advocate said that snow had started falling on Tuesday, April 8, “and up to the hour of going to press was still at it.” A reported 1,000 head of cattle in Kearny County were lost in the April storm alone. The late Henry Molz and his father, Adam, lost 112 head after moving 200 to their pasture two miles northwest of Lake McKinney just prior to the blizzard. In milling around, the cattle either pushed the fence over or packed the snow until they could walk over and drift to the Amazon Ditch. The first ones could not get out, and the rest walked over them. Twelve head drifted into the lake. The Molz’s gave the hides to skinners for removal of the carcasses. “Lydia has received the shock caused by winter number 2,” cried the April 25 Advocate. The report came from the West South Side that “dead cattle are to be seen any way you look, while going along the roads.” Stockmen started hauling hay, cake and chop again as the snow storm found a number of them somewhat short on supplies and weary of a repeat. All in all, an estimated 30% of the cattle in Kearny County were lost during the winter of 1918-1919.

 

SOURCES: Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; History of Kearny County Vol. II; archives of The Advocate, Museum archives, and courier-journal.com.

Dr. Grant Hastings saved multiple lives and delivered hundreds more into the world during his tenure at Lakin. His arrival here was announced in December 1921 when he purchased the medical library, office furniture, fixtures and instruments that belonged to Dr. George C.W. Richards. At the time, Hastings was in practice in Garden City with Dr. Sanford Bailey. His Lakin office, which he shared with dentist L.W. Hopkins, was over the Kearny County Bank on the southwest corner of Waterman and Main. A graduate of the University of Kansas Medical School, Dr. Hastings had built up a reputation as a careful and competent physician and came to town very highly recommended.

A month later, county commissioners appointed Hastings as county physician of Kearny County. The good doctor who still lived in Garden City and retained an office there was also Finney County’s appointed physician and health officer. Hastings was believed to be the first to hold the office of county physician in two counties at the same time. “The work in the two counties will keep him on the jump but the doctor is young and active and likes to work,” reported the Garden City Herald, “he could if necessary take one or two more.”

Dr. and Mrs. Hastings moved to Lakin in June of 1922, and in the summer of 1926, work was underway on Dr. Hastings’ new building just to the east of the then Lakin State Bank on East Waterman Avenue. The Independent announced that the brick structure was conveniently located and “will be quite an improvement on Waterman.” The doctor made his office on the first floor in the west wing. The Chamber of Commerce rented the upper floor for a club room, and the other rooms were rented out as the dental office of Dr. P.L. Woods and a barber shop. A radio was installed upstairs in the club room which had plenty of windows for light and ventilation.

In October of 1927, the Independent announced that the Chamber of Commerce had consented to using only half of the second floor, and the other half had been converted to a hospital as Dr. Hastings had found that driving to Garden City to treat his patients was very inconvenient. There were four rooms, each with an outside window and steam heat. “With the assistance of Dr. Woods in surgical operations and Mrs. Lavina Shinkle, a trained nurse, many cases formerly taken to the hospitals in Garden City can now be conveniently taken care of. The doctor has been particularly successful in surgical work, and all minor operations will be given attention here as well as many of the major operations. All of which tends to show that you don’t have to go elsewhere to be sick; you can have a first class illness right here in Lakin.” The Chamber of Commerce decided to give up their club room in the Hastings building in January 1928, enabling the number of hospital beds to increase to eight.

Dr. Hastings began dividing his time between Lakin and Garden City in January of 1941 when Dr. Herman Sartorius of Garden City was called to active army duty. In October that year, Hastings located permanently to Garden City. His Lakin office was taken over by Dr. E.M. Ireland. Other doctors to utilize the Hastings building included Rudolph Sabo, Fred Dietrick, and Gordon McAfee. The hospital continued to be used until the Kearny County Hospital (now the building that houses the Kearny County Senior Center) was opened in 1952. Although he no longer lived here, Dr. Hastings actively worked with the hospital committee to help secure funding for the new hospital.

Dr. Hastings retired in 1965 and died in December of 1967 at the age of 78 in Garden City. Among his pallbearers were his Kearny County friends B.C. Nash, Edd Murray and Ralph Hutton. A World War I veteran, he served as a medical adviser on the first Kearny County draft board and was active in several organizations including the Lakin Masonic Lodge, president of the Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the festivities for the dedication of the Kearny County Court House in 1939. Dr. Grant Hastings and his wife, Agnes, had three daughters: Jane, and her twin sisters, Ann and Ellen.

SOURCES: Archives of the Lakin Independent, Garden City Herald and Garden City Telegram; Museum archives; History of Kearny Co. Vols. I & II; and Ancestry.com.

 

Kansans who wanted to toast the new year during the late 1800s and early 1900s may have had to make a doctor’s appointment first. Kansas became legally dry on May 1, 1881 with an amendment to the state constitution that forever prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors except for medical, scientific and mechanical purposes. Alcohol had to be prescribed by a physician to be obtained legally, and drug stores were made the responsible agency for liquor sales. Druggists could sell liquor only when a doctor’s written prescription was presented along with a sworn affidavit from customers stating that the liquor purchased would not be used as a beverage. Close tabs were kept on the amount of alcohol that pharmacies were receiving and selling as well as to whom they were selling to.

District judges were the only ones with the authority to give out permits for selling liquor. All other places where liquor either was manufactured or sold in violation of the law were deemed public nuisances, and offenses were punishable by a fine and 30 to 80 days in jail. Primary responsibility for the law’s enforcement fell to county attorneys but was made difficult because sales of intoxicants equaled several hundred dollars annually in additional income for pharmacists. Selling liquor “for medicinal purposes” quickly became the largest loophole in the law with physicians prescribing alcohol-laden substances for a wide range of illnesses from colic to diarrhea, and new diseases were “invented” for which liquor was the prescribed elixir. Since the term “intoxicating” was not clearly defined, some businessmen sold concoctions under names like “cider” claiming to not know that they could be intoxicating.

According to the Kansas State Historical Society, the law was largely ignored. Many of the state’s drinking spots remained in operation, and underground clubs and saloons also popped up in various places. Some communities and counties across Kansas were content to let them continue operation with minimal fines. Still, many citizens believed that the sale of liquor tended to affect communities socially, morally and politically. The temperance movement which had begun in the territorial days of Kansas gained momentum before the turn of the century with Carrie Nation and her hatchet leading the way. The Hurrel’s Nuisance Bill was enacted in 1901 which specified that all equipment, liquors, and property kept in and used to maintain places where liquor was manufactured, sold, given away or bartered were also common nuisances. The law provided for the issuance of search and seizure warrants against places where liquor was thought to be sold.

Take the case of local doctor George C.W. Richards, a highly respectable member of the community. Richards arrived in Kearny County in 1885 and was one of the first two doctors in Hartland. He later operated drug stores in Lakin and Deerfield where he also treated patients.  The good doctor was known to make house calls as far away as Stanton County and was complimented by a 1906 Advocate for doing his part to build up the city and county as “one of our foremost businessmen.” Richards was so well liked that he was elected as a representative to the State Legislature.

But in November 1908, Richards’ Lakin business, the Palace Drug Store, was raided under the search and seizure act after a formal complaint was filed by Rev. Chambers, pastor of the Methodist Church. Among the items seized by authorities were 51 bottles of Peruvian Elixir with 42% alcohol, 37 bottles Rock Candy Cordial containing 30% alcohol, 3 bottles of Walker’s Blended Malt Whiskey, 12 bottles Duffy’s Pure Malt Whiskey, one case of beer, 32 quart-bottles of Clay Wilkins Pure Malt Whiskey 44% alcohol by volume, and at least three other “medicines” which all contained from 39 to 40 percent alcohol. Richards was found guilty of maintaining a nuisance, fined $100 and court costs, and sentenced to 30 days in jail but was released on $1,000 parole bond. Richards sold his drug business in January 1909, and the doctor and his wife moved to California the following month.

The Kansas Legislature continued to revise and strengthen the statutes, and a 1909 revision closed the major loophole in the old law that had allowed druggists to sell liquor for “medicinal purposes.” In February of 1917, Governor Arthur Capper signed a version of the national bone-dry law into effect. The most drastic anti-liquor enactment written at that time made it a crime to possess liquor in any form. The lone exception was communion wine.

With the advent of the first World War, the United States Congress banned the use of foodstuffs in the production of distilled liquor from September 1917 until the end of the war. This was followed up with the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution. The Prohibition Amendment declared the production, transport and sale of intoxicating liquors as illegal but did not outlaw the actual consumption of alcohol. To enforce prohibition, Congress passed the Volstead Act which declared an intoxicating beverage to be anything that contained more than 0.5% alcohol, and liquor, wine and beer qualified as intoxicating liquors and were prohibited. The U.S. was the first nation to make such a provision a part of its basic law. National prohibition began on January 17, 1920, one year after the 18^th amendment was ratified by the states.

Of course, making liquor illegal did not make it non-existent. Newspapers from that time period contain plenty of stories of moonshine makers, bootleggers and speakeasy bars despite the attempts of national, state, and local law enforcement officials to “dry up” the country. On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Beer and Wine Revenue Act. This law levied a federal tax on all alcoholic beverages to raise revenue for the federal government and gave individual states the option to further regulate the sale and distribution of beer and wine. Because Prohibition was still officially the law, a limit had to be placed on the amount of alcohol allowed in beer. Hearings were held, and the political process worked out a standard that could gather the necessary votes — 3.2% alcohol by weight. The passage of the 21st Amendment in December 1933 officially ended national prohibition, but Kansas remained dry until 1937 when the state began allowing 3.2% beer. Kansas’ 1881 amendment was tossed out in 1948 when voters rejected prohibition, and the state was placed under a local option law.

SOURCES: Liquor Wars and the Law by Kenneth J. Peak and Jason W. Peak; Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; Kansas State Historical Society; High Plains Public Radio; History.com; Wikipedia; and archives of The Advocate and Lakin Investigator.

On the northwest corner of Lincoln Avenue and Lakin Street in Lakin is an unpretentious building which has been used for several years as apartment rentals. Those who don’t know the history of the building would probably never dream that it was once St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. Like other denominations and organizations, the first Catholics here met at various locations in town. Church services were sporadic and led by Catholic missionaries or priests visiting from nearby towns; word of their arrival being spread by postcard or through the grapevine. Catholics would come for miles to attend mass, and for some, attending the services required making a two-day trip.

Talk of erecting a church building began in 1902, and in 1903, lots for the church were donated by Michael Weber and his wife, Jennie. Church fairs were held in 1904 and 1905 to raise funds, and by March of 1906, the lumber had been received at a good discount from the firm of O’Loughlin and Weber and was placed on the ground. Construction progressed slowly but persistently with other fundraisers being held to help pay for the project. Mr. Weber supervised construction. Worship services were held in the unfinished church beginning in 1907, and on Feb. 5, 1907, a solemn High Mass was celebrated there in honor of the 25^th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. John O’Loughlin, two of the first Catholics in the community.

Once the church building was completed, an official dedication ceremony took place September 30, 1908, led by Bishop John Joseph Hennessey of Wichita with assistance from the reverends Julius Monier of Wichita, Austin Hull of Spearville, Michael Mennis of Dodge City who had previously served Lakin, and Joseph Bogner who was the priest in charge of Lakin at that time. Both Lakin and Ulysses were served by the same priest and were missions attached to Saint Mary’s Church of Garden City. The status of Saint Anthony’s continued the same until July 1, 1948 when the Lakin church became a self-supporting parish, and the Rev. Alex Leiker was installed as its first resident pastor.

Excavation was started for a parish house on the west grounds behind the church in April 1931. A generous donation years before from Mr. and Mrs. A.G. Campbell, along with other funds, paid for the structure. Prior to the building of the house, visiting priests frequently stayed at the Weber home a block north of the church.

Following the construction of Lakin’s first Catholic church, Michael and Jennie Weber were in charge of ringing the church bell three times a day. It is unknown when the bell at St. Anthony’s ceased to ring. By 1963, the parish had grown to a membership of 285 and outgrown the facilities. That September, the cornerstone was laid for the current church building, and dedication ceremonies of the church and blessing of the rectory were conducted December 8, 1964, making the move from the Lincoln & Lakin location both official and complete.

The bell from the old church building was saved and installed near St. Anthony’s church hall. An explanation for the ringing of the bell appeared in the August 5, 1910 Lakin Investigator, and with this being the season of Jesus’ birth, this writer felt compelled to include the entire article:

“Morning noon and night the citizens of Lakin hear the ringing of the catholic church bell. . . Why is the signal with the bell given three times a day? To remind us, to remember oftener, and to impress more seriously on our minds the great grace granted us by the Eternal Father, when he announced, through the angel Gabriel, the incarnation of his own divine son. The prayer said at the signal of the bell is commonly called Angelus, and its origin is as follows:

“Saint Bonaventura, in a general chapter of the Franciscan order in 1225, directed the Angelus to be said in all Franciscan houses at the evening bell. Some recited the prayer also at sunrise, some both in the morning and evening. When the great victory at Belgrade seemed such a clear response to the united prayers of the Christian world, Pope Callixtus III directed the bell to be rung also in the middle of the day. Thus the devotion assumed the form so familiar to us: The triple player, signifying the beginning; the middle and the close of the day. The prayer recited at each sound of the bell comprises the three versicles: 1 — The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived of the Holy Ghost. 2—Behold the hand maid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to the word. 3—And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Each of these is followed by a Hail Mary. The devotion is recited kneeling, except on Sundays, when it is said standing, though a genuflection is made at the third versicle. Such is the general, touching devotion of the church, keeping alive faith in the mystery of the incarnation and in that mystery it is impossible to think of our Lord except in connection with His blessed Mother. It is a scriptural devotion, the words being taken from St. Luke, 1-28-35-31 St. John 1-14, the Hail Mary itself is mainly from St. Luke, 1-28-42.

“In many places, after the third strokes the three times, the bell tolls 33 times, the number of years our Savior was on earth, though that is not strictly observed here we sincerely believe the ringing of the Angelus can be made a great blessing to every Christian within its hearing if they too will turn their thoughts to the almighty Father for the moment. We know some protestants who, knowing the bell was a call for devotion, have fell into the habit of calling on the Lord for his blessings and help. Faithfulness in the sight of God, we are told, means far more than to be successful, so that those so faithfully ring out the Angelus in Lakin, morning, noon and night, little dream of the aid they are giving in the upbuilding of Christ’s Kingdom.”

Merry Christmas from Kearny County Historical Society!!!

SOURCES: Information written by the late Father Alex Leiker; Ancestry.com; archives of the Lakin Investigator, Advocate and Lakin Independent; and Museum archives.

From beet growing to banking, A.G. Campbell met with success in many business ventures and was influential in both the Lakin and Deerfield communities. His great-grandson, Earle D. Rice, wrote that A.G. accomplished in his 25 years in Kearny County what took other men 40 to 70 years to achieve. Born Adam Grant Campbell in 1864 at Portsmouth, OH, A.G. was the son of William and Jane (Boyd) Campbell. The year following his birth, his parents moved westward to Scotland County in northeastern Missouri where A.G. grew to manhood.

In 1885, he married Sarah (Sally) Mudd, the daughter of B.F. and Catharine (Medley) Mudd who was born in 1863 in Scotland County. She was from an English Catholic family who located to Maryland in the 1600s and gradually migrated west. Sarah and A.G. were married by a Catholic priest in the home of the bride’s parents. As the story goes, A.G. was of Scottish Presbyterian roots and refused during their wedding service to agree to raising their children as Catholics. The ceremony was stopped until their issues could be resolved. Needless to say, the children were not raised as Catholics, but Sarah remained a Roman Catholic all her life. The couple moved to Lakin with their six children in April of 1902. Their household goods, livestock, farm machinery and fence posts were shipped by emigrant car while Sarah and the children (Earle, Carl, Adam Jr., John, Mary and Catherine) traveled by passenger train.

 

The family made their home in Lakin for a month while their farm home (located seven miles northeast of here) was made ready. According to the April 12, 1902 Lakin Investigator, A.G. purchased the old Blazer and Jackson farms and 3,000 acres adjoining “which will make one of the best ranches in the county.” Part of the farm was under irrigation from the Amazon Canal while to the north was a vast area of unfenced buffalo grass. Later that year, Campbell acquired land 15 miles northwest of Lakin as summer camp headquarters for grazing. A.G. enjoyed a lucrative business in both ranching and farming. The irrigated crops from 1902 to 1906 were very good, and plenty of hay and fodder were raised for the family’s cattle and horses. The sugar beet era was just beginning in southwestern Kansas, and A.G. excelled at growing the crop. He was elected president of the Kearny County beet growers in 1905. Then, the US Sugar and Land Company came calling because the company wanted the Campbell’s farm land to create Lake McKinney. The farm was sold, and the Campbells moved into Lakin in September 1906. A.G. eventually acquired about 25,000 acres of land in Kearny and Hamilton Counties according to his great-grandson. In addition to raising cattle, he also raised Percheron work horses and mules, but that is only part of his story.

A.G. became a successful real estate agent as a partner in the firms of Campbell & Horde and Campbell & Loucks. In 1906, he went into business at Lakin with J.T. Horde in the Campbell-Horde Lumber company. Then came the construction of the Campbell building on Main Street in Lakin in 1907 which was initially leased out to house Fitzgerald and Locke General Merchandise. In December of 1908, A.G. purchased their dry goods stock and took on O.E. Piper as a partner, and the store was ran under the name of Campbell-Piper Mercantile Co. That partnership was dissolved in 1912, and the store became known as Campbell Mercantile. In January 1915, A.G. purchased the Entz brothers mercantile business at 601 Main in Deerfield (also known as Deerfield Mercantile), and that firm was also named Campbell Mercantile. The business was later relocated to 605 Main.

In addition to serving on the board of directors of the Deerfield State Bank, A.G. Campbell was a director for the Kearny County Bank as well as the First National Bank in Syracuse where he was president in the early ‘20s. The civically minded Campbell also held roles as a Lakin city council member, Kearny County commissioner, and a representative on the board of directors of the Kansas-Colorado Railroad Company. In June of 1910, A.G. announced his candidacy for the 116th Legislative District on the Republican ticket, but it was one of the few times in his life that he did not succeed.

The Deerfield Horse Breeders’ Association, Red Cross and the Lakin Commercial Club were just some of the many organizations he was also involved with.

 

Sarah Campbell died May 7, 1927. The Christian fortitude of Mrs. Campbell during her days of illness and suffering prior to her death made a profound impact on A.G. He joined the Presbyterian Church, making a public and emotional profession of faith. Prior to that time, he had been skeptical of religion in general. Adam Grant Campbell died just months after his wife on August 13, 1927, a life well lived.

 

 

SOURCES: Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; “The Campbells have Come” by Earle D. Rice; History of Kearny County Vols. I & II; Ancestry.com; FindaGrave; Archives of the Lakin Investigator, Advocate and Independent; and museum archives.

 

New houses and store buildings sprung up seemingly overnight at Deerfield with the dawn of sugar beets in the area. Thinking the town would secure the sugar beet factory, inhabitants began to look around for an advertising outlet, and the town’s first newspaper, “The Deerfield Farmer” was launched on December 22, 1904. Though printed at Garden City, the local editor was a young Deerfield man by the name of Lewis Beckett. The inaugural issue claimed the aim of the paper was to, “help bring about better conditions financially and otherwise. To the citizens of Kearny county, to agricultural and stock interests, it will be especially devoted.” Although the paper lasted not even a year, the town of Deerfield continued to grow.

In January of 1905, Deerfield schools reported a total of 83 students, and so many laborers came during 1905 and 1906 that there was no place for them to stay. Tents were erected for housing including an extra-large tent that was used as a boarding house. On April 1, 1907, several resident electors of the community presented a petition to Kearny County Commissioners requesting that Deerfield be incorporated as a city of the third class. The number of inhabitants at that time inside the City of Deerfield was 225. The petitioners’ request was granted, and businessman John B. Piper was elected the first mayor when city elections were held later that month.

In April 1908, The Deerfield Telephone Company was organized providing both local and rural residents with phone services. Prior to that time, a wire had been run from Lakin’s exchange to the Corbett and Sower general store in Deerfield, and residents had to go to the store to place a phone call. Rural Route #1, which was Deerfield’s first and only postal route, was established Sept. 1, 1908 according to information provided by the late Arnold Kettler, former Deerfield postmaster. George Hurst was the first regular rural carrier and serviced his patrons by means of a horse-drawn vehicle when the 26-mile long route was initiated.

The Deerfield News, published by Cecil P. Rich, arrived on the scene in April of 1909, but Charles Oakford bought out Rich and assumed editorial duties the next month. Oakford also published a socialist paper called the “Prolocutor.” By mid-October, the Deerfield News was finished as the people became very antagonistic toward the editor when each issue became more and more filled with socialist articles and advertising. Deerfield residents became so incensed that that they burned an effigy of Oakford, and the editor was egged while attending a baseball game at Lakin. By the end of October, Oakford had bought a home in Garden City and relocated there.

Deerfield rose above the fray, and in December 1909, the Lakin Investigator declared, “Deerfield is one of the snappy towns of our county, and where three years ago was only one store and a couple of dwellings, now a little city of the third class, with over 200 people, mayor and councilmen full of ginger spirit that makes things move. Two churches, good schools, two general stores, bank and drug store located in brick blocks, two hotels, restaurant, harness store, hardware and implement, machine shop, meat market, lumber yard, livery, barber shops, pool rooms and everything found in a live little western town, surrounded by one of the most intensive farming districts in the whole valley.”

In 1911, John F. Carter began publishing the Deerfield Echo, and that same year, the Deerfield Commercial Club was organized to promote the interests of Deerfield and the surrounding country. C.L. Beckett was installed as president with Jacob Regher, J.E. Lander, L.T. Beckett, R.A. Beckett, I.L. Middleton, Carl Miller, Wm. Kersten, Adam Molz, A.D. White and J.W. Sowers listed as the other officers and directors. An August 1911 Echo listed the following as achievements of the Deerfield Commercial Club: securing large accommodating stockyards, securing the best newspaper of any town many times larger, placement of a public watering place, erection of an irrigating plant at the cemetery, securing a block for a city park, installing electric lights for the park and bandstand, and securing a doctor. “We think this is going some for a town of our age and size.”

SOURCES: History of Kearny County Vol. 1; archives of the Deerfield Farmer, Deerfield Echo, Lakin Investigator, Advocate, Lakin Independent, and Evening Telegram; and Museum archives.

Sugar beets were first introduced as an experiment in the late 1800s. When samples by local farmers J.W. Longstreth and H.C. Nichols were sent to the Kansas State Agricultural College in 1898 for analysis and showed with high percentages of sugar, the Lakin Investigator predicted the sugar beet industry would have a healthy future in Southwest Kansas. The Investigator wasn’t wrong.

The state of Kansas put a bounty of $1 a ton on sugar beets in 1901. At that time, the crop was paying from $45 to $75 an acre, and the state’s bounty paid the freight to the refinery in Rocky Ford, Colorado. The Advocate reported that Finney, Hamilton and Kearny County had contracted for 700 acres of sugar beets, and the beets grown that year in the Deerfield neighborhood averaged a hearty nine tons to the acre. “For the first year’s work in this special crop, our farmers can congratulate themselves that they have fully demonstrated that they can grow this valuable, money making crop to advantage,” declared the Advocate.

The American Sugar Beet Company of Rocky Ford contracted with area farmers for 500 acres of beets the following year, shipping the seed to Lakin’s depot in early spring 1902 at a cost of 10¢ per pound. The company also provided implements to plant and cultivate the crop which were paid for from the first beets harvested in November. Deerfield produced 2,155.5 tons or 1057 wagonloads, and Lakin farmers yielded a 1,295 ton-crop or 772 wagon loads. A total of 150 rail cars full of Kearny County beets were shipped to Rocky Ford. Climatic conditions, the rich Arkansas Valley soil, and established irrigation ditches made Kearny County a perfect spot for growing the crop, and talk had already begun about the need for a reservoir to store the ditch water until it was needed to irrigate the beet crops.

Local businessmen, farmers and citizens organized the Lakin Industrial Club in December of 1902 to further advance the development of the sugar beet industry “with a view of seeing a factory at this place.” Kearny County was the heart of the new industry for the next few years, but then a group of Colorado investors and Garden City businessmen organized the United States Sugar and Land Company in 1905, their sights set on developing the Garden City area. The hopes of a refinery being built in Kearny County were crushed when plans were announced to build in Garden City. Completed in November of 1906, 66,000 tons of beets were processed at the factory that first year.

U.S. Sugar and Land also bought the Great Eastern Ditch and 12,000 acres of land which included the town of Deerfield and built several houses for their officials in the Deerfield area. For the next three to four years, Deerfield experienced great growth as more than 200 construction workers were employed for the company’s projects which included the construction of Lake McKinney and an electric plant to furnish power for the company’s irrigation wells to supplement the reservoir water. Under the U.S. Reclamation project, the government also built a power house near Deerfield which was eventually taken over by the sugar company along with a booster station and irrigation wells. In 1910, the Syracuse Journal reported that Deerfield “has a future before it that can hardly be beaten, the little town is steadily growing, and in time it will make one of the most progressive sites along the Santa Fe.”

In 1914, US Sugar and Land re-organized as Garden City Sugar And Land Company; then, in February 1920, the company became Garden City Company. That same year a block of 25,000 acres of company-owned land west of Garden City was turned over to tenant farmers. Hundreds of four-room houses were built on the land. In 1930, the company name was again changed and still remains today as The Garden City Company. By 1949, the corporation owned a stretch of land from Coolidge to Great Bend.

Obtaining a sufficient supply of beets for the factory became difficult after World War II so beets were introduced in the Ulysses and Scott City areas. This kept the factory going, but the extra freight to ship beets to the factory caused a heavy burden. Factory machinery had also become outdated. To keep profitable, the factory needed to be enlarged and modernized, but that was seen as an expensive and risky investment. The factory was shut down after the 1955 beet campaign and sold to the Holly Sugar Company which had no intention of ever operating the Garden City plant.

By 1972, only one Arkansas Valley sugar beet processing plant remained in operation, the American Crystal Sugar Company of Denver’s plant at Rocky Ford. The Garden City Company continued to raise sugar beets until 1974, shipping them to Rocky Ford by rail. That year, the mill closed its doors but a cooperative of sugar beet producers known as Colo-Kan Sugar Co. leased the mill from American Crystal Sugar. Decreased acreage and low prices for beets made the crop uneconomical to produce, and after four successive years of loss, Colo-Kan Sugar Co. terminated its lease following the 1978 harvest. The mill was permanently closed, effectively bringing an end to the once thriving sugar beet industry in Southwest Kansas.

SOURCES: A Brief History of “The Garden City Company” & “Sugar Factory” by W. F. Stoeckly; “The Sugar Beet Industry in Kansas” by Tiburgio J. Berber; History of Kearny County Vols. I & II; archives of Rocky Ford Tribune, The Syracuse Journal, Garden City Herald, The Evening Telegram, Garden City Telegram, Hutchinson News, Iola Register, Lakin Investigator, Advocate and Lakin Independent; and Museum archives.

How the community of Deerfield was named is a mystery. While some stories attributed the name to a herd of deer that grazed the area, others gave the credit to a Santa Fe Railroad official, and still others claimed the town was named for a community of the same name in Massachusetts. Whatever the case may be, Deerfield’s economy has always relied on agriculture.

Alva Cleveland and his sons Henry and George came to the area in 1878, homesteading the NW ¼ Sec. of 14-24-35. They have the distinction of breaking out the first farmland in Kearny County. Henry became a highly successful farmer, raised horses and cattle, and laid claim to the first chicken and turkey ranch in the county. Apparently, his father and brother went back to Wisconsin, but then Alva joined him here permanently in 1882 along with Henry’s sister, Mary Caswell, and niece, Dolly Caswell.

Brothers William P. and Dayton Loucks came to the Deerfield area in 1879, homesteading Sec. 2-24-35. Dayton stayed at Deerfield and continued to farm his land. William, who had served in the Union Army, moved to Lakin with his wife and two sons when the six months of residence required to establish ownership of the claim was up. He later deeded five acres to Deerfield Township for Deerfield’s cemetery.

Fred Harvey of the Santa Fe Harvey House chain and William Strong, soon-to-be president of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, established the XY cattle ranch about 1879 with 10,000 head of cattle. The headquarters were on the north side of the river at Deerfield, but the range was south of the river extending into the Oklahoma Panhandle and Texas. During round-ups, cattle would be rounded up from as far east as Cimarron to the Hartland area. Strong sold his share to Harvey in 1882, and the XY reportedly had 40,000 cattle on the range by 1883. Several men were employed to work the ranch including Samuel Corbett who came to Deerfield in June of 1881. Corbett also started to build up his own ranch, accumulating cattle and running them with the XY’s.

Around 1881, the George Dice family moved from Harvey County and made their home in the newly built railroad section house when George was made section foreman. In March of 1882, the post office was established at the section house, and Belle Dice, George’s wife, was appointed Deerfield’s first postmaster.

The country in and around Deerfield and north to the Wichita-Kearny County line rapidly filled up with homesteaders. Praises for the up-and-coming community were sung in a December 1884 Garden City Sentinel, “Deerfield a small village on the Santa Fe Road fourteen miles west of Garden City, is located in the midst of a fine agricultural district on the North, with magnificent grazing pastures on the South, upon which thousands of cattle are held. Deerfield promises to be a town of considerable importance, Once the country is settled, and her farming resources developed; around her are gathered already men of enterprise who will push her to the front.”

On October 27, 1885, a group of men including Corbett, Dice, W.P. Spray, A.R. Jessup, E.N. Keep, and Frederick McCain filed to locate Deerfield as a village on Sec. 11-24-35. The only house inside the town limits at that time was the section house, but the men believed that Deerfield would eventually rival Lakin.

In March of 1886, McCain established a small store in Deerfield on the ground floor of a story-and-a-half house he built about 100 feet north of the railroad track. The upper story was used for living quarters, and the post office was moved there in November 1886 when McCain was appointed postmaster. McCain also built a small warehouse and coal shed along the spur of the railroad.

In August of 1886, the foundation was put down for Deerfield’s first actual store building which housed the Spray & Jessup Mercantile Co. By December, the Advocate reported an addition being made to this store owing to increasing trade. Deerfield’s first frame school building was also being built at this time.  Students began attending in October, but the building was not fully completed and dedicated until February of 1887. The school was then used for Methodist church services and Sunday school.

Township officers called for an election on November 26, 1886 to vote bonds to build a bridge over the Arkansas River for the business and convenience of the people who lived south of the river. The measure passed, and the bridge was completed the following June by Arthur Stayton of Hartland. Previous to the building of the bridge, a man by the name of McFerren was paid to ferry people across the river. By mid-July of 1887, church and Sunday school attendance reportedly doubled due to the new bridge being built.

In an effort to gain votes in the county seat election and help build up the communities of Chantilly and Deerfield, Chantilly founder Carolina Pierce proposed opening a road between the two communities in 1887 for the stage, freight wagons and other travel. In August of 1887, the Sentinel reported that the stagecoach was carrying many passengers on the diagonal road to Chantilly, and Deerfield was booming in a quiet, sure way. Although the stage line operated nearly every day through most of 1887 and 1888, when Chantilly faded away so did the line.

On September 1, 1888, a petition was signed by the people of Deerfield and surrounding vicinity asking that a depot be located there. After a tour of investigation, the railroad commissioner reported very favorably for the community, stating that the A.T. & S.F. could acquire more business owing to the large amount of crops that could be grown in the area due to irrigation. Still, the people of Deerfield had to wait. The Index reported that Deerfield’s depot was not completed until July of 1891, and Miss Ada Oliver was installed as agent.

There was little change as to population or people in the Deerfield area during the 1890s. Most irrigation farmers were raising immense vine crops such as watermelon, squash, muskmelon, pumpkin and cucumber for seed. In the mornings during melon season, the road would be lined with as many as 25 to 50 wagons loaded with barrels of melon on their way to the Arkansas River to wash seeds. A considerable amount of alfalfa, sorghum and some wheat and corn were also raised. Although rural Deerfield was considerably populated, the village of Deerfield had not changed much by 1900, but things were about to change in a big way with the introduction of sugar beets to the area.

 

SOURCES: Most of this information was provided by the late Foster Eskelund for History of Kearny County Vols. I and II; A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans Vol. IV by William E. Connelley; Annual reports of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad; archives of The Advocate, Lakin Independent, Lakin Index, Topeka Daily Capital, Newton Kansan, Garden City Herald, Garden City Irrigator, and Garden City Sentinel; Ancestry.com; Museum archives.