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Chase County Kansas Historical
Sketches
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QUARRIES
The pioneers made their homes of wood - log
cabins - not making much use of stone because
securing stone was a much longer process than felling trees.
John Emslie of Leavenworth opened a quarry
of fine magnesium limestone on Isaac Alexander's
land on Spring Creek just west of the town site
about 1870. Our Courthouse was built of this stone and stone used in the State Capitol Building at Topeka was
from Chase County.
Many of the buildings at Fort
Riley were built of this stone. Chicago has used a
great deal of Chase County limestone, as has San
Francisco. Railroad bridges and bridges on wagon
roads were strongly built of it. When the Eisenhower
Library was to be built as Abilene, the architect
ordered the stone to come from Chase County.
One reason this stone was preferred over other
stone was that it is a very hard stone - strong and
slow to deteriorate when exposed to the weather;
It is a very beautiful stone and is easy to cut
and dress.
Patrick J. Norton who had been bookkeeper
and pay-master for the Barney Lantry Stone Contracting and Building Company, Strong City, was
also in the stone business for himself. He developed the quarry southeast of Cottonwood Falls,
and furnished stone for the City School building
in Cottonwood Falls, the City Auditorium in Strong
City; he also furnished stone for two bridges over
the Missouri River in Missouri - one at Sibley and
the other at Kansas City. Stone for the east wing
of the State Capitol was from his quarry. He operated this quarry for 35 years.
Pioneers had to make their own lime for building purposes, so lime kilns were built, one of which
was on the Barrett farm east of Cottonwood Falls.
Chase County Centennial, 1872 - 1972
by Lorna Marvin
Please submit your historical sketches.
Background and KSGenWeb logo were designed and are copyrighted by
Tom & Carolyn Ward
for the limited use of the KSGenWeb Project.
Permission is granted for use only on an official KSGenWeb page.
The USGenWeb Logo was designed by Linda Cole.
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