Ellis County, Kansas City of Schoenchen

Schoenchen is located eleven miles south of Hays on the south bank of the Smoky Hill river. It was founded by Russian immigrants from the towns of Neu-Ober, Obermunjor, and Schoenchen. They left Russia in 1875 and originally settled in Liebenthal (in Rush County), but some dissenters later left Liebenthal to found a new colony.  They named their new colony Schoenchen after one of the Russian towns that many of the settlers had lived in.

The name Schoenchen means "little beautiful one" in German.

The history of Schoenchen is documented in The Golden Jubilee of German-Russian Settlements of Ellis and Rush Counties, Kansas, August 31, September 1 and 2, 1926.