Places - Saline County KSGenWeb genealogy, family history

2008 Kansas Dept. of Transportation

Populated Places

Assaria, one of the active incorporated towns of Saline county, is located in Smoky View township, on the Union Pacific R. R., 12 miles south of Saline, the county seat. It has a number of business establishments, a bank, telegraph and express offices and an international money order postoffice, with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 246. The town was laid out in 1879 by a town company, of which Highland Fairchild was president. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume I, page 108.

Bavaria, a village of Saline county, is located on the main line of the Union Pacific R. R. 9 miles west of Salina, the county seat. It has express and telegraph offices, and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 110. The place was originally settled in 1865 by Ernst Hohneck, who later deserted it. In 1877 E. F. Drake laid off the town of Bavaria. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume I, page 160.

Bridgeport, a village of Saline county, is located in Smoky View township, on the Missouri Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads and on the Smoky Hill river, 15 miles south of Salina, the county seat. It has telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 120. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume I, page 234.

Brookville, one of the incorporated towns of Saline county, is a station on the Union Pacific R. R. 16 miles southwest of Salina, the county seat. It has a bank, a newspaper, telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 280. The town was founded in 1870 by the Union Pacific R. R. The first settler was John Crittenden, and the first building, outside of those put up by the railroad, was erected by M. P. Wyman. Brookville became a city of the third class in 1873. William Brownhill was the first mayor. The first store in the place was opened by George Snyder. The first newspaper was the Brookville Transcript, established in Nov., 1879, by Albin & Tupper. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume I, page 236.

Falun, a village of Saline county, is located in Falun township on the Missouri Pacific R. R., 17 miles southwest of Salina, the county seat. It has all lines of business, including banking facilities. There are telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 200. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume I, page 621.

Gypsum, an incorporated city of Saline county, is located on the Missouri Pacific R. R. in Eureka township, 18 miles southeast of Salina. It has banking facilities, telegraph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice with three rural routes. The population in 1910 was 623. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume I, page 799.

Kipp, a thriving little town of Saline county, is located on the line between Solomon and Eureka townships, and on the Missouri Pacific R. R. about 11 miles southeast of Salina, the county seat. It has telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 150. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 77.

Mentor, a hamlet of Saline county, is located in Smolan township, on the Union Pacific R. R., 8 miles south of Salina, the county seat. It has an express office, and a money order postoffice with one rural route. The population in 1910 was 38. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 270.

New Cambria, a little town of Saline county, is located in Cambria township, 7 miles northeast of Salina. It has three railroads—the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Union Pacific. There are telegraph and express offices and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 212. It is the principal trading and shipping point for a rich agricultural district in that section of the county. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 358.

Salemsburg, an inland hamlet of Saline county, is located in Smoky View township, about 12 miles south of Salina, the county seat, and about 4 miles from Smolan, from which place it receives mail by rural route. The population in 1910 was 35. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 634.

Salina (county seat), the metropolis of central Kansas and judicial seat of Saline county, is located 115 miles west of Topeka, on the Smoky Hill river about 8 miles west of where it is joined by the Saline. It is one of the leading cities of Kansas, especially in a manufacturing and jobbing way. Its tributary territory includes not only several counties in the central part of the state, but also three or four tiers of counties as far west as the state line. This is partly due to the railroad facilities with which Salina is provided. Four lines—the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Missouri Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe—center here, affording transportation facilities in all directions. In appearance Salina is a spacious, well built and well kept town. The streets are wide, paved and clean. The buildings are of good size and substantial, some of them costly. Shade trees line some of the business streets as well as those in the residence districts. Among the manufacturing establishments are a $50,000 alfalfa mill, flour mills, vitrified brick plant, planing mill, glove factory, foundry, machine shops, sunbonnet factory, creamery, carriage and wagon works, cigar factories, body brace factory, oil refinery, agricultural implement works, cold storage plant, razor strop factory, broom and mattress factories, etc. The wholesale and jobbing interests represent an investment of $3,000,000, and an annual distribution of $8,000,000 worth of goods. There are 2 state and 2 national banks, one of which is a United States depository. In the way of educational institutions there are a hospital and training school for nurses, four colleges, the Salina Wesleyan, the Salina Wesleyan business college, Shelton's school of telegraphy, and the St. John's Military school, 6 newspapers—two daily, two semi-weekly and two weekly—a $15,000 Carnegie library, a yearly Chautauqua assembly, an opera house which will accommodate 3,000 people, and excellent graded and high schools. Some of the best buildings include a $75,000 Federal building, a $60,000 convention ball, and a $50,000 cathedral. Salina is a good lodge town, and has 14 churches. Oak Park adds greatly to the attractiveness of the place. There are ample express and telegraph accommodations, and the international money order postoffice has six rural routes. The population in 1910 was 9,688.

Salina was founded by Col. W. A. Phillips, in 1858. Being practically the only settlement in Saline county until after the war, the early history of Salina is included in the county history. (See Saline County.) The original town company, chartered by the territorial legislature in 1859, was composed of W. A. Phillips, A. M. Campbell, James Muir, Robert Crawford and A. C. Spiliman. The survey was not completed until 1862, when there were only about a dozen families in the town. Very little progress was made prior to the coming of the first railroad, the main line of the Union Pacific, which was built as far as Salina in 1867. The early business men were George Pickard, A. M. Campbell and H. L. Jones. Their chief trade was among the Indians, whom they furnished with provisions, ammunition and a poor grade of whiskey. The immigrants for Pike's Peak, New Mexico and other Western points furnished considerable business in the early '60s. With the coming of the railroad four new additions were made to the original plat of the city. They were the Phillips, Jones, Calkins and the "Depot" additions. The shanties and log cabins were replaced by neat frame and stone buildings, a school house and churches were built. C. R. Underwood set up a combination grist and sawmill in 1867. The court-house was built in 1871, Salina having been made the county seat in 1860. A disastrous fire occurred on Christmas day, 1871, in which $20,000 worth of property in the business part of the town was destroyed. The buildings thereafter were built of stone and brick. The next year Salina became the trading place for the cattle men. This class of business helped it in a financial way but had its undesirable features. A number of new additions were made in the '70s and several manufacturing plants and other buildings were put up. In 1874, aside from the grasshopper disaster, which was common to all Kansas, Salina was swept by a destructive fire, in which property to the extent of $25,000 was destroyed. Fire limits were then described by an ordinance and frame buildings forbidden to be erected within those limits. Improvements continued and by 1880 the town took on a metropolitan appearance. Large stone and brick business buildings with plate glass fronts, fine public buildings and parks, good school and magnificent church edifices were erected.

Salina became a city of the third class in 1870, with C. H. Martin as the first mayor. In 1878 it was declared a city of the second class. The first newspaper was the Salina Herald, established in 1866 by J. F. Hanna. The Salina Journal was begun in 1871 by W. H. Johnson and M. D. Sampson. In 1895 another fire occurred destroying considerable property. In 1903, the great flood, which damaged every river town in Kansas, did much damage to Salina. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, pages 634-635.

Smolan, a thriving village of Saline county, is located in Smolan township on the Missouri Pacific R. R., to miles southwest of Salina, the county seat. There are telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 175. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 710.

Solomon, an incorporated city of the third class in Dickinson county, is located at the confluence of the Solomon and Smoky Hill rivers near the west line of the county, at the junction of the Union Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, 9 miles west of Abilene, the county seat. It has 2 banks, a flour mill, grain elevators, a weekly newspaper (the Tribune), good hotels, public schools and churches, telegraph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice with three rural routes. It is surrounded by an excellent farming and grazing country, grain, produce and live stock being shipped from this point in large quantities. The population in 1910 was 949.

The town was founded under the name of Solomon City in 1865, by a town company on land belonging to H. Whitney, a member of the company. The site contained 234 acres, part of it lying in Saline county. However, only that lying in Dickinson was included in the town plat. Its early growth was slow. The first store was not opened until 1867, and the first hotel was built in 1868. The Union Pacific reached Solomon in the latter year and decided the location of the town. In 1871 there had been sufficient growth to warrant an addition. The town was incorporated that year as a city of the third class, and G. B. Hall was the first mayor. The first grist mill was built in 1872 and the first bank established in 1876. The manufacture of salt was engaged in quite extensively in the '80s. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 715.