Places - Wallace KSGenWeb

2010 Kansas Dept. of Transportation

Populated Places

Ladder, a country postoffice of Harrison township, Wallace county, is located 15 miles southeast of Sharon Springs, the county seat and nearest shipping point. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 91.

Sharon Springs, the county seat of Wallace county, is an incorporated city of the third class, located in Sharon Springs township on the Union Pacific R. R., 362 miles west of Topeka. It has a bank, a hotel, all lines of retail establishments, a weekly newspaper (the Western Times), telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice. It is the trading point for a large area well adapted to agriculture and the raising of live stock. It was founded by the Western Town Site company in 1886, and is on the site of the old Eagle Tail station. The springs located here provided a never-failing supply of pure water, something not always available in western Kansas in those days. In platting the town, grounds for a court-house were set aside. By Jan., 1887, considerable of a town had sprung up. There was a bank, numerous retail establishments, and a newspaper called the Sharon Springs Leader was started on Jan. 1 by Joseph F. White. At that time this town was the trading center for 1,000 square miles of territory. It became temporary county seat in 1887 and was made county seat for five years by a special act of the legislature of that year. It became a city of the third class in July, 1890, and the first officers elected were: Mayor, J. M. Ericson; police judge, C. B. Jones; treasurer, Oscar Felix; city attorney, William S. Black; marshal, H. T. Black; clerk, J. K. Laycock; councilmen, Parmenis Smith, J. H. Eaberg, Lester Perry, H. H. Brown and August Anderson. The population in 1890 was 178, in 1900 it was 180 and in 1910 it had increased to 440. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 682.

Vega, a hamlet in Wallace county, is located near Ladder creek, 9 miles south of Sharon Springs, the county seat, and 6 miles northwest of Ladder, the postoffice from which it receives mail. The population in 1910 was 10. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, pages 841-842.

Wallace, a little town in Wallace county, is located in the township of the same name, 9 miles east of Sharon Springs, the county seat. It has a bank, a hotel, a number of retail establishments, telegraph and express offices, and an international money order postoffice. The population in 1910 was 175. The town has more than doubled in population in the last ten years due to the general prosperity of the tributary farming district. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 868.

Weskan, a country postoffice in Wallace county, is located in the township of the same name on the Union Pacific R. R. 12 miles west of Sharon Springs, the county seat. It has a hotel, general store, and telegraph and express offices. The population in 1910 was 30. Extracted 2002 by Carolyn Ward from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, volume II, page 900.