Villages and Post Offices of Montgomery County

The villages and post offices of Montgomery County, Kansas, reflect the region’s development alongside expanding railroad lines and local enterprise during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Towns such as Tyro, Jefferson, Bolton, Sycamore, Wayside, Dearing, Crane, and Havana each played a role in the county’s economic and social life, serving as local trade centers, shipping points, and community hubs. Their origins often stemmed from railroad expansion or strategic settlement decisions, and their growth was supported by a combination of commercial establishments, religious organizations, and civic contributions. This article outlines the founding, infrastructure, and community features of these settlements, providing a snapshot of rural life and development in Montgomery County during the late 19th Century.

By H. W. Young

Bolton

Bolton is a place of some twenty dwellings and about a hundred inhabitants, located on the Independence & Southwestern line of the Santa Fe railroad, eight miles southwest of the county seat. It was laid out when the railroad was built in 1880, by the Arkansas Valley Land and Town Company. There are two churches, three stores, a blacksmith shop, a wagon shop, and a resident physician. Bolton is central to the greatest oil and gas field yet discovered in Montgomery County, and the work of drilling is being prosecuted more vigorously there than at any other point in the county. Six gas wells, not one of them of less than ten million cubic feet daily capacity, were opened there in 1902 and 1903, and all of them give indications of oil as well as gas.

Havana

Havana was founded in the summer of 1870, when Lines & Cauffman established a general store there. They were preceded by Callow & Myers who went into business in the fall of 1869, in the same neighborhood, on what afterward became the David Dalby farm. Lines & Cauffman continued in business until the spring of 1874 when they sold to W. T. Bishop. He disposed of the business in 1875 to J. T. Share. Havana continued to thrive as a country trading post, without a railroad until 1880, when the Southwestern extension of the Southern Kansas line of the Santa Fe was built through there. It now has a population of 180 and is the shipping point for a large amount of grain and live stock from the surrounding country. The fertile valley of Bee Creek adjoins the town, and forms one of the best wheat sections of the county.

Havana has three church organizations, the Methodist and United Brethren with a hundred members each, and the Primitive Baptists with about twenty members. There is a graded school, with two departments. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows has a strong organization with 83 members. This order built and owns a substantial brick store building, with lodge rooms and hall on the second floor. The Rebekah lodge has 80 members; the Modern Woodmen of America, sixty; and the Home Builders, thirty; the Royal Neighbors, forty-three; and the Anti-Horse Thief Association, fifty.

The oldest merchant is T. R. Pittman, the postmaster, who conducts a hardware and implement and boot and shoe store. He has been in business here for eighteen years. Other business men are: P. H. Lindley, drug store; J. A. Xollsch, barber and harness shop; S. A. Evans, restaurant; C. E. Campbell, hotel; C. N. Harrison, lumber; M. H. Ross, livery stable; P. H. Dalby and D. W. Howell, physicians; and J. S. Reyburn and John Sharpless, blacksmith shops.

Jefferson

Jefferson, on the Missouri Pacific railroad midway between Independence and Coffeyville, has a population of sixty-five. It was laid out when the Verdigris Valley, Independence & Western railway was built in 1886, on ground owned by Albert Jefferson Broadbent, who donated the right of way to the railway on condition that a station be maintained there. The place was named Jefferson in honor of Mr. Broadbent. The land on which the town is built was originally a part of a claim settled on by E. M. Wheeler in 1869. He built a hewed log house on it, and had lumber for fencing sixty acres of land piled near the house and on March 1st following the survey, he moved in and began to make a home. That night a rival claimant, who had been surveyed in the same section, set fire to Wheeler’s log cabin, thinking to get possession of the tract in that way. It happened that Mr. Wheeler and his brother, George R., were in the house at the time, though the incendiary did not know it. They escaped with only one pair of trousers for the two, and the former went across the prairie with no clothing but a shirt, falling into a mud hole by the way. Wheeler later traded the land to C. C. Wheeler, of Troy, Kansas, who, in 1888, sold it to Mr. Broadbent.

The town was surveyed and platted by B. W. DeCoursey. The first store was opened by Fletcher & Stentz. The first church was built by the Methodists in 1885, and is now credited with a membership of 113. The Christian church was built in 1894 and has a membership of 40. The school house was built in 1900, at a cost of $2,500, and is a modern building heated with gas and capable of accommodating 100 pupils. Two teachers are employed. The M. E. parsonage for the Jefferson circuit is located here.

There are two general stores, a hotel, a blacksmith, a resident physician, a grain buyer and a stock shipper. There is neither saloon nor drug store. The railroad station was burned in 1902, and a new and well equipped one has just been completed in its place, with telegraph operator for the first time in the history of the village.

Mr. Wheeler, who is mentioned above as the pioneer settler, now lives across the railroad to the east of the village where he is growing the finest and biggest red strawberries to be found in the county.

Sycamore

Sycamore is another railroad town located when the Missouri Pacific, or Verdigris Valley, Independence & Western railroad, as it was then named, was built through the county. It is just seven miles directly north of Independence, and is a growing place with good stores. Two vitrified brick plants located in its immediate vicinity afford a foundation on which to build hopes of future greatness. Gas is abundant in the township, and it is claimed that veins of coal from three to eleven feet deep have been found wherever the drill has gone down in the surrounding township of the same name. Oil wells have also been found in the vicinity, though no oil is yet shipped. Indeed, it is claimed that one such well is a forty barrel producer.

Tyro

Among the villages of the county, Tyro occupies a front rank, with a hundred buildings of all kinds and about two hundred people. It was laid out in the fall of 1880, when the Denver, Memphis & Atlantic railroad was built through the south part of the county, and has been a station on that line ever since. Joseph Lenhart was the founder of the town and laid it out. He and William Chambers moved in the spring of 1887 on the town site from a quarter of a mile south, Lenhart establishing a general store near the depot, and Chambers locating his hotel in the same vicinity. Lenhart’s store has ever since been the largest mercantile establishment of the place. There are now four other stores, a lumber yard, meat market, barber shop, restaurant, feed mill, livery stable and three blacksmith shops. There are also two physicians, three or four grain buyers, carpenters, painters and other mechanics.

The question of a hall for public entertainments and religious meetings early agitated the people and it was solved by the donation of a site by Mr. and Mrs. Lenhart in the following unique document: To all whom it may concern:

Know all men by these presents that we, Joseph Lenhart and S. D. Lenhart, husband and wife, do covenant and agree with the people of Tyro and vicinity, in the county of Montgomery, and state of Kansas, that lots Nos. 22, 23 and 24, in block 42 in the village of Tyro, county and state aforesaid, as per recorded plat thereof, shall forever (or so long as it may be used for such purposes) be for the use and services of the said people of Tyro and vicinity; together with the buildings thereon; for the purpose of holding public meetings, either moral, social, religious, scientific or political; we only reserving control and allotting to each a time of service; pledging ourselves to maintain equal and exact justice to all regardless of creeds or beliefs, in accordance with our best judgment.

Signed: — Joseph Lenhart, S. D. Lenhart.

The funds for a building were raised by public subscriptions, and among the novel methods employed was a quilt scheme which brought in $116 for names worked on it, and $186 more when it was sold. The cornerstone was laid June 27th, 1891, and the dedicatory services were conducted by the Masonic lodge of Caney, Kansas. This hall is used by all the religious societies and other organizations of the village, to the number of seven.

Tyro is principally famous for its excellent soft water, its supply being thought superior to that of any other locality in Kansas. This water is found in abundance at a depth of from six to ten feet in the higher part of town, and from twenty to twenty-five feet in the lower.

Wayside, Dearing and Crane

Wayside is a station and post office between Bolton and Havana on the Southwestern.

Dearing is a station and hamlet five miles west of Coffeyville on the Denver, Memphis & Atlantic division of the Missouri Pacific, and the point of junction with the main line running north. It has a post office and store.

Crane is a station on the Southern Kansas division of the Santa Fe, five miles northwest of Independence. It has a post office and country store.