Monday, December 10, 2012

Half Way & Cransdale Kansas

Could County.
Summit Township Map, 1885.
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/223984/page/27

On the county map Half Way can be found in Township 6-south and Range 5-west.  On the township map Half Way can be found in section 33.

Half Way & Cransdale Kansas.
Town & Post Office History.

The old buildings long since deserted, stand as an old landmark of what was once known as Half Way. The store and postoffice were the elements composing this place, the name of which is significant of being about midway between Beloit and Concordia, on the summit of the divide between the Republican and Solomon river valleys. In all early day it was thought best to establish a mail route with Concordia as distributing office.

On May 16, 1872, Cransdale was located and Samuel Hannum was appointed postmaster by Judge A.J. Croswell, postmaster-general, which he held until 1877, when the office was moved to the residence of John C. Orput, who lived half way between Concordia and Beloit, and given the name of Half Way.

Mr. Orput was appointed by D.M. Key, postmaster-general. In April, 1878, he resigned, and John S. Abbey was appointed and the office moved to his residence, where it remained until the present year (1901) when a rural delivery was established and the postoffice abolished.  Cransdale post office open May 16, 1872 and ran to April 11, 1877.  Name changed to Half Way who's post office open April 11, 1877 and ran to October 10, 1900. 
 
Business men who used Half Way as their P. O. address as of 1885.
 
R. L. Coen, Farmer and Stock Raiser, from Ohio, came to county 1871.
 
A. W. Fuller, Farmer and Stock Raiser, from Vermont, came to county 1874.
 
Henry A. Hervey, Farmer and Stock Raiser, from Indiana, came to county 1870.
 
F. L. Hart, Farmer and Stock Raiser, from Pennsylvania, came to county 1880.
 
E. A. Phillips, Farmer and Pastor Summit Free Will Baptist Church, from Rhode Island, came to county 1877.
 
S. D. Potter, Farmer, from New York, came to county 1873.
 
William Russell, Farmer, from England, came to county 1877.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the inforrmation. E.A. Phillips was my great great grandfather. He came from a long line of Freewill Baptist preachers including his father Augustus Phillips of Wisconsin. Later he became a Seventh Day Adventist and he and his wife as well as most of their children and families moved to Tulare, California.