[Excerpt from Dodge City and Ford County, Kansas 1870-1920 Pioneer Histories and Stories. Copyright Ford County Historical Society, Inc. All Rights reserved.]
The town of Spearville was platted in March 1873, and named after Alden Speare, railroad director and president of the Santa Fe land company. The town company was formed by W.F. Johnston, E.D. Sauer, M. Soloman, David Williams and W.S. Marshall who bought the property from the railroad, dividing it up in lots.
Located 16 miles east of Dodge City, on the Santa Fe line, Spearville soon prospered as a center for land development and immigration in eastern Ford County. It was also the central location for the Eureka Irrigation Canal Co., financed by a New York state millionaire, Asa Soule, a major employer in the area. His main enterprise was the Soule irrigation ditch which promised to deliver Arkansas River waters to farmers from Ingalls in Gray County, east to Kinsley, in Edwards County, to increase production on prairie cropland.
The Spearville Blade, early newspaper, recorded in 1885, that Spearville’s main streets were lined with business houses: supply stores, livery stables, grocery and clothing establishments, a bank service, feed stores, even a jewelry store, milliner, furniture and implement dealers, barber, butcher and bakery shops.
Two physicians including Dr. Samuel Crumbine, pioneer doctor who became famous as the first national health director, tended sick and injured and brought new life into the world. Three major hotels, the Summit House, Spearville House and Center House served travelers and newcomers.
There were two newspapers, real estate offices, billiard halls, a large skating rink, a saloon even though the state was dry at the time, major churches including Presbyterian, Methodist and Catholic, and many successful ranches and farms in the area.
German immigrants from Cincinnati, Ohio, added to Spearville’s trade area, as they set up a large community, Windthorst, southeast of the town with church and school. A railroad spur, to the Windthorst community, promised by developers never materialized.
In 1886, a fierce blizzard caused havoc and such losses for cattle and sheep ranchers that it set off takeover by the sod busters.
By 1890, the Soule Canal was deemed a failure and some of Spearville’s luster as a boom town faded. It settled down to a steady growth as years passed, however.
The Doolin gang robbed the Mussell [sic] and Soule Bank, ruining the business and the Ford County State Bank was established.
One of the first “petticoat” governments in the country occurred in Spearville in 1892, the year menfolk played a prank by writing in names of women for city council. However, the women, Carrie Nichols Dorsett, Mayor; Mrs. George Steel, Mrs. Clay Baird, Grace Woodbury, Florence Leidigh and Myrtle Bixby, took on the task with vigor. They saw to upgrading the quality of life with action. Street lighting was improved, wooden crossings installed across streets, ruts filled in and a pleasant park created. But the men took over when the year was up and women’s names did not reappear on the ballot until the 1970s.
In the ’90s life was hard with droughts, cyclones, prairie fires and blizzards taking their toll. A creamery and cheese factory was established, creating a market for area farmers. John Bull operated the factory, producing 375 pounds of cheese from about 3,000 pounds of the milk delivered each day.
In 1900, as a new century dawned, the editor of the new Spearville News reported that the town was thriving with many businesses and homes, and called the town “…one of the best kept in Southwest Kansas.” Eighteen inches of snow in February closed things up for a while and then in the spring, two tornadoes struck the area, destroying outbuildings and sheds with one fatality.
A Methodist minister was fired for “faith healing” practices and Catholics built a new church, St. John the Baptist. A Fourth of July parade was marred by a spectacular “runaway.” Several buggies were toppled, passengers were flung about and a horse fell on one passenger. However, it was reported no one was injured. In 1902, automobiles were first seen on Spearville’s unpaved streets and a telephone company was established.
A 10,000 bushel elevator was built in 1904. It was said to be the largest in southwest Kansas. It was a big year for the wheat crop. A report in The News said about 500 people lived in Spearville. The town was noted for the amount of trade done over the area.
In 1907, a Farmer’s Union was organized and meals at the Planters Hotel, served family style, were 25 cents. The proprietress, Mrs. Dryer, was known as a good cook. That September a freight train wrecked outside Spearville, scattering cars and copper bullion, Japanese bonded silk, Japanese pottery and 56 barrels of California port wine.
Fire broke out in the unprotected town on January 21, destroying five businesses on the east side of Main Street. Four new concrete buildings were erected later for a drugstore, real estate office, billiard hall and doctor ‘s office and clinic.
A $15,000 high school was built in 1911 and electric lights came to town. A storm, figured to be the worst since 1886, hit on January 12, 1912. Trains wrecked and backed up and 15 foot drifts stopped all business in town.
That year the First National Bank opened, the Berlin House began showing pictures every night except Sunday and an ice plant was built. In 1915, an ‘airdome’ theater called Starlight was built giving patrons the sky as a dome. Two hundred new automobiles were sold in 1916, following a bumper wheat crop that sold at $2 a bushel.
Women’s Defense Councils and men’s Home Guards were organized as the United States went to war in Europe. Food was rationed and clocks set forward for daylight savings time. Young men left for service. The first casualty of World War I was William Lloyd Pine who died of pneumonia at Fort Dix, New Jersey. John William Riedle, an Army medic, died in France on October 4, 1918. The Armistice, November 11, 1918, was greeted with joy, but the flu epidemic had many people homebound. Emergency nursing stations were set up to handle the serious cases, schools closed and victims numbered in the dozens.
A new French Renaissance Church for Catholics was dedicated in September 1918. General prosperity followed in the ’20s. The Deluxe Theater starred Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik and staged professional boxing matches.
A new Presbyterian-Methodist Federated church was dedicated in 1930. By 1931, wheat had dropped to 50 cents a bushel, finally going down to 26 cents a bushel.
The Great Depression was on and thousands of young men and boys passed through town looking for work. A clothing bank was set up for transients. Banks closed in 1933, but were soon back in business. Young men who found no work left for CCC camps to work in parks and road projects, one of the relief measures tried.
Still, people carried on with the harvest festival and the football games and other activities to take their minds off the problems. Shelter belts were planted and a band shell built with WPA help. Allotment acreage was created when the dust storms came. Summers were extremely hot, pastures poor and creeks dried up. The dust choked out new wheat. The worst year for the dust storms was 1935, capped by Black Friday and the April 14, Palm Sunday storm that turned broad daylight to pitch black. Some hope to the land was found from federal government projects including lake and dam creation for fishing and erosion containment, new highways and parks, local building employing WPA labor and some state and local funding. Spearville gained a new band shell and city hall, new public school buildings and athletic fields. Organization of women’s recreation clubs and children’s programs helped. The Community Club staged a series of community Chautauqua programs.
In 1936, an onslaught of grasshoppers brought further havoc to the landscape. Wind and blowing dust raked the city and countryside the following year and more and more people needed assistance to hold out in these grim times. By midsummer, rain fell and buffalo grass revived. School started in the new buildings and work on city buildings was going well. Dust storms were not history, but things were looking up. The premier of the movie, Dodge City, at the county capital in May, was a big event but local fans noted a big error in the script. The Spearville depot was on the wrong side of the railroad tracks.
In 1940, a new city jail was built with NYA help. Farms still were lost to tax sales and 128 farms were given up in 1939, but land was bought by other farmers. By October, 126 young men the age of 21 and older were drafted into armed services due to the serious situation in Europe and the start of World War II. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the country went to war in 1941, and Spearville, as every other town in the U.S.A. went to work supporting the war effort with war bond sales, Red Cross work, Victory gardens, tire rationing, gasoline and many other responses to wartime needs and shortages. The most serious, of course, was the many young men and women who were drafted or enlisted in the cause. Eventually, sad messages came to parents and families. In all, 11 men gave their lives: Anthony Duesing, Gregory Scheve, Kenneth Buckles, Arthur Barrett, Carl Heskamp, Ole Rosproy, Edward Ackerman, Ralph Rankin, Billy Kisner, LeRoy Schmidt and Warren Perkins.
During the war years, agriculture came back as a desperate effort was made to keep crops growing, harvested and delivered with worn out machinery and few hands. It was great news when the war ended in August 1945, even as the town mourned its losses in young lives. Perkins Hospital opened again in 1946 and electricity came to rural Kansas. Victory Electric had a plant in Spearville and in 1947, the city got a real fire truck. New homes were being built.
On December 31, 1949, a fire gutted the Spearville High School building. Area schools lent desks and books so that the students could return to classes in the Knights of Columbus Hall while their school was rebuilt. It was ready for the fall semester.
A decade of progress came with the ‘ 50s. Streets were black topped, Spearville Hospital District was formed and a new modern hospital was built. A new gymnasium was constructed. E-Z Fold, an industrial concern was incorporated, with the invention of a folding, portable basketball standard by two local men, Michael Hornung and Victor Claussen. Employees grew from three to 200 as the company installed the stands everywhere. Other products, notably the CrustBuster, are still manufactured in Spearville.
The ’60s likewise, was a prosperous decade. E-Z Fold sold out and American Products, Inc., took its place, relying on sale of the CrustBuster, a versatile and improved farming tool. The firm now bears the name of its premier product and that of another manufacturing company which was purchased: CrustBuster/SpeedKing, Inc.
Natural gas and a new sewer system were installed, a recreation district formed, and a new baseball diamond and swimming pool added. The Ford County State Bank, originally constructed by Asa Soule, was razed and a modern building was built. United Telephone put a terminal in Spearville, and B.L. “Pop” McMillan, operator of the local drug store for 50 years, died unexpectedly.
The Farmers Co-op began the decade with expansion, but then joined the Right Co-op, Wright, several years later. Spearville and Windthorst school districts were unified and the post office was moved from third to second class in 1961. Horace Fry (The Horse Editor) sold his business, The Spearville News, after 30 years, to Lawrence Vierthaler, current publisher.
In 1964, Henry Pickerall retired at 88 as the City Marshal and the Deluxe Theater was razed. Spearville lost two long-term and renowned doctors to death in these two decades, Drs. G.O. Speirs and George Mandeville.
The last three decades have seen a number of changes in the community. The Spearville News has become a major publisher in the area and the establishment of the Feist Publications, Inc., a product of an enterprising couple, Tom and Roberta Feist and family, is also a major force in the local economy. Its area-wide telephone directories now cover a large portion of the southern Central Plains.
The face of Main Street and the business community has changed with the times as have many other small cities, with the advent of super highways and fast cars. There are still wide and clean streets, beautiful yards and well-kept homes, a lovely park, fine school buildings and churches, little shops and major business buildings that provide services needed by 700 citizens.
If the founding leaders were surveyed today, would they express disappointment that a major metropolis didn’t come about as the result of their entrepreneurism? Perhaps they’d be content in seeing their work of over 120 years ago as still significant to folks six and seven generations later, who live the idyllic small-town life.
Evelyn Steimel
Adapted from City of Windmills, by Eleanor Fry and the Diamond Jubilee Book from St. John the Baptist Church by Michael Hornung
Dodge City and Ford County, Kansas 1870-1920 Pioneer Histories and Stories is available for purchase from the Ford County Historical Society.