When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was passed in 1854, very
little of Franklin county was open to white settlement. Much of it was
divided among the various Indian tribes into reservations, including the
Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Chippewa, and Ottawa. There was a strip around the
north edge of the county, about
three miles wide , known as the Shawnee purchase, which was opened
on May 10, 1854.
From June, 1854, there was a steady stream of settlers arriving; the first
of these settling in the Shawnee purchase in Franklin county. At this time,
the pro-slavery issue was a hot one with many settlers arriving for political
reasons, On the evening of June 26, a group of 15 men arrived on Eight-Mile-Creek
near present Centropolis. They camped on the creek bank that night and
the next morning a vote was taken to decide whether Kansas should be a
free or slave state. All voted free except two, these being J.M. Bernard
and Timothy Keizer, The other settlers included JACOB
CLARK, I.C. Hughes, Thomas Doty, John F. Jaens, Franklin Barns, Johnson
Farris, Perry Fuller, Leander McClellan, John E. McClellan, and Manfield
Carter. This important matter of slavery being settled, each man selected
his claim, Bernard's being east of and adjoining the present townsite of
Centropolis, John Javens build the first cabin on Eight-Mile-Creek.
Early in 1855, Bernard opened a store on his quarter-section and on March
3, he was appointed postmaster, and the post office being appropriately
named after him St. Bernard. St. Bernard, however, was a short-lived settlement.
Although the Kansas Territorial Legislature designated it as a county seat
in 1855, the town neither grew nor prospered. Finally a raid by free-state
men was carried out against Bernard and his post office after he had made
himself obnoxious and threatening one to many times, and when Bernard was
induced to leave, there was nothing left of the town. The St. Bernard Post
Office was discontinued on November 26, 1858, immediately changing to Minneola.
The town of Centropolis found its suspicious beginnings in the hand of
pioneer Perry Fuller. Sometime later in 1855, Perry Fuller build a frame
store building on the townsite. Almost from the start, Fuller conceived
of his townsite as the county seat and territorial capital of Kansas, hence
its often used post office name is a contraction of Central Metropolis
-- "Centropolis".
Fuller's store based much of its trade on the nearby Indian populations.
His stock of goods were shipped overland by West & James Company of
Kansas City. Business was good for Fuller, his aggregate sales amounting
to $50,000 a year! In 1856 Fuller took William Moore into partnership.
The new firm bought out West & James and continued the business for
themselves. About this time the Centropolis Town Company was organized
with he following members: Perry Fuller, John F. Javens, Franklin Barns,
George Powers, Samuel T. Shores, William Moore, J.K. Goodin, George W.
Smith, Benjamin C. Westfall, Samuel Mewhinney, Ralph Mayfield, Cyrus K.
Holliday, William Y. Roberts, and Cyrus Currier. The goal of the Town Company
was to make the new city not only the county seat, but also the territorial
capital as well. The town grew quite rapidly and lots were sold at what
then were exorbitant prices - $500 a lot! {Cyrus K. Holliday went on to
be one of the founders of Topeka Ks}
Throughout 1856 many dwellings were erected. A Dr. Hall opened a dry goods
and grocery store which, within two years was sold to H.H. Bliss. George
Powers build a boardinghouse and in 1857 a restaurant. Jacob Long built
a trading house and sold liquor to the indians. Fuller and Moore, not wanting
to see such a business in their town, purchased Long's supply of liquor
and, knocking in the heads of the barrels, let it flow out into the in
the prairie. The Indians, however, sorry to see so much liquor wasted,
gathered up as much of it as they could with buckets as it seeped into
the ground. A school was opened in 1855, William Cator being the first
teacher. In the fall of 1956 Centropolis gave Franklin county its first
town newspaper, the "Kansas Leader", published by W.H. Austin.
Previously, the Reverend Jothan Meeker had published a missionary newspaper
in the county.
Centropolis reached its peak around 1857. At that time there were 30 buildings
in the town, among them being four saloons and a prosperous gambling house.
The town also completed a large steam saw mill that year operating by J.A.
Marcell. In 1860 a severe drought hit the farmers in this area hard. Many
packed their belongings and moved away. The "Centropolis Journal"
was started on March 9, 1864, by Charles W. Goodin. It was a small paper
and acquired a circulation of about 500. It was suspended just six months
later. A school was build in 1877 at the cost of $1,200. A church was built
in 1880 at Centropolis at a cost of $1,000. By 1880 Centropolis had a population
of 175, with two general stores, one hardware store, two blacksmith shops,
one wagon and one machine shop, one grist mill, one cabinet shop, and one
hotel. The railroad bypassed the town in favor of Norwood, LeLoup and Baldwin
City.
The bypassing of the railroad did not kill the town an example of civic pride was the ball teams. Below is one of the teams from the 1920's.
Back row: Tom Sands, Lanty Brubaker, Hayden Turner, Dr. Claud
Flora
Middle row: Alvin Fisher, Harold Fisher, Clyde Gruver, Vern Clark, Oren Oyler
Front row: Orval Baker, Dr Homer Flora
With the advent of the telephone, shares of stock were
sold in the Centropolis Telephone Company. Service was furnished to outlying
areas, in places using barbed wire fences to carry the service. The switch
board was located in the front from of a home, and calls were "put
through" from 7AM until 8PM. Only emergency calls were allowed after
hours, and often a crusty, sleepy operator, impatient at being wakened,
would demand to know the nature of the message before completing the call.
If he decided it was not of a truly "emergency" nature, he merely
dropped the key and went back to bed, the call not made. This system, surprisingly,
lasted until 1969, when the company was sold to Contel Telephone. It was
one of the last independent telephone companies in Kansas to "go modern",
putting an end to many frustrated callers!
The great depression of the 1930's was even harder on the town. One of
its doctors left, the harness making shop closed, bowing to the inevitablilty
of the automobile, and the bank failed. Finally only two general stores,
the blacksmith and garage, a barber shop, and the restaurant remained.
The restaurant, whimsically named "The June Bug" was a favorite
gathering place for the townsmen. Oldtimers fondly recall the old building,
and how one of the village characters, "Dinger" Turner, would
empty the restaurant in record time. It seams that Dinger, when he grew
tired of listening to the general conversation, would enliven things by
whipping out his pistol and shooting flies off the ceiling -- guaranteed
to cause a speedy retreat by all present!
Two businesses survived the ups and downs of the small town. One was Gilliland's,
a garage and tire shop started in 1926 by Elmer Gilliland. For a time it
also included a sawmill and an icehouse, and provided electricity for fourteen
houses in the town, finally selling out that portion to Kansas City Power
and Light about 1940. It continues to serve the community, operated after
Elmer by his son Leland "Bud", and now by his grandson, Gene,
and his grandson-in-law, John Bowman, and is recognized by the Goodyear
Tire & Rubber Co. as the third oldest dealership in Eastern Kansas.
The other mainstay of the town through the decades was the Farmers Union
Mercantile, fondly called "Olga's" after Miss Olga Simmons, who
came to work there in 1924. She continued on, first as clerk and then as
proprietor, for 57 years -- until illness forced her retirement in 1981.
The old store was auctioned off in 1983, and purchased by Leland &
Mabel Gilliland, owners of the garage and tire shop across the street.
For a time, new life was breathed into the old store when it was reopened
by the Gilliand's daughter, Robyn Bownam. She operated the store until
the fall of 1988, when the difficulties of delivery service by suppliers
and lace of help forced her again to close. Since that time, the building
has stood empty, giving mute testimony to the echoes of a boisterous past
and an almost forgotten dream.
