Hackney, Kansas, courtesy of Google Maps.
Hackney is an unincorporated village of Pleasant Valley Township in Cowley County, Kansas. As it lost its post office years ago, it is officially an extinct town. However, it still has a small population.
This place got its start in 1871 and was first called Constant. It gained a post office on July 3, 1871, but it closed on November 13, 1872. The post office reopened on April 5, 1880. On March 31, 1894, the town’s name was changed to Hackney. It was named after William P. Hackney, a colorful frontier lawyer and politician from Cowley County.
Baptist Church in Hackney, Kansas, 1910.
In 1910, it was a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and was a shipping point for a rich farming section. At that time, it had a grain elevator, general stores, telegraph, and express offices, telephone connections, an international money order post office, and a population of 40.
The post office closed on February 15, 1924.
An airport was built in the early 1940s and was used as a training airfield by the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. The airport is now called Strother Field, and it is the home of Strother Field Industrial Park.
Today this small community still has a grain elevator, a few businesses, a Baptist Church, and several homes. The community is served by Winfield USD 465 public school district.
Hackney is six miles south of Winfield, Kansas.
© Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, February 2023.
Also See:
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Kansas Post Office History
Wikipedia