The approximate site of old Runnymede on the Chicaskia River is courtesy of Google Maps.
Runnymede, Kansas, was an unincorporated community in the northeastern part of Harper County, not far from the Kingman County line. It is an extinct town today, as its post office closed decades ago.
Ned Turnly.
Runnymede was founded by North Ireland emigrant Francis J.S. “Ned” Turnley, who came to the area from England around 1879 and advertised for young men to come to “a western paradise where golden birds sang in the trees and silver rivers ran tinkling to the sea.”
Turnley purchased 1,700 acres for $1.50 an acre and started a Chikaskia Ranch, named after the nearby river. He planned to establish a ranch where sons of wealthy Englishmen could live and be taught successful farming and stock-raising methods for $500 a year plus living expenses. Another gentleman, Robert W. Watmough, suggested establishing a town. A post office opened on June 20, 1879.
Afterward, Turnley returned to England and advertised his plan in newspapers and periodicals, enticing young, well-to-do men to come from England and learn how to farm.
Turnley then returned to Kansas, prepared living quarters for his anticipated “students,” and laid out the town named in honor of a historic spot near London, England. Curving driveways led to English-style houses set among rows of clipped hedges, and farms and orchards were modeled after English estates. The view of the country from the center of town was magnificent, with the Chicaskia River’s winding course visible for miles.
Turnly’s recruitment efforts were successful, and about 100 English, Irish, and Scots came to Kansas and joined his efforts. Most of the young men who came were the younger sons of wealthy English families who became known as “Remittance Men” because they would receive a monthly remittance from their families. The young men were sent to Kansas, hoping that plains life and the Kansas Prohibition laws would improve their behavior and make men of them.
In 1885, Runnymede was on the tri-weekly stage route from Wichita to Harper, from which mail was delivered to Carrie Francis, the postmaster. At that time, it had three blacksmiths, a shoemaker, a justice of the peace, a livestock dealer, a shoemaker, a dressmaker, and three carpenters. Harper, about nine miles to the southwest, was its banking and shipping point for grain and livestock products.
In 1886, the Runnymede Colony was incorporated with a capital of $4,800 in 160 shares. Francis “Ned” Turnley, Lieutenant William Hope Hooper, and Captain Percy A.E. Wood were the directors. The architect was C.W. Terry, and the contractor was J.A. Nixon, both from Wichita, Kansas.
On May 29, 1889, a boatload of English people, 16 men and women, two of whom were Turnley’s sisters, left England. That year, a charter was obtained to build the St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church, and the construction contract was awarded to a Wichita builder, J.A. Nixon. The cornerstone ceremonies were held on November 19, 1889, with the Reverend A. Beatty of Wellington presiding.
Runnymede Arms Hotel in Runnymede Kansas.
Construction began on the Runnymede Arms Hotel in September 1889 and was generally completed by December of the same year. It was the showplace of the town and of that section of Kansas. The hotel was a three-story building with a broad veranda on the front. It had a spacious entry hall and necessary offices, three reception rooms, a dining room with lavish decor, 11 bedrooms, and one large bathroom on the second floor. The attic was used for the bachelors and servants. The editor of the Harper Sentinel newspaper visited Runnymede and declared it well-built and arranged to accommodate the traveling public’s needs. The rooms were large and well-arranged for heating and ventilation. They also had excellent water closets, washrooms, and storage space. He said that the hotel was the pride of Runnymede.
Runnymede grew rapidly, and by the end of 1889, buildings covered seven city blocks.
St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church, which could accommodate 140 people, was completed in February 1890 for $1,300. The interior furnishings were primarily imported from England.
Turnley planned other businesses, including a milling company, creamery, soda water factory, sugar plant, hotel, and livery.
Steeplechase.
After the Runnymede Arms Hotel was opened, race meetings, polo, lawn tennis, football, bowling, billiards, dancing, riding the stage between Norwich and Harper, and hunting became the order of the day. Two polo clubs sprang into existence, the flat race track and steeplechase course were finished, four lawn tennis courts were leveled, and Maryland foxhounds were brought in for hunting as red-coated hunters rode to hounds across the buffalo grass prairie. A race meeting occurred about once a month during the summer, and work became the last thing they thought of. The men of Runnymede also imagined they were in the very heart of the Wild West, wearing cowboy outfits and carrying guns and knives that rattled whenever they walked. They proudly posed for pictures in photograph galleries or studios in Harper and Wichita. The British brought their fun-loving and free-wheeling natures to the Kansas prairies with ready money and a desire to be amused. They never really participated in the one thing they were supposed to learn—farming.
The Runnymede colony peaked from about October 1889 through the first half of 1890, when estimates of its population ranged from 50 to 100 people. Most farming was done by proxy because the English men were more interested in sports and play than work. Adding to the issue, the new colonists consumed prodigious amounts of liquor, as the prohibition laws were not consistently enforced. Instead of an educational and training facility, Runnymede became a socially oriented community that strongly resembled a modern dude ranch.
Runnymede Tennis Club, 1891.
On May 15, 1890, 23-year-old Richard Watmough was a guest of honor at a ball held at the hotel the night before he was to leave to return to Ireland. He planned to marry Hilda Turnley, who had already returned to their home country. That night, a fire began in the livery stable, and he lost his life. Saving the Runnymede Hotel from the fire was difficult, and the heat badly blistered it.
The death of Watmough was a blow to his friends and members of the Runnymede colony. Many relatives in England became alarmed when the news reached them, and they demanded the return of their sons and daughters. Some had grown tired of sending money and had become suspicious of the manner of living practiced in Runnymede and refused to continue financing their offspring.
In November 1890, a large crowd from Harper went to the races at Runnymede. The town citizens wore holiday clothes, and the business houses displayed English and American flags. The afternoon was devoted to horse racing, and a grand ball was held at the hotel in the evening.
A grand banquet, attended by 38 people, was held at the hotel on Christmas of 1890.
Lay leaders held occasional services in St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church until December 1890, when the Reverend B. Hartley began regular services at St. Patrick’s Church in Runnymede and St. James Church in Harper.
In 1891, the Wichita & El Paso Railroad planned a route from Wichita to the newly opened Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma. Even though the Wichita Eagle reported on New Year’s Day 1891 that the railroad would come, it never did.
St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Runnymede, in about 1885.
The final damaging blow came when the Kansas, Mexico, and Orient railroad failed to build a route to Runnymede but laid tracks two miles southwest of the town.
By July 1892, the Turnly real estate holdings in Runnymede were declared vacated for nonpayment of taxes. The colonists had left, and Turnly had returned to Ireland. A few buildings were moved to a new Runnymede near the railroad crossing on the road to Harper.
On December 13, 1892, the Reverend John A. Dooris took charge of the St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church parish, and early in 1893, the bishop requested the unused St. Patrick’s Church moved to Harper. On March 1, 1893, the Reverend R.W. Rhames was assigned to the Harper Episcopal church; work on the foundation for the church building began in April, and cornerstone ceremonies were held on May 5. The Runnymede church was moved to the Northeast corner of 11th and Pine Streets in the summer of 1893, and a small frame addition was constructed. On October 10, the Reverend E.T. Thomas, Bishop of the Kansas Diocese, held consecration services, and the church rededicated to St. James.
The Runnymede Hotel, the village’s most important structure, was purchased by three businessmen from Medicine Lodge, Kansas, in 1893. Two months after the opening of the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma on September 16, 1893, and the birth of the town of Alva in September 1893, the third story was removed. Horses and wagons then moved it over unimproved roads, four rivers, and other streams on a difficult journey. The hotel was reconstructed in November 1893 on the square’s northeast corner in downtown Alva, Oklahoma, at Fourth and Flynn Street.
“Lew Lebrecht and several parties from Medicine Lodge have formed a company, purchased the Runnymede Hotel, and will move it to Alva. This is a large building, with 40 rooms, and will possibly be the best hotel in the strip.
— Alva Pioneer, November 17, 1893
By 1895, old Runnymede was virtually empty, as all the buildings had been moved away, and their occupants had moved to Harper or back to England.
In 1910, Runnymede was a station on the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railroad, at which time, it had a money order post office and a population of 19.
The old Runnymede Church in Harper, Kansas, now serves as a museum.
The Runnymede Cemetery was plowed over in the 1940s
Runnymede’s post office closed on December 31, 1944.
The parish of St. James in Harper was active until 1957.
In 1959, the city of Harper leased the church building. Later, it was deeded to the Harper City Historical Society, which renovated the structure in 1960 and now maintains it as a museum. The building was added to the National Register in 1973.
Over the years, the old Runnymede Hotel in Alva, Oklahoma, passed through several hands and had many different names. Eventually, the historic building became run down and an eyesore. In 1998, a committee was formed, and with help from volunteers, it was completely renovated and now appears much as it did when it was moved to Oklahoma. Today, it functions as a community meeting place and event venue.
The old Runnymede Church in Harper and the old Runnymede Hotel in Alva, Oklahoma, are the only surviving buildings from Turnley’s unique colony at Runnymede.
A Kansas historical marker describing Old Runnymede is at the intersection of State Highway 2 and NE 140th Road, on the right, when traveling north on State Highway 2.
Runnymede was about nine miles northeast of Harper and 20 miles northeast of Anthony. Today, wheat fields cover the townsite.
The old Runnymede Hotel still stands in Alva, Oklahoma.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated November 2024.
Also See:
Extinct Towns of Harper County
Sources:
1884-1885 Gazetteer and Business Directory, R.L. Polk & Company, Detroit, MI.
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Genealogy Trails
Historic Marker Database
National Register of Historic Places – St Patricks Episcopal Church
Okielegacy
Runnymede Hotel History
Way, Herbert W.L. Way; Round the World For Gold, Sampson, Low, Marston & Company; London, England; 1912.
Wikipedia