Densmore, Kansas – Norton County Ghost Town

Densmore, Kansas, is a ghost town near the Solomon River in West Union Township of Norton County.

John T. Densmore came to the area in 1874 and was one of the first settlers. Another early settler was Sumner “Sorghum Smith” and his family, originally from New York, who arrived in the spring of 1875. They took a claim adjoining Bill Worthington and Bill Landis on the south. Planning to build a dam on the Solomon River and establish a sawmill, Sumner Smith and his sons began to cut timber. However, some of the settlers concluded they did not need a sawmill and forbade him from cutting timber. Smith’s troubles began when the Cummings arrived to live in Bill Landis’ house.

When Bill Landis’ wife left him, she came to the Smith home to stay for a few days until her father, Mr. Fry, came for her. However, when Fry arrived, Bill Landis shot him, and Mrs. Smith cared for his wound. Afterward, the quarrel on the Soloman River intensified.

By the spring of 1877, Smith appeared worried and felt the whole settlement was working against him. He then found a note pinned on the door of their residence signed by “15 citizens,” informing him that he must leave the county at once or he would be mobbed. A few weeks later, he stepped outside the door, and that was the last seen of him. His family and friends sent letters to all parts of the country, but they heard nothing, and after a short time, the search was abandoned. Three weeks later, one of Sumner’s sons found his body in the mill race he had dug two years before. A coroner and jury returned a verdict of suicide.

Afterward, John T. Densmore laid claim to Sumner Smith’s property and eventually laid out the town of Densmore and gave it his name. B.B. Glass was a townsite agent.

The first Catholic Mass was celebrated on October 27, 1878, by Reverend Augustine Reichert, pastor of New Almelo. The early parishioners gathered in the Hugh Donnelly dugout, which was the temporary home of this family. The location was about a half mile northeast of Densmore. On subsequent occasions, Hugh Donnelly’s sod house was the meeting place for Mass.

In 1879, the Cyrus Archer family moved from Ohio to Kansas and settled on a homestead south of Densmore. After claiming a homestead site, Cyrus and Elizabeth Archer began to build a house and started a Sunday School held in various homes. They then built a sod church on their homestead that had dirt floors, with seats and a pulpit made of rough-hewn logs. Though humble, it was the first church in that section of the country. The Archers were the parents of a large family of two girls and six boys. Later, the services were moved to the schoolhouse in Densmore.

The post office moved from West Union and opened on December 20, 1880, with John T. Densmore as the first postmaster.

John Voss, Sr., was an early settler in the community. Albert Manville owned and operated the first general store, and Jim Reins opened the first blacksmith shop.

Densmore began to boom when the Missouri Pacific Railroad came through in 1881. Lot prices doubled, and five new buildings were built that year.

The first school was built in 1885, with Miss Williams as the first teacher. Five members organized the formal Free Methodist Church that year, and A.S. Manning was appointed pastor in 1886.

In 1885, Densmore had a creamery, two lumber dealers, a meat market, a livery, a druggist, a doctor, a lawyer, a gunsmith, a hotel, a blacksmith, a general store, a justice of the peace, a constable and a population of 60. Livestock, grain, and produce are shipped. Its mail was delivered daily to E.E. Densmore, the postmaster. The nearest bank was Logan.

Sam Baxter built a hotel and began operations in 1886. The same year, Seadbrook and Miller built the Double Building, A.C. Berch built the livery barn, and Mr. Taylor built the store where the Farmers Union would later stand.

In June 1888, the Densmore News was established.

On June 28, 1888, Ed and Joe Conarty were arrested for shooting Byron F. Sedbruck. That night, two young men of the town got into a dispute over a horse race, resulting in a difference of opinion regarding their manhood. Resulting in a fistfight; both had friends and bitter enemies who interfered, resulting in Sedbruck’s shooting with a revolver. The ball entered his body under the right arm, passed through the right lung, and came out near the spinal column.

On July 29, 1890, town founder Thomas J. Densmore was injured when his buggy and team were struck by a train at the “Widow Post Crossing,” two miles west of Logan, Kansas. The incident caused injuries to the right side of his body, his head, his chest, and back, and destroyed the usefulness of his right lung. Afterward, he was an invalid. On October 14, 1890, Densmore sued the Missouri Pacific Railroad for negligence and asked for damages of $8000 plus the cost of the lawsuit. He died on November 19, 1890, and his wife, as administrator of his estate, continued with the lawsuit.

After much wrangling, a jury trial was held, and on May 22, 1891, the jury found in favor of the defendant, the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The railroad was allowed to recover the costs of the suit from Mrs. Densmore. Subsequently, the Densmore property was sold at a sheriff’s sale on May 13, 1895, for $48.00 (two-thirds of the appraised value) to the highest bidder, Cyrus Archer.

In 1894, Densmore had a general store, a hotel, a livery, a blacksmith, and a flour mill. Its population was 50. The nearest bank was in Logan, 10 miles east.

Land for the Catholic Church site was purchased on February 28, 1899, for $85.00. The congregation bought a vacant store building for $95.00, which was torn down and, piece by piece, transferred to the church site. The total cost of the site, church, and furnishings was $375.00. The parishioners donated all of the labor. The church was completed on April 29, 1899, and the first Mass was celebrated on April 30, 1899. The first church was used until October 1948, when a new church was dedicated. It then became St. Mary’s Hall.

On June 14, 1900, the Calvary Cemetery was established about one mile north of Densmore on land donated by Peter Donnelly to the St. Mary’s Parish. O.B. Cackley built the first hardware store and later sold it to John Taylor and George Harris, who moved it to Hays.

In 1902, a limestone Free Methodist Church building was erected.

Mr. Baker built the first grain elevator in 1905.

The Farmers State Bank was organized in 1909 with John Voss, Jr. as president and Alva Archer as cashier. It raised capital from $10,000 to $15,000, and its surplus and profits soon reached $17,000.

That year, the Missouri Pacific Railroad built a new depot and ran a freight train every other day.

In 1909, a two-story school was built of cement blocks. On January 15, 1910, the old schoolhouse was sold at a public auction for $285 to Mr. Koeker, a harness man. Later, the old school was torn down to build a modern harness shop across the street south of the hotel.

At about that time, the Mann Mercantile Company opened its doors for business. By March, there was a new barbershop.

In 1910, Densmore was described as one of the prosperous towns of Norton County. It was still a station on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. It had a bank, a flour mill, a hotel, a livery, a creamery, a hardware store,  some well-stocked general stores, Catholic and Methodist churches, a money order office with two rural routes, telephone connections, and a population of 100.

The Farmers Union Co-Operative Association owned and operated a general store and creamery at Densmore that was organized on March 1, 1913, with a capital of $5,000, which soon increased to well over $10,000. The Farmers Union started with a membership of 35 and grew to 72 members.

In 1915, the two-story cement block school was condemned, and a frame building was built to replace it.

Before 1922, the children of Densmore and vicinity could only obtain a high school education from a neighboring school. This was a hardship on the parents, and a great many children did not get to attend. For this reason, the people decided they might as well have a school. A petition was circulated to form a district, and an election was called. The election was a success, and the district was organized. However, another election was held after district boundaries were rearranged, but the bond issue was defeated. Instead, the school board, Fred Spatz, Cal Mullen, and Denver Archer, raised funds to build the school by issuing warrants in 1922. The Board initially rented a vacant frame house in the second semester of the 1922-23 school year and hired two teachers who taught the first school semester with 19 students enrolled.

A new school building was built and ready for use in the 1923-24 school year. The teachers were T.I. Gifford, principal, and Miss Brawley, assistant. There were 38 students enrolled. Averill Loughry was the only one in the graduating class of 1924. In its early days, the boys played basketball outdoors and took baths in a community tub in the furnace room. Many articles written by students appeared in their school newspaper, pleading for a gym. The high school boys and girls used the opera house at Edmond to practice basketball. They also practiced at Almena when their gym was available.

As the Free Methodist Church’s membership grew, a new brick church was built in 1930. The church prospered, and in 1935, its membership was 109.

However, during the Great Depression, many people moved to other parts of the country. In 1958, a new modern parsonage was built. Carl Boys was a pastor in 1959 and probably the last minister before the church closed, and the congregation went to the Logan Free Methodist Church.

In 1932, the high school finally got a new gym with a stage. In 1932 and 1933, Ed Mullen, a strong athletics sponsor, produced the greatest football team the Solomon Valley had ever known from 20 boys. As the years went by, more classes were offered, more teachers were hired, more activities were added, and the hot lunch program was started in the 1940s.

On February 20, 1933,  a moderate earthquake was felt in Norton and Decatur Counties in Kansas and Harlan and Furnas Counties in Nebraska. Buildings and houses swayed, dishes and windows rattled, and people ran out of their houses.

The Farmers State Bank at Densmore, chartered in 1909, voluntarily ceased operations on Friday, July 10, 1936. Capitalizing at $25,000, the bank had been a credit to its community for over a quarter of a century, filling a distinct need for Densmore and its vicinity. The drought of the present season undoubtedly contributed to the board of directors’ decision to discontinue business. The post office was moved into the old bank building sometime after the bank closed.

On October 28, 1947, the first sod was turned for St. Mary’s Church. Arrangements were made with the Harper Construction Company to do the foundation work, completed on December 19, 1947. Joe Frank of Salina began carpentry work in August of 1947. On April 6, 1948, stone masons from Lenora began work on the walls.

St. Mary’s church was dedicated on October 20, 1948. The new church was built in a modified colonial design with walls of native rock quarried north of Edmond. Open trusses and a wood ceiling, stained mahogany, were in keeping with the simple, rustic design of the whole structure. The structure is 90 feet long and 26 feet wide. The three Statues and the Stations of the Cross were carved of white limewood by a famous wood carver in Italy. The cost of the structure proper was $25,000. Electrical, plumbing, and furnishings totaled $5,000. The probable value of donated labor and materials was close to $10,000. The church seated 200 people.

The “Little” Six League,” which” consisted of high schools in Webster, Bogue, Clayton, Edmond, Prairie View, and Densmore, was organized in 1948. Harold Sutley and Alvin Gulick organized competitions in music, one-act plays, and sports among these schools.

Between 1946 and 1950, three school buses were purchased to transport students.

When high school began on September 1, 1952, its enrollment was 36, the highest since 1927.

On April 13, 1961, another earthquake occurred that felt about the same as the 1933 earthquake.

Unfortunately, enrollment decreased in the following years, and by the 1960s, it was evident that the school would soon close. Through school unification, the school closed in 1965, and students were bused to Logan. In the 41 years that Densmore High School operated, 267 people graduated.

The new hall for St. Mary’s was erected in 1970 and dedicated the following year.

DensmorDensmore’sffice closed on August 22, 1992. The Lenora Post Office, some 15 miles west, now serves the Densmore area.

Services are no longer held in St. Mary’s Church. Most former members attend St. John’s Church in Logan, ten miles east of Densmore.

Today, Densmore is served by Logan USD 326 public school district.

The old town still displays several homes and business buildings, many of which have badly deteriorated or fallen. Trees have long overtaken the red-brick Methodist Church, but St. Mary’s Church still stands. The old school has been razed.

Densmore is approximately two miles east of Edmond near the K-9 highway and 16 miles southeast of Norton, the county seat.