Early day Lovewell, Kansas view.
Lovewell, Kansas, is a ghost town in Sinclair Township of Jewell County. Snubbed by the railroads, the village’s development did not begin until 1887.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad depot in Lovewell, Kansas.
Thomas Lovewell came to the area from Marshall County, Kansas, with his family in 1865 and filed for a homestead, making the Lovewells one of the first settlers of White Rock Valley. In 1866, Lovewell settled the town of White Rock in Republic County and later founded the town of Lovewell.
A post office called Lovewell Station was established on November 19, 1888.
Located on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, the town’s name changed from Lovewell Station to Lovewell on August 20, 1895.
In 1910, Lovewell had express and telegraph offices, a post office, and a population of 200.
In 1914, a series of “Good Roads” meetings laid out preliminary plans and gathered input from fledgling motorists around the country. The resulting route for the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway (better known as Highway 36) was unveiled in St. Joseph, Missouri, with state and federal highway officials.
By 1915, Lovewell was being hailed as the fastest-growing town in the county. The following year, the town had an attractive little school, which, while hardly imposing, was undoubtedly a step up from the earlier one-room buildings such as School No. 97 at nearby Switzer’s gap.
Lovewell, Kansas, 1916.
However, the new highway spelled the beginning of the end for Lovewell. The smoothest road in the region would miss the town by five miles, running roughly congruent with a trail known 60 years earlier as the Parallel Road, once intended as a highway that would usher prospectors from Atchison to Pikes Peak. The Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway was scheduled to intersect with the north-south Meridian Highway just a few miles away at Belleville, making travel even easier.
Contractors started building the dam for the nearby Lovewell Reservoir on January 27, 1955. It was named for Thomas Lovewell. Construction was finished in 1957 and the lake began to be filled on October 1. The reservoir became operational on October 15, 1957.
In 1968, the Santa Fe Railroad asked the Kansas Corporation Commission for permission to close the Lovewell depot.
The post office closed on August 24, 1972, officially making it an “extinct town.”
Today, this old settlement still has named streets, a few area homes, and several old business buildings. The railroad is still active.
The Rock Hills USD 107 public school district in Mankato serves the area. Lovewell is located 18 miles northeast of Mankato.
An overgrown business building in Lovewell, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
An old school in Lovewell, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, October 2024.
An old business building in Lovewell, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
Also See:
Extinct Towns in Jewell County
Lovewell Reservoir & State Park
Sources:
Blackmar, William; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Standard Publishing Co., Chicago, IL,1912.
Lovewell History
Wikipedia