Elgin, Kansas – Chautauqua County Ghost Town

Elgin, Kansas, is a tiny town located in the fertile valley of the Big Caney River in Hendricks Township, Chautauqua County. On the southern edge of the city is the Kansas-Oklahoma state line. It was once known as one of the largest cattle shipping sites, a hangout for the outlaw Dalton Brothers, and is officially an extinct town, as its post office was discontinued years ago. As of the 2020 census, its population was 60, and its total area was 0.20 square miles, all of which was land.

Lyman P. Getman founded and laid out Elgin in 1869. Getman owned a store in nearby Sedan, Kansas. A few months later, the prominent family of Romulus (Rome) Hanks arrived. He was a cousin of President Abraham Lincoln. He established a small trading post. His family joined him the following year, but they reportedly broke down crying when they saw the primitive dwelling.

A post office was established on February 27, 1870, and Getman was the first postmaster. In the fall of 1870, he established the first store in Elgin, Wade & Getman. John Lee, William Gamble, and Beadle Welsh started the first sawmill, which they brought from Wisconsin in 1870. The oldest town in the county, it had the first school, church, sawmill, and Masonic lodge.

In the early days in Elgin, blanketed Indians would come to town, go into people’s yards, calmly sit down under the shade trees, and talk. Though they never harmed anyone, women and children were frightened by them.

For a time, the town grew rapidly. However, the land had not been surveyed. When it was, nearly all the best farming lands were in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and thus were shut out from settlement by whites. This was a death blow to the town, which contained only a single business.

On February 27, 1871, the town’s name was changed to New Elgin.

George Monroe Carpenter, originally from St. Lawrence County, New York, first came to Elgin, Kansas, from Iowa in 1872. Identifying with the cattle industry, he returned to Iowa and soon began driving cattle back and forth across the trails from Texas to the north. His second arrival in Elgin was with a bunch of cattle from Texas.

Despite his humble beginnings, Rome Hanks eventually became a significant citizen of Elgin. Not only did he run his trading post and serve for a short time as postmaster, but he was also engaged in sheep ranching and, in time, became a municipal judge and a justice of the peace. However, on one cold night in December 1876, Rome was tending to his lambs when he caught pneumonia. A doctor was summoned from Independence, but it was no use. Rome died on December 30, 1876, at the age of 54 and was buried in the Elgin Cemetery, overlooking the once-bustling city where he spent his last years.

In 1878, the town still boasted Lyman P. Getman’s general store and a grocery operated by T.J. Newell.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad built a large freight house in 1886 to handle the large cattle shipments unloaded at Elgin. When the railroad first came through, the company built New Elgin, two miles west of its current location. The shipments were then taken by a string of 40 freight wagons to Pawhuska, Hominy, Skiatook, Gray Horse, and other locations, as New Elgin was the nearest freight station. Due to its direct connection with the Chicago, Galveston, and San Francisco Railroad, Elgin became a busy port of trading and cattle shipping, and the town grew quickly.

Eventually, it became the most significant shipping point of southern cattle and a trading point for the Osage Nation. In the spring, cattle were shipped in from the Southwest and Texas and unloaded in Elgin to be fed and kept on the range until fall. Then, they were brought in at round-up time and finished the rest of their journey, as their tickets had already been bought and paid for to Kansas City, Missouri. Elgin soon became the world’s greatest shipping point. It also became a “pistol packin’ cowtown,” with colorful names around Elgin, including Shotgun Ridge, Robber’s Cave, Outlaw’s Corral, and Hell’s Bend.

At this time, the main business street of New Elgin, with its shops, stores, saloons, hotels, and post office, was located in the western part of town. It was often a haven for outlaws, including the Dalton Gang and “Dynamite” Dick Clifton.

On August 12, 1887, the town’s name was changed back to Elgin.

In 1889, Elgin’s population was 300.

The first newspaper, the Elgin Clipper, was established in March 1891 and edited by A.W. Collins.

Doctor William L. McNaughten relocated to Chautauqua County in 1898 and practiced at Elgin for eleven years. In 1909, he moved to Sedan and practiced very general medicine and surgery. His offices are over the White Front drug store on Main Street. He is the present county health officer and coroner of Chautauqua County.

When Indian Territory (Oklahoma) opened for settlement and railroads extended south, Elgin’s economy fell. By the opening of the 20th century, Elgin’s rowdy cowtown days were over.

Elgin State Bank was founded and built in the summer of 1901.

Oil was discovered in Elgin in 1902, and soon the Black Well was built, initially producing about 50 barrels a day. The prospect of oil in Elgin caused another boom in residents and businesses.

In July 1902, an attempted robbery was committed at the Elgin State Bank, and six men soon found themselves in the Chautauqua County jail. These included John Swinney, Isaac Swinney, Lane Swinney, Tom Swinney, George Niblock, and Robert Niblock. However, several other suspects were still at large, including Bill West, Charles Clark, Charles Smith, “Indian Joe,” Od Swinney, and Shorty Bill. According to the facts gathered by officers in disclosing the plot, it was one of the best-organized crimes ever contemplated in the country. For months, the gang had been arranging and plotting until the time was ripe.

However, an inmate in the county jail on a forgery charge told Sheriff Taylor that the gang of robbers was ready to carry out their diabolical work. For several years, Sheriff Taylor suspected that the Swinney outfit was part of an organized gang of horse and cattle thieves. The men were placed under arrest and arraigned before the Justice of the Peace, and their bonds were set at $1,000 each.

By 1904, Rome Hanks’ old trading post had sat abandoned for years, when eight women who didn’t have a place to worship got an idea. Sharing it with the Episcopal bishop, he offered $50 toward the purchase of the building, and over the next year, more funds were raised to purchase the old building. After undergoing $600 in renovations, including the installation of six arched windows, the Elgin Grace Episcopal Church was consecrated in March 1906. Within just a few weeks, it had a congregation of 17 adults and eight children. Services were held once a month, and Sunday School was held weekly.

In 1905, Eugene Hayes and R.W. Black established the first and only cattle plant dipping station at Elgin using Texas crude oil. Right after its completion, the plant dipped 2,000 southern cattle in one day. Cattle dipping was meant to remove harmful insects, especially ticks that could carry diseases and kill cattle. Eugene Hayes attempted to use Kansas crude oil but was denied by the government, insisting that it be Texas crude oil.

Olive Lodge No. 350, built in 1905, was the lodge of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons that served Elgin for decades. In its early years, the first floor was used as the lodge, and the upper floor was used as living quarters. The lodge later disbanded and transferred to the Vesper-Olive Lodge #136 in Sedan.

In 1910, Elgin was still a station on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. It has banking facilities, telegraph and express offices, a money order post office, good schools and churches, and a population of 350.

By the early 1910s, the railroads expanded into Oklahoma, creating closer ports for shipping southern cattle, and Elgin’s cattle shipping industry mostly dried up. Once, many of the pastures used by the Elgin stockyards were given to members of the Osage tribe. The town gracefully but reluctantly stepped down from the position that she held for so long as the “Cattle Capital of the World.”

By 1914, the oil industry had surged to about 85 barrels per day with multiple wells and a new refining company in the works.

In April 1916, Thomas E. Trigg, an experienced newspaperman from Mound City, Kansas, came to Elgin and founded the Elgin Journal. The journal was well-edited, with all its departments up to date and practical. While its policy was Republican in politics, Trigg was not bigoted and could discuss questions of public concern from more than one standpoint.

Elgin was incorporated on August 4, 1919.

By 1920, the Elgin Oil Refining Company had been established to operate a 1,500-barrel-per-day refinery. That year, Elgin’s population reached a peak of 600. At one time, it had five general stores, two livery stables, nine saloons, a flour mill, a hardware store, and others such as barbers and physicians. During these boom years, the city paved its streets with bricks, built two large brick schoolhouses, and made the business buildings on Main Street of stone.

In April 1921, Elgin lost one of its most important citizens, George Monroe Carpenter. For 40 years or more, Carpenter was associated with the cattle business and, at one time, was among the most prominent cattlemen in the state. He soon owned 1,200 acres in Chautauqua County and nearly all of the Elgin townsite. Living on the northwest quarter of Elgin, he, more than anyone else, founded and established the early prosperity of Elgin, and in many ways, influenced its development. Among other property interests here, he had two business buildings on Main Street, one of which was the post office building. He was also a real estate holder in Independence, Kansas, with an interest in the Carl-Leon Hotel and Opera House. He also had two business houses and dwellings in Sedan, Kansas, and a business house in Chautauqua.

His capital was part of the resources of several banks. He was vice president of the Citizens National Bank of Independence, owned an interest in the Elgin State Bank, was president of the Fairfax National Bank in Fairfax, Oklahoma, and a stockholder in several banks in Oklahoma. He was married to Hattie Lee Carpenter, and the couple had one child. He was a Mason, a member of the Odd Fellows, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died on April 20, 1921, and was buried in Independence, in Montgomery County, Kansas.

On June 16, 1922, two robbers entered the Elgin State Bank and took $1,500 in cash and Liberty bonds. Afterward, the two bandits ordered Mr. D.R. Hall, the cashier, and his wife to enter their car as they dashed for safety. Mrs. Hall was released about five miles south of Elgin and was told to tell the posse not to follow too closely or they would kill her husband.

When a posse attempted to engage the fugitives between Bartlesville and Pawhuska, Oklahoma, the outlaws opened fire on the posse, but shots were not returned because they feared hitting Hall. Some distance from that point, the bandits abandoned their car. The posse later found it, but there was no trace of Hall. After being held for 12 hours, the unharmed cashier had been released on a lonely road three miles south of Okesa, Oklahoma. Unharmed by his abductors, Hall walked to Okesa and telephoned Sheriff Henderson, who then formed a posse and set out to capture the bank robbers.

On April 27, 1923, Cashier J.R. Burns concealed the Elgin State Bank’s deficit from bad loans for two years. The amount of $40,000 caused the bank to close in April 1923. The Chautauqua State Bank closed the next day. In June, Cashier D.R. Hall was able to secure the amount and replenish the shortages and losses at the bank. The bank soon restructured and has all new management.

The Harned Brothers drilled four wells in 1930 on the Wynona lease southwest of the town, all producing 109 barrels per day. However, it wouldn’t last. The oil boom soon declined, and with the onset of the Great Depression, the town began a slow decline over the following decades.

Elgin State Bank closed for liquidation in 1932 because it had become unprofitable.

The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway was abandoned in approximately 1940.

The Elgin Grace Episcopal Church dissolved in 1956, and members transferred to the Episcopal Church in nearby Sedan. The old building was sold in 1962 and used to store hay. On a recent visit to Elgin, we saw no sign of the church. However, we caught a photo of some ruins that may have been the old church.

By the late 1950s, Elgin had only a liquor store, a filling station, and a cafe.

The post office was discontinued on July 30, 1976.

Margaret’s Cafe closed in the early 1990s, marking the end of Elgin’s once-prosperous life.

Today, the schoolhouses are gone, and no businesses remain. Along its old brick main street, a couple of old buildings still stand empty and broken. However, the town still has a community building, a Methodist Church, several homes, and the Elgin Cemetery, located north of town on Caney Road. Area students are served by the Chautauqua County USD 286 public school district in Sedan, Kansas.

The Elgin Cedar Creek Bridge is 1.5 miles east of Elgin on County Road 96 (Bronco Rd). It is an 82-foot-long, single-span reinforced concrete rainbow arch bridge that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Elgin is ten miles southwest of Sedan, the county seat.

©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, May 2025.

Also See:

Chautauqua County, Kansas

Chautauqua County Photo Gallery

Extinct Towns of Chautauqua County

Kansas Ghost Towns

Sources:

1878 Gazetteer and Business Directory, R. L. Polk & Co.
Abandoned Kansas
CedarCreek Bridge near Elgin, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
CedarCreek Bridge near Elgin, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
CedarCreek Bridge near Elgin, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
Chautauqua County Historical and Genealogical Society
Chautauqua County Historical & Genealogical Society – 2
Cutler, William G.; History of Kansas; A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL, 1883.
Find-a-Grave
Kansas Guidebook
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, IL., 1918.
Wikipedia