A sod house in Lane County, Kansas.
| Town | Post Office Dates | Additional Information |
Alamota |
1877-1894 1903-1992 |
The county’s first post office, founded on September 10, 1877, in Altamota. The town was most likely named for the white limestone bluffs along Walnut Creek. White Rock is the Indian name for Altamota. By 1880, the town had a general store, a drugstore and saloon, and a blacksmith. The post office was moved to school land northeast of the original town site in 1885. A new town was platted and was named Altamota, and it is one of the surviving towns in the county. In 1910, Alamota had a money-order post office and was a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad line. At that time, it was a shipping and trading point of some importance and had a population of 40. |
| Allen Springs | 1879 | The post office was only open for about five months. |
| Amy | 1906-1954 | This town was initially named Ellen after a homesteader’s wife, Ellen Patterson. The townsite was founded along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad line in 1887. The town was platted on July 22, 1887, but it had little until 1905: only a house and a sign on a post. In 1905, the Moses Brothers opened a grain elevator, and other businesses started coming in. A post office was established in 1906, and the name had to be changed because another post office in Kansas already had the name Ellen. They chose the new name Amy from a list they were given. Amy was the name of a daughter of one resident, J.R. Bruner. In 1910, Amy had a money order post office and was connected by telephone to Dighton. It is seven miles West of Dighton. Amy’s post office closed on May 31, 1954. |
| Beve | 1881-1884 | |
| Brotherton | 1880 1886-1888 |
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| Cutts | 1880-1887 | The post office moved to Dupont when it closed. |
| Division | 1905-1935 | |
| Farnsworth | 1899-1914 | |
| Feagins | 1904 | The post office order of change was rescinded. |
| Filmore | 1886-1893 | |
| Hancock | 1886-1889 | |
| Heath | 1902-1904 | |
| Juniata | 1882-1886 | |
| Lane | 1880-1892 | |
| Lobdell | 1902-1912 | Lobdell was a country post office in Sutton Township, about 20 miles Southwest of Dighton, the county seat, and 13 miles from Grigsby, the nearest shipping point in Scott County. |
| Lucretia-California | 1879-1883 | First called California, this place had a couple of general stores, a livery barn, and the California House by March 1880. The townsite was surveyed in April 1880, and Captain P.W. Hey renamed it Gould City. However, the post office kept the name California. The town was renamed Lucretia on February 13, 1882. Because of low profits, if any, among the surrounding farmers, the two general stores closed by March 1882. Mr. Bell sold his claim, which included the platted land. This pretty much decided the town’s fate, which lasted all of three years. The post office closed on April 9, 1883. |
| Pendennis-Pen Dennis-Dupont | 1887-1957 | The townships of White Rock, Wilson and Cheyenne voted to raise a $1,600 bond for the Denver, Memphis and Atlantic Railroad Company in February 1887. By May, the railroad was building tracks five miles East of the White Rock store, and eventually it set up stations in Healy, Shields, and Dennis.
John V. Moffitt, president of the Memphis and Denver Town Company, founded Dennis in White Rock Township on August 7, 1887. Several days later, on August 19, the name changed to Pen Dennis because another town in Kansas was already called Dennis. A post office was not established there until the Dupont Post Office East of Pen Dennis was changed to Pen Dennis on July 13, 1892. A couple of years later, the name was changed again to Pendennis on August 25, 1894. In 1910, Pendennis was on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, 13 miles northeast of Dighton, the county seat. It had an express office, some local trade, a money order post office, and a population of 50. |
| Petersburgh | 1884-1887 | |
| Rolling Prairie | 1879-1881 | |
Shields |
1887-1994 | The townships of White Rock, Wilson, and Cheyenne voted to raise a $1,600 bond for the Denver, Memphis and Atlantic Railroad Company in February 1887. By May, the railroad was building tracks five miles East of the White Rock store, and eventually it set up stations in Healy, Shields, and Dennis.
John V. Moffitt, president of the Memphis and Denver Town Company, founded this town site, which was platted on August 17, 1887. Richard Shields, a homesteader Southeast of the platted land, was the namesake for the new town. On December 22, 1887, they established a post office. A church and a school were built soon after, and in the 1890’s, Shields had the Cottage Hotel and a general store. By 1910, it was on the Missouri Pacific Railroad; it had general stores, telegraph and express offices, a money-order post office, and a population of 48. Shield’s post office closed on December 11, 1994. Though Shields is extinct, as it no longer has a post office, it still has several structures, including a large grain elevator, several silos, a few old business buildings, and several area homes. Shields is 10 miles North of Dighton, the county seat. |
| Steel | 1880 | The post office was only open for about five months. |
| Sutton | 1886-1902 1913-1928 |
Sutton was a country hamlet 12 miles Southwest of Dighton, the county seat and nearest shipping point, and about 8 miles northeast of Lobdell, where it received mail after its post office closed in 1902. Another post office opened in 1913 and remained in use until 1928. |
| Toogana | 1881-1892 |
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated September 2026.
Also See:
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol. I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL, 1912.
Fort Hays State University
Kansas Post Office History
Wikipedia