School in Pleasant Grove, Kansas.
Pleasant Grove, Kansas, was a small town located about four miles south of Lawrence in Douglas County.
The first organized German Baptist Church in Douglas County met in Stephen Studebaker’s house in Pleasant Grove in 1858.
Several years later, during Quantrill’s Raid and the Lawrence Massacre in August 1863, Quantrill and his men came close to Pleasant Grove after pillaging Lawrence. However, because many of the raiders were drunk and loud, the townsfolk were alerted to their presence. Nevertheless, Quantrill and his men razed a number of houses and barns in the area, looking for any anti-slavery settlers.
Pleasant Grove School District No. 38 was established in 1866 and had three schools serving the district for the next 93 years. The first two buildings were razed when the number of students required larger buildings. The third and last school was located on the east side of old Highway 59.
In 1877, the first German Baptist meeting house in Kansas was built in Pleasant Grove.
The village gained a post office on July 10, 1879. The post office closed on November 1, 1900.
By 1910, Pleasant Grove had a population of 45 and received its mail by rural delivery from nearby Baldwin City.
Old building in what was once Pleasant Grove, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
Though the town did not grow, Pleasant Valley School District No. 38 continued to maintain a school until it was disorganized on June 4, 1959, and consolidated with Wakarusa Valley District No. 98.
At some point, the town of Pleasant Grove took over the Flory Family Cemetery and renamed it Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated February 2026.
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