Albert, Kansas Main Street by Kathy Alexander.
Albert, Kansas, is a small town near the western boundary of Barton County. As of the 2020 census, its population was 132, and its total area is 0.24 square miles, all land.
Albert was founded in 1886 after the Walnut Valley & Colorado Railroad laid tracks from Great Bend to Scott City. The town site was platted on June 19, 1886.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Section House in Albert, Kansas, 1931.
On February 3, 1887, the post office was moved from Clarence and was first called Bartholdi. However, about six months later, on August 20, 1887, the post office and the town were renamed Albert for Albert Kraisinger, a storekeeper. He was a native of Bohemia in the Austria/Hungarian Empire.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad soon took over the Walnut Valley & Colorado Railroad.
In its early years, Albert became home to settlers from Austria, Prussia, and Wurttenberg, a German state. Most were farmers, but others were laborers, such as millers, carpenters, and shoemakers.
On July 1, 1889, a petition was filed to vacate the unused portions of the original plat, reducing the town to its present size.
Old business building in Albert, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
In 1910, Albert continued to be a station on the Great Bend and Scott division of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. At that time, Albert was described as a prosperous little town with a bank, a money order post office with one rural delivery’ route, large grain elevators, several good mercantile houses, and a population of 250.
In the following years, Albert’s population gradually declined.
Today, the community is served by the USD 403 Otis-Bison Unified School District in Otis, Kansas, in Rush County.
It is located 15 northwest of Great Bend and about 100 miles northwest of Wichita.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated October 2024.
Business building in Albert, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
Also See:
Extinct Towns of Barton County
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
Grain elevators and agricultural buildings in Albert, Kansas, courtesy of Google Maps.