Calvert Corporation is a silicon mining operation in Calvert, Kansas, courtesy of Google Maps.
Calvert, Kansas, is a tiny village on Prairie Dog Creek in Emmett Township of the eastern central part of Norton County. Calvert is also an extinct town as it no longer has a post office.
This place started in the spring of 1872 when the Charles D. Bieber family from Indiana chose this location to settle. Here he built a sod house and a barn.
This town was on the north end of a small hill south of Kansas Highway 383. As the town grew and settlers farmed more land, the town expanded.
Three short years after establishing their residence in Neighborville, Charles Bieber became the postmaster when a post office called Neighborville was established on February 15, 1875. That year, a Christian Church congregation was organized on September 26, 1875. Later, after a Christian Church was built in Norton, the Neighborville church body attended church there.
In 1878, there was an Indian scare, and many area settlers rushed to Neighborville and set up a stockade for protection. Fortunately, there was no trouble from the Indians in this area. However, they did massacre several settlers in the Oberlin, Kansas, area to the west.
By then, Neighborville had a district school and exported fall wheat and cattle. It was on the stagecoach line to Trego and North Platte, Nebraska, from which its mail was delivered weekly to Charles Bieber, the postmaster. Trego was its nearest shipping point.
The Neighborville post office closed on April 10, 1882
Calvert, Kansas.
Chicago and Rock Island Railroad
The post office was re-established on September 1, 1885, with a name change to Calvert.
When the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was built, the Kansas Town and Land Company platted the town on January 16, 1888. At about that time, School District No. 9 changed its name from Bieber School House to the Calvert School House.
The Presbyterian Church was organized in November 1889, with the first meetings held in the schoolhouse.
By 1894, Calvert was also on the Burlington & Quincy Railroad. At that time, it had a general store and a population of 30. Almena, six miles distant, was the nearest banking location.
The Calvert Gazette newspaper was published by Mssrs. Rhanny and Felt from 1889 to 1890.
“Every town in the county will soon see the importance of a newspaper as a mascot. Seth will soon become jealous of Calvert’s rapid growth and start a paper in self-defense”.
— Norton Champion newspaper
Calvert Silica Mine in Calvert, Kansas.
Volcanic ash was discovered by locals digging post holes a short distance southeast of Calvert in about 1900. Active mining of the volcanic ash began in 1908 by the Miller family of Norton, Kansas, who owned the Calvert Mine.
The mineral deposit was over one million years old and believed to have originated from volcanic eruptions in states southwest of Kansas. Driven by the wind, rivers, and streams collected and deposited the ash. The deposit contained about five million tons. Obtaining the volcanic ash began with removing the overburden overlying the ash deposit, layered from six to 16 feet beneath the surface. The mining method was all done at the surface without requiring underground mining. The silica is then separated and transported to the processing plant just north of the highway in Calvert.
After screening and processing, the ash was dried, re-screened, finished into its final fine powder form, and bagged. Its two most popular uses were as an oil absorber, chinchilla dust bath, and cement additive. As an absorbent, it was used to clean up oil spills and soak up blood in packing plants. Freight cars from the railways running parallel along the north side of the highway were used to export the ash. In the early years, volcanic ash was also used in bar soaps and other cleansers. However, this usage stopped because it was too abrasive.
Mr. Pache and his wife, who were of German descent, arrived in Calvert in 1906. He started a flourishing lumber business, which was immediately rebuilt after his first building burned down. He also sold gas to farmers and travelers from a gas pump near the lumberyard, and his prices were consistently lower than those of the surrounding competition.
Presbyterian Church in Calvert, Kansas.
The Presbyterian Church building was erected in 1909.
In 1910, Calvin was still a station on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroads, which were productive in hauling the silica mined just south of the town. At that time, it had a money order post office, a flour mill, a grain elevator, a lumber dealer, a good local retail trade, and a population of 50.
The original wooden school burned down at some point, and a new red brick building was erected. Later, the school caught fire a second time, and the students helped rebuild by scrubbing the soot from the bricks so they were red again.
A copper steel alloy processing building was erected by the Calvert Corporation in 1920. It still stands today along the rail line on State Highway 383.
The old brick school in Calvert, Kansas, now serves as a residence.
In the 1930s, the town centered around the church, a two-room school, a lumber yard, a store, and the silica mine.
The Presbyterian Church was struck by lightning and burned down in July 1932. It was rebuilt and dedicated on December 4, 1932.
Calvert’s post office closed on October 31, 1953.
In the 1950s or 1960s, the school finally closed its doors and consolidated with the Almena school district. Today, the old school building is a residence.
The Calvert Church was disorganized in 1966, and the building was torn down.
By 2010, there were three adjoining ash quarries, but only the easternmost one was being worked.
Processing the volcanic ash in Calvert, Kansas.
The J. B. Ford Company of Wyandotte, Michigan, owned the westernmost quarry, and after producing a very large tonnage, it was abandoned. The two eastern quarries, still owned by the Miller Family, were leased to various operating companies. Many thousands of tons.
Though the processing plant is located along the railroad line today, the Calvert Corporation ships its products by truck because it is cheaper and faster. There are still a few scattered homes in the area.
Calvert is about seven miles northeast of Norton on Kansas Highway 393.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, December 2024.
Also See:
Volcanic Ash in Calvert, Kansas.
Sources:
1878 Gazetteer and Business Directory, R.L. Polk & Co., Chicago, IL.
1894 Gazetteer and Business Directory, R. L. Polk & Co., Chicago, IL.
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Kansas Geological Survey
Kansas Post Office History
Milnes, Jennifer L.; Calvert, Chapman Center for Rural Studies, 2013.
Norton County Genealogy
Norton Telegram, April 13, 2012.
Norton Telegram’s Post – Facebook
Western Resources Monthly Magazine, Number 130, Denver, Colorado, April, 1901.