Dickinson County, Kansas Extinct Towns

Buckeye, Kansas, courtesy of Google Maps.

Located in Buckeye Township, Buckeye was about eight miles north of Abilene. Universalist preacher Vear P. Wilson of Ohio started it as a colony/settlement. The group arrived in April 1870. Like many small towns in those days, a cheese factory was a main staple, as was a general merchandise store and a blacksmith shop. The colony soon had nearly 200 settlers, and the Buckeye Community Church of the Brethren was established in 1884. A post office was established on March 16, 1900. However, it lasted only a few years and was closed on February 29, 1904. The town’s population in 1910 was 40. Though continually dwindling in the next years, the church held periodic services until July 2024. Several homes are still in the area, and the town boasts an old business building, the church and a cemetery, and the Mutual Aid Agency continues to thrive. It is located at 3101 Jeep Road, about nine miles northeast of Abilene.

Grain Elevators in Dillon, Kansas.

Named for the Dillon brothers, pioneers. A station on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, it was on the line between Jefferson and Ridge Townships, about 16 miles south of Abilene. The railroad’s name was Swayne Station. In 1910, it had a money order post office with one rural route, a creamery, a flour mill, some well-stocked general stores, express and telegraph service, telephone connections, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, a good public school building, and a population of 161. It is located off Highway 4, east of Elmo. All that remains today is the grain elevator, which is still in operation today. 

Old business building in Industry, Kansas.

Old business building in Industry, Kansas.

Industry straddles the Clay/Dickinson county line at the Chapman Creek crossing. The post office moved from Lovejoy and opened on February 21, 1876. In the fall of 1879, A. L. Beard, an Eastern speculator, laid out the town in Athelstone Township, in the extreme southern portion of the county. In the early 1880s, it had a few business houses and a small hotel. It was not destined to grow, as it was 16 miles from the railroad. Its post office closed on November 30, 1906. In 1910, it still had several business establishments, including two flour mills and a population of 250. In the next decades, the population fell, and the post office was never reopened. Today, several vacant business buildings continue to stand, and numerous homes are occupied in the community. Amazingly, for a small town without a post office for more than a century, it continues to be called home to numerous residents and has an active Methodist Church. It is located approximately 13 miles north of Abilene.

Though it is officially “extinct” because it no longer has a post office, it had a population of 47 as of the 2020 census.

In 1877, the Keystone post office was opened with Jonas Freet as its first postmaster. Freet also operated a general store. A doctor and blacksmith were in the area for a handful of years. The community of Keystone reached its peak in the 1870s when families from Pennsylvania migrated into the area.