Kendall, Kansas Town View by Kathy Alexander.
Kendall, Kansas is an unincorporated community in Kendall Township of Hamilton County.
This place, located on the Santa Fe Trail was originally known as Aubrey, after the nearby Fort Aubrey that lasted about one year.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Kendall, Kansas.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad was constructed through Hamilton County in 1871-72, and with it came a flurry of advertising encouraging Easterners to relocate to Kansas.
In 1879 five people settled here and founded a trading post. When the settlement gained a post office on September 2, 1879, it was called Zamora.
The Arkansas Valley and Land Company platted the town in February 1885 and it grew from ten houses to 200 houses by May. The town and post office names changed to Kendall on August 10, 1885. It was named after the Kendall brothers, who were popular merchants in the area
After an election for the county seat in April 1886, in which Syracuse claimed it won, it was determined that Syracuse used fraudulent names, including the names of people from Shawnee County, Kansas, and Mills County, Iowa. As a result, Kendall became a temporary county seat.
That year, frontiersman Charles “Buffalo” Jones, who had co-founded Garden City, left Kendall on a hunt to capture the remaining buffalo to prevent their looming extinction.
Kendall Hotel in Kendall, Kansas, 1916.
On May 31, 1887, another county seat election was held, and Coolidge received the majority of votes with the endorsement of the citizens of Kendall. However, Kendall remained the temporary seat as the Kansas Supreme Court continued to hear cases on the county seat war through February 1888. In April, 1888 the court determined that no town had been legally chosen as the county seat, so Kendall remained as the temporary county seat. Another election was held on June 20, 1888, and Coolidge was the winner; however, in July, the U.S. Land Office issued a document proclaiming Syracuse as the permanent county seat. Records and office equipment were moved from Coolidge to Syracuse on November 16, 1888.
In 1910, it was still a station on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. At that time, it had several stores, a telegraph and express office, a money order post office, and a population of 75.
Kendall, Kansas Post Office by Kathy Alexander.
In the next decades, Kendall’s population fell.
Kendall schools were closed through school unification.
Today, Kendall is served by Syracuse USD 494 public school district in Syracuse, Kansas.
Kendall’s population is unknown, but Kendall Township’s population was 83 in 2020.
Kendall still has a post office, which is open in the mornings, as well as an active Methodist Church.
The community is located just south of U.S. Route 50, approximately 12 miles southeast of Syracuse.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, November 2024.
Methodist Church in Kendall, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.
Also See:
Syracuse – Hamilton County Seat
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Fort Hays State University
Hamilton County, Kansas Genealogy & History
Wikipedia
Grain Elevators in Kendall, Kansas, by Kathy Alexander.