Mound Valley, Kansas Main Street by Kathy Alexander.
Mound Valley, Kansas, located in the western part of Labette County, is a small town in Mound Valley Township with a population of 348 as of the 2020 census. It has a total area of 0.65 square miles, all of which is land.
To the north, east, and south of the town, the country is comparatively level, while to the west are ranges of mound-like hills, from which the valley and town were named.
J.P. Allen, W.A. Lewis, Charles Beggs, N.L. Hibbard, Charles Lierly, C.H. Lewis, William M. Rodgers, and others incorporated a town company on July 13, 1869, with the authority to locate a town on section 2, township 33, range 18. William M. Rodgers was president. The town was laid out in the spring of 1869 by the Mound Valley Town Company.
The section of land selected by the company for a town site was claimed by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company under a treaty claimed to have been made with the Osage Indians. This company claimed all odd-numbered sections, and the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad claimed the even-numbered sections. The matter was contested in the courts for several years.
Drug Store in Mound Valley, Kansas, 1873.
The first building on the town site was put up in the summer of 1869 by the town company. The upper story was to be used as the town company’s office and the public hall, and the lower story for a general store. A. Honrath and H. Roar soon erected a store building, John P. Kremer started a grocery store, L.F. Nicholas a drug store, Dr. E. Tanner and M. Anderson a general store, and R. Blakely opened a grocery store.
In 1870, J. Campbell built the Mound Valley hotel, and L.F. Nicholas built the Nicholas hotel.
A post office was established on May 18, 1870, in a room of the general store of A. Honrath, who was the first post master. The mail was obtained from Oswego by the post-horse route.
That year, a subscription school was established, taught by Mrs. William Robins, in the winter of 1870.
A school building was erected in the summer of 1871, and was a one-story frame, 23×30 feet, and cost $1,000, for the erection of which bonds were issued by the district, to the amount of $1,200, which sold for 75¢ on the dollar.
That year, Mound Valley was incorporated as a city, and the following persons were appointed as trustees: Alexander Honrath, William M. Rodgers, John B. Campbell, E. Tanner, and Alexander McBride.
The Church of Christ was established in the vicinity of Mound Valley in May 1871, with 14 members, by Reverend J.W. Randall, and was held in the residence of E. Stapleton. Later, services were in the schoolhouse, then in the Baptist Church.
A fire occurred in 1872, when the town company’s building with a stock of goods was burned.
St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad depot in Mound Valley, Kansas.
Owing to the contest between the railroad company and the town company over the title to the land, very little progress was made until the matter was settled. In 1876, a decision was rendered against the railroads and in favor of the settlers, declaring the townsite land subject to entry. The town had already begun to take shape and contained a few buildings, but the title was still imperfect. As soon as, or shortly after, the decision of the Supreme Court was rendered, the Probate Judge of the county, deed the land for the Town Company, as required by the laws of the State, and appointed a commission to divide the land into severalty among the various owners or claimants. In this way, the title to the site became settled, and the respective stockholders of the Town Company received each his proper share.
That year, a stage line was put in operation from Oswego by which the mail was brought.
The St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad came through Mound Valley in August 1879. Prior to this time, the town contained four stores, two hotels, a few residences, and a population of about 40.
The building of the railroad stimulated the building of the town to some extent. However, it was not until about a year and a half following its completion that rapid progress began. In the next 18 months, significant and rapid growth took place. The place now contains six general stores, two grocery, two hardware, two drug, a furniture and two millinery stores; a saddle and harness, three carpenter, two blacksmith and wagon shops; three hotels, a restaurant, three loan offices, five doctors, three lawyers, and a population of about 500, and withal is a thriving young town filled with industrious, intelligent and enterprising people.
The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in March 1880 by Reverend E.A. Graham, with only ten members. The old schoolhouse was initially used as a place of worship until the church was built that summer. The one-story frame building, measuring 24 feet by 44 feet, built for $1,000, was dedicated in September. A comfortable parsonage was completed in 1882, costing about $700. The congregation has prospered since its inception, and by the early 1880s, it had a membership of 100.
In the spring of 1881, the Oswego Times Publishing Company printed a sheet for Mound Valley, but it lasted only a few months and was discontinued.
A grist and flouring mill was built in 1881 by W.C. O’Brien and W.W. Harper. The mill building was a two-story frame structure that contained three runs of buhrs and was powered by steam.
Vintage Mound Valley, Kansas Main Street.
The Mound Valley Herald was established on April 6, 1882, by G. Campbell, who, in the following September, sold out to C.L. Albion. The sheet was a seven-column folio, independent in politics, and had a circulation of 500 copies.
In the summer of 1882, the Church of Christ erected a one-story frame building, measuring 36 by 50 feet, at a cost of about $1,500.
A new two-story frame school building was erected in the fall of 1882, at a cost of $2,000. It was 36 square feet with an approach 12 by 16 feet, upon which a belfry was constructed, and is two stories high, containing three rooms. The old building was sold to W. O’Brien for $150. For the defrayal of the cost of the new house, the district voted $1,625 in bonds and levied a special tax on the property within the district for the balance.
Old Mound Valley City Jail, courtesy Kansas Tourism.
The school population, which initially consisted of 15 students attending the first school taught in the town, had increased to 184 by 1882.
On October 7, 1883, C.M. Condon and W.H. Gandy opened a bank.
On January 9, 1884, an order of the Judge of the District Court was made incorporating the town as a city of the third class. E. Tanner was the first mayor, and W. N. McCoid was the first clerk.
The Mound Valley School was organized as a high school in 1885.
The town became a station on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad in 1886
Another fire occurred in 1889, when a whole block of business buildings was consumed.
Pumpkin Creek near Mound Valley, Kansas, courtesy Google Maps.
The grist mill was entirely consumed by fire on November 23, 1892. Afterward, a new mill was built on the site of the old one.
In 1910, Mound Valley was located at the junction of the St. Louis & San Francisco and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroads, on Pumpkin Creek. At that time, there were two banks, two weekly newspapers, including the Herald and the Journal, an opera house, a flour mill, a grain elevator, two brick plants, a glass plant, telegraph facilities, an international money order post office serving three rural routes, and a population of 956.
On May 24, 1941, the Mound Valley Township Community Center was dedicated.
The town’s high school closed in May 1961. Afterward, the building has served as a grade school within USD 506.
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad line stopped operating in the area in the 1970s.
Mound Valley, Kansas Museum by Kathy Alexander.
In 1973, Mound Valley had no library. However, Patricia Ibbetson and Elaine Middleton came up with the idea of starting one. A room was set up in the community center with 350 books provided by the SEK Library System and kept open with volunteers. Raymond Kline, a Mound Valley resident, later offered the use of a building for a library.
Upon remodeling, the library moved into its new building in March 1974 with hundreds of its own books. In 1984, a grant was obtained and a new library building erected at 411 Hickory Street. Since then, the Fire Department has been added to the South side, and City Hall has also built a room inside to house the City offices.
In 2004, the Mound Valley Township Community Center building was sold. A new Community Center was built on Hickory Street, using a grant and mainly under the supervision of Robert Forbes, councilman, and the council at that time.
The town is still served by the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad, which operates on the St. Louis & San Francisco’s former tracks.
Mound Valley is 14 miles west of Oswego, the county seat.
Business Buildings in Mound Valley, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
Baptist Church in Mound Valley, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated September 2025.
Also See:
Sources:
Billingsley, S., & Ibbetson, P. A., Mound Valley, Kansas, 1868-1979: A Mound of Memories, A Valley of Hope, Mound Valley Historical Society.
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Case, Nelson; History of Labette County, Kansas, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill. 1901.
City of Mound Valley
Cutler, William G.; History of Kansas; A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL, 1883.
Wikipedia